The woman riding the beast is a symbol of the mystery Babylon last days religious system depending on the last days political system in the first half of the tribulation and the time leading up to that to some extent. The mystery Babylon system is the woman particularly a prostitute and the beast is the Antichrist or last days political leader. According to some sources in the European Union the European Union has their own goddess which is the Greek goddess Europa. In Greek Mythology one of the main roles she has is to ride the Greek god Zeus who becomes a bull and goes in to the sea and swims from Greece to the Greek island of Crete. This is a woman riding a beast as in Revelation and with the name Europa from which of course the name of the continent Europe is derived. This is therefore a very fitting and biblical system of Europe especially for the last days when the European Union will lead to the Europe centred government of the Antichrist. The scripture reference of the beast rising out of the sea and the woman sitting on the beast to represent the last days religious system depending on the Antichrist's political system in the tribulation is as follows:
And I stood upon the sand of the sea and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. ... So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. Revelation 13:1, 17:3
During his Easter message, that this year was held as a recording without the usual crowds at St. Peter's Square in the Vatican, Pope Francis had an important focus in his Easter Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world) address. A main focus he had this year, according to the article dated March 29, 2020 on Global News in Canada with title Pope Francis backs UN chief's call for global ceasefire amid coronavirus pandemic at https://globalnews.ca/news/6747501/coronavirus-pope-francis-ceasefire/, is of a global ceasefire. This global ceasefire call had been initiated by current United Nations leader or General Secretary Antonio Guterres. This ceasefire is meant to reduce money, hospitalizations or deaths or disorder in some war-torn areas of the world. This is ostensibly so the international community can better attend to any serious waves of Covid-19 regarded pandemic. The international community feels the Covid-19 could soon hit much harder and cause more devastation to people and society in war-torn areas of the world. Some of these war-torn areas of the world are Yemen, Syria, Libya and Afghanistan but also other areas including perhaps the Middle East such as the Palestinian Territories or in some other areas of the world. In giving his support to the UN global ceasefire initiative, Pope Francis in his Easter or Resurrection Sunday address stated as reported on the Global News article: "Saying the disease (Covid-19) knows no borders, Francis appealed to everyone (in the world) to 'stop every form of bellicose hostility and to favor the creation of corridors for humanitarian help, diplomatic efforts and attention to those who find themselves in situations of great vulnerability.'" According to the same Global News article about the UN initiated global peace effort: "The United Nations has been trying to mediate an end to conflicts in countries (nations) including Syria, Yemen and Libya, while also providing humanitarian assistance to millions of civilians." The Global News article goes on to say of this initiative by UN General Secretary Guterres: "Guterres warned that in war-torn countries health systems have collapsed and the small number of health professionals left were often targeted in the fighting."
Perhaps somewhat in relation to the proposed UN Global Peace initiative and the pope putting his support behind it officially, Pope Francis in his Easter address also encouraged authorities to consider the matter of prisons and overcrowding in different nations including war-torn ones. He was tying this in with an appeal to reduce overcrowding in prisons, including in war-torn nations, so as to reduce the possibility of the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus. There were recent riots in prisons partly because of overcrowding in Italy and a part of Thailand. Also, recently some nations have let go some prisoners from prisons to reduce overcrowding or other burdens on their prison systems such as in Germany, Sudan and Iran. However I don't know how directly these prisoner releases were direct responses to the appeal to confront the Covid-19 virus. In regard to response to the Covid-19 virus I can be reasonably sure that that the pope or perhaps UN officials are tying in loosening the burdens of the prisons of the world to the UN led Global Peace Initiative. Of course part of the Global Peace Initiative led by current UN director Guterres is likely to loosen the burdens of overcrowding or poor health care etc. on the health systems of different nations as insurance against a serious wave of the Covid-19 virus in those nations.
This article is a summary of the article with title False Prophet Pope Francis Gives Emmanuel Macron His Blessing and Anoints Him to Take the Global Stage as Leader of the New World Order by Geoffrey Grider on April 21, 2020 on the Now the End Begins bible prophecy web site at link: https://www.nowtheendbegins.com/false-prophet-pope-francis-gives-emmanuel-macron-blessing-him-global-stage-leader-new-world-order-as-leader-of-new-world-order/. In this article the author, Geoffrey Grider, notes that the first name of the French President is Emmanuel which means God with us. This name was used of the Lord Jesus Christ to rightfully refer to His divinity in Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:23 but is an usurped or wrongly used of the French leader if he is the Antichrist. If Mr. Macron takes further action to be the Antichrist (or Beast out of the Sea as in Revelation 13 or 17) he will soon try to use that title for himself in the soon coming tribulation. This tribulation will be after the rapture to heaven of all the true Church. The author then notes that Mr. Macron already had received the support of the United Nations (UN) Security Council and now has received the support of Roman Catholic church leader Pope Francis to be the leader of the New World Order or the leading candidate in the world to be the Antichrist or Beast out of the Sea and global dictator during the 7 year tribulation period mentioned in the Bible. It is interesting that a lot of these important developments in setting up world leadership that could easily carry on into the tribulation include those to secure world peace and deal with other world problems like the Covid-19 regarded pandemic. These global systems are being set up while most media attention is diverted with covering developments including locally or nationally with regard more specifically to the Covid-19 pandemic and global response or restoration efforts.
This article by Mr. Grider states that Pope Francis and French leader Macron have "a long history together." BFM TV commented on the recent phone call of Pope Francis to French president Emmanuel Macron as follows: "Emmanuel Macron and Pope Francis exchanged on the coronavirus crisis with 'a lot of convergence' on the responses to be made, especially on the reduction of the debt of the poorest countries, said the Elysee (office of French President) on Tuesday." (Coincidentally a major element of the United Nations backed and initiated since 2015 Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The UN backing or development of Agenda 2030 and the SDGs followed directly from their earlier development and backing of the UN's earlier Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from around the year 2000 or the 1990s. Part of both these system of goals are the transfer of wealth in the world from the rich to the poor.) In the 45 minute phone call by Pope Francis to French leader Macron the Pope "welcomed the constructive initiatives" inititiated or implemented by France since the start of the Covid-19 virus crisis according to the office of President Macron. The Elysee or office of the French president said of the relation including some of the content of the phone call of Pope Francis to French President Macron to support French President Macron as world leader in practice: "'There is a lot of convergence in the vision and the answers' on 'the debt of the poorest countries', 'aid to Africa', the need for 'a truce and a humanitarian pause in conflicts 'and' the need for a united Europe.'" Pope Francis in his Easter message from the Vatican on April 12th offered "to reduce" or even "cancel" the debt of poor countries. This offer of the Pope to reduce or cancel the debt of poorer nations joins and supports the proposal of French leader Emmanuel Macron "to cancel the debt of African countries" to allow them to better fight against the Covid-19 virus and the associated crisis. Now the End Begins author Geoffrey Grider says of the phone meeting between Pope Francis and French President Macron: "This was the third time that Pope Francis and President Macron have spoken. They first met on June 26, 2018, and the chemistry between the two men seemed to be particularly good as they spoke together for 57 minutes. It was the longest meeting between the pope and a head of state since Francis met with U.S. President Barack Obama in 2014. They spoke together a second time by phone in May 2019 after the fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris." The phone interview between Pope Francis and Emmanuel Macron was the third between both leaders and this one was requested by Paris probably by the office of French President Macron. The previous meetings of both leaders were a meeting at the Vatican in June 2018 when French leader Macron came there to meet the pope and a talk on the phone between the two leaders in May 2019 after the devastating fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris just before that.
