Up till last week, one power had demonstrated its ability to trump all in Europe—Germany’s Constitutional Court.

Last week, all that changed—powerfully!

One of Europe’s newest institutions, and certainly one of its newest technocrats, proved their power to trump the Karlsruhe-based German Constitutional Court. The European Central Bank (ecb), under its president Mario Draghi, spiked the guns of that once proud institution.

By publicizing his decision to buy the government bonds of ailing eurozone countries in advance of the German court’s ruling on the legality of the European Security Mechanism, Draghi successfully and most triumphantly ensured the ecb’s assumption of the position of Europe’s most powerful institution.

Then, when challenged by Germany’s gainsayers, he promptly faced them down by offering to instruct the German Bundestag in the finer points of his plan: “The head of the European Central Bank (ecb), Mario Draghi, threw down the gauntlet to German critics of his plan to buy the government bonds of ailing eurozone countries yesterday by suggesting they should invite him to justify his decision in person before M.P.s in the Berlin parliament” (Independent, September 15).

This is historic. It’s a game changer. It’s a sea change of tremendous proportions when one fully grasps the prophetic significance—and the timing of this action! In fact, it is one of the clearest and earliest indicators of the imminence of the final consummation of that which we have come to comfortably call the European Union into its final state as the seventh resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire.

To understand what is at stake here, one must comprehend that Mario Draghi’s political allegiance is not to Berlin; it is to Rome!

Draghi is a true European imperialist, a Jesuit-educated son of Rome. That ensures his prime allegiance is to the pope! As such, his decisions will bear in mind the continuing evolution of the European Union into its Holy Roman future. Germany is important, vitally important to this cause. He knows that. But Draghi also knows that he has the backing of a quiet diplomatic process of 2,000 years’ standing, based in Rome, that, though it looks like a lamb, when push comes to shove, speaks like a dragon to enforce its will.

Note what Herbert Armstrong declared about the ultimate power of that political union of Rome and Berlin as expressed in what Bible prophecy calls its “mark” (Who or What Is the Prophetic Beast?):

“And he [the second ‘beast’] causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Revelation 13:16-17) ….First, from the text universally quoted (Revelation 13:16-17), notice this: The “mark” is something that will be very popular—something the majority of people will be in favor of, will seek—which custom will approve as right—because no man will be allowed to “buy or sell,” unless he receives this “mark.”Everyone wants to be able to “buy or sell.” In this scriptural usage the expression “buy or sell” more literally indicates being able to buy—not that stores or those from whom one might make purchases of the necessities of life would refuse to accept the money, but that the one refusing the “mark” would not be able to buy, would not be able to earn a living, to earn a wage or salary, or to engage himself in business.The “mark of the beast,” then, has direct bearing on ability to engage in business, or to hold a job and earn a living.

Till very recently, to those without a full understanding of this prophecy, it may have been easy to conjecture that such a mark could only be imposed by the most dominant nation in Europe—Germany. But that would belie the reality of biblical prophecy. Read carefully what God revealed to Herbert Armstrong on this matter (ibid):

But let’s look at all the facts God reveals on the subject—all the scriptures bearing on it. …Note this well! The “mark” is the mark of the beast—and the “beast” is the Roman Empire. In Revelation 17 a later stage of this same wild beast is pictured, and there a “woman”—a great church—sits astride it, guides it, rules over it. But the mark is the mark of the Roman Empire—not the Roman Catholic Church.That is fact number one. Keep that in mind.Now in verse 11 (Revelation 13) another “beast” is pictured. This beast had two horns like a lamb, but spoke as a dragon.The Bible plainly reveals this second “beast” to be the Roman Catholic Church. This church is an ecclesiastical world empire—a government. (See article “Papacy,” Encyclopedia Britannica.)This second beast of Revelation 13 is also pictured in Revelation 17 as the harlot woman who rode the beast. This fallen woman or church is different from all other churches in one respect. She is organized at the Vatican as a civil government, as well as an ecclesiastical church. Nations of the world send ambassadors to the Vatican, at Rome, the same as they do the capitals of other nations.

Now here is the crux of the matter. Recent events reveal that those educated, led and inspired by the spirit of Rome have started to exert influence on the German-dominated European Union. Keep in mind Herbert Armstrong wrote this over 60 years ago. Today it is beginning to fast become a reality (ibid; emphasis added throughout):

Notice carefully what the above text tells us:1) “He”—the Catholic Church that formed the papacy and originated human civil government modeled after that of the Roman Empire.2) “Causeth” all to receive this mark. It is the church, not the civil government, which forces this brand on people.3) It is the same power which caused the martyrdom of saints.4) It brands on the people the mark of the “beast”—that is, the mark of the Roman Empire, not the mark of the church.5) This mark is received in the right hand, and in the forehead.So the mark is that of the Roman Empire, which the Roman CHURCH did cause or shall cause the Western world to receive.”

