What does the Catholic Church actually teach about the end times? Do cradle Catholics believe we are in the end times now?

[livingwordunity]

You have rightly directed this question to cradle Catholics considering that other Christians of different denominations have specific teaching on this topic and they would be invariably influenced by their former belief when they become Catholics. Not that they cannot answer this question of course. My wife was converted when she married to me. What I noticed was that she could never think like a cradle Catholic and it take years before she truly have a Catholic ‘mind’.

What about someone like me who is a convert but who was never a Protestant?

Catholic teaching on end time is very simple and straight forward. We are not to worry about it all as we are exhorted to live as if end time would come at any moment. We do not know the time and the moment it will come but it will come nevertheless

^ I agree with this.

but it will be like a thief that comes into our house in the middle of the night.

Actually, when St. Paul says that Jesus’ Second Coming come like a thief in the night he’s talking about how it will be a total shock to the non-believers. This could also just as well be true for the lukewarm among Christians. But a couple of verses after, St. Paul contrasts that by saying about the righteous, “but you are not in darkness, brethren, for that day to surprise you like a thief.” (1 Thess 5:4). We can’t know for sure the exact time such as day, month, year, or decade that Jesus’ Second Coming will happen. But Jesus suggests that those who know the prophecies in Sacred Scripture can tell when the time could be drawing near. “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates.” (Matt. 24:32-33)

As for your second question, no, we do not believe we are in the end time now simply because we do not know if it is so. Any other assumption and foretelling are merely speculation and this is extremely discouraged because it is God’s prerogative and we are not to involve ourselves in it other than being prepared at all times.

The only thing that is dangerous is for someone to say that they know the specific time when Jesus’ Second Coming will happen. There’s no prohibition for Catholics against personal interpretation of the prophecies of scripture as long as it isn’t in contradiction to what is taught by the Magisterium of the Church. Why would the prophecies be mentioned in the Bible if we aren’t supposed to ponder them?

 

[GEddie]

I was born into the Catholic Church but pretty much **never **gave the end times a thought until I got involved in Protestantism in college.

ICXC NIKA

 

[livingwordunity]

I was born into the Catholic Church but pretty much **never **gave the end times a thought until I got involved in Protestantism in college.

ICXC NIKA

We should give it some thought since it’s mentioned at every Mass in what the priest says and in our creed that we profess. It’s also mentioned in St. Faustina’s Diary, in particular, the final sign of darkness that will happen just before Jesus returns in glory to judge the living and the dead. But I agree with those who say we shouldn’t worry about it or obsess over it to the extent that it keeps us from functioning in the world. We should try to have a balance and avoid going to one extreme of worrying constantly about it or going to the other extreme of choosing not to ever think about it and presuming that it can’t happen within our lifetime.

 

[Reuben_J]

What about someone like me who is a convert but who was never a Protestant?

^ I agree with this.

Actually, when St. Paul says that Jesus’ Second Coming come like a thief in the night he’s talking about how it will be a total shock to the non-believers. This could also just as well be true for the lukewarm among Christians. But a couple of verses after, St. Paul contrasts that by saying about the righteous, “but you are not in darkness, brethren, for that day to surprise you like a thief.” (1 Thess 5:4). We can’t know for sure the exact time such as day, month, year, or decade that Jesus’ Second Coming will happen. But Jesus suggests that those who know the prophecies in Sacred Scripture can tell when the time could be drawing near. “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates.” (Matt. 24:32-33)

The only thing that is dangerous is for someone to say that they know the specific time when Jesus’ Second Coming will happen. There’s no prohibition for Catholics against personal interpretation of the prophecies of scripture as long as it isn’t in contradiction to what is taught by the Magisterium of the Church. Why would the prophecies be mentioned in the Bible if we aren’t supposed to ponder them?

It was the OP’s preference to hear from Cradle Catholics’ perspective and I suppose this means that he already has some ideas of what this topic is all about and has heard from the other side.

 

[livingwordunity]

It was the OP’s preference to hear from Cradle Catholics’ perspective and I suppose this means that he already has some ideas of what this topic is all about and has heard from the other side.

The kinds of Catholic converts the OP wasn’t interested in hearing from are the ones who were Protestants before. That doesn’t apply to me since I was raised by an agnostic mother, and the only Christian theology that I’ve ever learned and accepted is the theology of the Catholic Church which I first began to learn as an adult convert to the Catholic faith. I didn’t come to the Catholic Church with any anti-Catholic biases or any Protestant theology. But I think the question in the OP is flawed since there are some cradle Catholics who grew up never listening to or accepting the Catholic doctrine they were taught but who jump onto Protestant theology as soon as they hear it. And there are some converts from Protestantism who know Catholic doctrine better than a lot of cradle Catholics. Dr. Scott Hahn is an example of this. A cradle Catholic could be tempted to rebel against the faith while rebelling against their parents and to take the faith they were born into for granted.

 

[Reuben_J]

The kinds of Catholic converts the OP wasn’t interested in hearing from are the ones who were Protestants before. That doesn’t apply to me since I was raised by an agnostic mother, and the only Christian theology that I’ve ever learned and accepted is the theology of the Catholic Church which I first began to learn as an adult convert to the Catholic faith. I didn’t come to the Catholic Church with any anti-Catholic biases or any Protestant theology. But I think the question in the OP is flawed since there are some cradle Catholics who grew up never listening to or accepting the Catholic doctrine they were taught but who jump onto Protestant theology as soon as they hear it. And there are some converts from Protestantism who know Catholic doctrine better than a lot of cradle Catholics. Dr. Scott Hahn is an example of this. A cradle Catholic could be tempted to rebel against the faith while rebelling against their parents and to take the faith they were born into for granted.

Yes, of course.