SPIRITUAL UNITY, PART II.

Spiritual Unity, Part II

By: Walter J. Veith

The Impact of Vatican II

Pope John Paul II revived the “Congregation for Doctrine and Faith”, a new name for
the organization of the Inquisition, presided over by Germanborn Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger. The Pope has appointed tough disciplinarians to the hierarchy and stated
that he is not running a democracy: “It is an institution governed by Jesus Christ, a
theocratic one”; run, of course, by His Vicar, the Pope. Also, he has issued an
encyclical A Refinement of Evil, in which Catholic doctrines are strongly supported.
In spite of this, he expressed his confidence that the ecumenical movement would
succeed in uniting the churches once again. Pope John Paul II In his book Crossing
the Threshold of Hope states:

Pope John XXIII, who was moved by God to summon the council used to say:‘ What
separates us as believers in Christ is much less than what unites us.’ In this
statement we find the heart of ecumenical thinking.” ... By the year 2000 we need to
be more united, more willing to advance along the path toward the unity for which
Christ prayed on the eve of His Passion. This unity is enormously precious. In a
certain sense, the future of the world is at stake. pp. 146,151

Vatican II emphasized the importance of the Sunday assembly in Catholicism and by
extrapolation in the whole world. Vatican II documents state:

Moreover, any endeavor to make Sunday a genuine ‘day of joy and rest from work’
should be encouraged .... celebrate the Eucharist every Sunday, from the outset of
their Christian formation ‘Sunday should be presented as the primordial feast day,’
on which, assembled together, they are to hear the Word of God and take part in the
Paschal Mystery.[ix]

Beside Sunday being the first day of the week, no Bible believing Christian can
celebrate the Eucharist and take part in the Paschal Mystery, as these are of pagan
origin. Moreover, the Catholic idea of Sunday is diametrically opposed to the
Protestant concept of worship as it is a day founded on tradition, ‘the day of the sun’,
and dedicated to the veneration of Mary as clearly stated by Pope John Paul II
himself in his encyclical Dies Domini:

DIES DIERUM: Sunday: the Primordial Feast, Revealing the Meaning of Time. &ldots;
The spiritual and pastoral riches of Sunday, as it has been handed on to us by
tradition, are truly great. &ldots; Significantly, the Catechism of the Catholic Church
teaches that “the Sunday celebration of the Lord’s Day and his Eucharist is at the
heart of the Church’s life...As they listen to the word proclaimed in the Sunday
assembly, the faithful look to the Virgin Mary, learning from her to keep it and ponder
it in their hearts (cf. Lk 2:19). With Mary, they learn to stand at the foot of the Cross,
offering to the Father the sacrifice of Christ and joining to it the offering of their own
lives. With Mary, they experience the joy of the Resurrection, making their own the
words of the Magnificat which extol the inexhaustible gift of divine mercy in the
inexorable flow of time: “His mercy is from age to age upon those who fear him” (Lk
1:50). From Sunday to Sunday, the pilgrim people follow in the footsteps of Mary,
and her maternal intercession gives special power and fervour to the prayer which
rises from the Church to the Most Holy Trinity.”

How far removed from the simplicity of Christ. Yet Protestantism seems blissfully
unaware of the compromise of faith they will have to contend with if they accept
papal authority and unity of churches and religions under his leadership. How far
have the Protestant churches moved towards this unity?

The Anglican Church

In 1966, Archbishop Dr. Michael Ramsay predicted the reunification of the
Anglican and Roman Catholic churches. His successor, Dr. Donald Coggan, declared
that, in such a union, the Pope would be Primate. In 1969, the joint Anglican/Roman
Catholic Commission (ARCIC) investigated doctrinal differences, and in 1977 issued
the following statement.

It seems appropriate that in any future union, a universal primacy, such as has been
described, should be held by [the Roman] See.[x]

In 1989, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Robert
Runcie, went to Rome and urged Christians to reconsider the Pope’s primacy as
spiritual leader. He wore a ring given to one of his predecessors by Pope Paul VI,
and told John Paul II that,

... it was a sign not unlike an engagement ring.[xi]

The successor of Robert Runcie is Michael Carey. Carey is a committed
ecumenist, and chairman of the important Faith and Order Advisory Group, which
deals with church doctrinal issues. According to Time Magazine, he has been closely
associated with the charismatic movement, which practices speaking in tongues. He
has encouraged parishioners to visit shrines of Mary and has rejected literal
interpretations of Biblical events such as the creation and the flood. He has publicly
gone on record as a supporter of reunification of Rome.

