THE ONE WORLD CHURCH

For many years now, the issue of cooperation between the various churches of Christendom has been the focus of discussion among many church leaders. But the World Council of Churches (WCC) is off to a rocky start, as a matter of fact, one might say that the dreamed of One World Church is being built on a foundation of sand, what with a large apostasy in the Protestant community, the inclusion of both the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches into the WCC, and the overtures being made by the WCC leaders to Rome, is making coopera-tion impossible for many true Christians.

An affiliate of the WCC, the National Council of Churches of Christ in America, has claimed that they speak for almost forty million church members here in the United States. However, there are almost twenty-five million Protestants who are not in the NCC, and of these, some twenty-two million are non-aligned, and more than one and a half million are members of the National Association of Evangelicals and another million are members of the American Council of Christian Churches. So, one can see who are Bible-believers have other choices besides placing themselves under the control of the NCC or the WCC.

But, alas, all is not well with God’s people. There is division among them, as some fight for the keeping of the unity of the Spirit to the rejection of passages on separation from evil men and evil doctrines. Others go to the opposite end of the pendulum, fighting for separation, while overlooking the truth of John 17:11 and Ephesians 4:3. How does one find a balance in these matters? Yet there are those who continue to try.

Ecumenical (from the Greek oikoumene of which the root meaning is “this inhabited world.” As an ecclesiastical term it has been used for centuries to describe the inclusiveness of the great world councils of the Roman and Greek Catholic Churches.) is the word used to describe this movement to unite all churches into one universal Christian church “throughout the whole inhabited world.” The WCC and the NCC are the main channels through which this movement is operating. The WCC now includes some 200 churches or denominations in about 100 countries and territories, with well over 300 million members. The power of its growth is only matched by that of the Roman Church.

Since World War II, the major non-Roman churches have been having a hard time. Eastern Orthodox Catholics have lost more than half of their strength due to the spread of Communism. Hopefully, now that the Soviet Union has ended, these Churches may make a rebound. The Anglican Church is presently facing internal disputes over the consecration of an openly gay bishop, which is on the verge of tearing the Church apart. Many of the churches of continental Europe are nearly empty and powerless spiritually, while many of the churches in America are facing the same problem, much of which is due to sex scandals and the world wide spread of human secularism and political correctness along with materialism.

In Africa, Asia, and many other areas in the world, nationalism is encouraging the revival and spread of the old pagan and heathen religions along with an antagonism toward “western religion.” Many Church leaders feel that in this nuclear and space age, time may be running out for the human race, and therefore, Christianity can no longer afford the luxury of division. They seem to sense an inadequacy of many of the traditional beliefs and practices imposed by ecclesiastical leaders of former generations. Many of these church leaders are very sincere in their convictions, while others are just ambitious and desire greater power and prestige, and they are more than willing to make any compromises in their effort to build a “One World Church.”

The dream of a united church has been in the minds of church leaders for a long time. In 1910, the first approach toward this union came at the World Conference on Missionary Cooperation, held at Edinburgh, Scotland, under the chairmanship of John R. Mott. This conference had as its goal, the evangelization of the whole world in one generation. This resulted in the establishment of the International Missionary Council. In turn, this lead to the creation of the Universal Christian Council on Life and Work in Stockholm, Sweden in 1925, mostly sponsored by liberals who were in awe of the “social gospel.” Then in 1927, at Lausanne, came the World Conference on Faith and Order. Busy little bees working overtime.

Edinburgh stated that the way to a united church is through cooperation in evangelism and missions, while Stockholm said that federation for Christian service and social action is the answer. Lausanne insisted that the essential thing was to rethink the divine church doctrines and traditions in order to find common ground for belief. Each of these, proved to be inadequate in themselves, so finally, in a series of joint conferences, the leaders decided to join their resources, in view of the changing conditions after World War II, and organized the World Council of Churches in 1948 at Amsterdam, as a means of ecumenical advancement.

The WCC is composed of a wide assortment of churches which each have a great difference in theological doctrine, church organization, and worship. They also represent many different nationalities, political points of view, and, not mention, sociological backgrounds. They are liberals, evangelicals, neo-orthodox, Arminians, Calvinists, Lutherans, Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox. Some of the churches believe in the “apostolic succession” of the priesthood, the veneration of the Virgin Mary, and various Saints, then there are those of the purely Protestant tradition. There are congregational, Presbyterian, Episcopal, and catholic systems of church government. There are national churches believing in the union of Church and State, there are free churches which oppose that doctrine. There dozens of different rites and liturgies of communion and worship. The idea of spiritual unity among such diversity has its encouraging aspects, but to be honest, there are seeds of controversy and diversity.

