„His disciples ... asked, 'Tell us, when will this happen (the destruction of the temple), and how will we know that you are coming and that the end of the world is here?

Jesus replied: "Be on your guard and don't let anyone deceive you. Many will appear with my claim and say: I am Christ! With this they will mislead many.

Don't be alarmed when wars break out near and far. It has to happen, but this is not the end. One nation will fight another, one state will attack another.

There will be famines (and epidemics) and earthquakes everywhere.

All this is just the beginning of the end - like the beginning of labour pains. Then you will be handed over, tortured and killed. The whole world will hate you because you confess me. When the time comes, many will fall away from the faith and betray and hate one another.

Numerous false prophets will appear and mislead many of you.

And because evil is gaining the upper hand, love will grow cold in most people. But those who remain steadfast to the end will be saved. Before that, the good news will be proclaimed throughout the world so that all people can hear the invitation to God's new world. Only then will the end come.“

Can an enlightened person even speak of the end of the world? The disciples were already asking about this at the time, and Jesus responded. He confirmed that this world had an expiry date. That is why we can also feel free to speak of the end of the world today. However, like Jesus' disciples, we always want to talk about the Second Coming at the same time. That is the centre of the message. But we do not want to calculate a date for this event, because we neither can nor should. Seventh-day Adventists have never set a date either.

Jesus reproached his contemporaries for not heeding the signs of the times. (Matth. 16,4) This shows that he values us paying attention to them.

And he answered his disciples' question about the signs of his return in detail. As these signs apply both then and now, we will first briefly discuss the signs then - as far as we know the facts at the time - and then talk about the signs today. The signs of the end times are not determined by some one-off, local event, but by the extent and worldwide fulfilment.

What was the situation with deception back then, before Jerusalem fell? Many pretended to be the Messiah at that time. We know of a Theudas and Judas from Galilee. We also know of Jonathan, Dositheus and Simon. The Zealot leader Menahem, who defeated the Roman troops in 66 AD, also wanted to be seen as a messianic saviour.

The worst deception actually came from the religious leaders of the time. Their own interpretations were more important to them than God's word. The Jews originally had the true faith revealed by God. Step by step, they had strayed from God's path. They used the words of the Bible and associated a different content with them. They had mixed the divine and the human. This is even worse in its effect than pure untruth. Yes, the sign was recognisable 1900 years ago.

What is the situation today with the creeping leading away from God and his word?

Seduction is the main sign of the end times. Jesus only mentioned this several times. We have a creeping but tremendous apostasy right into our church.

Many people today are deceived and believe that there is no God. We have a worldwide godlessness today. There are many who deny God. There are many who say that they do not know if there is a God. Then there are many who think of themselves as believing in God, but in practical life live as if he does not exist.

Materialism is also a manifestation of godlessness. You have everything. You don't need God.

Today we know a God-is-dead theology. Many clergy and believers no longer believe in the God that the Word of God shows us. The false prophets have also changed Jesus. They deny his eternal divinity and turn him into a mere man. They also trivialise the sinister power and nature of sin.

I would also like to mention the ecumenical movement here. Although it has the good intention of uniting Christianity, it ignores God's truth.

Modern theology is becoming more and more widespread, in which scientific assumptions rather than God's word are decisive. The human mind is placed above the Bible. Today, modern theology is taught almost exclusively at universities. The consequences are corresponding. The Bible describes the churches that preach a modified gospel as Babylon.

Today, we can already recognise that a mixture of Christian faith, spiritualism and pagan religions is emerging. Think of yoga, transcendental meditation, Zen, New Age and many others.

A seduction that was thought to be over in our modern times is celebrating new triumphs today. I am referring to all kinds of secret things that people believe they can use to develop higher abilities:

Occultism, spiritualism, esotericism: these things have spread like an epidemic in recent decades. They have also penetrated the ecclesiastical sphere. I am thinking here of charismatic phenomena such as the „Toronto Blessing“, occult healing and also speaking in tongues, which is not a foreign language gift.

World optimism is also a seducer. Even today, some still believe that progress will always continue. Technology makes everything possible. They are blind to the disadvantages of our development or they think that if we make an effort, we will get everything under control again. We can also mention the movement that calls for peace, peace, although there can be no question of peace (1 Thess. 5:3).

