# Are we living in the end times? **URL:** \ **Category:** Apologetics\ **Created:** [July 24, 2026, 2:23pm UTC](https://forum.catholictalk.net/t/are-we-living-in-the-end-times/4028 "2026-07-24T14:23:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cade\_One](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.catholictalk.net/cade_one/32/34_2.png) [@Cade\_One](https://forum.catholictalk.net/u/Cade_One)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2026, 2:23pm UTC](https://forum.catholictalk.net/t/are-we-living-in-the-end-times/4028/1 "2026-07-24T14:23:48Z")
Catholic Christians believe we are living in the end times. But, the day or hour when the Heaven and Earth will pass away, we do not know (Matthew 24:35-36). Only God the Father knows (Acts 1:7). “The Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2). As I read the Early Church Fathers, most believed that Jesus _did_ know the day and hour in His divine nature, but spoke of “ignorance” relative to His human nature, as a teaching device, or simply withholding of information for their own good. Theophylact of Ochrid (1107 AD): “Here He teaches the disciples not to seek to know things that exceed human knowledge. By saying, ‘not the angels,’ He restrains them from seeking to learn now that which even the angels do not know. By saying, ‘My Father only,’ He also prevents them from seeking to learn thereafter. For if He had said, ‘I know, but I do not wish to tell you,’ they would have been grieved as though He had disdained them. But now by saying, ‘Not even the Son knows, but my Father only,’ He prevents them from asking… to put an end to the desire of the Apostles to know the day and the hour.” He also draws an analogy of a child who want something that his father is holding and the father will playfully hide the object behind his back and pretend like he doesn’t have anything. The child understand that he is not to inquire further about what is not his. And Jesus held something that was not _His_ to give. It belongs to the Father. St. Jerome (420 AD): “It was not expedient for the Apostles to know, that being in uncertainty of the coming of their Judge, they should live every day as though they were to be judged that day.” John Chrysostom (407 AD): “He has made our end invisible, so that we might demonstrate clearly our diligence and forethought.” ---
**Author:** ![Glynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ab097/32.png) [@Glynn](https://forum.catholictalk.net/u/Glynn)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 6:27am UTC](https://forum.catholictalk.net/t/are-we-living-in-the-end-times/4028/2 "2026-08-01T06:27:13Z")
Yes, it seems that we are living in the end times. My wife and I was sitting on the sofa watching the news, and she said that it seems we are in end times and must say it really seems like it. From all of the forest fires all over the world, flooding, and the War all going on at one time, it make us wonder. May the Lord help us. Glynn ---
**Author:** ![Literalman](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.catholictalk.net/literalman/32/117_2.png) [@Literalman](https://forum.catholictalk.net/u/Literalman)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 12:49am UTC](https://forum.catholictalk.net/t/are-we-living-in-the-end-times/4028/3 "2026-08-02T00:49:12Z")
Wars, famine, pestilence, and earthquakes are bound to happen, but are not the end, only the beginning of sorrows (Matthew 24:6-7). It seems to me that these troubles have been going on since before Jesus’ time. In His day, though, people couldn’t watch disasters going on around the world the way people can now (via TV and the Internet). News travels fast now, but that also enables fast relief efforts. I’m not sure that disasters are worse or more numerous, though wars seem to be. People turning away from God seems to be worse now, though. ---
**Author:** ![Glynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ab097/32.png) [@Glynn](https://forum.catholictalk.net/u/Glynn)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 1:49am UTC](https://forum.catholictalk.net/t/are-we-living-in-the-end-times/4028/4 "2026-08-02T01:49:42Z")
I had not turned away from God but turned away from The Catholic Church, with the way they handled Priest who had committed the ultimate sin against many altar boy in our area. The church’s answer was to simply transfer these priest to another church as I saw happen at my church when my son was a altar boy. Thank God we pulled him out of being a altar boy before one of these transferred priest came to our Parish. My wife and I have prayed and found our way back to the Catholic Church after 5 years. With the help of Saint Therese we went to Mass last Sunday and will go again tomorrow. I went to confession last Saturday. and was able to receive communion on Sunday and it felt so good. I will be able to receive communion tomorrow and I’m looking forward to it. Its been to long. Thanks be to God and Saint Therese. Glynn ---
