The Olivet Discourse Overview - fulfilled prophecy end times

The Olivet
Discourse

OF jesus Christ

An Overview Announcing the Signs of His Return

The signs of the Second Coming, whether they originate in the prophecies in the so-called Olivet Discourse, or from Joel and the other minor prophets, like Malachi or Zechariah; or if they proceed out of Daniel, the Book of Revelation, or from various prophetic passages in the Epistles and Gospels, have one primary thing in common; they are given to the world as connected on-going testimonies, throughout the Age of Grace, to anchor our faith and offer reassurance to the people of earth that Jesus will return to restore good things at the exact time as predetermined from before the world began by our Father in heaven. The phrase ‘Signs of the Second Coming’ might well be used as a designation for the whole period that the Church has often labeled the Age of Grace; that epoch of world-wide salvation that blossomed out from the navel of the earth, Israel; a time spanning the First and Second Comings of Christ the Savior; a time which God in his mercy has kept open-ended, allowing for the fullest possible salvation of the Gentiles according to God’s unfathomable wisdom and generosity. The Signs of the Second Coming then are for this one thing: to produce faith in people for the sure return of Jesus Christ to earth. In other words, the signs of the times have been an educational tool running throughout and across the whole period between the First and Second Comings of Christ, to create an abiding faith in those who believe that Jesus will return to earth and set all things right, when he will put an end to general corruption, both spiritual and earthly, and rule the world with a ‘rod of iron’ in perfect righteousness. The signs have flowed through the age and now because of their flow, we know we live near the conclusion of The Age of the Signs of the Second Coming. His appearing and His subsequent Second Coming are but a ‘moment’ or ‘moments’ away. But faith for the return of Christ is not as easily held to as the common (mis)conception would have it. The slightest prick to our nerve, the least pressure upon our flesh, the simplest care of the world, the mildest rationalization from Satan’s messengers can cause us to instantly turn our eyes downward to the earth from which we come, and live as if Jesus will not make good on his fundamental promise, that most essential promise, to return from on high, and redeem the earth, save it from chaos, evil, sin, corruption and death which every person moans and groans for in some way or another on a daily basis.

We live in the time of the imminent return of Christ

The signs of Christ's return should be studied and searched out with enthusiasm because of this reason; for they tell of a different remedy than man’s, one which can be understood by scientists, sociologists, humanists, ecologists and everyone who has the slightest concern for the future of the earth and has taken on any personal responsibility as a human being for its threatened destruction on any level. The SIGNS and their message of salvation must be unearthed in the Word and searched out in the confirming experience and fulfillment of world events through the history of this age. This honest study can give to anyone, a faith that God has not left us alone and will not leave us alone to destroy this planet. We shall not be left alone, but that all our hope is to be realized when the true savior of the world returns in power and glory to end the madness of man’s rule and wanton destruction through greed and sin and total selfishness.

But the world shall not last forever. Someday it will be rolled up like a movie set or stage production to advance to another stage; one which astrophysicists and mathematicians can only conjecture. For just as the ‘Signs’ are a tool so is the earth a tool of salvation to bring man into an eternal home of which we cannot understand its dimensional realities, let alone its place or time. The bible says, “If in this life only, we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”^{1 Cor. 15:19} Because the world and all its glory fades away, just as our bodies and life here fades with every passing moment. We live in the hope that the Signs of the Second Coming direct us toward, push us toward, launch us toward continually and relentlessly to our hope, Christ at His appearing and at His Second Coming. Paul had written to his young apprentice, Timothy, “I charge you therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom” to take serious your mission. Paul here dividing the two events: the first is His appearing (the so-called Rapture) and the other is the establishment of his kingship on earth at His Second Coming at the time of the famous Battle of Armageddon and fiery judgment of the whole earth.

It all begins with the Olivet Discourse

Requires rightly dividing the Word of Truth

Arriving at an orderly and systematic understanding of the signs of the end-times in regard to their point and purpose means unraveling Jesus’ highly complex answer to his disciples’ questions of what will be the signs of his coming and when will these signs occur. Jesus gives a very brisk, but conclusive summary of the events of the times of an entire age of redemption. The conditions and events pronouncing his certain return, and, to some extent the general order in which the signs of the times will happen, is delivered in the rapid-fire prophecy which has been dubbed by history as the Olivet Discourse. Corralling the events of two thousand years and their spirit and purpose requires a concentrated study of other pertinent segments of Christ’s teachings, like Luke 17 and some of the parables, and of the prophecies of both the Old and New Testament prophets, and not just the Olivet Discourse, itself. This may seem at first a daunting task for those of us who wish to understand the complete purpose about this device centered around the Discourse which is intended to embed deep within our heart of faith an abiding hope in the Return of Jesus Christ to earth, called the Second Coming. The Olivet Discourse (Matt 24/Mk 13/Lk 21), however, remains pivotal as the place for believing in the Second Coming. A devotion to the spirit of “rightly dividing the word of Truth” becomes essential to this teaching and learning process, if one is to arrive at correct conclusions, thereby gaining a rock solid faith concerning the Second Coming. Of which, by the way, the ‘Rapture’ of faithful believers is not identical with the Second Coming, but a sign itself (albeit a tremendous sign) among the many signs, given to declare unmistakably to the world, given to reassure those who remain of the Church, that Jesus Christ is about to return to judge the earth and set up his righteous rule. Imposed righteousness dialogue

The type of religion which is needed to receive and believe

That the ‘signs’ are not conventional, but selfless and total

Jesus knew that true, lively faith for His return would be one of the primary attack points for Satan during the course of this Age and that one of the most difficult challenges for the church would be to patiently wait for His turn and fend off the attacks of the Wily One. From a worldly standpoint, as the age of salvation seemed to drag on and on, it would seem to man as though Christ’s return would never happen. That is why he instituted the ‘Signs’ program of history. The skeptical, however, would never fail to be encouraged by Satan and his demons, to pronouncement their unbelief, even though it would in fact be a minor, but unrelenting sign in-itself, that Jesus would return, because God had prophesied that these voice would chatter inside and outside the Church throughout the whole age. The book of 2 Peter 3 sees this coming: “That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior: 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? [they will say] for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” This mocking voice Satan has kept running since the early days of the age and it is picking up volume as the day of Christ’s return closes in.

Therefore, the wisdom of Christ struck the first blow in the controversy over His long return by assaulting the fox-holes of bad faith and the bunkers of false religion, those bastions from which Satan would conduct his assault on the fundamentals of faith for the Second Coming. He had given hints to this in such things as the parable of the master’s long journey, but in introducing the program of the ‘Signs’ Christ’s first order of business was to debunk us of wrong ideas about salvation and to give us a true spiritual conception of the kind of attitude and correct religious spirit we would need if we were to overcome the spurious religion that had gained control of the leaders of his time. This he had already started in some previous teachings recorded in Luke 17. To understand the purpose of the signs of the Second Coming; to recognize when they were actually being fulfilled; and how to walk daily in the consequences that would necessarily follow in their wake, Jesus offered an incident with ten lepers, a parable about a Master and his servant, and some incidents with the religious leaders, teachings and assorted prophecies. In Matthew and Mark it is the boastful remarks of the followers who declare the glory of the temple to him, as if to say, the wonderful temple is really our salvation, that causes Jesus to correct them and precipitates a very contrary challenge to their earthly faith and their devotion to worldly religion. It was Jesus’ honest reaction to the boast of religion that he had heard from his friends who were projecting no heavenly pious religion, but pure worldly devotion, a pure carnality, that had him retort that none of the beautiful stones and gifts would even be around in the very near future. Essentially Jesus said, there will not be any block or belief left one upon another of the religion in which you trust; you would do well if you just gave up hope in it right now and listened to what I say is coming upon the whole world. Their obnoxious inbred religion of disciples is primary obstacle to all he is about to teach. False religion will cloud the tenor of the whole time and coming age so that anyone who hangs on to it will be blind and miss the real and significant meaning of all significant things which He is about to teach upon and enumerate. In the Discourse recorded in Luke 21:1-5 he starts also with religion a religious problem just as in Matthew, but one of a different ilk. He points out to the disciples that the bankers and big money-men are giving of their riches, hardly making a chink in their savings, but it pales in size to the widow’s mite (penny). And then, missing his point altogether, begin spouting off about the adornment of the ‘goodly stones’ and ‘gifts’ of the temple that impressed their eyes and minds so much. Which is just the opposite of the spiritual truth that souls and believers are the ‘goodly stones’ which impresses God and the beautiful gifts he respects are those given by the Spirit to the faithful believers; and this is a part of the real and beautiful religion, a house made without hands by God, not an house made by the fleshly hand of religious man.

