The Ecumenical Movement—No. 2

It is not without significance that while Seventh-day Adventists see in these things a possible fulfillment of the prophecy of Revelation 13, others voice warnings against ecclesiastical universalism on historical grounds. Both the Oxford Conference on Church, Community, and State, and the Edin­burgh Conference on Faith and Order, heard speeches, some of them containing specific references which showed that religious op­pression has occurred in certain countries where the church has had dominant influence.

"We call upon the churches we represent to guard against the sin of themselves conniving at repression of churches and religious bodies of a faith and order differing from their own."—"The Churches Survey Their Task," "Report of the Oxford Con­ference," p. 185ff.

Church and Gift of Prophecy.—A sur­prising statement was issued following a com­mittee discussion on the gift of prophecy and the ministry of the Word. It has a certain value to our own preachers, as will readily be seen from these excerpts:

"We are agreed that the presence and inspiration of the Holy Spirit are granted to His chosen in­struments today, and especially to those called to be ministers of the word of God. . . Indeed, all per­fect and abiding revelation given to us in Christ our Lord, would certainly have perished from the world had there been no inspired men to record it and to preach it in every age. This revelation does not belong only to the past ; it is also an ever-present word by which God speaks directly to the listening soul.

"Moreover all manifestations of the Spirit are manifestations of God's divine activity. It is here that prophecy finds its place in the church's corporate life. In Christ, all the truth of God's redemptive purpose is fully and sufficiently contained; but every age has its own problems and its own difficulties, and it is the work of the Spirit in every age to apply the one truth revealed in Christ to the cir­cumstances of the time. . . . The Spirit may speak by whomsoever He wills; and when prophetic gifts appear it is for the church not to quench the Spirit or despise prophesyings, but to test these prophesy­ings by their accordance with the abiding truth en­trusted to it, and to hold fast that which is good. That has been the church's way, though the church has not always been faithful to it. The call to bear witness to the gospel and to declare God's will, does not come to the ordained ministry alone; the church greatly needs, and should both expect and encourage, the exercise of gifts of prophecy and teaching by laymen and laywomen."—"Report of the Second World Conference on Faith and Order," Edinburgh, 1937, pp. 13, 14.

There was obvious disinclination to report anything but generalities on the church and the kingdom, especially regarding the nature of the kingdom, the literalness of the second advent, and the imminence of Christ's return. Many of the smaller denominations and sects, not strongly represented at Edinburgh, hold very definite convictions on this subject, and some attempt was made in the official report, at least, to concede these various and varying viewpoints. But it has to be admitted that the doctrine of the kingdom was not a burn­ing conviction in many minds.

"The church rejoices in the kingdom of God as present 'whenever man obeys the will of God. But the church always looks with glad expectation to the consummation of the kingdom in the future, since Christ, the King, who is present and active in the church through the Holy Spirit, is still to be manifested in glory. The kingdom of God realizes itself now in a veiled form, until its full manifesta­tion when God shall be all in all.

"Agreeing in this faith, we are not yet of one mind about (a) the relationship of the church to the kingdom, and (b) the extent to which the king­dom is made known here and now."—Id., p. 12.

Greatest Obstacles to Reunion.—Ex­tremely difficult terrain lay before the dele­gates when they came to such subjects as "The Church and the Sacraments" and "The Communion of Saints." It was generally agreed that the most serious obstacles to the reunion movement lay in these and allied questions, such as the episcopate, Mariolatry, and apostolic succession.

The Church and the Sacraments

1. Source and Authority of Sacraments.

a. It was readily established as a starting point, "that in all sacramental doctrine and practice the supreme authority is our Lord Jesus Christ Himself."

b. "Baptism and the Lord's supper," it was agreed, "occupied from the beginning a cen­tral position in the church's common life, and take their origin from what was said and done by Jesus during His life on earth."

c. Tradition concerning the sacraments was debatable ground, some wishing to stipulate that all such tradition should be controlled and tested by Scripture; others, that all sacra­mental doctrine must have Scriptural sanction.

2. Number of the Sacraments.

The Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, the (Assyrian) Church of the East, the (Coptic) Egyptian Orthodox Church, the Syrian Orthodox and Armenian churches, and the Old Catholic churches, hold to seven essential sacraments ; but the Protestant churches, like the Reformers of the sixteenth century, accept only two,—baptism and the Lord's supper.

3. Nature of the Sacraments.

There was common consent that "the sacra­ments are given by Christ to the church as outward and visible signs of His invisible grace. They are not bare symbols, but pledges and seals of grace, and means whereby it is received."

4. Sacraments and Salvation.

The final report stated that "God's gracious action is not limited by His sacraments;" but there was a desire by some communions to state that^-culpable negligence or contempt of the sacraments was tantamount to losing the provisions of salvation. In fact, there was an acknowledgment of widespread divergence among delegates regarding the obligation of the sacraments, and the way in which they are necessary for salvation.

The Reformers and the Sacraments.— It is of interest to note that much of the work of the reformers was a reaction against the sacramental system of the medieval church. They maintained that this system depreciated and almost eclipsed the Scriptural doctrine of free divine grace. They rebelled against the priestly and material channel through which grace was ministered. They traced back to Aristotle this sacramental system, through what they termed the scholastic philosophy. They therefore absolutely rejected what they said was of purely human reason­ing, and based their doctrine of salvation on the "sole sovereignty of divine grace." Hence came their battle phrase, Solo gratia.

The Modernist trend in late years has cer­tainly been in the direction of scholasticism. When spiritual power and values are lost sight of, as in the Judaism of Christ's day, the church inevitably flounders in a sea of scholasticism. Intellectualism produces two extremes. On the one hand, it creates a great body of unbelief, seen in the atheism and agnosticism of multitudes today. On the other, it leads to ritualism and the elaborate and alluring external observances of religion. Crushed between these two opposing align­ments are the remnant of God's Israel.

We must watch the progress which this reunion movement makes in its study of the sacraments. Will it lead to a resurgence of Romanism, binding the Christian world to­gether once more in the deadening solace of sacramentalism?