Kenneth Copeland (KCM Ministries) is a Pentecostal, evangelical preacher who trained under Oral Roberts. Copeland, a tele-evangelist has been united with the Catholic Church in Sunday keeping. But it goes much beyond that. He has become a strong advocate of the ecumenical movement to unite Evangelical and Pentecostal churches with the Catholic Church.
At a recent Pentecostal ministers conference in Fort Worth, TX he invited Tony Palmer to the pulpit. Tony is an Anglican priest of the Celtic Anglican Tradition and is the communion’s international ecumenical officer. He is also an official member of the Roman Catholic Ecumenical Delegation for Christian Unity and Reconciliation.
Palmer, a protégé of Kenneth Copeland, took the charismatic work of KCM to South Africa. He was ordained a priest and later a bishop in the Anglican Communion, but sees himself as a Roman Catholic. Later he was invited by the Catholic Charismatic Renewal to join their work among Roman Catholics.
Tony lived and worked in Argentina for a few years. While there he became close personal friends with Jorge Mario Bergoglio who is now Pope Francis.
Tony told the Pentecostal ministers conference that he visited Rome as part of the official ecumenical delegation a few years ago. Pope Benedict XVI was still pope and said to the audience, “You Charismatics are the hope of the [Catholic] church.”
Palmer says he came to the Copeland organization “in the spirit of Elijah… to turn the hearts of the fathers to the sons, and the hearts of the sons to the fathers…” In the context of ecumenical unity, which is his message, the Protestants are the ‘sons’, and the Roman Catholic leadership would be the ‘fathers.’
Then Palmer talks about the agreement signed in 1999 by the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Lutheran Church, and five years later by the Methodist church, and he concludes, “This [agreement] brought an end to the protest of Luther. Brothers and sisters, Luther’s protest is over. Is yours?” he said. Then he added, “so, the protest has been over for 15 years… If there is no more protest, how can there be a Protestant church? Maybe now we’re all Catholics again!”
Palmer treats the Protestant Charismatics as the bridge between Protestant churches and the Roman Catholic Church. Palmer goes on to say that Catholics and Protestants are now preaching the same gospel. While it appears to many that the Catholic Church has adopted righteousness by faith alone, the Catholic Church still teaches all of its other doctrines as well. Its real purpose is to merge the two together.
Recently, Palmer visited Pope Francis in Rome. While there he and the pope prepared a special iPhone video message for these Pentecostal ministers. As you would expect, the pope speaks of the need for unity and brotherhood.
Pope Francis comes across as a warm, concerned father figure in the video. You would almost forget that he’s a member of “the most cruel, unscrupulous, and powerful of all the champions of popery.” (See Great Controversy page 234). In fact, it is easy to see how difficult it will be to oppose global ecumenical unity with the truth of the three Angels’ messages of Revelation 14, once the ecumenical movement has reached its peak and all the world wonders after the beast.
The pope asks for the prayers of these Pentecostal ministers and for their blessing. Kenneth Copeland then responds by return video in front of the audience and leads the minister’s conference in shouting a blessing to the pope in return. “Heaven is thrilled over this,” he adds.
Pentecostals Wonder After…
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We are galloping toward a one-world melding of religions, and the ramifications are staggering. Pope Francis has now sent a video message to Word of Faith father Kenneth Copeland, urging a reconciliation between Catholics and Charismatics.