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Posts Tagged ‘Ecumenism’

Vatican Hot Air

Posted in Roman Catholicism, tagged , on January 19, 2015| 2 Comments »

Time_Ice Age_1977This may sound strange to the ears of those under 40, but once there was a time, and not that terribly long ago either, when the big fear talked up in the media was the threat posed by a new Ice Age.  Seriously.  It was going to be all blizzards in June, icicles in August, and the end of the world as we know it.  The fear of a new Ice Age may strike many today as laughable.  But as the 1977 Time cover shows, this was a widespread concern in the late 70s.

But somewhere in the 80s, the narrative changed.  It was not advancing, but rather retreating glaciers that came to be seen as the premier threat to life on planet earth.  Global warming had come of age, and the globalists were quick to promote it.  From the mid-eighties until 2009, it was all global warming all the time.  But that all changed with Climategate.  As a result of the release of emails belonging to researchers at the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, people came to understand that climatologists had been pulling the wool over their eyes all along.  The term global warming was quickly dropped down the memory hole.

At that point, one might have supposed that the globalists would give up on using the environment as a platform to promote their socialism.  But such was not the case.  Physics has something called the law of conservation of energy, which states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed:  it can only be transformed from one state to another.  Apparently politics has a parallel idea.   For instead of slinking off the world stage with permanent shame of face, the globalists simply changed their marketing strategy.  The global warming brand name had been sullied beyond repair.  New packaging was needed.  And it didn’t take long for the world’s clever propaganda meisters to come up with something new.  Thus was the world graced with the  new globalist meme, climate change.

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Eating Flesh, Drinking Blood

Posted in Roman Catholicism, tagged on November 17, 2014| 4 Comments »

“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” – John 6:54

Occasionally, I’ve had the opportunity to discuss this passage with other Evangelicals. During our conversation I have mentioned that Rome uses this passage as a proof text for its doctrine of Transubstantiation. Transubstantiation, Rome asserts, occurs when the priest consecrates the bread and wine during the Mass. At that time, the bread and wine are changed into the actual body and blood of Christ. Rome teachers that, when its adherents partake of communion, they are eating and drinking the actual body and blood of Christ. I’ve said these things supposing that Rome’s teaching on transubstantiation is at least somewhat understood by Evangelicals. As it turns out, I was wrong.

But not only was I surprised to find that, at least in some cases, Protestants did not realize just how radically the Romanist position on the Lord’s Supper differs from what the Bible teaches, I also found a fairly deep-seated unwillingness on the part of Evangelicals to believe what Rome, by its own admission, has taught for centuries.

For a non-Catholic, grappling with Roman Catholic doctrine can be more than a little frustrating. Part of this is Rome’s historic practice. The Church is fond of making thunderous dogmatic statements. But when asked to back them up, the questioner is often met with double-talk and obfuscation. For example, Rome has declared in no uncertain terms that the pope is infallible when speaking ex-cathedra. But ask Rome for its list of infallible papal statements, and you’ll get the runaround. But this is not so in the case of transubstantiation. Rome has made quite clear what she believes on this subject, and there really should be no question about it in the minds of Evangelicals. Consider the following statements from Rome,

If anyone shall deny, that, in the sacrament of the most holy Eucharist, are verily, really, and substantially contained the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently the whole Christ; but shall say that He is only therein as in a sign, or in figure, or virtue; let him be anathema.

– Council of Trent, Session 13, Cannon I.

If anyone shall say, that, in the sacred and holy sacrament of the Eucharist, the substance of the bread and wine remains conjointly with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and shall deny that wonderful and singular conversion of the whole substance of the wine into which conversion indeed the Catholic Church most aptly calls Transubstantiation; let him be anathema.

– Council of Trent, Session 13, Cannon II

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Tools of the Inquisition

Posted in Roman Catholicism, tagged on November 7, 2014| 1 Comment »

Futility. For many, the sight of poor Charlie Brown’s failure to kick the football is the very image of it. Ever trusting, he was always Lucy’s tool .

Ecumenical Evangelicals are a lot like Charlie Brown. They just never get it. The Vatican announces its latest ecumenical conference on this or that hot button issue and, zip, like moths to a flame, or Charlie Brown to Lucy’s siren song, the ecumenical tools come a running.

