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The revival of the Roman Empire is one of most important end-time prophecies in the Bible. This organization will be headed by the Antichrist, and it will sponsor a treaty that will begin the seven-year tribulation. If Israel is the second hand on God’s prophetic clock, the Revived Roman Empire is the minute hand.
Lately, there has been some controversy over the location of the re-birthed Roman Empire. Some people say the alliance will be centered in Europe, while others say it will be focused in the Middle East. We at Rapture Ready believe it will be in Europe. In fact, we believe the EU is actively fulfilling the role set by Bible prophecy.
One factor that excludes an Eastern Roman Empire is the weak nature of this final world power. Of all the empires in Daniel’s vision, the last one will be of the poorest quality. The vision showed a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, a belly of brass, legs of iron, and feet of clay mixed with iron. Because the EU is represented by the feet of clay, this explains why the union of nations has taken several decades to get to where it is now.
The EU has been on this bizarre trek that has had it barely surviving one setback after another. Great Britain’s Margaret Thatcher was well noted for her opposition to a strong centralized European leadership. She repeatedly demanded terms that almost caused the Union to totally unravel. In 2005, the EU suffered its worst blow when France and the Netherlands rejected the EU constitution in separate referendums. In 2008, Ireland voted down a more streamlined treaty. Despite all the setbacks and delays, the organization continues to move forward, and there is only one valid reason I can come up with: God has preordained that the EU will be the fulfillment of prophecy.
In the past few weeks, I have noticed several new reports that show how the global economic crisis has greatly benefited the EU integration process. While economies around the world falter, the EU has become an island of relative stability. The euro has soared against nearly every major currency. It threatens to unseat the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
The most profound change has been in Great Britain–the traditional land of euroskeptics. Business leaders in Britain are starting to see that not adopting the euro as currency is putting them at a competitive disadvantage with the rest of Europe. The British citizenry once saw the euro as a threat to the value of their national currency. Oddly enough, the opposite is now true. If Britain were part of the euro system, it would be the one putting a strain on the rest of Europe. Already a nation deep in debt, the British government is spending billions more of taxpayers' money to save several key banks. David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party, recently warned that Britain risks bankruptcy and a humiliating bailout by the International Monetary Fund.
Views toward the EU have also changed in Ireland. The latest polls find that the Lisbon Treaty could pass in Ireland if a new referendum on its adoption were to take place. A survey by Quantum Research shows that 55 percent of respondents would support the proposed common body of law for members of the EU in a new vote, while 37 percent would oppose it.
The EU bandwagon has even made a stop in Poland. The Polish parliament passed a resolution calling on the president to sign the Lisbon Treaty as quickly as possible. The resolution calls for the president to "respect the will of both houses of parliament and end the Lisbon Treaty's ratification process as quickly as possible, and actively support its ratification in the remaining European Union member states," reported the Polish Press Agency.
The formation of the Revived Roman Empire has a direct connection to the timing of the rapture. Because the blessed hope is said to occur at an unknown hour (Matt. 24:44), I don’t think I’m going to be writing any future articles about the identity of the Antichrist and his plans for a finalized Arab/Israeli peace accord. The fact that the EU is starting see a new round of momentum and is even starting to stick its nose into Middle East affairs tells me that the trigger point of the rapture must be very near.
