Will Catholics Be Left Behind?

What the Church Teaches About the End TimesJoyce DonahueCatechetical Associate, Religious Education OfficeDiocese of Joliet

What have YOU heard about….

• The Rapture?• The Anti-Christ?• The Beast?• Armegeddon?• The Last Judgment?• The Second Coming?

What are your attitudes about the End of Time?

Where did your information come from?• The Bible?• Teachers?• Movies?• Books?• What your friends

told you?• Other sources?

Surprise…most of what you’ve heard is probably not in the Bible!!!

The media actually determines what most Americans “know”

Hollywood’s Apocalypse Phenomenon

Between 1933 and 2000, there were 158 movies about the end of the world. Between 2000 and 2019 there will have been 100.

(Wikipedia article on Apocalyptic movies)

Hollywood’s More Recent Versions- Rosemary’s Baby- The Omen (I, II and III & TV Movie)- The Late Great Planet Earth- The Seventh Sign- Omega Code (I & II)- End of Days- The Book of Eli- World War Z …and many more

Popular Books on the End Times

Left BehindPopular fiction –16 books for AdultsNY Times Bestsellers

Early 2000’s

Targeting Even the YouthLeft Behind – The Kids

Series of 48 books – Live action audios available on CD.

Storyline: young teens left behind because of rather normal teenage rebellious behaviors have to battle the AntiChrist after their families are taken in the Rapture

2001-2005 Low-Budget Movies

2014 – A Major Motion Picture

Left Behind: Anti-Catholic• Catholic characters are

mostly “left behind”• Peter Matthews, Archbishop

of Cincinnati, declares self “Pontifex Maximus” and is a major villain in the books

• End times websites list him as a representation of a “false prophet.”

Catholics “left behind” because…• Author Tim LaHaye insists it is not anti-Catholic.• He says only people who don’t have a personal

relationship with Jesus are left.• Evidence that one has such a relationship: saying “I

accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior” – which many evangelicals believe is the only way to be saved.

• Catholics believe personal salvation and acceptance of Jesus Christ begins at baptism and is a lifelong process of doing our best to cooperate with God’s grace.

The “Prophesy Industry” – Falsehood and Profit in America

• 1970 publication of Hal Lindsey’s Late Great Planet Earth sold over 10 million copies

• Left Behind series – over 63 million books sold• LeftBehind.com - products• History Channel - continues to crank out low-

budget representation of Apocalypse, Armegeddon, Anti-Christ…

• New “Major Motion Picture” – Nicolas Cage

Fiction – Not Biblical Teaching

To respond to Fundamentalists, you should know Church teachings about the end times and how Catholics read scripture.

FundamentalismThe Interpretation of the Bible in the ChurchPontifical Bible Commission, 1993: “Fundamentalism…places undue stress upon the

inerrancy of certain details in the biblical texts, especially in what concerns historical events or supposedly scientific truth. It often historicizes material which from the start never claimed to be historical. It considers historical everything that is reported or recounted with verbs in the past tense, failing to take the necessary account of the possibility of symbolic or figurative meaning.”

Characteristics of Catholic Interpretation of the Bible

• Re-readings – later texts depend on earlier ones

• Relationship between O.T. & N.T.

• Reference to how the Canon was formed

• Church Fathers (Patristic Exegesis)

• Historical character• Christological

significance• Relationship between

Bible and the Church• Research, teaching,

publications• Theology

Finding the End Times in the BibleWhere Fundamentalists believe we find it: Apocalyptic books:• Book of Daniel • Book of Revelations

Where the Church finds it…• Gospel of Matthew Ch. 24-25• Paul’s Epistles

The Bible: Daniel

• Prophesies 70 weeks of Tribulation (sometimes interpreted as 7 years, 64-70 A.D., when Nero persecuted the Church

• Beasts, huge statue, mystical numbers, wars, coming of “one like the son of man”, (the “Anointed One”) fall of the Temple (took place in 70 A.D.)

• St. Augustine said the vision of Daniel was fulfilled in Jesus’ first coming

The Bible: Book of Revelation – a “plan” for the end?

• Fundamentalists read Revelation literally, and connect signs in scripture to specific events in history.

