I have to say it’s a bit off-putting that so many within Christendom seem so unconcerned about the massive push by many of today’s religious leaders toward a one-world religious system. There are so many who deny what is occurring right in front of our noses. What can you do? The only thing that can be done is that we continue to highlight and discuss the things that are happening in society and continue to disclose what the Bible says about living in the end times or last days. Either people will wake up to the facts or they will continue in their denial.
With respect to the end times/last days, Jesus, Paul, John, Peter and others point out to us what we can know and understand. One of the biggest rules I ever learned was that the Bible should be allowed to interpret itself. After all, even though God chose to use some 40 different human authors to write various parts of His Word (over a period of 1600 to 2000 years), the truth remains that ultimately, all of the Bible is from God Himself. Because of this, we need to recognize that we are studying and interpreting (seeking to understand) what God has to say, not what we think He has to say. There’s a huge difference and such a difference should require us to approach His Word with the utmost respect and humility. Only then, will God help us to ascertain His message (again, not what we think or hope His Word says).
So it is with the subject of the end times or last days. There has been this growing movement to look at anyone who chooses to understand God’s Word literally* as heretics. Anyone who believes in the literal physical return of Jesus is often laughed at today. We are told that Jesus is reigning now. Of course He is, but Scripture points to the time when Jesus will physically return to this earth and will visibly rule over this entire planet in a final kingdom prior to God creating new heavens and a new earth. To allegorize these truths away is tantamount to changing the very Words of God.
One of the things the Bible teaches is that as we draw near the end of man’s history, leading up to the point in time when Jesus will physically return, there will be this huge push within society to bring all major religions together in one specific form. We see very clear teachings about this in God’s Word. For instance in the book of Revelation, we learn of the False Prophet in Revelation 13. It is interesting to see this individual – whoever he turns out to be – directing attention and worship to the “Beast” or Antichrist.
11 Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. 12 It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast… (ESV; see also Revelation 16:13, 19:20, 20:10)
The Bible teaches that at some point, all man-made religions will culminate in the worship of one human being, namely, the Antichrist. The False Prophet will be on...