From the Book of Revelation    187 

    At Judgment Day, those faithful servants of God who have died will be 

resurrected. Yet there will be some Christians left alive on earth. These will 

not die, but will be judged by Christ, as it says in the Creed,  He will come 

again to judge the living and the dead.  Those faithful persons who are still 

alive on earth at the time of the general Resurrection will be given the 

benefits of the Resurrection without first having to die and immediately be 

raised from the dead. (This is the true and correct understanding of what 

some have called  the rapture. ) 

    Notice that Christ returns twice, once at the end of the Antichrist's reign 

and again at the end of the Millennium of peace and holiness. And each 

time that Christ returns, He brings Mary with Him. Christ is assisted in all 

that He does towards our salvation by the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

The End of the World 

    The end of the world  would seem to  occur at the time of the general 

Resurrection, for  from his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place 

was found for them.  (Rev 20:11). 

     But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will 

pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, 

and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up.   

(2 Peter 3:10). 

    Holy Scripture is here describing the end of the world, which occurs after 

the Millennium ends, when Jesus Christ comes to judge the world. Even 

though the Millennium was a time of great holiness and peace on earth, 

God still puts an end to that time and to that world. For God has something 

even better in mind. 

     But according to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth 

in which righteousness dwells.  (2 Peter 3:13). 

    So, even the end of the world is not the end of everything. After the world 

ends, God makes a new world. 

A New Heaven and a New Earth (Rev 21:1 8) 

     Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the 

first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  (Rev 21:1). 

    Heaven and earth will pass away and be replaced by a new Heaven and a 

new earth. The sea which is no more is not an ocean or a sea of water. The 

sea is here a metaphor for Purgatory. This interpretation is confirmed by the 

subsequent passage:  and death shall be no more .  (Rev 21:4). One must 

first die in order to go to Purgatory. Since there is no more death, there is no 

more Purgatory. During that future time, the power of sin has been broken