"What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the [consummation] of the age?" (Matthew 24:3).

This question was addressed to the Lord Jesus by His Jewish disciples. "Thy coming," means the Lord's presence with them on earth when He would judge the nations and set up His kingdom over His earthly people, the Jews. "The consummation of the age," means the end of the time during which the Lord would be absent from them. The disciples do not here represent us who are in this present Church-age, which began at Pentecost and shall terminate with the rapture of the Church. Rather do they represent the godly Jews of the period following the rapture of the Church, called the Great Tribulation—a period of seven years, according to the prophetic Scriptures. They will be expecting the coming of the Messiah to deliver them from their enemies and reign over them and the whole earth for a thousand years.

In Matthew 24, the Lord reveals conditions that shall prevail during that time of great tribulation. They are defined and limited. The prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation further outline and fill in the details of that dreadful time of necessary judgment by the Lord, before the kingdom of peace can be brought in. Though there is nothing in Scripture to be fulfilled before the rapture of the Church, and the believer today does not look for signs but for the Lord Himself, yet the signs, conditions and events of that dreadful time are today "casting their shadows before" in ways more ominously and clearly defined than ever before.

Never, in the history of the world, have the results of man's rejection of Christ been so manifested. Moral decay has affected every realm of society on earth, and brought to ruin God's institutions for man's blessing and well-being. Marriage, Government and the Church are His institutions, but in the hands of men, because of sin and the rejection of the remedy for it, failure has resulted and judgment must come. Marriage is being out-dated by an increasing segment of society and immorality is condoned; thus the necessary fiber of the home is shattered. Government with its growing corruption manifests a continual breaking down of competency to deal with the pressing problems which face the world. The professing Church with its apostasy from Christ and His infallible Word, with its consequent propagation of error, making fertile ground for the doctrines of demons, has broken down as God's testimony on earth. This apostate Church He will spue out of His mouth, after the rapture to Himself of every one who is a child of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

What is the remedy for this breakdown? In the words of the disciples: Christ's coming! The hope of the believer now is the translation of the true Church—composed of every born again believer—out of the world to be forever with the Lord, before the judgments of the tribulation begin. This glorious event is revealed in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17. For Israel and the world, the appearing of Christ at the end of the tribulation will be to take "vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thessalonians 1:8). All ungodliness and unrighteousness will be judged; all violence and corruption shall be purged out; all religion—apostate Christendom and Judaism, with every cult and creed of every religious belief and all the governments of man will fall beneath the crushing blow of the coming of the Son of Man, who will then establish His own kingdom of power and glory.

All the "shadows" being cast before our eyes indicate that that time is right at the door! The call of God to all men in these closing days is, "Repent ye, and believe the Gospel" (Mark 1:15). Don't let the enemy of your soul deceive you as to this. Awake to the reality and purport of these many signs of His coming. Let Christ save you now by delivering you from this evil world, and from the coming wrath of God upon it. Take Him at His word as found in John 5:24: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My Word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into [judgment], but is passed from death unto life." Then, every sign seen now, in the increasing darkness, will only quicken your expectation of seeing Him at His coming—perhaps today!

—Donald T. Johnson (Reprinted from 1975 Scripture Almanac.)