Introduction
Anyone browsing YouTube will find many programs presenting a very dark picture of today’s world. Violence is exploding. Hatred is swelling up on every side. Huge disasters resulting from human accidents and from acts of nature are becoming daily news. What is happening? Well, I will tell you up front that I have the answer because I am a student of God’s Word, the Bible, which gives us a clear picture of today’s world. We live in what the Bible calls the Last Days, so-called because they are the days right before Jesus Christ returns to put down all evil rulers and to set up His own kingdom on the earth, a kingdom that will be a perfect embodiment of both love and justice.
How do we know that we live in the Last Days? Bible prophecy reveals many events, many developments in human society and in its natural environment, that will shortly precede the return of Christ. Among Christians these events and developments are known as signs of the times. The subject of this paper will be twenty-five signs of the times, some that many people have already recognized, some that many will find very surprising.
First Sign
The first is that the time has arrived for the Lord’s Day in earth’s overall history. What could I possibly be referring to? Let us read 2 Peter 3:8–10. "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. 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. 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."
He speaks of the final period of world history as the "day" of the Lord. This day will come as a thief in the night. You who are familiar with Bible prophecy will understand that Peter is referring to the rapture of the church. That’s when the Lord will suddenly steal all Christians out of this world (Matt. 24:43–44; 1 Thess. 4:16–5:2). The next event he mentions comes at the day’s conclusion. It is the destruction of the universe. This will occur right before God creates new heavens and a new earth. In verse 13, he says, "Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." The Book of Revelation teaches that the interval between the Rapture and the destruction of the universe will be a thousand years, a period known to Christians as the Millennium (Rev. 20:1–11). During this period Christ will sit in Jerusalem as world ruler, and the earth’s inhabitants during His reign will enjoy unprecedented peace, prosperity, and justice. But notice again that Peter calls this period "the day of the Lord," and he underscores the significance of this name in verse 8, where he says "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." Now we are on track to an amazing discovery. The day of the Lord—the final day of earth’s history—will be a day of rest from all evil forces as mankind enjoys fellowship with God. What day in human experience does that sound like? It sounds like the seventh day of the week, known as the Sabbath, which God intended as the day when His people would enjoy rest from their labors as they join in fellowship with their Creator. What is the basis for the unit of time known as "the week"? Unlike the day, the month, and the year, it is not based on any astronomical cycle. It was instituted by God to celebrate His work of creation, which was accomplished in six days followed by a day of rest. Yet if human history will climax in another day of rest, what implication becomes obvious? That the week also pictures man’s time on earth. Therefore, the day of rest must be preceded by six days deprived of rest and of God’s close presence. In other words, since a day is like a thousand years in God’s sight, the final one thousand years of Sabbath-like peace and rest—that is, the Millennium—must be preceded by six thousand years of spiritual work and warfare in a sinful world. According to Biblical chronology, how many years have passed since man’s fall into sin? About six thousand. Therefore, Christ’s return must be imminent. The first six days of human history have nearly elapsed. It is nearly time for the seventh, the Millennial day of the Lord.
Sign one—The time has arrived for the seventh day in earth history.
Second Sign
Some people may object to the first sign by protesting, "Hey, everybody knows that the earth is not just a few thousand years old. Modern science has proven that it has existed for billions of years." I won’t get sidetracked from today’s subject by showing why this generally accepted idea is just a myth. I critique it on my website. Also, there are several YouTube channels that provide strong rebuttals, such as Answers in Genesis, Is Genesis History?, Institute for Creation Research, etc. All of these offer you the perspective of qualified scientists. My purpose today is to show that the most likely objection to the first sign of the times actually paves the way to the second sign.
Let us look again at Second Peter. Here are the words of verses 3-6 in chapter 3. "Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 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. 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: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished." When speaking of the fathers who have fallen asleep, these scoffers would evidently be referring to the men who originally proclaimed the promise of Christ’s coming. In other words, these fathers are the apostles and other leaders of the early church who have been traditionally known as the church fathers. By referring to them as their own fathers, the future scoffers mentioned by Peter must be people with a Christian heritage. Therefore, what Peter is saying is that someday in the future, a worldview will arise in historically Christian nations that denies the Biblical account of earth’s history. When Peter refers to the world as "the creation"—that is, as something God created—he is viewing it from his perspective, not theirs. Indeed, they will not believe that the word of God brought the earth and heavens into existence. Nor will they believe that in the days of Noah, His word destroyed human civilization by means of a global flood. Instead, they will rewrite history as a long continuous operation of the same processes that we see today. Here, Peter seems to be anticipating the modern theory of evolution. When did most of the Christian world reject Biblical history? This is a fairly recent development, going back no farther than the mid-nineteenth century. At what point in history does Peter place this development? He says in verse 3 that it will happen "in the last days." So, we have come to our second sign of the times. Today’s scoffers who ask the sarcastic question, "Where is the promise of his coming?", are actually providing us with a clear sign that He is coming soon.
Sign two—Nations that once viewed themselves as Christian no longer believe what the Bible teaches about origins.
Third Sign
Let us look at one very enlightening passage in the Book of James. It is James 5:7–9. "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." The author’s use of a developing crop to picture church history is reminiscent of Jesus’ Kingdom Parables, especially the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares in Matthew 13:24–30, 36–43. This text in James is highly significant for three reasons.
First, it agrees with several others that Jesus would return only after some delay. As we discovered in 2 Peter 3, people in the Last Days will scoff at Jesus’ promise to return because so much time has elapsed and still nothing has happened. Also in Jesus’ Parable of the Talents, where the Lord compares Himself to a man who returns home from a far country and rewards his servants according to their work while he was gone, it says that the man returns "after a long time." See Matthew 25:19. We find another warning of an extended Church Age here in James’s epistle. He compares Jesus to a husbandman who wants to harvest the fruit of his garden, but who chooses not to come for it immediately. Rather, he waits with long patience until the fruit is ready.
Second, James says that the fruit will not be ready for Jesus’ return until it has received both the early and the latter rains. James is clearly saying that the Church Age will continue until there is a final period of growth to balance the growth at the beginning.
This prophecy has been fulfilled. Expansion in the church has been mainly confined to two historical periods. In its infancy the church spread like wildfire despite fierce opposition by the Roman government. Countless believers were martyred, yet the church thrived. This was the time of early rain. Vigorous growth of the church has also taken place during the modern era, since 1800. For the first time in history, the church has carried out Jesus’ command to spread the gospel to the uttermost part of the earth. This has been the time of latter rain.
The third reason why James’ words are highly significant is that he reveals what will happen after the latter rain. The waiting will be over and the husbandman—that is, Christ—will come. Where do we stand in history? The latter rain has now fallen for generations, but it is subsiding. Missionary work is being scaled back. Many church bodies are at some stage of drift into the waters of unbelief and corruption. Since Scripture foresees no more rain after the second outpouring, the apostasy we see all around us in our day must be the final apostasy foreseen in many prophecies that we will discuss later. Exactly how long this retreat from vital faith might continue, we have no idea. Nevertheless, we can be sure, as James says, that "the coming of the Lord draweth nigh."
Sign three—Scripture predicts that there will be two periods of history when the church will grow dramatically. The second period has come to a conclusion.
Fourth Sign
The Bible gives a quite detailed overview of events preceding Christ’s return. It teaches that history will first enter into a period which it calls the end times. Then at some point during the end times, God will remove all His people from this world at an event known as the Rapture. Christians everywhere will suddenly disappear when they ascend into the clouds and meet Christ, who then will take them to heaven. After the Rapture will come a period of God’s terrible judgment on mankind known as the Tribulation. Some years later, at its conclusion, Christ will descend to this world with all His saints and establish His earthly kingdom.