Luke 17: Preamble to ‘The Discourse’

But it is in Luke 17 where Jesus had begun His soft and gentle teachings that would become a written sort of preamble to the prophecies of the Discourse, the recording of a time where he was showing forth conditions of heart and religious fervor and freedom that would be necessary for waiting long and holding on for His Second Coming. He had opened his comments by telling his disciples to ‘take heed to yourselves’ for this was personal and serious business that he was about to put on display. Rather than worrying about the evils of the day or about the world’s state of wickedness; each one of them would have enough to do to take care of their own fruitfulness and the fruitfulness of other faithful believers put in their care, without trying to eradicate evil, because that was not going to happen. They were not going to be commissioned to clean up the world, or to make it a nice and tidy place for Him to return to. “It is impossible but that offences will come,” he said; “But woe unto him, through whom they come!” That evil should run its course is part of the Father’s plan of salvation. The cup of iniquity must be filled, and it must be proven to the whole universe, once and for all, that man and his ways, apart from God, can never come to Utopic perfect love and goodness. There would be nothing they could do to stamp out evil, therefore they shouldn’t fret over evil’s existence, but instead ‘take heed’ to their own condition and of those they could or might effect, while looking up toward Jesus’ return always. Notice that the signs of the Second Coming are usually of some uprising of evil perpetrated against the Church to test and purify it; a judgment which comes on the world to shake it up; or an event in history important in the on-going clash between Christ and Antichrist leading to the next step in the evolving plan of God: such as; increasing evil, social perils, false Christs, seducing spirits, earthquakes, the Antichrist, destruction, wars and commotions or deaths, famines or pestilence. All these are signs of distress, building tension in a great, great drama of history; signs must have their fulfillment and run their course right to the bitter end of this Age of Grace; until Jesus comes to impose a thousand year Age of Righteousness (called THE MILLENNIUM) after his return to earth. Sometimes the stratagem of Satan would be to lay low hiding in the weeds, from where he could strike without warning to poison us by religious venom; another ploy was to play dead so that the world could pretend that Satan does not exist, or doesn’t care. This sorry future and deadly strategy Jesus saw and addressed it quite fully in preparing the disciples about it before giving them the revelation in The Discourse. Immediately, He reassured the disciples that a fearful judgment of Hell and Death await those who bring about the offenses implicit in the signs of his Coming. “It would be better for him that a mill-stone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, He warns, “than that he should offend one of these little ones.” Every shameful act incorporate in the ‘Signs’ (iniquity abounding, love waxing cold, persecution of the faithful, killing the saints, mocking the coming of Christ, and so on and so on) hurts the little ones which Jesus referred to, but such things as the hideous misdeeds of child abuse is and has a history in this age that is shameful and is reminiscent of the violent days of Noah and the perversion of the time of Lot which Jesus referred directly to later on in The Discourse.

Having pointed out his outrage at evil in the most direct and elemental terms - the injuring of children or any innocent - and letting his disciples know that the time of judgment for all wrong-doing and wickedness and evil would come; he then reiterated the need to ‘take heed’ of how they should react or not respond to evil, and that he personally insisted that they should forgive every repentant soul. He said, ”Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him”. The spirit apropos to the time of Noah (for he continued to lovingly preach righteousness and repentance for a hundred twenty years) would also be proper in the Church age. The idea is this: don’t worry about the existence of sin, sin would be inevitable in the age of waiting for the Second Coming. But rather, take stock in rebuking the sinner, let him repent and then forgive him, appropriate action for a time that would be just as it was in the days of Noah and Lot .

The apostles were the ones to sense the gravity of these things and the difficulty of finding a place for them in their heart. They asked Jesus to increase their faith because they realized they fell short of this type of religion. The Lord said, “If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.” Here Jesus is pointing out a matter about the sort of thing for understanding and doing the highest things, which are forgiving and loving, which are required of the faithful preparing for in the end-times and its ministry. You must be detached from those concerns of the world about worldly people. For this to dwell in your heart one does not need an increase in the faith which they already have, we just need faith – period. Just believe and act on that by faith as God gives opportunity and wisdom. You don’t need increase of faith as much as you just will need faith for it. This demands that we search it out, seek the kingdom of God, which is a kingdom of faith, then it shall happen, it shall be. You don’t need a certain quantity like putting enough baking soda in a cookie recipe to make things rise or come out OK, that means you do not understand, that’s what people think will get them over the top. They just don’t have enough faith to forgive and to love, for example. That’s how the disciples were thinking. How silly! Faith for hard things, high things of forgiving and loving doesn’t work like that at all, Jesus suggests. That’s wrong religion because we can opt out of a simple desire of God for every person that has ever lived. It cannot be exclusive due to talent, gift, IQ, riches or anything else. It is only belief and the finding of the smallest tiniest particular, miniscule, bit of faith. Like a mustard seed. There you go! Get the religious idea out of your head about the high exalted faith of great men when it comes to the basics of living and believing for the most important universal spiritual things of God. There is such a thing as the Scripture notes, as the ‘simplicity that is in Christ Jesus. Christ does not teach the way we men do. He skips right over the urging, the examples, anticipating the misunderstanding, the balderdash and the argumentative doubter, feigned dumbness, who like the self-righteous Pharisee, hope to justify faithless living. He tries his best to side-step that vain conversation when possible. Christ just gets right to his teaching; the leasers of his day were amazed that he taught with authority as no man ever had done, and unlike any of the famous rabbis of his day, either, the icons Gamaliel or Hillel; and hopefully the disciples are actually listening, hopefully the listeners of the word will just put it all away and just honestly listen when the time is right. One just needs to think, just believe and trust and then it will happen because God wants to do it for you, but he can’t if we resist, close our ears, interrupt, balk, think – justify. Bad religion would be a great justifier for ignoring the ‘Signs’, just as it is for ignoring everything God wishes to say to us.

You cannot serve him if there is no faith to throw off the world and its ever ringing voice is not present, real, strong, becoming louder and louder. The world and its arguments will never be turned down to a dull and live-less buzz in the mind by words flippantly tossed about in the plastic church or from the bogus plaster-a’-Paris preaching of wishful thinkers and mere glad-handers looking for their fair share of payola. But if faith has come from hearing the Word it is pure and solid as stone and then we can be servants with the right attitude actively living by faith, serving in humbleness of mind. That’s what Jesus is teaching, saying, showing, preaching - right religion is service to him and for him with actualized humility through hard core experience. But even humility worked in us takes faith, simple faith to enter into it without doubting and shifting and squirming, and turning our head away to look in the direction of the first noise, or scratch, pay attention to some inconsequential distraction of a baby walking or a dog barking. How distracted can we be then, and will we be then, ‘by every wind of doctrine’, every change in course, every blast of hot air, any and all the inevitable doldrums that cease to fill our sails and cause us to have to wait upon the Lord? Jesus, as he embarked upon the teaching of such a vast plan as the Father’s, knew he was up against the spiritual flightiness of A.D.S. Man for the duration of the Age of Grace.

Earlier (Luke 17:7-10) Jesus had made clear what disposition and faithfulness the believer in the signs of the end-times ought to carry within their heart, adding to the various angles of which he wished to approach the signs of his coming and how the church must handle them from reception, understanding, imparting and general faithful compliance to their purpose. In the case of his preamble delivered to his disciples as the day of his Discourse and suffering and death approached on the near horizon, He told of the right religion and schooled them on the proper servant’s mentality required for being able to impart the message inherent to the ‘Signs’.

“But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat?

And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?

Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not.

So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you,

say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.”

Don’t think you are to run the show, or it is your responsibility to conduct or orchestrate things. Just do what you are told to do, be busy at His work and do what you are supposed to in the context of His plan. It’s no big deal, it’s only right. That to have faith and believe in the master and his judgment and to serve him who has given you all things and allowed you to be in his service is something to exalt in, rather than looking at it as if it were a matter of work that you a performing that is your own and is so wonderful and worthy of remuneration. Mind your own business, do your duty; know what that business is; and that it is: be at His disposal and trust that you will always get your portion; this is the service of those who can comprehend the magnitude of his work and plan over the course of the age; a plan He has laid out for us and trusted to our service of faith. Everything is on course for His return, our job is to keep pace, keep with the course, preach the certainty of his Return as shown by the ‘Signs’. Jesus hoped to impart this servant mentality to his disciples as a precious part of the ‘Signs’ and their need and heritage in the Church over the course of this age. He knew that religion would not be helpful in this cause but only spirituality and faith.

