»
EUROPEWATCH
P R E S I D E N T
B U S H …
“
IT SOUNDS
LIKE THE
ROMAN
EMPIRE.
“
BY IRVIN BAXTER
“Sounds like the
Roman Empire,
Romano,” remarked
President Bush. His offthe-cuff comment to
Romano Prodi,
President of the
European Commission,
came in response to
Prodi’s proud description of the dramatic
enlargement scheduled
for the European Union
in May of 2004.
So was President Bush right? Is the
unification of Europe, which we are
presently witnessing, the re-creation of
the Roman Empire?
The President’s statement is interesting because the Bible prophesies the
rebirth of the Holy Roman Empire right
before the Second Coming of Jesus. The
Holy Roman Empire is the Roman
Empire in a modified form.
There are two prophecies that foretell
the re-emergence of the Holy Roman
22 EN DTI M E MAGAZI N E MAR / APR 2004
Empire. They are found in Daniel 2 and
Revelation 17.
Over the last 1,200 years, the Holy
Roman Empire has always been led by
two men, a political leader and a spiritual leader. This will be true of the last
rise of the Holy Roman Empire. The
Bible calls those two men the Antichrist
and the False Prophet.
A united Europe
The January 3, 2004 edition of The
Economist featured an article entitled,
“The History of an Idea.” The article
states, “Ever since the fall of Rome, a
strain in European thought has longed
for the re-creation of an over-arching
political structure for Europe, and has
used the Roman Empire as a model. In
800 AD, more than three centuries after
the fall of the Roman Empire, Charlemagne, the king of the Franks, had himself crowned in Rome by the pope. His
new empire stretched from the Pyrenees to the Danube and from Hamburg
to Sicily; and his imperial seal bore the
words Renovatio Imperii Romani, ‘the
Renewal of the Roman Empire.’”
In making his remark, President
Bush, knowingly or not, touched upon
a crucial point: the drive for European
unity has deep historical origins. They
stretch back to the dissolution of the
Roman Empire and the memory of the
empire Charlemagne strove to renew.
Napoleon tried to re-create it through
his Legion of Honor in 1802, which was
modeled after the Roman Legio Honoratorum. Hitler attempted to unify
Europe. His loyalists gave the Roman
salute. Their cry, “Heil Hitler!” was
modeled after “Hail Caesar!” Even the
Nazi’s SS division for French volunteers
was called the “Charlemagne Division”.
Whether in times of war or peace, the
inspiration for European unification has
always been attributed to Charlemagne.
In May, ten new nations will join the
European Union, bringing the total
membership to 25 nations. This will
swell the population of the EU to 450
million. The economies of these nations
will merge, with most adopting a common currency—the euro, and all
national borders will be abolished. Also
scheduled for 2004 is the election of a
European president, the formation of a
European military and the adoption of
a European constitution. We are witnessing nothing short of the creation of
EUROPEWATCH
a superpower that could rival the United States for world leadership.
The United States dominates the
world today causing some to accuse the
U.S. of being a revived Roman Empire.
However, a true reincarnation of an
ancient empire is being born in Europe.
When they cry ‘peace, peace’
Former attempts to recreate the
Roman Empire had been made by military force. However, today the mission
is nearly accomplished without a shot
being fired. The ammunition of the
architects of the new Europe has been
words. The weapon—peace.
The rationale in the drive for the unification of Europe has been to ensure
that the continent, which gave us World
War I and World War II, would never be
the source of World War III. European
leaders pointed out that the horrible
wars of the 20th Century were ignited
by national conflicts. They reasoned
that if borders were eliminated and the
nation-states of Europe were merged
into a United States of Europe, the caus-
es of war would be dissolved and
Europe would live in peace.
The Economist boldly claims: “The
Romans and Charlemagne actually
inspired the fathers of the EU, whose
objectives were the exact opposite of
war. Indeed, the founding treaty of their
creation was signed in Rome, of course,
in 1957.” Present European leaders hope
to return to the Eternal City in 2004 to
put their names to a new constitution.
Should anyone be surprised that the
expansion of the European club is being
managed from the Charlemagne Building in Brussels?
