Are the end times near?

[Carrie_Andrews]

That History Channel show was silly. All it was was a Tim LaHaye showcase. I wonder how many books he sells every time that show comes on…

I wonder how many thought the end was near when the Temple was destroyed?..when Vesuvius buried Pompeii? When the Plague hit Europe? When Krakatoa erupted? Our access to and appetite for news is all that has changed…

Might I suggest The Rapture Trap, available here in Mr. Keating’s store?

You make good points. I often wonder if more Americans would think we were in End Times if more of the horrors that are happening around the globe were in our backyard(God forbid, we couldn’t take it!) Like the Rowandian mass murders, the tsunami, etc. etc… I know we have had a share in it, like Katrina, and the fires and coal mines, but not so much so we that we are really suffering as a whole. I mean if we were being slaughtered on the streets like the Chechnyans and many others, I think we’d have a diffent view point, we’d be more willing to try and bring more to Christ in an urgent manner.

 

[Carrie_Andrews]

The total number of Catholics worldwide is larger than before and in Asia and Africa there are huge numbers of people becoming Catholics.
Remember the vast majority of Catholics are not from the USA or Europe.

I know, thanks for reminding me, isn’t it wonderful that so many in Asia and Africa are coming into the Church? But we cannot ignore the fact that Europe, once a stronghold of Christianity, is no longer Christian in majority. I don’t mean as in converting to other religions, I mean living lives that leave Christ and his teaching out of thier lives. Many have no idea they are living lives of grave sin, they are simply living a life free of rules, living for today, never having been taught any form of morality. Morality is old school, or so the poor, blind, fools believe.

 

[mark_a]

It seems to me there are a large number of conversion, the Church is being heavily pesecuted and we are losing a large chunk of members, or was that the point you were making ?

I don’t think so. I think Africa and Asia need a fair shot at being evangelized, but that should be able to happen so much more quickly these days.

Anyways, I’m hoping for an Black African pope one day. Then we can really see what white American Protestantism is made of.

 

[Carrie_Andrews]

I know some areas of Africa are becomeing Catholic, and we are getting a large number of vocations from some areas of Africa. Other areas seem to be under a curse, with the mass murders and drug wars. I would love to have a black pope, nothing to do with what the protestants reaction would be, I’d just be glad it would make blacks as a whole feel more at home in the Catholic church.

 

[spauline]

I’m not trying to be the prophet of fire and brimstone, but is Armageddon on our heels? What do you think?

Neither side in this thread gets the WHOLE picture. Admittedly, the question (is this the very end?) is not legitimate, but neither is the “the end is your personal death, so completely forget about it”.

The apocalyptic questions are, how will the Church recognize when humanity has turned apostate in a practically INCURABLE manner? This question is inseparable from asking what the fullness of the Gentiles will consist in. That is, is the field always half weeds and half wheat (Augustinianism), so that the fullness of Gentiles will never be a neart total world of peace living the Catholic Gospel, or will the mystics’ age of peace really come (cross of chiliasm and postmill)? These questions are inseparable from asking what will become of the various classes of religion that exist today, classes that are gradually digressing from full truth and grace (Catholicism) all the way to fully deficient apostasy (like atheistic or relativistic materialism). The intermediate categories would include primarily the following, in order of primary occurence in history: Islam, Orthodoxy, Protestantism, and the natural religions of “Enlightenment” (deists/rationalists).

we also need to keep a very serious awareness that consequences of religious and moral errors become ever more catastrophic for modern humanity in light of the fact that modern materialistic developments greatly amplify these consequences. Consequently, it is terrifying to think of the horrors that the European civs could experience if the near total spiritual depravity is not healed.

another reality to look into: will Christian division ever be nearly healed? Will Christ’s prayer for oneness ever be realized (and if so, will it restore humanity’s faith?) or, is it, as pessimistic Augustinians would have it, there will always be division because there will always be at some primary sins in humanity?

In other words, are days six and seven one and the same in the recreation of the world (Augustinianism), or will are they different and successive, rather than blended (hybrid of chiliasm and postmill)?

 

[ribozyme]

I think it would be a long time till the “end times” comes. We have to wait until our sun runs out of fuel. Then a long time after that, the universe will run into a maximum state of entropy.

 

[mark_a]

I think it would be a long time till the “end times” comes. We have to wait until our sun runs out of fuel. Then a long time after that, the universe will run into a maximum state of entropy.

Will this occur before andramda swallows the milky way?

 

[ALLFORHIM]

The Apostles thought so. So for 2,000 years we have been living in the end times. Will they ever get it?

NO BODY BUT THE FATHER KNOWS.

Have a good day!

Hi,
I think every generation thinks the end is near. I figure who cares when it is or how it plays out as long as you are right with God when Jesus comes back.

 

[Gertabelle]

I’ve heard the “Left Behind” series has harmed alot of lives. People make life choices based on the premise that true believers will be taken up to heaven before the tribulation. Like not having children, not buying a new home, and things of that nature. As JP11 reinterated “Be not afraid”!!!

