The Rapture

[Cellophane]

The thread on end times made me wonder… do Catholics believe in the Rapture? By this I mean the concept that God/Jesus will wisk us away before things get very bad (think World War III), when the anti-christ will come and rule the world for so long and then God will fight the ac and will (of course) win and a new world will start.

I was taught this in the Methodist church and when I went to a Baptist elementry school. My mother is a Messianic and does NOT believe in the rapture. I’ve been a Christian for less than a year, and quite frankly have no idea. We all believe in Christ’s return, but is the rapyure a strictly Prodistant belief??

 

[PaulDupre]

No, Catholics acknowledge that the bible passages that tell of the saints being “caught up to meet the Lord in the air” refer to the second coming of Jesus, not some pre-tribulation escape:

13 But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that fall asleep; that ye sorrow not, even as the rest, who have no hope.

14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep.

16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first;

17 then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
-1 thess 4:14-18

If you look carefully at all of the bible passages that the “rapture” enthusiasts cite, every one of them is associated with the second coming of Jesus, and not with some pre-tribulation escape scenario. It would be nice to think that believers will never undergo tribulation, but many thousands of Christians have been martyred for Christ and many Christians are undergoing persecution, martyrdom and (yes) tribulation right now. To think that Christians will not undergo great tribulation is frankly an insult to all of these faithful Christians and does violence to the sacred text.
Paul