Hitchcock sees the war in Iraq and bloodshed in Israel and Palestine creating two effects that touch on Bible prophecy. First, the conflict is keeping the world focus on the Middle East, which is the staging ground for all the events to happen in the end times. Secondly, he sees the anti-war push for peace coming from the corners of the world paving the way for the antichrist. "The antichrist will come on a platform of peace," he said.

Rabbi Daniel Lapin, president of Toward Tradition, a coalition of Jews and Christians seeking to advance the nation toward faith-based principles, agrees with Hitchcock that it's not simply coincidence that all eyes are on Iraq and the Middle East. He also is not surprised that the United States is front and center in the conflict.

"This flows very naturally from the preliminary observation, which says that America itself is part of the fulfillment of prophecy," Lapin said. "America itself is to have divine involvement."

Ultimately, the events in Iraq serve only as a lead-in to the coming of the antichrist, said Hitchcock, who likes to impart history lessons where applicable.

"Alexander the Great died in Babylon. He was planning to make Babylon his eastern capital," he said. "And Napoleon, who spent a lot of time rummaging around the Middle East, had plans to build the city of New Babilonia."

Neither completed their missions, leaving the door open for the antichrist to finish the job. "I think the antichrist will do what Alexander the Great and Napoleon never did," Hitchcock said.

It just may not happen this week.

Rob Oller is a homeschool dad, a sportswriter and a columnist for The Columbus Dispatch, the second-largest circulation paper in Ohio.