There is a major push to unite Christendom here in 21 century. The Pontiff, Pope Francis I of the Roman Catholic Church has extended an olive branch to Protestants by celebrating and recognizing The Reformation as a true movement. Many Protestant denominations are hopeful that this gesture and the increasing communication and collapsing of walls between Catholic and Protestants through the Pope's reforms could lead to unity, or Ecumenicalism. Ecumenicalism is the Holy Grail of churches today. The great goal is to take the churches that have splintered and schismed, and make them one church again. This is happening slowly between Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church which split in 1054 A.D., but has through Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey) and Pope Francis I of Rome, made major strides towards unity. The goal of Ecumenism is not simply to great unity of spirit, that churches should be one in a spiritual sense, but it a goal to make One World Church. The accusation of atheists and co-religionists is that "the church is too divided," and "there are so many denominations, this makes people believe something is wrong in the church." The truth is actually the opposite, and I will make my case presently. During the reign of Emperor Charles V of Germany in 1530 A.D., this prince of Christendom argued that Reformers and Protestants cease their quibbling and submit to Rome (Church), because the Turks, specifically Ottoman Turks were about to invade Europe. In the same manner, there is this sense of urgency to unite the churches into one conglomerate or confederacy to fight against the tide of Post Modernism, Atheism, and beyond. But the truth is this is dangerous and unhealthy, had the Protestants done this at behest of Charles, we today would not have Scriptures available to us, and we all would still live under the false gospels of the Roman and Eastern Orthodox churches.
The Apostle Paul said regarding divisions, "First of all, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. But, of course, there must be divisions among you so that you who have God's approval will be recognized!." (1 Corinthians 11:18-19). In another translation, Paul actually says the divisions help expose heresies, "For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you." (KJV). Indeed, this is what happened during The Reformation, the Protestant Churches were able to divide from the Roman Church and discover its heresy. The divisions and denominations among us are healthy, it means among us the Truth shines forth still, and with each reform we draw closer to Christ. The worst thing imaginable would be to unite, to create a One Holy Ecumenical Church, especially when most of Protestant Churches have now splintered into two groups; Biblical based and Compromised based; the Compromised churches are compromising Scripture to elect unregenerate and unrepentant homosexuals to eldership and leadership, approving abortion, and opening door to universalism and interfaith religion with Islam, Hinduism, and beyond. If we were to unite now, the elect, those few of us who are standing on True Gospel and the Holy Bible would be swallowed up in the sea of compromise and be united to unbelievers, "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness, What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever, What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.” “Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you." (2 Corinthians 6:14-17)
Let me put it another way. When many different companies make a product, for example phones, the consumer or purchaser benefits because the cost is lower, and those companies compete to make a better product and add features that the consumer (buyer) wants. If instead there is only one company that makes a product, the result is that price is high and the product doesn't have to be improved or have features the consumer wants because the company who is the only one making the product gets to dictate and decide what it will do since it has no competition. For a time Roman Catholic Church was that one company that had monopoly on the Gospel and interpreted it as it wanted, wrongly, for thousands of years, then came along the Reformers who took the Gospel and allowed it to be read and interpreted by all peoples, which created different churches such as Lutherans, Presbyterians, Mennonites, Baptists, Anglicans, and later Charismatics and more. The accessibility to the Scriptures made it possible for churches to spring up from reading them and let each of us today decide which church is closer to Christ's message and what it means to be Christian. Ecumenism is to draw backward, to take Gospel, or as I used analogy earlier, product, and place it in hands of one person or board, rather than let it be free in marketplace to be understood and used by all Christians. We will then go from allowing Scripture to interpret itself, the Holy Spirit help us understand, to letting Magisterium, the council of one Church tell everyone what to believe and think regarding the Scriptures (Holy Bible).
The counter argument is that if all people, every Christian who has a Bible can interpret it, won't there be chaos? How will you ever know how to properly interpret? The answer is that Bible is very clear in the most part, for instance Jesus says, "This is my Father's Will, everyone who looks to His Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I, the Son, will raise those who have died up again from the dead." (John 6:40). The Scriptures explain themselves, this is called literal, meaning most of it is taken literally, until you get to something symbolic, like the dragon in Revelation, which Scripture then reveals it Satan (Revelation 12:1-12), so with some further reading of Scripture and cross referencing you can come to an accurate conclusion or consensus on what something means, because take the topic of how to be saved or soteriology, the answer is found all over The Scriptures (John 3:16, John 6:40, John 17:3, Romans 10:9-10, Ephesians 2:8-9, Philippians 3:8-9, Acts 15:10-11) and through examining these scriptures we find Saved by Grace through Faith and Knowing Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Scripture is sufficient in of itself to teach us what is necessary to be saved, to know Christ, to be a good Christian, and all that pertains to Christian life. We risk losing that if we hand it to an Ecumenical Council, and allow the churches to be unified but not in Spirit and Truth; but by what they agree on. For instance, a Catholic and Protestant should never be able to agree on salvation, Catholics believe in sacraments to be saved like penance (works of mutilating the flesh, praying rosaries), baptism, Eucharist (communion meal), and masses; while Protestants believe faith in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for our sins alone saves us (Ephesians 2:8-9, Philippians 3:9, Hebrews 9:24-29, Hebrews 10 whole chapter, Galatians 5:4). So what Ecumenists do is they gloss over these differences and say, "well you can agree that Jesus is Lord, or that there should be teaching," and so base a unity around the disagreements; making both parties compromise their convictions and allow for a form of control that will lead to a council, board, or one leader who will lean one way or another on matters of salvation and etc.
