1.    Is it possible for one to know the day and hour of Christ’s coming?

“But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only,” Matthew 24:36.

2.    What words of admonition are given by Christ regarding His coming?
“Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come,” Matthew 24:42.

3.    Since Christ tells us to watch, has He not given us something to watch?

“So, likewise ye, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand,” Luke 21:31.

4.    What statement does Christ make concerning the city of Jerusalem, connecting it with His coming?

“And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations; And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled,” Luke 21:24.

NOTE: The city of Jerusalem, after having been occupied, and controlled by Gentile people almost all the time since the days of Christ, until the year 1918, was in the above year wrested from that people who have controlled it through all these years and today the movement is on foot in many countries, of giving that city, as well as country to the Jewish people as a national home.

5.    Have we any prophecies concerning the gathering of the literal Jews?

“And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth,” Isaiah 11:12. “Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger . . . and I will cause them to dwell safely,” Jeremiah 32:37. See also Zechariah 12:7; Joel 3.

6.    What condition did Christ say would be in the world just preceding His coming?

“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring,” Luke 21:25.

NOTE: Especially does Christ mention the distress of nations. We look back over a few years of the world’s history to the year 1914, and as all know the great war broke out upon the world, as thunder from the clear sky, worse and worse, until nine tenths of the world’s population were engaged. And well does this condition agree with the latter part of the verse under consideration. “The sea, and the waves roaring,” If the reader will turn to Revelation 17:15, he will find “water representing peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.” Truly the nations were more angry during the past conflict than at any other time during the history of the world and continued in that condition until the Turk was driven from Palestine. Then came the lull, as well as a world wide movement for the re-establishment of the Jew in his own land, which is the fulfillment of Christ’s words. “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”

7.    In the Revelation of Christ what is said regarding the condition of the world just preceding His second coming?

“And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come,” Revelation 11:18.

8.    What proof have we that this condition will be in the world when Christ returns?

“And the time of the dead that they should be judged, and that Thou shouldest give reward unto Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear Thy name small and great, and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth,” Revelation 11:18.

9.    Near the coming of Christ what will be the condition of the world as compared to the days of Lot?

“Likewise also as it were in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed,” Luke 17:28-30.

10.    How does Paul speak of the last days of this present dispensation?
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come,” II Timothy 3:1.

11.    Will the people at this time enjoy hearing doctrine or fables preached?

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables,” II Timothy 4:3-4.

NOTE: Those who are studying the conditions of the world at the present time, and weighing them in the light of the divine word, know full well that the conditions are here as the great apostle said they would be in the last days.

12.    What is said of evil men and seducers?

“But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived,” II Timothy 3:13.

13.    How does Paul speak of the Jewish people in the last days?

“For I would not brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery; lest ye should be wise in your own conceits: that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in,” Romans 11:25.

NOTE: Only in the last few years has this statement commenced to meet its fulfillment. The Jewish people who once rejected Christ as their Savior, are now accepting him by the hundreds, and is another living witness to the fact that we are nearing the close of Gentile rule, and the coming of Christ draweth nigh.

14.    Does Paul say we would or would not be in darkness as to the coming of Christ?

“But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief,” I Thessalonians 5:4.

15.    And what of the fig tree?

“Now learn a parable of the fig tree; when his branch is yet tender, and puteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh. So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things know that it [margin He] is near, even at the doors,” Matthew 24:32, 33.

Watchman on the walls of Zion

What, O tell us, of the night?

Is the day-star now arising?

Will the morn soon greet our sight?

O’er your vision.

Shine there now some rays of light?”