Haeralis
Puritan Board Freshman
I was recently engaged in a discussion with a nice Christian woman who is participating in an "ecumenical Sunday" event here at the Institute where I am a Fellow. The Roman Catholics will be going to Protestant services and the Protestants will be going to Popish Masses.
I explained my objections to participating in such an event as follows:
The Protestants who will be visiting a Mass also have no intention of praying to saints or eating the bread and wine during their idolatrous communion. I said that attending and sitting idly while this went on was giving tacit sanction to what was going on around them.
Could someone comment on this issue? Am I being an unreasonable hardliner to my Protestant brothers and sisters in Christ, or is this, as I think it is, an issue which I should continue to bring to their attention?
More and more, I am convinced that the ecumenical movement is one of Satan's greatest tools to confuse contemporary Christians. This movement has reduced Christianity to the basic principle of "liking Jesus" notwithstanding any heresies that you believe about his character and salvific work. In this reduction, it has left Christians susceptible to unbiblical works righteousness and made the faith basically man-centered.
I explained my objections to participating in such an event as follows:
- The Apostle Paul tells us to "flee from idolatry" (1 Cor. 10:14). I cannot conceive of a more idolatrous "church service" than a Mass, in which people pray to saints, bow to statues, and worst of all, worship bread and wine as if it is the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. As if that isn't bad enough, every Mass purports to offer up the body and blood of Jesus as a propitiatory sacrifice for sin, completely destroying the meaning of Jesus' cross.
- Though it is true that the Apostle Paul calls for a spirit of Christian unity, he in no uncertain terms rejects that Christians can have unity with those who believe "another gospel, which is not another" (Gal. 1:7). Specifically, his letter to the Galatians repudiates any unity with the Judaizers, who, like contemporary Roman Catholics, said that works contribute to our salvation.
- Protestants who lived under oppressive Roman Catholic governments chose to be martyred and die rather than just go to a Mass and keep their real beliefs to themselves. How could we, who have the freedom to not go to an idolatrous service, then use this freedom to go to a Mass in which the Gospel is not proclaimed and a dark and wicked blasphemy overshadows the perfect work of Jesus Christ?
The Protestants who will be visiting a Mass also have no intention of praying to saints or eating the bread and wine during their idolatrous communion. I said that attending and sitting idly while this went on was giving tacit sanction to what was going on around them.
Could someone comment on this issue? Am I being an unreasonable hardliner to my Protestant brothers and sisters in Christ, or is this, as I think it is, an issue which I should continue to bring to their attention?
More and more, I am convinced that the ecumenical movement is one of Satan's greatest tools to confuse contemporary Christians. This movement has reduced Christianity to the basic principle of "liking Jesus" notwithstanding any heresies that you believe about his character and salvific work. In this reduction, it has left Christians susceptible to unbiblical works righteousness and made the faith basically man-centered.
Last edited: