Terry James

Rapture: Answering the Critics :: By Terry James

Published on: by RR10

Author’s note: This article was written a number of years ago. It is lengthy in comparison to articles normally presented in this forum. But the Rapture and God’s Word about that great event next on God’s prophetic timeline is of primary importance. Thus, it is good to revisit this more in-depth treatment, which is meant to answer all who dismiss this wonderful promise by our Lord to keep believers out of the time of history’s worst era, the Tribulation (Revelation 3:10).

This generation is full of scoffers, mocking the prophesied return of Jesus Christ to Earth. This is as the great Apostle Peter said it would be at the end of the Age of Grace (Church Age):

“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Peter 3:3-4).

God’s prophecies are 100 percent accurate, so it doesn’t surprise in the least that there is scoffing and mocking today, exactly as one of God’s prophets said there will be as time nears the Lord’s return. Many signals are occurring simultaneously and with phenomenal frequency and intensity, pointing to where we are on God’s prophetic timeline. Chief among these are all of the geopolitical dynamic intrigues surrounding Israel–God’s prophetic timepiece. The sneering at the thought that there could possibly be a Rapture just throws fuel on the fire of the end-of-days deluge–the end that is coming in with a flood of last-days indicators as described by Daniel the prophet:

“And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof [shall be] with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined” (Daniel 9:26).

Daniel was describing what would happen from the time the Messiah, Jesus Christ, would die for the sins of humankind, until the very end of human history at Armageddon. Great, convulsing, prophesied issues and events would, near the very end of the age, he said, gush through the generation alive at the time like a flood.

Daniel’s End-time Flood

One of those predicted events of the end-time flood is the level of anger that will be against believers who proclaim that one of the most stupendous events of all human history will one day–perhaps very soon—take millions upon millions from the earth’s surface in a fraction of a second.

We receive each week any number of emails declaring that the truth we champion regarding Bible doctrine and prophecies–particularly the pre-Trib Rapture of the Church—is everything from ludicrous to heretical. This criticism gets especially intense whenever the raptureready.com website is written of or spoken about in a major media outlet. That is to be expected because there can be no spiritual discernment among the lost. Believers in Jesus Christ can understand, while those who do not belong to God’s family through belief in His Only Begotten Son cannot understand:

“For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:11-14).

Defense of Rapture to Lost and Saved

Trying to explain or defend the Rapture to the lost is, therefore, fruitless. There is just no way they can understand or believe this doctrine unless and until they repent and ask for and accept God’s grace-gift offer of salvation through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross at Calvary nearly two millennia ago. We can go through the vast body of scriptural text, laying out the Bible facts, as we are confident God’s Word presents truth about the Rapture. But, unless and until one is capable of spiritual discernment from the Holy Spirit, a person, no matter how intellectually brilliant, can never come to believe those facts. They might even understand the facts in a purely cerebral sense, but to the point of knowing the Rapture is a cataclysmic event in the future of one particular generation of Earth’s inhabitants.

So, our efforts to explain the Rapture will meet with quite limited results, seeing as how there is a great spiritual-discernment disconnect when explaining to those who don’t know Christ for salvation. This we accept; thus, we can move ahead with limited frustration in putting the truth about prophecy and the Rapture before these as best we can.

Dealing with the Body of Christ–all born-again believers—is quite another thing when it comes to our frustration meter. It becomes a bit more disconcerting when our efforts to put out truth about prophecy and the Rapture are met with the same arguments, no matter how thorough and cogently we organize and present what God’s Word has to tell His children about these matters.

Hard-shell Rapture Detractors

There are, of course, the die-hard Preterists (believing that most all prophecy has been completed or should be spiritualized) and the Reformed Replacement Theology enclaves (those who declare God’s promises have been taken from Israel and given to the Church). These make their livings throwing mudballs–usually with stones at the centers—at those of us who proclaim that Jesus will come for His Church BEFORE the Tribulation era–the last seven years of human history that culminates at Armageddon. These, who refuse to see two programs of God’s dealing with humankind, Israel, and the Church–these two dovetailing into one magnificent prophetic culmination—castigate us who believe God deals with humans dispensationally (the ages of Adam, Noah, Moses, Abraham, David, the Church, Tribulation, Millennium, etc.).

