The short answer
Jesus gave the signs of His coming in the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21): false christs and false prophets who deceive many, wars and rumours of wars, famines and earthquakes, widespread lawlessness, the persecution of His followers, and — as the one positive sign — the gospel preached to all nations. He called the troubles “the beginning of birth pangs” (Matthew 24:8), meaning they announce that something is coming rather than proving it has already arrived. The signs are given to make believers watchful, not to let anyone fix a date.
This article walks through the signs Jesus actually named, distinguishes them from the end itself, and then asks the harder question most lists skip: are these signs meant literally or symbolically? Mainstream Christianity has long debated whether the dramatic cosmic imagery points to physical catastrophe or to something deeper, and the Divine Principle offers a reading that takes the signs seriously without reducing the Lord’s return to a disaster movie. It is a companion piece to how Jesus will return and to whether we can know when He will return.
Where Jesus gave the signs
The signs come from a single conversation known as the Olivet Discourse, recorded in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21. Sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples asked Jesus a double question: “Tell us, when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3). Everything we usually call “the signs of the second coming” is Jesus’ answer to that question. It is worth noticing that the disciples asked two things at once — when, and what sign — and that Jesus answered the second far more fully than the first, which He finally declined to answer at all.
Because it is one connected speech rather than a scattered set of predictions, the Olivet Discourse has an internal shape. Jesus opens by warning against deception, moves through a series of worldly upheavals He explicitly labels as beginnings, and builds toward the actual appearing of the Son of Man. A careful study of the passage divides it into the early “birth pangs,” a central period of tribulation, and a final set of signs surrounding His coming (NeverThirsty). Reading the signs in that order matters, because Jesus repeatedly tells His hearers which signs are not the end before He describes what is.
The signs He named
The signs fall into a recognisable cluster, and the first one Jesus names is deception. “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many” (Matthew 24:4–5). He returns to this theme twice more, warning that “false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect” (Matthew 24:24). That Jesus led with deception — not war or disaster — is striking. The chief danger of the last days, in His telling, is not that believers will suffer but that they will be misled.
Alongside deception He named the upheavals that most lists emphasise: “wars and rumours of wars,” nation rising against nation, “famines and earthquakes in various places” (Matthew 24:6–7). He added the cooling of love and the spread of lawlessness — “because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12) — and the persecution of His own people, who “will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death” and “hated by all nations because of me” (Matthew 24:9). Adventist and evangelical summaries of the chapter group these the same way: deception, conflict, natural disaster, apostasy, and persecution (Adventist Church). These are the signs people point to in every anxious generation.
“Birth pangs,” not the end itself
The single most important thing Jesus said about the troubling signs is that they are not, by themselves, the end. After listing wars and disasters He said plainly, “See to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come” (Matthew 24:6), and then gave them their proper name: “All these are the beginning of birth pangs” (Matthew 24:8). The image is deliberate. Birth pangs announce that a birth is coming, they intensify as the moment approaches, and — crucially — they point beyond themselves to new life, not to death. Jesus framed the whole catalogue of calamity as the onset of something being born, not the world being destroyed.
This reframes how the signs are meant to be used. A person watching for “birth pangs” is not meant to panic at each contraction as though it were the end; they are meant to recognise the direction of travel and prepare. It also explains why wars, famines, and earthquakes, which occur in every century, can be “signs” without being a datable countdown. They describe the straining condition of a fallen world approaching a turning point, not a sequence of one-off events that can be ticked off a list. That is why Christian commentators caution that the visible upheavals were never given as a calculator for the end (Christian Courier).
Reading the signs symbolically
The hardest signs to interpret are the cosmic ones, and here the Divine Principle parts company with a strictly literal reading. Jesus said, “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken” (Matthew 24:29), and elsewhere, “Heaven and earth will pass away” (Matthew 24:35). Taken literally, these describe the physical collapse of the universe. But Scripture itself often uses sun, moon, and stars as symbols for figures of authority — as in Joseph’s dream, where sun, moon, and stars stand for his father, mother, and brothers (Genesis 37:9–10). The Divine Principle takes the cosmic imagery in this symbolic sense: the darkening of the sun and moon and the falling of the stars picture the loss of light and influence by religious and worldly leaders who fail to recognise God’s new work.
