The generations that prelude the coming of Antichrist must politically and religiously prepare the world for his coming. How will such a wonder of logistics take place? This article presents man’s hope through a trilogy of forces becoming prominent in the End Time of these last days.

Man’s Desire to Create His Own Kingdom

The cross of Calvary reveals insights into man’s hatred against God and His appointed Son-Heir. Although man thought he had rid himself of God and the Heir of the universal vineyard (Matt. 21:33–41) when he crucified Christ on the cross, the resurrection of Christ and His ascension to the right hand of the Father ensured a continued battle against man’s hope of a utopia without God. Over the centuries man has dreamed and schemed of a final day when all of humanity will unite to declare their possession of this planet for themselves without the presence of God and His appointed Son as King. Man has entered into a covenant with the Devil to bring this about, and one day Satan will give power to a man whom he will make the capstone of this global kingdom (Luke 4:6; Rev. 13). Throughout history, governments of this world have been viewed as city-states, as kingdoms, and as empires. But the longing has increased in the past 150 years for the entire world to become a united empire against the Creator, the God of Heaven and Earth.

The hope to eradicate God began back in Genesis 11 at the city of Babel and its tower. It was then that the Devil led Cush and his son Nimrod to build a city and a tower. The city and the tower have become symbols throughout history of political and religious control of the world’s popu-lation. But God came down then and confounded the language of man. Genesis 11:6 states, “And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” Genesis 6:5 reveals “that every imagination of the thoughts of his [man’s] heart was only evil continually.” Although this imagination was of deep, immoral sin, the thought imagined in Genesis 11 is the high-handed sin of taking the place as God. This imagination is a far deeper sin than that of Genesis 6. The motive of chapter 11 was “Let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth” (11:4). They wanted their “name” to take the place of “the Name” (Hebrew, Ha Shem) of Jehovah. But the Lord, confounding the language, “scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city” (11:8).

Since that time the Devil has been inspiring men throughout the cen-turies to return to Babel in hope of finishing what was “left off”: to build that city and that tower to reach to heaven. This will demand political (the city) and religious (the tower) unity. How could man accomplish this goal with earth’s population now reaching seven billion people strung among a multitude of governments and religions? The Devil has been establishing his blueprint for centuries to bring about this final confrontation with God through a trilogy of forces that began in the twentieth century and has escalated into the twenty-first century. Though the seed of this trilogy has grown in the workings of man’s imagination for centuries, only in the past 120 years have global situations engendered the hope of its reality.

The United Nations

The first of these forces has been the political rise of the United Nations. This international organization had its origin during World War II. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt first suggested using the name “United Nations” to refer to the allies of World War II. Roosevelt suggested the term to Winston Churchill, who cited Lord Byron’s use of the phrase “united nations” in his writing Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage as a reference to the allies at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Roosevelt was referring to the alliance of the nations’ fighting against Germany and Japan. The idea for the future United Nations as an international organization emerged in documents signed at the allied conferences in Moscow and in Tehran in 1943. On June 26, 1945, fifty nations signed the Charter of the United Nations. The League of Nations, a term used prior to this, dissolved itself in April of 1946, transferring its mission to the United Nations. Its headquarters eventually moved to American soil within New York City on a piece of land secured through a donation by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

The United Nations introduced itself as a security force for the world with the hope of preventing global conflicts between nations and even eliminating future wars on the earth. The next decades of its existence, however, proved the difficulty of such a reality. Preventing conflicts was especially difficult from 1947 to 1993. Following the end of the Cold War, there were renewed calls for the United Nations to become the organization for achieving world peace. Nevertheless, the dissolution of the Soviet Union left the United States in a prominent position of global dominance that brought a variety of new problems for the United Nations. Most of the money and provisions for the United Nations’ existence came from the United States.

Though at the beginning the UN seemed to be limited in its influence, there were warnings that it would ultimately rise to pervade all the countries of the world in absolute control. Today, the blue helmets worn by the UN army have become prominent in many countries throughout the world. Designated as a peace-keeping force, the army is composed of military personnel from the 110 countries. George Orwell in his novel 1984 issued such a warning against the potential danger of this organization. Time has proved that the UN is definitely forwarding a growing philosophy, aimed ultimately at bringing all nations into a unified government that would control everything: laws of humanity, world courts, world economy, world farming, cultures, education, medicine, and the military. UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific Cul-tural Organization) has found its way into every country in the world.

