On the evening of August 8, 2004, the PEC, Bishops and others leaders and staff of the Moravian Church responded to questions by concerned members at Olivet Moravian Church regarding issues that face our denomination today. The questions, which were submitted weeks in advance, covered a range of topics including; Messiah/Macedonia issues (PEC’s action on Rev. Truman Dunn and Rev. Greg Little), the National Council and World Council of Churches, unity and world peace, homosexuality, provincial finances and budget, and other issues that have been the concern of many at Olivet.

 

The PEC’s comments on Moravian participation in the National and World Council of Churches is the focus of this Posting. As a member of the WCC Central Committee the chief governing (controlling) body of the WCC, it was appropriate that PEC President Bob Sawyer chose to address these questions.

Technically, the control of the WCC lies in the hands of its 342 member denominations, composed of nearly 400,000,000 individual members. Actually, the WCC is controlled by a 158-member Central Committee; a sixteen-member Executive Committee; and four officers–a moderator, two vice-moderators and a General Secretary. There are also seven presidents whose role is largely honorary and ceremonial. The most powerful person in the WCC hierarchy is the General Secretary (Rev. Dr Samuel KOBIA Methodist Church in Kenya). It is this small group, augmented by a staff that speaks for the WCC constituency of four hundred million people – including our Moravian Church.
 

Sawyer’s comments made it clear that our involvement was important to him and valuable to the Moravian Church. He said that he “did not agree with every program in the NCC/WCC, but that he does feel that it is an important fellowship of Christian Churches” that sees its self-ascribed role as assisting member churches in coming together for what ever purpose.

Implying that the WCC had recently pursued a new perspective, Sawyer said:

 “about 5 or 6 years ago the World Council of Churches did some, reevaluating of its basic nature and purpose and came up with a document that was called ‘A Common Understanding and Vision’  and the thrust of that document and the self understanding of the World Council of Churches has been to de-emphasize what the World Council as a Council does, and to emphasize rather what the Council can help member churches and denominations do. The emphasis, shifting away from the World Council of Churches as, a major structure to the emphasis where the World Council of Churches is the means to help, other denominations and churches come together for whatever kind of mutual interaction and fellowship they want to have.”

In response to a question about the Baar Statement , Sawyer responded:

”But, just because World Council of Churches says something doesn’t mean it’s the position of, the Moravian Church. The Baar Statement, in particular, is something that was drawn up in January of 1990. And, and this is from the introduction of, of the Baar Statement, it says ‘it is hoped that the statement will help to animate and facilitate the discussion of these important issues as we face the Seventh Assembly in Canberra in February 1991’. That was the World Council has an assembly of all its members every seven years. And the Baar Statement was recognizing that because of pluralism and diversity in the world new questions were coming up. And the Baar Statement was to raise issues and questions to get people at the assembly thinking and talking. It was not intended to be an absolute pronouncement. It certainly was not pronouncement for the Moravian Church. But it was, it was rather something to, in their words to animate and facilitate discussion of important issues, pump priming, as it were.”

The new perspective, “Towards a Common Understanding and Vision of the World Council of Churches” was mandated in 1989 by the WCC Central Committee and was completed after 8 years of study and consultation with ecumenical partners including the Roman Catholic Church. In the accompanying text recounting the carefully chosen words of the “Basis of the WCC”,  the document “Towards a Common Understanding and Vision…” is described as creating a “basis beyond the Basis”. This expanded Basis states explicitly in paragraph 3.7.4

“To be a member means being part of a fellowship that has a voice of its own. While the churches are free to choose whether or not to identify themselves with the voice of the WCC when it speaks, they are committed to giving serous consideration to what the Council says or does on behalf of the fellowship as a whole.”

Paragraph 3.7.5 goes on to say that:

”To be a member means making a commitment to seek to implement within the life and witness of one’s own church the agreements reached through joint theological study and reflection by the total fellowship.”

The document also states that:

 “Membership is therefore not just a one-time affiliation which then allows the churches to live comfortably with their continued separation.”

According to the “Towards a Common Understanding …” document in Chapter 3 (paragraph 3.1), the renewed emphasis characterizing the WCC is:

(1) Its a “fellowship of churches”; and

(2) its emphasis on the “common calling”.

