I received the following in an email:
The Vatican is pushing for the establishment of “a supranational authority” with worldwide scope and “universal jurisdiction” to guide economic policies and decisions. (i.e., a one world bank)
I know that some of you will be mad at what you are about to read. That’s OK. I don’t mind. Now is the time to prepare for what may be some very difficult living conditions. Don’t ever say that it can’t happen here. There won’t be a sky-hook rescue. The mess is ours to fix. So here it goes.
There are many Christians who see the disintegration of society as evidence that we are headed for a One World Government. The economy in the United States is one of the most controlled economies in the world. Is it working? No. Can those who control the Federal Reserve make it work? No. So what makes anybody think that a World Bank under the leadership of a World Government will do any better? It won’t. It will create more of a mess than we have now. Every nation knows it.
The Vatican doesn’t know anything about economics. Its power is in its talk and its perceived authority, and few people pay attention to anything that comes out of the Vatican these days. The Vatican wants the United Nations “to guide economic policies and decisions.” What a joke. The UN would raid the banks, redistribute the wealth, fill the private accounts of the overseers, retire to Monaco, and the European nations know it. I can say that the one redeeming factor of European secularism is that its leaders don’t pay attention to the Vatican.
Last Days Madness
In this authoritative book, Gary DeMar clears the haze of ‘end-times’ fever, shedding light on the most difficult and studied prophetic passages in the Bible, including Daniel 7:13-14; 9:24-27; Matt. 16:27-28; 24-25; Thess. 2; 2 Peter 3:3-13, and clearly explaining a host of other controversial topics.
Buy NowStill, there are millions of Christians who believe that the Bible predicts an inevitable political and economic centralization. Some readers get upset any time I point out how modern-day prophecy writers misrepresent the Bible. My critics don’t seem to mind that popular prophecy writers have been wrong over the years. “But this time is different,” they say.
In addition to predicting that the rapture would take place before 1988, Lindsey argued the Roman Empire would be revived: “I saw this coming in 1969, as I discussed in my book, ‘The Late Great Planet Earth.’”[1] In this same article, he argued that “10 nations out of the ruins of the Roman culture and people have arisen as the real power behind the European Union.”[2]
Lindsey wasn’t the first to make this claim. In 1926, Oswald J. Smith wrote about a revived Roman Empire that he argued was on the horizon and was a fulfillment of Bible prophecy. He also predicted that Benito Mussolini was the antichrist. Smith was emphatic that “Ten nations, no more, no less, are to become allied and known as the Roman empire because Rome will be the centre, the capital, and it will be in Rome that the Emperor will reign.”[3] Notice what Smith said about this revived Roman Empire: “Ten nations, no more, no less.”
In his Late Great Planet Earth, Lindsey wrote about a “ten nation [European] confederacy” that would be in place by 1980. For support, he quoted William Hallstein, the former president of the European Economic Community, who described how a “Common Market could someday expand into a ten-nation economic entity whose industrial might would far surpass that of the Soviet Union.” Lindsey remarked, “Imagine that. A ‘ten-nation economic entity.’”[4] Like Smith, Lindsey envisioned a ten-nation revived Roman Empire.
Today, the European Union has more than ten nations and includes nations not originally part of the old Roman Empire and excludes nations of northern Africa and Israel that were part of the original empire. Eight former Communist states and two island Mediterranean nations joined the European Union in 2004.[5] This brought the total to 25. Today, the number is 27 member states. So, what happened to a literal ten-nation—“no more, no less”—Common Market? Lindsey fudges by revising his early comments by claiming that ten nations control the other 27. That’s not what he wrote in 1969.
Other prophecy writers understand the problem of maintaining that a modern-day ten-nation European confederacy is the fulfillment of Daniel 7:23-25 and Revelation 13:1-4 since the European Union has surpassed ten in membership. Prophecy pundits are now using the phrase “ten regions of global governance.” Here’s what Brannon Howse of “Christian Worldview Network” wrote about this supposed fulfillment of Bible prophecy in our day:
Is the world on the verge of being divided into 10 regions? Rev 17:12 says that 10 world leaders will give their power and authority to the anti-christ. Iraq has unveiled plans for the creation of a regional economic and security union for the Middle East explicitly modeled on the European Union. Have you heard about the African Union, The Union of South American [sic], The North American Union and Asia and Pacific Union? Has President Bush turned our U.S. Economy over to the European Union? Financial Times writer [Gideon Rachman] admits that a world government is “now plausible.”
