One of the greatest prophecies in the Bible is about the union of European nations. More specifically, it’s about the political union of 10 European nations.

For decades, people in Europe have tried to forge a cohesive political union. To that end, they have created the present, loosely hinged 28-nation European Union. Yet Revelation 17 says there are going to be 10 kings there that will unite politically and form a real superpower: a modern-day Holy Roman Empire.

Bible prophecy also reveals that this European superpower will be led by a strong German leader who will essentially hijack the European Union.

The prophesied political union of 10 nations in Europe is being fulfilled before your eyes. And the United States is playing a key role in that union—in a negative way.

It is happening in a way that was predicted three decades ago by Herbert W. Armstrong!

Mr. Armstrong wrote in 1984 that a massive banking crisis in America “could suddenly result in triggering European nations to unite as a new world power, larger than either the Soviet Union or the U.S.” (co-worker letter, July 22, 1984).

He explained how American and European banks are tied very closely together as one financial structure, which in a way includes much of the world. He predicted a financial crisis that would cause these 10 European nations to unite.

Events are beginning to move rapidly in that direction. This world is going to be shocked when this great European superpower bursts on the scene. You are going to see that happen in your lifetime—very, very soon!

Flashback of the 2008 Banking Crisis

“Five years ago … when I was the speaker, I gathered the other Democratic House leaders in my office to discuss the latest financial news.” Nancy Pelosi wrote those words in usa Today, Sept. 17, 2013. She continued: “I told them that, as a matter of course, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson briefed me on the state of the markets and the financial system, but had not done so that week.

“In that time, Lehman Bros. had filed for bankruptcy; Merrill Lynch had faced failure and had been purchased by Bank of America; and, two days earlier aig had survived only after a Federal Reserve bailout.

“After the meeting at 3 p.m., I placed a call to Secretary Paulson and asked him to come the next morning to brief the leadership. Then came his stunning response: ‘Madam Speaker, tomorrow morning will be too late’” (emphasis mine throughout).

It’s important that we remember how precarious America’s financial situation was back then.

She continued: “We then planned to meet at 5 p.m. that day, and I invited Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to join us. Later that evening, the meeting commenced with Democratic and Republican leaders from both the House and Senate.

“Secretary Paulson described a meltdown and financial crisis from the depths of hell.

“When I asked Bernanke what he thought of the secretary’s characterization, he said: ‘If we do not act immediately, we will not have an economy by Monday.’ This was Thursday night. Everyone in the room was flabbergasted.”

Other reports said everyone in the room had white faces they were so scared.

Why were they so terrified? The 2008 financial crisis was bound to be an earthshaking event that would negatively affect the United States, Europe and the rest of the world! And the world—especially Europe—rightly blamed America for that crisis.

Many experts said the financial crisis in America was within hours of totally wrecking the economy.

In a Sept. 18, 2008, article for Spiegel Online titled “U.S. Financial Crisis: ‘The World as We Know It Is Going Down,’” Marc Pitzke assessed: “[I]t really does look as if the foundations of U.S. capitalism have shattered.” When the foundation of something is shattered, it will never be restored. That is certainly true for our economy.

The 2008 financial meltdown was fueled primarily by America’s outrageous debt. Yet what has the U.S. done to correct that problem? Absolutely nothing. The national debt is soaring and growing worse every day to the tune of $3 billion!

When the present administration came to power on Jan. 20, 2009, outstanding federal debt was $10.6 trillion. Now, the debt currently stands at $18.1 trillion. President Obama has added an astounding $7.5 trillion during his terms—more than all the debt accumulated by all the presidents from America’s founding to Nov. 23, 2004, right near the end of President George W. Bush’s first term.

America’s debt will probably be close to $19 trillion by the end of President Obama’s second term. This is a sign of how out of touch with reality America’s leaders are! That fact should shake a lot of people.

Yet many authorities are warning that a worse crisis is coming.

A Worse Crisis

The Bank for International Settlements (bis), one of the world’s leading financial authorities, warned June 28 that when the next crisis strikes, central banks won’t be able to save the day again.