I give this outline of the Last Days because it is basic to comprehending many signs of the times, such as the one we will now discuss. In AD 70, not long after Jesus was crucified in AD 33, the Romans demolished the city of Jerusalem and either killed or scattered most of the Jews living in Palestine. This catastrophe is clearly predicted in the Book of Daniel; to be precise, in Daniel 9:26. "And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined." Here is an amazing prophecy. Jesus was the Messiah sent from God. About six hundred years before He came to this world, Daniel foretold that He would be killed and that not long after His death, the city and the Temple of Jerusalem would be destroyed. That is exactly what happened. The same catastrophe was predicted by Jesus Himself. According to Luke 21:24, He said, "And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." Notice that Jesus not only foresaw the destruction of the city, but also the removal of Jewish people from their homeland to "all nations." History soon confirmed the prophecy. After the holocaust in AD 70, most Jewish survivors were deported to other lands throughout the Roman world. A hundred years later, very few sons and daughters of Israel remained in Palestine. As a result, the Jewish people could not reorganize and rebuild their own nation.
Yet unlike so many other ethnic groups throughout history, the Jews never disappeared from the world stage. Their perseverance as a people is according to prophecy, which clearly in many places foretells that the Jews would someday reoccupy their homeland. Reconsider Jesus’ prediction in verse 24 of Luke 21. He said, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." By "the times of the Gentiles," He was evidently referring to the whole span of history known as the Church Age, when the whole gentile world would be invited to join the Body of Christ. The Church Age will not come to a conclusion until the glorious return of Christ to establish His Millennial Kingdom. Israel will then repossess all of Jerusalem as well as all the land within the boundaries that God originally intended for the nation. Although full Jewish control of the Holy Land has not yet been achieved in our day, Jews have certainly been moving toward that objective. They began returning to Palestine about 150 years ago, and their presence in the land, as well as their political authority over it, greatly increased after World War II. The founding of the state of Israel in 1948 and its repossession of east Jerusalem in 1967 are therefore vivid demonstrations that the Church Age is nearing its completion. Indeed, ever since Israel reappeared on the world stage, many evangelicals have believed that 1948 marked the beginning of what Daniel calls "the time of the end" (Dan. 11:40). The new nation was established even though, in a desperate attempt to prevent Jews from regathering in their homeland, Satan had provoked the Nazis to exterminate all Jews within their reach.
Sign four—After nearly two thousand years the nation of Israel has reappeared and Jerusalem has again become the nation’s capital.
Fifth Sign
What future can the nation of Israel expect? The Book of Daniel in the Old Testament reveals some shattering events that will befall this nation in the years to come. One is that Israel will soon be conquered by the Antichrist, who is called the king of the north in Daniel 11. Let us read verses 40 to 42 of that chapter. "And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him [that is, the king of the north]: and the king of the north shall come against him [that is, the king of the south] like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. He shall enter also into the glorious land [a reference to the nation of Israel], and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon [the land occupied by these ancient countries now falls within the modern nation of Jordan]. He [that is, the king of the north] shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape." In my commentary on the Book of Daniel, I show that the context of this passage leaves no doubt that the king of the north is the Antichrist. He is called the king of the north because he will be the dominant figure in the region governed by the ancient Seleucid Empire, whose territory included modern Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq as well as portions of Turkey and Iran. Daniel 11:37 also gives us a strong clue concerning the religious background of this king who will eventually claim godhood for himself. It says, "Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all." As I show in my commentary, this prophecy when viewed in its context treats the god of his fathers as distinct from the God of gods who is mentioned in the previous verse. "And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods." One clear implication is that the fathers of the Antichrist will worship a single deity who is not the God of Israel. The statement that he will not give women what they desire suggests that, in modern terms, he will not respect women’s rights. He will treat them as existing solely to serve and please men. It certainly appears that the Antichrist will be a Muslim.
How does this prophecy give us a sign that we live in the end times? Because modern nations within the Seleucid world are united in their allegiance to Islam and in their hostility toward Israel, even to the extent of preparing to strike Israel with atomic weapons.
After the king of the north conquers the Jewish state, will it be gone from the world scene throughout the Tribulation? Certainly not, but its later history is a complex story that we cannot cover here.
Sign five—Events in the Middle East are rapidly moving toward an invasion of Israel by Muslim nations lying to the north and northeast.
Sixth Sign
Bible prophecy clearly teaches that after the rapture of the church, there will be spiritual revival among those left behind. Many who previously stood apart from the church or who were satisfied with a compromised form of Christianity will then come to a genuine faith in Christ. Yet the cost of joining God’s side in the war between God and Satan will often be martyrdom. In the Book of Revelation, we read that early in the Tribulation, after the opening of the fifth seal, many of these martyrs will be raised from the dead, clothed in white robes, and brought to heaven. We find this teaching in Revelation 6:9–11, which says, "And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled." Later in his vision of future events, John learns more about these martyrs. What he learned is revealed in Revelation 7:13–16. "And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat." What new information stands out from this passage? These saints who died early in the Tribulation will rejoice and serve the Lord because of their deliverance from a world where, besides terrible persecution, they suffered from hunger and thirst as well as from boiling heat generated by the sun.
In our present world we are rapidly approaching these calamities. The one that will serve as our sixth sign is the growing input of solar heat. Due to rising temperatures, the world is becoming an increasingly uncomfortable place to live. The highest temperature ever recorded in the British Isles was 104.5 °F on the 19th of July in 2022. In July of 2023, Phoenix, Arizona, underwent the hottest month ever recorded for an American city when it suffered an average temperature of 102.7 °F. The average daytime high was 114.7 °F. Overall, 2023 proved to be the hottest year on record. On more than 200 days, the global average temperature was higher than in any preceding year on the same date. No less than 116 of these days fell in sequence, between August 15th and December 8th. The hottest day on record is now July 4th, 2023.
The loud message of environmental activists is that through such practices as burning fossil fuels and cutting down forests, mankind is causing the earth to warm up. But its temperature is entirely under God's control. By adding more heat to the world's climate, He is not only making it more uncomfortable; He is also triggering many kinds of natural disasters. The additional heat is therefore serving as a tool of divine judgment on a wicked world.
Sign six—In anticipation of conditions that will prevail on the earth during the Tribulation, the earth is heating up.
Seventh Sign
We have said that at the rapture of the church, all Christians who are demonstrating the genuineness of their faith by living holy lives will suddenly disappear. Satan, the prince of this world, will then do whatever he can to prevent spiritual revival among those left behind. He will circulate various lies. Perhaps the most pervasive will be directed at people around the world who are secular and irreligious. The lie Satan will tailor for them is that friendly space aliens removed all Christians because they were resisting the measures being introduced by wise governmental authorities to protect the human race from all the growing threats to human survival and progress, such threats as climate change and overpopulation. Satan may even say that the ET's (extraterrestrials) who removed them also planted life on the earth in the first place.
To prepare the world for this lie, Satan has been spreading the delusion that space aliens are visiting the earth in strange spaceships seen by many human observers. One proof of his intent in fabricating these sightings is their historical context. In the view of many Bible-believing Christians, what event ushered mankind into the end times? It was the formation of the state of Israel in 1948. What claims to have sighted UFO’s (unidentified flying objects) were the first to catch wide public attention and spark huge interest in the possibility that we are being spied on by a race of highly advanced aliens? Two such claims were most prominent. The first came from a pilot who said that when he was flying his own plane near Mt. Rainier in Washington, he spotted nine shiny blue-white objects streaking along in V-formation at a speed somewhat faster than the speed of sound, a barrier that had not yet been broken by any human aviator. He compared these unusual objects to saucers skipping across the water. The second widely publicized claim came from people who said that they had discovered a crashed UFO near Roswell, New Mexico. When did these two fanciful sightings occur? Both occurred in 1947, the year right before the advent of the end times. Their placement on the prophetic calendar was no mere accident.
Recently there has been a sharp increase of interest in UFO’s. In June, 2019, President Trump and three members of the U.S. Senate were briefed about several UFO sightings that the Navy viewed as strange enough to require the attention of government leaders. Within the past year, 2023, the Pentagon released a video of a UFO, now called a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), which was shown to Congress, and the Pentagon established a task force to investigate UAP’s. Even more recently, a former military officer who was involved in studying possible sightings of alien craft came forward and claimed that the government possesses some debris from crashed UAP’s as well as some alien corpses.
