The preacher in the Bible said, "There is no new thing under the sun." Ecc. 1:9.

How true this is in the Lord's work. The same pattern holds true in every age.

It is a first principle in God's work that there will be opposition and opposition from unexpected quarters.

The Romanists, the Modernists, the Ecumenists, the New Evangelicals, the Neo-Pentecostalists, the Communists could be expected to oppose but alas it is the common lot of those who follow the Lord Jesus Christ to share fellowship with Him in His sufferings and to be "wounded in the house of His friends" Zech. 13:6.

Dr. Carl McIntire, President of the International Council of Christian Churches received one of the first invitations to the Congress but refused to participate. He then launched an attack on the Congress calling it "a motley crowd" and maintaining that the only party entitled to hold a World Congress was himself and the International Council of Christian Churches. The International Office of the ICCC in Amsterdam made it clear that Dr. McIntire was acting on his own on this issue and that the Executive Committee of the ICCC had not been consulted nor had it given any ruling on the Edinburgh Congress.

At Edinburgh the Congress put it clearly on the record honestly and honourably that they were not going to be [2] dominated by this the thinking of Dr. McIntire and that they refused to adopt the attitude that if a person or party "followed not us" ie, the ICCC they were to be rebuked as was clearly Dr. McIntire's attitude.

As Dr. McIntire had already labelled the Congress "a motley crowd" one wonders why he is so angry when this so-called "motley crowd" dissociated itself from his thinking on this particular issue. He thinks that the Congress which he refused to attend should come to his aid instead of concerning itself with the great issues which confront the Church in regard to the Person and Work of Christ and the Holy Scriptures of Truth. Dr. McIntire, in his Christian Beacon has attacked the Doctrinal Statement of the Congress. We will examine this attack in our next issue. Rev. Jack Glass also opposed the Congress. He resents those who take the Biblical line of being "a companion of all them that fear the Lord and of them that keep His precepts" Ps. 119 v. 63. On the same grounds Mr. Glass would have picketed the Metropolitan Tabernacle when C. H. Spurgeon had prominent Methodists like Mark Guy Pearce and others preaching for him.

Both Dr. McIntire and Mr. Glass should consider carefully the following Scripture.

"And John answered him, saying, Master we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followed not us: and we forbad him, because he followed not us.

"But Jesus said, Forbid him not for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is on our part." Mark 9 vs. 38-40.

The basic opposition to the Congress from Dr. McIntire and Mr. Glass was that "we followed not them" but rather Christ.

We rejoice that the Congress had to bear reproach and be thus wounded in the house of its friends for there is a blessed sweetness in the fellowship of the Saviour's sufferings.

What blessed times of prayer we had! Those early prayer meetings with some 1,000 people in attendance how they warmed our Spirits.

What blessed fellowship with those of like precious faith!

What blessed meditations on the Word of Life! Truly Jesus Himself drew near and went with us and did not our hearts burn within us!

The programme was as follows: "The Faith, Fight and Fire of a Fundamentalist" - Ian Paisley.

"Prayers of Patriarchs" - Arnold Hickok.

"The Fundamentalist and His State" Moderator: A. C. Janney, Author/Speaker: Ian Paisley, Pannelists: W.O.H. Garman, John McLario, Jad Mikhail.

"The Fundamental Witness of Women in Public Life" - Mrs. Ian Paisley. [3]

"Church Music" - Frank Garlock.

"Divine Authority: The Inspiration, Infallibility, and Inerrancy of the Scripture" - Rodney Bell.

"Divine Accuracy in the Genesis Account of Creation" - S. B. Cooke.

"Prayers of Psalmists" - G. R. Lorne.

"The Fundamentalist and Ecumenicity" Moderator: Dallas Ainsley, Author/Speaker: G. Archer Weniger, Panelists: William Ward Ayer, Ivan Foster, Mark Leuthold.

"The Biblical Place of Women in the Home" - Mrs. Walter Handford.

"Church Promotion" Walter Handford.

"The Eternal Word: These are They that Testify of Me" - Wendell Zimmerman.

"The Incarnation and Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ" - Eric Gurr.

" Prayers of Prophets" - Fred Channing.

"The Fundamentalist and Education" Moderator: Linton Johnson, Author/Speaker B. Myron Cedarholm, Panelists: Dayton Hobbs, John MacKenzie, Paul Warren.

