Monday, February 24, 2014
FALSE ECUMENICAL UNITY ROBS CHRIST: POPE, KENNETH COPELAND & BISHOP TONY PALMER UNITE CATHOLICS, CHARISMATICS & NO LONGER PROTESTANT ANGLICANS
Pope Francis And The Emerging
One World Religion
SEE: http://www.infowars.com/pope-francis-and-the-emerging-one-world-religion/;
EXCERPT:
Since he has been Pope, Francis has expressed a desire for unity with the Eastern Orthodox, the Anglicans, and many other major Protestant denominations. But more than a few eyebrows were raised when he recently sent a video message to Kenneth Copeland and his congregation. At the time that the video message was played to the congregation, one speaker declared that “Luther’s protest is over”…
THE PAPACY ROBS CHRIST
SEE:
http://apprising.org/2014/02/07/the-papacy-robs-christ/
AND
ON CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY AND CHARISMANIA
SEE:
http://apprising.org/2014/02/06/on-contemplative-spirituality-and-charismania/
AND:
POPE FRANCIS SAYS WE “CANNOT BE CHRISTIANS
WITHOUT THE [ROMAN CATHOLIC] CHURCH”
SEE:
TONY PALMER: "MAYBE WE'RE ALL CATHOLICS AGAIN"
POPE TO COPELAND:
CATHOLICS AND CHARISMATICS
MUST SPIRITUALLY UNITE
SEE:
http://standupforthetruth.com/2014/02/pope-to-copeland-catholics-and-charismatics-must-spiritually-unite/
EXCERPT:
"We are galloping toward a one-world melding of religions, and the ramifications are staggering. Pope Francis has now sent a video message to Word of Faith father Kenneth Copeland, urging a reconciliation between Catholics and Charismatics.
“The Catholic and Charismatic Renewal is the hope of the Church,” exclaims Anglican Episcopal Bishop Tony Palmer, before a group of cheering followers at the Kenneth Copeland Ministries. Palmer said those words are from the Vatican. Before playing the video message from Pope Francis to Kenneth Copeland, Palmer told the crowd, “When my wife saw that she could be Catholic, and Charismatic, and Evangelical, and Pentecostal, and it was absolutely accepted in the Catholic Church, she said that she would like to reconnect her roots with the Catholic culture. So she did.”
The crowd cheered, as he continued, “Brothers and sisters, Luther’s protest is over. Is yours?”"
BISHOP TONY PALMER & KENNETH COPELAND
The Ark Community
An Inter-denominational Christian Convergent Community
Convergent – The acknowledgement, celebration and combining (converging) of all the
great Christian Streams, blending them into ONE unified Christian experience.
great Christian Streams, blending them into ONE unified Christian experience.
Convergence is simply the “coming together” of the various expressions of Christ through His Body, the Church, which is currently fragmented into ONE wholesome united reflection of the combined glory of His image… Undivided.
Over the 2000 years of our common Christian history, Christ has released His character into His Body, His Church in the forms of various historical “movements”. These movements or “streams” have been officially recognised by the entire Christian Church as the following:
The great spiritual streams are: - Contemplative
Over the 2000 years of our common Christian history, Christ has released His character into His Body, His Church in the forms of various historical “movements”. These movements or “streams” have been officially recognised by the entire Christian Church as the following:
The great spiritual streams are: - Contemplative
Holiness
Charismatic
Social Justice
Evangelical
Sacramental & Liturgical
Although all the above movements were recognised by all, they were not embraced by all! Theses streams were left to flow alone, and instead of God having ONE powerfully flowing river, He ended up with various trickling tributaries. Our diversity is Divine, but our division is diabolic!
If one takes time to study and experience each stream individually, we would find that each stream actually supports and feeds the other, and that none of them detract from the other at all. The various movements or streams are actually “inter-dependent” on each other.
Each stream contains a character of Christ Himself – We, the people of God, have divided Him and no-longer reveal Him as a UNITED Christ to His World that He came to Love and Save. We have divided our Saviour’s image… Convergence is simply experiencing Christ in His fullness by putting His image back together by converging the fragmented Christian expressions and streams.
Converging is simply giving back a complete picture of Jesus to a broken world whom is searching for a complete answer in a divided Church.
Diversity is the basis for true unity and completeness. Without each other’s diversity, we lack completeness. The diverse spiritual traditions actually complement each other, they were never meant to oppose each other. So convergence is not the “cloning” of any expression or denomination, but rather the celebration of what that expression can bring to the common image of Christ… For all that you have of God is what we lack… your gift of diversity was given to you so that you should bring to the Common table what you have and combine it with what we have to present a COMPLETE and UNITED image of Christ to the World!
We live in the generation of UNITY. God is uniting His fragmented characters. He is putting HIS image back together… Apostle Paul asked this very question when dealing with Christian division… “Is Christ divided?” … certainly not! Yet His image on earth is!
It is time for us bearing the image of God to humble ourselves and to embrace God’s will, and submit to His leading as He places the broken pieces together. We may find ourselves in uncomfortable places, with people we would not usually mix with, yet it seems right! God is converging the broken pieces of the human mirror so that we can reflect His complete glory in this generation.
I quote a dying man’s prayer: “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. “And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: “I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory ….”
(Jesus Christ, circa 30AD)
Peace & Good!
Tony Palmer †
Community Minister and Founding Community Member
www.thearkcommunity.org
An Inter-denominational Christian Convergent Community within the Celtic Anglican Tradition.
Consecrated members of the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches (CEEC). www.theceec.org
Tel: +44 0787 906 7827 (UK) or +39 333 834 9945 (Italy) – 39 Spring Meadows, Trowbridge, Wiltshire, BA14 0HD, England
Each stream contains a character of Christ Himself – We, the people of God, have divided Him and no-longer reveal Him as a UNITED Christ to His World that He came to Love and Save. We have divided our Saviour’s image… Convergence is simply experiencing Christ in His fullness by putting His image back together by converging the fragmented Christian expressions and streams.
Converging is simply giving back a complete picture of Jesus to a broken world whom is searching for a complete answer in a divided Church.
Diversity is the basis for true unity and completeness. Without each other’s diversity, we lack completeness. The diverse spiritual traditions actually complement each other, they were never meant to oppose each other. So convergence is not the “cloning” of any expression or denomination, but rather the celebration of what that expression can bring to the common image of Christ… For all that you have of God is what we lack… your gift of diversity was given to you so that you should bring to the Common table what you have and combine it with what we have to present a COMPLETE and UNITED image of Christ to the World!
We live in the generation of UNITY. God is uniting His fragmented characters. He is putting HIS image back together… Apostle Paul asked this very question when dealing with Christian division… “Is Christ divided?” … certainly not! Yet His image on earth is!
It is time for us bearing the image of God to humble ourselves and to embrace God’s will, and submit to His leading as He places the broken pieces together. We may find ourselves in uncomfortable places, with people we would not usually mix with, yet it seems right! God is converging the broken pieces of the human mirror so that we can reflect His complete glory in this generation.
I quote a dying man’s prayer: “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. “And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: “I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory ….”
(Jesus Christ, circa 30AD)
Peace & Good!
Tony Palmer †
Community Minister and Founding Community Member
www.thearkcommunity.org
An Inter-denominational Christian Convergent Community within the Celtic Anglican Tradition.
Consecrated members of the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches (CEEC). www.theceec.org
Tel: +44 0787 906 7827 (UK) or +39 333 834 9945 (Italy) – 39 Spring Meadows, Trowbridge, Wiltshire, BA14 0HD, England
____________________________________________________
Pope Viewed as Pro-Unity, Pro-Renewal of the Holy Spirit
Over the past decade the Rt. Rev. Tony Palmer, a former director of Kenneth Copeland Ministries’ South African office and co-founder of The Ark Community, an international and interdenominational community of Christians based in the United Kingdom, has been extensively involved with the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR).
