Signs of the Times

Eight Principles

Before we embark on further discussion of signs, we need to present the basic doctrine that serves as foundation for our interpretation of prophecy. This doctrine encompasses eight principles.

1. The return of Christ is now imminent, just as it has been imminent ever since Christ ascended into heaven.

The so-called doctrine of imminence ("imminent" means soon) is the belief of Christians that Christ will soon return to this world. The Bible texts teaching imminence are too many to be listed here. A few will suffice to show that this doctrine is a major theme of the New Testament.

For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.

Hebrews 10:37

7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.

James 5:7–9

The imminent return of Christ has been a core belief of the church ever since it was founded. Modern skeptics, however, view this belief with scorn. They agree that the New Testament views Christ’s return as an event in the near future. But they point out that He has not come back in the nearly two thousand years since the New Testament was written. So, they say, the New Testament is obviously dead wrong—that early Christians were deluded in expecting a quick return of Christ. The teaching of imminence was for them a false promise.

Yet Peter anticipated this attack on the truthfulness of the Bible.

3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:

6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

2 Peter 3:3–10

Peter said that the promise of Christ’s return "soon" reflects God’s view of time. God reckons a thousand years as no more than a day. Hence, the whole Church Age, from Pentecost until now, has lasted barely two days. From this compressed perspective, the Second Coming will fall within the near future of any moment since the church began.

2. The right attitude is to remain watchful.

Although God has always known that Christ’s return would be delayed thousands of years, He has commanded every believer in every age to watch for it. And as he watches, he should never grow too sleepy to keep looking upward. Rather, he should keep an attitude of expectancy, as if Christ’s coming could happen at any moment. "watch."

Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

Matthew 24:42

Remember, Christ will come more than once. The first time, He will come as a thief and steal away His church. Believers will be caught up at the event known as the Rapture. So, the Rapture is the event that will enable eagerly watching believers to see Christ.

3. Signs have appeared throughout Church history, and especially recently, that encourage us to hope that the Lord’s return is drawing near.

Many modern teachers of Bible prophecy have gone astray in their teaching. They rephrase the doctrine of imminence, making it say not that Christ is coming soon, but that He could come at any time in the future, just as He could have come at any time in the past.

This new teaching is not only erroneous, but dangerous. Its teachers argue that if Christ’s return at the Rapture has been possible ever since the Church Age began, then prophecy must be silent about any events preceding the Rapture. In other words, we should not think that the Rapture will follow certain signs marking the approach of the end. The same teachers insist that if there were signs, then the only believers entitled to view Jesus’ return as imminent would be those alive after the last sign had come to pass. All believers living earlier in history, before the last sign, would know that it was not yet time for Jesus to come.

How do these teachers explain Peter’s warning of scoffers in the Last Days (2 Pet. 3:3 above) and Paul’s warning of perilous times in the Last Days?

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

2 Timothy 3:1

Since both warnings seem addressed to believers living in history’s climactic period, neither can accomplish its purpose unless believers then are able to recognize their place in history. To escape from this difficulty, many modern teachers of prophecy argue that such texts describe the whole Church Age—that there have always been scoffers like Peter describes and wicked men like Paul describes. The Last Days, they say, began at Pentecost. The scoffers and wicked men we see in our day merely confirm that we live in the Church Age. They are not a specific sign that the Church Age is drawing to a close.

The claim that there are no signs of Christ’s coming has come onto the scene fairly recently. It is a new twist in Bible interpretation. My father’s generation as well as earlier generations of fundamentalists firmly believed both in the imminence of Christ’s return and in the anticipation of His return by a series of specific signs, and they saw no contradiction between these two beliefs. Which view is correct—the older or the newer? For three reasons I side with my forefathers.

1. The Bible teaches that we will be able to see Christ’s return drawing near.

   Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

   Hebrews 10:25

   2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.

   3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

   4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

   5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

   6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.

   1 Thessalonians 5:2–6

   The Lord rebuked the church of Sardis because they did not anticipate the hour of His coming.

   Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.

   Revelation 3:3

   In any journey, how do you know that you are getting close to the end? You rely on signs along the way, each one announcing that you have come closer to the goal. Likewise, as we go through history, we see events along the way that mark our progress and assure us that the end is approaching.
2. There were signs of the times before the first coming of Christ.

