These commentaries have for months been devoted in large measure to examining the building economic bubble that threatens to bring about worldwide cataclysm. I have written on, for example, things like the crisis involving collapsing currencies around the world, which is feared to be creating irreparable cracks in global financial structures.

Things stand out starkly.

• I am amazed that the economic bubble hasn’t burst;
• I believe that the longer the crises build, the greater will be the explosion;
• I maintain that only the staying hand of God has thus far prevented it from bursting; and
• I am of the opinion that it will likely be the Rapture of the church that will pop that bubble.

I was under the illusion that second only to Israel’s position at the center of world controversy; the impending global economic catastrophe has to be the next most profound signal of how near the very end of the age this generation finds us. Jesus, of course, didn’t first specifically mention either Israel or the global economy as being the most significant signs of His return when His disciples asked Him directly. He did, however, mention the subject of this commentary: “And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Matthew 24:3).

The Lord described a number of things that would be on the world scene at the time He would return to planet earth–or at least above the earth. Among the first signals He mentioned are in the following: “And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” (Matthew 24:6-7a).

As prophetically stunning as Israel being at stage-center is the global economic cataclysm looming above this rebellious, judgment-bound planet. The sudden proliferation of potentially world-rending military conflicts on the prophetic horizon is equally astonishing. “Rumors of war” are literally in every direction we look. We will have brief looks at a number of the “rumors of war” presently front and center in the news:

U.S. deploys B-52 bombers to Qatar for fight against Islamic State
The U.S. Air Force deployed B-52 bombers to Qatar on Saturday to join the fight against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the first time they have been based in the Middle East since the end of the Gulf War in 1991. U.S. Air Forces Central Command said it last flew the long-range bombers operationally in the region in May 2006 as part of the war in Afghanistan, and during a U.S.-led military exercise in Jordan in May 2015.

North Korea ‘tests long-range missile engine’
North Korea says it has successfully tested an engine designed for an intercontinental ballistic missile. The new type of engine would “guarantee” the ability to launch a nuclear strike on the US mainland, the KCNA news agency said. The test was conducted at the country’s long-range missile launch site near its west coast.

Syria’s Assad shows no willingness to compromise
As the Syria peace talks resume next week, President Bashar al-Assad, backed militarily by Iran and Russia, shows no willingness to compromise, much less step aside to allow a transition Western powers claim is the solution to the conflict.

Rumors of war are indeed rampant upon today’s prophetic horizon. With the impending threats and military preparations, it becomes clear the coming “sudden destruction” of Paul’s forewarning (1 Thessalonians 5:3) cannot be far distant in time. Jesus’ words foretelling what this world faces when the Rapture occurs are starkly in view at this very moment.

“And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.” (Luke 17:26-29).