On this reading, “heaven and earth passing away” is not the annihilation of the planet but the passing of the old order of sin — the fallen world of the past giving way to a restored world. This is why the same Scriptures that speak of destruction also promise renewal: “a new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation 21:1) and a kingdom established on the earth, not merely beyond it. The “last days,” in this framework, are less the end of history than the hinge of it — the close of an age of fallenness and the beginning of the age of restoration. This is explored further in what the last days are and in whether the second coming means the end of the world.
The one sign Jesus stressed most
Of all the signs, Jesus tied only one directly to the arrival of the end, and it is a positive one: the worldwide spread of the gospel. “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). This sign is different in kind from the others. Wars, famines, and earthquakes are symptoms of a world in trouble; they recur endlessly and point to nothing in particular. The spread of the gospel is a sign of progress — a measure of how far God’s work of bringing people back to Him has reached. It is the one sign that moves in a single direction over history rather than rising and falling with every age.
Placing the weight here changes the whole emotional register of the question. A believer anxiously scanning the news for disasters is watching the wrong sign; the sign Jesus underlined is the advance of the knowledge of God across the world. The Divine Principle’s reading fits this emphasis: the meaningful marker of the times is not the scale of calamity but the extent to which humanity has come to know God’s heart and purpose. For why that purpose matters at all, see God’s purpose in creating the world.
Signs are for readiness, not calculation
Jesus closed the discourse by forbidding the very thing people most want to do with the signs: use them to set a date. “About that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matthew 24:36). The signs were never given as a formula. Every attempt to turn them into one — the Millerite dates of 1843 and 1844, the 1914 expectation, and a long line of failures since — has collapsed on schedule, which is exactly what Jesus’ warning predicts. The purpose of the signs is to keep believers awake: “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come” (Matthew 24:42).
Readiness, in Jesus’ teaching, is moral and spiritual rather than mathematical. The parables He attached to the discourse — the faithful servant, the ten virgins, the talents — are all about being found doing the Master’s work whenever He comes, not about decoding the hour in advance. The signs tell us the kind of time we live in; they do not tell us the day. That is the posture the Divine Principle encourages too: discernment and preparedness rather than speculation. For why date-setting keeps failing and what to do instead, see why people keep setting dates for the second coming.
Frequently asked questions
What are the signs of the second coming of Jesus?
In the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21) Jesus named a cluster of signs: false christs and false prophets who deceive many, wars and rumours of wars, famines and earthquakes in various places, widespread lawlessness and love growing cold, the persecution of His followers, and — as the one positive sign — the gospel of the kingdom being preached to all nations. He called the troubling ones “the beginning of birth pangs” (Matthew 24:8), meaning they signal that something is coming rather than that the end has already arrived.
Are the signs of the second coming literal or symbolic?
Christians read them both ways. Many expect a literal sequence of cosmic disasters. The Divine Principle reads the dramatic imagery — the sun darkened, stars falling, heaven and earth passing away — symbolically, as the passing of the old fallen order and the loss of light by religious and worldly authorities, rather than the physical destruction of the universe. On that reading the “last days” are not the end of the planet but the end of an age of sin and the dawn of a restored world, which is why Scripture speaks in the same breath of destruction and of “a new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation 21:1).
Did Jesus say the signs tell us the date of His return?
No. Immediately after listing the signs Jesus said, “about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matthew 24:36). The signs are given to produce readiness, not a calculation. Every historical attempt to use them to fix a date — 1843, 1844, 1914, and many since — has failed, exactly as the warning against date-setting would predict. The right response is wakefulness: “keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come” (Matthew 24:42).
Which sign did Jesus emphasise most?
The one sign Jesus tied directly to the end was the spread of the gospel: “this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). Unlike the wars and disasters, which recur in every age, this is a positive, purposeful sign — a measure of how far God’s work of restoration has reached. The Divine Principle treats the worldwide spread of the message about God’s heart and purpose as the meaningful marker of the times, rather than the catalogue of calamities that frighten people in every generation.
If wars and disasters happen in every age, how are they signs?
This is exactly why Jesus called them “the beginning of birth pangs” and warned, “see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come” (Matthew 24:6). They are not a countdown clock. They describe the condition of a fallen world approaching a turning point — a world under strain, full of deception and conflict — rather than datable, one-off events. Their purpose is to keep believers spiritually awake and discerning, not to let anyone plot the end on a calendar.