The Abrahamic Family House: True Inter-Religious Fraternity or the Beginning of a Revelation 13 and 17 Scenario?

The Abrahamic Family House

The Bible cautions us that in the end times there will be many false prophets, teachers, and doctrines that will seek to denigrate the truth of the Word of God, undermine the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and deceive the true believers in Christ. Today, this truth is manifesting itself as The Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE)—which is scheduled to open next summer. This institution will be an interfaith complex that will house a synagogue, mosque, and church.

This effort-spearheaded by Pope Francis and Abdullah bin Zayed, the UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation — is leading to confusion within Christianity and the corruption of the Word of God. The single mission of the Bride of Christ is to proclaim the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost who are without eternal salvation. Because of this and other interfaith dialogue initiatives, some, in the name of Christianity, are placing finding earthly peace and co-existence with Muslims as a higher virtue than the Great Commission (Matthew 28: 18-20). ¹

Could the construction of the Abrahamic Family House be another element, alongside the Parliament of the World’s Religions, in setting the stage for the one world religion as described in Revelation 13 and 17? Peter warns us in his second letter that false prophets will come upon us and teach false doctrines that deny the Biblical Christ.

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. (2 Peter 2:1-3 NASB)

Islam is an example of false doctrine-as it teaches that Jesus is not God-and a false prophet as seen in Mohammed. So why is Pope Francis having fellowship with Muslims in this way?

Paul instructs us in his second letter to the Corinthians:

. . . not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God. (2 Cor 6:14-16 NASB)

This is not to say that as individual Christians we can’t have friends who are Muslims-for The Great Commission tells us to make disciples of all nations-but as the corporate body of Christ, we are not to engage in corporate fellowship and affirmation with unbelievers. By teaching that Islam is an Abrahamic faith, Pope Francis is leading many, especially those new in their faith, down a path of misunderstanding and syncretism. By not focusing on Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone) Pope Francis could legitimize the very foundation of religious Babylon (Rev 17).

Background

On 4 February 2019 Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb — Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque and University in Cairo Egypt and considered Sunni Islam’s highest authority in jurisprudence² — signed a document entitled the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together, also known as the Abu Dhabi declaration. Reportedly, it is to be a common declaration of commitment to unite humanity and work for world peace to ensure that future generations can live in a climate of mutual respect and healthy coexistence.³

This document is the foundation of the subsequently established Higher Committee of Human Fraternity (HCHF). In 2019 at a meeting of the HCHF at the New York Public Library in New York City a project was announced by Abdullah bin Zayed calling for the construction of The Abrahamic Family House on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi, UAE.⁴

The Abrahamic Family House will be an interfaith complex that will include a synagogue, mosque, and a church — Imam Al-Tayeb Mosque, St. Francis Church, and Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue, respectively. According to a June 2021 report in the UAE newspaper The National, the complex is a fifth of the way complete and “recounts the history and builds bridges between human civilisations [sic] and heavenly messages” and is to be a physical manifestation of the Document on Human Fraternity.⁵

Is The Abrahamic Family House Setting the Stage for the Prophesied One World Religion of Revelation 13 and 17?

Revelation 17:1—18 references “the great harlot”-a term used throughout the Old Testament as a metaphor for false religion — and gives us several characteristics of the one-world religion. This false religion will rule over all the “peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues” of the earth (vs 15), signifying that it will have universal power, provided by the Antichrist, who at that time will rule the world.⁶

In Revelation 13 we learn of two personalities-called beasts by John-who will be dominate in the end times. The first beast (vs 1-10) is the Antichrist himself and the second beast (vs 11-18) is a false prophet who will be subordinate to the Antichrist. This false prophet will cause humans to worship the Antichrist and will reflect the image of the Antichrist.⁷

Many prophecy experts argue that Daniel 2 and 7 connect the governments represented by the ten crowns on the Antichrist’s head as described in Revelation 13:1 with a revived Roman Empire. The ancient Roman Empire was pagan and continued to be heavily influenced by paganism despite Emperor Constantine’s legalization of and possible conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.⁸

A Personality Cult of Tyranny

Unfortunately, much of church history after Constantine’s conversion can be described as a personality cult that fused Christianity with pagan methods of war and imperialism. The head of this personality cult was, unfortunately, the pope himself. There are many examples of popes-such as the infamous Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503)-who abused their power with the hopes of God blessing them for fighting in the name of Christ.

Performing human sacrifice and killing the infidel to appease the gods is a pagan practice and was shown to not be part of Yahweh’s personality in Genesis 22. Yahweh saved Isaac from being sacrificed to Him by his obedient father Abraham and instead replaced Isaac with a lamb of God — a foreshadowing of the future life of Christ.

The idea that you can gain material wealth, land, and power by fighting in the name of Christ is closer to the heresies spued out by the dominionists of the New Apostolic Reformation than anything resembling the teachings of Christ. The papal bulls administered by popes such as Alexander VI (a.k.a. Rodrigo de Borja) were focused on self-glorification and colonial ideals, not the glorification of Christ.

A New Personality Cult of Tyranny

This personality cult of tyranny within the church is exactly what might happen in the end times. Revelation 13:11 describes the false prophet as a two-horned beast that comes from out of the earth, thus suggesting that this false prophet is the head of a country as well as the head of the religion.⁹ Interestingly, Vatican City — just outside of Rome — was granted autonomy as an independent nation-state by Benito Mussolini in 1929 as part of a deal he made with the Catholic Church to relinquish control over the Papal States.¹⁰

However, this false religion will probably not involve just Catholicism but also Progressive Protestantism, eastern religions, and the occult. The false prophet of Revelation 13 could be a pseudo-Christian leader that embraces Franciscan Friar, Richard Rohr’s perennial view that religions have the truth about God.

