The End Times: A Catholic perspective

[rjdellinger]

I am a devout Roman Catholic who has a very active prayer life and devotes much time in reading the Bible and other Catholic and Devotional books. A few days ago I stumbled across a very interesting website that claims to be Catholic Doctrine concerning the End Times. That website www.enddays.ws goes into much detail about the rise of the Anti-christ, the great chastisement (tribulation period), and many other topics including support of the (believe it or not) Rapture of the Church. Contrary to what most Catholics believe or are even aware of, this website goes as far as stating that the End Times are virtually upon us and states that the Anit-christ is now alive and poised to make his entrance into the world’s political scene. At this point, I am cautious and remain neutral concerning the websites claims and would appreciate any viewpoints, opinions, and/or commentaries on the subject.

 

[AmandaPS]

Took a quick glance at it, not sure if I’d put any more time into reading the site. Looks like they put a lot of stock into private revelations. I’ve never heard of the person they claim is the anti-Christ, but it seems like their use of the word could be used to describe anyone who doesn’t believe that Jesus is God.

 

[Lorarose]

The rapture is false doctrine.
I personally wouldn’t waste time on this site.

 

[laywoman]

If the anti christ is going to come then he could claim to be a believer because he would not be truthful, but deceptive. That means we really should be careful who we put our trust in.

 

[laywoman]

From the time I spent with fundamentalists - they believe in the end of the world being quite soon, and even the year 2000 was noted as significant. The signs would be that all Jews would return to their home Israel. This would mean that the Palestineans should be somehow repressed. All of this is happening now. I do not go with that interpretation. I believe the world will end with total corruption in religion and politics.

 

[mkw]

Speaking only for myself, I could really care less when the end of the known world will occure.

I need only to remain in a state of grace (sacrement of reconciliation) and living my life as best I can following the teachings of Holy Mother Church. If the end should come, that only means I will be seeing heaven a whole lot sooner. (at least thats my planned location )

For the life of me, I just don’t see what all the fuss is about the “End Times”.

Every generation has an anti_Chirst, and those who will try and lead us all away from the truth. And if I recall from reading the bible, God is not telling ANYONE when the end will come, just to be always ready.

 

[Gratias_Grace]

rjdellinger:

At this point, I am cautious and remain neutral concerning the websites claims and would appreciate any viewpoints, opinions, and/or commentaries on the subject.

Hey rjdellinger!

This day I too found a lot of “catholic-endtimes-messages” on the web. Most of them were private revelations, told to come from Virgin Mary. Some were frightening.

How can we know if it is mad people spreading there own hallusinatons on the net or if the private revelations are real?

Well as long as the Vatican has not recognised them as real, we don’t have to follow the messages.

The rapture is a false doctrine. You will find good information in this book (see the link) , not only about the rapture trap, but also about what the Church teaches about the millenium (the thousand years in the book of Revelation in the Bible) and about private revelations in general:

amazon.com/gp/reader/0965922820/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-1646062-8885419#reader-link

With all that said, I want to say that one day the last days before Jesus second coming HAVE to come. With some protestantic sects beleiving that the catholic church is in union with Anti-Christ and some catholics beliveing that too, there will be a lot of frustration in those days. When people are frustrated enough they are easy to mislead.

May be we are living in the endtimes, may be not yet, BUT:

What is the worst thing that can happen to a christian? It must be to fail to reach heaven!

I think the best we can do now and always, are to TRUST in God, -do our daily prayers, - go regularly to church, - go regularly to confession and try to live according to the will of God in our daily lifes.

The question is how we can serve God best under every condition in our life.

Jesus promised us: “… and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it”. (Mat 16.18)

Jesus has not promised us that there will not be demons in our Church, - only that evil is weaker than good and that the “gates of Hades will not prevail against it”.

For now, evil and good grows side by side. But God knows the good by their hearts.

Jesus says it this way: “Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn” (Mat 13:30).

(Please excuse any spellingmistakes. English is not my first language)!

Hope my reflections on the topic can be of some help (as a matter of fact I logged myself into the forum, to day, to be free to think about something else than all the so called catholic endtimes sites, after a prayer to Jesus about helping me to sort out).

God bless!

G.G.

 

[Hans_A]

The “End Times” you should concern yourself with is the one that comes during each generation. It is called “death” and only God knows the time and place. Therefore, be vigilant in living by God’s will and remember the motto of the Knights of Columbus:

Tempus Fugit, Memento Mori (Time Flies, Remember Death).

In Christ,
Hans