THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES ( part 1 )

THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES

The founding of the World Council of Churches in Amsterdam, 1948. 

 David Cloud



  The World Council of Churches (WCC) is an international ecumenical union of roughly 340 denominations in 120 countries representing more than 500 million professing Christians (including the millions whose only Christian testimony is that they were baptized as infants). It was officially formed in Amsterdam, Holland, in 1948 with 147 denominations. 

The goal of the World Council was plainly stated at its convening Assembly in August 1948. Former General Secretary of the WCC, W.A. Visser ‘t Hooft, verbalized the sentiments of the ecumenists gathered for that historic occasion: “Our name indicates our weakness and our shame before God, for there can be and there is finally only one Church of Christ on earth. Our plurality is a deep anomaly. But our name indicates also that we are aware of that situation, that we do not accept it passively, THAT WE WOULD MOVE FORWARD TOWARDS THE MANIFESTATION OF THE ONE HOLY CHURCH” (The Genesis and Formation of the World Council of Churches, p. 66). This supposed “one holy church,” this longed for world church, is a figment of a heretical imagination. The Bible does not tell us that there should be a world church. Quite the opposite. The Bible repeatedly warns that “Christendom” will become increasingly apostate as the time of Christ’s return draws near, and true Bible churches are commanded to remain separate from this wickedness. God is not fulfilling the Great Commission through a church, singular, but through churchES, plural. “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away” (2 Tim. 3:5).“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you” (2 Cor. 6:14-17). “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them” (Rom. 16:17).The World Council of Churches uses John 17:21 to justify its mission of pursuing “the visible unity of Christ’s church in one faith and in one eucharistic fellowship.” “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” The modern ecumenical movement claims that the unity for which Christ prayed is an ecumenical unity of professing Christians that disregards biblical doctrine, but the context of John 17 destroys this myth. In John 17 the Lord plainly emphasizes that the unity He desires and the unity for which He is praying is one based on salvation and Truth and separation from the world. “I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and THEY HAVE KEPT THY WORD. ... For I HAVE GIVEN UNTO THEM THE WORDS WHICH THOU GAVEST ME; AND THEY HAVE RECEIVED THEM, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. ... I HAVE GIVEN THEM THY WORD; AND THE WORLD HATH HATED THEM, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. ... Sanctify them through THY TRUTH: thy word is TRUTH. ... And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified THROUGH THE TRUTH” (Jn. 17:6, 8, 14, 17, 19)This is not a unity of true Christians with the false. It is not a unity that ignores doctrinal differences for the sake of an enlarged fellowship. In fact, there is nothing in Christ’s prayer to indicate that man is to do anything whatsoever in an attempt to create the unity described herein. John 17 is not a commandment addressed to men; it is a prayer addressed to God the Father, and the prayer was answered. It describes a spiritual reality that was created by God among genuine believers who are committed to the Scriptures, not a possibility that must be organized by man.Though the Roman Catholic Church is not officially a member of the World Council, it has worked closely with the WCC since the 1960s. Many Catholics serve in leadership positions within the WCC. Edward Panosian notes, “Rome’s conception of the ecumenical movement is the joining of all churches--eventually all religions--to Rome. Rome does not join the WCC; she invites the WCC to join her. The whole ecumenical program has been called ‘the reversal of the Reformation’” (The World Council of Churches, p. 40). For a Bible believer, the World Council is a strange Alice in Wonderland, filled with weird nonsensical things, a place where biblical words are given different meanings. When the World Council speaks of “mission,” it does not mean the mission of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to the unsaved; it means, rather, striving for world peace, economic justice, and such. Further, the World Council can present different faces, depending on the situation. In some places it tries to appear more “evangelical” in theological outlook when the majority of local pastors are of that persuasion, but in other instances its true liberal face is unveiled. There is probably no heresy that has not been broached within the context of the WCC. We could describe the error of the WCC under a wide number of categories. We could speak of its theological Modernism, its Marxism, its secular Humanism, its Feminism, its Sacramentalism, its Syncretism, and its Universalism. The simple fact is that the WCC fails every biblical test that could be applied. It is patently and grossly unscriptural. The following examination of events sponsored by the World Council and of some of its published material gives irrefutable evidence that the WCC is a major part of the apostasy prophesied in New Testament Scripture. 

WCC CONFERENCE HONORS SOPHIA GODDESS, GIVES OVATION TO LESBIANS 

In November 1993, the World Council of Churches sponsored a Re-imaging conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Some 2,000 women “seeking to change Christianity” attended, and the most radical women in apostate Christianity pontificated on every sort of weird and unscriptural subject imaginable. Speakers included Chung Hyun Kyung, Korean “theologian” who equates the Holy Spirit with ancient Asian deities; Virginia Mollenkott, an avowed pro-abortion lesbian; Elizabeth Bettenhausen, professor at Harvard Divinity School; Lois Wilson, a United Church of Canada “minister”; Jose Hobday, a Roman Catholic nun. Sponsoring and participating denominations included the United Methodist Church, United Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, United Church of Christ, United Church of Canada, Church of the Brethren, American Baptist Convention, Episcopalian, and Mennonite. There were also 234 Roman Catholic participants. When challenged by certain members who were protesting their denomination’s involvement in this meeting, the Presbyterian Church’s General Assembly Council issued a “fact sheet” which claimed, “Participants were challenged to expand their horizons, to be enriched and nurtured spiritually, and to engage in dialogue with women and men from around the world.” Apostates always have clever explanations of their rebellion. 

Don’t need atonement. During a panel on Jesus, Delores Williams of Union Theological Seminary, said: “I don’t think we need a theory of atonement at all. I think Jesus came for life and to show us something about life. I don’t think we need folks hanging on crosses and blood dripping and weird stuff ... we just need to listen to the God within.” 


