THERE WILL BE UNPRECEDENTED MERGERS OF VARIOUS RELIGIONS INTO A SUPER WORLD CHURCH AT THE TRIBULATION\u2014STARTING WITH THE MERGER OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT CHURCHES. <\/p>\n
1301<\/b> Alleged Necessity For Mergers<\/b><\/p>\n
Protestant are now divided into over 200 denominations, and most of these denominations are further divided into many factions. For instance, there are some twenty kinds of Baptists. <\/p>\n
Taking an extreme example, there were 172 missionaries in Palestine before 1948, and they represented as many churches and missionary societies. When a Jew was converted to Christianity, the missionaries engaged in a heated battle to proselyte for his allegiance, thus bringing reproach to the cause of Christ. <\/p>\n
An Anglican bishop therefore said: \u201cDivided Christendom is a source of weakness in the West: in non-Christian lands it is a sin and a stumblingblock. If the non-Christian world is to be won for Christ our message must be one. If our message is to be one, we must be one.\u201d The Greek Orthodox primate, Archbishop Lakovos, said: \u201cThose who oppose Christian Unity must ask themselves frankly whether they are Christians.\u201d<\/p>\n
1302<\/b> Roman Catholic Ecumenical Feelings<\/b><\/p>\n
After Vatican I and Vatican II, tremendous changes were seen in the Roman Catholic Church towards \u201creligious union\u201d with Protestants especially. Mariolatry was soft-pedaled, the title \u201cheretics\u201d was changed to \u201cseparated brethren,\u201d the mass was liberalized and the Bible even taught over the pulpit in some places. <\/p>\n
Pope John XXIII said: \u201cThere burns in my heart the intention of working and suffering to hasten the hour when for all men the prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper will have reached its fulfillment, \u2019That they may all be one! \u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n
Pope Paul VI at the Second Vatican Counsel in 1963 said: \u201cIf we are in any way to blame for that separation, we humbly beg God\u2019s forgiveness and ask pardon too of our brethren who feel themselves to have been injured by us. For our part, we willingly forgive the injuries which the Catholic Church has suffered, and forget the grief endured during the long series of dissensions and separations.\u201d<\/p>\n
1303<\/b> Evangelical Warnings On Mergers<\/b><\/p>\n
The originator of \u201cThe Lutheran Hour,\u201d Dr. Walter A. Maier, declared: \u201cGive us a united Protestant church; I ask you to pray for it. But let it be fully and honestly united in its acceptance of the faith once given, rooted in the Bible, and climaxed in Christ, the Son of God and Saviour of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. L. E. Maxwell wrote in The Prairie Overcomer<\/i>: \u201cLet\u2019s face it. The fever of one universal church fills the air. The plague spreads. It sweeps Christendom and is appealing even to the Mohammedans. It often manifests itself in ominous outbursts of deep religious emotion \u2026 What will be the consummation of this religious fever? We can expect only a huge religious monopoly, a veritable juggernaut, to emerge from this obsession for a super church \u2026 \u201d<\/p>\n
1304<\/b> World Council Of Churches<\/b><\/p>\n
The World Council of Churches (WCC) was formally constituted on Aug. 23, 1948, at Amsterdam by an assembly representing 147 churches from 44 countries, mostly Protestant liberals. In 1973, member churches numbered 263 from 90 countries\u2014from the Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox and Old Catholic Confessions. <\/p>\n
The WCC now has a constituent membership of over 400 million members\u2014almost one-half the total Protestant and Roman Catholic peoples of the world. The motto \u201cONE WORLD-ONE CHURCH\u201d was adopted at its first Ecumenical Assembly held in Amsterdam in 1948. <\/p>\n
At the Council\u2019s Third General Assembly in New Delhi, India, in 1961, the Eastern churches\u2014Russian, Rumanian, Bulgarian and Polish Orthodox churches\u2014were accepted into full membership in the WCC. They claimed a membership of 70 million. WCC leaders were jubilant at this great Christian \u201cadvance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later, the WCC General Secretary, Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, told newsmen in Rome that if the Roman Catholic Church wishes to become a member of the WCC, the Council will make the necessary changes in its structures. \u201cIf the Church reaches this decision,\u201d Blake said, \u201cwe will do what is necessary to make its accession possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
