Jehovah’s Witnesses and members of other sects, astrologists and diviners announce the exact dates of the end of the world every now and then. Even though these announcements have never come true, there are people credulous enough to believe in these deceitful prophecies.
Catholics should reject outright such prophecies because they are against the teaching of the Gospel; ergo, they are inspired by the evil spirit. Instead, they should know what Jesus Christ tells us about the end of the world.
When Will the Last Day of the History of Mankind Come?
To the question about the exact date of the end of the world, Jesus answers unequivocally: “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Matthew 24: 36) Thus, only God knows that day. Any person who claims to know the date of the end of the world is a liar and misleads people. We read in the Bible: “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority” (Acts 1:7)
Jesus warns against the deceptive actions of people who are possessed by evil forces: “Take heed that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is at hand!’ Do not go after them.” (Luke 21:8)
Those who predict the exact dates of the end of the world mislead people (Mark 13: 6) and thus, often unwittingly, become an instrument in the hands of the evil spirit, who is very keen for people to stop believing in the real presence of Jesus in His Church and His ultimate advent on the day of the Second Coming. “Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” St. Paul writes, “and our assembling to meet him, we beg you, brethren, not to be quickly shaken in mind or excited, either by spirit or by word, or by letter purporting to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way.” (2 Thess 2:1-3)
He Will Come to Judge the Living and the Dead
Every day, when we pray the Credo, we are made aware of the truth that the resurrected Lord will end the history of mankind when “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.”
People of deep faith look forward to the Second Coming or the final advent of the Saviour. It must be remembered that the most important events in the history of mankind were the Incarnation and the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Almighty God became a true man. (John 1:14) Through His Death and Resurrection, He gave ultimate meaning to the life of every person, made possible the forgiveness all sins through the sacrament of confession, and made suffering and death in unity with Him the path to the fullness of life in heaven.
Since the moment of His Ascension, Jesus Christ has become invisible to us here on earth. However, although we cannot experience His presence through our senses, after the Ascension Jesus became present in the human family in a new and fuller dimension. He is ubiquitous as the Divine Person of the Son in the gift of the Holy Spirit. Although invisible, Jesus is actually present, especially in the Eucharist and other sacraments, and will be with us “to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20) to give to all the possibility to share in His victory over sin and death. The victory is to be realised at the hour of our death and, on the scale of the whole of mankind, upon the Second Coming.
We will never know the exact date of Christ’s Second Coming. However, we should always be watchful and ready for this ultimate encounter with the Saviour
“It Is Appointed for Mortals to Die Once, and After that the Judgment” (Hebrews 9:27)
The climactic moment of our earthly life is death. In the Scriptures, God tells us unequivocally that we have only one unrepeatable life on earth. During that life, a dramatic struggle between good and evil takes place. Having been granted the gift of the freedom to choose, we can choose between one or the other. Depending on our free choice, whether we opt for Christ or against Him, our salvation or eternal damnation is decided. Satan tries to falsify this truth by all possible means and that is why he suggests the idea of reincarnation to people. Every person who believes in reincarnation rejects the teaching of Christ about the actual possibility of eternal damnation.
Upon the Second Coming, the shaping of the Mystic Body of Christ will be definitively finished, which means that all people will be members of a single supernatural organism
For each of us, death will be a ‘sui generis’ end of the world. Then, all of us will meet Christ “face to face”. You cannot have a fruitful and dignified life if you do not remember this. Jesus Christ will judge every person at the moment of his or her death. We will meet Him in person then and experience the enormity of His love in the light of which we will learn the whole truth about ourselves, all our good and bad deeds. The only criterion by which we will be judged will be love: Will He be saying, “For I was hungry and you gave me food” (Matthew 25:35) or will He say, “For I was hungry and you gave me no food?” (Matthew 25:42) It will be a moment of indescribable happiness for God-loving people, but terrifying for those who lived as if He had not existed. “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” (Galatians 6:7-8)
Jesus says: “He who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has a judge; the word that I have spoken will be his judge on the last day.” (John 12:48) When facing the Saviour, we will have to make the final decision of accepting or rejecting His love. The Bible tells us that God “created man in the beginning, and he left him in the power of his own inclination. If you will, you can keep the commandments, and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice. He has placed before you fire and water: stretch out your hand for whichever you wish. Before a man are life and death, and whichever he chooses will be given to him.” (Ecclesiasticus 15:14-17) This ultimate choice at the moment of death is determined by the history of the whole earthly life of a given person. It may happen that sins will damage a person to such a degree that they will start feeling a dislike of, and aversion to, God. Finally, these feelings will turn into hatred, as the person who has become absolutely selfish will love himself or herself so much as to hate God. Upon death, at the time of judgment, such a person will reject the Creator forever out of hatred and choose eternal hell.
