Thursday 26 February, 2009

Special Report

EU and world developments resonate with Bible prophecy

By Andrew Halloway

Some of our readers may not be aware that, long before Britain joined the EU and long before it was even conceived, interpreters of Bible prophecies predicted that come the 20th century Europe would be the centre of a revived Roman Empire. And that from this organisation the Anti-Christ would one day arise to form a global dictatorship in the last days before Christ’s return to earth.

This would happen when the world plunged into some kind of economic and political crisis – and the European dictator would ‘save’ the world by bringing peace to the Middle East and imposing a cashless global economic system. In this ‘new world order’ you would only be able to buy and sell if you had ‘the mark of the Beast’ on your hand and forehead.

To most people, it seemed like a fantasy more suited to a Hollywood horror movie like The Omen, or the product of the deranged minds of American ‘fundamentalists’. But truth is often stranger than fiction. The EU was indeed born.

And in the ensuing decades it has become, ominously, ever more power-hungry. So much so that member countries can now vote against EU treaties and be ignored. The same treaty is re-launched in a different format, and EU politicians bowl on with the European project against the wishes of the people whose democratic views they are supposed to represent.

Now where many Bible prophecy gurus overstepped the mark was to attempt to be too specific about the dates and times when the Anti-Christ would gain power and when our Lord himself would return. They should have known better, because Jesus himself said that no-one knows the day or the hour when he will come back – except God the Father himself.

In attaching dates to their predictions, the ‘seers’ brought disrepute to their own discipline as time and again their dates passed and nothing happened. In this respect, they fell into the same trap as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who several times predicted the return of Christ on certain dates last century and then revised them every time they failed.

But it now seems that in the 21st century we finally have the circumstances in place where Europe could become the power-base of a future world dictator. Not only do we have the majority of European politicians hell-bent on creating a super-state, and most national governments refusing to hold referenda for fear of a ‘no’ vote, but now we have a world economic collapse that seems more frightening by the day.

In addition, we are only one step from a completely cashless society. For a long time now we have had the technology waiting to do it, including tiny chips that can be inserted under the skin and read by bar-code readers – making it impossible to buy or sell without this ‘mark’. And while civil liberty campaigners are worried that our government is going ahead with ID cards, it is more worrying that the same digital technology can combine ID, bank accounts and satellite tracking information onto one chip. Hitler and Stalin would have given their right arm for that kind of population-control technology!

Sure, we’ve had recessions and depressions before, but we have never before had a world economy where only global action seems to be the answer. Gordon Brown harps on about ‘global solutions’ ad nauseam. After the Great Depression of the 1930s, once America got back on its feet, so did the rest of the world. But today America is the source of the collapse and is admitting that global co-operation is the only way forward for the world economy. Some Bible commentators even predicted that the collapse of America as an economic power had to happen before the Anti-Christ could take over – again decades before our current crisis.

Now for the first time we have the rise of China and India as economic superpowers, along with a resurgent Russia. The world is in the balance, holding its breath, waiting for strong leadership to take us out of this financial crisis. As the clock ticks away, more and more companies are going to the wall, and public funds to prop up the banks will eventually run out.

Of course, it may all work out fine this time. But even if it doesn’t usher in the last days and the 666^* mark, it seems suspiciously like a ‘dry run’ for the real thing.

Meanwhile, let’s look back at the EU and where it is headed. One of the signs of a democracy on the road to dictatorship is when individual freedoms are restricted. And one of the signs of any budding anti-Christian government is when Christians are restricted from expressing their beliefs.

The new European Anti-Discrimination Directive that is being proposed ticks both these boxes, to some degree. It is certainly a threat to religious liberty and freedom of speech in the UK and across Europe.

This directive is rapidly going through the various stages of the European Parliament. It prohibits discrimination and harassment on the grounds of disability, age, sexual orientation and religion or belief. Nothing wrong with stopping discrimination on the grounds of disability and age, but the sexual orientation and religion or belief aspects are troubling.

