There are about 4,200 religions, churches, denominations, religious bodies, and faith groups in the world, and Pope Francis is trying to get everyone together; however, each group makes its own pitch for their “way.” Obviously, Francis has to convince everyone to consider their own teaching as non-essential in order to merge with the other groups that are in error. To leftists, unity is far more important than truth.

The Pope is trying to unite the predominant religions in the world— Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism totaling over 5 billion people.  He also wants to include pagan followers, and all those who worship Satan, snakes, snails, and the sun.  At a religious conflab consisting of Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists, he warned against “the temptation to fundamentalism” or the tendency for each group to be true to their foundational truths.

The main reason the world is in a religious mess today is that the early churches strayed from their fundamental roots: Christ died and rose for our personal salvation according to the inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word of God; the world is lost, needing to hear the saving message; Christians are commissioned to tell the Good News to the world; Christians are commanded to love everyone (but not forsaking truth), live godly lives, and stand for truth even at the cost of our lives.

The early Christians, for the most part, got away from their original teachings, and the religious world has become a vicious snake pit. Francis thinks he is doing God’s work in bringing everyone together; however, the Pope has no heavenly mandate to accomplish this gargantuan task. He does have religious gravitas that goes with his position, but it will take supernatural help to get the job done. His help is not coming from above but from below!

The Pope has enormous influence, but he is not recognized as the leader of all Christians; not even all Roman Catholics recognize him. Only the weakest Protestants recognize the Pope as the leader of the Christian world; of course, Jews don’t recognize the Pope as the religious leader, nor do they recognize Christ as Messiah; Islam recognizes their ayatollahs as leaders, not the Pope nor does Islam recognize the Bible as the actual Word of God. And Baptists don’t recognize anyone except their local pastor, and they seem to have a tacit understanding not to recognize each other at a Hooters eatery known for scantily clad waitresses.

What a religious mess!

But Pope Francis is trying to untangle the mess—he will unite everyone, starting with Catholics and Muslims. Of course, he is so uninformed that he doesn’t know he is being used as a tool to accomplish one of the major endeavors of the final days—a world church.

As always, we Baptists refuse to go along, although some liberal Baptists will cooperate with anything if it sounds intellectual, humane, and progressive.

The possibility that Muslims and Roman Catholics would ever unite is literally breathtaking. It seems impossible since both groups claim to be the exclusive path to Heaven. Of course, I never thought the Soviet Union would fall; the Berlin Wall would come down; Jim Hoffa would be found; or Biden would be sitting in the Oval Office, so what do I know?

Muslims have had Rome (Catholic Church) in their sights for hundreds of years, especially after the many Crusades starting in 1098 and lasting intermittently into the early 1200s. European “Christians” led by various popes felt compelled to take Jerusalem from the infidel Muslims who conquered it in 638 A.D. However, the crusades ended when western “Christians” attacked eastern “Christians” by sacking Constantinople in 1204.

There were crusaders with various, dubious, and complex motives for going on a crusade. Some wanted adventure; others wanted to take advantage of the Pope’s offer to get out of debt; some wanted forgiveness of their sins as the Pope promised (but then, no Pope has the authority to forgive sins since only God can do that); some wanted to get away from family responsibilities; many were looking to get rich. Some, no doubt, were genuine Christians led astray by snake oil religious salesmen in clerical collars.

Whatever, Muslims have been peeved since the last crusader staggered back home to France after failing to find his dream—but a vivid nightmare. Muslims want their pound of flesh taken from the gut of Roman Catholicism. They want their flag hoisted over the Vatican.

Imam Mundhir Abdallah, of the Masjid Al-Faruq mosque in Copenhagen, told his followers, “the final solution to the problem of the Levant – after the establishment of the Caliphate and the elimination of the Jewish entity – will be through the conquest of Europe.”

Yunis Al Astal, a popular cleric for Hamas and a scholar on Islamic law, stated, “Very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was, as was prophesied by our prophet Muhammad. Today, Rome is the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital, which has declared its hostility to Islam, and has planted the brothers of apes and pigs [Jews] in Palestine, in order to prevent the reawakening of Islam – this capital of theirs will be an advanced post for the Islamic conquests, which will spread through Europe in its entirety, and then will turn to the two Americas, and even Eastern Europe.”

Contrary to what those soft-on-Islam politicians say, Islam has plans: first Rome, then the world. Only fools, fanatics, and facilitators want to unite with others.

Francis had better be careful lest he fails to converge with Islam and is actually conquered by them. If he is not prudent (and he has no record of prudence), he will be snookered by the wily Muslims.

Pope Francis is the most criticized, questioned, and hated pope in my lifetime. He has made some really dumb statements. And many Catholics will agree with me. Disenchantment, disagreement, and dismay with Francis is manifold, not simply relating to Islam. But uniting with Islam would be the most profound action in the 1500 years of the church’s existence.

When Francis went to Morocco, Vatican officials abandoned the traditional papal insignia and replaced it with the cross and the crescent—the longtime symbol of Islam. Furthermore, the crescent did not appear “alongside the cross, as if a companion to it. Rather, the Islamic symbol encircles the Christian one,” symbolizing a kind of submission to Islam.

