The Ecumenical Movement | thebereancall.org

Hunt, Dave

At the first World Parliament of Religions, held in Chicago in 1893, a previously unknown 30-year-old Hindu named Vivekananda inspired the dream of Hindu-Christian syncretization and a one-world religion. That hope, which smoldered almost unnoticed for decades, has now burst into the flame of New Age beliefs and organizations and has spread to the church as part of the growing last-days apostasy. Coincident with the acceleration of the religious deception prophesied by Jesus himself, 25 years ago The Temple of Understanding was formed with the encouragement of Thomas Merton, the Dalai Lama, Indian Prime Minister Nehru, Eleanor Roosevelt, Popes John XXIII and Paul VI, Albert Schweitzer and UN Secretary-General U Thant. It was headquartered at James Parks Morton's Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. Morton is the current president of this "Spiritual United Nations," which is hoping to move to its own 18-acre site on the Potomac outside Washington, D.C. in preparation for the planned 1993 Centenary World Parliament of Religions. In the meantime, a year-long Spiritual Summit is being held from October 1985-86 as another step toward joining together all world religions. [Note, 1995: In fact, the move was never made and the Temple of Understanding is still located at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine with Morton still leading it.]

The spirit of ecumenical unity is building to a fever pitch under Professor Hans Kung's slogan, "No world peace without peace among the religions." Evidence of the growing acceptance of occultism in Christianity is seen everywhere. One Catholic, a critic of Seduction, writes, "I am a graduate of Silva Mind Control ...attended courses in Transactional Analysis [taught] by a priest in my parish....a priest friend teaches Silva and uses it in his retreats, Sister ___, a nun, has had wonderful success with Silva in her school. Jose Silva is a Catholic." Justifying the use of "New Age Dawning" as the title for "The Five Year Plan for Evangelism in the Presbyterian Church (USA)," Robert McNeilly, chairman of the committee that chose this slogan, explained, "...those who oppose the New Age Movement would likely oppose much of what the Presbyterian Church (USA) already is doing and saying...." A February 13, 1986 news release declared, "Dr. Doran C. McCarty, professor of ministry at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary [Mill Valley, CA], proposed a 'new shaman' in his faculty inaugural address....'The Making of the New Shaman'...presented as part of the first chapel service of the spring semester....The New Testament picture of Jesus was that of a shaman [witch doctor], McCarty related." The basic shamanic practices described by Dr. Michael Harner in The Way of the Shaman—visualization, psychotherapy, hypnotherapy and positive thinking and positive confession—are widely accepted and practiced in the church.

The merger of Christianity with shamanism is essential to the formation of Antichrist's coming world religion. This is only possible where sound biblical doctrine is ignored in favor of whatever "works," and experience and "new revelation" take the place of Scripture. This is why I am so gravely concerned by the reaction to Seduction on the part of most of the leaders of the so-called "faith movement." They attempt to escape any examination of their beliefs and practices by calling correction "divisive." The predominant theme that has emerged in the last few months coming out of the positive confession/Rhema camp is "unity." How to combat the effects of Seduction was a major topic at a meeting of about 400 of the top charismatic ministers in January at Jim and Tammy Bakker's PTL complex. "Unity" based not upon truth but upon an agreement not to disagree with each other was the order of the day.

This was also the theme of a historic gathering of top "faith teachers" called by Oral Roberts a few days later in Dallas, where the Charismatic Bible Ministries (CBM) was formed with Roberts as head, Kenneth Copeland as secretary, and 27 fellow charismatic trustees, including Paulk, Reid, Strader, the Hagins, Tilton, Hayford, Hickey, Buckingham and Caldwell. All seemed to agree that CBM was the seed of the greatest unity in modern church history and would spark worldwide revival. Oddly enough, high priority was given by these "faith teachers" to health, accident and life insurance.

Let us pray that genuine unity will come centered in truth and that there will be conviction of sin, repentance and a renewed determination to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. TBC