Posted on 06/22/2019 3:25:07 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
It’s been said that the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. In a similar vein, the greatest trick the anti-Christ will pull will be to convince men he is the savior of the world instead of its destroyer, according to a powerful radio sermon given by Venerable Servant of God Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen in 1947 that was dug up out of a digital archive and published on YouTube last week.
Like the devil, whose trademark signature is to twist the truth to sell sin, so the anti-Christ, according to Sheen, will twist the minds of men to make them believe he is the “Great Humanitarian” who will “talk peace, prosperity and plenty.”
While Sheen’s description of the anti-Christ was given almost 70 years ago, his words may be more pertinent in our own times than they were in his. His prophetic message is absolutely crucial for every sincere Christian who seeks to be faithful to Christ to the end. He states:
The anti-Christ will not be so called, otherwise he would have no followers. He will wear no red tights, nor vomit sulphur, nor carry a spear nor wave an arrowed tail as Mephistopheles in Faust.
Nowhere in Sacred Scripture do we find warrant for the popular myth of the devil as a buffoon who is dressed like the first “red.” Rather is he described as a fallen angel, and as “the Prince of this world” whose business it is to tell us that there is no other world. His logic is simple: if there is no heaven there is no hell; if there is no hell, there is no sin; if there is no sin, there is no judge, and if there is no judgement then evil is good and good is evil.
But above all these descriptions, Our Lord tells us that He will be so much like Himself, that he would deceive even the elect – and certainly no devil we have ever seen in picture books could deceive even the elect. How will he come in this new age to win followers to his religion?
[Signs of the anti-Christ:]
In the midst of all his seeming love for humanity and his glib talk of freedom and equality, he will have one great secret which he will tell to no one; he will not believe in God. And because his religion will be brotherhood without the fatherhood of God, he will deceive even the elect.
He will set up a counter-Church, which will be the ape of the Church because, he the devil, is the ape of God. It will be the mystical body of the anti-Christ that will in all externals resemble the Church as the mystical body of Christ. In desperate need for God, he will induce modern man, in his loneliness and frustration, to hunger more and more for membership in his community that will give man enlargement of purpose, without any need of personal amendment and without the admission of personal guilt. These are days in which the devil has been given a particularly long rope.
Sheen states that he raises his concerns about the anti-Christ, not because he fears for the survival of the Catholic Church, but because of the devastation the anti-Christ will bring upon those who have no faith.
“It is not infallibility we are worried about, but the world’s lapse into fallibility; we tremble not that God may be dethroned, but that barbarism may reign; it is not Transubstantiation that may perish, but the home; not the sacraments that may fade away, but the moral law.”
Sheen has confidence that since the Church has survived other great crises in her centuries of existence, “she will live to sing a requiem over the evils of the present.”
“The Church may have its Good Fridays but these are only preludes to its Easter Sundays, for the Divine Promise shall never be made void: ‘. . . and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.’ (Matthew 28:20) ”
“Never before in history has there been such a strong argument for the need of Christianity, for men are now discovering that their misery and their woes, their wars and their revolutions increase in direct ratio and proportion to the neglect of Christianity. Evil is self defeating; good alone is self-preserving,” he stated.
Sheen urged his hearers to take concrete action against the evils of the day by tapping into the spiritual resources given by God for battle.
As Christians we must realize that a moment of crisis is not a time of despair, but of opportunity. We were born in crisis, in defeat – the Crucifixion. Once we recognize we are under Divine Wrath, we become eligible for Divine Mercy. The very disciplines of God create hope. The thief on the right came to God by a crucifixion.
[What Catholics must do to survive the evil day:]
18 minute YouTube video of Fulton Sheen here
They do NOT rise up first to 'Mary and the Saints'; then to be passed on to GOD.
Do you realize that popes have resigned in the past?
Granted, this was the first time that the renunciation was due to physical infirmity, but all is novel in the post Vatican II era.
In addition, according to his own words at the time of resignation and after, Benedict XVI resigned willingly.
There are some things from the Catholic faith that I think aren’t so bad. I like the idea of some of the repition and structures of praying the rosary. But it seems that that is mostly (all?) to Mary.
There was one thing I just read about being a mother, and praying some prayer of grief(?) through Mary’s experience.
Started off with Mary understanding what it meant to be a refugee with a small child.
Mary frantic about her lost child (Jesus was at the temple).
Watching her son being crucified. A spear thrust into His side.
That one was interesting, and helpful as we pray for our children as they struggle.