Ecumenism and Ecumenicalism are a serpent, nay a lion that would devour every denomination and force them to accept beliefs contrary to the Gospel and the Holy Bible. It is much like Universalism, which allows all religions to be one, untied, but when one religion begins to assert its personal point of view from its own individual belief system, the Unity board and group turns on them; a good example is if we Christians say to Universalists who claim "all roads lead to heaven," that we believe that there is one road (Matthew 7:13-14), and that there is only one way to God and heaven, "Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6, John 3:16), those Universalists will fastly turn into persecutors; and I believe same will come of ecumenists, who are fine if everyone agrees on superficial matters, and nod the head about Mary being Jesus' earthly mother, but refuse to bring up the contention between Catholics and Protestants on Mary's full role: Catholics believing Mary is a co-goddess, co-redeemer or a Redeematrix and Theotiokios, full of grace herself to add to merits of Christ and intercessor or mediator between Christ and man (Roman Catholic Catechism, pgs 900-999) which violates, "For there is one God, and one mediator [μεσίτης, ου, ὁ, mesités, mediator, go-between, mediator, intermediary, a go-between, arbiter] also between God and men, the Son of Man Christ Jesus," (1 Timothy 2:5); while we Protestants believe Biblically that Mary is a Virgin (Luke 1:34), that Mary is a sinner who needed a Savior (Luke 1:46), and that she redeems no one, but it is Christ Jesus who always was (John 1:1-3) who came in the flesh by Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35), that Jesus saves mankind from their sins! (Hebrews 9:24-29, Hebrews 10, John 19, John 20 whole chapters). Ecumenism and all this unity is a farce, and its ultimate goal is to bring us Protestants into a fold, and then close the gates, close our Bibles, close our mouths, and leave us as enslaved as we were for millennium under Roman Church! Ecumenism is not a quest for unity, it is a quest for unilateral control; it is the Roman Catholic Church, and I dare say the spirit of Antichrist and the coming Beast Regime to assimilate the Elect of God back; to enslave Protestants again; it is the True Counter Reformation, because Rome cannot win debating with its Catechism and Canon Law against the Holy Bible, it seeks to reverse the Reformation by luring Protestants back into the mouth of Romanite Cerbrus, the Hound of Hell.
The call for unity, is a call for submission. It is the Roman Church and Eastern Churches quest to take those of us who held a healthy mutiny in 16th century, back into their port and chain our free ship in Christ to the docks of their devilish doctrines. It is necessary we remain divided, that there be many denominations of the church seeking God's will and interpreting freely, the Scriptures. The alternative is to place Gospel back in the hands of those who hide it in Latin for a thousand years, and return to the shackles of sacraments, statues, and saints, rather than remain in the freedom of Savior's embrace and enlightenment of the Scriptures. Make no mistake, it is necessary we be divided, so that those who have God's approval may be seen, "First of all, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. But, of course, there must be divisions among you so that you who have God's approval will be recognized." (1 Corinthians 11:19). For when Apostle Paul wrote that we should all be One in Christ, and united "One body, many members," (1 Corinthians 12:12-31), he meant that we be One Church in our faith in Jesus Christ and was discouraging splintering over minor things like who was your favorite preach Apollos or Paul; but if you read elsewhere in Scriptures there actually were necessary divisions, there were two groups, Christians who said you had to do the Law (Acts 15:1) and Christians like the Apostles Peter, Paul, and John who believed salvation was by grace and faith in Jesus Christ alone (Acts 15:10-11, Ephesians 2:8-9, Philippians 3:9, John 3:16, John 6:40, 1 John 4:15). Even then, in circa 60-70 A.D., there were divisions, those who were deceived, the Jewish Christians who preached the Law and a false gospel (Galatians 1:1-9, 2 Corinthians 11:1-17, Galatians 5:2, Galatians 5:4, Galatians 3), and the True Christians who preached the gospel of Grace (John 1:17, Acts 15:10-11, Ephesians 2:8-9). Had there not been divisions then, we would have had a church from time of Christ's apostles that would have had us under a heavy yoke of the Law, rather than the True Gospel of Grace and that Jesus Christ has become our High Priest, and done all that is necessary to save us, and we must merely believe in Him and love Him (Hebrews 9:24-29, Hebrews 10 whole chapter, Romans 10:9-10, Philippians 3:8-15, Romans 5 whole chapter, John 3 whole chapter, and many more). So think on that brothers and sisters in Christ who claim we should not be divided, if the Apostles Peter, Paul, John, and others had not stood firm on Gospel of Grace, the Law could have swallowed up the Truth back then (see Acts Chapter 15), but thankfully Jesus Christ prevented this and used a old law keeper, the Apostle Paul, and One of Twelve Disciples, Peter, to stand firm on Truth that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone (Acts 15:10-11, Ephesians 2:8-9, John 3:16-18, 1 John 4:15). Amen.
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