The world again stands in fear of a looming nuclear war. But while some worry about North Korea’s and Iran’s nuclear programs, or the United States and Russia announcing the suspension of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (inf) Treaty, few consider the culprit of Word War i and ii to be a nuclear threat. Bible prophecy, however, foretells that this world will soon be shocked by the rise of a nuclear-armed Germany that starts a large-scale nuclear war.

The groundwork for this prophecy to be fulfilled has already been laid—but almost no one has paid attention.

Since the 1950s, Germany has developed the technical ability to produce and use nuclear weapons. Initially, U.S. wariness had been mollified by Germany’s promise to not produce nuclear weapons, but times have changed and Germany is considering breaking its Cold War agreements. This change should alarm and disturb anyone who knows German history. Almost overnight, Germany could rise to become a nuclear power.

Unless you understand Germany’s nuclear history, you cannot understand its current nuclear debate nor biblical prophecy about its nuclear rise.

New Rules in Post-Cold War Times

Following America’s and Russia’s announcements suspending their inf Treaty in early February, German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen warned against a relapse into a Cold War mentality. “In nato, we agree that we cannot transfer the simple answers of the ’70s and ’80s to the present day,” she said. “We need new answers, new solutions” (Trumpet translation throughout).

During the Cold War, the world stood in fear of the impending outbreak of a nuclear war between America and the Soviet Union. In light of this looming threat, Russia and the U.S. agreed on various treaties to prevent further nuclear proliferation. The inf Treaty between the U.S. and the Soviet Union was signed in 1987 and called for the elimination of all land-based intermediate-range nuclear missiles. The demise of the agreement has added fuel to Europe’s, and especially Germany’s, nuclear debate. As theTrumpet.com assistant managing editor Richard Palmer noted, the “Demise of the INF Puts Europe in the Nuclear Crosshairs.”

But there is yet another and even more important Cold War agreement that has recently been questioned: the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. This 1968 agreement has been signed by 130 countries, including Germany. The only reason Germany signed the agreement was because of America’s guarantee of nuclear protection and its promise of Germany’s part in the nuclear-sharing agreement.

This treaty is the only thing keeping Germany from going nuclear.

But is this treaty still applicable for Germany today? When Russia and the U.S. start canceling their agreements, why should Germany stick to its promises?

U.S. President Donald Trump has openly questioned the nato alliance. Nuclear-armed Britain is leaving the European Union. Germany cannot rely on Europe’s other nuclear power, France, to provide its nuclear security. As Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung noted, Emmanuel Macron’s decision to not attend the Munich Security Conference is only one of many signs that Germany’s belief in a shared nuclear program with France is a one-sided illusion.

In all this, Germany sees its position reinforced: Only Germany can provide for Germany’s security. Renowned German political scientist Christian Hacke caused a widespread debate last year with his article “Why Germany Should Get the Bomb,” which was later translated into English. He wrote: “The emerging nuclear threats of the 21st century should not be trivialized as relics of the Cold War but must be resolved with Germany’s active and constructive participation.” Hacke argued that Germany needs its own bombs.

Although President Trump is blamed for rekindling the nuclear debate, Germany’s contemplation of going nuclear is not new. Its nuclear ambition started in World War ii as Adolf Hitler sought to get the bomb. The shocking truth is that this ambition never died but continued to live in the minds of West German leaders after the war ended. The only reason Germany did not get nukes was because of America’s restraining force.

Although its ambition was kept in check, Germany has prepared for decades to become a nuclear power. To understand how, we must look back at Germany’s history during the Cold War.

Preparing to Produce and Use Nukes

In the 1950s, German leaders argued that it was untenable for the nation to be without its own nuclear program as its neighbor to the east was rapidly rising. At the time, the consequences of World War ii were still glaring, and under no circumstances did the Allied forces want to allow Germany to go nuclear. But pressed by Germany, the U.S. negotiated a few fatal compromises.

Germany regained independence in 1949 and was placed under the leadership of West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. Besides negotiating Germany’s general rearmament, Adenauer also pleaded with the U.S. for the right to its own nuclear program. As it became clear that the U.S. would not grant Germany this right, Adenauer negotiated in 1958 with French President Charles de Gaulle to create a European nuclear program to which Germany would be allowed to contribute. To ease the debate, Adenauer trivialized the use of tactical nuclear weapons, calling them “especially harmless weapons.”

In the end, de Gaulle shattered Adenauer’s dream by directing his attention to French involvement in the Algerian War. Spiegel Online recounted: “For Adenauer and [Defense Minster Franz Josef] Strauss, de Gaulle’s decision meant the final end of their lofty nuclear dreams. Their only remaining option was the ‘nuclear participation’ that the Americans granted them. Strauss, who was known for his nuclear ambitions, revealed his thoughts on this bluntly in his memoirs: ‘One allows the little clown to walk alongside the military music with his children’s trumpet and let him believe he is the drum major.’”

