Disciples ask Jesus for signs of the Second Coming. – Matthew 24:3 – Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?

Signs in the sun, moon, and stars – 1. – Joel 2:30 & 31 – ³⁰”And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. ³¹The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.

The Dark Day
May 19, 1780, stands in history as “The Dark Day.” Since the time of Moses, no period of darkness of equal density extent, and duration, has ever been recorded. The description of this event, as given by eyewitnesses, is but an echo of the words of the Lord, recorded by the prophet Joel, twenty-five hundred years previous to their fulfillment: “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come” (Joel 2:31). GC 308

Signs in the sun, moon, and starts – 2. – Matthew 24:29 – “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”

Days before the Second Coming like the days before the Flood. – Matthew 24:37-39 – 37But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

As It Was in the Days of Noah…
The sins that called for vengeance upon the antediluvian world exist today. The fear of God is banished from the hearts of men, and His law is treated with indifference and contempt… That which is lawful in itself is carried to excess. Appetite is indulged without restraint, professed followers of Christ are today eating and drinking with the drunken, while their names stand in honored church records… The issues of the press teem with records of murder – crimes so cold-blooded and causeless that it seems as though every instinct of humanity were blotted out. And these atrocities have become of so common occurrence that they hardly elicit a comment or awaken surprise… The picture which Inspiration has given of the antediluvian world represents too truly the condition to which modern society is fast hastening… Of the vast population of the earth before the Flood, only eight souls believed and obeyed God’s word through Noah. For a hundred and twenty years the preacher of righteousness warned the world of the coming destruction, but his message was rejected and despised. So it will be now… While God’s servants are giving the message that the end of all things is at hand, the world is absorbed in amusements and pleasure seeking. There is a constant round of excitement that causes indifference to God and prevents the people from being impressed by the truths which alone can save them from the coming destruction. In Noah’s day philosophers declared that it was impossible for the world to be destroyed by water; so now there are men of science who endeavor to show that the world cannot be destroyed by fire – that this would be inconsistent with the laws of nature… When the reasoning of philosophy has banished the fear of God’s judgements; when religious teachers are pointing forward to long ages of peace and prosperity, and the world are absorbed in their rounds of business and pleasure, planting and building, feasting and merrymaking, rejecting God’s warning and mocking His messengers – then it is that sudden destruction cometh upon them, and they shall not escape. PP 101-104

Intense evil. – 2 Timothy 3:1-5 – ¹But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come. ²For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, ³unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, ⁴traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵having a form of godliness but denying it power. And from such people turn away!

Don’t Forget The Past
How often, in our own day, is the love of pleasure disguised by a “form of godliness”! A religion that permits men, while observing the rites of worship, to devote themselves to selfish or sensual gratification, is as pleasing to the multitudes now as in the days of Israel. And there are still pliant Aarons, who, while holding positions of authority in the church, will yield to the desires of the unconsecrated, and thus encourage them in sin. PP 317

Scoffing at the Second Coming is itself a sign. – 2 Peter 3:3 & 4 – ³Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, ⁴and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”

Parable of the wheat and tears. – Matthew 13:24-30 – ²⁴Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; ²⁵but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. ²⁶but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. 26But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. ²⁷So the servants of the owner came and said to him, “Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ ²⁸He said to them, ‘And enemy has done this.’ This servant said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ ²⁹But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. ³⁰Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reaper, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat for my barn.” ’ ”

Harvest is the end of the world, at the Second Coming. – Matthew 13:39 – The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.

Parable of the harvest at the Second Coming – Mark 4:26-29 – ²⁶And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, ²⁷and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. ²⁸For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. ²⁹But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

God waits for the good fruit to ripen. – James 5:7 & 8 – ⁷Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. ⁸You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.