In September 2019 Roman Catholic leader Pope Francis spoke publicly to report that the Vatican next May in 2020 will hosting a Global Pact to promote a "new humanism". This event is scheduled to be held on May 14, 2020 and will have the title "Reinventing the Global Educational Alliance" according to a article carrying this Global Pact announcement by Pope Francis on the I think traditional Roman Catholic web site Life Site News. (They do not endorse the overly humanistic direction Pope Francis is taking the Roman Catholic Church is this Global Education Pact or other matters. I as a protestant evangelical Christian don't endorse this initiative of Pope Francis because it puts humanism and an equalizing of deities and religions above God's word the Holy Bible and the true God the God of the Bible (One God in Being but Three in Persons Father, Son (Jesus Christ) and Holy Spirit)). The Vatican statement on this papal initiative said that Pope Francis is inviting leading officials of main world religions, international organizations and some humanitarian organizations (some of these would also be known as NGOs non governmental organizations), leaders from politics, economics, higher education, sports or athletics, science and sociologists to sign this "Global Pact on Education". This Global Pact on Education is meant to "hand on to younger generations a united and fraternal common home." In a video shared by Pope Francis that accompanied his announcement of the Global Education Pact he said: "A global educational pact is needed is needed to educate us in universal solidarity and a new humanism". A website supported by the Vatican recently established to gain acceptance for this pact (or covenant) said in addition: "Educating young people in fraternity, in learning to overcome divisions and conflicts, promote hospitality, justice and peace: Pope Francis has invited everyone who cares about the education of the young generation to sign a Global Pact, to create a global change of mentality through education."
The message of Pope Francis on this Global Pact was very secular and including only one "throw away" or very weak reference to the Lord Jesus according to the Life Site News article on this Global Pact with article title: "Pope Francis invites relgious, political leaders to sign 'Global Pact' for 'new humanism'". In this message by Pope Francis on his proposed Global Pact he invited inhabitants of the world to "capitalize on our best energies" and to be "proactive" in "opening education to a long-term vision unfettered by the status quo". "This (dedication of people of the world to the Global (Education) Pact) will result in men and women who are open, responsible, prepared to listen, dialogue and reflect with others, and capable of weaving relationships with families, between generations, and with civil society, and thus to create a new humanism." The Pope in his message also quoted Hillary Clinton's favourite analogy: "It takes a village to raise a child" and said in relation to that the world and its leaders need to facilitate an "educational village" which would allow "all people, according to their respective roles, share the task of forming a network of open, human relationships." The Life Site News article next mentions the omission of Pope Francis to include the right of parents to educate their children by not leaving room for parents to continue home schooling their children or sending them to private religious schools but requiring larger taxes to support secular public schools. The article mention the options of parents for educating their parents and the Pope's seeming neglect or desire to limit this from a traditional Roman Catholic perspective but I and other bible believing or Protestant evangelical Christians would think similiarly that it's not good that Pope Francis seems to leave the right of evangelical Christian parents to give Bible based home schooling or Christian private school education instead of secular public school education to their children. (I would say in the last sentence our children as myself being a biblical Christian except I personally don't have my own children.) In the message this month of September 2019 about the Global Pact Pope Francis mentioned the "Document on Human Fraternity and World Peace for Living Together" or for short the Human Fraternity Document (as mentioned in this web page about the mystery babylon church in the paragraphs above) in which he already notoriously gave in some claims of even professing Christianity by falsely agreeing in that document that God wills all religions (in a positive sense). Of course the Bible states that anything but biblical Judaeo Christian faith is not of the true God the God of the Bible but is if anything of God's main adversary the devil or some demon. The Pope signed on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church and he would probably like to claim on behalf of all professing Christians the Human Fraternity Document in February 2019 in Abu Dhabi in a ceremony with much pomp and extravaganza. The main co-signer in the Abu Dhabi ceremony was the Grand Iman of Al-Azhar University of Cairo, Egypt which is a main or even the main university giving authoritative interpretation of Islam and the Quran etc. for Sunni Muslims in the world. The Pope said in relation to the new Global Education Pact and the already signed Human Fraternity Document that: "the ground must be cleared of discrimination and fraternity must be allowed to flourish." (At the time of the signing of the Human Fraternity Document there were said to be representatives of other world religions present physically or by video link-up who were in agreement with it and who is some fashion formally signed off with the document as well. There was a live audience in the Abu Dhabi palace where the signing took place including religious leaders.) Pope Francis also said referring for the village to raise a child: "In this kind of village" an "alliance" needs to be established "between the earth's inhabitants and our 'common home', which we are bound to care for and respect. An alliance that generates peace, justice and hospitality among all peoples of the human family, as well as dialogue between religions." Although the Life Site News referred to the objection of what is probably a tradition Roman Catholic bishop to the Human Fraternity Document and Global Pact, I as a bible believing Christian would agree but with an understanding of Jesus Christ and His Church as the all sufficient Saviour of His chosen heavenly people saved by faith alone in Jesus and His death once for all and resurrection from the dead apart from our own good works. This bishop the Life Site News article referred to is Bishop Athanasius Schneider stated about these endeavors of the Pope that "however noble such aims as 'human fraternity' and 'world peace' may be, they cannot be promoted at the cost of relativizing the truth of the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and His ( he probably means Roman Catholic) Church." In the message by Pope Francis about the Global Pact he said to achieve these "global objectives" as an "educating village" everyone on earth including all different leaders need to "have the courage to place the human person at the center (instead of the Creator God including God the Son Jesus Christ)" and to "train individuals who are ready to offer themselves in service of the community." Pope Francis ended this announcemnt about the Global (Education) Pact to be signed next May by many different world leaders by inviting "everyone to work for this alliance and to be committed, individually and within our communities, to nurturing the dream of a humanism rooted in solidarity and responsive both to humanity's aspirations and to God's plan."
From a biblical Christian viewpoint this latest initiative by Pope Franics is very important in a last days bible prophecy perspective. This fits perfectly to indicate that Pope Francis could very well lead the one world not biblical Christian religion in the tribulation. This one world religion will include all professing Christian denominations involved in the so called ecumenical movement and World Council of Churches (or their national branches) and individual professing Christians who haven't trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour by the time of the rapture of the Church and immediately following 7 year tribulation or 70th week of Daniel from Daniel chapter 9. This false Mystery Babylon Church and one world religion Pope Francis is further preparing with this Global Education Compact will also include major and minor religions and their members or adherents as well as secular people or movements and their members but won't include people who haven't become true Christians before the rapture and tribulation but do in the tribulation such as the multitude of Gentiles (people of non Israel nations) who respond positively to the preaching of the 144,000 witnesses who are Jewish or Israeli believers in Jesus in the tribulation or those Israelites who trust in Jesus in the tribulation such as through the preaching of the two Jewish witnesses in Revelation 11. This Mystery Babylon false harlot church will be a one world religion most likely led by the Roman Catholic Church that will commit idolatry or spiritual adultery by claiming to follow the true God the God of the Bible Jehovah, Yahweh, God the Father, the LORD and His Son Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit but also at the same time seeking to attain more worldly power. Some of this worldly power by the one world religion will even be to some extent over the beast or antichrist in the 1st half of the tribulation according to Revelation 17 when the harlot church is pictured as riding (and controlling) the beast. Among other things this one world false church is pictured as having the colours scarlet and purple which were originally the colour of the Caesars who ruled the Roman Empire but later and to this day are the colours of some of the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church with purple for the colour of the robes of the Roman Catholic bishops and scarlet as the colour of the higher ranking Roman Catholic cardinals. (The demise of this false one world religious system is described in God's word the Holy Bible later in Revelation 17 by the Antichrist or BEast (out of the sea) instructing 10 regional kings of the earth to unite against the one world religion and her leaders so the Antichrist or Beast can be the sole object of enforced worship (together with worship of Satan the devil, dragon or serpent) of people on Earth for the second half of the tribulation. The Antichrist, False Prophet, the devil and the world system including those ten kings will all be defeated a couple years later by God's Son Jesus Christ when He comes from heaven with the glory of God the Father, the holy angels, true Church saints and some other saints to judge the world and set up God's visible Kingdom on earth based in Israel and restored Israel. This kingdom of God on earth will also include people of other nations who are saved through trusting in Jesus in the tribulation. After 1000 years of rule on this earth God and His Son Jesus Christ will have this earth and heavens destroyed and make new heavens and earth to enjoy with his people of all nations and ages who personally trust in the God of the Bible and especially after His Incarnation also His Son Jesus Christ as the means of God's salvation with Jesus as the Lamb of God in His death on the cross for our sins and resurrection from the dead. This is all described in Revelation 19-22, Matthew 24, Revelation 20, Zechariah 14, 2 Peter 3 etc. Since these things such as the final forming of the one world church by this announcement by Pope Francis of a Global Education Pact are happening now and in progress to happen much more soon I would urge you the reader, if you haven't already done so, to as soon as possible also in your heart as well as head admit you are a sinner in God's sight according to His word the Holy Bible and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and SAviour who died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead to give us His restored eternal life so you can avoid going through any of the tribulation and be part of Jesus' true Church or called out of this world people and have all your sins forgiven in God's sight and be an also spiritually and eternally restored child of His and have an eternal blessed home in heaven or the New Jerusalem with God, Jesus Christ and God's true people of all ages and the holy angels etc. for eternity and can avoid being sent to an eternity of conscious suffering in the lake of fire forever that we all deserve for our sins against God and sometimes against our fellow human beings etc.