The great statue found across from the UN complex depicts a man beating a sword into a plowshare with the caption, “We shall beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks.” This is taken from Isaiah 2:4. The verse goes on to say, “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” This verse is in the context of Christ’s kingdom to be set up in the future, with the Prince of Peace ruling and reigning; however, mankind believes he can bring about his own utopia of universal peace without the presence of God and His Son. But man is born in sin, and he will never be able to produce such a hope. “The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked” (Isa. 57:20, 21).

Our present Washington admini-stration believes that the United States must become an example to the rest of the nations by yielding our country in absolute submission to the United Nations in every aspect of life: in control of our population, laws, courts, economy, banking system, farming, food supply, medicine, etc. Such an organization as the UN must take control over every aspect of life within a nation; if all the nations would submit to such a hope, the leaders believe universal peace would result.

To accomplish this peace, three major rights must be given up in every nation: (1) There must be the confiscation of any weapons that could be used by the people to protect themselves from the encroachment of oppressive global laws. (2) There must be absolute control of all education by the government. Closing down all private education, including home schools and various private school concepts, would make the State the sole educator of our children. Whoever controls the schools rules the world. (3) There must also be the confiscation of land from private ownership. They claim that private ownership of any real estate, including nations being independent owners of land, simply produces motivation for war in order to gain control over more land. The “new world order” must absolve all real estate ownership, including national ownership. All of mankind must become the work force for the global government without independence of living. In this desire, the United States of America seems to be setting the example as a national template by submitting itself to the new world order. In doing so, we will become the example of a great nation brought to its knees.

The hope of such a new world order is held not only by national governments but also by religious leaders. The papal system for centuries has believed in this and for decades has been a strong supporter of the new world order. The Popes since the days of World War II have pressed world leaders for a new world order, governed by socialism and communism. Rome wants such a universal government but wants the Church to help with such a plan. (Truly Rome will be identified with the Mother Harlot to ride the back of the Beast, the Antichrist, as prophesied in Revelation 17. We will present this in the next article.)

Conflicts among nations continue to ignite dangerous wars on our earth. But global planners have concluded that war will never be eliminated unless world government replaces the era of the nation-state.

The Ecumenical Movement

A second force that has become imperative for this new world order is the Ecumenical movement. Especially in the United States, ecumenism has hoped to destroy the barriers within Protestant Christianity that could deter reunification with Rome to forward the pursuit of a global religion.

Rising in the mid-1800s, Liberalism and Modernism invaded the major denominations of Protestantism. In addition, Neo-Orthodoxy at the turn of the 20th century invaded the Protestant churches. This helped bring about a dismantling of the integrity of the Bible upon which Protestantism was founded. The collapse of biblical absolutes led to broader fellowships especially among various denominational missionaries. As the denominations began to fall more and more away from the Bible, the walls of partition of doctrine began to erode.

By the 1940s the similarities between these distinctive denominations no longer seemed important. Various organizations arose to assist in bringing together the denominations, such as the National Association of Evangelicals, the World Pentecostal Fellowship, the United Methodists, and the various Presbyterian associations. There also was the birth of the Neo-Evangelical and Neo-Pentecostal movements in 1948, which eventually encompassed the entire conservative Evangelical world. Simultaneously, in 1948 was the birth of the World Council of Churches, with the hope of bringing all of the Protestant churches together, an ecumenicity of the Protestant world, which very soon opened its door for all Christendom to enter. The powers of ecumenicity were strongly elevated when the Roman Catholic Church held in 1962–1965 the Second Council of the Vatican. Many approaches to worship and living so radically changed within Romanism that it opened the door for the rest of Christendom to joyfully accept fellowship with Rome and Rome with them.

Formally defined, Ecumenism is the movement within Christianity that aims at “the recovery in thought, in action, and in organization, of the true unity between the Church’s mission to the world (its apostolate) and the Church’s obligation to be one.” For Roman Catholics ecumenicity has as its goal to reconcile all who profess Christian Faith by bringing them into a single, visible organization, i.e., through union with the Roman Catholic Church. The work of ecumenicity is basically on its way to fulfilling the task of bringing all of Christendom together, and we will see the pressures upon all the denominations within the next few years to resolve their differences with Rome.