St. John Paul II said that hell “is the ultimate consequence of sin itself, which turns against the person who committed it. It is the state of those who definitively reject the Father’s mercy, even at the last moment of their life … God is the infinitely good and merciful Father. But man, called to respond to him freely, can unfortunately choose to reject his love and forgiveness once and for all, thus separating himself for ever from joyful communion with him.” (Rome, July 28,1999) Our Lady, concerned about the eternal salvation of her children, has revealed herself to people in various places around the globe and called on them to reform, to turn away from sins and not to go to eternal damnation, not to “bring on destruction by the works of your hands.” (Wisdom 1:12) St. Leo the Great wrote that “Rightly is this blessedness promised to those who are pure of heart. For the brightness of the true light will not be able to be seen by the unclean sight: and that which will be happiness to minds that are bright and clean, will be a punishment to those that are stained.” (Sermon 95)
The End of the World and the Last Judgment
The dramatic history of the salvation of the whole of mankind, in which the resurrected Christ is continuously present and active in His Church, will come to an end with the Second Coming, when Christ’s power and authority over everything will be visibly revealed. On that day, during the Last Judgment, Christ’s victory over all evil will be completed throughout the universe. When the Last Judgment of the whole of mankind will take place (Matthew 25: 31-32) it will show the ultimate victory of Christ’s love over all evil. Then, the Saviour will “put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death..” (1 Corinthians 15:25-26) This will be the day of terror for all evil. Its entire wickedness, falsehood and absurdity will be exposed. The forces of evil will be ultimately rendered harmless. Satan will be forever deprived of the ability to do harm to any more souls. (Revelation 20:9-10)
Although invisible, Jesus is actually present, especially in the Eucharist and other sacraments, and will be with us “to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20)
What is the difference between a particular judgment, which takes place upon death, and the Last Judgment at the Second Coming? On that day, the bodies of all the dead will resurrect: “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; 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.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17) “So all will be made alive in Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:22) They will all “come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.” (John 5: 29) The entire created universe will participate in this spiritual transformation. (Revelation 21:1-8; Rom 8:19-23) The history of mankind will come to an end and the fullness of time will be set in place, since all those who are to be saved will be united in Christ as Head. (Ephesians 1:10) “So that God may be all in all.” (1 Corinthians 15:28) So, at the Second Coming, the shaping of the Mystical Body of Christ will be definitively finished, which means that all people will be members of a single supernatural organism. It is true that the life of a person is decided upon death, because then, during judgment, their salvation or condemnation is decided, but they, together with their resurrected body, will receive their ultimate place in the Mystical Body of Christ, only during the Last Judgment. The Last Judgment at the Second Coming will complement the particular judgment at death because only then will they be reunited with their resurrected bodies.