Sometimes, it seems fruitless to try to break through the thick spiritual iron wills of these. But these are not the most troubling that seem to fit the 2 Peter 3:4 description, so far as scoffing is concerned.

More concerning are those who, despite being given, time after time, the same in-depth explanation from God’s Word about the pre-Trib Rapture, continue to come to us with the same arguments to the contrary. This despite the fact that they visit the Rapture Ready website and can read over 15,000 articles on matters of God’s truth, many dealing specifically with eschatology.

These are Christians who just seem to have it in their determination that they must go through–endure—the Tribulation, about which Jesus said the following: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21).

The Tribulation, if we can imagine, will be worse than the concentration camps, torture chambers, crematoriums of Hitler, or the most terrible days of the inquisitions with all of the devilish methods of torture. Yet, there seems to be a need–they deludedly think—for some Christians to go through that time, during which Antichrist will do his dead-level best to kill every person who refuses to worship him.

Anti-Rapture Example

I’ve chosen one letter from such a Christian. It is a simple and mild letter, no mudball throwing. But, it represents the most troubling of all of the critics of the Rapture of the Church, in my view, because it shows an almost willfulness against accepting God’s promises, summed up by this passage: “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:9).

Here is what she wrote, in part.

I know that the Tribulation is going to be extremely bad and even worse than I can imagine, but I sincerely believe I, along with you and other Christians that are living at the time, will be going thru the bad. I am prepared mentally and will do whatever comes my way to either get thru or stand up and say no when needed. If I am one that is to [be] beheaded, then so be it. I know GOD will be holding my hand, and whatever comes my way, HE will see me thru. If I can be of any use to GOD to help save people, then I am prepared to do as HE wants.

I have many family members that are not believers now and pray daily that will change. I do believe that many souls will be saved. I know that I am a sinner and do not like verses of the Bible taken out of context. The whole book, or at least the chapter, needs to [be] read and understood, not just a verse here and now to prove a theory that did not even come into being until a couple of hundred years ago.

How is every eye going to see JESUS return if HE comes back in secret? Just don’t believe any are going to be “raptured away.”

The Bible states that HEAVEN will be coming down here, not us going up there.

Tragic Misconceptions Unscriptural

The Christian sister makes a number of statements of misconception that are dealt with through hundreds of thousands of articles on the Rapture Ready website. This is my problem. Many criticisms of us who hold to the pre-Trib Rapture are issued by those who obviously have never mined the rich resources available before making their arguments.

She writes that she is sure she will be going through the Tribulation in order to stand for Christ and help God save people out of that horrendous time. She charges that she has disdain for those who twist Scripture out of context, with those (like us, I presume) using scattered and sporadic verses to make our points.

She, at the same time, provides no Scripture for any of her criticisms of the Rapture “theory,” as she puts it. However, most who make this charge do so using passages from Revelation that they declare show saints in the middle of the Tribulation. Thus, they conclude, the Church is right there, taking the brunt of Antichrist’s rage and God’s wrath.

Dispensational Discernment Required

Indeed, believers will populate that era by the millions. It will, many who study that period believe, be a time of the greatest coming-to-Christ event in history.

What she–and the others—fail to recognize, or even consider, is that God deals with humanity, including His children, in dispensations. There are saints of the Church Age at present, and there will be saints during the Tribulation. Neither will be together in the same dispensation.

Jesus told us He would build His Church upon the gospel message the Apostle Peter had just given, telling Jesus that he believed Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God:

“And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:17-18).

Do you see that? The gates of Hell–Satan—will not prevail against the Church. That’s all about the Church Age saints.

The Revelation tells quite another story for God’s saints. The following is speaking, of course, about Satan’s great tyrant, Antichrist, during the Tribulation era: “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations” (Revelation 13:7).

