The advance of the year toward depth of winter moves almost imperceptibly forward. Each day, the sun rises 2 minutes later and sets 2 minutes earlier. We thus have 4 minutes less of sunlight each day. That information is available on most Internet weather forecast sites. In like fashion, this world is moving onward toward the last dark time of apostasy. Evidence of this may be measured by consulting the Word of God. There it is clearly stated. Commerce, while always close to the heart of national affairs, took on a new significance in the last few weeks. I believe that we crossed a line during these recent days. Commerce was catapulted to the very fore of the nation's affairs as never before. It had been moving forward and becoming more and more the deciding factor in decisions of life for quite some time. Commercial interests have superseded moral considerations and political dogma as the basis of deciding the direction of governments. That was seen in Iraq. Oil and not weapons of mass destruction was the real motive behind Bush and Blair's decision to invade. Commerce sits in the driving seat of the nation's affairs as never before. The emergence of commercialism to this degree is clearly foretold in the Word of God. In the light of its teaching we may see that the events of recent times are but the birth pangs of the great empire of commercial wickedness and the manifestation of that awful figure of lawlessness and apostasy -- the Antichrist. Revelation 18 takes us to the time of the judgment of Antichrist's kingdom. This chapter gives us a clear indication of where that which is emerging before our eyes as a chick from an egg, will end.