Stay Awake
We will never know the exact date of Christ’s Second Coming. However, we should always be watchful and ready for this ultimate encounter with the Saviour. Individually, it will occur at the moment of our death, while on the scale of the whole of mankind – only upon the Second Coming. It is for this reason that Jesus, speaking of the unknown hour of His return, warns: “Be on guard, keep awake. Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time will come. . . . Watch therefore — for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning — lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Watch.” (Mark 13: 33, 35-37) To keep awake means to live a life of faith and to pray, be confident in the knowledge that all we need to be completely happy is to love God. Saint Paul warns that for people who live as if God did not exist “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. But you are not in darkness, brethren, for that day to surprise you like a thief . . . So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober . . . and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation . . . . See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances . . . . Do not quench the Spirit . . . . abstain from every form of evil.” (1 Thessalonians 5:2-4,6,15-19,22)
Signs that the End of the World is Near
Mankind will never know the exact date of the Second Coming. (Matthew 24: 36) Nevertheless, we know from revelation that from the moment of the Incarnation, the history of mankind and the universe has entered into its final phase. Jesus Christ, after His Death, Resurrection and Ascension, is invisibly present in His Church and continues the work of salvation in successive human generations. However, this process will end at a certain moment. At that moment time and history will end. Jesus Christ will manifest His presence and omnipotence of love in a new dimension. He will crown His work of salvation with the Last Judgment, universal resurrection and the spiritual transformation of the entire universe. Therefore, the period from the Ascension to the Second Coming is the End Times, which means that Jesus Christ may come for the second time at any moment in the future. We are to be ready and watchful. We must not believe, however, all those who claim that he will certainly not come in our generation. (2 Peter 3: 3-4) Nor must we believe those who are certain that they will live long enough to see Him coming. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3) As believers, we know that we live in the End Times, that “it is the last hour!” (1 John 2:18), as cited by St. Augustine. After all, “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2 Peter 3:8)
The only criterion by which we will be judged will be love
Prior to the Second Coming of Christ, the Church will undergo severe persecutions. Jesus says: “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation, and put you to death; and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away, and betray one another, and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because wickedness is multiplied, most men’s love will grow cold. But he who endures to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 24:9-13)
The Scriptures speak of three signs preceding the Second Coming. These will be the preaching of the Gospel to the whole world (Matthew 24:14); the conversion of Israel (Romans 11: 25-26); and the coming of the Antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2:3-10; Revelation 13:1-18; 1 John 2:18-22; 2 John 7). The figure of the Antichrist in each generation represents all those who oppose God, but there will finally be the definitive Antichrist. Among them, the following should be named: Freemasonry, Communism, Fascism, LGBT culture, gender ideology, Satanism, sorcery, all kinds of sects, among others. These are all false teachers and prophets who falsify the Gospel. We read in the Bible: “Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. He who confesses the Son has the Father also. (1 John 2:22-23) “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. This is the spirit of antichrist.” (1 John 4:2-3a)
Jesus warns against the insidious actions by the Antichrist, who will reject the fundamental tenets of faith and discourage people from obeying God. This is the work of Satan who wants to put himself in the place of God and be worshipped and obeyed like God. Satan’s actions, involving moral corruption, godless ideologies and all kinds of sects, will be accompanied by false signs and miracles so as to drive as many people as possible away from God and lead them to eternal perdition. All signs announcing the end of the world indicate the certainty of the Second Coming – the ultimate triumph of good over evil – but we do not know when this will come to pass.
On the day when the world, as we know it, ends, the Last Judgment will take place. “Only the Father knows the day and the hour; only he determines the moment of its coming. Then through his Son Jesus Christ he will pronounce the final word on all history. We shall know the ultimate meaning of the whole work of creation and of the entire economy of salvation and understand the marvellous ways by which his Providence led everything towards its final end. the Last Judgment will reveal that God’s justice triumphs over all the injustices committed by his creatures and that God’s love is stronger than death.” (CCC 1040) “The message of the Last Judgment calls men to conversion while God is still giving them ‘the acceptable time … the day of salvation.’ (2 Corinthians 6:2) It should inspire a holy fear of God, who commits them to the justice of the Kingdom of God. It proclaims the ‘blessed hope’ (Titus 2:13) of the Lord’s return, when He will come ‘to be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all who have believed’ (2 Thessalonians 1:10).” (CCC 1041)
