What is the sequence of events for the end times?

  • Thread starter Thread starter FaithBuild18
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
F

FaithBuild18

Guest
Is it tribulation > second coming > rapture > Christianized world > Armageddon?

Or tribulation > second coming > rapture > Armageddon > Christianized world?

Or tribulation > second coming > Christianized world > rapture > Armageddon?

Or something else?

I’m looking for the catholic view of course. I’ve already read catholic.com/library/Rapture.asp
but it still left me with the question I’ve posted.

Do we even believe that there is going to be an Armageddon?
 
Is it tribulation > second coming > rapture > Christianized world > Armageddon?

Or tribulation > second coming > rapture > Armageddon > Christianized world?

Or tribulation > second coming > Christianized world > rapture > Armageddon?

Or something else?

I’m looking for the catholic view of course. I’ve already read catholic.com/library/Rapture.asp
but it still left me with the question I’ve posted.

Do we even believe that there is going to be an Armageddon?
tribulation (increasing natural disasters, increasing apostasy, the appearance of the antichrist, wars and rumors of wars are all part of this), the conversion of the Jewish people, second coming, final judgement and separation of the sheep from the goats (heaven and hell) according to who stands up for the least of Our Lord’s brothers…Mathew 25
there are some protestant believers who think God will take them out of the world before the tribulation…what they mean by the term rapture…while unbelievers will experience the tribulation…Catholics don’t believe that.
 
As stated, rapture is not a belief of Catholicism. Rapture is 100% in opposition to what scripture actually says.

Any version of the end times which Catholicism may teach will not include a rapture.

-Tim-
 
Is it tribulation > second coming > rapture > Christianized world > Armageddon?

Or tribulation > second coming > rapture > Armageddon > Christianized world?

Or tribulation > second coming > Christianized world > rapture > Armageddon?

Or something else?

I’m looking for the catholic view of course. I’ve already read catholic.com/library/Rapture.asp
but it still left me with the question I’ve posted.

Do we even believe that there is going to be an Armageddon?
My opinion (subject to change should there be an increase in knowledge 🙂 )
  1. Christianized world
  2. tribulation
  3. Armageddon
  4. second coming
  5. The dead rise
  6. rapture
  7. Judgement
:cool:
 
There is no set sequence of events that is clearly revealed. A somewhat conventional (I think), though not dogmatic list of events in one intuitively reasonable order is as follows:

-Preaching of the Gospel to every nation, to the ends of the earth
-The Great Apostasy, in which people will leave the Church in droves
-Ascension of the Antichrist, by some associated with a rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, this time for sacrilegious sacrifices. He may be accompanied by a False Prophet.
-Renewed intense persecution of the Church (the tribulation)
-The return of Elijah (and perhaps Enoch) from heaven, followed by their martyrdom
-The conversion of the Jews to Christianity
-The Second Coming and General Resurrection, immediately after which those faithful still alive will be “caught up” to heaven, perhaps dying momentarily and then being resurrected.
-The General Judgment

To be clear, this is just my impression of how some Catholics have in the past imagined the end times proceeding. We would do well to remember the incompleteness and sometimes inaccuracy of the Jews’ anticipation of the First Coming. The Second Coming may similarly not go exactly as has been conventionally imagined.

What is important is to live faithfully Christian lives during the time that is given to us, and to be prepared for either our own deaths or the Second Coming at any time.
 
The nations will donn their global identities. The social and spiritual advantages that forged this unity, gifts given to us by God, will be explained away as having natural sources. The human conscience, in time, will be informed by the state. People will be lulled into managing themselves as produce. We will have become a civilization that no longer consummes the planet for energy. We will have broken the yoke of the natural powers that bent our necks since the fall. We will be enjoying the peace that the world has to offer.

In worldly peace we become self sufficient and arrogant. In worldly peace we have no need for God. When is this coming? Everything is as it was since the beginning.

