These days, there is a lot of talk about the “end of days.” Watching our world convulsing, seeing events destabilizing and growing more dangerous, many people, whether religiously minded or not, are paying more attention to all types of dire prophecies, including those involving Blood Moons and red heifers. Journalists and everyday people are actually wondering openly about supernatural signs, massive cataclysms and the end of the world. They are wondering if we are facing the events described in Bible prophecy.
In recent decades, it seems that every few years someone comes along with a new prediction of the catastrophic end of the world as we know it. And then those predictions prove false.
This problem of failed prophecy has plagued many religions for thousands of years. People predicting Jesus Christ’s return have set dates, then shifted the dates when those dates came and went. Some have subsequently adopted theories that Jesus Christ has returned secretly. But most have just grown uncomfortable with the entire subject of end-time prophecy, and they have pushed it far into the background. Though headlines about prophecy are circulating again, Bible prophecy is still widely considered fringe.
Doctrinally, different Christian groups hold very different views regarding the end of the world. The spectrum runs from vociferous street-corner preachers to scoffers whose views are virtually secular and who disbelieve altogether the return of Christ. Bible bookstores stock numerous publications attempting to explain end-time prophecy, interpreting the mystery of various prophetic symbols, with one book contradicting the next.
But prophecy is right there in the Bible. That’s where the phrase “time of the end” comes from. The Old Testament prophets prophesied. The New Testament apostles prophesied. Jesus Christ Himself prophesied. In fact, He explicitly prophesied about the end time, and the end of the world.
What the Bible Says
In the Bible, “the time of the end” describes the period leading up to the return of Jesus Christ. It denotes the period just prior to the end of civilizations ruled by men and the beginning of Christ’s rule over the Earth. The Bible describes this period as filled with unprecedented violence—violence that almost annihilates all human life.
That is why people think of Bible prophecy when they see new reports about terrorism, religious clashes, trade wars, radical regimes and weapons of mass destruction.
Bible prophecies, including those spoken by Christ Himself, give specific signs indicating when human history is approaching that fearsome time.
For Christians who believe Jesus Christ, there is no escaping this fact: He personally predicted that He would supernaturally return, and that there would be signs immediately preceding that event—signs we should watch for.
Jesus Christ was a prophet. He prophesied throughout His ministry. Not long before He was crucified, He gave His most crucial prophetic message on the Mount of Olives. During this “Olivet prophecy,” Jesus said, “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth … see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. … Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors” (Matthew 24:30, 32-33).
For Christians who believe Jesus Christ, there is no escaping this fact: He personally predicted that He would supernaturally return, and that there would be signsimmediately preceding that event—signs we should watch for.
In this same prophecy, Jesus also made this important clarification: “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only” (verse 36). Be wary when you hear someone predicting a specific date that Christ will return. But also be wary of anyone who tells you there is no way to know. Christ also said plainly that we should be able to recognize signs “that it is near, even at the doors” (verse 33). God has not revealed the date, but He has revealed a number of signs.
Here are four specific signs the Bible gives to know that the return of Jesus Christ is near. What makes these so important is that all four of them have already been fulfilled.
Sign One
“And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Matthew 24:3). The disciples specifically asked Jesus Christ when He would return. How did He answer? He did not say, Do not worry about such things, or No man can know the decade or the century. He answered by giving specific signs to watch for.
“And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet” (verse 6). Christ said that wars and rumors of wars would come, but these of themselves were not signs of His return. He then added that “there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows” (verses 7-8).
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