Christ’s Warning Signs
John Simpson: “I’ve reported on 40 wars, but I’ve never seen a year like 2025.” BBC December 29, 2025
Today’s language: “Total war is back. Indeed, there are signs everywhere that countries are preparing for all-out conflicts. The circumscribed struggles of the post-9/11 era are gone, and today’s wars are increasingly whole-of-society phenomena.” Foreign Affairs. December 21, 2025.
Christ’s language: “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars” (Matthew 24:6).
As much as we have known that the warning signs given by Christ have been materializing, it still comes as a bit of a shock to see it in print from a secular source. The days Christ portrayed as signs of His coming and the end of the age are with us. However, we must keep in mind the rest of His statement. “See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.”
Certainly, there is much within our world that could be troubling to us. We watch events unfold daily over which we have no control. However, we are to have a godly reaction and response to them. We are not to be confused nor to “wail or create a commotion”, but rather understand that the supreme will of God is taking care of the details. Christ told us what to expect, so we are not to have a negative emotional reaction.
What we see around us is a means to an end. God is a just God, and what we see happening is God’s justice in action.
“For the Lord will rise up as at Mount Perazim, He will be angry as in the Valley of Gibeon – that He may do His work, His awesome work, and bring to pass His act, His unusual act. Now therefore, do not be mockers, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard from the Lord God of hosts, a determination even upon the whole earth” (Isaiah 28:21-22).
All that Christ said must come to pass. We must not be troubled by wars and rumors of wars because other things are to follow them – such as famines, pestilences and earthquakes. An important principle in this regard is given in the book of Jeremiah.
“If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with the horses? And if we be frightened at a little brook in our way, what shall we do in the swelling of Jordan” (Jeremiah 12:5).
Being troubled is against the working of the Holy Spirit because these things have been determined by God as a means to bring His people back into a relationship with Him. He will do His work and we must not hinder the work He is doing in us by diminishing the power of His Spirit by timidity.
“For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we may boldly say: The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:5,6).
Today we are still in the midst of the warning signs – warnings of things happening now and things that will yet happen.
What our response to these signs should be is clear:
“Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13).
Brian Orchard
