To me, the surest signs of the coming of the Lord aren't in earthquakes, famines, disease and pestilence. Sure, these natural calamities are spoken of by the Lord as signs of His appearing, but, well, the earth has had death and destruction since, well, since Cain killed Abel. There has always been natural disasters, and as the earth ages, these calamaties will continue, and maybe even increase in frequency and/or severity.
I believe the truest ands surest sign of the Lord's coming is found in
John 17 where Jesus prayed for the unity of His Church. The Bible tells us we are to "endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit".
The 5 fold ministry was given to bring us into unity. But, then again, I could be wrong.... if UNITY -the perfection of His church- is, in fact, a prerequisite for His coming, then I'd have to say we have a long, Long, LONG wait for His coming! When this strife riddled ragtag we call His Church becomes the church Paul refers to as A GLORIOUS CHURCH, then we will be presented unto Him. Unbag your bags, boys, this may take awhile. We can't even agree on the fundamentals of
Acts 2:38!