The Church will not be “overcome” by Satan because it won’t be here. The Tribulation saints (those who accept Christ after the Rapture) will be overcome to a large extent–lose their physical lives for the cause of Christ.

Myth-making against Rapture

Our Christian critic-friend proves she has at least done some study but not from God’s Word. She has read the books and literature of those who incessantly and speciously claim that we who believe in the pre-Trib Rapture have learned our “false” doctrine from a nineteenth-century witch, who somehow influenced John Darby to later perpetrate the hated Rapture theory.

The most ludicrous of the criticisms is that we base our view that there will be a Rapture upon Margaret MacDonald’s vision in the 1800s. It makes me almost nauseous to have to even address this–for the thousandth time, when, if the critics would just read what is already written on the subject on the site, it should quell their proclivity to make such ridiculous claims. But, I will briefly answer again these who are so intellectually and spiritually lazy.

The Rapture, the catching up (harpazo) was revealed by Paul the Apostle. It is a mystery he gave us through Holy Spirit inspiration, as recorded in 1 Corinthians 15:51-55 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.

The Rapture was not the concoction of John Darby, who picked up this teaching and gave it improved order of presentation centuries after the doctrine was believed and taught by the early church fathers (in the first two centuries AD).

The Rapture isn’t built on one or two verses but on an entire body of Scripture. When viewed in totality and in context, the doctrine flows with prophetic signals we observe occurring in the world today—i.e., the world isn’t getting better and better, as the Kingdom Now people believe (that the Church will make the world better until Christ can return to set up His throne). The pre-Trib Rapture view puts forward that the world will grow worse and worse. The Church will be removed from Earth, then God’s judgment will begin to fall on rebellious Earth-dwellers.

Which do we see happening today? The world getting better and better? Or are things looking worse and worse? Read the daily headlines or watch the hourly news, and you will have your answer.

Two Phases of Second Coming

Again, Paul shows us the mystery; he reveals the mystery of the Rapture in 1 Corinthians 15:51-55. The mystery he is expanding upon is the wonderful promise Jesus made in John 14:1-3. Jesus is coming for us—before God’s wrath must fall.

A foreshadowing of that principle is seen in Genesis 19 when God said He could do nothing in the way of sending judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah until Lot was first removed. Lot represented the only righteousness God recognized. It was Lot’s faith—as puny as it was—that kept him and the other few believers of his family from the time of God’s wrath (again, Revelation 3:10).

Our critic asks how all eyes can see Christ return if He comes secretly in some Rapture.

She declares she just doesn’t believe anyone is going to be raptured away, and she states Christ will be coming down to Earth rather than Christians going up to Him.

Again, she and those who fill her head with anti-Rapture rhetoric fail to (or willfully refuse to) see God’s dispensations in dealing with humanity. In the case of the return of Christ, Scripture makes it clear there are two separate returns at least seven years apart.

Jesus will return at some unknown time in the Rapture. He likens that coming to a thief-in-the-night experience for those on Earth. They won’t know what has happened, and they certainly won’t see Christ. Paul says it is a moment in time when all believers (the Church) will meet Jesus in the air:

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

Jesus will come the second time, following at least seven Earth years, at the close of the Tribulation era, known also as “Daniel’s seventieth week.” This time, He will come all the way to the planet, and every eye will behold Him.

There will be absolutely no doubt about this re-entry and landing:

“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God” (Revelation 19:11-15).

Scriptural Proof Required

As stated before, each of these things intended to deny the validity and credence of pre-Trib Rapture are dealt with at great length and in tremendous depth throughout the Rapture Ready website. All opposing views are carefully dissected, and with Scripture given at every point along the way in addressing any and every question. But, it DOES take determined research to seek out truth found in the articles–truth that is God’s Word, not merely ours.

