In line with Stephen Flurry’s admonition to watch certain developing current world events in the Northern Hemisphere, I’d like to point to the importance of two regions and two unique personalities that bear especially close watching in 2012.

The two regions that will remain in headline news more than any others in 2012 are the Middle East and Europe. International relations between certain nations within these two largely opposed regions will rise to fever pitch.

Already the increasing foreign-policy push of Iran and its allies against the European Union is meeting with a rapidly hardening stand by Germany and other key EU nations. Witness the current level of heightened EU sanctions against Iran.

This is creating a divide in the Middle East, with certain key Gulf states increasingly aligning with Germany in particular, to Germany’s foreign-policy advantage.

Within this mix of dangerously volatile events, two high-profile personalities stand to gain in influence during 2012 to the point of exercising the power to profoundly affect relationships between Europe and the Middle East.

The first is the aging, yet sharp-minded and smooth talking Pope Benedict xvi. This year will see the world spotlight focused with greater intensity on this pope as he engages in one of the busiest periods of his papacy to date.

Benedict has scheduled a synod of bishops for February, concentrating on his crusading effort of the “new evangelization” of Europe. This will enhance the initiative commenced by his predecessor, John Paul ii, who called for Europe to return to its Roman Catholic roots after the fall of the ussr.

Many ex-Soviet states of Eastern Europe are now embedded in the political economy of the European Union. Benedict is ramping up Rome’s efforts to draw its largely Roman Catholic and, to a lesser extent, Eastern Orthodox constituents back under the Vatican’s spiritual influence. EU elites know that this is the only binding force that will glue Europe’s fractious mix of iron and clay together to fulfill their imperial vision.

The pope will also use the February synod to reinforce his bevy of cardinals by the appointment of at least a dozen new cardinals from the right-wing conservative enclave of the priesthood. This will strengthen his army of red hats for the coming year-long crusade, commencing October 2012, Benedict’s declared “Year of Faith.”

The pope has planned visits in the spring of 2012 to Cuba and Mexico. He seeks to consolidate the Roman Catholic links between Europe and the Latin American region, which contains the largest concentration of adherents to the Roman Catholic faith.

Mexico was the first overseas nation Pope John Paul ii visited. In 1996, Mexico became the first Latin American nation to enter a free-trade agreement with the EU. As strategic back doors to the United States, both Mexico and Cuba are vital strategic elements in the hegemonic vision of EU elites. Pope Benedict’s back-to-back visits to these two Latin American nations in 2012 must be viewed geopolitically to grasp their true significance.

It is obvious to these elites that the U.S. is in steep decline as an influential world power, deeply corrupted throughout its political and business establishment, its population becoming increasingly demoralized and morally bankrupt. That Latin America is tied culturally, linguistically and religiously to Europe makes it the ideal platform from which the future 10-nation combine can springboard into the U.S. This it will do in the near future, when the time is ripe: when America is at its weakest point, its national infrastructure collapsing into rampant decay.

Pope Benedict’s 2012 visits to Mexico and Cuba will shore up Rome’s connections with these two strategic Latin American gateways to North America.

Another feature of 2012 will be the declaration of a number of “saints,” timed to be a highlight in the approach to the “Year of Faith.”

The Vatican is notoriously patient when pursuing that which it regards as its natural role: global hegemony. We well remember the story published in Time magazine during the initiatives of Pope John Paul ii, in consortium with the Reagan and Thatcher administrations, supporting the Polish labor movement Solidarity in order to drive a wedge under the ussr Iron Curtain. At that time a senior cia official questioned a senior Vatican official, “How come your intelligence was always ahead of ours?” The Jesuit responded, “Ah! But we have had 2,000 years practice at this!”

Well, had the Vatican representative understood the true origins of Catholicity, he would have added another 2,000 years to that equation, noting that popish intelligence efforts date back to ancient Babylon (Genesis 10:8-10; 11:1-11; Revelation 17:1-6).

