In the chaotic 24-hour news cycle, it’s really hard to notice every topic being discussed online. But in all of the craziness, in all of the noise, in all of the fog and confusion that shapes the vast cloud of the internet, there is a topic that particularly stands out.

It’s about something bigger than the news, far more important than who’s running for president. It’s something bigger than ourselves. The Return of Christ.

For over 2000 years, people have been asking: What’s going to happen? What’s it going to look like? Who is the antichrist? When will it happen? Is Jesus physically going to come back, or was that a metaphor for something else?

The Bible says that “No one knows the day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. (Matthew 24:36)

Though Jesus warned that no one but the Father knows the exact day and hour of His return, the Bible gives us some important clues for discerning the approach of the end times. Here are five key signs of the end times that are making waves right now.

1. False Bible teachers would be money hungry. They would be smooth talkers, have many followers, and slur the Christian faith (2 Peter 2:1-3).

Have you ever wondered how some pastors start a church and then become wealthy living in flash houses and driving luxury cars?

When you think of the mega-wealthy who rake in millions each year and live ridiculously lavish lifestyles, you probably don’t think about preachers.

Whether you believe it or not, spreading the gospel has become a very profitable business for several false teachers, affording them the opportunity to live in mansions, own private jets, take exotic trips, relax in hotel rooms that cost thousands per night, and even own second and third homes.

2. Deadly diseases would be prevalent (Matthew 24:7).

Although the burgeoning Ebola epidemic has largely been brought under control (for now), another highly pathogenic virus is just starting to rampage through the American heartland.

The H5 strain of avian flu has infected upward of 20 million birds at dozens of commercial sites from Iowa to Idaho, from California to Arkansas. Though the poultry and egg industry is taking steps to prevent any of the infected birds from entering our food supply, one can only imagine the potential devastation that could be wreaked should some of these infections slip through—potentially triggering the long-feared jump to a strain of the virus inherently infectious to humans.

3. Thousands of starving animals mysteriously displaced

A record number of sea lions have washed up, starving and stranded, on southern California shores in recent months. This ghastly phenomenon more than doubles the total of lost sea lions appearing in 2013, the previous worst winter on record for the animals.

Government agencies and news media have blamed the “unusual mortality event” on a confluence of strange events, from warming coastal waters and unseasonably weak ocean winds to abnormal food shortages. Whatever the cause, it is clear that something strange and unprecedented is disturbing the normal flow of this marine ecosystem, and it’s growing in intensity.

4. The Altar of the Lord rebuilt in Jerusalem

One of the key unfulfilled elements of end-times prophecy is the rebuilding of the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. For centuries, the Temple Mount has been occupied by the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and even today, though the site is in the State of Israel, the site is administered by the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, a Muslim organization. In short, there are several key barriers that seem to block the way to that particular prophecy being fulfilled.

The Temple Institute recently undertook an unprecedented step in this prophetic restoration: rebuilding the Altar of the Lord.

“We know that end-time prophecy cannot be fulfilled without the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem,” said New York Times best-selling author of The Mystery of the Shemitah and The Harbinger, Jonathan Cahn. “What many people don’t realize is that along with the Holy of Holies, the altar of the Temple is the most central and critical part of the Temple.”

5. Microchip implants—the Mark of the Beast?

It ‘s believed that the Mark of the Beast could be electronic in nature, perhaps as an implanted microchip in the hand or forehead, to be used for commerce, identification and access to various elements of life under the Antichrist’s rule.

Recently, one company in Sweden voluntarily piloted a program that bears eerie similarities to those apocalyptic predictions. Employees of BioNyfiken are able to unlock doors, access their printing accounts, and pay for lunch with a simple wave of their hand, as scanners read the chip implanted within and identify the user associated with it.

“We foresee a future in which everyone will have an implanted chip,” a company representative said.

Is the mark of the beast already in place?

What other end-times signs do you see unfolding? Please spread the word with everyone you know, and pray the LORD comes soon. AMEN!