In 2003, Palmer was invited by the Catholic Church to move to Europe and minister to Catholics within the CCR worldwide, as a non-Roman Catholic minister. As a result of this calling, Palmer has traveled to many countries around the world and participated in numerous meetings with leaders within the charismatic renewal.
It was during a mission to Argentina five years ago that Palmer met and soon became close friends with Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis I.
“We had called on him to ask permission to minister in churches within his diocese for renewal,” Palmer recalled recently of that first meeting. “Immediately, Cardinal Bergoglio shared his heart and appreciation for what we were doing, and fully embraced us and the work of the Holy Spirit in and through us—not only to Catholic people, but to all Christian denominations.”
On March 13, Cardinal Bergoglio became the first non-European pope in more than 1,000 years when he was elected to replace the outgoing Pope Benedict XVI, who abdicated on February 28. The 76-year-old Bergoglio, who has now taken on the name Pope Francis, after the humble Catholic friar St. Francis of Assisi, will be installed at the Vatican on March 19.
“It is quite surreal for me to see my friend, spiritual father and prayer partner as the Pope,” Palmer said this past weekend while on a ministry trip to Italy. “We have a good pope who is pro-unity and pro-renewal of the Holy Spirit. He believes that all Christians are one!”
Like the leader whose name he chose to draw from, Pope Francis is himself considered humble and is described as a conservative with “great compassion.”
In a speech he delivered to his cardinals two days after being elected, Pope Francis showed signs of his humility, compassion and his reverence of the Holy Spirit when he told them: “Someone said to me: the Cardinals are the priests of the Holy Father. That community, that friendship, that closeness will do us all good. And our acquaintance and mutual openness have helped us to be docile to the action of the Holy Spirit. He, the Paraclete, is the ultimate source of every initiative and manifestation of faith….The Paraclete creates all the differences among the Churches, almost as if He were an Apostle of Babel. But on the other hand, it is He who creates unity from these differences, not in ‘equality,’ but in harmony….The Paraclete, who gives different charisms to each of us, unites us in this community of the Church, that worships the Father, the Son, and Him, the Holy Spirit.”
From the inception of The Ark Community, KCM has maintained a strong partnership with Palmer through prayer and by supporting his mission work. It was through Palmer’s assistance that Kenneth and Gloria Copeland were able to minister to the Roman Catholic Church in Italy for the first time ever in 2006. They have since returned there to minister.
In light of the historic change taking place in the Catholic Church, we asked Palmer for his insight into the election of the new Pope, and what effect he feels this might have on the Body of Christ overall. Here is some of what he had to say:
BVOV: How do you believe this election will affect the Church, the Body of believers?
PALMER: It will greatly influence what’s already happening. Things began to change between 1962 and 1965, when Pope John XXIII opened up the Second Vatican Council by invoking the Holy Spirit and asking God for a “new Pentecost.” He asked that God would: “Renew Your wonders in our time….” God answered, and in 1967 a small group of faithful Catholics met in Pittsburgh, Pa., and called upon their Pentecostal friends to lay hands on them so they (as Roman Catholics) may receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Pope John Paul II watched as this small group grew into a “movement” and expanded across the Atlantic and into many other countries. In 46 years, this group of Catholics has grown to over 180 million spirit-filled, born-again, faithful Catholic Christians. Pope Benedict XVI followed in Pope John Paul’s footsteps and publicly supported and encouraged those involved in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. Now, as evidenced by the choice of his name, Pope Francis wants to honor Saint Francis of Assisi, who was a Charismatic Catholic who founded an order of devout Christians professing to live the Gospel and nothing else! Pope Francis is openly committing himself and the Church to emulate the spirituality of Saint Francis and his followers, which is to follow Jesus wholeheartedly and establish the Kingdom of God through living the Franciscan motto, which Saint Francis is famous for saying: “Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary, use words.” This is the central passion that drives Pope Francis. He always tells me that we all need to live like Jesus. It’s all about Jesus! Pope Francis is openly supportive of the work of the Holy Spirit and the Charismatic renewal, and in his choosing of Saint Francis’ name, he promises to continue to support what the Holy Spirit has begun.
BVOV: What is uniquely different and meaningful about Pope Francis and his appointment?
PALMER: An important attribute that Pope Francis brings to the Papacy is his honest and sincere openness to the unity of all Christians. He is a man of God who understands the unity of the Church in its diversity. He constantly shows his public fraternal brotherhood toward all Christians. For example, when he was introduced during a large Christian meeting in Buenos Aires where over 5,000 evangelical protestant leaders were in attendance, Pope Francis (then Cardinal Bergoglio) knelt down in front of the evangelical pastors and asked them to lay hands on him and bless him! Every year, as Cardinal, he would join his evangelical brothers (pastors) for their annual weeklong retreat—not as a guest speaker to teach, but as one of them. During our times together, we have spoken about our shared pain of the division of Christians, and together we have shared both tears and prayers for her healing—the one Bride of Christ.
BVOV: Why should we, as believers, be excited?
PALMER: I believe there exists enough evidence to cause every open-minded and open-eyed Christian to rejoice in the fact that a good man has been chosen to be pope—the spokesperson for western Christianity. He is a man after Jesus’ heart and a man full of the Spirit of God—open and humble enough to forgive and embrace brothers and sisters from all Christian denominations, allowing and assisting wounds of division to be healed. The time of “spiritual apartheid” is coming to an end, and I believe Pope Francis will be one of the proponents of its demise. We have a worldwide charismatic movement of the renewal of the Holy Spirit within the Catholic Church, officially and publicly supported by the last three popes, as well as the current pope. We now live in a post-Protestant era with a pope who openly embraces his brothers and sisters of all Christian denominations to the point of publicly kneeling for the laying on of hands and prayer by evangelical leaders. God is continuing what He began when Pope John XXIII prayed for a “new Pentecost” back in 1962. He has heard the prayers and tasted the tears of the faithful who, over the years, have joined our Master and Captain in His High Priestly prayer in John 17:21: “Father make them one so that the world will believe that You sent Me.” Diversity is divine, but division is diabolic. It’s time to celebrate diversity in the bond of unity. We are one Bride, one Body in one Baptism.
______________________________________________________
UPDATE FEBRUARY 28, 2014:
FROM DAVID CLOUD OF WAY OF LIFE:
http://www.wayoflife.org/database/friday_church_news/15_9.php;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Friday Church News Notes
POPE JOINS CHARISMATICS IN CALL FOR ONE-WORLD CHURCH (Friday Church News Notes, February 28, 2014, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In an informal seven-minute video that has been posted to YouTube, Pope Francis calls for the unity of all Christians. The context is even more instructive. The video was recorded on a smartphone owned by Anglican Episcopal charismatic bishop Anthony Palmer when he visited the Vatican recently. Palmer has known the pope since the latter was an archbishop in Argentina. The pope’s video clip was recorded to be played at a Pentecostal pastors conference hosted by Kenneth Copeland, a man laden down with heresies who falls on the floor and laughs hysterically while “drunk in the spirit.” The pope said that all Christians are to blame for disunity, and that God has begun the miracle of Christian unity and will finish it.
In his remarks at the Copeland crusade before the pope’s video was played, Palmer showed that he is a passionate and effective one-world church builder. He has a personal testimony of conversion experience, says he believes in salvation by God’s grace alone, and is well spoken and personable. But he could not be more deceived. Consider the following statements carefully that Palmer made as a prelude to the pope’s remarks: “I come tonight in the spirit of Elijah, which is the spirit of reconciliation. ... I’ve come to understand that diversity is divine; it’s division that is diabolic. ... It’s the glory that glues us together, not the doctrine. If you accept that the presence of God is in me and the presence of God is in you, that’s all we need. God will sort out all our doctrines when we get upstairs. ... Division destroys our credibility. ... I believe we will see more people go out into the churches in the spirit of Elijah. We need to throw as much resources and energy into the ministry of reconciliation as we do to the ministry of evangelization. I challenge you to find a bridge builder and back him.”
