9:21 murders. Violence will have spread over the earth ever since the rider on the red horse took peace from the earth (Revelation 6:4). Murder and robbery will become ever more common with the further breakdown of law and order.

9:21 sorceries. The word for “sorceries” actually means “druggings” (Greek pharmakeia, from which we get the word “pharmaceutical”). Ancient sorcerers and oracles commonly used mind-altering drugs to induce their visions and healings. The use of hallucinatory drugs has already become commonplace today, and will become almost universal in this future time, contributing significantly also to the rapid spread of murder, fornication and theft.

9:21 fornication. The Greek for “fornication” (porneia) actually covers all types of sexual sins—that is, every type of sexual sin outside the bonds of permanent, monogamous marriage. The modern explosion of adultery, divorce, promiscuity, homosexuality, lesbianism, incest, rape, and every imaginable perversion of God’s purpose in human sexuality, will become essentially universal in these terrible days to come.