The One World Religion
How it is coming
together and how it
relates to the return of Jesus.
by
Dr. David R. Reagan
The most popular apostasy in Christendom
today is the teaching that God has revealed Himself in many different
ways to different cultures and that, therefore, all religions
worship the same god, but just use different names. From this
viewpoint, the Allah of Islam is the same as the Yahweh of Judaism
and both are the same as the Krishna of Hinduism. The natural
conclusion that is drawn from this apostate idea is that there
are many different paths to God, Jesus being only one of them.
This has led liberal leaders of groups like The National Council
of Churches in the United States and the World Council to condemn
missionary activity as "arrogant" and "anti-cultural."1
The Bible teaches that these apostate Christian
leaders are eventually going to succeed, at least temporarily.
Their triumph will occur when the Antichrist forms his one world
religion (Revelation 13:12).
The Stanford Conference
Major steps have already been taken to establish
a unified world religion. In June of 1997 over 200 delegates from
religious groups all over the world gathered at Stanford University
to begin drafting a charter for an international interfaith institution
to be called The Organization of United Religions.2
The meeting was convened and presided over
by Reverend William Swing, the Episcopal Bishop of San Francisco.
Since 1993 he has been traveling worldwide to set up a network
of religious leaders interested in a one world religious organization.
The Bishop told the San Francisco Chronicle:3
I’ve spent a lot of time praying with
Brahmins, meditating with Hindus, and chanting with Buddhists.
I feel I’ve been enormously enriched inwardly by exposure
to these folks. I’ve gone back and read our own scriptures,
and it’s amazing how they begin to read differently when
you’re exposed to more truth from more people in other parts
of the world.
This statement is the epitome of the new
tolerance that is being evidenced by Christendom’s apostate leaders.
(Incidentally, I wonder what "new truth" he found outside
the Bible!)
The group has been moving full speed ahead
with their organizational efforts. Their charter was presented
for ratification by sponsoring groups in June of 2000. Their goal
is to have the new organization fully operable by 2005. They intend
for the headquarters to be located at the Presidio, the former
military base in San Francisco. As one conference leader put it,
"The UR is meant to be for religions what the UN is for nations."4
Continuing Apostasy in Melbourne
In July 1997 many of the same people gathered
in Melbourne, Australia for a conference on religion and cultural
diversity. The Archbishop of Canterbury (the leader of the Church
of England) was present, and the Pope sent one of his highest
ranking cardinals, Francis Arinze.5
At the opening banquet, the lights were
dimmed and people were told to focus on the candle on their table
while the following prayer was offered:6
Let us focus on the candle, the small
quivering fire, the light in the darkness, the call to evening
prayer, the call to thanksgiving . . . for our togetherness,
for our unity as sons and daughters of the earth in this
vast and ancient land, this sacred soil of the Dreamtime.
In the presence of the Ineffable Other,
the Holy Being of Infinity, the Numinous Beyond, the One
and the Ultimate, the Alpha and the Omega, the Unknown and
the Unknowable, Lord of the Cosmos, Center of Creation .
. . we pray to you . . .
Can you imagine any Christian leader praying
such claptrap? Since when, from a Christian viewpoint, has our
Creator God become "unknown and unknowable"? Only a
professing Christian captivated and deceived by the new tolerance
could pray such a blasphemous prayer.
Understandably, the conference concluded
that the one cardinal sin is absolutism. Belief that one’s religion
contains absolute truth was decried as pride.7
The conference’s most popular workshop was
on "Religious Fundamentalism." The featured speaker
was an ordained Christian minister who, until recently, was the
full-time chaplain at the University of Melbourne. He denounced
Christians who believe in the Bible and embrace creationism as
"mean-spirited." He also called them "authoritarian
and dictatorial," "violent," "aggressive,"
"pathological," and "dangerous." He characterized
them as people who are incapable of independent thinking and who
"brandish their floppy Bibles like weapons."8
Talk about paving the way for the Antichrist!
I can hear him speaking now:8
It makes no difference what you
call your god. He can be Yahweh or Baal or Allah or
Krishna or Mother Earth or Self. Just give me your allegiance
as your god’s Messiah, and I will guarantee your freedom
to worship as you please.