Nothing could be more dangerous and unscriptural than to replace Bible doctrine with experience as the basis of unity. This is the heart and soul of the charismatic delusion, and now we see it being proposed by the pope of Rome as the foundation for a one-world church. In his own call for unity, Palmer said nothing about the heresies of the papacy, the priesthood, sacramentalism, infant baptism, baptismal regeneration, the mass, mariolatry, purgatory, the saints, prayers to the dead, nunnery, monasticism, and a host of other heresies. He said nothing about Copeland’s Word-Faith heresies. With his philosophy of “Elijah reconciliation,” none of that matters as long as an individual loves “Jesus,” believes the “gospel,” and has the “spirit.” We aren’t allowed to examine WHAT Jesus, WHAT gospel, or WHAT spirit. That type of examination would spoil the unity and bring us right back to division, which, we are led to believe, is diabolic.
What spiritual deception! How late the hour is! No wonder Jesus warned that false teachers will become so subtle that “if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Mat. 24:24). Be not deceived, the following verse single handedly destroys the call for end-time unity: “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3).
KENNETH COPELAND’S ENTHUSIASM OVER THE POPE’S CALL FOR UNITY(Friday Church News Notes, February 28, 2014, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - After the pope’s video call for unity was finished, Kenneth Copeland said, “Glory, glory, glory. ... Heaven is thrilled over this.” He said, “You know what is so thrilling to me? When we went into the ministry 47 years ago, this was impossible.” Copeland prayed for the pope in his nonsensical, fake, gibberish “tongues.” He recorded a video message for the pope in which he said, “All of these leaders [at the conference] represent literally tens of thousands of people that love you. ... Thank you, sir. We do bless you, and we receive your blessing. We thank God for you.” Then he led the crowd in shouting together to the pope by video, “We Bless You!!!!!” Copeland said that he is available to visit the Vatican.
ALL ECUMENICAL ROADS LEAD TO ROME (Friday Church News Notes, February 28, 2014, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Anglican Episcopal bishop Tony Palmer, who video recorded Pope Frances’ call for Christian unity, made the following statement at the Kenneth Copeland meeting: “When my wife saw that she could be Catholic, and Charismatic, and Evangelical, and Pentecostal, and it was absolutely accepted in the Catholic Church, she said that she would like to reconnect her roots with the Catholic culture. So she did.” The Pentecostal crowd cheered, as Palmer continued, “Brothers and sisters, Luther's protest is over. Is yours?”
GLUE FOR THE ONE-WORLD “CHURCH” (Friday Church News Notes, February 28, 2014, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Kenneth Copeland conference in which the pope’s video call for unity was shown is a petri dish for the examination of the end-time one-world “church.” All of the elements were there. There was the contemporary worship music. There was the charismatic focus on feeling and experience. There was the “unity in diversity.” There was the rejection of biblical separatism and the labeling of it as “diabolical.” And there was Rome, showing the most humble, innocent, spiritually-passionate, and harmless of her many faces.
HAS THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH CHANGED ITS DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION? (Friday Church News Notes, February 28, 2014, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Anglican Episcopal Bishop Anthony Palmer, who has joined the pope in calling for Christian unity and condemning “division,” claims that the issue of justification has been settled and that Rome has agreed that justification is by grace alone. Therefore, there is no reason for further disunity. The protest is over, he says; there should be no more “protestants”; all Christians should be “Catholics”; there should be one “church.” If the issue were not so serious with such terrible eternal ramifications, this position would be laughable. Palmer is referring to the 1999 Joint Declaration of Justification that was signed by the Vatican and some Lutheran denominations and has since been accepted by some Methodists. The declaration states, “Together we confess: by grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping us and calling us to good works.”
FIRST, PALMER IS WRONG ABOUT ROME’S DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. The Joint Declaration on Justification doesn’t mean that the Roman Catholic Church no longer preaches salvation through sacraments! Rome has a genius for giving theological words new meanings. She is a chameleon who has changed colors countless times. In the current debate, she has redefined “grace” and “alone” and “justification.” She is an ecclesiastical example of a naughty little boy telling a lie with his fingers’ crossed behind his back, and the apostate Protestants sitting at her table don’t know or care. In the Council of Trent and the Second Vatican Council and the New Catholic Catechism, Rome stated her doctrine of salvation in the clearest of terms: salvation is by faith in Christ PLUS sacraments. Salvation was purchased by Christ and given to the “church” to be distributed through the sacraments, and it begins with baptismal regeneration. Rome has expressed ZERO repentance for this false gospel. (For documentation see the report “How Rome Denies Salvation by Grace Alone” at the Way of Life web site.)
SECOND, PALMER IS WRONG ABOUT THE ESSENCE OF THE REFORMATION. Insofar as it went (and it fell terribly short of being Scriptural), the essence of the Reformation was about the authority of Scripture -- sola scriptura. And the Roman Catholic Church is not even pretending that Scripture is the sole authority for its faith and practice. For this essential fact to be ignored shows the duplicity of the unity movement.
THIRD, PALMER IS WRONG ABOUT THE BASIS FOR UNITY. Even if two professing Christians or churches agree on the doctrine of salvation, that is far from being a sufficient basis for unity in fellowship and ministry. We are commanded to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 3). What part of the faith? All of it! We are to mark and avoid those whose teaching is contrary to the doctrine which we have learned from Scripture (Rom. 16:17). Even if one accepts the philosophy of “essential” vs. “non-essential” doctrine, there are still dozens of “essential” doctrines that would form the basis for separation. We are to prove ALL things, not just some things (1 Thess. 5:21). Paul taught Timothy to allow “no other doctrine” into the churches (1 Tim. 1:3). This is not a complicated matter. The bottom line is that it is impossible to join any unity movement today while being faithful to God’s Word.
THE BREADTH OF THE POPE’S ECUMENISM (Friday Church News Notes, February 28, 2014, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Pope Francis is fulfilling Bible prophecy with his broad ecumenical vision. According to Revelation 17, Roman Catholicism is at the heart of the one-world religion that will yoke together with the Antichrist. Only Rome could fit the bill as the city on seven hills, and only Catholicism is clothed in purple and scarlet, has a golden cup in her hand, and is drunken with the blood of the martyrs. But the vision of Revelation 17 extends beyond Rome. The Harlot is a mother who has daughters and her reach is global (Rev. 17:15). Ecumenism has been “in the air” since the great world missionary conferences of the turn of the 20th century and the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s. Francis is standing on the shoulders of popes such as John XXIII (who headed up Vatican II) and John Paul II (the personable jet-setting pope who was beloved of a long line of evangelicals led by Billy Graham). Francis is calling for unity among all Christians. And he is calling for unity with Jews. This month, when he received a delegation of the American Jewish Committee, he said that Catholics and Jews must work together “for a more just and fraternal world” (“Pope: Jews and Catholics,” AsiaNews.it, Feb. 13, 2014). Francis is even calling for unity with atheists. Last year he said, “The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. ... Even the atheists. Everyone! ... And this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace” (“Pope at Mass,”Vatican Radio, May 22, 2013). For his part, John Paul II included all of the world religions in the ecumenical vision, yoking multiple times with Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Sikhs, Bahai’s, Animists, etc. in prayer for world peace in Assisi, Italy.
______________________________________________________
UPDATE FEBRUARY 28, 2014:
FROM DAVID CLOUD OF WAY OF LIFE:
http://www.wayoflife.org/database/friday_church_news/15_9.php;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Friday Church News Notes
Vol 15, Issue 9 - Feb 28, 2014
In his remarks at the Copeland crusade before the pope’s video was played, Palmer showed that he is a passionate and effective one-world church builder. He has a personal testimony of conversion experience, says he believes in salvation by God’s grace alone, and is well spoken and personable. But he could not be more deceived. Consider the following statements carefully that Palmer made as a prelude to the pope’s remarks: “I come tonight in the spirit of Elijah, which is the spirit of reconciliation. ... I’ve come to understand that diversity is divine; it’s division that is diabolic. ... It’s the glory that glues us together, not the doctrine. If you accept that the presence of God is in me and the presence of God is in you, that’s all we need. God will sort out all our doctrines when we get upstairs. ... Division destroys our credibility. ... I believe we will see more people go out into the churches in the spirit of Elijah. We need to throw as much resources and energy into the ministry of reconciliation as we do to the ministry of evangelization. I challenge you to find a bridge builder and back him.”
