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On January 24, 1979, at the Vatican, the Pope met for two hours with the Soviet foreign
minister, Andrei Gromyko. Afterward, Gromyko referred to him as “a man with a worldview.”
John Paul said that the meeting was to talk about “the prospects for world peace.”
On Sunday, April 3, 1994, the Parade magazine featured a front page picture of Pope John,
with the quote: “We trust that, with the approach of the year 2000, Jerusalem will become the
city of peace for the entire world and that all the people will be able to meet there, in particular
the believers in the religions that find their birthright in the faith of Abraham.” Note the global
implication. The interview inside by Tad Szulc focused on the Vatican’s establishment of
diplomatic relations with Israel on December 30, 1993, which came during a time when Israel
was also trying to work out their own peace accord in the Middle East.
This agreement will allow the Vatican to have a seat at the negotiations on the final
determination of Jerusalem. The Vatican embassy will be in Tel Aviv, where most other
embassies are located, because Jerusalem is not recognized as Israel’s capital. In March, 1994,
the Vatican also established relations with the Moslem country of Jordan, on Israel’s eastern
border, and it indicated the beginnings of a move by the Vatican to become more involved in the
Middle East situation. Pope John said: “It must be understood that Jews, who for 2000 years
were dispersed among the nations of the world, had decided to return to the land of their
ancestors. That is their right.” Vatican hardliners have criticized the Pope’s growing role as the
“protector of Jews,” but maybe this is just a fulfillment of prophecy.
There does not appear to be any other figure on the world scene that could be considered as a
candidate for the False Prophet other than the Pope, with the Roman Catholic Church being the
World Church. However, do not misconstrue this as anti-Catholic rhetoric. The real history of
the Catholic Church is not known to a large majority of its membership, and therefore, even
though they have been deceived, it is wrong to indict those who have sincerely tried to live their
lives according to the basic Christian tenets as they know them. It is probable that the Catholic
Church, as well as the Protestant churches which make up the World Council of Churches, in the
coming years, will be radically different, as liberalism and New Age become more pervasive in
Religion– transforming these churches into shadows of their former selves.