Since the inception of the Historic Fundamentalist movement, it has been this remnant within global Christianity that has taken a stand against the ecumenical movement. The historic Fundamentalists believe that the Christian Faith is exclusively based upon the inerrancy of Scripture and its absolutes, and that it alone produces the true Church. It also has consistently believed that Liberalism, Modernism, and all of the contemporary views of Christianity are apostate. Now, however, those identified as Fundamentalists are fast leaving this fortress by capitulating to the Neo-Evangelicals who are ecumenists at heart. Although Christian ecumenism can be described in terms of the three largest divisions of Christianity (Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestantism), the Independents are fast becoming part of the spirit and hope of ecumenicity.

We are now witnessing Rome opening its doors for the wayward ones to return to the Mother. Doctrine is vastly declining in the Christian world. More and more the simple belief in Jesus Christ (whether deity or elevated humanity), as well as the Lord’s Supper (the Eucharist/Mass), is becoming the common ground of fellowship. Truly the ecumenical movement has been a success, and it is evident that churches are now yielding to Rome more and more. Billy Graham opened wide the door for the Evangelicals to safely enter into the fold of close fellowship with the Mother Harlot. The Charismatic movement fed the fires of warmth and acceptability of Rome, especially with the alliance of Cardinal Suenens in the 1970s. The ecumenical movement has been so successful that it is simply a matter of the paperwork between the denominations before we see the prodigals returning home to the professing mother of Christianity.

The Interfaith Movement

There is another movement, however, that goes beyond the ecumenicity within Christianity or global Christendom. It is called Interfaithism. It has now become obvious that the desired world political unity will never be achieved without bringing an end to religious conflict. This is why New Age global planners have quietly given birth to the “United Religions Organization.” They believe that the future of our world depends on all becoming tolerant and respectful of each other’s religious beliefs. The new world religion (now being born) will not be Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Wicca, or Islam; it will be “interfaithism,” the belief that all religions, while different on the surface, are each valid pathways to God. Rome, as in the present ecumenical movement, is taking the leadership in the Interfaith movement. This explains why Pope John Paul II was willing to declare in 1994 that Muslims also have salvation, as was written in his Catechism of the Catholic Church. While this declaration is as untrue today as it was a few decades ago, the times are different now. Today, the declaration is applauded.

Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of Great Britain, a Protestant turned Roman Catholic, has also been a leader in Interfaithism through his “Tony Blair Faith Foundation.” He writes the following:

These are times of tumultuous change. The twentieth century order is history; and the forces of globalization are pushing all of the economics of the world—and all of the citizens of the world, with their great diversity of religious faiths—more closely together. Global interdependence is a reality. And faith is inextricably linked to that interdependence. As we have seen, faith can be a source of division and destruction. But faith can also be a source of reconciliation, not conflict.

Today, the Interfaith movement is shaping a global spirituality. Since the 1950s, the United Nations, led by its visionary prophet, Robert Muller, has been on a specific and premeditated course to unite the world’s religions. In his book New Genesis: Shaping a Global Spirituality, Muller does not hide the agenda. He explains how his Catholic upbringing led him to ultimately embrace Buddhism, the religion of then UN Secretary General U Thant. Muller calls for a UN-led global government and global religion as mankind’s only hope.

Another man who had extreme influence upon such a belief was Hindu guru Sri Chinmoy, who died in 2007. He noted the following:

No human force will ever be able to destroy the United Nations as the vision-light of the Absolute Supreme, which is slowly, steadily, and unerringly illuminating the ignorance, the night of our human life. The divine success and supreme progress of the United Nations is bound to become a reality. At his choice hour, the Absolute Supreme will ring his own victory bell here on earth through the loving and serving heart of the United Nations.

The Interfaith movement can find its roots back in the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions, which dates back to 1893. One century later, in 1993, the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions met; it included Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Voodooists, Druid priests, witches, snake charmers, Zoroastrian sun worshippers, and representatives of the Lucis Trust (an organization whose original name was Lucifer Publishing Company). In December of 2007, the Chicago-based Parliament of the World’s Religions, led by New Age leader Jim Kenney, met. It continues today in collaboration with the UN to bring about the one world faith for all people.

