What will be the end times one world religion?

Let me illustrate: Someone asks concerning the so-called "Church Federation scheme." Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if all the churches united? If we simply had one great organization, wouldn't it be grand? All could agree to accept a common creed so worded that everyone could subscribe to it, and so the shame of Christendom's divisions be at an end. Now, why not go in for something like that? Would not this be the fulfillment of the prayer of our Lord, "that they all may be one?" Well, I might be caught by such a proposal, but I turn to the Book of Revelation and I learn that just such a religious federation is going to arise after the church of God has been caught away to be with the Lord Jesus Christ; and it is designated in the 17th chapter as "Babylon the Great." This will be the big world-church. The present movement is just a preparation for this, and when I have the light from heaven shining upon it in the Book of the Revelation, I say, that if that is the way it is going to end, the thing to do is to have no part in it now. Separation from evil -- not fusion of diverse systems -- is the divine order: and so we see that the prophetic book throws the light of the future upon events and movements that are in progress at present, in order that we may take warning and be preserved from that which is contrary to the mind of God.

Whither are things drifting? What will be the outcome of the present condition of affairs? We believe Rev. 17 supplies the answer. A gorgeously appareled woman is seen riding upon a scarlet-coloured beast, which, from the description given, is manifestly the revived Roman Empire. The woman's name is emblazoned on her forehead: "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of the harlots, and the abominations of the earth." Protestant expositors teach with all readiness that this evil woman is the Church of Rome, and some Papist expositors admit it. But this is not the whole truth. If Babylon is Rome, where are all the other so-called churches represented? It is beyond controversy that the Apocalyptic vision shows us one woman only. The reason, we believe, is this: that ere the vision is fulfilled "the re-union of Christendom" so often discussed now, will become an accomplished fact. Painful and repugnant as the thought may be to godly men, every professedly Christian body will coalesce before the end comes. A way will be found whereby the Roman, Greek, Anglican, and other Churches can unite and submerge all differences. Union, at whatever expense as regards truth, is the cherished ideal to-day. The Scotch Presbyterian amalgamation of a few years ago, the more recent Methodist amalgamation, and the federation of the Free Churches, are all steps in the direction indicated. Instead of many Churches, one vast and pretentious, but unutterably corrupt, system will be seen at the end. "The Church of the future!" Familiar words in present-day literature, but suggesting painful thoughts to those who seek to view matters in the light of the word of God.

Politically, the Antichrist will be of but little importance, being only the ruler of a small buffer-state; but religiously his influence will be very far-reaching. In his day the profession of Christianity will be nonexistent. "The salt of the earth" being removed at the Saviour's descent into the air according to 1 Thess. 4:16-17, the mass of merely nominal Christians will speedily renounce even their empty profession. In a word, the predicted apostasy will set in (2 Thess. 2:3). The present tampering with divine truth in almost every religious circle is preparing the way for this catastrophe. Our grandfathers, could they rejoin us for a season, would be shocked beyond measure to hear pulpit orators flouting the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures, the virgin-birth of Christ, His miracles, His atoning death and resurrection, and the doctrines of the immortality of the soul, and of eternal punishment. Yet this is done today in every quarter of Christendom. As a direct result of the apostasy, the Antichrist will advance his pretensions. There will be three objects of worship in his day: the Roman Emperor, the Antichrist, and the Dragon (Rev. 13:4; 2 Thess. 2:4). These are men's substitutes for the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, all then utterly discarded. The dream of universal conversion before the opening of the Millennial era, though piously held by many true Christians, finds no support in Scripture. On the contrary, it is distinctly asserted that before the glory of the Lord arises "darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the peoples" (Isa. 60:2). Instead of the Church converting the world, the world will convert the Church. The latter is happening even now before our eyes. From Jerusalem as a centre the new religion, strongly backed by miracles, will spread itself over all Christendom. The thoughtless multitudes in this and other lands, who know all the great facts of the Gospel, yet care nothing for theory will shortly become frantic in their acclamation of the new system. "Who is like to the Beast?" will be their jubilant cry (Rev. 13:4). The Eden promise, "You shall be as God." is at last fulfilled; Man is deified, and the Creator is bowed out of the world.

