Civil Unrest in Europe
World Currencies Including the Euro Can Have Problems
The following news items were of prophetic interest:
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – EU member states are “intensively” monitoring the risk of spreading civil unrest in Europe, as riots over the economic crisis erupt in Iceland following street clashes in Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Greece.
The worst street disturbances for 50 years struck Reykjavik on Thursday (22 January), as police streamed a hardcore of a few hundred anti-government protesters in the early morning with pepper spray and then tear gas after an earlier crowd of around 2,000 gathered outside the Althingi, the country’s parliament, to demand the government resign.
The crowds surrounded the building while banging pots and pans and shooting off fireworks. The demonstrators also lobbed paving stones, rolls of toilet paper and shoes.
It was the second day of protests after on Wednesday protesters jostled Minister Geir Haarde’s limousine, pummelling it with cans of soft drinks and eggs.
The regular demonstrations have strained the government coalition, with the ruling Independence Party on Thursday saying it “realises that there will be elections this year.”
Iceland is not an EU member, but the protests could result in it being the first European country to see its government brought down by the economic crisis.
“It’s a democracy that has its problems like many other states as a result of the economic crisis,” European Commission external relations spokeswoman Christiane Hohmann said.
The events in Iceland come hot on the heels of anti-government clashes in Latvia, Lithuania and Bulgaria in recent days, where economic discontent mixed with local issues erupted in violence.
Trade unions in Greece meanwhile warn that further strikes are still likely, after protracted street fighting by students and young workers in December that caused billions in damage.
Concern about the spreading unrest is high on the EU agenda, as governments find it increasingly more expensive to borrow money, putting pressure on social programmes.
“There are concerns. The EU shares them. It is one of the major challenges for the Spring European Council,” said a senior EU official, referring to the quarterly gathering of EU leaders.
EU ambassadors in Brussels are discussing the issue and receiving “regular updates”, according to another official, although he added that more intelligence on the situation is needed to see whether the riots are “part of a social trend” or manipulation by opposition elements.
Lithuania’s interior minister visited Latvia to discuss public security problems related to the economic crisis even before the Vilnius and Riga riots last week.
Lithuania is currently collecting “all available information about similar events in other member states” and sharing it with “concerned” countries Estonia, France, Germany and Latvia, a Lithuanian diplomat told the EUobserver.
“Intensive share of information” is also taking place between the Baltic states and Poland, he added.
Following the ructions in Vilnius, 11 further peaceful demonstrations were organised around the country by trade-unions.
“Due to the declining economic [situation] and problems raised by it, a possibility of similar meetings still remains, but we hope that riots will not be repeated,” he said.
More to come
In a Wednesday interview with the BBC, the head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, predicted that the economic downturn will cause more unrest.
“[It could happen] almost everywhere, in Europe certainly, and also in emerging countries,” he said. “You’ve had some strikes that look like normal, usual strikes, but it may worsen in the coming months.”
Asked which countries were most at risk, Mr Strauss-Kahn mentioned Hungary, Ukraine, Latvia and Belarus. “It can be my own country [France], the UK, it can be eastern Europe,” he said.
“The situation is really, really serious,” he added.http://euobserver.com/9/27460
Athens erupts in violence after acid attack on immigrant
Police in Greece clashed with gangs of youths throwing petrol bombs and stones on Thursday night, a month on from the country’s worst civil unrest in decades.
Telegraph, London – Jan 23, 2009
Police officers in central Athens fired tear gas to dispel the rioters, who peeled off from a protest which had been organised in solidarity with a Bulgarian migrant worker who was attacked with acid last month.
Kostadinka Kuneva, 44, a Bulgarian cleaning lady and a union official, is in hospital in a serious condition after the Dec 22 attack by two unidentified men who ambushed her outside her home and threw acid in her face.
The march to the Labour Ministry, which involved about 3,000 demonstrators, had started out peacefully…
Meanwhile thousands of farmers blocked border crossings and main roads on Friday in a fifth day of protests to demand compensation for a drop in agricultural prices.
Farmers used tractors to shut border crossings into Bulgaria, Macedonia and Turkey, a day after rejecting a 500-million-euro package from the government. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/greece/4324250/Athens-erupts-in-violence-after-acid-attack-on-immigrant.html
Why is this potentially prophetic?
The Bible teaches that a military leader will rise up in Europe (Revelation 13:4).
Catholic prophecies foretell that just prior to the emergence of their “Great Monarch” (also called the Great King below) problems will begin to afflict Catholics in Europe, essentially because the Catholics there tend to be lax.
