"Mary" a Point of Unity between Christians and Muslims

 A report published this summer by the Australian Broadcasting Network was entitled "Why millions of Muslims are seeing apparitions of the Mother Mary" (July 17, 2013). According to the report, "Mary has been one of the strongest symbols across the Middle East for unity, across religions, tribes and nations." Millions of Muslims have allegedly seen Marian "apparitions" in Egypt and Syria. In 1968 and 2009, nearly two million people claimed to have seen Mary's image above a church in Cairo. Since 1982, "Mary" has allegedly appeared in a house in Damascus. Called Our Lady of Soufanieh, the place remains a place of ecumenical prayer for Christians and Muslims. It is possible that this deluding spirit will be one of the means of uniting Muslims and nominal Christians to receive the antichrist and his prophet. The Mary apparitions always preach a false gospel of Christ plus works and therefore are of the devil. "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light" (2 Cor. 11:13-14).

Photo: An Egyptian Muslim woman holds a cross with a Koran as she joins Coptic Christians at the Virgin Mary church in the Imbaba district of Cairo. (KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty)
(Friday Church News Notes, September 13, 2013, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

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