Is it correct to say that we have been in the "end times" for 2000 years

[benjammin]

Okay, so whenever people ask me if we are in the “end times” I always say, we’ve been in the end times since Christ’s ascension into heaven so many days after his crucifixion. I’ve always disliked when people say we are in the end times because the end times have always been and will continue to be until Christ comes again. Is this correct to say to people. I’ve always felt that it was in line with church and biblical teaching

 

[MonsignorKelly]

Benjamin,

There are intensely new insights to your question. In one sense you are definitely right. In another, we see the End Times (end of the age, “world without end,” and not end of the world) begins with Isaiah’s Agreement with Sheol (agreement for the land of Israel) and Jacob’s Trouble, a 7-year period where Antichrist rules from the desecrated Temple and rails blasphemies and profanities at our loving triune God. (What Satan couldn’t accomplish in Heaven he now tries to accomplish on earth.)

For more up-to-the-minute insight please see www.LadyofFatima.Wordpress.com From the time Mary prophesied, “All generations shall call me Blessed” we see Mary’s role as prophetess through the centuries! Our 21st century is no exception! Go now to **www.LadyofFatima.Wordpress.com **to see there is still startling Communication!

There is nevertheless enduring prophetic communication! Mary and Joseph were of the lineage of David… In this prophetic poetry - with Hebraic Old Testament and New Testament period prophetic elements - there is a MESSAGE TO THE WORLD which should be received humbly and seriously for a highly singular time of preparation!

 

[HansTrappist]

Okay, so whenever people ask me if we are in the “end times” I always say, we’ve been in the end times since Christ’s ascension into heaven so many days after his crucifixion. I’ve always disliked when people say we are in the end times because the end times have always been and will continue to be until Christ comes again. Is this correct to say to people. I’ve always felt that it was in line with church and biblical teaching

Lactantius, an early Church Ecclesiastical Apologist (250-317 A.D.) composed seven books, the last of which treats the Last Things. This book, The Divine Institutes, expounds on the sequence of events that have yet to transpire. Lactantius states that at the end of the six thousandth year since the Creation of Adam, there will arise the great rebellion of the “lawless one” whom the early Church Fathers identify as the personification of Antichrist. While Scripture is explicit that Antichrist is the spirit of rebellion against God (1Jn. 2:22; 4:2-3; 2 Jn. 1:7), several of its books state a personification of this spirit (Daniel, Pauline Epistles, Revelation), and whom the Fathers call the lawless one, the contriver, and so forth. Then, after Antichrist’s (False Prophet) defeat, the millennium of Revelation 20 will commence, at the end of which the godless one will arise once more (Gog), for one final and terrible battle, followed by the Final Judgement. Lactantius writes in The Divine Institutes:

Since all the works of God were completed in six days, the world must continue in its present state through six ages, that is, six thousand years. For the Great Day of God is limited by a circle of a thousand years, as the prophet shows, who says: “In Thy sight, O Lord, a thousand years are as one day” (Ps. 89:4). And as God labored during those six days in creating such great works, so His religion and truth must labor during these six thousand years, while wickedness prevails and bears rule. And again, since God, having finished His works, rested on the seventh day and blessed it, at the end of the six thousandth year all wickedness must be abolished from the earth, and righteousness reign for a thousand years [not literally 1000 years, just an extended period of time]; and there must be tranquility and rest from the labors which the world now long has endured.

 

[RPRPsych]

Okay, so whenever people ask me if we are in the “end times” I always say, we’ve been in the end times since Christ’s ascension into heaven so many days after his crucifixion. I’ve always disliked when people say we are in the end times because the end times have always been and will continue to be until Christ comes again. Is this correct to say to people. I’ve always felt that it was in line with church and biblical teaching

Yes, you’re quite right. In fact, St. Paul and his collaborator on the Epistle to the Hebrews are in agreement with you:

“In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets;
but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”

The Passion, Resurrection and Ascension of Our Lord inaugurated the “last age” of human history and the world, in which Heaven has been opened and Christ’s offer of salvation is available to all. Once you take this point of view, a lot of “end times” hysteria becomes strangely unconvincing.

 

[Richard320]

I suppose in a sense we are. We also started dying the day we were born.

“But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son,* but the Father alone.
Matthew 24:36

If we did know, imagine the lines at Confession!

 

[COPLAND_3]

Okay, so whenever people ask me if we are in the “end times” I always say, we’ve been in the end times since Christ’s ascension into heaven so many days after his crucifixion. I’ve always disliked when people say we are in the end times because the end times have always been and will continue to be until Christ comes again. Is this correct to say to people. I’ve always felt that it was in line with church and biblical teaching

Yes and no. We have been in the last period of salvation history which has been called things like “last days” and so on, but its not to be mistaken as reference to the End of the world and the time of the Antichrist. Sometimes Scripture uses generalizations and sometimes Scripture is talking about a specific period of time, and it is not always an easy task distinguishing between the two. One of the most difficult areas for me is to distinguish what periods of time Jesus refers to in the Gospels that are concerning the end of the world with that of the destruction of Jerusalem, then factor in the different Gospels that vary in details.