Is the Apocolypse near? Has Satan's reign of evil begun?

Question

I'm Catholic and a little confused about this topic. So Catholic people who have read the book Revalation, I'd find your answers more important. I'm not racist and I don't judge, so everyone is welcome to answer.

Answer 1

In ancient Jewish tradition Satan is simply an angel doing the work that God assigned to Satan to do.

The word Satan means challenger. With the idea of Satan challenging us, or tempting if you will. This description sees Satan as the angel who is the embodiment of man's challenges. This idea of Satan works closely with God as an integral part of Gods plan for us. His job is to make choosing good over evil enough of a challenge so that it becomes clear to us that there can be only one meaningful or logical choice.

Contrast this to Christianity, which sees Satan as God's opponent. In Jewish thought, the idea that there exists anything capable of setting itself up as God's opponent would be considered polytheistic or setting up the devil to be an equally powerful polarity to god or a demigod.

Oddly, proof for The Christian satan/devil mythology is supposedly found in the ancient Jewish texts that were borrowed to create the bible. One can’t help but wonder how Christians came up with such a fantastically different interpretation of Gods assistant Satan in their theology.

Other hints about Satan’s role in human relations can be seen if you look at the name Lucifer. It’s meaning in the original tongue translates as Light bearer or light bringer. Essentially the bringer of enlightenment. The temptations of the Satan idea bring all of us eventually into Gods light. Hardly the Evil entity of Christian mythology.

Love and blessings
don

Answer 2

Everytime humanity encounters terrible events such as war, people thing the end is near.
The end may be next year, it may be tomorrow, it may be a thousand years from now. It doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is what YOU do TODAY.

I'm also Catholic, by tradition. Religion facinates me. I have studied many different religions -some more detailed than others. This is what I've learned:
Historicaly speaking "Apocolypse" was a real place where a bloody war was fought long ago.

As for Revalation, some believe that this world is infact Hell -for only here is there temptation, sin, death, pain, and only here we are seperated from God. Satan's greatest evil was to fool us into believing that this isn't Hell.

The book of Revalation was written in the thought that man here on Earth does not seem to be punished for being evil (eg. they gain more wealth and power) and that God favours the good. Thus, God shall reward the good not here, but in the afterlife.

Has Satan's reign begun? This is Satan's domain. The war on evil began God cast down the angels that followed Satan. We are always in battle. Do not look at evil as large horrific events. Evil is clever and shall hide as small things.

Please remember that the Bibble was written by people who thought the world was flat. The Good Book is not unlike tv in that if you sit too close to the tv you may see all the little dots that make up the images, but you miss the big picture.

The true book of God is written in the Hearts of all living beins. Look there to find your answers.

Answer 3

We are nearing the Second Coming of the Lord. The book of revelation is a message to the churches, and then the rest of it is end time prophesy. It talks about a time of sorrows, The ten plagues, the beasts, the armies, the antichrist, the number of the beast, and the Tribulation, Jesus coming to stand on Mount Zion and God's final Judgement. If you look around at this world today compared to a hundred years ago, yes we are entering the End times but not the Apocolypse just yet. That comes after the antichrist has been identified. I am a catholic. Yes, I believe that Satan's reign of evil is definitly getting into full swing, as it was in the "days of Noah, so shall it be in those days..."

Answer 4

The Book of Revelation appears to be basically the ravings of a madman, or to be as charitable as I can, the writings of this fellow driven to a highly unstable emotional state by his divine visions.

The millenium has come and gone, and apparently Jesus did not return as promised. Or perhaps we missed him. I've been here only 60 years or so.

I am not a Catholic, but I have read several commentaries by Catholic theologians as well as some Protestant ones.

The Apocalypse has been announced at least every year that I have been on this planet. The world always seems far too sinful to at least someone with a decent-sized following. This has been going on for as far back as I can tell.

Things can't be going all that bad for the human race, let's face it: in 1950 there were only 2 billion people: now there are 7 billion: we are anything but being exterminated. We live longer, and some of the very worst diseases are gone altogether, like smallpox, or are rare, like the bubonic plague.


I have personally decided that no, the end is not coming, and no, it will not come as anything like all the "prophesy" in Revelation and in Isaiah. Not gonna happen, not now, not ever. If global warming floods the coasts and lowlands, there will still be billions of us left. Probably including me and Al Gore.

I am not saying that a nuclear war might make for a Mad Max scenario, and of course, eventually the Sun will get really hot and incinerate the whole place. But without the seven-headed dragons and the woman barfing blood and all that stuff about the seals being removed and yada yada yada.

Jesus? He's welcome anytime. But I will learn Aramaic when he actually makes the appearance, not until. I am sure that he might freak a lot of folks out with his Middle Eastern accent if he did speak in English. I observe that very few churches seem to really be expecting Jesus, because they aren't even trying to learn Aramaic. It sure would be embarrassing if we had to depend on Israeli Jews and Muslims to interpret Jesus' words to Christians, don't you think?

Answer 5

The Book of Revelations has its own schedule for an Apocolypse. I am not Catholic or even Christian, but I've read the book also. I am of the opinion it is a historical reference to events during the reign of Domitian, Roman Emperor from 81-96 AD. If I had a dollar for everyone who decided that the Apocolypse had started, and had correlated events to those in the book, I could buy heaven for myself. Well, have a Merry Christmas.

Answer 6

And Jesus said I will come like a thief in the night...Nostradamus said a great war will begin....by 1997, A guy named Miller was convinced that the world would end and convinced a thousand or so others in 1847. I'm not a Christian, I have read the book of Revelations. I'm not sure that the book even says when the world will end and Satan's reign will begin. My feeling is simply this..it will happen, I don't know when, I don't care when. Just, as a good Catholic, live your life as a good Christian would and don't worry about it. If it comes tomorrow, we will deal with it. If it doesn't come tomorrow, we still have tomorrow to deal with.

Answer 7

I would say Satan's reign has begun, but I think we are a little way off from the end. The Clintons have definitely marked the start of the Reign of Evil. God help our country.

Answer 8

Yes. God gave Satan reign over the earth until he comes again...Satan has many powers. He has control of our physical bodies should God let him. I just learned that, in fact, if we get sicknesses it could be caused from Satan. There are many examples in the bible where Satan messes with people. Sorry that I do not know the exact scriptures...However, if you really want to look into it you should ask what the -signs that have been completed are-

Answer 9

Well, Al Gore in "An Inncovienent Truth" says that we are 5-10 years away from a scientific appocolypse of magnamus proportions, and that great flooding etc will wipe out 100 million people's homes ect. So yes, but only the Lord knows when He will come. Read the "END TIMES" series of books and then get back to me. You definately don't want to be here when it comes, and the only way to not be here is to take Jesus into your heart as your Lord and Savior.

Answer 10

Yes, indeed it is! Many Catholics have been putting their noses into other peoples' business where it does not belong! When people and churches start playing God while not paying attention to their own back yards, they are bound to take the fall, especially when they start tampering with records, computer data, molesting children in the church, and so on- it's the ultimate sin- the number one commandment that's being violated, whereby, people in the church start re-writing the bible and playing God and replacing God and start pushing their views on other people- including people who used to go to church or people with different views and religions. It's come to the point where people in the church can even use their faith as an excuse to murder peoples' lives through sick processes like video voyeurism, con art, and so on- the true evil is within the very church itself!