Taking A Second Look
At one time you could identify a Catholic by what he taught. You could always tell a Protestant by his unrelenting stand against Roman Catholicism. But today we live in a compromising age, when conviction is relegated to the junk heap. To illustrate my point, the following is a letter published in the Greenville News (Greenville, S. C. ), written by Thorleif Teigland, a Methodist missionary in Tunisia; "A year ago, I, a Norweigian Methodist pastor, baptized in a Catholic cathedral an American Lutheran child according to the rites of the Anglican Church. Six months ago, I baptized by immersion two Anglican Baptists, according to the Methodist liturgy, in a Pentecostal Church for Italians, run by an American mission. A month ago, I celebrated Holy Communion with American Presbyterians, Baptists, French Reformed people and Italian Catholics." Can you honestly imagine the apostle Paul taking Pharisees into a temple of Baal, baptizing them with John's baptism into the church of the Epicureans? Or can you conceive of Simon Peter baptizing Sadducees in the name of Dianna the goddess of the Ephesians, in order to make them Stoics of the Herodian persuasion? Or again, can you imagine Philip taking the unbelieving Jews into an idol temple to partake of the Lord's Supper? The Bible warns of those who change "the truth of God into a lie" (Romans 1:25); and of a strong delusion sent for those who receive not the love of the truth. II Thessalonians 2:10-12.