According to Revelation 17:15, this leader will bring all the religions of the world — even the pagan polytheists — under the umbrella of a single religion with the Antichrist as its object of worship. Who this false prophet will be is unclear, but we do know that The Abrahamic Family House is the outgrowth of progressive theology. Progressive theology is misleading the Church today and is in alignment with other progressive movements.

It is possible that as the ecumenical movement of the Catholic and Emerging Church continues to grow that it will persist in elevating pagan religions to the same level it is doing with Islam. Perhaps someday the facility on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi will include pagan, Buddhist, and Hindu temples.

It is possible the Antichrist and the false prophet of Revelation 13 will eventually move this global religion-and its associated economy and government-from Abu Dhabi to the ancient site of Babylon in Iraq, which was declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2019.¹¹

The futurist interpretation of Revelation 17-18 sees Babylon the Great as an evil world system, based at the literal historic site of Babylon that is fifty-three miles southwest of Baghdad and will be under the control of the Antichrist during the last days before Jesus’ final return. This hermeneutic also leads one to believe that Jeremiah 50 and 51, and Isaiah 13 also point to a literal revival of the city of Babylon.¹²

The Road to Religious Babylon

Pope Francis’ focus on ecumenism rather than on The Great Commission continues to destroy sound doctrine and creates the very confusion that will probably lead to the great apostasy foretold by Paul in 2 Thessalonian 2:3. The establishment of The Abrahamic Family House is simply the first major step in Satan’s goal of establishing a new religious Babylon (Rev 17).

Today, Christian leaders are making a critical mistake by inviting Islamic teachers into churches and thus allowing them a platform to teach Islam to the Body of Christ. In direct conflict with 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 these leaders often refer to their Muslim counterparts in “interfaith dialogue” as peers and mentors. ¹³

These leaders even go so far as to encourage their congregations to celebrate Muslim feasts and holidays that clearly deny or contradict the Bible, such as Ramadan.¹⁴ And unfortunately The Abrahamic Family House project is only validating these unbiblical practices. What’s next?

According to Crisis Magazine-a Catholic discernment magazine-Pope Francis’ ecumenical efforts today are only a byproduct of Pope John Paul II’s 1986 World Day of Prayer for Peace, which was held in the birthplace of St. Francis. According to the magazine. . .

The 1986 World Day of Prayer for Peace broke with 4,000 years of Judeo-Christian tradition. From the first days of the Jewish people, through the time of the Apostles and up to the 20th century, Jews and then Catholics considered mixing with other religions the ultimate sin. Israel struggled for centuries against paganistic practices that seeped into their faith; St. Paul warned against intermingling with unbelievers (cf. 2 Cor. 6:14-16); great Catholic missionaries like St. Boniface destroyed pagan idols in their efforts to bring people to the true Faith.

The prayers of nonbelievers were fruitless, since they were not directed to the true God. As the Psalmist wrote, “For all the gods of the peoples are idols” (Ps 96:5).

. . . a group of Buddhists, led by the Dalai Lama, placed a small statue of the Buddha atop the tabernacle in the Church of San Pietro, set prayer scrolls and incense burners around it, and performed Buddhist religious rites.

. . . It’s also easy to see a connection between Assisi and the 2019 Pachamama incident. If Buddhist idolatry can be practiced in a Catholic church without papal rebuke (and with implicit papal permission), then why not openly bring a South American idol for veneration to the Vatican? In both cases, these acts of idolatry were met with papal silence.¹⁵

Pachamama is the Andean earth-mother figure (aka Gaia) worshiped by the Peruvians.¹⁶ In pagan mythology the woman (i.e. the goddess) is often viewed as the savioress rather than the bride — the exact opposite of what scripture teaches.¹⁷ Today it is the Divine Feminine (i.e. the goddess) that is considered the unifying force that will create universal peace on earth. This is also one of the central themes of the Parliament of the World’s Religions.

In cultures and religions around the world this Divine Feminine is known as Fatima (Islam), Artemis, Lilith, Minerva, Isis, Kwan-yin, Demeter, Luna, Hectate, Aphrodite, Aurora, Shing Moo, White Buffalo Calf Woman, Shakti, Hera, Innanna, Kali, Juno, Sophia, Ceres, Persephone, and the Holy Mother. ¹⁸ Could the confusion of Assisi and the Pachamama incident lead people to think Christians also worship pagan gods?

Conclusion

As the Apostle Paul asked… “what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God.” (2 Cor 6:16 NASB). This re-enchantment with the belief in the goddess/savioress could very well be the uniting force that brings together “the great harlot”-religious Babylon-of Revelation 17. How many will follow the pope’s road to ecumenism and paganism and how many will follow scripture alone?

John makes it perfectly clear in his second epistle that we as Christians should not accept or take part in Pope Francis’ ecumenical endeavors such as The Abrahamic Family House for, he is only leading his followers to the antichrist.

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. 2 John 7 — 11 NASBÎ©

Stephanie Potts and her husband Jim live in Dayton, Ohio, and have been married for 20 years. She worked with the federal government for 15 years as an intelligence analyst and then entered full-time Christian service in 2015. She first joined Haven Ministries in Denver, Colorado in 2015 and then transferred to Midwest Christian Outreach, Inc in 2021. She received her Bachelor’s degree from Florida State University in Political Science and International Relations and received her Master’s degree in Geographic Information Systems from Penn State University. She is currently working towards her master’s degree in Christian Apologetics through Southern Evangelical Seminary. She specializes in evangelizing to people involved in the New Age, to Muslims, and to Native Americans. Stephanie’s personal website: rainbowapologetics.com

The Abrahamic Family House: True Inter-Religious Fraternity or the Beginning of a Revelation 13 and 17 Scenario?

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