Seducer Self-deception: Some people reinterpret God's will for themselves so that they don't have to do it. Example: Suppose a father says to his child: „Go to bed!“ The child probably knows where he stands. If the child were to act as some people do in the area of faith, then the child could say to itself: „The father says: Go to bed. What he actually means is that you are tired. He doesn't want me to be tired. I can also get over my tiredness by going to play. So I go and play. Then I've obeyed my father too.“ That is self-seduction. Many practise it.

The aim of the master deceiver is to make people no longer trust God and obey him. We can study his method in Genesis chapter 3. He succeeded in one thing with Eve and Adam.

For many of us today, he has gone much further than just tempting us in one thing. May I ask if you want to face this issue? Do we want to change this with God's help? The sign „seduction“ is celebrating great triumphs today.

What about wars, threats of war and one nation rising up against another? You might argue that there have always been wars. That is correct! So if war is to be a sign, then we must have new, special and global developments. Nevertheless, I would also like to venture a comment: isn't the very fact that war still exists a sign that Jesus' words are true? Surely there should no longer be any war at all with people as clever as we are. Humanism propagates the theory that if only people were educated, crimes would decrease. Contemporary history shows us something different. The fact that there are still wars despite huge progress in education is also a sign that Jesus' word is being fulfilled.

People against people: there has not been a single week where people have not killed others on a large scale. We only remember the biggest events, such as in Rwanda, where Hutus slaughtered Tutsis. The military conflicts and exterminations in the former Yugoslavia happened almost on our doorstep. Even today, the eastern conflicts on former Soviet territory have not really calmed down. These are developments that were no longer thought possible. The Middle East and the Arab conflicts make us realise time and again that today's humanity in particular is sitting on a powder keg.

We hear about threats of war every day in the media. In the end times, wars have become a sign of the return of Jesus due to their increase and global expansion. The 20th century was characterised by the two world wars. What was previously unimaginable became a brutal reality. It is estimated that over 100 million soldiers and civilians were killed in both world wars. Since then, another 25 million have died in wars. The losses of people and values in these world wars were decidedly higher than in all previous wars.

What about weapons development? Today we have nuclear, bacteriological and chemical weapons. In 1944, it would have taken 100 million 20-centner bombs to destroy France. Today, one gigaton bomb is probably enough for the whole world. Today, entire countries can be contaminated bacteriologically or chemically, invisibly, odourlessly and tastelessly.

What about defence spending? The sums are astronomical. Despite a temporary easing of tensions, more money is being spent on armaments than ever before. The military build-up and conflicts are swallowing up money that is sorely needed to effectively combat the plight of humanity. America has more debt than all other countries combined. Yet all the military aircraft, tanks, ships and the latest war equipment, which eliminate the enemy with the utmost sophistication and precision, do not bring real, lasting peace, but swallow up huge sums of money that would be sorely needed elsewhere.

What was it like back then?

The Bible reports this in Acts 11:28, and history confirms it: „With the help of the Holy Spirit, Agabus predicted a great famine throughout the world, which then materialised during the reign of Emperor Claudius.“ The sign was there then.

What does it look like today?

The 20th century has gone down in history as the age of the greatest famines. Many people died of hunger during the two world wars. In 1921/22, a total of 38 million people died of hunger in Russia and China. The famous polar explorer Dr Nansen from Norway was head of the relief operation for Russia at the time. He wrote that this famine was „without doubt the most terrible ever known in the history of mankind“. The cruelty of the famine was so great that man-eating prevailed in large areas. In 1928-30, many millions again died of hunger in Russia and China. Think of the famines in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa.

In the meantime, a number of successes have been achieved worldwide in the fight against hunger. Nevertheless, over 800 million people still go hungry. Every year, over 9 million people die of hunger - one person dies of starvation every 3 seconds, mainly in the newly industrialising countries, most of them children. Every seventh child is underweight, every fourth chronically malnourished.

While there are hundreds of millions of children up to the age of 15 in famine-stricken countries who have never drunk milk, never had a shoe on their foot and never received a medicine, here in Germany countless school lunches are thrown away every day.

Why do we actually have expensive time?

Apart from the aforementioned defence spending, corruption, overreaching, excesses, unfair distribution of income, crazy speculation and much more contribute to the fact that prosperity is being shared among fewer and fewer people. The rich are getting richer, the middle class less and less and more and more people are becoming impoverished, even in the so-called affluent countries.