In early February 2019, especially on February 4th, there was a grand inter-faith meeting in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. This meeting was initiated by the leaders of Abu Dhabi as an effort to put themselves in the forefront of the world inter-faith or one world religion movement. Although this meeting was focused on the leaders of Roman Catholic Christianity and Sunni Islam the reports on sources such as the BBC and the British Guardian newspaper web site said other major world religions were represented at the meetings. These other religions would include Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and some other brances of Christianity and Islam other than Roman Catholicism and Sunni Islam. At the welcome ceremony in Abu Dhabi Roman Catholic Pope Francis at least and probably Sunni leader Sheikh al-Tayub were treated like great royalty or almost as gods. The video of this welcome ceremony especially for Pope Francis and the interfaith meeting and closing ceremony can be seen at Vatican News and among other places is available in the videos at the Roman Catholic web site www.zenit.org. The opening ceremony procession of Pope Francis including a procession of about 8 black and one white limosines each flying the Vatican flag or a new lengthy grandiose boulevard that led to the royal palace. There were Vatican and United Arab Emirate flags hanging from all the streetlights along the boulevard on both sides and an official horse escort of brown and white horses with top and handsomely dressed United Arab Emirate soldier guards mounted on each of them. There was also as they passed by a ceremonial shooting of a cannon and as the Pope's procession was almost at the palace a flyover of government military jets. The smoke from these jets were in white and yellow the colours of the Vatican flag. When they were approaching the palace it came into view as a sprawling about four story white washed and immaculately kept domed royal palace complex that looked like something from an epic movie. It was in one of these buildings that the meetings of Pope Francis and Sunni Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayub including the signing of the Human Fraternity Document took place. Some of the Roman Catholic delegation of the Pope included a number of cardinals in scarlet and bishops in purple which not coincidentally happen to be the colours of the mystery Babylon church in Revelation 17. There were also a number of men in western suits with black jackets and officials of the Abu Dhabi and United Arab Emirate (UAE) government and of Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayub dressed in tan, white and yellow coloured robes and of one or two women in mostly black robes.
As far as the Human Fraternity Document or more fully named: "Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together" according to an article with the title Papal theologian never saw final draft of controversial doc with Muslims, contrary to Pope's claims. This article was in February 2019 in the traditional Roman Catholic web site https://www.lifesitenews.com. Although I am not a Roman Catholic myself but an evangelical or bible believing Christian I do agree with this article on lifesitenews that it is not the will of the true God the God of the Bible who showed Himself personally in His Son Jesus Christ that it is only through Jesus people of all nations can have salvation and a restored relation with the true God and that God did not create or view on the same basis all other religions with Christianity. The signing ceremony of Pope Francis and the Sunni Muslim leader Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayub was in a grand room in the Abu Dhabi presidential palace and there were invited guests from the Roman Catholic Church, Sunni as well as perhaps other branches of Islam, representatives of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government and apparently of other major religions including Judaism, other branches of Christianity and other world faiths such as Buddhism and Hinduism. The document consistently referred to Roman Catholics and other Christians and Moslems and others as believers in God whether God was Yahweh or Jesus from Christianity or Allah from Islam or perhaps some other name and version of God from other faiths. This is even though the true God in Christianity is certainly not the same as the god Allah of Islam or the chief god of other religions such as of Buddhism, Hinduism or aboriginal religions. For one thing true Christianity and to some extent Judaism encourage the believer to come into a personal relation with the Creator God and that part of that process is substitutionary payment for the seeker's or believer's sins by the shedding of the innocent blood of animals or of the righteous blood of God's Son Jesus Christ. This belief is not in or not a main part of Islam or any other faith than in the biblical Judaeo Christian faiths.
A web site called https://zerohedge.com in February 2019 by Michael Snyder and his The End of the American Dream blog was shared on zerohedge by Tyler Durden under the title Snyder: 'One World Religions' Looms As Pope & Islam's Top Imam Sign Historice Covenant'. Among other things in this article Mr. Synder and Durden shared the part from the Human Fraternity Document stating it was God's doing to make all religions and they are all His will and bring glory to Him as follows: "Freedom is a right of every person: each individual enjoys the freedom of belief, thought, expression and action. The pluralism and the diversity of religions, colour, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings. This divine wisdom is the source from which the right to freedom of belief and the freedom to be different derives. Therefore, the fact that people are forced to adhere to a certain religion or culture must be rejected, as too the imposition of a cultural way of life that others do not accept;". I agree with the comment on the zerohedge article in response to this multi-faith part of the Human Fraternity Document. In the zerohedge article right after the above quote Mr. Durden and Snyder wrote: "In essence, this is saying that it is the will of God that there are hundreds of different religions in the world and that they are all acceptable in His sight. We know that the (global) elite want a one world religion, but to see the most important clerics from both Catholocism and Islam make such a dramatic public push for it is absolutely stunning". I would agree with those two men and also agree that this push for a one world religion by the signing by Pope Francis and Sheikh al-Tayub is not a good thing. However I would also add this document they signed and that was apparently given knowing agreement by leaders of other world religions is another huge step to the last days in the tribulation or 70th week of Daniel one world religion called The Mystery Babylon church or religion of Revelation 17. This mystery Babylon false religious system will reign and cooperate over the world in the first half of the tribulation until the Antichrist or Beast out of the Sea through 10 world kings under him destroy the one world religion so the Antichrist can seek to impose world wide worship of himself alone in the 2nd half of the tribulation also according to Revelation 17.
This Human Fraternity Document which often uses the term fraternity in other parts or aspects of the document also encourages an end of religious hostilities and to tackle world hunger or poverty and environmental or social problems including family dysfunction. The solutions to all these problems is also sought by people of all religions or people that aren't religious in a co-operative way as if the true God was just as much the author of and supporting the good actions on behalf of non-Christian as well as Christian faiths and followers. The true God does prefer there be benevolent actions compared to destructive actions by people of non-Christian faiths but doesn't view it favourably when it is done to the glory of another god or goddess that if not the true Christian and Jewish God of the Bible would be to the glory of a false god or goddess. The Bible states that the gods and goddesses of all other religions than of Judaism and Christianity are authored of the devil and demons and are part of the world system and not of God's system of the true Church or of Israel and those of the nations that join themselves to Israel and the God of Israel.
According to LifeSiteNews the papal theologian Dominican Father Wojciech Giertych was asked for his opinion on but did not see the final draft of the Human Fraternity Document. According to the article Papal theologian never saw final draft of controversial doc... on LifeSiteNews another Roman Catholic media source National Catholic Register Pope Francis claimed that the same papal theologian "officially" read and "approved" the Human Fraternity Document. However the same theologian makes it clear he wouldn't have approved the final draft especially the part of the document saying that God created all faiths and views them equally favourably. Pope Francis on his plane trip back to Rome from Abu Dhabi apparently also said that the Human Fraternity Document "was prepared with much reflection and prayer" by both himself and his theologians the Sunni Grand Imam al-Tayub and his team. The pope also said to reporters accompanying him on his flight back to Rome that it took about a year to write or develop the contents of the Human Fraternity Document.
