“Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:” – Luke 12:51
DIVISION – SUCH WAS WHY Christ Jesus came to the earth. Certainly, he came that the world might have abundant life. He came to give his life a ransom for many. He came to fulfill the law and the prophets. Yet, as my text verse attests, Immanuel also came to send fire on the earth, by dividing truth from error. He did not unify the religious leaders of his day, but rebuked their unrighteousness and reproved their rejecting the commandments of God to instead keep the traditions of men. He did not overlook doctrinal differences in pursuit of some tawdry, vacuous “unity”, but emphasized them and warned of false prophets. He did not embrace sin, but rather loved righteousness, and hated iniquity (Hebrews 1:9).
I mention these things, because the damnable ecumenical movement perpetually assassinates the character of Christ by falsely claiming he wants true Christians, not to be holy (1 Peter 1:16) and to separate from unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:14-17) and to be distinct from the world (1 John 2:15-17), but to unify with unsaved religious people around heretical falsehoods and hollow causes. Ecumenicals distort the holy scriptures to beguile men into believing that obeying God by judging righteous judgement (John 7:24), earnestly contending for the faith (Jude 1:3), and exhorting and convincing the gainsayers by sound doctrine (Titus 1:9) are somehow unbiblical, hypocritical, Pharisaical sins, while disobeying God by accepting false prophets, false doctrines, false gospels, false “Bibles”, and false religion is somehow “Christ-like” and “Christ-honoring.” They decontextualize scriptures pertaining to unity amongst Christians and humility toward sinners to assert believers should yoke with anti-Christs who deny that Jesus is the Son of God, deny that faith in Christ is all that is necessary to be saved, deny that the King James Bible is inspired by God word for word, and deny many other crucial truths simply because these same infidels claim to “love Jesus.”
They do not “love Jesus.” If they loved him, they would keep his commandments (John 14:15), not deny his commandments and attempt to replace them with the commandments and doctrines of men. If they loved him, they would keep his words (John 14:23), not insists that his words are flawed, uninspired, and unreliable, and attempt to replace them with demonic perversions of the holy scriptures which teach that Jesus is not God, that salvation comes through human righteousness, and that hell is a literal place with real fire. If they loved him, they would feed his sheep (John 21:17), not deceive them with odious misrepresentations of the nature and character of Christ, nor swindle them into supporting accursed movements as ecumenicalism which distorts and destroys the gospel, nor convince them that embracing error, heresy, and unholiness somehow pleases God and constitutes “love.”
Ecumenicalism is not about “love”, it is about disobeying the Bible, upholding sin, and favoring false prophets and their accursed lies over the truths of the holy writ. If ecumenicals exuded love as they sanctimoniously claim, they would abhor false doctrine, because charity “rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6). There is no “love” in disobeying God. “But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected” (1 John 2:5). Whoso keepeth his word – not yokes with unbelievers, not accepts false doctrines as compatible with the scriptures, not tolerates false gospels which lead men to hell and contradict the true gospel which leads men to heaven – is who loves God. Since God’s word is truth (John 17:17), it follows anything which contradicts it – including ecumenicalism – is false. Ecumenicals do not love God, or his word, or truth – they love “another Jesus” (2 Corinthians 11:3-4), false “Bibles”, and heresies. The word of God makes clear how such imposters are to be viewed: “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Marantha” (1 Corinthians 16:22).
The irony of ecumenicalism manifests in no more disgusting overtures than when they express their contempt for faithful believers obeying God by contending for the faith, exposing error, and rebuking false prophets. A primary premise on which their ungodly movement is constructed is the lie that it is sinful to “judge” (in other words, discern as 1 John 4:1-3 commands) and reprove false teachers and their lies (as Ephesians 5:11, 2 Timothy 4:2, and Titus 2:15, among others, command). Instead, the ecumenicals insist, believers have absolutely no right whatsoever to express any disapproval over false doctrines and sinful activities, but should instead embrace these pernicious ways because such tolerance is “Christ-like.” Those who refuse to yoke with iniquity are “hypocrites”, “Pharisees”, and shameful trouble-makers who sow needless discord among the body of Christ. (Of course, since the majority of ecumenicals believe an accursed false gospel like “Lordship Salvation”, they are not saved, and therefore NOT members of the “body of Christ.” They will deny this, thereby establishing they believe one does not even need to be saved to be a “Christian”).
Yet by foolishly and wickedly and self-righteously condemning commendable Christians for obeying God and contending for the faith, ecumenicals “judge” in the very way they claim to despise. Hypocrisy is a hallmark of ecumenicalism just as much as their disgusting commitment to ensuring error reigns while truth is fallen in the street. Sowing discord among the body of Christ in defense of the truth is one of the noblest deeds a Christian can do. The wicked have always accused God’s people of sowing discord and causing strife, because they do not know God. The vile King Ahab accused Elijah of troubling Israel (1 Kings 18:17). The men of Jesus’ day dismissed him as a glutton and winebibber (Matthew 11:19). Festus declared Paul was insane for preaching the gospel (Acts 26:24). The world – and that includes the hordes of unsaved religious people who falsely profess to be “Christians” – has always hated Christ and loved darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. They received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, but instead had pleasure in unrighteousness. Because they hate the truth, they bristle at those who defend it against their lies. To unsaved religious people, truth-tellers are always the enemy. As Christ rued, “Because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not” (John 8:45).
