Roman Catholics actively engage in prayer, dialogue, interfaith worship, and conversations with Protestants, not merely to inform them about Roman Catholic doctrine but also with the hope of bringing them back to their “Mother” church.” They extend invitations to all believers, aiming to foster a sense of belonging in a shared spiritual journey, but under the umbrella of the Roman Catholic Church.
This is a mission that Rome is eager to complete, and it happens on a daily basis. Several Catholic organizations, including the Coming Home Network, are dedicated to assisting “non-Catholic Christians make their journey home to full communion with the Catholic Church.” [1]
The GlenMary Missioners, a Roman Catholic society, recently described how they use ecumenism and Jesuits to convert Evangelicals to Catholicism. They published the following, which should serve as a wake-up call for all Protestants, including our own members:
• “Glenmary hired Nathan Smith to be the director of Catholic-Evangelical Relations. The job is an important one in Glenmary, as fostering ecumenical ties with other Christian groups has long been a priority of the society. After all, Glenmary ministers in areas where Catholics are few.” [2]
• “Nathan fits his job well because he is an Evangelical and a Catholic. ‘I never refer to myself as a convert,’ says Nathan, a former Evangelical pastor. ‘I always say I’m an Evangelical who moved into communion with the Catholic Church. I don’t want anyone to have the idea that I’m moving away from the faith I was raised in,’ he adds. ‘I’m only moving deeper into it’.” [2]
• “Nathan’s journey into communion took a turn in 2016. He had recently ceased working at an Evangelical church and started visiting a Catholic spiritual center in Cincinnati. He found a Jesuit spiritual director, and began exploring his faith in a new way. The real push came in 2019 after Nathan and his wife had several conversations about desiring to experience Christ in the Eucharist. In time, they were brought into the Catholic Church at St. Gertrude parish in Cincinnati.” [2]
• “Now Nathan is working with Glenmary to foster relations with Evangelicals, to reduce the separation between them and Catholics.” [2]
• “I long for the Church of the future with the Catholic Church and the Evangelical communities coming back into communion,” Nathan said. “We’re not in a place that we have good relations yet on a denominational level, but I’ve been really encouraged by the number of pastors locally who are excited to talk to me.” [2]
• “He has had online meetings with Pentecostal groups interested in learning more … Nathan is also in the process of building a website and podcast to assist in Glenmary’s ecumenical mission.” [2]
No matter how much Protestant leaders defend these interfaith encounters and how many articles and speeches they give in support of them, the end result of ecumenism serves to further Rome’s aspirations, as described in the Second Vatican Council’s ecumenical decree, “Unitatis Redintegratio.” The Vatican intends to unify the separated churches under the authority of the Pope of Rome. Notice what the Vatican decreed in 1964:
• “The restoration of unity among all Christians is one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council. Christ the Lord founded one Church and one Church only.” (Decree on Ecumenism, Section 1, Paragraph 1). [3]
• “Nevertheless, our separated brethren, whether considered as individuals or as Communities and Churches, are not blessed with that unity which Jesus Christ wished to bestow on all those who through Him were born again into one body, and with Him quickened to newness of life – that unity which the Holy Scriptures and the ancient Tradition of the Church proclaim. For it is only through Christ’s Catholic Church, which is ‘the all-embracing means of salvation,’ that they can benefit fully from the means of salvation.” (Decree on Ecumenism, Section 3, Paragraph 5). [3]
• “All Christians will at last, in a common celebration of the Eucharist, be gathered into the one and only Church in that unity which Christ bestowed on His Church from the beginning. We believe that this unity subsists in the Catholic Church as something she can never lose, and we hope that it will continue to increase until the end of time” (Decree on Ecumenism, Section 4, Paragraph 3). [3]
Ecumenism is absolutely essential for the restoration of the papacy’s temporal power. Satan knows this, which is why he is trying to unite them into one body:
“Satan determines to unite them in one body and thus strengthen his cause by sweeping all into the ranks of spiritualism … Papists, Protestants, and worldlings will alike accept the form of godliness without the power, and they will see in this union a grand movement for the conversion of the world and the ushering in of the long-expected millennium” (Great Controversy, p. 588).
Ecumenism is also prophetically necessary for the healing of the deadly wound and the implementation of the Sunday law. When the churches come together in one, then the image of the beast is formed, not before.
“When the leading churches of the United States, uniting upon such points of doctrine as are held by them in common, shall influence the State to enforce their decrees and to sustain their institutions, then Protestant America will have formed an image of the Roman hierarchy, and the infliction of civil penalties upon dissenters will inevitably result” (Great Controversy, p. 445).
Revelation 13:3 says that the deadly wound will be healed, and the entire world will wonder after the beast. This describes the moral dilemma that our world is in. Ecumenism is what sets everything into motion. And when our leaders stand up and defend the ecumenical movement, they are defending the Second Vatican Council, not God’s word. But that’s not the end of the story. In Revelation 14:9–11, there is a world-wide proclamation that is being given right now, warning the people against the worship of the beast and his image and against receiving his mark on the forehead or in the hand.
It is obvious that these two events—the healing of the deadly wound and the warning against the beast, the image, and the mark—will occur at the same time. What this means to us, the faithful commandment-keeping, non-ecumenical members of the Remnant Church of Revelation 12:17, is that we have but a short time in which we can proclaim to the world with power the messages of Revelation 14:6–12 before the voice of the dragon is heard and the fires of persecution return.
Sources
[2] https://glenmary.org/smith-ecumenical/
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The Romish Church now presents a fair front to the world, covering with apologies her record of horrible cruelties. She has clothed herself in Christ-like garments; but she is unchanged. Every principle of popery that existed in past ages exists today. The doctrines devised in the darkest ages are still held. Let none deceive themselves. The popery that Protestants are now so ready to honor is the same that ruled the world in the days of the Reformation, when men of God stood up, at the peril of their lives, to expose her iniquity. She possesses the same pride and arrogant assumption that lorded it over kings and princes, and claimed the prerogatives of God. Her spirit is no less cruel and despotic now than when she crushed out human liberty, and slew the saints of the Most High. – GC88 570.3
Popery is just what prophecy declared that she would be, the apostasy of the latter times. [2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4.] It is a part of her policy to assume the character which will best accomplish her purpose; but beneath the variable appearance of the chameleon, she conceals the invariable venom of the serpent. “We are not bound to keep faith and promises to heretics,” she declares. Shall this power, whose record for a thousand years is written in the blood of the saints, be now acknowledged as a part of the church of Christ? – GC88 571.1
A prayerful study of the Bible would show Protestants the real character of the papacy, and would cause them to abhor and to shun it; but many are so wise in their own conceit that they feel no need of humbly seeking God that they may be led into the truth. Although priding themselves on their enlightenment, they are ignorant both of the Scriptures and of the power of God. They must have some means of quieting their consciences; and they seek that which is least spiritual and humiliating. What they desire is a method of forgetting God which shall pass as a method of remembering him. The papacy is well adapted to meet the wants of all these. It is prepared for two classes of mankind, embracing nearly the whole world,—those who would be saved by their merits, and those who would be saved in their sins. Here is the secret of its power. – GC88 572.2
And let it be remembered, it is the boast of Rome that she never changes. The principles of Gregory VII. and Innocent III. are still the principles of the Romish Church. And had she but the power, she would put them in practice with as much vigor now as in past centuries. Let the principle once be established in the United States, that the church may employ or control the power of the State; that religious observances may be enforced by secular laws; in short, that the authority of church and State is to dominate the conscience, and the triumph of Rome in this country is assured. – GC88 580.3
God’s Word has given warning of the impending danger; let this be unheeded, and the Protestant world will learn what the purposes of Rome really are, only when it is too late to escape the snare. She is silently growing into power. Her doctrines are exerting their influence in legislative halls, in the churches, and in the hearts of men. She is piling up her lofty and massive structures, in the secret recesses of which her former persecutions will be repeated. Stealthily and unsuspectedly she is strengthening her forces to further her own ends when the time shall come for her to strike. All that she desires is vantage-ground, and this is already being given her. We shall soon see and shall feel what the purpose of the Roman element is. Whoever shall believe and obey the Word of God will thereby incur reproach and persecution. – GC88 581.1
How the Roman church can clear herself from the charge of idolatry we cannot see…. And this is the religion which Protestants are beginning to look upon with so much favor, and which will eventually be united with Protestantism. This union will not, however, be effected by a change in Catholicism, for Rome never changes. She claims infallibility. It is Protestantism that will change. The adoption of liberal ideas on its part will bring it where it can clasp the hand of Catholicism.—The Review and Herald, June 1, 1886. – LDE 130.2
The professed Protestant world will form a confederacy with the man of sin, and the church and the world will be in corrupt harmony.—The S.D.A. Bible Commentary 7:975 (1891). – LDE 130.3
Proverbs 27:17 “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.”
Recalling when Elder Wilson
wanted to absorb David Gates private ministry into the GC and Gates had some meetings with GC Representative’s who upset Gates as they told him “the Jesuits we’re now their good friends”….
Was interesting and I ponder about that scenario often, although I’ve had little to do with Gates ministry, that comment left a lingering aroma,
Wilson wanted his ministry
Gates refused,
Wilson afterwards said Nobody should support his ministry, why did he want it then?
Whole thing was revealing:
Gates comment about the Jesuits being the good friends of people at the GC makes too much sense,
Amo 3:3 “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”
Proverbs 2:16-22
“To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;
Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.
For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead.
None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.
That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.
For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.
But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.”
—-
Proverbs 7:5-27:
“That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.
For at the window of my house I looked through my casement, And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding,
Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house, In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night:
And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of a harlot, and subtle of heart. (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:
Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.) So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him, I have peace offerings with me; this day have I paid my vows.
Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee. I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.
For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey: He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.
With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him. He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life. Hearken unto me now therefore,
O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.
For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her. Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.”
Romans 6:16 “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?”
We should have nothing to do with this movement.
Christians must focus on another movement- a worldwide endeavor to make everyone disciples of Jesus. Amen? Jesus already gave us some details of final events and conditions. If we are on the Lord’s side we are on the winning team. Christians should even try to make the Pope,
Jesuits, Catholics, and more, true disciples of Jesus. Amen? Let’s roll up our sleeves and get it done and glorify God too!
Has the Pope, Jesuits and Catholic church not heard of Jesus? And already claim to be somewhat Christian?
The SDA church wasn’t raised up to make Catholics better Christians but to call them completely out of Popery/Babylon
Instead many of our pastors and leaders are getting their doctorates from Catholic University’s which explains their failure to expose the man of sin,
They cannot because they are too friendly with it.