The “Holy” Roman Empire
What is the distinction between the
Roman Empire and the Holy Roman
Empire? The Roman Empire was strictly
political. But as in Nebuchadnezzar’s
dream in Daniel 2, the last empire was
made of iron mingled with clay—the
Roman Empire joined with the Catholic
Church. When Pope Leo III placed the
crown on Charlemagne’s head in 800 AD,
it became a union of church and state.
Bush & Prodi AP PHOTO/RON EDMONDS
The current challenge for the EU is to
get a constitution adopted. Poland, one
of the countries to become a member
this year, torpedoed the process when it
insisted on having the same number of
votes in EU decision making as Germany and France. Germany’s population is twice the size of Poland’s, and
she has a much larger economy. Therefore, Germany insists that the voting
strength of each country be apportioned
according to population. Poland continues to hold out for an equal voice.
Poland is also insisting that the new
European constitution include recognition of the Roman Catholic Church’s
historic role in Europe. This should not
surprise us since Poland is the homeland
of Pope John Paul II. Many national
leaders are resisting any mingling of politics and religion in the new constitution. Could Poland possibly compromise
on the voting issue in exchange for official EU recognition of the Pope’s traditional role in the Holy Roman Empire?
EN DTI M E MAGAZI N E MAR / APR 2004
23
«
»
EUROPEWATCH
The signing of the Treaty of Rome, creating the European Economic Community (EEC), on March 25, 1957. AP PHOTO
World government: UN or EU?
Under the presidency of George W.
Bush, the United Nations has been
diminishing in influence. Some believe
that the UN has been irreversibly damaged by the unilateral invasion of Iraq
by the U.S.
Robert Muller, former Assistant UN
Secretary-General, known as the Prophet
of the UN, told ENDTIME that if the United Nations does not succeed, then the
focus should switch to Europe, because it
already has the mechanisms for a world
governmental system in place.
Will Muller be proven right? Will the
seat of global authority shift to the
European Union? If American unilateralism continues in defiance of the United Nations, then the global planners
may very well be tempted to move their
headquarters to Geneva where much of
the structure of the United Nations is
located, or Brussels, the seat of the EU.
They may even be tempted to move
their headquarters to the international
city of the world, Jerusalem. That has
been suggested since Jerusalem is the
only city on earth that the UN has designated as an international city under
UN administration. Even former Prime
Minister Shimon Peres suggested last
year that Jerusalem should become the
capital of the world with the UN Secretary General as its mayor.
The UN apparatus is probably too far
24 EN DTI M E MAGAZI N E MAR / APR 2004
advanced to be dissolved. A marriage
between the UN and the EU appears to
be a more likely scenario. Such a development may be the fulfillment of how
the four separate powers of Daniel 7
merge into one global government
depicted in Revelation 13.
A large exhibition on the history of
the idea of European Unity was staged
last year at the German History Museum in Berlin. It emphasized the intellectual origins of the idea of European
unity. Victor Hugo, the French 19th
Century novelist, proclaimed in 1849,
“A day will come when you, France,
you, Russia, you, Italy, you Germany,
you, all nations of the continent, without losing your distinctive qualities and
glorious individuality, will be merged
within a superior unit.” The exhibition
closed with a quotation from Valerie
Giscard d’Estang, chairman of the convention that drafted the disputed EU
constitution: “Dream of Europe. Let us
imagine a continent at peace, freed of
its barriers and obstacles, where history
and geography are finally reconciled.”
The Economist summed it up this
way: “If pressed, few of the architects of
the modern Europe venture would
deny that they hope that one day the
EU will be a great power—a peaceable,
liberal, law-based and generous great
power, no doubt, but one capable of
looking the United States or China in
the eye. Mr. Bush caught an authentic
whiff of this ambition when he teased
Mr. Prodi about the new Roman
Empire.”
World leaders know we are seeing
the rebirth of the Holy Roman Empire.
We know it is prophesied in the Bible
and that this will be the last world
empire. It will give rise to the Antichrist
and the False Prophet.
The year 2004 is scheduled to be a
crowning year in the drive toward
European unity. But this empire will be
short-lived and will culminate in the
battle of Armageddon and the Second
Coming of Jesus Christ.
e
For a complete understanding of the
Holy Roman Empire prophecy, see Lessons
5 and 8 of Understanding the Endtime
Level 1 Prophecy Home Bible Study.
The Bible prophesies world government...
...the UN is that world government.
» For more info check out our TEACHING MATERIALS section in the center of this magazine