• They use Revelation as a “blueprint” – as if God had handed us a guided tour of the end times.

• The Scofield Bible, some televangelists (Jack Van Impe, Pat Robertson), Left Behind, etc. use this method of “biblical prophesy”

Gospel Parousia: built on Apocalyptic vision• There is a relationship – but not a literal one• The Son of Man will come in glory and the

just ones will be vindicated• Imagery used by Jesus is sometimes from

the O.T.• Early Church thought this would happen

right away.

The Bible: Matthew

The “Olivet discourse” – Chapters 24-25 – answers 2 questions posed by the disciples

in Matthew 24:3. • “when will this happen (when will the temple

be destroyed)?”• “what will be the sign of your coming and of

the close of the age?”

8 signs before destruction of the temple

• False messiahs• Wars• Famines • Earthquakes

• Persecution• Apostasy• The Gospel

worldwide• Jewish leaders

reject Jesus as Messiah

The return of Christ (Matthew 24)

• No one knows the day or the hour (36, 39, 42, 44)

• It will be sudden (27, 37-39)

• Christ will gather his own to himself (28)

More Matthew 24…..

• We are to be ready (42-43)• One will be taken, one left (40, 41) • NOT left behind -- the world will end

– but left out of the kingdom in the Final Judgment

The Bible: Paul’s Epistles

• 1 Corinthians 15:20-26 – Christ is raised, the dead are raised, and the end comes

• Colossians 3:4 – When Christ comes, we will appear with him in glory

• 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:3 – the day of the Lord…meeting the Lord in the air

The “Day of the Lord”

• Term appears throughout Old Testament: prophets used it to refer to the day of final judgment (Amos, Ezekiel, Joel, Zephaniah, Isaiah et al)

• New Testament: Acts 2:20; 2 Peter 10-13; I Thess 5:2; 2 Thess 2:2

Is the “Rapture” ANOTHER Day of the Lord?

Nowhere in Scripture does anyone refer to more than one “Day of the Lord”, or more than one judgment

If Jesus comes again before the Last Judgment, does this mean there will be a “Third Coming?”

The “Rapture” believer’s answer: Since Paul says we

will “meet him in the air”, Christ’s feet won’t touch the ground – so he won’t really come back to earth!

Apocalyptic writing

• Uses symbols• Is meant to hint at

deeper meanings• Was not intended

to be taken literally

Revelation – hope, not fear Revelation was actually

written as a response to the persecution of early Christians, not a prediction of future events. It can be interpreted in light of the events of the years immediately prior to 70 A.D. It was written to give hope to a suffering Church.

The Bible: In Summary

• Consistently centered in God’s faithfulness to the righteous

• A reason for hope, not fear• We are told enough to know it will come,

but Christ says don’t worry about the details, such as when or how

What DOES the Church teach about the End times?

Catechism of the Catholic Church 668-682: “He will come again in glory…”

No Secret Rapture• Christ will only return

ONCE – to judge every person – at the end of time. (CCC 678)

• No “secret Rapture” of those judged to be good Christians ahead of the Final Judgment.

Tribulation for Entire Church• NO 7-year Tribulation between a Rapture and

the 2nd Coming. This was invented in the late 19th Century and has never been taught by the Church.

• The ENTIRE Church will suffer tribulation. Indeed, throughout history, the Church has been persecuted, beginning in the 1st Century. Suffering is not limited to those “unworthy” of Heaven - i.e., “good” people will not be taken “early” and spared. (see CCC 672, 675)

The Last Judgment – for everyone

We will be judged not on whether we were perfect, but on how we treated others:

“Whatsoever you do to the least of these you have done unto me”

(Matthew 25: 40)

We are a people of hope, not fear

We know neither the day nor the hour of Christ’s coming, nor are we to worry about it

Our God is good and loving

We TRUST in God’s mercy and have an image of a loving, not an angry God: Jesus said, “Who has seen me has seen the Father.”

The End of Time is a fulfillment

The End of the World is a threshold to be approached with hope by God’s people.

The GOOD NEWS• Jesus calls us to

share with all people the good news that God loves the world and will not fail to love us – now and at the end of time

FOR DISCUSSION

What did YOU hear tonight that • You didn’t know?• Amazed you?• Changed how you think?