Aren't wars and rumors of wars, along with all the other elements of growing depravity... merely a sign that we're in the "Church Age" and not to be construed as a sign of the actual end of the Church Age?
3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
The question is about the sign of the Lord's coming and specifically "when" and also the "end of the age".
4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.
The first warning is about deception. Satan is the father of lies, he is very deceitful, and what we have seen this age is about a master class in deceit. The printing press released the Bible, it also released propaganda. Same thing with the radio, TV and internet. The CIA and many other intelligence agencies exploded onto the scene after WWII. But even more than that the Lord points to a very specific form of deceit "many will come in My name". Can you imagine, he has around 100-500 disciples around this time in a small country. That is an incredible prophecy to say that at the end of the age you will see all kinds of false prophets coming in the name of Jesus, claiming to be men of God but deceiving and defrauding many. It has been relatively recently that we have been besieged by so many false prophets preaching the prosperity gospel, using TV and the internet to spread their word and deceive many. No doubt it happened in the past but nothing on this scale.
6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.
This is another incredible prophesy. At the time of Jesus there were no newspapers, no radio, no TV, and so you could have a war going on in Britain and the people of Israel wouldn't know anything about it. Radio didn't become common until after WWI, TV after WWII and satellite TV after the first Gulf War. Only now can we watch in real time things that are happening around the globe. In the 1800s no one in the US felt threatened by a war in Russia or Indonesia or the Middle East or Africa. It wasn't until WWI that we actually felt world events might affect us. But it wasn't until after WWII and the nuclear bombs that we felt threatened.
See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
This is following the four horses of the apocalypse. The white horse is a deceitful counterfeit Christ, the red horse is war, the black horse is famine and the pale green horse is pestilence. So although there have been several major pandemics prior to 2020, the Covid19 pandemic is the first time we had a worldwide shutdown and worldwide response to a pandemic. Yes we have had wars for 2,000 years but it wasn't until WWII that the entire world felt threatened by a potential nuclear holocaust. Likewise with famines. There have been quite a few regional famines over the last 2,000 years but what we are about to witness is the first ever global famine. Also, consider this point about earthquakes in various places. Prior to the 20th century you really had no idea about earthquakes in various places. After WWII we had seismographs in most countries around the world. If an earthquake took place anywhere we could figure out where and how big it is relatively quickly. So that one prophecy indicates modern technology and a worldwide communication network with telephones and telegraphs and radio, TV, etc.
9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.
This is the fifth seal. True they killed Christians at the beginning of the church age, but the scale and frequency is far greater now than it has ever been in history and we are on the cusp of Christians becoming scapegoats and killed on a scale never before seen.
10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
This is a new level of deceit, coming in the name of Jesus was one level, this is turbocharged. This is what we have seen take place with social media. The number of false prophets have increased exponentially. Think of all the bots on Twitter. These intelligence agencies like CIA and CCP are using platforms like Twitter and Tik Tok to manipulate people with fake news.
12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
Lawlessness does not abound in a tyrannical regime. China and Russia do not have a drug problem, they do not have a problem of gangs on the streets. There has always been crime and criminals, but "abounding"? We have discovered that the CIA makes money off of crime. They can easily bring in drugs, they can easily make "kings" of different criminal bosses. They use crime around the world. Importing drugs from Afghanistan to the US requires a sophisticated network that most high school dropout thugs could never put together.
13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Only recently with cell phones, internet, and Youtube can you say that the gospel is truly being preached in all the world. When a Youtube video is posted preaching the gospel you can say that it is "preached in all the world".
So yes, on one hand we have had all of these things take place during the church age, but never in history have all these things taken place on this scale and with this frequency like they are taking place today.