Ushering in a One World Religion?

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

I have to say it’s a bit off-putting that so many within Christendom seem so unconcerned about the massive push by many of today’s religious leaders toward a one-world religious system. There are so many who deny what is occurring right in front of our noses. What can you do? The only thing that can be done is that we continue to highlight and discuss the things that are happening in society and continue to disclose what the Bible says about living in the end times or last days. Either people will wake up to the facts or they will continue in their denial.

With respect to the end times/last days, Jesus, Paul, John, Peter and others point out to us what we can know and understand. One of the biggest rules I ever learned was that the Bible should be allowed to interpret itself. After all, even though God chose to use some 40 different human authors to write various parts of His Word (over a period of 1600 to 2000 years), the truth remains that ultimately, all of the Bible is from God Himself. Because of this, we need to recognize that we are studying and interpreting (seeking to understand) what God has to say, not what we think He has to say. There’s a huge difference and such a difference should require us to approach His Word with the utmost respect and humility. Only then, will God help us to ascertain His message (again, not what we think or hope His Word says).

So it is with the subject of the end times or last days. There has been this growing movement to look at anyone who chooses to understand God’s Word literally* as heretics. Anyone who believes in the literal physical return of Jesus is often laughed at today. We are told that Jesus is reigning now. Of course He is, but Scripture points to the time when Jesus will physically return to this earth and will visibly rule over this entire planet in a final kingdom prior to God creating new heavens and a new earth. To allegorize these truths away is tantamount to changing the very Words of God.

One of the things the Bible teaches is that as we draw near the end of man’s history, leading up to the point in time when Jesus will physically return, there will be this huge push within society to bring all major religions together in one specific form. We see very clear teachings about this in God’s Word. For instance in the book of Revelation, we learn of the False Prophet in Revelation 13. It is interesting to see this individual – whoever he turns out to be – directing attention and worship to the “Beast” or Antichrist.

11 Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. 12 It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast… (ESV; see also Revelation 16:13, 19:20, 20:10)

The Bible teaches that at some point, all man-made religions will culminate in the worship of one human being, namely, the Antichrist. The False Prophet will be on hand to ensure that this occurs. Anyone who doesn’t fall in line will be executed. It is that clear and that simple. Multitudes will become martyrs during the upcoming time known as the Tribulation/Great Tribulation lasting seven years.

Instead of simply believing the plain and ordinary sense of Scripture (or literal), too many leaders within Christendom prefer to put a different spin on things. They want us to believe that the world will progressively get better and better until global society reaches that perfect point when Christ will be able to “return” (either physically or in Spirit) and will rule over mankind at that point. This will happen, they say, as more “Christians” come together to take back the world and bring God into society. In other words, their view is that Jesus cannot return until society arrives to a certain point. Society will get to that point, they claim, only when humanity unites and moves toward that point. The longer it takes society to come together for this purpose, the longer it will be before Jesus can return (physically or spiritually).

The Bible tells me that Jesus will return solely when that particular time is reached, set by the Father. It is not dependent upon man or woman, individuals or groups. It all has to do with God’s timing and His alone. He is not hampered or limited by finite, puny human beings. We see that throughout the Bible, one example after another making it difficult to deny.

Recently, something came to light that shows us how this one-world religion that will ultimately lead to the appearance of the Antichrist could very well happen. It involves the Roman Catholic Pope. Now, please understand I am not bashing Roman Catholics here. I’m simply pointing out the direction this current pope seems to be moving and it is concerning. In fact, I know Catholics who are also very concerned.

Just a few days ago – February 3-5, 2019, a newly signed document was released to the world by the Pope. It’s called A Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together (HFD). The gist of it is to call all the people of the world to unite in one faith – regardless of religious persuasion (or not) – to worship “God” (whatever the person conceives God to be) for truth and justice to exist throughout global society. In essence, it is a social justice warrior’s dream come true. But is it biblical?

What is most disconcerting here is the fact that this document came together when the Pope traveled outside the Vatican to meet with Grand Imam of Al Azhar in Abu Dhabi. The Grand Imam of course, is a Muslim of the Islamic religion. We know this religion is a counterfeit to Christianity and even Judaism, yet the Pope, who claims to be a Christian and is seen as the highest leader under God on earth for all Roman Catholics has deliberately met with this leader of Islam in order to create a document that calls for unity of faith.

The Pope is calling for nothing less than what the New Age Movement has been teaching for generations. This push towards a one-world religious system results in a movement away from true God as people draw closer together in “harmony.” That harmony is based solely on feelings, not biblical truth or reality.

