LOL! Mmmm, 12-year old scotch.
Posted on 03/01/2006 10:23:32 AM PST by Convert from ECUSA
WCC assembly demonstrates ‘spirit of antichrist,’ prof says
Feb 28, 2006
By David Roach
Baptist Press
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil (BP)--Recognizing the Holy Spirit in other religions, tolerating homosexual marriage and denouncing the U.S. war on terror were among the views advocated at the 9th World Council of Churches Assembly Feb. 14-23 in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Founded in 1948, the WCC describes itself as “the broadest and most inclusive among the many organized expressions of the modern ecumenical movement, a movement whose goal is Christian unity,” according to the group’s website. The WCC has 347 member denominations in more than 120 countries, including most of the mainline Protestant denominations in America.
In its pursuit of unity, the WCC has advanced an agenda that includes opposing wars and weapons systems, criticizing free markets, promoting a worldwide redistribution of wealth and seeking common ground with non-Christian religions.
“The World Council of Churches has long been a boutique of paganism in Christian garb,” said Russell D. Moore, senior vice president for academic administration and dean of the school of theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. “This year’s assembly happenings, including the recognition of ‘the Holy Spirit’ working in non-Christian world religions, only continues the downgrade.
“Regenerate believers across the world, whatever their denomination or communion, recognize the sprit of the World Council for what it is: the spirit of antichrist,” Moore said. “The only differences between the WCC of today and the WCC of the mid-twentieth century are first one of degree and second one of relevance. No one listens to the World Council of Church anymore, and for that we should be thankful to God.”
HOLY SPIRIT IN OTHER RELIGIONS
“The church is called to discern the signs of the ‘hidden’ Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit in other religions,” WCC central committee moderator Aram I said in his report to the assembly, according to a release by the Institute on Religion and Democracy.
Speaking on the need for unity among Christians, Aram, the Armenian Catholicos of Cilicia (one of the Lebanese church’s four major leaders), said a divided church cannot offer a credible witness to the world.
To reach the world, he advocated “a church beyond its walls” that is “liberated from its self-captivity” inside “dogmatic, ethical, theological, ethnic, cultural and confessional walls.” Aram went on to suggest that the Holy Spirit operates in non-Christian religions.
“According to biblical teachings, God’s gift of salvation in Christ is offered to the whole humanity,” he said. “Likewise, according to Christian pneumatology, the Holy Spirit’s work is cosmic; it reaches in mysterious ways to people of all faiths.”
Changes in the church and the world demand that Christians adopt new approaches to ecumenical organizations in the 21st century, Aram said. He noted that inter-religious dialogue can help believers get away from an “exclusivist, monological and self-centered self-understanding” and “look at the basics of our faith in a broader perspective.”
Aram’s comments on other religions were absent from the WCC’s official news release on his report, which focused on Aram’s call for Christian unity.
U.S. ‘RAINING DOWN TERROR’ ON THE WORLD
Throughout the assembly, delegates expressed anti-American sentiments regarding the war in Iraq and made claims of U.S. imperialism.
At a press conference Feb. 18, Leonid Kishkovsky, chief ecumenical officer of the Orthodox Church in America and former president of the National Council of Churches, presented a letter described as representing the WCC delegates from U.S. denominations. The letter portrayed U.S. military actions to thwart terrorism in terms of aggression against innocents.
“[O]ur country responded [to Sept. 11] by seeking to reclaim a privileged and secure place in the world, raining down terror on the truly vulnerable among our global neighbors,” the letter stated.
At the press conference, Kishkovsky appeared with John Thomas, president of the United Church of Christ; Sharon Watkins, general minister of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ); Michael Livingston, NCC president; and Stanley Noffsinger, general secretary of the Church of the Brethren.
“Nations have been demonized and God has been enlisted in national agendas that are nothing short of idolatrous,” the letter stated. “We lament with special anguish the war in Iraq, launched in deception and violating global norms of justice.”
U.S. denominations represented at the WCC included the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Episcopal Church and various African-American Baptist and Methodist denominations.