In general the Church has often squandered the potential for faith that it was given in the signs of the Second Coming. Israel had squandered their inheritance of prophecy by ignoring the signs of the first coming of the Messiah given by the prophets and especially Isaiah. In fact said they had always treated the prophets shamefully and even killed them. And so with every right and direct speech Christ chided the religious leaders of his day for being able to read the signs of nature in the sky so that they could determine whether they should go fishing or stay home; but all the time remaining dumb as all-get-out when it came to the spiritual signs which had clearly heralded His first coming. He even called them ‘whited sepulchers’ clean on the outside but rotten and stinking on the inside. During the Age of Grace, as in the days of the first coming, men have regularly disregarded the signs. Men of Christian zeal lost hope and the notion of service in regard to this faith of the Second Coming waned and fell dead on the pavement of this world. Men turned their eyes to building a church, one which the world could admire its beautiful stones and gifts, in which they could find respite and live; instead of living in Christ whom the world He told us hates and that the church, if it were like him, would also be hated because it hates him. This is another of the notable contrasts of religion versus spirit which Christ was presenting in his preamble to the "Signs". As time marched on the Church forgot, and embraced religion as its salvation, just as Jesus knew it would. Nicolaitanes and clergy arose to control faith and dominate the people’s leadings of faith. The Spirit was ousted and man’s control installed because they had lost faith and sight for the Return of Jesus after 200 years of waiting, they thought it was too long. Those who said no!, wait just one minute here, were shouted down, excommunicated, and persecuted, just as Jesus said. The days arrived when those who killed them would think they were doing God a service. Just as Jesus had solemnly warned would happen. The Roman Emperor, Constantine came along and used the Church in an attempt to unify his political power in the political power and allowed the Church a foot in the door to push its way to worldly and temporal power, never once suggested by Jesus as a hope of His First Coming. In fact the contrary, he had run from the offer of taking the crown and establishing his kingdom on earth when he had run from those who would have made him king. The greatest of all doctrinal teachers in the first 1500 years or so of the Church, the blasphemously worshipped saint, Augustine, set in motion traditions with a system, by contrivance with the Roman Empire and in league with the Antichrist rulers of that hour, which tightly influences the weekly gathering together of more than a billion Catholic Christians even to this day, gatherings which take no real stock in living according to the eminent return of Jesus Christ - according to his teaching – but live as no day of reckoning will ever come. The monastic system of aesthetic religion, the ecclesiastical priesthood and other such things, cemented the church to this earth on a foundation of sacraments, laws, clergy, devotions, will worship and ‘baptized’ pagan practices of idolatry and household gods to appease the people and keep them mesmerized. Power politics, the love of money, great buildings and vast wealth, the unfettered ownership and manipulation of the souls of its people, and full partnership with the Roman Antichrist Empire (as clearly foretold by Daniel) became the sorry goal and religious ambition of the Church. This forged the road ahead for a thousand years of ruined faith for the Church during the ‘interregnum period’ which worldly history has been left to dub with absolute correctness of terminology: the Dark Ages and Medieval Times, until the Reformation period began, and a long and painful ascent by the Church into the light of the Son and the restoration of the Gospel was accomplished in the second half of the second Millennium of the Age of the ‘Signs of the Second Coming. Regardless of this less than glorious history which we have carved out for ourselves, God has been faithful to provide anyone who cared to listen with signs to confirm that Jesus would return, just as he promised. The ‘signs’ have slowly ratcheted up as time has proceeded. Now they come fast and furious, many in one generation. But we have to watch and heed them always, or we will be overtaken like a thief in the night; unprepared to meet Him and suddenly caught off-guard. He tells us if that were to happen to us our ruin would be regrettable and very great.

In the day leading up to His introductory remarks on the ‘Signs’ it is recorded that Jesus passed through symbolic areas of religious wasteland of Samaria in which he had a rather unbelievable and strange encounter with group of lepers.^{17 Luke 11-19}

“And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.

And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:

And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.

And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.

And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,

And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.

And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?

There are not found that turned to give glory to God, save this stranger.

And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.”

Out of this place of strangers, from men who stood afar off from Jesus, just the voice asking for mercy saved this man from sin. He did not fit the religious bill or prerequisites that are placed within religious contexts. But he did the one thing that made him acceptable in the eyes of the Lord he appreciated God’s mercy, acknowledged Jesus as Master because he had allowed to enter back into the communion of true life just for the asking. And Jesus made the same point of faith as related above. You don’t need buckets full of faith, you just need to have faith and it can make you whole. You just need faith to believe that Jesus will not leave us alone, but will be with us at all times. His “Signs’ ought to be reassurance that we will not be left alone or cast out of His kingdom and His society to come, as if we were lepers, though we were lepers of sin, unwelcome, contagious with the filth of sin and disgusting, but able to be cleansed by the word, by the belief, by the presence of Christ who has promised not to remain far off but let us come close. He was impressed that one, but wondered at the others who did not return to him to glorify God, because He has promised to return; and He shall. ‘Samaria’ stands for the world where sinners stand, lost and far off from mercy, when one calls it will be faith that heals, not religion. They had plenty of religion in Samaria as we know from the Old Testament and the incident of Christ and the woman at the well, and the refusal of the in keepers of Samaria to give Jesus a place overnight. The road of the age of the ‘Signs’ leading to the city of God, the spiritual Jerusalem, would mercifully, somehow, go through the world’s Samaria and shine forth the mercy that could save and deliver by faith. We are left with the idea that we, just as Jesus Himself was, wondering why only one out of ten got the full point and measure of the whole merciful incident. It cannot be fathomed by religious standard, only by spiritual reality. And instead of leaving us skeptical because of percentages of faith and belief among men, it serves to keep us faithful for the age knowing that so few would find and receive the fullness of God’s mercy intended in the prophecies of “Signs of His Second Coming”. Galilee was the disconnected Church from which Jesus sprung, between His people and the city of god lay Samaria – the strange land of mixed and corrupted faith. Here he had delivered spontaneous mercy, not formalized by religion, not even conditional on religion, for the stranger never even made it to the priests, which by the way, was required under Jewish religious law, but fulfilled Christ’s joy when he turned and came back to do homage and to glorify God in heaven. The Sadducees and the Pharisees of that day and this would likely have scolded the man for not meeting the precepts of the Law, but not so Jesus. The men were cast offs from the world and religion, alone and completely needy, two remote potential types of believer afar off. Many shall want his mercy in this age, but miss its point, reject it, or refuse to worship and acknowledge God. They had all been cleansed by the simple word of Christ, ten being that symbolic round number of complete order. They were all cleansed before they even got to religion, without religious help. Only the weird religion had the spirit to come back. Jesus wondered why the others weren’t moved in their hearts to run with the Spirit instead of religion. Jesus told the man what had made him complete the experience to its utter end – his faith. Thy faith has made you whole. Faith, simple faith, the kind that makes us clean and whole before God is the type that will be required for believing in His Second Coming. This incident was a signal of the simple, unwavering faith needed at the end-times and of the power to move mountains.

The religious leaders weigh in with their objection

Immediately following this the religious leaders weighed in with pressure of their own ‘demanding’, not asking as the disciples would do, when the kingdom of God would come. Jesus did not answer their question because he knew it would be fruitless to do so. He just informed them that they did not even know what the kingdom of God was so how could they find it?

“And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Not his disciples asking when, but the Pharisees.

“Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”

He was demanded of the Pharisees. Demanded? Demanded?! He knew that they were telling him that the Messiah ought to bring the kingdom with him, and if not, then there was no such thing as a messiah. The messiah was merely the means to allow the Jewish religious rulers to rule the world. Without suggesting the questions that should be asked about the coming of the kingdom and the age to come, he jumped right to correcting their entire religiously induced misconception. He didn’t even tell them to take heed of the truth or of themselves. He just told them they didn’t even know where to look for the kingdom and left it at that.