And here is the crux of this dear lady’s problem in not discerning truth about Christ’s coming for the Church–for her. She presents not one Bible verse to back up any of her assertions, declarations, or suppositions/postulations. She simply parrots things critical of the Rapture doctrine she has read or heard from those who mock, without anything of spiritual substance to back the criticisms.

My intention is not to pick on her. I want only to use her method of criticism–a method used in almost every instance by those who listen to the anti-Rapture crowd—as an example to show there is no foundation to the denial that the Rapture is a doctrine taught in God’s Word.

This is our answer to such critics. Study the Word of God. Make your criticisms from His Word–as the dear woman says—not from just a verse or two here or there but from the whole context of the matter, whatever the matter happens to be.

I’ve studied most all of the positions and variations involved in these arguments for decades—which gives away my age, I guess. The pre-Trib view of prophecy is absolutely the only one that makes sense in the totality of scriptural context, and in terms of what we see unfolding today in geopolitics, global socioeconomics, and religion.

Salvation–Rapture Inseparable

The Rapture is an issue incontrovertibly linked to salvation—something Jesus did on the cross, which puts us in God’s family when we truly believe. That faith keeps us from the time of God’s wrath—both in the coming Tribulation and in eternity. Wrath and judgment must fall upon rebellious humankind because of sin. Jesus paid the price for that sin. He said on the cross, “It is finished.” Sin was forever paid for at that moment, for those who would accept his sacrifice—the only sacrifice God will accept—the precious blood of His Blessed Son.

We are told we, as Christians, while in the flesh, will have tribulations (troubles). Certainly Christians have had troubles down through the years. Persecutions—genocide, martyrdom, etc. These horrors are still happening in some places around the world. But, this was not, and is not, God’s wrath and judgment, but was, and is, satanic rage against God’s people. The Tribulation will include satanic rage, but it will be within the horrific storm of God’s wrath and judgment.

Christians (those who have been—as our critic says—saved following the Rapture) will certainly suffer satanic rage, but not God’s wrath. Many will be martyred, as in the times of the early persecutions—like Christians are being martyred in some nations today. But, we are told that we (Paul denotes the difference between Christians of the Church Age and those who aren’t in God’s family by the use of pronouns) aren’t appointed to wrath but to salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. We are told by Paul to “comfort one another with these words.” We’re not to fear but to comfort. (Read 1 Thessalonians 4:18 and 5:9-11.)

We will be kept out of “the time of testing” (the apocalypse or Tribulation), John was told by Jesus (Revelation 3:10).

Rapture Ready or Not…

Now, you might not agree, and that’s fine. If you know Christ, you are going instantly to Him anyway, when Jesus says, “Come up hither,” as He did to John (Revelation 4:1-2). You will have no other choice if you are in God’s family.

But please don’t ever think—or claim—that there are only scattered verses here and there or that there is no tremendously deep body of scriptural evidence and proofs beneath the truth of the pre-Trib Rapture.

Again, you can disagree, but please don’t accuse us of not knowing about the other views, and don’t just blindly accept what opponents falsely say when they lie, proclaiming that we just believe in something a nineteenth-century Englishman said, or that we follow some woman who dabbled in the occult. That isn’t true, and you should look more deeply into the evidence upon which we base these understandings than just to take the word of those who make such shallow and deceptive accusations.

Put this Scripture in a place where you can memorize it–and make it your model truth for avoiding the pitfalls of intellectual and scriptural laziness.

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

European Union In Prophecy :: By By Terry James and Todd Strandberg

Published on: by RR7

 

European Union In Prophecy

Stage setting for Bible prophecy yet future already moves forward at an electrifying pace. Even so, the end-time speedometer amazingly continues to accelerate, as is demonstrated by each hourly world news report. Developments involving the European Union are on the leading edge of Planet Earth’s race toward the seven-year peace treaty Bible prophecy foretells will set in motion the tribulation era.

