Pope Calls Mosque a "Space Proper to God" and Prays With Christ-denying Imam

“Antichrists are the dissembled enemies of Christ, who every manner of way are against the doctrine of Christ, whose followers they profess themselves to be (1 John 2:18–22; 4:3; 2 John 7).”
— Amandus Polanus

I keep coming back to that word, “dissembled.” Not open hostility. Not the snarling enemy at the gate. No, something far more unnerving. The kind that smiles. The kind that speaks the language. The kind that stands in familiar places, wears familiar garments, and says just enough of the right things to pass—until you actually listen.

And then you hear it.

Not a denial of God. Not even a denial of prayer. But a slow, careful blurring. A gentle smudging of lines that Scripture drew in ink, not pencil.

This week, the pope walked into a mosque—no, not just walked—but speaks. And not just speaks. He blesses the moment with theological language, referring to it as a “space proper to God.” A place where people “seek the presence of the Most High.” Silent prayer, shoulder to shoulder with an imam, as though the object of that prayer is mutually understood.

And I find myself asking—quietly at first, then louder, then not quietly at all:

What God?

Because the answer to that question is not abstract. It is not philosophical. It is not negotiable.

“No one who denies the Son has the Father.” (1 John 2:23, ESV)

That’s not a rhetorical shibboleth. That’s a hard line in the sand.

So when I hear language like that—smooth, polished, diplomatic, almost sterile in its calmness—I don’t hear unity. I hear something else. Something older. Something that knows exactly how to wear the right clothes while quietly gutting the substance underneath.

And here’s where it gets uncomfortable, because we’re not talking about pagans lighting incense to Baal out in the open. That would be easier. Cleaner. Obvious.