Apocalypse Rising: 14c The Beginning of Birth Pains

‘You will hear of wars [and revolutions], but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes [and pestilences] in various places, [and fearful events and great signs from heaven]. All these are the beginning of birth pains.’ (synthesised from Matt. 24:6-8 and Luke 21:11)

In these verses, Jesus likened the signs of the coming end of this age to birth pains (or, labour pains) in a human birth process. However, he made it clear that these ‘signs of the times’ were not the harbinger of his actual return to earth, saying that ‘the end is still to come’ (v.6). So when we see these signs, we should not be tempted to think that ‘Jesus will be returning to earth immediately!’ Rather they point to the fact that we are approaching the end of this age, and that we therefore need to be preparing ourselves for what is to come. They are ‘the beginning of birth pains.’

Real labour pains / contractions normally begin around the 39th week or so of pregnancy. When this happens, the mother’s waters break, and the pregnancy enters its final stage. The process of giving birth has begun and is now irreversible. It is certain that the mother will give birth very soon. The time has come. After this point, the labour pains become frequent and regular, and they increase very much in intensity. The hardest and most difficult part of giving birth, when the labour pains are at their strongest and most intense, is at the very end when the baby finally emerges and is born.

However, as any pregnant woman knows, contractions can begin much earlier than the 39th week. These so-called ‘Braxton-Hicks contractions’ are real enough, but they are not actual labour pains. They can sometimes be felt as early as the sixth week of pregnancy. They are irregular, infrequent, relatively mild, and not very intense. However, they are a foretaste of what is certainly coming later on. They are often felt as cramps during the second trimester, but they become increasingly frequent and stronger during the third trimester. Towards the end of the third trimester, it is very common for them to be mistaken for ‘the real thing,’ whereas in fact they are ‘false alarms.’

Predicting the actual day and time of the breaking of the waters and the onset of real labour contractions is impossible. The best that medical science can come up with is simply ‘the expected or due date’ which is based on the date when the woman believes she conceived. However, this is simply a guide and a ‘best guess.’ It is an approximate date around which she can expect that she will give birth. Many married couples have undoubtedly been through the experience of waiting and waiting on and around their due date, only to be disappointed by several ‘false alarms.’ The actual day and time when it will happen is unknown. The best that the couple can know is that they have reached the period of time when they are now expecting it to happen ‘sometime very soon’ or ‘any time now.’ So the whole family waits expectantly…

Using this parallel of the human birth process, the telos (the endpoint) which Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24:6 is the birth towards which the pregnancy is leading: the return of Christ to earth in power and glory, followed by his millennial reign:

‘For the creation was subjected to frustration… in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.’ (Rom. 8:20-22)

Furthermore, the onset of labour is accompanied by the breaking of the waters at around the same time, and these two things together signal the demarcation between the milder, less frequent contractions which happened previously, and the real and painful labour contractions which lead to the birth. When this happens, it happens suddenly. So, using this parallel with the human birth process, it would perhaps be reasonable for us to view the rapture as the demarcation event which is the equivalent of the breaking of the waters and the onset of labour. The rapture of the church is the sign of the beginning of the sunteleia, the end-period of this age, often called the tribulation period. It is the sign that this world has entered irreversibly into the period when the return of Christ and the birth of his kingdom on earth are going to happen very soon. There are no more ‘false alarms.’ There is no more delay. After this sign of the rapture, the world will enter into the very real, frequent, regular and increasingly intense labour pains leading ultimately to the return of Christ. Jesus emphasised that the actual day and time of the rapture is unknown to all except the Father, and that, when it happens, it will happen suddenly (Matt. 24:36, 1 Thess. 5:3). So the best we can know is that we have entered into the season in which we know it is going to happen very soon, and so we wait expectantly for it (Matt. 24:32-33).

The apostle Paul underlined this parallelism when he spoke about the onset of the day of the Lord (i.e. the tribulation period) to the Thessalonian believers:

‘Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety”, destruction will come on them suddenly, as labour pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.’ (1 Thess. 5:1-3)

Furthermore, prospective parents have to prepare themselves for the birth of their baby, in terms of getting a room and baby cot ready, buying in all of the necessary accessories, and packing a bag with essentials ready for the day when labour starts, and the mother has to be rushed into hospital for the birth. Similarly, Jesus told us to prepare ourselves and to be ready for the rapture, after which this world will pass irreversibly into the tribulation period. He told us to watch and pray, and to live a pure life, ready for the day when the Lord returns (Mark 13:33,36-37; 1 John 3:2-3).

