Have you seen this picture? It’s a remarkable little snapshot of history. There, lined up in the foreground like aging rock stars, are four smiling Middle Eastern luminaries: Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh, Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi, and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. They are gathered with other regional leaders at the Afro-Arab summit in Libya.

The photo was taken last October.

Not even a year ago.

What a year. Within three months of that portrait being snapped, Ben Ali was booted from power. Another month later, Mubarak was gone. Now Qadhafi is also out. Saleh is the only one still in office, and he has been under intense pressure to vacate all year; he has broken a promise to step down, and survived an assassination attempt.

It’s all so stunning and revolutionary—and yet, it has practically become commonplace in our world. Momentous, once-in-a-generation-type events are happening about every week.

Just this past summer, in the Levant alone we’ve witnessed war in Libya; the “Arab Spring” transforming Egypt; the Sinai falling to extremists; renewed violence in Israel; Syria’s regime clinging to power by killing protesters; an Iranian Revolutionary Guardsman become president of opec; and Turkey expelling Israel’s ambassador, another nail in the coffin of a formerly region-defining alliance.

Do you know what this means? It all adds up to a great lurch forward in the fulfillment of what the Trumpet has told readers for years to expect in that region. We have said that Iran would grow in strength; that it would lead a coalition of extremists; that Egypt and Libya would be among them; that Israel would be increasingly isolated; and that violence would engulf the Jewish state. Why? For one remarkable reason: because these are the trends and events the Bible says will signal the end of the age.

That’s right: The end of the world as we know it. The Trumpet has written about it for decades, and now we are watching that biblical model lining up, step by extraordinary step!

Given the nature and pace of current events, it is not at all difficult to imagine the remaining few steps occurring rapidly—putting us quite suddenly into the midst of what the Bible terms “great tribulation,” an apocalyptic end-of-the-world nightmare.

We are particularly focused on a trigger event described by the Prophet Zechariah: half of Jerusalem falling to Arab control in an explosion of violence. The United Nations’ vote on Palestinian statehood later this month could put enormous pressure on Israel and dramatically hasten that event.

The Middle East, though, is only one area where you see this pattern. As extraordinary as events there have been, the rest of the world has been just as volatile—and just as significant in terms of falling in line with scriptural end-time scenarios.

For years, the Trumpet has drawn attention to four major geopolitical power blocs that dominate end-time prophecies, and the major trend to watch for in each. The first, as mentioned, is the rise of Iran and radical Islam. The other three are: the rise of a German-led European empire; the coalescing of an Asian bloc under Chinese and Russian leadership; and the fall of Anglo-America.

Again, in each of these three areas, this past summer witnessed breathtaking advancements!

Europe is in the midst of a continent-shaking economic crisis. Amid the turmoil, certain realities are becoming unmistakably clear: the fact of Germany’s dominance and its increasing leverage over other European nations; the need for fundamental restructuring of the financial and even political make-up of the union; and the need for decisive power vested in a single political office. The status quo simply cannot hold; radical transformation is imminent. The groundwork is laid for the swift emergence of a new order. Germany is asserting itself more and more. Ever more severe solutions are being put forward each week. And Eurocrats could well be creating the office of a European führer—a single strong leader to marshal Europe’s energies and provide the solutions for which Europeans are crying out.

Moving east, this summer China cemented both its future at the center of Asia and its relationship with Russia. In July the U.S.’s top military officer, Adm. Mike Mullen, said it was no longer appropriate to describe China as a “rising power”—he said it “has arrived as a world power.” Nations throughout the region and beyond are acknowledging its mercurial military development; several of China’s neighbors are hastily adjusting their policies to be far more accommodating of Beijing. Meanwhile, India and Pakistan are being considered for membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Asian security bloc dominated by China and Russia. The makings of a mammoth Asian super-alliance are in place.

Finally, the declivitous fall of the Anglo-American nations visibly accelerated this summer. Headlines have been overwhelmed by curse after curse. America has been hammered by crazy weather including record drought and heat, killer tornadoes and Hurricane Irene. The lawlessness of flash mobs, racial violence and burning cities has exposed the explosive potential of devastating social disorder in our cities. The U.S. credit rating being downgraded simply highlighted the insoluble nature of America’s economic woes; loss of confidence could send the dollar’s value plummeting virtually overnight.

The point is, in each of these major areas, events are happening so quickly. Circumstances are now poised to rapidly fulfill the most dramatic of end-time prophecies!

The human tendency is to “put far away the evil day.” In Jesus Christ’s pivotal prophecy, describing the signs that would precede His Second Coming, He warned against complacency—so common to our human nature. In the days before Noah’s Flood, He said, people were carrying on about their lives as if things would never change—right up to the day Noah entered the ark and the deluge came. “So shall also the coming of the Son of man be,” He said (Matthew 24:36-39).

“Watch therefore,” He continued: “be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (verses 42, 44).

Looking at present conditions, we need to realize just how quickly the evil day could be upon us. Several factors suggest everything could unfold with shocking rapidity.

Biblical prophecy shows that the entire period of the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord will last a mere 3½ years. Study those prophecies (you can get a good overview of them by reading our January 2002 special issue), and you realize that those 42 months will witness an absolute blur of violent clashing among volatile and unstable empires and would-be empires. How strong, how coalesced, do these powers really have to be before bam!—we are right in the middle of these fearsome fireworks?

Prophetically speaking, the “king of the south” is only strong enough to rouse its enemy to wipe it out. Iran gets the bomb—Iraq, Egypt, Libya and Ethiopia complete their transformation into havens of Iran-style extremism—and it’s done.

As impressive as the European empire is going to be (read Revelation 17 and 18), it will be a power of “iron and miry clay” (Daniel 2:40-41) that dominates for only about 30 months. It is cruel and destructive but hardly enduring—a flash in the pan by historical standards. Under the right leadership, such an insecure entity could rise up with startling speed.

For Asia, the stage is well and truly set. Surely the “kings of the east” wouldn’t have to be much more associated than they already are—particularly considering how much Europe’s rise will hasten that process—before stepping into their biblically prophesied role (see Russia and China in Prophecy).

Perhaps you’ve mulled some of those prophecies for years. Do you realize just how soon they could be full-blown reality?

Are you ready? “[T]ake heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares,” Christ warned. “For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth” (Luke 21:34-35).

Woe to those caught in that snare! And Christ said it would entrap the vast majority—“all them that dwell” on Earth. But He gave this warning so you could be among the few who escape it (verse 36).

Remarkably, though, once that snare snaps shut—then just 3½ years later comes this: “And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (verse 27). It will be the longest, most excruciating 3½ years in human history—but still: In the big picture, 3½ years is a mere blink in time.

Take a snapshot of the world as it is today. People remain confident in their own power; they smile, secure in their minds in the illusion of permanence. Meanwhile, forces outside the frame and beyond their understanding conspire to topple them.

Very soon, we will be able to look back at that snapshot—and marvel over how quickly everything changed.