How does Satan fabricate evidence of UAP’s? Again, that is a subject we cannot cover here. Suffice it to say that such fabrication is mere child’s play for a being with his ability to create illusions and manipulate people.
What is our response? How delightful to know that Christ is coming soon to save us from this world of profound and immeasurable folly. If any space aliens were advanced enough to cross the unfathomable distances of outer space to visit our planet, any supposition that they would nevertheless be unable to prevent stupid accidents is itself stupid.
Sign seven—The flurry of interest in UAP’s reveals the devil’s belief that the Rapture will happen soon.
Eighth Sign
The eighth is that Christianity has become the world’s largest religion. In a remarkable parable known as the Parable of the Mustard Seed, Jesus made this prediction, "The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof." Here in Matthew 13 (vv. 31–32), Jesus was obviously picturing the future growth of the church that He was establishing upon the earth. And His prediction has been dramatically fulfilled. Many authoritative sources agree that in today’s world, those who identify themselves as a Christian are more numerous than the followers of any other religion. Although the organized church has split into many denominations, Christianity as a whole embraces nearly one third of the world’s population.
We see that history has moved past the many centuries when the church had not yet grown to the size pictured in Jesus’ parable. Now that it has indeed become the most imposing tree in the field, no further growth is necessary before Jesus can return. Its full realization of Jesus’ prediction is a sign that He could return at any time.
Sign eight—Christianity has indeed become the world’s largest religion.
Ninth Sign
Elsewhere in His teaching, Jesus explained how the professing church would become so large. The dominance of Christianity over other religions would come about through worldwide evangelism. In Jesus’ last instructions to the disciples, He viewed the bearing of gospel truth to men everywhere as a task that the church would someday accomplish. In words known as the Great Commission, He gave them the program that would guide their future work. He said, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). He did not say, "I want you to be witnesses." Rather, He said, "Ye shall be witnesses." He was making an amazing prediction that has come true. In relation to where Jesus was standing when He made it, the uttermost part of the earth was a point lying in the South Pacific Ocean, and the closest inhabited island was Rapa-iti, where the gospel was first preached in 1826, almost two hundred years ago. Since then, the news of salvation through Christ has spread to virtually all the world either through personal witness or radio programming or the internet. No point on the globe lies beyond the furthest reach of the gospel in modern times. The church has truly carried it "unto the uttermost part of the earth." Jesus’ prediction of worldwide evangelism before His return has therefore been fulfilled. It is no longer an unfulfilled prediction requiring further delay of His return. Here then is another sign of the times.
Sign nine—The church has fulfilled the Great Commission.
Tenth Sign
To understand this sign requires that we look at a difficult prophecy in the Book of Daniel. In chapter 2, verses 31–44, we read about a dream that God sent to Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king. In this dream, the king saw a great image of a man, and the portions of his body were made of different materials. None of the king’s counselors could interpret the dream except the young Jewish captive Daniel, who declared that the image represented a series of kingdoms. From the head to the legs, Daniel counted four kingdoms beginning with the head of gold, which he identified as Babylon. Elsewhere in the Book of Daniel we learn that the arms and chest of silver were Medo-Persia, and the belly and thighs of bronze were Greece. Next came the legs of iron. The church from earliest times has identified these as Rome. Then Daniel said, "And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided." It is evident, therefore, that the feet and toes together represent a single kingdom, coming fifth and last in the whole series.
For two reasons, the fifth kingdom cannot be an ancient one like the preceding four.
- Neither Rome nor any other kingdom of the distant past was ever divided into ten parts. Yet such a division must exist during the period of history symbolized by the toes.
- As the king watched the dream, a great stone fell on the feet and crushed the whole image. Daniel revealed that the stone represented the everlasting kingdom of God. So, the falling of the stone pictured the future moment in history when God will violently intervene to set up His kingdom in place of the degenerate kingdoms of the earth. That will happen at the future Coming of Christ in glory, when all eyes shall see Him. We conclude that the fifth kingdom, the kingdom corresponding to the feet of the image, will exist at that time.
The Book of Revelation reveals that the last ruler of the fifth kingdom will be the sinister figure known as the Antichrist, also known as the Beast. How extensive will be his kingdom? The same book reveals that when he ascends to power, he will establish a kingdom that unites ten kingdoms already in existence. These are described as ten horns. Let us read Revelation 17:12-13. "And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast." We derive further insight from Revelation 13:7. "And it was given unto him [the beast] to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations." Taken together, these two passages indicate that the ten will be of one mind—in other words, they will be joined in a worldwide alliance—and that they will give the Beast power which is worldwide in extent. We infer that a world government will be in place before the Beast arises.
We conclude that the fifth kingdom destined to introduce the tyranny of the Beast must be a world government. Will that government arise in the future, or does it already exist? The previous four kingdoms in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream—Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome—all exercised authority over the Jews when they were living in their own land. So, it is reasonable to suppose that the fifth kingdom represents another kingdom with authority over an existing Jewish nation.
The kingdom governing the Jewish nation before it was dissolved in AD 70 was Rome, the fourth division of the image. The fifth division, the feet and toes, must therefore represent whatever kingdom has governed the Jewish nation since it re-emerged in 1948. That kingdom can be none other than the United Nations, which came into being just a few years earlier, in 1945. The UN played an instrumental role in creating the state of Israel, and ever since it has sought to oversee Israel’s relations with hostile neighbors. And, as prophecy foresees, the UN is indeed a government spanning the whole world.
In my commentary on Daniel, I show that the UN perfectly matches Daniel’s description of the fifth kingdom. I show also that the ten toes represent ten regional associations embracing all nations and that these associations already exist. In recent years we have seen an accelerating push to strengthen the UN and other bodies designed to bring humanity under the control of world government. In the economic realm this push has become so obvious and so widely promoted that it now bears a familiar name, the Great Reset.
Sign ten—The whole world has come under the authority of a single government known as the United Nations. Although now restricted in scope, its authority is steadily increasing and will someday reign supreme over the earth.
Eleventh Sign
Prophecy contains several hints of modern telecommunications. We will give one prime example in the Book of Revelation. There we learn that two figures from the past will reappear suddenly on the earth during the period of history between the rapture of the church and the return of Christ to set up His Millennial kingdom. My own position, which I cannot take time to defend here, is that these witnesses are Moses and Elijah. After three and a half years of ministry, they will be slain by the Beast; that is, by the Antichrist. In Revelation 11:8–12, we read what happens next. "And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them."
Prophecy reveals that after they are killed by the Antichrist, their dead bodies will lie unburied in Jerusalem for 3½ days. During this period, all the wicked of the world will rejoice at the Beast’s victory over them. But then they will see the witnesses rise from the dead, and the raucous celebration of their deaths will instantly cease. Revelry will turn to fear. To understand how this event provides us with a sign of the times, we must look closely at the words of verse 9. They say that for three and a half days the whole world will with morbid joy gaze at the dead bodies lying in Jerusalem. How can the whole world look together at a scene normally visible only if the viewer is standing no more than a few hundred yards away? The answer has become obvious only since the advent of global telecommunications. For 3½ days the people of the world will stare at electronic screens fixed hypnotically upon one picture: the bodies of the slain witnesses. The wicked will be unwilling to turn away from a sight that seems to vindicate their wickedness. Rather than risk public outrage over removal of the bodies, political leaders will allow them to lie where they fell.
Global telecommunications developed shortly after World War II. It is interesting that their coming onto the world stage roughly coincided with the refounding of Israel and several other key signs that we have entered the end times.
Sign eleven—Human society now has access to television and other telecommunications.
Twelfth Sign
Let us begin by looking at prophecy speaking of events during the last 3½ years of the Tribulation, when the entire world has come under the control of the Antichrist. "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six" (Rev. 13:16–18).