If you think that Pope Francis and his allies in the Roman Catholic Church or Grand Imum al-Tayub are content just with writing and releasing such as document and then let it gather dust going forward there is some interesting joint statements by Pope Francis and Imum al-Tayub about what to do next regarding the Human Fraternity Document and its contents. The pope and imum and their allies in their religions and apparently other religions that were observing and agreeing with them at the inter-religious ceremony in Abu Dhabi the following: "To this end, my mutual cooperation, the Catholic Church and Al-Azhar (university in Cairo that sets much doctrine for Sunni Islam) announce and pledge to convey this Document to authorities, influential leaders, persons of religions all over the world, appropriate regional and international organizations, organizations within civil society, religious institution and leading thinkers. They further pledge to make known the principles contained in this Declaration at all regional and international levels, while requesting that these principles be translated into policies, decisions, legislative texts, courses of study and material to be circulated. Al-Azhar and the Catholic Church ask that this Document become the object of research and reflection in all schools, universities and institutes of formation, thus helping to educate new generations to bring goodness and peace to others, and to be defenders everywhere of the rights of the oppressed and of the least of our brothers and sisters. This is what we hope and seek to achieve with the aim of finding a universal peace that all can enjoy in this life." According to the article on zerohedge by Mr. Durden and Mr. Snyder they have included the full contents on the Human Fraternity Document word for word in the article: Snyder: "One World Religion" Looms as Pope & Islam's Top Imam Sign Historic Covenant." They also say the full document can be found on the official Vatican website.
From a bible believing Christian perspective such as I have and that I believe is the main desire by the true God for this age according to God's word the Holy Bible especially the New Testament this Human Fraternity Document and the signing and promotion of it by Roman Catholic leader Pope Francis and Islamic leader Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayub should raise great alarm. Their should be great alarm also for anyone else living on earth because of its implications. The revelation and promotion of this multi-faith or one world religion document is nothing less than one of the last stages to establish a one world religion by compulsion from leading religious leaders. This one world religion will join with one world economy, government and military to form a total one world system that will be government by the Antichrist or Beast out of the Sea and his associate the False Prophet the Beast out of the Land in the 7 year tribulation especially the second 3 1/2 year half. This is all spelled out in more detail in Revelation 13 which includes that at that time all those people of all nations left behind on earth after the rapture of the true Church will be compelled by this one world system to worship the beast (antichrist), to take his mark (perhaps by imbedded microchip) in their forehead or right hand and worship his image that will show vitality. To not yield to the Antichrist in these ways in the tribulation at least in the second half of it will be a capital offence anywhere on the world and those military forces of the Antichrist will then hunt what they count as offenders to catch them and kill them. However according to Revelation 14 in the view of the true God the God of the Bible One God in Being but Three in Persons Father, Son (Jesus Christ) and Holy Spirit to take the mark of the beast or worship the beast will be to ultimately and irrevocably condemn oneself to God's judgment forever in the lake of fire and forfeit eternal blessing with God, His Son and Messiah Jesus of Nazareth and His people and holy angels in the New Jerusalem, New Earth and New Heavens.
One document, passed already by all the nations of the world at the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2015 and reviewed for progress in implementation and recommitted to in the 2018 United Nations General Assembly was the Agenda 2030 program. By the way Pope Francis was personally at the United Nations General Assembly 2015 meeting and gave the first speech and resoundingly supported it but without once mentioning the name of Jesus as far as I heard. The Agenda 2030 has 17 areas with 169 subareas that fully cover and promote one world government and economy and directly or indirectly also one world religion and military.
As I point out elsewhere on this web site it is clear that the only fully literal and in context prophetic position of interpreting the Bible includes a pre-tribulation rapture or catching up to heaven of all true Christians before the tribulation and in order to spare all true Christians of this present Church Age from the horrors of the tyrannical world wide rule of Satan's men the Antichrist and False Prophet and New World Order under them and God's Judgements of the seven year tribulation. Therefore I would in the strongest terms urge you the reader to as soon as possible if you haven't already done so to admit you are a sinner to God in prayer in Jesus' name and personally believe in and receive in prayer to or calling out to God in Jesus' name the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour. This Jesus Christ was the Person who after coming from heaven through the virgin birth and living a sinless live, died on the cross to pay for all our sins and rose from the dead on the third day to offer us God's eternal and resurrection life. If you have or as soon as possible before the rapture of the Church receive the Lord Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour as stated above and consistent with the New Testament you have or will have the following current and/or future assured blessings from the true God. A restored relationship with God, eternal life, be part of His spiritual family the true Church, have forgiveness of all your sins and have an assured eternal home in heaven or the heavenly Jerusalem with God and all His people of all ages by His grace. I would also urge you the reader to as I and all other true or born again (of the Holy Spirit) Christians have done to thus trust in the Lord Jesus Christ so you can take part in the rapture of the Church before the tribulation. Trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ before the rapture of the Church and following tribulation also assures that you will return with the Lord Jesus Christ at the end of the tribulation or 70th week of Daniel to defeat the one world system of the devil and the Antichrist and that you won't be left behind to cope with being on earth during the terrible time of the tribulation.
I have noticed that, probably as a way to try to gain more revenue, there have been more advertisements in the news feed of the main online social media Facebook. I have noticed this because I have had and continue to have a Facebook account and check my newsfeed quite regularly. One of the new advertisements this week has particular relevance to the progression towards events or situations mentioned in Bible prophecy for the tribulation or 70th week of Daniel period after the rapture of the true Church. This new advertisement I am talking about is an advertisement for the next installment of the Parliament of World Religions that will be held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This was very relevant to me not just because the Parliament of World Religions is a major player towards the one world religion envisioned to rule with the antichrist or beast out of the sea in the book of Revelation chapters 13 and 17 but also because it is being held in Toronto, Canada. I live in and was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada which is only 40 miles or about 60 kilometers from Toronto by expressway and we are still in the shadow of much of the television, radio and other media coverage of Toronto here in Hamilton. Toronto as the most populous city is probably also the main cultural hub in Canada especially of the multi-faith movement. This is due to its very cosmopolitan or multi-ethnic and multi-religious and otherwise multi-cultural composition.
This multi-culturalism has been official policy to encourage including with government programs and support since the time in the late 1960s with the federal liberal government of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. (The current Canadian Prime Minister is Justin Trudeau who is one of the sons of Pierre Trudeau and also a leader of the Canadian federal Liberal policy and strong supporter of multiculturalism.) As a Bible-believing Christian the main thing I object to this official policy of multi-culturalism is that it has the effect of continuing to reduce the role and strength of Christianity especially biblical Christianity as the government invaribly promotes multi-culturalism in the public schools, at community gatherings and for new immigrants and at post-secondary schools all somewhat at the expense of Canada's more traditional Christian background. However I do enjoy going to some Chinese new year or similiar cultural events myself but only if they just focus on the culture and not on the non-Christian religions such as Buddhism very strongly in the Shen Yun Chinese cultural events put on around Chinese New Year that are sponsored by Falun Da Fa (Falon Gong). Falon Gong is a devout missionary Buddhist organization quite inconsistent with biblical Christianity. There is also much promoting of multi-culturalism including the religious aspect of it in my home city of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
The advertisement for the upcoming meeting of the World Parliament of Religions is correct in linking themselves with the first meeting with the same name that was held in 1893 in Chicago, United States. According to some Christian sources I follow on world religions this was one main part of the counter missionary effort from Hinduism and other traditional asian religions in response to the Christian missionary efforts from Europe and North America especially in traditionally non-Christian parts of the world including India and other parts of Asia. That first Parliament of World Religions was encouraged or partly organized by what was then called modernists but are now called liberals who are basically humanists although some make some profession of faith in the God of the Bible or other gods but they generally don't follow the Bible very closely and certainly not very literally. They especially do not generally think that the Lord Jesus Christ mentioned clearly in the Christian New Testament scriptures as the only begotten Son of God and only Saviour of the world is the only way for people of all nations to have a restored relationship with our Creator God, have our sins forgiven and be assured of eternal blessed life in heaven with Him and His people. Liberals or modernists generally go along with or promote the idea that all religions worship the same God (god) and just call Him /her by different names and approach by different paths in a form of universalism or pluralism.
