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Michael Tao
The word "Ecumenism" has been largely used by Roman Catholicism(RC), which means "worldwide" or "universal". The purpose of ecumenism is to "evangelize" the whole world, which is a good motive, if it is carried out biblically (2Timothy 2:5, 1Corinthians 9:25). However, the salvation of RC is based on church membership, so by being baptized into the RC church, one can be saved. Such "salvation" has nothing to do with faith toward God, nor confession of sin. There was at least one Pope in history who refused to give his testimony of salvation to the public, he probably was not biblically saved, and no one has to be saved to become a priest or a Pope. Salvation through baptism is apostasy, because it denies salvation is "By Grace, through Faith (Ephesians 2:8,9)".
In the 4th century, Roman emperor Constantine had a deep hatred towards Christians. However in spite of much persecution, Christianity continued to grow. So instead of killing them, he professed conversion to Christianity (with no evidence of a genuine conversion in the rest of this life). Persecution was ordered to be ceased, and bishops received great honour. The church began to receive worldly recognition and power, and all forms of paganism were mixed into Christianity at Rome, and produced the system which is known today as Roman Catholic Church. King Constantine made himse leader of this heirachy, for in paganism, emperors were believed to be gods. From then on, more and more unbiblical rituals, sacraments, idol worships were added into RC. The spiritual power of Christianity was severely affected, and great compromises were made by Christians that had joined in. There were small amount of Chtistian churches did not yoke up with Constantine's heirachy.
Roman Catholicism is a most wicked tool with a designed political purpose, and has not one trace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in it. Guided by the Deceiver - Satan, Roman Catholics mimics yet at the same time distort every doctrine in the Bible.
Today's ecumenical movement of Roman Catholicism is evil yet effective as ever. Many Christian churches and denominations have yoked up with them to "evangelize" the world. The only thing these Christian churches has done is to accept the errors of Roman Catholicism, and treat RC as a true gospel church. Such comprise wins a lot of worldly recognition and convenience, because RC is most wealthy, powerful and influential. Leaders and rulers of nations open their ears and hearts to the instructions from Pope.
The Book of Revelation teaches there will be an "one world government" (Revelation 13:7; cf. Daniel 7:23, Revelation 17) at the end time. There will also be an "one world economy" (Revelation 13:16,17) and an "one world religion" (Revelation 13: 3,4,8; cf. Revelation 17). The beast will become the head of this one world religion, it will be also worshipped as messiah, and true Christians will face mighty persecutions. In Revelation, we can see nations of this world will unite and function just like one huge world nation, has one common religion, one common financial operation system. The ecumenism of RC is undoubtedly moving towards the direction of one world religion, with many denominations, cults, and false religions following it. RC has been uding the term "ecumenism" at many official occasions in history, and also treat it as a goal for their church. However true Christians should know that it is a conspiracy to waste souls of men in hell.
Today many Christian churches with the true gospel have already started to unite together with the assumption that greater things can be done for the Lord, when more resources are drawn together. However God uses the lowly but obedient people (1 Corinthians 1:26-31, 2:25, James 2:5), so that people know that he is God. Such unity, or ecumenical movement within the Christian circle is done at the expense of doctrinal integrity and high Christian standard. The separation between purity and impurity has to be removed, so that we can all sit at the same table and work on some common goals. Those that are taking opposite stands in baptism by submersion, woman preaching, homosexuality, speaking in tongue, spiritual healing, universal church concept, smoking, drinking, and secular music can all unite. More serious, those that are taking different stands in eternal security, deity of Christ, Trinity, physical resurrection of Christ, authority of the Bible, Sabbath day worship, and evolution can unite. We can see that this is the unity of true and false religion, the belief and the unbelief, the clean and the unclean. The complete compromise of Christian doctrines is a consequence of the ecumenical movement.
There is little doubt that the Roman Catholics, with most of the Christian churches and all the false religions will unite into a monstrous "one world religion" to worship this counterfeit messiah - the beast, as indicated in the Book of Revelation.
What are the things in common that can draw all these organizations together? One example is for "the souls of men", that is evangelizing. Another example is for "charismatic gifts", the rationale is since God loves us so much to give us the same spiritual gifts, perhaps we should work together. The latest invention is the environmentalism, we have to preserve this very globe that we have, let us remove the doctrinal boundaries and co-operate.
These are good motives, but never at the expense of obedience to God. His commandmenst of holy living for his children are clearly spelled out in Ephesians 5:11, 2Corinthians 6:14-17, Revelation 18:4 and many other places. Christians have no need to yoke up with other strange churches to give out the gospel, or to look after the widows and the fatherless. To evangelize our community and our friends will keep us very busy, and God will use other churches to evangelize other communities. To send out, support and pray for missionaries, so that gospel can reach to other remote areas is also a biblical way to fulfil The Great Commission. Christians can be so high-minded that they ignore those that are close to them.
