Many Christians associate the  end time sign with wars and rumors of wars. Famines and earthquakes are also mentioned as an indicator of the end time. These and other events are brought up because of what I believe to be a misunderstanding; a misreading of what Jesus said in response to a question from His disciples. In Matthew 24: 3, the question was “…What will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

Jesus said in verses 4-8, “See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many. You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.”

Jesus went on to say, in verses 9-12, that we can expect to see within the Christian community, persecution, apostasy, betrayal, and false prophets.

Jesus brought up those things because they would happen, and He knew we would naturally think of them as the sign of the end. He brought them up precisely so that we would not be alarmingly mistaken.

This seems to have been His intention because He clearly said in verse 6 (often overlooked) that those things would not yet be the end.

In getting around to specifically answering the disciples question, which had to do with the sign of His coming and the end of the age, Jesus answered, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come” (verse 14).