IT WAS not so long ago that we were hearing how CERN’s Large Hadron Collider would produce planet-destroying black holes. Now Dan Brown’s blockbuster, due to hit the big screen next month, provides us with another supposed danger emanating from the particle physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland: antimatter, the seed of a weapon of unsurpassed destructive power.

While Brown’s take on antimatter is fictional, the stuff certainly isn’t. We see its signature in cosmic rays, and it is routinely made in high-energy collisions inside particle smashers the world over. In hospitals, radioactive molecules that emit antimatter particles are used for imaging in the technique known as positron emission tomography.

Brown was right about one thing, though: if you want answers to the burning questions of antimatter, CERN is the place to go.

Where is all the antimatter?

If you were to list the imperfections of the standard model – physicists’ remarkably successful description of matter and its interactions – pretty high up would have to be its prediction that we don’t exist.

According to the theory, matter and antimatter were created in equal amounts at the big bang. By rights, they should have annihilated each other totally in the first second or so of the universe’s existence. The cosmos should be full of light and little else.

And yet here we are. So too are planets, stars and galaxies; all, as far as we can see, made exclusively out of matter. Reality 1, theory 0.

There are two plausible solutions to this existential mystery. First, there might be some subtle difference in the physics of matter and antimatter that left the early universe with a surplus of matter. While theory predicts that the antimatter world is a perfect reflection of our own, experiments have already found suspicious scratches in the mirror. In 1998, CERN experiments showed that one particular exotic particle, the kaon, turned into its antiparticle slightly more often than the reverse happened, creating a tiny imbalance between the two.

That lead was followed up by experiments at accelerators in California and Japan, which in 2001 uncovered a similar, more pronounced asymmetry among heavier cousins of the kaons known as B mesons. Once the LHC at CERN is back up and running later this year, its LHCb experiment will use a 4500-tonne detector to spy out billions of B mesons and pin down their secrets more exactly.

But LHCb won’t necessarily provide the final word on where all that antimatter went. "The effects seem too small to explain the large-scale asymmetry," says Frank Close, a particle physicist at the University of Oxford.

The second plausible answer to the matter mystery is that annihilation was not total in those first few seconds: somehow, matter and antimatter managed to escape each other’s fatal grasp. Somewhere out there, in some mirror region of the cosmos, antimatter is lurking and has coalesced into anti-stars, anti-galaxies and maybe even anti-life.

"It’s not such a daft idea," says Close. When a hot magnet cools, he points out, individual atoms can force their neighbours to align with magnetic fields, creating domains of magnetism pointing in different directions. A similar thing could have happened as the universe cooled after the big bang. "You might initially have a little extra matter over here and a little extra antimatter somewhere else," he says. Those small differences could expand into large separate regions over time.

These antimatter domains, if they exist, are certainly not nearby. Annihilation at the borders between areas of stars and anti-stars would produce an unmistakable signature of high-energy gamma rays. If a whole anti-galaxy were to collide with a regular galaxy, the resulting annihilation would be of unimaginably colossal proportions. We haven’t seen any such sign, but then again there’s a lot of universe that we haven’t looked at yet – and whole regions of it that are too far away ever to see.

Finding anti-helium or other anti-atoms heavier than hydrogen would be concrete evidence for an anti-cosmos. It would imply that anti-stars are cooking up anti-atoms through nuclear fusion, just as regular stars fuse normal atoms. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer is a $1.5 billion piece of kit built to scour cosmic rays for just such signs. It is grounded at the moment, waiting for a lift up to the International Space Station, but will hopefully hitch a ride on one of NASA’s final space shuttle launches in 2010 or 2011.

How do you make antimatter?

If we really wish to fathom the mysteries of antimatter, we must first get to grips with the stuff itself. Easier said than done. How on earth do you pin down a substance that vanishes the moment it touches anything?

Two CERN experiments, ATRAP and ALPHA, are grappling with that question. Their aim is to make antihydrogen – the simplest anti-atom possible, just an antiproton and a positron bound together – in sufficient quantity and for long enough to compare the spectrum of light it emits with that of regular hydrogen. Even the slightest difference between the two would shake up the standard model.

The experiments require a near-perfect vacuum, as encountering a mere atom of air would spell the end for any antiparticle, and there must be some way of trapping the antiparticles: not in a conventional container, but using electric and magnetic fields.

