story, it would be bleak and pathetic, for sure. But God’s mercy and love are without limit. God’s justice condemned and punished humankind for disobeying, and God’s mercy promised that a Messiah would redeem and save the human race. Salvation would then be possible for everyone, past, present and future. The Book of Genesis tells of punishment but also of promise.
Speaking to the serpent, God said:
Upon your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel (Genesis 3:14–15).
The Catholic Church sees a prophecy in this verse, which is fulfilled in the person of the Virgin Mary. She is considered the woman whose offspring (Jesus) will crush the head of the serpent (the devil). By His grace, God devised a plan to save and redeem man by sending the Son. When Jesus died on the cross (on Good Friday) and rose from the dead (on Easter), He opened the gates of Paradise and made heaven possible once again (see Chapter 4).
Facing the four last things
The Catholic Church teaches that when a person experiences death, she also experiences particular judgment, heaven, or hell. These are called the four last things. Why do we discuss this subject in a chapter about creation? Because without the Original Sin of Adam and Eve, humankind wouldn’t experience the four last things. So, at the beginning of the human experience, the seeds were sown for what occurs at the end of each human life.
When a person dies, there is immediate judgment on his soul, or particular judgment. If a person has lived an evil, immoral, sinful life and is unrepentant at the moment of death, he condemns himself to eternal damnation in hell. On the other hand, a holy person who has lived a virtuous and saintly life and dies in the state of grace is rewarded with eternal happiness in heaven. Most people are not bad enough to go to hell, yet not good enough to go directly to heaven. These are people who die with some attachments to their former sins. In this case, the person is cleansed (purged) of his attachments in a state of being called purgatory. Purgatory is not hell with parole. Purgatory is the state of purification from sins. As we explain in Chapter 13, sin leaves a scar on the soul, and if the scar is deep, more treatment is needed to heal it and restore the former beauty.
Hell is pure punishment for evil — divine retribution. Purgatory is medicinal and therapeutic. Like gold that is purified in fire, purgatory cleanses our attachments to sin so when we do go through the pearly gates, we do so wearing the proper wedding garment. We talk even more about purgatory in Chapter 18.
Anticipating What’s to Come: Moving toward the End of Creation
For Catholics (and most other Christians), inherent in the story of creation is the belief that God will create a new heaven and a new earth at the end of time. No one knows when the end of this present creation will occur, but the faithful believe in the Second Coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the general judgment, and the end of the world: the four last things of the entire universe (for the four last things that each individual person encounters, check out the preceding section).
The Second Coming
Catholics believe that Jesus died on Good Friday, rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, and 40 days later ascended into heaven. They also believe there will be a Second Coming of Christ to mark the end times. He will not be born as a baby again. Instead, He will return to earth as a full-grown man, the same as He was when He ascended into heaven. The first time around, He entered the world in abject poverty and humility. He will return as the victorious conqueror of sin, death, and the devil.
Before the Second Coming of Christ, which will usher in the end times, these things will happen:
All Gentiles will be united in the Church.
All Jews will be one in the Messiah’s salvation.
The Church will be assailed one last time by the Antichrist, who will try to sway many people by deception.
Christ will be victorious over this final unleashing of evil through a cosmic battle (Armageddon).
Notice that this list does not mention the rapture (a belief that certain “chosen” people will be taken up to heaven before the Second Coming of Christ) nor a reign of a thousand years of the Evil One (the Antichrist). That’s because the Catholic Church does not ascribe to these beliefs, which tend to be held more frequently by some evangelical Christians.
The tribulation of the church by the Antichrist may last a short or long period of time; the jury is out on that one. There will be a test of faith and a battle for souls. The end will happen when the Second Coming of Christ takes place and the Antichrist and the Whore of Babylon (the Antichrist’s accomplice, who is mentioned in the Book of Revelation, or the Apocalypse) are defeated and vanquished.
The Latin Vulgate Bible of Saint Jerome (400 A.d.) uses the word rapiemur in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. Many Bible translators translate this as “being taken up.” But no one coined the word rapture until the 17th century, and the belief that some people would be removed from earth and taken to heaven prior to the Second Coming was not well-known until the late 1950s when it was popularized in evangelical Christian magazines. These days, popular Christian books and movies have spread the idea of the rapture far and wide, as have so-called “prophets” who claim to know the precise date and time it will occur. Catholics don’t ascribe to belief in the rapture, and they also don’t claim to have any inside scoop on when the Second Coming will occur. Plus, the Bible passage itself does not explicitly state that those who are “taken” necessarily go to heaven while those “left behind” are doomed to damnation. Only the living can repent and be forgiven, so maybe being left behind isn’t such a bad thing anyway if it gives you another chance.
Resurrection of the dead
Catholics believe that after Jesus returns, the dead will be raised. Bodies and souls will be reunited, but not like in any horror movie or thriller video you’ve seen. The dead bodies of the souls in heaven will be resurrected and then be glorified (meaning they will be like Jesus’s resurrected body, which was immortal, was impervious to pain and injury, never aged, and never got sick) and taken into heaven. The damned will get their bodies back, but they’ll not be glorified. The souls in purgatory will be released and get glorified bodies, which will enter heaven.
General judgment
Immediately after the resurrection of the dead, the general judgment will take place. The general judgment is not an appeal or second chance; it’s merely the public disclosure of all the private judgments that took place earlier. The general judgment will manifest both divine justice (in rewarding good and punishing evil) and divine mercy (in the forgiveness of sinners). This way, nobody in heaven is going to ask, “How did he get in here?”
The end of the world
The
