Christ is King
In this special issue, in light of the Liturgical time of the year we are looking at Hell, Demons and Salvation.
Pope Pius XI instituted the Solemnity of Christ the king in 1925 to remind people that regardless of wars or changes of government - Christ reigned supreme and it was He alone who deserved our allegiance and love, not the promises of new ideologies or strong men. It was the result of one of the most horrific wars ever fought, a war that changed and challenged the fabric of society. It was in those mud sucking trenches that men could begin to imagine what hell was like just as Siegfried Sassoon wrote ‘I died in Hell - they called it Passchendaele’.
Pope Pius hoped that this new solemniy would provide comfort and direction in a shattered world and so it was for the Early Church who needed no less encouragement but could find it in the words to St Peter:
“You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
The phrase gates of hell is from the Greek ‘pulai hadou’ which actually reads Gates of Hades and is not the same as Hell which Jesus called Gehenna. The broad idea though is that Hades represents death and it cannot prevail against the Church because Christ died for us, death was swallowed up.
In this Special Feature, as the Church turns to look at the last things we are going to talk about Hell, Demons and Salvation in the light of Christ the King.
Stephen Watt writes about Salvation and is it for all? I ask the question as to why Jesus talked about Hell in the first place, and I will post up a long interview cut into three videos from the Augustine Institute talking to Fr Chad Ripperger on his role as an exorcist and the nature of spiritual warfare against the demonic enemy. It isn’t that easy to get an exorcist to write so I have to rely on whats already out there.
Editor, Eric Hanna.