ATRAP and ATHENA, ALPHA’s forerunner, did successfully isolate antihydrogen in 2002, bringing together antiprotons from a particle accelerator and positrons from a sodium radioactive source in a magnetic trap. Unfortunately, such success is fleeting: magnetic traps work just fine for charged particles such as antiprotons and positrons, but antihydrogen is neutral, so it can slip right through the containing field lines.

It’s a problem ATRAP and ALPHA are still working on. "Capturing antihydrogen atoms is the current frontier, and it’s a challenge," says Rolf Landua, a physicist at CERN who advised on the Angels and Demons movie and is rumoured to be the inspiration for Leonardo Vetra, an antimatter scientist in the original story. "So far nobody has managed to do it, but I’m pretty sure we will." Still, encasing a smouldering chunk of antimatter in a portable antihydrogen trap as happens in the book is a quite a way off, he says.

Does antimatter fall up?

Gravity, we think, works the same way on all matter. But what about antimatter?

AEGIS, a CERN experiment that has just been given the go-ahead, is designed to find out. Gravity is a relatively weak force, so the experiment will use uncharged particles to prevent electromagnetic forces drowning out gravitational effects. It will first build highly unstable pairings of electrons and positrons, known as positronium, then excite then with lasers to prevent them annihilating too quickly. Clouds of antiprotons will rip these pairs apart, stealing their positrons to create neutral antihydrogen atoms.

Pulses of these anti-atoms shot horizontally through two grids of slits will create a fine pattern of impact and shadow on a detector screen. By measuring how the position of this pattern is displaced, the strength – and direction – of the gravitational force on antimatter can be measured.

It’s a clever idea, but the devil is in the detail, says AEGIS spokesman Michael Doser. "No one has ever made controlled positronium like this, nobody has ever made a positronium excited state with lasers in an environment like this and nobody has ever made an antihydrogen pulse like this."

If the researchers succeed, it will be well worth the effort. If gravity does affect antimatter differently, it will tell us something not just about antimatter but also about the fundamental theories that underpin modern physics. Einstein’s general relativity, the currently favoured theory of gravity, tells us that the force should work identically on any type of matter. Equally, the standard model predicts that matter and antimatter are identical to all intents and purposes. "If we find that either of these things differ," says Landua, "then we have found something extremely important."

Doser is hedging his bets. "I’ll wager a crate of champagne that we won’t see a difference," he says. "But I’d gladly lose that crate."

Can we make an anti-world?

At the moment physicists are having enough difficulty just taming antihydrogen, the simplest possible anti-atom. Can we ever expect them to make antihelium, and then organic antimolecules made from anticarbon and a whole anti-periodic table, too?

The problem here is that every anti-atom has to be built one subatomic antiparticle at a time. For example, if you want to make antideuterium – like antihydrogen, but with an added antineutron – you first have to make the antineutron. Antineutrons are neutral, making them impossible to steer in the conventional way with electromagnetic fields, so you just have to make great numbers of them and hope that for every million or so antineutrons you make, one ends up in the right place to make an antideuterium atom. "And for every further antineutron or antiproton you add, you lose another factor of a million," says Doser.

While no one’s cracked that problem yet, one experiment at CERN is making use of a neat short cut to at least make something other than antihydrogen. ASACUSA has created atoms of "antiprotonic helium", in which one of the electrons orbiting a helium nucleus is replaced by an antiproton. By studying the light spectra emitted by this composite matter-antimatter atom, the electrical and magnetic properties of the antiproton can be measured with great precision – and compared with those of a regular proton.

As for our chances of making anything more complex, Close is pessimistic, saying it will take a billion years, give or take. "It depends on how long the human race lasts," he says. It seems that our best bet for spying more exotic elements of the anti-periodic table is to look up at the sky – and hope that somewhere antistars are busy churning them out for us.

What about antimatter bombs?

The idea that humanity might one day harness the annihilative power of antimatter for destructive purposes has a ghastly fascination – and it’s a central part of the Angels and Demons plot, in which a bomb containing just a quarter of a gram of antimatter threatens to obliterate the Vatican.

Relax, says Landua. There’s a very good reason why nothing like that is going to happen any time soon. "If you add up all the antimatter we have made in more than 30 years of antimatter physics here at CERN, and if you were very generous, you might get 10 billionths of a gram," he says. "Even if that exploded on your fingertip it would be no more dangerous than lighting a match." Patients undergoing PET scans have natural radioactive atoms in their bloodstreams emitting tens of millions, if not more, positrons to no ill effect.