Deception will have manifested it’s most sublime and permeating expression. It’s end swallowed up in it’s beginning. Finally whole and waiting for it’s offspring to call him God for the sake of his justice

The people of the world will have emptied the cross of it’s power to save them. No ear on earth will hear the voice of Christ. To the people of the world the Church will have long been dead like an unwanted conscience. The diciples praising God at His entrance will have been quieted.

So, at this, as Jesus said would happen, the very stones cry out. The earth will cry for God. And as God heard the blood of Abel cry out from the ground, so, from the earth will all the blood ever shed cry out to God. The people of the world will claim that it is their blood crying out for justice, for the crimes the People of God have committed against them since the beginning. That the Earth it’self wants to be rid of, once and for all, the origin of all abuse, the People of God.

This final suffering of God’s faithfull Witnesses will be purging their sin. Because of that the People of God will be able to rise up and torment the people of the world. They will prophecy and wield heavenly power. The people of the world will be helpless to fend against those witnessing for God.

Helpless to do anything else, the worldly call on the god of their name. They call their god to deliver them from the witnesses of Christ Jesus. Finally the children of the world call the father of lies, God.

The people rejoice with one another saying "Our tormentors are dead. Our world is finally purged of the origin of sin.

The life of the Witnesses suddenly end in murder at the hand of the worldly prince but, their suffering was offered to their Lord. So, as the world was ridding it’self of them, their Lord was ridding them of the world
The worldly, like the scribes and Pharisees who attributed the works of God to the Devil, were eternally committed to their hatred for God’s Holy Spirit. As horrifying as it was to hear the Divine Voice and see their enemies lifted up body and soul, in little time they were able to deny it as anything of consequence.
Rev. Ch 11
.[18] And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest render reward to thy servants the prophets and the saints, and to them that fear thy name, little and great, and shouldest destroy them who have corrupted the earth.
 
I don’t believe the world will ever be majority christianized. The wheat and the weeds will grow up beside one another.
 
I don’t understand. Where would the “dead” rise from? People who have passed are in heaven, purgatory of hell. So, I’m confused. :confused:
When we die, our souls are separated from our bodies. Our souls either go to hell, to heaven via purgatory, or (presumably rarely) directly to heaven. Our bodies meanwhile corrupt on the earth.

However, a soul without a body is not really a complete human being. To be fully ourselves the way God wants us to be, we must be reunited to our bodies. This is what will happen when Jesus comes again at the end of history. All the dead, but the good and the bad, will be reunited with the bodies they had in life, restoring those bodies to wholeness and life.

How this happens is a mystery, especially in light of how the atoms of our bodies are essentially recycled over the course of time. But if God could multiply a few loaves and fish so that they could feed a huge crowd, then He can multiply the matter that once made up our bodies so that everyone can have a complete body.

After the General Resurrection everyone will be publicly judged and separated into the good and the bad, and will then experience the joys of heaven or the pains of hell not just spiritually but in their physical bodies as well.
 
As stated, rapture is not a belief of Catholicism. Rapture is 100% in opposition to what scripture actually says.

Any version of the end times which Catholicism may teach will not include a rapture.

-Tim-
Actually, the idea of being “caught up” (raptured) to heaven is extremely Biblical and Catholic. What is unbiblical is the idea that this will happen some time before the Second Coming, as opposed to some time shortly afterwards.

Here’s how Paul describes it: “For the Lord himself, with a word of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God, will come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Thus we shall always be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4: 16-17)

It seems to me that whether you want to call this event “the rapture” is a matter of prudence. On the one hand you might say to a pre-trib rapture person or someone like that, “Actually, we Catholics do believe in the rapture, only we believe XYZ about it, and here’s why.” On the other hand casually mentioning “the rapture” in average company could easily lead to a misunderstanding of what you mean by the term.
 
I don’t believe the world will ever be majority christianized. The wheat and the weeds will grow up beside one another.
I agree. The Gospel will be preached to every tribe and nation, but this does not mean every tribe and nation will be converted en masse and everyone in the world will be happy Catholics for a while.
 
Actually, the idea of being “caught up” (raptured) to heaven is extremely Biblical and Catholic. What is unbiblical is the idea that this will happen some time before the Second Coming, as opposed to some time shortly afterwards.

