“Were you there, when they laid Him in the tomb?”
The somber chorus of the song, “Were You There?” poses a series of reflective questions about the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. The questions are meant to be rhetorical, for no one alive for the past 1900 years was there during Jesus’ life on Earth.
Having said that, the song makes us consider the disciples’ experience as they witnessed what seemed like a catastrophe. From the moment Jesus was arrested, they thought that their world was falling apart. Matthew and Mark simply say that the disciples left Him and fled. All four Gospel accounts tell of Peter’s vehement threefold denial.
It would be easy to belittle the disciples for their feckless faith, but we have the advantage of hindsight. They genuinely did not understand that Jesus’ near-term prophecies would converge at Calvary, where He would suffer and die in obedience to the Father’s plan of salvation. Only after His resurrection did they see clearly. Simply put, it is sometimes hard to have perspective in the midst of a storm.
The Blessing of Hindsight
Unlike the apostles, we have the full canon of Scripture and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit – a blessing they did not receive until Pentecost. But, like them, events and circumstances can sometimes overwhelm us in the moment. That is why we need to stay grounded in the Word of God so that we are not buffeted and battered by all that is happening around us. And that truth is even more urgent as the Signs of the Times increase in frequency and intensity.
Signs Multiplying Before Our Eyes
At Jesus’ First Advent, only six people in all Judea are recorded as alerted to His approaching arrival: Mary and Joseph, Zacharias and Elizabeth, and Simeon and Anna. (In addition, Magi came from the East because they were students of God’s prophetic Word handed down by Daniel.) Those six anticipated Jesus’ birth because either the Holy Spirit or an angel sent by God revealed His coming to them. The only external sign heralding His arrival was a star—an astrological sign that the Magi discerned in the East.
All the Old Testament signs regarding the Messiah’s First Advent were fulfilled upon His arrival, during His ministry, or by His death, burial, and resurrection. As we’ve documented many times at Lamb & Lion Ministries, that includes over 300 different prophecies, or 109 separate and distinct signs. But the Old Testament contains 500 prophecies concerning His Second Coming. And the New Testament is filled with promises to the Church regarding its Rapture and signs regarding Jesus’ coming again to reign on the Earth.
That multitude of signs – coupled with the Holy Spirit, who Jesus sent to “guide you into all the truth… [and to] disclose to you what is to come” (John 16:13) – means that we have the ability to discern when we are living in the season of His return. “You, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief” (1 Thessalonians 5:4).
So, with that assurance of discernment and a firm reliance on the Holy Spirit to guide us into truth, let’s consider the signs and how they are converging as never before.
Some feel so overwhelmed by the pace at which change is occurring (and society is degenerating) that they cannot make sense of the chaos. But students of Scripture understand that all these things (and the acceleration in prophetic signs) were foretold long ago. The rapidity and the acceleration merely confirm that the End is near.
What is also recognizable by those who study Bible prophecy and have been tracking these signs for many years is the unprecedented overlap or convergence of the various signs. Like marbles sent spiraling down a large funnel, they are growing closer together and impacting one another as they approach the final terminus. Natural disasters stoke increased fear, and advancing technology leads to hubris. Thinking we have the knowledge and means to finally control nature, mankind is actually losing control because it lacks wisdom. Societal breakdowns are leading to a realignment of nations into the configuration foretold in the end – with Russia and Turkey threatening Israel from the North, along with Iran (Persia) to the East. On another front, technology is expected to soon offer government (or one powerful individual) the ability to control people’s buying and selling on a global scale.
All of these signs began to go into overdrive, with the intensity and frequency increasing exponentially, about the time God started regathering the Jewish people and reestablishing Israel as a modern nation. That is why Israel – the “greatest sign of all” – is the key to God’s prophetic time clock. Even the sudden resurgence of hatred against Israel that has been evident since October 7th, 2023, offers yet more evidence that all the alarms are sounding at once.
There is simply no denying the reality that events are swirling faster than ever before. It’s as if Moore’s Law (Intel co-founder Gordon Moore’s proven prediction that computing power and efficiency would double every 18-24 months) now applies in every category of prophetic signs.
Signs of nature, society, technology, world politics, and Israel (as well as spiritual signs) are increasing in frequency and intensity – and converging – as never before. The inevitable conclusion is that the “birth pangs” Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24:8 are taking place. That reference highlights the fact that no one – not the mother or father or doctor – can predict exactly when a baby will be born. But when the birth pangs begin, everyone knows that the baby is coming soon.
Likewise, even as the birth pangs have begun and herald that the end is coming soon, we still cannot know the exact day or hour. But we know that at any moment “the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God” (1 Thessalonians 4:16).
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