In order to unite Muslims, Catholics, Protestants, and even secular atheists or New Age aficionados, actual Bible doctrine must be set aside. While people can recognize that they might have differences of theological thought and opinion with others, we are told this should not stop all from joining hands with people of differing faiths in order to achieve the same worthwhile goal: planetary unity resulting in human harmony. That’s the goal and to think that this is not happening or that it is not the antithesis of what is taught in Scripture is ridiculously naive.

The Pope and the Grand Imam envision a world built on harmony and peace. In essence though they are doing the same thing Nimrod tried with the Tower of Babel. At that time (Genesis 10-11), Nimrod was the acclaimed and recognized leader of all humanity. Everyone got behind what Nimrod was attempting to create. They were literally together “as one” trying to build a tower that would reach the heavens. It didn’t mean that it was going to be tremendously high. It simply meant that they all got behind this idea that if they built it, they would reach the heavenly realms and the gods would be able to come down to them. This is why in Genesis God says, “Let us go down…” (Genesis 11:7), because God was going to do what the people expected the “gods” to do – literally walk out of the heavens and down onto the earth to be with people. Of course, when God came down, He did not do what the people expected Him to do.

The spiritual tower of Babel is being rebuilt again, this time by religious leaders throughout the world. The Pope has determined that in spite of any theological differences he can join hands with the Grand Imam from Islam. They and others worked together to create a document that has as its outcome a great similarity with the first Babel. However, there will be one huge difference between the first Babel of Genesis 11 and the one that’s being built now. Unlike the first Babel, God Himself will not come down. Instead, it will be the Antichrist who appears on the scene and unfortunately for this world, he will be accepted by most as the living God.

Antichrist will be revered, honored, and even worshiped. He will take up the most powerful position in the entire world, ruling over it as head of the final man-made kingdom prior to the physical return of Jesus (Daniel 2).

My most recent book Deception in the Church deals mainly with the problems associated with the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). The movement has deep roots in the 20th century to today and it is highly deceptive yet captivates many. There are numerous leaders within NAR who applaud the Pope, even calling him their “hero.” You can read more about this whole thing over at Church Watch Central and their article on NAR and the document we’re discussing here (HFD).

Here’s one of the main goals of the HFD: “The one God to whom we submit our lives wants all, Christian and Muslim, to reject arrogance and to come before him together, so that God can govern our societies according to his will.”

This is an arrogant lie. God is already in control. He never abdicated His authority and fully controls what happens here and throughout Creation.

In order to “reject arrogance,” the meaning is that we should ignore doctrinal differences and fellowship with those who hold to aberrant teachings. Do Muslims worship God in Christ? No. While they say that Jesus is an apostle of God, He is not God according to them. Yet, the Bible teaches repeatedly that Jesus is God, very God. He is the second Person of the Trinity. Even Roman Catholicism teaches this. Yet, this particular Pope wants Christians to ignore theological and doctrinal differences in order to engender peace and harmony. Kumbaya and all that rot.

Throughout history and especially within the past 50 to 60 years, certain organizations have come into being that have pushed this same type of harmonic convergence between people. Leaders of these organizations push people not to talk about doctrine because they say it’s divisive. Truth is always divisive!

Those leaders want people to come together and simply enjoy the similarities. One believes in Jesus but he’s not God while another believes Jesus is God? That’s okay, as long as there is respect or reverence for Jesus. That becomes the connection. Promise Keepers is one such group that has huge question marks over it because of what they teach. Part of the issue with Promise Keepers is their unscriptural push for religious unity while ignoring any real doctrinal/theological differences. This is done deliberately.

It’s not only of groups like Promise Keepers but often with churches that become so large that pastors and teachers there can no longer be specific about the specifics of Scripture. To do so is to risk offending attendees who may very well take themselves (and their wallets) and go elsewhere. Imagine what would happen if money began to dry up due to sticking with the actual teaching of Scripture? How do you pay large staffs? How do you pay the mortgage?

We’ll continue this in upcoming articles, but it is well worth noting that friendship with the world is enmity with God (James 4:4). We risk offending God when our main goal is to join hands with as many in the world as possible for the sake of fake unity and harmony. We should be far more afraid of offending God than offending people by squelching what we believe for the sake of artificial “unity.”

* the word “literally” here means to understand something in its most plain and ordinary sense. It does not mean “literalistically.” When reading through parts of God’s Word that delve into the prophetic (especially in the future from our perspective), we still determine to find God’s meaning by understanding things in a literal sense. Even though God’s Word uses metaphors, figures of speech, and allegory, those normally have only one meaning to them and it is incumbent upon the reader to seek what God means by that, not what we think is what God means.

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective