Europe Rising From Confusion Toward Unity?

A recent move toward tightening the economic controls in the European Union is a foretaste and forerunner of a powerful and history-changing union to come.

We are witnessing another apparent step toward the formation of the great end-time construct prophesied in the books of Daniel and Revelation. At a summit meeting on Aug. 16, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that the two economic heavyweights had agreed on a proposal for a “true European economic government.”

Some in the British press are calling it “a dramatic euro power grab” and foresee that Germany and France are “demanding the right to dictate economic policy to other countries in the single currency” and that this amounts to “a major step toward a European superstate.”

The two leaders announced that they would work toward a common corporate tax system by the year 2013. This is an attempt to prove that Europe is serious about its shaky economies and will require fiscal discipline from the eurozone’s more profligate members. The “economic government” team proposed would consist of heads of state and government of the 17 nations that use the euro and would meet twice a year to set tax and spending policy. That may sound innocuous enough, but the proposed structure would likely have side effects.

Britain out?

Senior British Treasury officials have stated that the United Kingdom would never join a system where economic policies would be dictated by the European Union. Approximately 40 percent of British trade is with members of the EU, so refusing to enter such a structure or being pushed out could have significant consequences on the British economy. And not just Britain is concerned. It is likely that the Netherlands and Finland will contest the proposal; they do not wish to have economic policy dictated to them either.

The Fourth Reich?

Some journalists state that this is the opening gambit of a process that will allow Germany to dominate Europe, going so far as to suggest it is the rise of a “Fourth Reich.” Germany, it is suggested, could force other eurozone nations to adopt not only German economic behavior, but German behavior period.

Currently it is German economic strength and treasure supporting the weaker, overdrawn economies. But in Germany more than half of Mrs. Merkel’s own supporters are against the bail-outs. To survive politically, Mrs. Merkel will have to require something in return from bailed-out recipients, which could place these nations in the position of either submitting or facing default.

Germany went from rubble in 1945 to being the fifth-largest economy in the world in just a few decades. A Europe harnessed by such an industrious and efficient nation would indeed be a new kind of superpower, and it would dominate the world.

A terrifying end-time power

In a striking vision given thousands of years ago, the prophet Daniel was allowed to see imagery of animals representing a series of empires stretching from his time to the return of Christ. The last of the animals was of terrifying power. An angel of God explained to Daniel the meaning: “The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, trample it and break it in pieces” (Daniel 7:23).

That kingdom, the Roman Empire, which conquered the known world, has undergone many resurrections over time. The final one, yet to come, will be in place at the time of the establishment of the Kingdom of God on the earth:

“Then the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him” (verse 27).

This description corresponds with the end-time power depicted by another animal in Revelation 17. This frightening animal is ridden by a woman (in prophetic imagery representing a church) sitting on seven hills (verse 9). Rome famously sits on seven hills. The animal has 10 horns, which represent 10 “kings” who give their power to an overlord called the “beast” (verses 12-13). These will all fight against Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, at His return (verse 14).

These passages paint a stark picture of events to occur just before the return of Christ: a resurrected Roman Empire—a union of European nations, allied with a church that sits in Rome—that is not democratic and peaceful, but autocratic and militant, crushing its foes. It will even attempt, and fail, to subdue Christ at His return.

Events like those underway in the European Union now are foretastes and forerunners of the end-time political, economic and military union to come. The closer we come to that union, the closer we come to the cataclysmic events of the end of this age and to the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth. Keep watching!

Joel Meeker is a pastor and writer who lived and worked in Europe for nine years. He now lives with his wife and two grown daughters in the Cincinnati, Ohio, area.