**Author:** ![Dainty26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e19b73/32.png) [@Dainty26](https://forum.catholictalk.net/u/Dainty26)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2026, 10:17am UTC](https://forum.catholictalk.net/t/are-we-living-in-the-end-times/4028/5 "2026-09-19T10:17:36Z")
Jesus could not reveal the day or the hour BUT He did say that we should watch for The signs. So, abortion laws have gotten grotesque, MAID laws are now killing the disabled and the young, poor and depressed. The idea of inclusivity and fairness has topped the scales to parading their pride in the streets and rubbing Gods nose in it (woe to them) the identity confusion, wars, rumors, of wars, the COViD, the increase of extremely bad and dangerous weather events throughout the world, the gospel being shared throughout the earth and the persecution of Christians especially in Nigeria and the lax attitude of the world concerning the same, PLUS there is a new digital chip being used in the USA and other parts of the world where you can pay for purchases with is enough to tell me that not only are we in the last days, we are in the final hours. If you check the different social media platforms you will also see that evil is rising, deception is at an all time high and ppl have never been more divided on issues of faith. There is also an increase in ppl Claiming to have heard from God, and there has never been more ‘backyard’ and parking lot prophets. What other signs have been fulfilled that I haven’t mentioned? Jesus is but at the doors. ---
**Author:** ![MorganPJD](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.catholictalk.net/morganpjd/32/1146_2.png) [@MorganPJD](https://forum.catholictalk.net/u/MorganPJD)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2026, 6:10pm UTC](https://forum.catholictalk.net/t/are-we-living-in-the-end-times/4028/6 "2026-09-19T18:10:15Z")
Not to know times and seasons. As Scripture says. At a guess, not necessarily… Disasters and war and famine, etc…have always happened; the only change are two factors - the media and which means that we are a more globally aware peoples and technological industries. In terms of pestilence, maybe more because of pollution. Wars…there are more people to be at war with, though there has always been war. That said, terrain was less human friendly in the natural sense and the world poorer as a whole percentage with people having to live directly off the land where they could and governments barbaric with the word ‘inhumane’ not a word which was understood. Bar terrorists and international gangs and regions of the world today which stand out as areas of extreme poverty, there has been growth to some degree. All the same, while poverty was more widespread, it was less severe, probably, because as said people could attempt to live off the land and dating back even only a few hundred years ago, all the Kings and Queens and their acquaintances would have been eating sparrows and deer and having to hunt for it the same as everyone else (though they would have had unlimited hunting rights). There would have been a greater chance for survival if you were poorer in those days than today, terrible conditions attributed to the Industrial Revolution onwards, e.g. Five Points, The Great Depression and Edwardian and Victorian London and major cities…and etcetera). And of course, in the more developed centuries, being homeless and especially in the West would in the modern age still be a nightmare because of the unforgiving living conditions of…what is the ‘concrete jungle’. There would have been tornados and tsunamis and avalanches and rock-slides and volcano eruptions, the same as in today’s world. There was an ice age and unprecedented cold winters, in regions of the world which is not normally the case. Are today’s natural events really any worse than one-thousand years ago? Healthcare is better today, for the most part. If you had a bad tooth a couple of hundred years ago, there would have been no anaesthetic apart from a bottle of rum. No cures to illnesses, apart from leeches being put all over you. A dentistry practice in our town is entitled, ‘Tudor Clinic’ - I wonder whether they get any business. There are improvements, there are consequences which make the world slightly worse off, but there are also major differences that make world domination more likely and this is technological arms combined with influence and business financing it. Scripture speaks of a time when natural disasters will be very often. We know that this is the case, now, yet is even what we see on the news