By Reese Currie, Compass Distributors

As I write this in January 2005, we are about two weeks away from the "Week of Prayer for Christian Unity." I’m aware of this because my church is participating in this special week, starting with a hymn sing at the local Roman Catholic Church.

With the exception of two or three friends who understand the implications, I am hard pressed to find anyone who finds the "Week of Prayer for Christian Unity" anything other than a "lovely idea." This indicates just how widespread and virtually unchallenged the ecumenical agenda has become.

The Roman Catholic goal in ecumenism is simply the re-uniting of all of Christendom under the pope of Rome. They are quite up-front about this with no deceit. They are hoping that dialogue with Protestant groups will lead them to reject the error of Protestantism and rejoin the "Holy Mother Church."

The Protestant goals in ecumenism are less clear, with different people having different objectives in mind. Not being an ecumenist and seeing no logic in it whatsoever, I will attempt to briefly explain the goals for Protestant ecumenism.

The first goal is actually an attempt to obey the Word of God, at least as they see it. The seed for their ecumenism begins with their interpretation of John 17:20-21, in which Jesus prays, "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You have sent me" (NKJV).

They understand this to mean that, without ecumenical unity, evangelism is being thwarted. They lay blame for the de-christianizing of the Western World, and their failure to reach other parts of the world, on a lack of unity within the church. In a sense, they are right: there can be no doubt that a lack of unity in doctrine has weakened the church’s witness in the world. However, the solution seen by the ecumenist, to work together regardless of doctrinal differences, will only serve to exacerbate the problem. Mixed messages confuse the hearers and false doctrine cannot save.

I believe there is also a hope among some that, though fellowship, we might sort out the doctrinal differences that exist between Roman Catholics and Protestants; others have taken more of an approach that doctrine doesn’t matter and the fellowship itself will produce results. Both views are sadly mistaken. The Roman Catholic Church is not going to be "taught" anything by Protestants, and all of these hopes that we can "learn from each other" have no foundation. Fellowship itself, without doctrinal agreement, is nothing approaching the unity that Jesus spoke of in His prayer. Jesus and the Father were not loosely united with doctrinal differences; they were in unity in all aspects, and that is the sort of unity He prayed for us to have.

Billy Graham’s approach to solving the problem of disunity, as the world’s chief evangelist for much of the past half-century, has been to embrace ecumenism and to promote it extensively through his ministry. The results have been utterly devastating to the church and its witness. In the time that Billy Graham has been the world’s "chief evangelist," he has presided over the dechristianizing of the Western world. It would seem evident that another tactic is called for.

The tactic I believe works is doctrinal purity, as was demonstrated in the Bible itself, and in the Great Awakenings. My best example from the first Great Awakenings is John Wesley. Wesley made no attempts to accommodate the differences in doctrine between the Roman Catholic Church and Protestantism.

For instance, Wesley once preached, "At this time, more especially, will we speak, that 'by grace are ye saved through faith': because, never was the maintaining this doctrine more seasonable than it is at this day. Nothing but this can effectually prevent the increase of the Romish delusion among us. It is endless to attack, one by one, all the errors of that Church. But salvation by faith strikes at the root, and all fall at once where this is established. It was this doctrine, which our Church justly calls the strong rock and foundation of the Christian religion, that first drove Popery out of these kingdoms; and it is this alone can keep it out. Nothing but this can give a check to that immorality which hath 'overspread the land as a flood’."

Wesley even struck directly at ecumenism in his day, in his sermon Catholic Spirit. By "Catholic," Wesley did not mean the "Catholic" denomination, but the original meaning of the word Catholic, which is "universal." Wesley preached, "For, from hence we may learn, first, that a catholic spirit is not speculative latitudinarianism. It is not an indifference to all opinions: this is the spawn of hell, not the offspring of heaven. This unsettledness of thought, this being 'driven to and fro, and tossed about with every wind of doctrine,' is a great curse, not a blessing, an irreconcilable enemy, not a friend, to true catholicism. A man of a truly catholic spirit has not now his religion to seek. He is fixed as the sun in his judgement concerning the main branches of Christian doctrine. It is true, he is always ready to hear and weigh whatsoever can be offered against his principles; but as this does not show any wavering in his own mind, so neither does it occasion any. He does not halt between two opinions, nor vainly endeavour to blend them into one. Observe this, you who know not what spirit ye are of: who call yourselves men of a catholic spirit, only because you are of a muddy understanding; because your mind is all in a mist; because you have no settled, consistent principles, but are for jumbling all opinions together. Be convinced, that you have quite missed your way; you know not where you are. You think you are got into the very spirit of Christ; when, in truth, you are nearer the spirit of Antichrist. Go, first, and learn the first elements of the gospel of Christ, and then shall you learn to be of a truly catholic spirit."

Wesley would have accused any modern ecumenist of "vainly endeavoring to blend two opinions into one." Wesley, by his own words, would have considered a Billy Graham or a Henry Blackaby, to be "nearer the spirit of Antichrist" for their doctrinal latitudinarianism.

As for the claim that ecumenism is necessary for the church’s evangelism, we have only to compare the vast difference between Wesley’s success in evangelism and that of modern ecumenists. Wesley’s preaching brought his nation back to Christianity, while the work of Billy Graham et. al. has demonstrably sent their nations running away from Christ and from the church. This is the sort of massive failure ecumenism is.

Ecumenism has failed for no reason other than the fact that it is total disobedience to God’s Word. The apostles were not unaware of what Jesus meant when He prayed for their unity; this did not stop them from vigorously opposing false doctrine that corrupts the message of Christ and refusing to fellowship with those who promote false doctrine. The apostles taught us how to keep the message of Christianity vital and meaningful to the masses, and that was by maintaining doctrinal purity.

The apostle John, the very person who recorded Christ’s words in John 17:20-21, wrote, "Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward. Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him: for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds" (2John 8-11, NKJV).

Of fellowship with those of false soteriology (salvation doctrine) such as the Roman Catholics, Paul writes, "But 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. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ" (Galatians 1:8-10, NKJV).

These words apply directly to ecumenists. Their Roman Catholic accomplices preach a works salvation, and the Protestant ecumenists go along with it because they seek to please men, which proves that they are not Christ’s servants.

The church needs to take a long step back from the ecumenical precipice at which they stand. The belief that the church will become more effective by compromising doctrine in an attempt at a show of unity is disobedient to Scripture and a total misrepresentation of the prayer of Christ.

In the second part of this article, we will look at the doctrines of the Reformation to see what valuable things the Protestant church is giving away in its ecumenical desperation.

The Gradual Undoing of the Reformation: Part One: The Failure of Ecumenism is Copyright © 2005 by Compass Distributors.

Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.), 1982.