The Rapture Index — a popular evangelical Christian Web posting that calculates a global rise in natural disasters, war and inflation — bills itself as "a Dow Jones industrial average of end-time activity. » An index below 85 signifies a week of »slow prophetic activity. » Anything above 145 signals the apocalypse is near.
The Rapture Index this week: 158. The spike reflects many U.S. evangelicals’ view that growing conflict in the Middle East signals the start of a global struggle leading to Christ’s return.