Per the miscellaneous signs listed in my previous article, Jesus literally tells the apostles face to face what the signs are that will let us know when He is about ready to come back to our earth for His second coming. The verse is from the gospel of Matthew and it reads as follows:

"Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age? And Jesus answered and said to them: "Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My Name, saying 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom And there will famines, pestilences and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come." (Matthew 24:3-14)

2. Another verse on the false christs and false prophets that will come is also found in Matthew. It reads: "For false christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, the elect." (Matthew 24:24) 3. Paul also talks about the state of man in the latter days and how bad man is going to get. Here is the verse: "But know this, that in the LAST DAYS perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power." (2 Timothy 3:1) 4. Paul also states in the latter days that some Christians will be departing from the faith due to the influence of demons. The verse is found in 1 Timothy. "Now the Spirit expressly says that in LATTER TIMES some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons." (1 Timothy 4:1) 5. Here is the verse about end time prophecy being sealed up until the end of time - at which time this verse implies that God will then be opening up our understanding of it. This is an angel speaking to Daniel in the Old Testament after he just got done giving him visions and knowledge of what was coming at the end of times. And he said, "Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end ... and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand." (Daniel 12:9)

All of the above are what I call the miscellaneous signs that will start to take place as we start to approach the time of Jesus' 2nd coming to our earth. The next 7 are specific events that will take place in perfect chronological order. Only one of these events has come to pass at this time, the other 6 have not.

The 7 year Great Tribulation will be the countdown to when Jesus will come back. This 7 year Great Tribulation will be the last 7 years on earth before Jesus comes back to us in His second coming. There's an event that will occur right in the middle of the Great Tribulation called the "Abomination of Desolation." Once this events takes place, the Bible tells us that there will then be exactly 42 months before Jesus comes back to our earth for His second coming - three and half years from the time of this one event. The "Abomination of Desolation" will be when the Antichrist seats himself up in the rebuilt Jewish Temple to proclaim himself to be God.

This event will be very easy to pick up once it happens with the technology that we now have in place to pick up news events as it is actually occurring throughout the world. In my next series of end time articles, I will give a brief explanation of the other 7 key events that will be occurring - with one of them having already occurred.

This is the 2nd part of a 22 part series on the end times.

Article written by Michael Bradley of Bible Knowledge Ministries. Their website is a resource of Bible Knowledge, articles, commentary and teaching. They currently have over 100 Bible articles. All free of charge.
If you do not want to wait for the next article, you can go to our end times section of our website for all the articles regarding the 2nd Coming of Jesus.
Copyright ? 2005 by Michael Bradley. All Rights Reserved.