People are living beyond their means. There is hardly an area in which there is no more debt. In politics, the economy and also in the private sector, a lot is being invested that people cannot afford. There is no healthy relationship between income and expenditure. Hard-won prosperity is caught in the debt trap. People often fail to properly assess their own situation. Materialism probably has its roots deep in the human heart, which is almost naturally centred on itself.

The Bible says about the selfishness of the end times:

„When the end of the world is just around the corner, there will be hard times. Then people will be selfish, greedy for money, boastful and conceited. They will insult their fellow human beings, disobey their parents and have no reverence for anything.

They are ungrateful, unloving and unforgiving, slanderous, unruly and violent, hating what is good, unfaithful and untrustworthy, and puffed up with arrogance.“ 2 Timothy 3:1-4

We must also think here of the tensions between capital and labour: on the one hand immense wealth, on the other great poverty. James 5:1-6 makes important predictions about this:

„Listen, you rich people! Weep and wail over the misery that is coming upon you! ... You have amassed riches in the last days of the world. You have deprived the men who worked in your fields of the wages they deserved. That cries out to heaven!“

Of course, this applies to varying degrees in different countries around the world. „Hunger, dear time“? Yes, this sign is also clearly recognisable today.

What about epidemics and the contamination of the earth today? After the First World War, influenza and other epidemics caused 40 million deaths around the world. Although incredible sums have been invested in the health sector and there have never been so many health centres and doctors, humanity today suffers from a number of incalculable diseases. Whether it is cancer, cardiovascular diseases or many so-called diseases of civilisation - no matter how good living conditions may be, diseases will always remain a scourge. Much of this is the fault of our lifestyle and is also the result of an increasingly degraded environment.

AIDS, Alzheimer's, bone and muscle diseases, burnout and many mental illnesses can obviously not be banished from a modern world.

In order to maximise profits as quickly as possible, people also exploit animals. This makes them ill. This falls back on humans through their diet. I think we should also mention the epidemic-like spread of addictive diseases.

The epidemics are also linked to the contamination of water and air. We have managed to bring the earth to the brink of ruin in one generation through chemicals, our cars, our high energy requirements and our modern lifestyle.

Scientists say that even if we were to stop all pollution and exploitation immediately, the earth could no longer be saved.

God's word confirms such fears. Isaiah 51:6 says: „Look up to the sky: it will vanish like smoke. Look at the earth beneath your feet: it will crumble like an old garment, and its inhabitants will die like flies.“

Revelation says in chapter 11:18: „Now is the time of punishment for all those who destroy the earth. Now they themselves will be destroyed.“

We are experiencing tremendous upheavals in the earth's ecology. The use of chemicals, treated seeds and the application of hormones and antibiotics to animals are incessantly polluting our earth.

In order to keep large herds of cattle, the world's rainforests are being burnt down at a rate of over 10 hectares per minute. That is almost the size of Holland and Belgium combined. This causes a severe depletion of oxygen. Forests all over the world are being damaged by acid rain. This again comes from overloading the atmosphere with our toxic gases. Ozone holes and particulate pollution are just two other problems that are affecting our planet and us. Due to changes in the atmosphere associated with pollution, wind speeds are constantly increasing.

The greenhouse effect is causing climate shifts with all their consequences. The earth is getting worse and worse. Due to these circumstances and mismanagement such as monocultures, huge freshwater reservoirs such as the Aral Sea and Lake Chad are drying up. There is a shortage of drinking water and in many areas there is no longer any healthy water.

Enormous amounts of dirt, chemicals and faeces are being discharged into the water. The rivers and seas are contaminated. It is estimated that there are 142 million tonnes of waste in the world's oceans and up to 18,000 plastic waste particles are floating on one square kilometre of sea surface. Thousands of dolphins die every day in the polluted waters. Countless fish and other sea creatures fall ill and die, even though more and more organisations are fighting against the ongoing pollution.

The dumped poison gas containers from the last war are rusting away. The dumping of chemicals, tanker accidents and untreated waste water do the rest. This is happening worldwide today. Toxic substances are becoming more and more concentrated in the food chain. We know that the concentration of DDT, which is banned today, is 750,000 times higher. Meat consumption is therefore much more dangerous today than a plant-based diet.