Several Catholic writers have referred to this as the “minor chastisement”. Notice the writings of one of them:
At some time in the future, the corrupt faithless age we live in now will come to an end either through repentance (immediately followed by an age of peace)–or there will be a chastisement. This would be a Minor Chastisement preceding an Age of Peace. It is not the Tribulation of the Antichrist…
Civil war breaks out in France and Italy at almost the same time. This is the sign given by many prophets that the Chastisement has begun…
This will spread to general wars, and, famine and pestilence (the usual by-products of war)…
Some Moslems will cause great trouble for the Church and Europe in general…
The Great King will lead his forces to…victory…
The Great King will be crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the reigning Pope.
(Birch, DA. Trial, Tribulation & Triumph: Before During and After Antichrist. Queenship Publishing Company, Goleta (CA), 1996, pp. 553-555)
Furthermore, this chastisement, to a degree, seems to be forecasted by some Catholic writers to begin in France.
Notice the following Catholic private prophecy:
Jeanne le Royer (Sister of the Nativity). The storm began in France, and France shall be the first theatre of its ravages after having been its cradle. (Dupont Yves. Catholic Prophecy: The Coming Chastisement. TAN Books, Rockford (IL), 1973, p.59)
The fact that there were riots in Paris in 2005, might eventually be pointed to as “the first theatre of its ravages”. (For some other possibly related Catholic prophecies that involve France or simply Paris itself, see the news item Taliban Threatens France.)
Here are some other Catholic prophecies that seem to touch on civil unrest throughout Europe and a new leader rising up in Europe:
Birch Tree Prophecy (Old German) “When the world becomes Godless: revolutions will break out against kings; fathers will be against sons and sons against fathers; dogma will be perverted; men will try to overthrow the Catholic Church…A terrible war will find the north fighting against the south. The south will be led by a Prince wearing a white coat with a cross on the front…” (Culleton, R. Gerald. The Prophets and Our Times. Nihil Obstat: L. Arvin. Imprimatur: Philip G. Scher, Bishop of Monterey-Fresno, November 15, 1941. Reprint 1974, TAN Books, Rockford (IL), p. 143).
Monk Hilarion (d. 1476): The people of the Peninsula of Europe will suffer by unnecessary wars until the Holy Man comes (Culleton, p. 137).
Venerable Bartholomew Holzhauser (Born in the 17th century, in Germany). “The fifth period of the Church, which began circa 1520, will end with the arrival of the Holy Pope and of the powerful Monarch who is called “Help From God” because he will restore everything [in Christ]…The fifth period is one of affliction, humiliation, and poverty for the Church. Jesus Christ will purify His people…He will also afflict and weaken the Latin Church with many heresies (Dupont, Yves. Catholic Prophecy: The Coming Chastisement. TAN Books, Rockford (IL), 1973, p.38)
Werdin d’ Otrante (13th century): “The Great Monarch and the Great Pope will precede Antichrist…All the sects will vanish. The capital of the world will fall…The Great Monarch will come and restore peace and the Pope will share in the victory.” (Connor, Edward. Prophecy for Today. Imprimatur + A.J. Willinger, Bishop of Monterey-Fresno; Reprint: Tan Books and Publishers, Rockford (IL), 1984, p. 33)
Brother Louis Rocco (19th century): “Terrible wars will rage all over Europe. God has long been patient with the corruption of morals; half of mankind He will destroy. Russia will witness many outrages. Great cities and small towns alike will be destroyed in a bloody revolution that will cause the death of half the population. In Istanbul (Constantinople) the Cross will replace the half-moon of Islamism, and Jerusalem will be the seat of a King. The southern Slavs will form a great Catholic Empire and drive out of Europe the Turks (Mohammedans), who will withdraw to North Africa and subsequently embrace the Catholic faith.” (Dupont, p.76)
Brother Louis Rocco (19th century): All over Europe there will rage terrible civil wars…The German sections of Austria will join Germany, so will also the commercial cities of Belgium and Switzerland. A Catholic descendant of a German imperial house will rule a united Germany with peace, prosperity and great power, for God will be with this sovereign (the Great Monarch?) (Culleton, p. 195).
John of the Cleft Rock (1340): The White Eagle (Great Monarch), by order of the Archangel Michael, will drive crescent from Europe where none but Christians will remain–he himself will rule from Constantinople. An era of peace and prosperity will begin for the world. There will no longer be Protestants {there were no “Protestants” then and author Connor of that book suggests that perhaps this word should have been translated as heretics} or schismatics…God will raise up a holy Pope (Connor, pp. 33-34)
Venerable Bartholomew Holzhauser (died 1658):…”Are we not to fear, during this period, that the Mohammedans will come again, working out their sinister schemes against the Latin Church? (Dupont, p.39).