Nothing could be more dangerous and unscriptural than to replace Bible doctrine with experience as the basis of unity. This is the heart and soul of the charismatic delusion, and now we see it being proposed by the pope of Rome as the foundation for a one-world church. In his own call for unity, Palmer said nothing about the heresies of the papacy, the priesthood, sacramentalism, infant baptism, baptismal regeneration, the mass, mariolatry, purgatory, the saints, prayers to the dead, nunnery, monasticism, and a host of other heresies. He said nothing about Copeland’s Word-Faith heresies. With his philosophy of “Elijah reconciliation,” none of that matters as long as an individual loves “Jesus,” believes the “gospel,” and has the “spirit.” We aren’t allowed to examine WHAT Jesus, WHAT gospel, or WHAT spirit. That type of examination would spoil the unity and bring us right back to division, which, we are led to believe, is diabolic.
What spiritual deception! How late the hour is! No wonder Jesus warned that false teachers will become so subtle that “if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Mat. 24:24). Be not deceived, the following verse single handedly destroys the call for end-time unity: “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3).
GLUE FOR THE ONE-WORLD “CHURCH” (Friday Church News Notes, February 28, 2014, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Kenneth Copeland conference in which the pope’s video call for unity was shown is a petri dish for the examination of the end-time one-world “church.” All of the elements were there. There was the contemporary worship music. There was the charismatic focus on feeling and experience. There was the “unity in diversity.” There was the rejection of biblical separatism and the labeling of it as “diabolical.” And there was Rome, showing the most humble, innocent, spiritually-passionate, and harmless of her many faces.
HAS THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH CHANGED ITS DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION? (Friday Church News Notes, February 28, 2014, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Anglican Episcopal Bishop Anthony Palmer, who has joined the pope in calling for Christian unity and condemning “division,” claims that the issue of justification has been settled and that Rome has agreed that justification is by grace alone. Therefore, there is no reason for further disunity. The protest is over, he says; there should be no more “protestants”; all Christians should be “Catholics”; there should be one “church.” If the issue were not so serious with such terrible eternal ramifications, this position would be laughable. Palmer is referring to the 1999 Joint Declaration of Justification that was signed by the Vatican and some Lutheran denominations and has since been accepted by some Methodists. The declaration states, “Together we confess: by grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping us and calling us to good works.”
FIRST, PALMER IS WRONG ABOUT ROME’S DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. The Joint Declaration on Justification doesn’t mean that the Roman Catholic Church no longer preaches salvation through sacraments! Rome has a genius for giving theological words new meanings. She is a chameleon who has changed colors countless times. In the current debate, she has redefined “grace” and “alone” and “justification.” She is an ecclesiastical example of a naughty little boy telling a lie with his fingers’ crossed behind his back, and the apostate Protestants sitting at her table don’t know or care. In the Council of Trent and the Second Vatican Council and the New Catholic Catechism, Rome stated her doctrine of salvation in the clearest of terms: salvation is by faith in Christ PLUS sacraments. Salvation was purchased by Christ and given to the “church” to be distributed through the sacraments, and it begins with baptismal regeneration. Rome has expressed ZERO repentance for this false gospel. (For documentation see the report “How Rome Denies Salvation by Grace Alone” at the Way of Life web site.)
SECOND, PALMER IS WRONG ABOUT THE ESSENCE OF THE REFORMATION. Insofar as it went (and it fell terribly short of being Scriptural), the essence of the Reformation was about the authority of Scripture -- sola scriptura. And the Roman Catholic Church is not even pretending that Scripture is the sole authority for its faith and practice. For this essential fact to be ignored shows the duplicity of the unity movement.
THIRD, PALMER IS WRONG ABOUT THE BASIS FOR UNITY. Even if two professing Christians or churches agree on the doctrine of salvation, that is far from being a sufficient basis for unity in fellowship and ministry. We are commanded to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 3). What part of the faith? All of it! We are to mark and avoid those whose teaching is contrary to the doctrine which we have learned from Scripture (Rom. 16:17). Even if one accepts the philosophy of “essential” vs. “non-essential” doctrine, there are still dozens of “essential” doctrines that would form the basis for separation. We are to prove ALL things, not just some things (1 Thess. 5:21). Paul taught Timothy to allow “no other doctrine” into the churches (1 Tim. 1:3). This is not a complicated matter. The bottom line is that it is impossible to join any unity movement today while being faithful to God’s Word.
THE BREADTH OF THE POPE’S ECUMENISM (Friday Church News Notes, February 28, 2014, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Pope Francis is fulfilling Bible prophecy with his broad ecumenical vision. According to Revelation 17, Roman Catholicism is at the heart of the one-world religion that will yoke together with the Antichrist. Only Rome could fit the bill as the city on seven hills, and only Catholicism is clothed in purple and scarlet, has a golden cup in her hand, and is drunken with the blood of the martyrs. But the vision of Revelation 17 extends beyond Rome. The Harlot is a mother who has daughters and her reach is global (Rev. 17:15). Ecumenism has been “in the air” since the great world missionary conferences of the turn of the 20th century and the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s. Francis is standing on the shoulders of popes such as John XXIII (who headed up Vatican II) and John Paul II (the personable jet-setting pope who was beloved of a long line of evangelicals led by Billy Graham). Francis is calling for unity among all Christians. And he is calling for unity with Jews. This month, when he received a delegation of the American Jewish Committee, he said that Catholics and Jews must work together “for a more just and fraternal world” (“Pope: Jews and Catholics,” AsiaNews.it, Feb. 13, 2014). Francis is even calling for unity with atheists. Last year he said, “The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. ... Even the atheists. Everyone! ... And this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace” (“Pope at Mass,”Vatican Radio, May 22, 2013). For his part, John Paul II included all of the world religions in the ecumenical vision, yoking multiple times with Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Sikhs, Bahai’s, Animists, etc. in prayer for world peace in Assisi, Italy.
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Fifty Years of Anglican Liberalism
Updated May 22, 2014 (first published June 16, 2003) (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org)
The worldwide Anglican Communion is composed of some 80 million members * in 164 countries, including the “mother church,” the Church of England, and the Episcopal Church in America. (* A large percentage of Anglican members are “invisible” because they are church members due to the fact that they were baptized as infants and perhaps catechized, but they do not participate in the functional life of the churches.)
The Anglican Church is permeated with theological liberalism at every level.
Consider some examples:
In 1953, Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple, in his book Nature and God, said, “... there is no such thing as revealed truth.”
In 1960, Episcopalian Bishop James Pike said the doctrine of the Trinity is “outdated, incomprehensible and nonessential” (The Christian Century, Dec. 21, 1960). (Billy Graham was a guest at Pike’s ordination on May 15, 1958 and praised the liberal bishop in glowing terms. Nine days later, Graham invited Pike to sit on the platform during his evangelistic crusade in San Francisco and had him lead in prayer. On Dec. 4, 1960, Graham spoke in Pike’s pulpit at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.)
In 1961, Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey said, “... heaven is not a place for Christians only. ... I expect to see many present day atheists there” (London Daily Mail, Oct. 2, 1961). That same year, Bishop James Pike called the virgin birth of Christ a “primitive myth” and said that Joseph was probably Jesus’ real father (Redbookmagazine, August 1961). He also said that Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, heaven, and hell are myths. (Billy Graham invited Ramsey to the platform during his 1975 crusade in Brazil and allowed him to speak to the crowd (Fundamental Evangelistic Association News & Views, May-June 1975).
