Rapture: The End-Times Error That Leaves the Bible Behind (56 page)

I suppose we should not find it surprising, then, that the
Catechism
affirms this principle: “Since the Ascension God’s plan has entered into its fulfillment. We are already at ‘the last hour.’ Already the final age of the world is with us, and the renewal of the world is irrevocably under way.… Christ’s kingdom already manifests its presence” (
CCC
, par. 670).

Of course, we ought to face up to the fact that we are all within “one generation” of meeting Christ’s judgment. For those of us who do not live long enough to see the second advent, Christ’s promise to come in judgment will not be broken. We, too, will suddenly be ushered into eternity to meet Christ—at our death. As even the Old Testament advises, “Remember your
last days
. Remember
death
and decay, and cease from sin!” (Sir. 28:6, NAB).

When Christ does return in these last days, it will be
not in a hidden manner, but publicly and unmistakably
. All the language of Scripture and the Church is clear on this. The second advent will be gloriously public. There will not be a secret rapture first, because that has never been taught by Scripture or by the Church. Scripture and the Church have never taught it because Jesus never did.

Jesus
did
teach that “as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of man” (Matt. 24:27). St. Paul taught in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 that “the Lord Himself will descend from Heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.” Both passages speak of the second advent as unmistakably obvious. There is nothing secret about lightning, cries of command, angel calls, or trumpets.

In the general audience of April 22, 1998, Pope John Paul II reminded the faithful of this teaching: “The second coming of the Son of Man will not take place in the weakness of flesh, but in divine power.” This will make it public and obvious to all.

Although it is clear in Scripture that the second coming will be public, it will nevertheless burst upon the world
unexpectedly, suddenly, and imminently
. Jesus warned us to be prepared lest “that day come upon you suddenly like a snare” (Luke 21:34).

St. Peter reiterated the warning: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up” (2 Pet. 3:10).

St. Paul coined the “thief in the night” verbiage that has been so often misapplied to a secret, private rapture. But as we determined in our examination of the epistles, this passage is speaking of the
second coming
. “The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When people say, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them as travail comes upon a woman with child, and there will be no escape” (1 Thess. 5:2–3). The destruction here is not the Great Tribulation, but our eternal judgment.

The Church has always spoken of the
imminent
return of Christ. Historically, that term had always meant that Christ could return during any generation. But rapturists have started to teach that it means Christ would rapture His believers at any moment, perhaps even before you finish reading this paragraph. They teach that there are no other events that must precede that rapture, not even the final confrontation between good and evil.

While they are certainly free to use language in their own manner, the Church uses the word as it always has throughout its two-thousand-year history. Christ may come back in our generation, or He may not. Only the Father knows. As the
Catechism
states, “Since the Ascension Christ’s coming in glory has been
imminent
, even though ‘it is not for you to know times or seasons.’ This eschatological coming could be accomplished at any moment, even if both it and the final trial that will precede it are ‘delayed’ ” (
CCC
, par. 673).

The fact that the second advent will come unexpectedly implies that we do not know its timing. But we have such an innate curiosity about the end times, that we will be explicit: The second coming will occur
at a time which only God the Father knows
. Perhaps the most amazing verse in the entire Bible is found in Mark, where Jesus tells His disciples that even He is not privy to the timing of the second coming! “But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in Heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (13:32).

In Matthew, Jesus emphasizes that this ignorance extends even to committed Christians: “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of Heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the householder had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (24:36–44).

The desire to know the timing of God’s plans is so irresistible that even the disciples fell prey to its allure. Just before the Ascension, they asked the risen Christ whether He would consummate all things at that time. He replied, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by His own authority” (Acts 1:7). That should satisfy us, yet it so often does not. But it should.

That the timing of God’s plan is unknown and unknowable to us was an accepted fact in the early Church. Origen wrote, “We speak on this subject very cautiously and diffidently, rather by way of discussion than coming to definite conclusions. The end and consummation of the world will be granted, [but] God alone knows that time” (
TPR
, I, VI, 1–4). Origen had some peculiar beliefs, but in this he was solidly in the mainstream of the early Church Fathers.

As we wait for the glorious return of our Lord, we must remember that
any apparent delay in the second coming is a result of God’s mercy
.

We must keep in mind that God is in eternity, while we are in time. He sees the end from the beginning constantly, while we experience reality in sequential order. This is what St. Peter is referring to here: “With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Pet. 3:8–9). Throughout history, some have tried to use this verse to determine the date of the second advent. But the thrust of the passage is not that we can mathematically corner God as to His plans, but that our perception of time is irrelevant.

