The Signs Of The Times

[Livin_the_MASS]

How many of you think we are in the labor pains of the end times.

Don't get me wrong this is not a big concern of mine I focus on my everyday preperations.

Just wondering your guy's opinion's?


God Bless
Jason

[Paladin D]

To be honest, to be perfectly honest, I doubt we're very close to The End.

I'm [b]estimating[/b] about at least a century or two before The End comes. But who knows?

[Dave]

The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary has to happen first. After that there will be an era of peace. After that era a major apostasy will occur, and that's when the Antichrist will come on the scene.

[Livin_the_MASS]

[quote name='Dave' date='Apr 16 2004, 08:30 PM'] The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary has to happen first. After that there will be an era of peace. After that era a major apostasy will occur, and that's when the Antichrist will come on the scene. [/quote]

[thicke]

I don't think God would spend over 4 thousand years getting the world ready for the Church, to only let Church stay on Earth 2 thousand. That doesn't make sense to me.... I think we have a long way to go before the end of time...



But that's just me....

[ironmonk]

[quote name='Jason' date='Apr 16 2004, 09:13 PM'] How many of you think we are in the labor pains of the end times.

Don't get me wrong this is not a big concern of mine I focus on my everyday preperations.

Just wondering your guy's opinion's?


God Bless
Jason [/quote]
Yes I do.

Because of Romans 1 and some other verses.

Maybe in our lifetime, maybe a little later.

God said that no man knows the day or hour... and we are told that we can know but the signs of the times... the changing of the seasons.

God Bless,
ironmonk

[willguy]

I don't say we are because people have thought it for almost 2000 years now. The apostles thought it would happen in their lifetime, and every subsequent generation has thought the same. I just want to avoid being chronocentric.

[ironmonk]

[quote name='willguy' date='Apr 18 2004, 03:28 PM'] I don't say we are because people have thought it for almost 2000 years now.  The apostles thought it would happen in their lifetime, and every subsequent generation has thought the same.  I just want to avoid being chronocentric. [/quote]
There is a huge difference between now and the last 2000 years.

The worldwide use of abortion, acceptance of ssa marriages, man trying to make himself God (the sign of the beast... i.e. cloning, what's right and wrong) - Romans 1.

[url="http://www.digitalangel.net"]http://www.digitalangel.net[/url] <- People in Europe are trying to get this type of thing into law, not only will it track people, but people can have their financial info on it as well. (could be the beginning of getting the mark of the beast accepted)

So much more today points to it than ever before.

Also, wasn't there a communication between Mary and someone and it was asked how many more years are left before the second coming and she took a handful of sand, threw it into the ocean and said that many?

God Bless,
ironmonk

Edited April 18, 2004 by ironmonk

[God Conquers]

[quote]Also, wasn't there a communication between Mary and someone and it was asked how many more years are left before the second coming and she took a handful of sand, threw it into the ocean and said that many?[/quote]

Wow, ummm, how long is this? I've never heard this method of timekeeping!

Seriously though, I think it's tomorrow.

We know not the day or hour, but we have to be prepared for it!

It could happen at any time. I don't really trust the "signs" that people say are the ones concerning the end, it's way too sketchy. I'm with willguy on this one, every generation was prepared for it, so should we, and so we should prepare our children and grandchildren.

[Livin_the_MASS]

This is a book I bought while I was down at the Shrine of The Most Blessed Sacrament.

The name of it is called

"Divine Inspirations from Jesus and Mary For the Love of Many"

The Book has an Nihil Obstat
"Reverand Marco Chiolerio, OCD

Imprimatur
"The Most Reverand Jaroslav Skarvada
Vicar General and Consecrating Bishop
Archdiocese of Prague
Czech Republic


[b]"Now is the time for mankind to implore My mercy!"[/b]

19 September 2001 Wednesday

(Soon after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.)

[b][i][u]After Exposition and Rosary[/u][/i][/b]

[b]Jesus:[/b]

[b]"Daughter of My Most Sacred Heart, write, I will direct you. Tell Father all I say. My beloved, I give you My special blessing.[/b]

[b]"Daughter, this is to Father. My beloved son, peace and grace. My son, it is I, Jesus, Son of the Living God. I, My son, desire many things. First I desire all to listen and obey My holy words given to mankind for the salvation of the world. It does not matter who [/b](in this instance meaning Geraldine)[b] I use, only My will matters. My son, I speak very gravely to you now as never before.[/b]

[b]"Behold the hand of My Father is about to strike the world. Terror, My son, will come to the Church and the world as never before. Prepare humanity for the greatest catastrophe the world has ever seen!* I, Jesus have spoken, it shall be done. Do not deceive yourselves, the time foretold by the prophets [/b](God's messangers)[b] is nigh. Now purification which I and My Holy Mother spoke of many times in our messages to the world has arrived. Now, My son, is the time for mankind to implore My mercy. Now I desire all to pray for the conversion of all that this time may be lessened. Before the cup was overflowing, now My son, it is broken.[/b]