In 1963, Episcopal theologian Paul van Buren started the God-is-dead movement with the publication of his book The Secular Meaning of the Gospel. That same year, Anglican Bishop John Robinson said in his book Honest to God, “The whole scheme of a supernatural being coming down from heaven to ‘save’ mankind from sin ... is frankly incredible to man ‘come of age.’”
In 1967, after heresy charges were brought against Bishop James Pike, the Episcopal Church in America adopted a resolution declaring that all heresy was out of date. That year, Canon Hugh Montifiore of Cambridge University’s main church said, “Jesus might have been a homosexual” (Christianity Today, Aug. 18, 1967). (Montifiore was the advisor for the Cambridge Billy Graham Television Crusade.)
The Anglican Church is permeated with theological liberalism at every level.
Consider some examples:
In 1953, Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple, in his book Nature and God, said, “... there is no such thing as revealed truth.”
In 1960, Episcopalian Bishop James Pike said the doctrine of the Trinity is “outdated, incomprehensible and nonessential” (The Christian Century, Dec. 21, 1960). (Billy Graham was a guest at Pike’s ordination on May 15, 1958 and praised the liberal bishop in glowing terms. Nine days later, Graham invited Pike to sit on the platform during his evangelistic crusade in San Francisco and had him lead in prayer. On Dec. 4, 1960, Graham spoke in Pike’s pulpit at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.)
In 1961, Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey said, “... heaven is not a place for Christians only. ... I expect to see many present day atheists there” (London Daily Mail, Oct. 2, 1961). That same year, Bishop James Pike called the virgin birth of Christ a “primitive myth” and said that Joseph was probably Jesus’ real father (Redbookmagazine, August 1961). He also said that Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, heaven, and hell are myths. (Billy Graham invited Ramsey to the platform during his 1975 crusade in Brazil and allowed him to speak to the crowd (Fundamental Evangelistic Association News & Views, May-June 1975).
In 1963, Episcopal theologian Paul van Buren started the God-is-dead movement with the publication of his book The Secular Meaning of the Gospel. That same year, Anglican Bishop John Robinson said in his book Honest to God, “The whole scheme of a supernatural being coming down from heaven to ‘save’ mankind from sin ... is frankly incredible to man ‘come of age.’”
In 1967, after heresy charges were brought against Bishop James Pike, the Episcopal Church in America adopted a resolution declaring that all heresy was out of date. That year, Canon Hugh Montifiore of Cambridge University’s main church said, “Jesus might have been a homosexual” (Christianity Today, Aug. 18, 1967). (Montifiore was the advisor for the Cambridge Billy Graham Television Crusade.)
In 1968, the Church of England’s Lambeth Conference voted that Anglican clergy are no longer required to agree to the denomination’s 39 articles of faith.
In 1976, John Spong was ordained as the bishop of the Episcopal diocese of Newark, New Jersey, even though he denied practically every doctrine of the Christian faith.
In 1977, Bishop Paul Moore of the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City ordained lesbian Ellen Barrett as a priest. Barrett told Time magazine that her lesbian love affairs gave her the “strength to serve God.”
In 1978, Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa said the Holy Spirit shined through Mahatma Gandhi, who is a Hindu (St. Alban’s Cathedral, Pretoria, South Africa, Nov. 23, 1978).
In 1980, Tutu said, “It may be that Jesus was an illegitimate son” (Cape Times, Oct. 24, 1980).
In 1982, Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie said he was an agnostic as to why Jesus suffered on the cross (Sunday Times Weekly Review, London, April 11, 1982). That same year, Episcopal Bishop John Spong, writing in the Christian Century (Jan. 6-13, 1982), condemned traditional evangelistic and missionary endeavors and said that biblical absolutism is “a vice.” (Billy Graham was one of the honored guests at Runcie’s ordination in March 1980, and Graham spoke highly of the liberal archbishop during his evangelistic crusades in England in 1984 and 1989.)
In 1984, David Jenkins, Anglican Bishop of Durham, described Christ’s resurrection as “a conjuring trick with bones” (“English Bishop Calls Christ’s Resurrection Conjuring Trick,” AP, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Oct. 28, 1984). Jenkins also said, “The Christian is not bound up with freak biology or corpses getting up and walking around” and “You don’t have to believe in the virgin birth.” (On July 9, 1984, three days after Jenkins was consecrated bishop, lightning struck his cathedral and caused extensive damage. A spokesman for the fire brigade said that though the roof was fully wired with lightning rods, none of them worked that morning; the smoke detectors in the ceiling did not go off, even though they were tested only a month before; and there was no thunder accompanying the lightning. EP News Service, Dec. 21, 1984).
In 1984, the Associated Press reported that only 20 of 31 Church of England bishops polled insisted that Christians must accept Jesus as both God and man.
In 1985, the Jesus Seminar was founded with the help of Episcopalians, including Marcus Borg of Oregon State University. The Seminar claims that Jesus spoke only about 20% of the things attributed to him in the New Testament and that the Jesus described in the Bible is largely a fiction. They claim he wasn’t born of a virgin, didn’t walk on the water, didn’t rise bodily from the dead, and had no intention of starting a new Christian religion. They also claim that there was no Jewish trial of Jesus before the crucifixion and the Jewish crowd did not participate in his condemnation.
In 1985 the St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Minneapolis ran an advertising campaign which included this slogan: “The Episcopal Church welcomes you. Regardless of race, creed, color or the number of times you’ve been born.” Twenty Episcopal churches in the Memphis, Tennessee, area ran an advertisement which stated, “In an atmosphere of absolute right and wrongs, here’s a little room to breathe. ... the Episcopal Church is totally committed to the preservation of open dialogue and undogmatic faith. We exist to tell the world about a God who loves us regardless of what we’ve done or what we believe. Even if we do not believe in Him, He believes in us. We do not suffocate with absolutes.” This, of course, is not biblical Christianity; it is gross apostasy.
When Edmond Lee Browning was elected “presiding bishop” of the Episcopal Church in September 1985, he “made it clear that he disagrees with the church’s official opposition to the ordination of practicing homosexuals” (Religious News Service, Sept. 11, 1985). He stated, “I would sincerely hope the Episcopal Church can say that there are no outcasts, but embrace all people and all cultures.” He was one of 20 bishops who signed a 1979 statement calling the church’s position on gays “a cruel denial of the sexual being of homosexual persons” and a “condemnatory judgment” that made them second-class citizens in the church.
In 1986, Anglican Bishop David Jenkins got a standing ovation from the general synod of the Church of England when he defended his doubts about the virgin birth and bodily resurrection of Christ (Associated Press, July 7, 1986). Jenkins called the God of the Bible “a cultic idol” (Ecumenical Press Service, July 16-21, 1986).
In 1987, a panel of seven Episcopal bishops dismissed heresy charges against Bishop John Spong.
In 1988, Spong published his book Living in Sin: A Bishop Rethinks Human Sexuality. He said, “The time has surely come not just to tolerate, or even to accept, but to celebrate and welcome the presence among us of our gay and lesbian fellow human beings” (p. 199). That year Spong visited a Buddhist temple and said, “As the smell of incense filled the air, I knelt before three images of the Buddha, feeling that the smoke could carry my prayers heavenward. It was for me a holy moment for I was certain that I was kneeling on holy ground” (“A Dialogue in a Buddhist Temple,” John Spong, The Voice, Jan. 1989).
In January 1989, a committee composed of five Episcopal bishops unanimously dismissed a second set of heresy charges that had been brought against Bishop John Spong. Toward the end of that year, Spong ordained the first openly practicing homosexual to the Episcopal priesthood. The man, Robert Williams, was diagnosed with AIDS less than two years later.
According to Integrity, a pro-homosexual Episcopal group, at least 50 practicing homosexuals had been ordained to the priesthood by 1991.
In November 1991, John Spong conducted a seminar in Bangor, Pennsylvania, entitled “Exorcising Fundamentalism, Sexual Phobias and Other Demons.”
