February 26, 1998: Edgar Cayce predicts a new magnetic pole will appear on earth and cause destruction through earthquakes and tidal waves.

March 31, 1998: Taiwanese, God's Salvation Church, under the leadership of Hoh Ming Chen, moves to Garland, Texas to await the end on this date. God is to announce His coming on cable channel 18.

May 31, 1998: Two prophets claim this date. Jack W Langford says this will be the date for the apocalypse, based on his calculations from Jewish Sabbaths and feast days, together with church festivals and assorted Bible quotes. When the day passes, he just says it will be coming real soon now. Marilyn Agee in a book called The End of the Age, identified this date based on the 6,000- year age of the earth and the 50^th anniversary of the modern state of Israel. When the day passed she set another date--in a week's time . . . .

June 7, 1998: Marilyn Agee set another date . . . .

June 14, 1998: Marilyn Agee set yet another date . . . .

June 21, 1998: Marilyn Agee set even yet another date.

June 20, 1998: "Dr" Samuel Doctorian announces this will be the day of a biblically-based end, with pestilence, famine, fire, flood, and earthquake.

October 10, 1998: The Concerned Christians, a group from Denver, leave town when leader Monte Kim Miller announces the city will be destroyed in an earthquake. They travel to Israel, where they are arrested and deported for allegedly planning violent acts on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Miller is not among them.

November 1998: Natalia de Lemeny-Makedonova, in her book Eternal Laws - New Mankind - Spiritual Transformation, says this is the date for the birth of Immanuel in His second coming. This event is to be associated with negative impact upon most life on earth.

1998-2001: Gordon-Michael Scallion says the end of the world begins in 1998 with Japan sinking and the western United States hit with earthquakes. A new golden age is to begin on the bits of the earth left.

1999: Byron Kirkwood predicts a shift of the earth's axis will result in the deaths of two thirds of the planet's population. The faithful will survive until a spacecraft arrives to rescue them.

1999: Jack Van Impe, who calls himself The Walking Bible, predicts that doomsday will happen this year, though the faithful were already raptured in 1992. He offers a video to help prepare for the coming disasters that include World War III.

1999: The surviving members of the Solar Temple say the end is this year, and plan to travel to Jerusalem to be ready.

1999: The Taiwanese, God's Salvation Church group revise their date-setting and now say that nuclear war will devastate the planet, and that the already identified Jesus of the East (a nine year old boy) must meet up with the Jesus of the West. This latter "Jesus" must have been born in 1969 in Vancouver, Canada, and look like Abraham Lincoln.

1999: Jeane Dixon says an Asian Antichrist will be taking power to usher in the End.

1999: Charles Berlitz wrote Doomsday 1999 in 1981, based on legends and visions and UFO's.

1999: George Curle, an evangelist, predicts that Antichrist will appear this year and Christ will return.

1999: Orville T Gordon says a UFO will come this year and collect all the members of his Outer Dimensional Forces before a worldwide flood destroys everyone else.

1999: Nelly Hurtado, who claims direct communication with the Virgin Mary, says that she has been told about the coming of a deadly comet, World War III, and an amazing miracle--all to happen between now and 2000.

January 20 to February 14, 1999 "Dr" Morris Plammer says a source at NASA told him about a 20-mile diameter asteroid that would hit the earth on Valentine's day. Also, he was told that the rock would look like the face of Satan.

March 1999: Surviving Branch Davidians announce the end of the world for this month.

May 23, 1999: Marilyn Agee prophesies the end of the world--for at least the fifth time.

July 7, 1999: Eileen Lakes says an alien race is to shift the earth's poles and send the planet off at right angles. The basis for her prediction is the Bible, a study of the Egyptian pyramids, and the thoughts of the New Age. Apparently the earth is to be seen as a massive baptismal font.

July 1999: Ed Dames says that, based on remote viewing, a huge solar flare will kill millions and an Israeli leader will be killed by three Iranian hit-men. This will begin World War III.

July, 1999: The Taiwanese, God's Salvation Church, now based in Garland, Texas, also says World War III begins this month and that a UFO will collect them from Miller, Indiana.

