If you want to rotate an object on the world axis, you can achieve this by using the following function:
let rotationWorldMatrix;
function rotateOnWorldAxis(item, axis, angle)
{
rotationWorldMatrix = new THREE.Matrix4();
rotationWorldMatrix.makeRotationAxis(axis.normalize(), angle);
rotationWorldMatrix.multiplySelf(item.matrix);
item.matrix = rotationWorldMatrix;
item.rotation.getRotationFromMatrix(item.matrix, item.scale);
}
Simply call
rotateOnWorldAxis(objectToRotate, new THREE.Vector3(1,0,0), 90 * Math.PI/180);