These 17 Signs Must Happen Before Jesus Returns

This is a timeline of the end of the world, and you are here, about 2,000 years after Jesus died on the cross and rose again. But how many years do we have before he returns? While we can't know the exact day, Jesus did tell us about signs that must happen before the end. And I've found 17 signs in the Bible that we can place on our timeline, including one that I've never shared with anyone before, but could literally be happening now as you watch this video. But first, let's start with sign number one. When Jesus was asked by his disciples what will be the signs of the end of the world, he said that many people would claim to be the Christ, and that there would be wars and rumors of wars. Most people think that these are signs of the end times, but Jesus actually said that these things must happen, but to not be alarmed because the end times haven't started yet. But then he starts describing what the first sign of the end times will be. And the shocking thing is, that it's already happened. Look at what he says. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. This phrase is a Hebrew idiom that means the entire world will be at war. Nothing like this war had ever been seen. In defied prophecy, it had escaped from the control of man. Only 100 years ago, people experienced the first ever world war. And almost 2,000 years before that, Jesus said when you see the entire world at war with one another, it is the beginning of sorrows. The word sorrows here literally means birth pains or birth contractions. A woman grows a baby for nine long months inside of her, but when the contractions start, it's only a matter of hours before the baby is born. Jesus was saying when you see a worldwide war, this is the beginning of the end. Sign number two. Jesus said that the next thing you will see is Christians being arrested, persecuted, and killed. He said you will be hated all over the world because you are my followers. Did you know that more Christians are persecuted today than any time in human history? And that's not just my opinion. More than 365 million Christians face high levels of persecution and discrimination. That's one in seven Christians globally. In places like Iran and North Korea, house churches are seen as a threat to the government This shouldn't surprise us because Jesus said that is exactly what would happen shortly before he returns. Sign number three. Directly following a rise in Christian persecution are false prophets who will deceive and lead many away from Jesus. I want to share with you a prophetic word that the Lord gave me. I received this message between the hours of 1.30am to 2am. I had a couple of visions, one on each day, and then the Lord spoke to me very specifically about some things that are going to be happening in the next month or so. With the rise in social media, it's never been easier for these guys to grow massive followings of people who hang on their every word rather than God's word. Okay, before we move on, you need to know something. The next four signs we are going to look at are not agreed upon by all Christians. There are actually three different views on the second coming of Christ. Every Bible-believing Christian falls into one of these three camps, and the biggest difference between these groups is what they believe about sign number four. Throughout the Bible, there is a prophecy given that the entire world will experience a thousand years of supernatural peace, prosperity, and righteousness. It's going to be so peaceful that even animals who would normally eat each other will cuddle instead. The book of Revelation refers to these 1,000 years as the millennium. But like I said, not every Christian agrees on when this millennium will happen. The first camp believes that this millennium is not a literal 1,000 years, but is actually an allegory that refers to the spiritual prosperity us as Christians can experience in Christ right now. They believe it started after Jesus died for our sins and will continue up until Christ returns. This camp is called amillennialism. The second camp also believes Christ will return after the millennium, but that the millennium is not just a spiritual allegory. They believe the millennium is a literal time of peace and prosperity on the earth that will begin as soon as the church is able to spread the gospel across the world. After the world has been Christianized, the millennium will follow, and then Christ will return. This camp is called postmillennialism. The third and final camp also believes that the millennium is a literal physical time of peace and prosperity on earth, but they don't believe that this will happen until after Christ returns. Once he comes back to earth, he will rule earth for 1,000 years before one final judgment of all things. After this, he will destroy the earth and make a new heaven and new earth for all eternity. I'm going to tell you which camp I fall into in a moment, but first, let's take a look at sign number 5. This sign is different than all the other signs because it happens gradually. The postmillennial camp believes that the evil in the world will decrease the closer we get to the second coming of Christ. They believe that social conditions are improving. Women seem to have more rights than they did 500 years ago, and Christian charities are in almost every country today. They believe we can determine how close we are to the second coming of Christ based on how Christianized the world becomes. Don't believe that, the premillennial and