The Return of Christ

The Signs of the Times

In Matthew 24 Jesus described wars, famines, false messiahs, and hardship before the end, yet in the very same discourse he said that no one knows the day or the hour, not even the angels, but only the Father. So the signs are given not to let anyone set a date but to keep the church awake and ready. Christians read these words soberly, watching and living faithfully, and refusing every temptation to sensationalize or to predict.

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.Matthew 24:36 (KJV)

What Jesus actually said

Sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples asked Jesus what would be the sign of his coming and of the end of the age. His answer, recorded in Matthew 24 and echoed in Mark 13 and Luke 21, is the fullest thing he said about the last days. He spoke of wars and rumors of wars, of nation rising against nation, of famines and earthquakes, of persecution and the love of many growing cold, and of the gospel being preached in all the world before the end came.

Yet the striking thing about the whole discourse is its restraint. Jesus does not hand his disciples a calendar. He describes the shape of a troubled age, not a countdown. In fact he warns them repeatedly not to be deceived, because many would come claiming to be the Christ or to know the hour, and would lead many astray. The signs were given to steady his people through hard times, not to let anyone announce the date.

He even guards against panic in advance. When his disciples hear of wars and rumors of wars, he says, see that ye be not troubled, for such things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. He calls these things the beginning of sorrows, not the final act. A believer who reads Jesus carefully will not treat every earthquake or war as a countdown clock, because Jesus himself refused to. The signs mark the whole long age between his comings, an age that has already stretched across two thousand years, and they will be there in every generation until he comes.

The verse that ends all date-setting

At the center of the discourse stands a sentence that every generation of Christians has had to take seriously, especially the generations tempted to predict:

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.Matthew 24:36 (KJV)

If the Son himself, in his earthly ministry, spoke of not knowing the day or hour, and if even the angels of heaven do not know it, then no preacher, no author, no movement, and no chart can know it either. This single verse is the church's permanent guard against date-setting. Every prediction of the end that history has seen, and there have been very many, has run aground on these words. Jesus told us we would not know the day, and he told us for our good.

Watchfulness, not prediction

So what are the signs for? Jesus tells us himself. Right after saying no one knows the day, he turns to a string of images about being ready: the days of Noah, when life went on as normal until the flood came; a householder who would have watched if he had known when the thief was coming; servants waiting for their master to return from a journey. The lesson each time is the same:

Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.Matthew 24:42 (KJV)

The point of not knowing the hour is to be ready at every hour. A servant who knew the exact day of the master's return might grow lazy until the last moment, then scramble. But a servant who does not know must simply be faithful all the time. That is precisely what Jesus wants. The uncertainty is a mercy that keeps the whole church awake and honest.

Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.Matthew 24:44 (KJV)

Reading the signs soberly

Christians have always seen wars, disasters, and unbelief in their own days and wondered if the end was near. The first believers did; so have their descendants in every century. This is not wrong, so long as it leads to readiness rather than to speculation. The danger comes when the signs are used to sensationalize, to frighten, to sell, or to name a year. Scripture never invites that, and it plainly forbids the date-setting it would require.

There is also honest disagreement among faithful Christians about how to read parts of Matthew 24, for instance how much of it spoke of the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70, which happened within the lifetime of some who heard him, and how much points to a still future coming. The Living Bread does not settle that debate. What all agree on is the posture Jesus commanded: watch, be ready, do not be deceived, and do not fear. The believer who reads the news through the eyes of Christ is neither panicked by trouble nor lulled by calm.

History is a long teacher here, and its lesson is humbling. Again and again, sincere people have grown certain that their own generation held the final signs, have named a year, and have watched it pass. Some have led many into disappointment, and worse, into disillusion with the faith itself. Jesus foresaw this and warned against it in advance. The signs were never meant to make us prophets of the calendar. They were meant to make us faithful in whatever times we are given, whether they are times of peace or of trouble, and to keep us from the twin errors of the scoffer who says he is not coming and the alarmist who says he comes this year. Neither honors the words of Christ.

The tone Jesus gives us

It is worth noticing how Jesus wants his people to feel about all of this. When he speaks elsewhere of the same events, in Luke 21, he tells his disciples that when these things begin to happen they should look up and lift up their heads, because their redemption draws near. The signs of the times are not, for the Christian, a reason to hoard fear. They are a reason to lift the head, because every hard thing is one step closer to the return of the King who wipes away tears.

So we hold two things at once. We take the world's troubles seriously, as Jesus did, without pretending all is well. And we refuse both the panic of the doomsayer and the false peace of the scoffer. We watch. We stay faithful in ordinary things. We keep our hearts warm with love when the love of many grows cold. And we leave the day and the hour, gladly, in the hands of the Father, who alone knows it and who can be trusted with it.

That trust is the quiet center of the whole matter. A child does not need to know the hour a good father is coming home in order to feel safe; it is enough to know the father, and to know he is coming. So it is here. The believer does not build a life on a timeline but on a Person, and because that Person is faithful, the not-knowing becomes a resting place rather than a torment. We are not asked to read the future. We are asked to trust the one who holds it, and to be found watching and at peace when he comes.

A note on the end times: on the questions where sincere Christians differ, chiefly the rapture, the millennium, and the timing and details of Christ's return, this platform is non-denominational and describes the main views fairly rather than declaring a winner. What all Christians share and hold as certain is this: Christ will return, the dead will be raised, there will be a judgment, and God will make all things new. We anchor on that, and hold the rest in peace.

Related: The promise of his return · What is the rapture? · How then should we live · The Return of Christ