Luke 21 begins with other remarks about religion

When he then fields their questions about the end of the age he gives a long list of things which are coming during the Age of Grace which will serve true religion’s cause, because they will guide the faithful to a spotless and approved life. This is needed because Jesus will return and therefore, we ought always to be ready, walking in a pure state and pleasing to God. He is talking about true religion and the motivator for true religion that the on-going signs of the times of this age point to – the destination of the signs of the times is always the same, their point always being made, the return of Christ. Jesus’ response to the misguided religious hopes of his disciples is a rebuke of sorts, a correction, an instruction in righteousness. One can hear a tone of aggravation in his voice when he tells the disciples that not one stone will be left upon another of these magnificent buildings which have garnered so much praise and pride by the Jewish nation.

Luke records the other remark the Lord Jesus made at this time, one which is a positive affirmation of the kind of true religion needed in order to comprehend and digest the spiritual signs of his return. Jesus teaches us here not on vain religion but instead on what does impress him in the realm of faith. It is not the admiration, trust in, and worship of Herod’s audacious golden, marble, hand-carved, bejeweled temple as a symbol of religious power and genius, but it is the personal love of God that saves us and catches the eye of God.

“And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.

And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites.

And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all:

For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had. ...^{LK 21:1-4}

It might seem at first that these verses are out of place and have nothing to do with the rest of the chapter, but far from it. This shows the believer that he we must give God all that he has, not just a portion of himself, spiritually speaking. We must give all we have in our Christian life and walk with Him, if we hope and desire to be a part of His bride, to understand and drink in all the intended benefits of the Signs of the Return of Christ (when all these things come to pass that follow in this chapter,) then we must submit everything to Him. But Christ does not belabor the point. He had already told his disciples that people do not “put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runs out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.” Jesus knew where this discussion was heading and that in the last hours just before going to the cross it was necessary to give the Church an outline of the age to come and a basis for continuing belief that he would make good on his most essential promise that he would return in power and glory to wrest control of the earth out of the hands of wickedness and sin and bring it under his dominion of justice and love.

Following the incident of the faithful widow and her priceless penny some men persisted about their high religion and what glory really was. They began boasting about the beauty and splendor of the temple. After Jesus’ teaching about religion vs. spirit, the wheels were being set in motion by the Spirit for the Discourse on the Signs of the Second Coming. As if to highlight the ignorance of religious men who are not spiritual, some men persisted in glorying over the earthly glory, glitz and glamour of their religious symbol and pride: The Temple and its religious wonder.

“And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he said,

As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”^{LK 21:5,6}

And,

“Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”^Matt.24:2

You are going to have to give up the pride you have in your father’s religion. By their traditions they make the word of God of none effect. In this initial statement to the disciples anticipating their questions of the ‘Signs’ of His return and when they would happen, Jesus debunked them of their religious pride, tried to strip them clean of untrue beliefs and the vanity of confusing religious and carnal things with spiritual things. Their reliance upon any form of religiousity as a means for salvation, as opposed to relying on faith and the spirit had to go just like the Temple that would be toppled to the ground. His words to the Samaritan woman at the well may well have been revisited in that moment by the disciples when he had said to her: “The day cometh, and now is when you will worship God in spirit and in truth.” She said yes, when the Messiah comes, and He told her right then and there that the First Coming was happening and that He was the Christ. So Jesus has instructed them right from the get-go not to lean upon religious understanding, but only on the Spirit and the spiritual wisdom He shall lend to their cause of faith. His disciples responded to this startling news: that God was not about to defend the Temple or their religion, though they assumed through their religious ignorance that God and the Temple were one and the same. So finally prepared by so many incidents and teachings the disciples were able to come to Jesus ready to receive the spiritual truth of the prophecy that there would be a Second Coming and what the signs of that Coming would be. They were able to ask the right questions and to receive God’s answers.

Jesus, then reinforced his teaching about the widow’s mite, and prophesied that; "there will come a day when there would not be left one stone upon another, that would not be thrown down." ^{Matt.24:2/Mk.13:2/Lk.21:6} The prophecy of this unthinkable event so alarmed the disciples, that it jolted them into asking the Lord about the things that would herald his coming and when they would occur.

"And as He sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately saying, Tell us when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world ( Age)?”

The dismantling of Temple signals the start of signs

The destruction of the Temple is the first sign and it was its announcement that urged the disciples to want to know the whole history of the age. This historical event therefore pins- down the start of the age of the Signs of the Second Coming. It affirms Christ’s introductory teachings to the ‘Signs’ that the old religion would be thrown down, both figuratively and literally, and that an age of spirit and truth was to commence in worshipping the One Tri-Une God. Symbolized by the Temple’s total disassembly, the ‘signs’ are given as a definitive commencement that undeniably signaled the beginning of the new age for all those who had eyes to see and ears to hear. The Temple was the great symbol of the Age of the Law. Along with the conjoined fulfillment of the sign of persecutions and martyrdoms, and signs of false Christs, Messiahs and Prophets, the era of waiting and watching for the Second Coming was officially underway and in its first stages. The prophecy of the Temple’s destruction was fulfilled entirely in 70^C.E. when the Emperor Vespasian’s son, Titus, dismantled it stone by stone and carried away the Temple treasures as booty of war, the price of Jewish rebellion.

“And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? DURING THE TIME OF THE GENTILES

and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? THE SIGNS ARE TO PROVE CHRIST’S COMING, WHICH IS THE END OF THE WORLD AS IT EXISTS. THE STONE SMASHING ON THE FEET OF THE ANTICHRIST EMPIRE: THE TRIBULATION & THE END AMOUNTS TO THE SIX THINGS FINSIHED AT THE END OF THE TRIBULATION AS RECORDED IN DANIEL 9:24-27.

Jesus resounds the warning to Take Heed and do not be deceived

Jesus then began his great prophetic talk on the history of the spiritual signs, which running throughout the age would descend on earth with a degree of order, and at the same time, each sign acting as its own particular harbinger of the Second Coming. The sternest of admonitions is given by Christ both at the outset of his sermon and at its end (at the beginning of Matt. 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21; and at the end of the dialogue in LK 21 and in LK 17). Whenever Christ declares that we should ‘take heed’ it is for extreme emphasis of the subject’s importance; the signs he enumerated must also be of paramount importance in his mind when it comes to our salvation, protection, faith and perfection. “Take heed” to yourselves, “take heed” that you be not deceived, “take heed” that no man deceive you for there will be false christs, “take heed” to yourselves that you forgive the repentant, take heed that you do not slip into a life of frivolity or sin or a selfish life so that the day of his coming catches you off-guard. The warnings to take heed apply to all the litany of signs that speak of His second coming.

His discussion as reported in Luke interestingly begins with ‘take heed’ and also ends with ‘take heed‘. Taking heed must be a very important warning and ingredient in knowing and valuing the ‘Signs’. Put a check on your hearts, your minds, your temptations, your cares of the world. The ‘Signs’, if heeded to their fullest extent, could even be hedges against the things against which Jesus advised us to defend ourselves, delusion and the deceit of false and bad religion (See Mystery Babylon Section). Jesus had told his disciples at the ‘Last Supper’ that the only things that glorify the Father are good fruits which have grown to maturity. Nothing else; not works, devotions or religious zeal, but only the good fruits of God testify to His greatness and love and please Him. The disciples had been previously schooled about this very thing in the classic parable of the ‘Sewer of the Seeds’. The first two types of people have their faith wither and die altogether, bringing nothing at all to fruition. The third type of person sprouts faith but for various reasons, all amounting to not taking heed to the proper things of a spiritual life and being dragged into other things which they ‘heed’ instead, they bring nothing to fruition. It is only the fourth and final type that glorifies God by bringing fruit to perfection, some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred fold. Clearly, when Jesus tells us ‘take heed’ it is about being in the best possible condition of spirit ready to meet the Lord at any time. In Luke 21 Jesus concludes His teaching about the significance of the signs by directly stating the ultimate importance of taking heed of what he has just prophesied and taught, tying it directly to being part of the most important of all the ‘Signs’ for believers: The Rapture.

“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. (See Do's and Dont's of the Rapture)

For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.(See the five W's of the Rapture.)

