It sounds trite to say “We told you so,” but it’s the plain truth.

For over 70 years—57 of those under Herbert Armstrong, and for the last 23 years under Gerald Flurry, we have been absolutely consistent in declaring the Bible prophecies that clearly show a northern power—which we identified decades ago as the European Union under the leadership of Germany and Rome—arriving suddenly on the scene as a global superpower.

Now it’s the stuff of headlines, and still so few really “get it”!

The National Post carried an article a few days ago headlined “Europe: The world’s new superpower.”

Written by Anne Applebaum, who features regularly as a Washington Post columnist, very often on European affairs, the article observes: “‘A decade of war is now ending,’ U.S. President Barack Obama declared Monday. Maybe that’s true in America, but it isn’t true anywhere else. Extremists are still plotting acts of terror. Authoritarian and autocratic regimes are still using violence to preserve their power. The United States can step back from international conflicts, but that won’t make them disappear.”

And, as they say, there’s the rub.

Since the implosion of the ussr 23 years ago, the United States has been generally cast in the role of global policeman. Past administrations generally having made a thorough hash of that golden opportunity, the current U.S. administration has read the public mood and is bringing its troops home from the world’s hot spots and signaling entry into a new grand isolationism.

The moment could hardly be worse.

This world is caught up in a general global disorder of huge proportions. Wherever one looks—be it international relations, economics, finance, social dislocation, morality—the globe teeters on a precipice, overlooking a giant collapse of its systems of government and general social order into absolute chaos, under a constant threat of terrorism.

But wait.

Anne Applebaum has struck on a solution to all this that is entirely consistent with what we have preached and published for the past seven decades: “[T]here is another power that shares America’s economic and political values, that possesses sophisticated military technology and is also very interested in stopping the progress of fanatical movements, especially in North Africa and the Middle East. That power is Europe” (ibid).

Pointing to the current difference between today’s European attitude and that being reflected in Washington, Applebaum continues: “[T]he French are in Mali fighting an international terrorist organization with the potential to inflict damage across North Africa and perhaps beyond. Not long ago, this sort of international terrorist organization used to inspire emergency planning sessions at the Pentagon. Now the French have had trouble getting Washington to pay attention. Some U.S. transport planes recently helped ferry French soldiers to the region but, according to the French newspaper Le Figaro, the Americans at first asked the French to pay for the service—‘a demand without precedent’—before agreeing to help.”

Applebaum has produced an intuitive piece of journalism, showing a firmer grasp on geopolitical realities than most of the mainstream press. Her view is not a fashionable one with her journalistic colleagues, save a few strident voices in the British press. But it is a realist’s view.

Dare we repeat, nature abhors a vacuum, nowhere more so than in the arena of international relations.

The increasing isolationism of America is disturbing the whole global balance of power. Who will reestablish equilibrium in global affairs?

As Applebaum observes: “But what’s the alternative? If America is to enjoy ‘peace in our time’—an expression now deployed by both Barack Obama and Neville Chamberlain—while the rest of the world remains at war, then someone else will fill the vacuum. A glance at the other candidates—China, Russia, perhaps Qatar or another Gulf nation—ought to make us all stop giggling about cheese-eating surrender monkeys and start offering logistical and moral support. Europe may not be the best superpower. But it’s the only one we’ve got.”

It was the combined leadership of President Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul that worked to break the back of Soviet communism and open the way for a new world order, a unipolar order with the U.S. on top.

That era is now dying a painful death, and there’s a dearth of such leaders available to deal with the globe’s present multitudinous problems.

The global power that grew in the wake of the ussr’s collapse—the European Union—is about to show its teeth in the face of spreading Islamist extremist terror, and a dislocated global order. But it needs leadership.

Waiting in the wings for his moment is a leader with the charisma, the power of imperialist conviction, and a spiritual allegiance to Rome, who will soon appear to lead a reorganized European Union to take its place filling the gap of global policeman relinquished by America.

The signs are that European politics are preparing the way for the sudden rise of that leader.

As we have said, watch for the outcome of the elections in Italy in February and in Germany in September for an indication as to the future direction of European politics.

One thing is for sure. The way is already prepared for this leader to take on leadership of the world’s new superpower—the European Union!

Watch the upcoming Key of David television program for further insight into this phenomenon.