Church Union Ch6

In this section we have reviewed the importance of the ecumenical movement as related to the true Gospel message of Jesus and the apostles and the writings of God's Holy Prophets. We have seen that God's general purpose for the earth and its inhabitants is to bless them. We have seen that He also purposes a special blessing for a few who will be His Church.

We have seen that the ecumenical movement is the product of a false church system and not of God's true Church. The result of ecumenism will indeed try the faith of the true Church! But the presence of this movement for the union of denominationalism is a good sign to those who understand it, for it signals that we stand historically at the threshold of God's kingdom on earth -- peace and blessing for all! It is for this reason that the subject is of special interest.

If you would like to look further into the harmonious and breath-takingly beautiful truths of God's Word as they have been promised to be made plain at the Time of the End (Daniel 12:4), we invite you to ask for more. The Bible student who supplied you with this section would find it a pleasure to discuss with you the things concerning God's plan for mankind.

If you would like to read more please view The Divine Plan of the Ages. This section is perhaps the finest work ever written to lead you into your own personal and eye-opening understanding of the Bible.

Appendix A

In religious circles generally, the word "ecumenical" means world-wide in influence. An ecumenical council is one which represents an entire church. The ecumenical movement among non-Catholic churches are striving for union of Protestant churches and a closer relationship to the two great Catholic ecclesiastical organizations, The Roman and Greek Catholic churches.

The late Archbishop William Temple described the church unity movement as the twentieth century's most significant development. Many ecclesiastical leaders now speak of "the ecumenical age." The ecumenical movement, crystallized in the National Council and World Council of Churches, has achieved spectacular growth; it has stimulated the rise of competitive structures and given ecumenical impetus as well to Roman Catholicism and even to non-Christian faiths. Ecumenism seems prone to become a monolithic movement with new centers of ecclesiastical power and vast potential for propaganda.

Christianity Today Jan. 29, 1965 page 12 "The modern impulse toward ecumenism began, significantly, with church leaders who today would be called conservative evangelicals. In 1846 a conference of such men held in London led to the organization of the World Evangelical Alliance. For fifty years, this alliance performed a valuable service to the cause of unity among Christians."

"Then came the time near the turn of the century when liberalism began to have a serious effect on the Christian churches. A small group of leaders tried to shape the World Evangelical Alliance into an instrument of liberalism but met majority opposition and so withdrew from the alliance. In 1894 this group created the Open Church League, which was superseded in 1900 by the National Federation of Churches and Christian Workers. This in turn gave way in 1905 to the Federal Council of Churches, which in 1950 became the National Council of Churches" and was formally organized in Cleveland, Ohio. The strength and influence of the National Council of Churches overshadows that of any other cooperative religious agency in the United States. With 31 denominations 41 million church members, 144,000 churches, and 110,0000 clergymen it is of gigantic proportions, and its voices is bound to be listened to by all segments of the American people."

The World Council of Churches is made up of 306 churches of the Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, and Old Catholic confessions, from more than eighty countries. It began in August 1948, with an assembly in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Principal authority is vested in an assembly of delegates, which meets every six or seven years.

Appendix B

Prior to 1799 the Pope crowned and uncrowned the kings of Europe, except those in countries which had adopted Protestant church-state systems of government. But this was suddenly brought to an end by Napoleon, who took the Pope a prisoner to France; and thus broke the back of Papacy. Throughout the ages, religion has played an important role in controlling the people of all nations, but we are particularly concerned with what has occurred within professed Christian nations. And here Papacy has by far been the most dominant influence. As a result of its humiliation at the hands of Napoleon the damage done to its prestige among the nations and entering the time of the end which began in 1799, the first council of the Roman Catholic Church, designated Vatican I was held in 1869 and 1870. The 774 bishops who met at this council succeeded in declaring the infallibility of the pope.

The council was cut short in 1870 by the Franco-Prussian War and Vatican II called by the late Pope John xxiii opened in Rome on Oct. 11, 1962. This brought together 2,500 religious leaders of 550 million people under the direction of Pope John. The purpose was to update or modernize the Catholic Churches eccl. machinery and to meet the challenge and threat of Communism.

After the death of Pope John, Pope Paul reconvened the Vatican II council in late 1964. As a result in the document called "De Ecclesia," the Council declares that the pope and the bishops share the supreme authority to govern the church and expound its teachings. "Collegiality," a word unused a decade ago but on the lips of everyone now at the Vatican Council, does not diminish the primacy of the pope or affect his infallibility on faith and morals; what it does do is make the bishops co-responsible for the church with the pope. The majority of the Catholic bishops have been dissatisfied with the results of the council because the Pope used his authority to side with the minority on a number of issues.

Another history making event was the meeting of Pope Paul VI with Patriarch Athenagoras I, spiritual leader of Orthodoxy when they met in Jerusalem in 1964, breaking a silence between the two churches that had lasted for centuries. In 1054 the pope excommunicated the patriarch of Constantinople, and the patriarch excommunicated the pope. A fifteenth century effort to reunite the church, undertaken at the Council of Florence, collapsed.

