ECUMENICALS SHOULD NOT TRY TO ANSWER THE PRAYER OF JESUS IN JOHN 17:22. GOD THE FATHER IS TO ANSWER THE PRAYER OF JESUS, NOT ECUMENICALS.THE TRUE BODY OF CHRIST IS IN UNITY. In His prayer Jesus specified the kind of persons who can be in unity as He is in unity with the Father (John. 17:22b). He made clear the DESIRED UNITY WOULD BE A SPIRITUAL UNITY (17:5; 10:30), UNITY IN TRUTH (17:17), AND IN AGAPE LOVE (17:23,26). The fact that seems to be commonly overlooked is that Jesus' prayer HAS ALREADY been answered and continues to be answered until He claims His Bride.

THE WORLD SEES HUNDREDS OF DENOMINATIONS; GOD SEES THE ONE CHURCH, THE BODY OF CHRIST, WHICH INCLUDES SOME FROM MANY DENOMINATIONS. The only way to be in the true Church is to be placed into the Body of Christ by the Holy Spirit in regeneration: ...the Body is one .. . .all the members are one . . .for by one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body (1 Cor. 12:12-13). You are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:28). JESUS PRAYER WAS ANSWERED AS ACTS 2 RECORDS. The disciples were in the unity of the Spirit since all were filled with the Holy Spirit (2:4, they were in unity of Truth as they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine (2:42), and they were in unity of Love (2:43- 44). The original unity of the Church was gradually broken by heretical teachers and their followers as recorded, for example, in Jesus' letters to the seven churches (Rev. 2-3). The ONLY way the whole Body of Christ can again have visible unity before the world is for all to be of the same doctrine and experience as that first church. Since Jesus prayed for the unity of the believers, the real believers will really have unity. And this Biblical oneness can exist only among the believers. HENCE THIS UNITY AND ONENESS CANNOT EXIST AMONG THOSE WHO ARE NOT REGENERATEDAND NOT BELIEVE IN BASIC DOCTRINES OF THE BIBLE, even if they belong to the same denomination. In either case concrete efforts towards visible organizational unity of the Church is invalid and wasteful. Church is basically a spiritual society and it is not monolithic organism. WHAT IT NEEDS FIRST IS SPIRITUAL UNITY THROUGH THE INSTRUMENTALITY OF HOLY SPIRIT. No one should think that genuine church unity can be created by the negotiations at the leadership levels alone. Organizational unity if required can proceed only from the spiritual dynamism of believers. THE TRUE UNITY IN THE CHURCH IS THE SPONTANEOUS RESULT OF THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE BELIEVERS. It is not something that can be manufactured by man through negotiations alone. Hence that kind of ecumenism is not our priority. We believe in practicing it, not theorizing.

TRUTH AND ERROR CANNOT CO-EXIST TO PRODUCE UNITY

THE END WILL NOT JUSTIFY MEANS. It is never right to do a little wrong to obtain the greatest possible good. Your duty is to do the right and God is capable of defining the consequences with you little righteous effort. Results are not the final arbiter of truth; one's ability to call fire down from heaven is not the final arbiter of truth. God's Word is the only and final arbiter of truth".

WHY NO DIVISION? Why the Bible-believing churches accept many of teachings held up today? Because most of the believers and pastors do not read and study the Bible any more. Most people simply go along with whatever they are told as biblical, with no particular interest in checking it out for themselves. But listen to the warning "...If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:31-32).

THERE CAN BE DIFFERENCES AND DIVISION IN THE CHURCH DUE TO ERROR AND TRUTH. There are two things that cause division according to the Bible: truth and error. Jesus said: Do you suppose I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, rather division!..from now on five members in one household will be divided three against two, and two against three" (Luke 12:51-52).Though difficult to accept, that's what Jesus said. He said that whole families would be divided over Him. And there are many occasions in the New Testament when whole assemblies of people were divided because of Jesus (John 7:43, 9:16, 10:19, Acts 23:6-7).

PEOPLE WHO LOVE THE TRUTH WILL DIVIDE FROM PEOPLE WHO LOVE LIES. Today the deepest truths in the Bible are debated and disputed within the church. Hence those who truly want to know and believe in God's views on these great pillars of Christian doctrine, will appear to be divisive. Division that comes from the proclaiming of the truth will include intense reaction and opposition, but it will also produce good fruit and the advancement of God's kingdom.