The New Charter
The URI Charter was ratified on June 26,
2000 at a meeting held at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. The preamble states: "The URI is a growing
global community dedicated to promoting enduring, daily interfaith
cooperation, ending religiously motivated violence and creating
cultures of peace, justice and healing for the Earth and all living
beings."9
It sounds so good! It is all
so touchy-feely and warm and fuzzy. The Charter is full of New
Age type statements like the following: "We unite to celebrate
the joy of blessings and the light of wisdom in both movement
and stillness."10
One of the key principles expressed in the
Charter is worded as follows: "Members of the URI shall not
be coerced to participate in any ritual or be proselytized."
In other words, no member of the URI will engage in missionary
activity since that would constitute an act of spiritual imperialism.
It all makes sense from their viewpoint, since they believe all
religions are equally valid.
The amazing thing is the degree of inclusiveness
that the URI represents. In addition to the world’s major faiths,
the organization has embraced "neo-pagan" religions
like Druids and Celtic Revivalists, Wicca and Witchcraft, and
Norse Paganism.
Deceptive Tolerance
All of this is being done in the name of
"tolerance." But it is a perverted tolerance. It is
a subtle ploy of Satan to corrupt the Church from within. The
deception sounds so appealing: "Why draw lines of fellowship
over doctrinal differences? The only thing that’s important is
sincerity. Reach out and embrace all those who profess to believe
in God, regardless of who their god may be. Ignore doctrinal differences.
Do it in the name of Christian love. Do it for the sake of religious
unity."
This type of thinking has led Earl Paulk
of Atlanta to call for the Evangelical Christian world to embrace
even the Mormons! It has motivated mainline liberal spokesmen
to advocate that Christians show tolerance toward Islam, Hinduism,
Buddhism, and other pagan faiths by restraining ourselves from
sharing the Gospel with them. Consider, for example, the following
words of Episcopal Bishop John Spong of New Jersey:11
In the fall of 1988, I worshipped
God in a Buddhist temple. As the smell of incense filled
the air, I knelt before three images of Buddha, feeling
that the smoke could carry my prayers heavenward. It was
for me a holy moment for I was certain that I was kneeling
on holy ground ...
I will not make any further attempt
to convert the Buddhist, the Jew, the Hindu or the Moslem.
I am content to learn from them and to walk with them side
by side toward the God who lives, I believe, beyond the
images that bind and blind us.
Again, it all sounds so wonderful, so soothing,
so tolerant! Tragically, it makes a liar of the very person they
profess as Lord, for Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth,
and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me"
(John 14:6). Those are not tolerant words.
The Coming World Religion
The Christian leaders who are advocating
tolerance to the point of embracing apostasy are going to triumph
in the near future, at least temporarily. The Bible makes that
clear. Just as "one world" thought is dominating the
political and economic scenes today, it has captivated the thinking
of both Catholic and Protestant leaders regarding religion.
In that regard, I think it is significant
that in 1989 the Archbishop of the Anglican Church, Robert Runcie,
called for all Christians to accept the Pope as "a common
leader presiding in love." Runcie made his appeal at an evening
prayer service midway through his first official visit to the
Vatican. "For the universal church, I renew the plea,"
he said. "Could not all Christians come to reconsider the
kind of primacy the bishop of Rome exercised with the early church,
‘a presiding in love’ for the sake of the unity of the churches
in the diversity of their mission?"12
That kind of thinking is paving the way
for the establishment of the one world government of the Antichrist
(Revelation 13:1-10) which will be supported by the one world
religious system of the False Prophet (Revelation 13:11-18).
I believe the harlot church of Revelation
17 will most likely be an amalgamation of the world’s pagan religions,
including apostate Protestants, under the leadership of the Catholic
Church.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Notes:
1. A good summary of the apostasy
of the World Council of Churches can be found on the Internet
at http://cnview.com/on_line_resources/world_council_of_churches.htm.
The article, written by M. H. Reynolds, is entitled "The
Truth about the WCC."
2. William Norman Gregg, "Pagans
of the Word, Unite!" PropheZine, issue #46, August
15, 1997,
http://www.best.com/~ray673/search/database/is46.2.htm.
3. Ibid., p. 2.
4. W. B. Howard, "The First
Religion and Cultural Diversity Conference, Melbourne, July 1997,"
PropheZine, issue #46, August 15, 1997, http://www.prophezine.com/
search/database/is46.3.htm, p. 15.
5. Ibid., p.1.
6. Ibid., p. 3.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid., pp. 4-7.
9. For detailed information about
the URI, see their website at http://www.united-religious.org.
10. Ibid.
11. The Voice, Diocese of
Newark, January 1989.
12. Sunday Advocate, Baton
Rouge, LA, October 1, 1989, page 3A.