1305<\/b> WCC\u2019s History<\/b><\/p>\n
Mr. J. Oswald Sanders, the General Director of the Overseas Missionary Fellowship gives this brief history of the Ecumenical Movement. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of inter-church relationships the Ecumenical Movement had its rise in the World Student Christian Federation (1895), and its development was accelerated by the inauguration of The Life and Work Movement of Stockholm (1925) and The Faith and Order Conference, Lausanne (1927). These movements resolved to unite at Utrecht (1938). The first Ecumenical Assembly was held in Amsterdam in 1948 with 352 delegates from 157 churches, and the World Council of Churches was formally constituted on August 23, 1948. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of inter-mission relationship, the Edinburgh Missionary Conference (1910), with 1,200 delegates representing 160 societies, marked the beginning of another stream of cooperative activity. This led to the formation of International Missionary Council. Further conferences were held in Jerusalem (1928), Tambaran (1938), Whitby (1954), Ghana (1958), and finally in New Delhi (1961). <\/p>\n
\u201cThe strong emphasis on the evangelization of the world at Edinburgh (1910) was gradually diluted at each successive conference. The mood for external union has increasingly taken place in the Movement. The climax was achieved at New Delhi (1961) with the merging of the International Missionary Council into the World Council of Churches as its Division of World Mission and Evangelism. In this merger the WCC has assumed the dominant role.\u201d<\/p>\n
1306<\/b> First Time Ever<\/b><\/p>\n
Meanwhile sixty-three of the world\u2019s one billion Christians met April 21\u201327, 1968 in Beirut, Lebanon, for closed-door strategy on economic development. This was the first time Protestants, Eastern Orthodox, and Roman Catholics had met officially for such discussion, and some enthusiasts said it was the biggest cooperative effort since the East-West Schism of 1054. <\/p>\n
It also asked the Vatican and the World Council of Churches to set up the Beirut planning committee permanently as an \u201cactive agent of Christian education and action.\u201d<\/p>\n
The executive of the conference planning committee, Father George H. Dunne, is the first Roman Catholic to have headquarters at the WCC Geneva offices and the first person jointly appointed, paid, and directed by the Vatican and the WCC. Summing up Beirut, he said that for the first time the world\u2019s three Christian groupings \u201care joining forces and pooling resources in a worldwide campaign to awaken mankind to a realization that an increasing chasm divides the rich from the poor, and to quicken the Christian conscience to a sense of responsibility and of moral obligation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Christianity Today<\/i><\/p>\n
1307<\/b> A General Church Membership<\/b><\/p>\n
In l989, the director of Ecumenical Affairs for the National Council of Churches wrote that the Roman Catholic Church and the major Protestant Churches\u2014as a start\u2014should recognize the existence of a \u201cgeneral church memberships.\u201d This would hasten the unification of all churches into one super body. He said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThis means that, if you become a Christian, other Christians will acknowledge that you are fully a Christian \u2026 anyone who belongs to one church belongs to all! Thus if you should become a member of the Methodist Church, you would become simultaneously a full member of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the United Church of Christ and the Episcopal Church.\u201d<\/p>\n
1308<\/b> \u201cNo Basis For Disagreement\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
A Jesuit theologian declared in New York that \u201cafter 400 years Anglican and Roman Catholic scholars finally sat down together to study their churches\u2019 ordained ministers and found they had no basis for disagreement on the doctrine of the ministry.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s astonishing, we believe exactly the same thing,\u201d said Father Herbert Ryan, S. J, professor of historical theology at Woodstock College and Union Theological Seminary. <\/p>\n
\u2014Pastor\u2019s Mannual<\/i><\/p>\n
1309<\/b> Papal Primacy Not A Barrier<\/b><\/p>\n
