‘Ello me lads!
It’s been a fortnight or two since I popped in at Fulcrum7, and it’s good to be back.
Last Tuesday, I spent a delightful evening at the twee Full English cafe in Folkstone where the caffeine-free herbal tea is delightful. Not too hot, not too sweet, not too weak, not too strong, and not a drop spilled on the saucer. It makes one proud to be an Englishman. As I was a bit peckish, I ordered myself the tomato cheese sandwich sliced on the diagonal the way God intended, with chips of course. But I digress..
Eager to keep tabs on the Adventist command center in Silvery Springs I pulled up the Spring Meeting livestream on my not-too-smart phone and gave it a gander in spite of the six-hour time delay. The meeting was buzzing along quite well until this Diop fellow waffled on in a video about how important he is to Adventism, and how his hobnobbing with the Pope, the World Council of Churches, and the United Nations is the very epitome of our existence.
The chap causes us much misery with his pear-shaped ecumenism disguised as SDA orthodoxy. Notice how defensive the blighter appeared in his video presentation, and well he might, after laboring to get Christians/Adventists to join the United Nations in their 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, which I wrote about in my 2019 strop.
And the way his department snookered conscientious Adventists who preferred to keep their bodily autonomy intact during the Covid codswallop, makes me a bit sanguine towards him. But let’s review, shall we?
Conference of Secretaries of Christian World Communions (CSCWC)
Diop demonstrated a remarkable petulance on this topic, announcing that he is the secretary of the above ecumenical annual gathering, after assuring us that he is not engaged in ecumenism. The Conference of Secretaries of Christian World Communions met at the Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches at Bossey, Switzerland, from 30 October-3 November 2023. But it’s not ecumenical of course. At the meeting, participants received guided tours of the Ecumenical Centre and the United Nations. But it’s not ecumenical. Perish the thought. The World Council of Churches (WCC) is the broadest and most zealous among the many organized expressions of the modern ecumenical movement. But again, it’s not ecumenical.
At this 2023 meeting, which Diop organized, WCC general secretary Rev. Dr. Jerry Pillay shared how to develop the Pilgrimage of Justice, Reconciliation, and Unity. Some quotes from the Pilgrimage of Justice, Reconciliation, and Unity,
“The beginning of our work has relationship building at its heart, but we want to go even further and revive a sense that the fellowship is a movement, even a prophetic movement,” reads the report. “We do not want to lose the sense that we are ‘moving’ and that we are on a journey of justice and peace, prepared to struggle for them.”
Deepened relationships should lead to radical change, to conversion, reconciliation, justice, and even reparations, the report states, noting that the assembly has listened to the many voices present at the WCC 11th Assembly. ”We affirm an ecumenism of the heart, but also an ecumenism of the feet in which we walk in the sandals of Jesus Christ.”
“The intention to ‘move together’ is still present in the fellowship as reflected in the theme of this 11th assembly: Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity,” notes the report. “We continue on this common journey together, celebrating the work of the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace in common witness on the ecumenical journey with the invitation of this assembly for movement toward reconciliation and unity.”
The WCC 2022 assembly also affirmed the need to strengthen young people in the Ecumenical Movement Commission. By all means, go after the children. Crowley did.
Notice a heavy infestation of buzzwords in the above mash. Here is my modest translation,
Using ‘prophetic movement’ to describe the theologically malnourished WCC is a bit of rubbish, unless of course you place them in Revelation thirteen three, where they richly belong. It is the glorious Advent Movement which is a prophetic movement, not this pompous canting crew.
Pilgrimage. Protestantism has wandered away from the mother ship, and needs to make the journey back to Roman Catholicism. WCC and CSCWC will help you get there. Farewell Habakkuk 2:4 — hello Apostate Protestantism. A cheery handshake for all across the abyss.
Justice and peace. Social justice and socialism. ‘You will have peace when you stop resisting our hard left globalist agenda. Join us in this ecumenical journey over the apocalyptic cliff.’
Radical change. Revolution is in the air and it isn’t the revolution of righteousness. It isn’t repentance; it isn’t revival; it isn’t reformation. It is binding ourselves together in progressive bundles with Romanism, chuffed that we are doing God’s will.
