What are the signs of the end times?
Jesus gave them in the Olivet Discourse (Matt 24): wars, famines, earthquakes, deception, and the gospel preached to all nations, with the regathering of Israel as the key sign, the fig tree putting forth leaves (24:32-34).
What the text states
Jesus listed "the beginning of sorrows" (Matt 24:8) and then the fig-tree parable: "when his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh... this generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled" (24:32-34). The fig tree is a standing symbol of national Israel (Hos 9:10, Jer 24). Israel's return to the land in 1948, after nineteen centuries, is the sign that starts the clock. The signs intensify through the tribulation, but for the church the next event is not a sign but the rapture, which requires nothing to precede it.
Preterists apply these signs to the first century and AD 70. We hold the discourse has a near horizon (AD 70, which Josephus records) and a far horizon (the tribulation and the coming in glory, 24:29-31), which the church has not yet seen.
Go deeper
Checked 2026-09-29 by Darren. 63 Scripture citations verified against the KJV rows. 63 quoted fragments table-passed against the verses table. One correction: who-is-the-antichrist read “the man of sin”; KJV 2 Thess 2:3 reads “that man of sin”. 13 exhibit links checked, all resolve; the brief's the-grammar-of-romans corrected to grammar-of-romans.