The latest Vatican con job is a confab called An International Interreligious Colloquium on The Complementarity of Man and Woman. And the ecumenical tools of the hour are Southern Baptists Russell Moore and Rick Warren. The conference, to be held in the Vatican Nov. 17-19, is described by its organizers thus,

The Complementarity of Man and Woman: An International Colloquium is a gathering of leaders and scholars from many religions across the globe, to examine and propose anew the beauty of the relationship between the man and the woman, in order to support and reinvigorate marriage and family life for the flourishing of human society.

Witnesses will draw from
 the wisdom of their religious tradition and cultural experience as they attest to the power and vitality of the complementary union of man and woman. It is hoped that the colloquium be a catalyst for creative language and projects, as well as for global solidarity, in the work
 of strengthening the nuptial relationship, both for the good of the spouses themselves and for the good of all who depend upon them.

The Colloquium is sponsored by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and co-sponsored by the Pontifical Council for the Family, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, and
 the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity. (emphasis added)

The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. It sounds innocent enough. But like so much the emanates from the Vatican, a little digging reveals things are not what they seem at first. As it turns out, The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith is a new name for an old organization within the vast bureaucracy of the Roman Catholic State-Church. Prior to 1985, this same body was known as The Sacred Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. This was itself a new name for an organization that from 1904 until 1965 was called the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office.

What, you may ask, was the name of this august body prior to 1904? From its founding by Pope Paul III in 1542 until 1904, it was known as the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition. Yes, you read that right. Evangelicals are going to a conference, the host of which is none other than the Inquisition.

Ignoring the command of the voice from heaven in Revelation 18 which enjoined, “Come out of her [the Roman Catholic Church State], my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues,” Russell Moore believes he can too join in ecumenical alliance with Antichrist and not suffer loss. In this, he evidences a serious lack of discernment.

The decision by Moore and Warren to attend this Vatican conference represents an enormous betrayal of Christ and his Gospel. Not that this is anything new for high profile Evangelical leaders. But to allow themselves to be used as a tool of the Inquisition shows a truly remarkable lack of discernment on the part of these men. By comparison, Charlie Brown looks like a genius.


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Don’t Wanna Be an Evangelical Idiot

Posted in Politics, tagged on August 11, 2014| 1 Comment »

In her recent column Ebola Doc’s Condition Downgraded to ‘Idiotic’, right wing warrior princess Ann Coulter managed to pen what is perhaps the most virulent anti-Christian column from ever seen by this author. The target of her vitriol is Dr. Kent Brantly, who contracted the deadly Ebola virus while serving as a medical missionary in Liberia. Huffs Coulter,

I wonder how the Ebola doctor feels now that his humanitarian trip has cost a Christian charity much more than any services he rendered.

What was the point?

Whatever good Dr. Kent Brantly did in Liberia has now been overwhelmed by the more than $2 million already paid by the Christian charities Samaritan’s Purse and SIM USA just to fly him and his nurse home in separate Gulfstream jets, specially equipped with medical tents, and to care for them at one of America’s premier hospitals.

So far as this author is aware, Dr. Brantley and his nurse have volunteered for this service and are supported by missionary organizations who agreed to send and support them. This is not a man on the public dole, he is a Christian using his gifts to carry out, not some merely humanitarian mission, but the Great Commission of Christ. Who is Ann Coulter to object to the volunteer work of a Christian missionary? Dr. Brantly, SIM and Samaritan’s purse have asked nothing from her and do not answer to her. I have known one missionary family affiliated with SIM. They served in difficult conditions in Africa to bring both clean water and the Gospel of Christ to those who desperately needed both. Were they wasting their time? In the mind of Coulter, apparently so.

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The Antichristian Case for Pro-Life Ecumenism

Posted in Abortion, tagged on April 11, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Cultural reform efforts are not primarily about religious doctrine but social justice. – Scott Klusendorf, The Case for Life.

Over sixty years of neo-evangelical leaven has had its effect on American Christianity, and nowhere is this more clearly seen than in the pro-life movement. Today it is difficult, if not impossible, to find pro-life authors and organizations that take seriously the Bible’s commands not to yoke in ministry with unbelievers. On the contrary, ecumenism is the default position of the pro-life community, and woe to any pro-life advocate who fails to toe the ecumenical party line.

