Economic Crisis Pushing the European Union Forward
The revival of the Roman Empire is one of most important end-time prophecies in the Bible. This organization will be headed by the Antichrist, and it will sponsor a treaty that will begin the seven-year tribulation. If Israel is the second hand on God’s prophetic clock, the Revived Roman Empire is the minute hand.
Lately, there has been some controversy over the location of the re-birthed Roman Empire. Some people say the alliance will be centered in Europe, while others say it will be focused in the Middle East. We at Rapture Ready believe it will be in Europe. In fact, we believe the EU is actively fulfilling the role set by Bible prophecy.
One factor that excludes an Eastern Roman Empire is the weak nature of this final world power. Of all the empires in Daniel’s vision, the last one will be of the poorest quality. The vision showed a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, a belly of brass, legs of iron, and feet of clay mixed with iron. Because the EU is represented by the feet of clay, this explains why the union of nations has taken several decades to get to where it is now.
The EU has been on this bizarre trek that has had it barely surviving one setback after another. Great Britain’s Margaret Thatcher was well noted for her opposition to a strong centralized European leadership. She repeatedly demanded terms that almost caused the Union to totally unravel. In 2005, the EU suffered its worst blow when France and the Netherlands rejected the EU constitution in separate referendums. In 2008, Ireland voted down a more streamlined treaty. Despite all the setbacks and delays, the organization continues to move forward, and there is only one valid reason I can come up with: God has preordained that the EU will be the fulfillment of prophecy.
In the past few weeks, I have noticed several new reports that show how the global economic crisis has greatly benefited the EU integration process. While economies around the world falter, the EU has become an island of relative stability. The euro has soared against nearly every major currency. It threatens to unseat the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
The most profound change has been in Great Britain–the traditional land of euroskeptics. Business leaders in Britain are starting to see that not adopting the euro as currency is putting them at a competitive disadvantage with the rest of Europe. The British citizenry once saw the euro as a threat to the value of their national currency. Oddly enough, the opposite is now true. If Britain were part of the euro system, it would be the one putting a strain on the rest of Europe. Already a nation deep in debt, the British government is spending billions more of taxpayers' money to save several key banks. David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party, recently warned that Britain risks bankruptcy and a humiliating bailout by the International Monetary Fund.
Views toward the EU have also changed in Ireland. The latest polls find that the Lisbon Treaty could pass in Ireland if a new referendum on its adoption were to take place. A survey by Quantum Research shows that 55 percent of respondents would support the proposed common body of law for members of the EU in a new vote, while 37 percent would oppose it.
The EU bandwagon has even made a stop in Poland. The Polish parliament passed a resolution calling on the president to sign the Lisbon Treaty as quickly as possible. The resolution calls for the president to "respect the will of both houses of parliament and end the Lisbon Treaty's ratification process as quickly as possible, and actively support its ratification in the remaining European Union member states," reported the Polish Press Agency.
The formation of the Revived Roman Empire has a direct connection to the timing of the rapture. Because the blessed hope is said to occur at an unknown hour (Matt. 24:44), I don’t think I’m going to be writing any future articles about the identity of the Antichrist and his plans for a finalized Arab/Israeli peace accord. The fact that the EU is starting see a new round of momentum and is even starting to stick its nose into Middle East affairs tells me that the trigger point of the rapture must be very near.
-- Todd
Move America Away from Israel?
The Obama Administration, I sense, has perhaps taken the initial step in its intention to move America from her close alliance with Israel. The action is almost like one might see in a 1940s gangster movie. An intended victim of gangland warfare is about to be hit, and nobody wants to stand too close to the target.
Although the new president made noises that the U.S. intends to stand by the Jewish state, his overtures to the Islamic Arab antagonists sound very much like there’s a distancing from one lover, and the romancing of another. President Obama, in his White House interview aimed specifically at the Arab world, sounded as if the Israeli-Arab conflict was primarily the fault of the Bush Administration for not giving a sympathetic ear to Israel’s victims.
“In the interview, which was taped on Monday night and broadcast throughout the Muslim world on Tuesday, Mr. Obama said it was his job ‘to communicate to the Muslim world that the Americans are not your enemy.’ He added that ‘we sometimes make mistakes,’ but said that America was not born as a colonial power and that he hoped for a restoration of ‘the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago’” (Arab TV Network, "Obama Urges Dialogue," by Alan Cowell, Robert F. Worth and Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon, and Sharon Otterman from New York.)
Obama gave lip service to America’s continuing to be a strong ally of Israel, but in the next breath made a statement--at best ludicrous and at worst potentially fatally flawed--of future administration policy toward Israel:
“…‘But I also believe that there are Israelis who recognize that it is important to achieve peace,’ he added. ‘They will be willing to make sacrifices if the time is appropriate and if there is serious partnership on the other side’” (Ibid.)
What sacrifice?! Israel has given to the point it is almost once again backed into an area of pre-1967 sequester. And, still there is call for it to “sacrifice”--by a president of the United States, who is making not-so-subtle noises of moving away from this republic’s God-appointed ally. This satanically controlled world is positioning its target in a way to marginalize it for a final assault, just as foretold in Zechariah 12: 1-3 and other prophecies.
Mr. Obama’s statement, according to the above-quoted article, that “he hoped for a restoration of ‘the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago,'” shows either naiveté from which no U.S. president should suffer, or blatant disregard for the nature of the terrorist beasts that lay in wait for Israel and the rest of us as well.
The following brings us facts about the realities of those 20 or 30 years:
“The unspoken truth about the fighting in Gaza, which began on December 19, 2008, when Hamas rockets broke a voluntary truce, is that this is the frontline of a much larger war. This war began 30 years ago with the Islamic Revolution in Iran and is now global in scope. Its agenda is the extermination of the Jews and the destruction of the West. The Islamic terrorist organization Hamas makes no secret of this agenda. Its Egyptian founders and Palestinian inspirers were active followers of Adolf Hitler and enthusiasts of the Nazi Holocaust. The founding charter of Hamas, which promises that ‘Islam will obliterate Israel,’ memorialize the Egyptian admirer of Hitler, Hassan al-Banna, as ‘the martyr…of blessed memory.’ The same document contains the genocidal incitement of the Prophet Mohammed to ‘kill the Jews,’ to hunt them down ‘until they hide behind the rocks and the trees, and the rocks and trees cry out “O Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him”’” (David Horowitz, "The War Against the Jews," FrontPageMagazine.com,1/9/09).
Mr. President, if ever there were a time to move closer to the Lord of Heaven--not away from Him--this is that time. Israel is still God’s chosen nation, according to His Holy Word, whether the president of the United States of America or anyone else believes it to be true.
"And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. And I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God" (Genesis 12:7a).
--Terry
The American Apocalypse: Is the United States in Bible Prophecy?”
With many thanks,
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