SALVATION ARMY IN BED WITH ROME!
By Rebecca A. Sexton
Subtitle: Coming One World Church Headed by the Pope Claims Yet Another Victim: The Salvation Army!!! Yet another huge sign the End of the Age spiritual deception and unity is upon us.
Every year we see them standing outside the stores, ringing their bells,
asking for donations to help the poor. We give freely believing that they
will not only feed them with food for their bodies, but food for their
souls. They are the Salvation Army. Their name alone makes one believe that
the thrust of this movement is to get men saved, to spread the precious
gospel seed of Jesus Christ. They reach out to the drug addict, the
drunkard, the homeless, the poor and needy. I’m sure that Ephesians 5:11 has
been preached on more than one occasion to those drunkards who wanted to go
sit in the bar and spend their last dollars on alcohol instead of their
needy families:
“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”
This command was not just for the drunkards, prostitutes or thieves, but to all who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus. Some evils are obvious, some are not so obvious, but evil is evil and darkness is darkness and the command is the same, “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness” and “reprove them”.
We recently received a letter from one reader, James Sundquist, who attended a Salvation Army church for two years, ministering in music, preaching, teaching a Bible study, and praying with and for them. His reason for attending this church was “that they still sang many songs about the Blood of Jesus and the urgency of the Great Commission.”
When James got a flier in his mailbox, depicting a Roman Catholic Cardinal conducting services at one of the main retreat services of The Salvation Army, he said, “My heart just broke. I was in total shock.” His initial thought was “There must be some others in our local church as well as the Salvation Army in general who might have received that brochure and were equally disturbed by this infusion of the RC in the church.” James was in for his second shock! “I could find NONE who were dismayed or concerned. NONE who were thankful that I had exposed this heresy. And as Paul said ‘are there NONE wise among you’?”
James wanted to be faithful and give the man responsible for having a Catholic cardinal preaching at a Salvation Army pulpit every chance to repent. He followed Matthew 18 and privately went to him explaining that the doctrines of Rome are idolatrous and blasphemous. The man did not care, so James wrote to his superiors to voice his concern. To his dismay, they took up the cause of Roman Catholicism and defended them as “Christian brothers”. James felt completely undone. He explains:
“A further problem in the Catholic-like hierarchy of the Salvation Army, is that there is not a mechanism for enforcing compliance when a leader goes astray, but simply watch in horror as a captain drives his ship right on to the rocks. You can confront a brother (Captain) but there is no accountability to ensure compliance if he is acting unbiblical [sic].”
This weakness of a hierarchical organization is the major reason the original Christian Church was not set up that way, but rather as individual local churches. Satan has been able to corrupt and lead astray all churches who organized themselves as a hierarchy.
James confesses,
“It is only out of love for the people of God and the Salvation Army and obedience to Scripture that I, with great heaviness of heart, am making it public. It was the LAST resort. We are no longer able to give financially either to the Salvation Army because in our hearts we would be funding an unholy alliance. I know that a host of Christians in other denominations give to the Salvation Army. BUT I AM CERTAIN THAT MANY OF THEM WOULD NO LONGER GIVE TO THEM IF IT WERE MADE KNOWN TO THEM THAT THE SALVATION ARMY HAD MADE THIS UNHOLY ALLIANCE WITH ROMAN CATHOLICISM. We must not be deceived, a little leaven does not leaven just a little of the lump, but the WHOLE lump!”
James certainly knows his Scripture, for the Apostle Paul does warn that just a "little leaven" [false teaching] ruins the whole lump of dough. Yet, most Catholics and too many Christians put up with truck loads of false teaching without leaving the church. Man seems to have an unlimited capacity to find excuses for evil and corrupt teaching, especially at this End of the Age when an exceedingly powerful demonic spirit of false spiritual teaching is sweeping the entire earth.
James struggled with this decision and considered it to be a great personal tragedy;
“I have loved the people of the Salvation Army and many of them have loved me and been a great refuge to me. And many will feel betrayed by me for making this public. But the betrayal has already occurred when they invited the Roman Catholic Cardinal to minister to their sheep. And in the end I have not done them a favor by simply looking the other way. I am sure they hope I will simply go away. But Christians forfeited that option when they became Christians!”
