MILLENNIUM ENDING MESSAGE OF TOLERANCE
"VATICAN CITY (AP) - With Pope John Paul II presiding next to the Dalai Lama, representatives of 20 of the world's faiths closed a millennium-ending gathering Thursday with a forceful denunciation of religious extremism...Beyond the message of tolerance it produced, the council was remarkable for the scenes it brought to a bastion of Christianity...An American Indian pivoting in the center of the square at sunset, blessing the four corners of the earth from the heart of Rome..."
[Comments: Early Christians certainly hit the nail right on the head when they read and believed Rev.17 and predicted that all religions would come together with the Roman Catholic Church in the driver's seat! The gathering above was for the purpose of combating "hate". Certainly, any obedient Christian would desire to take a stand against violence in the name of religion. However, what most call "religious extremism" (and therefore "hate") is the belief that there is only ONE WAY to be saved.
Thus, that holy division between true, obedient Christians (who teach that Jesus is the ONLY way to be saved in eternity) and false Christians (such as Catholics who believe the Catholic gospel) will continue to widen. This will cause many liberals, in the middle, to "sell out". This is already happening. Just today, I read in one Baptist paper that Robert Schuller no longer wants to be called a "Christian" because it cuts him off from Hindus and Muslims! He does not preach that Christ is the only way. The same paper quotes Tony Campolo on CNN's Crossfire refusing to teach that Jesus is the only way to be saved. Campolo stated: "I am not convinced that Jesus only lives in Christians." As the "great gulf" widens, those of us who contend for the one and only Gospel will be HATED by those who will, ironically and hypocritically, accuse us of "hatred". One may not "like" the Bible. One may decide to throw away the Bible. Do this if you will; but PLEASE do not lie and pretend that Jesus is in a Muslim or a Hindu (or even a lost Catholic who will not believe the Gospel). It is not loving to leave a person damned in his or her sins just to comfort childish emotions:
Ac 4:10 Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. 12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.]
From THE KINGDOM ALERT UPDATE
This is reminiscent of the 1986 meeting in Assisi where Pope John Paul II invited adherents of the same religions to fast and pray for world peace. It follows ecumenical thinking that has been prevalent in many "thinkers" of the world
Professor Toynbee said, "The Western world must produce a new religion, a universal cult, and it must be made up on Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam."
Speaking over Radio Veritas, Manila, Pope John Paul II said that the Roman Catholic Church accepted the truth and goodness found in Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. Paying warm tribute to the many moral values enshrined in the three non-Christian religions, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church invited their adherents to common prayer that mutual understanding may grow and moral values be strengthened.
The late Dean Inge wrote of Buddhism and Christianity. "There is a cardinal affinity between the two religions. There are differences but the historical foundation of both is the same."
A 1/5/61 report from the AP quotes Abdel Rahmah Azzam Pasha, Secretary-General of the Arab League, "A spiritual alliance of the Moslem and Christian world would group more than one-half of the men of the earth against a common enemy. The two religions are founded upon an exquisite high spirituality and are menaced by the same enemy, atheistic materialism."
Elton Trueblood wrote, "The chasm between a merely secular conception of the world and any conception in which (God) is recognized is so great and so crucial that those who believe in the latter are foolish to let any particular difference divide them. Moslems and Christians and Jews and many more need to know that they have the greatest things in common. The question of a particular banner is secondary."
The Vatican Council also made it clear that other Christians, Jews, non-Christians and even atheists are united to the church as the people of God in varying degrees. For example, "Those also can attain to everlasting salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church yet sincerely seek God and, moved by grace, strive by their deeds to do his will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience."
Karl Adam, The Spirit of Catholicism, 1928: "A religious historian of the fifth millennium A.D. will without difficulty discover in Catholicism conceptions and practices which will derive from India, China and Japan."
Chester Tulga, The Case Against Modernism, 1950: "A world religion is on the way, which will be religious rather than Christian; it will be human rather than divine; it will be natural rather than supernatural. Its God will be its servant and not its sovereign; its Christ will be its leader not its king; its political economy will be a democracy not a theocracy; its saints will be its socialists not its seers; its goal will be a human utopia not the kingdom of the Coming King. The coming world religion is envisioned by liberals as the harbinger of the `Kingdom,' but by biblical writers as the forerunner of the antichrist."