True Christianity as I follow and the Bible the true word of God definitly states that there is only one true God who is one in essence but three in Persons Father, Son and Holy Spirit(Holy Ghost) with Jesus of Nazareth being revealed on earth bodily as the Son of God or God the Son including His death on the cross for our sins and resurrection from the dead to enable us to have God's eternal life. The word of God the Holy Bible says all other claimed gods are false gods and not of the one true God but are energized by the false god of this world the devil, Satan or Lucifer who is the chief fallen angel and adversary of the true God and His people in this age true Christians and especially in past or future ages on earth God's chosen earthly people the Jews or Israel (and those of the nations who join themselves to the God of Israel the God of the Bible.)
Since the late 1890s this universalism idea in religion or spirituality has continued to gain popularity and acceptance in the traditionally Christian west including Europe and North America. The promotion slogan or mission statement of this Parliament of World Religions meeting in Toronto this November is: "The Promise of Inclusion, the Power of Love: Pursuing Global Understanding, Reconciliation and Change". One has to understand what these words to such liberal globalism type thinkers mean in order to have a correct understanding of what they are saying and promoting. First inclusion to them means to especially include all religions or spiritualities on the same level and often now to minimalize especially biblical Christianity because of our insistence that all people of all nations can only be only God's favour and forgiveness and restored relationship through the Lord Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection and trusting in Him with all our heart as our personal Lord and Saviour. By inclusion such groups as the Parliament of World Religions also favour people with other non-Christian practices or lifestyles such as so-called LGBT or Lesbian Gay (Homosexual) Bisexual and Transexual people with very unbiblical and sinful and not true God pleasing sexual lifestyles. By love groups such as the Parliament of World Religion mean giving all people of all religious, social or other backgrounds full acceptance, harmony, appreciation and spending time together and interaction on the same level. They also think the true God whoever they think he, she or it is is loving to all and not very concerned people also have substantial focus on truth and righteousness that the Bible even the New Testament emphasizes the true God including God the Son Jesus Christ has as well as love, grace and mercy. By pursuing the mean promoting including in a networked, global basis and sometimes use derogatory terms for those who don't agree with them such as biblical Christians with terms like haters etc. Christians might be called haters or similiar terms when we insist (rightly) that the true God is holy and righteous and we are sinful and that only through God's Son Jesus Christ Who came to earth as a man and lived a sinless life and then died on the cross to pay for our sins and rose again that we might have God's righteousness as a free gift, have our sins taken away and be restored children of the One true Creator and Saviour God.
When their mission statement says global they are against separate nation states and religions and are seeking global government (economically and politically) including with the assistance of the United Nations and global or one-world religion. By the Parliament of World Religions using the terms (global) understanding and reconciliation they mean particularly that all people including Christians or other westerners should learn about the teachings and practices of other world religions or spiritualities and be willing to see common elements of them with one's own traditions and be willing to change one's traditional religion or spirituality to accept all religions on an equal basis as one's own. By change they also mean to try to change social, political and religious establishments as well as personal thinking to bring it in line with their agenda of a liberal one world religion and government including to minimalize biblical Christianity and our insistance that the God of the Bible is the only true God and Jesus Christ is the only Saviour who can restore people of all nations to our Creator God and a personal relationship with Him that we lost in the sin of our first parents Adam and Eve when they took part of the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Parliament of World Religions would also oppose and want Christians to apologize or change from our insistence that only God's word the Holy Bible gives a fully accurate prophetic picture of the future of the world including a negative picture of man-made religious or social unity apart from a restored relationship with the Creator God. The mostly one world multi-faith people who are promoting the Parliament of World Religions meeting are most likely strongly against the biblical Christian view that such man-made global unity that they endorse and promote will instead lead to imminenent widespread acceptance of the very soon to be revealed Satanic antichrist world leader who will lead the world in the seven year tribulation until he is defeated by the Lord Jesus Christ at His second coming to establish true world peace with God's visible Kingdom over all the earth as abundantly taught in both the Old and New Testaments of God's word the Holy Bible.
This meeting is being held the beginning of November this year in downtown Toronto at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. In fairness I would say that that facility is not particularly anti-christian for holding such an event there as some time ago I personally attending a very biblical Christian missionary event there called Missionfest. I had a good time there as a biblical Christian and was able to hear and meet representatives of many leading evangelical Christian organizations and individuals. The adverstisement for this meeting rightly notes (although I don't think it is completely a good thing) that Toronto and Canada have "a distintion as home of the world's most diverse city, will showcase its unique values, achievements and aspirations (hopes)" and then they go on to say as such Toronto and Canada will be "the 7th host of the Parliament of the World's Religions." (As a parliament they will probably also pass some laws they would like to persuade or even eventually have binding on all people of the world including not to say the God one believes in and upholds should be viewed or preached as the only true God (but for a true Christian or member of God's true Church or called out of all nations heavenly or spiritual people to deny the God of the Bible is the only true God we and all people do or should believe is contrary to our faith and scriptures (the Bible)). The former meetings of the World Parliament of Religions were in Chicago United States in 1893, in Chicago United States in 1993, in Capetown, South Africa in 1999, in Barcelona, Spain in 2004 in Melbourne, Australia in 2009, in Salt Lake City, United States in 2015.
The advertisement states there will be 500 programs and events across six major tracks: The Woman's Track: The Dignity of Women Across the World's Wisdom Traditions, Countering War, Hate & Violence Track: Peace and Love: Not War, Hate and Violence, Climate Action Track: Care for Our Earth, Responsibility for Our Future, The Indigenous Peoples' Track: The Spiritual Evolution of Humanity & Healing Our Mother Earth, The Next Generation Track: Interfaith has no age, youth voices for change, and Justice: Advancing Concrete Change Toward a Just, Peaceful, and Sustainable World. (Of course most if not all of these ideas focus on a world without acknowledgement of the true Creator and Saviour God mentioned in the Bible the true word of God and their agenda would seek a global religion and government that would signficantly further margnalize true Christians or Jews that believe in and especially who still stand in support of the one true God who people of all nations should trust in and be reconciled to through the Messiah who Christian believe is Jesus of Nazareth.)
A lot of the keynote speakers, with many of whom I am not familiar, are of world religions including Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Sikh, indigenous and western liberal Christian or Jewish leaders although there could be some representing some other religions or philosophies but who still advocate interfaith meetings and closer relations towards a one-world religion. The World Parliament of Religions is quite forthright is saying who they say is coming and who they are welcoming to their conference in Toronto this November: "Who's Coming to the Parliament? Expected attendance will exceed 10,000 persons of faith and conscience from 80 nations and more than 200 unique spiritual backgrounds. The Parliament offers programming for all, from scholars and activists to families and children - lectures to interactive cultural experiences. Participants can be individuals whose profession or personal interests lead them to the Parliament or delegations from the guiding institutions like states, universities, or religious organizations. Parliament presenters include students, clergy, interfaith leaders, scholars, Nobel Laureates, city mayors, spiritual luminaries, best-selling authors, globally-recognized entertainers, thought leaders, state actors, and more."
Perhaps God's word the Holy Bible is the best place to give a counter-message to this humanistic anti-christian gathered organized by the World Parliament of Religions to which I would strongly urge people not to attend or support but instead for you to , if you haven't already done so, to trust with all your heart in the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour who died for our sins on the cross are rose again to give us eternal life and a restored relationship with our Creator God. The religions or preachers at the World Parliament of Religions will not support try saving faith in the true God through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. God said before through His servant the apostle Paul to the Greek and humanistic Corinthians: "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the widsom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after widsom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks (Gentiles or non-Jews), Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. ... Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect (spiritually mature in the Lord Jesus Christ): yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the widsom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18-24, 2:6-10.
One thing the Parliament of World Religions and similiar ecumenical or inter-faith gatherings have is an anti-christ spirit of blasphemy that denies the biblical picture of the One true God and His salvation only through His justice being satisfied through the death on the cross of His Son Jesus Christ after He lived a sinless life in the form a man and then rose from the dead. Non-Christian groups such as this coming Parliament of World Religions try to please God/god(s) by their own good works or good merit or even think they can become gods and by their own effort make an almost ideal world but this will instead lead to the demonic one-world government of the antichrist or beast and one-world false religious system of the Mystery Babylon system that will at first co-operate with the anti-christ in the tribulation and probably be led by the Roman Catholic Church. I would urge the reader to as soon as possible trust in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation and pray to God in Jesus name to admit you are a sinner in His sight and according to His word the Holy Bible and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour.
