More Thoughts about the End TImes

Tick Tick Tick 

There are only two kinds of people in the world today.  There are the believers and the non-believers.  It is much easier to be a non-believer, life is much less complicated for those that pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.  A non-believer does not have to wrestle with something that appears all the rage among many of the subsets of believers today and that is they do not have to think about the end times, the time when this world stops.  As a believer I sometimes think about the end times. Someday, maybe today, maybe tomorrow maybe a thousand years from now the Lord will return to the earth.  That day will be both a day of great jubilation and a day of great fear and trepidation.  The just will welcome that Day of Days with open arms.  Those without belief will say to the mountains, "Cover us."  The choice of what we will do on that day is completely ours.  Each of us in our own way and in our own time will make a final choice of who we will serve.  We will take a step from which we cannot return, at least not by ourselves, the grace of God can do anything.  

What are some Catholic thoughts on these end times we are living in.  First of all, look at what our world has become. In this country our hands are stained with the blood of untold millions of babies killed in the womb.  In the United States abortion is a right.  No one has the right to take life except God.  By calling abortion a right we throw the blood of the children into the face of God.  If God thought like humans we would have passed into non-existence a long time ago.  In this country we gave taken the sacred act of marriage and have profaned it by allowing those of the same sex to join in "marriage."  In the United States we have decided to legislate God out of public life.  Christians, especially Catholics, are castigated when they remind others that we are not a law unto ourselves but are expected to follow the laws of the Lord.  These are just a couple of examples on how we have turned our backs on God and yet many of us get misty eyed when we sing "God Bless America."   These acts point to a great apostasy that is growing in our land.  Even Catholics, arguably the ones that should be leading the way, have members that call themselves "pro choice."  There are cafeteria Catholics that pick and choose what they will believe and what they won't based on

what is convenient to them.  These very Catholics are ones that see no need to go to Mass every week.  They have decided that they do not sin so what is the use of confession?  Some even do not believe that the Eucharist is the very Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus.  They go to communion not out of love of the Lord, but because if they stay back in the pew others may think that they have committed a sin. 

Our Protestant brothers and sisters are no better off.  First of all they have separated themselves from the unity of the Church.  They claim to believe in sola scriptura but they too embrace the pro choice :option", pay lip service to the Word of God, accept gay marriage and lots of other things too. 

So, I think we can cut short our discussion of the great apostasy of the church - our behavior, both Catholic and Protestant alike speaks for itself.  The truths we once held dear have in some measure given ground to the secular view of life. 

Next we have wars and rumors of wars.  Well, that is the human condition. If it were just wars we were speaking about I do not think that we could make much of it, where human beings are, war generally follows.  But, the type of war we are experiencing is different. The cowardly but bloodthirsty followers of ISIS are waging a campaign that is generating more martyrs in the Church than in the time of the Roman persecutions.  Christian communities in the east are being wiped out or being forced to immigrate to other countries.  Families who have peacefully lived  with Muslim neighbors for centuries are now seeing their churches being desecrated and are being

 told to convert to Islam or die.  In the meantime, the furious conquerors are exploiting the girls and young women of the area and making them into sex slaves.  These followers of the prophet and their so called holy book are a scourge and plague upon the land.  They not only kill and brutalize Christians, they kill other followers of the so called prophet as well. These people could be one of the four horsemen of the book of Revelation without a doubt. 

Further proof is offered in the form of earthquakes and storms in diverse placed.  In California drought is occurring, while on the east coast torrential rains are causing flooding.  The ring of fire in the Pacific is becoming more active.  So perhaps this is another sign that the return of Jesus is near. 

What about the Antichrist?    Has he happened on the scene yet?  I saw one documentary on You Tube where the Catholic Church is accused of being the Antichrist.  That of course is foolishness. The Catholic Church is the Church Jesus Himself began, placing Peter at the helm and promising that the Holy Spirit would protect her until the end of the age.  Calling the Church the whore of Babylon borders very closely to blasphemy because the Catholic Church is the Bride of Christ, Jesus is the bridegroom.

 Those looking to the Antichrist have nominated many men for the job, including various popes, Ronald Regan, and others but unfortunately none fill the bill.  But we have to remember that the winner of the 666 lottery was the emperor Nero and the end of the world forecast in the Book of Revelation has already taken place when Jerusalem was sacked, ending the temple which to the Jews was the world. 

So, with all that is happening in the world today what can we say about the return of Jesus?  What we can say for sure is that the time and place of His return is known only to the Father.  We must use this time to continue to be Jesus to people who do not know Him.  We should not waste time worrying about "the when" but we should trust in the Lord to keep His promise.  

Jesus loves you very much.  He wants desperately to be your friend and He wants us to Trust in Him.  If we trust in Jesus then the end of the world will hold no terrors for us. The only sin that cannot be forgiven is the sin against the Holy Spirit, which is our rejection of the love of God and His mercy at the time of our death.  So do not watch the skies, watch instead your neighbor and then to the needs of others.  The end of the age, the return of Jesus will be here before you know it.  May He find you with your hands busy and your mind lifted to Him.