The tempo of current events is extraordinarily brisk. To the observer who has an understanding of biblical prophecy, even those stories of real consequence are happening at a breathtaking pace.

Jesus Christ admonishes us to watch such events. Why? Note this directive recorded in the Gospel of Mark: “Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch” (Mark 13:33–37).

We are to watch because world events mark the countdown to “when the master of the house comes”—that is, Christ’s Second Coming!

Today we look briefly at four of the most significant developments from last week that alert us to the imminence of this wondrous event. This is a distillation of just a handful of events that we believe most dramatically demonstrate the fulfillment of end-time Bible prophecy.

Edmund Stoiber

The main story from Germany this past week brought Luigi Barzini’s words to mind as he puzzled over the peculiar ability of the German character to change from sheep to wolf overnight: “Which is the shape of the German Proteus this morning? Which will be its shape tomorrow?” (The Europeans). As German journalist Johannes Gross observed of his own countrymen, “So long as we wear the mask, we remain hidden and continue to conceal the situation even from ourselves.”

So what is Edmund Stoiber up to? Stoiber announced last Thursday that he will retire from his powerful post of premier of Bavaria in September, in addition to stepping down from leadership of the Christian Social Union, one of the main coalition partners in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s shaky coalition government. Ever his own man, Stoiber, who rejected a cabinet post in Merkel’s coalition, snubbing the offer of the Economics portfolio, also refusing to be considered for the prize EU job of European commissioner, surely has something in mind. This man is a quintessential politician cast in the mold of his mentor, Josef Strauss.

Stoiber is far from down and out. Does he wear the Protean mask that conceals political goals of a higher order? Freed from party restraints, will he bide his time to become the man for all seasons when Merkel’s coalition splits? For split it will, sooner or later, and Stoiber could be just the political savior that Germany will crave at that time.

Doomsday Clock

Two minutes closer to midnight. That’s the calculation of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which for the past 60 years has measured the odds of mankind blowing itself sky high into nuclear oblivion. Last week it moved the hands of the symbolic Doomsday Clock to five minutes to midnight. Though it will now calibrate environmental disaster into the quotient by which it measures how close mankind is to ultimate disaster, nuclear proliferation remains its number-one concern.

With the United States, Russia, Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel all possessing a military nuclear capability, Iran on the verge of attaining the same, and now, even “pacifist” Japan making noises about the need to obtain nuclear defensive weaponry, plus political voices in Germany seeking the same, the world has never been a more dangerous place. Add to this the missing nuclear weaponry that has been spirited out of arsenals of the former ussr, combined with the increasing volatility of global terrorism, and we have a recipe for apocalyptic disaster.

German Radicals

Assaults on the public in Germany by far-right-wing groups spiked by 20 percent between January and August 2006, according to police statistics.

The release of these latest figures followed the first ordination of a Jewish rabbi to take place in Germany since the Holocaust. The newly appointed rabbi, German-born Daniel Alter, told Reuters that he wears a baseball cap in public to hide the fact that he is a Jew, for fear of assault.

Vatican Power

Catholic World News reported Thursday that on the very day that the Vatican announced a special meeting to discuss the church in China, a new Chinese bishop is being appointed with the approval of Pope Benedict xvi. This is a historic breakthrough for the Vatican, and it really has little to do with religion. As Stratfor correctly deduces, China’s historic acquiescence to Rome’s appointment of the new bishop is redolent with political meaning. China simply recognizes that the Vatican has returned to the world scene as a powerful mover and shaker in geopolitics, and it wants that influence on its side of the emerging, post-Anglo-American, new world order.