Sixty million people died in World War ii. That is a staggering number that must never be forgotten.

Yet we are allowing that history to repeat itself, and too few are paying attention.

Germany started World Wars i and ii. Yet Italy also played an important role in the Second World War, during which Adolf Hitler was allied with Benito Mussolini, the leader of Italy.

Mussolini called his Italian empire the Holy Roman Empire. He saw that his alliance with Hitler had a long history; it tied back to an empire that has risen repeatedly in Europe.

We have been forecasting for over 75 years that this same empire will rise once more. When it does, it will launch a war even more destructive than World War ii.

This empire took a major step forward in Italy’s recent election. Yet nobody is talking about it!

The undisputed winner of Italy’s September 25 election was Giorgia Meloni. Her party, the Brothers of Italy, won 26 percent of the vote and will be the largest party in Italy’s Parliament. Two other right-wing parties worked together with Meloni in the election. Altogether they won 44 percent of the vote. Italy has a complicated system of deciding how many seats each party gets in Parliament, but once everything has been decided, this right-wing alliance is certain to hold a majority in both houses.

Meloni will be Italy’s next prime minister. And she has a direct connection with Benito Mussolini.

The people of Italy killed Mussolini at the end of World War ii because of the destruction he brought to their country. The return of his party is a threat to Italy and to the whole world.

Mussolini’s History

There is clearly a growing appetite for Mussolini in Italy today. The dictator’s great-grandson ran for office for the Brothers of Italy. The party printed posters using his name. The Associated Press wrote at the time, “The strength of Mussolini’s rhetoric, drawing heavily on the old glory of the Roman Empire, still has not lost political currency.”

Few see something to fear here. But Mussolini fashioned his empire after the Roman Empire. He modeled his famous salute on that used by the Romans. He copied their eagles. Even the term “fascism” is a direct reference to the symbol of power in the Roman Empire. He then gained the support of the Catholic Church and led his country to war. Mussolini prepared the way for Adolf Hitler, who copied him and used the same formula.

Many on the political right welcome Meloni’s success. She is an eloquent opponent of the homosexual movement that is doing so much damage to American families and society. She often extols the importance of family. She rightly points out the hardship caused by mass immigration in Italy. These are issues that truly resonate with conservatives in the United States.

Unlike so many American politicians, Meloni is happy to bring God into her politics. Her slogan is “God, homeland and family.” This sounds good, but her attitude toward religion matches exactly the spirit that the Bible warns us to watch for.

Even in this, Meloni is following in Mussolini’s footsteps. In 1929, Mussolini signed a treaty with the Vatican, making Catholicism the only state-recognized religion. He granted the Catholic Church many privileges in exchange for its support.

Notice what we write in The Holy Roman Empire in Prophecy: “Just days after Mussolini signed the Lateran Treaty in February 1929, Adolf Hitler praised the agreement in an article in Volkischer Beobachter, the newspaper of the Nationalist Socialist German Workers’ Party. Hitler held no political office at this time, but subsequent events reveal that he was already anticipating the day when he would become a sort of German Mussolini ….” So Mussolini, in that sense, paved the way for Hitler, and they united and started World War ii.

The Brothers of Italy have similar policies. They talk a lot about Europe’s Christian heritage and the importance of family. These points sound good—but we must put them in this historical context. Mussolini’s alliance with the Catholic Church bore terrible fruits!

The Bible specifically warns us to expect a return of the same empire that Hitler and Mussolini led, with the same relationship with the Catholic Church.

Seven Resurrections

The theme of Revelation 17 is a terrifying, fierce beast power that is going to cause destruction on a scale never yet seen on Earth!

It describes a beast with seven heads, and it tells us that these heads represent an empire that rises and falls seven times. Each time, it is led by a king—some kind of authoritarian leader.

Verse 10 reads, “And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.”

This prophecy has been fulfilled exactly. Here are those seven resurrections:

1. Emperor Justinian and the Imperial Restoration (a.d. 554)
2. Charlemagne and the Frankish Kingdom (a.d. 774)
3. Otto the Great and the Holy Roman Empire (a.d. 962)
4. The Habsburg Dynasty (1520)
5. The Napoleonic Empire (1805)
6. The German-Italian Axis (1870–1945)
7. The rising united European superpower

Hitler became the sixth head of the Holy Roman Empire, and Italy enabled it to happen. Will history repeat itself?

The Bible tells us the next empire will be made up of 10 kings that work together and combine their power. This is going to rise out of the present-day European Union. That union is composed of 27 nations right now, but soon it will be pared down to 10 kings. And the heart of that superpower will be Germany and Italy, just as it was in World War ii. You can prove this from your Bible.

