The Trumpet has often been criticized for highlighting the many Bible passages prophesying the end-time emergence of a German-dominated United States of Europe. These criticisms came to mind yesterday as I read the article “Rise of the Fourth Reich, How Germany Is Using the Financial Crisis to Conquer Europe.”

No, the article didn’t come from our archives. Nor was it the handiwork of an obscure blogger or some fringe website operating on the margins of the Internet. The article was written by respected British journalist and writer Simon Heffer. It was published in the Daily Mail, one of the UK’s most widely read newspapers and the second-most popular online newspaper in the world.

That’s right, this popular newspaper ran a story declaring the resurrection of Hitler’s Reich.

Mr. Heffer was explaining Tuesday’s much-anticipated meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. With Europe’s debt problems worsening, stock markets tanking and Europe widely seen to be careening toward financial Armageddon, the leaders met to brainstorm strategies to solve the eurozone’s financial woes. Although many were disappointed by the lack of short-term, practical solutions, the meeting was far from insignificant.

To the contrary, as Heffer so dramatically explained, Tuesday furnished more evidence that Germany is “using the financial crisis to conquer Europe.”

Frau Merkel, of course, didn’t put it quite that bluntly. In the post-meeting press conference she advocated the need for a “stronger coordination of policy,” and a “new quality of cooperation.” The leaders also emphasized the need for a “true European economic government,” a ruling institution to help eurozone states better manage their finances and to streamline European finance.

To many, the strategies laid out Tuesday, laden with financial jargon, very few specifics, and delivered by two of the most non-threatening leaders in politics, seemed fairly innocuous. But not to the Trumpet, and not, it would seem, to Simon Heffer.

Although Merkel will not admit it, he wrote, the guidelines outlined at this week’s meeting suggest “the first step has been taken toward a fiscal union that will leave Germany dictating the financial terms for the rest of Europe” (emphasis added throughout). When you look at Europe, it’s clear there simply isn’t another option. Greece, Ireland and Portugal are politically and financially helpless. Europe’s other behemoths, particular Spain and Italy, are tottering, with France in recent days appearing to join the fray of eurozone states in jeopardy.

If the euro is to survive, and with it the dream of European integration, Heffer wrote, “the other 16 eurozone countries will have to be like the Germans.” The solutions advanced by Germany, wrote Heffer, mean a “complete fiscal union in which Germany, as the EU’s most powerful economy and principal paymaster, makes the rules and makes them unbreakable.”

The creation of such a union, he wrote, “would make Europe effectively a German empire.”

In this empire, non-European countries such as Britain would be confined to the sidelines, while smaller, dependent eurozone states would effectively be colonized by Berlin. For European states, a fiscal union would “entail a loss of sovereignty not seen in those countries since many were under the jackboot of the Third Reich 70 years ago,” Heffer wrote. There is no mistaking what a fiscal union would mean, he said: “It is one economic policy, one taxation system, one social security system, one debt, one economy, one finance minister. And all of the above would be German.”

Remember, this comes from a well-educated and widely respected journalist and was published by one of the most popular news organizations in the world. The fulfillment of a prophecy made by this work for decades—that Germany would rise, then conquer and unite Europe—is now so obvious, it’s catching the attention of the mainstream media.

We bring this to your attention in the hope that it will invoke the question: How did Herbert Armstrong and Gerald Flurry know about the rise of Germany? You must take the time to answer that question. In short, the key to the Trumpet delivering these accurate forecasts is our faith in the “more sure word of prophecy” (2 Peter 1:19).

We believe God, for example, when He prophesied in Isaiah 10:5 that He would raise up “Assyria” (the biblical name for Germany) in the end time as a “rod of mine anger.” We believe the prophecy in Habakkuk 1, where God says He will in the end time “raise up the Chaldeans [the Holy Roman Empire], that bitter and hasty nation.” We believe the passage in Daniel 11:40-45, which prophesies of the end-time emergence of an all-powerful German-led “king of the north.” We believe Revelation 17, which prophesies of the resurrected Holy Roman Empire, led by Assyria, dominating world events in the days before Christ’s return.

What about you? Are you prepared to look at Germany’s rise to dominance and admit it was prophesied?

You see, it’s not enough to look at Europe and be emotionally or mentally stirred by the seismic events unfolding. In fact, it’s not enough to simply admit that what’s currently happening in Europe was prophesied in the Bible. As incredible as it is, God doesn’t want us to simply be enamored by the daily fulfillment of Bible prophecy. God gave Bible prophecy to invoke spiritual enlightenment, not emotion.

God wants you to look through the event, through its prophetic significance even, and into the supreme mind that made that prophecy. It’s true, as important and as exciting and riveting as Bible prophecy can be, it is ultimately a tool through which God seeks to introduce Himself to you. God employs prophecy as a chief means of revealing Himself to mankind.

If you see what’s happening in Europe and recognize that Bible prophecy is being fulfilled, then the onus is on you: Will you respond to God’s outstretched hand?

To the critic who rejects these prophecies, it’s nearly impossible to ignore the many dramatic observations being made by Simon Heffer and others. Whether you believe the Bible or not, it’s now reality: “Where Hitler failed by military means to conquer Europe, modern Germans are succeeding throughout trade and financial discipline.”

As Heffer concluded: “Welcome to the Fourth Reich.”