   1 The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.

   2 He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.

   3 And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?

   Matthew 16:1–3

   For example, the time of His coming was set by Daniel’s prophesy of sixty-nine weeks.

   Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: . . . .

   Daniel 9:25

   And these sixty-nine weeks were nearing completion when Jesus rebuked the religious leaders.¹ If there were signs of His first coming, should we not expect signs of His second coming? If we ignore them, we are as blind as the Pharisees and Sadducees.
3. There have already been many signs during the Church Age. Each has been a fulfilled prophecy showing God’s people that the return of Christ was getting closer. But now, incredibly, the dominant view is that the Bible reveals nothing about the details of history between Pentecost and the Rapture. This view is convincing only to the ignorant. Here we will provide just one counterexample. The Old Testament clearly predicts that Jerusalem would be destroyed soon after the death of the Messiah. Christ foresaw the same disaster.

   41 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,

   42 Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.

   43 For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,

   44 And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

   Luke 19:41–44

   (See also Luke 21:20–24.) The city was in fact leveled to the ground in AD 70. The Christians alive in those days could rightly see the event as a sign that history was advancing toward its conclusion.
        On this website I show that the early church witnessed other signs as well.² I also show that a great many signs have appeared in recent history. All these have taken the form of datable or roughly datable events. None is a general condition prevailing throughout the Church Age. Hence, the often heard claim that there are no signs of Christ’s coming is incorrect.

We still must deal with this question: If the Bible prophesies a long series of events before Jesus’ coming, how has the church from earliest times managed to keep an expectant attitude? How has it been able to obey the command to remain watchful, as if Jesus might return at any time? Most Bible teachers today answer the question by denying that the Bible provides signs of Christ’s return. But this modern outlook is simplistic and rests on a humanistic assumption—the assumption that we in ourselves can figure out what the Bible teaches. In fact, we cannot figure it out except by the help of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps with the exception of a few godly men, He generally has not allowed the church to predict signs before they occur. Rather, He has brought them to the attention of the church only after they have gone by.
     For example, the reemergence of Israel is surely a sign of the approaching end. But before the Jews began returning to Palestine in the nineteenth century, the church did not foresee them regathering there, or imagine that such a regathering must precede Christ’s coming. The church did not look for the sign before it appeared.

4. We now live in the Last Days.

Scripture never provides the exact date of the Second Coming. It tells us only that the event will happen soon. Yet Scripture also suggests that Christ’s return will not happen immediately. Rather, there will be some delay. We find this suggestion in many texts, but we will focus on one in particular (2 Pet. 3:3–10 above). Here, Peter leaves two strong clues that the Second Coming will be postponed a long while.

1. What is Peter’s purpose in telling us that God sees a thousand years as a mere passing day? Is he not hinting that the delay before Christ’s return might stretch out to thousands of years?
2. He says that before Christ returns, scoffers would aggressively challenge the teachings of the Bible. The day of doubt would arrive long after "the fathers" had died. Who are these fathers? The scoffers who speak of them cannot be referring to their own fathers, because they are treating the time lapse since they died as very long. The scoffers are referring to the fathers of the church, especially the prophets and apostles who were the source of these teachings. In other words, the fathers belong to Peter’s generation. So, it is evident that the scoffers would not appear until a time in the distant future.

Notice that the scoffers would regard the founders of the church as their own spiritual fathers. It is evident that in the Last Days a profound disbelief in the Bible would prevail even among those who consider themselves Christian. Although belonging to organized Christianity, they would reject much of what the Bible says. We see, therefore, that Peter agrees with many other prophecies that the church would eventually sink into apostasy.

Peter identifies the period of final apostasy as the Last Days. Like Paul, Peter sets the Last Days in the future. Paul says, "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come [future tense³]" (2 Tim. 3:1). Likewise, Peter says, "There shall come [future tense⁴] in the last days scoffers" (2 Pet. 3:3). It is therefore evident that the period they intend by the term "Last Days" does not take in the whole Church Age. Rather, they are looking well beyond their own time, when Christianity was still in its infancy, to a distant time when Christianity has gone past its peak into a period of steep decline.

Peter’s discussion of the Last Days is the most helpful we have for dating when they began. He says that the most popular teachers in the church of the Last Days would tell fables rather than the truth, and he warns what these fables would be.