"Contending for the Faith" - Mrs. Corretta Mason.

"Christian Publications" - Wendell Zimmerman.

"Satan the Prince of Darkness" - J. B. Williams.

"The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit" - Truman Dollar.

"Prayers of Apostles" - C. Bruce Peacock.

"The Fundamentalist and Missions" Moderator: Charles Billington, Author/Speaker: Peter Ng, Panelists: Boya Faust, Alberto Lozano, Mrs. Jad Mikhail, Wadie Mikhail.

"The Gospel: Crucified According to the Scripture" - Ed. Nelson.

"The Gospel: Raised Again According to the Scripture" - Victor Sadaka.

"Prayers of Martyrs" - Jack Downs.

"The Fundamentalist and Communist Confrontation" - Jacob Chelli.

"The Gospel Preached" - Bob Jones, III.

"Prayers of Job" - Myron Guiler.

"The Fundamentalist and Evangelism" Moderator: Ken Elliott, Author/Speaker: Jack Van Impe, Panelists: Otis R. Holmes, Walter Kirk, Jurgen Matthia.

"The Problems and Privileges of a Preacher's Wife" - Mrs. Bob Jones, Snr.

"Christian Schools" - Mrs. Ed. Nelson.

"The Multiplicity of Cults" - Roy

"Scriptural Separation"-Tom Malone.

"Prayers of the Lord" - John Moore.

"The Fundamentalist and Neo-Pentecostalism" Moderator: Marcel Ariege, Author/Speaker: O. Talmadge Spence, Panelists: Gerald Johnson, Harold Kilpatrick, Robert N. Spencer, John Douglas.

"The Abolition of Capital Punishment - A Breach of Divine Law" - Judge Evelyn Coffman.

"Christian Youth and Camp Work" - Gerald Detandt. [4]

"Closing Doors to the Gospel" - James Beggs.

"The Heritage and Hope of Fundamentalism" - Bob Jones.

The Speakers all honoured the Saviour. Men, denominations, parties, and associations were all eclipsed as we viewed our Blessed and Exalted Lord. We experienced blessed unity around the Cross and all attending came away more determined than ever to contend for the Faith and win souls for Christ. Moreover sinners were gloriously saved. To God be all the Glory.

Some of the most important messages will be printed so that others may share in the blessing. More next issue. Study carefully the resolutions all passed unanimously. [5]

The extract we print below is from Dr. G. Archer Weniger's address to the Edinburgh Congress entitled "Fundamentalism and Ecumenism."

The erroneous thinking behind the ecumenical movement is so immense that it cannot be explained apart from the spiritual blindness of its leaders. No proper assessment of the fundamentalist position is possible without an analysis of the more common assumptions which we shall now conduct. These assumptions obtain whether one is thinking about the World Council of Churches, British Council of Churches, National Council of Churches, United Church of Canada, Church of South India, Consultation of Church Union or any other contemplated merger. For our purposes we shall have to coin some phrases, as follows.

This assumption is that affiliation with the church through baptism, confirmation or what have you, bestows on an individual the right to be called a Christian, a position espoused by most ecumenists. The ecumenical movement is a stranger to the New Birth by the Spirit of God, in spite of all the ecumenical evangelistic campaigns in the last 25 years. Fundamentalists take Jesus seriously when He said to a devout, but unsaved religious leader of the Jews: "Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Fundamentalists hold that the Church and its privileges are reserved exclusively for the saved, those who have established by the grace of God through faith, a personal, vital and dynamic relationship with the living Christ.

2. The Organisational Assumption.

This assumption is that the unity for which Jesus prayed is visible and organisational, rather than spiritual and invisible, and that it requires the building of a monolithic structure existing on a local, national and universal level. While the foreknowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ could comprehend the denominations, organisations and religious power structures, still when He prayed He did not have these things in mind at all. One can search the Scriptures in vain for a single statement that God requires all churches to be an organic part of a single world structure.

Another assumption which is in [6] error is that the essential unity for which Jesus prayed is still future and unrealised. It is amusing that what the church world merger movement is trying to bring to pass is already a reality. This basic unity is not future, but present and past. It is not something for which we pray, but something for which to thank God.