In June 1999 the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches issued a joint statement
"The Gift of Authority". The Daily Telegraph June 1999 responded with the
headlines:

Churches agree Pope has overall authority.” The joint document states that the Pope
was to be recognized as the overall authority in the Christian world, and described
him as a “gift to be received by all the Churches.” The commission concluded that
the Bishop of Rome had a “specific ministry concerning the discernment of truth”
and accepted that only the Pope had the moral authority to unite the various
Christian denominations.

With this statement, the Anglican Church has surrendered its protestant heritage and
has subjected itself to the papal hierarchy. If, as we have seen in the chapter The
Wine of Babylon, Rome is the visible head of the end-time Babylon, then sadly, there
can be no other conclusion than that the Protestant Anglican Church has officially
made itself part of Babylon.

The Lutheran Church

The Rev. Dr. Carl E. Braaten has said,

if Luther were here today he would sound a different call, especially if he knew that
his reformation would, in the long run, turn out so many illegitimate offspring.

The noted Dr. Alexander Campbell said,

The worshipping establish­ments now in operation throughout Christendom,
encased and cemented by their respective voluminous confessions of faith, and
their ecclesiastical constitutions, are not churches of Jesus Christ but the illegitimate
daughters of that mother of harlots the Church of Rome.

The Roman Catholics and the Lutherans have held communal masses, and in
1974 the US Lutheran Roman Catholic Dialogue in the United States published the
Papal Primacy and the Universal Church: Lutherans and Catholics in Dialogue, 1974,
Vol. V. (Minneapolis: Augsburg Press)

On December 31 1994, The Telegraph of London carried the stunning article with
the headline. “Germany calls to ask: forgive Luther.” In 1995, the Lutherans sent a
delegation to Rome and newspaper articles appeared in Germany and England
stating that the Protestant churches were seeking forgiveness from Rome for the
Reformation. In 1998, the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation
issued their ‘Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification’ and the world press
heralded it as a healing of the rift. The synod of the Lutheran Church (Evangelische
Kirche) has also adopted the resolution that the pope should no longer be regarded
as the antichrist.

At the main Lutheran cathedral ‘Der Dom’ in Berlin, Catholics and Lutherans hold
communal mass. Services are alternated between Roman Catholic and Lutheran
theologians. Pictures of Mary have been reintroduced, and the ritual of candle
lighting for favours from the virgin is once again common practice. Sadly, the
Lutheran Church has followed the same road as the Anglican Church.

The Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Methodists

In South Africa, these churches are negotiating reunification with the Anglican
Church, whilst the latter is grabbing the hand of Rome.[xii] In 1969, during Pope Paul’
s visit to the headquarters of the World Council of Churches, the Presbyterian,
Eugene Carson Blake, general secretary of the World Council, acknowledged the
historic import of the meeting in his welcome, telling the Pope that his visit
“proclaims to the whole world that the ecumenical movement flows on ever wider,
ever deeper toward the unity and renewal of Christ’s church”.

Bishop Stanley Mogoba, chairman of the Methodist Church in South Africa, said
that the great challenge of the different churches is to speak with one prophetic
voice to the State. He said that a strong, common base still existed between the
churches.[xiii]


The Dutch Reformed Church

Dr. Bam of the Dutch Reformed Church made the following statement:

The time is more than ripe to look at what we have in common, and not only at what
separates us.

The assassinated Professor Heyns, erstwhile head of the Synod, supported him in
this. Pastor Justice du Plessis, known as Mr. Pentecost, and one-time leader of the
World Council for Charismatic Churches also urged the churches to join forces with
the Roman Catholic Church.

In South Africa, the ecumenical movement has since progressed, and besides the
South African Council of Churches, the Church Alliance of South Africa (CASA) was
formed in June 1988 with the expressed aim of encouraging Church unity and acting
as the conscience to the government. In their newsletter of 1st January 1990 they
write:

The time has come for the children of God in South Africa to realize that they are all
in spite of differences in denomination, language and culture part of the body of
Christ in this beautiful country.

Just what is causing this wave of reunification? The Argus, 12 August 1972 under the
banner heading “Charismatic wave of unity among South African churches”, writes:

An unprecedented spirit of unity between Roman Catholic, Protestant and
Pentecostal churches in South Africa was said this week by churchmen to be
spreading. On our own doorstep there has been a tremendous response from
Roman Catholics and Anglicans far beyond our thinking and asking. Suddenly there
has appeared an open door at which members from two different poles the
Pentecostals and Orthodox churches - are finding a point of meeting.

