Many of the headlines from Europe these days focus on its economic problems and supposed imminent collapse as a unified entity.

Trumpet readers should keep such reports in the broader perspective.

Two major powers are prophesied in your Bible to be dominant in end-time world events. One is identified as the king of the south, the other as the king of the north (Daniel 11:40). The king of the north is prophesied to overwhelm the king of the south in a whirlwind military attack, thus leaving it—in the wake of the collapse of the Anglo-Saxon nations—the predominant power in the world (Daniel 12:4, 9).

No single Bible prophecy is identified as closely with Herbert Armstrong as that relating to the king of the north. He identified the geographic location of this power, its historic alliance with Rome, and its economic, political and military dominance of the globe for a future brief moment in time.

Herbert Armstrong’s 57-year ministry coincided directly with the progressive resurrection of the king of the north, which he correctly identified as the seventh and final resurrection of the old, ever rebounding Holy Roman Empire, under German-Vatican leadership.

This is really where tumultuous events in Europe are heading.

Long before certain pundits began reporting the facts of how Nazi elites went underground in the closing stages of World War ii to continue their efforts to revive an imperialist European power, Herbert Armstrong had exposed this phenomenon to the world via the power of radio and the printing press, through the World Tomorrow radio program and the Plain Truth magazine.

By the time of his death on January 16, 1986, Herbert Armstrong had strongly identified a politically resurgent Vatican as working in tandem with European elites to resurrect the Holy Roman Empire, most especially during the pontificate of the Polish Pope John Paul ii.

Perhaps the most significant proof of the divine inspiration of Herbert Armstrong’s prophecies was that relating to the reunification of Germany.

From the time of the division of Germany into east and west at the commencement of the Cold War, and contrary to all news commentary at the time, Herbert Armstrong prophesied of the coming reunification of Germany and its subsequent revival as a world power.

He did not live to see that event of German unification occur in 1990-91. But occur it did, commencing on November 9, 1989, with the fall of the Berlin Wall and consummating the following year with Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s announcement of the political union of East and West Germany.

It took another 20 years for Germany to emerge as a true global power, but emerge it has.

Ever since Germany’s unification, the nation’s elites have stepped up their efforts to revive that old Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation to the point of Germany today being the most dominant political and economic power in Europe. Not only this, the whole world now dances to Germany’s tune in dealing with the ongoing financial crisis. The fate of whole nations now is vested in the hands of Germany—witness Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Spain et al.

There could be no more powerful endorsement of Herbert Armstrong’s uniqueness in declaring these events so far in advance of their coming to fruition.

The great distraction to commentators on the European scene at the moment is the publicity being given to a prospective break-up of the European Union, concomitant with a possible fracturing of the eurozone.

In reality, the restructuring of the EU was always going to happen.

Bible prophecy confirms that the final makeup of the prophesied northern power will comprise 10 kings, or power blocs, each yielding up their power, in turn, to the overarching leadership of the king of the north (Revelation 17:12-14).

With great prescience, Herbert Armstrong mused of the Polish nation at the time of John Paul’s pontificate, “Right now the situation is tense in Poland. … They might, under the Polish pope, start the long-prophesied revival of the medieval ‘Holy Roman Empire.’ For some time now I have foreseen the possibility of this revived ‘Beast’ power being almost half from Russian satellite nations, such as Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary—instead of the Israelitish northern European nations such as Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium. They were not in the old Roman Empire—but these Balkan nations were!” (April 3, 1981).

Those same Balkan nation’s now are either member nations of the EU, or, concerning the remaining rump of former Yugoslav nations, significantly brought under its jurisdiction.

Now we watch for the fulfillment of the Bible prophecy that predicts the Israelitish nations will, as in World War ii, fall into the enslaving maw of the rising beast (Ezekiel 6:1-10).

Under the cloak of false publicity maintaining that the EU is falling apart, EU elites are frantically busy cobbling together their final blueprint for the 10-power EU combine under the rule of Berlin and Rome.

Here’s what to watch for over the next 12 months or so. These predictions have been deduced from deep analysis of sources to which we have access:

The year ahead will be a year of real change in the EU. Your Bible prophesies that those changes are going to have drastic effect on the global economy and on the whole global balance of power.

Because of the drastic effect this whole scenario is going to ultimately have on you and your loved ones, you do need to keep in touch with these developments as they unfold. Your awareness of these realities may lead you to make some drastic changes of your own, to ensure the future safety and protection of you and your family. In fact, Almighty God who inspired these prophecies declares that He will provide a place of safety for those obedient to Him in the trying times ahead.

Read our booklet The Rising Beast for deeper insight into this phenomenon of rapidly fulfilling prophecy in Europe. It will point you to the time of great hope in a coming world of unsurpassable peace that will follow this rapidly emerging global disaster.