Sermonette: World Religions

#099s
Martin G. Collins
Given 30-Oct-93; 16 minutes

As you know, God continually corrected Israel for their spiritual adultery with other nations. Quite often it was an influence from within the country itself, quite often from outside the country.

Satan continues to erode this country in a similar manner like he did with Israel over the centuries, and over the millennia. He has always brought in outside influences whenever possible to try to sway Americans, or in a broader sense, the nation of Israel, away from His way.

On August 28th of this year, the second ever Parliament of the World's Religions met in Chicago. The reason was to, “Promote and encourage religious tolerance and interfaith cooperation.” There were 6,000 representatives from all of the world's religions that attended this gathering: Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Baha'i, Buddhist, Confucian, Hindu, Jain (which I had not heard of before), Jewish, Muslim (or Islam), Native American (our American Indians were there), Shinto, Sikh, Taoist, Unitarian, and Zoroastrian [a Persian religion].

During that conference or parliament, they signed something called the Global Ethic, where all those religions agreed on certain codes of ethics that they would follow throughout the world in their agreement in religious tolerance. Now to a world drowning in religious confusion and violence, this seems like a noble idea. It seems like an idea that would only improve the world's efforts at getting along with each other.

But if you will turn with me to Judges 2, we will see what God has to say about such agreements.

Judges 2:1-4 Then the Angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said: "I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers; and I said, 'I will never break My covenant with you. And you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.' But you have not obeyed My voice. Why have you done this? Therefore I also said, 'I will not drive them out before you; but they shall be thorns in your side, and their gods shall be a snare to you.'" So it was, when the Angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the children of Israel that the people lifted up their voices and wept.

And as is very common to the nation of Israel, the weeping was only for a short time. They realized that there was something wrong. It is interesting to notice that Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants. Israel was strong, but it did not completely drive out the inhabitants. Ephraim did not. Zebulon, Asher, and so on through the 12 tribes, no one drove out the inhabitants—those foreign religions from the land.

The principle here is that whenever you have a foreign religion in your land like the nation of Israel did, by the example that we see in the Bible, they always entice and pull away the people from God—God's people—from Him. What God is telling us here is that there is no way that we can resist such enticement.

Now if you look (I want to skim down through chapter 2 of Judges here), you will notice in verse 11 that they begin to become unfaithful again for similar reasons.

Judges 2:11-12 Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD [very soon after they wept], and served the Baals; and they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger.

And looking down into verse 14, we see what happens when the nation of Israel is pulled away from worshipping God and begins to become enticed and work agreements with other religions. In verse 14,

Judges 2:14 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel. So He delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.

So we see one of the punishments that God brings upon a nation enticed by other religions is not only slavery, which is primary, but death as well. We see the same thing happening, that our nation is constantly being enticed by other nations.

And then in verse 22, we see the reason why God does not intervene in this type of thing.

Judges 2:22 “So that through them I may test Israel, whether they will keep the ways of the LORD, to walk in them as their fathers kept them, or not."

So there you see why God does not intervene when the nation of Israel, or today our nation begins to be enticed by foreign religions.

Now this year's gathering of that Parliament of the World’s Religions comes 100 years after the first event, which was in 1893. In that event there were 400 participants and 4,000 visitors. So in 1893 it was quite an event.

According to Daniel Gomez Ibanez, executive director of this year's Council on Planning, he said this (and this is an interesting quote):

It has come to be remembered as a [this is speaking of the 1893 event, the first and only parliament of the world's religions] it has come to be remembered as a landmark event in the history of interfaith understanding because it provided a venue for eastern religions, including Buddhism and Hinduism, to establish a presence in the United States.

It was way back in 1893 that this nation began to allow the influence of these Eastern religions. Look what has happened since. This nation has done nothing but water down its religious beliefs.

If you will turn with me to Isaiah 2, I think you will find this verse very interesting because Isaiah prophesized that this was going to happen long, long ago to ancient Israel. It is a prophecy for us today speaking of the latter days of the nation of Israel. In verse 6,

Isaiah 2:6 For You have forsaken Your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with eastern ways; they are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they are pleased with the children of foreigners.

Notice, if you have a center reference margin, my New King James Version says, “or shake hands to make bargains with the children” of these eastern ways.

Now Gomez Ibanez continues in this way. Remember, he is one of the organizers of this year's Parliament on the World's Religions.

Organizers of this year's event hope to rekindle the spirit of the first meeting to promote religious tolerance. But they hope the second parliament will have more of an impact.

He is saying that as the first parliament in 1893 opened up the doors in this nation to allow the eastern religions to come in and influence us, so he hopes that it will have even a greater influence now in allowing other religions to take a hold in this nation.

