Signs

 SIGNS

BY Richard P. Joseph

10/23/2024

“Sign,Sign,everywhere there’s signs, blocking out the scenery breakin’ my mind.  Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?”  Les Emmerson

Us old folk remember the song “Sign” by a group that I never even knew existed called “The Five Man Electrical Band”.  It was a common hippie song that railed against the establishment but all in all a cool song.  Perhaps the song could be updated to include the plethora of “End Times” signage that we see on the highway and on the internet.  But that isn’t new really, I have been seeing this stuff my entire life.  Every time there is a change in regimes or a new war, or a new dictator, bam, sign, sign, everywhere there’s signs.  

In fact, even where there are no billboards or internet, people wanted a sign.  2,000 years ago when Jesus walked the earth, the Jewish leadership walked up to Jesus and challenged him to provide a sign from heaven for them.  After seeing multiple miracles, you would think “where have you been” but they still asked:

Matthew 16   1 Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; 3 and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ [a]Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. 4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of [b]the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed.

Actually, I never caught this before but I think Jesus was actually taunting them when, after being asked to show a sign from “heaven”, he then pointed at the sky and started telling them about how to read the weather patterns.  Then he got serious and informed them that the sign is coming and you won’t like it.  (See my other article “The Sign of Jonah”).  So, which signs are we really looking for today anyhow?

Actually, none.  You see, Jesus told those particular priests that “they” will see a sign in their lifetime.  Jesus never told anyone to wait thousands of years before they would see any signs, they were all imminent.   The sign would be very similar to what Jonah went through as he was in the belly of the sea creature for three days and three nights then came out a more bold and obedient servant of God.  While Jesus was always obedient, he entered the grave as a lowly criminal, according to the law, but was raised a conquering king.  This sign happened in the year AD 30.  The other signs that Jesus warned about were also to happen within that generation.  Jesus predicted the “End of the Age” was to come during the lifetime of the apostles.  In Matthew 24 Jesus told what signs to look for and then he said; “Matthew 24: 34 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.”

So what is my point?

The point is, all of the signs that we were to look for have already been completed 2,000 years ago.  We, today, are the beneficiaries of those signs but we do not need to observe any more signs necessarily because all prophecy has already been fulfilled by AD70 when all of those signs came into fruition.  There are no new prophecies today and no signs to observe, just be fruitful in the kingdom of Jesus Christ.  People are actually sitting in their pew waiting for something that we already have, the Holy Spirit.  Instead of running and working in God’s kingdom, people are taught to sit around and wait for the big Jesus to fly out of the sky and start killing people like Stalin, Hitler and Mao did.  This is a very useless and dangerous doctrine that needs to be exposed.  Quit floundering in the darkness and start basking in the light.  Stop waiting and start moving.  Start drinking and stop thirsting.  Jesus really did what he said he would do, so just believe it and live.