I already knew that the representation of the Shack’s Trinity contradicted the Bible, but as a newcomer, I didn’t want to rock the boat. Nonetheless, I felt uncomfortable that this was being taught. (For more information on the subject, there are articles by Tim Keller, Albert Mohler, and Randy Alcorn as to why the Shack is a heretical representation of the Christian God.)
So, I thought I’d ask the small group leader what he thought of Mark’s concerns. The small group leader, I’ll call Abe, said that nothing was wrong with his teaching and that the concerns should be dismissed. According to him, Mark is a young and immature Christian and that it was fiction.
I countered by telling him that fiction ia a primary vehicle to introduce heresy. Abe aggressively told me (in not so many words) to stop the conversation and said that I should just move on. He admitted that it was a mistake to bring up The Shack in the study.
The uncomfortable discussion brought up other memories. I initially ignored those issues, because I wanted to give the church a chance. I found the church members to be the most welcoming and warm Christians I ever met.
But I had concerns. For instance, during Easter weekend, the leader texted us all an article on Holy Saturday, the Catholic belief that Jesus rescued souls in Hell on the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter. (This belief appears to be similar to purgatory.) Abe would also ask us to repeat these corporate prayers that appeared to written by another pastor in another church. This pastor refuses to publish his biography.
A flood of various and seemingly disparate and fractured facts flashed through my head, as I realized that this leader was trying to mingle all kinds of faiths. Was this part of his own spiritual inventory? It became clear; however, that this co-mingling of beliefs was also commissioned by Christian Assembly and many other churches.
I started investigating this interfaith doctrine, which I never knew was an intentional movement. I ordered the book Evangelicalism Divided by Ian H. Murray. According to it, the interfaith movement, also known as ecumenism, was propelled in Los Angeles by Billy Graham and Fuller Seminary between 1950 to around 1980. Ecumenism argues that all Christian faiths and denominations are the same, and we are all one. Unity is of the greatest importance.
Although on the surface, it appears to be a noble effort to reunify the splintered Church, ecumenism is heresy in disguise and amounts to false teaching. Christianity is separate from other religions in that it teaches that Jesus, who was both God and man, paid the judgment for our sins. In other words, an innocent God, in the form of man, paid the price we should have paid; so, we could be reunified to a holy and Perfect God to satisfy the announced judgment.
Ecumenism loathes this belief. It states that just because you call yourself Christian or just because you received a water baptism as an infant, that you are a Christian.
The problem with both ecumenism’s definitions are that it doesn’t define what a Christian is. A Christian is not someone born into a religion, though he or she is spiritually reborn later in life. A Christian is someone whose life is transformed by the Spirit, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the Truth of God’s Word. One was dead, but God resurrects the person from his old, dead life into a new one.
One needs to die to her old life and accept this new foundation in one’s heart, mind, soul, and strength to be renewed, transformed, and to become a Christian. Without doing so, a label, or a ritual doesn’t make one a disciple of Christ. Hence, the problem with the interfaith movement is that it confuses the people on what to believe or what to do to find or receive salvation.
So why the need for this interfaith movement? I can hear my close friend and editor state the Golden Rule of investigation: Follow the money.
In an age of mega churches, which hardly existed 50 years ago, the larger the audience, the more money the church brings in. The less people you offend, the more people can attend. The more people that attend, the more you can shake them down for an offering. And almost every mega church, whether they expressly endorse ecumenism or not, must practice it to feed the administrative machine.
Hence, the interfaith movement is a profitable church business model. It’s the goose that laid the golden egg for all the greedy pastors, who generally failed in their other professions, and for their church staff. Now they have a way to be fed, clothed, and housed, because they didn’t make it in the real world. Some live the high life.
Take for instance Christian Assembly, discussed above, which brings in more than $5 million a year and then appears to donate the money to nonprofits, one that actually uses two different names. (That practice in itself should raise eyebrows.)
Incidentally, I gave Christian Assembly another chance, after the uncomfortable discussion with Abe. But the theological pastor, Matt Price, refused to answer simple questions, which focused on fundamental Biblical beliefs, such as whether this church agreed with God’s judgment or whether it endorsed purgatory. (Given the money and benefits Price makes, you wouldn’t think it too hard for him to write back.)
I asked Price whether he agreed with judgment, final judgment, and Hell, according to the Four Square Assembly values. Price replied, "Please seek elsewhere for answers to your questions." Price also told me not to come back to the church, all because I asked these questions.
I responded, "I will assume your answer to be no then. Only you can provide me the answer to your . . . beliefs."
Sadly, a church that believes in this interfaith heresy is valuing money over people, profit over Truth, and worldliness over the Kingdom of God. Churches that want to expand the Kingdom of God must renounce and reject ecumenism.
And for those who don’t, Jesus decrees a judgment: “But this is what I have against you: you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a messenger of God. By her teaching she misleads my servants into practicing sexual immorality and eating food that has been offered to idols. . . . I will throw her on a bed where she and those who committed adultery with her will suffer terribly. ” (Revelation 2:20, GNT).
