Germany is changing fast. In last month’s Trumpet, I wrote to you about Germany’s dramatic military transformation. On February 27, Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced a major turnaround in Germany’s military, massively expanding its armed forces and putting the nation on course for a new role in the world.

Germans and the world loved it. Scholz got a boost in the polls. Over half of Germans said they supported his military transformation. Another 27 percent said it didn’t go far enough. America was also enthusiastic; it rolled out the red carpet for the German economics minister, who visited Washington shortly after.

Since then, the appetite for a muscular Germany has only grown. After that initial announcement, Scholz has been much quieter. An Infratest Dimap poll of the German public found that 41 percent believe their government needs to do more to confront Russia. Scholz is now seen as dithering and weak. His poll numbers have plummeted—because people want a tougher leader.

This is rapid, dramatic change for Germany! The average German now wants his country to be more powerful and militaristic. People want their nation more involved in the world. And they want a stronger leader in charge.

Outside of Germany, other voices are demanding the same. They say the world needs a more muscular Germany.

They should be careful what they wish for. Germany has a history of abrupt transformations.

Scholz: Missing in Action

Der Spiegel titled its profile of the chancellor: “Where’s Olaf? Germany’s Chancellor Opts for a Low Profile at a Moment of Crisis.” It wrote that “after four months in office, Scholz remains an invisible chancellor to many, a political hermit crab who only rarely emerges from his shell” (March 26).

Only 19 percent of Germans are optimistic about the future, according to a poll from Allensbach. That is the lowest level since Germany’s oldest polling institute began to ask this question in 1949.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is causing greater fear within Germany than any other event in recent history. Scholz himself told Spiegel that Russia’s geopolitical thinking really “scared” him. Greens politician Marina Weisband responded by tweeting that Scholz’s interview “was like a punch in the stomach.” “[W]herever the world looks at him, you can see that he is so scared and overwhelmed,” she wrote. Germans are worried and their leader is scared. This is a dangerous trend.

Part of the reason for Scholz’s unpopularity comes from his support of Russia. This policy is unpopular at home and abroad. But this is not the most fundamental reason.

“We have … a chancellor who does not lead sufficiently,” Greens politician Anton Hofreiter told Welt on April 19. “[T]hroughout Europe,” he said, Scholz is “perceived as too indecisive and too hesitant” (Trumpet translation throughout).

Germans want assurance there is someone in charge, someone who grasps the magnitude of the crisis afflicting Germany and rises to meet it. But as Spiegel wrote, Scholz “has tended to approach the historic challenges he is now facing just as he used to address the housing shortage in Hamburg or the push to establish a global minimum corporate tax rate” (op cit). He sees that the “German people are scared” but is unable to connect with or address their fears.

Scholz has been in office for barely six months, and already there is talk of replacing him. Friedrich Merz, leader of the right-wing Christian Democratic Union, presents himself as a stronger, more competent leader. Some speculate that if Scholz fails to make some big changes, his coalition partners could desert him and usher Merz into the chancellorship. Such a change would not require fresh elections, just a different coalition.

Germany is roughly doubling its military spending. The German people want more, and they want a stronger leader to make it happen.

The Trumpet and its predecessor, the Plain Truth, have been prophesying about the end-time emergence of a German-led, Catholic-inspired beast power for more than 70 years. We delivered this warning even in 1945, when Germany and Europe were still smoldering after World War ii. We prophesied it for decades before Germany’s unification in 1989. Today this prophecy is being fulfilled! It is obvious that Germany dominates Europe politically and financially. Now it is revolutionizing its foreign policy. Keep watching: Soon Germany will become a superpower even greater than America and Russia. This superpower is about to burst out on the world. It is prophesied in your Bible.

You need to think about what this means for you individually. Are you concerned? You need to be! The Bible says the emergence of a German superpower will affect you directly.

A Shape-Shifting Germany

In her 1813 book On Germany, Germaine de Staël ridiculed the Germans as a military power. “Nothing is odder than the German soldiers,” she wrote. “They fear fatigue or bad weather, as if they were all shopkeepers or literati. … Wood-burning stoves, beer and tobacco smoke create a heavy and warm atmosphere around them, which it is difficult for them to leave.”

