-
Are We Living In the End Times? – Part 4
There are many preachers and pastors out there whose ministry is devoted entirely to the End Times. You can see them on television, the internet and in other media. They warn us that the end of the world and the Second Coming of Christ is near, and that we must all be prepared.
Since we are told by Jesus Himself that no one knows the precise date and time, it could well be that the Parousia is near. Maybe it will happen in our life time, maybe this year, maybe next month, maybe tomorrow morning. We don’t know. But, these end times preachers say, we can know the “season”. By “season” they claim that now, today, certain events have fallen into place, according to the Bible, that can only mean that Jesus’ return is very, very close.
Have these events fallen into place? In Matthew chapter 24 Jesus says, “You will hear of wars and reports of wars; see that you are not alarmed, for these things must happen, but it will not yet be the end”. Hearing of wars and reports of wars describes literally all times in human history. I challenge anyone to name a period of time in all of human history when there were no wars or reports of wars. Is there anything different about the wars and reports of wars we have now that would make us think the end is near?
Secondly, end times preachers, and others, like to quote Holy Scripture to make their point and to offer proof that what is written in various verses of Holy Scripture refers to our present time, 2021 and the near future.
One essential part of Catholic biblical interpretation is that what is written in Scripture must have meaning for those who read or hear it. Some of the end times preachers will say that some verse from Isaiah or I Thessalonians is actually speaking to us in 21st century America. If that is so, why tell the people of Isaiah’s time? That would mean Isaiah was saying to his listeners and readers something like this: “Listen all you people! 5,000 years from now, in a country far, far away, people who speak a language you’ve never heard spoken and never will, are going to be facing the Second Coming of Christ. You don’t know who Christ is. He will be born about 3,000 years from now. So . . . just keep that in mind.”
If I told you that 5,000 years from now, some terrible tragedy will happen, would you be overly concerned? Would you change anything in your life because something is going to happen 5 millennia from now?
All of the events forecast in the Book of Revelation had to have meant something significant to the people who first read or heard it. Some New Testament scholars believe that the events forecast in Revelation have already happened. They believe that the anti-christ spoken of refers to Nero, who did in fact attempt to eliminate Christianity.
Catholic biblical interpreters are tasked with discerning the meaning of Holy Scripture both in terms of what the original writers or editors had to say to their own faith communities at the time it was written, and to what it means to us today. It is possible that a given passage of Scripture did in fact mean something quite significant to the original audience and also to faith communities of other generations. The meaning for one place and time could very well not be meaningful to another place and time, yet the same Scripture verse has a different, but still significant meaning for that other place and time. But if it meant nothing at all to the original audience, it wouldn’t be in Holy Scripture.
Blessings In Jesus,
Fr. David