amillennial camp would say. These two camps believe that the world will actually become more evil the closer we get to the coming of Christ. They believe that any improvements to the world over the last 2,000 years have been overshadowed by even greater evil. They point to verses like this which say evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse. They also point to the first three signs we've already discussed, which indicate that the world is getting worse, not better. Sign number 6 is one that is almost never discussed, and it has to do with Satan. Okay, this is super interesting. The Bible says in Revelation that Satan is going to be thrown into the abyss and locked up before the millennium. Amillennials believe this happened at the cross, and that the passage is not saying that Satan is literally locked up, but rather his powers have just been restrained. Postmillennials believe that Satan will be bound by the church as they usher in the millennium. And premillennials believe that Satan is locked up after Christ returns to establish his 1,000 year kingdom on earth. Sign number 7. The Bible mentions a man of sin who will claim to be God and convince the world to worship him before Christ returns and destroys him. This man of sin has often been referred to as the antichrist. Most amillennials and postmillennials believe the antichrist is a figurative spirit who will deceive the nations. While most premillennials believe the antichrist is a literal person who will bring a false peace to the earth and usher in 7 years of trouble and suffering in the world right before Christ returns. So which timeline do I believe is the most accurate? Well I believe we should interpret the Bible literally, not figuratively. Which is why I hold to the premillennial view of the end times. And yes, I believe there will be a literal antichrist revealed to the world very soon. And that this antichrist will usher in 7 literal years of tribulation. Now you might be wondering how this all connects with the book of Revelation. Which is why I'm going to explain how once we've placed the next 10 signs on our timeline. But you need to know that 8 of the signs are going to happen in this specific part of the timeline. And they are deeply connected to the antichrist. So let's look at our 8th sign that must happen before Jesus returns to get a better idea of what this antichrist does on the earth. And don't forget, you're right here. Hey I want to let you know that I'm going to be in Dallas, Texas and Los Angeles, California over the next few weeks and I'd love to meet you and buy you a coffee. So click the link in the description below so you can find out the exact coffee shops that I'm going to be at so you can get a coffee on me. The first time the Bible talks about the antichrist ruler is in a vision God gave the prophet Daniel. In this vision, Daniel could see a fierce beast who was said to devour the whole earth. This beast had 10 horns and out of these horns grew another horn, a little horn. As it grew, 3 of the original 10 horns were torn out to make room for it. It had eyes like a human and a mouth that was speaking loud, arrogant words. Daniel was later told that this beast represented a kingdom that would take over the entire world and the 10 horns represented 10 kings who would rule this kingdom. But the little horn represented a man, the antichrist, who would arise and eventually take over 3 of the kings and later control the entire kingdom. This is the first big move that the antichrist will make. Today we see globalism becoming more and more prevalent, setting the stage perfectly for the antichrist's arrival. The economy is being globalized, politics is being liberalized and the combination of the two will create paradise on earth. But this is nowhere near as shocking as the next move the antichrist makes. We learn from Daniel that after the antichrist has secured his place as world ruler, he's going to make a peace treaty with Israel for one week. This word week is just referring to 7 years, not 7 days. This is because the Hebrew word for week here just means a period of 7 and the book of Revelation clearly tells us that this period of 7 is referring to 7 years. This is pretty astonishing considering how many politicians have been trying to bring peace to the Middle East for years. These 7 years are what the book of Revelation refers to as the tribulation. We even learn that Israel's temple will be rebuilt and temple sacrifices reinstituted. With the horrific war taking place in the Middle East today, it's no wonder that people are going to love the antichrist for the perceived peace he brings to the world. Up until this point, the antichrist is just going to seem like the greatest politician who ever walked the face of the earth. But it's this next event that is going to cause people to literally worship him as God. The apostle John tells us in his book Revelation that God gave him a vision of a great beast coming out of the sea. This beast had 7 heads and 10 horns and is another version of the beast in Daniel's prophecy, both describing the antichrist. This beast was given a deadly wound but was miraculously healed, which caused the entire world to be in awe of the beast's power and follow him. The Bible says that after this miracle happens, people will say, who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him? But this beast is not satisfied with just being ruler of the world or having the nations admire his great power. He wants more. What the antichrist does next is prophesied in four separate books of the Bible, so you know it's important. Jesus said, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. So what exactly is this abomination of desolation? And what did the prophet Daniel say about it? Well let's take a look at his book. Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week. We already discovered that this one week is referring to seven years. But in the middle of the week, he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. So in the middle of the seven years, the antichrist is going to apparently break the treaty with Israel and stop allowing the Jews to make sacrifices in the temple in Jerusalem. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate. The antichrist is going to do something that is going to be an abomination to God in his temple. And for those of you saying, temple? There's no temple in Jerusalem. That's been destroyed for years. Well the nation of Israel was destroyed for years too, but look who's constantly in the news today. So exactly what abomination does the antichrist commit in God's temple? The book of 2 Thessalonians gives us the most clear picture. It says that the antichrist opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he sits as God in the temple of God showing himself that he is God. This is the moment that all hell breaks loose on earth. Halfway through this seven year peace treaty with Israel, the antichrist is going to break the treaty, sit in the holiest place in the temple in Jerusalem, and declare himself to be God. Revelation tells us that at this point the antichrist is given authority for the second half of seven years to persecute anyone who will not follow and worship him. This is why the next four events are even more shocking than the first four we just looked at. One of the first things he does as self-appointed God king is bring someone onto his team to help him lead the world. Revelation calls this new team member the beast of the earth. This new beast has the power to do great miracles and can even call fire down from the sky. This guy's job is to enforce a one world religion focused on worshipping the antichrist. He is also referred to as the false prophet for this reason. But here's where it gets really interesting and kind of strange. The false prophet has what the Bible calls an image or idol created. This image is created to be worshipped as a proxy for the antichrist. But then the Bible says this, he was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast. That the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. Okay when I read this I was stunned. The Bible says that this image of the beast is going to come alive so that it can speak and somehow enforce its own worship on punishment of death. People who read this a hundred years ago must have thought this was absolutely insane. But today it honestly doesn't sound that crazy. Why? Answer me this. What is a non-human entity that is lifelike, has the power to speak, and could have the potential to monitor the actions of everyone on earth? You could make a swarm of assassin drones for very little money by just taking the face ID chip that's used in cell phones, having a small explosive charge and a standard drone and have them just do a grid sweep of the building until they find the person they're looking for, ram into them and explode. Now I'm not saying for sure that the image of the beast is an AI robot, but you've got to admit that the Bible's end times prophecies don't seem so far-fetched these days. After the Antichrist rises to power, takes control of a one world government, and declares himself to be God, starting a one world religion, next he's going to try to control the entire world economy, and he does it with a mark. This mark will be placed on people's right hand or forehead. I've always wondered why the mark of the beast was placed on these specific body parts, until I read this. In the book of Deuteronomy, God gave a special command to his chosen people. It's a command that to this day is considered one of the most important commands in the entire Bible, so much so that Jesus called it the greatest commandment of all. The Bible says to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. But then the Bible says to take this command and bind these words as a sign on your hand and in between your eyes, aka your forehead. This is why many Jewish people tie these leather boxes around their forehead and arm. Inside these leather boxes are handwritten parchments with the text from this biblical command to love God. It's supposed to be a sign of devotion and worship to God and God alone. This is why the mark of the beast is also placed on these same body parts. It's the devil's way of claiming the worship and allegiance of humans who were created to worship God. The book of Revelation says that no one may buy or sell except the one who has the mark. Why wouldn't someone be able to buy or sell without it? What does this tell us about the mark? The Bible is saying that there's going to come a day when you won't be able to just go into a Walmart and buy a bag of Flamin' Hot Cheetos without having the mark of the beast on either your right hand or on your forehead. This mark is going to be required not only to show your allegiance and worship to the beast, but you'll also need it in order to buy stuff or start a business. Some people think that this mark is just something imprinted on you like a tattoo, but I think it's much more than that, and I'm going to tell you why. The Bible says that this mark is either going to be