[The following material is from O Timothy magazine, Volume 3, Issue 7, 1986. David W. Cloud, Editor. All rights are reserved. O Timothy is a monthly magazine. Annual subscription is US$20 FOR THE UNITED STATES. Send to Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, Michigan 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org. FOR CANADA the subscription is $20 Canadian. Send to Bethel Baptist Church, P.O. Box 9075, London, Ontario N6E 1V0. The Way of Life Internet web site is http://www.wayoflife.org/.]

We warn our readers not to be deceived by the use of terms such as "evangelism" and "spirituality" by liberal ecumenists. They use these familiar terms, but they do not mean what Bible-believing Christians mean by them. A case in point is seen in a speech by Raymond Fung, who is evangelism secretary of the World Council of Churches. Evangelism secretary! One would think that this man is deeply concerned to see the lost men and women of the nations saved through personal faith in Jesus Christ. No, not at all. He believes all men are already Christians even if they do not know Jesus Christ, and even if they do not go to church, even if they claim to be atheists, even if they worship idols!

His speech was delivered to a meeting sponsored by the Ecumenical Council of Denmark, the Danish Missionary Council, and Council on Inter-Church Relations of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Denmark. The subject was "Church Without Limits." Consider a quote from this amazing kind of "evangelist":

"Within the borders of Denmark... we need to decide whether the church, whether Lutheran or Free, is a church of the active members, i.e. the five percent of the population. Or that ours is a church... also of the inactive, nominal 90 percent who neverless have a claim on the church, either through birth, baptism or some other ways...

"Regardless of the indifference of the 90 percent, they remain your people whom the active five percent cannot dissociate themselves from. But, how do we see the 90 percent theologically?... who are they in the eyes of God?...
Are they pagans? heathens?...

"I WOULD SUGGEST THAT IT IS PROPER AND USEFUL TO RELATE TO THE INACTIVE AND INDIFFERENT AS IF THEY ARE INDEED CHRISTIANS; THAT THE CHURCH SPEAKS TO THEM AS IF THEY ARE PART OF US AND NOT STRANGERS FROM OUTSIDE. HOWEVER SECULAR AND NON-RELIGIOUS THEIR OUTLOOK IS, I WOULD SUGGEST THAT WE SPEAK TO THEM AS IF THEY ARE INDEED CHRISTIANS." (Ecumenical Press Service, December 1-5, 1986, Year 53/Issue 36)

The message of the Lord Jesus Christ to lost men was quite different from that of Fung. "There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Luke 13:1-5).

The evangelistic message of the Lord's Apostles was also quite different than that of Fung. "Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead" (Acts 17:29-30).