The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is financing a new organization designed to bring all the world’s religions together.
“The organization hopes to prevent conflict through interfaith dialogue,” writes Spencer Kimball for the German news site Deutsche Welle. The foreign ministers of Austria, Saudi Arabia and Spain have signed the founding treaty of a new international organization designed to “foster dialogue between the world’s major religions.”
“The thesis is valid that world peace cannot exist without peace between the world’s major religions,” Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said during the signing ceremony in Vienna.
The King Abdullah Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue, initiated and financed largely by Saudi money, is set to have its seat in Vienna. Plans envision an organization with a governing body composed of 12 representatives from the world’s five largest religions.
The governing body is set to be staffed by two Muslims (Sunni and Shi’ite), three Christians (Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox), a Buddhist, a Hindu and a Jew. The organization will also have a consulting body with 100 representatives from the five world religions plus other faiths as well as academics and members of civil society.
Saudi King Abdullah initiated the idea for the center after visiting Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican in 2007, the first Saudi monarch to do so. Shortly thereafter, King Abdullah stated that Christians and Muslims should offer a common message of peace to humanity.
The initiative is not new. In 2003, the Christian Broadcasting Network reported on a UN-sponsored summit of the world’s religions. “A one world government and a one world religion – it may just sound like fiction from the popular Left Behind novel series,” reported Wendy Griffith for CBN News. “But some Christians say this scenario may be closer than most people think.”
-from Maranatha Revival Crusade, Australia
The dream of mankind to live in peace one with another, prosper and enjoy security is as old as humanity. The problem is one word—sin. Since Cain killed his brother Abel and answered God in a rebellious tone, “Am I my brother’s keeper?,” the world has not ceased to fight wars; nation against nation, city against city, family against family, and brother against brother. Prophets throughout the Bible predict that God will destroy humanity with all its achievements. Yet He has provided one escape. Jesus says, “I am the door…no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” Keeping this fundamental fact in mind will protect us from getting involved in the religious-political game of self-help; that is establishing world peace outside Jesus Christ the Lord. He made this promise in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” With this statement, the Lord reveals that the world can and will create peace—but it is not real, it will not last, and worst of all, it will end in the greatest catastrophe the world has ever known.
(For more on religious unity, read Revelation 13: Satan’s Last Victory, Item 1067).
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