Most of you clearly understand the evils of the modern ecumenical movement, which is trying to unite people of many religions into the one world church.
This has been promoted by liberals for generations, and those called evangelicals have jumped on the band wagon. No one says anything about anyone and, if they do, they are branded as trouble makers in the Temple of the Lord.
ECT, ECT 2 (The Gift of Salvation) and EC (The Evangelical Celebration) have reminded us that the follies of ecumenical thinking far exceed the bounds of normal compromise.
(For a full treatment of these documents, go to out Website at dodone.org and look in the index E-K for ECT and related statements.)
It may be that because the realization that compromise is all around us, that I was wary as I saw the envelope that said, "They've joined forces to help safeguard your family's future." On the top of the envelope were photos of Dr. James Dobson, Dr. Bill Bright, Larry Burkett, Dr. D. James Kennedy, Marlin Maddux and Rev. Don Wildmon. The smiles on their faces almost made me happy because they seemed to promise, "Lo, I am with you always."
Dr. Bill Bright, who seems to come out with a new crusade regularly, is well known for not only his signing of ECT and ECT 2, but of his constant justification of his position claiming, in a statement that many would find ludicrous, that his signing of ECT has made possibly the salvation of 10 million Catholics. In this recent letter he states, "I truly believe we are fighting for the very survival of the gospel and of evangelism today."
What does he mean by "the Gospel?" In ECT, it stated that people can be born again by means of sacramental baptism. Is that part of what he is fighting for?
Can we look to six men, many if not all of whom have bad track records regarding the fundamentals of the Faith, and send our checks to them instead of relying on the Lord. Are they people so great in the eyes of the Church that they can now be relied on the fight battles - WHEN MOST OF THEM DO NOT KNOW WHERE THE REAL BATTLES ARE.
We can win in the courts and be found wanting at the Bema Judgment because we cared more for "defending our own rights" as Larry Burkett urged us.
Do we have any rights? We are aliens on this planet, sent by the One Who was despised and rejected of man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He stood before his accusers as a lamb come to the slaughter - but now we have these "Giants of the Faith" some of whom are confused about what Faith they are standing for, but all primed to do battle against the ACLU.
Now, I for one would not weep if the ACLU were defeated. It is said that their enmity against erecting manger scenes at public places is because, in their entire organization, they do not have one virgin or three wise men. (My reason for not erecting one is, as my Ulster friends would say, they are Popish.)
Most American Christians laud the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11, except for those who "wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented."
But we don't have to worry about that ever happening to us, as long as we have the six musketeers, Dobson, Bright, Burkett, Kennedy, Maddux and Wildmon, to fight our battles for a Christianity many of them do not even seem to understand.