What are the signs of the times?
Question 10021
The phrase “signs of the times” has become so embedded in popular Christian vocabulary that it risks losing its biblical meaning altogether. Jesus used it to rebuke people who could read the weather but not the significance of what God was doing right in front of them (Matthew 16:3). The question of what Scripture identifies as indicators of the approaching end is not an invitation to speculation or newspaper exegesis. It is a call to read the biblical text carefully and to understand what God has actually told us to expect.
Jesus and the Signs: Matthew 24 and Luke 21
The Olivet Discourse is the starting point for any discussion of eschatological signs. In Matthew 24, Jesus responds to the disciples’ question about when the temple will be destroyed and what will signal His coming and the end of the age. His answer distinguishes between general indicators that characterise the entire period between His departure and His return, and specific signs that belong to the Tribulation period itself.
The general indicators are sobering in their breadth. False messiahs will come and deceive many (Matthew 24:4-5). Wars and rumours of wars will persist, though these are explicitly described as “not yet the end” (Matthew 24:6). Famines, earthquakes, and pestilences will increase, described by Jesus as “the beginning of birth pains” (Matthew 24:8). The metaphor is significant. Birth pains do not merely continue at the same level; they intensify in frequency and severity as the moment of delivery approaches. The implication is that these phenomena, present throughout human history, will accelerate and worsen as the end draws near.
Persecution of believers, betrayal, the rise of false prophets, and the cooling of love among believers are all part of the same picture (Matthew 24:9-12). The preaching of the gospel to all nations is identified as a precondition of the end (Matthew 24:14), though this should not be pressed into a precise calculable metric. Jesus is describing the character of the age, not providing a checklist that can be ticked off.
Signs Specific to the Tribulation
Within the Olivet Discourse, the “abomination of desolation” standing in the holy place (Matthew 24:15) marks the midpoint of the Tribulation and triggers a specific set of events: unparalleled distress (Matthew 24:21), cosmic disturbances involving the sun, moon, and stars (Matthew 24:29), and the visible return of the Son of Man in power and glory (Matthew 24:30). These are signs that belong to Daniel’s seventieth week, the seven-year period that follows the removal of the Church at the Rapture. They are not signs that the Church is instructed to watch for as prerequisites to its own departure. The pretribulational position holds that the Rapture is imminent and signless. The signs Jesus describes in the latter half of the discourse belong to the Tribulation period and serve as markers for those living through it, particularly the Jewish remnant.
Paul’s Indicators
Paul adds a different dimension. In 2 Timothy 3:1-5, he describes the last days in terms of moral and spiritual decline: people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. The catalogue is devastating, and what makes it particularly striking is the closing phrase: “having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:5). This is not describing the world at large but people within the visible religious community. The last days will be marked by a form of religion that has been hollowed out from within.
Paul also identifies the great apostasy as a precursor to the day of the Lord in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. The “man of lawlessness” cannot be revealed until the restrainer is removed (2 Thessalonians 2:6-7), which in Ian’s framework refers to the Holy Spirit’s restraining work through the Church. The sequence is clear: the Church is removed, the restrainer is taken out of the way, and the man of lawlessness is revealed. The apostasy Paul describes is the broader cultural and religious trajectory, not a single datable event.
Israel as a Prophetic Indicator
The regathering of Israel to the land is one of the most significant prophetic developments of the modern era. Ezekiel 37 envisions a valley of dry bones coming together, receiving sinew and flesh, and ultimately being brought to life by the Spirit of God. The modern state of Israel, established in 1948, represents a partial fulfilment of this vision: the bones have come together, but the spiritual life described in the latter portion of Ezekiel’s prophecy awaits the national conversion that will occur at Christ’s return (Zechariah 12:10; Romans 11:26). The existence of a Jewish state in the ancient homeland, after nearly two thousand years of dispersion, is consistent with the prophetic expectation of a regathering that precedes the end-times events, even if no specific contemporary event should be identified as the direct fulfilment of a particular prophecy.
Jesus’ parable of the fig tree (Matthew 24:32-33) is often cited in this connection. When its branch becomes tender and puts out leaves, you know that summer is near. The fig tree is sometimes understood as a reference to Israel, though this identification is debated. What is not debated is the principle Jesus draws: when you see these things taking place, you know that the end is near.
A Necessary Caution
Every generation of Christians has been tempted to identify its own period as the final one. The Reformers believed the Pope was the Antichrist. World War I and World War II both produced waves of end-times speculation. The formation of the European Union, the Y2K crisis, and various political upheavals have all been fitted into prophetic schemes. The consistent failure of these identifications should produce humility, not cynicism. The signs are real. The trajectory of history is moving toward the events Scripture describes. But date-setting is always wrong, specific identifications of the Antichrist are premature, and the believer’s posture is one of watchfulness and readiness rather than anxious calculation.
So, now what?
The purpose of prophetic signs is not to satisfy curiosity about the future but to produce a particular quality of life in the present. Jesus’ instruction to “watch” (Matthew 24:42) is not an invitation to obsessive news-monitoring. It is a call to live in a state of readiness, knowing that the Lord’s return could happen at any moment. The signs of the times are a reminder that history is not drifting aimlessly but moving toward a destination God has already determined. The appropriate response is not fear but faithfulness, not speculation but service. Every generation of believers is called to live as though the Lord might return today, while working as though there were a thousand years still to come.
“Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” Matthew 24:42 (ESV)