Great discussion, fascinating topic. For understanding the end of the Age, I start with Matthew 24 because Jesus is the final authority on all prophecy. When the disciples asked Jesus, "When will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?", he gave several specific signs to look for:
- The appearance of many false Messiahs (5,11,23-26)
- A sudden onset of absolutely unprecedented, worldwide suffering, as though the entire world were a woman in labor (8,21,22, see also I Thess. 5:3, Rev. 12:2, Jer. 6:24); it will be worse than the Flood, "great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again." (21)
- A great deception with signs and wonders that no human could escape, except by God's election (24)
- Wickedness and apathy as in the days of Noah prior to the Flood (37-39; Gen. 6: "I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth")
- Rampant, widespread persecution of believers (9)
- A great apostasy (10, see also 2 Thess 2:1ff)
- Spread of the Gospel to the whole world (14)
- The abomination that causes desolation (15-21)
- The worldwide knowledge of the coming of the Son of Man by fulfillment of the prophecy of the alteration of the heavens (29,30 see also Isaiah 13:13, Joel 3:16, Hag. 2:6,21)
vv. 36-51 give a general exhortation to watchfulness. The danger in trying to "read the signs" is that we want to use the signs as a way to "check out"... kick back, relax and take life easy until "SHTF". Jesus is saying that he's coming "soon", meaning very soon. He says (34,35) "Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." People get confused about these verses (they confused me most of my life) but the message is actually very direct: everyone who reads his words is "this generation". If you are a believer, you will not pass away until all these things are fulfilled. In fact, he makes the mind-blowing claim that the entire world will pass away, but his words are eternal. So, he's putting the lie to our naive conceptions of permanence. The material world conveys this overwhelming impression of permanence. Jesus is saying, "It's not permanent. It's all going away eventually. But my words are forever. And I'm telling you that you are going to see all these things happen, soon." Every generation of believers from the time of Christ down to today has heard these same words, so the prophecy is true for all of them, simultaneously, including us. That is why it is said that, "we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air" (I Thess. 4:17). "We who are alive" means we who are alive in Christ! At some point in time, each of us will pass through the veil and meet the Lord and be caught up together with the saints. This is not necessarily a physical event, because physics is neither here nor there, for God (John 6:63, Luke 18:27). When will this happen? Soon. Only by looking inward and upward can we understand Jesus's words correctly. The more we look out to the opinions of others and the current events of the world, the more we are like Peter taking his eyes off Jesus and looking at the wind and the waves.
