In 1998 the Lord woke me up out of a Laodicean slumber and by 1999 I realized there was something strange going on in the world, spiritually and geopolitically. In the summer of 2001, I was talking with my best Roman Catholic friend, and I asked her opinion regarding the historic event of Pope John Paul ll being the first pope (or Christian leader of any kind) in history to enter a mosque. Pope JPll had entered a mosque in Syria, not to bring the gospel, but to join with Muslims for worship and prayer.
Her answer really surprised me. “Why are you so shocked? Christians and Muslims worship the same God!” Well we had a friendly debate about that, and she was very surprised that I would see a problem with that. She thought it was marvelous. She submitted my question to the “Ask the Monsignor” column in a local Catholic paper. In the June 24, 2001 issue of Our Sunday Visitor, the Msgr. M. Francis Mannion in his answer quoted from Nietzsche, Pope John Paul ll, and the 1965 Declaration on the Relations of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, of the Second Vatican Council.
He quoted, “They(Muslims) worship God, who is one, living and subsistent, merciful and almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has also spoken to men.” Vatican ll also went on to say regarding the Muslim attitude to Christ, “Although not acknowledging Him as God, they worship Jesus as a prophet, His virgin Mother they also honor, and even at times devoutly invoke…..they highly esteem an upright life and worship God, especially by way of prayer, alms-deeds, and fasting.” Finally the Monsignor quoted Vatican ll, “The sacred council….. urges that a sincere effort be made to achieve mutual understanding for the benefit of all men, let them together preserve and promote peace, liberty, social justice and moral values.” Remember, this was 1965.
After my friend handed me this published article, I had to attempt to answer the Monsignor, and thus began an earnest interest in apologetics and defending the faith. This also began for me, an interest in watching the amazing development…….of the One World Religion.
Just for fun, I began collecting John Paul ll quotes like some women collect shoes. After a while, I had lots of fascinating quotes which only showed one thing: the Roman Catholic Church was at the forefront (aside from the New Agers) of helping the new religion of Global Spirituality come into fruition. Now, Pope Benedict XVl is continuing where JPll left off.
But there are many more besides the Pope working hard to achieve this goal.
Witnessing Encouragement 