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LOOKING for signs of the coming of God's Kingdom on earth is not strange, it is simply doing what Christ told his followers to do. For Christ said that just as men knew summer was near when the fig tree put forth its leaves, so they might know that the world's summer, the Kingdom of God, was near when they saw "these things coming to pass" (Luke 21:29-31). So it is not only good sense, but also keeping good faith with Christ to look for signs that the dark and storm will soon pass. Christ also said: " Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." (Luke 21:28 ESV)

1. Distress and fear among nations.

With one beautiful exception, "these things" about which Jesus spoke were not pleasant things. In easily understood figurative speech drawn from the visible world of nature, he spoke about signs in the sun, moon and stars of men's social and political world -- the ruling powers of state and church; he had described the distress and perplexity among nations resulting from vast, restless upheavals of men like the roaring, heaving billows of the sea. Christ foretold an atmosphere of frustration, fear, failing of heart in expectation of the things coming on the world.

2. The Return of the Jews.

The beautiful exception concerns the return of Israel: "And they (i.e., the Jews) shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" (Luke 21:24). This is in harmony with other prophecies showing that as those "times of the Gentiles" drew to an end there would be a return from captivity and a rising again of Jerusalem from her downtrodden state. Ezekiel, foretelling a last invasion of Palestine from the North, describes colonists gathered and settled in the land:

"In the latter years you [the northern invader] will go against the land that is restored from war, the land whose people were gathered from many peoples upon the mountains of Israel, which had been a continual waste. Its people were brought out from the peoples and now dwell securely, all of them.... the people who were gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell at the center of the earth." (Ezek. 38:8,12).

In his 37th chapter Ezekiel had already given a vivid picture of national revival among the scattered and disorganized sons of Israel as one of the features of these last times. How clearly these forecasts are being fulfilled in our own day needs no emphasis. From 1918 onwards Jews have been returning and new life has come to the land. Since the State of Israel sprang into being in 1948, hosts of returning exiles have been received, and marvels have been accomplished in developing the country. 

3. War and Preparation for War.

It is not only Christ's words which show that this sign of Jewish return to Palestine would come in a time of world distress. Ezekiel, Joel and Revelation all tell of a time of piling armaments and a mounting flood of war.

"Proclaim this among the Gentiles; Prepare war; wake up the mighty men, . . . beat your ploughshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears ... the day of the Lord is near" (Joel 3:9,10,15). "Gather them together to the war of the great day of God Almighty." (Revelation 16:14).

Further, the war would converge upon a point in the Near East, for it is said:

"Behold, in those days, and at that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land" (Joel 3:1-2).

"And he gathered them together into the place which is called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon" (Revelation 16:16).

No longer can it be said that there have always been wars and troubles; this age is no different from others. War in our day has been spread over the world in a flood. No other time in history can compare with this enormous and horrid extension of conflict. The war of 1939-45 brought the Near East once more into the centre of world affairs.  Since then tension has grown between East and West, the powers of the land and the powers of the seas; and more and more clearly the Middle East is seen as the focal point of coming conflict.

4. Developments in the Middle East.

We could go into more detail - particularly following the conflict between the Arab peoples (descendants of Ishmael) and the Jews (descendants of Jacob) from the Bible. But the points here briefly made are enough to show that the days in which we live correspond to the signs given by Jesus and the prophets which would precede his coming. To have watched in the light of the prophets the current turmoil in the Middle East is to be convinced that the Lord's coming cannot be far away. 

John's prophecy about Armageddon is preceded by the words of Christ "Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake" (Revelation 16:15).

NEXT: 4. Is death the end?