Even if physicists could make enough antimatter to build a viable bomb, the cost would be astronomical. "A gram might cost a million billion dollars," says Landua. "That’s probably more than Barack Obama wants to invest right now." Close points out the time problem, too. "It would take us 10 billion years to assemble enough anti-stuff to make the bomb Dan Brown talks about," he says.

If that seems reassuring, unfortunately the same kind of reasoning does for antimatter as a clean, green energy source. "Maybe it would work if there were lumps of antimatter that nature had spent 15 billion years making for us," says Close. As it is, we would have to make them one anti-atom at a time, which costs far more energy to make it than we would get out of it – about a billion times more, says Landua.

That’s not to say we can’t harness antimatter in new ways. In 2007, physicists David Cassidy and Allen Mills of the University of California, Riverside, made the first molecules comprised of more than one positronium atom. Positronium atoms quickly annihilate into high-energy gamma rays, so pack lots of them together, and it should be possibly to get them annihilating and emitting light in synchrony – creating an enormously high-powered "gamma-ray annihilation laser" that could be used to image objects as small as atomic nuclei, or to set off nuclear fusion in reactors.

Friday, June 2, 2006; Posted: 12:36 p.m. EDT (16:36 GMT)

Scientists have yet to identify these unusual red particles.

Manage Alerts What Is This? (PopSci.com) — As bizarre as it may seem, the sample jars brimming with cloudy, reddish rainwater in Godfrey Louis’s laboratory in southern India may hold, well, aliens.

In April, Louis, a solid-state physicist at Mahatma Gandhi University, published a paper in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Astrophysics and Space Science in which he hypothesizes that the samples — water taken from the mysterious blood-colored showers that fell sporadically across Louis’s home state of Kerala in the summer of 2001 — contain microbes from outer space.

Specifically, Louis has isolated strange, thick-walled, red-tinted cell-like structures about 10 microns in size. Stranger still, dozens of his experiments suggest that the particles may lack DNA yet still reproduce plentifully, even in water superheated to nearly 600 degrees Fahrenheit . (The known upper limit for life in water is about 250 degrees Fahrenheit .)

So how to explain them? Louis speculates that the particles could be extraterrestrial bacteria adapted to the harsh conditions of space and that the microbes hitched a ride on a comet or meteorite that later broke apart in the upper atmosphere and mixed with rain clouds above India.

If his theory proves correct, the cells would be the first confirmed evidence of alien life and, as such, could yield tantalizing new clues to the origins of life on Earth.

Last winter, Louis sent some of his samples to astronomer Chandra Wickramasinghe and his colleagues at Cardiff University in Wales, who are now attempting to replicate his experiments; Wickramasinghe expects to publish his initial findings later this year.

Meanwhile, more down-to-earth theories abound. One Indian government investigation conducted in 2001 lays blame for what some have called the “blood rains” on algae.

Other theories have implicated fungal spores, red dust swept up from the Arabian peninsula, even a fine mist of blood cells produced by a meteor striking a high-flying flock of bats.

Louis and his colleagues dismiss all these theories, pointing to the fact that both algae and fungus possess DNA and that blood cells have thin walls and die quickly when exposed to water and air.

More important, they argue, blood cells don’t replicate. “We’ve already got some stunning pictures — transmission electron micrographs — of these cells sliced in the middle,” Wickramasinghe says. “We see them budding, with little daughter cells inside the big cells.”

Louis’s theory holds special appeal for Wickramasinghe. A quarter of a century ago, he co-authored the modern theory of panspermia, which posits that bacteria-riddled space rocks seeded life on Earth.

“If it’s true that life was introduced by comets four billion years ago,” the astronomer says, “one would expect that microorganisms are still injected into our environment from time to time. This could be one of those events.”

The next significant step, explains University of Sheffield microbiologist Milton Wainwright, who is part of another British team now studying Louis’s samples, is to confirm whether the cells truly lack DNA. So far, one preliminary DNA test has come back positive.

“Life as we know it must contain DNA, or it’s not life,” he says. “But even if this organism proves to be an anomaly, the absence of DNA wouldn’t necessarily mean it’s extraterrestrial.”