The impact of the 1893 parliament was just devastating in the United States. And it is interesting because if you ask yourself, “What will the impact be on this nation if one hundred years ago had such an impact?” Let me give you an indication of what may happen.

The U.S. government has permitted so many Muslim immigrants into the United States that the Muslim religion, or Islam, is becoming the second largest U.S. religion after Christianity. If the immigration rate continues along with the high Muslim birth rate, it is estimated that Christianity may become a minority religion in the United States within 20 years. That is how devastating this 1893 agreement has been. And then with this present 1993 parliament, the impact is going to be even greater and in a much faster mode.

On the way to Mrs. Armitage's house, when we go up there for services in the Church of the Great God, there is one of the largest buildings that you will see as far as worshipping any religion goes. As you see it, there are pillars sticking up with the nicely designed gold trim on the roof. It is just a massive fenced in area. It has a huge group of people that worship there. And on the front is Islamic writing. And this is in a suburb of Washington D.C. that is upper middle class, if not wealthy. The influence there is not only among the lower classes of this nation, but as well in the upper classes—those ruling this nation.

Now, on another note, we have heard a lot about the New Age movement in this country. Sometimes it is disguised as environmentalism. I am sure you have seen that. Globalism is another thing that the New Age has hidden behind, and this one is interesting to me. Self-gained human potential has gotten ahold now, and I have seen it quite often in newspapers and magazines. It is interesting that it is an obvious perversion of what Mr. Armstrong had brought out as “The Human Potential” booklet, pointing out what our potential is with the help of God.

The New Age movement shows what human potential is through their own means, and many times that is through demonism.

And then of course, business stress management has evolved. The reason why I mention this is that the New Age movement had a huge influence on the Parliament of the World's Religions this year. That mood was set at the opening meeting with a silent meditation by a man named Shri Chinmoy, a New Age artist and spiritual leader from New York. He opened it with a silent meditation where everybody bowed their heads (I do not know if they hummed, as you have heard maybe times before), and just gone into that trance, because that is what you see quite often with the New Agers where in their meditation they are not just meditating, they are clearing their minds totally and having that hum.

The Orthodox Christian Host Committee (another light within the parliament) withdrew from the parliament to protest the presence of neo-pagan groups, including witches. All the other groups accepted the witches there. That is another influence that is getting credibility in this nation, as well as an acceptable religion.

And then the Dalai Lama is another individual that had great influence on the world's religions. The reason I am giving you some of these individual statements on these people is because it gives you a feeling for what happened at the world's parliament on religions.

The Dalai Lama gave a closing keynote address, saying that the world's religions should advocate birth control as a means of sustaining life on the planet. I would like to give you this quote directly because this is really going to have a big impact, I believe, on the world in general.

The Dalai Lama said, “If you look at each individual human life as precious, it is better to control that precious life, instead of having too much precious life.”

Now think about the mentality that this is coming from. This sounds dangerously close to government-imposed abortion like they have in China, where they pick and choose who is going to live and who is going to die as a fetus. So the Dalai Lama is promoting controlled abortion and controlling who lives and dies, saying that you cannot have all this precious life, you can only have some. What a horrible thing for the world's religions to embrace!

Please turn with me to Deuteronomy 12, and we will begin wrapping this up. This parliament is a significant step in Satan's plan to bring about a new world government influenced by his religious order. You will notice here, if you have a caption of that section, that it says beware of false gods. Beginning in verse 29:

Deuteronomy 12:29 "When the LORD your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, . . .

Keep in mind we did that with the Indians in this nation. We did not displace them; we only displaced them slightly; we did not remove them from this nation. The Native Americans were represented at this Parliament of the World’s Religions. But this nation did not displace them, did not remove them. You see the influence that we are having already with the Native Americans in addition to all of the other religions that are having an impact.

Deuteronomy 12:30-31 . . . take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.' You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.”

Abortion certainly falls under the sacrifice of his children to their gods, and we see that in this nation by the millions. And then in verse 32:

Deuteronomy 12:32 "Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.”

This nation, the United States, has been asking for trouble ever since 1893 when these eastern nations were allowed into this nation on an acceptable situation. We see it snowballing downhill. It is picking up momentum more and more every month; not even every year anymore, it is every month.

We know that God is very clear about dealing with these other religions: We are to avoid them, get away from them, and get them out of our lands. And God commands, “Do not inquire after their gods. Do not make agreements with them. Do not do what they do. And if you do, they will be thorns in your side, and you will be entrapped and ensnared by their gods.”

And as we know, eventually this nation will go into captivity for this very reason: forsaking God and turning to these eastern religions and other religions. So we are at the very end time. We are seeing it accelerate at a rapid rate. This world Parliament of the World's Religions is just a catalyst to get this moving even faster.

MGC/rwu/drm