the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom, let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man, and his number is 666. So this 666 is not just some random number, it is a number that is calculated by a name? What always confused me about this is that a name isn't numbers, a name is letters, duh. At least, that's what I thought until I learned about something called gematria. This is the ancient practice of assigning a number to each letter of the alphabet. Like for example, the ancient Jews assigned a number to each letter of the Hebrew alphabet, so you could add up each of the numbers that correlated to each of the letters in someone's name to get their number. This is why many believed that the Roman Emperor Nero was the beast, because when you take the name Nero and add an N at the end of it, and the title Caesar after that, then transliterate it into Hebrew, voila, you get the number 666. The problem with this is that you can do this with a bunch of names if you just manipulate the names like we just did with Nero. I'm not buying it. I personally think that the key to understanding this description is here. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast. Here's what I think. Remember that beast statue that can talk and force people to worship it? This talking beast statue is also able to kill those who choose to not worship it. How does it do that? It's possible that this is just some supernatural ability given to this talking image, but I have another theory. I know this sounds kind of crazy, but if we put this entire passage together, it appears that it's at least possible that this image of the beast is actually a lifelike robot that has the power to monitor the entire world, including the buying and selling of stuff. This is why some Bible prophecy scholars have proposed that the world will be a total cashless society by then, and that this mark of the beast is actually a piece of tech, like a microchip people will be required to place on their right hand. Don't have a right hand? No problem. We can also put it in your forehead. And it's totally free. All you have to do is swear your allegiance to the Antichrist and acknowledge him as God. If this image of the beast is actually an AI, and this mark of the beast is actually a piece of technology, then it would without a doubt be possible for this AI to require the world to have this microchip in order to make cashless transactions. And if that's possible, then whoever controls this AI would be able to control the entire world just like the Bible says the Antichrist will do one day. Now here's where the number 666 comes in. I personally think that there will be a serial number associated with each chip that's going to somehow include a series of numbers that only those living during this time will be able to calculate to the number 666. And that this 666 will be associated with a new globalized version of Gematria that can also be identified with the future name of the Antichrist. Now there's still three more signs that we need to cover, including one toward the end of the 7 year tribulation, and one that could happen at any moment that I've never shared publicly before. But first, let's look at the 15th sign, our most controversial sign yet, because most people don't know where to place it, or they don't even believe in it at all. The rapture of the church. We're going to look at the main views on the timing of the rapture, but first, whether you believe in the rapture or not, it's pretty crazy to think about what the world would be like if millions of Christians one day just suddenly vanished. Christian pilots of planes and drivers of cars and trains would disappear resulting in massive crashes and car pile ups. If your heart surgeon is a Christian, good luck. People would begin raiding stores and homes, but with the many Christian police officers gone, crime would be nearly impossible to control. With less farmers, food supply would run low. Family, friends, and even your favorite cook Eunice from Chick-fil-A is gone too. Now in order for us to understand where this event should be placed, I think it's helpful to look at a simplified version of the 7 year tribulation portion of the timeline. And let's move the Antichrist to the middle of the tribulation because if you remember, it's 3.5 years into the 7 years that the Antichrist declares himself to be God causing the next 3.5 years to be worse than the first 3.5 years. There are three main views on when the rapture will happen. We're going to look at each one and then I'm going to share which view I believe is correct. Camp number 1 believes that the rapture will not happen before the tribulation takes place. They believe that Christians will go through the 7 years of judgment on earth. Just take a look at what Jesus said, in this world, you Christians will have tribulation. And this isn't the only one. There are so many passages that say that Christians are going to face persecution. And when we look at world history, this is exactly what we see the Christian church going through. This is one of the reasons camp number 1 believes that the church will go through the tribulation and then be raptured at the end. This view is called post-tribulationism. But is the tribulation that Jesus promised us as Christians the same as the future 7 year tribulation that we just discussed? Camp number 2 sure don't think so. They don't believe that the Christian church will go through any of the 7 year tribulation. They say that because the 7 year tribulation is God's wrath on a wicked