‘Estrangement from God’

The following declaration of the Amsterdam Assembly of the World Council of Churches regarding Christendom’s churches appears in the volume Treasury of the Christian Faith: “Within our divided churches, there is much which we confess with penitence before the Lord . . . , for it is in our estrangement from him that all our sin has its origin. It is because of this that the evils of the world have so deeply penetrated our churches, so that among us too there are worldly standards of success, class division, economic rivalry, a secular mind. Even where there are no differences of theology, language, or liturgy, there exist churches segregated by race and color. . . . We are in danger of being salt that has lost its savor and is fit for nothing.”

The Bible writer James comments on worldliness causing estrangement from God: “Do you not know that the friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world is constituting himself an enemy of God.”—Jas. 4:4.