As to the organizational structure of the WCC, it is fearfully and wonderfully made, In reality, it is one huge super church, though its leaders deny this. Its constitution states that it is set to the task of making common action by the various churches easier, promoting ecumenicity, establishing relations with other ecumenical movements, and calling world councils to deal with all sorts of issues that may arise. To put it simply, the WCC can do almost anything its leaders wish. The secretariat in the Geneva headquarters of the Council has immense powers and dictates operations involving every conceivable phase in the life of the churches. The member churches are more and more awaiting official pronouncements and programs from Geneva before beginning their undertakings. If you were to seek a counterpart of the committee and the secretariat anywhere else in Christendom, you would not have to look any further than the College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church and the Vatican secretariats. It is this fact of the trend toward the centralization of authority and so-called “responsible” church government that has led to the changing attitude of Rome toward the Council and in the new cordial spirit between the two.

The tentacles of power reaching out hungrily from Geneva not only affect its own membership, but they now vitally touch all inter-church organizations at world and national levels.

Bible-believing Christians have deep concerns about the theological foundations of the WCC and, therefore of the whole modern ecumenical movement. They are not willing to commit themselves to any unity which in any way weakens the body of facts which lies at the very foundation of the Christian religion, or the Christian doctrines which the Church has held to be essential to its mission through nearly two thousand years of Christian history. To many of us who hold to True Orthodoxy, there can be no compromise of such fundamentals as the nature and essence of God and man, the Holy Scriptures, Christ, sin and salvation, and the Church. When it comes to these matters, the Bible must be the final court of appeal. Of course, there are many areas of belief and practice which are not of such importance as to keep Christians of various traditions from working together in common tasks.

Right from the beginning of the WCC, the Bible-believing members urged to have a strong emphasis upon the authority of the Holy Scriptures in the so-called “Basis” for membership. There was a deep conviction on the part of many true Christians that they could not have fellowship with those who deny the inspiration and authority of the revealed Word of God. They had knowledge that the newly created WCC organization was rife with liberals who, as one noted theologian once put it; “prefer to theologize on their own account without asking what Biblical grounds one puts forth for this or that professedly ‘Christian’ view. They quote the Bible according to choice, that is to say, according as it appears to them to strengthen their own view without feeling any need to ask whether the words quoted really have in their context the meaning attributed to them; or without regard to other passages in the same Biblical writer which might, perhaps, limit or define more precisely the words quoted.” This really doesn’t sound too much different from what many theological schools and seminaries are doing today in their attempts to re-write the Bible.

It was very evident that this liberal element did not want the Holy Scriptures mentioned in the Basis. The liberal influences were very strong in 1948 at Amsterdam, as they still are today, so that the best the Council could do was to adopt the following statement:

There was a strong liberal effort to keep the word “God” out of the Basis, but after considerable debate and compromise on other issues, the above text was adopted. The conservatives were very unhappy, that a movement was immediately started, led by Bishop Eivind Berggrav of the Church of Norway to insert a clause which would make the Basis dependent upon the authority of the Scriptures. Many attempts were made, on the part of the liberals, to keep this clause from coming to a vote, but strong evangelical, neo-orthodox, and Eastern Orthodox elements in the Faith and Order Commission began to push for further consideration of the proposed changes. Then, unexpectedly, there came reinforcement for Norway’s inflexible position from Eastern Orthodox theologians, who urged for even further strengthening by reference to the Holy Trinity and the Holy Tradition of the Church. Ecumenical leaders, who were in the middle of negotiations to enlist several more Eastern Orthodox churches in the Council’s membership, were finally convinced that it would be good for their strategy to agree to a compromise change in the Basis. As a result the New Delhi Assembly, in 1961, voted to approve the following Basis:

So now everyone is happy, right? Not by a mile. The goal of the modern ecumenical movement is the creation of a vast world-wide super church, which I stated earlier. Through the medium of the WCC and its related councils, the process is proceeding according to plan.

Dr. G. Bromley Oxnam is credited with having prepared the blueprints for both the National Council of Churches and the WCC. In his book, On the Rock, this late great ecumenicist bypassed all the basic tenets of evangelical Christian doctrine and called for the abandonment of all traditional and organizational barriers to church union. His proposal called for an inclusive cooperative Protestant action in the area of church functions. Secondly, he would create an ecumenical ministry. He himself said that he would be glad to be reordained under this system. Then Oxnam enlarges his picture, stating: “United action in many fields would follow rapidly. Our foreign or overseas missions could become one with the world organization or fellowship. We could have a common hymnal. . . . There could be a united system of higher education, unitedly supported, in which we could train the lay leadership of our church, the teachers for our colleges and universities, and in united theological seminaries, the ministers of the church.” During this stage of development, brotherly cooperation with the Eastern Orthodox churches would be maintained, then union with the Eastern Churches would be brought about. Then, union of American Christianity would electrify the world which would accelerate the trends toward union on every continent.

