Apocalypse discussion reaches from US President to legislators

Hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, the threat of a deadly flu pandemic and now the Real ID: Are global events unfolding something bigger?

First came 9/11 and the beginning of the 'war on terror'. Then a tsunami in Asia killed approximately 250,000 people. Hurricanes Katrina, Wilma, and an earthquake In South Asia followed, which claimed tens of thousands more lives. 2006 witnessed leaders of countries referencing terms like "Apocalypse" and "Armageddon" to describe the uneasy times. 2007 has started out with record snowfalls in parts of the US, the national weather service is predicting even more blizzards, experts warn that a deadly avian flu virus could pass over to the human population at any time in a full-blown pandemic, potentially bringing global markets to their knees, and now the US Congress has erupted in a debate about the biblical "Mark of the Beast."

Over at Endtime.com, a popular website that serves as a daily news aggregator of a wide variety of world events based on reflection to Bible prophecy, Irvin Baxter Jr. runs the most widely circulated prophecy magazine in the world, hosts a daily radio broadcast called Politics and Religion, and is the author of several prophecy books and Bible studies. Recently his Endtime magazine reached national exposure when the Associated Press ran a feature story on Sen. Ruth Whitaker, whose resolution opposing the Real ID Act of 2005 passed the Arkansas Senate