We are in the last days, the End Times. The prophecies might as well be etched in stone. We can prepare for the hard times ahead -- war, drought, famine --while there is still time. Preparations can save our loved ones. Remember the virgins at the well?

There will be warning signs, and we must "be on watch" (Luke 21:36). Scripture tells us that when "signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand." (Luke 21:28)

Sister Lucia dos Santos of Fatima said in 1959 that we were already living in the end times (Revelation Chapter 13). Father Don Stefano Gobbi warned we were in the third and last period of the Antichrist -- the harvest of the Earth (Revelation Chapter 14). We are staring "tribulation" in the face.

What "signs" are imminent? Earthquakes, catastrophic weather changes, famine, wars, plagues, and of course signs in the skies (sun, moon and stars). These heavenly signs may appear as "mother nature" working overtime, or not-quite-explainable phenomena, but considered together they are signs of universal confirmation.

We have all seen signs of the catastrophic weather changes. Art Bell wrote a book about them, titled The Quickening. Right now three-fourths of the earth is tightly gripped in the vise of drought, and famine will surely follow. Think of the mega-tornado that devastated Oklahoma last year with wind speeds in excess of 300 miles per hour. The storms with straight-line winds that devastated France in December, 1999, leveling forests over a vast area. The June, 1999 CME (Coronal Mass Ejection), an explosive event that was indeed "a real planet-buster," according to Dr. Richard Fisher of NASA, that fortunately headed away from earth this time.