The Dutch Reformed Church

Dr. Bam of the Dutch Reformed Church made the following statement:

The time is more than ripe to look at what we have in common, and not only at what
separates us.

The assassinated Professor Heyns, erstwhile head of the Synod, supported him in
this. Pastor Justice du Plessis, known as Mr. Pentecost, and one-time leader of the
World Council for Charismatic Churches also urged the churches to join forces with
the Roman Catholic Church.

In South Africa, the ecumenical movement has since progressed, and besides the
South African Council of Churches, the Church Alliance of South Africa (CASA) was
formed in June 1988 with the expressed aim of encouraging Church unity and acting
as the conscience to the government. In their newsletter of 1st January 1990 they
write:

The time has come for the children of God in South Africa to realize that they are all
in spite of differences in denomination, language and culture part of the body of
Christ in this beautiful country.

Just what is causing this wave of reunification? The Argus, 12 August 1972 under the
banner heading “Charismatic wave of unity among South African churches”, writes:

An unprecedented spirit of unity between Roman Catholic, Protestant and
Pentecostal churches in South Africa was said this week by churchmen to be
spreading. On our own doorstep there has been a tremendous response from
Roman Catholics and Anglicans far beyond our thinking and asking. Suddenly there
has appeared an open door at which members from two different poles the
Pentecostals and Orthodox churches - are finding a point of meeting.

The Orthodox Church
Both the Russian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox churches have held extensive
ecumenical discussions with Rome and the patriarchs of these churches have
sought reconciliation with Rome. Pope John Paul II has visited Turkey and made a
speech in the Orthodox Cathedral wherein he alluded to the primacy of the papacy,
without a word of remonstrance from the patriarch. In May 2001 he visited Greece on
his famous ‘Following in the Footsteps of Paul’ crusade to demonstrate to the world
his reconciliatory spirit.

Relations with the Russian Orthodox Church have also been normalized. After the
collapse of the Soviet Union, a new patriarch was chosen as the head of the Russian
Orthodox Church - a longtime enemy of Roman Catholicism. The new patriarch was,
to the surprise of the world, not a Russian, and also had strong associations with the
ecumenical movement. Time Magazine reported:

The pope may no longer be an Italian, but it goes without saying, that the patriarch of
Moscow and all Russia must be a Russian. Until last week that is, when yet another
unbreakable rule was broken in the Soviet Union. At the resplendently gilded Trinity
- St. Sergius Monastery in Zagorsk, the election of an Estonian of German stock,
Metropolitan Aleksy of Leningrad, was elected as the patriarch of Moscow.

The article continues to say that the choice of an anti-Catholic prelate would have
sent anti-Catholic signals to the Vatican.

The widely traveled Aleksy, in contrast, is a committed ecumenist who for 22 years
served as president of the Conference of European Churches, a continent-wide
Orthodox and Protestant body.

Subsequent to these thunderous events, Pope John Paul II called upon the Jesuit
Order to oversee events in Russia, and take personal care of the retraining of priests
for this assignment. This was recorded in an article titled “Making up with the
Jesuits” in Time Magazine, Dec. 10, 1990.

American Evangelicals

Billy Graham is probably the greatest protestant evangelist of recent time. Yet
even he has become a supporter of the ecumenical movement seeking reunification
with Rome. The Religious News Service, January 13, 1981 reported:

Pope John Paul II was closeted for almost 2 hours with the Reverend Billy Graham,
the world’s best-known Protestant evangelist.

The Star, June 26, 1979 quotes Billy Graham as saying that the pope is almost an
evangelist. He praised the pope for pushing forward the religious revival worldwide.
On receiving an honorary degree from the Roman Catholic Belmont College, Billy
Graham told his audience, “The gospel that founded this college is the same gospel
which I preach today.”

Evangelicals in the United States have subsequently accepted reunification with
Rome. Thirty-nine leading evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics affirmed
each other as Christians, and vowed to reduce conflict between the groups. A
twenty-five page document was signed by such prestigious leaders as Charles
Colson, Pat Robertson, John Cardinal O’Connor of the Southern Baptist’s Home
Mission Board, as well as other distinguished archbishops, bishops, and scholars.
The drafters of the document included Catholic Richard John Neuhaus, head of the
Institute on Religion and Public Life, Charles Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship,
Catholic George Weigel, director of the Ethics and Policy Centre, and Kent Hill,
president of Eastern Nazarene College. The document accepts that Protestants and
Catholics alike who accept Christ as Lord and Saviour are fellow Christians and
members of the one church of Christ. It also recognizes that:

Our communal and ecclesial separations are deep and longstanding, and that they
may never be resolved short of the Kingdom come.