Even though Strauss was greatly disappointed, he gained a partial victory and “dutifully” made everything possible for U.S. nuclear bombs to be stationed in Germany. He quickly obtained the U.S.-required carrier system for stationing the bombs and purchased the U.S. Starfighter F-104 in the fall of 1958.

While Strauss strictly followed U.S. guidelines, he had his own plans in mind for using the bombs.

In regard to U.S. documents, Spiegel recounted that after Henry Kissinger met with Strauss in 1961, he warned the Kennedy administration of Strauss’s ambition. He wrote that America should secure its nuclear weapons in the Federal Republic of Germany in a way that would be “physically impossible” for Germany to use them without American consent. He warned that in a crisis situation, it could be assumed that Strauss would “simply take” these weapons.

In 1962, U.S. officer Hugo Charles Sanford was stationed at the secret bunker where the tactical U.S. nuclear weapons were stored. In 2013, he told Spiegel that the U.S. seriously feared a violent takeover of the bombs by the Bundeswehr and so drastically increased its military security around the bombs.

Thus Strauss’s plot was thwarted. And although Germany has continued to train in the use of these bombs, America’s fear of a violent German takeover has significantly diminished. It has since been allowed to produce its own Tornado fighter jets that are able to carry nuclear bombs, and German pilots practice the use of these bombs regularly.

Today, the aging Tornado fighter jet needs a successor, and Germany has two options: Boeing’s F/A-18 jets or Airbus’s Eurofighter. In both cases, Germany wants to retain its ability to conduct nuclear strikes.

Time will prove that the decision to grant Germany access to the U.S.’s bombs is a fatal mistake.

But that’s not all. Clearly, from the start Strauss and Adenauer had far greater nuclear ambitions than those the U.S. granted. America’s second fatal mistake was to allow Germany to pursue its own civil nuclear program.

Before Franz Josef Strauss became defense minister, he was appointed minister of nuclear energy in 1955. During his ministry, he laid the groundwork to develop uranium enrichment plants, allegedly to produce nuclear energy. After the U.S. denied Germany’s right to develop its own nuclear bombs, Strauss focused on sponsoring scientific research and developing various facilities to enrich uranium in Germany.

Although the U.S. was aware that Strauss was furiously working to get nukes, it still allowed Germany to develop the technology to produce nuclear weapon materials. Thus Germany today can transform from a non-nuclear power into a nuclear giant—in a heartbeat.

Since the 1950s, Germany has become one of the world’s largest suppliers of toll enrichment services to the commercial market. By 2011, Germany used 17 reactors to obtain one quarter of its electricity from nuclear energy. Since then, Germany has taken various steps to become independent from nuclear energy and has invested heavily in renewable energy.

For awhile, it seemed as if Germany’s nuclear ambition had faded. But as the nuclear debate rekindles in Europe, Germany is considering repurposing its nuclear program. Thanks to the loopholes of the 1967 Non-Proliferation Treaty, the switch isn’t that difficult. Michael Shellenberger wrote for Forbes:

In truth, no nation decides to get a nuclear weapon simply because they have nuclear power plants, and the fuel used in nuclear plants is not enriched enough to make a weapon.

But under the rules of the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty, nations are allowed to have facilities to enrich uranium, and extract plutonium from spent fuel, which could be used to build a weapon.

In order to produce nuclear reactor fuel, the concentration of uranium 235 needs to be increased to about 5 percent; for nuclear bombs, to about 90 percent. But the amount of uranium needed to build a nuclear weapon is considerably less than to fuel nuclear power plants. Thus as Ivanka Barzashka wrote for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, “Any civilian enrichment facility can be used to produce nuclear weapons material.” Once uranium is enriched to 5 percent, the further enrichment needed to reach 90 percent gets easier with each percent. For this reason, “the ability to produce weapons material has been widely used as a proxy measure for a country’s nuclear weapons potential,” Barzashka wrote.

Germany’s Urenco Group’s uranium enrichment plant in Gronau is seen as one of the world’s leaders in uranium enrichment. It uses centrifuges that can easily enrich uranium to the 80 to 90 percent level needed for nuclear weapons. This advanced technology and the many centrifuges used give Germany the ability to produce hundreds of nukes in just a few months. Barzashka wrote:

A typical 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactor uses 27,000 kilograms of low-enriched uranium in a year. This means that an enrichment plant sized to fuel one reactor has the capacity to produce about 20 bombs per year. That is roughly 300 centrifuges of the kind run by Urenco, the European enrichment consortium, or over 100,000 centrifuges of the kind mostly used by Iran. To produce one bomb a year would require less than 20 Urenco machines or more than 5,000 Iranian ones.

Having the enriched uranium is by far the greatest challenge in the production of nukes; the next steps are considerably minor. Germany’s meticulous planning for this moment reveals that it was only looking for an excuse to break its Cold War agreements. The excuse was not available during Strauss’s day, but it is today.

As Germany continues to distance itself from America, it continues to enhance the ability of its fighter jets to carry American bombs and is even contemplating producing its own nukes. Kissinger warned that Strauss planned on using these bombs against America’s interest. Shouldn’t America be even more concerned about this today as Germany openly turns its back on the U.S.?

