Matthew 24:5

For many shall come in my name, saying, I am the Christ; and shall lead many astray. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that ye be not troubled: for these things must needs come to pass; but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be famines and earthquakes in divers places; but the end is not yet. But all these things are the beginning of travail.

The "signs" that Jesus mentioned in these verses are essentially ordinary; and thus it may be inferred that the usual run of human conflicts and misfortunes, as well as the claims of false teachers, are not the things which shall reveal the nearness of events prophesied. Historians have pointed out that all of the phenomena above did occur in profusion before the destruction of Jerusalem. Grotius was quoted by Macknight concerning earthquakes in at least eight parts of the Mediterranean world.[7] Such things as famines, wars, and earthquakes seem to have been multiplied during that period, but hardly any period of world history failed to exhibit the same things. Thus it may be concluded that Jesus' lesson here is that all such basic phenomena may be ignored except as characteristics of human wretchedness and misfortune upon which the more imposing signs were not signs of the end. Note the repeated warning, "but the end is not yet"! Such catastrophes were to be viewed only as the "beginning of travail," and the true signs of the events foretold were to be sought, not in them, but rather in what happened to the disciples.