As Russia draws closer to its borders, Poland is increasing its military spending. In October 2021, Poland announced that it would increase its defense spending to 2.5 percent of its gross domestic product starting in 2024, up from the 2 percent required of nato members. On March 3, Poland announced its plan to spend 3 percent of its gdp on its military by next year. Global Firepower Index ranked Poland’s military strength 24th in the world—that may soon change.

Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak said the increase in military spending will help facilitate the increase of Polish soldiers from the current 143,500 to 300,000 within five years. With the drastic increase in spending, Poland demands that defense spending no longer count toward the European Union’s deficit ceilings.

According to Błaszczak, Poland will eventually have “one of the strongest armies in nato.” “Our fatherland needs such a Polish Army, especially now when the evil empire is trying to be reborn on our eastern border,” he added.

Yet as Handelsblatt reported, Poland’s rearmament is part of a bigger trend: Europe’s military rise.

Poland is doing its part to integrate its armies with other European forces. On Aug. 16, 2019, Poland announced its intention to join the European Main Battle Tank project led by Germany and France.

Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party, told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in 2017 that the EU needs to “strengthen the nation states and reduce the jurisdiction of the Union.” In response to Russia’s aggressions, he more recently said he would welcome a European nuclear superpower but doubted the EU would approve the necessary finances.

“A nuclear power of its own would have to be able to keep up with Russia,” he said. “We are a long way from that. But if there were something serious, I would be in favor of it. Europe would then become a superpower. I would welcome that. But a nuclear submarine or two is not enough. You’d have to be prepared to spend a lot of money, and I don’t see that coming. I am therefore more in favor of maintaining relations with the Americans and reforming the EU.”

Germany has approved emergency military spending of more than $100 billion and the procurement of F-35 fighters capable of carrying the United States’ nuclear bombs stationed in Europe. Even before the Ukraine war broke out, European weapons imports saw a 19 percent increase, while global trade in major arms declined by 4.6 percent, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Before his death in 2011, Otto von Habsburg, the son of the last emperor of the Habsburg dynasty, warned repeatedly against Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Europe’s biggest problem is Putin’s rule,” he warned in 2005. Fear of Russia gives Europe reason to unite.

Late educator Herbert W. Armstrong wrote on Jan. 23, 1980: “What Russia is doing will be the spark to bring the heads of nations in Europe together with the Vatican to form a ‘United Nations of Europe.’”

Poland was once under Soviet rule, but with the help of the Catholic Church, it broke away and became part of the EU. Today, Poland is one of the most Catholic countries in Europe.

Remarkably, this dramatic turnaround was prophesied. On Aug. 27, 1980, Mr. Armstrong wrote: “Will Poland free itself from Soviet domination and join with Yugoslavia, Romania and possibly Czechoslovakia—and with Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and Austria—in a resurrected medieval ‘Holy Roman Empire’ to dominate Europe and equal the ussr and the U.S.A. in world power?”

Mr. Armstrong’s reference to the resurrected medieval Holy Roman Empire is about the historic union of various European nations with the Catholic Church. This power is prophesied in Daniel 2 and Revelation 17. “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” (Revelation 17:12-13).

In 1989, Otto von Habsburg said: “The [European] Community is living largely by the heritage of the Holy Roman Empire, though the great majority of the people who live by it don’t know by what heritage they live.” Although, many don’t see it, the Holy Roman Empire is being revived before our eyes. To learn more about these astonishing prophecies, please read “Why the Trumpet Watches Europe’s Push Toward a Unified Military.”