Jesus, while sitting atop the Mount of Olives, speaking to His disciples, gave a profound prophecy relative to our present day. As they looked down upon Jerusalem and at the Temple on Moriah, the Lord said the following:
And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation. (Matthew 24:6–7)
Of all the prophecies that seem to be in view now, none is more relevant than the turmoil Jesus spoke of that we’re watching in this crucial hour of last-time human history.
The process of stage-setting in this regard is part of the dynamics reconfiguring the world for humanity’s most horrific military conflict–Armageddon.
The portion of the prophecy we need to look at is the prophecy Jesus gave that “nation will rise against nation” in an unprecedented way just before He returns to set up His Millennial Kingdom on the earth.
When giving only a cursory glance at these words, we think that, yes, that’s certainly true. Many a nation has risen against another nation just during the past several decades. There have been many wars, and other wars are looming. But, is this the kind of “nation against nation” reference Jesus specifically gave in this discourse?
To answer this, we must look at the Greek language–the language from which the New Testament was translated into English. Jesus was in actuality saying these uprisings would be unusual in that they would be based in ethnos—Greek, here, for “nation.” They would be “ethnic” in origin. They would pit ethnic—or racial—group against racial group.
It is equally true that ethnic factors have been the cause of many wars throughout the centuries. The Arabs and Jews–as a matter of fact, many ethnic peoples against the Jews—marked the conflicts of Old Testament times. Almost without exception, those early wars were “ethnic” in origin.
Things haven’t changed. Arabs and Jews still have the ethnos factor at the heart of their differences. And, never in history has the conflict been more virulent–in rhetoric, if not in fact. The Islamic nations–mostly Arab—are blood-vowed to push the Jews into the Mediterranean Sea and wipe the Jewish race from the planet. Some Arab leaders of the past and other leaders–e.g., the Iranian—continue to want all Jews expunged from the region and even off the planet. They have made it their national policy through their oratorical invectives. There have been conflicts in the century just passed involving peoples of the Caucuses, the Balkans, etc., and horrific slaughters in Africa and other places–all based upon ethnic differences.
Now, this hemisphere is experiencing the ever-increasing lethal effects of ethnic struggle. The latest is more and more pitting those of multiple races against, particularly, Caucasian types, while the protests over immigration laws escalate. These uprisings aren’t spontaneous, but are fomented, obviously, by those who have ulterior motives–other than to see that illegal immigrants get a chance to start new lives in the most materially blessed nation in human history.
We’ve looked consistently at the globalist elites who are showing a total disregard for national boundaries and sovereign well-being by wanting to just ignore the laws on these important immigration matters and extend unlimited amnesty to those who have entered America illegally.
The point is, Jesus said a great, swelling uprising involving ethnic strife would grow to be a major crisis during the Tribulation era–the last seven years just before He returns to put an end to all of the conflicts at Armageddon (Revelation 19:11).
This tremendous ethnic disturbance we are witnessing each day in our headlines is something we must absolutely watch closely. The powerful turbulence–the “seas and waves roaring”—constitutes yet another indicator of where this generation stands on God’s prophetic timeline. We can say with a degree of certainty—based upon study of God’s Word and belief in the pre-Trib Rapture of Christ’s Church—that because of the burgeoning ethnic unrest, in conjunction with all of the other indicators we see interjecting themselves with growing intensity and frequency, Jesus’ shout, “Come up here!” can’t be far distant.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
Terry James Prophecy Line 
According to Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum and other Messianic Jewish scholars, “nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom” is an idiom that refers to world war.
“The beginning of travail, the first birth pang, and the sign that the end of the age has begun is when nation rises against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. Yeshua’s statement here is that when a world war occurs, rather than merely a local war, that world war would signal that the end of the age had begun.
This is quite in keeping with the Jewish writings of this same period. One Jewish source known as the Zohar Chadash states: “At that time wars shall be stirred up in the world. Nation shall be against nation and city against city; much distress shall be renewed against the enemies of the Israelites.”
Another Jewish source known as the Bereshit Rabbah states: “If you shall see the kingdoms rising against each other in turn, then give heed and note the footsteps of the Messiah (XLII:4).”
Therefore, the end of the age began in 1914…correct?
He said the “sign” of the end of the age was in 1914–yes.
“and the sign that the end of the age has begun is when nation rises against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” <<— From you original post…and I see the words "has begun", which is why I made my first comment. I don't see what you do, apparently, to seemingly emphasize "the sign". But either way, it's truly time to exclaim "Maranatha!" And I do, every time I pray for the peace of Jerusalem…which is pretty much every day. Peace
I lived through the 1960’s and watched the racial turmoil here in the United States, watched our cities burn. As bad as that was, what we are seeing now is worse. It looks like a deliberate effort to stoke this kind of hatred by the devil himself and it is becoming more than black vrs. white vrs. hispanic vrs. [add whichever ethnic group you want here], etc. It is becoming global and, barring Divine Intervention, self-perpetuating and increasing, like a nuclear fission reactor going out of control.
While all this is going on, a small group of un-elected elite is tightening the noose around all our necks and most of us are too distracted to even notice, making what we overlook the most dangerous thing of all.
I posted about the same topic a few days before Terry posted. I’ve been doing a series on the birth pangs signs if anyone cares to comment.
I agree with Terry and I think a casual observation of our world fits the way it’s worded in the gospels. It’s two birth pangs not a world war. To fit the description Jesus gave to qualify as a birth pangs sign, there has to be an increase in frequency and intensity over time. So I don’t think it’s proper to focus in on a Jewish idiom and perhaps miss the context of the prophecy.
I would submit that kingdom against kingdom refers to the unseen realm. A renewed rebellion of the fallen spiritual realm as the world turns away from God. Jonathon Cahn speaks to this extensively in his latest book Return of the gods.
I count nine distinct birth pangs signs which I believe must all be present at the same time and in increased intensity and frequency just like labor contractions.
“…you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the END IS NOT YET.
For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.”
Jesus is contrasting local wars experienced throughout history with world war–something that never existed until the 20th century (because of techology). And then he couples that with famines, pestilence, and earthquakes–all of which which have increased in frequency and intensity since those two world wars (the wars being the SIGN that the end of the age had begun).
That’s without even mentioning that both world wars were without parallel in terms of bringng Israel back to her land…WWI freed the Holy Land from the Ottoman Turks and created the British Mandate of Palestine and WWII led the U.N. to vote for a new State of Israel.
The most pivotal event in prophetic history in 2000 years was the rebirth of Israel as a nation.