That is the impression many people have of Germany today.

In his 1984 book The Europeans, Italian journalist Luigi Barzini compared Germany to Proteus, the shape-shifting old man of the sea. The Germans “emerged from the stove-headed rooms filled with pipe smoke in 1870,” he wrote. “They crossed the border of France as a gray tide of faceless, disciplined soldiers with spiked helmets, a relentless unstoppable war machine. Where had they come from? Only a few Germans and no foreigner had suspected what the imminent metamorphosis would be like. … Weeping French writers went on for decades telling innumerable heartbreaking stories of how ruthless, rapacious and contemptuous the invaders had been. How could these Germans be so dissimilar from those harmless and peaceful people Madame de Staël had described, those whom Europe had known and loved only a few years before?”

What caused this transformation? Barzini wrote that “Germany is, as it always was, a mutable, proteus-like, unpredictable country, particularly dangerous when it is unhappy.”

Niklas Frank, the son of an infamous Nazi war criminal, made a similar statement when our staff interviewed him in 2017. He said that Germans are calm, peaceful, even pacifists, when times are good and they feel secure. “As long as we are dominating Europe with our industry, everything is OK,” he said. “But if they dare to take away our money, then it will become dangerous.”

Right now, Germans are more pessimistic than they have been since World War ii. They are loudly demanding a transformation. Are we about to see a new Germany emerge?

A Prophesied Change

The Bible gives an even stronger warning of a change coming to Germany. Revelation 17 gives a striking prophecy of a “beast”—an empire in biblical symbolism. Verses 7-8 read, “And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.”

John was astonished by this vision of a monstrous beast that would burst onto the scene in this end time. But the world is going to experience the horrifying reality, and it will do much more than astonish people!

This beast “was, and is not, and yet is.” That is a befuddling statement. Many people read something like that and just throw up their hands and say, “Nobody can understand this book.” But it is really simple if you simply let God show you.

Herbert W. Armstrong spent much of his life discussing this subject. This revelation describes the period when Mr. Armstrong was doing the work of God. God revealed to him secrets about this sixth resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire, which “was, and is not, and yet is.” He preached during and after World War ii, when the Hitler-Mussolini axis disappeared from the scene. It “was not”! And yet, God says, “it is”! The Axis powers lost the war, but as Mr. Armstrong preached time and again, they went underground—into “the bottomless pit” (verse 8). They are still there—they’re just underground. God says they are going to ascend right back up! Then Jesus Christ is going to come back and destroy this beast, and it will be gone forever.

Right now that power is ascending “out of the bottomless pit,” from underground. That is the deadly reality behind Germany’s transformation!

The Bible really comes alive when we know specifically what is happening and what will happen next. You must admit, it is impressive when prophecy gets that precise!

A German Strongman

The Bible tells us that a strong leader is going to play a major role in this turnaround in Germany.

Daniel 8 is one of the most astonishing prophecies in the Bible, and we need to understand it.

The last part of verse 17 says, “for at the time of the end shall be the vision.” It gets more specific in verse 19: “And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation ….” Not only is this about the end time, this is the “last end”—the end of the end time. Daniel was written only for the end time (Daniel 12:4, 9). God wants us to recognize the urgency of this prophecy.

Daniel describes this strong leader who will arise in Europe: “And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up” (Daniel 8:23).

God calls this leader a “king.” This soon-coming ruler could literally be called a king. Even if he is not, the Bible calls him that. When the Bible talks about a king, in most cases it is saying that this is not a democratic government. Whether or not he has that title, he will lead like a king. This vision described in Daniel shows that the European empire is about to become far more authoritarian. It will be pared down from its current configuration of 28 nations to 10 nations.

Daniel 11:21 prophesies that this strong leader will come into power “by flatteries.” We have always believed this will not happen by votes, but through behind-the-scenes machinations of some kind. We must watch Germany and Europe carefully. Though Bible prophecy gives us the outline of how these events will unfold, we don’t know the details.

Daniel 8:24 prophesies about this coming king: “And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he … shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.” That is a terrifying statement! This European empire is prophesied to wreak havoc on this world!

