p. 8 | BRIDGING THE GULF

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 29, 1903

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 29, No. 17.

BRIDGING THE GULF.

EVERY day there is a narrowing down of the chasm that so long has stood between Catholicism and the great so-called Protestant world. This tendency is being swiftly advanced by the church-federation movement. That movement, while having directly in view only the union of Protestant bodies, is bringing to light the fact that a strong sentiment exists, and is growing, for the union of Christendom in one religious body. Who will be recognized head of such a union, is a question not difficult of solution for the one who has made a study of those prophecies dealing particularly with the time of the end.

The patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church, at Constantinople, has been carrying on an active propaganda to bring about the union of Christendom by uniting his own church “with those two grand and venerable offshoots of the Christian religion, the Roman and the Protestant Churches.” A theological professor of the Greek Church has published a book advocating the same thing. In this he takes up the various points which divide these three great bodies and the points on which they may unite. He reaches the conclusion that all may come together on the Nicene Creed. This professor and the patriarch of the Greek Church urge the religious bodies named to study their own characteristics in fraternal charity with a view to this union. Here is what the different bodies are to do in order to bring about the desired union: Protestants are to recognize tradition as of equal authority with the Scriptures; Calvinists are to accept the doctrine of the Real Presence in the sacrament; Roman Catholics are to give up the Filioque, and recognize infallibility in the universal Church, and to recognize Jesus Christ as sole head of the Church, and the pope as simply bishop of Rome; the Greek Church would recognize the validity of baptism administered by other churches, advocate union among all churches, and “show itself very liberal with regard to articles of faith not defined by the creed.”

Now, while this may not be the way in which the matter will finally work out, it certainly is significant in showing how the spirit of “confederacy” is springing up in all the world. A desire to unite in one body has taken hold of the people.

Concerning this movement the Christian Work and Evangelist, the most influential organ of the Presbyterian denomination, has this to say:— “The genial spirit and honest intention of the Patriarch and those who are with him are beyond question, as is the evidence that these excellent people are far from realizing the significance of the concessions they ask. But we may echo their desire that ‘bishops and pastors of all the churches would regard one another as brothers in Christ, and would voluntarily engage in frequent fraternal correspondence regarding events in their respective fields, and that theologians would do the same, in order to peace and union of minds.’ And also that a modus vivendi should be established among all missions to the heathen, of whatever church, that the spirit of Christian brotherhood may be made manifest to them. We are seeking unity and federation among Protestants. When shall we be as large-minded as this Greek Patriarch, and include in our effort the churches of Rome and the East?”

There is nothing that takes with this age like the cry of liberality and large mindedness. It is that cry that is turning schools of theology into schools of infidelity; and the rapidity with which that change is now going on shows the power there is in that rallying cry. The strong drift of the popular tide toward church federation will soon make manifest the fact that that movement is to find its culmination in the federation of Christendom. It is a long step toward that consummation, and, as the extract above quoted indicates, the idea of that consummation is already in the air. Protestantism and Catholicism will soon clasp hands across the gulf that has so long separated them. The prediction that this would be was made years ago. We see now the beginning of that movement in which this prediction will find its fulfilment. Then will meet its fulfilment that scripture which reads: “And all the world wondered after the beast.” Rev. 13:3, 4. That never could be without a voluntary unification of the religious world under one system. That that system will be the Papacy, is abundantly proven in the books of Daniel and the Revelation. So, with all this evidence, we can not see the beginning of this movement without knowing what the end will be.