Scott Klusendorf is one prominent pro-lifer who attempts to defend the ecumenical position, and his arguments are worth examining. In his book The Case for Life, Klusendorf includes a chapter titled “Here We Stand: Co-Belligerence Without Theological Compromise,” in which Klusendorf sets forth the reasons why, in his view, the pro-life movement, “must be broad-based and inclusive,” rather than narrowly evangelical. There are several problems with Klusendorf’s thinking in this chapter, the first of which is the deliberately misleading language of the chapter title. “Here We Stand” is obviously a reference to the brave words spoken by Martin Luther before the Diet of Worms, and by quoting them Klusendorf is attempting to cloak himself in Luther’s mantel. But his use of these words is simply doublespeak, for Luther uttered these words in the context of distinguishing the truth of the Gospel from the errors of Rome, while Klusendorf, on the other hand, perversely parodies the language of Luther, not for the purpose of distinguishing truth from error, but instead to blur the line between them.

Klusendorf starts off the chapter writing,

Evangelical Christians [as opposed to what, Romanist or Orthodox Christians?] committed to sound doctrine must distinguish themselves theologically from people who reject fundamental truths of the Protestant Reformation. These truths must never be discarded so as to achieve greater unity with non-evangelicals.

That raises an important question: Do evangelicals forsake their core beliefs when they unite with Catholics, Jews and other religious groups to address cultural issues?

For Klusendorf the answer is no. But what does Klusendorf think are the core beliefs of evangelicals? The historic meaning of ‘evangelical’ is someone who believes in the authority of the Bible alone and salvation by faith alone. Romanists, Jews and other religious groups deny these tenants. If the answer to Amos’ rhetorical question, “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?,” is no, and it is, then there is no basis for evangelical co-belligerence with these groups.

Klusendorf continues,

Let me begin with an observation. Cultural reform efforts are not primarily about religious doctrine but social justice. To work they must be broad and inclusive.

Here, Klusendorf shows a shocking ignorance of what pro-life work actually is. For unlike what he and many other confused evangelicals believe, pro-life ministry is not a work of cultural reform, but an extension of the Great Commission, a command given to Christians only. For in addition to his injunctions to make disciples and baptize, Jesus also ordered his disciples to teach, “all things that I have commanded you,” one of which was God’s prohibition of murder.

There are other fallacious arguments in this short chapter, some of which I hope to address later, but for now it is enough to say in short that Klusendorf’s error is that he separates what he should unite, in order that he may unite what he should separate. He separates pro-life work from the command of the Great Commission, seeing it as something that can be pursued with equal effectiveness by both Baptists and Buddhists, so that he can unite Christians and unbelievers the common cause of pursuing “social justice,” a term frequently used by Marxists and Romanists alike when attempting to justify their long-running war on private property.

 

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Tool Time

Posted in Theology, tagged on May 12, 2010| 4 Comments »

tool: one who is used or manipulated by another – Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary

Featured as the lastest Trinity Review, Richard Bennett’s article “The Roman Catholic Agenda Embedded in the Manhattan Delcaration” is a much-needed exposé of this dangerous, ecumenical document.  Bennett’s main point is that the Manhattan Declaration, while being promoted as a Christian defense of life, marriage and liberty of conscience, is in fact a hard-core Romanist document designed both to advance the socialist agenda of the Roman Catholic Church-State and to draw Evangelicals into the Roman Church itself.  That this is the case should surprise no one, for Rome has a long history of two-faced political maneuvering.  But what I find most distressing about this sordid affair is how leading figures in the Evangelical community are so easily duped into becoming tools of the Romanist agenda.  

Check out the following video to see Baptist tools Mike Huckabee and Chuck Colson promoting the Manhattan Declaration.  

I found a couple of remarks in this segment especially interesting.  At about the 3:15 mark, Colson describes the language of the Manhattan Declaration as “covenantal.”  So according to him, those Evangelicals who have signed the Manhattan Declaration have entered into a covenant with the Roman and Greek Orthodox churches, both of which deny the Gospel.  This is in direct contradiction to Scripture, which enjoins Christians to separate from those who teach false doctrine.  Then Huckabee toward the end – around seven minutes into the video – makes the comment that Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” was inspired, to which Colson adds that it was inspired by God.  Who knew?  I guess Colson agrees with his Romanist buddies on more that just social action.  By promoting the notion of continuing revelation, he’s joined with Rome as a co-belligerent in the attack on the doctrine of Scripture.

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