Matthew 24:32

Now from the fig tree learn her parable: when her branch has now become tender, and putteth forth its leaves, ye know that summer is nigh; even so ye also, when ye see all these things, know ye that he is nigh, even at the doors.

There is a season for spiritual things and for moral development, no less than for summers and fig trees. A discerning person can sense the onset of summer by the behavior of the natural creation around him; and a spiritually perceptive person can also ascertain the approaching judgment of God, whether upon an apostate city like Jerusalem or upon an evil and reprobate world.

One significant departure of some of the versions from the Greek text should be noted. Instead of "HE is nigh" in Matthew 24:33, the Greek has "IT is nigh," thus being a plain reference to the judgment. The ability to predict the visitation of God's wrath extended to the destruction of Jerusalem, but not to the coming of the final judgment. The disciples predicted with great accuracy the fall of Jerusalem, and most of them fled to Pella during the siege and were spared, but no such ability pertains to the knowledge of the end of the world and the second coming.