Recent developments in technology show that we are getting close to the fulfillment of this prophecy. It is now possible to make payments at a store without cash, a credit card, or a mobile phone. All you need is a payment chip that has been inserted under the skin of your hand. Then you can check out of the store just by placing your hand near a contactless card reader.
This payment chip, which includes both a microchip and an antenna encased in a material similar to plastic, is little bigger than a grain of rice. After being inserted under the skin, it supposedly stays firmly in place and creates no problem for the person wearing it. Also, it also does not require a battery or any other power source. Such a device or something similar within the reach of modern technology could obviously be implanted in everyone to provide proof of their identity whenever they stood before a government scanner.
Sign twelve—Human society now has access also to technology for tracking individuals.
Thirteenth Sign
In His Olivet Discourse recorded, Jesus gave a solemn warning to all professing Christians who would be living on the earth at the time of the Rapture. He said, "But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 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, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Matt. 24:37–39). "And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man" (Luke 21:34–36). Jesus was clearly saying that we must pass a worthiness test to participate in the Rapture. What He meant was that this worthiness test would also be a test of our salvation. At the time when He returns for the church, a saved man will be watching for Him and praying always. No real Christian will instead have a heart overcharged with eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, and cares of this life.
Has there ever been a generation who eats as much as we do? Although some underdeveloped regions of the world live continually on the verge of famine, most people in the developed regions—in North America, Europe, and Eastern Asia—enjoy unprecedented wealth, created by modern industry and technology. They have plenty of food and drink, as well as plenty of all other necessities. Impoverishment to the point of starvation is rare. Moreover, they are exploiting the abundance of food and drink by eating and drinking more and more. There is much hard data supporting this claim. In America between 1957 and 2014, per capita food consumption rose from 3000 to 3641 calories. Between 1975 and 2016, the percent of adults who were overweight rose from 47% to 71%, the percent who were obese from 15% to 40%, and the percent who were severely obese from 1% to 8%. Yet overeating was not a problem confined to America. In the same time span, the global percentage of adults with the medical condition known as obesity had also tripled.
It is now evident why Jesus, in words directed especially to those who live in the Last Days, warned against surfeiting. He foresaw that people in the time before His coming would love their bellies more than God. The outbreak of surfeiting in today’s world is therefore another sign of the times.
Sign thirteen—Surfeiting now pervades global society.
Fourteenth Sign
During the early years of the Tribulation, the world will sink to a dreadful state. Let us read the words of prophecy in Revelation 6, verses 7 and 8. "And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth." Lest anyone imagine that the fourth rider is another man, prophecy tells us his name. He is Death, sitting on a horse having the color of death. The suggestion is that the prominent figure during this time will be no living man, but an anonymous dead man representing all who will die. And coming after him is Hell (literally, Hades), who takes those swallowed up by Death. The color intended by the word rendered "pale" in the KJV is actually pale green. Elsewhere in the New Testament, the word denotes the color of grass (Mark 6:39; Rev. 8:7) or of vegetation generally (Rev. 9:4). So, in the account of the last horseman, the word describes the ghastly pallor of a moldering body. The meaning is that the fourth rider introduces a time when huge land areas will be covered with putrefying corpses. Indeed, a wave of death will sweep over no less than a fourth part of the earth.
According to Revelation 6:8, the destroyers will be warfare, famine, and "death," the third doubtless referring to all other causes of death besides the first two, and the wicked agency responsible for much of the suffering will be "beasts of the earth." This is an allusion to the Book of Daniel, which in chapter 7 uses four great beasts to represent earthly kingdoms (see vv. 1–8 and v. 17). During the ascendancy of Death and Hell, earthly kingdoms will fully express their bestial nature by strewing carnage over the heartland of human civilization.
The war brought by the rider called Death is much wider than the two wars described earlier in Revelation 6, the ones coming after the opening of the first and second seals. No doubt it is the same war prophesied in Daniel 11:44, which says, "But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many." The aggressor foreseen in this prophecy is the Antichrist, who, with overpowering force, will attack enemies to the east and north. The phrase "utterly to make away many" (v. 44) suggests that after the Antichrist has rained destruction on his enemies, it will be impossible even to find their bodies. The pitiless totality of the devastation intimated here surely forebodes the aftermath of nuclear war. Support for this conclusion comes from the prophecy that the beasts will ravage a fourth part of the earth. Only a nuclear war could be ruinous to civilization on such an immense scale, engulfing a large fraction of the entire land mass of this planet. No conflict recorded in history has come close to being so destructive.
When did nuclear weapons appear on the world scene? Not until 1945, at roughly the same time as several other fulfillments of prophecy intended to assure believers and to warn unbelievers that the coming of Christ is drawing near. The possession of these weapons by many modern armies is therefore another sign that we have entered the end times.
Sign fourteen—The arsenals of leading nations now include weapons of mass destruction.
Fifteenth Sign
The key text for the fifteenth sign is 2 Thessalonians 2:1–4. "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God." When Paul speaks here of our gathering unto Him, he is referring to the rapture of the church, and he obviously sees the Rapture as the opening event in the day of Christ. Yet he says that the Rapture must be preceded by two other events. First is a falling away. The second is the appearance of the man of sin, a clear reference to the Antichrist.
How will the man of sin be revealed even before the Rapture takes place? Paul gives no answer to this question. Perhaps he means that the Antichrist will already have come onto the world stage as a prominent leader of forces hostile to both Jews and Christians.
What is Paul foreseeing when he speaks of a falling away? "Falling away" renders the Greek word apostasia, root of our word "apostasy." This Greek word refers to a departure from true religion. We conclude that the Rapture will be preceded by apostasy in the church. Has the prophecy of end-time apostasy been fulfilled? Yes, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, the church of Jesus Christ is sick with apostasy. The disease that now fills the whole church germinated about 1800. At that time, doubt in the supernatural and in Biblical history began to infect organized Christianity. The Unitarians, prominent in New England, went so far as to reject the deity of Christ. After publication in the 1860s of Darwin’s On the Origin of the Species, many churches accepted his ideas and abandoned belief in the literal truth of the Scriptures. Since then, apostasy has steadily grown and spread. Today, few churches and church bodies remain committed to Biblical faith and practice. Western society as a whole, once composed of nations that prided themselves on being Christian, has become thoroughly secularized. Whereas we once called ourselves a Christian nation, that concept is now generally seen as backward and degrading.
On one occasion, Jesus asked His disciples a very sobering question that was addressed especially to His followers living at our time in history. "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8).
Sign fifteen—There has been a great falling away from true religion in formerly Christian nations.
Sixteenth Sign
In the Book of Revelation, we find a description of three beasts who will dominate world society during the last portion of the Tribulation. All three are described in Revelation 13, the first in verses 1 and 2. "And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion." As I show at some length in my commentary on the Book of Daniel, the first beast is the Antichrist, who, at the time of events foreseen in this chapter, will rise to the position of world ruler. He will share power with two other beasts, one of which is mentioned at the close of verse 2. "And the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority." The dragon who gives power to the Antichrist is, of course, Satan, as we see in texts such as Revelation 20:2, which prophesies the later arrest and imprisonment of the dragon in these words, "And he (an angel of God) laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years." The third beast mentioned in Revelation 13 appears in verse 11. "And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon." In other words, he will in some fashion resemble Christ, who bears the name Lamb twenty-seven times in Revelation. Another name for the third beast is "the false prophet," which we find in Revelation 16:13. "And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet." His lamblike horns are a symbol of his pretense to stand in Christ’s place as His authorized representative and spokesman. The false prophet will evidently be a conspicuous Christian leader. The most conspicuous is, of course, the pope. Although the false prophet will at first be a leader of organized Christianity, he will later forsake Christianity in any historic sense and encourage his followers to worship the Beast.
In Revelation 17, verses 1–6, we find confirmation that the false prophet is the pope. "And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration."
What does this wicked whore represent? Elsewhere in the Book of Revelation, the true church of God appears as a faithful bride adorned for her husband (Rev. 19:1–9). The contrasting picture of a woman who gains control over masses of people by pursuing illicit relations with the godless rulers of this world and by persecuting true men of God must therefore show a false religion. These relations are illicit because they make her faithless to the One who is supposedly her true husband. We conclude that the religion she symbolizes must be a counterfeit Christianity.
