Pope Benedict expressed his esteem and profound respect for members of the Islamic faith in a meeting recently with diplomatic envoys from some 20 Muslim countries and he added that Christians and Muslims must reject violence.
The Pope's statement was the fourth statement to try and make amends to Muslims without actually apologizing directly for a speech at a university in his native country Germany last September where he expressed his belief that religion goes together with reason, not with violence.
Jimmy's Prophetic Prospective on the News
The confrontation between the Muslim world and the religious leader of Rome is a scenario that has great significance in light of Bible prophecy.
When the Pope, in a speech last September, referred to Mohammed - the founder of Islam and its main prophet - as a man of violence, it incited outbreaks of violence among Muslims across the world. Even though this Muslim outcry has diminished somewhat, Pope Benedict is still making statements to try and relieve the tensions between himself and the Islamic world.
This scenario being played out today is very similar to a scenario for a future day as found in Bible prophecy. Revelation 17 is the prophecy of a one world church, howbeit a false church, that will be headquartered in Rome during the first half of the 7 year Tribulation Period of the future. There will be a religious leader of this false church in Rome that will be the Antichrist. According to another prophet, Ezekiel, the Islamic world will be in power at the beginning of this 7 years, according to Ezekiel 38:1-6, but it will be almost completely eliminated soon after they attack Israel, Ezekiel 39:1-6. The removal of the Islamic world will set the way clear for the future false church to appear which the Islamic world would never embrace because of their religious beliefs.
The tension between Pope Benedict and Islam is indeed setting the stage for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.
