On Monday, June 26 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a document that threatens to have far reaching implications for the way in which Christians currently practice their faith will be signed during the Global Signing Ceremony of the United Religions Initiative (URI).

This historic document, to be signed by religious leaders representing a number of the world's faiths and representatives of the URI's Cooperation Circles from around the globe, will lay the foundation for the establishment of a United Religions, a global organisation that will meet on a daily basis for prayer, meditation and cooperative action, to promote peace among religions and nations and to be a force for healing of the Earth and its inhabitants.

The ultimate aim of the United Religions is to become "an inclusive, decentralised organisation, a spiritual partner of the United Nations with global visibility and stature and a vital presence in local communities all over the world.

The brainchild of Bishop William E. Swing of the Episcopal Diocese of California, the URI was conceived in 1993 after he was asked by the United Nations to organise an interfaith service at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the signing of the UN charter.

Bishop Swing unveiled his vision for a United Religions at that time and it was received enthusiastically by the diplomats in attendance.

Driven by this vision, Bishop Swing has been travelling the globe over the past five years, under the auspices of the URI, holding summit meetings, conferences and private consultations with religious leaders, interfaith groups and influential power brokers. By the end of this year, Bishop Swing expects 60 million of the Earth's inhabitants to have signed the URI charter.

"We want to, in the year 2000, have it signed by 60 million people of the world,'' he told Christian radio talk show host, Ern Baxter during an exclusive interview back in 1998. "In the year 2001, we hope that the United Religions will commence.'' The URI's charter states that its purpose is "to promote enduring, daily interfaith cooperation, to end religiously motivated violence and create cultures of peace, justice and healing for the Earth and all living beings.'' While the desire to eliminate bloodshed and violence in a world too often plagued by religious strife and conflict is a noble aspiration, a number of URI observers have been alerting Christians to the organisation's anti-Christian and globalist agenda.

Tal Brooke, a one-time disciple of India's miracle working guru, Sai Baba, now President of Spiritual Counterfeits Project, a California based research organisation and think-tank, pointed out in an interview earlier this week that the URI poses a serious threat to Christian liberties.

"The United Religions Initiative is a Trojan horse that will close down Christian liberties by making any attempts to preach the Gospel and evangelise totally unacceptable. Yet I've found that many Christians in the mainline denominations are asleep and generally unaware of the serious implications of this initiative,'' Brooke maintained.

"The URI is hostile to Christianity, is an amalgamation of the world's religions and is another piece in the political, economic and militaristic puzzle that will eventually comprise the one-world government. It is clearly the religious brother arm of the United Nations.'' Lee Penn, who has conducted extensive research on the URI, agrees with Brooke's analysis. In a recent article in the SCP Journal entitled "United Religions Initiative: Foundations for a World Religion,'' he writes: "Perhaps its (URI's) most dangerous agenda is to end all Christian evangelism and orthodox belief, perhaps banning it from the Earth. The URI is anti-Christian to the core. It is intoxicating deception that floats on high sounding rhetoric.'' Influential supporters of the URI maintain that a United Religions organisation is needed to prepare the Earth's inhabitants for their role as global citizens. And they also contend that faiths that are based on exclusive claims have no future in the emerging new world order.

Dr. Robert Muller, former Assistant Secretary/General of the United Nations and developer of the World Core Curriculum, a global education plan, asserts: "Mankind's goal should be to see the religions globalise themselves urgently in order to give us a universal, cosmic meaning to life on Earth and give birth to the first global, cosmic, universal civilisation; the recent initiative to create the United Religions can do that.'' In his book "The Coming United Religions'', published in 1998, Bishop Swing carries on this familiar refrain.

"In order for a United Religions to come about and for religions to pursue peace among each other, there will have to be a godly cease-fire, a temporary truce where the absolute exclusive claims of each will be honoured but an agreed upon neutrality will be exercised in terms of proselytising, condemning, murdering or dominating. These will not be tolerated in the United Religions zone.'' Bishop Swing's disdain for proselytising "Christian evangelism'' is reflected in one of the principles of the URI Charter which states: "Members of the URI shall not be coerced to participate in any ritual or be proselytised.'' As Lee Penn explains in his aforementioned article, "Here's Bishop Swing's logic: link "proselytising'' to "condemning, murdering or dominating'' and then say that none of these will be tolerated in "the United Religions zone'' the whole world.'' Catholic theologian, Dr. Hans Kung, drafter of the interfaith document "Towards A Global Ethic'' which was signed by more than 150 religious leaders at the Parliament of the World's Religions held in Chicago in 1993, affirms religious interdependence by advocating that religions unite around "a common set of core values.'' In his provocative book " Global Responsibility: In Search of a New World Ethic'', he states "To put it bluntly: no regressive or repressive religion - whether Christian, Islamic, Jewish or of whatever provenance -- has a long term future... What we need is an ecumenical world order!'' Clearly then, Christians who are determined to obey their Lord's commands in Mark 16:15 and Matthew 28:19 which state in part "to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature and to make disciples of every nation'' will not be tolerated for their "narrow-mindedness'' and "bigoted'' views by a world that is becoming increasingly hostile to the exclusivity of the Christian message that calls mankind to faith in Jesus Christ as the only means of salvation.

Christianity is founded on the exclusive claims of Jesus Christ, who said in John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth and the life, no mane comes unto the Father except he comes through Me.'' That claim by its very nature is exclusive and cannot be compromised.

Should the United Religions Initiative fail to succeed, Penn admonishes Christians not to become complacent. "...Christian believers must remain vigilant. The final trial of the Church and of the faithful WILL come; we do not know the day or the hour.''