Here’s how Paul describes it: “For the Lord himself, with a word of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God, will come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Thus we shall always be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4: 16-17)

It seems to me that whether you want to call this event “the rapture” is a matter of prudence. On the one hand you might say to a pre-trib rapture person or someone like that, “Actually, we Catholics do believe in the rapture, only we believe XYZ about it, and here’s why.” On the other hand casually mentioning “the rapture” in average company could easily lead to a misunderstanding of what you mean by the term.
There’s a pretty good description of the Catholic perspective on the rapture here. 🙂
 
I don’t understand. Where would the “dead” rise from? People who have passed are in heaven, purgatory of hell. So, I’m confused. :confused:
vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2H.HTM
997 What is “rising”? In death, the separation of the soul from the body, the human body decays and the soul goes to meet God, while awaiting its reunion with its glorified body. God, in his almighty power, will definitively grant incorruptible life to our bodies by reuniting them with our souls, through the power of Jesus’ Resurrection.
998 Who will rise? All the dead will rise, "those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment."550
 
997 What is “rising”? In death, the separation of the soul from the body, the human body decays and the soul goes to meet God, while awaiting its reunion with its glorified body. God, in his almighty power, will definitively grant incorruptible life to our bodies by reuniting them with our souls, through the power of Jesus’ Resurrection.
998 Who will rise? All the dead will rise, "those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment."550
Thank you for the reference. 👍
 
Thanks for the responses everyone. So what about Armageddon? Do Catholics believe in this? And is this the final conclusion of life on Earth, or does it happen before Jesus comes again and Jesus then wins and then everything else happens?
 
You might like this article, it was written by a Bishop but is a very simple explanation:

What Catholics Believe About the End of the World
I agree with the article. Historically, the Roman army traveled through Armageddon to lay seige to Jerusalem. Armegeddon is a past event. Catholics believe that we are in the 1,000 years of chapter 20 and we are awaiting the return of Christ.

Now it is possible that events could replay themselves on a global scale, but a Gog and Magog scenario could just be evil surrounding the good (which would be consistant with the wheat and weeds growing up together before Christ comes in judgment).
 
I don’t believe the world will ever be majority christianized. The wheat and the weeds will grow up beside one another.
Jesus himself suggested this when he posed the question would there be faith on earth when the son of man returned.
 
OK, here is the Catholic understanding of the “End Times”:

When each of us dies, our souls are immediately judged by God. This is called the Particular Judgment. At this point we begin our eternal destiny. If we are going to hell, our souls go directly there. If we are deemed worthy of heaven, our souls will go directly to heaven, or if we are going to heaven but are in need of purification, we may go to Purgatory first for a while (everyone in Purgatory will eventually go to heaven). Whatever our fate, our souls will stay there (heaven or hell) until the end of time, at which time the Second Coming will occur. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
675 Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the “mystery of iniquity” in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.
676 The Antichrist’s deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgment. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism, especially the “intrinsically perverse” political form of a secular messianism.
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.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. 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.
At the Second Coming at the end of time, those Christians still alive and who are in a state of sanctifying grace will be taken to heaven (what some Protestants think of as of “the rapture”). Then will occur the General Judgment. At that time the souls of the living and the dead will be reunited with their bodies and brought together in God’s presence and judged before all. Those who have already been judged in the Particular Judgment will be brought from wherever their souls were -heaven, hell or Purgatory-- and have their judgment confirmed before all, so that both the justice and mercy of God will be manifest to all. No one will then have any doubt about the fairness of God’s judgment on those they thought would be in heaven but are not, or those they thought would not be in heaven but are.

After this, time and Purgatory will be no more and all will enter with their souls and bodies into their eternal destiny, either hell or heaven.

This is an extremely bare-bones sketch, so if you want to get the details, see the five articles I linked below:

rosary-center.org/ll57n1.htm
rosary-center.org/ll57n2.htm
rosary-center.org/ll57n3.htm
rosary-center.org/ll57n4.htm
rosary-center.org/ll49n6.htm
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top