A new superpower is rising in Europe! For more than 75 years, the Trumpet and our predecessor, the Plain Truth, founded by Herbert W. Armstrong, have been watching for this to happen. Based on Bible prophecy, we expect it to be led by one strongman who leads 10 “kings.”

We can now see who some of these kings will be.

Europe is facing one crisis after another. Its American ally is collapsing socially, financially and militarily. Russia and China are rising. Europe is responding and is about to surge with power! We could see a stunning transformation of Europe before the end of this year!

Your Bible says the new European superpower will be led by 10 kings, all under Germany and a German strongman.

Bible Prophecy

At the beginning of Mr. Armstrong’s ministry, Adolf Hitler was taking control of Germany and Benito Mussolini was taking control of Italy. They formed a great European Axis power that launched World War ii, which killed 60 million people. The Vatican worked with both of these leaders. It even saved and relocated Nazi officials after the war and the murderous Holocaust!

This church-state relationship was a modern Holy Roman Empire. History shows it was actually the sixth revival of that medieval empire. And prophecy shows that a seventh resurrection is almost here!

“Revelation 13 and 17, coupled with Daniel 2 and 7, say that a union of 10 nations in the area of the old Roman Empire will plunge the world into the Great Tribulation!” Mr. Armstrong wrote in 1982, summarizing what he had consistently prophesied for more than 50 years. “The 10 nations of Revelation 17 will be Catholic” (co-worker letter, May 20, 1982). He taught that five of these 10 nations or nation-groups, led by “ten kings” (Revelation 17:12), would be in Western Europe, and five in Eastern Europe.

Revelation 13 describes a fearsome beast that symbolizes the Roman Empire. Its heads and horns represent its domination of the world at its inception and its repeated revivals throughout the past two millenniums. Another symbolic beast, in Revelation 17, represents the last seven resurrections of that empire, which were all influenced by a church, symbolized by a woman rider. (Interestingly, one symbol of Europe is the mythical woman Europa, often pictured riding a beast.) This is the Holy Roman Empire. (This is all explained in detail in Who or What Is the Prophetic Beast?, by Mr. Armstrong. We will gladly send you a free copy.)

Amazingly, Revelation 17:10 dates this prophecy: “And there are seven kings [seven resurrections of that Holy Roman Empire]: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.” The meaning of this prophecy would be revealed after five of those resurrections were history—when “one is” and “the other is not yet come.” “One is” refers to the sixth resurrection, which was Hitler’s Nazi empire! That is when Mr. Armstrong was on the scene and God revealed the meaning of this prophecy.

Even before World War ii ended in the defeat of Hitler and Mussolini, Mr. Armstrong taught on the World Tomorrow television program and in the Plain Truth magazine that Germany would not only rise again but also build a European superpower mightier than America and its allies. While the war still raged, and then while Germany lay defeated, he taught that the seventh and final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire was certain. And he explained that it would have 10 kings under German domination.

At the time, Germany was extremely weak. In fact, the Allies and the Soviets cut it in half. Germany had started two world wars in 25 years, and the victors promised to prevent it from doing so ever again (sidebar, page 4). The power of Catholic leaders in the Vatican was also diminished (though not enough to prevent them from helping most of the top Nazis escape). Meanwhile—it would emerge decades later—German political and industrial leaders, Vatican officials, a future pope and allies in other countries were carrying out a plan to take German and European power underground.

Germany and Europe were decimated. Russia, leading the Soviet Union, was so powerful it seized much of Eastern Europe, including East Germany, and was in a position to conquer even more of the Continent. The only thing holding it back was America, which placed forces in Europe and built up Western Europe, including West Germany. In fact, largely out of fear of Russia, America let the Germans “denazify” themselves only two years after Hitler died and the Third Reich surrendered!

Decades passed. Was this beastly, bloody European empire truly destroyed? Revelation 17 describes it as “the beast that was, and is not, and yet is” that “shall ascend out of the bottomless pit.” It is stunning how perfectly the facts fit that prophetic description. Mr. Armstrong’s explanation of this prophecy, and of the prophecy that “five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come,” is more relevant today than ever!