A number of articles in the vast body of material within this website examines, in great detail, the biblically prophetic reasons Europe will one day almost certainly be the heart of the Antichrist beast-system of governmental, economic and religious control prophesied to engulf the world. It will also be at the heart of a false peace process that will initiate the tribulation, which will culminate at Armageddon. We, therefore, refer you to those background works by listing their titles at the end of this article. Here, we will take a look at the European Union’s development and growth in the twentieth century until the present. We will only make brief references to the prophecies, so far as where they are found in the Bible is concerned. This will be an examination of what is happening now in the development of that prophesied evil world government that Jesus Christ will destroy with His second coming to the earth.

Daniel, Chapter 2, presents the dream Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar had, which provides the basis for our understanding that history’s final system of government will try to establish total global dictatorship.

Daniel, the young Hebrew prophet, asked for and received permission to interpret the king’s dream of a gigantic metallic statue of a man. The prophet did so, after praying with friends to ask God for details of the dream and for the meanings of the dream. Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that the statue’s head of gold represented the king’s kingdom. The chest and arms of silver represented the second kingdom. The belly and thighs of bronze represented the third world kingdom. The fourth world kingdom to come upon the earth would be, Daniel prophesied, symbolized by the two legs of iron. The final world kingdom would be shown as the statue’s feet made of iron mixed with clay.

History has proved, to the satisfaction of most Bible scholars who study prophecy in depth, that the first four world kingdoms prophesied through Nebuchadnezzar’s dream have come and gone. Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian kingdom was the first. The Medes and Persians comprised the second world empire. The Greek Empire under Alexander the Great was the third. The Roman Empire, which split into two, with capitals in Rome and Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey), was the fourth great world kingdom.

One is left to come upon the scene’the final world governmental system represented in Nebuchadnezzar’s prophetic dream as the feet and toes made of iron mixed with clay. This final world kingdom, we believe, is far along in the process of coming together today in the form of the European Union (EU). The fifth world empire symbolized in the statue is prophesied to be an extension of the fourth kingdom. That is exactly what the EU is ‘an extension of the ancient Roman Empire. It is, we are convinced, the feet and toes of the man-image, the reviving of the unity that was once Europe in all its power and glory. Yet, despite the tremendous power the final form of the Roman Empire will have, the clay mixed with the iron seems to indicate it will have significant weaknesses.

Again, we must, for the sake of proper focus, mention the given prophecies that have been already fulfilled, only briefly. The first of those is the king’s dream of the tremendous metallic man-image, which the great prophet Daniel interpreted. The other prophecy most relevant to looking at the European Union as figuring into prophecy yet future is also found in the Book of Daniel:

‘And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate” (Dan. 9:26-27).

This all-encompassing prophecy foretells plainly that the final world ruler, Antichrist, will rise out of the Roman Empire. Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD under the leadership of Roman General Titus. The future Roman leader (‘the prince that shall come’) is prophesied to be a dictator like no other in history.

This ‘prince that shall come’ will come as a peacemaker, confirming a covenant of peace with Israel. He will, at the halfway point in the seven-year peace agreement, invade the Jews’ Temple and destroy their worship. Thus will begin the great tribulation, or ‘Jacob’s trouble,’ the last three and one-half years of the seven years of Daniel’s seventieth week (the tribulation era).

Once again, we refer you to other articles within raptureready.com for more in-depth background. We must move forward now from the times in which the prophecies were given into the more recent past, the present, and the prophetic future in dealing with the matter of the European Union in prophecy.

The twentieth century began with Europe, the heart of what was the ancient Roman Empire, in decline. The upstart, America, was coming on strong as a world leader among nations. This circumstance, some historians propose, was a major factor in setting in motion movement toward World War I. Following that war, Europe was in chaos, but with great determination set about to put its house in order.

Despite fierce nationalism among Europe’s nations, by 1954, the recovery was looked at as an economic miracle. Still, there was a major problem in ever achieving the much longed-for unity of purpose so many European thinkers elite coveted for the region. The nations had come together to fight in a common cause against Germany for the most part. However, each country continued to be completely independent from one another, and to maintain impenetrable economic trade-barrier walls. The situation made carrying on trade with other European nations difficult, if not impossible.

