Crossing the Lines

After thinking about today's event in Nashville (The Call) I couldn't help but think what a theological mess of different beliefs are being represented at this event, some are sure to be orthodox while others are surely to be heretical, or even other religions may be present as Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses are sure to believe they too are Christians. Any and possibly all doctrinal belief systems in Christianity are surely being compromised under the guise of unity in prayer and fasting instead of gathering under the basis of biblical truth. I find this to be very troubling and profoundly historical as I will let Dr. John MacArthur explain.

You know, the Bible predicts in Revelations 17 that there will be a one-world church (in the last days). I used to wonder how in the world that would ever happen, when everybody’s got their own theology. But there’s something happening today that for the first time in history is just tearing across all the denominational lines. 30,000 Catholics are now at least involved in the inner workings of the charismatic movement. Eight to 14 million people are involved in this right here.

It’s crossing all the denominational lines. People are getting together sans doctrine, you know. It doesn’t matter what your doctrine is as long as you have this. It could well be that this could be that which could be the catalyst to bring the ecumenical movement that results in the false church in Revelations.

Pentecostalism was estimated to number around 115 million followers worldwide in 2000; lower estimates place the figure near to 22 million (eg. Cambridge Encyclopedia), while the highest estimates apparently place the figure between 400 and 600 million. According to a Spring 1998 article in Christian History, there are about 11,000 different Pentecostal or charismatic denominations worldwide.

Excerpt taken from a sermon titled "Miracles, Healings, and Tongues" preached by Pastor John MacArthur. You can read the entire article here.