One World Religion

What will the One World Religion be? It is possible it will simply be Worship of Mr X, where "Mr X" is the name that the False Messiah will use within this world. Most people feel like he will try to sneak his way into an existing belief system that won't challenge people to re-think what they believe too much. But there are several verses that point heavily to simply worship of the man who is ruling the world. After all, we're told

His "coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders" (2 Thess 2:9). There are no miracles happening in Islam or many other prominant religions.
"He will show no regard for the gods of his ancestors or for the one desired by women, nor will he regard any god, but will exalt himself above them all." (Dan 11:37) So no - he won't try to fit into the shadow of an existing religion.
"All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast." (Rev 13:8) He wants to be worshipped, not pretend to be the one they are already worshipping.

Those verses sound like he is not going to try and fit into an existing religion by saying, "I am the second coming of Yeshua" or "Allah sent me...I am the Machdi" or something like that. I suspect he'll simply proclaim himself to be the supreme creator in the flesh and "prove" it through miracles, and the lost will believe it. They will shed their old beliefs in Islam, Buddhism, etc, and simply worship him without any need for logical explanation. If you really think he'll fail unless he hides behind the mask of an established religion by operating in the shadows of Universalism, New Ageism, or Islam, you've probably greatly underestimated the darkness.

But it is probably safe to say that the top candidates for a religion that would unite the world would be either Universalism or New Ageism. Universalism believes all religions have some level of truth, some level of error, and all paths are honored by G-d. Obviously, this is very much in opposition to the Gospel where we understand that Salvations comes ONLY through the Son. But there's a logic to it that the lost often have an easy time buying into. Universalism tries to find the commonality of belief behind all major religions with the idea that whatever is common to all or most of them is probably the part that is true.

The New Age Movement is spiritual, not as much logical, and the participants don't necessarily have to swallow the same doctrine. They are seeking an experience in the spiritual world and will believe whatever the demons they encounter tell them.

The New Age movement is for people who are spiritual, but not in the right way. It is not for logical people who want to ignore the spiritual dimension, and when those kind of people encounter New Ageism, they sometimes get saved and find the truth rather than swallowing the error because they can't handle the negative spiritualism.

Islam asks people to give up what they believed in the past and accept a new set of beliefs. Many people are violently opposed to the Islamic view of God and would never accept it. There's no logic to accepting it. There have never been any miracles associated with Islam. I find it hard to believe the world could unite under this banner myself. Most converts have come by the sword.

It might well be possible for the False Messiah to begin by lulling the lost into either Universalism (for the logical folks) or New Ageism (for the more emotional or spiritual folks) and then setting himself apart within those movements as the supreme being thereafter. But after studying the Islamic expectancies of the end times, I think it might be difficult if not impossible for him to fit into their expectations of any sorts. I will explain why in a separate post.

Many Christians understand that Islam is expecting a future "Machdi", and expect Muslims to mistake the False Messiah for the Machdi. But Islamic beliefs about the end times are such that it will be difficult to impossible for Muslims to mistake the False Messiah for the Machdi. In fact, I think the legends about end-times for Muslims were designed with 2 purposes in mind;

Given these 2 big picture goals behind the errors of Islam, I will explain why in PART 2.