Elsewhere in this chapter, we find that this same woman is also the city that rules the world (Rev. 17:18) and that sits on seven hills (Rev. 17:9). The city of seven hills is, of course, a classic name for Rome. If the whore is a deviant church body centered in Rome, she must be the Roman Catholic Church. But how can she be both a city and a religion? The likely answer is that God views essentially all Roman citizens as participants in the evil work done by the woman. After all, the whole city has for many, many centuries revered the pope, supported all of the observances and policies of the Roman church, and prospered greatly from the wealth poured into Rome by masses of faithful Catholics.
Who then is the false prophet? Since the woman representing both the city and the church of Rome is pictured riding on the beast which is the Antichrist (Rev. 17:3, 7), we conclude that the woman and the false prophet will be closely allied. It therefore seems likely that the false prophet is none other than the head of the Roman church; namely, the pope. Many leading teachers of prophecy in days past reached the same conclusion.
Satan, the Antichrist, and the false prophet will constitute a ruling triumvirate that may appropriately be seen as a counterfeit Trinity. Satan will emulate God the Father; the Antichrist, God the Son; and the false prophet, God the Holy Spirit. The Father gives all authority to the Son. In like manner, Satan will give "his power, and his seat, and great authority" to the Antichrist (Rev. 13:2). The Holy Spirit directs worship to the Son. In like manner, the false prophet will exalt the Antichrist (Rev. 13:11–14). To promote worship of the Beast, the false prophet will even perform miracles.
In light of our discussion so far, certain recent developments take on huge significance. On July 7, 2009, the last pope, Pope Benedict XVI, issued an encyclical entitled "Charity in Truth" which defined the church’s outlook on global economic problems. Lamenting the growing divide between rich and poor, it advocated a "true world political authority" to assure that private businesses would serve the common good rather than the exclusive goal of making money. Still during his tenure as pope, the Vatican’s Justice and Peace Department, on October 24, 2011, circulated a document calling for "a supranational authority" with "universal jurisdiction" to guide economic policies and decisions. At first associated with the United Nations, it would later become an independent body with power to govern the world economy. The new pope, Pope Francis, has reinforced his predecessor’s proposals and carried them even further. In an encyclical issued on June 19, 2015, entitled "Care for Our Common Home," he raises the alarm that short of decisive action on a global scale, mankind is headed for environmental disaster. The solution? He says it is "to manage the global economy; to revive economies hit by the crisis; to avoid any deterioration of the present crisis and the greater imbalances that would result; to bring about integral and timely disarmament, food security and peace; to guarantee the protection of the environment and to regulate migration: for all this, there is urgent need of a true world political authority." In 2018, he proved his sympathy with authoritarian rule by agreeing to let the Communist regime in China appoint bishops for the Chinese Catholic church. Recently, he said that the UN is too weak to be of much use in fighting world problems.
As a result of positioning himself as a strong voice for world government, Pope Francis has become the darling of the world’s elite. In the last few years, he has become a strong promoter not only of world government, but also of world religion. According to the Islamic magazine Al Jazeera, "Pope Francis set out to promote Muslim-Christian dialogue, making several historic visits to the Middle East and meeting with Muslim leaders. In 2014, he traveled to Jordan and Palestine. Three years later, he went to Egypt where he met with Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, the preeminent seat of Islamic learning in Egypt. In 2019, he visited the UAE and Morocco." According to other sources, he visited Iraq in 2021 and met with Ayatollah al-Sistani, the spiritual leader of Iraq’s Shia community. More recently, while in Rome he greeted a delegation of Buddhists from Thailand and urged friendship between Buddhists and Christians with the goal of cooperation to meet multiple threats facing our planet.
Pope Francis has in the last few years sought to raise the papacy even further in public esteem by supporting woke ideology. In 2022, he met with other religious leaders at a mountain in Egypt presumed to be Mt. Sinai, and together they issued a new set of ten commandments dealing primarily with the problem of climate change. How presumptuous to speak as if they were today’s embodiment of God Himself! Then in 2023, in a glaring departure from true Christianity, he authorized priests to place God's blessing upon same-sex couples.
The direction being taken by the current pope is hardly surprising when we consider that his predecessors in past centuries were responsible for killing many, many thousands of godly Protestants, and when we consider also that his predecessor during World War 2 failed to take a stand against Mussolini and Hitler.
Yet I am not suggesting that Pope Francis will be the false prophet. He appears to be on the verge of retirement, and lately he has been introducing men strongly supportive of his views to the College of Cardinals. There are some credible rumors that he is encouraging this enclave to select a successor who is from either Africa or Asia. Satan clearly wants someone in that position who will easily make the transition to a leading role in world government.
Sign sixteen—The pope is a leading figure among those trying to bring the whole world under the authority of a single religion and government.
Seventeenth Sign
To understand the significance of recent court rulings favoring so-called gay rights, we must look at Luke 17:22-37. "For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation. And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. 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. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 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."
A careful examination of the last verses speaking of the eagles gathering in the sky leaves no doubt that Jesus is foreseeing the Rapture. In language that is both poetic and dramatic, Jesus describes the event as a sudden disappearance of people here and there followed by eagles coming together at a body. What He surely means is that the people taken from the earth will ascend and gather where the body of Christ is waiting in the sky. The body of Christ is the church (Eph. 1:22–23). But notice where He places the Rapture in history. The days preceding it will resemble the days of Noah and also the days of Lot. The saints will escape from this depraved world just as Lot escaped from the depraved city of Sodom.
What was the characteristic and pervasive vice of Sodom? Homosexuality, known throughout history as sodomy. Jesus seems to be giving us a strong hint that the Rapture will remove saints from the world of fallen mankind after it has become infected with this particular vice, which Scripture, in Romans 1:18, 22–27, describes as the final tendency of human lawlessness. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; . . . Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet."
On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court followed the lead of most European countries by legalizing "gay marriage." This decision and the subsequent explosion of woke ideology seem therefore like the fateful rebirth of a world once destroyed, the world of Sodom and Gomorrah. Doubtless we should mark the date as a point of no return to a world still open to the work of God. From now on, the Lord could come at any time to spare our families from ruin by further exposure to a culture degenerate beyond repair. The ruins of Sodom are under or near the waters known as the Dead Sea, which is the lowest point on the face of the planet. It is impossible not to recognize this fact as God’s comment on sodomy. Yet we must remember Jesus’ grim warning in Matthew 11:23–24 to Jews who rejected Him after seeing His miracles and hearing His teaching. "And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day." In other words, the only unforgivable sin is rejection of Christ.
Please understand that we are not expressing hatred for people ensnared by the sin of sodomy. Absolutely not. We view them as tragic victims of Satanic deception, and we reach out to them with the love of Christ, inviting them to escape from ruin and damnation and to achieve life forever by submission to the will of God.
To counter any doubt that it is possible for homosexuals to change their sexual orientation, we will share some discoveries of good scientific research. One is that homosexuality has absolutely no genetic basis. Another is that every so-called homosexual is actually bisexual to some degree and also that the degree of either gender identity can be altered over time by both choice and experience. These facts should help all sodomites understand that the path of forsaking their present sexual orientation and finding happiness in traditional love and marriage is a real option lying before them. With God's help, a journey down this path will not merely be possible. Rather, if they accept the full working of God's Spirit in their hearts and minds, it will be certain.
Sign seventeen—As a result of strong encouragement by the leaders of modern culture, the sin of sodomy is becoming rampant.
Eighteenth Sign
During an early phase of the Tribulation, the king of the north, the man who would later assume the role of the Antichrist, will be assassinated (Dan. 11:45). Then later, just before the final three and a half years of the Tribulation, his spirit will return from the underworld and repossess his dead body, after which he will present himself to the world as a god to be worshipped (Rev. 13:1-3). He will in fact be possessed by a high-ranking demon named Abaddon (Rev. 9:1-3, 11). The masses of the world will be so impressed by the Antichrist’s reappearance on the world scene that they will worship him as well as Satan, the one who will claim to have power over death (Rev. 13:4). Demon worship will be nothing new. It will have been commonplace during the earlier portion of the Tribulation (Rev. 9:20-21).
