End Times

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hey, can anyone recomend any good readings(books or links) about end times? i mean this as in both the senses of what happens when we die now (heaven now, or sit in the ground till Jesus comes again) and in the sense of what do we “predict” and interpret from the book of Revelation about what will happen at that time. side note: my pentacostal girlfriend beleives we sit in the ground till the second coming, when "the seas will give up their dead… etc etc… i need help with the Catholic opinion. thanx
 
Given that you’re dealing with a Pentacostal, try these two:

The Rapture Trap: A Catholic Response to “End Times” Fever by Paul Thigpen, PhD

Will Catholics Be Left Behind: A Critique of the Rapture and Today’s Prophecy Preachers by Carl E. Olson

For a quick once-over click on the Catholic Answers tracts at Last things

Of course, we always have the official word: Catechism of the Catholic Church A quick check through the index under the topic “Jesus Christ - Second Coming” will get you everything you need to know. A mass-market paperback edition is available, too.
 
jax8686,

What I did with this question for myself is go to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) and read everything I could on eschatology (end-times stuff). I then looked at the footnotes and looked up many of the corresponding Bible passages to help me think “with the mind of the Church.”

I also read the Catechism of the Council of Trent (available from TAN Books) cover to cover (in addition to reading the CCC cover to cover). The CCC calls the Catechism of the Council of Trent a “work of first rank” (I think this is in paragraph 8 or 9 of the CCC) so don’t let modernist Catholics tell you the Catechism of the Council of Trent (also called “The Roman Catechism”) is out of date.

I also use Ludwig Ott’s “Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma” (also avail. from TAN) as a reference because Ott does a nice job of giving Scriptural references and ancient Church Father references.

I also read Carl Olson’s book (“Will Catholics be Left Behind?” from Ignatius Press) about eschatology and found that quite helpful.

Scott Hahn’s tapes on the Book of Revelation (St. Joseph Communications) are helpful too as he goes into much more than the Book of Revelation here. If you do a lot of driving these might be very nice. Steve Wood also has a very good tape series (Family Life Center and www.dads.org) on the end times that I would highly recomend.

I would avoid the common situation of getting caught up in trying to use Scripture as a “Divining tool” though. There are many examples of individuals who do this with potential great harm to their and other peoples faith often times I’m afraid.

The “seas giving up their dead” is probably a reference to everybody getting their bodies back at the end of time (both the saved and the unsaved) - the general judgment.
 
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jax8686:
hey, can anyone recomend any good readings(books or links) about end times? i mean this as in both the senses of what happens when we die now (heaven now, or sit in the ground till Jesus comes again) and in the sense of what do we “predict” and interpret from the book of Revelation about what will happen at that time. side note: my pentacostal girlfriend beleives we sit in the ground till the second coming, when "the seas will give up their dead… etc etc… i need help with the Catholic opinion. thanx
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Your girlfriend is referring to a line in Paul. She appears to be correct on that point. Give credit where credit is due. Note that she knew her Scripture better than you do, on that question. Non-Catholics will not respect the Church’s opinion on anything. They always need to know what Scripture says. I have learned over the decades that even if a Catholic knows how to support The Faith from Scripture, they still don’t change their minds. (Most don’t really care what Scripture says, either.) In the end, Paul was right: Love will have more impact than faith.
 
I’ll second the other posters: Carl Olson’s book is excellent. David Currie wrote a book called Rapture: The End Times Theory That Leaves the Bible Behind. It’s something close to that and worth checking out as well.
 
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