He says first that the scoffers of the Last Days would question the Second Coming. The Second Coming is a central teaching of the New Testament. It gives hope to a suffering church that evil in the world will someday be overthrown. Yet Peter makes the shocking prediction that the day would come when many in the church would regard the promise of Christ’s coming as no more than an ancient superstition. If we search church history, we find that such skepticism hardly existed before the nineteenth century. Only after the rise of modern liberalism and modern skepticism did multitudes in the church begin to doubt core doctrines of the Bible. We conclude, then, that Peter is looking ahead to the sort of apostasy that has appeared only in modern times. The times in which we live must, therefore, be equivalent to what he calls "the last days."

He says also that in the last days people would question the Genesis accounts of early history. In his outline of the world view that these scoffers would adopt instead, we find three beliefs prevalent today.

1. They would believe in a beginning (v. 4). Indeed, the Second Law of Thermodynamics compels modern science to admit that the universe must have started at a definite time. Modern science tells the following story: "All the matter of the universe was originally squeezed into a huge fireball called the ylem, but being superdense, the ylem was supremely unstable. Therefore, soon after coming into existence, it exploded, and from this Big Bang all matter and energy began to race outward to the vast reaches of space. At the present time, billions of years after the Big Bang, our cosmos is still rapidly expanding." This picture of origins is, of course, merely false speculation.
2. They would believe that the history of the earth has never been interrupted by unusual events like the Flood (vv. 5–6). The prophecy has come true. The view of modern science is that the earth’s present condition and appearance owe very little to sudden catastrophes; rather, they are the end product of uniform development. Past changes in the earth have always been like the gradual changes we see or might see today. The doctrine that the past is like the present is known as uniformitarianism.
3. They would believe in something called "creation" (v. 4). The word can refer to either a creative process or a created thing. In the Greek text, the word is not preceded by a definite article.⁵ Verse 4 says only "the beginning of creation." Therefore, the word likely denotes a creative process. What the scoffers would acknowledge is that everything did not suddenly appear in its present form. While rejecting special creation by God, they would believe that a creative process has been at work since the beginning to bring the universe from a state of primordial chaos to the elegant complexity we see today. The doctrine that the universe has undergone such a development is known as evolution. Together, the doctrines of uniformitarianism and evolution imply that the universe is very old.

It is evident that the scoffers who would someday appear within the church and challenge the teachings of the Bible are men of the modern era, living within the last two hundred years. When Peter speaks of the Last Days, he is pointing to the very time in which we live. The view of origins that he describes is the same view promoted by modern science. Paul, looking into the distant future at the science of the Last Days, describes it as fables.

3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

2 Timothy 4:3–4

The many warnings in the New Testament that the final state of the church would be inglorious, as it sank ever deeper into corruption, are intended to strengthen the few believers who would remain in the Last Days. An understanding of their discouraging circumstances eases their sense of isolation. It assures them that God’s program for the Church Age has not collapsed in failure, but has unfolded exactly as He said it would. It helps them to guard their own integrity against the many threats which have overthrown the integrity of others. And, finally, it encourages them to rejoice that the Church Age will soon be over, when Christ comes to assert Himself as King of the world.

In summary, then, to what does the term "last days" refer? As used by Peter in the passage we have just studied in detail, the term refers to the time when mankind would adopt a world view that we recognize as modern skepticism and modern science. It therefore refers to the whole modern era, beginning about 1800. The rise of a world view in perfect agreement with Peter’s picture of what men would believe in the Last Days is another major sign that we are approaching the end.

5. All the developments that Jesus set before the Tribulation have come to pass.

The Olivet Discourse, recorded in Matthew 24 and 25, is Jesus’ extended sermon on prophecy. It was given in response to questions that certain disciples brought Him concerning the future. They asked Jesus for "the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world" (Matt. 24:3). In reply, Jesus gave a lengthy preview of events preceding His coming in glory.

He divided the Tribulation into two distinct periods, the first called "the beginning of sorrows" (Matt. 24:8), the second called "great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be" (Matt. 24:21). Yet He not only surveyed chief developments during these periods of earth history after the church was removed; He also told what would happen during the period immediately before the Tribulation.

4 . . . Take heed that no man deceive you.

5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

6 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.