Powerful economic dynamics began to move Europe toward its prophetic destiny. The old Roman Empire, which had fallen apart but was never destroyed, began reforming on May 9, 1950.

French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman contacted West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, proposing that the two nations merge their steel and coal production. They would act, the proposal went, as one in dealing internationally in those matters. The governments, however, would remain independent. There would be no joint, intergovernmental authority in the pact. Adenauer and the Germans agreed the same night of the proposal. Six nations, by May, 1952, had ratified the European Coal and Steel Community. The glue that would begin putting the Humpty Dumpty, old Roman Empire, together again had been applied.

Europe’s Coal and Steel Community experiment in economic reunification was successful. Other negotiations for further economic integration led to the signing of the Treaties of Rome in March, 1957. That established the European Economic Community (EEC), and the European Atomic Energy Commission (EURACOM).

Following another step toward reunification with agricultural integration in 1962, the stage was set for the Brussels Treaty of 1965, also called the Second Treaty of Rome. All previous treaties were merged into a four-fold structure. The structure consisted of a commission, council, parliament, and court.

The United Kingdom, Ireland, and Denmark joined the other six members of the EEC in 1973. Greece was admitted in 1981, and Spain, then Portugal, joined in 1986. The European Community (EC) approved the Treaty of Maastricht in December, 1991, the third foundational treaty of the drive toward European reunification.

It follows that a unified Europe needs a single currency, so the Maastricht Treaty established the European Monetary Union (EMU) in three stages. The stages took place in 1991, 1994, and 1997. The single European unit of currency, the euro, was created January 1, 2002.

Today, of course, many more nations have been accepted into the EU. Jack Kinsella, writing for The Omega Letter, Prophecy Update, 4/23/03, says: ‘The European Union consists of more than 25 European nations today, but there are only ten full members. The rest are associate members or have observer status. The ten nations of the Western European Alliance have a distinct and separate status from the remaining associates.’

Where the number of countries that will ultimately constitute the EU will end is anybody’s guess, but the figure that has long fascinated prophecy watchers is the number 10. This fascination stems in part from Daniel 7:7-8 and Revelation 13:1. Both passages describe a beast with ten horns. The prophets Daniel and John apparently saw the same beast in their visions, the beast symbolizing ten heads of ten kingdoms.

Further, a heavenly being tells John in Revelation, chapter 17, that the vision of (apparently) the same beast he saw in Revelation 13:1 and the woman riding upon its back symbolize a religious system riding (receiving its own authority to dominate) on the power and authority of a satanically empowered system headed by ten kings over ten kingdoms. These things are to occur during the future time just before Christ’s return to earth to set up His Kingdom.

It isn’t surprising, then, that the addition of 10 nations to the EU in 2003 sent some prophecy buffs into speculation orbit. Please don’t be one of them. As Jesus said in Matthew 24: 6, ”the end is not yet”

That is not to say that we shouldn’t get excited over things of obvious prophetic significance we see occurring. An abundance of signals indeed makes the diligent student of God’s Word know that ours could well be the generation that will see fulfillment of all things prophesied for this earth age.

No prophecy seems more in view today than the foretelling about the beast that Daniel and John reported seeing in their visions. Nonetheless, we simply must proceed with caution in analyzing what we see happening. We must take care not to read into the events significance that isn’t there. Truly, the facts involving current events are astonishing enough! It’s not necessary for us to embellish.

The European Union is on the march as never before, despite its family feuding on occasion. For example, just before the recently concluded ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom,’ we recall that France, Germany, and Belgium threatened EU nations that sided with the U.S. and the United Kingdom. These three promised serious consequences if any EU partner joined the coalition that vowed to remove Saddam’s dictator regime.

Yet, just as quickly as the U.S. and Great Britain, joined by a group of like-minded countries, swiftly dealt with Hussein and his henchmen, the EU, headed primarily by France and Germany, was back to business as usual.

