A secretive group of top politicians, bankers and businessmen met in Lisbon, Portugal, last week for its 69th conference. Since its inaugural meeting in May 1954, the Bilderberg Group has been an annual forum for American and European elites to discuss essential issues away from the press. This year, they had much to discuss, as the artificial intelligence revolution, a historic banking crisis, and the Ukraine War rock the world.

According to the group’s website, “Every year, approximately 130 political leaders and experts from industry, finance, labor, academia and the media are invited to take part in the meeting. About two thirds of the participants come from Europe and the rest from North America; one third from politics and government and the rest from other fields.” This year’s meeting lasted from May 18 to 21 but was not covered by major media.

According to a press release, topics for discussion included artificial intelligence, banking systems, China, energy transitions, Europe, fiscal challenges, India, industrial policy and trade, nato, Russia, transnational threats, Ukraine, and United States leadership. The chairpersons for this year’s meeting were Victor Halberstadt, a Dutch economist who works for the World Economic Forum, and Marie-Josée Kravis, a businesswoman who serves on the international advisory board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Notable guests included Pfizer ceo Albert Bourla, Atlantic columnist Anne Applebaum, former Google ceo Eric Schmidt, French Count Henri de Castries, American diplomat Henry Kissinger, former president of the European Commission José Barroso, chairman of the supervisory board of Deutsche Bank Paul Achleitner, U.S. politician Stacey Abrams, and German Federal Minister for Special Affairs Wolfgang Schmidt.

Bilderberg meetings are held under Chatham House Rule, meaning participants may use the information that is presented but may not reveal the identity of the speaker. Such secrecy has made the conference a popular target of conspiracy theorists claiming Bilderberg members secretly work with the illuminati, the Freemasons, or a cabal of shape-shifting lizards founded by the ancient Babylonian sorceress Semiramis.

Back in reality, it is true that the group was cofounded by two controversial figures who wanted to establish a United States of Europe: Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and Polish political adviser Józef Retinger.

Bernhard, the former German prince of Lippe-Biesterfeld, was an SS intelligence officer attached to the leading industrial supporter of the Nazi regime, IG Farben. The prince resigned from the Nazi Party in 1934 and married Princess Juliana, the future queen of the Netherlands, before pushing for a united Europe.

Józef Retinger was thought to be an agent of the Vatican. According to political commentator Rodney Atkinson, he was expelled from the Allied countries during World War i on suspicion of helping the superior general of the Jesuits, Wlodimir Ledóchowski, plot the creation of a Central Europe Catholic federation. Retinger founded the European Movement, leading to the establishment of the Council of Europe in 1949.

Prince Bernhard and Retinger founded the Bilderberg Group primarily to create trans-Atlantic support for the idea of a United States of Europe. Richard Aldrich, a noted professor at the University of Warwick, wrote in 1997 that the three groups most responsible for the modern European Union are: the Bilderberg Group, Retinger’s European Movement, and Jean Monnet’s Action Committee for the United States of Europe.

“Bilderberg was founded by Józef Retinger and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands in 1952 in response to the rise of anti-Americanism in Western Europe and was designed to define some sort of Atlantic consensus amid diverging European and American outlooks,” Aldrich wrote in Diplomacy and Statecraft. “It brought leading European and American personalities together once a year for an informal discussion of their differences.”

Former Bilderberg chairman Étienne Davignon bragged that the Bilderberg Group helped create the euro. So while the Bilderberg may not be the world government of conspiracy theory lore, it is an influential group. “[T]his group is not a tight-knit group of conspirators setting out to destroy nations,” explained Rodney Atkinson in a 2001 interview with Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry and late Trumpet columnist Ron Fraser. “They’re the kind of people selected on the basis that they might say yes to international supernational corporatism, which is the foundation, of course, of the modern European Union ….”

While many members of the Bilderberg have legitimate concerns about the need for a trans-Atlantic alliance to counter the rise of Russia and China, Bible prophecy reveals that America’s relationship with Europe will end in disaster. Tragically, America is responsible for creating many of the globalist movements that threaten it today.

The U.S. government cooperated with the Catholic Church, European politicians, and even former members of the Nazi Party to build a European superstate capable of helping it oppose the Soviet Union. Instead of trusting God and striving to obey His law, the people of Britain and America have trusted in nations that will turn out to be enemies. Building up the EU and Germany will be a tragically foolish decision.

The Bible prophesies a corporatist empire that will straddle the Atlantic Ocean in the time just before Jesus Christ’s return. This resurrected Holy Roman Empire will be led by Germany and the Vatican, and it will cause the “merchants of the earth” to wax “rich through the abundance of her delicacies” (Revelation 18:3-13).

This rising superpower will suddenly and violently conquer both America and Britain.

God allows this to happen because these nations have turned away from Him. But God reveals how individuals can be protected from this unparalleled disaster. The book of Ezekiel, written specifically for this end time, states: “Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live? Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:10-11; request a free copy of Ezekiel—The End-Time Prophet, by Gerald Flurry). There is only one way that God will protect us. Our people must turn, turn, turn from our evil ways.

For more on what the Bible says about this trans-Atlantic empire, read The Holy Roman Empire in Prophecy.