Some of our readers, looking at Europe as it now exists, may find it difficult to believe that it will ever be found gathered together into one empire. But when God interferes directly with the affairs of the world, He will carry out quickly what He has long since foretold will be the course of events.1

 Bible prophecy gives us signs of the end times. Just like road signs, they come closer together as we near the end. According to the Bible, in the last days – in a time when Israel has been restored as a nation (the first great sign) – a 10-nation confederacy will appear on the European continent. It will be a revival of the Roman Empire. From this confederacy, one man will rise to power. He will make a seven-year security agreement with Israel, which he will break in three and a half years. This man is known as the Antichrist and, in some way, he will be identified with the number 666.

Now we are getting to the heart of my book. What if I said that an important warning sign about the rise of the Antichrist began occurring in 1992, but it has been completely overlooked? And what if I told you that the 10 kings of Daniel and Revelation may have already been on scene since 1995, but no one has noticed?  Not only that, but a powerful new office has been created that could soon be occupied by the Antichrist. And, the EU document establishing this Office was numbererd 666.

On top of all of this, what would you say if I told you that the man who currently holds this office was recently given emergency powers with these 10 kings, and the document the EU leaders were acting on when they gave him these powers was titled “Assembly Recommendation 666?” Hang on, because these are exactly the things I’m about to tell you.

It’s amazing how many times God answered my prayer, and I didn’t notice until a long time later. I’d been writing a weekly religion column for quite some time before I realized that the column was a direct answer to a prayer.

It was a prayer motivated by a challenge. Jesus said, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask what ever you wish, and it shall be done for you. By this is My father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples” (John 15:7-8).

When I read this I realized that Jesus is interested in numbers. In fact, He’s so interested in us winning souls for Christ that He challenges us to ask Him for anything we need to achieve that goal. He says this is the way to glorify the Father and prove that we are His disciples.

So I asked God to provide me with a way to reach more people. Soon I was writing a religion column that was appearing in up to five newspapers every week. This is a reason I believe God may have had His hand on the making of this book from the very beginning.

Over the past 10 years, I’ve written many columns. As I look through them, details from the past come back as if they were from yesterday. I began writing my columns about the time of the Gulf War. Since I was hopelessly interested in Bible prophecy, anything about the Middle East or Europe caught my attention.

… we can expect that one of tomorrow’s headlines will announce the formation of a confederation of ten nations in the general area of the old Roman Empire — western Europe.2

One day I saw a report in the Los Angeles Times about a European military alliance known as the Western European Union (WEU). What caught my attention was the map showing the 10 European nations that belonged to this alliance. I immediately recalled the Bible prophecies about the revival of the Roman Empire under 10 kings. 

At that moment, the pastor of my church walked into my office. Since he was also interested in prophecy, I showed him the map.

“Doesn’t this look a little like the old Roman Empire?” I asked.

“It is the old Roman Empire,” he said.

This is how my long interest in a military alliance known as the Western European Union began. It turned out that, at that time, this military alliance was only nine nations: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom.

This confused me at first. Then I found that the reason the Los Angeles Times reported it as 10 nations was because Greece was scheduled to enter later in January of 1995. Another aspect about this alliance that tended to hide its possible prophetic significance was the fact that it was actually made up of 28 European nations. At that time, the 28 nations in the WEU were divided into four different types of membership. There were 10 Member States, three Associate Members, five Observers and 10 Associate Partners. Only the 10 Member States, however, had full voting rights.

In other words, only 10 nations were actually in control of the WEU military alliance. These, indeed, could become the 10 kings of Bible prophecy. I decided to take a closer look at the Western European Union.

During the wars preceding the rise of Antichrist the nations that will then be found in the geographical limits of the Old Roman Empire will form an ‘Alliance’ for mutual protection. Those nations will be ten in number, represented by the ‘Ten Horns’ of the Beast.3

It happened just like Clarence Larkin said. The Western European Union was born October 23, 1954. But it grew out of a five-nation mutual defense alliance that was founded at the end of World War II. These five European nations were concerned that they needed to protect themselves against a possible threat from the powerful Soviet Union. So on March 17, 1948, these nations signed the Brussels Treaty. Article Four under this treaty bound them together in a mutual defense agreement, meaning that an attack against one would be an attack against all. These nations were Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

But, after a short time, this defense agreement became inactive. When America, Canada and a few other European countries saw the resolve of these Brussels Treaty nations, they decided to contribute to the security of Europe. This led to the creation of the military alliance we now know as NATO on April 4, 1949, with the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty.

At this time, the responsibility these five European nations had to each other for mutual defense was transferred to NATO. Their non-military obligations under the Brussels Treaty, however, continued.

Then it happened. The military alliance known as the Western European Union was born on October 23, 1954, when the Brussels Treaty was modified to allow the entrance of Germany and Italy. Their collective defense agreement under Article Four in the old treaty was now under Article Five of the modified Brussels Treaty.

Yet even under the expanded provisions of the modified Brussels Treaty, the new WEU military alliance was born dead. I say this because, when all was said and done, the American-dominated NATO was still the alliance in charge of the defense of Europe. Like it or not, the Brussels Treaty nations realized they needed a big brother, like America, to defend themselves against the powerful Soviet Union. Yet they didn’t like having to depend on America. So – although committed to the NATO alliance – these European nations went ahead with their original plans in the Brussels Treaty. They created their own military alliance in the WEU, looking forward to the day when they could go it alone. And when the Cold War was over and the Soviet threat was no more, that day would come.

Later, Portugal, Spain and Greece would also be allowed to join Europe’s exclusive, new military club, the WEU. Together, these 10 nations became known as the Brussels Treaty Powers. And it was this inner circle of 10 European nations that controlled the WEU.

When the Brussels Treaty Powers that controlled the WEU reached 10, in January 1995, they had reached the magic number that students of Bible prophecy had been waiting for. