KEEP WATCH

How about a spiritual hug?

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MacArthur is saying the seeds of truth lead to salvation. Sowing seeds of truth in love make salvation possible. Though we agree love is important and is the motivation for sharing truth, Jesus said: "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). The problem with promoting love over truth is ecumenicals are using it (love) to encourage unity at the expense of truth. Why are they promoting love over truth? Because truth will always demand separation from what is untrue.

Ecumenicals don't like truth because it doesn't fit the narrative for global unity of one faith. Truth will always expose and divide right from wrong (2 Timothy 3:16), which is what Luther did 500 years earlier. Jesus didn't come to ensure unity but to divide the true from the untrue (Luke 12:51). In Ephesians 6 the Apostle Paul speaks about taking up the sword, the Word of God, to discern truth from error.

Pope Francis is promoting a gospel of love and brotherhood because he wants to break down the barriers of division between faiths, and we know why. The ecumenicals want a global faith united in love. While these are encouraging words and tug on the deepest longings of the heart, the Pope is promoting a love without the truth. A love without truth is human love.

Does Jesus share Pope Francis' view of love? Did Jesus pray for all faiths to be one? No. Jesus prayed for all who share the same truth to be one in faith resulting in true brotherly love (John 17:20-23).

The only way to bring all faiths together is by the agent of compromise. But what a body of believers choose to compromise is the question (Acts 17:11). The Bible warns about compromising truth and especially when it means giving up the fundamental truths of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says there is one path to God and that path is not to be compromised (John 14:6).

You can rest assured that the religions of the world will never accept the fundamental truth that Jesus is the Lamb of God. For ecumenicalism to succeed, this most holy of titles will need to be minimized and then removed from Jesus in order for the one world religion to form. Portraying the Savior without this holy title denies His divinity, priesthood, and dilutes Jesus' ministry to little more than prophetic message of love (Hebrews 4:14).

As proof, denial of Jesus' title as the Lamb of God occurred in The Bible series on the History Channel in 2013 and then again in the Son of God movie in 2014...The denial of Jesus' role as the Lamb of God is troubling and one example of a fundamental truth being glossed over in favor of the gospel of love (John 1:29). Both productions said Jesus came to change the world by his love. Is this what the Bible teaches? Not exactly.

Ecumenicals are excited about the progress Pope Francis is making to bring Protestants "back home." The Pope's purpose is clear. His purpose is to showcase the gospel of love via a spiritual hug. He is challenging the teachings posted by Martin Luther five centuries earlier. Luther boldly and precisely taught men are justified by grace through faith alone in Christ alone; men are not justified with a long history of rich worship guided by holy tradition and good works.

Layered within this theme of ecumenical love is a simple idea that sounds good, appears tenable, and perhaps even noble, but if acted upon would bring forward a gospel that cannot save anyone. As demonstrated by Copeland, evangelicals are falling for it. Ecumenicals are leaving the truth far behind; they are allowing the lure of love to be the unifying force drawing undiscerning Protestants back home to the Mother Church (2 Corinthians 6:17).

In closing, Martin Luther wrote: "I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands that I still possess" (Source). And what did Luther place in God's hands? A heart transformed by truth (1 Peter 1:23). (Source)

Note 1: The fundamentals of the Christian faith appear in this Got Questions Article .

Note 2: Ecumenicalism is a movement intent on promoting the need for all believers in God to gather under a single banner of faith for the purpose of unity in love and brotherhood.

Note 3: "Some think it (the Gospel) is merely a message of 'forgiveness;' others conceive of it as only 'moral' in nature; and still others see it as 'something good and beautiful.' The truth of the matter is, the gospel is a 'whole view of life' — it is not partial or piecemeal — consequently the "whole man" must be involved in it — the mind, the heart and the will...we must put things in the right order — mind, heart, and will. Truth must be first — once we know the truth, it will move the heart, and once the heart is engaged, your greatest desire will be to live it." (Source)

Image Credit: Republic of Korea; "Korea Pope Francis Haemi Castle 21"; Creative Commons

Tags: Biblical-Truth | Christian-Life | Controversial-Issues | False-Teaching | Other-Religions

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Published 11-28-16