In desperation, James wrote to us:
“Dear Rebecca, I note with great gratitude your exposes of Roman Catholicism on your website. In this regard, I invite you to read and make known to your readers the following: I am enclosing a website which reveals that Roman Catholicism has sadly invaded the Salvation Army. At the Montclair Salvation Army Corps we received a brochure and picture of Cardinal Bernard Law conducting an ecumenical service at Salvation Army's Old Orchard Beach Pavilion on July 21. (Ecumenism is a leaven of apostasy that has invaded a large percentage of all Protestant denominations, but I never thought it would invade the Salvation Army. William Booth would turn over in his grave!!). James Sundquist”
Mr. Sundquist included an official website to substantiate his claims. Of course, being a former Catholic, I immediately went to their site. I was equally shocked as I read the following information advertising this Ecumenical Conference:
Special Events - Saturday, July 21st, 2001
Celebration of Faith His Eminence
Cardinal Bernard F. Law
Jennifer DeDominici - Vocalist
Laura Darrell - Vocalist
Music by The Salvation Army Band
Choir for Higher
Captain Janet Munn - Mime/Sacred Dance
7:00 pm - Free to the Public
Parking at Ballpark
Free Shuttle Bus Service
Cardinal
Bernard F. Law, Archbishop of Boston, Massachusetts, will minister in a
service of an ecumenical Celebration of Faith. Cardinal Law is an
ecclesiastical delegate of Pope John Paul II and Chairman of the Board of
Trustees at The Catholic University of America."
I immediately wrote back to Mr. Sundquist and asked him more about this. He informed me that he had written the directors of Salvation Army and he included their correspondence. Here is the letter from Colonel Francis, the “top official for the entire N.E. United States”, sent on August 7, 2001 to Mr. James Sundquist :
“Re: Roman Catholicism and The Salvation Army
Dear Mr. Sundquist: Thank you for your correspondence (attached) and your interest in The Salvation Army and the Northern New England Division. Your ongoing support and heartfelt concern are appreciated, as is your love for the people of The Salvation Army. However, we do believe that allowing Cardinal Law to speak recently at a Salvation Army function in no way compromises our theology or evangelical position. While there clearly are doctrinal differences between The Salvation Army and the Catholic Church, we share a oneness in our ultimate allegiance to Jesus Christ. We seek to proclaim Christ as Lord in this ecumenical effort. May the Lord bless you.
Sincerely yours,
sent electronically
Colonel William W. Francis
Chief Secretary
wfrancis@use.salvationarmy.org”
Although Colonel Francis admits that the Roman Catholic Church does have doctrinal differences from the Salvation Army, he fails to mention what those differences are:
* He fails to mention that the Roman Catholic Church preaches and teaches another gospel. [Galatians 1:6; The Apostle Paul then condemns this other Gospel in the strongest possible terms: "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to and different from that which we preached to you, let him be accursed -- anathema, devoted to destruction, doomed to eternal punishment."] Literally, Paul said that the person preaching "another Gospel" should "go to Hell"! Strong words, strong condemnation, for a very strong and evil offense. Yet Rome has preached "another Gospel for 1,400 years].
Listed below are some of the more important elements of the Roman Catholic "other Gospel":
* Did Colonel Francis reprove Cardinal Law for Mary worship, transubstantiation, the Mass, rosaries, scapulars, novenas, the false priesthood, idolatry, purgatory and indulgences before he allowed the cardinal to speak? No, instead of reproving the unfruitful works of darkness, he had fellowship with them . He allowed a wolf in sheep’s clothing to minister to the flock. If Rome has deprived her own people of the gospel of grace, what makes the Salvation Army think they can possibly impart some wisdom or truth to others? This deals a staggering blow to those who have supported the Salvation Army, believing that they would not budge or move the plumbline of righteousness.
Cardinal Law’s allegiance is not to Jesus Christ, but to the pope. Rome’s allegiance is not to the gospel of Jesus Christ, but rather, to world domination [Read NEWS1052 for full details of the plan for the Pope to be the head of the world religion of The Christ -- Antichrist!]
Rome's cardinals, bishops, monsignors, priests, monks and nuns, along with every single Catholic, must pay their allegiance to the pope. He is to go unquestioned by anyone and obeyed by all. Let Rome speak for herself:
“The Pope can make and unmake laws for the entire Church: his authority is supreme and unquestioned. Every bishop, every priest, every member of the Church is subject to him” (My Catholic Faith, Morrow, 251).
