"We believe that the Common Market and the trend toward the unification of Europe may well be the beginning of the 10-nation confederacy predicted by Daniel and the Book of Revelation."

– "The Late, Great Planet Earth," 1969

I penned those words some 35 years ago based on the prophecies of the Bible for the last days, not based on any inside knowledge I had about European politics.

According to the Hebrew prophets, in the last days, the most important city in the world would be Jerusalem. The prophet Zechariah said that in the last days, the whole world would unite against Israel over the question of ownership of the city (Zechariah 12).

That conflict, according to the prophet Daniel, would rage until a prince of the revived Roman Empire came on the scene, and – according to Daniel 9:27 – "confirms a covenant" between Israel and her many enemies for one "week" (seven years).

Daniel 2:41 says the revived Roman empire will be like iron mixed with clay, partly strong and partly weak, "but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay." This empire will initially be ruled by 10 "kings," (Daniel 7:24) and, ultimately, "another" that "shall rise after them." That "other" is the Beast of Revelation 13, often referred to as the "antichrist."

There are, today, two distinct and separate entities that make up the Greater European Union. The European Union as it exists today consists of 25 member states and counting. It was created under the authority of the 1957 Treaty of Rome.

The other Europe is the Western European Union, or the WEU. The WEU was, according to its website, "created by the Treaty on Economic, Social and Cultural Collaboration and Collective Self-Defence signed at Brussels on 17 March 1948."

It went dormant in 1973, but was reactivated as Europe's collective security arm under the authority of the Rome Declaration in 1984. The same meeting decided to open negotiations with Portugal and Spain regarding their accession to the modified Brussels Treaty. Those countries formally became full members of WEU on March 27, 1990.

Earlier agreements called for the Western European Union to merge with the EU and was scheduled to be completed in 2000. But the WEU is very much alive and appears more to be in a state of revival than shutdown, with most of Europe's military planning concentrated in the hands of the WEU's constituent cells.

The WEU is broken down into membership tiers: full members, associate members, observer countries and associate partner countries. In all, the WEU consists of 28 nations, but only 10 are full member countries.

All 10 full members of the Western European Union are, as a condition of membership, part of both the EU and NATO.

Although they are two distinct entities with different member states and different responsibilities, both are under the control of one man, Javier Solana, former NATO secretary-general and currently serving as both secretary-general of the WEU and the European Union's first constitutional foreign minister and sole spokesman for the Council of the European Union.

Before anybody quotes me as saying Javier Solana is the antichrist, I don't know who the antichrist is, and I really don't care.

What is relevant is that there exists, at this point in human history, a 10-core nation European defense collective consisting of the richest and most powerful nations in Europe. Javier Solana's dual role establishes the office of Head Guy Over All Of Europe – if it isn't Solana, the precedent has been established.

There is also a Jewish state called "Israel," reborn after two millennia on the same piece of land from which they were exiled, that emerged on the world stage at precisely the same point in history – 1948.

Since 1948, Israel has been locked in an unending series of wars with the many Arab states on all sides that are dedicated to her destruction. On Sept. 13, the Oslo Accords were signed, setting in motion a three-stage land-for-peace formula between Israel and the Palestinians.

The agreement was to have culminated seven years after it was signed with an agreement "on the final status of Jerusalem." That seven-year covenant failed and brought on what Israel calls the "Oslo War," which then brought Europe into the equation via the Quartet for Peace. All of this has placed Europe over the United States as the main peace broker.

Now we return to where I started, way back in 1969.

"We believe that the Common Market and the trend toward the unification of Europe may well be the beginning of the 10-nation confederacy predicted by Daniel and the Book of Revelation."

Is all of this just coincidence? I don't think so. That takes more faith to believe than to simply recognize that God has caused events to fit precisely into His predicted scenario.

SOURCE: Hal Lindsey Oracle