Just this year (1998), according to a report from the Religious News Service, entitled "Orthodox want Vatican in WCC (World Council of Churches)". It reads "Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, has called on the Roman Catholic Church to join the World Council of Churches in time for the international ecumenical body's 50th anniversary next year."

Appendix C

In the 1960's the book, Religion in Action, said, one of the gifts or riches the church of England offers is Apostolic succession. The other churches stated that if they accepted this it would mean confessing that in the past their preaching was vain.

This is still a conflict today. A 1996 article from the "Religious News Service" reads, "The Church of England has ended the biennial meeting of its general synod by affirming the so-called Porvoo Declaration as an `act of synod,' the most solemn affirmation the Anglican denomination can make. The Porvoo Declaration takes its name from the Finnish city where it was signed and calls for allowing intercommunion among Anglicans and Lutherans of the participating churches as well as the mutual recognition and full interchangeability of priests and ministers between the Anglican churches of Britain and Ireland and the Lutheran Churches of Scandinavia and the Baltic countries."

However, the Oct. 6, 1997 "Christianity Today" brings out a different result by the Lutherans in the U.S. On page 81 it reads, "On a vote of 640 to 397, Lutherans balked at closer relations with the Episcopal Church, falling six votes shy of the necessary two-thirds required for passage.

"Debate centered on the doctrine of apostolic succession. This principle, supported by Catholics, Orthodox, and Anglicans, established bishops as the heirs of Christ's twelve apostles.

"Opponents within the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) believed the denominations would have relinquished too much theological ground if it approved the concordat.

Under the concordat, the Episcopal Church would recognize the ordinations of all current Lutheran pastors. Future ordinations would require that both a Lutheran and Episcopal bishop be present. Also, all future Episcopal and Lutheran bishops would be jointly consecrated for life. Yet, Lutherans would retain their bishops in office for a six-year term as they presently do. Episcopal bishops do not serve a set term of office in a diocese. And after they retire, Episcopal bishops keep their seats in the denominations's House of Bishops.

"Lutheran objections to the idea of bishops for life was strongest from Lutherans suspicious of church hierarchy."

However at the same meeting by the Lutherans they did vote to "link to 3 churches." In a Waterbury Republican Newspaper article from Aug. 19, 1997 it said, "The nation's largest Lutheran church voted Monday (Aug. 18th) to establish closer ties with three other major Protestant denominations in a sweeping plan that allows for the exchange of clergy and communion.

"However, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America also opened new ecumenical wounds by rejecting a similar plan for closer ties with the Episcopal Church.

"Healing divisions of more than 450 years, dating to the Reformation, delegates to the ...biennial Church-wide Assembly voted 839-193 to approve a unity plan with the Presbyterian Church (USA) the United Church of Christ and the Reformed Church in America.

"`Today is an occasion for profound gratitude to God for persistently calling us to overcome divisions that have separated Lutheran and Reformed Churches in North America,' leaders of the four churches, with a membership of 10 million, said.

..."Under the unity pact, the four denominations will be able to share clergy and members of the congregations can take communion in each other's churches. The agreement affects 5.2 million members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church; 2.7 million embers of the Prespeterian Church (USA); 400,000 members of the Reformed Church in America and 1.5 million members of the United Church of Christ."

However many are troubled by the rejection of the alliance with the Episcopal Church. The same article says "After the vote, somber delegates sane the hymn 'The Church's One Foundations.' Some supporters of the plan wept and held hands.

"Lutheran Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson told the assembly late Monday he hoped the church could come up with a new plan to present to the Episcopal Church....`The ecumenical opportunity of the century has been lost,' said the Rev. Robert Wright of General Theological Seminary in New York."

On the same point the Christianity Today article reads "The nation's largest Lutheran group has embraced grater unity with several Protestant denominations and has taken a step toward theological reconciliation with Roman Catholics. But the Churchwide Assembly of the ELCA was unable to muster a two-thirds majority for closer relations with the Episcopal Church, in part because of differing theological views over the office of bishop. Nevertheless, the ELCA voted to keep conversations going with the Episcopalians and discuss the matter in 1999."

A short time before he relinquished his position as Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the established Church of England, Dr. Fisher paid a visit to the late Pope John. This was the first get together of the heads of these two great ecclesiastical systems mentioned in Rev. 13. Dr. Fisher urged greater unity between Protestants and Catholics when he visited Rome, and pointed out that he used the word "unity", not "union" deliberately. By this he apparently meant cooperation between differing elements of Christian thought without loss of identity and doctrinal authority. This bears out Nahum 1:9,10 of both end of a scroll coming together, the one side Catholic, the other Protestant, opposed and yet connected — each side united and federated to the best of its ability. Rev. 16:13, 14. The Bible points out that as a result the nominal church systems will rise to great prominence again in connection with the civil powers. But the Bible declares that this reign as a queen will be a short one, and that the fall of Babylon will be tremendous — like a great millstone cast into the Sea. Rev. 18:21.