In anticipation of the dark religion that will be prevalent at that time, we see a growing interest in demon worship in today’s world. Before 1965, occult activity kept mainly underground. The media seldom noticed it and put it in a negative light. Since 1965, there has been a groundswell of interest in dark religion.
- The media have turned a spotlight on it, often giving it favorable treatment. The turning point was the seemingly innocuous program Bewitched back in the ’60s. Now the occult is a regular theme of rock music, videos, and books. Among the top-selling books for children in recent years is a series featuring a young warlock by the name of Harry Potter.
- In modern times, a new form of the occult has emerged, packaged in middle-class, quasi-intellectual respectability: the New Age Movement. Bookstores have given it a special place on their shelves. Leading entertainers have promoted it. Yet it is nothing but occultism. People seek paranormal experience and self-evolution to godhood with the aid of spirit guides—that is, demons. Between 1990 and 2000, the number of adherents to New Ageism grew more than threefold, from 20,000 to 68,000. Although the number who identify themselves as New Agers appears to have declined since then, some aspects of its worldview clearly persist as a shaping influence on the thinking of more and more people.
- Witches and other practitioners of the occult have come out of the closet, openly revealing their allegiance and aggressively recruiting others. In the modern Western world, witchcraft generally takes place in the context of the pagan religion known as Wicca. In 1985, the District Court of Virginia declared that Wicca is a religion entitled to protection under the Constitution and to all the other benefits granted by law to a religion. This ruling was upheld by a Federal Appeals Court. The attraction of Wicca is twofold. It gives immoral sex a religious pretext. Also, it promises to make real much of the dark fantasy that the young enjoy as entertainment. Exposure to the occult in their reading and viewing gives them a hankering to sample the real thing. Wicca is among the fastest growing religions in this country, appealing mainly to educated young people. In 2004, Wiccans, pagans, and druids numbered well over 400,000. In 2014, the same religions could claim about 740,000 adherents (0.3% of the U.S. population).
- We now see Satan clubs springing up in many public schools. Although associated with the Satanic Temple, they deny that their purpose is to encourage worship of demons. Yet their avowed purpose, which is to draw children away from Christianity, is indeed Satanic, and going instead in the direction of some occult religion is a path that they clearly encourage young people to follow.
Sign eighteen—We are seeing an explosion of occult religion.
Nineteenth Sign
Chapters 2 and 3 in the Book of Revelation contain letters from Christ to seven churches in Asia Minor. All seven of these churches ceased to exist long ago, when the Muslims overran that part of the world. Yet a leading traditional view is that in addition to representing actual churches in the first century, they are also symbols with prophetic meaning. After all, we find them in a book devoted to prophecy.
A common view is that these Asian churches divide church history into seven periods. The first church, Ephesus, corresponds to the apostolic period. The last church, Laodicea, corresponds to the modern period. And the other five churches are a chronological sequence of intervening periods spanning almost two thousand years.
The great difficulty in this view is that Christ strongly implies that four churches other than Laodicea will exist when He returns.
To Pergamos, the third church, He says, "Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth" (Rev. 2:16). "Quickly" means that He will come sooner than they expect. He plainly warns them that unless they repent and cast out false teachers, He Himself will take up the fight against these evildoers when He returns. Thus, He must believe that the church of Pergamos will still exist.
We find the same expectation in the letter to the church of Thyatira. Jesus says, "But that which ye have already hold fast till I come"(Rev. 2:25). Thus, He clearly envisions this church continuing until the Rapture. He says, moreover, "Behold, I will cast her [Jezebel, the false prophetess who led many in Thyatira astray] into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds" (Rev. 2:22). This appears to be a warning of what will befall the wicked in Thyatira after His return. The children of Jezebel will then undergo the agonies of the Tribulation (Rev. 2:23).
Beginning with the letter to the fifth church, Sardis, the references to Christ’s coming become very explicit. The Lord takes for granted that Sardis will exist at His return. The only doubt is whether Sardis will be ready. He warns them that if they fail to watch, He will come like a thief and catch them unawares (Rev. 3:3). Yet He expects that He will find some in Sardis who are worthy to be taken into His presence, where they will "walk . . . in white" (Rev. 3:4).
The prognosis is much better for Philadelphia. In His letter to this church, He issues no warning of chastisement or rebuke when He returns, but only the promise that He will keep it "from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth" (Rev. 3:10). Obviously, then, one of the churches remaining in the world at Christ’s coming will be Philadelphia.
The last letter is the one to Laodicea. The most alarming prophecy in all seven letters is the Lord’s threat to spue the complacent Laodiceans out of His mouth (Rev. 3:16). This decisive and violent act of rejection makes no historical sense unless we associate it with a single event. He seems to be announcing a judgment that He will bring upon them at the time of His coming. Specifically, most Laodiceans will be denied the privilege of being lifted up at the Rapture. Instead, they will be rejected as mere pretenders of true faith. Yet even among these left behind will be some that the Lord, in His grace and mercy, will love nevertheless (Rev. 3:19). Upon these He will bring a stern hand of discipline, designed to produce repentance unto salvation. His return will presumably mark the moment in history when His chastening of the wayward Laodiceans will begin.
It is now evident what the seven churches in Asia truly represent. That each stands for something beyond itself is undeniable, for all the actual churches in the cities bearing the names given in Revelation 2 and 3 disappeared long ago, yet Christ treats them as though they would endure through the centuries. That the Book of Revelation seeks to give a comprehensive picture of the future is undeniable as well. So, we may suppose that He singles out the seven churches in Asia for special instruction because they represent the entire spectrum of churches that would emerge during the Church Age. What the Lord says to each of the seven churches in Asia applies equally to all similar churches in the future. Also, in His letters to these churches, He apparently addresses them in chronological sequence, showing the order of their appearance on the world scene. First to appear would be Ephesus. Next would be Smyrna. Then would come Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and, lastly, Laodicea.
What then do the five churches still existing in our day represent? In my book, Signs of the Times, I argue that Pergamos represents churches that exalt experience over the written Word. They first emerged in the Montanist movement of the second century, and they have reemerged in the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements of our day. All are tongues-speaking churches. The Lord is severely critical of this stream of Christianity.
Thyatira represents churches that are ecclesiastical in government, liturgical in worship, and medieval in superstition. Among these is a certain Jezebel that the Lord hates. The original Jezebel slew the true prophets of God (1 Kings 18:4, 13). In Jesus’ letter, she stands for the papal church, which has a long history of persecuting true believers. The two branches of Christianity that embody Thyatira are the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches.
Sardis, which Jesus rebukes for replacing inner piety with an outward show of religion, embraces the churches that came out of the Reformation, including Episcopalian and Lutheran as well as Presbyterian and Reformed. The Lord rebukes them for being ignorant of their place in history and for failing to watch.
The roots of Philadelphia go back to the seventeenth century, when the first Baptist churches appeared. The Moravian movement and the Great Awakening in the eighteenth century, as well as the many revivals in the nineteenth century, made Philadelphia a strong presence in the Christian world. One offshoot of this tradition has been the modern fundamentalist movement in America. The churches embodying Philadelphia have been distinctive in several respects. They have been extremely missionary-minded. They have had a keen interest in Bible study, especially the study of prophecy. And they have been unusual in their commitment to both personal and ecclesiastical separation. Also, the laity have always played an especially prominent role. Among the Moravians, every man was a preacher, and throughout the history of Philadelphia, many of its foremost preachers lacked formal theological training.