Louis and Wickramasinghe are planning further experiments to test the cells for specific carbon isotopes. If the results fall outside the norms for life on Earth, it would be powerful new evidence for Louis’s idea, of which even Louis himself remains skeptical.

Last Thursday, Dec. 23, scientists announced that a space rock named 2004 MN4 had about a 1-in-300 chance of striking Earth on April 13, 2029. On Friday, the risk was upgraded as more observations rolled in. The asteroid was given an unprecedented risk rating of 4 on the Torino Scale, which means it warrants careful monitoring. The odds at various times were put at 1-in-63 and 1-in-45.

As of Monday, the chances of an impact on April 13, 2029 stood at about 1-in-40, or 2.6 percent.

Experts point out that means a 97.4 percent chance the giant boulder will miss, and they stress that the odds are likely to go down to zero, eventually, when more detailed observations of its path are made. Significant revision — if it comes — probably won’t happen soon.

“Slow changes should be expected for the next days and weeks, but probably nothing too dramatic unless the Arecibo [Observatory] radar weighs in late January or early February,” Don Yeomans, as asteroid expert at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told SPACE.com on Monday.

For night after night, France endured riots that spread to 300 French cities. The trouble began on October 27, 2005, when three Muslim youths were chased by French police. The three attempted to elude police by seeking sanctuary in a power substation, and two of the young men were subsequently electrocuted. The other man was injured but survived. Muslims blame the police for their deaths, claiming that they purposely cornered the men in the substation. This event immediately sparked riots in the low income Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois. The rioters are primarily youths born of Arab and African immigrants in poor suburbs. These areas that are on the margins of society are fertile soil for Muslim extremists.

The main target in the rioting has been vehicles. Thus far, 4,700 cars have been torched. About 1,400 vehicles were torched on Sunday night (11/6/05) alone. However, arsonists have also burned two schools. Approximately 1,200 suspects have been detained. The problem at this point is that the destruction shows no signs of abating. It has already spilled over into Belgium and Germany. And there are fears that it may continue to spread.

France is home to five million Muslims — the largest population of Muslims in western Europe. And while jihad may not be the inspiration for the rioters, it is undeniably an inseparable component, creating solidarity among the rioters. It appears that a full-fledge intifada (“uprising”) is unfolding on Paris’ doorstep. In this entire episode there is a prevalent “us” versus “them” mentality on the part of the Muslim rioters. During the uprising one reporter stated that thousand of Muslims were shouting “Allahu Akbar” from windows of high-rise apartment buildings. This has exacerbated fears among some French citizens of an all-out Muslim revolution.

The flames of France have served to further unveil the religio-cultural divide between east and west, and the lengths that Muslims will go to force the west to bow to their demands. French President Jacques Chirac has already passively admitted that the French are at fault for failing to fully integrate these immigrants into the larger society. Passive concessions are fine for now, but eventually a strong hand will be needed.

As jihad continues to come to Europe’s doorstep, Europeans will eventually tire of Muslim terror and the ever-present threat of oil blackmail. What will be the solution? Centralized power in the hands of an oligarchy and eventually one man who will enforce peace and keep the Middle Eastern oil flowing. Dictatorship and iron-fisted power is the only form of government that can effectively crush terror. The current governments of Europe are ill-equipped to crush terror and maintain peace. People in Europe will gladly give authority to a ten-king (leader) ruling body, as Daniel 2 and 7 predict, if they can insure continued peace and prosperity.

What we see in Europe right now shows that the main power blocs of the end times are already taking shape. Russia and the Arab/Islamic nations are coming together against Europe and the West. Current events in France are a faint foreshadow of what will continue as the cleavage between east and west continues to grow. The ten-king government of Europe and eventually the rule of Antichrist may not be far behind.

Mark Hitchcock is contributing editor of the Left Behind Prophecy Club newsletter. He is pastor of Faith Bible Church in Edmonds, Oklahoma and a nationally recognized prophecy author and speaker. Mark is the author of several books, including “Is America In Bible Prophecy?”

The truth is I am not a psychic, or a prophet, and I don’t call 900-numbers in the middle of the night to get story ideas. But I do believe that a careful study of the Scriptures as well as of political and economic trend lines can give us a very real sense of what the future will hold.

The following are four headlines I believe we will read in the not-too-distant future.