It is more than interesting to note that these two, France and Germany, are the same two primarily instrumental in starting the drive toward unification with their Steel, Coal Community idea in 1950. It is likewise more than interesting that the French in particular now are declaring their commitment to good relations with the U.S. and the U.K. France offers its better-late-than-never largesse to, as they phrase it, ‘contribute’ all it can to the establishment of a viable Iraqi government.

The European Union, according to some of its primary players, is undeniably joined at the hip ‘or somewhere’to the United Nations, so far as the whole Iraqi affair is concerned. It seems that they, together, consider themselves the true representatives of the ‘international community.’ The coalition, i.e., the United States and Britain, did the liberating, but France’s Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, Germany’s Chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder, and the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, with nodding approval of Russian President Vladimir Putin, act as if their oversight of post-Saddam Iraq is a foregone conclusion. That anything less than their plans for the region will be illegitimate and unacceptable by nations of the region and around the world.

It is just that sort of arrogance that gave the Caesars of the ancient Roman Empire their lust and determination to try to conquer the world. Supreme arrogance will inspire Antichrist, ‘the prince that shall come’ out of the revived Roman Empire, to take charge of the ten-horned beast-government and do his deadly worst to enslave the world. If the EU’s arrogant posturing in the Iraq matter is somewhat of an indicator that we might be witnessing the forming of the beast-government of Daniel 7, Revelation 13, and Revelation 17-18, then things on the geopolitical horizon surely are irrefutable signs that we are bumping up against the very end of the age.

The two preeminent entities of Bible prophecy yet future are emerging and will shortly collide with each other. These prophetic entities are Israel and the people of ‘the prince that shall come’ (Europe). Now that the conflict within the region where ancient Babylon once sat appears to be under control, all eyes, cameras, and microphones are turning ‘as they always do’back toward Israel and Jerusalem.

The European Union is presently at the forefront of calling for Israel and the Palestinians to come to the peace table. It will be just such a peace negotiation, according to Daniel 9:26-27, out of which will come the ”covenant made with death and hell” (Isa. 28:15, 18). Antichrist, “the prince that shall come,” will personally guarantee that covenant. But the prophetic Word says that ”when they shall say peace and safety, then, sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape” (1 Thes. 5:3).

The Islamic world’s hatred for the Jews and the nation Israel is satanic at its core. No amount of negotiating for peace ever will change that. Israel’s neighbors want the Jewish state forever done away with ‘expunged from what they consider their land. The Arab leaders, all dictators to one degree or another, must keep the region in foment against Israel to assure their dictatorships stay in power. Kinsella writes:

‘When the population [of Arab states] is demonstrating against Israel, they aren’t demonstrating against their own repressive regimes. On the other hand, they’ve seen the price of defiance paid by Saddam Hussein.

In terms of Bible prophecy, this is significant on several levels. It is clear that the Islamic world will never accept the existence of Israel.

However, they are unlikely to directly challenge the US war machine that leveled Iraq in 21 days. The U.S. is pursuing, as part of the ‘Quartet’ of nations, a ‘Road Map to Peace’ which will, in essence, force a peace settlement between Israel and her neighbors.

The Quartet consists of the U.S. (Israel’s only ally), the EU (Islam’s most powerful ally) Russia, (Islam’s most powerful patron) and the UN (Israel’s most powerful enemy).

The Bible speaks to three of the four members of the Quartet. Daniel speaks of the ten kings who arise out of the ashes of the Roman Empire. Daniel says that out of this alliance will rise the antichrist, who will confirm a seven year peace deal between Israel and the many [Israel’s enemies all around].’

America’s part in pushing Israel toward the table of false peace is troubling. President George W. Bush, who in many other ways has proved himself to be a stalwart friend of Israel, has declared that that nation must bring to the table the idea that a Palestinian state will be created. That future state must, the U.S. as well as the EU and the others of the Quartet demand, be formed out of land of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria). This, the usually fiercely combative and defensive-minded Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has amazingly agreed to consider.