Reconciliation. This is code language for coming back to Roman Catholicism in one giant ecumenical group hug. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member of the WCC but for more than 50 years, the member churches of the WCC and the Roman Catholic Church have jointly fostered unity, theological reflection, and solidarity in service. Cooperation between the Roman Catholic Church and the WCC continues to grow across all aspects of the WCC’s work. The participants of the 2016 CSCWC conference (including Seventh-day Adventists) had an audience with Pope Francis. That’s where the benighted picture of Diop and the Pope was taken.
Reparations. This is a lefty idea of dividing people into categories of entitlement and obligation, derived from Critical Race Theory. Like Bettina Krauss of Liberty Magazine and her NAD/CRT/DIE inspired endorsement of the Doctrine of Discovery, it is a political attempt to use a rigged social welfare program to carve out a chunk of Adventists into a tribal voting block.
Bits and Bobs
So, Diop’s Spring Meeting presentation was a proper problem. The chap could have used the time to explain and renounce his untoward involvement with the United Nations, promotion of their Agenda 2030, and a bevy of other global leftisms. A ripe suggestion, that! Instead, he was infused with a rich blush of self-importance. Some tidbits.
He (Diop) said PARL works to promote a good reputation for the Seventh-day Adventist Church. I don’t know who the chap was who came up with the idea to blend Religious Liberty and Public Relations (perhaps he should go back to driving a dustbin lorry)! Blending Religious Liberty and Public Relations results in the odd notion that the more politically-correct we are, the more freedom we therefore have. You can spend every waking hour trying to get men to ‘speak well of you’ only to discover in the end that it is what God thinks of us that matters (Galatians 1:10).
According to Diop, if you question his pear-shaped ecumenism, you are full of “irrational worries.” Just like if you question the efficacy of the Covid mandates & maneuvers, you are quite possibly a conspiratorialist right-winger.
Diop saith,
“The Seventh-day Adventist Church cannot be placed under an umbrella of any ecumenical organization. Now this is important because the issue is that of freedom of conscience, and in this case corporate freedom of conscience because of our representative system and vote another organization cannot decide for us.”
So why did you try to decide for SDA church members on whether or not they should yield to Pharoah’s C-19 vaccination tyranny? Speak up, old crumpet. Is corporate ‘freedom of conscience’ to hobnob with ecumenists more important than individual freedom of conscience for our members’ bodily autonomy (which make up the church)? Astounding. I don’t believe God Himself has reached that point. He judges us on the basis of our choices (Romans 2:6), and saves us individually (John 3:3), rather than corporate chunks.
Diop boasts about the Adventist educational system to his CSCWC bedfellows. Ironically, the Spring Meeting acknowledged that we have a big problem with our education system. It’s best not to boast (1 Corinthians 5:6).
Diop says we come together as “equals” in the CSCWC ‘communions.’ My good man. Is the SDA Church just another church? I think not. The Adventist 'church' is no ordinary body. It is a Movement, called of God to prepare a dying world for the soon return of the Lord Jesus. Our task is to call forth the remnant out of Babylon, not join Babylon as an equal participant in their confusion. However..
The crowning achievement of Diop’s defensive PARL pretext was his odd suggestion that if we question the doctrines or beliefs of other religions, we are engaging in a form of terrorism or sectarian violence. We are ‘attacking’ them.
“Now the fruit of the Holy Spirit excludes violence against others. If we go after people's faith it is irresponsible. We have to remember we are a restorationist movement, not a sectarian violent breed of Believers—closet terrorists in fact. So we should have nothing to do with the ways of evil with violence with accusing other people.”
This odd haver is possibly intended to prevent us from acknowledging or mentioning that the man of sin in the Bible is the Roman pontiff. Or prevent us from warning the religions of Babylon to “come out of her” (Revelation 18:4).
And, what is a ‘closet terrorist’? Is telling the truths of the Bible, terrorism now? Like Paul said “Am I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?” (Galatians 4:16). Telling people the truth is not attacking them; it may attack lies in their lives if they are holding on to them. That sets people free (John 8:32). If a person says that our biblical teaching – that the dead are dead – is an attack on their belief that Uncle Khosgrove is–in fact–in heaven, do we stop sharing Bible truth on the matter? Indeed not.
Diop said “Public affairs is the face of the church.” How do I put this? We don’t want you to be our face, sir. And we don’t want religious liberty joined with public relations. Those two should be quite separate. We want religious liberty joined with principled biblical courage.
I sign off with some good news. I was chuffed by the brethren’s attempt to rein in the mostly botched Adventist education centers—press on lads.
Pip pip!
