In one week at the turn of the year tremendous strides were made toward that which the world has sought since the fall of the Roman Empire—a united Europe. The dissolution and dismemberment of the great Roman Empire of the West in the year 476 A.D. brought considerable chaos to Europe, and for many years the political situation was one of flux and uncertainty. Europe became a mass of seething, restless humanity. All this seemed strange after Rome's rule over almost all of the civilized world for more than 600 years. Since men beheld the great contrast, it was not surprising that various ones arose from time to time and attempted to forge the shattered fragments of the old European Roman power into a cohesive working unit again.
Charlemagne (742-814) reached a marked measure of success in building a united European kingdom, although it was not a Mediterranean but rather a European power. But this did not long survive his decease, at least not in any vigor. Then in the beginning of the 19th century, Napoleon made a great start at welding European nations into an empire, but it was short-lived. Again in our day, Hitler and Mussolini cut a wide path of destruction and bloodshed in a vain effort to control Europe.
Some men have vainly thought that it has been within their power to build empires and control the destinies of men and of nations, but they have left God out of their calculations. They were ignorant of the fact that "When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel" (Deut. 32:88When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. (Deuteronomy 32:8)); and that He who sets limits to the oceans, saying, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed" (Job 38:1111And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed? (Job 38:11)), has "determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation" (Acts 17:2626And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; (Acts 17:26)). God has allowed men to go on very much according to their own desires, but He has not abdicated nor given up His rights. He is not ruling openly, but rather from behind the scenes in a providential manner. Nevertheless, there are decreed limits beyond which men cannot pass; for instance, there are His divine prophetic words which no man can thwart or avert. "O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end" (Deut. 32:2929O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! (Deuteronomy 32:29))!
When God brought the Israelites triumphantly out of Egypt, He was called "the Lord of all the earth" (Josh. 3:1111Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan. (Joshua 3:11)), but when Israel sinned and did worse than the heathen whom He had displaced, He turned them over into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian king, and then He is called "the God of heaven" (Dan. 2:4444And 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. (Daniel 2:44)). He had, as it were, removed His throne to heaven. The subjugation of the Jews to the Gentiles began what is called in Scripture, "the times of the Gentiles" (Luke 21:2424And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. (Luke 21:24)). These times have continued and will continue until "the God of heaven" sets up a kingdom after crushing and displacing Gentile dominion.
At the beginning of "the times of the Gentiles," God revealed the future of these "times" to Nebuchadnezzar by dream and through the prophet Daniel, and then to Daniel himself. Babylon was the first world power. Various details are found one place or another in the book of Daniel, but the tenor of it all was that after the heyday of Babylonia it should fall and another world power should arise—the Medo-Persian (all Persian except the first king). The Persian Empire extended its boundaries all the way to Europe which was just rising; but, exactly as God's Word had declared, it was overthrown very abruptly by Alexander the Great. Then the Grecian Empire extended its sway until it fell before the growing power of Rome. God said there would be four world powers—Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome—four, but no more.
Let us read what He said about the fourth empire: "I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it." Dan. 7:77After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns. (Daniel 7:7). Where is the historian who can give a better description of the Roman Empire, its might and its conquests, in so few words? It was in the days of the fourth empire that the Lord Jesus died on the cross under sentence rendered by its appointed representative, Pontius Pilate. And although "the times of the Gentiles" continue until this hour, there has never been another world empire. It is useless for man to attempt what God has not appointed.
But the same prophecies that limit the number of world empires to four from the days of Nebuchadnezzar until the return of Christ to reign, also definitely tell us of a resuscitation of that fourth empire. It fell apart once, and its fragments have never been gathered together into one again; but God adds a brief remark to the verse we have already quoted from Dan. 7 "and it had ten horns"—this is a description of it in its latter days. Much is said about these horns in Dan. 7 and Rev. 13 and 17. The ten horns, or ten kingdoms, will be united under a federal head to form the predicted revived Roman Empire. That this is to come is as certain as that there will not be a fifth or sixth world power. Russia, as great as it is, and with time running on its side, will never dominate the world; but there is a man coming who will be the object of admiration and worship of an astonished world (Rev. 13:44And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? (Revelation 13:4)). The united ten kingdoms will give their power and strength to this coming world figure (Rev. 17:12, 1312And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. 13These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. (Revelation 17:12‑13)). This same man is described in Isa. 1413For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: (Isaiah 14:13) under the title of "the king of Babylon" because he will be the last holder of the power that began with Babylon.
Therefore we know that there will not be a power on earth that will strike terror into all hearts and be able to assert its will on earth without reference to any, except the head of the resuscitated Roman Empire of the future. We have the world's history written for us before it happens, and with more accuracy than men can pen it after it happens.