Matthew 24:4–6

Jesus informed His disciples that the world before the Rapture would have two dominant characteristics: (1) it would be full of religious deceivers (v. 5); (2) its people would hear of wars and rumors of wars (v. 6). We will demonstrate that both prophecies were uniquely fulfilled in the twentieth century, especially after 1948, when the nation of Israel was reestablished and history entered its final hour.

The religious deceivers. Jesus said that they would be recognized by their possession of three attributes.

1. They would "come in my name" (v. 5). That is, they would not be Hindus, theosophists, New Age gurus, or even cult leaders like Sun Myung Moon. Rather, they would claim to be Christians and would be so regarded by the generality of mankind.
2. They would be "many" in number and would "deceive many" (v. 5). Jesus was evidently not talking about madmen or cult leaders. People like Charles Manson and David Koresh are always few in number, and they have limited influence. Rather, Jesus was foreseeing developments in regular organized Christianity.
3. They would say, "I am Christ" (v. 5).

Two movements in the modern church fit these predictions.

1. Since 1900, mainline Protestantism and even segments of Catholicism have been dominated by a theology known as Modernism. The basic tenet of Modernism is that the historical Jesus was no more than a man. From the belief that all humanity shares the essential nature of Christ has followed the presumption that everyone has Christ-potential—that everyone can, by following His example, become His moral and spiritual equal. In whom do the leaders of Modernism believe that Christ-potential is more fully realized than in themselves? Indeed, many among them pose as the very likeness of Christ. Yet though they heap upon themselves and their followers the flattery that they were imitating Christ, knowing Christ, and becoming Christ, they are in fact walking in obedience to their father, the devil.
2. Also after 1900 but even more prominently after 1948, a new brand of deviant Christianity succeeded in gaining millions of adherents. This is the modern tongues-speaking movement, embracing all churches that call themselves Pentecostal or charismatic. Many leaders of this movement pretend that by a mere exhalation of their lips or wave of their hand or chanting of their voice they can communicate the Spirit to others. In effect, they put themselves in Christ’s place and virtually say, "I am Christ," for the Spirit proceeds from Him alone (John 15:26; 16:7). The apostles were able to furnish the Spirit to the newly converted Samaritans, but only by prayer exalting Christ as the true giver (Acts 8:15–17), whereas Pentecostal televangelists and their ilk put the camera on themselves, creating the impression that the Spirit moves in obedience to their will. Moreover, as proof of their power, faith healers claim to perform miraculous healings, although these can never be verified, and other preachers in the same camp point to the bizarre behavior that they can induce in their followers by supposedly giving them the Spirit—behavior interpreted as a sign of the Spirit’s presence. The usual sign is the mouthing of meaningless sounds, which is mistaken for speaking in tongues. Other signs are violent agitation of the body, swooning, falling down, or even hysterical laughter. This travesty of true worship hinders any real working of the Spirit to build faith and godliness.

Wars and rumors of wars. Although the prophecy, "And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars" (Matt. 24:6), generally describes the whole twentieth century, developments since 1948 furnish a precise fulfillment. The prophecy has three components, each of which has been verified through the unfolding of history.

