The Rapture Trap: A Catholic View

Open the last book of the Bible, and you enter a strange and dazzling world. In quick succession you encounter there a baffling array of angels and beasts, saints and sinners, worshippers and warriors, celebrations and catastrophes. There you find a great beast whose number is 666. A scroll with seven seals. Four men riding horses, each horse a different color. Hail and fire, mixed with blood. A battle named Armageddon. A star named Wormwood falling to earth. Crowned locusts with human faces, women’s hair, lions’ teeth, scales, and stinging scorpion tails. Invading nations named Gog and Magog. A red dragon with seven heads, ten horns, seven crowns. So what does the Catholic Church officially teach about the true meaning of all these puzzling symbols, figures, and events?