The Bible says: "The earth becomes as old as a garment. People are ruining it. The scientific world is very pessimistic, and rightly so. The only ones who have a well-founded hope are those who trust in the one who said: I will come back and take you to myself. (Joh. 14,3)

The same person said: „I make everything new“ (Rev 21:5). The sign of „plagues and pestilence“ makes itself felt in a dramatic way. This is also a clear sign that Jesus spoke of in his end-time discourse.

What was it like before the destruction of Jerusalem?

Lively earthquake activity is reported: Earthquakes on Crete, Smyrna, Miletus, Chios, Samos, Rome, Colosse.

The cities of Laodicea and Hieropolis were destroyed by earthquakes. The sinking of Pompeii in 63 AD is particularly well known.

And today?

Here, too, one occasionally hears the objection: there have always been earthquakes. That's right! So if it is to be a special sign, then something special must be happening in this area. The earthquake statistics show a considerable increase. Is this just to do with our better measuring instruments? If these instruments had perhaps 2-3 movements in ten minutes years ago, today they have hundreds in the same time. Severe earthquakes have been recognised at all times. In 1100 years, from 800 - 1900 AD, there were 9 severe earthquakes. In the 20th century there were 15 major earthquakes. That is about forty times as many.

The huge artificial reservoirs are just as controversial as the underground nuclear bomb tests. Both could be the cause of earthquakes. Some scientists are convinced of this.

May I just mention the natural disasters in brief: Volcanic eruptions, extreme drought and, on the other hand, floods - there are areas where we have had almost two metres of rainfall per square metre per day - storms of all kinds, tsunamis, etc. This sign also speaks a clear language.

What about this sign before the fall of Jerusalem? The great powerful religious community of that time had managed to put Jesus on the cross, allegedly because he had blasphemed God. They claimed to be acting in the name of God. They accused Jesus of teaching the people to „transgress the rules of the ancestors“.

So they accused him of not observing the tradition. Jesus answered them: „You push aside God's commandment, but hold fast to the precepts of men.“ (Mark 7:8) They were then able to persuade the Romans, the state power, to kill Jesus. The apostles and the early Christian community were bloodily persecuted by the dominant religious communities and labelled as sectarians.

The other persecutor back then was the state. I think it suffices if I mention one name: Nero. The church endured a cruel and bloody persecution under this Roman emperor. Nero died shortly before the fall of Jerusalem. Why did the state persecute Christians even though they were the best citizens? Because there was and is a limit for Christians in relation to the state. It is: you have to obey God more than men. (Acts 5:29)

The third persecutors were the false brothers. Jesus said in Matth. 24,10: „When the time comes, many will fall away from the faith and betray and hate one another.“ Christians who were not faithful in their faith betrayed and hated their fellow believers.

So the persecution at that time was from three sides: from the big church, from the state and from false brothers.

What about persecution in our time? The 20th century has gone down in history as the century of the greatest persecution of Christians. However, the 21st century has even surpassed the number of those who are persecuted. Today, it is countries such as North Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, Pakistan, Sudan, Eritrea, Yemen, Iran and India. These countries currently (2019) occupy the top ten places out of 50 in the World Persecution Index. Christians are killed, tortured, everything is taken from them and they are chased away and ostracised. The extent of the persecution surpasses anything that has ever happened before - and that in the 21st century! Persecution is a sign of the end that Jesus spoke of. We must therefore realise that the world as a whole has not really got any better - even if we in the West have freedoms and opportunities that the rest of the world can only dream of. How do we deal with this freedom? Do we value and utilise it?

The increase in lawlessness on a large and small scale is a sign of recent times, which is reflected in the huge increase in crime.

There are economic sectors, even countries, that are dominated to a considerable degree by organised crime. Whether it is the mafia or similar organised groups - no country, no part of the world is spared. Organised crime is spreading like a cancer.

The President of the Federal Criminal Police Office said years ago about theft in Germany: "Theft has become a national sport here. This will not get any better due to the high level of unemployment worldwide. Rapid population growth is also contributing to the increase in lawlessness. The world's cities are growing twice as fast as rural areas; they are also the main crime areas.

We also want to think here about the ever-increasing corruption. A senior judicial official in Germany said: „We used to have black sheep. Today there are herds.“

So far, we have only spoken about negative developments. Jesus said of these: „All this is just the beginning of the end - like the beginning of labour pains.“ With regard to the return of Jesus, we are therefore - metaphorically speaking - between the beginning of labour pains and the birth. The birth has already begun.

