Unprecedented

A Watchman's Warning of the Approaching Prophetic Storm

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These days, it seems every other word used to describe current events is the word, “unprecedented.” Not to be irreverent, but it’s being used so frequently, listening for this word on the news could serve as the substance for a lively drinking game.

Those who are prophetically attuned believe unprecedented events are occurring because we’re living in the last days, just before the seven-year Tribulation. But naysayers deny anything has changed, often attributing these events to cycles of history and nature.

I can imagine the conversation that might have taken place among those who were standing in the rain, looking up at Noah’s Ark:

The prophetically attuned: “Something unprecedented is happening—it’s never rained before.”

The naysayers: “It’s no big deal—I’m sure it’s rained before. These things just occur in cycles.”

Many of the unprecedented events we’re currently seeing in our world today are related to Bible prophecy. Although the exact number is unclear, the Bible contains approximately 1,800 to 2,500 prophecies (depending on the source), which accounts for roughly 27% of the Bible. According to WORDtruth, around 2,000 prophecies out of 2,500 have been fulfilled (about 80%), and the Bible has been 100% accurate for all of them, to the letter.

On top of that, in the 1950’s, a mathematics professor conducted a class exercise to determine the probability of one person randomly fulfilling eight of 353 Old Testament prophecies about Jesus. The findings were submitted for academic review, and then published in 1957. The class found that the odds one person would have fulfilled just eight of these 353 prophecies is astonishingly 1 in 100 quadrillion, or 10 to the 17^th power. Jesus, the Son of God, is the only person to have fulfilled ALL 353 of these prophecies. Unprecedented indeed!

Prophecy Watchers look for prophetic trends in many areas, with some of the most prominent being Israel, technology, and natural phenomena. But Israel is considered the primary prophetic clock. Why? Because Israel was specifically chosen by God for a purpose, and a significant amount of end-time Bible prophecy is heavily centered around Israel, Jerusalem, and the Temple. Moreover, the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, and Zechariah all predicted the nation of Israel would be regathered again in the last days (Isaiah 11:11-12; Jeremiah 29:14; 31:7-8; Ezekiel 37; Hosea 3:5; Zechariah 10:8-10; 12:10).

Israel

As a result of thousands of years of conquests and war, the Jewish people have been scattered among nations all over the world. This is called the Jewish Diaspora. Then, in 1948, the state of Israel was reestablished. The modern state of Israel is the only ancient nation to be reestablished as a sovereign state in its ancestral land, and to revive its ancestral language. Therefore, Israel’s very existence in our world today is unprecedented.

Over the past 77 years, Jewish people have been returning to their homeland, and for the first time in 2,000 years, over 50% of the world’s Jewish population is living in the promised land. Furthermore, due to the prevailing rise in global antisemitism, the number of Jewish people moving to Israel is rapidly increasing. According to the ICEJ (International Christian Embassy Jerusalem), between October 7, 2023 and the end of 2024, applications for Aliyah (the term for immigration from the Jewish Diaspora to Israel) from Western nations have increased by as much as 300%.

Technology

While the Biblical passages alluding to technology are considerably more subtle than those referring to Israel, the prophetic trends concerning this topic are wildly conspicuous. For example, in Daniel 12:4, an angelic messenger told the prophet, “But you, Daniel, keep this prophecy a secret; seal up the book until the time of the end, when many will rush here and there, and knowledge will increase” (NLT).

For centuries, Bible scholars struggled to grasp the meaning of this verse. It wasn’t until the advent of widespread air travel and advanced computer technology, such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing, that the true implications of this verse were revealed. However, it’s not just the technology itself that’s noteworthy, but also the timeframe in which this progress has occurred.

Technological advancements have been relatively infrequent and incremental for most of human history (thousands of years). But for the last 200 years or so, the growth of technology has been exponential. Within the last two centuries, humanity has advanced from…

…the horse and wagon to the steam locomotive, to the automobile, to the airplane, and to space travel.

…fire to electricity, to the light bulb, to indoor climate control (AC and heat), and to energy efficient LED lighting.

…the theater to radio, to movies, to broadcast television, to cable television, to real-time live streaming, and to holograms.

…the adding machine to the mainframe computer, to calculators, to personal computers, and to artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

…mail to the telegraph, to the telephone, to cellular phones, to smart phones, to wearable communication devices, like watches, glasses, and electronic tattoos, and to implantable communication devices, such as brain chips.

Let me present this with a generational perspective—I’m in my mid-fifties, and I remember my father using an adding machine. Likewise, my father remembers seeing a television for the first time, when he was fourteen years old. If the length of a generation is 25 years, then the rise of our current technology took place in just 8 generations. Again, this is unprecedented.

Today, for the first time in thousands of years, we have the technology necessary for fulfilling the prophecy of the two witnesses (Revelation 11), and the prophecies of the one-world government and the one-world economic system, otherwise known as the “Beast System” (Revelation 13). Let that sink in.

Natural Phenomena

Ironically, it’s precisely our advanced technology that provides the tools we need to warn humanity of the coming natural disasters predicted in scripture. According to Jesus, in the last days, there will be “great earthquakes” and “strange signs in the sun, moon, and stars,” and “the nations will be in turmoil, perplexed by the roaring seas and strange tides” (Luke 21:11, 25, NLT). Additionally, some of the judgements in the book of Revelation appear to describe the impact of asteroids and the eruption of super volcanos (Revelation 6, 8, 16).

With the invention of modern telescopes, scientists can detect asteroids and other near-earth objects that might pose a threat to life as we know it. Furthermore, seismic monitors allow us to track earthquakes and predict volcanic eruptions, and satellites allow us to monitor solar activity and the weather.

