The entire world is on high alert because of the coronavirus that is spreading quickly. More than six hundred have died from the disease as of this writing. China, the country from which it emanates, has millions of people under quarantine.

There is no known cure, and experts report that it will possibly take years to develop a vaccine to cure or prevent its spread. Agencies responsible for controlling the virus fear a pandemic—a worldwide spread of the deadly disease.

Air travel makes the spread of the virus almost impossible to curtail. American Airlines is reportedly being sued by its employees in order to prevent the company from sending crews around the world, placing them at risk for exposure.

The fear generated by the spread of coronavirus affected not only the worldwide medical industry, but also the global economy.

Friday, January 31, the Dow Jones Industrial Averages closed down around 600 points. This generated anxiety among some who are already predicting any-moment global financial collapse. It caused one observer to weigh in with increased forewarnings. The day before the 600-point decline, he wrote:

In the light of the Coronavirus, which is spreading with no end in sight, more people are feeling compelled to ask the question, will the global economy fail? Some are predicting that the global economy, including the US economy will fail due to the introduction of new factors such as the Coronavirus…

Before the introduction of the Coronavirus, the global economy was already in deep trouble. What people should know is that back in December of 2019, before the Coronavirus went active, the global economy was on the verge of collapse…

Many economists that I have spoken to are concerned that the global economy will continue to decline as a result of the Coronavirus. Do these fears have merit? It does not matter. Perception drives reality. If the people on this planet believe that their health is threatened by this virus, the global economy, already on thin ice, will collapse. (Dave Hodges, “Will the Coronavirus Cause a Global Economic Collapse? The BDI Says Yes!” January 30, 2020)

The economy snapped back in an almost flabbergasting way this week. It seems even this world-wide threat can’t hold back the tremendous perception that  a profound economic boom is still on the upswing.

It is my belief more intensely than ever that the Rapture will occur in the midst of just such an economic boom as is presently perceived.

To some prophecy watchers, this newest of the threats to millions around the world is yet another of the converging signs that the end of the age is at hand. It ranks up there with earthquakes taking place daily, like the one a couple of weeks ago so powerful that it was felt strongly in Miami.

Bible prophecy, of course, tells that such virulent diseases will be prevalent during the Tribulation, the last seven years preceding Christ’s Second Advent. Jesus briefed His disciples about this coming assault as He sat on the Mount of Olives just before His crucifixion:

For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. (Matthew 24:7, 8)

My friend Chuck Missler, one of the great prophecy teachers, spoke about this passage. I remember listening with fascination while he waxed eloquent on what he thought the word “pestilence” in Jesus’ foretelling might mean. He equated the term to one found in another prophetic Scripture:

I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.(Revelation 6: 8)

Chuck, as I recall, postulated that the word “pestilence” in Jesus’ Olivet Discourse might be the same as the words “wild beasts” in the Revelation 6: 8 passage about the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.

He put forth the thought that “wild beasts” could well mean what he termed “micro-beasts”—i.e., not necessarily only literal, four-footed animals like lions and bears, but perhaps voracious, flesh-eating and destroying entities that can be seen only under powerful microscopes. He suggested the term might indicate microbes—germs—of such virulence that they could not be detected or destroyed before they have done their deadly work.   

Missler wrote:

There was a time not long ago when the medical profession felt they had most of the major diseases licked, and for the rest it was just a matter of time.

Now that former optimism appears tragically premature. Many of the previously “defeated” diseases are making a comeback, in hardier strains which are resisting our former treatments.…

The rapidity with which diseases, emergent or deliberate, can pass through our “global village” is terrifyingly real.

With modern air travel and global commerce, as well as our present understanding of modern biotechnology, the Biblical predictions now seem frighteningly imminent. (“Emergent and Deliberate Diseases,” Koinonia House, February 1, 1998)

The world’s top biological scientists and medical professionals have done much to defeat new and mutating bacteria and viruses since Missler wrote about these matters years ago. However, rather than stopping the progress of these “micro-beasts,” all efforts have been ineffective. for the most part. The ”beasts” are proliferating and are becoming more virulent.