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.”^Lk.21:34-36

The next sign Jesus identified after the throwing down of the Temple, which also got further into the matter of religion, was that false Messiahs, Christs and bogus Prophets would plague the entire time of the gentiles and their salvation. That’s why he took so much time in laying the groundwork of true religion vs. bad religion, because that would be a continual source of evil and confusion to draw mankind away from the influence and blessing attached to faith and understanding in the Signs of the Second Coming. False religion’s purpose would be to deceive and would lead to evils, persecutions, martyrdoms, tests, diversions, obstructions, even destruction, of faith for Christ’s return. The loss of vision and hope for Christ’s return would devastate the Church. Time through this Age of the Gentiles has proven this to be true; thus, the solemn warning – take heed. So Christ first wanted to make it abundantly clear that religion, symbolized for the Jew in the marvelous ‘eighth wonder’ of the world, Herod’s Temple, more than 70 years in the making, was not and never was supposed to be the salvation of the world or the people of God. Jesus told them that in order to clear the way for the Age of Salvation which was coming and the contest over the souls of men which would be represented in the course of the signs which He was about to relay to them; the Temple had to be utterly dismantled down to the very last jewel, gift, rafter, arch and stone.

At the other end of the ‘Signs’, linked to the destruction of the Jews and their dispersal, is the Return of the Jews to Israel in the middle of the 20^th Century and the still future rebuilding of the temple; as perhaps the most significant signs that the last moments preceding Christ’s return are upon us. The rebuilding of the Temple goes hand in hand with the return of the Jews to Jerusalem and the Holy Land. In between these events Christ delineated landmark signs which began early in the age of salvation between the First and Second Coming, and built in intensity, gaining steam as the age progressed, especially in the last two centuries. Such ‘Signs’ as persecution of Christ’s people, false christs and prophets, rising selfishness, degenerate evil, church decadence and dark ignorance, wars and rebellions and chaos. Further signs would be dramatically displayed near the end of this salvation ‘interregnum’ which Jesus called the “Beginning of Sorrows”, and said they would crop up as, kingdom against kingdom, nation against nation and earthquakes, pestilence and diverse troubles; but this wouldn’t be the final end of the age or of the ‘Signs’. From there on out the prophecies of Daniel, the ‘minor’ prophets, Isaiah, and Revelation would begin to kick in at a hectic pace. The Return of the Jewish nation, restoration of Church faithfulness, the rise of the Antichrist, unity of the Roman Spirit and the understanding in general of the prophecies of Daniel when Travel and Knowledge would be markedly increased with lightening speed over the last centuries of the interregnum of Messiah have been forthcoming after 2000 years of waiting in the last hundred years. In these last hundreds of years false christs and prophets have been sprouting with a vengeance everywhere. New heretical Christian-linked religions have risen with remarkable force and frequency and propagated their false religion and lies about Christ, just as he said would happen. Sciences of a heretical nature; evolution, humanistic psychology, new philosophies, ancient and modern occult practices, and beliefs in strange and weird cults would all rise up to invade the house of God and oppose the Spirit.

Before He gets into these all important signs that prove He is returning to earth in glory to rule, but not before he accomplishes the first mission the Father sent him on (Read the six-fold mission of Christ Luke 3), Jesus makes a point of telling the disciples to take heed themselves so that they are not deceived. “And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.”^Matt.24:4Jesus then informs them the most likely way deception will come and why or how they could be easily deceived. “For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.”^{Vs 5}This warning applies for the duration of the age, however long that may be, because they will come in numbers and over the course of time. The fact that he does not even know how long the age will last was already told them when he schooled them that only the Father knows, not even the angels or Himself, the precise time when he shall return, but the Father will give ‘Signs’ which will herald His coming.

“And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.” ^{Matt. V6} Luke’s passage phrases it this way: “But when ye shall hear of wars and COMMOTIONS, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by.”

The church was being forewarned. Wars and rumors of destruction and commotions, like rebellions, riots, breakdown of order, anarchy would be intermittent, if not frequent in the initial stages of the interregnum period called the Age of the Gentiles. Don’t let that trouble you that you missed the Rapture or terrified that His Coming has already happened. These things have to happen but they are not ‘signs’ of the moment of the end, just signs gradually leading up to the end. These things must happen first because that is part of the overall plan of the Father.

So the first ‘signs’ are laid out for us. False prophets and christs would be responsible for bringing about many of the commotions and some of the wars that would characterize and plague the whole two thousand year period of the ‘Signs’. Multiple sackings and pillages of Rome, slaughter, mayhem and devastation of whole parts of the Roman Empire by the Goths and Vandals, threats and raids from Viking longboats, incursions and annexation by Arabs and Muslim armies, Turk, Hun and Magyar raiders, etc., etc. fell upon the Christian world with unrelenting force and always terrified the peoples anywhere within ear shot of the Bible’s end-times reports; terrified them into thinking and believing that the end of the world had come upon them, this, in spite of the fact that Jesus had said not to take these things to signal the end of the world but only as ‘Signs’ that His promise to return was entirely true and that it would be accomplished in the Father’s own good time; and that their on-going occurrence without other ‘Signs’ being accomplished meant the exact opposite of the thing they feared - the end was ‘not yet’; ‘not by and by’. (Wars and commotions.) People did all sorts of crazy things, committed suicide, renounced Christ, betrayed friends, sat on rooftops waiting for Jesus, flogged themselves, joined convents and monasteries, threw themselves off cliffs because they were deceived into thinking the end had come. They had not ‘heeded’ the warning; not heeded Christ’s Word and His answer to the disciples about the end of the world and when it should be, or sought what it all meant.

“Then said he unto them,[Because] Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:

And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.”^LK21:.10,11

It will not be the end, however, until there is a universal war where nation and kingdoms will be involved and these will be accompanied by frequent earthquakes all over the place, famines and plagues in quick cycles, with fearful and great signs in the heavens. So Christ was saying these final hours would be much more than just wars and deceptions, and that’s how you would know the difference and be able to know the drawing near of the hour of His Second Coming. This is how to read the ‘Signs’ properly. He had offered this bit of information about World Wars and deluging earthquakes and diverse troubles to mark the difference between wars characterizing the age, and World Wars being the beginning of the end. Jesus immediately goes back to the time frame of the ‘interregnum’ saying, But before all these (the World Wars, earthquakes, etc.)…

“But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake.

And it shall turn to you for a testimony.

Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer:

For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.

And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.

And ye shall be hated of all [men] for my name's sake.

But there shall not an hair of your head perish.

In your patience possess ye your souls.”^Lk.21:12-19

Before these incredibly hard world-wide things happen of pestilence, earthquakes, all kinds of troubles and strange signs in the heavens, and world wars; the age will be characterized not only by wars and rebellions and breakdowns in order and by false prophets and christs. Notice that he told them that some would even be put to death, i.e. martyred; put not a hair on their head would perish. This is an obvious contradiction unless bad religion has been discarded by faith and a true understanding of what it is to perish is believed and lived by those who would be persecuted and abused during the entire Age of Grace. Once again, volumes could be written, and indeed have been, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs perhaps the most famous, about those who went by faith to the stake, or were thrown to the lions, unrighteously judged before the Inquisition, or gunned down, or otherwise murdered for patiently remaining in possession of their soul and not denying Jesus Christ, even to death. (See Persecution and Martyrdom: A Sign of Christ’s Return) Some of the early saints wished for martyrdom, prayed for it, contrived for it, just so they could show their love and reverence for the living Christ and the power of His love. Christ here declared the true religion. This is temporal and not even the hair on our heads shall perish in eternity where Christ makes things whole and can preserve and redeem for all eternity anything which he deems redeemable and of eternal quality. Do not think of religious arguments or personal rights, or legal remedies as religion might teach. But when you are persecuted and hated of all men for my name’s sake trust me that it doesn’t matter. This will be an on-going ‘Sign’ wherever the gospel reaches so that people will know I have not forgotten and that I will return. This great testimony of the faithful persecuted will run the gamut and scope of the whole age. It will require real religion, the religion of faith, and “In your patience possess ye your souls.” (See: church of Smyrna and church of Philadelphia) Even this expression, that tells us patience is an essential part of the religion of this age, by it we can maintain possession of our souls, which all the forces designated by the “Signs” give us a feel for the powers at work trying to rob us of our souls by being terrified, impatient, frightened, cajoled, threatened into submission and without faith, even this expression of power in patience for waiting for the Return of Christ, tells us the true religious zeal the church ought to have fostered and maintained throughout the Age of Grace.

