22 Bible Verses About the End Times

Matthew 24:6-8

“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 the birth pains.”

Reflection: Jesus has just said that not one stone of the temple will be left on another, and on the Mount of Olives the disciples ask, “when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3). His first answer is a warning against being led astray by people claiming to be the Christ (verses 4-5), and then against alarm: wars, famines and earthquakes are “the beginning of the birth pains,” and “the end is not yet.” Verse 14 names what comes before the end: “this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

Luke 21:25-26

“And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”

Reflection: Luke records the same discourse, also prompted by talk about the temple stones (Luke 21:5-7). After the signs in the sky and the distress of nations, verse 27 says “they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory,” and verse 28 tells the disciples how to meet those events: “straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” The same events that leave people “fainting with fear” are, for the disciples, a sign that redemption is close.

2 Timothy 3:1-5

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.”

Reflection: Paul writes to Timothy about “the last days,” and the list ends with people who look religious: they have “the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.” The following verses describe some of them creeping into households and opposing the truth as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses. Paul’s instruction to Timothy is direct, “Avoid such people,” and verse 9 adds that “they will not get very far.”

2 Peter 3:3-4

“…knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’”

Reflection: The scoffers argue from the fact that nothing has changed since “the fathers fell asleep.” Peter answers in the next verses: the world was once deluged with water by God’s word, “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years,” and “the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:8-9). The delay the scoffers mock is, in Peter’s answer, God’s patience.

1 Thessalonians 5:2-3

“For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.”

Reflection: Paul tells the Thessalonians they need nothing written to them about “the times and the seasons” (verse 1), because they already know the day of the Lord comes like a thief. The comparison to labor pains points to something sudden and unavoidable once it begins. Verse 4 then separates the believers from those caught off guard: “you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief,” and verse 6 draws the conclusion, “let us keep awake and be sober.”

Matthew 24:42-44

“Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Reflection: Before this command Jesus says, “concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only” (Matthew 24:36). He compares his coming to the days of Noah, when people went on eating, drinking and marrying “and they were unaware until the flood came.” A householder who knew the thief’s hour would stay awake; because the hour is unknown, the disciples must be ready at every hour.

Luke 21:34

“But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.”

Reflection: Luke’s account of the discourse ends with this warning. The danger it names includes excess, “dissipation and drunkenness,” and also the ordinary “cares of this life.” Verse 35 says the day “will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth,” and verse 36 gives the remedy: “stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

1 Peter 4:7-8

“The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”

Reflection: Peter draws instructions directly from the statement that “the end of all things is at hand.” The first concerns prayer: self-control and a sober mind serve “the sake of your prayers.” The one he puts “above all” is earnest love for one another, with a line from Proverbs 10:12, “love covers a multitude of sins.”

James 5:8

“You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”

Reflection: James compares the waiting to a farmer who waits for “the early and the late rains” before the harvest (James 5:7). The next verse applies the nearness of the Lord’s coming to how believers treat each other: “Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.”

2 Peter 3:11-12

“Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God…”

Reflection: Verse 10 says the day of the Lord will come like a thief and the heavens will pass away, and Peter’s question follows from it: if everything is to be dissolved, what kind of people should believers be? He continues, “according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13), and verse 14 asks them to “be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.”

Titus 2:13

“…waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,”

Reflection: The sentence begins two verses earlier: “the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,” and it trains believers to live “self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.” The waiting in verse 13 happens inside that ordinary life. Paul speaks of two appearings, grace that has already appeared and the glory that will appear, and calls Jesus “our great God and Savior.”

Matthew 24:30

“Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”

Reflection: This comes “immediately after the tribulation of those days,” when the sun and moon are darkened (Matthew 24:29). “Coming on the clouds of heaven” uses the language of Daniel 7:13, where “one like a son of man” comes “with the clouds of heaven” and receives “an everlasting dominion.” In the next verse the Son of Man sends his angels “with a loud trumpet call” to gather his elect from the four winds.

Acts 1:11

“…and said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’”

Reflection: Just before the ascension the disciples asked whether Jesus would now restore the kingdom to Israel, and he answered, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority” (Acts 1:7). He gave them work instead, to be his witnesses “to the end of the earth,” and was taken up in a cloud. The two men in white robes then promise that he will come back “in the same way.”

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

“For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”

Reflection: Paul writes about believers who have died, so that the Thessalonians “may not grieve as others do who have no hope” (verse 13). The dead in Christ rise first, and the living are caught up with them “to meet the Lord in the air.” The Greek word for that meeting, apantesis, is the one used in Matthew 25:6 for going out to meet the bridegroom and in Acts 28:15 for the believers who came out from Rome to meet Paul on the road. Paul’s own conclusion is in verse 18: “Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

Revelation 19:11, 16

“Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war… On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.”

Reflection: In John’s vision heaven opens on a rider who “in righteousness judges and makes war.” The verses between give him a robe dipped in blood, the name “The Word of God,” a sharp sword from his mouth “with which to strike down the nations,” and the winepress of “the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.” The name written on his robe and thigh sets him above every other ruler.

Revelation 22:20

“He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”

Reflection: Near the close of Revelation, Jesus repeats his promise, “Surely I am coming soon,” and the response is a prayer addressed to him: “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” After it comes the book’s final blessing.

Daniel 12:2

“And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”

Reflection: The verse belongs to the last vision in Daniel. “At that time” a time of trouble comes, “such as never has been,” and Daniel’s people are delivered, “everyone whose name shall be found written in the book” (Daniel 12:1). The dead are described as sleeping “in the dust of the earth,” and they wake to two different outcomes. Verse 3 adds that “those who turn many to righteousness” will shine “like the stars forever and ever.”

1 Corinthians 15:52-53

“…in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.”

Reflection: Paul calls this “a mystery”: “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed” (verse 51). The reason he gives is that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (verse 50), so both the dead and the living need new bodies. The trumpet here matches “the trumpet of God” in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, and verse 54 ends with the saying “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

Philippians 3:20-21

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”

Reflection: Paul sets this against people whose “end is destruction” and whose minds are “set on earthly things” (verse 19). Believers belong to heaven and wait for a Savior to come from it. What he will do on arrival is physical: he “will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body.”

Isaiah 65:17

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.”

Reflection: God speaks through Isaiah, and the promise of a new creation turns at once to a city and its people: “I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness,” and “no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress” (Isaiah 65:18-19). Second Peter 3:13 and Revelation 21:1 take up the same words, new heavens and a new earth.

Revelation 21:1, 4

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more… He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Reflection: Between these verses John sees “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,” and a voice says, “the dwelling place of God is with man.” Verse 4 lists what ends: tears, death, mourning, crying and pain. “The former things have passed away” echoes Isaiah 65:17, and the one on the throne adds, “Behold, I am making all things new” (verse 5).

Revelation 22:5

“And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”

Reflection: The verse closes John’s description of the city: the river of the water of life, the tree of life whose leaves are “for the healing of the nations,” and the throne of God and of the Lamb. Verse 4 says of God’s servants, “They will see his face.” The light that sun and lamp once gave comes from God himself.