Future Headline #1:U.N. DEMANDS THAT ISRAEL GIVE UP HER NUCLEAR ARSENAL
The U.S. and Europe are currently pressuring Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions, and pressuring Russia to stop selling Iran nuclear technology and fuel. It is the right thing to do, as nuclear armed radical Islamic mullahs would pose an existential threat to the U.S. and the rest of the free world. But watch for Iran to mount an aggressive counter-punch soon. In a bid to turn the attention away from their own dangerous behavior, expect Tehran to urge the U.N. to pressure Israel to give up the two hundred or so nuclear warheads the Jewish State is believed to possess.

Such a case will be echoed by non-nuclear Arab states with reasonably good ties to the West, such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and I believe they will quickly find strong support among major European powers. France, Germany and Russia would likely be among those who join an international effort to pressure Israel to disarm, and Great Britain might join in as well.

What would the U.S. do? Would the White House stand behind Israel’s right to self defense, or agree that Israel should sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) along with among every other country on the face of the planet? It depends on the President and the mood of the country. Such a scenario is a key component of my next novel, The Ezekiel Option, launching at the end of June. But it is not fiction. I believe it is a headline that will written all too soon.

Future Headline #2: WEALTH POURS INTO IRAQ AS OIL INDUSTRY BOOMS
Today’s headlines out of Iraq are filled with car bombs and suicide bombers and snipers and violence of all kinds. But it will not always be so. The country we know today as Iraq was long known in the Bible as the country of Babylon or Babylonia. The Hebrew Prophets Jeremiah and Isaiah as well as the Apostle John who wrote the Book of Revelation make it clear that in the last days before the return of Jesus Christ, Babylon will be the most powerful country in the world and the home base of the Anti-Christ. Rather than be consumed by violence, Iraq will be an exporter of violence.

That being the case, we can expect the current strife to come to an end before long so that a “new Babylon” can emerge. As Iraq is increasingly pacified, its oil industry will be able to bloom. Millions of barrels of Iraqi oil will begin to flood the markets each day. That will drive global oil and gas prices down, and cause hundreds of billions of dollars in new petrodollars to flood into Iraqi coffers, making Iraq one of the wealthiest countries on the face of the earth.

I wrote about such a scenario in novel, The Last Days. I develop it even further in The Ezekiel Option. But again, it is not fiction. In April I was speaking at a conference of CEOs and business leaders and met the V.P. of a major oil company who told me this is exactly the scenario his company believes will play itself out: pacification followed by the explosive growth of the Iraqi oil industry, aided and capitalized by Western oil companies. Already, his company (among many others) is positioning itself for the new era of Iraqi oil just over the horizon.

Future Headline #3: IRAQIS TO REBUILD ANCIENT BABYLON AS COMMERCIAL EPICENTER
Earlier this spring, Tim LaHaye, Jerry Jenkins and I looked into the possibility of going to the ancient city of Babylon, some fifty miles south of Baghdad. We would love to see what Saddam did to begin the process of rebuilding that once and future global capital, and perhaps create a DVD tour of the city, before the Anti-Christ makes it impossible for Christians to visit there. Unfortunately, for now, it is just too dangerous to go to Babylon. But I believe the doors will open soon.

As oil wealth pours into a newly peaceful Iraq, watch for the newly democratic government in Baghdad to become ambitious. With the blessings of the U.S. and the U.N. — grateful that Iraq is increasingly able to stand on its own feet and no longer needing huge numbers of U.S. troops and billions of dollars in global humanitarian and reconstruction aid — watch for Iraq to position itself as the region’s commercial epicenter. Government and business leaders will be eager to invest in new building projects to draw capital, companies and tourists to this historic cradle of civilization.

To that end, watch particularly for the Iraqi government to invest billions into rebuilding the ancient city of Babylon into the wealthiest and most powerful and influential city in the Middle East, and eventually in the world. Revelation 18 describe the end times Babylon as a “great city” by whom many will become “rich by her wealth.” She will be an international exporter of “gold and silver and precious stones” as well as “bronze and iron and marble…incense and perfume” and even “slaves and human lives.” Much of the growth of Babylon will occur after the Rapture and during the Tribulation, at the direction of the Anti-Christ. But it is not unreasonable to think that Babylon could emerge as a major commercial center sooner, depending on how soon the Rapture happens.

Future Headline #4: JEWS TURNING TO JESUS AS MESSIAH IN RECORD NUMBERS
As an evangelical Christian from an Orthodox Jewish background, this is one of the headlines to which I am most looking forward. Indeed, it is a story God is already writing, though the mainstream media has not caught on to it yet.