July, 1999: Nostradamus predicts the arrival of the great and terrible king from the sky.

July 26, 1999, 5:00 p.m. Tokyo Time. Akio Cho, believer in Nostradamus' prophecy, says this is the final end. This parallels Tsutomu Goto who wrote a book in 1974,

Nostradamus's Great Prophesies: The Obliteration of Mankind in 1999. In such a milieu groups as Aum Shinri Kyo and Kofuku no Kagaku have flourished.

August 6, 1999: The Branch Davidians claim that David Koresh will rise from the dead as judge of the world.

August 11, 1999: Some claim that since Nostradamus would have been using the Julian calendar, then this is the date of the end. Add to this the solar eclipse, and Sun magazine has World War III starting. In fact, a tornado touched down in Salt lake City which some took to be the fulfillment of this prophecy instead.

August, 1999: A Vienamese group calling themselves Universal and Human Energy, or Spirituality, Humanity, Yoga, predict the world will end this month.

August 18, 1999: Charles Criswell King, a psychic, made in prediction in 1968 that the world would end this day. In his own words: "The world as we know it will cease to exist . . . on August 18, 1999. . . . We will cease to exist before the year 2000! . . . And if you and I meet each other on the street that fateful day, August 18, 1999, and we chat about what we will do on the morrow, we will open our mouths to speak and no words will come out, for we have no future."

September 2 or 3, 1999: Leader of the Japanese group Aum Shinri Kyo, Shoko Asahara tells his followers the world will end this month. He communicates from prison where he is being held on murder charges relating to the gas attack on the Tokyo subway.

September 9, 1999: World computer meltdown is predicted on the day 9-9-99. (I am actually writing this on my computer on this day.)

September 11, 1999: Philip Berg of the Kabbalah Learning Center says a huge fireball will hit the earth on this date, and only by being purified by following his teachings can salvation be achieved.

September 11, 1999: Bonnie Gaunt says she has worked out the date of the rapture to be this day. Others, including her two grown sons, will be left behind to burn in eternal hellfire.

September 1999: Stefan Paulus, another Nostradamus aficionado, says this month is the end, complete with a meteor strike on earth, hurricanes, tidal waves, droughts, World War III, and a Middle Eastern Antichrist.

October 1999: Toshio Hiji from Japan says Nostradamus predicted an alien invasion this month.

October 22, 1999: Edgar Cayce says a polar shift will accompany fire, flood, famine, earthquakes, and erupting volcanoes as the end of the world. (This, the 155^th anniversary of the Great Disappointment).

Late 1999: Ruth Montgomery, psychic and New Age prophet, predicts earthquakes, tidal waves, fires, flood, drought, famine, pestilence, war, anarchy, astral bombardment and polar shifts. Aliens who become superheroes arrive in spacecrafts to rescue the spiritually prepared.

Late 1999: Father Alexander McKenna allegedly claims communication from the Virgin Mary at Fatima on imminent global nuclear annihilation, environmental disaster, and the satanic infiltration of the Catholic Church.

Late 1999: Japanese group Sukyo Mahikari mixes various religious themes to predict the end of the world before the end of the year.

Late 1999: Serghei Torpo, Russian prophet and former traffic cop, claims to be Jesus Christ and has changed his name to Vissarion. The end is around 2000, and if people do not believe in him he will release a lethal virus to kill everyone except his followers.

December 19, 1999: Dotson Meade says this is the date of the end based on his studies of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

1999-2004: James Harmston, a former Mormon, claims to be a reincarnation of Joseph Smith and predicts the end in the next five years.

1999-2000: R G Stair claims the title of Last Prophet of God and lives on a farm in South Carolina. In his own words: "If the Lord God Almighty does not make a major move before the year 2000, I'll tell God to 'go to Hell.'"

2000: Charles Taylor predicts Armageddon this year.

2000: The Reverend Sun Myung Moon predicts the arrival of the kingdom of heaven on earth.