I had a teacher in high school who was so convinced the end was imminent that he and his wife decided not to have children and to own nothing. They rented their home, leased their car, etc. I graduated in 1985! It breaks my heart to see people controlled by fear.

Gertie (not my real name, but I like it)

 

[San_Patricio]

I don’t know if these are the “end times”, and I’m not worried about it accept insofar as to hope and pray that my soul is ready if they are, but as the Church teaches, that should be a constant thing (and no, I don’t think my soul is ready).

I do, however, think that the number of abortions over the last 30 years is a stronger indication than anything else in favor of these being the end times…

…And my yard looks like a scene from “The Day After Tomorrow”.

 

[Baraq]

Does not Peter quote Joels ‘last days’ prophecies(Acts 2) as fulfilled at Pentecost? Has not our Saviour come and defeated death already? Are we not already partakers of the Spirit? We as the Church are the regathered Zion, the third temple raised up, an elect that is yet to be fulfilled in number but has received grace, even now coheirs with Christ and have our heavenly Fathers divine protection.

In other words, it is the last days, but so many still dont understand what the last days are. That dispensational heresy of a pre trib rapture that fills the media ad nauseum only appeals to the lusts of the flesh and like a roaring lion seeks to devour who it can. Remember our Lord is kind, merciful and longsuffering, dont be troubled by the lies of heretics.

James 5:7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

 

[Liberian]

Curiose,

Actually I have no idea whether Armageddon is on our heels. John wrote some 1,925 years ago that it was the last hour; it has only gotten later since then.

Your concern for those who “have not found shelter in the ark that is the Church” is laudable and I encourage you to act upon it. Even if Armageddon is still another thousand years off, each and every person who has not found shelter in the Church will face God at the time of his death and the consequences will be just as dire.

• Liberian

 

[mark_a]

Hi,
I figure who cares when it is or how it plays out as long as you are right with God when Jesus comes back.

You guys a much more brave than I am.

I’m a Catholic, so there’s no chance I’m going to be raptured, unless its on the last day.

There’s going to be great suffering, and call me selfish or chicken or whatever, but I prefer to avoid it.

 

[spauline]

I think the real stuff the apoc is about is not how the nations will destroy one another in the very end, or knowing the exact date of Christ’s return, but of understanding the spiritual meaning of salvation history. and, again, I assert that the question of the division of Christ’s disciples is a crucial one. For is not the modern apostasy in Europe and its daughters largely the fruit of Christian division? So if, because Christ’s disciples have NOT been “one”, the world has NOT been able to believe. But what if, by a miracle of a chastisement, Christ is able to expose the consequences and errors of all false teaching and doctrines and reunite His Children back to Rome? Could this not lead to a great restoration of faith, a sabbath-like rest from the sin of history, in the sense that, for a temporary but great period, the will of the Father IS done on earth as it is in heaven? For if men fall away after that, there will be no excuse, but now, there is an excuse, because of the sins of Christ’s disciples. I can’t fully blame modern man that they don’t care about religion because there a 9 millions different version of religion on earth. Not to mention the great scandal of Middle age clergy that in large part is the root cause of Protestantism. And then when the Protestants confounded the living hell out of doctrine, with wonderful bloodshed mixed in (and let’s not forget the Inquisitions! ), is it any wonder that the Enlightenment came where man got sick of pursuing supernatural truth and just decided to be naturally religious and focus more on science? Honestly, I don’t think the modern apostasy is fully damnable, because the root cause of it is Catholic clergy hypocrisy of the Middle Ages. Only after God gives man a dressrehearsal for the end for the end of the world, and a subsequent great age of religious and materialistic prosperity will man no longer have an excuse. But now, they have a partial excuse, IMHO.

 

[Baraq]

Apostasy doesnt justify Apostasy

 

[Santos]

If the end times are near, does that mean I don’t have to worry about folding all of the laundry on my porch and getting the house cleaned after Christmas, and worry about loosing weight!? I’d love it! Jesus, take me away!!!

Waite a minute Mommyof4?.. If the momma’s go, then the papa’s go too! Imagine if the protestants and catholics were both right? What if all the Mommies of the World were raptured… Then who would do all the laundry, clean the house, or look nice for the Papa’s? Men would definately see their “End Time” Tribulations! Talk about suffering…

 

[mommyof4]

Ah well, maybe the men should have to do some of the housework and suffer without us for a while. Offer it up as some sort of penance or something like that! Besides, I think it would be kind of funny to be sitting up in heaven, watching all of the men trying to do what we usually do!

 

[Santos]

I’m pretty sure that the men would endure to the “end”! That is of course if the kid’s were raptured along with the mommas…

 

[mommyof4]

I pretty sure the men would endure to the “end”! That is ofcourse if the kid’s were ratured along with mommas…

Nope. You guys keep the kids by yourselves for a while. I’d be good for all of you. Give you some bonding time.

 

[Santos]

Nope. You guys keep the kids by yourselves for a while. I’d be good for all of you. Give you some bonding time.

Thank God for playstation and pizza! We got it covered