THE LIBERAL ECUMENISM IS ANTI-DOCTRINE AND ANTI-BIBLE – BUT KEEP CREATING FALSE DOCTRINES

THE ECUMENICAL MOTTO IS "SERVICE UNITES, DOCTRINE DIVIDES". But in spite of their wish to ignore doctrines, and reject the Bible, the issues continue to re-appear. The BASIC PREMISES OF THE ECUMENICAL MOVEMENT TOO ARE NOT BIBLICAL. The continuing efforts towards organizational unity among various denominations and religions are not scripturally commissioned. On the other hand believers have spiritual unity in Christ. Hence believers in Christ need not try to create unity, but only have to maintain the already existing unity by faith in Christ. “Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph 4:3) Apart from Christ there cannot have any lasting unity.

They consider the people of God as comprising the entire humanity. To unite the whole world they use the PANTHEISTIC IDEOLOGY. They see all human beings as part of the one ultimate reality. To them church and the world community are not two different entities. Christian ecumenism is only one of the many world-wide attempts toward unity. TODAY WIDER ECUMENICAL EFFORTS ARE INCLUSIVE OF ALL PEOPLE OF ALL RELIGIONS AND ALSO THE ECOLOGICAL SYSTEM. ‘Oikoumene’ attempts to unify the whole world. They try to find out some common grounds between Christian faith and other religions.

The BASIC PRESUPPOSITION OF THE LIBERATION THEOLOGY IS UNBIBLICAL. Though the believer can take a stand against the existing structures of exploitation, Bible does not say that he should fight against them. Moreover believers are not supposed to ‘read the scriptures and interpret its message and significance in the light of their struggle’. They should do exactly the opposite: that they should interpret the context in the light of the scriptures. God is interested in the well being of his entire creation as well as every aspect of human life. An evangelist is also called to play the role of a prophet to reprove, rebuke and condemn against social injustice, inequality, corruption in high places and exploitation of any kind and to uphold human rights in the society.

ECUMENISM CREATE FALSE DOCTRINESCOMPROMISING THE TRUTH. The confusion, double-talk and contradictions in fact of the wcc are clearly visible. At the very heart of the whole matter is the failure of the world council of churches to accept the bible as the authoritative, infallible, inerrant, eternal, unchangeable Word of God. Romans 16:17, Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.” 2 John 1:9, “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.” How sad it is that those in the WCC are ignoring the Bible which tells us plainly that our hope our only hope - is the return of Jesus Christ. Titus 2:13. How sad it is that they ignore the teaching of Scripture that the Kingdom of God is not some socialistic kingdom established through the efforts of man, but a perfect and righteous Kingdom to be set up by our Lord Jesus Christ in spite of and apart from any effort of man to either thwart or aid the establishment of that Kingdom. Daniel 2:44. Revelation 19:13-16.

FALSE TEACHING OF BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. One document said, "Through Baptism every person is made part of the Christian Community . . ." Again, "Through Baptism we are redeemed from the powers of sin and death and incorporated into the one body of Christ."

FALSE TEACHING OF UNIVERSALISM: In His life, suffering, cross and resurrection, all humanity with its agonies and struggles is judged, liberated and REDEEMED. "Christians believe that all human beings are part of a dynamic pointing towards the messianic Kingdom. Evangelicals who remain in the WCC are being used as window dressing to hide the WCC apostasy.

THE DIFFERENCES HAVE TO RESOLVED BY PREACHING THE TRUTH, AND NOT BY IGNORING THEM. The undiluted preaching from god's word and an authoritative stand on truth seem to be on the decline. What we're seeing instead is a broadening of the gospel, a redefining of what it means to be a Christian, and a growing emphasis on inclusion and tolerance. Ecumenism has come to mean "reducing all elements of faith to the lowest common denominator. God's Word is neglected, experience is valued above truth, a false and selfish "faith" is promoted, and sound doctrine and correction are despised as "divisive" and "unloving."

UNITY IN THE FAITH IS IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. Without such a foundation we have no basis for the faith. There is no "common ground" between belief and unbelief. A believer cannot ignore the "major theological differences" between him and an unbeliever.

THE LIBERAL ECUMENISM REJECTS THE CLAIMS OF THE BIBLE JESUS AND THE CHURCH

ECUMENISM IS AGAINST THE UNIQUENESS OF JESUS CHRIST AND HIS GOSPEL. Ecumenical structures have been taken over by individuals who subscribe to false ecumenism and who are determined to dilute the fundamental truths of Christian faith and propagate their own ideology. The ideologies of social gospel, wider ecumenism and theology of liberation etc subtly drift away from the basic tenets of gospel. Nothing can be more important than obeying the commandments of Jesus and the mission of proclaiming the gospel. They also introduce REGIONAL THEOLOGIES like black theology, liberation theology and Dalit theology which all in one way or other divert from the basic theme of salvation in Christ. We do not believe in diluting and confining the proclamation of gospel to conferences, councils and dialogues alone.