Verse 8 of Revelation 17 gives profound insight: “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 … when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.”

What is this beast that “was, and is not, and yet is”?

The Nazi Underground

World War ii was dominated by the Hitler-Mussolini axis, but then it disappeared from the scene. It “was not”! Yet, God says, “it is”! Though the Axis powers lost the war, they went into hiding underground—into what this prophecy describes as “the bottomless pit.” They remained, but out of common sight. But they will not remain there. God says they are going to ascend again!

History confirms what this prophecy foretold. The most senior Nazis were brought to justice—yet few others were. The U.S. even had intelligence showing that, before the end of the war, the Nazis planned to disappear into hiding. Yet we covered it up and kept it secret for 50 years. You can read all about this in our free booklet Germany’s Conquest of the Balkans.

Many of Mussolini’s supporters went underground in the Italian Social Movement—the very party which, after a series of rebrandings and splits, became the Brothers of Italy. Today they are emerging from the underground.

The rise of Meloni’s movement matches exactly what the Bible foretold. These prophecies warn that we need to be watching for the rise of this power. God wants as many people as possible to understand this prophecy. Yes, because it is dangerous and He wants to warn us—but also because it leads to the best news you could ever hear!

Look at Revelation 17:10 again. It says that of these seven successive kings, “five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come ….” This prophecy describes a snapshot of time, while the sixth king rules.

There is a hidden prophecy here: that there would be a man on the scene during the reign of that sixth king, warning the world about what was happening. That man was Herbert W. Armstrong. He warned during World War ii and after. When Germany was smoldering in defeat, Mr. Armstrong said that nation would rise again, more powerful than ever.

Other prophecies show that this man would be taken out of the way (e.g. 2 Thessalonians 2:7), after which that final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire would arise.

Today, that seventh resurrection is come! We are no longer waiting for it. You can see it rising. The election in Italy demonstrates this. And you can also see it rising in Germany.

The Coming of God’s Kingdom

At a military conference in September, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, “As the most populous country with the greatest economic power and as a country in the middle of the Continent, our army must become the cornerstone of conventional defense in Europe: the best-equipped force in Europe.”

His speech came days after Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said that “Germany’s size, its geographical situation, its economic power—in short, its clout—makes us a leading power whether or not we want to be one. Militarily as well.”

Germany’s economic power already enables it to dominate Europe. How much more will it dominate when it also leads militarily?

“Germany can do this,” Lambrecht said. “Germany does not need to be afraid of this new role.”

Remarkably, it seems most of the world is eager for Germany to assume such a role.

Once again we are forgetting World War ii and the 60 million dead. Near the end of that war, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin all signed a document that pledged, “It is our inflexible purpose to destroy German militarism and Nazism, and to ensure Germany will never again be able to disturb the peace of the world.” They were determined never to allow Germany to become a strong military power again, because of that nation’s long and infamous history of warfare!

Today, not only have we forgotten that long history, we have even forgotten what happened recently, just over 80 years ago!

In Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah, an Oral History of the Holocaust, a Holocaust survivor said, “Have we forgotten? The Germans even forbade us to use the words ‘corpse’ or ‘victim.’ The dead were blocks of wood, [dung] with absolutely no importance.” The Germans killed 6 million Jews while denying that they were even human beings! Are we so sure nothing like this will ever happen again, when many biblical prophecies assure us it will?

A handful of people have seen what is rising in Europe. Margaret Thatcher warned in an October 1995 speech: “You have not anchored Germany to Europe. You have anchored Europe to a newly dominant, unified Germany. In the end, my friends, you’ll find it will not work!” The Bible agrees with Mrs. Thatcher. Her understanding of Germany was partly why she lost her office—people didn’t want to hear it.

Daniel 2 is another key chapter describing this rising power. It shows us that this final resurrection of the Roman Empire will be led by 10 kings. And it also gives us a vivid picture of how it will end: “Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth” (verses 34-35).

The stone symbolizes Jesus Christ. This empire that keeps being resurrected will be smashed and carried away by the wind when Christ returns. His righteous government will then fill the entire Earth.

Notice this beautiful scripture in Daniel 7:27: “And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.” What a reward God gives to the people who do His work and proclaim His warning message to this world.

This is such a glorious message, it ought to inspire all of us. This really makes Bible prophecy come alive, like perhaps nothing else you could study.

Do you believe God? Everything He said about the Holy Roman Empire has come to pass. He prophesied its every resurrection in your Bible, and the final resurrection is on the scene right now. What an amazing truth this is! And you can prove all of it from your Bible!