We are left with Laodicea. We said earlier that many students of prophecy have identified it as the whole church in the Last Days. This is not exactly right, because Jesus suggested that other churches would also exist then. But it is right in some measure, because Laodicea is a church that has existed only in the Last Days. It is, to be specific, the modern evangelical church. Although wealthy and outwardly successful, it has abandoned the virtues of its predecessor, Philadelphia. It is lukewarm about missions, about prophecy, about Bible study in general, and about separation, as well as about lay involvement in ministry. Its members prefer to be spectators, and they see no contradiction between their profession of faith and their worldly lifestyle.
Will all of these churches be taken at the Rapture? Absolutely not. In Jesus’ letters to the churches, only two of them receive a promise that He will remove them from this world when He returns as a thief in the night. These two are Sardis and Philadelphia. Yet His promise to Sardis is addressed to very few of its members. He says, "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. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy" (Rev. 3:3–4). The promise to Philadelphia, however, is not restricted to only a portion of the church. The whole church can expect to be raptured. "And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name" (Rev. 3:7–8). "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches (Rev. 3:10–12).
Also in my book Signs of the Times, I demonstrate that the door Jesus is talking about is the door to heaven and that the hour of temptation is the horrible period of future history known as the Tribulation. We therefore come to the solid conclusion that all Christians who are faithful members of Philadelphia can expect to leave this world when Christ comes as a thief in the night.
But old-fashioned fundamentalism of the kind that truly qualifies as Philadelphia is becoming rare. Most people today who profess to be evangelical attend churches where they hear brief and shallow sermons inserted between onstage shows of music in a popular style that appeals to the flesh. Perhaps also they will see the performers moving in a way that can only be called dancing. And although the preacher will proclaim the goodness of God, he will avoid any deep study of Scripture that some hearers will find boring, he will ignore the rules against worldly pleasure-seeking that once prevailed in fundamentalism, and he will refrain from taking any position that will offend his loyal supporters, especially those who drop good money into the offering place. Such churches, devoted to worldly success rather than to the rescue of souls from spiritual calamity, are becoming commonplace, whereas churches of Philadelphia are disappearing.
Sign nineteen—Evangelical Christianity has clearly divided into two separate branches, Philadelphia and Laodicea.
Twentieth Sign
In any study seeking to understand what the world will look like at the return of Christ, one of the chief sources of information should be Jesus’ Olivet Discourse, given a few days before His death. As He sat on the Mount of Olives, He gave His disciples a fairly detailed picture of the Last Days. At the beginning, He provided a picture of the world just before and just after the Rapture.
Regarding conditions preceding it, He said, "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" (Matt. 24:6). Indeed, wars have always plagued mankind, especially in modern times, when human society has degenerated into two wars on a worldwide scale.
Then Jesus told the disciples what to expect right after the Tribulation had begun. "For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows" (Matt. 24:7).
One of the disasters that will strike the world is famine. Do we see any evidence that human society is on the verge of serious food shortages? Sadly, the answer is, "yes." Until recently, many experts were confident that we are making progress in reducing our vulnerability to famine. In 2002, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization predicted that growth in food production would outstrip population growth for at least thirty years. But optimistic projections are proving incorrect. To support our case, we will cite three authoritative sources.
- A report from UNICEF in 2016 stated, in regard to all the world's children under age five, that 24% were suffering from stunted growth (that is, subnormal height) and 8% were wasted (that is, underweight). Also underweight were an estimated 16% of all newborns.
- According to a report from the UN Food and Agricultural Organization in 2019, the number of undernourished people in the world had for decades declined until 2015, when it fell to only 785 million, but since then had increased. In 2018, it was over 820 million. The global percentage had also risen, from 10.6% to 10.8%, and a somewhat larger percentage of people worldwide were suffering what was termed "a moderate level of food insecurity." When they were counted along with the severely undernourished, the total number was about two billion people, or about 26% of the world’s population.
- Quite alarming is an official report published by the World Food Program USA just recently, in March, 2023. "Yes. Right now, there is a global food crisis—the largest one in modern history. Since the United Nations World Food Program’s (WFP) creation in 1963, never has hunger reached such devastating highs. From the eruption of new conflicts and the escalating impacts of the climate crisis to soaring food and fuel costs, millions of people are being driven closer to starvation each day. Nearly 350 million people around the world are experiencing the most extreme forms of hunger right now. Of those, nearly 49 million people are on the brink of famine."
Sign twenty—World society is now suffering from widespread famine.
Twenty-first Sign
In Matthew’s record of Jesus’ Olivet Discourse, the Greek word that the KJV translates as "pestilence" (Matt. 24:7) indeed refers to any kind of communicable disease. Since mankind has recently suffered all the deaths and all the serious disruptions of normal life due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we can hardly doubt that we are now approaching or entering the time when mankind will come under the vicious attack of pestilences as well as wars, famines, and earthquakes.
Just how many casualties can be blamed on the COVID-19 pandemic? The World Health Organization has reported that before August 30th, 2023, there were 770,085,713 confirmed cases of this disease, including 6,956,173 deaths. For a clearer perspective on these data, we need to consider the impact of earlier pandemics. Some have been far worse than what we have seen during COVID. In the Middle Ages, one outbreak of bubonic plague killed 75 to 200 million people in the space of a few years. Therefore, the trouble brought by COVID is likely only a warning of much worse pestilences that will soon arise during the Tribulation. One unusual characteristic of the COVID pandemic sets it apart as a forerunner of the pestilences that will soon afflict mankind. Unlike most of the other deadly pandemics in the past, it has been truly worldwide in its impact.
Yet COVID is not the only worldwide pestilence which is now on the scene. Fifty years ago, the only sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) of significance were syphilis and gonorrhea. Both are now more common than ever before, but also in our day, thirty-five new STDs have emerged to afflict millions. Altogether, twenty million new cases appear each year just in the United States, victimizing about one fourth of the young people between ages fifteen and twenty-four. The same diseases have become a major health problem not only in our country, but also throughout the world, because the sexual immorality permitting these diseases to emerge and spread is tolerated everywhere in modern society.
Besides facing an onslaught of new diseases, we are coming under the threat of old diseases that in past centuries rarely appeared in Western nations. One example is leprosy. This scourge that constantly found victims in ancient Israel now exists all around the globe. In recent years, it has emerged in America, and the number of cases is steadily increasing. From fewer than a hundred in 2000, today there are about 180 per year, and many occur in central Florida, where the disease is now considered to be endemic.
Sign twenty-one—Pestilences are a growing threat to the health and survival of people everywhere.
Twenty-second Sign
In His Olivet Discourse, Jesus predicted not only famines and pestilences at the beginning of the Tribulation, but also earthquakes (Matt. 24:7). It is true that major earthquakes have struck the earth in recent years. The worst natural disaster ever to hit the Western Hemisphere was the earthquake that overwhelmed Haiti in 2010, which by official estimates caused more than 220,000 deaths. But as of now, we lack conclusive evidence of any sharp increase in the overall incidence and severity of earthquakes. We dare not conclude, however, that we are not standing on the threshold of the Tribulation.
On the contrary, we have strong reason to believe that deadly earthquakes will strike America in the near future. In our country there are two fault systems known to be capable of producing great disasters. One is the San Andreas fault in California, which runs for eight hundred miles beneath a densely populated region. Excavations by geologists have shown that "San Andreas quakes with a magnitude 7.5 or higher have struck Southern California on average once in 105 years." Since the last one occurred 162 years ago, another one is overdue, and the long delay forebodes an even greater disaster. A similar threat hangs over Northern California. A study done by the United States Geological Survey projects a 62% chance that a major quake will hit near San Francisco before 2033.
The other potential source of tremendously damaging earthquakes in the United States is the New Madrid fault below the Mississippi Valley. Here is a recent government report. "In the winter of 1811–12, the central Mississippi Valley was struck by three of the most powerful earthquakes in U.S. history. . . . Damage was reported as far away as Charleston, South Carolina, and Washington, D.C., [and] church bells [rang] in Boston, Massachusetts, 1,000 miles away." The casualties were light because, "in 1811, the central Mississippi Valley was sparsely populated. Today, the region is home to millions of people, including those in the cities of St. Louis . . . and Memphis. Adding to the danger, most structures in the region were not built to withstand earthquake shaking." Another major earthquake at this fault line is therefore very possible in the near future, and the effects will be tragically devastating.