Rome is notorious for hiding her real objective. She plays both sides of the fence and uses her own people to further her cause. That’s why you’ll see Catholic Apologists attacking the Christian faith calling us “heretics” and “ignorant”, while on the other hand they fight furiously for “unity”. Which ever side works is the side Rome will take.
It wasn’t that long ago that the Roman Catholic church condemned the Salvation Army. One former priest writes about it:
“Roman Catholics have been taught to abhor
the word “Protestant”. It is one of the tricks of Rome to prevent them from
studying and accepting pure Christianity. An American student in the
theological Seminary of Montreal once asked his professor why the Salvation
Army was condemned by the Roman Catholic church. The learned professor
answered in three Latin words: ‘Quia sentit Protestantismum—(Because
it smells Protestantism)’ ” (I Was A Priest , Vinet, 134)
SALVATION ARMY WORLD HEADQUARTERS
James received another letter from the Salvation Army World Headquarters confirming their global intent and unholy alliance with Roman Catholic Church.
“In reply to your question to the Web Major of The Salvation Army's United Kingdom Territory, The Salvation Army does not have a position paper on the Roman Catholic Church separate from our attitude to all other Christian groups. You will see from the attached however that our position is that of support for the Roman Catholic Church as with other Christian groups. That includes respect for their doctrines and practices and, as opportunity allows, sharing in corporate worship and public events of an ecumenical nature. Internationally, we particularly share a relationship with the Roman Catholic Church through our membership on the Conference of Secretaries of Christian World Communions on which the Roman Catholic Church is represented by the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. I represent The Salvation Army at that conference. The current Roman Catholic representative has recently been named by the Vatican as Bishop Marc Oullet.
Earl Robinson
The Salvation Army International Headquarters Office for
Spiritual Life Development & International External Relations”
The Salvation Army "supports and respects the doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic Church" by this sad admission. They respect and support Mary worship and the making of images and the bowing before them. She respects and supports the doctrine of pagan purgatory! This is truly alarming! Can we support The Salvation Army in good conscience, knowing that a Catholic priest or cardinal may be falsely witnessing to those who earnestly come seeking truth? Will we support Catholic teaching and preaching their false doctrines? The scriptures are filled with warnings not to be partakers with idolaters, not to eat with them or to bid them God’s speed, lest we be partakers with them in their sin and share in their plagues.
"If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine [is disloyal to what Jesus Christ taught], do not receive him [do not accept him, do not welcome or admit him] into your house or bid him Godspeed or give him any encouragement. For he who wishes him success [who encourages him, wishing him Godspeed] is a partaker in his evil doings." [2 John 1:10-11; Parallel Bible, KJV/Amplified Bible Commentary].
We, along with James, pray that the Salvation Army will reconsider its position of support for the doctrines of the Roman Catholic church. Roman Catholicism is a cult parading around as “Christian brothers”. If true Christians do not stand up against the lies of the RCC, then millions of Catholics will perish because we have failed to preach the truth to them, and perhaps millions more will be deceived into believing that truth must give way to unity.
In closing, Ecumenicists point to Jesus' prayer to His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane for unity for His Church and His true followers. Yet, these ecumenicists fail to realize that the basis for this unity was Truth, the truth of the Gospel, the very truth that the Apostle John warned was being trampled by some [2 John 1:10-11, quoted above].
Listen to Jesus agonize that His followers stick to the truth: "Sanctify them [purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself, make them holy] by Truth; Your Word is Truth. And so for their sake, and on their behalf, I sanctify ... Myself that they also may be sanctified in the Truth." [John 17:17-19; Parallel Bible]
Then, and only then, did Jesus pray the favorite prayer of the Ecumenicists: "... That they may be one, just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in one in Us, so the world may believe and be convinced that You have sent Me." [John 17:21; Ibid]
No one can unify based upon what they can agree, when such agreement means to ignore the vast differences between false Gospel and true Gospel. This is sin of the Ecumenicist, and it is leading the entire world directly into the arms of the Antichrist.
By Rebecca A. Sexton - Former Catholics For Christ, http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/2594/ and David Bay, Director, Cutting Edge Ministries