United Europe

Even in the postwar period, a few politicians had a vision for a united European power. One was Franz-Josef Strauss, longtime leader of Bavaria, second defense minister of West Germany and one of Europe’s strongest leaders. And he actually knew Mr. Armstrong!

During a meeting with Mr. Armstrong in 1970, Strauss summarized his thinking this way: “A united Europe is more essential now for the free world than it would have been any time before …. Big powers have been established, the United States of America, Russia, Japan. I think that small and medium-sized European states are no longer able to face what the future demands from all of us. … Therefore my political friends and I have been pleading for years and years now for a united Europe” (emphasis mine).

Strauss insisted that European unification would be incomplete without Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and the other East European countries.

Strauss died in 1988. (Mr. Armstrong died in 1986.) The “strongman of Europe” never saw his dream fulfilled. But just one year later, the Berlin Wall fell. A year after that, the crumbling Soviet Union relinquished control of the eastern part of the country, and Germany reunited.

The nations of Eastern Europe were then able to work with and unite with the nations of Western Europe in various ways. But the close cooperation Strauss envisioned remained elusive—until now.

Strauss was actually just one of dozens of cabinet officials, legislators, prime ministers, presidents, kings and other top world leaders that Mr. Armstrong knew personally. Another was Otto von Habsburg. This man was the last crown prince of Austria-Hungary and what had previously been the Holy Roman Empire. He was a member of the European Parliament, representing Germany and Bavaria’s Christian Social Union, and a leader of the International Paneuropean Union. He spoke openly about how the Holy Roman Empire had united Europe into a great power in the past and said reviving it was the only way Europe could return to greatness.

While in Los Angeles, California, attending a council on world affairs in 1983, Mr. Habsburg visited with Mr. Armstrong. The two men discussed why a new European empire was rising slowly rather than quickly at that time.

Mr. Armstrong told him this: I think what you’re going to see is a financial collapse of the Western world. Then the Holy Roman Empire will rise with great power, exceeding China or Russia.

That was an extraordinary forecast. And we are now experiencing just such a collapse today, starting with America’s banks! Watch how this develops and how it affects Europe (article, page 1).

Mr. Armstrong went on to say that this European empire might assemble in pieces. But he said definitely that when it is time for the 10 kings to rise in unity, it will happen suddenly.

Otto von Habsburg made two crucial statements that we need to understand. The first is this: “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.”

Why don’t many people, including the Europeans, understand Europe’s heritage? One reason is that those who are building the new Holy Roman Empire have done so mostly underground, just as Revelation describes.

Another reason is that leaders have deliberately kept quiet about just what kind of heritage the Holy Roman Empire really has!

What Kind of Empire?

Mr. Habsburg was born into the royal line of the centuries-old House of Habsburg in Austria, but his father was forced out, and in 1961, he renounced any claim to his father’s throne. He did not want to be on that throne. He did, however, want to be involved in the European Parliament and politics, and he was for many years prior to his death in 2011.

He kept the dream of a glorious European empire alive. And he helped lay the foundation for the seventh and final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire.

Habsburg had a vision of making Europe great by reviving “the heritage of the Holy Roman Empire.” But what is that heritage? What did the Holy Roman Empire do, throughout its history, when it was strong?

Here is the other key statement Habsburg made: “We possess a European symbol which belongs to all nations of Europe equally. This is the crown of the Holy Roman Empire, which embodies the tradition of Charlemagne.”

Charlemagne brought the Holy Roman Empire to the heartland of Europe, known as the First Reich. And he accomplished his goals with horrific violence! He waded through blood to conquer Europe and fulfill his vision. The brutality with which he treated those he conquered shocked even his own nobles. In one instance, he executed 4,500 Saxons in a single day. He managed to unite Europe for the first time since Justinian for this reason: Europeans submitted to him and his version of Christianity—otherwise he killed them.

This is part of the “tradition of Charlemagne”!

After the Holy Roman Empire of the German People dissolved in 1803, Germany continued to live by that tradition. And what did it produce? The world witnessed the Second Reich during World War i (1914–1918), when the German kaiser (a title derived from caesar) plunged Europe and other parts of the world into a bloodbath that killed an estimated 14 million people.

