“All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.” (Matthew 24:8, ESV)

The disciples had come to Jesus away from the crowds to fi nd out when their beloved Temple would be leveled and what would be the sign of Jesus’ second coming and the end of the age (Matthew 24:1-3). One cannot imagine subjects more serious than these. The serious nature of our present journey and the things most certainly coming upon planet earth require us to be sober-minded, heavenly-mind-ed, holy-minded. Jesus answered his beloved disciples’ questions by stating “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of birth pains” (“sorrows” in the KJV). According to Jesus, one way to understand the prophesied events leading to the revelation of Jesus at His second coming is that they are birth pains. Jesus did not say that these events were like birth pains but that they were birth pains. The Apostle Paul wrote “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now” (Romans 8:22, ESV). What is the whole cre-ation giving birth to? The answer is the Kingdom of God openly manifested over the entire earth. This includes the reveal-ing of the sons of God, the release of creation from its present bondage to corruption, the freedom of the glory of the children of God, the redemption of our bodies, the act of Jesus when he takes His great power and begins to reign on earth over every nation resulting in the kingdoms of this world becoming the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ (Romans 8:18-23; Revelation 11:15-18). This present world-order is suffering the birth pains of its own replacement with a new world order with Jesus as the unrivaled King over it all. Our present and future suffering, if we live in the will of God, is part of the birth pains leading to the manifestation of the Messianic Age. The prophetic birth pains of which Jesus spoke may very well have begun in 1948 with the rebirth of Israel and their return to their God-given land. These birth pains will intensify in the fi nal seven years before Christ returns but there will be no miscarriage and Satan can’t abort the new life glory coming to the entire world through Jesus.