Just as Britain and America could have stopped Hitler’s rise, they too could have prevented Germany’s emergence as a nuclear power. But as it is, they have done little to prevent Hitler’s rise or Germany’s nuclear rise today. History teaches us that such a laid-back approach to these urgent matters will be deadly for the world. Watch the Key of David program below to learn how history helps us understand the Bible’s predictions for the future.

Franz Josef Strauss and Herbert W. Armstrong

Kissinger was not the only one who warned about Strauss’s ambition. For decades, Herbert W. Armstrong warned about a rising European empire that would be led by Germany. He repeatedly drew his listeners’ attention to Franz Josef Strauss. Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry explained why:

One man who closely watched Strauss’s political career was Herbert W. Armstrong. He was founder and editor in chief of the Plain Truth newsmagazine, forerunner of the Philadelphia Trumpet. Mr. Armstrong observed world events closely, especially in Europe. He devoted much of his work and his message—which reached millions of people worldwide—to analyzing Germany in particular. Why? Because he studied and proclaimed Bible prophecy, and Bible prophecy forecast not only that Germany would reunite, but that it would lead Europe once again—exactly what we are seeing today. …

Mr. Armstrong wrote, “The world appears bereft of ‘great men.’ But a world-recognized ‘strongman’ in all probability will now very soon appear. … There will be 10 [kings], ruling 10 nations or groups of nations in the area of the once-great Holy Roman Empire. But there will be one super-king over the 10” (Plain Truth, May 1969).

Concerning that super-king, Mr. Armstrong wrote that Europe was “waiting for the confidence-inspiring leader ….” Mr. Armstrong felt Franz Josef Strauss might be that leader. Yet Strauss died in 1988. [Otto von] Habsburg died in 2011. German strength and the dream of European unification, however, did not die with them. When Strauss first published his ideas, he knew he might not live to see his dreams carried out. “… I am under no illusions about the length of time it will take to set this sequence of events in train,” he wrote. “It might take a generation. … If the process is to take time, then it must be time put to good use.”

During Strauss’s day, the groundwork was laid for the fulfillment of the prophecies of a Vatican-German alliance and the rise of a German strongman. Still, those prophecies have yet to be fulfilled.

The God behind these Bible prophecies led Mr. Armstrong to closely watch Strauss. Today, we see why. Germany is about to get its strongman who will use the groundwork Strauss laid during the Cold War to start a nuclear world war. The evidence is there for all to see, but most refuse to heed God’s warning. (Read A Strong German Leader Is Imminent to learn more about the man that we believe will continue the legacy of Franz Josef Strauss.)

The Prophet Isaiah saw a vision of the time we are living in today and asked God how long He would allow it to go on: “Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate” (Isaiah 6:11). Isaiah prophesied of this coming nuclear holocaust that we are about to see. Mr. Flurry writes in his book Isaiah’s End-Time Vision:

Why does God lay cities waste without an inhabitant? Because that is what it takes to get Israel’s attention! That includes spiritual Israel, or the Church of God, and the nations of Israel.

Israel in this end time primarily refers to the U.S. and Great Britain. (Request a free copy of The United States and Britain in Prophecy to learn more about ancient Israel’s modern-day identity.) The only reason God allows this to happen is because mankind refuses to heed the warning He delivered through His man.

Mr. Armstrong spoke to millions on his weekly television program. He often warned about Germany’s rise. His flagship magazine had a circulation of 8 million; yet, the U.S. and Britain have largely ignored his warning. Even worse, the church that God built through Mr. Armstrong stopped declaring His message.

Mr. Armstrong’s message was not one of gloom and doom. He was inspired by the book of Isaiah, which is filled with wonderful prophecies of a coming World Tomorrow. For this reason, Mr. Armstrong named his television broadcast The World Tomorrow. Mr. Armstrong proclaimed God’s coming Kingdom that would end all human suffering. Every warning from Mr. Armstrong pointed to that ultimate reality.

The sad story of human history is that mankind has to suffer before they will listen to God. The wonderful truth though is that God has not given up on mankind and will very soon usher in a wonderful world, in which the deserts of the nuclear wilderness will blossom again (Isaiah 35), a time when wild animals will be tamed and all humans will live in harmony (Isaiah 11). Eventually every human being who has ever lived and never knew God will be resurrected into that wonderful world. To learn more about these wonderful prophecies and how they will be brought about, request a free copy of Mr. Armstrong’s booklet The Wonderful World Tomorrow—What It Will Be Like.

Before all these wonderful prophecies can be fulfilled, God must lay cities waste without inhabitant. We have two options: choose to heed God’s warning or wait until a nuclear world war strikes us. Thus far, mankind has chosen the second option—we see the signs of the fulfillment of these prophecies all around us.

Yet God promises to bring about that wonderful World Tomorrow. In the midst of the world’s nuclear arms race, we need to consider the clear vision Bible prophecy provides us. Request your free copy of Isaiah’s End-time Vision, by Gerald Flurry, to learn about the prophet’s warnings for the end time and why we need to take heed today.