In 1993, a survey of nearly 20,000 Episcopalians showed that seventy percent believed “faithful Christians can be sexually active gays and lesbians” (Christian News, Nov. 1, 1993). Seventy-five percent approved of living with someone of the opposite sex without marriage.
In 1994, it was reported by the Sunday Times (July 31) in London that at least 100 Anglican priests are atheists who do not believe in “an external, supernatural God.”
In 1996, Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey lashed out at fundamentalists who place the Bible “above and beyond human inquiry” (Christian News, Dec. 9, 1996). That same year, the doctrinal commission of the Church of England said hell is not a place of fire and eternal torment. And Episcopal Bishop John Spong wrote in his paper that the image of God in the Bible is “no longer operative” (ENI, Dec. 6, 1996).
In 1997, a survey found that 31% of Anglican vicars in England do not believe in the virgin birth (Alliance Life, March 12, 1997). Actually that figure would probably have been much higher had the survey attempted to discover the number of vicars who believe in the virgin birth only in a figurative manner.
In his 1991 book Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Episcopal Bishop John Spong said the apostle Paul was “a self hating, repressed homosexual.” That year, Spong ordained another homosexual priest, Barry Stopfel. Lesbian Episcopal priest Carter Heyward delivered the ordination sermon. When Stopfel’s male “lover” was introduced, the audience applauded.
In 1998 Episcopalian Bishop John Spong said, “I would choose to loathe rather than to worship a deity who required the sacrifice of his son” (Christianity Today, June 15, 1998). That same year, retiring Episcopal Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning said, “It is time to move past using literalistic readings of the Bible to create prejudices against our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters” (Calvary Contender, May 1, 1998).
In 2002, Richard Harries, Anglican Bishop of Oxford, said Christians should pray to “God the Mother” (The Times, Nov. 3, 2002). That same year, retired Bishop Spong proposed a “new Christianity,” which must be able to “incorporate all of our reality. It must be able to allow God and Satan to come together in each of us. ... It must unite Christ with Antichrist, Jesus with Judas, male with female, heterosexual with homosexual” (World, July 8, 2002).
In April 2003, Episcopalian bishop Charles Bennison said that Jesus Christ was a sinner (Worthy News, April 14, 2003).
On June 7, 2003, the Diocese of New Hampshire elected the first openly homosexual bishop in the history of the Episcopal Church USA. The election was confirmed on August 5 by the General Convention meeting in Minneapolis. Thirteen years ago the newly elected bishop, V. Gene Robinson, broke his marriage vows when he left his wife and two young daughters and moved in with his male partner, Mark Andrew. In a speech in April 29, 2000, the day before a homosexual march in Washington, D.C., Robinson said: “... we are worthy to hold our heads high as gay folk--NOT because we’ve merely decided we are worthy, but because God has proclaimed it so. That we are loved beyond our wildest imagining by a God who made us the way we are and proclaimed it good. We proclaim today that we too read our Bibles, and through the voices of its many witnesses, we hear God’s voice--NOT saying ‘You are an abomination,’ but rather, ‘You are my beloved.’ We lay an equal claim to a savior who loves us as we are and who died to save us from our ‘manifold sins and wickedness,’ which does NOT include our being gay. And we come here today, laying claim to our full membership--our FULL membership--in the Body of Christ.”
In June 2006, the national convention of the Episcopal Church in America voted overwhelmingly against a resolution stating “an unchanging commitment to Jesus Christ as the son of God, the only name by which any person may be saved. More than seven tenths of the House of Deputies rejected the motion. One of those who voted against the resolution, a “Rev. McDowell” of North Carolina, told VirtueOnline that “how one lives his life is the more important issue than whether one affirms Jesus as Lord” and stated his conviction that all men are already children of God.
The 2006 Episcopal convention elected the ultra-liberal Katharine Jefferts Schori to be the presiding bishop for a nine-year term. In her first sermon in that capacity she referred to “our mother Jesus,” claiming that he gave birth to a new creation on the cross and implying that all are his children. Later she told the Washington Post that those who believe that the words of the Bible have only one possible interpretation are guilty of idolatry. She said, “I’m encouraging people to look beyond their favorite understandings” (Douglas LeBlanc, “Two Minds in One Episcopal Body,” Christian Research Journal, vol. 29, no. 5, 2006).
At the same convention, Louie Crew and some other voting representatives (called deputies) referred to the Holy Spirit as “she.” The homosexual bishop Gene Robinson said the Holy Spirit “is that part of God that refuses to be confined and contained in the little boxes we have for God” (“Two Minds in One Episcopal Body,” Christian Research Journal, vol. 29, no. 5, 2006). He said, further, “We don’t worship a God who is all locked up in the Scripture of 2,000 years ago.” He quoted John Fortunato, a homosexual author who claims that God visited him and confirmed that homosexuality is fine if it is “loving.” He said, “God smiled and said quietly, ‘How can loving be wrong? All love comes from me.”
On September 14, 2008, the Church of England officially apologized to Charles Darwin for rejecting his theory of evolution. It said: “Charles Darwin, 200 years from your birth, the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still” (“Church Makes ‘Ludicrous’ Apology,” The Daily Mail, Sept. 13, 2008). The statement was written by Malcolm Brown, who sits on the Archbishops’ Council, the Church of England’s managing body, headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury (Rowan Williams). Its argument that the theory of evolution is not incompatible with Christian teaching is patently ridiculous. The Bible plainly says that the world was created by God in six days, that the plant and animal life was made to reproduce after its own kind, that man was made in God’s image, that he sinned against God, and that the world was cast into fallen chaos. This fits perfectly with the condition that we see in the world today as well as the archaeological and geological records. If there was no divine creation, if man is a product of evolution, then Genesis is a myth, the fall is a fable, there is no purpose to life, no afterlife, and no salvation. If the account of Adam is a legend, then Jesus Christ’s apostles were deceived and the gospel they preached a delusion, because they mentioned Adam seven times in their writings, describing him always as a historical figure.
On May 16, 2009, the bells of the Anglican Cathedral of Liverpool pealed out John Lennon’s atheistic song “Imagine” three times. A spokesperson for the cathedral said, “We feel this performance has inspired many people to think about their relationship with God in their lives” (“Imagine That,” The Daily Mail, May 17, 2009). Indeed, as we have seen, many members of the Anglican Church have no problem imagining with Lennon that there is no heaven or hell. John Lennon was anti-christ. His book A Spaniard in the Works portrayed Jesus as El Pifico, a “garlic eating, stinking little yellow, greasy fascist ****** Catholic Spaniard.” In this wicked book, Lennon further blasphemed the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the song “I Found Out,” Lennon sang, “There ain’t no Jesus gonna come from the sky,” and in his song “God,” he said, “I don’t believe in Bible. I don’t believe in Jesus. I just believe in me.” In an interview with a British newspaper Lennon defined God in these words: “All the energy is God. Your own energy and their energy, whether doing god-like things or ungodly things” (The Daily Sketch, Oct. 9, 1967). Lennon and Yoko Ono were heavily involved in occultism. The books Hellhounds on Their Trail by Gary Patterson, Nowhere Man: The Final Days of John Lennon by Robert Rosen, and Lennon in America by Geoffrey Giuliano describe how the Lennons purchased entire sections of occult literature in bookstores, consulted tarot cards, astrologers, and psychics, learned how to cast spells, sought magical power from Egyptian artifacts, and believed in reincarnation.
Following a vote in May 2009 by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to approve the appointment of a homosexual pastor, Desmond Tutu, Anglican Bishop Emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa, voiced his approval saying that churches should not be discussing “who goes to bed with whom” (“Desmond Tutu Endorses Homosexual Ministers,” LifeSiteNews.com, May 29, 2009). The homosexual pastor, Scott Rennie, was ordained the pastor of Queen’s Cross Church in Aberdeen in 2008, but his appointment was protested and brought before the denomination’s ruling body. Like Vickie Gene Robinson, who was ordained a bishop in the Episcopal Church of America in 2003, Rennie divorced his wife to live carnally with a man. This is a double sin. First, there is the sin of breaking one’s solemn marriage vows before Almighty God. Second, there is the sin of sodomy. Yet these men are so spiritually blind that they claim to hold the moral high ground! (The Church of Scotland is not part of the Anglican communion, but Tutu is.)