Anti-American sentiments also were expressed in a Feb. 19 press conference on the church in Latin America. Speaking under the auspices of the WCC, Argentinean Nobel Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel denounced American policies in Latin America and spoke against U.S. President George W. Bush.
“Dictatorship in Latin America was imposed by the United States,” he alleged. “All the methods of oppression which we see come from over there, from the Empire [the United States].”
Speaking against the American President, Pérez Esquivel, said, “When Bush prays, God covers his ears.”
HUMAN SEXUALITY WORKSHOP
Any sexual act that is done with an attitude of love and respect is morally legitimate, regardless of whether it occurs in marriage, said Erlinda Senturias, a Filipino member of the WCC’s “international reference group” to guide the council’s conversations regarding human sexuality.
Senturias made her comments Feb. 18 in an unofficial workshop on the WCC’s recent dialogues about sexuality. When a young Irish man in the audience asked whether it was acceptable for him to engage in sexual relations with his girlfriend, Senturias offered a clear answer.
“A sexual experience is a spiritual experience,” she said, according to an IRD report. “If it is done in a spirit of mutual respect and love, it is a very beautiful experience -- whether you are married or not.”
George Mathews Nalunakkal, a Syrian Orthodox priest from India spoke against “conservative” views of human sexuality.
“When this appeal to the Bible [in a literal way] is combined with natural law,” he said, “it leads to exclusive and conservative positions.” He also objected to “statements [that] reflect a rather negative anthropology, where man is seen as a ‘fallen’ creature and sin is sexual.”
In the same workshop, Sara Baltodano of Costa Rica presented a summary of conclusions reached by regional WCC meetings in Costa Rica and India. The presentation stressed the importance of “sexual rights.”
“Sexual rights are also human rights,” the summary said. “Right and responsibility go together. This does not mean that we promote sexual rights without the attendant responsibilities of being non-abusive within relationships, and faithful within whichever configuration of relationship one chooses to be in.”
Alan Wisdom, IRD interim president and reporter from the assembly, said Baltodano’s comments reveal a low view of traditional marriage between a man and a woman.
Her remarks “revealed the attempt to dethrone marriage from its traditional place at the center of Christians sexual ethics,” he said. “Instead Baltodano’s summary would affirm ‘whichever configuration of relationship one chooses to be in’ –- not exactly a biblical category of thinking, or even a clear rational category.”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu expressed the WCC’s pluralistic thinking in a Feb. 20 address on unity.
“Bush, bin Laden, all belong, gay, lesbian, so-called straight -- all belong and are loved, are precious,” he said.
Wisdom said that moving forward, the WCC is facing issues of survival, not just relevance.
In America and elsewhere, mainline denominations continue to suffer in influence while orthodoxy is growing; if the WCC persists in trying to rally churches around the agenda of western liberals instead of around biblical orthodoxy, it faces the prospect of extinction, he said.
“The question is where the WCC will find any unity," Wisdom said. "The continued pursuit of the political agendas of the Western left--a rapidly declining contingent in the global church--will relegate the council to accelerating irrelevance. But a reappropriation of the orthodox and evangelical Christian faith that is growing in so many African, Asian and Latin American churches would promise a much brighter future."
Wisdom did not speculate on whether the WCC had the will to abandon liberalism and ecumenicalism for the evangelicalism that is driving Christian movements worldwide.
Thanks for posting this.
Several persons I'd FRmailed this to suggested I post this.
Ping!
No problem.
"And, if you'll buy that! I've got some..." WCC is working to consolidate Islam, with the dominant religion in this websites' forum to purge the universe of those intolerant "evangelicals."
The WCC along with its familiars like the UMC and Episcopal churches, are involved in the subversion of Christian theologial philosophy and the destruction of western civlization.
They support gun control, oppose the death sentence, support illegal aliens, oppose our war efforts, and advance an agenda of homosexuality and immorality.
The age of Churches may indeed be coming to an end with this group.
Ain't that the truth!
Or as I've put it over the years, it ain't kosher to mix root beer with 12-year old scotch!
LOL! Mmmm, 12-year old scotch.
Lets look at history:
1) The Church has been embattled since its beginnings (remember Christ was crucified), but Christ promised that the gate of hell will never prevail.