It might be thought that a directive banning religious discrimination would be a good thing. But if the implementation of the 2000 Employment Discrimination Directive is anything to go by, it is a cause for concern. For it has taken away the right to follow your conscience and religion. As a result of that directive, a Church of England bishop was successfully sued by a homosexual for not being given a position as a youth minister. A British Christian charity was also successfully sued for refusing to promote an atheist support worker.

The new directive could remove more rights of conscience for those whose religious beliefs prevent them endorsing certain homosexual and religious practices. In the UK similar legislation has been widely interpreted as requiring the homosexual lifestyle to be promoted by public services. Adoption agencies, with public funding, which do not believe in placing children with same sex couples, have had to close. Foster parents have been removed from council registers because they are not willing to promote homosexuality to their children.

The EU Anti-Discrimination Directive could remove Christianity from public services, because an atheist patient could sue a hospital because there is a Bible in the bedside locker and he or she finds that ‘offensive’. Local councils and schools could be intimidated into cancelling Christmas carol services for fear of offending people of others faiths or none.

Anti-harassment laws like these can greatly inhibit free speech. Unlike criminal harassment, the EU law will have a very low threshold and therefore be easy to prove. The mere explanation of the relevant religious belief to a homosexual or a communication of your religious beliefs to those of another faith may be interpreted as amounting to harassment. Harassment is from the subjective perspective of the person alleging the harassment. The loose wording of the new EU harassment law leaves huge scope for bogus and trivial complaints which will limit freedom of speech and religious liberty.

Unfortunately there is an anti-Christian agenda with the EU – this latest directive is just one in a long string of proposals that clearly reveal that. It is high time we told our MEPs that we don’t want such legislation.

Perhaps even more concerning are the latest military developments within the EU. Roger Helmer, the East Midlands MEP, is worried that the creation of an EU army could threaten the ability of Britain to leave Europe, should we ever desire to do so (not that we’ll ever get a referendum on it if this Labour government is still in power). From the biblical prophecy perspective, this seems a frightening sign of a budding dictatorship.

As a historical precedent, Helmer recalls the attempt by some states of the USA to secede from the Union – a move that ignited the American Civil War. He says: “In 1861 several states voted democratically to leave the USA. The Union government said that those votes had been held illegally, and resorted to war to keep the states within the union.

“Roll forward to 2009, and look at the current EU. Could the EU deploy military forces to try to stop Britain seceding? The answer lies in the Treaty of Lisbon (aka the EU Constitution).

“First, the newly created High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy will also head the European Defence Agency and have a right of initiative for proposing EU-led military operations.

“Second, Article 28b allows EU armed forces to be used to deal with any ‘crisis’. An event will be defined as a crisis by the Council and Commission. Article 28a allows the EU armed forces to be used to protect the strategic interests of the EU; again these are to be defined by the Council and Commission. Finally Article 188r allows armed forces to be deployed to any part of the EU without the agreement of the government of the member state in whose territory they are deployed.

“These provisions are scattered widely through the Treaty (probably deliberately), but taken together they create an EU armed force that can be deployed anywhere in the EU for any purpose decided upon by the EU Commission and Council. Never mind getting Ireland to vote again – the tanks might be on the streets. Are we being unduly alarmist? Well maybe. So perhaps somebody could tell us why the EU wants these powers?”

Alarmist or not, when you look at the actions of the EU over the last decade or two, you would have to be blind not to see that it is like an unstoppable juggernaut on the road to dictatorship. Member states have fewer and fewer rights, and ordinary citizens have increasingly less democratic options. We are sleepwalking into an EU super-state.

Amidst the current financial crisis the British public are never going to vote for independence from the EU – we know we have too much to lose economically. But perhaps that’s just where the EU wants us – too frightened to leave, until one day we won’t have the choice any more.

Well, I don’t know whether the one-world dictator will come from within Europe or not, but one thing is for sure. Individual nations are becoming ever more dependent on each other, and EU integration is just a reflection of that. And right now the ‘global village’ has a big headache, and it’s crying out for someone to come along with a big pill.

I think the clock is ticking.

With thanks to Christian Concern for our Nation for some information.

Graphic: Luke Wilson Photography