Endtimes, Millennium and Rapture

Endtimes or Last Days

The term "end times" applies both to the era of Christ's first coming (Heb. 1:2, 1 Cor. 10:11, Heb. 9:26) and to the narrower set of events immediately before His return and the end of the ages (Mt 24:13, 2 Tim 2:1, 2 Peter 3:3). 

1. Between Christ's Two Comings. The first meaning of "end times" is a reference to the “last days” of human history. These began with Christ's First Coming, and will conclude with His Second Coming. During this time, the plan of the Father in Christ is realized by the Holy Spirit through the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ. This period is sometimes called the Church Age, since the Church continues Christ ministry of teaching, sanctifying and pastoring His sheep until He Comes Again.

Heb. 1:1-2  In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the ages.

Heb. 9:26b, 28  But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself…. 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

1 Cor. 10:11  Now these things happened to them as a warning, but they were written down for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages has come.

2. Immediate Preparation for the Second Coming. The second meaning, and probably the more common usage, concerns the events immediately preceeding the Return of the Lord. The definitive Catholic teaching on the end times in that sense is contained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church under the discussion of the article of the Nicene Creed, "From thence He will come again to judge the living and the dead" (CCC 668-682). Thus, in every Mass on Sundays and Solemnities, as well as in every use of the Apostles Creed, Catholics affirm the teaching of the Church on the end times. This teaching opposes all its contradictories, such as intermediate comings, and millennial reigns. Christ's presence with us is in and through the Church, the Sacraments, pre-eminently the Eucharist, and by sanctifying grace.

Mt. 28:20  and behold, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”

Millennium or Thousand Year Reign

As the Nicene Creed teaches, the Second Coming of Christ is associated with the End of the World and the Last Judgment. The Catholic, Orthodox, Alexandrian, Ethiopian, Oriental, and Armenian Churches, as well as the older Reformation churches, all profess this teaching. The Lord's Return, therefore, cannot be associated with any earlier event or coming, one which would be anything less than the definitive destruction of the plans of the Evil One, his agent the Antichrist, and of human evil generally. When Christ, the Lord of History and its Judge, returns, the plea we utter in the Lord's Prayer is realized - the Kingdom definitively comes, and the Father's will is perfectly done on earth, as it is in heaven by the Son and the angels. 

The Catholic Church specifically rejects and condemns, therefore, all forms of "millennarianism," according to which Jesus will establish a throne in this world, and reign there for a thousand years. And, in that condemnation the Church also condemns all forms of utopianism, whether communist, socialist or secular [CCC 676], in which political, scientific or technological progress will produce peace and justice on earth without Christ and the definitive destruction of evil. This true order is especially clear in Mt 25:31ff, when the Lord describes His return in glory to judge the nations and to definitively reward the just and condemn the unjust, the first according to their charity, the second their lack thereof.

Until the Final Judgment, the Church teaches that Jesus reigns in eternity (1 Cor. 15:24-27, Rev. 4 & 5) and that in this world His reign, established as a seed, is found in the Church [CCC 668-669]. This is the 1000 years (Rev. 20:2-3), a Hebrew way of indicating an indefinitely long time—in this case, the time between the first and second comings, a time whose length is not given to us to know. This period is the era of the Church, in which the Holy Spirit operating through the Mystical Body, Head and members, continues Christ's earthly mission of redemption. The Book of Revelation situates this era between the persecutions of the Roman antichrist of the first centuries and the final unleashing of evil at the end.

Rapture 

1 Thessalonians 4:13–17  13 But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For 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. And the dead in Christ will rise first; 17 then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord.

In this text we read, that at the return of Christ (v.15) and the General Resurrection of the Dead (v.16), those who survive the persecution of the Antichrist will have no disadvantage in being resurrected compared to those who died before previously [CCC 1001]. All will go to meet Him and be with Him forever (v.17; cf. Rev 20:17-21:27), while the unjust are cast into the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Thus, when Christ returns, the bodies of the dead will arise, and joined to their souls receive the reward or punishment due to them. 

However, for those who believe that Christ's return will initiate a millennial reign, it is generally combined with a different view of this text. At the beginning of the 19th century, some Protestants began to teach that this “catching up” would not be for the glorification of the just still alive, but to spare the just the Tribulation, and especially the persecutions of the Antichrist. When the seven-year Tribulation ended, Christ would descend, and judge the nations, chain Satan, and rule on the earth for 1000 years, along with the just He had snatched away.  At the end of this time the nations will rebel against their King leading to the final judgment. 

While the notion of being raptured out of suffering, even death, for belief in Christ is appealing, flight from the Cross is nowhere taught in Scripture. Rather, the Savior said, “take up your cross and follow me,” and during His own Passion, “For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (Lk. 23:31). Rather, it is conformity to Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2) that has marked the saints of all eras, from the time of Peter and Paul to our own.  

Chronology of the End

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, following the teaching of Scripture and Tradition, as understood by the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, provides us with a general order of the events leading up to the End [CCC 673-677]. These are preceded in history by Chronologically they are,

1. the full number of the Gentiles come into the Church

2. the "full inclusion of the Jews in the Messiah's salvation, in the wake of the full number of the Gentiles" (#2 will follow quickly on, in the wake of, #1)

3. a final trial of the Church "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 deception is that of the Antichrist.

4. Christ's victory over this final unleashing of evil through a cosmic upheaval of this passing world and the Last Judgment.

As then Cardinal Ratzinger pointed out (in the context of the message of Fátima), we are not at the end of the world. In fact, the Second Coming (understood as the physical return of Christ) cannot occur until the full number of the Gentiles are converted, followed by "all Israel." 

Approved Catholic mystics (Venerables, Blessed and Saints, approved apparitions) throw considerable light on this order, by prophesying a minor apostasy and tribulation toward the end of the world, after which will occur the reunion of Christians. Only later will the entire world fall away from Christ (the great apostasy) and the personal Antichrist arise and the Tribulation of the End occur.

Although this is not Catholic doctrine, arising as it does from private revelation, it conforms to what is occurring in our time, especially in light of Our Lady of Fátima's promise of an "Era of Peace." This "Triumph of the Immaculate Heart" (other saints have spoken of a social reign of Jesus Christ when Jesus will reign in the hearts of men) would seem to occur prior to the rise of the Antichrist. The optimism of the Pope for the "New Evangelization" and a "Civilization of Love" in the Third Millennium of Christianity fits here, as well. This would place us, therefore, in the period just before the events spoken of in the Catechism, that is, on the verge of the evangelization of the entire world. Other interpretations are possible, but none seem to fit the facts as well, especially when approved mystics are studied, instead of merely alleged ones.