This assumption is that the achievement of any true unity for which Jesus prayed requires the effort and accomplishment of human beings in religious ecumenical activity. This unity is the result of a vertical action, rather than the horizontal achievement. It is one of the great transactional acts of God rather than the relational and interpersonal movements of mankind. That which has made the church one is the sovereign act of God's Holy Spirit in Baptism, placing the believer in the Body. (I Cor. 12:13). The unity is not something which man creates, produces or fabricates, but something which the believer is told to keep. (Eph. 4:3). It takes consummate nerve for 20th Century man, in an apostate condition, to think he has been foreordained to bring the answer to Jesus' first century prayer.

This is the assumption that division and separation is the essence of sin. One could say that the entire ecumenical movement is based upon the premise that division is always and everywhere a sin. While God does not tolerate a pattern of division within the local church fellowship and as a consequence provides for church discipline at this point (Matthew 18:15-18), it would be impossible to sustain this assumption from the Scriptures. God has been in the business of division in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. God spake in Exodus 8:23; "And I will put a division between my people and thy people; tomorrow shall this sign be." Again we read in Leviticus 20: 26; "And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine." God has been a separationist for a long time. It is interesting to study the life and ministry of Jesus on earth. It was a ministry of division. He caused the people to be divided over His word, His works, and His Person. (John 7:43; 9:16; 10:19; Luke 12:51 ). It is far from true that division and separation is always wrong and detrimental for this is a principle of growth and also, of unity as well. It is not hard to demonstrate historically that a church suffering division has resulted in two strong churches, whereas two churches completing a merger have often diminished in size.

This assumption is that the union of all churches is the best thing that could happen to the churches. They have been in such a hurry to accomplish their mission that they have [7] failed to check chapter and verse in a Bible which is silent on this subject.

The truth is that churches would lose their individual authority. They would have to forfeit their governing autonomy and they would also have to give up their distinctive convictions. It would be impossible for the God-called pastor of a local church to exercise his leadership in a framework of centralised ecclesiastical power. Even a person such as Dr. John A. Mackay, who has spent his entire life trying to achieve visible oneness of the churches finally admitted in Christianity Today (4-14-72) - "This, however, is my conviction: Organisational oneness, whether in church, society, or state, is not the answer to the basic problems of the human community today." He cites history's most monstrous example of what happens when one church rules the world supreme. 'When Christian unity is equated with institutional oneness and episcopal control, and when both of these are regarded as indispensable for real unity, let this not be forgotten: the most unified ecclesiastical structure in Christian history was the Hispanic Catholic Church, which was also the most spiritually sterile and the most disastrously fanatical." (Christian Reality and Appearance, p. 88). No, union is not the best thing, but undoubtedly the worst thing that could happen to the churches.

This assumption claims that we cannot win the world nor spread the Faith throughout the world apart from a unionised church. But we answer - what Faith are we talking about, since the ecumenical movement involves a pluralised inclusivism of diverse religious beliefs and cults. It doesn't take much historical research to quickly demonstrate that church merger has meant a decline in Christian work and diminished numbers, and particularly is this true with all liberal church endeavour from latest studies. Liberals are declining in strength. Conservatives are increasing in size. The history of the expansion of Christianity will prove that proliferation, division and separation has made for more advance throughout the world than unity or union. The very nature of the present programme of God in visiting the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name (Acts 15) runs counter to the whole ecumenical approach of joining forces with the world and meshing with its programme.

This assumption is an arrogant claim that some kind of unity can be achieved in spite of the doctrinal diversity. The one thing that is demonstrated by the ecumenical movement is that unity cannot be achieved through doctrinal agreement, and yet the Bible holds that this is basic. (Amos 3:3). The ecumenical [8] movement is able to hold together because they have found that they can join forces on basis of a common fellowship, or common service, or common worship. The only reason ecumenical forces have been kept from a shattering fragmentation is through attempting to ignore the differences, of establishing a general compromise, or have one group give in to the other. Doctrinal indifference has been the key to the success so far. One of the great joys of the Apostle Paul as he came down to the end of his life and ministry was to look back and be able to say, "I have kept the faith."

