EUROPEAN CONFERENCE LEADER WANTS CATHOLIC PARTICIPATION

EUROPEAN CONFERENCE LEADER WANTS CATHOLIC PARTICIPATION/ WARNS ABOUT "ANTI-ECUMENICAL FORCES"/ BAPTIST UNION OF BRITAIN

[Distributed by Way of Life Literature's Fundamental Baptist News Service. Copyright 1997. These articles cannot be stored on BBS or Internet sites without permission from the author. Any articles which are redistributed by e-mail must be left intact and nothing must be removed or changed, including these informational headers. This is a listing for Fundamental Baptists and other fundamentalist, Bible-believing Christians. Our primary purpose is to provide information to assist preachers in the protection of the churches in this apostate hour. If you desire to receive this type of material on a regular basis, e-mail us, tell us who you are and where you are located, and request to be placed on the list. Also include your postal address and the name of the church of which you are a member. Some of these articles are from the "Digging in the Walls" section of O Timothy magazine. David W. Cloud, Editor. O Timothy is a monthly magazine in its 14th year of publication. Subscription is $20/yr. The Way of Life web site is http://www.wayoflife.org. The End Times Apostasy Database is located at this web site.]

July 14, 1997 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - According a report in the Ecumenical News International, the "general secretary-elect of the Conference of European Churches (CEC), which gathers most of the continent's Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox churches, today said that 'closer cooperation' with the Roman Catholic Church was 'absolutely vital' to ecumenism in Europe" (ENI, July 2, 1997).

At the same meeting in Graz, Austria, Jean Fischer, the current general secretary of the Conference of European Churches warned that "anti-ecumenical forces" are organizing to "attack and weaken the ecumenical movement." He also warned about "fundamentalist forces" which are resisting ecumenical progress. One example he gave of this is the recent decision by the Georgian Orthodox Church to cancel its membership in the CEC and the World Council of Churches.

The general secretary-elect is Keith Clements, a Baptist from Britain. He assumes his position on September 1. Currently he is co-ordinating secretary for International Affairs of the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland-- a body which includes the Roman Catholic Church as a full member. He said that he would have to get used to working in "a situation where the Roman Catholic Church is not a member."

Clements is a member of the Baptist Union which well-known Baptist leader Charles Spurgeon left at the end of the 19th century because it was allowing its members to hold heretical doctrinal positions. Spurgeon left as the error was just beginning to make itself evident within the Union. The flower of apostasy had not yet blossomed, but the bud had appeared. Today this Union is a member of the Council of Churches in Britain and works hand-in-hand with the Roman Catholic Church which teaches that sacraments are necessary for salvation and exalts its traditions to the place of authority equal with the Scriptures and prays to Mary as the Queen of Heaven and honors the pope as the vicar of Christ and the head of the "church" on earth. The Bible is right again -- a little leaven does, in fact, leaven the whole lump.

Spurgeon was wise in departing from that compromising Union when he did and for not waiting until the leaven had progressed to a more obvious stage. The problem with waiting is that as time passes it becomes increasingly more difficult for a man to make such a hard decision. Men involved in compromising unions, even men who care about the truth, are effected by the compromise of their associations, and they gradually are weakened in their resolve and discernment. The Bible also warns, "Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners" (1 Corinthians 15:33), and let us not forget that the Bible is always right.