I neither discount nor do I accept most endtime stories. From the first days of the Church there where those who saw signs of the end. In the days of the Apostles, there where those who stopped working or contributing to the Church in fact lived off of others in the Church because they believed that our Lord would return in their own times. Some of these also practiced birth control* as they did not think that we should poplulate the earth because our Lord was returning in their lifetimes. Another example of a case in which the Church had to use her authority to stop the spread of heretical untruths that where attacking orthodox teachings.)

The Church bids us to live each day as if we where going to meet our maker at the end. Each of us will have a personal end and be responsible to God at the judgement seat. Unlike those who hope only on Christ’s Sacrifice and do not take any personal responsibility in their salvation, the Scriptures and the reaching of the Apostles from the earliest days of the Church speak of our working out our salvation. We cannot do this if we do not unite ourselves with Christ and His sacrifice, but we must cooperate with Him, and still fulfil the expectations He has for us, and we are given by that body which is authorized by Him the Church. We may be seeing the end times, and we may not. Either way, we will come before God in judgement, Particular and General [url:2j8dnljp]http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08550a.htm[/url:2j8dnljp] [url:2j8dnljp]http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08552a.htm[/url:2j8dnljp]

*Ancient romans practiced abortion and used various herbal potions to prevent conception as well as to abort, and various “devices” to prevent pregnancy, (from an article in an old Biblical Archeology issue 10-15 years ago.)