We are reminded of J. B. Gough's immortal words:

"What is a minority? The closen heroes of this earth have been in a minority. There is not a social, political or religious privilege that you enjoy today that was not bought for you by the blood and tears and patient sufferings of the minority. It is the minority that have vindicated humanity in every struggle. It is a minority that have stood in the van of every moral conflict, and achieved all that is noble in the history of the world. You will find that each generation has been always busy in gathering up the scattered ashes of the martyred heroes of the past, to deposit them in the golden urn of a nation's history. Look at Scotland, where they are erecting monuments - to whom? - to the Covenanters. Ah, they were in a minority. Read their history, if you can, without the blood tingling to the tips of your fingers. These were the minority that, through blood, and tears, and bootings and scourgings - dyeing the waters with their blood and staining the heather with their gore fought the glorious battle of religious freedom. Minority? If a man stands up for the right, though the right be on the scaffold, while the wrong sits in the seat of government; if he stands for the right, though he eat, with the right and truth, a wretched crust; if lie walk with obloquy and scorn in the by-lanes and streets, while falsehood and wrong ruffle it in silken attire, let him remember that wherever the right and truth are, there are always

'Troops of beautiful tall angels'

gathered round him, and God Himself stands with the dim future, and keeps watch over His own. If a man stands for the right and the truth, though every man's finger be pointed at him, though every woman's lip be curled at him in scorn, he stands in a MAJORITY, for God and good angels are with him, and greater than all they that be against him." [9]

EDINBURGH, Scotland - Concluding a week long world-wide gathering of Fundamentalist believers from every continent of more than 2,000 delegates unanimously passed resolutions stressing obedience to the Scriptures.

The resolutions were passed on the next to last day of the Congress Meeting in Usher Hall in Edinburgh from June 15-22.

The World Congress of Fundamentalists, meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland, goes on record that . . . .

A FUNDAMENTALIST IS A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WHO:

1. Maintains an immovable allegiance to the inerrant, infallible, and verbally inspired Bible;
2. Believes that whatever the Bible says, is so;
3. Judges all things by the Bible and is judged only by the Bible;
4. Affirms the foundational truths of the historic Christian Faith :

The doctrine of the Trinity
The incarnation, virgin birth, substitutionary atonement, bodily resurrection, ascension into heaven and Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ
The new birth through regeneration of the Holy Spirit
The resurrection of the saints to life eternal
The resurrection of the ungodly to final judgment and eternal death The fellowship of the saints, who are the body of Christ;

5. Practices fidelity to that Faith and endeavours to preach it to every creature ;
6. Exposes and separates from all ecclesiastical denial of that Faith, compromise with error, and apostasy from the Truth;
7. Earnestly contends for the Faith once delivered.

Therefore, Fundamentalism is militant orthodoxy set on fire with soul-winning zeal, While Fundamentalists may differ on certain interpretations of Scripture, we join in unity of heart and common purpose for the defence of the Faith and the preaching of the Gospel, without compromise or division.

Unless a man holds and defends the Faith of Scripture and is concerned for the salvation of the lost, he is not a true Fundamentalist. We, therefore, repudiate and reject the term "neo-fundamentalist" as an invention of one who would discredit a movement he cannot dominate.

THE COMMITTEE OF THE DEFINITION OF FUNDAMENTALISM

This World Congress of Fundamentalists resolves . . .

1. That the adoption of the ordination of women to the ministry is precluded by [10] the Word of God (I Timothy 3 :2, I Timothy 2 : 12).
2. That we totally repudiate as unbiblical and anti-Christian the aims and activities of the women's liberation movement which rob women of their God-given privileges and undermine the purity and discipline of the Christian home. (II Peter 2 : 19).
3. That we uphold the Biblical distinction between the sexes which assign to the man and woman their respective and complementary roles in society, the church, and the home. This distinction should be obvious in dress and appearance; and we, therefore, reject all unisex trends in dress and hair styles. We believe that the Christian's appearance must be characterised by modesty, as an eloquent testimony against the permissiveness of this apostate age. (Deut. 22 : 5 ; I Cor. 11 : 5- 10 ; I Tim. 2 : 9, 13 ; Rev. 9 : 8).

This World Congress of Fundamentalists, believing in a free press, deplores the slanted reporting of the news by the mass media (press, radio and television) and exhorts those responsible to exercise discernment in truthfully presenting the facts.

This World Congress of Fundamentalists believes that the Bible is the only infaillible authority in understanding the being, relationships, and practices of man. We utterly deplore the new morality as an insidious device of Satan to lure this generation into a course of self-destructive lawlessness and licentious immorality, including sexual promiscuity, abortion, homosexuality, and other sexual perversions.

This World Congress of Fundamentalists, recognising that man apart from God is totally depraved, resolves to oppose the liquor and drug traffic which damns men's bodies and souls and brings untold misery to millions.