“When everything has been ruined by war; when Catholics are hard pressed by traitorous co-religionists and heretics; when the Church and her servants are denied their rights, the monarchies have been abolished and their rulers murdered…then the hand of Almighty God will work a marvelous change, something apparently impossible according to human understanding. There will rise a valiant monarch anointed by God. He will be a Catholic, a descendant of Louis IX, (yet) a descendant of an ancient imperial German family, born in exile. He will rule supreme in temporal matters. The Pope will rule supreme in spiritual matters at the same time. Persecution will cease and justice shall reign. Religion seems to be oppressed, but by the changes of entire kingdoms it will be made more firm.
“He will root out false doctrines and destroy the rule of the Moslemism. His dominion will extend from the East to the West. All nations will adore God their Lord according to Catholic teaching. There will be many wise and just men. The people will love justice, and peace will reign over the whole earth, for divine power will bind Satan for many years until the coming of the Son of Perdition.
“The reign of the Great Ruler may be compared with that of Caesar Augustus, who became Emperor after his victory over his enemies, thereby giving peace to the world–also with the reign of Emperor Constantine the Great, who was sent by God, after severe persecutions, to deliver both the Church and State. By his victories on water and land he brought the Roman empire under subjection, which he then ruled in peace…
“The Great Monarch will have the special help of God and be unconquerable.
“The Fifth Epoch of time dates from the reign of Charles V until the reign of the Great Monarch.
“The Sixth Epoch from the Great Monarch until Antichrist. This Sixth Epoch of the Church–‘the time of consolation’–begins with the Holy Pope and the Powerful Emperor, and terminates with the reign of Antichrist. This will be an age of solace, wherein God will console His church after the many mortifications and afflictions she had endured in the Fifth period, for all nations will be brought to the unity of the true Catholic Faith.” (Connor, pp.35-36)
Hence, many Catholics are awaiting a time when some type of trouble starts in France and elsewhere in Europe–and when their Great Monarch (who we in the Living Church of God would identify with the King of the North and Beast of Revelation 13), will rise up and restore order.
While I do not believe that these Catholic prophecies are inspired by God, the fact is that if there is much civil unrest in Europe, I do believe that the Europeans will rise up and turn to one or more military leaders to deal with it.
And the Bible shows that a military leader (sometimes called the King of the North) will be rising up soon to fulfill the role of the prophesied Beast.
Some articles of possibly related interest may include:
Europa, the Beast, and Revelation Where did Europe get its name? What might Europe have to do with the Book of Revelation? What about “the Beast”? What is ahead for Europe?
Who is the King of the North? Is there one? Do biblical and Roman Catholic prophecies point to the same leader? Should he be followed? Who will be the King of the North discussed in Daniel 11? Is a nuclear attack prophesied to happen to the English-speaking peoples of the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand? When do the 1335 days, 1290 days, and 1260 days (the time, times, and half a time) of Daniel 12 begin? When does the Bible show that economic collapse will affect the United States?
Is There A Future King of the South? Some no longer believe there needs to be. Might Egypt, Islam, Iran, Arabs, or Ethiopia be involved? What does the Bible say?
Does God Have a 6,000 Year Plan? What Year Does the 6,000 Years End? Was a 6000 year time allowed for humans to rule followed by a literal thousand year reign of Christ on Earth taught by the early Christians? When does the six thousand years of human rule end?
Do Certain Catholic Prophecies About Antichrist Warn Against Jesus? Will the final “Anti-Christ” be Jewish, insist on Saturday, be opposed to the trinity, and bring in the millennium? Catholic writings indicate this, but what does the Bible show?
End of Mayan Calendar 2012–Might 2012 Mean Something? There is a Mayan calendar prediction for change in 2012. 2012 changes were also centuries ago predicted by the Hopi Native Americans (the Hindus may have some predictions for the next decade as well). Do these Mayan/Hindu/Hopi prophecies have any value? Why might Satan have inspired this date? Does the Dresden codex show destruction of the earth by flood? Can the great tribulation start before 2012?
Can the Great Tribulation Begin in 2009, 2010, or 2011? Can the Great Tribulation begin today? When is the earliest that the Great Tribulation can begin? What is the Day of the Lord?
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