In my considered opinion, it's all mystic nonsense which, in the nominally Christian world at least, is rooted in various self-serving misinterpretations of selected apocalyptic passages in the biblical books of Isaiah, Daniel, and mostly Revelation. They're written in terms of symbols and metaphors that would have been readily understood at the time but are no longer familiar to us. They were written that way for what we would now call reasons of deniability. The writer of Revelation, for instance, could not safely state directly that the Roman Empire was evil, idolatrous, and blasphemous, so it appears metaphorically as a beast rising up out of the sea, with seven heads and ten horns (numbers with mystical significance) and "...upon his heads the name of blasphemy." (Rev. 13:1), a reference to the official state ritual of emperor-worship.
There's lots of ready material for the mystically inclined to speculate endlessly on and invent whatever pleases them. And they do. And none of it has any significance at all, except to the extent that it becomes self-fulfilling. You think a couple of Christian fundamentalists like Bush and Blair sent armies to Iraq for freedom, democracy, oil, whatever? They're expecting the end of the world, the Battle of Armageddon, the second advent of Jesus, pretty much any time now, and they're doing their Christian duty in moving events in that direction. Hasn't Bush actually said something to the effect that he was designated by God to lead America at this time of crisis? Talk about dangerous delusions...
