ECUMENICAL LEADERS CALL FOR UNIVERSAL COUNCIL

[Distributed by Way of Life Literature's Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Copyright 1996. These articles cannot be stored on BBS or Internet sites without permission from the author. Any articles which are redistributed by e-mail or print 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/.]

July 8, 1996 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The General Secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches is the latest ecumenical leader to back a proposal for a "universal council" sometime after the year 2000. Konrad Raiser, the head of the World Council of Churches, proposed such a council earlier in the month. According to the proposals, representatives from the major denominations--Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Pentecostal--would begin meeting in the year 2000 to resolve issues "dividing the church." This would lead to a universal council which would issue a "common confession of faith" and jointly "celebrate the Eucharist." Raiser said one of the key issues to be settled if the question of the "primacy of the Pope." In 1995, John Paul II issued an Encyclical Letter entitled "Ut Unum Sint" ("May They All Be One"), in which he invited other "churches" to discuss the issue of the papacy. In this same Encyclical, though, the Pope plainly stated that the dogma of papal supremacy will not be changed. "With the power and the authority without which such an office would be illusory, the Bishop of Rome must ensure the communion of all the churches."

The Roman Catholic Church practices ecumenism only on its own terms. It has repeatedly stated that it will not change its doctrines for ecumenical purposes.

This "universal church council" would not be a church in a biblical sense; it would more perfectly represent the religious Harlot of Revelation 17.

Jay Gary, who claims to be an Evangelical, called for a universal church council in his book "The Star of 2000." He favorably quotes another ecumenist with these words: "On the opening day of the assembly they [churches] would all unite in confession of one and the same apostolic faith on the basis of years of thorough preparation. They would declare the divisions between them to be a thing of the past and then join together in celebration of the eucharist..." This book is endorsed by Bill Bright, head of Campus Crusade, and Brandt Gustavson, president, National Religious Broadcasters.

David Cloud dcloud@wayoflife.org http://www.wayoflife.org/
1701 Harns Rd., Oak Harbor, WA 98277

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