During the Interregnum

And so to this point of the Discourse, Jesus has grafted us a living picture by which the Church could keep its equilibrium of faith and not fade or falter as the years, decades and centuries of the interregnum period rolled on and God continued to reap a harvest and save the souls of lost men. God did not and does not delay His Coming, no matter what the mockers and scoffers say, he only continues the harvest until it is full by His reckoning and not the reckoning of man. So far Jesus has taught something about the ignorance of stolid religion and the need for spiritual understanding and has prophesied about signs that run the course of the interregnum: Destruction of the Temple/Rise of False Messiahs and false prophets/faith being deceived and giving way to seducing spirits/Persecutions and Martyrs, betrayals and great faith/Wars and rumors of war/Terrifying things/Commotions and rebellions, assaults and chaos/Signs from heaven. Some of these signs are broken down, scrutinized and embellished in detail by other prophets and prophecies that support and enhance The Discourse on The signs of Christ’s Return given on the Mount of Olives about 30^C.E..Some of which are:

Church ignorance and apostasy{Joel}
Church Revival at the end{Joel}
Increasing Evil{Jesus and Epistles}
Division and Weakness in Roman Empire. {Daniel}
Competition from the north and south, and from within, against ‘Rome’{Daniel}
The on-going aggression and expansion of the Antichrist {Daniel + Revelation}
The antichrist’s unrelenting course in History {Daniel + Revelation}
The dissolve of the British Empire and fall of the United States. {Daniel}
infestation of reprobates in the church{Jude}
Perilous Times {Epistle to Timothy}, and so forth

The list being too large to further itemize in this spot, but each one will be given space of its own on the website.

In the last days perilous times shall come. This is what we are told. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”^{Jer. 17:9} The wickedness lodged in the heart of man has only increased and is one of the predominate forces in the social, political and spiritual matters of the last days of our age. The perilous times of the last days creep forward with increasing intensity. “The Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.” Paul notified Timothy that men will give ‘heed’ not to faith and truth, but rather to seducing spirits without any regard to godliness. Man throughout the age has slipped away from natural affections to an unnatural perversion of the truth and into a deep apostasy away from all godliness that at one time was naturally in the conscience of man but now has been ousted by the religion of humanism and brutal existentialism, Just as Even as the prophet Paul had foreseen in his prophecy to Timothy. Women have to buy books to find out how to love their own children. But such things remain and anchor and a sure ‘Sign’ for the right-religious, that Jesus will return.

False Christs dotted the landscape of the Age from the earliest days; the Jews putting forth Messiahs, the Church its false Christs and bogus prophets. … increasing over time until the slow rise of false saviors began to swell into the 19^th and 20^th centuries. There would be men also who would circulate themselves in the church and become spots in their feasts and fellowship, feeding themselves without fear of God: they would be like “raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame”. ^{Jude 1:13} There would be murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts and using true Christians without any shame or compunction, all for their own advantage. This too would begin early in the age as a sign of the age. But it would rise and swell until the end when it would become more prominent than any early Christian would have ever dared to imagine; until it reached a great falling away of almost unbelievable proportions. Jude’s epistle stands to warn Christians of this last hour: “Remember the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.” All sorts of fleshly ritual and aesthetic movement took over the Church and its theology. First the monastic movement with all its aesthetic hi-jinx of grandstanding, men living 60 feet in the air on poles for thirty years, and such foolish things: these abominations, esteemed by man and religion, ruled for hundreds of years and never lost its influence over the whole of the Church. This was even an extreme perversion of a perversion, worshipping the will of man, that ‘Sign’ indicated by the prophetic passage; “Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.” During the age iniquity shall abound. That’s the phrase Jesus uses. Iniquity and evil will not only be prolific it will abound, actually swell, become bloated, to the point of bursting, exploding with its filth strewn all about. And Peter also foretold that in those last days people would roundly and disrespectfully scoff and mock. Where is the Second Coming they will taunt? But they will be startled when it all comes down around their heads. Just as it was in the Days of Noah; those ugly days when the whole world was talkin’ trash and then were silenced by suffocating judgment. …

But the signs of the times are given to us for our safety and reassurance that we do not have to be swept up in the tide of judgment, SONG: Gather Up On The Rocky Shore/ Here because we can be ready and be found as Noah – righteous in his sight, and favored of God.

Concurrently the prophecies of Daniel fit in and advance along with the Antichrist leaders who tried, though unsuccessfully, to unite the former Roman Empire during the interregnum period into its former unified glory and thereby dominant the World by its brutal force. Charlemagne, Holy Roman Emperors, Otto the Great and Charles V, Napoleon and Hitler, are notable Antichrist figures who were signs of the approach of the real ‘son of perdition’ who will surface as the greatest single living symbol of opposition to Christ at the end of the interregnum, and present himself as the Messiah. These are signs of the coming worldly, political ‘savior’ who will promise a heaven on earth for those who will follow; the price is that they worship the very ground upon which he walks. But these things about the antichrist and the course of the Empire would not be evident, we are told, until the last moments of the age. The key that unlocks the understanding of the fast-paced events of the end and one of the greatest signs of the Return of Christ is the increase in knowledge and the ranging far and wide of people on the earth by increased communication, technology and travel. These would set the table for understanding Daniels’ prophecies about the Antichrist, his Empire, how it would evolve throughout the Age and his ambitions and actions just before, and during the Tribulation period, the last seven years of the interregnum of salvation.

In the meantime, the prophecies of the age by Jesus in The Discourse would also unfold, past the evils of the age and growing corruption of church and society, and various wars and rumors of such. He wanted us also to know perfectly well that this would not be the age of peace prophesied by Isaiah. Isaiah had seen the Age of the Gentile, that’s for sure, but he had also seen another age to follow, one of Messianic government, kingship and perfect rule. The two could be, and most definitely were, confused by bad religion and not taking heed to his words. The First Coming would result in continued opposition by the world and an array of evils and necessary judgments. It would be a time of curious duality, one of salvation, but also of great strife, hideous government, trouble and wickedness. The Second Coming would institute righteous judgment and the installation of the Prince of Peace as the kind and gracious World leader. The first age would be full of wars throughout, but, again, these hung as signs to every generation that He would keep his promise and return to purge the earth of unrighteousness and restore order, peace and justice. But as the end approached God would deliver a set of signs and occurrences that would tip-off the faithful so that they could rightfully and faithfully consider that His Coming was very, very near. In fact, that is the way he puts it himself. Initially, before the very end, there would be a few signs which he designated as the ‘beginning of sorrows’.

20^TH CENTURY – BEGINNING OF SORROWS

“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. Luke 21 also says: “troubles and fearful sights and great signs from heaven.

All these are the beginning of sorrows.”^{Matt. 24:7,8}

The ‘beginning of sorrows’ began with World War I and II, with earthquakes and a variety of diverse troubles throughout the world. A rise of other age-long conditions such as perilous times, seducing spirits, abounding iniquity, love becoming colder and colder, the loss of natural affection and rise in idolatry and powerless, but formative religion and other things would start to emerge as never before as acceptable practice in every society. Betrayals, savage selfishness and sorceries of drugs would become not only common place but revered and aspirations of a whole generation, more than acceptable – even venerated, even strutted like roosters with shameless aplomb. Drug use would become cute; a right of passage, a symbol of esteemed rebellion; then it would turn as an excuse, a way to avoid repentance and being accountable and accepting one’s own sin, turning selfishness into a genetic disease, making it god’s fault and not our own. Out of such things false religion could find an audience and form modern theologies about being diseased and victimized rather a victimizer and depraved. Bad government also could excuse itself just by saying the words sorry – and that’s just the way the game goes. The public would finally say; “There is nothing that can be done about it. Go with the flow or we die.” So now the people believe in it. They have had “their consciences seared with a hot iron”, as the Bible said happens to people who make up the own reality to avoid or ignore repentance of sin.

The prophecies of Daniel, most having completed their course in the flow of prophecy, begin the cascade down now in the final phase of their fulfillment, they link up with the prophecies of the last book of the Bible, Revelation, in foretelling the dramatic events leading up to the end, no longer the beginning of sorrows but now the beginning of the very end indeed. Travel and knowledge, with technology and communication being increased beyond mankind’s wildest expectation have launched civilization into a world where the prophecies of world government and world dominance potentially over every inhabitant, both small and great, can now be realized for the first time ever. The whole world and everyone in it, for the first time ever, inconceivably to every inhabitant since the world began, until now, can see all at once the death of the Two Witnesses in Jerusalem, the Antichrist’s wound healed, the miracles of fire down from the sky by the False Prophet and the announcements of the so-called Ten Kings, who will stand as the power base for the Antichrist’s final reign of terror.

