What are the seven signs?

Answer 1

If the question is in reference to the "seven SEALS" on the book or "scroll" in Revelation chapter 5... they are the "signs" or "global events" the servants of Christ are to watch, or watch for, that they might know when to expect Jesus' return to earth with the Kingdom.

Christ strips away the seals from the book, one by one in Revelation 6... and their chronological meanings are revealed to "His servants" through the private discourse He had with His disciples on the Mount of Olives regarding the end time, found in Matthew 24.

Basically... the "seven signs" we are to look for to know when Jesus' return is near are:

The first four signs or seals, are the famous "four horsemen of the Apocalypse."

These signs are merely the everyday occurences that have been a part of life on planet earth for as long as man has existed -- false religion, war, famine, pestilence, disease.

The thing to watch for regarding them, however... is that as man's technology, and his inability to control it, affords him the ability to kill more people with greater efficiency and less effort... the utter annihilation of all life on earth becomes a fearsome reality.

War is almost as common as breathing here on earth. And the first sign or seal, false religion, has been the reason for most [if not all] the wars that have errupted during earth's history, directly or indirectly.

In other words... the first four signs or seals -- the everyday horrors and terrors of man's religious wars, from which naturally follows famine, pestilence and disease -- are becoming more and more deadly.

Today, religious fanatics wage a global war against life and society as we know it. They are seeking to collapse the global economy... and they seek the most deadly weapons available in the world to exact the greatest physical damage they can against anyone or any nation who doesn't believe their way.

The four horsemen of the Apocalypse: the normal, just-a-part-of-daily-life signs of Revelation are growing in perilous leaps and bounds, and are entering into a critical phase. It's the phase Jesus Christ calls "Great Tribulation" [which is seal or sign number 5].

The fifth sign is the prophesied Great Tribulation that the first four signs are building up to. It will begin with a "global intolerance of the name of Jesus Christ"... and a global witch-hunt for anything smacking of "Christianity."

Jesus describes it for us in Matthew 24, verses 9-29.

"Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for My name's sake." (verse 9)

The fifth sign shall continue to build to a time when all life on earth would end... except for "sign number 6"... the cutting short of the Great Tribulation by God -- the "heavenly signs."

"Immediately after the Tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken..." (Matt.24:29).

So, the seven signs are: the four horsemen of Revelation building in deadly intensity into "sign 5"... the Great Tribulation. And the Tribulation will have to be cut short by the "heavenly signs" of seal 6, or no life would survive on earth.

"For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be [again]. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." (Matt.24:21-22)

It's the arrival of the "sixth seal" or "sign" [the global darkening of the sun and moon, and "stars falling to earth from space"] that marks the time when Christ's servants can begin to look up in expectation of His imminent return:

"...and THEN shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven: and THEN shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and THEY SHALL SEE THE SON OF MAN COMING IN THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN WITH POWER AND GREAT GLORY." (Matt.24:30)

The "seventh sign" is Jesus Christ returning with clouds [in the reverse manner in which He left earth]:

"...while they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight... this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven. Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet..." (Acts 1:9-12).

"...And His feet shall stand in that Day upon the Mount of Olives..." (Zech.14:4).

Of the seven signs for which we should be watching... the last three mark the imminent return of Christ to earth: the Tribulation, the heavenly signs, and the Day of the Lord [the final vial plagues of God poured out on the earth - Rev.16, followed by Jesus' return].

The first four signs [the four horsemen] that we live with, daily, are building toward the deadly necessity of the final three.