During the two world wars, European armies were more or less united in sheer self-preservation. As soon as tensions relaxed after World War I, it all fell apart. Since World War II, Russia's intransigence and greed has forced the retention of a military alliance, now known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. This has been a potent weapon of the so-called "cold war," for it demonstrates the determination of certain allied powers to stand together in war rather than be destroyed singly by one means or another. Each participating nation has provided certain manpower for the combined military establishment, and has sacrificed certain of its national prerogatives to this form of self-preservation. Only dire circumstances could cause the intensely nationalistic nations of Europe to act thus. All this is but the preparing of the way for the revival of the Roman Empire. Coming events cast their shadows, sometimes long before the events crystallize.
The present NATO organization is not yet the thing that is to come, but it shows the way. It is not the ten kingdoms (very likely, with their offspring in America) who will forge that mammoth world power; but the actual shaping of the ten parts of the coming confederation will be only a matter of circumstances which God will providentially bring to pass in the proper time.
Now another gigantic step has been taken—not forced, but voluntarily entered upon—which has been hailed as the greatest thing in European unity since the days of Charlemagne—1145 years in all. Momentous days are here. Heretofore unheard-of things are taking place. In just one week, as the year 1959 began, that which men have longed for from the breakup of the Roman Empire and from the days of Charlemagne began to appear as more than a dream or idle wish—some way of uniting Europe. Now what is called the Common Market, although it is anything but a common thing, is functioning.
A new Little Europe composed of France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, or an area roughly the size of Charlemagne's empire, with a combined population of 166 million people, began to function with the cutting of tariffs between each other by 10%, and increasing by 20% the amount of goods that may be imported from each other, by the member nations. The plan as now laid is for the eventual removal of all tariffs and barriers and to allow free interchange of merchandise, labor, and money.
This new international body is to be governed by a Council of Ministers with decision making powers. A statement from the Bank of Montreal,
Business Review, says: "But the benefits that may be derived from the union justify the risks each country is taking in partially surrendering control over its economic and social affairs to an international authority." When we see such unprecedented steps in our days, need we wonder that the nations of Western Europe will of their own free will turn their power and sovereignty over to the "beast" of the Roman Empire? for of that time it is said: "For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill His will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled." Rev. 17:1717For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. (Revelation 17:17).
Europe has successfully experimented with the European Coal and Steel Community which welded 455 mills and 459 mines into one industry. The letter of the Bank of Montreal said of the assembly which controls the coal and steel, "For the moment, the powers of the Assembly appear to be quite limited, but it is easy to see in this the kernel of a European parliament."
Another great step toward economic unity in Europe came at the New Year with ten European nations making their currencies externally convertible. It has been said that the most fertile form of integrating nations is the free convertibility of their currencies. Who would have thought that Europe, which only a few years ago was looking out from tangled rubbish, its commerce gone, its industrial plants in ruins, its currency valueless, its agriculture in chaos, would today emerge as a powerful force, readying itself for the tomorrow of Scripture when ten sovereign nations will unite for a common goal. Surely the formation of an economic union by six of them today, not by bayonets, but by common consent without force, should clearly and unmistakably point out to Christians that we are on the eve of that blessed moment for which the Church has long waited—the call, "Come up hither," to meet our blessed Lord in the air.
The early Christians waited and watched for their Lord to come back for them, but after a while they settled down and slept like the world (see the parable of the ten virgins in Matt. 25). The hope was entirely lost for generations, but, blessed be God, He sent forth the midnight cry, "Behold the bridegroom," to awaken sleeping Christians. This call went forth about 140 years ago, and the Church experienced a blessed reviving; but, alas, alas, it is now being given up by those who once fondly embraced it. Even that part of the Church which seemed to have been shaken loose by the midnight cry has all but gone to sleep again. But with the evidence before our eyes that the prophetic scriptures are about to be fulfilled, how can we "sleep"?
Can we treat with indifference what our Lord has made known to us? We should be daily mindful that He may come at any moment. There is something sadly wrong with the spiritual eyesight of those who do not discern this time. The Lord's coming for His own is the only answer for the Church's low and fast-declining state. And what an answer it will be for all the trials and tribulations of the Lord's dear people!
"It may be at morn, when the day is awaking,
When sunlight through darkness and shadow is breaking,
That Jesus will come in the fullness of glory,
To receive from the world 'His own.'
"It may be at midday, it may be at twilight,
It may be, perchance, that the blackness of midnight
Will burst into light in the blaze of His glory,
When Jesus receives 'His own.' "