Nevertheless they promise to work together for Christ. It also calls for a
strengthening of the relationship of trust. Robert Schuller is reported to have said:

It is time for us Protestants to go to the Holy Father in Rome and ask him how we can
come home.[xiv]

The Chattanooga Free Press reported a stunning summary of statements by the
Episcopal Church:

When the Most Rev Randolph Adler, Archbishop of the International Communion of
the Charismatic Episcopal Church spoke in Chattanooga recently, those who heard
him were shocked . . . He preached a message about the failure of Protestantism and
its forthcoming destruction . . . “God's church is Catholic!” he declared. “It was
Catholic in the beginning, and it will be Catholic in the end.” Dr. Ben Ohnson, a
professor at Columbia Theological Seminary: “We are seeing the ending of
Protestantism as it is known . . .”Dr. John Hall of the United Church of Canada: “We
are witnessing the demise of Protestantism.[xv]

In giving up its principles and compromising faith and doctrine, Protestantism has
opened the door to a flood of evils. Conforming to the world, spiritism, the consulting
of the dead and ancestral worship have become part and parcel of the religious
experience. At the 1961 WCC meeting in New Delhi, the slogan was: "The church
must be converted to the world of today" and in 1966 the WCC adopted the
resolution of "Unity of all Peoples". At the WCC’s Seventh Assembly, held in
Canberra, Australia, from February 7-20, 1991, the overall theme was: “Come Holy
Spirit - Renew the Whole Creation”. Ms. Chung Hyung Kyung, a theology professor
and minister of the Presbyterian Church, South Korea, gave the second key-note
address. She arrived on the stage dancing with two Aboriginal men in loincloths, and
16 Korean men with gongs, drums and banners. She invited the audience to “get on
holy ground with me by taking off your shoes while we are dancing to prepare the
way of the spirit”. Then with candles burning on either side of her, she invoked the
spirits of the dead by reading the names from a printed list. Among the departed
spirits she invoked were Hagar, Uriah, male babies killed by Herod, Joan of Arc,
Jewish people killed in the gas chambers, Mahatma Gandhi, Steve Biko, Martin
Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and finally “the spirit of the Liberator, our brother Jesus,
tortured and killed on the cross”. She then burned the list and scattered the ashes
into the air.

At the fifth "Christian Parapsychology” conference (patrons include the
Archbishop of York, Dr. David Hope), at Christ Church College, Canterbury, calls
were made to hold seances in the churches to assist deceased atheists in their
spiritual transition.[xvi]

Rome and World Religions
It is not only Christians that need to unite with Rome, but all religions need to
recognize the Pope as the spiritual leader of the world. The Vatican has repeatedly
made it clear that the pope was to be seen as the “Father of the whole human
family.” Malachi Martin wrote about Pope John Paul II:

For in the final analysis, John Paul II as the claimant Vicar of Christ does claim to be
the ultimate court of judgment on the society of states as a society.[xvii]

In 1986, a meeting of world religions was held in Assisi, where the pope acted as
host. The meeting was televised worldwide, and present were the leaders of
Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, and Hindu religions as
well as leaders of most other minor religious organizations. At this meeting, and at
subsequent meetings in “the spirit of Assisi”, the pope is the spokesman and central
figure. This annual forum is celebrated with great pomp, and leaders of all religions
parade their solidarity with the pope. A further forum is the Parliament of World
Religions, which propagates the theme that all religions serve the same God. It is
noteworthy that the United Nations is the forum of many of these high level
discussions and that the pope has used this forum as the representative of all the
religions of the world.

After the events pertaining to the Gulf Crisis, Israel came to establish diplomatic
relations with the Roman See. The longtime animosities between Rome and the
Jewish religion are matters of the past. In his book Crossing the Threshold of Hope,
Pope John Paul II states that it had ever been his intention to establish links with
Israel. He also states that in one of their discussions, a Jewish leader thanked the
Church of Rome for all it had done for God over the past 2000 years. During the
pope's 1999 visit to the United States, Rabbi Robert Jacobs praised the Pope for
being the first pope to acknowledge Judaism.