ECUMENICALS ARE AGAINST THE CHRISTIAN MISSION AND EVANGELISM. After all it is not clear what is mission according to the ecumenical leaders and one can only wonder how they are fulfilling their missionary responsibilities. Theology of the Book of Acts is the theology of Holy Spirit and missionary outreach. It gives a missiology of power through Holy Spirit, not of arguments and intellectualization.

THE MAIN TASK AND GOAL OF CHRISTIAN MISSION IS EVANGELISM. The ecumenical movement itself evolved from missionary movement. Both mission and evangelism should be considered as the responsibility of every Christian. Modest self examination in the light of gospel could be more fruitful than spending time for judging others on the basis of various theological frameworks. After all if the Lord doesn’t build the house, the work of the workers will be fruitless.

ECUMENISM SUBVERTS THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH AND DIVIDE THE CHRISTIANS. The major denominations will come under the control of those who reject the essential truth of the Bible and the deity of Jesus Christ. Those denominations will tend to merge through the ideology of ecumenicism by discarding historic truths of the Bible. When they lose their spiritual power they will turn to social action gimmicks. There are recent trends on redefining mission, and undermining evangelism, and diluting the gospel, even by the evangelical theologians. Bible believing Christians will be openly persecuted by the so-called progressive Christian ministers.

THERE IS RIFT BETWEEN THE ECUMENICAL AND EVANGELICAL STREAMS. Since truth includes both, any polarization is unnecessary and only leads to the fallacy of one-sidedness. Polarization in Indian Christianity at the institutional and leadership levels on the basis of mission is because of the INABILITY OF MANY TO GRASP THE CLEAR MESSAGE OF GOSPEL. If they all can clearly internalize Jesus’ message of mission as given in the Bible, all will be able to serve the Lord with one Spirit and there will be no scope for any undesirable polarization.

THE MODERN ECUMENICAL LIBERAL THEOLOGY IS INFLUENCED BY THE PHILOSOPHIES OF THE WORLD. HERE PREFERENCE IS GIVEN TO THE VIEWS OF MEN NOT OF GOD. It has become customary that in most of the theological establishments, the majority of the time allotted is spent for teaching the philosophy and opinions of man about God, and not for teaching opinions of God about Himself and man. If you reject from the gospel or biblical truth what you don’t like or agree, you are actually disbelieving God, for the sake of believing in yourself. You are sidelining the opinion of God, and preferring your own opinion. MEN TRY TO PUT GOD IN THEIR OWN BOTTLES OF THEOLOGIES.

THE LIBERAL ECUMENISM BELIEVES THAT

ALL GODS ARE ONE

There are only two religious systems in the world, though there are thousands of religions. One system is that MAN MAKES HIS OWN WAY TO GOD AND DOES VARIOUS WORKS TO PLEASE HIM, TO BE ACCEPTED BY HIM (OR HER, OR IT).The other system is THE TRUE WAY, THAT GOD CAME FROM HEAVEN, BECAME MAN, DID THE WORK FOR MANKIND THAT NO OTHER MAN COULD DO, AND MAN NEEDS TO BELIEVE IT AND LIVE BY IT. Christianity teaches that man is unable to reach God, so God himself reached downward with His own Son from heaven and became a man to accomplish the solution to our dilemma, which has always been sin.  There are many who argue that the creator God in the various cultures is the same, because of some similarities of what is said to be good and what is evil. But none of the gods match any of the qualities, or attributes, of the God of the Bible! You find immense differences when you get deep beneath the surface-level arguments. There are major contradictions in their fundamental beliefs. God is not going to tell people different things on same subject. Truth by its very nature is internally and eternally consistent. If there are various teachings that are contradictory, then they cannot come from the true God. While there was a common beginning, according to Romans 1, as the civilization moved further away from the time of Genesis, their knowledge of God was corrupted and became more corrupted until we arrived where we are today, in history. In Genesis, God pronounced His judgment on these gods and man's departure from Him by a flood. After the flood, when God was developing Israel into a theocracy, not one culture around the Mesopotamia area was accepted. 1Chro 16:26: “For all the gods of the nations are  idols: but the LORD made the heavens .”

ECUMENISM TAKES THE UNFORTUNATE AND COWARDLY STAND THAT SINCE OTHER VIEWS DO NOT ACCEPT US, WE MUST CHANGE AND ADOPT SOME OF THEIR BELIEFS, CONGLOMERATE OR SYNCRETISE, SO THAT WE CAN MOVE TOWARD A PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE. THIS MEANS THE ECUMENICAL WANT THE CHRISTIANS TO SURRENDER OUR CONVICTIONS TO THOSE WHO HAVE A DIFFERENT SET OF BELIEFS. GOD OF THE BIBLE DEMANDS HOLINESS, The Scripture is unmistakably clear: the primary attribute by which God wants to be known is HOLINESS. He is totally separate from all that is sinful or defiled."Be ye holy for I am holy" (Lev. 11:44; 1 Pet. 1:15,16).Holiness is the hub of the wheel from which all other divine attributes radiate. Anything that is genuinely at the heart of God should primarily reflect that same characteristic of holiness.