Rachman quotes Geoffrey Blainey, an eminent Australian historian, on the possibility: “For the first time in human history, world government of some sort is now possible.” He went on to question whether a world government could last. Rome had its Empire. So did the Holy Roman Empire. We shouldn’t forget the British Empire that is a shadow of its former self. Then there is the United States that can’t solve its own economic woes. Hitler and the Communists had their try at world domination.
Do we really believe the European nations would want the United Nations to run a global government? The blue helmets can’t even deal with third-world skirmishes. Centralization leads to an inordinate amount of pressure on the center and the inability to police the perimeter. The result is a return to decentralization as people throw off ineffective and oppressive leadership. It’s the process of trying to impose centralization that’s so painful.
As I write this, Europe is on the verge of economic collapse. One bankrupt nation is trying to bail out another bankrupt nation. The center cannot hold. I know what you’re thinking; the situation is ripe for a political savior to step on the scene. Political saviors have the same problem that past political saviors had: They can’t create something from nothing. What’s a new political savior going to do? Print more money? Build more roads? Promise bread and circuses? Start a war? Then what?
Adolf Hitler fooled a lot of people in Germany, but he was not embraced by the rest of Europe. Because of German austerity measures, “Greece has revived historical enmities and evoked comparisons to the massive destruction of the Mediterranean country at the hands of Nazi Germany over 65 years ago.” The mistrust, anger, and resentment run deep:
Such newfound anger toward Germans adds to decades of pent-up resentment over what many Greeks say is unpaid compensation for Nazi atrocities.
Public opinion is being rallied by former Greek lawmaker Manolis Glezos, 89, who famously risked his life in 1941 when he scaled the Acropolis to pull down the Swastika flag. He has repeatedly called on Germany to bail out Greece on the grounds it owes Athens money for war crimes, telling local media Germans owe around $40 billion.
Europe is kicking the economic can down the road by leveraging the future to pay for the economic and political sins of the present and past. Political leaders are hoping inflation (increasing the money supply) will serve as a long enough fix for them to weather the storm. It will be the next generation that will have to pay the bill.
What should we do? “What’s the proper response?,” Gary North would often ask. Kirk Cameron listed some of his heroes of the faith, naming St. Patrick, John Knox, Martin Luther, the Puritans and the pilgrims among them. They did not believe in a “rapture” even though they were dominated by failed tyrannical regimes that are written about in history books:
These were people who faced times that were much darker than what you and I are facing in America today. Political darkness during the time of the pilgrims in England was at an apex, you would have thought they would have completely given up hope,” he said. “The government had hijacked the church and Christians were being persecuted.”
“They were being run out of the country by a woke mob and what did they do? They didn’t put their head between their knees and cry in their Chick-Fil-A Soup and wait for the rapture while the culture deteriorated. They read their Bibles. And they got on a little boat, and they sailed across the world to start a new society that would later become the freest, strongest, most benevolent and generous nation the world has ever known.”
Something’s got to give. That’s why it’s necessary to make the hard political and economic decisions now. Get out of debt. Move to a state that is out of debt and taxes and regulations are low. Get involved politically at the county level. If things get bad, the local sheriff will be the civil official that will need your support.
Restoring the Foundation of Civilization
There are many Christians who will not participate in civilization-building efforts that include economics, journalism, politics, education, and science because they believe (or have been taught to believe) these areas of thought are outside the realm of what constitutes a Christian worldview. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Buy NowGet armed. You never know when civil unrest will break out. If it does, one of the first things that will be at a premium will be guns and ammunition. Owning some silver and gold, a gasoline-powered generator, and a month’s supply of food wouldn’t hurt. Plant a garden. Know how to fix things. Make sure your prescription medicine is up to date. Have an extra pair of eyeglasses. Create a community of like-minded people.
I know that these aren’t things we want to think about, but we must.
[1]Hal Lindsey, “Is Rome Reviving?,” WorldNetDaily (March 3, 2005).
[2]Lindsey, “Is Rome Reviving?”
[3]Oswald J. Smith, Is the Antichrist at Hand? (Harrisburg, PA: The Christian Alliance Publishing Co., 1926), 18.
[4]Hal Lindsey, The Late Great Planet Earth (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1970), 96-97.
[5]Daniel Rubin, “European Union Close to adding 10 nations,” Atlanta Journal/Constitution (October 13, 2002), B4.