What will be the One World Religion?
What is the one world religion? What will be the signs or traits of this one world religion when it is introduced to the world?
Revelation 17:1-18 speaks of “the great prostitute” or “the great harlot”. In various parts of the Bible the term “prostitute” or “harlot” is used a metaphor for a false religion or false gods.
The relationship between God and His people can be described as being like a marriage. In this marriage God is the Groom and His people are the Bride (Ephesians 5:25-32; Revelation 19:6-9; 2 Corinthians 11:2).
Therefore to abandon God and Biblical Christianity in order to follow false religions or false gods is likened by the Scriptures to having an adulterous affair with a harlot or prostitute.
The Great Harlot mentioned in Revelation 17:1-18 is the one world religion of the end times. It is also the ideology or religion of the Antichrist.
It is the religion that will temporarily and superficially unite the world’s population under the same spiritual beliefs and value systems.
Some have speculated the one world religion to be the New Age Movement, Transhumanism, or a culmination of the ecumenical movement. However the actual identity of the one world religion is currently unknown.
5 Signs of the One World Religion
Even though the exact identity of the one world religion is currently unknown, the Bible gives us clues to some of the signs that will reveal that the one world religion is among us.
1. Influential Leaders will Adopt & Embrace the One World Religion
Revelation 17:2 NLT says “The kings of the world have committed adultery with her (the great harlot)”.
In the world we have various religious and political leaders who promote religious ecumenism and interfaith ideologies. For example, some influential leaders have heretically claimed that all religions worship the same God and therefore all religions should combine and become one faith.
Therefore in the end times, all apostate Protestantism, apostate Roman Catholicism, and all world religions will unite and exist as one to create this Great Harlot or one world religion.
2. The One World Religion Will Promote Immorality as a Lifestyle
Revelation 17:2 NLT says: “and the people who belong to this world have been made drunk by the wine of her immorality.”
Rather than bringing people towards pure godliness and to follow pure moral principles, the one world religion will influence people into practicing all kinds of immorality and deeds that gratify the works of the flesh.
So the one world religion will totally oppose the Bible and promote an antichrist lifestyle. The one world religion will declare what is good and say it is evil; and declare that which is evil to be good.
Revelation 17:3-6 NLT says: So the angel took me in the Spirit into the wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that had seven heads and ten horns, and blasphemies against God were written all over it. 4 The woman wore purple and scarlet clothing and beautiful jewelry made of gold and precious gems and pearls. In her hand she held a gold goblet full of obscenities and the impurities of her immorality. 5 A mysterious name was written on her forehead: “Babylon the Great, Mother of All Prostitutes and Obscenities in the World.”
3. The One World Religion Will Persecute Christians
Revelation 17:6 NLT says: I could see that she was drunk—drunk with the blood of God’s holy people who were witnesses for Jesus. I stared at her in complete amazement.
Because the one world religion promotes the ideologies and philosophies of the Antichrist, the followers of this religion will not tolerate Christianity. Therefore the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the doctrines of the Bible will be rejected.
Christians will be persecuted and killed for preaching Christ and preaching against the values of the one world religion and the Antichrist.
4. The One World Religion Will Influence People from Every Nation
Revelation 17:15 NLT says: Then the angel said to me, “The waters where the prostitute is ruling represent masses of people of every nation and language.”
The one world religion will be enticing and seductive to the world. Its teachings will tickle people’s ears and lure the world into practicing its dangerous value systems.
The one world religion will influence and corrupt people from all languages and nations. It will cause the whole world to practice immorality and follow the demonic ideologies of the Antichrist.
5. The Antichrist will Destroy & Replace the One World Religion
Revelation 17:16-18 NLT says: The scarlet beast and his ten horns all hate the prostitute. They will strip her naked, eat her flesh, and burn her remains with fire. 17 For God has put a plan into their minds, a plan that will carry out his purposes. They will agree to give their authority to the scarlet beast, and so the words of God will be fulfilled. 18 And this woman you saw in your vision represents the great city that rules over the kings of the world.”
At a certain time during the tribulation, the Antichrist will desire all worship to be upon himself alone. Therefore even the Great Harlot or one world religion will be perceived as competing with the influence of the Antichrist. Therefore the Antichrist will strip the Great Harlot of all its power and influence so that the Antichrist can receive the world’s worship for himself. So the Antichrist will not share the adoration of the world with the leaders of the one world religion and instead the Antichrist will declare and establish himself as a god.
Conclusion
In the end times and specifically during the tribulation there will exist a New World Order and the mark of the beast.
The Bible also says that in the last days people will abandon the faith in order to follow false doctrines.
1 Timothy 4:1-2 says: Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared,
All false religious systems and false cultural ideologies are priming people for the coming of the Antichrist.
Furthermore all false religious systems are preparing people for the eventual arrival of the one world religion. In fact, the Bible says that the spirit of the antichrist is already in the world.
1 John 4:1-3 says: Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
Today we see a world that has indeed embraced the spirit of the antichrist. The world promotes moral and spiritual values that are completely contrary to Biblical Christianity.
The Bible consistently encourages us to seek the truth and obey God’s word. If we oppose God’s truth then we allow ourselves to be primed for the devil’s deceptions.|
The only way we can avoid being deceived by any false religious system is through a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ and by loving God’s truth which is found in the Bible.