This World Congress of Fundamentalists

1. Opposes vigorously the present proliferation of extra-biblical sects and believes that people must be warned of the errors of these groups and that their false teaching should be publicly exposed and openly condemned.
2. Warns of the growing menace of Satanism, the occult, and various schools of mystical meditation (e.g. Transcendental Meditation and Yoga) and the awful danger of the slightest dabbling with spiritism.
3. Condemns the modern charismatic movement as being a Satanic counterfeit of true revelational Christianity, by which counterfeit, many are ensnared, emotional experience is altered, true doctrine minimised, and ecumenical fraternisation is encouraged.
4. Denounces as Satanic and unbiblical the cult of Sun Moon and that of Herbert W. Armstrong.
5. Deplores the cheap and worldly approach of Youth for Christ, Campus Crusade, Young Life, and such organisations, with their "easy believism" and ungodly philosophies, which are deceiving many, and destroying fundamental churches, and emasculating the ministry of those who support and co-operate with them. [11]

REGARDING THE CHURCH AND THE STATE

This World Congress of Fundamentalists believes . . .

1. That religion and government can best work to achieve their purpose if each is separate from the other. This wall of separation between the church and the state must be maintained impregnable.
2. That personal rights of religious freedom should be guaranteed by every government to every individual.
3. That government should punish crime as sin, with justice and mercy, and oppose the philosophy that all crime is a disease that can be cured.
4. That the Word of God teaches plainly that capital punishment is the proper punishment for those who take away the lives of their fellowman.

The World Congress of Fundamentalists reaffirms our unswerving allegiance to the historical fact of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and the sanctifying of the day of resurrection, the first day of the week, for the public worship of Almighty God and the preaching of the eternal Word.

1. We condemn all those who would seek to turn this Holy Day into a holiday.
2. We support those in the State who oppose the encroachment of business and pleasure into the sanctity of the Lord's Day.
3. We condemn those governments which deny to Christian people their inalienable right to worship on the first day of the week and rest from their secular labors.
4. We exhort the Fundamentalists of the world to live righteously, soberly, and godly in this evil world, showing to all an example by refraining on the first day of the week from such worldly employments and recreations as are on other days lawful.

This World Congress of Fundamentalists resolves . . .

1. To promote music which is written and performed in accord with Biblical principles, i.e., music which is based primarily on melody (Eph. 5: 19) having harmony that complements that melody and rhythm that is completely controlled and subservient to both melody and harmony.
2. That the words of the songs should be based upon Scripture.
3. To reject the sensual religious music of today along with all the other worldly practices which accompany this music, including the choreography, worldly appearance, and night club atmosphere with which this music is associated.
4. To oppose the ecumenical and 'social gospel' content of the so-called 'contemporary', 'young world' music of today, which is used by the devil as he seeks to destroy Bible Christianity.

This World Congress of Fundamentalists believes . . .

1. That all Christians should be aware of the devilish origin and deception of many modern Bible versions and self-styled "translations" which are being foisted upon the reader disguised as the true Word of God. Among such perversions of Holy Scripture this Congress would identify the following :

(a) Good News for Modern Man (also known as Today's English Version)
(b) The Living Bible [12]
(c) The Revised Standard Version
(d) The New English Bible

2. Notes with great concern that some of these perverted versions of the Scriptures are being distributed by the British and Foreign Bible Society and its associates, the American Bible Society and other national societies. This Congress calls upon Christians to withdraw financial support from such societies.
3. Recommends the use and distribution of only those versions and translations which have been faithfully translated by those committed to the verbal inspiration of the Holy Scripture and recognises the unique and special place of the Authorised Version in the English-speaking world.

REGARDING SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM

This World Congress of Fundamentalists, believing that "righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people" (Prov. 14 :34).

1. Declares that Fabianism and Socialism breed a people who are lazy, lawless, and dependent upon the State - a complete parody of Psalm 23. The resultant Communism and Totalitarianism is the product of the "God-is-dead" atheism.
2. Deplores all corruption in government throughout the world.
3. Believing in religious liberty and the right of self-determination, calls on all Bible believers to reject and expose these evils and to take their active stand for righteousness.

