This website and the Trumpet magazine walk in the footsteps of the Plain Truth, founded in 1934 by Herbert W. Armstrong. For more than five decades under Mr. Armstrong’s vibrant stewardship, the Plain Truth powerfully explained the connection between world events and Bible prophecy.

Those who watched the World Tomorrow television program or read Mr. Armstrong’s literature (and there were multiple millions) know that his keynote prophecy was of a coming united European superpower, or what he termed a United States of Europe. He declared this prophecy even as the smoke from World War ii billowed over Europe in the 1940s—and never stopped until he died in January 1986. The rise of a German-led European superstate, he warned, would immediately precede the catastrophic events Jesus Christ discussed in Matthew 24.

But Mr. Armstrong didn’t merely state that a resurrected European empire was imminent. He explained in graphic detail in countless articles, co-worker letters, television programs and sermons how it would occur.

We need to take note of his gripping explanation: It has never been more pertinent.

Mr. Armstrong warned that a massive financial crisis—centered in America, but which would affect the whole world—would spark the rise of a European superstate!

A massive banking crisis in America, he wrote to co-workers in July 1984, “could suddenly result in triggering European nations to unite as a newworld power larger than either the Soviet Union or the U.S. That, in turn, could bring on the Great Tribulation suddenly. And that will lead quickly to the Second Coming of Christ, and end of this world as we know it” (emphasis his).

We ought to ponder those words deeply in light of America’s current banking crisis and the chaos besieging the global financial system.

In August 1984, when the Cold War was at its height, Mr. Armstrong explained what would precipitate the ignition of the nuclear catastrophe described in Matthew 24. “Now we’re hearing in the news of a soon-coming nuclear winter,” he wrote. “Nuclear explosions will produce an Earth-covering cloud that will give us a nuclear night. The sun will not get through. Crops will not grow. Billions will be killed by the nuclear blasts. Those remaining will starve. … [T]his is no wolf-wolf cry! It is prophesied in your Bible! It is real! And … economic crisis threatens to bring this about ….”

Mr. Armstrong was a geopolitical forecaster of unmatched ability. Time after time, year after year, his was a voice crying out in the wilderness warning that economic crises would lead to the formation of the European superstate. Sadly, when Mr. Armstrong died on Jan. 16, 1986, his prophetic warnings died with him. (They were resurrected about four years later by Gerald Flurry and the Philadelphia Church of God.)

It didn’t take long after Mr. Armstrong’s death for his forecasts about economic collapse and the rise of a European superstate to be cast aside or forgotten. Many mocked and ridiculed Mr. Armstrong and what they believed to be the outlandish blabbering of an old man. Although some didn’t necessarily scorn him, the very large majority allowed the absence of economic chaos and European unification at that time to lead them to believe Mr. Armstrong was wrong. They questioned and forgot about Mr. Armstrong’s warnings because what they saw on the world scene didn’t seem to support what he said. They lacked faith in the prophecies on which he based his forecasts.

Now what are those people thinking?

Economic Armageddon grips America and the world. Everyone knows it. World leaders, bankers and business leaders, intellectuals and journalists—terror grips them all! And Germany and Europe, as theTrumpet.com has reported in recent weeks, are now seeing the need to coalesce and establish a global presence!

The current global economic crisis exposes a wonderful truth about Herbert Armstrong: He was not wrong. His forecasts were not vain blabber. They were not uninformed guesses. He was not exaggerating.

Herbert Armstrong was simply ahead of his time!

Trust in the U.S. financial system has been the backbone of the international economic system. Today that trust has nearly completely vanished. Assumptions are being questioned. Perceptions have changed. Confidence in America’s economic leadership and supremacy is cracking—rapidly—and the world is beginning to transform.

Everything that man forecast is now coming to pass!

This past summer, a global poll conducted by the Pew Research Center found that, “with only a few exceptions, the American economy is now seen as having a negative impact on national economies, both large and small, in all parts of the world” (June 12). The world, even prior to the financial catastrophes that occurred in September and October, had begun positioning itself for America’s economic crash.

Germany, Europe and the rest of the world are mocking the U.S. Federal Reserve. In fact, confidence in the Fed is so low the International Monetary Fund (imf) wants to examine the U.S. financial system. “As part of the assessment,” Germany’s Spiegel Online wrote, “the Fed, the Securities and Exchange Commission (sec), the major investment banks, mortgage banks and hedge funds will be asked to hand over confidential documents to the imf team. They will be required to answer the questions they are asked during interviews. Their databases will be subjected to so-called stress tests …” (June 26).

That was June, before the collapse of America’s banking system!

The demise of America’s reputation and influence has intensified a thousandfold since then. Now the world, particularly Europe, is unabashedly demanding far-reaching changes in the U.S.

America’s economic crisis is empowering Germany and Europe—precisely as Mr. Armstrong said it would!

This past weekend, U.S. President George Bush bowed to European demands for a global economic summit soon after the U.S. elections in November. The president’s announcement, reported the Wall Street Journal, “represents another concession to European leaders, who’ve already forced the U.S. hand on key design elements of the financial rescue effort that’s currently under way around the world” (emphasis mine throughout). Having watched their economies tank, European countries are demanding more from the one nation they believe to be responsible for the mess.

According to Sunday’sTelegraph, “The emboldened Europeans signaled that the bloc was ready to ambush Mr. Bush and his successor, who is expected to attend the meeting, to impose a European vision for new financial market regulation.”

The “emboldened Europeans” want to “impose a European vision for new financial market regulation.” Those are bone-chilling remarks for any person familiar with Bible prophecy and the warnings of Herbert Armstrong!

On Saturday, European Union Commission President José Manuel Barroso said, “We need a new global financial order.” “Those words,” the Christian Science Monitorsays, “could send shivers through a White House that is suspicious of the current chorus of world leaders—European, Russian, and others less friendly to the U.S.—who are hailing the current economic crisis as a moment to usher in a multipolar world.”

Here at the Trumpet we find it impossible to read statements like that and not think about the warnings of Herbert Armstrong!

The world is deeply alarmed by the state of America’s economic health. Confidence in the American economy has crashed, and people are looking to reinvest their trust and confidence elsewhere. There is now a desperate need for a stable, well-managed financial system to stabilize global finances.

That urgent need is increasingly being met—by Europe!

It is impossible to deny these trends. Global economic crisis is precipitating the rise of a United States of Europe, just as Mr. Armstrong, year after year, decade after decade, warned would happen.

The questions we (especially former supporters of Herbert Armstrong) now face are: How could Herbert Armstrong—who has been dead for 22 years—make this forecast so accurately? Where did his understanding come from?

Put briefly and simply, Mr. Armstrong’s warnings came from God via the Holy Bible, or as the Apostle Peter put it in his second epistle, “the more sure word of prophecy.” Instead of looking to men for understanding and insight, Mr. Armstrong looked to God, and because he trembled before God and invested his trust in God, God gave him understanding.

To answer these questions in depth, and to learn more about the history of Herbert Armstrong, his work and what happened to it after his death, we offer a number of publications, including Malachi’s Message to God’s Church Today, The Proof of the Bible and Raising the Ruins. You should also read the “He Was Right!” issue of the Trumpet.

Watching the global economic crisis and the emergence of a United States of Europe unfold is deeply sobering. But there are many wonderful, hope-filled lessons we can and must consider as we watch these trends.

One of the most invaluable lessons we can learn is about the role and office of Herbert Armstrong. Today’s global economic crisis proves that he was not wrong, but that he was, thanks to his faith in God, a man ahead of his time!