Tribulation type sinfulness of the Age

“Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.

And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”^Matt.24:9-13

Now Jesus just reiterates what he had said about the general condition of sinfulness for the entire age in Luke 21:12-19 (”But before all these they shall lay hands on you and persecute you. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.”); he tells us that this will be carried to the extreme during the last hours and especially during the seven year period of the Tribulation. (See Daniel’s 70^th Week for seven year period of tribulation.) Christians will be afflicted, that means abused, and killed and all the nations, including the Christian ones will hate true believers because they will be thorn in the side of the new ecumenical, world religion and will be accused of being a stumblingblock to peace. This will also include any Jew who opposes the Antichrist who will be presenting a convincing case as the Messiah to Jews as well as the World. But those who stand by Jesus during the Tribulation will be doing it for Jesus’ sake and for His cause, and as He previously assured the persecuted and martyrs, not a hair of the head will perish, though they even be put to death. The betrayals will be rampant, hatred increase, iniquity will know no bounds, and love will dissolve. It will be a violent and loveless world, which Jesus will designate as like the days of Noah, at the end of the Discourse, as soon as He is finished with his run-down of events leading directly up to His Second Coming. Some shall even escape death during the Tribulation, but very few .

But Christ says as the end approaches, it will not only be Satan who increases

His activity, but God will step up His efforts for the Kingdom.

“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”^vs.14 REVELATION CHAPTER 14: The gospel Preached from heaven

“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

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.

And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day.”^{vs. 15-20}

This will be most desperate of times ever in the history of man; even more desperate than the days of Hitler’s German regime. Whoever reads these words let him understand for his own good not to hesitate or wonder, this is what it is all coming to, a desperate hour when the Antichrist will now make his damnable demands of every soul within his Satanic reach. And that will be the entire earth.

Then the great tribulation would end it all. This is this conglomerate of purpose of all signs?

“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.”^{vs. 21,22}REV SEVEN VIAL JUDGMENTS

Only the signs which you are given will be a testimony, the ones the Word reports. Things will get so desperate that people will cry for any semblance of appearance of Christ but it will not be forthcoming. A sign of the age of my impending coming is misguided thinking that the kingdom of God will manifest itself materially, even by my being here, or a messiah being on earth working things out politically. But the kingdom will be there only inside believers and will not be able to be observed with the eyes, but by introspection of the soul only.

Jesus is about to tell them the last ‘signs’ before His Return, but before doing so He offers once more, the critical reminder about false christs, not to be fooled by imitations, just as He told them before. It is that important to go over it again.

“{Therefore} Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here [is] Christ, or there; believe it not.

For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. (At the very End)

Behold, I have told you before.

Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.

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

For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.”^{Vs. 23-28}

So, Jesus reminds his close followers not to be deceived, he will come back just the way he ascended in the ‘clouds’ but it will be suddenly, lightening fast. The only way to be aware, on-guard is to be right where all ‘eagles’ are gathered, at his body. The disciples may well have been thrown off by this, but then again maybe not. They may have all been aware that Isaiah had likened saints of the Messiah to eagles who waited upon his coming. ^{Isa. 41}they may even have recalled, (but probably later) that he said if a person did not eat his flesh and drink his blood he could have no part with him. So they may have realized the true intent of Christ warning them that the only persons who would be aware of His coming and prepared for this lightening event would be those who were with Him and truly feasting on his very being of love and truth. Exhortation to Eagle like Faith

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: Revelation: THIS IS WHEN THE MOUTNAINS AND CITIES FALL.

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”^{Vs, 29-31}

OK? So these are the graphic events leading up to my return, says Jesus. THAT’S HOW IT GOES. HE HAS GIVEN A QUICK RUNDOWN OF THE END OF THE WORLD AS YOU ASKED. But these are not the only ‘signs’ or tip-offs that He will return, and after all, that is the purpose for the ‘Signs’. So, now then…

The biggest sign pertains to the Jewish return to Israel

For emphasis Jesus did not include one of the most significant, if not the most important, signs that would point directly to his coming. For him to return to the temple as Daniel had prophesied and cleanse it from the abomination of desolation and set up his throne in Jerusalem and the King of the Jews, it would become obvious upon thought, that the tmple and the Jews would be a nation of people in Israel. But he had already designated the first sign to be the destruction of the temple. Logically, that meant it would have to be rebuilt and the nation of Israel revived and its sacrifices and Mosaic laws revived, without which could never happen except in a Temple in Jerusalem. As the Discourse was drawing to its summary conclusion, Jesus now spoke of this great ‘Sign’ of the Jews, in isolated fashion, but connected entirely to His Return.

As history rolled on, the return of the Jews to Israel and the subsequent acquisition of Jerusalem as a capitol city of an Israeli nation was necessary for the rebuilding of the Temple and the end-times Antichrist activities, so intertwined with the Jewish nation. Jesus said,

“Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:

So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, [even] at the doors.

Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.”^{vs. 32-34} THE JEWS RETURN: 60 years article

The Jews Return Must Precede His Return

When you see the Fig Tree budding [Israel] know that the time of redemption draws near. The dissolve of the British Empire coincided precisely with the creation of the Jewish state in Israel. Daniel’s Raiser of Taxes, the very last empire before that of the ‘Ten kings’, assumed control of the world for a brief moment, according to prophecy. The United States of America being the ‘Raiser of Taxes’ whose reign as King Empire of the earth has drawn to a close just as prophecy foretold, ‘neither in anger or in battle’, when she fell from her lofty roost by her economic meltdown in 2008. Now the Pope with his Encyclical calling for World Government and Economy, along with voices everywhere among the world community begins to clamor for a new world political and economic order, one more equal and suited for a Global Economy, geared for the poor and needy as well as the advanced more well-to-do nations and peoples. All these signs and more, have happened since World War Two, the war that signified the end of the beginning of sorrows and ushered us into the mini epoch of the time of the budding off the Fig Tree, the epoch time of the last conglomerate of signs which Jesus indicated would all happen before the passing of that one generation.

“And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees;

When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.

So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.

Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.”^LK21:^29-32

That Israel would return to the Holy Land after a long period of dispersion was prophesied by many prophets of Israel. The Fig Tree budding, Israel coming home, is the sign of the beginning of the end. It is symbolic that the Lord is ready to turn His attention from the Age of Grace and the Church Age toward the Jew’s salvation which means they must see the one whom they have pierced, and thereby be saved. “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they [also] which PIERCED him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.”^{Rev. 1:7}”Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away”, is his very next comment. He wants the disciples to know that what he has told them and what he is about to explain is the Word of God, more real and lasting than the things that seem so permanent and real, but actually are transient and unstable as water and air. The old must pass away if the new is to take hold. And the ‘Signs’ all point to a new world, one in which the Christ is everything, and some day God will be all, in all.

Now, the Lord concludes His Discourse. He has answered the questions what and when, in so much as he is able to give a time-lime; because he, nor the angels know exactly when he shall call home his faithful followers and exactly when other ‘Signs’ to follow will occur. But He explains that there is a reason for the Father’s secrecy of the Rapture and explains that the tenor of the times and the mindset of the people of the earth everywhere will be so different and foreign to looking for His return and living properly that people will need to be kept on the edge of their seat just to remain cognizant of the life they should live while waiting for His Return and the faith they will need to overcome the lure and distraction of society and the pull of co-workers, neighbors and lukewarm Christians all around them. The knowledge of the Lord’s appearing preceding his actual Return , that it could come at any time, acts like gravity to our faith, keeping us away from this earth and toward God and being with Him in heaven. Jesus points this out to the disciples at the close of The Discourse on the Signs of His Return.