Dear reader, nothing is more important than sound, biblical doctrine. Without doctrine, how can we know anything about Jesus, or salvation, or judgement? Such is why the apostle Paul instructed the Romans to “mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them” (Romans 16:17), and commanded Timothy to “charge some that they teach no other doctrine” (1 Timothy 1:3), and exhorted Titus to “speak thou the things which become sound doctrine” (Titus 2:1). If there is sound doctrine, then there must be unsound doctrine. And if there are sound and unsound doctrines, the ecumenical claim that doctrine is unimportant is proven to be a farce. Doctrine is incredibly important; indeed, far more important than unity. When Peter “walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel”, Paul could have ignored his heresies by deploying the ecumenical excuse of, “Who am I to judge? Unity is more important.” Instead, he withstood Peter to the face, because he was to be blamed, and rebuked him before them all (Galatians 2:11-14). 1 Thessalonians 4:7 tells us that God has called us unto holiness – not unto “unity”, not unto unequal yokes with unbelievers, not unto the uncleanness of embracing strange doctrines and accursed false gospels – but unto holiness. God would much rather we divide over truth, than unite in error.
Yet some will say, “I don’t want to talk about doctrine, I just want to talk about Jesus.” Sir, you speak nonsense. Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the virgin-born, sinless Son of God, or do you believe that he was merely a man? Do you believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, or do you believe that Joseph was his father? Do you believe that Jesus needed to take his shed blood upon his resurrection and sprinkle it on the heavenly mercy seat to satisfy the wrath of God the Father, or do you believe his death alone is sufficient to save?
There can be no talk of Christ without talk of doctrine. Suppose I told you, “I don’t want to talk about water, I just want to talk about rain.” You would scorn my folly, and rightfully so. Yet your insistence upon speaking of Christ without speaking of doctrine is no less preposterous. If there is no doctrine, there is no Christ. I cannot stress enough the simple truth that RIGHT DOCTRINE MATTERS. It MATTERS which gospel you believe. It MATTERS which Bible you use. It MATTERS which doctrines you accept. Different gospels and different Bibles bring completely different eternal destinies, and things that are different are not the same. You are a liar, a deceiver, and antichrist if you deny that Jesus is the Son of God (1 John 2:22, 2 John 1:7), and you are not saved, because “he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:12). You certainly cannot fellowship with God the Father while denying his Son, because “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father” (1 John 2:23).
Suppose a man states that Christ rose from the dead, and another states that Christ did not. Simple logic tells us that two contradictory beliefs cannot both be true, and these differences cannot be reconciled. The apostle wondered, “If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advatangeth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die” (1 Corinthians 15:32). If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. And if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. I should never type another word in contention for this faith, in defense of this book, in praise of this Savior, if there is somewhere a tomb with the bones of the Redeemer. Nay, he would be no Redeemer at all, if that dreadful fantasy of infidels were a reality. Only a fool would strive to keep the commandments of an imposter, yet if Christ be not risen, what would these pages, but a fool’s errand?
If you are saved, you would do well to beware of ecumenicalism’s insidious influence. “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Corinthians 15:33). You cannot emulate the world while obeying and pleasing God, because “ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils” (1 Corinthians 10:21). The apostle James warned, “Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4), for to pursue the lusts of the flesh is to make impossible fellowship with Christ. Participating in ecumenicalism accomplishes nothing but compromise, and compromise never pleases God (Revelation 3:15). Jehovah does not accept movements which tolerate, or even perpetuate falsehoods, and blur the distinct line between Christianity and false religion, and reduce the Christian faith to the lowest common denominator, regardless of how sincere, genuine, or well-intentioned the purveyors of such movements may be. Christians are not to yoke up with unbelievers who preach false gospels and teach false doctrines from false “Bibles”, but, contrariwise, are to withdraw themselves from those who “walk disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us” (2 Thessalonians 3:6).
Naturally, the ecumenical will balk at these words. They will scorn this mantle of separation from the world and snort that such close-minded methods hinder the cause of Christ. To their foolish remonstrations, I reply, “Came the word of God out from you? or came it unto you only?” Rejecting God’s command to separate from error and unholiness, because it seems “close-minded” and ineffectual in perpetuating the Lord’s work, is blasphemously supposing that sinful, ignorant men know better than sinless, omniscient God, that they can save souls and perform his will better by their own wicked, backslidden, deceitful way than through his perfect, pure, undefiled way. But it is never right to do wrong to do right. Good motives never justify disobeying God, because the end does not justify the means, regardless of how “right” that disobedience “seems”. Ecumenicalism is certainly very popular among apostates and false religions, but popularity is not proof that God approves of these perverted methods. Worldly success is not the arbiter of the truth, because God desires obedience, not results. Moreover, no real good can come through the ecumenical movement, because a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit (Matthew 7:17-18).
O vain man, you have no right to question the commands of your Sovereign, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are his ways higher than your ways. Ye who turn judgement to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace. Ye have wearied the Lord with your words, in proclaiming evildoers to be good in his sight. Indeed, you are slidden back by a perpetual backsliding, because you are filled with your own ways, filled with your own devilish devices, and hold fast deceit.
CONCLUSION
When every man does that which is right in his own eyes – which is exactly what ecumenicalism encourages – confusion reigns. But God is not the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33). His law is perfect, converting the soul. His testimony is sure, making wise the simple. His judgements are true and righteous altogether. And he does not command Christians to infiltrate the world (and thus become like it), but to “come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues” (Revelation 18:4). Shall the ecumenical’s unbelief make the faith of God without effect? Certainly not, and neither shall it change the truth that RIGHT DOCTRINE MATTERS. Christ came to divide, not to unite.