Although earthquakes have not in recent years become more frequent and severe, we are seeing a sharp increase in the kinds of natural disasters that clearly reflect dangerous trends in our natural environment; for example, in storms, wildfires, and floods. God is permitting these trends because they are His tool for bringing judgment upon a global society that is sinking ever deeper into moral corruption. Surely they are another warning that history will soon usher mankind into the awful years of the Tribulation. Already in 1999, the Geoscience Research Group sponsored by Munich Re, world’s largest reinsurer, reported that in the previous decade, the number of great natural catastrophes had increased by a factor of three since the 1960s. More recently, according to a report published in 2017 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the incidence of natural disasters had increased fivefold since the 1970s.
The disasters in 2023 include the following. In Maui, one of the Hawaiian islands, a strong wind damaged some electric poles and sent sparks into dry vegetation, where a fire erupted that consumed much of the island in flames and killed about a hundred people. In Canada, the wildfires in 2023 were far worse than in any previous year, altogether sweeping over an area larger than the state of Mississippi. Recently, another cause of severe destruction has been flooding in China, Greece, and many other places around the world. More than 2000 people were killed and thousands more were missing after a Mediterranean storm burst dams in Libya, causing much of a large city there to be destroyed. For other examples, all you need to do is follow the news.
Sign twenty-two—We are seeing a sharp increase in many kinds of natural disasters.
Twenty-third Sign
Before Christ descends to set up His kingdom on the earth, the Antichrist will reign for forty-two months. Near the beginning of this period, he will "blaspheme his [God’s] name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven" (Rev. 13:6). Paul foresaw the setting and occasion. He describes the Antichrist as the one "who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God (2 Thess. 2:4). The blasphemy will consist of both deeds and words. He will enter the Temple of God and make it the center of a cult devoted to worshipping his own person. Not content to be received as a god equal to other gods, he will claim to be the highest god of all, the god nonpareil.
In His Olivet Discourse, Jesus warned all Jews in Israel during the Tribulation to expect severe persecution after the Antichrist takes control of the Temple. His exact wording is critically important. He said, "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, . . . then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes . . . . But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be" (Matt. 24:15–21). In other words, as soon as the Antichrist sets foot in the sanctuary, he will almost immediately begin intense persecution of all Jews still faithful to the true God. Thus, his violation of the Temple will be the signal to believing Jews that they must, with all possible haste, flee to the wilderness.
Jesus’ warning to anyone on his roof or in his field that he will not be able to afford even a few extra minutes to visit the house carries the implication that escape will be possible if they obey Him, but impossible if they do not. Yet if news of the event will come by word of mouth, there will be wide variation in the time of delay. Some will not hear it until hours later than others. To save a few minutes by heeding what Jesus said will therefore be critical only for a few. It is far more reasonable and more respectful of His words to infer from them that all Jews will learn of the event at about the same time. How will that be possible? Jesus provides the answer. He anticipates that those in the fields and on the housetops of Judea will be able to "see" the Antichrist as he enters the Temple. His wording strongly implies modern means of communication. By looking at screens fed by electronic networks, not only the people in Judea but also the whole world will witness the event as it happens. Moreover, these screens must belong to portable devices that can be carried to the roof or to the field. We conclude that Jesus’ words clearly foresee the existence of cell phones.
Sign twenty-three—People now possess the kind of portable telecommunications foreseen in prophecy.
Twenty-fourth Sign
In the closing years of the Tribulation, the Antichrist will rebuild the ancient city of Babylon and make it the world’s capital city. Yet before Christ descends at the Battle of Armageddon and establishes Himself as world ruler, God will destroy Babylon by burning it to the ground (Rev. 18:1–9). Many merchants who had garnered great wealth by selling their merchandise within its walls will stand off at a distance and mourn the city’s destruction. In their words of grief remembering the commodities that they had bought or sold, they name rare treasures as well as foods, animals, and things manufactured (Rev. 18:11–13). But the list comes to a shocking conclusion when they also say that it will no longer be possible to buy or sell "slaves, and the souls of men." We discover from this text that slavery will be a common practice during the latter portion of the Tribulation. It apparently will even exist in a form never seen before. For some slaves, not only will their outward behavior become subject to the dictates of another person; they will also lose ownership of their souls— that is, personal control of their inner thoughts and desires.
Many people living in the modern world think that although slavery was an evil that troubled human society in past centuries, the world has more recently become so enlightened by liberal values that slavery has all but disappeared from the face of the earth. Nothing could be further from the truth. In anticipation of the moral darkness that will descend on mankind after the Rapture, slavery now has a growing presence in nations around the globe.
The most conspicuous victims are the Uyghurs in China. Nearly six million of these Muslims have been classified as slaves by the Global Slavery Index compiled by the non-profit organization with the name Walk Free. The proof that they live under conditions of slavery is that they are subject to forced labour and forced marriage, as well as surgical removal of certain bodily organs to supply organ trafficking. Yet although Chinese oppression is the most publicized example of slavery in today’s world, it has an even worse presence in India, which has about eleven million slaves. The number currently in the whole world is staggering, amounting to no less than fifty million. It is estimated that even in the United States the number of slaves falls between one hundred thousand and four hundred thousand.
How is that possible? Consider how slavery is defined by modern students of this evil practice. It includes debt bondage, forced marriage, forced labor, forced organ loss, as well as many forms of child exploitation, some of which involve coercion, some of which use deceit. The slavery prevalent in America today is not the kind prevalent before the Civil War, but rather it is human trafficking, defined as "the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act." Our open borders are one factor causing an explosion in such tragic abuse of the poor and vulnerable.
The evil practice foreseen when Revelation 19 speaks of commerce in the souls of men seems to anticipate forms of slavery that did not exist in pre-modern society, but are now becoming an option for wicked exploiters of the weak. And indeed it is now becoming possible to force the minds of slaves out of the real world into a fantasy world created by drugs, screens, and robots with artificial intelligence, or perhaps even by brain implants—into a world of let’s pretend where they will be willing to engage in behavior damaging to their welfare and innocence but pleasing to their slave-owners. Already in our day we see the emergence of technology that will make possible such possession of a person’s soul.
Sign Twenty-four—Age-old kinds of slavery as well as other forms of human exploitation are sharply increasing around the world.
Twenty-fifth Sign
There can be no doubt that during the Tribulation, there will be severe persecution of all who come to faith in Christ after missing the Rapture. In John’s vision of future events recorded in the Book of Revelation, he discovers that already during the opening phase of the Tribulation, so many of these martyrs will have come to heaven that he must describe them as "a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues" (Rev. 7:9). One of the heavenly saints belonging to the twenty-four elders informed John that these were "they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (Rev. 7:14).
Yet believers in Christ will face severe persecution not only after the Rapture; they will also see it become much worse right before the Rapture. As this glorious event draws near, Satan will use every device he can to assure that as few believers as possible will be miraculously lifted out of his domain. The recent sharp increase in persecution of the church worldwide is therefore an especially vivid sign of the times.
Several non-profit organizations keep a close watch on persecution of Christians around the world. The one with a solid reputation for the most careful and conservative measures of this persecution has the name Open Doors. Another of these organizations has described the measures reported by Open Doors as "the bare minimum." According to Open Doors, persecution of the church is indeed on a sharp upward slope around the world. In the last thirty years, the number of countries where Christians suffer high levels and extreme kinds of persecution has almost doubled, reaching no less than seventy-six. Just in the last five years, the number of Christians martyred for their faith has, by the most conservative way of measuring it, risen 80%, from 3066 to 5621. The nations most hostile to Christian faith are North Korea, Afghanistan, and Nigeria, although the country now displaying the sharpest increase of persecution is India. But even in America, Christian faith carries with it a growing risk of being targeted by hostility and discrimination.
Sign Twenty-five—Persecution of Christians is also sharply increasing.