Many years ago a friend, a casual reader of the Trumpet, told me he’d act on what he was learning from the Trumpet when he saw a specific prophecy be fulfilled. When Britain leaves Europe, as you say it will, he said once, I’ll look more seriously into all of your teachings.

I hope he’s got our number.

Anxieties peaked in Europe this week in the lead-up to yesterday’s gathering of European leaders in Brussels. At stake were some pretty major issues, including the fate of Greece, the solvency of Europe’s largest banks, the survival of the euro, and ultimately, the entire European unification project. German Chancellor Angela Merkel captured the sobriety of the meeting in a speech yesterday morning to the German parliament. “Nobody should take for granted another 50 years of peace and prosperity in Europe,” she warned. “They are not for granted. That’s why I say: If the euro fails, Europe fails.”

Merkel’s message to her European counterparts was dramatic and clear: If European unification fails, expect war!

Right now the consensus among European leaders, especially those leading the charge to solve the crisis, is that the only surefire solution is more integration, more federalization, and more abdication of power by member states to a centralized European government. Last month José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, warned that Europe faces a crucial moment. “If we do not move forward with more unification,” he warned, “we will suffer more fragmentation.”

Speaking at a summit of the Visegrad Four group in Warsaw earlier this month, Poland’s president emphasized the same need: “Poland is saying with a great emphasis that we have to deepen European integration. Only in this way, we can get out of the crisis.” During her address to the Bundestag yesterday, Merkel yet again reiterated the need to enhance unification. In what was ostensibly a message to Europe ahead of the afternoon EU meeting, Merkel stated that “we have a historical obligation to protect by all means Europe’s unification process begun by our forefathers after centuries of hatred and blood spill.”

The political and financial pundits agree. “Either European leaders succeed in reenergizing European integration, or the EU will lose relevance for its citizens and become marginal,” said Janis Emmanouilidis of the European Policy Center.

For Germany and its pro-integration partners, there’s one major stumbling block: Britain.

While the financial crisis is causing European leaders to push for more integration, in Britain it has reignited the debate over Britain’s membership of the European Union. The consensus, among both Euroskeptics and Europhiles, is that the financial crisis provides the opportunity for London to reconfigure its relationship with Brussels.

It’s no surprise that Europe’s crisis has boosted Britain’s anti-EU movement. Recent polls show that 70 percent of voters want a vote on Britain’s membership in the EU and that given the opportunity, 49 percent of voters would cast their ballot for Britain to leave Europe. The reason for the growing antipathy toward the EU is simple: People are concerned that Britain will be pressured to contribute more and more funds to rescuing the project. As the Daily Mailnoted yesterday, people are realizing that as the crisis unfolds Brussels will seek more power over member states, not less.

Even many Europhiles, those who believe Britain belongs in a united Europe—a group that includes Prime Minister David Cameron—recognize that Brussels’s influence needs to be curtailed and that London needs to repatriate some of its powers from the EU.

Meanwhile, a large contingent of Europe’s leaders want more integration, more government, more rules.

You don’t need a PhD to see where this is heading!

The fact that Britain and Europe are on a collision course was evident at a meeting of EU leaders last weekend. There Prime Minister Cameron warned that all 27 EU member states must play a role in solving Europe’s financial crises and determining Europe’s fate. That’s fair, right? As Bruno Waterfield wrote in the Telegraph, Cameron is concerned that the 17 eurozone states “will create a Franco-German-dominated ‘caucus’ that could hijack the EU’s single market for its own ends.”

Although it was a reasonable request, the British prime minister’s remark didn’t sit well with Europe, especially France’s president. “We’re sick of you criticizing us and telling us what to do,” Nicolas Sarkozy retorted. “You say you hate the euro, you didn’t want to join and now you want to interfere in our meetings.” Apparently Sarkozy and some of his European allies even attempted to squeeze Britain out of yesterday’s meeting of EU leaders in Brussels.

Perhaps it was undignified, but Mr. Sarkozy’s remark embodies the popular sentiment in Europe when it comes to European unification and Britain. From the moment it joined the EU in 1973, Britain has been a primary cause of the cumbersome, slow-moving nature of European integration.

The EU has put up with Britain as a millstone around its neck—till now. As the financial crises intensify, threatening the EU’s existence and highlighting the need forfurther integration, expect greater tension and animosity to develop in the Britain-EU relationship. In the months ahead, expect the EU, with Germany at the vanguard, to push for a stronger centralized government, which will require member states relinquishing more power to a federal European authority.

And as Europe forges ahead with its quest for more integration, expect it to collide with Britain!

Prior to his death in 1986, Herbert W. Armstrong spent 50 years using biblical prophecy to forecast world events. His keynote prophecy was that a colossal German-led religio-political superstate would emerge from Europe. “The stage is all set!” he wrote in 1956. “All that’s lacking now is the strong leader …. Germany is the economic and military heart of Europe. Probably Germany will lead and dominate the coming United States of Europe.”

Today the term “United States of Europe” is bandied about often in discussions about what’s currently happening in Europe. But notice, Mr. Armstrong was employing this term as early as 1956, and in reference to the very superstate now forming in Europe! Notice what else he said about this coming European powerhouse.

“Britain,” he explained, “will be no part of it!”

Like Mr. Armstrong, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has for more than two decades now delivered this same prophecy of the formation of a German-led United States of Europe—one that will not include Britain. For years the Trumpet has told its readers to expect Britain to either leave or be tossed out of Europe. This moment now looks imminent!

What will you do when it happens? Perhaps you’re like my friend, a casual reader of the Trumpet. What will it take for you to act on what you read here? For you to leave this column and click on the page where you can request Mystery of the Ages, or the Herbert W. Armstrong College Bible Correspondence Course? Or for you to check out, then watch regularly, our daily television program, The Trumpet Daily?

If you’ve been sitting on the fence, enjoying our message but not really digesting it, acting on it, living it, isn’t it time to act? As the Apostle James admonished, “be doers of the word, and not hearers only ….”