Now comes the most important sign of the end. It is the only positive one. „Before that, the good news will be proclaimed throughout the world so that all people can hear the invitation to God's new world. Only then will the end come.“ (Matth. 24,14)

It says precisely: And this gospel or good news, i.e. the true, unaltered and unadulterated gospel that Jesus Christ preached, will be proclaimed. Revelation 14:6 calls it an eternal gospel, i.e. the true gospel will never lose its validity.

This text is a promise from Jesus that in the end times, as a sign of the return of Jesus, the gospel will be spread throughout the world. This is happening now and will intensify.

What about the sign „world mission“? What was the situation back then before the fall of Jerusalem? The early Christians actually managed in their generation to bring the gospel to the world of that time with its much smaller population. This is attested to in the Word of God by the apostle Paul in Colossians 1:6: „This good news is not only known among you, but throughout the world.“ Verse 23: „This good news has been proclaimed to the whole world.“ As far as I can see, this has never been achieved since the early Christian era. But it will be achieved by God's grace and help in the last days. The proclamation of the gospel to all inhabitants of the earth, to all peoples and nations, to people of all languages - that is our mission. It will be fulfilled because Jesus said so and because the One who has all power in heaven and on earth is watching over it.

What about the sign of world mission today? We can recognise some striking points here: It can be said that around 1960 the so-called layman was rediscovered in the churches. Before this time, most free churches had also become pastor-led churches. But then came the return to the biblical facts. Everywhere in the world today where the gospel is advancing decisively, church members are involved. That is a milestone.

Around 1989/90, a new way of looking at world mission became established. Until then, it was calculated like this: The world has around 230 countries. There are already Christians in a good 200 countries.

The 30 countries not reached are small countries. So, we've already come a long way.

Then a new way of looking at things took hold. The world was divided into areas of one million people each. As Seventh-day Adventists, we realised in 1990 that we still had no churches in 2,300 areas of one million people each. We then set ourselves the goal of planting churches in all these untrodden areas with God's help. We have made good progress in the meantime. We call this planning Global Mission. In fact, about 450 churches and mission organisations have plans to reach the whole world with the Gospel. 250 of these plans are said to be in the process of being realised. In our Free Church, half of these areas have now been tackled. We have tens of thousands of frontline missionaries in untrodden areas. Most of them are lay people who do this ministry at their own expense or with a very small allowance. There is a tremendous need for missionaries. Thousands more need to be sent out every year.

We may also use all modern technical possibilities for our missionary task: Mission planes, mission ships, radio, television, satellites, audio and video cassettes, CDs, Bible correspondence courses, literature distribution such as leaflets, magazines, books, adverts, computers, fax, e-mail, Internet, personal evangelism from person to person, house groups, seminars and large-scale evangelistic campaigns, medical missions, development and disaster relief. At the moment we see that modern technology is being used more and more for the Gospel, and also that thousands are once again going out on mission. In addition, many are also being awakened at home to serve the Lord with their gifts.

Around 1800, Bible societies began to be founded to spread the Word of God. The Bible societies have undergone enormous development. Today, the Word of God is available in whole or in part in well over 2,000 languages. More languages will follow.

In Greece, there was the famous „Gordian knot“. The legend was that whoever could untie this knot would become the ruler of the world. One day, Alexander the Great arrived there. He cut the complicated knot with his sword. The Gordian knot was child's play compared to the problems of our time. But the Bible shows us that there is one who will untie the knot of the world's problems and world domination will fall to him: Jesus Christ. He said after explaining the signs of his coming: „... when you see all these things coming, then you will know that the end is near.“ (Matth. 24,33)

Jesus used an image in his great discourse on the Second Coming. He spoke of „labour pains“. (Mt 24:8). How do labour pains develop before birth? They come at ever shorter intervals and increase in intensity. This is an apt image for the development of disasters: they come faster and faster and become stronger and stronger.

Are we on the brink of a major turning point, or will we soon be at the end? This question is wrong. The great turning point and the end of the world are both coming at the same time. Whether one or the other comes for us is up to us to decide. God's final invitation of grace is being powerfully proclaimed. Soon it will have reached everyone, and our Lord Jesus will appear in power and glory.