A UPI report from Washington, D. C., in l974 said that a group of American Roman Catholic and Lutheran theologians have declared the issue of papal primacy may no longer be a major barrier to reconciliation of the churches. In a 5,000 word \u201ccommon statement,\u201d the group called on their respective church bodies to take specific action toward reconciliation. They also suggested that Lutherans could move toward a greater degree of acceptance of the primacy of the Pope. The role of the Pope has separated the two churches for nearly 500 years. The present-day clergymen agreed that the bishop of Rome can in the future function in ways which are better adapted to meet both the universal and regional needs of the church in the complex environment of modern times.\u201d<\/p>\n
1310<\/b> Role Of Clergy Settled<\/b><\/p>\n
A United Press International report from London in December 1973, says that leading theologians of the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches have agreed on the role of the clergy in their churches. In a 3,000 word statement, the theologians are said to have reached a \u201cdoctrinal consensus on the position and function of the clergy in each church.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the main dividing points of the Reformation had been the nature of the Christian ministry. Roman Catholics had maintained that ordination of priests by the Anglicans were \u201cabsolutely null and void,\u201d and that this was final and forever settled. The present-day theologians of the official Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission declared: \u201cEven though there may be differences of emphasis within our two traditions, yet we believe that in what we have said here both Anglican and Roman Catholic will recognize their own faith.\u201d<\/p>\n
1311<\/b> \u201cEngaged\u201d to Be Married<\/b><\/p>\n
Edward B. Fiske recalls in the New York Times<\/i> that \u201cwhen Pope Paul VI met Arthur Michael Ramsey, the archbishop of Canterbury, in Rome in December 1966, he gave his guest a papal ring and reportedly remarked: \u201cThis is not yet a ring of marriage, but it is a ring of engagement.\u201d \u201c<\/p>\n
1312<\/b> \u201cIf You Have Not Been Baptized\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have not already been baptized, then I baptize thee in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n
These were the words used by the Rev. James Montgomery in administering the conditional baptism upon Luci Baines Johnson. It was a relatively simple ceremony lasting twenty minutes. <\/p>\n
The following day, in the tiny chapel of St. Ann\u2019s Infant Home in the Washington suburb, Hyattsville, Maryland, Luci received her first communion as a Roman Catholic. <\/p>\n
\u2014Christianity Today<\/i><\/p>\n
1313<\/b> Ecumenical Rocket<\/b><\/p>\n
A St. Christopher medal was attached to the second stage of the Vanguard rocket which successfully launched the Navy\u2019s first satellite. Strangely enough the request to wire the medal to the base of a gyroscope package was made on the same form required for any change in the Vanguard\u2019s design. The request was signed by F. Paul Lipinshki of the Martin Company, Catholic engineer, who suggested the medal, and by 11 others, among whom were Catholics, Protestants and Jews. <\/p>\n
1314<\/b> Two Churches Under One Roof<\/b><\/p>\n
In a unique ecumenical venture, two churches\u2014one Protestant, the other Roman Catholic\u2014will be built under the same roof. Site of the unprecedented structure will be Meyrin, a large suburb of Geneva, Switzerland. Cost of the project which is being advertised as \u201cTwo-Churches-Under-the-Same-Roof,\u201d is expected to be around $1,242,000. <\/p>\n
The Executive Council of Swiss National (Protestant) Church has expressed the belief and hope that this new trust will lead to similar projects around the world as a sign of mutual ecumenical cooperation. <\/p>\n
\u2014Pastor\u2019s Manual<\/i><\/p>\n
1315<\/b> No More \u201cProtestant\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
The Protestant Council of the City of New York has dropped the Word \u201cProtestant\u201d from its name to facilitate the inclusion of Roman Catholics in the membership. The Council hopes that eventually the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn will enter the Council as denominational members. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, president of the Council, said that the change \u201copened the way for a new ecumenical age throughout the entire city.\u201d<\/p>\n
1316<\/b> U.S. Ambassador At Vatican<\/b><\/p>\n