[b]"Many will cry in sorrow; pray implore My mercy, say the Chaplet of Divine Mercy often. PRAY, PRAY, PRAY. Stay close to Me always to sustain you. Do not, however, lose faith or be afraid. Come to Me in all your troubles, asking Me to strengthen you for these terrible times ahead of you.**[/b]

[b]"Daughter, spread My messages to the far corners of the world. The world is in need of My mercy now more than ever. My mercy, My child began on the Cross and was given to My beloved Saint Faustina to spread far and wide. Now I desire it, My child, to countinue through you. I bore witness to you that I, Jesus, do exist. [/b](referring to Geraldine's conversion experience, cf. Vol.I Message 6).[b] Now I desire you to bear witness to the world. For behold the Son of Man is coming soon to one and all. I will come in glory (refers to a new era of Christianity, not necissarily to the end of the world), and the wicked shall be wiped out and My will shall reign and peace and love will once more fill the earth.

"Do not be deceived, I, Jesus shall rule soon. Come all you who love Me and thirst for My Living Water. Come, and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Come, and share in My kingdom, Sorrow, sadness, misery, and despair will come upon many. Pray and when afraid repeat five times in honor of My Holy Wounds, 'Jesus I love You and I trust in You', and as My Beloved Mother said, 'and mean it'.

"Stay close to Me mankind, pray, suffer, atone, make sacrifices, make reparation. Come to Me, your Living God, asking for mercy and forgiveness for your sins and the sins of the world. Come, and I will fill you with good things. Daughter, I have finished. Be at peace."[/b]

The signs of the times are here. Only God knows the day or the hour, we must always be prepared, He comes like a theif in the night! For each of us individually. Actually the things Jesus spoke of in the world and the Church have happened think about it!

Look at the rich man who had an abundance of goods and he tore down the little storage places and bulit bigger ones. The Lord came to him one night and said You fool this night you life will be taken from you and to whom shall all your goods go!

He can come for us all soon or just for one of us. But I say the labor pains have begun, time to pray, sacrifice and do penance for the salvation of the world.


Peace of Christ to all
Jason

[Dave]

[quote name='ironmonk' date='Apr 18 2004, 03:18 PM'] Also, wasn't there a communication between Mary and someone and it was asked how many more years are left before the second coming and she took a handful of sand, threw it into the ocean and said that many?

[/quote]
I've never heard about that. Was the apparition approved?

[Dave]

Ok, here's what EWTN has to say about the end times/millennium/rapture deal:

The term "endtimes" applies both to the era of Christ's first coming (Heb 1:2, 1 Cor 10:11, Heb 9:26) and to the events immediately before his return and the end of the ages (Mt 24:13, 2 Tim 2:1, 2 Peter 3:3). The definitive Catholic teaching on the endtimes is contained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church under the discussion of the article of the Creed, "From thence He will come again to judge the living and the dead." [CCC 668-682]

As the Creed infallibly teaches, the Second Coming is associated with the end of the world and the Last Judgment. Therefore, it is NOT associated with any earlier time - such as to establish a "Millennium." The Catholic Church specifically condemns "millenarianism," according to which Jesus will establish a throne in this world and reign here for a thousand years [CCC 676]. She teaches instead that Jesus already reigns in eternity (1 Cor. 15:24-27, Rev. 4 & 5) and that in this world His reign, established as a seed, is found already in the Church [CCC 668-669]. This is the 1000 years, which is the Hebrew way of indicating an indefinite long time - in this case, the time between the first and second comings, the era of the Church, in other words the last days in the broadest sense.The Book of Revelation situates this era between the persecutions of the Roman antichrists of the first century and the final unleashing of evil at the end.

Naturally, non-Catholics cannot accept that the Catholic Church represents Christ in this world, so they are forced to look for a personal earthly reign somewhere out in the future. The notion that Jesus will come, reign, and then depart, so that the devil can trick the world again, is incompatible with the incomprehensible dignity of the Lord and His love for His people. Jesus' Coming will be definitive, triumphant and ever-lasting, NOT temporal and limited.

As for the Rapture, the meaning of 1 Thes 4:15-17 is 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 advantage in being resurrected over those who died before His Coming [CCC 1001]. All will go to meet Him and be with Him forever (v.17; cf. Rev 20:17-21:27).


The Catechism provides us with a general order of events at the End [CCC 673-677]. 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 Cardinal Ratzinger recently 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.

[Paladin D]

Well come to think of it, for those of you who think [b]The End[/b] is near: today is like an golden age compared to the first centuries of the Church. When the Church started, most of the world was pagan! Now, about 1/3 of the world is Christian, not including those who have some sort of believe in a God (Muslim and Jews and etc).