At its annual convention in 2012, the Episcopal Church in America endorsed the blessing of “same-sex unions” and voted in favor of “transgender clergy” (Rob Kerby, “Why Is the Episcopal Church Near Collapse?” Beliefnet.com, July 13, 2012). Presiding Bishop Katharine Jeffferts Schori called God the “Big Man.”
In 2013, the Church of England “dropped its ban on gay clergy in civil partnerships becoming bishops” and a study group proposed that the Church “be able to recognize and celebrate same-sex marriages and partnerships in church services” (“Church of England Proposes Celebrating Gay Marriage,” Newsmax.com, Nov. 28, 2013).
In 2014, V. Gene Robinson, the first openly homosexual bishop in the Anglican church, announced that he is divorcing his “partner,” Mark Andrew. The two “married” in 2010 when same-sex marriage was legalized in New Hampshire (“First Openly Homosexual Episcopal Bishop Divorces,” OneNewsNow, May 4, 2014). In 1990, Robinson broke his marriage vows when he left his wife and two young daughters and moved in with Andrew.
In 1976, John Spong was ordained as the bishop of the Episcopal diocese of Newark, New Jersey, even though he denied practically every doctrine of the Christian faith.
In 1977, Bishop Paul Moore of the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City ordained lesbian Ellen Barrett as a priest. Barrett told Time magazine that her lesbian love affairs gave her the “strength to serve God.”
In 1978, Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa said the Holy Spirit shined through Mahatma Gandhi, who is a Hindu (St. Alban’s Cathedral, Pretoria, South Africa, Nov. 23, 1978).
In 1980, Tutu said, “It may be that Jesus was an illegitimate son” (Cape Times, Oct. 24, 1980).
In 1982, Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie said he was an agnostic as to why Jesus suffered on the cross (Sunday Times Weekly Review, London, April 11, 1982). That same year, Episcopal Bishop John Spong, writing in the Christian Century (Jan. 6-13, 1982), condemned traditional evangelistic and missionary endeavors and said that biblical absolutism is “a vice.” (Billy Graham was one of the honored guests at Runcie’s ordination in March 1980, and Graham spoke highly of the liberal archbishop during his evangelistic crusades in England in 1984 and 1989.)
In 1984, David Jenkins, Anglican Bishop of Durham, described Christ’s resurrection as “a conjuring trick with bones” (“English Bishop Calls Christ’s Resurrection Conjuring Trick,” AP, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Oct. 28, 1984). Jenkins also said, “The Christian is not bound up with freak biology or corpses getting up and walking around” and “You don’t have to believe in the virgin birth.” (On July 9, 1984, three days after Jenkins was consecrated bishop, lightning struck his cathedral and caused extensive damage. A spokesman for the fire brigade said that though the roof was fully wired with lightning rods, none of them worked that morning; the smoke detectors in the ceiling did not go off, even though they were tested only a month before; and there was no thunder accompanying the lightning. EP News Service, Dec. 21, 1984).
In 1984, the Associated Press reported that only 20 of 31 Church of England bishops polled insisted that Christians must accept Jesus as both God and man.
In 1985, the Jesus Seminar was founded with the help of Episcopalians, including Marcus Borg of Oregon State University. The Seminar claims that Jesus spoke only about 20% of the things attributed to him in the New Testament and that the Jesus described in the Bible is largely a fiction. They claim he wasn’t born of a virgin, didn’t walk on the water, didn’t rise bodily from the dead, and had no intention of starting a new Christian religion. They also claim that there was no Jewish trial of Jesus before the crucifixion and the Jewish crowd did not participate in his condemnation.
In 1985 the St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Minneapolis ran an advertising campaign which included this slogan: “The Episcopal Church welcomes you. Regardless of race, creed, color or the number of times you’ve been born.” Twenty Episcopal churches in the Memphis, Tennessee, area ran an advertisement which stated, “In an atmosphere of absolute right and wrongs, here’s a little room to breathe. ... the Episcopal Church is totally committed to the preservation of open dialogue and undogmatic faith. We exist to tell the world about a God who loves us regardless of what we’ve done or what we believe. Even if we do not believe in Him, He believes in us. We do not suffocate with absolutes.” This, of course, is not biblical Christianity; it is gross apostasy.
When Edmond Lee Browning was elected “presiding bishop” of the Episcopal Church in September 1985, he “made it clear that he disagrees with the church’s official opposition to the ordination of practicing homosexuals” (Religious News Service, Sept. 11, 1985). He stated, “I would sincerely hope the Episcopal Church can say that there are no outcasts, but embrace all people and all cultures.” He was one of 20 bishops who signed a 1979 statement calling the church’s position on gays “a cruel denial of the sexual being of homosexual persons” and a “condemnatory judgment” that made them second-class citizens in the church.
In 1986, Anglican Bishop David Jenkins got a standing ovation from the general synod of the Church of England when he defended his doubts about the virgin birth and bodily resurrection of Christ (Associated Press, July 7, 1986). Jenkins called the God of the Bible “a cultic idol” (Ecumenical Press Service, July 16-21, 1986).
In 1987, a panel of seven Episcopal bishops dismissed heresy charges against Bishop John Spong.
In 1988, Spong published his book Living in Sin: A Bishop Rethinks Human Sexuality. He said, “The time has surely come not just to tolerate, or even to accept, but to celebrate and welcome the presence among us of our gay and lesbian fellow human beings” (p. 199). That year Spong visited a Buddhist temple and said, “As the smell of incense filled the air, I knelt before three images of the Buddha, feeling that the smoke could carry my prayers heavenward. It was for me a holy moment for I was certain that I was kneeling on holy ground” (“A Dialogue in a Buddhist Temple,” John Spong, The Voice, Jan. 1989).
In January 1989, a committee composed of five Episcopal bishops unanimously dismissed a second set of heresy charges that had been brought against Bishop John Spong. Toward the end of that year, Spong ordained the first openly practicing homosexual to the Episcopal priesthood. The man, Robert Williams, was diagnosed with AIDS less than two years later.
According to Integrity, a pro-homosexual Episcopal group, at least 50 practicing homosexuals had been ordained to the priesthood by 1991.
In November 1991, John Spong conducted a seminar in Bangor, Pennsylvania, entitled “Exorcising Fundamentalism, Sexual Phobias and Other Demons.”
In 1993, a survey of nearly 20,000 Episcopalians showed that seventy percent believed “faithful Christians can be sexually active gays and lesbians” (Christian News, Nov. 1, 1993). Seventy-five percent approved of living with someone of the opposite sex without marriage.
In 1994, it was reported by the Sunday Times (July 31) in London that at least 100 Anglican priests are atheists who do not believe in “an external, supernatural God.”
In 1996, Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey lashed out at fundamentalists who place the Bible “above and beyond human inquiry” (Christian News, Dec. 9, 1996). That same year, the doctrinal commission of the Church of England said hell is not a place of fire and eternal torment. And Episcopal Bishop John Spong wrote in his paper that the image of God in the Bible is “no longer operative” (ENI, Dec. 6, 1996).
In 1997, a survey found that 31% of Anglican vicars in England do not believe in the virgin birth (Alliance Life, March 12, 1997). Actually that figure would probably have been much higher had the survey attempted to discover the number of vicars who believe in the virgin birth only in a figurative manner.
In his 1991 book Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Episcopal Bishop John Spong said the apostle Paul was “a self hating, repressed homosexual.” That year, Spong ordained another homosexual priest, Barry Stopfel. Lesbian Episcopal priest Carter Heyward delivered the ordination sermon. When Stopfel’s male “lover” was introduced, the audience applauded.
