Posted on 01/16/2006 7:05:53 AM PST by Huber
***The church was never called to fight abortion, alcohol, poverty, the death penalty, etc. The church's Great Commission is to preach the gospel.***
When we preach the Gospel, the other issues will take care of themselves.
Absolutely correct!!! The times of great prosperity in man's history is when we followed after God and obeyed His calling.
Amen!
It is important to differentiate between sham ecumenicalism, which is as you describe, and true ecumenicalism, which like most things that are truthful, receives little play in the press. Sham ecumicalism is deism at best, and is no more true ecumenicalism then the Democratic Republic of Germany was a true Democracy.
The problem I have with ecumenicalism (even "good" ecumenicalism) is that it minimizes doctrine. Roman Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants are getting together to "fight" social causes. Sounds great. Heck, I'm sure we could get the Jews, Mormons and Muslims to join us. But is this really God-inspired? If someone wants to join a church/temple/synagogue what do we tell them? The message of God's saving grace is replaced by man's brotherhood of man. At best its a luke warm gospel.
For some reason the seven churches of Revelation keep going through my mind.
Amen - and the product of the ecumenalism are a lot of "para-church" organizations that water-down the Word of God, mix in a lot of earthly statistics and arguments, and end up cheapening the overall gospel message. See Focus on the Family as an example.
The January/February issue of Modern Reformation came today. One of the articles was titled "The Transforming Message of Romans." It is set up in sections as follows:
The Transforming Message of Romans...To Augustine by Eric Landry, a PCA minister
The Transforming Message of Romans....To Luther, by Rod Rosenblatt, a LCMS professor of theology
The Transforming Message of Romans...To Calvin, by Kim Riddlebarger, a Reformed Pastor
The Transforming Message of Romans...To Spurgeon, by Ken Jones, a Reformed Baptist.
Four distinctive denominations, four matching perspectives on Salvation by Grace through Faith in Christ. I will participate in ecumenicism with anyone who professes that truth. Any church that preaches anything else, and I will not darken the door.
It might interest you that I spent Christmas day in a Reformed Baptist church. I and my family professed our Salvation through Grace through Faith in Christ, and confirmed that we were members of a church that preached the Gospel. At that point we were invited to participate in the Lord's Supper, even though we were all sprinkled as infants. That, IMHO is true ecumenicism.
>>I and my family professed our Salvation through Grace through Faith in Christ, and confirmed that we were members of a church that preached the Gospel. At that point we were invited to participate in the Lord's Supper, even though we were all sprinkled as infants. That, IMHO is true ecumenicism.<<
Amen!
...Sigh
Thank you for proving the point.
That's what we Reformers are here for-to aggrevate everyone. ;O)
Amen !
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