Are these the End Times?

Hizbollah’s fired on Isreali cities and had caused more casualties, writes Israeli journalist Zeev Schiff, Israel’s armed forces “have abandoned their policy of restraint and launched a devastating counter-attack". Israel now finds itself in the grip of a gigantic conflagration, whose origins would have been only indirectly linked to the defence of the Galilee”. The Middle East has once more become a powder keg whose smallest spark may cause an explosion: an attack in Israel, a confrontation in the West Bank, a military action against Lebanon, or even Syria. And that is just the beginning... The Bird Flu or deadly H5N1 virus has grabbed the headlines again. In the past few weeks the dreaded disease has infected poultry virtually all over the world. Experts have now reported outbreaks in Iraq, Egypt, Europe, and Canada. France, Europe's top poultry producer, has just reported its first case of the lethal virus—and now it’s infecting humans! Could this global pestilence be just another sign of the End Times? Horrifying events has occurred and will probably continue to happen in America and much of the western, professing "Christian" world. The destruction of the Twin Towers in New York, and the devastation of the Pentagon in Washington, DC, focused the minds of millions on Bible prophecy. I wonder: "What is God’s purpose in all of this?"

Indeed, prophesied events are truly speeding up. As Jesus Christ instructed, we all need to "watch and pray." For—within this generation—truly awful, Satan-inspired tragedies will begin to strike much of humanity. The "Antichrist" will be directly behind many of these events!

Who is the Antichrist? After September 11, 2001, most Americans believed it is the sinister Osama bin Laden as the prophesied end-time "Antichrist"? A decade earlier, some had suspected that Saddam Hussein was the Antichrist. Before him, suspicion had fallen on Mikhail Gorbachev. Even today, some still consider Adolf Hitler the personification of the Antichrist. Surrounded by these ideas—and this confusion—can we really know? Can it be proved from the Bible who or what the "Antichrist" really is? Just Remember, men have all kinds of theories about this subject. The evangelical leader Jerry Falwell opined that the coming Antichrist will probably be Jewish, and that he will be from the tribe of Dan. What Mr. Falwell apparently does not understand is that the Israelitish tribe of Dan split off from Judah—or the "Jews"—thousands of years ago, and is an entirely different people! Historically, most Protestant theologians of past generations assumed that the pope of Rome was the "Antichrist." In fact, the primary human founder of Protestantism, Martin Luther, declared on August 18, 1520: "We here are of the conviction that the papacy is the seat of the true and real Antichrist".