Finally, Oxnam said: “It will be possible to kneel before a common altar with the Roman Catholic Church, beg forgiveness of the Christ for disunity, and, sharing in the Bread and Wine of Holy Communion, rise in His Spirit to form the Holy Catholic Church to which all Christians may belong.”

Just what are the moral, doctrinal, and spiritual implications of ecumenicity? Free churchmen and free churches are slowly but surely being forced to submit to the orders of a growing ecclesiastical hierarchy. A premium is being put on denominational and institutional conformity and penalties are being meted out against those who would remain loyal to Bible doctrine. Ask yourself, “What is to become of liberty of conscience before God and a true fidelity to Christ and the Bible under such ecclesiastical domination?”

Those who are prophetically inclined, are now warning us that we are witnessing the creation of an organization which the Bible pictures, not as the Bride of Christ, but as the adulterous woman bearing on her forehead the name, “Mystery, Babylon.” They see the ecumenical movement as a stage on the road to the creation of an ecclesiastical body which has all the admixture of truth and error found in the Church of Rome. In a time when the hearts and souls are crying out for a greater visible manifestation of the true spiritual unity of the Body of Christ, Satan is busy preparing a false unity in an apostate church. This seems ever more true when you consider the fact that the WCC is part and parcel of the United Nations, the world body that supposedly was founded as a peace keeping body, but has done everything but. The UN is slowly doing away with individual national sovereignty and gathering more and more power unto itself, in a process to set up a one world government. Remember, the Bible tells us that the One World Government under the Anti Christ, would be brought about through the political, economic, educational, and religious systems. It is not out side the realm of possibility that some huge ecclesiastical federation, based on principles and methods acceptable to all those nominal religionists, with tremendous world prestige and power, may regain for the church a visible, monolithic, coercive institutional unity under the guise of which millions could and would be enticed into a Babylonish bondage under an Anti Christ and a generation of false prophets. Ask yourself; “When the Word of God is abandoned and the paths walked by Christ and His apostles are obliterated, where then is the church headed?” Perhaps, the predictions of some earlier Catholic scholars and prophets are correct in their prediction that this present pope, Pope John-Paul the II, is to be the last true Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.

According to the Bible, a time will come when this One World Church, will bear little if any resemblance to Christianity, it will be Satanic. The final form of this apostate church will center on the worship of a man, not our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, rather it will be the world ruler of that time, who will be exalted by Satan and empowered by him to be the supreme counterfeit of Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords who alone has the right to rule over the entire world. Thus, the final form of apostasy is an unabashed worship of Satan and the man whom Satan promotes. A brief study of Biblical prophecies that relate to the future of the professing church, shows that there will be three major aspects of the church. First, before the rapture, the church will be characterized by increased apostasy both theologically and morally and will begin its trend toward world unification. Second, immediately after the rapture, this trend toward unification and departure from the faith will reach its climax in the world church which is prefigured in the harlot of Revelation 17. Third, the worship of Satan and the world ruler is described in Revelation 13 and Daniel 11. This final form of apostasy will be judged by Jesus Christ when He returns in power and glory.

Even though the ecumenical movement of our day includes many truly sincere Christians, who desire to see an end to needless divisions in the church, from the standpoint of Biblical prophecy it becomes very clear that the movement is doomed to failure. It is nothing more than the preparation for the apostate church which will be completely devoid of Christians and of Christian principles. The true hope of those who believe in true Orthodoxy, is not a world organization, but rather a realization of the unity which already exists in the body of Christ --- that mystical tie which binds every true believer to every other true believer in the organic unity of which the human body is an illustration.

Our hope lies not in a world organization, but rather in the coming of the Lord for His own and our being joined to Christ and our loved ones who know the Lord in an everlasting fellowship which will continue without end. Do you have the spirit of true Orthodoxy? As seekers of the true religion, can you discern the truth? As members of the clergy and religious orders, are you willing to put on the whole armor of God and lead others to the right path? This will take courage and perseverance, for many a rescuer has been lost in flood waters or raging fires while trying to save others, but this should not be the case of those who wish to save souls. If you walk with God, love Him and despise evil, you will not be engulfed or swallowed up by the sins of those you are trying to save and bring to the Lord. In this connection, the admonition given by God to his people in Revelation 18:4 is worth thinking about. Just before God brings His great judgment upon Mystery Babylon, He instructs His people to come out of her so that they will not partake of her sins and will not receive of her plagues. Of course, this is not a popular position to take today, but it is truly a necessary one if we are to please God. As the Apostles of old said, “We must obey God rather than men.”

If we will faithfully follow the path of the early Church fathers, and that laid out by God, we will not fail. We must build up ourselves in the most holy faith, pray for the power and grace of the Holy Spirit, and keep ourselves ever in the protection of God’s Love, while looking for the mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ unto life eternal, and try to save floundering believers in Christ and those lost men. Women and children who are outside of Christ.

St. Augustine's Anglican Church, Deming, New Mexico

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