2000: Hal Lindsey's in his book Planet Earth--2000, points towards this year as the time of Armageddon, but with contingencies up to 2048.

2000: Lester Sumrall, author of 88 Reasons the Rapture Will Be In '88, and who released a follow-up called 89 Reasons The Rapture Will Be in '89, now issues I Predict 2000 A.D.

2000: Gwen Shaw, leader of the End-Time Handmaidens, promises the end before the arrival of the turn of the millennium.

2000: Petrus Olivi, a Franciscan monk, identified the year 2000 as the day of judgment way back in 1297.

2000: Sir Isaac Newton identifies the date of the apocalypse as the year 2000, based on his study of the Bible's seventy-week prophecy.

2000: Jonathan Edwards, eighteenth century Protestant minister, indicates the year 2000 as the end. He also identified 1866 as the date of the fall of the papacy.

2000: Michael Drosnin, author of The Bible Code, concludes that the world may reach a radioactive end in 2000 or 2006.

. . . . and more!

* Astrologers: who are busy announcing the dawn of the Age of Aquarius. Mystic sciences are used to prophesy the future Golden Age of universal brotherhood in some mythical Utopia here on earth. More in common with some drug-induced hippy fantasy than reality.

* New Agers: using mantras and chants, sitting on "ley lines" and meditating transcendentally, are about to usher in their particular version of spiritual blessedness.

* Super-scientists: who are super-confident that we can fix the world's problems by the application of the great god Science. Bionic men and women; limitless energy sources; genetically-manipulated children--real Brave New World stuff.

* "Prophets:" who like Nostradamus are supposed to have some inspiration about the future (wonder who the one is doing the "inspiring"?). Fortune-tellers and psychics, soothsayers and seers--a whole rag-bag of the weird and wonderful, the analytical and reasonable. . . .Future forecasters of every shape and size and thought, ready to speculate on anything from coal reserves to world churches, manufacturing life to ESP. So many voices! Who to believe?

Why do I list so many of these predictions? Because it seems to me important to establish the volume and extent of these supposed prophecies, some coming from less than bizarre sources. When we as a Church become aware of the wide-ranging and pervasive nature of such ideas, it forces us to reflect on our own message.

How Different are We?

How different do we appear to those outside of our Church? Is there not a danger that our prophetic message can be confused with all these other prophecies? In fact, one of the major signs of the times is surely that there are so many other voices claiming to speak with the spirit of prophecy and identify the future.

What of our historic focus on the signs of the times? How can we differentiate ourselves from the date-setters and the prophets of doom? How do we make our future emphasis a valid perspective, not one that will be dismissed as just another oddball religion?

Think about it. Our history is rooted in the Millerite movement. Based on William Miller's calculations of Daniel, he ended up with a date: 1843-44. After the failure of the date, Hiram Edson got a vision while walking through a cornfield which explained the situation.

If you had been bombarded with what I have just presented, how different would such a prophetic message seem? While we cannot control the oddball prophets of today's world, we do need to make sure our message is as credible and relevant as possible. And before someone accuses me of unbelief--not so! Just an appeal for an awareness of the contemporary world. A true sign of the times.

I too have been guilty of using the odd and the peculiar. At an evangelistic series just north of London, the local pastor had decided on novel titles for a rather traditional program. Daniel 2 became "The Truth about the Amazing Metal Man," creation became "Adam's Mother's Birthday," and so on. My assigned topic was the Sabbath, transformed into "The Mysterious Number Seven."

One of the guests came up to me before the lecture. "Oh, I'm so excited to be here to find out about the mysterious number seven," he gushed. "For me, it's always been number 6 which as been so special and lucky. Now you're telling me it's sevens."

I groaned inwardly at the thought, and realized he was going to be terribly disappointed. Needless to say, we never saw him again

So in our presentations, let us avoid the traps. For example, let us refuse the almost over-mastering temptation to suggest some kind of date. Some of our evangelists verge on date setting. I see the year 2000 appearing in our evangelistic advertising. Is this wise, bearing in mind the current situation?