Nobody wants to talk about it, but German history reveals an explosive tendency: When the right leader comes to power, watch out! We must face this truth. According to your Bible, Germany is about to start World War iii—the deadliest war in history.

The Bible tells us this leader will lead a monstrous military machine. Read Habakkuk 1:6-11. It prophesies of the Holy Roman Empire attacking and destroying three nations of biblical Israel. Their warriors are swifter than leopards and fiercer than wolves. They commit violence like this world has never seen! This is what this radically changed Germany will end up doing.

‘Dark Sentences’

Daniel 8:23 tells us this coming European leader understands “dark sentences.” He is a brilliant and capable man.

On April 13, EuroIntelligence headlined “Worry About Etherium, Not the Renminbi.” The article highlighted the example of a young American programmer being sentenced to prison by a New York court. What was his offense? He gave a presentation in North Korea at the Pyongyang Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference. The United States court accused him of teaching how to circumvent U.S. sanctions using the Etherium blockchain. EuroIntelligence wrote: “The interesting bit about this story is the implicit recognition that you can use the Etherium blockchain to evade sanctions. But trying to keep that information secret seems rather pointless to us. Not everybody understands this stuff, but the information is all out in the open. Unlike the North Koreans, the Russians are tech-savvy. If the North Koreans can evade sanctions through blockchain, so can the Russians. If the attempt to explain how it works carries a long prison sentence, we should probably assume that this is a real threat.”

America has colossal financial power. It is using that power to try to shut down Vladimir Putin. Yet if someone “understands this stuff,” he can use blockchain to defeat America’s financial power.

Germany has a very good understanding of blockchain.

Is this the kind of “dark sentences” the Bible warns that the European strongman will understand?

This leader is both a sophisticated intellectual and a brutal war leader. However, like Germany itself, he may not appear so right now. Habakkuk 1:11 tells us, “Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.” Isaiah 10:7 tells the same story: “Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.” There will come a point when this man will realize what power he really has, he will probably become possessed by the devil—and his mind will change.

The devil loves concentration camps. He loves to see humanity suffer. He hates the exalted potential God has given human beings, who are made in His likeness and image. The devil doesn’t want human beings to rule as God intended. He is going to seize this opportunity and annihilate as many people as he possibly can—especially Jews and the descendants of the ancient Israelites, the American and British peoples.

“… O mighty God, thou hast established them [the Germans] for correction,” Habakkuk 1:12 tells us. Verses 14 through 17 speak of how utterly meaningless human life is to these warmongers. “Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?” They slay nations over and over again!

When will we learn from history? What will it take to finally awaken the modern nations of Israel—the only people to have a history with God? Tragically, prophecy shows it will take the Great Tribulation and a lot of correction from God.

‘Broken Without Hand’

Despite horrifying news in the short term, the prophecy of this coming European strongman has a wonderful, hope-filled conclusion.

Daniel 8:25 reads, “And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many ….” This man will talk about peace. However, look at the end of the verse: “[H]e shall also stand up against the Prince of princes [Jesus Christ]; but he shall be broken without hand.” This man and the empire he rules will be broken—not with physical hands or a physical army, but by Jesus Christ Himself!

Christ is about to return to Earth and put an end to all of this horror. He says in Matthew 24:21-22 that if He didn’t return, no flesh would be saved alive! Man cannot prevent these coming horrors. He created this monster of nuclear power, and like Dr. Frankenstein, he cannot control it.

We live in a dangerous world! These are not ordinary times. Isaiah 33:7 prophesies that the ambassadors of peace will weep bitterly because their cherished goal of peace will elude them. Isaiah 59:8 says, “The way of peace they know not ….”

But Jesus Christ is going to return. Only Christ can bring us peace, joy and happiness. That is what these prophecies ultimately foretell. This is the best possible news you could ever hear! And this is the conclusion to the same vision of this tyrannical leader who is about to seize control of Europe!

The horrendous suffering this king and the empire he leads will inflict on this world is about to stagger people’s minds. The good news is, it will be stopped. We are witnessing the last resurrection of that evil empire forever. Thankfully, the seventh and last head of the Holy Roman Empire will usher in the coming of the Messiah. No nation will be ruled in that bloody tradition ever again. Thank God for that!