In a last minute reversal, the U. S. State Department authorized the American ambassador to Italy, G. Frederick Reinhardt, to attend opening ceremonies of the Second Vatican Council. <\/p>\n
Department spokesmen had announced earlier that a U. S. representative would not be present because the council is a \u201cpurely religious gathering\u201d and not a ceremony in which the Pope is extended recognition as head of state of Vatican City. <\/p>\n
In this case, Reinhardt reportedly informed the State Department that since several hundred American citizens are taking part in the council, he felt it would be appropriate for the U. S. ambassador to attend the opening. <\/p>\n
The department reconsidered and told Reinhardt to be on hand. <\/p>\n
\u2014Christianity Today<\/i><\/p>\n
1317<\/b> Bible Society\u2019s Common Bibles<\/b><\/p>\n
When the American Bible Society was founded just over 150 years ago, the prospect of Protestant-Catholic cooperation for the printing and distribution of Scripture was rejected\u2014by the Roman Catholic Church. In the early years four successive popes denounced the Bible societies, and numerous problems arose to bar participation. <\/p>\n
Now times are changing. As an outgrowth of Vatican II, which encouraged Bible reading in the vernacular by laymen, Catholics now seek participation in Bible society activities and increasingly probe the possibility of efforts toward common Bibles\u2014in Dutch, French, Japanese, and other languages. <\/p>\n
1318<\/b> \u201cMarrying\u201d For The Money<\/b><\/p>\n
From Wales comes a new slant on the much-publicized danger of union without theology. A Welsh millionaire, Sir David James, offers a gift of $700,000 if the country\u2019s four Free Church denominations (Baptist, Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian) effect a union. <\/p>\n
1319<\/b> Major U.S. Church Merger<\/b><\/p>\n
In the United States nine denominations are contemplating a major merger some time before 1980\u2019s. This would involve about one- third of all American Protestant in a single church. <\/p>\n
The nine denominations involved in drafting the plan are: The African Methodist Episcopal Church, The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, The Episcopal Church, The Presbyterian Church in the U. S., The United Church of Christ, The United Methodist Church, and The United Presbyterian Church in the U. S.\u201d<\/p>\n
This mammoth merger, if accomplished, will bring together about 25 million Protestants in church union. <\/p>\n
\u2014Prairie Overcomer<\/i><\/p>\n
1320<\/b> The United Methodists<\/b><\/p>\n
The United Methodist Church boasts a spread that is hard to beat. Virtually every community in America with a population of 2,000 or more has a Methodist congregation. Probably no other denomination has as much built-in opportunity to exert spiritual initiative at every level of national life. Methodists can be the \u201csalt of the States\u201d if they have the will. Ecumenical union would also be easier to achieve. <\/p>\n
1321<\/b> Still Unentangled<\/b><\/p>\n
For the present time, the Southern Baptist and the Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod) have not joined the National Council of Churches, and indicate that they do not intend to do so. Pressure is being applied on Southern Baptists to merge with the American Baptists, and when they do so, it is likely that the conservative element will leave the denomination. <\/p>\n
1322<\/b> From Moscow: \u201cFellow Baptists\u201d <\/b><\/p>\n
When Evangelist Billy Graham turned 40 in 1958 the most surprising among hundreds of greetings was a telegram from the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians (Baptist) in Moscow:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe heartily congratulate you on your 40th anniversary. Our hearts are full of gratitude to God for your birthday and for the years of your blessed ministry. We pray that God may give you the longest life and the richest blessings and success upon your furtherance of the Gospel.\u201d<\/p>\n
See also:<\/b> Apostasy ; World Church ; Rev. 17:1, 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THERE WILL BE UNPRECEDENTED MERGERS OF VARIOUS RELIGIONS INTO A SUPER WORLD CHURCH AT THE TRIBULATION\u2014STARTING WITH THE MERGER OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT CHURCHES. 1301 Alleged Necessity For Mergers Protestant are now divided into over 200 denominations, and most of these denominations are further divided into many factions. For instance, there are some … Continue reading “ECUMENICITY”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5015\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}