World Council of Churches Baptizes Heathenism
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by David Cloud
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The Seventh Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC), held February
7-20 in Canberra, Australia, gave further illustration of the Council's hideous apostasy.
The WCC is no small organization. It represents more than 300 denominations with roughly
500,000 members. Most major Christian denominations are members of the World Council. Yet
the apostasy of that body is appalling.
Though the WCC is full of apostasy, we do not feel it is necessary to report on all that
went on the WCC Seventh Assembly. We believe it is enough to report on the abominable
ideas of syncretism and universalism which were supported there--the heresy that there is
some light and salvation in heathen religions. This has been a trademark of the World
Council for years, but its syncretistic emphasis grows bolder with time.
Aboriginal pagans open the WCC meeting
The Canberra meeting was opened by Australian aboriginals who worship nature. Consider the
following Religious News Service report:
"Aboriginal men girded in loincloths and feathers, their bodies painted in tribal
decoration, danced around an altar and beat drums in a traditional purification ceremony
that opened the Seventh Assembly of the World Council of Churches here February 7.
Standing near them at the altar were aboriginal women clothed in traditional black and red
dresses and colorful aboriginal clergymen garbed in western vestments" (Christian
News, Feb. 18, 1991, p. 1).
An Ecumenical Press Service report gives more details of the heathen purification ceremony
which opened the WCC Assembly. "The congregation entered the tent by passing through
smoke made by burning leaves--a traditional cleansing process for Aborigines in Australia.
... Before worship began, a traditional Aboriginal `message stick' was carried to the
worship tent by an Aboriginal runner. In that action, WCC General Secretary Emilio Castro
asked permission for the council to enter the land. Gathered in the tent were Aboriginal
elders, who ritually granted permission, whereupon the WCC worship leaders walked in
procession into the tent."
The Aborigines involved in this rite were half-naked, and the entire thing was an
abomination to God. The supposed spirituality of the aboriginals was applauded by the WCC
Assembly, but the Bible condemns it as heathen idolatry. The WCC leadership has no
understanding of Bible salvation and spirituality. Therefore they find
"spirituality" in this fallen, wicked world even among the unsaved.
Prayer to a female god
Further evidence of the World Council's syncretistic spirit occurred the second day of the
Assembly, when South Korean Presbyterian feminist, Chung Kyun Kyung, evoked a female pagan
god.
"Combining verbal fireworks with a performance by Korean and aboriginal dancers,
Chung rendered a dramatic evocation of a female Holy Spirit. She linked that spirit to
that of Hagar, the Egyptian slave woman in Genesis who Chung said was `exploited and
abandoned' by Abraham and Sarah. Chung then burned bits of paper bearing the names of
other exploited spirits--which she said were full of `han,' the Korean word for
`anger'--and identified them as Holocaust victims, freedom fighters, murdered advocates of
non-violence, struggling Korean women, the poor, and women in Japan's `prostitution army'
during World War II." <Religious News Service (March 5, 1991).>
Chung said, "I also know that I no longer believe in an omnipotent, Macho, warrior
God who rescues all good guys and punishes all bad guys." Chung concluded her message
by likening the "spirit" to the idolatrous image of Kwan, "a Goddess of
compassion and wisdom [worshipped in] East Asian women's popular religiosity."
The RNS report stated that though some WCC delegates were offended by this blasphemy, most
warmly received it. In fact, the audience gave Chung's blasphemous presentation a standing
ovation!
All faiths are one with God
The Director of the WCC's Inter-Faith dialogue is a Sri Lankan, Wesley Ariarajah. His
apostate ideas about salvation were voiced at the Canberra meeting and were reported in
local newspapers. Consider this report from the The Australian:
"The World Council of Churches took ecumenism to its farthest limits at the weekend,
suggesting Muslims, Hindus and others achieve salvation in the same way as Christians and
warning the latter against `narrow thinking.'
"The council's Director of Inter-Faith dialogue Dr. Wesley Ariarajah, said it was
inconceivable to him that God listened to Christian prayers but ignored those praying to
their particular versions of God.
"`As a Sri Lankan Christian who has read the Hindu writings and the scriptures of the
Hindu saints I simply cannot believe that there have not been other people [than
Christians] who are familiar with God,' he said. `It is beyond belief that other people
have no access to God or that God has no access to other people.'
"`Who are listening to the prayers of the Hindu? Are there many Gods? If we are
thinking about a God who is the creator and sustainer of the whole universe, as in Psalm
24, then there are not two Gods. Therefore it is inconceivable to me that a Hindu or a
Buddhist, or anybody, is outside God. My understanding of God's love is too broad for me
to believe that only this narrow segment called the Christian church will be saved. If you
are a Christian you must be open and broad, not narrow and exclusive.'