However, when analyzing the data from these technologies, a pertinent question often arises: “Are we actually seeing an increase in natural events, or is it a result of our improved ability to observe and track natural phenomena?” This is a pickle, for sure. In order to answer this question, it’s wise to consider convergence. An increase in just one sign is probably not remarkable, but a simultaneous increase in multiple signs might indicate something unprecedented is occurring.

Some prophecy scholars believe prophetic natural events, such as earthquakes, volcanos, and “strange signs in the sun, moon, and stars,” won’t be seen until after the beginning of the seven-year Tribulation. But others believe that at least some of these signs will begin to appear in the time leading up to the seven-year Tribulation.

I tend to agree with the latter, because as prophecy scholar, Mondo Gonzales, says, “The world won’t immediately go from Mayberry to the seven-year Tribulation.” Mayberry is a reference to the idyllic small community portrayed on the 1960’s television series, “The Andy Griffith Show.” In other words, it’s likely we’ll increasingly see glimpses or precursors of prophetic events as the stage is being set for prophetic fulfillment during the seven-year Tribulation.

For example, on November 23, 2025, following multiple X-class solar flares and a severe G4-level geomagnetic storm, Ethiopia’s Hayli Gubbi volcano, which has been dormant for thousands of years, erupted. Although the prophetic relevance of this event is debatable, the recent combination of an unusually heightened level of solar activity, substantial earthquakes, and the eruption of an extinct volcano, for the first time in recorded human history, has definitely raised some eyebrows.

Convergence

Finally, as I hinted at above, it’s not just the unprecedented nature of the events themselves, but also the convergence and acceleration of these events that’s prophetically meaningful, and indicative of the last days. Even within the short period of time I’ve been following Bible prophecy (almost three years), the frequency of prophetic headlines has grown from a weekly trickle to a daily flood.

In Mark 13:8, Jesus described the initial last-days events as “only the first of the birth pains, with more to come” (NLT). Simply put, like labor pains during childbirth, the prophetic events of the last days will occur more quickly and become more intense as we get closer to the return of Jesus.

At some point, an insightful prophecy scholar dug deeper into the metaphor of labor pains, and realized it depicts the concept of exponential growth. Human beings have a difficult time visualizing exponential growth, so at least one mathematically astute individual developed a unique way to illustrate this concept. This is an example from economic analyst, Chris Martenson:

Pretend you’re sitting in the top row of a water-tight stadium, and you’re watching someone, who is standing on the field, use an eyedropper to fill the stadium with water.

However, with this particular eyedropper, only one drop of water is needed, because that one drop doubles every minute. After six minutes, there’s a thimble full of water.

Given this information, how long will it take to fill the stadium with water? The answer is 50 minutes.

At what point will the stadium still be 97% empty (only 3% full)? The answer is 45 minutes.

At what point will the people in the top row of the stadium realize they’re in danger? Before attempting to answer this question, think about this - the stadium is only half full at minute 49.

Whoa! There’s a reason the apostle, Paul, warned, “When people are saying, ‘Everything is peaceful and secure,’ then disaster will fall on them as suddenly as a pregnant woman’s labor pains begin. And there will be no escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:3, NLT).

Jesus said that, in the seven-year Tribulation, “there will be greater anguish than at any time since the world began. And it will never be so great again” (Matthew 24:21, NLT). Although this sounds utterly terrifying, believers aren’t afraid, because when all these things begin to happen, we know our salvation is near (Luke 21:28).

Those who perished in the flood probably wished they had listened to Noah’s warnings. In the same way, the people who are living on the earth during the seven-year Tribulation will probably wish they had listened to the warnings of prophecy watchers.

Even though the signs of the last days are converging and accelerating at a mind-boggling rate, it’s still not too late to accept the gift of salvation through Jesus. But once the Church is evacuated in the Rapture, the door will be shut, and those that remain will not escape the approaching storm.

“So you, too, must keep watch! For you don’t know what day your Lord is coming” (Matthew 24:42, NLT).

Sources:

Boyd, Dr. Jonathan. (2023, April 24). “Tenfold: How Israel became ‘The Jewish State’ in numbers.” JPR/Institute for Jewish Policy Research. https://www.jpr.org.uk/insights/tenfold-how-israel-became-jewish-state-numbers

Flower, Howard. (2025, February 6). “ICEJ readies for increased Aliyah in 2025.” ICEJ/International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. https://icejusa.org/2025/02/06/icej-readies-for-increased-aliyah-in-2025/

Frank. (2024, December 11). “The probability of 8 prophecies fulfilled by Jesus occurring by happenstance.” Catholic Stand. https://catholicstand.com/the-probability-of-8-prophecies-fulfilled-by-jesus-occurring-by-happenstance/#:~:text=So%20what%20was%20the%20overall,fraction%20of%20the%20calculated%20probability

GotQuestions.org. (2022, November 2). “How much of the Bible is prophecy?” GotQuestions.org. https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-prophecy.html

Martenson, Chris. (2011, November 29). The Power of Exponential Growth [Video]. YouTube.

Michael, Susan. (2018, September 4). “What does the Bible have to say about the return of the Jews to their homeland?” ICEJ/International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. https://www.icej.org/blog/what-does-the-bible-have-to-say-about-the-return-of-the-jews-to-their-homeland/#:~:text=There%20Are%20Two%20Returns,return%20to%20reestablish%20national%20sovereignty.

WORDtruth. (2023). “Fulfilled prophecies verify Biblical truth.” Retrieved December 6, 2025, from WordTruth.org: https://wordtruth.org/fulfilled-prophecies-verify-biblical-truth-2/