The visible relations between Islam and Catholicism have also been astounding.
On the occasion of the Pope's May 2001 visit to Syria, Reuters International Press
featured the following report:

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Pope John Paul made history on Sunday by becoming the
first Pontiff ever to enter a mosque, and urged Christians and Muslims to forgive
each other for the past. Speaking inside the Great Umayyad mosque, a splendid
testimonial to Syrian history, he also said religious conviction was never a
justification for violence. “Never more communities in conflict,” he said in the
mosque, which contains a memorial to St. John the Baptist. Outside lies the tomb of
Saladin, who drove the Crusaders from the East. The Pope, who revolutionized ties
with the Jews by visiting Rome’s synagogue in 1985, said it was now time to turn the
page with Islam too. “For all the times that Muslims and Christians have offended
one another, we need to seek forgiveness from the Almighty and to offer each other
forgiveness,” he said in his address to Muslim leaders, including the Grand Mufti of
Syria. “Better mutual understanding will surely lead...to a new way of presenting our
two religions, not in opposition as has happened too often in the past, but in
partnership for the good of the human family.” The Pope, respecting Muslim
tradition, took off his shoes before stepping into the worship site, to the cheers and
claps of scores of people waiting outside. “These are great historical moments. The
Pope...is entering the mosque,” Syrian state television announcer said. “It is the
meeting of Islam and Christianity.” The call for mutual forgiveness was the
continuation of a theme begun Friday in Greece, where the Pontiff sought God’s
forgiveness for the wrongs committed by Catholics against Orthodox faithful in the
past 1,000 years.

The Pope is the world’s highest religious authority. However, this status has
clearly not been achieved on the basis of truth but on the basis of compromise.
Moreover, the religious principles and doctrines of the papacy are the revival of
pagan sun worship (see Wine of Babylon ) and constitute what the Bible calls the
Babylon of the end times. Confederacy with Rome and submission to its authority
makes one part of Babylon. By acknowledging his leadership, they also
acknowledge his doctrines:

Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are
to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
Romans 6:16

Clearly, Protestantism, by its own admission, has returned to the Mother Church
and the other world religions are also in confederacy with her. The Bible warns about
this threefold confederacy of the Dragon, the Beast and the false prophet. The false
prophet is the component of Babylon that will produce the false signs and wonders
whereby the people will be deceived to follow the Beast and to receive its mark.

And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles
before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast,
and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire
burning with brimstone. Revelation 19:20

Slighting truth is dangerous and opens the door to deception.

Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and
lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish;
because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, and for
this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That
they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in
unrighteousness. 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12

God never tempts or deludes anyone, therefore the delusion refers to God’s
permissive will. God permits that the devil deludes and deceives the people
because He has given them ample instruction and opportunity to accept the truth.
Eventually God will be the victor when He finally destroys spiritual Babylon who has
deceived the nations:

And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the
bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee; for thy merchants
were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
Revelation 18:23

Ecumenism is just another movement toward the establishment of that superchurch,
Babylon the Great, who will eventually persecute those who do not conform
themselves with her. How true are the words of John Knox in 1547 with reference to
the Papacy:

Flee from Babel, if you do not want to partake in her destruction” [xviii]

The second angel’s message declares,

Babylon is Fallen, is Fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the
wine of the wrath of her fornication. Revelation 14:8

Revelation 18 repeats the message of the second angel with the added admonition
to separate from her.

Babylon the Great is Fallen, is Fallen .... And I heard another voice from heaven
saying, come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye
receive not of her plagues. Revelation 18:2,4 (Emphasis supplied)

The second angel’s message is a message of separation from Babylon, whereas the
ecumenical movement is a message of uniting with Babylon. Compromise is
impossible. God is calling a people to make a stand for His truth. There are only
three definitions of truth in the Bible: Jesus is the truth, His Word is the truth, and His
law is the truth. (John 14:6, 17:17, Psalm 119:142) God is gathering a people. The
reformers were willing to die for what they believed. They had studied the
prophecies that clearly identified the papacy as the antichrist. Let us not reject the
prophets and may the following words of Jesus not apply to us:

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are
sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a
hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not. Matthew 2

REFERENCES:

[i] Romanism and the Reformation

[ii] Time Magazine, May 25,1981, p. l2.

[iii] History of Christianity, p.410

[iv] The History of Christianity, p.410.

[v] D.F. Neufield, Ministry, July 1978.

[vi] The History of Christianity, p.505507

[vii] Martyn Vol. V, p.70.

[viii] The History of Christianity, p.608.

[ix] Documents of Vatican II, p. 117

[x] London Church Times, 21 January 1977.

[xi] Time Magazine, 16 October, 1989

[xii] Protestant Reveille, 1st Quarter,1977.

[xiii] Die Bürger, 27 January 1990.

[xiv] Texe Marrs: All Fall Down

[xv] Chattanooga Free Press, Editor’s Note, May 10, 1997