Hello everyone and Merry Christmas. Yes, it is almost the celebration day for the birth of our Lord. I have always loved Christmas and my family always went out of their way to make it a wonderful time of year.
The only thing more exciting to me that the scriptures telling of the life, death and resurrection of our Lord is the fact that they also tell us he is coming again.
I believe this fact as much as I believe we need air to breathe. He is coming again and I believe it will be in our lifetime!
Jack Van Impe calls it the Terminal Generation. Won't it be an awesome day when we meet our Blessed Savior face to face and celebrate His birthday live and eternally!
Jack Kinsella once again has hit the nail on the head as to what the Bible says about the times in which we live. I pray this article will be a blessing to you and that if you do not already know my Jesus that you will bow your knee and ask him into your heart this very day.
Again, I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
God Bless
Elaine Moreland
"If the formation of the European Common Market were an isolated development in the line of Bible prophecy, then it would have no significance for our study."
"However, combined with the other pieces of the prophetic puzzle which we are attempting to develop for you, it takes on immense importance. We believe that the Common Market and the trend toward the unification of Europe may well be the beginning of the ten-nation confederacy predicted by Daniel and the Book of Revelation." (The Late Great Planet Earth, Hal Lindsey, 1969)
Thirty-six years ago, when Hal confidently named an as-yet non-existent ten-nation confederation arising out of the heart of the old Roman Empire, Europe's unification was still only a dream.
It had only been some twenty-one years before that the fledgling Brussels Treaty that created the Benelux Customs Union had been signed on March 17th, 1948.
At the time Hal was writing the Late, Great Planet Earth, the ten nations of Western Europe that form the core of the WEU (and who remain the only nations to hold full membership status) had not yet reached their full number.
The Western European Council was still debating applications for membership from the United Kingdom, Denmark, Ireland and Norway. It wasn't until 1995 that the Western European Union's roster of ten full members was filled when Greece was accepted into the fold.
The European Union is NOT the Western European Union, but the Western European Union IS the EU. That sounds confusing -- I'm not even sure I can explain it coherently, but I'll try.
Modern Europe was born OUT of the Western European Union, but the WEU itself continued on as a separate organization.
The requirement for full membership in the Western European Union is membership in both the greater European Union and NATO. The modern European Union was born out of the 1957 Treaty of Rome.
The Western European Union was born out of the 1948 Brussels Treaty as a replacement to the failed European Security and Defense Assembly under the terms of the 'Modified Brussels Treaty' signed in 1954. (NATO was created in 1949)
The EU and WEU formed a partial merger in areas of defense and security. A full merger had been planned by 2000, but as of 2004, the WEU is still very much alive and most European military planning takes place within its constituent cells.
A book published recently by New York University entitled, "Defending Europe" argues that events of the first four years of this century point more toward a revival of the WEU than its absorption into the greater EU.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the WEU is composed of the delegations of the member states to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which, fearful for its future existence with the winding up of the WEU, has been lobbying for itself to be recognized as the "European Security and Defense Assembly".
In a speech delivered to the WEU Assembly gathered in London in February, 1996, by NATO'S Deputy Secretary General, he told the WEU delegates;
"First, the question of NATO's European component. That function is currently fulfilled by the WEU. The WEU, of course, performs a dual role. The Treaty on European Union refers to the WEU as an integral part of the development of the EU and requests the WEU to elaborate and implement decisions and actions of the EU which have defense implications."
Javier Solana's deputy went on to exhort the WEU delegates;
"So let us remind ourselves of one central fact: NATO, the WEU and the EU have the same strategic interests - shaping the security environment of the future for the better and enhancing stability and security throughout the wider Europe."
Hmmm. Sounds almost Biblical -- 'these three are one'.
The fact that the WEU is taking steps to strengthen its existence and power within the framework of the greater EU, instead of allowing itself to be absorbed, is of great significance when trying to understand the whole 'ten toes' of Daniel prophecy.
Simply put, the greater EU, now consisting of 28 member states, needs the WEU to ensure its security.
And since the ten core nations of the WEU are simultaneously the most powerful states in Old Europe, the EU is really an extension of the WEU -- and not the other way around.
The European Union is the administrative and economic arm, but the WEU is the hand that holds the hammer.
King Nebuchadnezzar summoned the prophet Daniel to interpret a dream he had that had baffled all his counselors and sorcerers. The king couldn't even remember the dream, only that it greatly troubled him.
Daniel was tasked with both telling the king what his dream was, and interpreting its meaning.
Daniel told the king that he saw, in his dream, a great image of a man, with a head of fine gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, with two legs of iron and his feet part of iron and part of clay. (Daniel 2:28-33)
Daniel went on to describe what troubled the king the most, even though he couldn't recall the details:
"Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth." (Daniel 2:34-35)
The image, as you undoubtedly know, described four successive world empires; the head was Babylon, chest and arms was the Medo-Persian Empire, belly and thighs was Alexander's Greek Empire and the two legs of iron represented Rome, which eventually divided itself into an eastern and western empire.
The Western Empire was ruled from Rome, the Eastern Empire from Constantinople, until both finally collapsed under their own weight.
Insofar as the feet of iron and clay, Daniel told the king:
"And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay." (2:41)
Iron mixed with clay is partly strong and partly weak. So is the revived Roman Empire partly strong, and partly weak.
Without the strength of the member states of the WEU, the greater EU would soon collapse. Without the economic power, infrastructure and participation of the greater EU, the WEU would be just another military alliance.
Donald Rumsfeld divided Europe into two categories; "Old Europe" and "New Europe". So did the prophet Daniel.
"And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay." (2:42-43)
Daniel's description could not be more specific. And, as a side observation, its fulfillment is dripping with symbolism.
'Old Europe' came to the foreground as a consequence of its opposition to a war to invade Iraq (ancient Babylon) for the purpose of removing Saddam Hussein, a dictator who claimed to be the reincarnation of Nebuchadnezzar.
When he was restoring the old city of Babylon during the 1980's, Saddam had bricks struck that superimposed his profile beside that of Nebuchadnezzar. In 1988, he commissioned a coin celebrating himself as the second Nebuchadnezzar.
The removal of the 'second Nebuchadnezzar' split both NATO and Europe down the middle, with most of the newly admitted member states to the East siding with Washington, and the majority of Western Europe opposed.
'Partly strong, and partly weak, but they shall not cleave together' is the way Daniel described it.
The WEU is, as of 2004, a ten-nation core of powerful European states in charge of maintaining Europe's military security. It controls NATO, the world's most powerful military alliance and it insists on retaining a separate identity to keep its voice from being diluted by that of the greater EU.
Often at odds with its own members (as in the Iraq War), it remains, nonetheless, the heart and soul of greater Europe. And it is committed to replacing the United States as the world's only superpower.
And, according to the prophet Daniel, it will be the world's last superpower.
"And in the DAYS OF THESE KINGS shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the Kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." (2:44)
JOHN3:16
