All these are the beginning of sorrows [Matt. 24:7–8]. These are characteristics of the entire age and are therefore not signs of the end of the age, “but the end is not yet” (v. 6). False christs, rumors of wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes characterize the entire church age, but they will apparently be intensified as we draw near to the end of the age. Right now the population explosion has the world frightened and rightly so. People are starving to death by the thousands and the millions.