1. Jesus was evidently foreseeing a time beset by many wars. The year at the outset, 1948, was preceded in the twentieth century by two world wars, the widest and most destructive conflicts the world has ever seen. The second, ending right before 1948, ushered mankind into the era of atomic weapons. Efforts after World War II to build a lasting peace were stymied by nationalistic aspirations in the third world and by unyielding antagonism between the democratic West and the Communist East. Since 1948, wave after wave of strife has erupted upon the sea of nations: the Indian partition, the Chinese Revolution, the Korean War, several Arab-Israeli wars, the civil war in Indonesia, the Vietnam War, the war in Afghanistan, the war in Bosnia, the Gulf War, wars in Africa, wars in Latin America, wars everywhere except in the richest nations. It is obvious that although wars and rumors of wars have been incessant throughout history, bloodshed mounted to a climax in the twentieth century. It has been estimated that in all the wars of human history before 1900, about forty million combatants died. Yet in wars from 1900 to 1987, the comparable tally was about thirty-eight and a half million.⁶ By the end of 1999, wars in the twentieth century were more deadly than in all previous centuries combined.
2. Jesus’ specific prediction was not that there would be wars, but that mankind would hear about them. In Jesus’ day, people in one region of the world had little knowledge of events in regions far away. But today, as a result of modern communications, every war, no matter how remote, reaches the attention of the media and becomes world news. In the last two centuries, and particularly in the last century since the advent of radio, daily reportage has been obsessed with war violence and with diplomatic maneuverings either to avert or resolve it. An important milestone along the way was 1948, because in that year consumer demand for television, invented about twenty years earlier, began to surge. Television added to war news a vividness and immediacy that greatly magnified war’s place in public consciousness. Never before had men heard so much about war. Never before had war been such a continuing preoccupation.
3. Not only did Jesus say that there would be wars and that men would hear about them; He said also that they would hear about rumors of wars. In what other period of history was man as obsessed with the mere possibility of war as he was after atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Throughout the Cold War, fears of a nuclear holocaust haunted mankind. I remember going through civil defense drills as a school child in the early ’50s. The purpose was to ready us for nuclear attack. I remember the disbelief and disquiet that followed Sputnik, launched by Russia in the late ’50s. I remember also the grim apprehension that gripped America during the Cuban missile crisis in the early ’60s. Nuclear war was never more than a rumor, but no other rumor of war has so transfixed the minds of men and so shaped a whole period of history. The easing of tensions between East and West did not, however, bring mankind to a tranquil assurance of future peace. A new worry has emerged to unsettle the minds of people everywhere. After violent Muslim extremism spread to a worldwide theater of operations in the ’90s, and especially after 9/11, people in the Western world have been unable to escape from the daily possibility of a terrorist strike close to home. Terrorism has therefore become another menace generating endless rumors of war such as Jesus envisioned in the end time.

From our examination of the Olivet Discourse, we have learned that today’s world exactly conforms to the world that Jesus pictures as immediately preceding the Tribulation. Indeed, prophecy gives no hint of anything more that must happen before history enters its next phase, the time of sorrows. The next event on the prophetic calendar is the Rapture.

6. Although we know generally that we live near the end of the Church Age, we cannot set a date for Christ’s return.

Signs are not intended to help us predict when Christ will come. When the nation of Israel was founded in 1948, people in the churches were excited. They felt that Christ might return any day. Yet they were no more able to set the date of His coming than they were before. We will never be able to set the date. Why?

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

Matthew 24:36

The answer is simple. The date is a closely guarded state secret. Anyone who tries to tell us when Christ will come brands himself as a deceiver and a false prophet. There is a compelling reason why God denies us such information.

But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.

Matthew 24:43

"Good man" is old King James wording with no basis in the Greek. The translation renders a single Greek word that does not characterize the man as good or bad. It merely signifies a householder or master of a house.⁷ Who is the master of this world? Consider what Jesus said at the Last Supper.

Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.

John 14:30

Jesus was referring to Satan. Indeed, Satan now sits on the throne of this world, although he is only a usurper who will someday be supplanted by the rightful king, who is Christ. Jesus says the secrecy of His return is a ploy to hamper Satanic opposition. It reflects high strategy in God’s war against Satan. We do not know what forces or tactics Satan could employ against the removal of the church from this world, but he will not be able to offer resistance of any kind. Christ will strike as a thief in the night (1 Thess. 5:2 above). Like a thief, He will take something from another’s house—the church out of Satan’s kingdom.

7. At Christ’s return, all saints on the earth will suddenly disappear.

The similarity of the returning Christ to a thief in the night yields valuable information.

1. Christ will come by surprise, at a moment no one anticipated.
2. His coming will be without noise or visible display. The saints He removes will just suddenly disappear. No one who scorns the Bible will understand why they disappeared. Immediately the devil will likely come forward with explanations that will satisfy many of the ungodly.
3. He will come at night—that is, when the world is asleep. To be asleep means to be mindless of spiritual things. The Rapture will occur and judgment will commence at a moment when the world as a whole has forgotten God, dismissed His Word as mere fairy tales, and abandoned itself to the worship of self and sin.

   37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

   38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,

   39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

   Matthew 24:37–39

For an even fuller picture of the Rapture, we must look again at Luke 17:34-37.

34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.

35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.

Luke 17:34–37

Words in italics, such as "women" in verse 35 and "men" in verses 34 and 36, are not in the original. The original speaks only of two in a bed, two grinding together, and two in the field. What do you think these verses are talking about? The great majority of Bible-believing Christians in the modern age have believed that they are speaking of the Rapture.