Ellen White comments: "The shortness of time is frequently urged as an incentive for seeking righteousness and making Christ our friend. This should not be the great motive with us; for it savors of selfishness. Is it necessary that the terrors of the day of God should be held before us, that we may be compelled to right action through fear? It ought not to be so."--LHU 98

Let us also remember that the failure of millennial speculation will prejudice the world against belief in the second advent, just as the Millerite movement prejudiced the world with the

failure of the 1844 date. The enemy of truth would surely be happy to present the second advent as part of the beliefs of weird and troublesome sects--beliefs to be rejected and denied.

The delay in the Advent is dealt with elsewhere. However, as we present the soon coming and the signs, we must also look back and learn.

Note this: "We have been preaching for more than 125 years that Jesus will come soon, and he hasn't yet come.

"Some have become discouraged waiting. Others, even though they are still in the church, have lost that first love for the blessed hope. They are not sure that Jesus will ever return.

"What is your attitude? How is your faith? Are you tired of waiting?

"We need to maintain the faith and confidence of our pioneers in this blessed hope." M.S. Nigri, Review and Herald, February 20, 1975, p 8.

Another sign: "the love of many will grow cold."

Though we have not officially set any dates, can we so easily deny the charge of "crying wolf"?

How do we continue to stress the imminence of the Advent without appealing to the sensationalistic?

What of the historic signs? How do they relate to today? Are they relevant? Can we honestly and with conviction say that signs we have to look up in history books are present truth for the 21^st century?

I would point you to some of the illustrations in our books on prophecy. We can all smile at pictures of "the nation's airy navies" in which biplanes attack each other. Of wondrous proclamations that trains can now run at over 100 miles per hour.

Are we not in danger of pleading guilty to the charge of re-inventing the signs for each generation? And talking about generation: what about that statement that indicated the generation that saw the signs (as defined ultimately as the falling of the stars in 1833) would live to see Christ come? More on that in my second presentation.

I personally am not about to abandon the signs of the times. In fact, I see them about us with ever-increasing urgency. But we need to be credible; our message must not be a cartoon of the truth.

Another Look at the Signs

Let us go back to the Bible and re-discover the signs; what they are for, and what they are not. Because we need to be closer to our true historic perspective--the signs we are looking for should be those that clearly reflect the issues in the great controversy. Otherwise why should our signs be more credible than those of others?

It is time to take another look at Matthew 24:3-44, in the light of our day.

Verse 3: "As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. 'Tell us,' they said, 'when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?'"

How much better it would have been if the disciples had not asked a double question! The conflation of the second advent with the destruction of Jerusalem should make us wise in answering the sign question.

Verse 4: "Jesus answered: 'Watch out that no one deceives you.'"

This is the pre-eminent warning when it comes to sign-identification. We have seen enough of the false prophets in the earlier part of this presentation! Deception is definitely with us today, and you could even argue that this is the clearest sign!

It is easy to get too involved in working out each sign so specifically that you get it wrong. Some people have believed that some event proved Christ would come within a certain time, and then were totally devastated when what they thought was a definite sign turned out to be wrong. So tread carefully, says Jesus, and don't believe every hare-brained scheme people may invent.

Verse 5: "'For many will come in my name, claiming, "I am the Christ," and will deceive many.'"

This is a very definite sign of the times. While there have been many throughout history who claim to be Christ, surely there are the greatest number today. I receive an e-mail message from someone claiming to be Jesus Christ nearly every week. These false Christs, and those who claim he comes in secret, are a sign that Jesus himself will come soon, says the real Jesus. (See also verses 24-26.)

Verse 6: "'You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.'"

Wars and rumors of wars are non-signs. While increased violence concerns us, Jesus does not say that wars of themselves are signs. Interesting.

Verses 7, 8: "'Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.'"

Even the famines and earthquakes, as well as the international conflicts mentioned, are not equated with signs of imminence. They are just the beginning, says Jesus. In fact, these signs are given less space than the more spiritual signs that follow.

Verses 9-13: "'Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.'"