The WCC tells its member churches that they aren’t obliged to understand “fellowship of churches” in a particular way (paragraph 3.5.4), but they are committed to dialogue about it and that “membership in the church of Christ is more inclusive than the membership of their own church because each of the others possess “elements of the true church”, therefore, every member church, regardless of it’s doctrine, is treated as an equally valued participant in the WCC.

The Basis (link) document clearly states that the WCC does not judge member churches or persons on their faith in Jesus Christ as God and Savior. It was specifically “reformulated” in 1961 with carefully selected and less restrictive words to appease “Christians” who believe that Jesus had no human body and only appeared to have died on the cross and still make it acceptable to Orthodox Christians. The new perspective, “Towards a Common Understanding…”, pushes the envelope even farther, in Chapter 2 discussing the “ecumenical movement out of which it [the WCC] grew”, defines the goal of the WCC and its ecumenical movement in 1983 by stating:

“the object of God’s reconciling purpose is not only the church but the whole of humanity – indeed, the whole of creation… the ‘human family’… God and world, spiritual and secular.”

This wider definition of ecumenism opens the ecumenical movement to other religious and cultural traditions beyond the Christian community. The WCCs ecumenical pump was “primed” and has been producing a “flood” of apostasy long before the Baar Statement (link) and Canberra.

Now, let us look at a few responses that might have been viewed a bit differently by those present if more accurate detail had been offered by Sawyer.
Concern was raised about the Baar Statement because it clearly offers a non-Christian, non-biblical view of religious plurality. For example the document states;

“We find ourselves recognizing a need to move beyond a theology which confines salvation to the explicit personal commitment to Jesus Christ”. The Baar Statement persists in making its case for moving towards one Church theology with dialogue among the world’s religions that might not agree with the role of Christ in their salvation by interjecting that:
“We feel called to allow the practice of interreligious dialogue to transform the way in which we do theology. We need to move toward a dialogical theology in which the praxis of dialogue together with that of human liberation, will constitute a true locus theologicus, i.e. both a source of and basis for theological work. The challenge of religious plurality and the praxis of dialogue are part of the context in which we must search for fresh understandings, new questions, and better expressions of our Christian faith and commitment.”

Sawyer did not attempt to explain the statement or its obvious contradictions to a group of Christians being divided on the need of Christ in their salvation. Sawyer simply dismissed the statement as an attempt to “animate future discussions on important issues that pluralism and diversity had brought…… It certainly was not an absolute pronouncement. It certainly was not a pronouncement for the Moravian Church". But it was, in their words, "to animate and facilitate discussion of, of important issues, pump priming uh, as it were."
”

Release of statements that are “pump priming” is a popular method used by the WCC to influence and further its objectives. By their nature such statements can be "dismissed" easily when the need arises for leaders to distance themselves from them.

It is important to note how easily the WCC calls for “dialogue” in its statements and press releases when the appropriate Christian response would be to call for “witness”. An observation that should not be glossed over to quickly when considering the influence that Sawyer brings to and from the WCC. Please remember the language that was scripted for Resolution 54 (link) that began as a statement of “witness” and methodically became a call for “dialogue”.

One of the primary functions of the WCC, as it attempts to assume its new perspective, to assist its member churches in coming together, is authoring and scripting language that can be used by churches in their statements and press releases that will effectively defuse issues through vague, indefinite, and bewildering language. It is evident that statements made by Moravian leaders on  numerous occasions parallel previous statements of the WCC. Some of these statements were so quickly formulated and apparently given so little thought that retractions and/or interpretations were later needed because the language of those statements drew overwhelming concern by members of the denomination.