When I was born in April of 1967, there were only about two hundred known Jewish believers in Messiah Jesus worldwide. After the Six Day War in June of 1967, the numbers began to accelerate dramatically. Today, there are almost two hundred Jewish believers in Jesus just in the congregation my wife attend, McLean Bible Church outside of Washington, D.C. Our pastor, Lon Solomon, is Jewish on the board of Jews for Jesus. Conservative estimates put the current number of Jewish believers worldwide at about 60,000. Other estimates say the real number is north of 100,000. A Jerusalem Post headline last month noted that there are now more than 10,000 Jewish believers just in Israel alone, double the number used by evangelical Jewish leaders just a few years ago.

What’s more, Revelation 14 tells us that in the last days there will be 144,000 Jewish “witnesses” or super-evangelists on the order of Billy Graham and Luis Palau spreading out all over the globe to win Jews and Gentiles to Christ. Jesus Himself told the Jewish people in Matthew 23:39, “For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’” In other words, as the Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ approach, we can expect huge numbers of Jews to turn to Jesus and to be excited about His coming. It has already begun to happen, and this exciting trend will only accelerate.

Joel C. Rosenberg is the New York Times best-selling author of The Last Jihad (about the demise of Saddam Hussein) and The Last Days (about the demise of Yasser Arafat). His next novel, The Ezekiel Option, comes out June 27 from Tyndale. An evangelical Christian from an Orthodox Jewish background, his grandparents escaped from Russia. Joel has served as a senior advisor to Steve Forbes, Rush Limbaugh, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Deputy Prime Minister Natan Sharansky.

The prophetic link to the method used to execute hostages taken by Islamic terrorists.

More than one Left Behind reader has noted how the use of the guillotine in the series seemed out of place in a futuristic setting filled with all kinds of advanced technology—until the recent use of beheading by Islamic terrorists. Contributing editor Mark Hitchcock comments on this use of an ancient method of execution in modern times.

Unfortunately, an old method of execution has made a sobering comeback. Beheading. This grisly, gory, terrifying practice is being talked about and sometimes even shown all over the newspapers and television news channels.

Islamic terrorists are doing what they do best – terrifying people with the threat of death by a barbaric means. Over and over again we see the images of masked terrorists with swords standing over a defenseless, blindfolded victim threatening beheading if there irrational demands are not met in a certain time.

While most of the world marks this off as just the action of a few lunatic fringe Islamists, could this fearsome practice be setting the stage for the coming of the ultimate terrorist, the Antichrist?

Revelation 20:4 refers to believers who are killed during the tribulation for failing to bow to the beast and take his identifying mark on the right hand or forehead. The verse says, “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the Word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.”

The verb “beheaded” is pelikizo in the original Greek and it means “I behead.” It comes from pelekys which means “axe.” This was the traditional weapon for execution in the Roman empire. So the word really means “I cut off with an axe.” However, the sword later replaced the axe as the chief instrument of execution in the Roman Empire. [Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 8—22 (Chicago: Moody Press, 1995), 415)].

It’s possible that the mention of “beheading” by the Antichrist may just mean “put to death” or “executed” since this was the ancient method of capital punishment in the Roman Empire at the time John wrote. However, it seems more likely to me that this is the means of execution the Antichrist will implement for all who refuse to worship him as god.

It’s quick, simple, and easy to adapt to mass executions. Also, what better way to terrify people into submission?

Does this mean as some have suggested recently that the Antichrist may come from the Middle East and/or an Islamic background? While this is possible since much of the modern Middle East was once part of the ancient Roman Empire from which Antichrist will rise, I believe the Antichrist will rise from the heart of the reunited Roman Empire, probably Italy. He is identified as a descendant of the people who destroyed the city of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 – the Romans (Daniel 9:26).

While it would be unwise to maintain that a few beheadings by Islamic thugs is a major sign of Antichrist’s coming and the end times, I do find it interesting that the whole idea of beheading is featured so prominently in the news today. If the Antichrist is alive, we can be sure that he is watching what’s happening in the world today and taking note of the fear that the threat of beheading strikes in people’s hearts. He could use this as a tool to rid the world of all who challenge his authority by accepting Christ. Beheading would be a vivid expression of his total disdain and hatred for those who follow the Lord Jesus.

