My father, Timothy, was a preacher, pastor and missionary who specialized in Hebrew and Greek and prophetic scripture. From a very young age, I was raised to think of the world in terms of where it was going in this context. As a Baby Boomer at the height of the American Dream, I had some trouble aligning the dark horrors of an apocalyptic future with the seemingly calm world around me. The world of chaotic evil described in Daniel, Ezekiel and Revelation, along with related warnings by Jesus, Paul and others, seemed to describe something remote. There was a gulf between normal life and the darkness to come. So much had to change for the world to become a matrix that could engender the one-world government of the Antichrist. I’ve thought about the changes necessary for such a world to exist – from socially accepted perversion, twisted thought and non-Christian devolution to technological advances and systemic changes. In the Eisenhower and Kennedy years, it was incredible that the world could change enough to allow the Apocalypse.

In thinking of the End Times, one always had to consider “How could this happen?” It was a world with strong and separate nations, including many advanced democracies. How could it happen that someone could take power and become an all-powerful Antichrist? Other than getting a tattoo, how could this ruler implement a “Mark of the Beast?” And how could that be used to control people’s lives? Israel and the Jews were rising triumphant from the shadows of the Holocaust, and except for the dark pockets of haters here and there, this group was something to admire. In America, the ideas of free speech and free thought were venerated, and the church and family were trusted to rear children prepared to take power in the next generation. So much had to change and go wrong to make the End Times make sense.

For every box on the apocalyptic checklist, one had to ask oneself, “How could it happen?”

Today that’s an answer that is frighteningly easy to imagine. Most of those boxes are already checked, and none are unimaginable.

Take a look at some of the most egregious examples:

In Congressional hearings this week, representatives of Ivy League universities such as Harvard, M.I.T. and Pennsylvania were on the hot seat for the uncontrolled anti-Semitism in growing mobs on their campuses, with both students and faculty calling for genocide against the Jews. The institution of the church is almost inconsequential. And the idea of the “traditional family,” with its nurturing of values, monogamy, marriage, and even the idea of biological gender is “quaint” at best, and regressive and harmful in the minds of much of society.

So in this context, can you see how the rise of the Antichrist can happen? This is a person who could well already be known and active. He is prophesied to arise out of the Roman empire, which covers a lot of ground, historically. The British, French, Dutch, Portuguese and German empires fit in this category, so counting historical colonies, that circles the globe. It includes Europe, the Western Hemisphere, Australia and New Zealand, for example. We can leave out Asia, but they have their own place in the Apocalypse.

But the Antichrist… how could it happen? This person will be seen as a man of peace. He will broker a peace treaty that guarantees the safety of Israel. And this seven-year treaty will be seen as a groundbreaking solution to Middle East violence.

Now you see it? There is a vicious battle going on today between Israel and her enemies. The cycle of wars brought on by Sisyphean assaults on Israel must be ended – at least for a time. Something like a temporary cease-fire while the issues are worked out. And the person who can broker this deal? He’s the hero of the hour. Worthy of honor and veneration by billions.

How could it happen? With the headlines starting to read like the book of Revelation, the real question today is: How could it not happen…