I remember a night over thirty years ago when I was a 17 year old inside of a Protestant church watching a movie titled, “A Thief in the Night”. It was in the 70s and the Fundamentalist movement was sweeping through my high-school like a wild fire. I watched the movie in horror as those movie characters bearing the mark of ‘666’ realized that their loved ones had vanished without a trace and left them to endure unimaginable trials on earth. What was most horrifying to me as I watched this movie was not the doom and gloom of the impending tribulation of those left behind. It was the fact that throughout this entire movie I could discern no true and heartfelt message about loving Christ or His love for us.
As Catholics, we are asked to endure our sufferings, not to avoid them, and we are encouraged to offer our sufferings to Christ as a way to unite ourselves with Him. We try not to lament a day when we will endure trials and tribulations because the flip side of our suffering is our hope. We hope in Christ, Jesus. Throughout our earthly trials, Jesus remains our joy. In Holy Scripture we read about the necessity of enduring trials and remaining faithful at the same time. This seems to be the message, and there simply is no message about how we will escape these trials on our journey toward our glory with God. Our reward is Heaven, but the journey is not without suffering.
But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved. Matthew 24:13
If we have died with him
We shall also live with him;
If we persevere
We shall also reign with him. . . .
Second Timothy 2: 11-12
Now, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church, . . . Colossians 1:24
Throughout history, God has desired to bring all men into communion with Him, and his mercy endures forever. Catholics read and study the Bible with Christ as the center and the unifying thread which brings the Old and the New Testament together, and unifies into one Body, all people, Jew and Gentile alike. We believe that Christ’s Church is the fulfillment of the promises made to the Israelites of the Old Testament. Our hope is not that Christ’s Church will somehow be spared from the type of suffering that Christ endured, but that we like Christ can persevere in joyful hope. Our hope is that God’s desire for all man since the beginning of His creation becomes a reality, and all come to the peace and knowledge of Christ crucified.
I would like to share the following passage from a book by Carl E. Olson, titled Will Catholics Be Left Behind? regarding LeHaye’s writings about the Tribulation and the Raptured Christians who will be spared from such suffering.
LaHaye’s comments demonstrate the failure of Fundamentalism in general and dispensationalism specifically to provide meaningful teaching about suffering and trials. Although he gives passing lip service to “martyrs”, it seems clear LaHaye has little appreciation for what Christians, especially Catholics, have endured throughout history. When early Christians watched their children torn apart by lions or burned alive, did they believe these were “ordinary tribulations”? How about the nameless tens of thousands herded into concentration camps by the Nazis, or buried in mass graves by the communists? It is disturbing that future events, of which we have little or no knowledge, are so easily sensationalized by comfortable “Bible prophecy” experts at the expense of those who have truly suffered for Jesus Christ in the past - - and suffer for him today. It is all the more disturbing that while Scripture is filled with praise for those who suffered and died for Christ, LaHaye and others appear more interested in speculating, often irresponsibly, about how horrific and bloody the future will be.
As I watched ‘A Thief in the Night’ in that Protestant Church over thirty years ago, I was only seventeen, ignorant of my own faith, and I was horrified; not by the suffering of those who were left behind in the movie I was watching, but by the fact that there was no mention of how to love Christ or the compassion and the love He has for his people. I may have been young and ignorant, but there was one thing my Catholic upbringing brought into my life, and that was knowledge, at least on some level, of the love and mercy of Christ. After leaving the movie, I remember saying to my friends who continually nagged for my verbal acceptance of Christ that I hoped people would feel free to come to Christ out of love and not out of fear, because coming to Christ out of fear is not acceptance of Christ at all.
After viewing this movie inside of this Protestant church over thirty years ago, I felt depressed, disillusioned with the whole Fundamentalist community, and sorely disappointed. Today, I am thankful for this experience as it has propelled me toward a Catholic journey and conversion that has enriched my life beyond imagination.
It is this experience over thirty years ago that has compelled me to study my faith so that I can defend it. What follows is an essay I wrote concerning my belief that the Holy Catholic Church is the Kingdom of God. Those who believe in what they refer to as a ‘dual covenant’ or a ‘divided truth’ can read this essay and glimpse what Catholics believe and how it differs from the dispensationalist’s beliefs .
We believe, as Catholics, that we are the New Israel. Israel’s history is our history. We read and study the Bible with Christ as the center and unifying thread. Those who doubt that the Catholic faith is a biblically based faith might be very surprised to learn that there is absolutely nothing in the Catholic Church that is inconsistent with Holy Scripture. We embrace every piece of Scripture and cherish it as the inerrant and holy word of God. We most definitely are a Bible based faith with an earnest desire to spread God’s word.
