Are the end times upon us? According to those keeping a close eye on the strange happenings in Israel, the answer might well be “yes.” Predictions about the end of the world seem to appear every time there is an unusual celestial phenomenon, such as a lunar eclipse or a comet’s arrival, but the eerie signs in Israel are both more common and more bizarre.

The first of the three strange occurrences was the birth of the first “red heifer in 2,000 years.” The calf in question was given an “extensive examination” to see if she was actually “blemish free” as is specified in the Bible. According to end times literature, the red calf “brings the promise of reinstating Biblical purity to the world” and will be sacrificed prior to the construction of the Third Temple in Jerusalem. Rabbinical experts have found that the calf is “without blemish” as defined by Scripture and thus is a “viable candidate for the Biblical red heifer.”

The birth of a calf seems commonplace, but the second oddity in Israel has baffled scientists across the world. The Dead Sea is known for its overwhelming salinity. The extraordinary abundance of salt in the water makes it both a popular tourist destination and an environment that is completely inhospitable to almost every form of life on the planet. The sinkholes around its edges, however, have inexplicably been filled with fish. Where the fish have come from is unknown, and they have been joined by the return of vegetation to the otherwise barren area. This fits the prophet Ezekiel’s claims that the Dead Sea and the area around it would flourish with life before the world came to an end.

The final eerie happening in Israel is enough to send shivers down the spine of even the most skeptical. A snake crawled out of the stones of the Wailing Wall, one of Israel’s holiest sites. Worshipers, understandably, “panic[ed].” The snake was identified as a coin-marked snake, or leaden-colored racer, and it was not a small specimen either. Rough estimates place it at over three feet long. The appearance of the snake was not the first frightening incident to take place at the Wailing Wall this year, as a falling stone nearly crushed a women praying below in July 2018. That said, there is something more ominous about the unexpected appearance of the animal so often associated with evil in the Bible in a place that is meant to be filled with worship.

What precisely these signs mean, if anything, is up for debate, but there is no doubt that end of the world bloggers have just received more than enough material to keep them busy through the end of the year. There are also a lot of people undoubtedly grabbing for their Bibles in order to refresh themselves on the signs of the end times, just in case more of them appear.