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

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.”^{vs. 36-39}

Christ has told his disciples all he knows about the spirit of things and the order of events that would take place during the age leading up to his dramatic Return to earth with an army of His faithful believers (saints). These are the ‘Signs’ that His disciples had asked him about – signs prophesied of concerning His coming. He has even told them that he doesn’t know everything about it, particularly, the exact time of these things and His Coming, only the spirit and order things to come. He has told them to be careful and to not be deceived because forces will be at work constantly during the course of the Age to draw attention away from His promised Return and to cause people to be ruined by bad religion and dullness of spirit. It will be an age fraught with ignorance and foolishness from generation to generation. He told them that the First Coming must be completed before the Second Coming could be happen; “But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.” Luke 17:25 That was about to be accomplished as He spoke, but its ministry would run concurrent with the “Signs’. It is then, that the Lord Jesus, tells the disciples that the whole time of the age of The Signs of Christ’s Return, would be a mounting tile of evil and violence, of perversion and corruption, of ignoring God’s call to righteousness and carrying on as if Christ would never return. As His final words of advice against the spirit of the times, Christ left His disciples with this grave warning and showed how fine a distinction would be drawn between those who actually heeded it and those who only appeared to heed it. Leaving His faithful friends with the final distinction between the Rapture of the righteous – a salvation from the tribulation to come upon all the earth – and His Second Coming which would be with a Sword and in fiery judgment just as Enoch had prophesied; “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”^{Jude 14,15}

“And as it was in the days of Noah, 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 Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.”^{Lk 17. 26,27}

READ ABOUT NOAH ENTERING ARK. If there is an introduction to days of Noah there has to be a symbolic discussion of his entering the ark.

Lot too and not all taken

“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.”^Vs,28-29

Noah Escapes by righteousness

Escaping the world as Christians should be part of the Church signs, and people leaving the world a sign of the end – Church restored – Philly faith. Escaping not by observation, but in the Spirit – in fact it may look the opposite. Noah enters hiding place, he is the symbol of the Rapture who rises above ‘the Water’ and escaped the flood of judgment.

Lot’s wife: Don’t look back to your old life

“Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.

In that day, he which shall be

M15

upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.

Remember Lot's w

M15

ife.

M15

Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.”^{vs. 30-33}

Even the Tribulation is a picture of the personal strife believers will encounter in their walk during this age. Things will be going on, planting, building, drinking, eating, marriages and families just as always. But God will take the believer, any disciple and put him on the roof top, above the fray and din of this world. Do not go down to get your stuff and be worried about the things of this life. The Tribulation will be a drastic picture of this common spiritual condition of those who are focused on the ‘Signs’ and waiting faithfully for the Second Coming. No matter what time one lives in or what century in which they are required to wait upon the Lord. Don’t ever come down ‘to earth’ from the spiritual height which god has given His faithful servants. If you are in the field do not return to your worldly home, but be ready to flee without any regrets or concern for things of this world; even those things that belong to you. Once you have escaped don’t look back; in this way the servants of God, in all times of this age, will have died to self. MUST DIE TO SELF and be perfected. The Devil has beaten many souls by getting them to turn back or by getting them engrossed in the cares of this world. “And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is FIT for the kingdom of God.”^{Lk 9:62}

This was no easy task, this living by faith for the “Signs of Christ’s Return”, though the four disciples who asked for details about the ‘Signs’ were not sorry, over the course of the entire age it is certain that many people were like the ‘rich man’ who, when he heard the stipulations and conditions put on entering into the blessings of the faith, went away sad, unable to fulfill the qualifications of this perfection of service and obedience. Many, many would-be servants have come and gone because they could not let go of their life, therefore they could not find a life in Christ as the faithful servant waiting for his master to return from His long journey. For Jesus had said to them also in His Discourse

“But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.

Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.

For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.

Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:

Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.

And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.”^{Mk 13:32-37}

Above, is the way the Discourse ends in Mark. Watch. The Son of man is gone for a long time, as if it were a long journey. And nobody, not even the servants know when he will return; so stay faithful. Many won’t. Matthew concludes the account of the Discourse with a direct warning that faithful servants and unfaithful servants will be treated differently to the extreme; one will be raptured the other left behind to face all the troubles and tribulation that is meant for the unbelievers and idolaters of the world, but will also fall upon the unfaithful servant as well who is left to endure the final, terrible “Signs’ of the end as described during the Tribulation. They shall even fall into perdition and eternal judgment.

“Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two doing the same, the Church.

Two [women shall be] grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

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

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

Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.

Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Warn and teach about these signs.

Blessed [is] that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.

Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.

But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;

And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;

The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for [him], and in an hour that he is not aware of,

And shall cut him asunder, and appoint [him] his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”^{Matt. 24:40-51}

And In Luke 17:

M15

“I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed [Not quoted in Matthew]; 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; one shall be taken, and the other left.”^{vs. 32-34}

Here, at the end of The Discourse is the high purpose of the ‘Signs’. He has warned and even shown the great tragedy of not incorporating them into one’s faith and taking heed to them and avoiding deception. Now the truth is revealed that those who take heed will be taken away and not suffer the temptation and devastation of the very end, just leading to His Coming. It is fitting that Jesus should disclose this greatest of their purpose after He has laid out the course of the Age and all the events that would point to His Return. It is not the Father’s will that the disciples should go through it. But hypocrites, those who say they live by faith and do not, those who say they believe but do not walk in that belief, even though they declare for Christ, insist they are Christ’s will be left behind. Not all ‘Christians’ will be taken out, ‘raptured’. This misconception is one that many churches will have to answer for in that day. With shame they will have to admit they had been warned in The Discourse in Matthew and in the Preamble to The Discourse in Luke 17, that there would be those who were exactly the same in all appearance, but underneath in their heart and faith; they were diametrically opposed. Both were doing the same; in the same mode and lifestyle, in the same church, doing the same jobs, living and breathing and eating together, saying the same, reading the same Bible, and singing the same songs; BUT ONE WILL BE RAPTURED AND THE OTHER LEFT. They were living and resting and tending to the same business (apparently) of God; yet they were two opposite people when it came to not being deceived, taking heed to themselves, living by faith and looking for he Return of their Savior. One person had lost their life by entering into Christ’s life, had given their all to Him and had found that their life was in Christ, and there they abided with peace in their soul. The other had found life in this world and had used the blessings of a life with Christ to live in selfish disregard for anything but their own stuff, their own world of self - for self gain - caring only for self (The Great Evil, Perilous Times). Many will have joy on the day of Christ’s appearing (The Rapture) as they are taken away from the grind, the labor, the exhaustion. But the majority we are afraid, will be surprised to find that they are left to find God’s mercy in the Tribulation; because they, with their fearful care, had lost their living way in Christ. Some will even perish in the fires of eternal judgment. This is why Christ says so emphatically at the end of The Discourse on the ‘Signs of His Return’:

“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.”^Lk.21:34-36

Jesus has answered one half of the two million dollar questions, the questions which should be gnawing away, languishing in our souls as we read and ponder the Discourse, especially when we are hit with this strange scenario at the end about the pairs who live, work and practice the same things, but find wholly different fates. He has told us where and when, answering the questions that precipitated The Discourse. And now at the end he has told us who shall receive the purpose and effect of the ‘Signs’ and who will not. Now his disciples ask: Where?

“And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wherever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together^.^{” Lk 17:37}

Again, Jesus tells us a deep spiritual truth by using imagery which any of us can understand. Wherever the “Signs’ were to be understood it would be where He was, where people were feasting on Him. Anyone who sought the blessing of understand and ingesting the ‘Signs’ leading the Rapture and the Return of Christ would seek Him out and find Him and there they would also find others who were doing the same thing. This is the real insight to communion with others around him ‘in mutual life-death of resurrection. The disciples end it after asking what and when with Where, the obvious question. Jesus adds to it by insinuating who - the true church – so the disciples get who and where added at the end to what and when. Jesus has given to the Church a full and complete report on the history of the Age between his First and Second Comings so that we could have a complete history of the Age course to help keep us on track for His Return. He has instructed us about the conditions which need to be met and educated us as to the pitfalls we would encounter. He has told us why we should take careful heed to these things. In The Discourse on the “Signs of His Return, Jesus completed the task of the perfect reporter. He has given us the: who, what, where, when, why and how, succinctly, with accuracy, brevity and clarity. All this, so we could be in tune with what is needed in the individual believer so they find a new life, living as the waiting espoused Bride of Christ, and be raptured.

“And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.” DON’T HOPE OR WANT PEOPLE TO GO TO HELL. Do what you can to prevent this, even for your enemies, because Hell will swallow up many unfortunately and there is nothing that can be done about it.

Daniel 12:12: 45 days after the last judgment of the Tribulation. If someone lives until then they will be those who will repopulate the world during the ‘Millennium’.

olivet discourse signs of christ's return