Another interfaith and multi-faith interactivity is found in the teachings of the Bahá’i Faith. Its founder Bahá’u’lláh enjoined his followers to “consort with the followers of all religions in a spirit of friendliness and fellowship.” Bahá’i is often at the forefront of local interfaith activities and efforts. This “religion” strongly participates at a global level in inter-religious dialogue both through and outside of the UN processes. In 2002 the “Universal House of Justice,” the global governing body of the Bahá’is, issued a letter to the religious leadership of all faiths in which it identified religious prejudice as one of the last remaining “-isms” to be overcome, enjoining such leaders to unite in an effort to root out extreme and divisive religious intolerance.

Another religion that is rising in influence in the Interfaith movement is Buddhism. It has historically been open to other religions. Along with Hinduism, this religion is fast becoming acceptable in Western civilization. It teaches people to “live and let live.” There seems to be no evidence to show that Buddhists, unlike Hinduists or Muslims, have interfered or done any damage to any other religion in any part of the world for the purpose of introducing their religion. Buddhists do not regard the existence of other religions as a hindrance to worldly progress and peace. The 14th Dalai Lama has done a great deal of interfaith work throughout his life. He believes that the “common aim of all religions, an aim that everyone must try to find, is to foster tolerance, altruism and love.” He met with Pope Paul VI at the Vatican in 1973, with Pope John Paul II in 1980, 1982, 1986, 1990, and 2003. During 1990 he met with a delegation of Jewish teachers for an extensive interfaith dialogue. He has since visited Israel three times and met during 2006 with the Chief Rabbi of Israel. He has also met with the late Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Robert Runcie and other leaders of the Anglican Church in London; Gordon B. Hinckley, late president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons); leaders of the Eastern Orthodox Church; Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, and Sikh officials; and the list continues.

As for Orthodox Judaism, it forbids interfaith dialogue, believing the intent is to convert Jews. Yet Reform Judaism, Reconstructionist Judaism, and Conservative Judaism encourage interfaith dialogue.

Islam has long encouraged dialogue to reach truth. But this is different from interfaith dialogue which seeks to find common ground between the religions and leave differences aside. Islam also stresses that the supreme law of the land should be Islam, and it must regulate all life’s affairs and would exclude all other religions. In more recent times Muslim theologians have advocated interfaith dialogue on a large scale, which is new to them. But relations between Muslims and Jews remain strongly difficult, especially because of the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.

Conclusion

No religion exists without “faith,” and faith is based upon what that religion believes to be a sacred text, the embodiment of their faith. The Eastern religions are aggressively rising in Western civilization. Confucianism is included among them. Its teachings are thought to have been recorded by Confucius’ students in The Analects, plus an additional five works attributed to Confucius dating back to the third century B.C. Hinduism has made its way into America with its faith based upon the Bhagavad-Gita, a Sanskrit poem believed to be a dialogue between Lord Krishna and Prince Arjuna dating back to 200 B.C. Islam’s faith is based upon the Koran, believed to be the verbatim word of God revealed to the prophet Muhammad through the angel Gabriel. The Old Testament becomes the “Faith” of the Jews along with the Talmud. Tao Te Ching (The Way and Its Power) becomes the text of the Chinese philosophy and religion known as Taoism. The Upanishads (dating back to 900 B.C.) and the Vedas become the sacred writings of the Hindu religion. The Old and New Testaments become the sacred book of the Christians.

If “the Faith” writings of a religion are to be sacred, and one’s faith is based upon “the Faith” of its founder, it stands to reason one would never give up his faith in “the Faith” of his religion. We see this radically true with the Muslims, even to the point they would put to death anyone who would dishonor the Koran. But Christianity, which is leading in the movements of ecumenicity and Interfaithism, has publicly denounced its faith in “the Faith,” to the point of believing it is no longer relative to modern Christianity. Therefore it has the least to lose in its pursuit of Interfaithism.

Nevertheless, to true Christians, the Christian remnant in the earth at this time, their entire life is based upon that precious Book, the Bible, and to reject it or compromise its message would destroy their existence. Thus, they must be willing to stand firmly upon it no matter the cost. There can be no ecumenicity for the Christian with the world, with religions, and even within Christianity with the apostates. Second Corinthians 6:14–16 is still true for God’s people, as well as the call, “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (vv. 17, 18). “The Faith” has not changed, and our “faith” in it must never change; to the contrary, we must “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 3, 4).