Proof of this interpretation lies in a careful examination of the Greek original. The word "taken" in verses 34, 35, and 36 is paralambano,⁸ which means "to take with" or "along."⁹ Jesus used the same word on another occasion also. At the Last Supper, He said,

2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

John 14:2–3

The word "receive" is again paralambano.¹⁰ The middle clause could be rendered, "I will come again, and take you alongside myself." When will He bring living saints alongside Himself? He will do so when He raptures them. So, if paralambano in John 14:3 refers to a rapture, it is reasonable to suppose that the same word in the prophecy, "The one shall be taken," also refers to a rapture.

Three times in Luke 17, Jesus says that "the one shall be taken, and the other left." (vv. 34, 35, 36). The repetition of these solemn words alerted His disciples to their importance. But they could not determine what He meant. It seemed to them that He had omitted some crucial information. So, they asked, "Where, Lord?" (v. 37). They wanted to know where the one will be taken. Jesus obliged them with an answer that must have left them even more perplexed. He said, "Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together" (v. 37).

All this is rather mysterious because the meaning is hidden behind symbols. What is the body? The body is the body of Christ. What are the eagles? These are saints in their immortal state. Jesus is predicting the great gathering of saints that will take place at the time of Christ’s return.

15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 4:15–17

The gathering will be "in the air," even "in the clouds" (v. 17). Living saints will participate in this gathering as a result of being raptured. Thus, Jesus’ answer to the question, "Where will the one be taken?" is not so difficult after all. He says simply that the one will be taken up into the sky to join all the other saints assembling before Christ at His return—Christ and all His saints together comprising His body.

Notice that the eagle is a fitting symbol of what every saint will become, for in our immortal state we will be able to fly unfettered by gravity. Moreover, like the eagle, we will have a distinctly noble bearing and will dwell in the highest places. And just as the eagle has a remarkable keenness of vision, so we will have access to all treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Several texts underscore the resemblance between the eagle and the perfected saint. When speaking of God as a source of blessing, the psalmist says,

Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Psalm 103:5

This promise is best understood as a promise of immortality. Just as an eagle retains the vigor of youth, so the saints of God will stay youthful forever. We find a similar promise in the Book of Isaiah.

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31

Not only will the saints be able by self-renewal to overcome every manner of weakness; they will "mount up with wings as eagles." In other words, they will be able to ascend the sky, as they will do at the time of the Rapture.

Some Bible students treat Luke 17:37 as parallel in meaning to the passage where Jesus describes His glorious descent at the end of the Tribulation.

27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

28 For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

Matthew 24:27–28

But the texts in Matthew and Luke are contrastive rather than parallel. In Luke, Jesus says that eagles will be gathered at the "body" (soma,¹¹ which refers to a living body¹²). In Matthew, Jesus says that eagles will be gathered at the "carcase" (ptoma,¹³ which refers to a dead body, a corpse¹⁴). The latter prediction will be fulfilled when Christ overpowers His enemies at Armageddon. Who will follow Christ as He descends at His second coming? The army of heaven, consisting of all the saints.

11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.

13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

Revelation 19:11–16

To this army gazing down upon the battlefield, the slaughtered millions will seem almost like a single carcass.

8. The Rapture will occur when the world feels confident that it can overcome the problems threatening mankind.

Paul gives a very brief but very informative picture of the world scene at the time of the Rapture.

2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.

3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

1 Thessalonians 5:2–3

Why, despite the mounting toll of natural disasters, the contagion of violence and social unrest, and the prospect of even worse calamities in the future, will people be saying, “Peace and safety?” Paul’s words are a strong hint that right before Jesus returns, something will happen on the world stage that, with the blaring voice of the media, will be presented to people everywhere as a decisive step forward in meeting all the threats to survival of modern civilization. We can only speculate what the supposed advance will be. Perhaps national leaders will come together and agree on an agenda that they believe will avert catastrophe. Perhaps at the same time they will strengthen the governing power of the United Nations to assure enforcement of this agenda. Again, we can only speculate, but Paul’s words clearly anticipate dramatic moves by politicians leading to an illusion shared by all peoples that man’s problems will be solved by man himself. This descent of relative calm upon the sea of nations may be the last sign that the Tribulation is near.