This World Congress of Fundamentalists declares that unbiblical evangelism and missions have been and are being conducted by :

This Congress deplores and condemns the above kinds of unbiblical evangelism and missions, and calls upon all born-again Christians to separate from such associations and to vigorously implement our Lord's "great commission" (Matt. 28 : 19-20) through the preaching and practising of the whole counsel of God (Acts 20 : 27), resulting in the establishment of Fundamental Bible-believing churches.

This World Congress of Fundamentalists supports the stand taken by the Fundamentalists of Northern Ireland in these days of testing and trial, and assures them of their prayers and support as they refuse to surrender their Protestant heritage and their majority right.

This World Congress of Fundamentalists declares that the Ecumenical movement, promoted jointly by the World Council of Churches and the Church of Rome, is Satanic in origin and objective.

This Congress warns that the declared aim of the World Council of Churches is to promote one "eucharistic fellowship", of which fellowship the Church of Rome has declared that "other Christians" must affirm that they believe "the doctrine of the [13] eucharist (the Mass) as taught in the Catholic Church" (Oct. 17, 1973).

This Congress repudiates not only the eucharist of the Church of Rome but also the blasphemes, the idolatries, and the superstitions of Roman Catholicism, all of which anger God and damn the soul.

This Congress honors and exalts Jesus Christ, the Great King and only Head of the Church, as the all-sufficient sacrifice for sins once for all offered on Calvary's cross for our salvation, and calls on all born-again believers everywhere to separate from the apostasy of the Ecumenical movement.

This World Congress of Fundamentalists, believing that all men are possessed by God with certain inalienable rights in general and that those who are born-again believers have certain God-given privileges in particular,

1. Vigorously opposes all efforts by any government to usurp these parental rights of the children.
2. Declares that parenthood is sacred, that God has made children subject to their parents ( Eph. 6 : I), and that discipline is the parents' prerogative (Eph. 6:4).
3. Recognises that God has raised up at all levels many Christian schools with unassailable standards to train Christian children in the essentials of learning and in the skills of the spiritual warfare.
4. Notes the increasing pressure that is coming upon the leaders to surrender these freedoms and God-given prerogative, and calls on all believers everywhere to vigorously oppose all legislation or pressures from government that consider it to be the right to limit or usurp the rights of parents by replacing the family with the State and all the godlessness of anti-Christian control ; and to oppose such control even unto death in obedience to God's Word without regard to the consequences.

This World Congress of Fundamentalists

1. Records its alarm at the rapid spread of anti-God communism throughout the world.
2. Deplores the efforts of leaders of so-called Christian nations to achieve detente with Russia and Red China while Christians are being persecuted there for their faith.
3. Protests against the brutalities practised by communists to suppress civil and religious liberty thereby robbing Bible believers of their right to worship God according to their conscience.
4. Applauds the efforts being made to explore the persecution of the Jews but laments the lack of efforts to help the Christians who are equally oppressed.
5. Calls on the leaders of communist nations to liberate those who have been imprisoned for their faith and to cease their oppression of those who desire to practice what they believe.
6. Castigates the World Council of Churches and the United Nations for their lack of concern in the above matters.[14]

Fearful Objections to the Ecumenical Movement
An extract from Dr. G. Archer Weniger's address to the Congress in Edinburgh

Fundamentalists have some serious objections to ecumenism that cause them to fear this movement. Let us consider these briefly:

1. Their attack upon the orthodox Faith.

Since the ecumenical movement is so society-oriented, we would expect them to be attacking the evils of the day: immorality, pornography, homosexuality, crime and marijuana addiction, but instead we find them in an all-out war against the Faith of our fathers. Every major doctrine of the faith is under attack. Fundamentalists find it hard to get over the shudder they feel when unbelief is expressed. For example, the late Bishop James A. Pike said: "The kind of God, I first believe in, who, would limit salvation to a select group of people who happened to have heard the news and heard it well, is an impossible God. As to this God, I am now an atheist:"

If the Trinity were to be elected by a democratic ballot from among the sons of men, we believe that twentieth century man would have elected Albert Schweitzer to that exalted dignity. Yet, Albert Schweitzer, the brilliant theologian and musician who gave himself to a life in Medicine in Africa, defended his atheism this way: "Here I dare say that the ethical religion of love can exist without the belief in a world ruling divine personality which corresponds to such an ethical religion." This was quoted in a Christian Century article of April 7, 1976 (p. 332) by Dr. Jackson Lee Ice, who observed of this one who is venerated by so many religious leaders: "If by God is meant the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, Who redeems His children by the atonement and sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ according to the predestined plan of salvation revealed in the Bible and ascribed to by the Christian churches, then the answer obviously is No - Schweitzer does not believe in God."