On May 19, 2003 a statement from the office of the PEC, and reported to have been authored by PEC member, Rev. Rick Sides, appeared on the Southern Province web site as an attempt to explain the PEC decision to keep Dunn in the Pulpit of the Moravian church. The statement made so little sense except to those familiar with WCC statements that it was pulled off shortly afterward due to the large number of calls and visits to the PEC office protesting or complaining about its ambiguity if not its anti-biblical message. That statement, in part, is as follows:

“4. Since we do not, and should not, seek to control the saving will of God, we don’t know whether strict “belief in Christ” (understood as intellectual assent to faith) is in fact the ONLY way to God (for example, Gods covenant with the Jews is older than ours!) That is why our Ground of the Unity says, “But just as the Holy Scriptures do not contain any doctrinal system, so the Unitas Fratrum also has not developed any of its own because it knows that the mystery of Jesus Christ, which is attested to in the Bible, cannot be comprehended completely by any human statement.” This does not mean that we think all religions are the same and that it’s just a buffet religious world out there. It does mean that we don’t have to judge or persecute other faiths and think we know what God might be doing or not doing through them.”

The WCCs Baar Statement (link), must have primed the PEC and Side’s assertions either through influence or coincidence when it stated:

“God as creator of all is present and active in the plurality of religions makes it inconceivable to us that God's saving activity could be confined to any one continent, cultural type, or groups of peoples. A refusal to take seriously the many and diverse religious testimonies to be found among the nations and peoples of the whole world amounts to disowning the biblical testimony to God as creator of all things and father of humankind. "The Spirit of God is at work in ways that pass human understanding and in places that to us are least expected”.

Bob Sawyer was harmoniously in tune with  the WCC choir when he attempted to explain the PEC’s reaction to Truman Dunn’s assertions that Christians should believe salvation can take place without affirmation that Jesus Christ is the only way. Sawyer wrote a guest editorial that appeared in the Thursday, May 16, 2002 Winston Salem Journal (link) which stated:

“Compiling a list of current teachings and labeling each teaching as true or false is not always helpful. Such a list might well include items that can and should receive a clear and ringing affirmation. Other items may have different meanings to different people. For this, as well as reasons of relationship and respect for one another, in our tradition, prayer, study and conversation are more appropriate ways of dealing with beliefs than a simple affirmation or denial.” ( “dialogue” rather than “witness” )
“An example is this statement from The Ground of the Unity. "We believe and confess that God has revealed Himself once and for all in His son Jesus Christ, that our Lord has redeemed us with the whole of humanity by His death and His resurrection; and that there is no salvation apart from Him.
Our recent synod chose not to adopt a resolution focused on this statement, not because Moravians deny it, but because we do not want to force a meaning from the statement that is not really there.”

He  admits he did not understand the question that evangelical members were raising or he would not have responded as he did. He tells members at the Olivet meeting that he later tried to correct his error with his posting in Provincial Ties on the Southern Provinces’ web site.

It is very difficult to believe that Sawyer was not aware that the question was about Dunn's’ teachings that Scripture is not the authoritative word of God for all time, and that we must give up the arrogant claim that Jesus Christ is the only way to Salvation. How could Sawyer miss this point unless he forgot for a moment that he was not writing for the WCC? Issue after issue of Current Dialogue (link), the WCC’s publication dedicated to dialogue with other religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Islam, etc.) is filled with articles endorsing statements such as the above made by Sawyer, Sides, and Dunn.

The NCC and the WCC have released numerous statements emphasizing the importance of community building and relationships as a high priority for the church today. However, careful study of NCC and WCC statements reveals that the community they are referring to is not exclusive of non-Christian religions and isn’t even exclusive of the secular world. The language of “community” redirects the attention of Christians from the scriptural prime focus of the Christian Church as a fellowship of Christians coming together to glorify God. Any works that come from this endeavor, to Glorify God, must stand the test first and primarily that it glorify God. The statements from the NCC and WCC clearly depict the mission of community building as being so important that individual doctrine of churches should not stand in the way.

In April, 2001, the Rev. Truman Dunn undertook a lecture tour based on his 26 page “Moses Lecture” where he reflected the WCC message as he warned the Moravian Church would Die if it did not change! He outlined the change that must happen; We must stop proclaiming that Scripture is the authority for our faith and doctrine and we must stop making the arrogant claim that salvation is only through Jesus Christ. The Moravian church that claims to know the truth for salvation must die and be replaced by the new Moravian Church whose message makes no exclusive truth claims. Our church community can only grow, according to Dunn, if we do not firmly stand on Scripture as the source of our faith and doctrine. Dunn writes: We must be willing to come together as a community recognizing that we will not agree on faith and doctrine.