Of course, we can also just formulate those same prayers knowing that Jesus knows how we feel. He as a young child in a strange land. Tempted by Satan for 40 days. Grieving over his friend Lazuras. And of course unjustly condemned and crucified.
Still - I think there is something to be learned from some of the Catholic traditions.
What don't the Francis-fans just do the honest thing and become well-and-truly Episcopalian? Same periodic conventions ("synods") to decide what their doctrine is going to be for the next couple of years; and better music.
As Jesus taught, "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are very much mistaken."
"When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at His teaching." ((Matthew 22:32-33)
When the Catholics heard THIS; they decided to ignore it:
Call no man father.
You been given many chances in the past; on multiple threads; to give the Catholic definition of what "Dead in Christ" means.
So far; I've seen NOTHING from ANY Catholic on the subject.
Is this yet another verse that gets shunted to the side??
1 Thessalonians 4:14-17 New King James Version (NKJV)14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who [a]sleep in Jesus.
15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are [b]asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
HMMMmmm...
An interesting order of events; if one believes the Catholic claim that when Christians die they immediately go either to be with the Lord in Heaven or to purgatory.
No, we decided the proper interpretation was he way Saints Paul and the other NT teachers took it.
28 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.
Whoa whoa WHOA!!!
I thought the 'Official' teaching on this is that the GOOD folks go to be with Christ when they die.
I am SO confused...
Heaven, Purgatory or Hell.
Oh WE did; eh?
I guess that WE also decided to IGNORE Jesus' plain words of 'Call no man father',; too.
And WE must have decided that THESE verses were wrong; too: John 5:28-29
Man; ya just gotta love a 'religion' that has cafeteria rules!
"Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out-those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.
???? I've got no problem with those verses. I believe in the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting, amen.
My dear, forgive me if I find St. Paul’s interpretation more credible than yours.
...all who are in their graves...
THIS one??
Rome has NO one in their graves.
Explain that to the lurkers.
The bodies are all in the graves. (Assuming we're talking about people whose mortal remains have been buried.) These bodies will rot away, but nevertheless, they will rise on the Last Day --- we call this the "resurrection of the body."
Even if a person were hit directly on the head with a hydrogen bomb and their incinerated molecules were scattered in a world-circling band of radioactive dust in the the stratosphere and eventually come down across all 24 time zones --- i.e. no identifiable remains --- we still believe in the resurrection of the body. However God chooses to do it, He will do it.
Once again, you are trumpeting something the Catholic Church does not teach (that nobody is in their graves.) My body will be in my grave until the Last Day. Then it will be rejoined to my soul. Then the General Judgment. And then, Heaven or Hell.
I renew my plea that you stop misrepresenting what the Catholic Church teaches. It is boundlessly aggravating.
Don't tell me what I believe. Tell me what YOU believe.
At least then, you'd have the advantage of accuracy.
Actually, while I support in principle the practice of ascertaining the validity and veracity of church teaching by examination of it in the light of ancient church teaching (the critical difference being that that latter is to be the only wholly inspired-of-God and substantive record of what the New Testament church believed, mainly Acts thru Rev., not the uninspired writings of Catholicism), yet it seems that those who hold that Catholic teaching is what modern councils interpret it to mean, and uphold Francis as the valid pope, and have an attitude of submission, are the ones more in line with historical papal teaching such as exhorts,
'the one duty of the multitude is to allow themselves to be led, and, like a docile flock, to follow the Pastors," "to suffer themselves to be guided and led in all things that touch upon faith or morals by the Holy Church of God through its Supreme Pastor the Roman Pontiff," "of submitting with docility to their judgment," with "no discussions regarding what he orders or demands, or up to what point obedience must go, and in what things he is to be obeyed... not only in person, but with letters and other public documents ;" and 'not limit the field in which he might and must exercise his authority, " for "obedience must not limit itself to matters which touch the faith: its sphere is much more vast: it extends to all matters which the episcopal power embraces," and not set up "some kind of opposition between one Pontiff and another. Those who, faced with two differing directives, reject the present one to hold to the past, are not giving proof of obedience to the authority which has the right and duty to guide them," "Nor must it be thought that what is expounded in Encyclical Letters does not of itself demand consent." (Sources http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3578348/posts?page=14#14)
Why?
There's gonna be a HELL of a lot of sorting out to do!!
I believe KNOW that Catholics are TAUGHT to ignore the very plain words of Jesus: Call no man father.
What OTHER stuff you guys get taught is WAY beyond the function of this thread.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.