Daniel’s prophecy about exponential travel (Daniel 12: 4) is now on an ever-increasing pathway to fulfillment, greatly escalating the ability of the micro-beasts to invade new human hosts around the globe Yet, we haven’t reached that time of Tribulation forewarned by Jesus while He answered the disciple’s questions about what the future holds.

Nonetheless, the coronavirus is certainly an indicator to add to all the other signals of that time just ahead, about which Jesus declared:

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. (Matthew 24:21)    

This commentary is written as the Trump administration’s long-awaited peace plan in the Middle East apparently is on its way. As a result, tensions on Mt. Moriah—the Temple Mount—are building.

President Trump said Thursday, January 23, 2020, that he will likely announce the plan before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz’s visit to the US on Tuesday, January 28.

He told reporters while on a flight to Florida that the announcement would come “sometime prior to that…probably, we’ll release it a little bit prior to [the Israelis’ visit].”

He later walked back the statement, tweeting that the timeline was purely speculative at this point.

If those plans are ultimately carried through, however, it will be not only a significant event for what’s going on politically in America, but, more importantly in terms of heaven’s considerations, something that will rivet the attention of those who watch for prophetic stage-setting.

The Muslim world in particular is already up in arms, emotionally at least. Israel, of course, is at the center of rage and volatility.

Tensions were high on the Temple Mount amid calls for mass attendance at Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque and reports that the Trump Administration’s Deal of the Century peace plan would be released within the week.

Israeli security forces arrested multiple Palestinian activists in Jerusalem and dispersed worshipers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, as Palestinians continued to call for mass attendance at Friday dawn prayers at holy sites throughout the West Bank and Gaza. At least two people were injured on the Temple Mount as police used stun grenades and rubber bullets, according to the Palestinian Quds news. One worshiper was arrested. (“Tensions High on Temple Mount Amid Peace Plan Reports,” Jerusalem Post, Rapture Ready News, January 24, 2020)

The Deal of the Century, as it has become known, has long been on the Trump administration’s agenda. The Israel-hating Muslim world and the overwhelmingly anti-Israel forces prevalent in the UN know that this president follows up on promises. This has doubly ratcheted up tensions surrounding Trump’s comment to reporters.

Indications are strong that something is indeed in the making, because actions to prepare for probable troubles began well in advance of the president’s remark.

Preparations for possible clashes began even before initial reports about the possible imminent release of the Deal of the Century. Israel Police signed orders to keep Palestinian activists from the site due to fears that clashes could break out similarly to last week, when similar calls were made for mass attendance for Friday prayers at the mosque. Police have been instructed to disperse any disturbances by force. (Ibid.)

Hamas called for the world of Islam to come to alert. In a press release, the organization declared:

 The Israeli occupation’s attempts to judaize Jerusalem and holy sites are an alarming sign that must prompt our Arab and Islamic Ummah (community), along with the free people of the world to intervene immediately. We call for similar Fajr prayers to be organized in all Arab and Islamic capitals for the sake of Al-Aqsa and holy places in Palestine.

As any Middle East observer knows, when it comes to the Muslim world, the actions taken rarely stay within the boundaries of “prayers.” Any action by the president in conjunction with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government will be met with elevated hostility. In the matter of laying out the areas surrounding the Temple Mount, there is a potential for war, bringing the millions of the Muslim world into the fray.

This is the fear of UN diplomats and the geopoliticians. However, it is not the fear of students of Bible prophecy. All-out war will not occur—at least, not in the sense of world-rending calamity.

A peace of sorts will be made, the “false peace” of Daniel 9:26–27. It will indeed bring on all-out war, the war called Armageddon.

And this is what we who are prophecy students and observers of world issues and events must caution: That “false peace” will initiate man’s greatest of all wars.

Joel, the prophet, gave the lethal formula that will produce this final war of the age. We’ve looked at it many times:

I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. (Joel 3:2)

We who observe end-times issues and events in light of God’s Word must urge President Trump about the deadly folly of “parting” God’s chosen land to try to make peace in the region. We hope the president listens to voices like Dr. Robert Jefress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas. These, we hope, will inform the president in explicit terms. Don’t be complicit in setting the stage for producing the deadly “peace” predicted by Daniel the prophet.