Let's be honest: when you look at a classical painting of the Final Judgment, there's a ton of stuff always going on.  In short, it looks pretty crowded.  But that's the reality of what is going to take place when Christ returns for his Bride, the Church.  

We know with certainty that each soul will be reunited with his/her human body, and that *everyone* who ever lived will be gathered for the general judgment of mankind and the world.  Although we will already know our outcome from the Particular Judgment, the public rebuke of Satan and his servants among men will be a sight to behold.  

The question we need to ask is whether we're preparing for it or not?   Maybe we won't be around for the end of THE world, but we'll be around for the end of our INDIVIDUAL world when we die.  Which side do you want to be found on in Michelangelo's depiction?  Gnashing teeth with the damned or rejoicing as we enter the Father's House?

 
 

"Great is already the punishment of sin when the fear of the future divine judgment is lost."
St Augustine 

"He is seated at the right hand of the Father; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead."

The Apostles' Creed

The Church's ultimate trial

675 Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers.  The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.

676 The Antichrist's deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgment. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism, especially the "intrinsically perverse" political form of a secular messianism.

677 The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection.  The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven.  God's triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world.

II. TO JUDGE THE LIVING AND THE DEAD

678 Following in the steps of the prophets and John the Baptist, Jesus announced the judgment of the Last Day in his preaching.  Then will the conduct of each one and the secrets of hearts be brought to light.  Then will the culpable unbelief that counted the offer of God's grace as nothing be condemned.  Our attitude to our neighbor will disclose acceptance or refusal of grace and divine love.  On the Last Day Jesus will say: "Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me."

679 Christ is Lord of eternal life. Full right to pass definitive judgment on the works and hearts of men belongs to him as redeemer of the world. He "acquired" this right by his cross. The Father has given "all judgment to the Son".  Yet the Son did not come to judge, but to save and to give the life he has in himself. By rejecting grace in this life, one already judges oneself, receives according to one's works, and can even condemn oneself for all eternity by rejecting the Spirit of love.

Nope.

That's a modern, dispensationalist interpretation of Scripture, which is also a great example of how Christ cared for His Church by giving it magisterial authority to "call balls and strikes" on various innovations, such as "The Rapture".  (Sorry, Kirk!)

There have been plenty of takedowns of "The Rapture" in Catholic cyberspace.  If you are interested in knowing more, check out the following work at Catholic Answers: