When I first started writing religion columns for several newspapers, I went to a friend – the founder of a successful ministry – for advice.

“Whatever you do, stay away from prophecy,” he said. “You don’t want people to think you’re one of ‘them.’”

“Them,” of course, was a reference to all those people “we” don’t want to be – the doomsayers, the kooks, the people with end-times Web sites written with large red letters and flames of fire.

But there is a problem with this kind of thinking. For one thing, Jesus gave us end-times prophecies, and then He commanded us to keep watching for their fulfillment (Luke 21:34-36, Matthew 24:42-51) 

And someday these prophecies will actually begin to occur. And when they do, there will be people who notice. And, according to Jesus, these people will be dismissed as screwballs, just like Noah was before the flood (Matthew 24:37-39).

The fact is, the Apostle Peter said in the last days people would be turned off to Bible prophecy.  He said, “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation’” (2 Peter 3:3-4).

For there to be mockers, there first must be somebody to mock. And it appears to me that Peter is saying that the ones who will be mocked in the last days are the ones who are reading events in their time as possible fulfillments of prophecy.

Peter’s words also imply that these last-days mockers won’t only be non-believers. Mockers will rise up from among those who say they believe. Unfortunately, this is the way it is today. And it is in direct opposition to the Bible.  The Psalmist says, “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers” (Psalms 1:1). 

So, I believe signs may have occurred in the Mediterranean and Europe that indicate the beast of Revelation will soon be rising from the sea, but no one has noticed. This beast, of course, is the Antichrist and his kingdom.