The European Union’s influence is growing at a phenomenal rate. Soon its economy will, it is predicted, eclipse that of the U.S. in almost every category. It is a beast just about to be released upon an unsuspecting world.

Its key leaders gave a preview of coming attractions when they blocked at every turn America’s attempts to get the nations of the UN to honor the resolution they had agreed to regarding the overthrow of Saddam’s regime. Understanding that Europe has shed its former robes of Christianity to accept its prophesied economic and governmental role within the end-time Babylonian system of world domination is essential to understanding its beast nature. Those key EU leaders, in their callous deception, were willing to see the pitiful people of Iraq continue to suffer horrendously under Saddam Hussein’s murder and torture rather than give up their oil deals and other profitable enterprises they enjoyed that were given them by the despotic Iraqi monsters. Same with the UN. It has come out that the food-for-oil program profited that organization tremendously, with billions of dollars paid the Kofi Annan-administered program.

Searches by our military forces have produced records of the economic collusion between Saddam’s government and the governments of Russia, France, Germany and others. It is highly considered that this might well be the reason the leaders of these nations so adamantly opposed Hussein’s being deposed. Perhaps they feared just such light of truth would be shed upon their dark dealings.

Out of this strange mixture of democracy and collusion with dictators, a man will emerge whom Bible prophecy says will be a genius at such underhanded dealings. That Scripture says: ‘And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up’ (Dan. 8:23).

Antichrist will understand exactly how to get the most for himself and his world-order elitists who assist him in his drive to enslave the world.

The European Union grows rapidly toward its full power that will produce a leader of unprecedented authority. Bible prophecy foretells that seven out of ten ‘kings’ will back a world leader, who will forcibly rip power from the other three and give it to himself. The great question of our time, prophetically speaking, might be: Is the European Union the prophesied governmental body that will eventuate in becoming the ten kingdoms that will provide Antichrist with his beastly power?

No one can say for certain, although some seem to have no problem making such declarations, as if they personally helped God give the prophets the prophecies. All we will say here is that with all other prophetic indicators seemingly in full view upon the immediate geopolitical horizon, another profound ingredient has just been added to the fascinating mix. If the EU is not the body that will evolve into that most evil of history’s empires, it must be that biblically prophesied empire’s twin.

The EU has now begun the process that will give it a leader like none other. This news item encapsulates the search for such a man:

Convention backs Blair’s plan for EU presidency’TONY BLAIR’s plans for a powerful new full-time president of Europe look set to become reality after the man charged with drafting a European Union constitution backed the project yesterday.

Val’ry Giscard d’Estaing, the former French President who chairs the convention on Europe’s future, supported the EU’s biggest member states who argue that the Union needs a president if it is to punch its weight on the international stage’

‘ [d’Estaing] noted that two smaller states, Denmark and Sweden, had just swung behind the idea, which originated in London but was first publicly proposed by President Chirac of France. A new president would be elected by heads of government of EU members and would hold office for five years. The creation of such a post would help to settle the decades-old question posed by Henry Kissinger of whom to call in Europe in an emergency. It could also help to prevent a repetition of the bitter arguments that erupted over Iraq’

‘Mr. Blair has been linked to the new post, which, conveniently, is likely to come into being in 2006, a year or so after the next general election. Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish Prime Minister, and Jos’ Mar’a Aznar, the Spanish Prime Minister, have also been suggested as prospective candidates”. (http://www.truthtv.org/newstext.asp?newsid=1300)

The prophetic tide rolls toward an unsuspecting world. Breaking news, however, should not surprise Christians. We are told to watch for the nearness of Christ’s return in many places throughout the Bible. Additionally, this website contains a number of articles that warn the Christian to be watchful.

We believe that the fact that the European Union is in prophecy is self-evident because of today’s stunning headlines. The true importance of that, if the EU is in fact the forming of the beast-kingdom from which Antichrist will come upon the world scene, is that it means Jesus’ call to His Church (the Rapture) must be very near indeed!