Does Fading NATO Effectiveness Signal U.S. Separation From Europe?

As the NATO alliance grows apart, the United States is pushing Europe to spend more on its military. What might this mean in the panorama of end-time Bible prophecy?

Outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has sounded an alarm about the possible disintegration of NATO. At his farewell speech to the NATO Council in Brussels June 10, Gates pulled few punches. He said that the organization had become a two-tiered system composed of those “willing and able to pay the price and bear the burdens of alliance commitments, and those who enjoy the benefits of NATO membership ... but don’t want to share the risks and the costs.”

In a press interview a few days later, Gates said he didn’t think the alliance would suddenly come apart: “I don’t think it will be as dramatic as a break,” he said. “But it’ll just be slowly growing apart—it’s a troubled marriage.”

Could this situation have significance for the fulfillment of Bible prophecy?

Loss of purpose

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was founded in 1949 to defend a weakened Western Europe from the Soviet Union in the aftermath of World War II. Lord Ismay, the first NATO secretary-general, famously said that the purpose of the organization was “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.” It accomplished those goals, as well as generally containing aggressive Communist countries until the final collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Since that time, NATO’s purpose has been less clear. The lack of a clear threat and therefore commitment has caused many NATO countries to spend less and less on military capabilities, to the point that the treaty countries are hard-pressed even to sustain relatively restrained air operations against Muammar Gadhafi’s Libya.

Distance from Europe?

For the last 65 years in the post-WWII world, the United States has considered its primary allies to be in Europe. The NATO structure was strong glue that smoothed tensions and differences, created a united front and strengthened common interests.

If NATO ages away as Mr. Gates fears, then younger Americans and Europeans, who have no memory of the impressive glory days of the Atlantic alliance, could forget the lessons of the past and chart new political and military directions.

End-time prophecies

Bible prophecy foretells that just prior to the return of Jesus Christ there will be a great politico-military union centered in Europe (Revelation 17:9-14). This power will be wielded by a man called “the king of the North” in Daniel 11, which also shows he will be a warrior and a conqueror.

This end-time period before Christ’s second coming coincides with the time called “Jacob’s trouble” in Jeremiah 30:7, when the descendants of the “lost 10 tribes” of Israel, including many of the English-speaking nations of the world, will face destruction and ruin.

Jesus said of this time of trouble: “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened” (Matthew 24:21-22). The descendants of Israel will be particular targets in this catastrophic time.

All this strongly indicates violent confrontation between the end-time power in Europe and the U.S. and Britain and related peoples. In the post-war years of strong alliance between these countries and the nations of Europe, it was hard to see how such a tectonic shift could come to pass. But the increasing isolation and disfavor, even hatred, of the United States is a strong portent of how this could occur.

A gradual drifting apart of the U.S. and Europe, leading the latter to take a stronger role in its own military development, would be another such indication, a gradual setting of the stage for coming confrontation.

Beyond the confrontation, there is hope—the sure hope of the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of the Kingdom of God. Read more about this hope in our booklet The Mystery of the Kingdom.

Joel Meeker is a pastor and writer. He and his wife, Marjolaine, and two adult daughters live in Cincinnati, Ohio.