earth, according to the book of Revelation, Christians will not have to go through it. Why? Because Jesus died on the cross to save believers from God's wrath. Camp number 2 believes the tribulation that Christians endure today from persecutors is different from the 7 years of tribulation God will judge the earth with one day. It's for this reason they believe the rapture will happen before the tribulation. This view is called pre-tribulationism. But although camp number 3 agrees mostly with this view, they don't agree with all of it. They too believe that Christians will be spared from God's wrath during the tribulation. But they believe that God's true wrath and judgment doesn't begin until the middle of the 7 years when the antichrist declares himself to be God. And it's at this time that they believe the church is raptured, before the great tribulation. This view is often called mid-tribulationism. Now out of these 3 views, only one can be right, and I'd love for you to share which The view that I hold is based on a very important piece of evidence that I'm going to share with you in just a moment. But first, regardless of which camp you fall into, it's so important that each of us Christians are ready to meet Jesus at any moment. No, we can't know the exact date the rapture is going to happen, but we also can't know the exact day we're going to make that one wrong lane change that lands us in eternity. And when that day comes, and it will come, by rapture or by rupture, there won't be any redos. So if you haven't come to Jesus, turn to him today. If you're a Christian who keeps going back to your lust, or can never wake up to read your Bible, I have one question for you. How would you live your life if you knew that you were going to meet Jesus today? Now live like that every day, because the truth is, you could. Okay, now I'm going to share the one piece of evidence that I haven't covered yet that has convinced me that only one of these three views on the rapture is correct. Let's go back to 1 Thessalonians, and see if you notice anything odd about how the writer describes the rapture. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds. Wait a second, hold up. Did the writer just say, we who are alive will be raptured? Wasn't this book written almost 2,000 years ago? Isn't it interesting that the writer of this book, Paul the Apostle, who lived so long ago, believed that the rapture could happen in his lifetime? And isn't it interesting that the earliest Christians who were being persecuted, including Paul himself, used words like Maranatha to comfort one another? A word that means, come quickly Lord. This type of language throughout the New Testament and the early church point to one important fact. The rapture could happen at any moment. If this is true, then post-tribulationism and mid-tribulationism can't be correct, since both require part or all of the tribulation to happen before the rapture. This is why I fall into the pre-tribulation camp. Okay, now we can return back to our main timeline and confidently place the rapture here. Now before we get to the final sign of the end times, I want to show you a prophetic sign that I've never shared on this channel before. In the Bible, the prophet Isaiah makes all kinds of prophecies against certain nations and cities that God is going to judge and destroy. Like this one here about God destroying the empire of Assyria. And guess what? Today, it's non-existent. But there's one particular place that God prophesied against that has yet to be destroyed. Look at what God says through the prophet Isaiah. Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city and it will be a ruinous heap. This is the same Damascus that is still around today. The location has never changed. But although this city is full of war, it has yet to become a deserted heap of ruins. Now the Bible doesn't give a time frame for when Damascus will be destroyed or even how it will be destroyed. So it could happen at any moment, even right now as you're watching this video. But it's also possible that it could happen at the same time as our final sign of the end times. The Bible says that the Antichrist is actually going to gather the nations of the world to make war against Jesus Christ in a place called Armageddon. This is a reference to a location within Israel called Megiddo. Christ is going to arrive with his own army which includes you, me, and all other Christians past. He will have eyes like fire and a sword coming out of his mouth to destroy the Antichrist's armies. The Bible says that the Antichrist and the false prophet will then be cast alive into the lake of fire forever, ending once and for all his cruel reign on the earth. So now that we've completed our timeline with all 17 signs, we still have one more question we have to answer. Where does the book of Revelation fit into all of this? Let me give you a quick breakdown of all 22 chapters of the book. Chapters 1-3 have to do with the churches that were around shortly after Jesus rose from the dead. Chapters 4-18 have to do with a bunch of crazy stuff that happens within the 7 year tribulation. Chapter 19 has to do with the second coming of Christ. Chapter 20 has to do with the millennial reign of Christ. And chapters 21-22 have to do with eternity. Now that you know how the book of Revelation fits into our complete end times timeline, you now have the context to dive into all of the events of the book of Revelation, which is why you should watch this video I made on the complete timeline of the book of Revelation.