God said through the apostle Paul to his son in the faith Timothy who God was using Paul to raise up as part of a new generation of Christian leader: "I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearance and kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine (teaching); but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears (just preach to them what they want to hear not to deal with personal or world sins); And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned to fables (mythologies). But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. 2 Timothy 4:1-5
(In the second half of the seven year tribulation)And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials (bowls), and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication (because this religious system claimed to be focused on worshipping God in heaven but was captivated with more power on earth and so committed spiritual fornication), and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. Revelation 17:1-5
On October 14th, 2016, according to the web site www.thetablet.co.uk, the major Roman Catholic order the Jesuits selected a new leader or new black pope. The leader of the Jesuits is generally called the black pope because he is the leader of one of the main branches of the Roman Catholic Church and because he traditionally wears a black robe in contrast to the regular pope who is sometimes called the white pope as he usually wears a white robe. Pope is from the Latin or Italian word for father that is papa. The Jesuits are more formally known as the Society of Jesus. The new black pope is Father Arturo Sosa Abascal and he is from the south American country of Venezueala. Mr. Sosa has PhD in Political Sciences from the Universidad Central de Venezuela according to the article from thetablet. According to the article he also speaks Spanish, Italian and English and understands French. Mr. Sosa replaces the last Black Pope or leader of the Jesuits Father Adolfo Nicolas from Spain. Mr. Nicolas also recently turned 80 years old according to thetablet article. The Jesuits or Society of Jesus were started in Spain by Spanish soldier Ignatius Loyola around 1548 as part of the so-called Roman Catholic counter-reformation in response to the Protestant Reformation. I heard that from some time in 2014 to October 2016 with the appointment f Mr. Sosa as the new black pope Pope Francis also took the role of black pope or leader of the Jesuits. This I think unprecedented situation may have been possible because Pope Francis is also the first White Pope who is also a Jesuit and I think achieved a fairly high ranking Jesuit role in South America before he became white pope.
According to the Jesuits' or Society of Jesus' own web site, http://sjweb.info, the Jesuit world headquarters is in the Curia in Rome or more formerly the Curia Generalizia or I guess General Curia. More particularly it is on a street called Borgo Santo Spirito that I think means Holy Spirit street. It is only a couple blocks from St. Peter's Square in Vatican City. As has become the custom the white pope, in this case Pope Francis, came to the General Curia or Jesuit headquarters to address the meeting associated with the selection of the new black pope or leader of the Jesuits in this case Mr. Sosa.
On January 14, 2017 Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was in Rome where he met with Roman Catholic leader Pope Francis. The two were together with other Roman Catholic dignitaries at the official opening of the new Palestinian Embassy at the Vatican. Palestinian Authority (PA) President Abbas also had a private audience with Pope Francis which was the third time the two leaders have met face to face according to Israel National News. PA leader was also to meet the Italian President while in Italy and then go to France to meet French President Francois Hollande. Mr. Abbas' visit with Mr. Hollande on January 15th while the major Paris Middle East peace conference is going on but Mr. Abbas will not attend that meeting. The official opening of the Palestinian embassy at the Vatican took place about 4 years after the Vatican recognized "Palestine" as a state.
From a biblical Christian viewpoint, both the meeting of Mr. Abbas with Pope Francis the leader of the largest denomination in professing Christianity is consistent with Revelation 17 of woman of the harlot church riding the beast or the Antichrist and his world system being set in place. Part of the Antichrist's world system or government will include a Middle East false peace for which the Palestinians with Israel will be main participants and that is described in Daniel 9:27. In Daniel 9 the Antichrist is related to Roman Army under their general Titus who later became Roman Emperor and who destroyed Jerusalem and the 2nd or Herod's Jewish Temple in 70 AD (the city and the sanctuary). Titus was from the European part of the Roman Empire so it is consistent that the Antichrist will also come from Europe. However he has not yet been revealed to the public and won't be until after the rapture or catching up to heaven of the true Church of every one who has personally received the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour from our sins. The Roman Catholic Church will lead the false united religious system in the tribulation that is based on faith other than trust in the Lord Jesus Christ alone and completely for salvation and justification with God. This religious system now in the forming stage with the Roman Catholic Church leading significant ecumenical and multi-faith efforts as this meeting with Pope Francis and Mr. Abbas (and regularly with many other world leaders) is a current indication of the tentative false or babylon religious system related to and riding on or dependent of polical world powers (that are leading up to the world political system that will be led by the Antichrist or man of sin or beast out of the sea or he that causes abomination in Daniel 9. The French meeting is also an effort by the French leadership and that is making some progress towards realizing the false Middle East peace of the Antichrist between Israel and her Arab neighbours and other world powers as mentioned in Daniel 9 and that could also involve some major world religions including the Roman Catholic Church led by the Pope and the Vatican.
The fact that these events are coming closer by events like Mahmoud Abbas meeting Pope Francis at the establishment of a Palestinian Embassy in the Vatican and then Mr. Abbas going to Paris when there is a major Middle East peace meeting involving many significant nations of the world indicates these events in the tribulation such as Daniel 9 and Revelation 17 are also quite close and that if you the reader haven't already done so I urge you to as soon as possible with all your heart trust in the Lord Jesus Christ that He died on the cross for our sins and sin nature (that we received going all the way back to our fallen into sin first parents Adam and Eve when they disobeyed God and took the forbidden fruit and became spiritually separated from God) and that Jesus on the third day rose from the dead to give us new life and a restored relation with God if we trust in Him. Trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ in this was and according to the Bible especially New Testament will also ensure that you are taken to heaven and your heavenly eternal home to be with God and His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and God's true Church or true Christians and the holy angels and Old Testament saints instead of being left behind on Earth after the rapture to endure God's wrath through all the plagues in the Book of Revelation and the worldwide tyranny of the devil's man the Antichrist or Beast out of the Sea. Those who don't receive Jesus and that receive the mark of the beast in the tribulation will also be brought to hell to eternal suffering at Jesus' second coming in glory at the end of the tribulation but if you receive Jesus as your Lord and Saviour if you haven't already hopefully as soon as possible you can instead come from heaven with Jesus to start enjoying His eternal rewards including reigning on earth with Him.
In February 2016 Pope Francis met the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill in Cuba. This was the first meeting of the two branches of professing Christianity since the Orthodox Church split from the Roman Catholic Church around 1054 around 1054 AD in what is sometimes called "The Great Schism". At that time there was no Protestant Church as that was still a couple hundred years later. The split between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church was for a couple reasons but definitely the main reason was the insistence of the Roman Catholic popes and other leaders of the time is that the Orthodox Church be ruled by the Roman Catholic popes. The Russian Orthodox Church is definitely the largest of the Orthodox churches that also include The Greek Orthodox Church and some other Balkan Orthodox churces such as that in Serbia and Middle East Orthodox Churches such as in Syria, Iraq and the holy land. The Orthodox Church arose from the church in what was once the eastern Roman Empire and that later became the Byzantine Empire headquartered in Byzantium that is now called Istanbul particularly from the building now called the Haggai Sophia that was the Orthodox or Byzantine counterpart of St. Peter's Church in the Vatican in Rome as the main religious church or centre of the Roman Catholic Church. Since Pope Francis met Patriarch Kirill in Cuba he met the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church in Ethiopia and tried to get their respective churches closer as well. Among other things Pope Francis has already made a point of meeting with and establishing closer relations with the Orthodox Patriarch in the Holy land which is mostly composed of Arab Christians in the land of Israel or Palestine that many now think of associated with Arabs in the holy land but before 1965 or especially 1948 was mostly thought of as referring to the holy land as referring to the land of Jews or children of Israel especially by people outside of the land of Israel. Pope Francis made a definite point when he went to the holy land in meeting with the Arab Orthodox Patriarch and inviting him back with representatives of the Palestinian territories and Israel to a meeting back at the Vatican Garden in Rome for a interfaith prayer meeting that did happen shortly afterward. The main Israeli representative was at that time Israeli president Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. One thing that is bringing the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox or Orthodox Church in general closer together is that members or even regional leaders of both churches are being persecuted or even in some cases killed by Islamic terrorists in the Middle East for being Christians. Pope Francis has also tried to be very conscientious in the Crimean and other Ukrainian situation to Russia's position which has earned him more support by the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian government including Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The Russian Orthodox Church according to the BBC is now much more influenced by the Russian government and its leader currently Mr. Putin so for the Roman Catholic Church to be considerate of the Russian government position on major issues like Ukraine is a good way to also get more co-operation with the Russian Orthodox Church with the Roman Catholic Church as well. In Cuba a document was signed by both leaders with 30 articles called The Common Declaration. About the meeting of the two church leaders and their jointly signed common declaration Mr. Peter Humeniuk Russia specialist of the Roman Catholic aid and development organization Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) this joint declarition between the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches could be a blueprint to include other Christian churches or denominations or even other religions for more unity or as he put it: "signal for other religions and denominations and for all people of good will." In this article "Analyzing the Francis-Kirill Meeting Mr. Humeniuk also noted about globalization in many other aspects of society in the world today and saw this increasing church unity which he called a globalization of the spiritual partly because of a globalization of suffering. Mr. Humeniuk also expressed his and likely other officials and some of the laity's wished in both churches that this would lead to "re-establish the unity willed by God". It is also a fact that there is an increasing movement for some Protestant church especially the more traditional mainline churches to come into closer relations and agreement such as the basis of justification before God with the position of the Roman Catholic Church and that is encouraged by ecumenical bodies such as the World Council of Churches.
