The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed by David Lee of Malaysia, from the tape GC 1301-N, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 16."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.  ©1981. All Rights Reserved.

Questioner

A year and a half ago, I heard there was a conference in Arrowhead Springs Charles Mallack, the ex-Secretary of the United Nations had mentioned that after evaluating the world scene, that he thought the only hope for Christianity in light of the onslaught of Islam and Communism would be to line up under the Pope [join hands with the Pope]. And at the same conference, that Bill Bright had mentioned that Campus Crusade was now working with the Catholic Church in Eastern Europe because the Protestant Church was kind of dead. And someone had mentioned that the glue that was going to be holding together the ecumenical movement would be Baptism of Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. I just wonder what you thought as far as our discernment goes, what will be the signs of the last days, the ecumenical movement and the World Council of Churches and so forth. What would be the things that hold that movement together?

John MacArthur's Answer

Let’s see, how do I approach that? Yes, Mallack said, "The only hope for Christianity, for the Protestant Church in the world today is to join hands with the Pope." And that’s why I came unglued at the seams. I said, "I can't handle that," but he is looking at Christianity as a political force in the world that needs to defeat the atheistic, communist force of the East, and so his perspective is political, not spiritual unfortunately. He’s a sacramental Christian in the sense that he comes out of a Greek Orthodox background and because he was the former Secretary of the United Nations General Assembly and all that, he sees a very political perspective. So he’s looking at Christianity as a block to build a wall in Eastern Europe to prevent the overrunning of all of Europe by communism.

Basically, I don’t know what the final thing will be, the Bible tells us in Revelation 17 that the whole world will come under one church, right? The Mystery Babylon, the Harlot, the Mother of Abominations, and it will all be headed up on a city with seven hills, where they’re decked in purple and gold and all that jazz. You don’t have to be a genius to figure out where that is. The city with seven hills is Rome, and the jewels and all that stuff. I really think Rome will be the center and I think it is very possible that the Papacy would be right in the middle of the whole antichrist thing.

The focus that’s interesting, I think, is that the Charismatic movement has brought about a joining together of the Protestants with the Catholics. In that no one else was ever able to that, but they have done that, and it has going like wildfire. In fact, when I stood up in that meeting, and said, "Now wait a minute," I went out and some guys came out and said, "What did you think of that?" And I told them what I thought. And I went to the leader and I told him what I thought, I said, "Do you really believe that?" And he said, "Well, I am not where I used to be, I have changed and you’ve got to be flexible and so forth and so forth." I said, "Well if you believe that, we are in trouble, because we are going right back into the system, right back into the pagan system of Catholicism. That will provide a one-world church."

So I do think that the Charismatic movement has lent itself to ecumenism, I think the non-Charismatic tolerance of any thing and everything is also feeding in. But it always interest me that if you’ve had the baptism, that’s all they ever ask, you got to be OK. The Catholic-Charismatic movement is really revolutionizing the Church. I think we are seeing it come together. I just bowed out of a thing, called the American Festival of Evangelism, which is going to be the biggest Evangelism Congress in the United States’ history. And they asked me to be a keynote speaker, and at first I said, "Yes," and then when I saw the list of who is going to be there I called them up and said, "I’m not going to be on it. I want to withdraw." And so a week ago on the national PTL club, or the 700 Club I guess, Pat Robertson or somebody said that I was going to be one of the speakers and I’m not, in case you've heard that--I'm not going to be there. Because, boy, it started out, "We want you to come and speak to 25,000 pastors from across America and hit them with holiness." I said, "Bring them on!" And then I heard that everybody from soup to nuts is going to be there!

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur's Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
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