Ecumenism

“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.”

Truly, one of the most beautiful Psalms in the Holy Bible, and envisioned and sung by one of the greatest poets of all times, King David—whom God himself declared, as a man after his own heart. Here he envisions an Israel united and strong, and living a peaceful and prosperous life. He compares the experience to Holiness itself—the ointment running down Aaron’s beard and Mountain Zion are both representations of Holiness in the Bible. Also, we can say that unity among brethren allows the anointing of the LORD to flow to the whole body and blessing to be commanded.

The rewards are equally great—”even life for evermore”. Now who wouldn’t want such blessings in their lives?

From time immemorial, emperors, kings, scholars, philosophers and even priests have been striving to set up a Utopia on earth. Each of them adopted myriad means to achieve this dream—some looked towards the arts and the sciences while others resorted to war and bloodshed. But none have been able to come up with the perfect formulae for the same. Man, it seems, has a twisted idea about the route to peace and global brotherhood. Some of the winners of the Nobel prices themselves are prime examples of the same—Nelson Mandela spent close to three decades in prison for bombings and other disruptive activities and the late Yasser Arafat led an extremely violent life in his hey days.

Jesus Christ—the one single factor that could truly make a difference has been forgotten. As Solomon the wisest man of all times said “Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it.”

Ecumenism, however, seems to have taken this fact into account. Since the early 60s, various Christian denominations have been working in collaboration to bring to fruition a single Christian Church, a single Christian faith. A truly wonderful idea! Imagine billions of people living in unity, praying to one God and owing allegiance to one church. Billions of people following the commandments of Christ and resorting to the word of God for all their spiritual needs and advice for daily living! Visualize! How beautiful will the Bride of Christ be!

Jesus desired this. On the eve of His crucifixion his deepest yearning and prayer to God the Father was this: “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 has sent me.” (John 17:21)

Yes, for the countless perishing millions to believe in the Gospel we who profess to believe need to get together. When we the believers are not one, when we are not living in peace and unity and harmony, what right have we to expect those in the shackles of the devil to do so.

This is where the ecumenical movement can make a significant difference. At the moment, the Movement is focusing on the unification of the Protestant churches of the world but the ultimate goal is to bring together all Christians of the world under one umbrella professing one faith and one doctrine. The fact that the Roman Catholic Church has also taken up this cause in a big way only seems to suggest that there is hope here.

The ecumenical movement aspires for the unity of the church and of humankind. And this unity stands at the very heart of Christ’s mission. It is the very essence of the Gospel. It is the will of God. And it was first made manifest on the cross. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should become one Body, members of the Body of Christ, and should have everlasting life. That was God’s plan--that every single human being may come together through his son and experience everlasting life. Notice the similarity in the blessing assured in this verse and in the one mentioned at the start of this essay.

The fact that Christians across the world irrespective of cultural and doctrinal differences are being impelled to strive towards this common goal shows that the Holy Spirit is at work here touching hearts, changing lives. As a renowned preacher once said, “How is it possible to remain divided, if we have been buried through Baptism in the Lord’s death, in the very act by which God, through the death of his Son, has broken down the walls of division?” Division, according to him, openly contradicts the will of Christ, provides a stumbling block to the world, and inflicts damage on the most holy cause of proclaiming the Good News to every creature.

But if we all believe in Jesus Christ, if we accept the fact that Christ is the only way to Salvation and if our faith is based on the tenet that Christ died on the cross at Calvary to wipe away our sins and make us all sons and daughters of God then where is the cause for division. If we all are true Christians how can we be divided in the first place?

If we look closely at the reasons for division then we can safely come to the conclusion that all of it is doctrinal thanks to the diverse interpretations by various self-professed teachers. And over a period of time, these interpretations of the teaching seem to have been accepted as the gospel rather than the actual teaching. This is nothing new. Even during the days of the apostles there were false teachers striving to snatch the sheep away from the flock. Many even succeeded.

This is the reason why Paul, in his letters, warns the believers to heed the Gospel that has been preached to them rather than debating on which interpretation is right and which is wrong. He even discouraged them from siding with any particular apostle based on his standing the Community. So the need of the hour is a return to the doctrine of Christ. Ecumenism is impossible without a return to the basics. Ecumenism will remain a dream if our understanding of the teachings of Christ is based on outward pomp and show. We need to cut away the layers of interpretations and misinterpretations and the various worldviews and furrow down to the original message before we can achieve this unity.

We need to take a look at whether the current progress in ecumenism is truly in keeping with the will of God. We need to analyze the pitfalls that will surely appear along the way. While unity is desired, and is a must, we need to understand whether we have jeopardized on any of our core values to reach that ultimate goal. In an effort to resolve doctrinal differences have we compromised on the message of the gospel!

The Bible warns, first in the Gospels (Mt. 7:21-23; 24:4,11,24) and later through the apostles in the letters (2 Thes 2:3) about the danger to the Church from so-called Christians, the wolf among the sheep. We need to understand whether the ones who claim to be working on achieving this unity are promoting the true Gospel or a counterfeit Christianity.

We believe in justification by grace through faith because of Christ. And any good work we do is a result of that faith. However, while others may agree with this concept at face value not all truly accept this truth with the same rigidity as we do. The Catholic Church, the biggest propagates of ecumenism at the moment, promises salvation apart from the finished work of Christ on the cross. Justification is not earned by our good works. It is God’s gift to mankind. And as an evangelist once said, it has been conferred through the Father’s sheer graciousness, out of the love that He bears us in His Son, who suffered on our behalf and rose from the dead for our justification.”

You can’t believe Christ obtained redemption through His blood and also believe redemption is being accomplished through Catholic liturgy.
You can’t believe salvation is by faith and “not of works” and at the same time believe that good works earn salvation.

Brooks Alexander, founder and director of Spiritual Counterfeit Projects, once wrote, “The Bible gives us a clear, if unpleasant picture: in the last days of history as we know it, our race will be brought together in a common expression of cosmic humanism. This coming great world religion will offer itself to us as the ancient wisdom and hidden truth underlying all the religious forms of history.”

Charles Spurgeon, another of the all-times greats said that “it is never right to do a little wrong to obtain the greatest possible good ... Your duty is to do the right: consequences are with God.”

Yes, our duty is follow the Gospel of Christ to the letter. It is time for us to delve deeply into the mysteries of God’s word and encourage our fellow Christians to do the same. It is time we stopped accepting what has been spelled out to us. All it takes to ascertain the veracity of these teachings is to simply open the Bible and read it. This will be the first step in the direction of an actual ecumenical church.

However, there can be no ecumenism worthy of the name without a change of heart. Those of us who are desirous of seeing a single unified Body of Christ needs to do so through prayers rather than doctrinal compromises or dilution of our faith. So along with the psalmist let us pray to God to Create in us a clean heart, to restore unto us the joy of his salvation and to renew a right spirit within each one of us.