Many unbelievers may find this delay a cause for derision. When Christian sects persist in setting dates that do not pan out, the mockery increases. This happened even in St. Peter’s time: “First of all, you must understand this, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own Passions and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation’ ” (2 Pet. 3:3–4). Things really have not changed all that much, have they?

There is a very good reason for God’s delay: everyone is not ready for Christ’s return just yet. After our study of The Apocalypse, we should anticipate this reason. The judgment of Jerusalem was delayed as long as possible, specifically to allow time for more Jewish people to be saved from judgment (Apoc. 7:3; GR3). The
Catechism
tells us, “The glorious Messiah’s coming is suspended at every moment of history until His recognition by ‘all Israel,’ for ‘a hardening has come upon part of Israel’ in their ‘unbelief’ toward Jesus. The ‘full inclusion’ of the Jews in the Messiah’s salvation, in the wake of ‘the full number of the Gentiles,’ will enable the people of God to achieve ‘the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ’ in which ‘God may be all in all’ ” (
CCC
, par. 674).

The very next event on the “end-times agenda” is not a secret rapture, but the final massive assault upon the Church by the forces of Satan (Apoc. 20:7–9).
There is yet to be one final battle between good and evil
. Nowhere does Scripture or the Church teach that there is any event that must precede this final cosmic battle.

The
Catechism
summarizes this by saying, “Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution … 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” (
CCC
, par. 675).

Although there may be thousands of years in which peace and godliness prevail before this final apostasy, that peace will not trigger the second advent. There will not be a gradual ascendancy that elevates the world to righteousness until we are good enough to merit Christ’s return.

Indeed, the emergence and ascendancy of
evil
will be the catalyst for the second coming. The
Catechism
states, “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” (
CCC
, par. 677).

True, the assault of evil upon good has been almost without pause since the first advent. Both the New Testament writers and the
Catechism
recognize this. St. John wrote that many antichrists have come (1 John 2:18). The
Catechism
states, “Christ’s reign is still under attack by the evil powers, even though they have been defeated definitively by Christ’s Passover.… The present time is … a time still marked by ‘distress’ and the trial of evil which does not spare the Church.… 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 … millenarianism, especially the ‘intrinsically perverse’ political form of a secular messianism” (
CCC
, pars. 671, 672, 676).

But the final assault of evil will be so intense that many will be in danger of losing their faith. St. Paul’s letter to Bishop Timothy records, “Now, the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the Faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Tim. 4:1). Satan’s ability to deceive humanity is now restrained by God. But during the final distress, Satan will be “released” from this restraint once again to weave his deceptive web with all his cunning (Apoc. 20:1–3, 7–10; 2 Thess. 2:7).

Has that final assault begun? I don’t know. But of one thing I am quite certain. If the final trial of evil is upon us, we are in its very early stages. Why do I believe that? There have been times when it was much harder to be a Christian than it is now: during Hitler’s Germany, Mao’s China, Stalin’s Russia, Elizabeth’s England, Voltaire’s France, Domitian’s Rome, and even Arian Egypt.

This intense assault of evil will be orchestrated by a man commonly referred to as the antichrist, the man of sin, and the son of perdition. St. Paul warns not to let anyone “deceive you in any way; for that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition” (2 Thess. 2:3).

The early Church fully anticipated the revelation of the antichrist before the second coming. St. Jerome wrote, “I told you that Christ would not come unless antichrist has come before”
(EPS)
. St. John Chrysostom preached, “The time of antichrist will be a sign of the coming of Christ” (
HFT
, 9). St. Augustine clearly concurred, “The kingdom of antichrist shall fiercely, though for a short time, assail the Church” (
COG
, XX, 23). It might be nice to be safely tucked away in Heaven when this happens, but all early Christians expected the Church to be party to this struggle.

The antichrist need not be of Middle Eastern descent, as some rapturists have claimed. The final battle against Gog and Magog will be a spiritual struggle—which could very well begin anywhere in the world—and will present all Christians with a choice. The choice will be between God’s narrow way and the broad path to destruction, but it will not be presented by Satan’s side in those terms. “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” (
CCC
, par. 675).

The antichrist will attack Truth at its core. He will attempt to replace the true worship of the Church with a counterfeit: “The son of perdition … [will take] his seat in the Temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God” (2 Thess. 2:3–4). Exactly how he will insert himself into the worship of the Church is unclear. But it seems likely that he will attempt a victory over the Church’s belief from within.