2) It has battled every conceivable heresy. We see it in St Paul’s writings as well as St Peter, St James, St Jude, and nearly all the NT.
3) All the Ecumenical Councils of the 1st Millennium were convened to deal with the heresy of the day (or one that raged for decades). A word of note for Non-Orthodox: The 7 Ecumenical Councils of the 1st Millennium where convened when there were no denominations…just One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church…it was the complete unity of the Body of Christ and an extension of the Synod of Jerusalem as recorded in the book of Acts.
4) The Roman Catholic Bishop set the stage for the great schism of 1054 (actually brewing under the surface for many centuries). The RCs were the 1st Protestants and set the stage with self interpretation (v Ecumenical), an authority to add (or subtract) to scripture (filioque), and the complete fragmentation of Western Christianity into today’s 25,000 different denominations (hey, if Rome can do it…why not us).
5) The eventual end game to self interpretation is self-infallibility and a personal “I’m led by the Holy Spirit” attitude and nearly as many interpretations as there are so called Christians. The Pope syndrome (its either the Pope of RCs or each individual becomes their own pope dividing rightly the word of truth [even though none of the truths really line up the same]) What the WCC is doing is nothing more than the end game of Roman Catholicism and Protestantism in general (I know that for the less humble this will certainly ruffle a few feathers…but I’m speaking as one that spent 30+ years in many of the mainstream denominations before I learn church history and began reading in Greek).
6) Don’t be surprised to see Orthodox involvement in Ecumenism. Historically, both sides of every schism claims to be Orthodox. Nestorius, Arius, even Pope Leo IX thought he was Orthodox. The Orthodox Church will continue as it has for 2,000 years to battle these heresies. The problem with Ecumenism is that it is a pan-heresy (all encompassing for those that research past heresies). What makes the WCC and pan-heresy so bad is that it is the syncretism of all heresies (for those unfamiliar with syncretism it is the temporary joining of opposing forces to fight a common enemy…in this case the true One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church that declared them heretics in the first place).
This is the spirit of the Antichrist.
Suggested reading for the humble: http://www.orthodoxpress.org/parish/river_of_fire.htm
You're right in the Protestantism part, but your err in lumping-in Catholicism with that.
LOL! If that were the case, the 25,00 denominations would be in existence 500 years after the Great Schism, not starting to fracture at that point. You have an exaggerated sense of history.
Your logic escapes me...
Protestant churches are still spliting today over doctrinal issues based on the same philosophy of self interpretation.
When Martin Luther separated from the RC he experienced another 380 violent splits just in his lifetime.
It actually took some time for RC theology to denegrate so bad that Luther had no other choice but to split.
I don't accept any of your premises. One of the heights of Catholic theology came after the Great Schism, with Sts. Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure, and Blessed Duns Scotus.
Especially the Roman Catholic Church...
Whose sin is worse...the one teaching it or the one following it?
Aside from Rome, every other vote on the issue in 1054 (4 to 1 when it came to Patriarchs [the 5 Patriarchs recognized in the 1st Millennium by the 7 Ecumenical Councils of which Rome was only one]) claimed Rome was not only schismatic but a serious heresy.
Facts are stuborn things...
I don't accept your "facts." They are, in fact, an Orthodox interpretation of history.
"One of the heights of Catholic theology came after the Great Schism"
Define heights of theology? Infallibility, ex cathedra, indugences, dual procession of the Holy Spirit, removal of the blood from communion to the masses, replacing Christ as head of the church with the Pope, created grace, further development of St Augustines concept of the transmission of sin and the state of man after the fall (a complete paradigm shift from the original church theology that has led many...many...astray and unable to accept an all merciful God that needed to take His Sons life to satisfy His humiliation for mans sin).
Heights of theology...I'd say depths
The schism itself was the depths of theology that Rome has never been able to climb out of. A schism based on a false belief that filioque was part of original scripture (it started outside of Truth and was furthered by pride...not a sign Christ was in it's mist)
It is ludicrous to identify the Antichrist with this or that institution since it cuts the malevolence factor to the level of a trivial game. Whenever the Antichrist actually does show up it will be blatantly obvious to everyone.
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