How the Church will end

[AJB328]

I remember reading an article several years ago dealing with visions by several saints who claimed the Church would end the same way it began, i.e. a small group of people praying in a room, but instead of the Holy Spirit descending upon them it will be Jesus coming as the just Judge.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Do you know what saints they were? Or was this just some “3 days of darkness-esque” story with no real foundation.

 

[Evania]

According to Christ, the Church will never end.

 

[Beryllos]

I remember reading an article several years ago dealing with visions by several saints who claimed the Church would end the same way it began, i.e. a small group of people praying in a room, but instead of the Holy Spirit descending upon them it will be Jesus coming as the just Judge.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Do you know what saints they were? Or was this just some “3 days of darkness-esque” story with no real foundation.

Sounds like an interesting premise for a religious novel or film, but it doesn’t seem quite compatible with the Gospel. Jesus commanded his disciples to preach the good news from town to town and to every land. I think He will have more than a roomful.

 

[DavidFilmer]

The Church will end in triumph, not in failure.

 

[pianistclare]

Sounds like an interesting premise for a religious novel or film, but it doesn’t seem quite compatible with the Gospel. Jesus commanded his disciples to preach the good news from town to town and to every land. I think He will have more than a roomful.

Exactly.
There will a multitude on the last day.
All the elect and the saints that have gone before us will be there.
When you consider all the holy people that have ever lived…surely this is not how it will be.

 

[petra22]

Still, didn’t Jesus ask, “Will there be ANY believers when I return?”

I believe and hope in Jesus, but he did ask…

 

[pianistclare]

Still, didn’t Jesus ask, “Will there be ANY believers when I return?”

I believe and hope in Jesus, but he did ask…

Jesus, in His humanity was frustrated with the people.
That doesn’t mean He literally didn’t know the answer.

 

[Evania]

Still, didn’t Jesus ask, “Will there be ANY believers when I return?”

I believe and hope in Jesus, but he did ask…

True. You can look at the world today and see the godlessness, widespread confusion among people. Like Pilate, more and more people are asking themselves, “What is Truth?”. The answer to many people is, “Truth is whatever I say it is.” There is great concern over the decline of Christianity in Europe. Our recent popes have spoken with great alarm over this trend. In America, our laws, especially the most recent one concerning marriage by the highest court in the land, is reflecting this departure from faith.

However, that being said:

Jesus has promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. There may be a time in which it may be “underground” for awhile. Maybe that is what the OP meant in their original post. You see this now in Communist countries. St. John Paul the Great knew this all too well, as this is what happened to the Church in Poland while he was a young man. This may be the state of the world when Christ returns; however, thankfully, it is not the end. Like a previous posted said, “The Church will end in triumph, not in failure.”

 

[Genesis315]

The Church will end in triumph, not in failure.

Yes, but only by way of Christ’s Second Coming–the Church will appear to be defeated first (like Christ):

CCC 677 The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection.579 The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God’s victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven.580 God’s triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world.581