Germany lost that war, but the Holy Roman Empire soon continued its rise. Five were fallen, but a sixth was coming on the scene, as Revelation 17 says. In the aftermath of Germany’s defeat, one man who had been born in Austria-Hungary and had fought for the army of the German Empire took a deep interest in its history. In Vienna, he viewed that powerful European symbol that Habsburg exalted: the crown jewels of Charlemagne. This man was fascinated by them, in fact. He practically worshiped Charlemagne.

Author Robert G. L. Waite said it was there in Vienna that this man said he “formed an image of the world and a view of life which became the foundation for my actions. … I have had to change nothing” (The Psychopathic God—Adolf Hitler). Regarding this time in Vienna, Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf, “This was the time in which the greatest change I was ever to experience took place in me.”

“[F]inally he knew who he was and what he must do,” Waite wrote. “He was the leader sent by destiny. He must answer the ‘voices’ that he said he heard …” (op cit). As Waite recorded, this man heard voices in his mind and underwent the greatest change he was ever to experience.

There in Vienna, the cultural capital of the Holy Roman Empire, Adolf Hitler had an awakening. He received a supernatural vision, he said, and he heard voices that he had to respond to. “The voices told him to rescue his motherland from the Jews who had violated her” (ibid).

This man would rise quickly to take control of Germany and much of Europe. He walked in the bloody footsteps of Charlemagne, whom he revered. He called his empire the Third Reich. He annexed Austria and “had brought from Vienna, after 140 years, the insignia of the First Reich—the imperial crown, the orb of empire, the scepter and the imperial sword. At the presentation of these symbols of imperialism he solemnly vowed that they would remain in Nuremberg forever” (John Toland, Adolf Hitler). Taking those jewels, he said, signified that his people—and no longer the Jews—were now God’s chosen people.

Hitler’s murderous motivation came from voices, from spirits. He didn’t know it, but Hitler was actually possessed by an evil spirit! (To learn more, request your free copy of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire at theTrumpet.com/go/ghre.) He was being influenced by the father of vanity, lies and murder. Hitler was the tool the devil used to ignite World War ii and the Holocaust! This man tried not only to supplant the Jews but to exterminate them altogether! He murdered 6 million Jews and caused the deaths of another 54 million!

The reichs are among six total resurrections of the Holy Roman Empire that have occurred so far. All six of them shed rivers of European blood to conquer other peoples!

Happening Now

After the war, the Nazis went underground. The Bible even prophesies about this underground, called “the bottomless pit” or “the abyss” in Revelation 17:8. Just like the postwar Nazis, the Holy Roman Empire today is underground. But it is growing in strength, and some people are passionate about it, which is bringing it more out into the open. Very soon, you are going to see it plainly!

I don’t believe Habsburg thought like Adolf Hitler. However, the great empire that he and others helped to build is going to be hijacked by an evil spiritual force and cause unspeakable destruction and death! Today, the Fourth Reich is ready to rise!

The unification project that Strauss, Habsburg and others pushed for is almost complete! The European Common Market became the European Union in 1993. Smaller nations are bonding together and integrating into the large union. East European nations are just as much a part of the union as West European states are. Catholicism has a strong influence over the Continent, and it will become much stronger. The federal authority of the EU has taken more and more sovereignty and power away from member nations. It has become increasingly undemocratic. The Lisbon Treaty of 2007 defied national referenda to the contrary and created an EU constitution. Europe has developed a common currency, trade policy, diplomatic service, court system, border agency, coast guard, police force, legislature, flag, anthem and more.

And, as Mr. Armstrong also specifically prophesied, Britain has exited and is “no part of it.”

People are even referring to what is taking shape in the same terms Mr. Armstrong often used: “a United States of Europe.” And when this beast that “was, and is not, and yet is” ascends, it will happen suddenly, and it will surpass the power of America, Russia or China.

We are seeing nothing less than the rise of the “ten kings” prophesied in Daniel 2 and Revelation 17!

The prophetic image in Daniel 2 portrays these 10 kings as 10 toes on the two feet of a mighty statue. This shows that this empire will have 10 kings leading European nations or nation-groups: half in Western Europe, half in Eastern Europe. Mr. Armstrong also taught that the composition of the legs and feet—iron and miry clay (Daniel 2:41)—represents the iron strength of the Roman Empire nations mixed with weaker Israelitish nations.