The Telegraph called the bis report a “scathing critique of global monetary policy” (June 28). Whether in America or in Europe, financial authorities won’t be able to save the day—because the life preservers have all been used. According to the bis, “In some jurisdictions, monetary policy is already testing its outer limits, to the point of stretching the boundaries of the unthinkable.”

Ponder that: We are stretching the boundaries of the unthinkable. Is it possible this could wreck the entire economy? That is what the bis is warning about.

The bis report noted that “the policy mix has relied too much … on the very debt-fueled growth model that lay at the root of the crisis.” And the United States has by far the worst debt of all in the world.

Famed investor Jim Rogers warned just days prior to the bis report: “I suspect in the next year or two we will see some kind of major, major problems in the world financial markets.”

On June 16, the Congressional Budget Office warned that debt threatens to send the U.S. economy into a death spiral.

Europe’s Reaction

Greece is the latest European victim of America’s debt crisis. That nation’s troubles are threatening trouble to other nations in Europe.

But they are also presenting opportunities for a more compact Europe.

The prophecy in Revelation 17 discusses the seven times that the Roman Empire would be resurrected as the Holy Roman Empire—from the Middle Ages all the way up to our present day. These resurrections are depicted as the seven heads of a beast. Our new free book, The Holy Roman Empire in Prophecy, will shock and inspire you with an understanding of those prophecies.

Revelation 17:12-13 are about a more streamlined Europe, and Greece’s crisis is showing us how it all will happen. These verses say, “And 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. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.”

This is the last head of that Holy Roman Empire, and it will have 10 kings. It won’t have 28 kings—it will have 10, and that is what this financial crisis will trigger and promote powerfully.

Verse 17 further explains: “For 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.” It is God’s will that this happens. Why? The Bible shows that this is going to happen because of America’s sins! America leads the world in vile sins, and this is the means by which God is going to correct this nation!

The German Question (and German Solution)

How exactly do America’s problems tie in with Europe, Greece and Germany? How are they bringing about the 10 kings of the final Holy Roman Empire?

“Europe, once again at a moment of crisis, faces the quandary of how to deal with German power. The German question is back,” wrote the New York Times’s Roger Cohen on July 13. “Precisely the thing that Germans were most uneasy about, and their neighbors, too, has now occurred. Germany dominates Europe to a degree unimaginable even 15 years ago.”

The American-European financial crisis is empowering Germany to dominate Greece and the rest of Europe in a way that will ultimately pare the European Union down to 10 nations!

In his July 13 article titled “Greece Is Being Treated Like a Hostile Occupied State,” the Telegraph’s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard wrote that the new deal for Greece’s bailout is “the worst of all worlds. They have solved nothing. Germany and its allies have for the first time attempted to eject a country from the euro ….” In other words, it is going to unravel and, as the Bible prophesied, it will lead to those 10 nations.

Pritchard said that the German-brokered Athens deal “offers no conceivable way out of the country’s perpetual crisis.” He likened it to a military invasion by the EU’s monetary union (emu) to enforce whatever it wanted.

Greece’s former finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, said in a July 13 interview with the New Statesman that the emu is “completely and utterly” controlled by Germany. “It is all like a very well-tuned orchestra, and [Germany’s finance minister] is the director.”

Can you imagine Germany moving in and controlling your country? Something amazing is happening in Europe, and Germany has power that was supposed to be dispersed among and controlled by all these EU members. They were supposed to control a dangerous Germany, but look at what Germany is doing now.

Reuters quoted one diplomat saying that the austerity measures imposed on Greece are tantamount to turning Greece into a “German protectorate” (July 12).

Herbert W. Armstrong predicted years ago that the collapse of the Western world’s financial system, led by the United States, would unite those 10 nations into what is called the Holy Roman Empire—led by Germany.

It is a development that will shock the world! But if you study these events within the bigger picture of Bible prophecy, you realize that it is going to lead to Jesus Christ returning to personally destroy that great empire and to usher in peace and joy and happiness for all eternity!