Ecumenism

Ecumenism

The ecumenical movement endeavours to unite all so-called ‘Christian’ churches – Catholic and Protestant – claiming we all believe the same Bible and believe in the same Jesus. This is a lie. It is essentially an attempt to bring the Protestant churches back under control of the papacy. The Catholic Church will not alter any of its teachings but wants the Protestant Churches to change their doctrines to permit this ‘reunification’.

The Roman Catholic Church is called by many ‘Christian’ but this is far from the truth – it is a cult like the Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses:

• Catholicism preaches a false gospel – salvation is through works (the sacraments etc.) and not through faith in Christ alone. 
• It presents a false Christ – the eucharist, where magically the body and the blood of ‘Jesus’ appear, transformed from the wafer and the wine.
• It practices a false infant baptism – only those who submit to the Pope and are baptised into the Catholic Church (not Christ) are declared saved (provided, of course, if they live past infancy into adulthood that they dutifully perform the sacraments).
• It believes in a false ‘scriptures’ – the Catholic Church defines the ‘Word of God’ to be the Bible together with the ‘Traditions’ of the church. (The Traditions are completely antagonistic to the Bible and form the basic directives for most of the corrupt practices of Catholics.)
• It operates under the control of a false priesthood – the Papacy, archbishops, bishops and priests who stand between God and the people.
• It worships a false Godhead – the Catholic Church deifies Mary; they worship and pray to her, declaring her to be the Mother of God, a title never found in the Scriptures, thereby making her equal to God.

A brief History of the Catholic and Protestant Churches

The Roman Catholic Church effectively came into existence in 323 A.D. when the Roman Emperor Constantine declared Christianity to be the State Religion of the Roman Empire. Catholic means “universal” so Christianity became the universal religion of the Roman Empire. (The title of Pope – the word “Pope” comes from “papa,” Greek papas, meaning “father” – was not officially adopted solely for the Bishop of Rome until Pope Gregory VII in 1073.)

Constantine set up a system of paid church clergy (priests) who conducted church services in buildings he constructed, and forced everyone in the empire to be baptised into the church – whether they were true Christians or not. When the Roman Empire was destroyed in the late 5th Century, the Roman Catholic Church subsequently gained political power and military might and gradually took over control of the same region that the Roman Empire had ruled. The Pope became the dominant ruler throughout Europe for many centuries, just as the Roman Emperor had been. Over the years the Roman Catholic Church developed teachings which protected its power and position but were contrary to the Bible. Anyone who opposed the Church was ruthlessly persecuted. True believers who accepted only the Bible as the Word of God and stood against the corrupt teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church – including the Waldenses, the Albigenses, and the Bohemian Brethren – were killed, just as true Christians had been persecuted and killed during the time of the Roman Empire.

During the rule of the Papacy many millions of true believers were martyred for their faith. For example, tens of thousands of Vaudois were massacred in Northern Italy (1237-1342); Lollards were terribly persecuted in England (130-1413); thousands of Hussites were killed in Bohemia (1421); the Spanish Inquisition burned alive 31,912 and tortured 300,000 Protestants (1481-1808); 3,000 Vaudois were suffocated and burned in a cave in Piedmont (1488); fifty thousand German Protestants were hanged, burned or buried alive by Emperor Charles V (1546); Catholic queen “bloody Mary” burned alive over 300 Protestants (1555); the Duke of Alva executed 36,000 Protestants in the Netherlands (1567); in the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in France 60,000 were butchered in 1572; in Magdeburg, Germany, 20,000 Protestants were massacred (1631); Irish Roman Catholics mercilessly martyred 40,000 Protestants (1641); and, 11,000 Vaudois were martyred in Northern Italy (1686).

Then a movement began in Germany in the 16th century spearheaded by a Catholic Priest whose name was Martin Luther. He stood opposed to the false teachings and practices that were contrary to the scriptures. This movement became known as the Protestant Reformation. Luther (who was excommunicated by the Pope) set up the first Protestant Church in Germany – called the Lutheran Church – which formally separated from any association with or control by the Catholic Church. Other Protestant Churches were progressively established in other countries. Eventually, the power and supremacy of the Pope was finally broken in the late 18th century, when the French Dragoons under the leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte took the Pope captive and led him away into imprisonment.

Note: Not all so-called “Protestant” churches have the same set of beliefs. “Reformed Protestants” (also called “Calvinists“) for example, have adopted John Calvin’s system of Bible interpretation, which is a distortion of Biblical truth. All ‘Christian’ churches that are not Roman Catholic, are generally regarded as Protestant. Moreover, the Lutheran Church itself did not completely jettison all Roman Catholic dogma – for example Luther preserved the Eucharist and infant baptism. The Protestant Reformation identified a set of essential Christian beliefs derived from the Bible called the five Solas (see below), however, these beliefs can be understood through a Biblical lens (i.e. use the Bible to interpret itself) or a human philosophical lens (i.e. use a man-made system of interpretation and impose it upon the Bible). The latter approach is promoted by churches identified as “Reformed”.                 See  Calvinism  

The truths that the Reformation identified are known as the five Solas –  Sola Scriptura, by Scripture alone, Sola Fide, by faith alone, Solus Christus, through Christ alone, Sola Gratia, by grace alone and Soli Deo Gloria, to the glory of God alone.  Essentially meaning that the Bible (made up of 66 books) must be accepted as the only inerrant and inspired Word of God (not to be added to or subtracted from), and it communicates to us that through faith in Christ alone, and not by works, can a person be saved from their sin. That it is by God’s grace that we are saved from God’s wrath, and that he alone receives the glory; no-one can boast in what they have done to earn their salvation, or add to what was accomplished by the sacrifice of Jesus. According to the Catholic Church, however, salvation does not and cannot come through repentance and personal faith in Christ as Saviour and Lord. Anyone who believes this are regarded by the Catholic Church as a heretic and accursed.

For the  Catholic, salvation remains a lengthy process that begins with (infant) baptism and thereafter depends upon one’s continued relationship to the Church, and submission to the Pope.  Salvation comes through participation in the sacraments, penance, good works, suffering for one’s sins and the sins of others here and/or in purgatory, indulgences paid during life or after death by others to reduce time in purgatory, and continued Masses and Rosaries said on the dead’s behalf. (Who can know when a deceased relative or loved one has been released from purgatory? According to church teaching only when a person is declared a saint here on earth are they automatically and immediately transferred from purgatory to heaven. For the vast majority of Catholics, a heavenly home after death is an elusive dream they can never be really sure of, and they can only hope that eventually at some indeterminate time in eternity that they – and others on their behalf – will have paid sufficiently for their sins and so escape purgatory.)