Now, consider this. Up to very recently, the institution with the most clout in the EU was patently, and very obviously, the German Constitutional Court. But that changed dramatically last week when the court meekly rolled over like Rover and yielded to the will of that son of Rome, the world’s most powerful central banker, ecb chief Mario Draghi.

As the German news source Suddeutche Zeitung observed (September 12),

The Karlsruhe ruling does not take Europe any further, nor Germany, nor democracy. This judgment avoids, in short, the most important questions. It wants to be a landmark ruling, but fears the fundamentals. It is, as usual with the Federal Constitutional Court when it comes to Europe, a “yes, but” judgment. The “yes” of this judgment this time, though, is as weak as the “but.” The judges seek to put a lid on the German liability of €190 billion, yet they know that this will be very hard to stick to. It will be hard to stick to because the Karlsruhe lid does not fit the European Central Bank.

That is tantamount to admitting that the German Constitutional Court was trumped by Draghi.

This is the new reality in Europe.

And it all has to do with what Herbert Armstrong wrote over 60 years ago, strongly endorsed by that which our editor in chief has written more recently. It has to do with an economic system that is very selective with whom it trades—globally! A system that is inspired by a great spiritual institution!

In the November/December 2005 edition of our magazine Royal Vision, Gerald Flurry wrote, “We need to watch the great whore for signs of her riding the beast.”

Since November last year, when in short order three Jesuit sons of Rome suddenly gained high profile in the EU—Mario Draghi, head of the ecb, Mario Monti, Italian prime minister, and Herman van Rompuy, head of the European Council—the signs of the great whore riding the rising beast power in Europe have become more obvious.

Most recently, within the space of just one week, Draghi spiked the German Constitutional Court’s guns, José Manuel Barroso gave an impassioned plea for European federalization—read Holy Roman imperialism—and Mario Monti together with Van Rompuy called for a new EU summit to lay the groundwork for a fresh imperial vision of the EU.

Note that not one of the above is German. All are declared practicing Roman Catholics. Three are educated in the Holy Roman vision of the storm troopers of Rome, the Jesuits. These are the menservants of the woman who is now more overtly revealing herself as truly riding the prophesied beast power.

As Gerald Flurry declared fully seven years ago, “And, knowing that the woman will be riding the beast, I’m certain the Vatican will make it happen” (ibid).

As to the instrumentality that may be used to impose the mark of the beast, perhaps we need to be mindful of Mario Monti’s view of Pope Benedict’s powerful 2009 encyclical, “Caritas in Veritate.” Of that document, Monti, effusive in his endorsement of the pope’s encyclical, claimed it was a virtual textbook for the operation of a global economy and universal society.

La Stampa reported that as he presented Benedict xvi’s social encyclical in Saint John Lateran on Feb. 23, 2010, Monti declared that “The ‘Caritas in Veritate’ document resembles a technical governing handbook for society in which economy plays a fundamental role, as a natural outcome of ethical reflection, and even has the agreement of those who do not share in the Catholic ethical vision” (Nov. 14, 2011).

Monti used that occasion also to publicly declare himself “to be Catholic.” Mario Monti is a member of the EU splinter organization called “The Spinelli Group.” That group is committed to establishing an imperial Europe based on the Catholic social chapter that underpins the pope’s “governing handbook for society.” Endorsement of that Roman imperialist vision marks Monti out as one of those in tune with the European elites who are carving up Europe into a continent where the many will become the vassals of the few.

Today, German politics are in complete disarray. Angela Merkel survives politically simply because at present there is no strong alternative leader in the spotlight. But as Gerald Flurry declared in the same article quoted above, “I think the Vatican is going to be working behind the scenes. They may have a pope to help them do it who really knows the German system and begins to get the leader in there that can really swing things around, a good strong Catholic …. I think that the Vatican is going to help to bring that man … on the scene, and that’s when you’re going to really see the fireworks.”

Well, the German federal elections are due to take place in November 2013. Is the Vatican already beavering away behind the scenes, cultivating a prospective leader to burst onto the scene in timely fashion?

If you are truly reading the signs of the scarlet woman mounting the beast, you will know the answer to that question!

The signs are there for the enlightened to see. As our editor in chief has declared, “We need to watch the great whore for signs of her riding the beast.”

Over the past year, the Trumpet has striven to highlight those increasing signs as signifying, in turn, the closeness of the greatest sign of all—the sign of the imminent return of the Savior of mankind to overturn all other governments and install, in their place, the most righteous government of all—the government of Almighty God!

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be on his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this” (Isaiah 9:6-7).