In 1998 at the 8th Assembly of the WCC, the Report of the Moderator of the WWC Central Committee (link) states that:

“It is a matter of utmost gravity for the ecumenical movement and the WCC that proselytism [making converts from one religion or denomination to another] continues to be a painful reality in the life of the churches. Ecumenism and proselytism cannot co-exist. Proselytism is not only a counter-witness, it is a negation of fundamental theological and missiological convictions… we cannot turn a blind eye to the damage inflicted to the unity of Christ's church by different expressions of proselytism”.

The WWC reiterates the Baar statement again in their June 2001 Issue of CURRENT DIALOGUE (link) which reads:

“we must admit right away that the exclusivity of this claim simply cannot be maintained because there are in fact, right in front of our eyes, a multiplicity of competing claims for other ways to God and human flourishing… There are, in fact, many ways to God and many paths to human flourishing. In addition, we are increasingly aware that our visions of God and human flourishing are OUR visions and they are products of our history and our imaginative and creative construction. Once we recognize that they are products of such a kind of human historical creativity, they are instantly relativized and removed from the venue of absolutes.”

Dunn’s assertions parallel those of the WCC either through influence or coincidence.

On March 1, 2004 a letter was received from Judy Knopf who was the facilitator of the Visioning Committee. After more than 2 years of attempting to develop a simple statement of who we are and what we believe, a process that had been reported to be bogging down due to lack of agreement between groups who wanted to establish the trinity as the center of our faith and those who were wanting to place personal relationships and community building as the prime importance. According to Judy this group had labored far beyond their expected schedule and were growing weary of what appeared to be an inability to reach consensus. Bob Sawyer, a member of this core group, comprised of PEC members, Bishops and other church leaders, brought to the group a passage of scripture announcing “what about this, won't this work?” Judy said the Group was ready to be done with this exhaustive process and stated that the group decided their work was finished. The statement released by this group was composed by Judy and reviewed by each member of the group. Her letter reads:

“We came together willingly to see the 2001 Visioning Process to its conclusion and also to offer one response to the P.E.C. call for ‘conversations and healing among the clergy’. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. II Corinthians 5:17-20”

This scripture from St. Paul to the Corinthians is a call of reconciliation between God and man. So how could such a prestigious body of learned leaders have offered this as message of reconciliation between clergy and each other?

The minutes of the WCC Central Committee (link) for their meeting in Geneva on August 26 through September 3, 1999 read:

“21. Because of their shared commitment to Christ the peace-maker and to the universality of the gospel, the churches are called to be agents of reconciliation in a troubled world. Reconciliation is not an easy task,… Nor is reconciliation accomplished overnight; rather the steady, sustained commitment of religious communities… It is also important that the churches commit themselves at an early stage to prevent the escalation of conflicts. In some places, churches are already working on the local level in peace-making and peace-building activities in their communities and those examples need to be held up and affirmed. But the ecumenical fellowship needs, in dialogue and cooperation with people of other faiths, to expand and intensify its efforts in the broader dimensions of peace-making for the sake of peace and justice in the world. As Christians, we take inspiration from the words of the apostle Paul:

So, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation: that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us: we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (2 Cor: 5: 17-20)”

The NCC General Assembly on November 10, 1999, (link) adopted a similar statement on reconciliation and community:

“In the Incarnation both the fullness of God and the fullness of humanity, Jesus Christ initiates a new creation, a world unified in relationship as God originally intended. We believe that Jesus Christ makes real God’s will for a life of loving community with God, with the whole human family and with all creation. Through Jesus Christ, Christians believe God offers reconciliation to all. ‘In Christ God was reconciling the world to [God] self’ (2 Corinthians 5:19). It is our Christian conviction that reconciliation among people and with the world cannot be separated from the reconciliation offered in Jesus Christ.”

In April 2004 a meeting was held with Judy Knopf concerning the Visioning Committee’s actions. As the facilitator of the group she was assumed to be the appropriate spokes person. Judy was asked; “what was the most important job of the Church?” Her simple answer came quickly. “To be good neighbors”. Judy’s assertions parallel those of the NCC and WCC either through influence or coincidence.

