Church of God News

Yes, the USA is in decline. And yes, I believe we will see massive conflict, likely by the end of the decade that will lead to the end of the USA and the UK.

But who will rise up?

While many are pointing to China, Europe has its own plan.

The Global Gateway is Europe’s answer to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Basically, it is intended to help Europe gain trade dominance. The euro is its answer for the USA dollar. And PESCO is part of its plan for military dominance.

But, so too, is making trade agreements and alliances. EuroNews reported:

22 July 2023

This week we were joined by Marc Botenga, Belgian MEP with The Left group, Michiel Hoogeveen, Dutch MEP with the European Conservatives and Reformists and Shada Islam, commentator and founder of New Horizons Project.  …

“We need to talk about trade. We need to talk about gaining influence in the region,” he told the panel. …

Shada Islam saw the gathering as a chance to amend centuries of distrust between Europe and Latin America. …

Hoogeveen said the past should be left in the past. “We need to look forward,” he said. “They (CELAC countries) also want to look forward. They want economic growth. They want to be part of the global trade community.” …

But what does this global community look like? For Belgian MEP Marc Botenga, the EU needs to ask itself this question.

“What many Latin American countries here during the summit have highlighted is the importance of going towards a multi-polar world, saying we do not want a world that’s divided in blocs,” he said. “We want different poles that work together and they come together through mutually beneficial trade relations. And the European Union should listen to that.” https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2023/07/22/brussels-my-love-eu-latin-america-relations-in-the-spotlight-this-week

EU Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, has, herself, recently made other deals in South America:

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Chilean President Gabriel Boric have agreed a deal on lithium to make electric vehicle batteries.

Chile is estimated to have more than a third of the world’s reserves of lithium.

Lithium is key to several countries’ goal of moving away from fossil fuels in the face of the climate crisis, with the use of electric cars whose batteries are made from lithium.

The European Commission has pledged 225 million euros to help the country develop the green hydrogen industry and help secure Europe’s demand for renewable energy.

Von der Leyen, who has already visited Brazil and Argentina during her Latin American tour, … signed a memorandum of understanding in Buenos Aires on 13 June on raw materials, including lithium, whose demand in Europe “will grow 12-fold by 2030,” she said.

Argentina, Bolivia and Chile make up the so-called ‘lithium triangle’, with almost 65 per cent of the world’s reserves. https://www.euronews.com/2023/06/15/von-der-leyen-signs-multi-million-euro-lithium-deal-in-chile

The Europeans are working to secure resources and make trade deals–they also want to be militarily independent of the declining USA. The Europeans are setting the stage to rise up as prophesied in the Bible.

The Bible prophesies that Europe will, for a time, dominate the world economically.

Europe has been working on this for decades. And when it was called the European Community (before it became the European Union), the old Worldwide Church of God published the following:

Beyond Europe’s Present Crisis COLOSSUS IN THE MAKING

… the business of the European Community is not just business.

Although the EC’s field of action is largely economic, its founders’ aims were essentially political. From the start, European planners envisioned the Community as the nucleus of a future political “United States of Europe” with a centralized political authority. Economic integration would be only the start. The ultimate product would be an entirely new political entity!

Many, even in those early years, saw the Community evolving into a strong politico-economic power, a European counterweight to Soviet Russia.

And indeed, strides have been made over the years in the political arena. In June 1979, for example, voters in the EC member nations went to the polls to choose, for the first time, directly elected representatives to the enlarged and strengthened European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. This was an enormous milestone in European history.

But the old nemesis of self-centered nationalism still impedes progress. As yet, the EC’s decision-making institutions are invested with few substantial powers. Only minimal surrender of national sovereignty has taken place.

National self-interest still dictates governments’ positions in EC negotiations, notably in the area of agricultural policy. Quarrels over how the EC spends its money have even prompted some observers to suggest the possibility of a Common Market collapse!

The EC faces a series of crucial decisions in the near future. Most Europeans realize there can be no going back. Many remain hopeful that the remaining years of this century will yet witness a coherent, full-functioning United States of Europe.

And they are right!

Foretold Long Ago

Bible prophecy — as so often explained in the pages of this magazine — reveals that a powerful New Europe is on the horizon!

The Bible foretells a gigantic world-trading system to be formed in our time, possessing worldwide political power and influence. Ultimately, this prophesied New Europe will possess greater population, greater industrial and economic capacity, and greater military power than either the Soviet Union or the United States now possesses!

Nearly a quarter century ago, editor in chief Herbert W. Armstrong declared with reference to the newly created Common Market:

“It is one of the crucial developments of world history. It is bringing to life a slumbering giant. It is developing into — creating — a GIANT NEW WORLD POWER, that will be mightier than either Russia or the United States! It is swiftly, dynamically, fulfilling PROPHECY! It is resurrecting the ROMAN EMPIRE!” (Plain Truth, September 1961).

The dream of a united Europe has permeated the history of the Continent. The original Roman Empire fell in A.D. 476. But Bible prophecy revealed it was to be restored again and again over the centuries. The most recent attempt to revive the Roman Empire was by Benito Mussolini. Today we see the last resurrection of the Roman Empire springing to economic life! It will be composed of 10 nations or blocs of nations — but not necessarily the 10 now associated in the EC.

The final political union in Europe will not come about through slow, evolutionary means, but suddenly — in reaction to dire external threats to the Continent’s very existence! The “founding father” of the Common Market, Jean Monnet, foresaw this when he remarked that “necessity is the real federator.” The years just ahead will provide the specific events that will t rigger the final, sudden, desperate fusion of Europe.

Moreover, prophecy reveals that religion will have its part to play in inspiring enthusiasm for European unity. The Roman Catholic Church, locked in a struggle with Soviet atheism and U.S. secular consumerism, will reassume its historic role as a “glue” for Europe, cementing together the diverse peoples and cultures of the Continent.

New Superpower

The stage is set.

Europe stands on the threshold of unparalleled world power. By virtue of its economic dynamism, political muscle and continuing need for Middle Eastern oil, the coming United Europe will be in a position to reshape the geopolitical balance of the world! (Stump K. Beyond Europe’s Present Crisis COLOSSUS IN THE MAKING. Plain Truth, September 1984)

The stage is being set for Europe. It is working on having more unity and more international economic reach.

But it will have economic distress before it unites to fulfill its prophesied economic dominance on the world. Notice some of what is shown in places such as Revelation 18 discussing some of the reach of the end time European Babylon:

3 … all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury. (Revelation 18:3)

9 The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her … 19 in which all who had ships on the sea became rich by her wealth! (Revelation 18:9,19)

Europe does not have to be perfect to do this. But perceived, for a time, as the best economic option for the world.

The USA truly is in decline–many see that.

Although it does not look like that now to most people, Europe is prophesied to rise up.