Daniel’s well known interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s prophetic dream of the image of a man with a head of gold, a chest of silver, belly and thighs of bronze and legs and feet of iron mixed with clay gives some insight into the future events prophesied to take place in Europe (see Daniel chapter 2).
The image was a vision of world history from Daniel’s time to the modern world, and into the immediate future. The head of gold, represented the kingdom of Babylon and the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar. It symbolised Satan’s human system of government which counters the plan and purpose of God.
Daniel then goes on to describe the other kingdoms to come after Babylon. From history we know that these next three kingdoms were the Persian Empire, the Greek Empire of Alexander the Great and his successors, and the Roman Empire, which is represented by the legs and ten toes of iron and clay. We are told this part of the image represents an unstable mixture of people and nations which will still be in existence at the end time, just before the return of Jesus Christ.
The ten toes correspond to a group of ten rulers, a superpower union, described in slightly different terms in the book of Revelation. “And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength to the beast. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them…” (Revelation 17:12-14).
The ten kings appear in the context of a great end time system called: “Mystery, Babylon the Great….” She is described as “that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth” (verse 18). This description applies to a unified Europe. There is no other region that fits the conditions Bible prophecy describes. (See the article Winds Of Change In Europe by Paul Kieffer in the May-June issue of the Beyond Today magazine.) Prophecy indicates just before Christ returns Europe, a modern day type of Babylon, will be a major power in world events, linked with a world-wide religious system.
In Revelation 17, we are told that John “marveled with great amazement” at the vision he had seen of the woman and the beast. An angel then explained to John that “the beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit…”(Revelation 17:8). The fact that this beast, symbolic of an empire that “was, and is not, and yet is” tells us that the Roman Empire, which does not exist at this time as such, will be restored again in the near future.
In 1957 six Western European nations—West Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium—came together to create the European Economic Community through the Treaty of Rome, which developed into the European Union and is now the world’s greatest economic power. Paul Henri Spaak, former secretary-general of NATO, later remarked on that signing in a BBC documentary: “We felt like Romans on that day…we were consciously recreating the Roman Empire once more.”
Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine in 2022 was a rude awakening for Europe, revealing its military weakness and dependence on the United States and the NATO alliance for its defence. French President Emmanuel Macron was the first to emphasize the need for a European military structure independent of the United States, with the United States also recently supporting a planned increase in their defence spending. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius publicly stated Germany’s army, the Bundeswehr, must prepare to wage war by 2030. In his first major policy speech to the Bundestag, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pledged Germany’s military would become the “strongest conventional army in Europe,” with a planned increase to troop levels from the current 182,000 active-duty soldiers to as many as 240,000 by 2031.
The current moves to expand and solidify the European Union appear to be setting the stage for the emergence of the end-time power Daniel prophesied. Revelation 17:14 clearly states the time setting for this prophecy: “These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them…” The Lamb is Jesus Christ who will return to this earth and conquer this end-time superpower (Revelation 19:11-21). This hope is so fundamental that Jesus instructed Christians to regularly pray, “Your kingdom come” (Matthew 6:10; Luke 11:2).
