As a woman nears the time of delivery, she experiences a series of contractions that grow closer together and more intense. The time between contractions is called an interval. As many of those watching the fulfillment of end-times prophecy have noted, the past number of years has felt like a series of contractions and intervals, and they've grown closer and closer together.

2010–2011: I still remember 2010, our first year of ministry at Unsealed, when the Arab Spring began. The Middle East was boiling. Eventually it spilled over into decade-long civil wars in Syria and Libya costing untold numbers of lives. The Middle East dynamic was changed forever.

INTERVAL: 3 YEARS

2014–2015: And who can forget the big contraction around the time of the first blood in the 2014–15 tetrad? Russia invaded Crimea and ISIS rose to power in Iraq and Syria. Then the shmita year arrived and we witnessed economic crashes, a fatal turning toward Sodom in the United States (Obergefell v. Hodges), two more blood moons, and Iranian, Turkish, and Russian troops in Syria. Lightning struck Mecca and a subsequent crane collapse at the Grand Mosque killed 111 people. To top it off, a major Middle Eastern sandstorm struck Israel that same month, right around Rosh Hashanah. Yet things did quiet down for a bit.

INTERVAL: 2 YEARS

2017–2018: Then came 2017 with the newly inaugurated Trump-Pence ("Trumpets") administration, pivotal declarations regarding Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, the Jubilee of Jerusalem, several devastating earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, a series of hurricanes that paralleled the nativity story, a massive X-class solar flare, and the Great American Solar Eclipse and Revelation 12 Sign. The very next year Israel would reestablish itself as the nation-state of the Jewish people with Hebrew as its official language and the biblical festivals and Sabbaths as holy days.

INTERVAL: 1 YEAR

2019–2021: 2020 began an earnest and intense contraction. It really started one day before, on New Year's Eve in 2019, when Iranian proxies attacked the Green Zone in Baghdad. The U.S. retaliated by assassinating Qasem Soleimani, leading to the near outbreak of widespread war in the Middle East. Then that very month, in January of 2020, Trump and Netanyahu unveiled the Deal of the Century; simultaneously, COVID-19 was rapidly circulating in China and spreading beyond. The world would be changed forever. Quarantines, lockdowns, masks, and contact tracing would quickly become the norm. The historic Abraham Accords were signed that September, paving the way for the eventual Daniel 9:27 covenant, and Trump lost reelection. The time of the proverbial "trump" was over and the time of "Joseph" (the man who oversaw Egypt and Israel during the seven-year famine of ancient times) had arrived. We also witnessed the possible astronomical fulfillments of Revelation 12:3–4 and Revelation 12:5.

INTERVAL: MONTHS

NOVEMBER 2021–NOW: The Orwellian response to COVID-19 has largely remained in place unabated since March of 2020, but there was a certain cooling off period from roughly the inauguration of Biden until November of 2021. Besides the "brave new world" of COVID, things seemed to settle. The economy recovered somewhat. A much more mild variant of the virus started spreading, offering hope of herd immunity and an eventual return to pseudo-normalcy.

But in November of last year a contraction began of unprecedented proportions—a contraction without any reprieve. Iran had acquired enough enriched uranium so as to produce a nuclear warhead within a few weeks if the green light were to be given by the Ayatollah. They had never been so close. Israel began a major international diplomatic campaign to gather support while also making preparations for war. And Russia began a massive buildup of forces around Ukraine, taking steps to prepare for a ground invasion—the largest in Europe since World War II—under the cover of "annual training exercises." Globally, the demon of hyperinflation started to rise.

And now, after six months of this continuous contraction, the contraction is only intensifying: war came to Europe. Consumer inflation hit 8.5% in a single month. Sovereign nations began defaulting on their debt (Sri Lanka, recently). Global supply chains are near to collapse. Grain prices are skyrocketing (a Rev. 6:5–6 prelude, anyone?). Major financial institutions are predicting a global recession. Iran, by most recent reports, may have acquired enough uranium for a rudimentary bomb. And a seeming third intifada is breaking out in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria all while Israel may be moments away from giving the go ahead for massive attacks on Iran's nuclear weapons program.

As I've closely watched the unfolding of end-of-the-age Bible prophecy these past 12 years, I've also observed an exponential growth curve in the number of Christians reporting rapture and tribulation-related dreams, as well as the number of ministries preaching on end times and proclaiming the nearness of Christ's return. Just five to six years ago there were only a few handfuls of these sort of ministries that I had encountered. Now there are hundreds. Thousands even. God will not take the next step, namely the rapture of the Church, without leaving a profound, clear, and manifold witness. If the Revelation 12 Sign of 2017 served one great purpose, perhaps it was this: the opening of countless eyes and the launching of countless ministries. These valiant watchmen and women are shouting unabashedly from the rooftops, from the pulpits, in the street corners, over the internet, and even at the gates of Jerusalem. The time is truly at hand.