In this context the same as the world of mankind.
In the Bible the world often refers to wicked humankind alienated from God. The world of ungodly people:
For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life.-John 3:16
Do not love either the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him; because everything in the world—the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the showy display of one’s means of life—does not originate with the Father, but originates with the world. 17 Furthermore, the world is passing away and so is its desire, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.-1 John 2:15-17.
Hmm...you're starting from an end point (belief in end times) and then matching it back against what is occurring around you. I figured as much, but you talk as if there is a coherent degeneration of the people on the
planet. That they have turned to lawlessness, and vice, and are now a signal of impending end times because of it...
Are you sure you're not just seeing this because it's a heck of a lot closer to home now? The US does not constitute 'human society'.
Global homicide rates are not on the increase (and are in fact lower than they were in the last twenty years). Where I live (Australia) crime stats are generally trending down, not up to some sort of crescendo.
Australia Crime Rate & Statistics 1990-2020
Global study on homicide
End times have been signalled for 2000 years by people taking a set of preconceptions, and then fitting them back against whatever is happening around them at the time.