The spiritual famine and the increase in evil are given more attention by Jesus, and this should give us pause for thought. While it is always difficult to quantify aspects of spirituality, such signs in today's world are clearly evident. The widespread falling away from spiritual values and commitment to moral and ethical principles could be deemed more relevant than falling stars.

Are these things happening in the world today? What is the evidence? Indicators include: increasing crime, collapse of marriage and family, pornography, and persecution of Christians in totalitarian countries. False prophets of the modern world are: materialism, secularism, and humanism.

Verse 14: "'And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.'"

Global evangelism highlights this polarization in the modern world, and the trend can only increase. Modern tools mean that communication is ever more able to reach every being on this planet. The question is, who is listening? Yet the widening availability of the message of the gospel, in ways that would amaze the first apostles, must catch our attention as part of the fulfilling signs. Today the gospel is being preached in more countries than ever before.

Verses 29, 30: "'Immediately after the distress of those days "the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken." At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.'"

This is an awesome description of the coming of Christ, preceded by these catastrophic signs. Now some may say they will wait until they see them before deciding, but they may be too late if they do; for the 'sign of the Son of Man' that appears in the sky may indeed be the actual coming of Jesus Himself, by which time there is no more time!

Verses 31-39: '"And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.'"

How many of this world's population really care about God, or about living honestly and rightly? The modern trend is to look after number one; hit the other guy before he hits you; grab what you can while you can; get what you want by and all means. This is the advanced modern religion of total selfishness and greed, with no concern for others at all. (See2 Tim 3:1-4.)

Verses 42-44: "'Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.'"

Summary--Jesus' Signs:

We can point to signs in history, society, the environment, conditions in world, events in religious world (e.g. the Pope's Dies Domini), ecumenical trends: Lutherans and Catholics, Lutherans and Episcopalians, Episcopalians and Catholics. Some point to the recent hurricanes and earthquakes. Yes, the earth is waxing old like a garment, but the most important signs are those that reveal the end of the great controversy.

For in the end, whatever the perspective on the signs, they are not delimitations of time, but reminders of God's future. As Augustine remarked, "The last day is hidden so every day may be regarded." It is not a question of when, though that is always the burning question for us!

Sakae Kubo comments: "Our readiness must not depend on the imminence of Christ's return but on its reality in our own experience." Sakae Kubo, God Meets Man (Nashville, TN: Southern Publishing Association., 1978), 107.

The signs all around us only reconfirm what we already know, and the great message of hope that is our happy responsibility to share with the world.

The importance of the Second Advent doctrine to Seventh-day Adventists cannot be overemphasized. It is in truth a life-or-death matter to our movement. "Seventh-day Adventists are irrevocably committed to belief in, and proclamation of, the imminent second coming of Christ. Should we for any reason whatever repudiate this truth, or cease to proclaim it with sincerity, we would destroy ourselves. Openly or secretly to deny the nearness of our Lord's return would be to invite the disintegration of our cause.

"The great second Advent movement was founded upon the conviction, resolutely and uncompromisingly held by our pioneers, that the long-anticipated return of Christ was near at hand. Without this conviction there would have been no Seventh-day Adventists nor any Seventh-day Adventist movement.

"In other words, we were Adventists before we had an organization. We were Adventists before we owned any property. We were Adventists before we adopted the tithing system. We were Adventists before we had anything to do with food reform, or dress reform, or any other reform.

"Belief in the imminent second coming of Christ is the reason for, and basis of, our existence. . . . If we do not believe that Christ's second coming is nigh at hand, we do not belong to the Advent movement. Furthermore, if we no longer hold this belief we have no business here today."--Arthur S Maxwell, "The Imminence of Christ's Second Coming" in Our Firm Foundation [a record of a Bible Conference]; Washington DC: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1953, pp 186, 187.

"Living power must attend the message of Christ's second coming in the clouds of heaven. . . . The message for this time is positive, simple, and of the deepest importance. We must act like men and women who believe. . . . Waiting, watching, working, praying, warning 0the world--this is our work."--Ellen G White, Letter 150, 1902, 2-3. MS release 844