Articles
The Ecumenical Movement (Part 2)
As soon as God declares something to be true, Satan is not far behind with denials, accusations and alternatives. This tactic, which worked so brilliantly in the Garden of Eden, has continued throughout time. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” as we say. So when the greatest revelation of all time -- the gospel of Jesus Christ -- was published via the apostles, it was no surprise that corruption quickly followed suit.
As noted last week, Paul told the Galatians point blank that “even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:8). Paul said the truth he taught them was God’s last word and it would not be altered even by heaven itself. Paul continued in the epistle to warn them of unscrupulous men who “zealously court you, but for no good; yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them” (4:17). In other words, they were trying to gather a following for their own selfish purposes.
Paul later warned the shepherds of the Ephesian church that “from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves” (Acts 20:30). Toward the end of his life Paul warned Timothy, who was working among those same Ephesian brethren, that “the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron” (I Tim. 4:1-2).
Peter trumpeted the same warning: “There will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed” (II Pet. 2:1-2; full context throughout chapter 2).
John chimed in: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world ... and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world ... for many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist” (I John 4:1-2; II John 8).
These prophetic and retrospective warnings do not exist on some theoretical plane; they are real, practical admissions that not everything promoted in the name of Christ is valid. They make sense only against the backdrop of absolute truth; they are deviations from what either the Lord spoke personally or empowered His apostles to say on His behalf.
What troubles people about this is:
1) A sense of unfairness that someone could live a life of professed belief and yet be deluded and lost. But isn’t this a direct warning of Jesus? “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matt. 7:21-23). This distresses us for loved ones who seem to be truly godly but who we know practice error.
2) And on a more personal note, this concept may raise doubts about each of us: How can I know that I am truly doing the will of God? Will I be one who awakens in the afterlife only to find that I, too, served God in ignorance and error? So rather than do the hard thing and grapple with the reality of doctrinal differences, the ecumenical spirit waves a white flag and declares: “We’re all going to heaven; we’re just taking different roads.” Objective truth is sacrificed on the altar of false unity.
But Jesus said, “I am the way … narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (John 14:6; Matt. 7:14). And the obvious question is: “Am I among the ‘few’?" What is our hope when so much is at stake? (We’ll address this question in the next article.)