However from the perspective of myself and other bible believing Christians this might not all be a good thing. There are a couple reasons for this. One is that the famous chapter on church unity that Mr. Humeniuk was probably referring to and that other people that promote Christian unity like to point to, namely Gospel of John 17, also mentions 4 times that that unity be based on the truth of God's word which is often ignored by many ecumenical supporters. The truth of God's word includes that justification is only through faith alone in the finished work of God's Son the Lord Jesus Christ in His death on the cross for our sins and resurrection from the dead to offer us new life and that we have to come into a personal relationship with God by receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Saviour and that our own good works have no part in earning our salvation. According to the New Testament scriptures for the Church especially the book of Acts and the epistles good works do have a part but only after we trust in the Lord Jesus as our personal Lord and Saviour and have a new nature in Christ where God can work through us by His Holy Spirit and we can use this to earn rewards for faithful Christian service that will be in addition to the gift of salvation and eternal life that is through faith in our heart in the Lord Jesus alone. Another problem with Church unity as promoted by this meeting with Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill is that the New Testament does not envision this unity as led by a very structured church hierarchy as is present in both churches but especially in the Roman Catholic Church with all their priests, bishops, archbishops, cardinals and finally the pope. I believe the unity the New Testament promotes and was practiced quite well by the early church and is practiced most closely by evangelical Christians today is that the Lord Jesus Christ as the Head of the Church is the unifying factor as well as personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit by all true Christians who have personally acknowledged we are sinners before God, can't save ourselves and have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Saviour. True Christians are also united by getting our doctrine from God's Word the Holy Bible especially the New Testament and what it says about the Church as God's spiritual and heavenly people on earth in this age since Pentecost and people includnig myself who take the Bible literally would say until the soon-coming rapture or catching up to heaven of all the true Church. Roman Catholics and perhaps to some extent Othodox Christians hold their church tradition very highly in some cases equal of above the authority of God's Word the Holy Bible which would tend to also give the wrong basis of what united Christianity or a united church should be all about. Bible believing Christians would say each local church led by a pastor or pastors or perhaps elders are directly accountable to our head the Lord Jesus Christ and not primarily to an overseeing earthly human hieracrchical body although it might be OK for some like minded churches to have some secondary association. Bible believing Christians such as myself also believe that Revelation 17 and perhaps Revelation 18 point to the last days ecumenical or even multi-faith system in the tribulation or at least first half of it that will be composed of professing Christians and perhaps other religious people that will be devoid of true Holy Spirit indwelt and Bible based Christians who of the ones of this age will all be brought to heaven at the rapture of the Church and for the true Christians that become such in the tribulation will be underground because they will not back down from true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and will not recognize the Antichrist or Beast out of the Sea as an authority as the false religious system of the tribulation will that will likely be led by the Roman Catholic church and pope of that time that I think is very soon as Revelation 17 mentions a harlot church or religious system (because it seeks to be established in this world instead of mainly with God and Jesus in Heaven and His Holy Spirit) that is riding or associated with the beast the Antichrist or Beast out of the Sea and tribulation period world dictator on a city on seven mountains or hills that Rome is known to be. So as a Bible believing Christian I am not enthusiastic or supportive of this example of the ecumenical movement and would encourage the reader if you are supportive of that or if your church is to instead put first trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation and be united with the other true born again Christian by our mutual head the Lord Jesus Christ and mutually indwelling counsellor the Holy Spirit. This is instead of the alternative of continuing to ending up on Earth for God's judgment in the tribulatin on the false harlot or earth centred church seeking man made unity by a man made institutional religious hierarchy that also compromises the basis of people having a relationship with God through basing justification with God at least in part on our good works instead of faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Seeking to be part of or continuing to be part of the actual true Church is so you can be brought with the complete Church of the Lord Jesus Christ to heaven at the rapture of the Church to meet Him and go with Him to Heaven then and come back with Jesus and the glory of God the Father to rule with Him on Earth in the Millennial or Messianic Kingdom with restored Israel and the restored of the nations and Old Testament saints from the believing remnant of Israel and some from other nations.
First this system is called a whore or harlot meaning it was a or like a woman that was a wife or one man but had sexual relations with other men which is symbolic of the false church led by the Roman Catholic Church which claims to be the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ but also incorporates many elements of idolatry or paganism or worship of other gods such as praying to saints, angels and Mary, praying for the dead and giving the priest the supposed power to turn the host or wafer into the body of Jesus Christ and assigning the supposed power to the pope as the substitute of Jesus Christ on earth that actually is fulfilled by the Holy Spirit. The statement that the whore sits on many waters means she exists and operates on many continents between many seas or oceans. This last days system will include not just the Roman Catholic system itself but under its leadership also the other churches involved in the ecumenical church through the World Council of Churches for which the Roman Catholic church is as observer and is becoming increasingly active to have common ties and with other religions such as Buddhism through the Dalai Lama, with Judaism through meetings with the pope and chief rabbis and other Jews with Muslims and with others. The statement with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication means with whom the Mystery Babylon Church led by the Roman Catholic church have exercised power to get world leaders to conform to its teaching or authority through its edicts and meetings of the pope or other high Roman Catholic leaders with earthly kings or other world leaders. Fornication again means the professing Church including the Roman Catholic Church has compromised its loyalty to God and Jesus Christ by trying to also build worldly power or relations with earthly kings or authorities including presidents and prime ministers. The inhabitants of the earth being made drunk with the wine of her fornication. An example of this, although he did many good things in upholding morality etc., was the late Pope John Paul 2 that developed much widespread popularity with many people on earth Roman Catholic or otherwise by getting very involved in politics including his fight against communism, world peace and against secularism. Most of these things are good but according to God's Word the Holy Bible the role of Christian leaders is to pray for and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with anybody including world leaders not try to achieve political solutions. This is a major way in which many people became drunk with the wine of the fornication of the Mystery Babylon Church led by the popes and although a bit true with the current pope will probably be even more true with the final pope probably Peter the Roman and the 112th pope of Saint Malachy's prophecy and the beast or Antichrist. This scripture also says the woman was arrayed or clothed with scarlet and purple. These were the two colours of the Caesars who ruled over the Roman Empire and were incorporated into the clothing of the leaders of the Roman Catholic church when the civic power of the Roman Empire were combined with the spiritual or religious system of the church especially starting with some supposedly Christian Caesars like Constantine in the early 300s AD. Scarlet is the colour of the cardinals and purple is the colour of the bishops in the Roman Catholic Church to this day. Gold, silver and precious stones are also used in decorations in the Roman Catholic Church. The golden cup in her hand speaks of the golden cup used in the initiation into the mysteries in the pagan Roman religion associated with the goddess Venus the mother goddess associated with sexual immorality and eventually back to Babylon originally with Semiramis the mother of Nimrod who built the tower of Babel and this Semiramis who conceived the whole primary system of idolatry including the mother goddess and the Babylonian idolatry. The contents of the golden cup originally included an intoxicating mix that included alcohol, honey and flour. This led in these mystery religions to much physical sexual immorality or fornication in the name of religion which is a symbol of the spiritual counterpart in the last days Mystery Babylon system with its idolatry led by the Roman Catholic Church. It was a custom in the ancient world for a label or name to be written in the forehead of a harlot identifying her as a harlot (prostitute). The name was mystery referring to the mystery religions or secret societies or ancient Rome that were derived from Babylon. The name was also Babylon the Great meaning it was like Babylon