We are now undoubtedly living in a day when coming events cast their shadows before! The scenes are setting for the great religious apostasy — the "falling away," prophesied in 2 Thess. 2. Ecumenicity, universal religion, will reach its climax in the Babylonish system. Even in our day, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the move towards world-wide church union leads to subservience to Rome. The motto still stands, "semper idem" — always the same. The world-church will gain territorial power. What an unholy alliance shall that be between the counterfeit church and the devil-empowered revived Roman Empire under its bestial head! (Please read Revelation 12:9; Rev. 13:4; and Rev. 17:8). If the revival of the beast is predicted so also is his doom, for twice over we read he shall go into destruction, verses 8 and 11. The earth wonders at the revival of the beast, but it is the wonder of the deceived! They are unknown of God, their names are not written in the book of life. The end of verse 8 says they wonder "when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is."

Abdul Abbas, the head of this branch of Mohammedanism, who calls himself the Glory of God, and who is worshipped as a Saviour by more than a million followers, recently visited America. He was welcomed to the pulpits of Episcopal, Baptist and other “churches,” where he spoke in Persian, turning his face to the East as a sun-worshipper. Since then his cult has been growing in the States, numbering among its adherents many rich and cultured people. A movement is on foot to build an enormous temple on the shores of Lake Michigan, where “the people of all faiths and religions may unite in worship”—“a great modern institutional temple for universal worship.” From various points there are signs that an apostate Christendom, an apostate Judaism and heathen religions will unite in one worship, which will substitute man for God as the object of adoration, and man to be his own saviour, degrading Christ to the level of a great, but fallible, world teacher, denying His redemptive work on the cross. What matters it what praise they give Him if they deny His deity, true humanity and atoning work. Such praise is but the kiss of Judas over again.

Another has well written: "The giving up of 'the blessed hope' (the pre-tribulation rapture of the Church) is helping to prepare the way for the ecumenicalist's dream of one world and one church - in other words, " Babylon the Great"(PW). Such is the development of the Laodicea of our present day which will end up in Babylon the Great of Revelation 17.

For some time there have been strenuous efforts to unite the different religious systems of Christendom, and although there has as yet been little success to record, the day is quickly drawing near when they shall merge into a vast system which Scripture calls "Great Babylon," a system whose character and judgment are clearly revealed in the Book of Revelation.

But there is a third mystic woman, who is introduced to our attention in Rev. 17, and who is described as "the great whore who sits upon many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication," and with the wine of whose fornication the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk. The apostle sees her as "a woman sitting upon a scarlet-coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns." This woman is "arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornications." "And upon her forehead," says the apostle, "was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus; and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration." Such is the last view Scripture affords us of corrupt Christianity — papal, no doubt, as to that which mainly fills the scene, but not exclusive of anything under other names, which shares the papal spirit and character. This woman is not a harlot merely, but the mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth! Jezebel may symbolize her as a corruptress and, mother of children within: but to set forth her seduction of the nations, and the pomp and magnificence of her rule, she is shown to us as here, seated on the beast, arrayed in gorgeous apparel, with her golden wine cup in her hand, with which she makes the earth's kings and inhabitants drunk. And she is in the height of her glory, when the vengeful stroke descends. "How much she has glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she says in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall he utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judges her."

We will follow to its close the mystery of iniquity. We turn to Revelation 17 and find the fourth Beast, or Latin empire, in his revived state, ridden upon by a false woman, "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth." Imperially and gloriously arrayed, and her cup full of idolatry and fornication, drunken with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus, and the blood of saints. The prophet wonders at the end of what was once so precious, so beautiful — the work of grace at Pentecost! She overrides the peoples, nations, and tongues, and their kings, who have been intoxicated with the wine of her fornication; until at last, tired with her oppression, the ten horns and the Beast, "these shall hate the whore and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire." She waits not for the appearing of Christ for judgment, but suffers it at the hands of those over whom she exercised her pernicious influence so long. Revelation 18 gives her judgment, and the lamentation of the kings of the earth, and those who had profited by her traffic and rewards, for her overthrow. Such is the end of corrupt Christianity in Rome, and wherever it is found; for she is the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.

Witness, too, the movement towards the amalgamation of great religious bodies, all paving the way for the great apostasy and the appearance of Babylon, the mother of harlots, on the scene.