The Bible tells us: "Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good." Believers in Christ would be forced to surrender their convictions if they joined the ecumenical movement. This they cannot do. [15]

With the pervasive influence of modern existential philosophy and theology we find ecumenical leaders going along with the theory that absolute truth does not exist, and if it does we have no possibility of understanding it. There is no such thing as truth and error, good and evil, right and wrong, clean and unclean, precious and the vile. The present wave of occult systems from the East certainly do not help by telling us that if we can get back far enough in our mental awareness through process of meditation or what have you, that backstage we will find that Christ and Satan are both friends, truth and error are all one. Isaiah 5:20 puts it straight: "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter." A grand text which rebukes the doctrinal relativity today is Ezekiel 44:23, "And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the profane, and cause them to discern between the clean and the unclean."

Speaking at the National Council of Churches meeting in Miami, NCC official, Dr. Willis E. Elliott made some shocking statements, about the Bible and then defended them in a letter to Christianity Today (3-3-67) by saying, "I consider adherence to one who thinks my paper does not . . . My Maimi speech was simply a spelling out of this conviction . . . Anyone who thinks my paper does not reflect an authentic ecumenical view has a romantic notion of 'ecumenical' . . . But hatred for the doctrine of the perfect book is very strong in a large segment of ecumenical leadership, and I can hardly be considered irresponsible, and ecumenically unauthentic in voicing this hatred." The authority of Scripture has but one value to them and that is to support their drive toward the one world church. Fundamentalists insist upon placing His Word where it belongs as we read in Psalm 138:2, "I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name."

Ecumenists cannot get over the call of Harnack who said: "Get rid of the excess doctrinal baggage and we shall move more quickly toward the one great united church." (Presbyterian Life 11-5-66, p. 35). Syncretism is the drive toward a one world faith, by assimilating the good elements of all religious systems. This movement has even alarmed a New Evangelical like Dr. Clyde Taylor who said, "These disciples of syncretism are busily tearing down the walls that separate the various faiths. Many would like to see one religion incorporating the [16] followers of Christ, Moses and the Pope by simply minimising or overruling the differences . . . It seems to forget that our Lord found it necessary to protest against the errors of the Pharisees, and that Paul protested forceably when Judaistic legalism threatened the New Testament Church. It also forgets the protests of the reformers against the enshrinement of religious externals to the loss of personal faith in Christ." (Christian Heritage, June 1959).

We couldn't believe it when we were told that Marxist thought had penetrated the Church. We were shocked when we realised that socialism was taught in every ecumenical seminary as being synonymous with the kingdom of God. We were bowled over when we realised that the 13 Christian Union universities of China supported by the ecumenical funds from the West, were instrumental in turning the minds of young China towards Communism. We still can't believe that the Marxist-Christian dialogue is now respectable in ecumenical circles. We are amazed when we realise how bold the new Liberation theology coming from ecumenical leaders of Latin America is, and so open about its espousal of Marxian revolution, and how the new theologies coming out of the liberal thought centers of Germany and Europe are preparing the minds of the church leaders to accept Communism as the wave of the future. The continued use of World Council of Churches Mission funds to finance the terrorist gangs of the black continent particularly makes it utterly impossible for Fundamentalists to think kindly of the ecumenical movement.

The showing of the film "Another Pilgrim" at the WCC meeting in Uppsala, Sweden, in 1968, highlighted the debauchery of the ecumenical movement as it pictured a minister removing his clothes before his people. The showing of the film, "The Parable" by ecumenical elements at the New York's world fair, depicting Jesus as a clown is but another evidence of the moral bankruptcy in relation to the One Who is revealed as "holy, hardness, undeviled and separate from sinners." The truth is that the ecumenical movement is not interested in the moral degradation of our times. Instead they allow a church to enjoy good and regular standing, and a minister as well, in the United Methodist Church, which gave several thousand dollars of benevolent funds to a group of prostitutes in order that they could organise a prostitute's union. The present agony in several denominational groups is due to the ecumenical drive to make respectable the homosexual life-style, not only for church membership but also to allow them ordination to the ministry of the Word of God. - Continued in our next issue.