Spain’s King Juan Carlos Reunited With Herbert W. Armstrong
“The whole world is going to be rocked with the astounding announcement of a new super world government in Europe! Perhaps even more powerful, perhaps even greater than either the Soviet Union or United States, and it will trigger the feared, awesome, nuclear World War iii. And the prophecies of your Bible say definitely it is coming,” declared Herbert W. Armstrong to a 1982 worldwide television audience during an episode of The World Tomorrow.
The program aired after Mr. Armstrong’s return to Pasadena following personal meetings with dignitaries in South Africa, Kenya, Greece, Switzerland and Madrid, Spain. In the lead-up to the Madrid trip, his discussions in Athens with high officials in Europe resulted in him being told “the peace of the world depends on the unification of Europe.”
After departing Athens during that whirlwind trip, Mr. Armstrong flew on to Geneva, then to Madrid, arriving late on Wednesday, November 17. In Spain, as was the case with other countries he visited, government, customs, immigration and airport officials provided him and his small entourage with key courtesies ensuring their entrance and exit was as smooth as possible.
Thursday morning, Mr. Armstrong caught up on writing for the monthly newsmagazine of which he was editor in chief, the Plain Truth. At that time, the Plain Truth boasted 5½ million subscribers worldwide. In the afternoon he took a drive into the mountains high above the capital. “There they visited the Valle de los Caídos (Valley of the Fallen), an area dedicated to those who lost their lives fighting on both sides in the 1936 to 1939 Spanish civil war” (Worldwide News, Dec. 13, 1982).
The following day, Mr. Armstrong was chauffeured to the Palace of Zarzuela, the 17th-century royal hunting lodge and, at the time, the residence of the king. The drive into the estate wound through approximately four miles of a beautiful wildlife preserve featuring elk, deer and various game birds.
King Juan Carlos is Italian born, Swiss educated and son of Juan de Borbon y Battenberg, count of Barcelona, head of the Spanish royal household. He married the daughter of King Paul of Greece, Sophia, princess of Greece and Denmark. The couple wed in Athens on May 14, 1962, and have since raised three children and been graced with eight grandchildren.
Upon arrival, Mr. Armstrong was greeted by El Conde de Monteferte, the king’s chief protocol officer. His meeting with Juan Carlos was warm and friendly. “The king remembered his last meeting with Mr. Armstrong in 1974, when the king was the crown prince” (ibid). The respected “ambassador for world peace without portfolio” noted that the son of the count of Barcelona was “well suited for his duties as the monarch of Spain. Their discussion ranged from mutual friends to the king’s view of a united Europe. Mr. Armstrong found the discussion helpful and enlightening” (ibid).
Mr. Armstrong later told his worldwide viewers: “… I had a very fine personal meeting with the king of Spain, Juan Carlos. I had met him before, about eight years before, and he was glad to see me again.” The earlier meeting occurred when Juan Carlos was prince, prior to his ascendancy to the throne on Nov. 27, 1975, soon after the death of military dictator General Franco.
On that same World Tomorrow program, Mr. Armstrong recounted the visit with the king, noting, “I can just tell you that he is personally very interested in seeing this United States of Europe get together and emerge.” He declared, “Now I forecasted this resurrection of the medieval Holy Roman Empire, or a United States of Europe, up to almost 50 years ago.”
He went on to review the prior resurrections of this Babylonian power from Justinian’s revival of the Holy Roman Empire through to its fifth resurrection under Napoleon and up to the sixth under Mussolini and Hitler. “And ever since, the nations of Europe have been wanting to unite, and I’ve been foretelling it—the Bible foretells it. Just as I did foretell World War ii, now I am foretelling World War iii. People scoffed back then—it happened! Some people may be scoffing today—it will happen, and you can bet your life on that, because you are betting your life on it!”
Thirty years have passed since that declaration of prophetic reality by Herbert Armstrong following his second meeting with King Juan Carlos. TheTrumpet.com readers are patently aware of current world events in concert with Bible prophecy. Today, Spain is sinking in debt and appears to be a nation run aground economically. As it seemingly floats listlessly on an ocean of debt, the country is undergoing a fiscal and sovereign scuttling in captivity to a Berlin-captained Euro fleet. As it was preceding World Wars i and ii, Germany is domineering over Europe, fashioning it into its own design, guided spiritually by the continental religion of Rome. Europe has united, only to soon fracture into 10 regions, all yielding their power to Rome and Berlin (Revelation 17), just as Mr. Armstrong prophesied. He was right!
The inspiration and the incredible impact of the World Tomorrow radio and television program died at the same time as Mr. Armstrong, on Jan. 16, 1986. But its successor, the Key of David television program, began its first broadcast on Jan. 16, 1993, with editor in chief Gerald Flurry as presenter. Today, the program broadcasts worldwide over the air, on cable, via satellite and to an ever increasing global audience moving away from these traditional media to online streaming. Concluding his recent program titled, “The Way of Peace Momentarily Restored,” Gerald Flurry asked, “When are we going to have peace?” Answering with the declaration, “Well, it’s about to come!”
“God is going to put down all those people who rebel against peace, and He’s going to bring peace to this Earth, and Jesus Christ is going to rule this world and bring it peace that it’s never, ever had before. We need peace, and we need it now!”
