Step still to come (one reading among others)

Beginning of birth pains

**Artist’s impression** The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, artist’s impression by Viktor Vasnetsov (1887). Wars and famines compared with Matt 24:6-7: a parallel of motifs, not an identity. — Viktor Vasnetsov, Wikimedia Commons · Domaine public

? Not yet happened, no date

See the full entry: sources, objections, answers

In short

The announcement. Jesus, in the Gospel of Matthew, announces impostors claiming to be the Christ, wars, famines and earthquakes in various places, and says that this is only “the beginning of birth pains”.

What happened. This has not happened yet in its entirety. The text describes evils that return and accumulate, and presents them as a beginning, not as the end.

What is still debated. these troubles are not stages that end one after another, since they come back later in the same discourse.

Main objection (in French for now)

Ces motifs ne sont pas des cases qui s’achèvent avant la suivante : ils réapparaissent en Mt 24:23-28, ce qui démontre leur caractère répétitif et cumulatif.

The text (World English Bible)

Jesus answered them, “Be careful that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will lead many astray. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you aren’t troubled, for all this must happen, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there will be famines, plagues, and earthquakes in various places. But all these things are the beginning of birth pains.
Matt 24:4-8