In the News – January 8th 2025

This past Christmas season, Pope Francis doubled down on his condemnation of Israel’s strikes in the Gaza Strip. His words were very condemning. In one of his public prayers, he said, “And with pain I think of Gaza, of so much cruelty, of the children being machine-gunned, of the bombings of schools and hospitals. What cruelty!” That is a very biased statement accusing Israel of machine-gunning children and destroying hospitals.

The Pope’s prayer brought the government of Israel to react. Amichai Chikli, the Israeli Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combatting Antisemitism, responded by saying, “Cruelty is terrorists hiding behind children while trying to murder Israeli children. Cruelty is holding 100 hostages for 442 days, including a baby and children, by terrorists and abusing them”.  He also added a pertinent remark saying, “The Vatican was silent during the Holocaust; now it spreads modern blood libels”.

Blood Libels were accusations made against the Jewish people saying that they used the blood of Christians in religious rituals, especially in the preparation of their Passover bread. This was a libel perpetrated throughout the Middle Ages by Catholics who claimed to be acting out of zeal for their faith. These accusations brought so much persecution and death to many Jews around the world.

But there is a prophetic aspect to Pope Francis’ prayer. Behind the Pope are 1.4 billion Christians (for the most part, nominal) who consider him the highest authority and whose words, many consider as almost divinely inspired. Should we then expect an increase in antisemitism provoked by the nominal church? The Pope’s statement will surely cause many to dislike the people of God and Israel even more.

But this may very well be according to the words and prophecies of the Apostle John in Revelation 17, who speaks of the rise of a world religion led by a system through a woman called Babylon. She is rich, antisemitic and has so much global influence. She will gather all religions of the world into one world system.

We have also seen in the past how this church denomination is so ecumenical as it attempts to join Christianity, Islam and Judaism under the same flag. There is nothing like ecumenism to dethrone Yeshua as being the only way and the only truth. This Pope’s growing dislike of Israel is one more sign of the times and may be the start of a new phase in the history of the church.

Click here for the Video: World Religion and Israel in Prophecy