The World That Prays Together, Stays Together

A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.  This week’s item is from Reuters, January 24^th, 2002, dateline: Assisi, Italy.Pope John Paul and religious leaders including Muslims and Jews, Buddhist and Hindus, committed themselves on Thursday to work for peace and shun violence.Christian monks in brown woolen habits, saffron robed Buddhists, black cloaked Muslims, and Sikhs wearing turbans, white-bearded orthodox patriarchs, and rabbis, traveled together on a peace train to pray near the tomb of St. Francis.Chief Amadu Gusito of the traditional voodoo animist religion of the West African nation of Benin, said the occasion taught the art of knowing how to respect one’s adversary, of tolerating differences and understanding other’s convictions.But outside Assisi, not everyone was happy with the events.“To pray with heretics, schismatics, rabbis, mullahs, witchdoctors and various idolaters, creates confusion among Catholic believers,” Fredricko Bricolo and Massimo Paladry said in a statement.

Tom:

Dave, we’ve mentioned on this program and others have mentioned, there isn’t any doubt, just look around, we are moving toward a one world religion and as a former Roman Catholic I sometimes think back, how would I react to this?Well I was a pre-Vatican II Catholic and this would have made my hair stand up.It’s so—we’ve been talking about—ecumenical, but it seems to be beyond that.This is—ecumenism used to mean just denominations within Christianity sort of got along and put aside some of their doctrinal issues, but this is idolatry of the first order!This is the first commandment.I mean what’s going on here, even with the Catholic Church?

Dave:

Well Tom, you have to ask what could even motivate a person to do this.“Well, we’re praying for peace.”They were on a peace train praying for peace.Well I can get a lot of people together who talk about peace.The Palestinians for example—Arafat talks about peace.But Arafat says peace for us means the destruction of Israel.One of the things you know is they want to make a deal.Well why don’t you Jews give back some more land.They’ve already given back 95% of it, but well let them have their state.Israel says we would be happy to let them have their state if they will acknowledge our right to exist.So all I’m saying is peace for the wolf is different than peace for the lamb.So you can get a lot of people together who talk about peace.Now in the final analysis, where does peace come from?The peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, “There is no peace saith my God to the wicked.” So what is the point of getting humanists together, basically that’s what it is?They are representing various religions, but they are doing it from a humanistic standpoint.And on the basis of every man has a desire for peace, I remember Norman Vincent Peale saying, “We talk about what everybody recognizes and accepts peace and love, but people have different definitions of these terms and in the final analysis there is no peace among men until men are at peace with God and that only happens through Christ.So this is not only confusing, as these men who represent this Italian government coalition party say, it is leading people astray!First of all Tom, the Pope is leading Buddhists, Muslims, and Sikhs, and voodoo priests astray because he is indicating oh the God of the Bible that the Pope claims to believe in is in perfectharmony with your concept of God and your concepts of salvation and so forth.He claimed at the original Assisi in 1986 back there when he had another event like this, he said we are all praying to the same God.You know the term:There is one God, but he is known by many names.So we could go back and exonerate Solomon by what the Pope is doing.We could say, well but Baal, and Molech and so forth, they really represent Jehovah, Yahweh, but under different names.So the gods of the heathen around us, they are really the same.Everybody has his concept of God, but they call him by different names.No, we are not just calling him by different names, they have different concepts of God, and Molech was a god who demanded babies be offered by fire and his arms that were outstretched.There was no salvation.In Islam for example, there is no way to know that you will ever get to Paradise.You have to somehow appease Allah.Allah is said to be merciful, but no one knows on what basis.And there is no payment for the penalty of sin so Allah has no righteous basis for forgiving sin.Tom, some things are so fundamental, or so basic that we cannot compromise them and the Pope is compromising exactly as Solomon did.

Tom:

Dave, this issue is simple and fundamental.You know asI said as a former Roman Catholic, again as I think back, this is just stunning to me, but today as an evangelical and we debate, we have differences with Roman Catholic apologists, who seem to be very evangelical in their approach, I wonder what they would think of something like this?Again, it’s simple, this is the first commandment.This is idolatry.

Dave:

“You will have no other gods before me.You will worship the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, strength, and him only you will serve.There’s a reason for it, because a false god is going to lead you astray.

Tom:

Dave, now this is a national event here; well it’s an international event.

Dave:

Yes, international.

Tom:

An international event, but we had similar things right here in our small town of Bend.

We have the bishop of Burns, the Diocese of Burns, and he put together and ecumenical event very much like this.And he had—I don’t think Muslims showed up, but he had all of the different kinds of denominations that he could bring in as well as there were Mormons, involved?I don’t understand—well, I do understand it.This is again, one world religion in development.

Dave:

Tom, it takes us back to Acts:4:12Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
See All... and Peter is talking to rabbis.Now, rabbis claim to know God.They claim to follow Yahweh.They claim to go by the Old Testament even, but he said very clearly to them, “There is none other name under heaven given among me, whereby we must be saved.”That’s Jesus Christ.And these various religions, they have a false view of Jesus Christ.Most of them don’t even acknowledge him.Certainly not as God the Savior.