To the unknowing eye, the European Union is on the brink of becoming the grandest failure in all of Western democracy’s checkered history.

Concerning Europe’s leading nation, Germany, whether Chancellor Merkel’s coalition government will continue in the wake of its presidential election debacle is anyone’s guess. Having ensured that one of her major political threats, Christian Wulff, was sidelined by being elected president, Merkel now finds Germany’s brightest political star, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, nipping at her heels. German politics are patently in a state of confusion.

Belgium is a divided nation, even as it takes over the EU rotational presidency this month.

At least five of the EU’s western European and Mediterranean members are in great financial difficulty, not to mention the basket case economies of the weaker eastern European bloc. Europe’s banks are stressed by a debt load that could bring the whole European Monetary System undone.

Financial scandal rocks the French government.

China vies with the EU as the world’s greatest trading entity as it gobbles up Mediterranean seaports at fire-sale prices, bringing its aggressive marketing push right up to the EU’s doorstep.

Russia gloats and delights at poking its western neighbors in the eye at every opportunity, even as it cements a partnership with nato in alliance against Iran’s nuclear intentions.

The Atlantic alliance appears to be in tatters.

Amid all this chaos, one could be forgiven for thinking that the EU will soon be confined to the dustbin of history. But take another look.

Though for over 60 years the European Union has served its masters well, in reality, as the above list of woes demonstrates, the EU, as presently comprised, has indeed had its day. As of Dec. 1, 2009, the date that the Lisbon Treaty/EU constitution was ratified, it had met the purpose of its founders and of the next generation of European elites who have continued to persist in pursuit of their dream of resurrecting, out of the ashes of two world wars, imperial Europa, the old Holy Roman Empire. Yet, since the conclusion of the Lisbon Treaty/EU constitution, a constant stream of news highlighting the functional dislocation of the EU has flooded the press and mass media.

On July 1, Belgium took on the biannual presidency of the European Union. This office is an anachronism, continuing as it does the process of rotational presidencies, headed by a different national member of the 27-nation EU for six months of each year, in tandem with the EU now having its own permanent president, Herman van Rompuy.

In many ways, the current political condition of Belgium is analogous to the political state of the EU today. Belgium is a fractured, divided country. It can’t make up its mind whether it is a Flemish or a French nation. Likewise, it seems the EU cannot make up its mind whether it should speak with a single voice or with a cacophony of 27 individual national voices. The redundancies within the European Council, Commission, parliamentary and monetary systems that prevail in the wake of the the Lisbon Treaty’s ratifcation are legion. Something has to give, or it would appear the great European vision is doomed to failure.

But don’t be fooled. All is not as it appears.

The grand confusion that has seemingly descended overnight on the EU since the Lisbon Treaty/European constitution was enacted with its president and foreign minister taking office on Jan. 1, 2010, will be but a catalyst for dramatic, and sudden, change to come—change that will result in a far leaner and definitely meaner EU political and economic structure.

Last week, the Economistasked, “Can anything perk up Europe? It’s a question that matters not just because Europe is the world’s largest economy but also because other regions have an interest in the success of a project that aims to replace conflict with cooperation. … [W]e believe that Europe’s crisis may provide a spur for the continent to revitalize its economy ….”

And so do we—but more than that. We can be more, much more precise as to the outcome.

The EU’s leading nations will soon be trimmed to just 10, with all other member nations in subservience, politically, economically, monetarily, militarily and spiritually, to a joint Berlin-Rome hierarchy. Believe it or not, that is as sure as the rising of tomorrow’s sun.

This is a message we have trumpeted for the past 20 years.

It is the very same message that Herbert Armstrong preached, published and broadcast for the duration of his long and extremely fruitful ministry. The message of the divinely revealed and very specific prophecies of the book of Revelation, for our very day, today! Those prophecies are embedded in your Bible. They are there for you to read, in particular Revelation 13 and 17. Very specifically, Revelation 17:12-13. As can be seen by the very next verse, this 10-nation combine appears on the world scene immediately before—and as a great sign of—Jesus Christ’s imminent return to this Earth to set up His kingdom of peace forever (Isaiah 9:6-7).

There is an intriguing prophecy, which Jesus Christ Himself declared, recorded in Matthew 24:44: “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”

The word translated “think” in this verse is from the Greek dokeo, meaning “seems.” Thus this verse could be better translated: “… in such an hour as it seems not, the son of man comes.”

We live in such an hour.

To those blinded to the divine revelation of the prophecies for our day, it would seem not that the German-led EU could overnight turn into a global power calling the tune on the world economy and capable of a blitzkrieg attack on that prime mentor of terrorism and anti-Israel invective, Iran (Daniel 11:40). It would hardly appear that the Vatican could quickly turn Europe back to the path of the religion of Rome (Revelation 17:1-6, 18), given the publicity that its venal sins has received at the hands of the world press and media.

But there is a missing dimension that the mind closed to the revelation of biblical revelation fails to understand. That missing dimension actually explains the conundrum of how today’s dislocated world will suddenly change its structure into one that poses the greatest of threats to Anglo-Saxon society in all its history. It has to do with powers that operate above the human level—on the spirit plane, a whole level above that which the human mind is capable of understanding unless it is seeded with the power of the Spirit that unlocks understanding at that level (John 14:17; 16:13).

When one can access and comprehend knowledge sourced at the spiritual plane—the missing dimension in human knowledge—one understands there is a great spiritual power that contends with God and man, which is intent on blinding humankind to the reality of the great plan—the incredible potential—the Creator has prepared in advance for humankind to fulfill. This is that one called Apollyon and Abaddon (Revelation 9:11), the destroyer and the confuser of mankind, the father of all lies (John 8:44)—Satan the devil!

Thus it is that most of the world, and even the greater part of the church, is blind to what is developing—and fast—in Europe today. Behind the apparent confusion unfolds an overarching plan for the final resurrection of an ancient old, very bloody, tyrannical and destructive empire. It has existed in reality on 10 separate occasions, seven of which have been dominated spiritually by the great religion of Rome, those same seven, in turn, dominated politically by the nation of Germany.

It is that same Holy Roman Empire that even now is taking shape behind the mask, the smoke and the mirrors of today’s confusion in the EU. The mass media publicize the confusion. They are ignorant almost to a man of its implications—to the reality of the beastly power that is forming, week by week, behind the scenes even before their very unseeing eyes.

Thus it is that for this world, and for far too many in the Church, the return of Jesus Christ to put down all national powers and impose His supreme governmental power over the Earth will come as a gigantic shock! A bolt out of the blue! But not to those who have genuinely committed their lives to the service of their God and whose minds are open to receive the constantly flowing revelation from His throne. They are those who heed Christ’s command to “watch and pray” (Matthew 26:41).

If you cannot understand our message, then it is simply not your time to receive this knowledge.

But your time will come. No matter how blinded in ignorance to ultimate reality you may be today, it will come. Then you will remember our message.

Yet, if you are one who does understand that which you read on this website, view on the Key of David television program, read in the Trumpet magazine, then that is proof God is leading you by His Spirit to comprehend the reality of His great prophecies for our day. That knowledge is clearly designed to prepare you for the very soon-coming return of your Savior to this Earth! But that knowledge brings with it both accountability and a responsibility. Accountability to God for that which you do see and understand, and a responsibility before God to act on the knowledge He has revealed to you!

Read our booklet The Proof of the Bible. If you are really inspired by that revelation, read and study our book The Incredible Human Potential. It is a great primer for starting you out on the road of commitment to serve your Creator and fulfill your part in the eternal family plan that He has reserved for you and for all humankind!