2012Rejecting the Crucifix as offensive:
Preparation for the Reign of Antichrist
La
Salette Journey ^ | March 15, 2012 |
Paul Melanson
Posted
on March 15, 2012 10:31:02 AM
CDT by cleghornboy
When one
of the world's leading exorcists, Father Gabriele Amorth,
was asked how one can tell if someone is possessed, he
replied, "By their aversion to the sacrament and all
things sacred." One of the clearest signs of demonic
possession is a hatred for the Eucharist or the crucifix.
Back in December of 2009, little Jalen Cromwell of
Taunton, Massachusetts, was forced to undergo
psychological evaluations for drawing a stick figure of
the crucified Jesus. See here. And electrician Colin
Atkinson's palm cross was deemed "insensitive." See here.
As noted here, "..David Cameron's government will insist
at the European Court of Human Rights that Christians can
be sacked by their employers for wearing crosses or
crucifixes." And remember when the White House asked
Georgetown University to cover the IHS monogram (a symbol
of Jesus' holy name) at Gaston Hall where Obama was
scheduled to deliver a speech? See here.
There are
numerous other examples of this growing hostility toward
the cross or the crucifix. In his treatise on ascetical
and mystical theology, The Very Reverend Adolphe
Tanquerey, S.S., D.D., explains that, "The Sacramentals
and blessed objects are also efficacious remedies [for
possession and diabolical temptation] because of the
prayers said by the Church when blessing them...The
Crucifix, the Sign of the Cross, and especially genuine
relics of the True Cross are terrifying to the devil who
was vanquished by the Cross: 'That the one who conquered
by a tree should himself be likewise conquered by the
Tree.' For the same reason the Evil Spirit dreads the
invocation of the Holy Name of Jesus, which, on the
Master's Own promise, possesses a wondrous power for
putting the devil to flight." (The Spiritual Life: A
Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology, p. 724,
citing the Preface for the Feast of the Holy Cross, Tan
Books).
Antichrist
will reveal himself within the context of an atheistic,
materialistic society which has lost its faith in God and
which is prepared to fall down and worship man. The
Antichrist will not tolerate the Cross or Christian
symbols. In his Life of Christ (Image Books, 1977, p. 10),
Archbishop Fulton John Sheen wrote, "We do know that at
the end of time, when the great conflict between the
forces of good and evil takes place, Satan will appear
without the Cross, as the Great Philanthropist and Social
Reformer to become the final temptation of mankind."
Indeed, Paul Henri-Spaak, who served as Belgian Prime
Minister and gained international prominence in 1945 when
he was elected chairman of the first session of the
General Assembly of the United Nations, had called for
such a "Great Philanthropist and Social Reformer": "We do
not want another committee, we have too many already. What
we want is a man of sufficient stature to hold the
allegiance of all people, and to lift us out of the
economic morass in which we are sinking. Send us such a
man and be he God or the Devil, we will receive him."
Saint
Paul assures us that this man of iniquity will seek to
displace God and to be worshipped himself. Robert Hugh
Benson, in his classic The Lord of the World (a most
prophetic work) describes the humanitarian religion of
Antichrist as one which will replace Christian symbols
such as the Crucifix with its own symbols:
"Humanitarianism is a religion devoid of the supernatural.
It is developing a ritual under freemasonry; it has a
creed, 'God is man'; and the rest. It has, therefore, a
real food of a sort to offer religious cravings: it
idealizes, and yet makes no demands upon the spiritual
faculties. Then, they have the use of all the churches
except ours, and of all the Cathedrals; and they are
beginning at last to encourage sentiment. Then they may
display their symbols and we may not..."
Symbols
are powerful they convey meaning. Which is why we are
experiencing a push to strip Christian symbols from the
public square. While Colin Atkinson came under fire for
his palm cross and Jalen Cromwell was forced to undergo
psychological evaluations because of his hand-drawn
Crucifix, Andres Serrano's "Piss Christ," which depicts a
Crucifix submerged in a glass of Serrano's own urine mixed
with cow's blood, is considered by some to be a "work of
art" and received $15,000 from the taxpayer-funded
National Endowment for the Arts. Serrano's supporters have
argued that the "Piss Christ" represents an issue of
artistic freedom and freedom of speech.
And
while the Obama White House asked for the IHS monogram to
be covered up at Georgetown (a request which was honored),
the same Obama White House had no such problem with a
Masonic symbol - see photograph.