In 1998 Episcopalian Bishop John Spong said, “I would choose to loathe rather than to worship a deity who required the sacrifice of his son” (Christianity Today, June 15, 1998). That same year, retiring Episcopal Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning said, “It is time to move past using literalistic readings of the Bible to create prejudices against our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters” (Calvary Contender, May 1, 1998).
In 2002, Richard Harries, Anglican Bishop of Oxford, said Christians should pray to “God the Mother” (The Times, Nov. 3, 2002). That same year, retired Bishop Spong proposed a “new Christianity,” which must be able to “incorporate all of our reality. It must be able to allow God and Satan to come together in each of us. ... It must unite Christ with Antichrist, Jesus with Judas, male with female, heterosexual with homosexual” (World, July 8, 2002).
In April 2003, Episcopalian bishop Charles Bennison said that Jesus Christ was a sinner (Worthy News, April 14, 2003).
On June 7, 2003, the Diocese of New Hampshire elected the first openly homosexual bishop in the history of the Episcopal Church USA. The election was confirmed on August 5 by the General Convention meeting in Minneapolis. Thirteen years ago the newly elected bishop, V. Gene Robinson, broke his marriage vows when he left his wife and two young daughters and moved in with his male partner, Mark Andrew. In a speech in April 29, 2000, the day before a homosexual march in Washington, D.C., Robinson said: “... we are worthy to hold our heads high as gay folk--NOT because we’ve merely decided we are worthy, but because God has proclaimed it so. That we are loved beyond our wildest imagining by a God who made us the way we are and proclaimed it good. We proclaim today that we too read our Bibles, and through the voices of its many witnesses, we hear God’s voice--NOT saying ‘You are an abomination,’ but rather, ‘You are my beloved.’ We lay an equal claim to a savior who loves us as we are and who died to save us from our ‘manifold sins and wickedness,’ which does NOT include our being gay. And we come here today, laying claim to our full membership--our FULL membership--in the Body of Christ.”
In June 2006, the national convention of the Episcopal Church in America voted overwhelmingly against a resolution stating “an unchanging commitment to Jesus Christ as the son of God, the only name by which any person may be saved. More than seven tenths of the House of Deputies rejected the motion. One of those who voted against the resolution, a “Rev. McDowell” of North Carolina, told VirtueOnline that “how one lives his life is the more important issue than whether one affirms Jesus as Lord” and stated his conviction that all men are already children of God.
The 2006 Episcopal convention elected the ultra-liberal Katharine Jefferts Schori to be the presiding bishop for a nine-year term. In her first sermon in that capacity she referred to “our mother Jesus,” claiming that he gave birth to a new creation on the cross and implying that all are his children. Later she told the Washington Post that those who believe that the words of the Bible have only one possible interpretation are guilty of idolatry. She said, “I’m encouraging people to look beyond their favorite understandings” (Douglas LeBlanc, “Two Minds in One Episcopal Body,” Christian Research Journal, vol. 29, no. 5, 2006).
At the same convention, Louie Crew and some other voting representatives (called deputies) referred to the Holy Spirit as “she.” The homosexual bishop Gene Robinson said the Holy Spirit “is that part of God that refuses to be confined and contained in the little boxes we have for God” (“Two Minds in One Episcopal Body,” Christian Research Journal, vol. 29, no. 5, 2006). He said, further, “We don’t worship a God who is all locked up in the Scripture of 2,000 years ago.” He quoted John Fortunato, a homosexual author who claims that God visited him and confirmed that homosexuality is fine if it is “loving.” He said, “God smiled and said quietly, ‘How can loving be wrong? All love comes from me.”
On September 14, 2008, the Church of England officially apologized to Charles Darwin for rejecting his theory of evolution. It said: “Charles Darwin, 200 years from your birth, the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still” (“Church Makes ‘Ludicrous’ Apology,” The Daily Mail, Sept. 13, 2008). The statement was written by Malcolm Brown, who sits on the Archbishops’ Council, the Church of England’s managing body, headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury (Rowan Williams). Its argument that the theory of evolution is not incompatible with Christian teaching is patently ridiculous. The Bible plainly says that the world was created by God in six days, that the plant and animal life was made to reproduce after its own kind, that man was made in God’s image, that he sinned against God, and that the world was cast into fallen chaos. This fits perfectly with the condition that we see in the world today as well as the archaeological and geological records. If there was no divine creation, if man is a product of evolution, then Genesis is a myth, the fall is a fable, there is no purpose to life, no afterlife, and no salvation. If the account of Adam is a legend, then Jesus Christ’s apostles were deceived and the gospel they preached a delusion, because they mentioned Adam seven times in their writings, describing him always as a historical figure.
On May 16, 2009, the bells of the Anglican Cathedral of Liverpool pealed out John Lennon’s atheistic song “Imagine” three times. A spokesperson for the cathedral said, “We feel this performance has inspired many people to think about their relationship with God in their lives” (“Imagine That,” The Daily Mail, May 17, 2009). Indeed, as we have seen, many members of the Anglican Church have no problem imagining with Lennon that there is no heaven or hell. John Lennon was anti-christ. His book A Spaniard in the Works portrayed Jesus as El Pifico, a “garlic eating, stinking little yellow, greasy fascist ****** Catholic Spaniard.” In this wicked book, Lennon further blasphemed the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the song “I Found Out,” Lennon sang, “There ain’t no Jesus gonna come from the sky,” and in his song “God,” he said, “I don’t believe in Bible. I don’t believe in Jesus. I just believe in me.” In an interview with a British newspaper Lennon defined God in these words: “All the energy is God. Your own energy and their energy, whether doing god-like things or ungodly things” (The Daily Sketch, Oct. 9, 1967). Lennon and Yoko Ono were heavily involved in occultism. The books Hellhounds on Their Trail by Gary Patterson, Nowhere Man: The Final Days of John Lennon by Robert Rosen, and Lennon in America by Geoffrey Giuliano describe how the Lennons purchased entire sections of occult literature in bookstores, consulted tarot cards, astrologers, and psychics, learned how to cast spells, sought magical power from Egyptian artifacts, and believed in reincarnation.
Following a vote in May 2009 by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to approve the appointment of a homosexual pastor, Desmond Tutu, Anglican Bishop Emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa, voiced his approval saying that churches should not be discussing “who goes to bed with whom” (“Desmond Tutu Endorses Homosexual Ministers,” LifeSiteNews.com, May 29, 2009). The homosexual pastor, Scott Rennie, was ordained the pastor of Queen’s Cross Church in Aberdeen in 2008, but his appointment was protested and brought before the denomination’s ruling body. Like Vickie Gene Robinson, who was ordained a bishop in the Episcopal Church of America in 2003, Rennie divorced his wife to live carnally with a man. This is a double sin. First, there is the sin of breaking one’s solemn marriage vows before Almighty God. Second, there is the sin of sodomy. Yet these men are so spiritually blind that they claim to hold the moral high ground! (The Church of Scotland is not part of the Anglican communion, but Tutu is.)
At its annual convention in 2012, the Episcopal Church in America endorsed the blessing of “same-sex unions” and voted in favor of “transgender clergy” (Rob Kerby, “Why Is the Episcopal Church Near Collapse?” Beliefnet.com, July 13, 2012). Presiding Bishop Katharine Jeffferts Schori called God the “Big Man.”
In 2013, the Church of England “dropped its ban on gay clergy in civil partnerships becoming bishops” and a study group proposed that the Church “be able to recognize and celebrate same-sex marriages and partnerships in church services” (“Church of England Proposes Celebrating Gay Marriage,” Newsmax.com, Nov. 28, 2013).
In 2014, V. Gene Robinson, the first openly homosexual bishop in the Anglican church, announced that he is divorcing his “partner,” Mark Andrew. The two “married” in 2010 when same-sex marriage was legalized in New Hampshire (“First Openly Homosexual Episcopal Bishop Divorces,” OneNewsNow, May 4, 2014). In 1990, Robinson broke his marriage vows when he left his wife and two young daughters and moved in with Andrew.
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The Ecumenical Bear Hug of Pope Francis and Kenneth Copeland:
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