Act Locally, Think Globally Strikes Home
(Your New Adult Sunday School Quarterly)

In the Fall 2004 Quarterly Adult Sunday School lesson “The Present Word” is based on the International Sunday School Lesson. The specific publication from 2004 Congregational Ministries Publishing, Presbyterian Church (USA) is jointly published by the Moravian Church in America ( North and South ) with acknowledgement of source material from the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America (NCC is the national arm of the WCC).

This quarterly contains seed statements from the harvest of the NCC and WCC that are consistent with many of their statements on community, reconciliation, and relationships, which are not biblically sound.

In Session 1 under the Sub-section heading “CREATED FOR COMMUNITY”, the author attempts to expand on the reason that God made woman for Adam.

“Though in the initial story there is but one ‘man’ and one ‘woman,’ the point is not that they are ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ but that humanity is differentiated in to ‘male’ and ‘female’. For humans to be complete they need a community, they need companions.
We are created male and female, yes, but there is much more to be considered. Human experience, when thoughtfully considered, emphasizes the rich diversity and necessity of this much wider range of human relationships and human community... Our main calling is to provide community.”

Two important concepts are set forth here with little fanfare that may have slipped by most readers.

 (1)  The creation story of Adam and Eve should not be used to        support marriage between one man and one woman.

(2)   Our main calling, or purpose, is to provide community, not to glorify God.

The NCC policy statement on Interfaith Relations and the Churches (link) adopted on November 10, 1999, speaks of community by stating:

“In the scriptural account of creation, it is the first humans in community who together constitute the image of God. Being made in God’s image we are created to live a life of relationship, and called to claim the unity in our human diversity.”

The Report of the Moderator (link) from the WCC Central Committee meeting (August 26 thru September 2, 2003) addresses community building by saying;

 “Community building is more urgent than ever before, and religions are called to make it a high priority on their agenda.”

The next Sub-section has the heading “GIFTED WITH NAMING”

The author uses the biblical account of Adam’s gift of naming the items he finds in his world to draw the reader into considering that Man has the ability to define “Truth”.

The author writes;

“We are expected to name things, but how we name things can make all the difference.”…”Human beings are gifted with the capacity to name their reality,” “we are to check out with others the appropriateness and accuracy of the names we give things --after all, we are blessed to live in “community”.

In Summary the author writes:

"Each person is a creature fashioned by God to live in caring communities with others. Each person has contributions to make. Each person is gifted with the capacity to [name] reality, and even [rename] when necessary.”

Two concepts are set forth here:

(1) Our reality can change based on what we think it is.

(2) We must pole the community to find out what is real.

Since community building is our most important calling we should determine those things, realities or truths that would divide us and redefine them so that we may agree and be united.

In Session 2 of the quarterly (on Page 10), the author describes the story of Noah and the flood as just one of many stories of great floods and among those many accounts. He says, “The Bible has a contribution to make as well”. The next paragraph is devoted to discrediting the accuracy of the Biblical account of the Flood stating that ”There is no credible geological data to support the contention that there was ever a single worldwide flood.” The session contains additional heresy and blasphemy throughout.

In Session 12 (Page 72), Sub-section heading “THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION”, the author writes that the reconciliation message found in II Corinthians 5: 18-20

Again the message of St Paul to be reconciled to God is expanded to reconciliation among ourselves. The author writes:

“we are to assist in bringing an end to those things that divide and separate. We are to take the first steps and move toward others in an act of reconciliation.”

 These assertions also parallel those of the WCC either through influence or coincidence.

This document covers only a small fraction of the NCC and WCC heresy and blasphemy that is infiltrating and permeating the Moravian Church of America and that is diluting or destroying not just the Christian heritage of the Moravian Church, but is destroying the Christian foundation of many members today. After the meeting at Olivet, Bob Sawyer was questioned on the validity of his statements and the Council of Churches position against the United States based on their statements and the close ties that both organizations have with the United Nations. His reply was that “well they [the Council of Churches] do have a tendency to lean toward the left”. Yes, but a lot toward the left, all the way to socialism and communism. Incredibly his response was, “You can be a socialist christian”.
We close this document with the Apostle Paul’s words to Timothy (II Timothy 4:2-5);

“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.”