Signs Of The Second Coming Of Christ

"As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

-- Matthew 24:3 --

Are we seeing signs of the second coming of Christ today? Many people believe we are. The purpose of this blog is to examine, from Scripture, whether "wars and rumors of wars" (Matthew 24:6) and other supposed prophetic events today are really signs of His physical and glorious return to earth.

Between 1900 and 2022 there have been nearly two-hundred and seventy documented wars worldwide with close to eighty-million casualties (The Polynational War Memorial, https://war-memorial.net/wars_all.asp). Additionally, there have been at least fourteen wars between 2022 and 2025 (Wikipedia, List of wars: 2003-present, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars:_2003-present). I haven’t even mentioned the hundreds of wars that took place between the first and nineteenth centuries. Are all these wars, along with famines and earthquakes that occurred since the first century, “merely the beginning of birth pangs” (Matthew 24:8)? To answer this question, we need to understand when these things will happen and what is meant by “the end of the age” (Matthew 24:3).

Daniel 9:24-27 provides a very accurate timeline of prophetic events over a period of seventy weeks (490 years). This entire period was decreed by God for Israel and Jerusalem (v. 24). It began with the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem (v. 25). Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 B.C. by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon (2 Kings 25:8-21; Jeremiah 52:12-14). The Babylonian exile of the Jewish people ended in 539 B.C. when Babylon fell to the Medo-Persian Empire. The new temple in Jerusalem was rebuilt and completed in 516 B.C. (Ezra 6:15), however nothing was done to rebuild the wall surrounding the city. In 444 B.C. Artaxerxes I, King of Persia, issued a decree to Nehemiah to rebuild Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:1-10). The sixty-ninth week ended when Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey (Matthew 21:1-11) in fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9. He (the Messiah) was cutoff (crucified and died) a few days later (Daniel 9:26). Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed by armies of the Roman Empire (“the people of the prince who is to come”) in A.D. 70 as prophesied by Jesus (Matthew 24:1-2).

There is one more week on Daniel’s prophetic timeline – the seventieth week (Daniel 9:27). Did this week already take place? If not, when will it occur? A week in the context of Daniel 9:24-27 is a seven year period (Genesis 29:27-28). Each year consists of twelve thirty day months. The “prince who is to come” will make a seven year covenant with Israel, then will put a stop to grain offerings and sacrifices three and a half years later. He will come “on the wing of abominations” (detestable things) and will make desolations (cause horrors) until he is destroyed (v. 27). Jesus referred to him as the “abomination of desolation” (Matthew 24:15). Paul calls him the man of lawlessness, “the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4). John calls him the beast who will speak “arrogant words and blasphemies” against God and His tabernacle and will have “authority to act for forty-two months” (Revelation 13:5-6).

Revelation 11:1-14 reveals (1) there will be a temple in Jerusalem; (2) God’s two witnesses will prophecy for twelve-hundred and sixty days (three-and-a-half years); (3) the beast will kill the two witnesses thus beginning his three-and-a-half year reign of terror on the earth. Thus, the abomination of desolation (Matthew 24:15) comes on the scene during the second half of Daniel’s seventieth week. This week will end when Jesus physically and glorious returns to earth (Matthew 24:29-31; 25:31; Revelation 19:11-21). Since the beast will be revealed (Matthew 24:15) at the beginning of the second half of Daniel’s seventieth week, it stands to reason that the prophecies given in Matthew 24:3-14 will be fulfilled during the first half of Daniel’s seventieth week.

Jesus’ disciples asked Him three questions (Matthew 24:3): (1) when will these things happen? (2) what will be the sign of Your coming? (3) what will be the sign of the end of the age? Jesus intertwined the destruction of the temple – the house of Jerusalem (Matthew 23:37-39) – which occurred about forty-years later, with the future event of His second coming and the end of the age. Many people confuse the second coming of Christ with the rapture of the church (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). The rapture precedes the seventieth week of Daniel, otherwise known as the tribulation period. There are no prophesied signs that point to the rapture which could happen at any “moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Corinthians 15:52).

Jesus calls the interval following the appearance of the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place as the “great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will” (Matthew 24:21). It is this final three-and-a-half year span of time that precedes the coming of “the Son of Man on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30). Everyone on earth will be eyewitnesses to this amazing event. However, only those in Christ will see the Lord as we meet Him in the air in translated bodies when the rapture occurs. He will take us to our dwelling places in heaven (John 14:1-3; 1 Corinthians 15:51-53; 1 Thessalonians 4:17).

Wars and rumors of wars, nations rising against nations, kingdoms rising against kingdoms, famines, earthquakes, and false prophets have been commonplace ever since sin and its consequence of death entered the world (Romans 5:12). The signs of the second coming of Christ and the end of the age (Matthew 24:3) is relegated to the seventieth week of Daniel – the seven-year tribulation period – which is decreed for Israel and Jerusalem, not the current church. The church, those in Christ who are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, is not Israel (Romans 8:11; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 12:27; Colossians 1:24). Unless we are in the seven-year tribulation, we are not witnessing signs of the second coming of Christ today.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations cited in this blog are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.