THE LIBERAL ECUMENISM HIDES CONTRADICTIONS BY DIALOGUE

NEHEMIAH DID NOT GO FOR DIALOGUE. When Nehemiah was leading God's people in the rebuilding of the walls, his archenemies Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem saw the Jews' success. When they could not stop the people of God, they tried another ruse. They sent an invitation to Nehemiah inviting him to dialogue in the plain of Ono. Nehemiah said, "Ono? Oh, no! I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down" He knew their PURPOSE was evil; he stayed the course and was successful (Neh. 6:1-15).

TO WHAT EXTENT INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE CAN GO?DIALOGUES LEADING TO COMPROMISE WITH BASIC PRINCIPLES OF CHRISTIAN FAITH are not legitimate. Our response to ecumenism is by practicing it at all levels by maintaining good relations with all denominations and religions rather than being held up with the unending process of negotiations at higher levels, just for the sake of unity. Ecumenism should be practiced at the lower or grass root levels rather than being confined to the negotiation levels. Ecumenism discussed at the leadership levels does not make much impact at the people level.

Ecumenism should not lead to doctrinal confusion and crisis in Christianity. Polarization is the result of this perverted ideology. THEIR MARATHON DIALOGUES WITH OTHER FAITHS ULTIMATELY END UP IN COMPROMISING OR EVEN DENYING THE UNIQUENESS OF CHRIST AND DECLARING MORATORIUM ON THE PROCLAMATION OF GOSPEL. Convergence of faiths manufactured in councils and conferences will dilute the uniqueness of Christ. DIALOGICAL SYNCRETISM will be the first step towards legitimizing secular humanism which is not farther away from agnosticism and then from atheism. THEOCENTRIC PLURALISM will definitely polarize the church.

ECUMENISM FALSELY CLAIMS THAT JESUS CHRIST IS ANONYMOUSLY PRESENT IN ALL RELIGIONS. The message of the Bible is clear, unique and perfect. CHRIST IS NOT ANONYMOUSLY PRESENT IN THE WORLD RELIGIONS, IDEOLOGIES AND REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Jesus and Paul engaged in inter-religious dialogue (Lk 5:21-24; Acts 17:2,17;18:4,19; 19:19; 20:7,9; 24:12). They were addressing important questions to the conscience of the hearers. They spoke boldly and tried to prove and persuade. For them, DIALOGUE WAS JUST THE METHOD OF PROCLAMATION OF THE GOSPEL, the goal of which was conversion.

DIALOGUE IS POSSIBLE BECAUSE ALL MEN HAVE THE IMAGE OF GOD, MARKS OF THE FALL AND GENERAL REVELATION. General revelation in itself does not save a person. But a positive and honest response to general revelation would make the special revelation available to the person. Dialogue is meaningful because God has given the special revelation in His son and in the Bible which can be proclaimed by the believer and used by the Holy Spirit for the conversion of the unbelievers.

WHY SYNCRETISM? In syncretism, the gods of all cultures and religions are presumed to be the same as the God (Yahweh) of the Bible. Syncretism is the belief that all the different religions worship the same God, may be through different names. Syncretism is cultural reductionism. Here the enemy is religious relativism. Christ's claim is exclusive. "I am the way.....except through me". Other religions and ideologies are not alternative paths to God. Hence the unbelievers are without God and without hope in the world.

UNIVERSALISM IS WRONG. According to universalism all men will be eventually saved. The universalistic view that all men of all times are saved in Christ irrespective of their knowledge of the saving act of God is unbiblical. SALVATION IN CHRIST IS APPROPRIATED ONLY BY GRACE THOUGH FAITH IN CHRIST THROUGH THE PROCLAMATION OF THE GOSPEL. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (Jn 3:16).

There is a fundamental DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CHURCH AND THE WORLD.  They both do not share the future in any substantial way. “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1Pet 2:9). “Be not conformed to this world...” (Rom 12:2).  “That at a time you were without Christ...having no hope, and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12).

TRUTH BY ITS VERY NATURE IS EXCLUSIVE. Hence every statement of truth would seem to be fundamentalistic, categorical and arrogant to those whose depravity, pride, selfishness and rebellion against God is simultaneously exposed. TRUTH IS A PERSON. Attempt to understand truth in terms of concepts is due to confusion. There is ONLY ONE SAVIOUR AND ONLY ONE GOSPEL. JESUS CHRIST IS THE ONLY MEDIATOR BETWEEN GOD AND MAN.