God is an “abusive parent.” Virginia Mollenkott, who participated in the translation of the New International Version, said, “[Jesus] is our elder brother, the trailblazer and constant companion for us--ultimately is among many brothers and sisters in an eternal, equally worthy sibling-hood. First born only in the sense that he was the first to show us that it is possible to live in oneness with the divine source while we are here on this planet. ... As an incest survivor, I CAN NO LONGER WORSHIP IN A THEOLOGICAL CONTEXT THAT DEPICTS GOD AS AN ABUSIVE PARENT [REFERRING TO CHRIST’S DEATH ON THE CROSS] AND JESUS AS THE OBEDIENT, TRUSTING CHILD.” 

Praying to the trees. Korea’s Chung Hyung Kyung told the crowd, “My bowel is Buddhist bowel, my heart is Buddhist heart, my right brain is Confucian brain, and my left brain is Christian brain.” This is ecumenical schizophrenia of the most radical sort! Chung is a professor at Korea’s Ewha Women’s University, the world’s largest university for women, with 20,000 students. Chung instructed the crowd of women to seek help from the trees if they are in need of energy: “When we do pranic healing, we believe that this life-giving energy came from god and it is everywhere, it is in the sun, in the ocean, from the ground and it is from the trees. We ask god’s permission to use this life-giving energy for our sisters and brothers in need. If you feel very tired and you don’t have any energy to give, what you do is ... go to a big tree and ask it to ‘give me some of your life energy’” (AFA Journal, Feb. 1994). Chung has published a rewrite of the Gospel narratives from an Asian feminist perspective. She told the Minneapolis conference, “The Bible is basically an open book, and I want to add the next chapter.” 

Standing ovation for lesbians. During the conference, a group of roughly 100 “lesbian, bi-sexual, and transsexual women” gathered on the platform and were given a standing ovation by many in the crowd. They were “celebrating the miracle of being lesbian, out, and Christian.” “The lesbian theme was heard repeatedly from major speakers. In a workshop called ‘Prophetic Voices of Lesbians in the Church,’ Nadean Bishop, the first ‘out’ lesbian minister called to an American Baptist church, claimed that Mary and Martha in the Bible were lesbian ‘fore-sisters.’ She said they were not sisters, but lesbian lovers. Janie Spahr, a self-avowed lesbian clergywoman in the Presbyterian Church USA ... claimed that her theology is first of all informed by ‘making love with Coni,’ her lesbian partner. Judy Westerdorf, a United Methodist clergywoman from Minnesota, told the workshop that the church ‘has always been blessed by gays and lesbians ... witches ... shamans.’ In a seminar on ‘Re-Imagining Sexuality-Family,’ lesbian theologian Mary Hunt said, ‘Imagine sex among friends as the norm. ... Imagine valuing sexual interaction in terms of whether and how it fosters friendship and pleasure. ... Pleasure is our birthright of which we have been robbed in religious patriarchy” (AFA Journal, Feb. 1994). 

Worshiping Sophia. The Nov. 3, 1993, Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that “throughout the conference worship experiences will celebrate Sophia, the biblical goddess of creation.” Sue Seid-Martin of the University of St. Thomas School of Divinity in St. Paul, Minn., claimed that this Sophia is “the suppressed part of the biblical tradition, and clearly the female face of the human psyche.” Seid-Martin believes Sophia is found in Proverbs 1-9, Matt. 11; Lk. 3:35; 11:49; and 1 Cor. 1-2, and she identifies Jesus Christ with this Sophia. These feminists are not reading the same Bible I have read for over 30 years. I have never found a Sophia goddess in my Bible! The Greek word “Sophia” is translated “wisdom” in the KJV and “denotes mental excellence in the highest and fullest sense ... comprehends knowledge and implies goodness” (George Berry,A Greek-English Lexicon and New Testament Synonyms). This word is often applied to Jesus Christ but never in any sense whatsoever having to do with “the female face of the human psyche.” The word “sophia” is not found in the Old Testament. The Hebrew word most commonly translated wisdom is “chokmah.” This is the word translated wisdom in Proverbs 8 and 9. It refers to understanding, skill, revelation, godly reason, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with a supposed feminine side of God. 

Naked Sophia goddess. A painting displayed at the Re-imagining conference supposedly depicted this Sophia. The painting contained the picture of a bald, frowning woman with large naked breasts. The middle of her forehead is adorned with a mark that appears to be a Hindu “tika” or tilaka, the same mark women in Nepal and India receive from their priests when they do “puja” (worship) at pagan shrines. (It is interesting that one of the speakers at this conference encouraged the wearing of the tika. Aruna Gnanadason, South Asian feminist, “lashed out against alleged oppression by Christian missionary teachings in India,” and she invited participants to put red dots on their foreheads to “represent the divine” in them.) The cover of The Presbyterian Layman for January-February 1994 featured this painting. In a frame surrounding the painting were some of the words from the prayer to Sophia. On Sunday morning the conferees joined together in repeating a prayer to Sophia, including these words: “Our maker Sophia, we are women in your image. ... Sophia, creator God ... shower us with your love … we invite a lover, we birth a child; with our warm body fluids we remind the world of its pleasures and sensations. ... Our guide, Sophia, we are women in your image. ... With the honey of wisdom in our mouths, we prophesy a full humanity to all the peoples.” 

Honey of wisdom, my foot! This is the sour mash of new age feminism, a movement foreseen almost 2,000 years ago by the prophet Jude: “Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion...” (Jude 7-8). 

David CLOUD, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org;

                                                                                                                                             Part 2