Who will they be? The precise composition remains to be seen, but Mr. Armstrong speculated about it for years, and we are increasingly seeing just how accurate his views were!

He wrote in 1953, “These will include Germany and Italy, probably Spain and Portugal and France, Greece, and probably some of the Balkan nations from among Yugoslavia, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania or others” (Good News, May 1953). In 1980 and 1982, he again pointed to these same nations, along with Poland and Ireland.

Spain, along with Portugal, is very Catholic. At one point, the two were under one king of the Iberian Union. It is where much of the bloody Catholic Inquisition took place. It was involved in establishing the Nazi underground after World War ii. Hungary has a history as an important part of the Holy Roman Empire and is currently led by a strongman who emphasizes Christian heritage and has tied his military to Germany. Czechoslovakia separated into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, but the two cooperate closely. The Czechs even send soldiers to help protect Slovakia’s borders. They also use German military equipment and have a brigade that works closely with a German armored division. Romania also has a brigade working closely with the German Army.

Germany sparked the Yugoslav Wars in 1991, gaining control of the Balkans in 1998. It recognized Kosovo and pressured the United States and nato into bombing Yugoslavia, breaking it apart into separate countries. (Request Germany’s Conquest of the Balkans.) This strategic region, which provides access to the Mediterranean Sea, will certainly be part of the new European superpower. Some Balkan states are not part of the European Union, yet the EU border patrol, Frontex, already operates in several of them.

Poland, which was dominated by Soviet Russia, was able to break away as Mr. Armstrong forecast. It is 90 percent Catholic, its largest trade partner is Germany, its economy is currently surging, and it is suddenly building a mighty military. It has announced that it is increasing military spending by 60 percent and doubling its number of troops, which could soon make it the largest military in Europe.

The rising Holy Roman Empire will not include all 27 current European Union nations. It will be ruled by 10 kings who will dominate Europe and much of the world. Five of those kings are already becoming clear!

War and Peace

Mr. Armstrong consistently said that Britain would not be part of this European empire, decades before Britain officially left in 2020! In fact, he showed that Bible prophecy identified Britain, America and the Jewish nation in the Middle East as the victims of this empire!

Prophecy makes clear that this modern Holy Roman Empire will cause horrifying bloodshed. Yes, Germany is about to unleash another global conflict, far worse than both world wars combined!

God is allowing this deadly empire to rise for a seventh and final time for the very purpose of punishing nations who have known Him and who have rebelled and turned against him. The British, the Americans, the Jews and the other peoples that descended from ancient Israel have received immense blessings from God. (This is explained in The United States and Britain in Prophecy, by Herbert W. Armstrong; request your free copy.) But as we can clearly see, these peoples have rejected God, and He is removing those blessings and allowing the modern descendants of the ancient Assyrians to once again attack and conquer them!

Other Bible prophecies show that Britain, America, Judah and the other nations of Israel are about to pay a bloody, bloody price for their terrible rebellion and sin! Much of this bloodshed will be inflicted by the new Holy Roman Empire.

We are about to see millions of people slaughtered by this conquering empire.

Given the severity of these prophecies, is there any hope? There certainly is!

These three nations could heed God’s last warning message and repent (Amos 7:8). At this point, they don’t seem to be moving in that direction.

Revelation 17:13-14 state this about the 10 kings: “These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall make war with the Lamb [Jesus Christ], and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.”

That’s right: The Bible reveals that this bloody European superpower will fight Jesus Christ! That means the kings we now see rising are a sign that Jesus Christ’s return is imminent!

Those kings are rising now, and five kings have already risen. Time is very, very short.

Bible prophecy is true, and the revealed explanation taught by Mr. Armstrong is true. The prophecy of the Second Coming is also true! This leads to the best news you could possibly hear!

The Bible talks about only one group escaping this coming calamity. Revelation 3:10 reads, “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” That “hour of temptation” will start with the Great Tribulation, which will include an attack from the Holy Roman Empire on the nations of Israel—primarily the United States and Britain (The United States and Britain in Prophecy will explain this to you). But God will protect those who keep His word!

Will that include you?