ECFC Calls for Repentance from ECT Signers

1999 Ex Catholics For Christ (now called Reaching Catholics for Christ) Conference ECT+5: A Biblical Response

To the Evangelical Signers of "Evangelicals & Catholics Together" A Public Call to Repentance Delivered by Conference Chairman T. A. McMahon March 27, 1999

It has been our hope and prayer that this conference would be a blessing to all who have gathered together here, and that the content presented...the information communicated... the heart's cry of every speaker...would go forth from this place to the Glory of our precious Lord and Savior...for the proclamation of His gospel and for the edification of His Body --- those who have come or will come to know and trust in Him alone for their salvation.

Some of our endeavors here have been approached with great delight and joy; especially the things which are obvious with regard to the wondrous love of Christ our Savior. Some things presented were a bit more somber, reflecting concerns that grieve many of us. But this concluding part of the conference, we, the leaders of ministries which helped organized this conference, this part we approached with fell and trembling.

On the one hand, we do not want to do anything that would bring harm to the body of Christ. We all have a godly fear about doing something that would displease the Lord or bring reproach to His name.

On the other hand, where we recognize clear damage being wrought with regard to the cause of Christ and His gospel, we are compelled by our love for Him and for His truth to address what we see taking place.

All of you have spent a very packed day and a half with us, going over the issues related to the document Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium ... so there is no need to recount them here.

Yet a summary of our concerns about that agreement, and its follow-up known as ECT 2, may help you better to understand what we are about to do.

The ECT documents have led multitudes of Christians to believe that there is agreement between the church of Rome, with its false gospel, and the gospel in which evangelicals have put their trust. The ECT documents have introduced much confusion with regard to the simple gospel message.

The ECT documents have done immeasurable harm by hindering the worldwide proclamation of the gospel, especially for evangelical missionaries in Catholic countries.

And finally, foundationally, and most critically, the ECT documents in fact deny the biblical gospel of salvation.

We would be thankful beyond measure if somehow these pernicious documents could be completely eradicated, never again to be considered by anyone. But these documents have the backing of numerous evangelical leaders, those who simply by their stature and prestige have led multitudes to follow them in their acceptance of ECT 1 and 2.

In the five years since the signing of the first agreement, the evangelical signers have received a great deal of feedback, personally and publicly--.feedback critical to both the document and their support of it. That criticism, much of it in the form of detailed analysis, has been presented with the hope that these men would see the grievous error of what they have done, that they would repent of their signing and reject the document publicly.

None of us here in any sense is judging the heart or motivation of any of the ECT signers. That is an issue between them and the Lord. Nor are we questioning their salvation.

However, our love for them and for the Body of Christ compels us to call upon them to publicly renounce the ECT accords and ask the church at large for forgiveness for their past participation in these accords.

We do this in simple obedience to the Scriptures. We look to the example of Paul who opposed Peter 'to his face" (Galatians 2: 11) "in the presence of all" (Galatians 2:14). He accused Peter of "hypocrisy" (Galatians 2:13), of not being "straightforward about the truth of the gospel (Galatians 2:14). Paul writes that Peter "was to be blamed' (Galatians 2:11). In addition, we find in I Timothy 5:20, "Them that sin rebuke before all, that others may also fear. 'Paul writes to Titus, "Those who stray from the truth in their teaching are to be warned and rebuked that they might repent" and "refute those who contradict sound doctrine " (Titus 1: 13; 1: 9).