common denominator, or by religious political ac tion. Certainly Ephesians 4 reveals the Person of Christ is not to be sacrificed in any unity move ment. Now, on the other hand, it is stated in verse 4 that there is a unity now and that there is one body. I think the Ecumenical men need to be re minded of the fact that there is one Body of Christ now. There is a basic unity among all God’s people who love our Lord Jesus Christ. HOW NECESSARY? How necessary is the Ecumenical Movement? Well, it’s certainly not necessary for the salvation of souls. In fact, we’ll be better without it. I can’t get over the fact that some people are so enamored of this business as to forget that there was a time in history when we had a great single church which became such a monstrous ecclesiastical ma chine as to get completely out o f touch with the needs of souls and people, and lost its message and got involved almost totally in political action. God delivered us from that once and I can’t see why so many people are so wild to get back into the same boat again. Let’s put it into the record right there that many of the leading spokesmen of ecu menism have declared that they have no interest in the salvation of souls. At a 1964 triennial meet ing of the National Council of Churches it was de clared that the aim o f the church is “ the renewal of the social structure . . . not the saving o f in dividual souls.” Some have gone so far as to say that it is no longer Christian to have crusades for the winning of souls. The secretary of evangelism for the American Baptist Convention said “ con temporary evangelism is moving away from the winning of souls one by one to the evangelism of the structures of society.” A leading figure in the World Council of Churches has said “ The heart of Christianity is not concern for the soul but con cern for the world.” It would be hard to find a statement more directly contradictory to our Lord Jesus Christ than those words. Our Lord said, “What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36). At the base of all this, of course, is the widespread belief (unbelief) that there is no hell or judgment and that there is nothing to be saved from ! The ecumenical movement is not necessary for the moral uplift of society! Let’s suppose that all the churches united next week and we did all come under the church. Would the world be any better? Would there be less divorce? Would there be less
immorality? Would there be less rape? Would there be less drunkenness? Would we be lovers o f God more than lovers of pleasure, or would it continue the other way around? The probability is that the darkness would be deepened. You see, the world is helped by a message, not by an organization. The world is changed by the message of Christ, not by a highly organized eccle siastical machine. The New Testament Church changed its world by its message. It certainly didn’t have any elaborate organization, but rather a band of people whose hearts God had touched and who went out and moved the world toward Christ. Let me repeat again that the men who put the drive into ecumenism are often men who do not believe in judgment and do not believe in the “myth of hell” as they would say. Their view is that there is nothing to fear in the next life, so let’s get in volved in this one. There is nothing to save people from, so let’s expend our energies in this world here and now. Let’s make this a better world! They have no interest in the next one because they be lieve that everybody, by and large, is going to muddle his way into heaven, if there is a heaven. They are very sure there is no hell. Nobody has anything to worry about! Again, a world church is not necessary for world missions. There are statistical evidences which indicate that where there have been broad merger movements and denominations have united, the united church ends up by having less mission aries on the mission fields o f the world than the combined denominations did when they were going their separate ways. That happened in Canada. It’s happened before. So you don’t need it for world missions. You’ll get more done with the different groups working separately where God has called them. WHAT ARE THE REAL REASONS BEHIND ECUMENISM? There is a very definite tie-up between the poli tical liberal and the religious liberal. Some politi cal writers have had the wisdom to observe this and to write about it. They have said that liberals, theological or political, often have a common theo logical basis. That common theological basis con cerns the nature of man. What is man? What is his condition? What is his potential? The liberal believes that there is nothing within man himself to prevent ushering in a golden age and transform ing the world, doing everything for the world that the Bible says only Jesus Christ can do when He comes again. The liberal says that there are no
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OCTOBER. 1967
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