What is the Ape of the Church and is it Happening Now?

About this sermon

Support the channel by visiting https://brianholdsworth.ca Sponsor: https://fishersnetwork.com There’s an expression (Ape of the Church) that seems to be getting more and more attention these days, which was coined by Archbishop Fulton Sheen to describe what the Church teaches about a final deception that the faithful will have to endure before the second coming of Jesus. He called it the Ape of the Church, which would be an #apocalyptic counterfeit Church inaugurated by the #Antichrist. And more than a few people have taken this to be a description of where we find ourselves in the Church today. In fact, when I went to go look for the exact text here to quote it online, the first website I found it on is a sedevacantist website which claims that ever since Vatican II, the Church has been in a state of apostasy and this quote is one more piece of evidence to prove their case. And it wasn’t just Fulton Sheen who claimed that the Church would suffer such a rival. It’s actually well established in Church teaching. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in Article 7 says: “Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God…” The #Catechism goes on to say that this religious deception will claim to realize within history our messianic hope that can only be realized beyond history in the life of the world to come. That is to say, the antichrist will promise us the fulfillment of all our longings here, now, in history rather than in the next life and the restoration of all things after the second coming of Christ. Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com Podcast Version: https://brianholdsworth.libsyn.com/

Topics

• Church & Fellowship
• The Church