Religious unity, or ecumenism, is just another movement toward the establishment of Babylon, who will eventually persecute those who do not conform themselves to her. If ecumenism were simply a call for religious groups to stop the violence and hatred that has become much too common, then it would be a good thing. However, ecumenism is in fact a movement towards supremacy of the Papacy—the most violent religious body of all time.

The Papacy's Authority

In 1547, John Knox had wise words of advice regarding the Papacy:

Flee from Babel, if you do not want to partake in the destruction.ⁱ

The Pope is the world’s highest religious authority. However, this status has not been achieved on the basis of truth but on the basis of compromise. Moreover, the religious principles and doctrines of the Papacy constitute what the Bible calls the Babylon of the end times. The Second Vatican Council's Decrees on Ecumenism, given on November 21, 1964, proves that ecumenism is for the purpose of drawing all religions to Roman doctrine and authority:

For [Protestants] who believe in Christ and have been truly baptized are in communion with the Catholic Church even though this communion is imperfect. The differences that exist in varying degrees between them and the Catholic Church-whether in doctrine and sometimes in discipline, or concerning the structure of the Church-do indeed create many obstacles, sometimes serious ones, to full ecclesiastical communion. The ecumenical movement is striving to overcome these obstacles...

This is the way that, when the obstacles to perfect ecclesiastical communion have been gradually overcome, all Christians will at last, in a common celebration of the Eucharist, be gathered into the one and only Church in that unity which Christ bestowed on His Church from the beginning. We believe that this unity subsists in the Catholic Church as something she can never lose, and we hope that it will continue to increase until the end of time (emphasis added).

Protestantism and other world religions, by their own admission, have joined forces with the Roman Catholic Church, thus returning to the “Mother Church.” By submitting to Rome’s authority, these religions have become part of Babylon. By acknowledging the Pope’s leadership, they also acknowledge his doctrines (Romans 6:16).

This is not the true unity Christ spoke of. True unity is based on the Word of God and the dominion of God. Ecumenical unity is based on shared "spiritual" experiences and the power of human leaders.

The Bible warns about the three parts of Babylon: the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet. The False Prophet is the component of Babylon that will produce the false signs and wonders whereby the people will be deceived to follow the Beast and to receive its mark:

And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone (Revelation 19:20).

The Second Angel’s Message

In Revelation 14, three angels give warnings to all the people of the earth. The Second Angel declares, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication” (Revelation 14:8).

Revelation 18 repeats the message of the Second Angel with the added admonition to separate from her:

Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen...And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues (Revelation 18:2,4).

Revelation 18 is a message of separation from Babylon. The ecumenical movement contains a message of unity based not on doctrinal truth or the Word, but on social issues, liturgy, and a watering down of fundamental principles of Christianity. Those that want to join together without the Word as their basis become a part of the end-time conglomerate—Babylon.

Compromise may seem like a good way to avoid conflict, but is impossible if we are to follow God’s call to stand for truth. There are only three definitions of truth in the Bible: Jesus is the truth, His Word is the truth, and His law is the truth.

The reformers were willing to die for what they believed. They had studied the prophecies that clearly identify the Papacy as the Antichrist. Let us not reject the prophets and may the following words of Jesus not apply to us:

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not" (Matthew 23:37).

The day is not distant, and it may be very near, when we shall all have to fight the battle of the Reformation over again.ⁱⁱ

Read about the New Age movement as a tool for end-time unity

i. Friedrich H. Brandes, John Knox, der reformator Schottlands (R. L. Friderichs, 1862). (German)

ii. Henry Grattan Guinness, Romanism and the Reformation (Hodder and Stoughton, 1887): 1.