This is an awesome article (I think it's by Karl Keatton, typo?) check it out: [url="http://www.catholic.com/library/false_profit.asp"]http://www.catholic.com/library/false_profit.asp[/url]

[ironmonk]

The "full number of gentiles" could simply mean the number that are written in the book of life.

Full number of gentiles cannot mean all of non-jew mankind. If it did, there would not be a distinction between the elect and the lost generation during the tribulation.

I still think it's close. It has nothing to do with millenniumism or the rapture.

The reason why I asked about the vision is because I do not know, I had only heard someone mention it. It was not a reference.

The terms are vague and there has not been an infallible statement on when it is or isn't.

God Bless,
ironmonk

[cmotherofpirl]

Get a copy of [i]Trial, Tribulation, and Triumph[/i] by Desmond Birch.

It goes thru all the major Catholic prophecies. It is the basis for the curent EWTN series [i]Time and Eternity[/i].

I think you will be surprised.

[Norseman82]

Wow! When did the postmenopausal dispensionalists stage a hostile takeover of a Catholic board??

J/K

There are a lot of signs that could be interpreted to signal the end times are here, but they could be "false alarms".

Besides, aren't the Jewish people supposed to convert before the return of Christ?

[Quietfire]

Just gotta put my two cents in here,

There is a facinating book written by Mr. Anthony Gilles, titled "the people of the way". It is out of print (and no, you cant borrow mine!

What is great about it is that it explains revelations for what it is worth. A letter written by John on the island of Patmos in reference to the persecution of the believers in the church. Many were being killed. He wanted them to hold fast to thier beliefs and explained "how" Christ would take care of it. In a series of visions he explained figuratively how this would be done.
Nero at that time was persecuting Christians, thereby Nero represented the symbol/numbers of '666'. Its amazing how many believed in numerology (people on the island of Pompeii for example-is mentioned in the book)
Those early Christians could not only relate to what John was conveying to them through these letter or liturgies in thier 'secret' coding. But found his words to be of such wonderful use in their everyday life. *I say secret because all of his letters were checked before being allowed to be fowarded, after all, Patmos was the island he was banned to, like a prison*

If one could just understand that, then you look at Revelations in a whole new way.

My friends, there is an end time to everything,
a bad situation
persecution
life
a bad haircut. (I realize that sound rather cold, but think about it. It was to make a point)

If anyone can obtain a copy, and there are actually 6 or 7 volumes that he wrote about the bible, that one is the second. they will find it to be extremely interesting.
the people of the book
the people of the way- this is the one in reference to revelation
the people of the creed.
the people of the reformation

Ouch! I cant remember all the titles. But I will get them if anyone is interested.

If I am to understand the Churchs views on the popular 'end time' theories, with its 'rapture' and 'tribulation'. then my ( or should I say-Mr Gilles) view is more acceptable to the Church.
Since I believe that there already was a second coming, and Satan is already bound.

anyone?

[God Conquers]

haven't the jewish people already converted? I mean, of course not all of them, but weren't many of the first christians jews?

[Livin_the_MASS]

Our Lord to St. Faustina

(83)

[b]"Write this: before I come as the just Judge, I am coming first as the King of Mercy. Before the day of justice arrives, there will be given to people a sign in the heavens of this sort:

All the light in the heavens will be extinguished, and there will be great darkness over the whole earth. Then the sign of the cross will be seen in the sky, and from the openings where the hands and feet of the Savior were nailed will come forth great lights which will light up the earth for a period of time. This will take place shortly before the last day."[/b]

Our Lord to St. Faustina

(848)

[b]"Oh, what great graces I will grant to souls who say this chaplet; the very depths of My tender mercy are stirred for the sake of those who say the chaplet. Write down these words, My daughter. Speak to the world about my mercy; let all mankind recognize My unfathomable mercy. It is a sign for the end times; after it will come the day of justice. While there is still time, let them have recourse to the fount of My mercy; let them profit from the Blood and Water which gushed forth for them."[/b]

(1588)

[b]"In the Old Covenant I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to My people. Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart. I use punishment when they themselves force Me to do so; My hand is reluctant to take hold of the sword of justice. Before the Day of Justice I am sending the Day of Mercy."[/b]

+
J.M.J.

The Soul's Expectation of the Coming of the Lord.

"I do not know, O Lord, at what hour You will come.
And so I keep constant watch and listen As Your chosen bride,
Knowing that You like to come unexpected.
Yet, a pure heart will sense you from afar, O Lord.

"I wait for You, Lord, in calm and silence,
With great longing in my heart
And with invincible desire.
I feel that my love for You is changing fire,
And that it will rise to heaven like a flame at life's end,
And then all my wishes will be fulfilled.

"Come then, at last, my most sweet Lord
And take my thirsting heart
There, to Your home in the lofty regions of heaven,
Where Your eternal life perdures..

"Life on this earth is but an agony,
As my heart feels it is created for the heights.
For it the lowlands of this life hold no interest,
For my homeland is in heaven---this I firmly believe."

Peace of Christ to all
Jason