currently anything like how exaggerated it will be when the end times are here. If we had the media like it is in contemporary times, a few hundred years ago, you could make comparisons. So, we don’t know. Another member here mentioned the increasing popularity of what I consider to be a cemetery of half-dead souls on social-media with profiteering and manipulation and lies put before us without a care. Is that enough, combined with other discussed topics, to herald the end of time as we know it. Or, are we simply reacting to doomsaying across YouTube? The only way to tell, will be when someone rises up who causes terror to the nations and this is not an era to be looking forward to. Let’s just hope that when Christ returns, that He does so fairly early on into The Beast’s arrival. I would say that from this era onward, it is possible that the End Times are upon us - from now until a few hundred years. Could be anytime. We would be talking about a global dystopian horizon. I would say this is going to be an image of something along the lines of The Terminator, with cyborgs programmed to annihilate those opposed to the bourgeoisie as initiated by a pool of a few very evil individuals (along with a monster at the helm). ---
**Author:** ![Dainty26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e19b73/32.png) [@Dainty26](https://forum.catholictalk.net/u/Dainty26)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2026, 7:54pm UTC](https://forum.catholictalk.net/t/are-we-living-in-the-end-times/4028/7 "2026-09-19T19:54:30Z")
In reply to MorganPJD, it is written in 2 Peter 3:3-4 that people will ask “where is His coming? Ever since our ancestors died everything goes on the same way as it did before?” Which sounds a lot like what you said so whether you realize it or not, your words are also a part of the what has been prophesied. Even though Jesus said it is not for us to know, not even Jesus knows, He did say to watch for the signs, like the example of the fig tree in Matthew 24:42-44. It also describes that He is coming suddenly at an hour which you don’t expect. Please google who is now using a chip in the hand to pay for things, right now it’s voluntary but for how long? This was never before recorded in all of history and I have no doubt that it is a precursor to the mark. Is is true that it could happen at anytime but I really do not think that we have a couple of hundred years left. I don’t know the day or the hour either but that’s just my opinion but it is based on biblical scripture and the signs of the times. I can’t help but wonder if He will rapture His bride before or after his return? What do you think? ---
**Author:** ![actualevidence](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@actualevidence](https://forum.catholictalk.net/u/actualevidence)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2026, 11:19pm UTC](https://forum.catholictalk.net/t/are-we-living-in-the-end-times/4028/8 "2026-09-19T23:19:53Z")
Short answer: It’s not likely. Long answer: There’s no good reason to think that anything supernatural will bring about humanity’s destruction. However, there are many other possibilities that could either accomplish that or take out a good chunk of us in the far future. For example, a new plague created in a lab or found while investigating a previously uncharted portion of the planet (did you know that the Amazon rainforest could cover over 80% of the US, exclusing Alaska and Hawaii, and a majority of it remains unexplored?). A giant meteor could show up and decimate civilization. The sun could get slightly hotter, guaranteeing our certain doom. AI could become sentient in a handful of generations and decide that humanity isn’t worth keeping around. And the list goes on. We could also randomly die tomorrow in our sleep. But that’s not very likely, is it? The question shouldn’t be whether we’re living in the end times. That’s a receipe for encouraging people to perpetually live in fear. Life is precious and, although we should use general levels of caution to protect ourselves from threats, worrying about whether humanity will be wiped out soon is a colossal waste of time and energy. A person can spend their entire life not living at all, simply because someone convinced them to irrationally believe that being fearful was better than accepting that life is short, unpredictable, yet should be cherished and lived fruitfully despite that. In addition, tying potential catastrophes to any god has so far only been proven to be a result of our often irrational need to explain uncomfortable circumstances out of ignorance, arrogance, fear, or a desire to control others for gain. My advice, whenever you find yourself wondering whether the end times are upon us, is to answer, “Who knows?” and keep right on living.