The back of the Communist ussr—the Vatican’s chief enemy of the Cold War years—was successfully broken with the fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989. The next foreign-policy initiative of the Vatican State was to join in consortium with its traditional protector, Germany, in initiating the Balkan wars of the 1990s (see our booklet Germany’s Conquest of the Balkans).

The resultant colonization of the Balkan Peninsula was finally completed with the 2011 takeover of the economy and the government of Greece under the direction of Berlin. The way is now clear for the Vatican to mount its 21st-century crusade to draw back its wandering European membership in key northern European states and hasten the return of its Eastern Orthodox daughters from ex-Soviet states to mother Rome.

Hence Pope Benedict’s current preparations for the highlight of the papal year 2012: the launching of his great European crusading initiative through his declared “Year of Faith” commencing October 2012. This initiative is designed to renew the evangelizing missionary zeal of the church globally.

Under this initiative, this year of aggressive “new evangelization” will activate the only means of creating a singular politico-economic-military mindset between the final combine of 10 leading European nations soon to yield their combined power to the diktat of one overarching political leader (Revelation 17:12-13). That single means is the binding force of the religion of Rome!

Contemporaneous with the strengthening of Pope Benedict’s role in European and Latin American affairs in 2012 will be the return to politics of a personality we have been watching for the past few years, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, baron of the Holy Roman Empire.

In recent days the German media have reported that Horst Seehoffer, president of the Christian Social Union—the political party to which Guttenberg belongs—intends to invite the baron back to active party involvement to shore up the csu’s waning support in preparation for Germany’s federal elections in 2013.

The sense of urgency to invite Guttenberg back is intriguing. Just a few weeks ago, after Guttenberg made some negative observations on today’s political leadership in Germany—not the least his own party—Seehoffer and other politicians suggested he might not be considered as a political prospect until 2013 or 2014 at the earliest. Now, though, they are talking about having him back within weeks, even suggesting the prospect of a ministerial post for him.

What has happened since then to create the urgency for Guttenberg’s recall to German politics?

Well, perhaps Guttenberg’s suggesting that he may be interested in creating a new political party in Germany has spurred this recent invitation by csu leadership for his early return. The last thing Seehoffer and the csu want with an election looming next year is to see a mass exodus of pro-Guttenberg party members to any new populist political party that he may create, drawing the masses after his charismatic personality in a time of great division in German politics!

Guttenberg is a personality worth watching closely in 2012.

Yet, regardless of the particular personalities that will be involved at the time, the two regions of the Middle East and Europe are heading for a mighty clash in the near future. Believe it or not, the outcome of that clash is already preordained.

It will eventually focus all attention on one ancient city: Jerusalem!

You can check out the details in advance of the event by studying our booklet Daniel Unlocks Revelation.

In a nutshell, Iran’s taunting of the West—the German-led EU in particular—will soon test Germany’s patience to the limits. At that point, the German-led military forces of the 10-nation EU combine will wage blitzkrieg warfare and blow Iran’s nuclear-empowered aggression off the map. It will be a literal whirlwind of a war! (Daniel 11:40). Germany will then fill the power vacuum created by Iran’s demise, supported by its Arabian allies as depicted in the Psalm 83 alliance.

2012 will see the configuration of the 10-nation EU combine further cement together in the wake of the new EU treaty slated for ratification in March, the force of Roman Catholicism binding them together, and the alliance between Arab states and the EU come dramatically into focus.

As to the outcome of the clash of these two regional powers, designated the king of the north and the king of the south in Bible prophecy, tune in to the Key of David television program and read our literature on the subject to not only stay abreast of the true import of current events, but to see in startling detail their future outcome predicted with unerring accuracy! No other source on the planet has reported on these events with such stunning accuracy. You ought to seek out the reason why!

A good place to start would be to request our newly updated booklet He Was Right.