Pope Francis has accurately been hailed the “defender of Islam,” As Robert Spencer rightly notes: The Vatican sent a special message to all the world’s Muslims, wishing them “a peaceful and fruitful celebration of Ramadan,” according to  Breitbart, May 10, 2019. The Vatican’s message, titled “Christians and Muslims: Promoting Universal Fraternity” said, this was a “month for strengthening the spiritual bonds we share in Muslim-Christian friendship.”

The Catholic message offered much more than a fig leaf suggestion but declared Muslims and Catholics were part of the same spiritual family! “We Muslims and Christians are called to open ourselves to others, knowing and recognizing them as brothers and sisters,” the text states. “In this way, we can tear down walls raised out of fear and ignorance and seek together to build bridges of friendship that are fundamental for the good of all humanity.”

That same declaration brought down heavy criticism on the pope, particularly due to the assertion that the plurality and diversity of religions “are willed by God in His wisdom,” just as God wills a plurality of colors, sexes, races, and languages. Francis is saying God approves of the weird religions in pagan nations! But then, if Francis can convince his cardinals that the Catholic Church is not the only way to Heaven as they have taught and demanded for hundreds of years, then a case can be made for uniting Catholics and Islam—Chrislam.

However, Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Astana, Kazakhstan  totally disagreed with the Pope, saying, “Christianity is the only God-willed religion,” he says. “Therefore, it can never be placed complementarily side by side with other religions.” He explained, “There is only one way to God, and this is Jesus Christ, for He Himself said: ‘I am the Way’ (John 14: 6). There is only one truth, and this is Jesus Christ, for He Himself said: ‘I am the Truth’ (John 14: 6). There is only one true supernatural life of the soul, and this is Jesus Christ, for He Himself said: ‘I am the Life’ (John 14: 6).”

That is one Catholic I agree with in the matter of Christ being our All in All. The church, while important, is not essential to personal salvation.

Make no mistake, this religious amalgamation is one of the most significant attempts in human history! Astute and informed Christians have always known the church would apostatize and plunge headlong into a world religious system that would characterize the end times. We are watching it unfold with the Pope’s effort to unite all religions.

Not only are Bible-believing Christians stunned at this but so are informed and committed Roman Catholics like Bishop Schneider above. They realize uniting all religions, especially those groups that reject Christ as God, is totally contrary to what Catholics have always believed.

It is not a punch line anymore to ask, “Is the Pope a Catholic?”

Francis said, “Turning to mutual respect in interreligious relations, especially between Christians and Muslims, we are called to respect the religion of the other, its teachings, its symbols, its values. Particular respect is due to religious leaders and to places of worship. How painful are attacks on one or other of these!” Such a statement would gag a maggot and nauseate a whole flock of buzzards. The Roman Church tortured and killed fifty million non-Catholics who disagreed with their unbiblical doctrine between 606 A.D. and the middle of the 19th century. It is interesting that some Catholics now declare that the Inquisition never happened!

The late Cardinal Georges Cottier declared, “The Inquisition per se did not exist.” Cottier must have been a member in good standing of the Flat Earth Society until his recent death. He knows better now.

Pope Francis told Christian high school students they should respect people of other faiths and not attempt to convert them to Christianity, insisting, “we are not living in the times of the crusades.” Asked by one of the students how a Christian should treat people of other faiths or no faith, the pope said, “we are all the same, all children of God,” and that true disciples of Jesus do not proselytize.

Well, the vast number of Church critics in the Middle Ages did not believe that message, nor did the Roman Catholic clerics who tortured, skinned, and killed my theological ancestors in the public squares.

In the year he was chosen to replace Benedict, Francis said that the “key for the church is to welcome, not exclude.” However, no sane, informed Catholic expected the Church to accept Muslims and their heretical doctrine as co-equal with Catholics.

Chrislam is constantly working, often behind the scenes, to unite two world religions: Catholicism and Islam. Even Baptist preacher Rick Warren said, “Pope Francis is doing everything right.” Well, Rick has himself made many overtures toward Muslim leaders. It appears that we are all expected to disregard the truth of the ages and sit around holding hands with unbelievers over hot chocolate and brownies while an international choir sings a little off-key, Kumbaya.

Kumbaya, asking “God” to “come by here” and right all wrongs, make every day bright, put everyone on the same level, and wipe away all tears. And the icing on the cake would be to remove everyone who thinks for himself and is committed to truth wherever it leads.

The World Church is being formed as I write but God is not going to “come by here” since it is a satanic, not a scriptural plan. Frankly, merging all the weird religions may sound utopian but the reality is it will be as awkward, strained, unreal, useless, and bizarre as a three-legged horse at the Kentucky Derby.

Then, it will be co-opted by the Man the unbelieving world has been waiting for and the long-awaited world church will be accepted by everyone—or else.

I won’t be here to see that.

(Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives who ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis and wrote columns for USA Today for 8 years. Boys authored 20 books, the most recent, Reflections of a Lifetime Fundamentalist: No Reserves, No Retreats, No Regrets! The eBook is available at Amazon.com for $4.99. Other titles at www.cstnews.com. Follow him on Facebook at Don  Boys, Ph.D., and visit his blog. Send a request to DBoysphd@aol.com for a free subscription to his articles and click here to support  his work with a donation.)