This could be another small piece of the puzzle fitting into place to pave the way for Antichrist’s 3 ½ years worldwide reign of terror that Jesus called the “great tribulation.”

A fully restored Israel with the return of the Jewish people is the “super-sign” of prophecy. The Bible predicts over and over again that Israel must be restored to its biblical borders and the Jews must be back in their homeland – for the events of the end times to unfold… (Jeremiah 30:1-3; Ezekiel 34:11-24; Zechariah 10:6-10).

The death of Yasser Arafat has important bearing on the peace process in the Middle East and the restoration of Israel. Some believe that his removal from the process will make peace more achievable and potentially allow the prophecy of Israel to be fulfilled. Others fear that his demise will throw the region into chaos if a struggle for Palestinian power ensues. Palestinian infighting could deadlock progress of the Middle East peace talks. Regardless of the impact, his death has refocused the world’s attention on Israel and peace in the Middle East. And as the Bible predicts that Israel will be the battleground for all great end-time conflicts and wars – this is exactly what we should expect if the end is drawing near.

2) Islamic rebellion terrorizes “Ancient Babylon.”

The city of Babylon, located on the Euphrates River in modern Iraq, is mentioned almost 300 times in the Bible. It is consistently portrayed as a place of rebellion and pride. Scripture informs us that in the end times, Babylon will be rebuilt into a great city that will serve as a commercial and religious capital for the Antichrist.

In November U.S. troops pounded Fallujah. The intent for this assault on the Sunni terrorist hotbed was clear. Bring peace to Iraq so the elections can proceed in January. The U.S. and its coalition are trying to bring peace and stability to Iraq. This seems to be setting the stage for the rebuilding of Babylon – another sign that the coming of Christ may be very soon.

3) Europe unites as a powerful empire.

The prophet Daniel predicted a reunited Roman Empire in the End Times. According to the Bible, at the middle of the seven-year tribulation, the Antichrist will take over and rule the world for the final three and a half years of this age. To do this, he will need an army and advanced weaponry.

What we have seen developing in Europe the last 45 years – and particularly in the last year – looks strikingly similar to what the Bible predicts for the End Times. In May, the European Union added 10 more nations to its empire – bringing the total to 25. In October the EU’s constitution was signed on Capitoline Hill in Rome – the ancient center of religious life in the Roman Empire. And in November, Great Britain announced that it had committed 2,000 troops to a new 18,000 strong EU army. The Roman Empire is reuniting right before eyes just as the prophet Daniel predicted over 2,500 years ago.

The basic governmental and economic components are in place for one man to come on the scene in the EU and ascend to tremendous power. That man will be the Antichrist – he will rule over the final form of the Roman Empire and ultimately the whole world.

4) Strong Islamic presence emerges from Russia.

The prophet Ezekiel predicted that the Great Russian Bear will rise in the last days to mount a furious invasion of Israel (37-38). Ezekiel also predicted that in the latter times, Israel would be invaded by a people “from remote parts of the north” (38:6, 15). The nation that is most distantly north from Israel is Russia.

In August and September, Islamic Chechen rebels were behind three catastrophic terrorist attacks: two Russian plane crashes, an attack against a Moscow metro station, and a siege over a school in Beslan, Russia. The terror, catastrophic events, and frightening Islamic presence now in Russia foreshadows a future time of trouble that is coming on the whole world. The fulfillment of God’s prophecies seems closer than ever before.

5) Indonesian earthquake foreshadows the devastation of the End Times.

Two days before He died on the cross, Jesus said that one of the signs of His Second Coming to earth would be “great earthquakes,” (Luke 21:11). The prophet Ezekiel also predicted a great earthquake in the end times ( Ezekiel 38:19-20). And the apostle John was transported in a kind of spiritual time machine to the end times where he witnessed great disasters by deadly earthquakes.

What we have just witnessed in Asia is frightening. The Indonesian earthquake was the most powerful recorded in 40 years. And the deadly tsunamis it produced have taken over 100,000 lives. The tsunamis traveled at speeds up to 500 miles per hour and towered to heights of 30 feet. This catastrophic natural disaster could foreshadow the devastation that will wrack the earth when it begins to shake during the tribulation.

This could be another small piece of the puzzle, fitting into place to pave the way for Antichrist’s 3 ½-year worldwide reign of terror that Jesus called the “great tribulation.”