This parallelism with birth pains was used by Jesus in the synthesised passage from Matthew 24:6-8 and Luke 21:11 (quoted above at the beginning of this section). So this means that the ‘signs of the times’ which he spoke of, and on which we keep our eye – wars, revolutions (or, political and social instability), famines, earthquakes (or, shocking events) and pestilences, fearful events on earth and great signs from heaven – are like contractions which point to the soon-coming future events. Certainly, they are real and painful enough! And perhaps, as I said in chapter 8, we should throw into the mix such things as floods and other natural disasters caused by hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, prolonged and extreme heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, and pandemics, which seem to be happening with increasing frequency and intensity around the world. Instability, turmoil, and shocking and fearful events fill our news regularly. These signs are being fulfilled right before our eyes, and this is plainly evident to anyone who cares to compare these verses with daily events worldwide. In our generation, we are seeing a convergence of these signs: they are increasing in their frequency and intensity, particularly those that are connected with climate and weather phenomena. In this context, it is interesting that a report into the 2019-2020 wildfires in Australia, said that the citizens of that country must now prepare for an ‘alarming’ future of simultaneous and worsening natural disasters.[1],[2]

Furthermore, this parallelism suggests that such contractions are going to increase in frequency and intensity the nearer we get to the time of the rapture. And then, after the rapture, with the onset of the day of the Lord and the tribulation period, these signs will increase greatly in their intensity and regularity, leading up to the actual return of Christ to earth. Indeed, because the passage in Matthew 24:4-14 is descriptive of the first half of the seven-year tribulation period (as we saw in chapter 6), then these signs will certainly be happening regularly and intensely in the tribulation period. This is confirmed by Jesus’ description of the second half of the tribulation period:

‘On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ (Luke 21:25-26)

One strand of confused thinking which believers may perhaps fall into, is that everything will become really bad in the world before the rapture. This is wrong. Although the frequency of contractions, the signs of the times, certainly does increase before real labour begins, and so things generally in the world may certainly get more difficult, yet the most difficult and intense part happens after the rapture. It is then that the world passes from relative ‘peace and safety’ into the time of destruction in the day of the Lord (1 Thess. 5:3). The frequency of the signs of the times then increases greatly: the contractions are more intense and painful, they happen very close together, and, ultimately, they come almost one on top of another. It is in that period that there will be no rest, until the birth takes place.

But this is not to say that things will not get difficult for believers before the rapture. They might well do, as the world continues to approach the time when Antichrist will arise. The rapture is not an escape clause from suffering and persecution in this world! Notwithstanding this, however, there is no reason why believers cannot expect to see an increasing harvest of souls during the last years before the rapture, as the power and glory of God continue to work worldwide to bring salvation to those who will respond to the gospel message.

In the different sections of this chapter, I have attempted to sketch an overview of the various macro-factors and signs which the Scriptures tell us will characterise the end-times in which we live. As I have said before, any believer who has a reasonable grasp of the word of God, and who has an eye to watch and observe the development of these various macro-factors and signs in our world today, cannot in all honesty draw any conclusion other than that we are now reaching the end of the end-times. All these macro-factors and signs are converging and coming together at the same time. Like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle they are being assembled together, and the puzzle is now not far from being completed. They suggest – indeed they call to us with an increasingly loud voice! – that we are now in the season when the end-period of this age will soon be upon us. God’s end-time clock is inexorably ticking down, and its fingers really have almost reached ‘zero hour’!

So, as I said at the beginning of this chapter, even though the spiritual state of the world is waxing worse and worse, and the contractions of the signs of the times are happening with increasing frequency, yet we should carry on joyfully and faithfully with the work of the Lord. In these end-times, he will continue to build his church and bring in the gospel harvest, and we can inwardly rest in the deep peace and assurance of knowing that our Bridegroom will soon come to receive us unto himself.

Copyright Notice

[1] From July 2019 to March 2020, wildfires swept across 24 million hectares of land. It was Australia's most intense bushfire season on record, though not its most deadly. The blazes affected every Australian state, destroyed over 3,000 homes, and killed or displaced nearly three billion animals. See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-54742909#:~:text=Australia%20must%20prepare%20for%20an,the%20nation%20%2D%20and%20other%20disasters, accessed 10.12.2020.

[2] In response to the record-breaking temperatures in many places worldwide during July 2023, and the consequent outbreak of apocalyptic wildfires in some places, the Secretary General of the UN Antonio Guterres said that the era of global warming has ended, and the era of ‘global boiling’ has arrived. His response was framed as an exhortation to swiftly cut carbon emissions in deference to net-zero ideology. Scientists later confirmed that July 2023 was the world’s hottest month on record, and that 2023 itself was the hottest year on record. See www.theguardian.com, accessed 28.07.2023, and https://www.noaa.gov/news/2023-was-worlds-warmest-year-on-record-by-far#:~:text=It's%20official%3A%202023%20was%20the,a%20record%20low%20in%202023, accessed 30.01.2024.

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14c The Beginning of Birth Pains

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Apocalypse Rising

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