but was perhaps an even more extensive system of the same type. This name of this mystery Babylon church also calls it the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth meaning it was the source and primary example of the falsely professing or idolatrous especially falsely professing Christian systems of the world with much abominations including through easy forgiveness in the name of a priest of people that hadn't been transformed by the Holy Spirit of God in their hearts and so fall right back into sin or abominations. The woman drunk with the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Jesus refers to all the persecution and killing of true believers who stand for salvation by faith in Jesus Christ alone according to God's Word- the Holy Bible. This killing was done by the false Christian religious system led by the Roman Catholic Church especially just after the Protestant Reformation and to some extent still now by the backdoor stirring up of world events by the Jesuits and Black Pope and Illuminati. The woman received a perverse satisfaction from this killing and was addicted to it and wanted more or was drunk from it. The beast that carried her is the beast of Revelation 13 and the Antichrist and man of sin of 2 Thessalonians 2 and one that causes abomination of Daniel 9:27 and Matthew 24. The ten horns are ten kings probably the same of the ten magna region mentioned on the web site of the world constitution and parliament association associated with ten regions of the world and the seven heads are probably seven nations associated with Israel that all had immoral, idolatrous religious systems involving the mother child cult namely Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome and finally the last days revived Roman Empire of the Antichrist or Beast. The scripture reference in Revelation 17 of some of these identifying features of the Mystery Babylon religious system of the 7 year tribulation or 70th week of Daniel as the one world idolatrous religious system led by the Roman Catholic Church and including other apostate or not Biblically faithful Christian churches and other religions is as follows:
And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters. With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. Revelation 17:1-7
Although the seven heads on the beast can also be interpreted as seven empires that will seek to oppress God's chosen earthly people Israel namely Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome and finally the revived Roman Empire under the Antichrist or the the Beast, the seven mountains can also be viewed as seven literal mountains or hills. One famous city known to have seven hills or mountains, at least in its central and oldest part, is Rome, Italy that of course was the heart and capital or the Roman Empire. Namely, these seven hills are: The Palatine Hill, The Quirinal Hill, The Viminal Hill, The Esquiline Hill, The Aventine Hill, The Capitoline Hill and The Caelian Hill according to Unger's Bible Dictionary. It is still a significant city in the world including being the capital or the nation of Italy, the site of some of the central treaties of the European Union and the site of Vatican City the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. This passage in verse 9 says these seven mountains are where the woman meaning Babylon mother of harlots sits or dwells. Babylon means literally confusion which is a good term for the Roman Catholic Church and it being in the forefront of combining old Roman or other non-Christian paganism with the Bible or Biblical Christianity. The Roman Catholic Church will probably and in some ways is in the process or joining other churches, especially those involved in the ecumenical movement or that seek church unity at the expense or truth or doctrine, into a non-biblical unity with the Roman Catholic Church and the pope at its head which will be the mystery Babylon church. It could also involve non-Christian religions which especially recent popes and some Roman Catholic organizations have been seeking to reach out to to bring under the Roman Catholic Church umbrella. In verse 15 it says the woman will have a worldwide scope of being on many waters or oceans and seas and involve many peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues which is and will likely be true of the Roman Catholic Church or a unity church with the Roman Catholic Church and the pope and the Vatican on the seven hills of Rome at its centre. The ten horns are the ten horns on the beast and they will be ten kings that will rule the world with the beast or Antichrist for the 3 1/2 year second half of the tribulation. I personally believe as I state more clearly on my web pages about the Image and Ten Toes of Daniel and The Antichrist that these ten horns are also the ten horns in Daniel and the ten toes of the image in Daniel and represent ten kings that will reign over ten regions comprising all the earth. There are maps and descriptions available from both one world government secular people and Bible prophecy people mentioning how the world will be divided into ten regions. Anyway the beast or antichrist won't be tolerant of the harlot church led by the Roman Catholic Church and will turn against her at the beginning of the second half of the tribulation after the beast or antichrist and the false prophet assume worldwide control including of religion. I don't know whether these ten kills that are allied with the beast or Antichrist will actually kill and set fire on the harlot church and its followers or directors but in some way they will quite completely destroy the harlot church and take power from her. In verse 17 the scripture says that this is of God that the ten kings turn against the harlot church because God would be angry and offended at the harlot Church relying on their traditions, the authority of popes, Mary and of saints or angels for things God wants to rest in Him, His Word-the Holy Bible and His Son Jesus Christ or His Holy Spirit alone. These ten kings will also give their kingdom to the beast or antichrist until the end of his rule at the glorious second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ when Jesus will take the beast and put him in the lake of fire. The harlot woman is also identified as this great city which is the one of seven hills or mountains namely Rome and speaks of the Roman Catholic Church and in the tribulation the apostate ecumenical system centred on the Roman Catholic Church that will be based on a manmade unity instead of in the Lord Jesus Christ and God's Word- the Holy Bible and salvation through Jesus by faith in Him and God's grace through Him apart from our good works. Although Rome reigns to some degree and certaintly has in the past over kings of the earth, she will to a great degree again through to the beginning of the second half of the tribulation. There are some movements like The Emerging Church Movement and perhaps the Purpose Driven Movement, although they have their good points are not discerning about the importance of Bible truth and doctrine and could and probably will lead many people to become part of this apostate church that could also involve feelings too much instead of faith in God and Jesus based fully on His Word - the Holy Bible. The scripture reference from Revelation 17 of the seven mountains be associated with the woman of the harlot church and her central city of Rome and the Roman Catholic Church centred system is as follows:
And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. ... And he said unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. Revelation 17:9, 15-18
I heard recently on an investment show (July 2005) that many investors don't want to invest in the stock markets because of the poor return and many investments based on interest rates such as treasury bills, mutual funds or guaranteed investment certificates are still not attractive because of the low interest rates so many investors have been investing in real estate especially residential real estate like houses and condominiums. There hasn't been as much investment in office space or commericial real estate because of the bust of the commercial real estate bubble in 1989 in the west but also in the Far East and other parts of the world. Now however I heard that 80% of the people even in some real estate organizations think the real estate sector is heavily overextended with too many people dependent on it and the prices overinflated to unsustainable levels that is likely to burst soon with prices to take a serious tumble and many investors both professional and small scale including people with low interest rates and little or no downpayments who can't really afford homes but bought them anyway losing much money and in some cases then getting out of the real estate market. This will leave silver and gold as one of the few remaining profitable and attractive areas of investment. This is even more so since they are a good source of investment in unstable political times as we have now with ongoing Islamic terrorism and because the American dollar especially is overvalued and precious metals are a more stable investment. Also inflation and the decline of the dollar and other currencies soon is likely with the increasing price of oil due to the supply/demand problems for oil. All these things will probably continue and intensify in the tribulation making silver and gold popular sources of investment then. This will include the use of silver and gold for idols or statues or other religious objects including India now being the foremost buyer of gold probably especially for idols and it will probably be including in the Mystery Babylon Church under the Vatican and Rome in the Tribulation and will bring all its idols into the then completely false or apostate church. The reference to silver and gold being part of the investment of the last days Mystery Babylon Church including all Christians and churches left behind after the rapture and probably all religions especially those interested in the interfaith cooperative movement in Revelation 18 is as follows:
And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more: The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine, and manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, Revelation 18:9-12
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