The world is arming itself to the teeth. The arms revenue of the world’s 100 largest arms-producing and military services companies reached a record high of $679 billion last year. This marks a 5.9 percent increase over the previous year and a 26 percent jump from 2015, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported today.

• Thirty-nine of the top 100 companies are based in the U.S. and experienced 3.8 percent growth, reaching $334 billion.
• Europe is growing at well over triple that rate: The 26 European companies increased by 13 percent to $151 billion.
• The eight Middle Eastern companies grew even faster, by 14 percent, to $31 billion.
• By contrast, the 23 companies based in Asia and Oceania decreased by 1.2 percent to $130 billion. Revenue for the eight Chinese companies dropped by 10 percent to $88.3 billion.

The fastest-growing companies come from Germany and Japan:

• Five Japanese companies topped the list with a 40 percent increase that reached $13.3 billion.
• Revenue for Germany’s top four companies increased by 36 percent to $14.9 billion.

The spike in European companies “is almost all linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Nan Tian, one of the report’s authors, told Deutsche Welle, adding:

There has been an increase in demand from the German armed forces. Whether it’s Rheinmetall or Diehl, building tanks, armored personnel carriers, ammunition, of course, for the German armed forces to replenish what they’ve sent to Ukraine as military aid, but also to expand their number of tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, etc.

In Germany last year:

• Rheinmetall increased its sales by more than 46 percent to around $8.2 billion and now is among the world’s top-20 largest defense companies.
• Diehl Group’s revenue increased by almost 53 percent to $2.1 billion.

These large quantities of what some call “deathware” are frightening to consider. Already, our world has much more explosive power than needed to eradicate all life on Earth many times over, just as Jesus Christ warned about in Matthew 24:21. Christ and other prophets prophesy that these weapons will be used.

But the power of these manufacturers and the world’s militaries is just a drop in the bucket compared to God’s power (Isaiah 40:15). He oversees their rise and ensures that His purpose stands.