[Luke 21:25-28] "And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near."

In the gospel of Matthew, Matthew gives us more details of the end time events Jesus described than did Dr. Luke in his gospel. [Matthew 24-29-31] "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, 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. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."

In these Scriptures Jesus tells us of certain things that are going to happen in the heavens and on the earth just prior to His return at the end of the Great Tribulation Period. He begins by telling us there will be heavenly signs  that will be readily observable by the human eye. The first signs men will observe will be very unusual activity taking place in the sun, moon, and stars. Jesus isn't talking about a lunar eclipse when He described these events. He is talking about things that will create such fear in man that multitudes of men will die from heart attacks. Men will see the awesomeness of God when they see these things taking place. And they will very quickly understand that they do not have any control over anything that is happening. Jesus described what men will see as; "the powers of heaven being shaken."  And not one person inhabiting the earth at the time will miss anything that is going to take place. Everyone will have a first hand account because everyone will be an eyewitness to these events. Jesus is telling us beforehand that those people who have ignored Him their whole life, will not be able to ignore these events when they start to take place. The eyes of all mankind will be riveted on the heavens and when He splits the eastern sky and His great glory is revealed, every eye shall behold Him.

Then Jesus describes for us the next sign He called distress among the nations. The distress among the nations will be so great that all nations on earth will forget about fighting with one another and try to focus their attention on what they are seeing taking place in the heavens. Needless to say, "They will not have answers to give to the people when the people start asking, "What do these signs mean?"  The next sign Jesus gave takes place in the oceans of the world. Jesus described these events as the 'sea and the waves roaring'. This can only mean world wide disaster on a scale so great the world cannot begin to imagine the worldwide destruction that will result from what Jesus described as the roaring waves of the seas. I can guarantee you there will not be any surfers out 'catching a wave' when these events take place. We have seen devastation caused by the waves of the sea in recent years, but what we have seen so far on the earth will be nothing in comparison to what Jesus is talking about taking place at that time. The next sign is perplexity of people. The people of earth will be gravely concerned about the events that are unfolding, so much so, that Jesus said many will die because their 'hearts are failing them from fear' of the events they see taking place in the heavens and on the earth. There will be so many heart attack victims flooding the hospital emergency rooms around the world that doctors will forget about cancer and all the other forms of diseases men die from. Then Jesus tells us after these things we, "will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory."  He concludes this portion of His dissertation on the period that will immediately precede His return to earth with these words, "Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near."

And in [Luke 21:34-36] Jesus issues a warning to all people; "But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come upon you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man."

After telling His disciples the parable of the fig tree, He issues a warning to all, "But take heed to yourselves;"  or in otherwords, "Be prepared to meet your maker" when He comes. In the preceding verses Jesus told us what is going to take place in the heavens and on the earth just prior to His return. Now He is giving everyone fair warning to make sure they are prepared to meet Him when this day arrives. This time He will not be coming as a little baby in a manger who would grow up to die for the sins of the whole world. This time He is coming as the GOD OF CREATION: THE KING OF KINGS AND THE LORD OF LORDS [Revelation chapter 19] prepared to take control of His kingdom by force and remove every single enemy from the face of the earth. His pruning hook will be in His hand and He will not overlook a single rebellious person. Every single enemy of His Kingdom will be killed and their spirits cast into hell where they will be confined forever to serve as a reminder that when they had the opportunity to serve Him; they rejected His love and cursed Him instead. Immediately after the angels gather together the elect, or those who have accepted Jesus as their Savior, all hell is going to break loose on the sinners and they are going to reap their just reward for the unforgiven crimes they have committed against the kingdom of God and His Christ.

Jesus then lists several things that will prevent a person from being prepared to meet Him. He gives all of us a fair warning that this day will come unexpectedly upon man. Those who are prepared to meet Him will go into eternal life, but those who love to carouse or commit spiritual adultery with God's enemy, get drunk, and are more concerned with the affairs of this life than they are about their eternal future will be cast into the fires of hell to suffer with the devil and all of his cohorts. Our eternal destination is decided by our acceptance or the rejection of the Lord as our Redeemer Savior while we live here on earth. And just as soon as we die we are ushered into the place we decided would be our eternal future. Heaven as you know was created for man, and hell for the devil and his angels; but when man rejects the Love of his Creator; and he does so by choice; hell becomes his eternal prison from which there is no hope of release.

I read on the Internet a few days ago a comment made by a very famous Jew, and I thought, "Of all the people on the earth these people above all others should be more knowledgeable and more aware of the presence of the God of Creation than anyone else,"  But, Albert Einstein, a German born, Jew, said, just a year or so before his death, "That the stories in the bible were nothing more than children's stories."  (My paraphrase) And I thought to myself, "Here is a man that God blessed well beyond other men; and in return for his great blessings he denied the very one who blessed him with such great intelligence."  Dear God, for the sake of his eternal soul; I hope he had a change of heart before he died. But whether he did, or whether he didn't; He knows the whole truth now. OTBP