"Dr. Ariarajah said being a good Christian did not include going around telling
people of other faiths they had got it all wrong." <The Australian (Feb. 11,
1991).
Ariarajah is dead wrong about the condition of those outside of Christ. Consider the
following truths from the Word of God, truths which are utterly ignored by Ariarajah and
his WCC friends:
The condition of the heathen: dead in sin
"And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time
past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power
of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also
we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the
desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others." (Eph. 2:1-3)
"That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of
Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in
the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the
blood of Christ." (Eph. 2:12- 13)
These verses from Ephesians show us plainly the condition of the unsaved heathen. Before
the Ephesians came to Christ, they were idolaters. What was their spiritual condition at
that time? The Bible says they were dead in trespasses and sins. They were under the power
of the devil. They were by nature the children of wrath. They had no hope and were without
God in the world. That is the "spirituality" of every person outside of Jesus
Christ. The Bible says it was the blood of Christ that changed the spiritual condition of
the Christians at Ephesus.
The way of salvation: only through Jesus Christ
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." (Rom. 3:23)
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the
Father, but by me." (Jn. 14:6)
"Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all
things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." (Acts 13:38-39)
"And [the jailer] brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And
they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."
(Acts 16:30-31)
"Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth
this man stand here before you whole. ... Neither is there salvation in any other: for
there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."
(Acts 4:10,12)
These plain Bible statements make it clear that there is no salvation outside of Jesus
Christ. All men are sinners and are condemned under the righteous judgment of God. The
only way of escape from sin's condemnation is through personal faith in Jesus Christ and
in His blood which was shed at Calvary. The Bible says there is only one name through
which salvation comes: Jesus Christ. Any other name--whether it be Buddha, Mohammed, or
Krishna--is unable to bring eternal salvation.
The Gospel demands repentance
Ariarajah said being a good Christian did not include going around telling people of other
faiths they are all wrong. He doesn't know what he is talking about. Were the Apostles
"good Christians"? They certainly went about telling people of other faiths that
they were wrong and that they must repent and turn to Christ! Consider this sermon by the
good Christian, Paul, to the religious heathen at Athens:
"Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive
that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your
devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye
ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things
therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with
hands; neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he
giveth to all life, and breath, and all things ... Forasmuch then as we are the offspring
of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone,
graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now
commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he
will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath
given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." (Acts
17:23-25,29-31)
The Bible says God loves all men and is no respecter of persons. But He offers only one
way of salvation, and men must repent and come on God's terms through the Lord Jesus
Christ. The problem with the World Council of Churches is simple: They have rejected the
Word of God.
The Rainbow Serpent that created the world
WCC blasphemy reached equally perverse heights in an advance publication which called for
"a rediscovery of Aborigine spirituality and for a new creation spirituality."
Consider a quotation from this amazing ecumenical document. In this quote, the WCC is
giving an example of the supposed "spirituality" of Aboriginal thought:
"The creation of the world began in Dreaming. Before the Dreaming, there was a
pre-existent formless substance, in which spirit beings lived. In some of the stories of
the creation event, the Rainbow Serpent emerged from her long sleep underground when she
realized her time to give birth had come. She set free in the spirit beings to create
hills and valleys, light and shade, water and trees, and flowers, and all living things.
... The serpent also set free the spirit beings to create the animals and the human beings
in a particular relationship with each other, forever related through story, song, and
ceremony." <Wanderer (March 14, 1991).
The World Council publication in question called "for recasting the theological
understanding of creation. Much of Christianity, especially the major strains of Western
theology, has given support to human dominance over creation. The Assembly discussions
want to challenge theology and Christian thinking that have seen humanity's task as
subduing the earth."
This is foolishness. The Bible plainly states that man was made in the image of God and
was given the commandment: "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and
subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and
over every living thing that moveth upon the earth" (Gen. 1:28). Man is not an
animal. Man is not a product of evolution. It is not wrong for man to subjugate the
forests and rivers of this world. It is not wrong for man to subjugate animals.
The fact is that the World Council is made up of a bunch of theological weirdoes! It is
the home of every sort of radical: environmentalists, communists, New Agers, One
Worlders,
feminists, syncretists. It is not the home of humble Bible believers.
We could proceed to give more details of the strange goings on at the WCC Seventh
Assembly, but we see no reason to do so. Those who can look at the facts already stated
and yet continue their relationship with the World Council will not be convinced by other
WCC blasphemies. God has commanded that His people separate from error.
"And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye
be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." (Rev. 18:4)
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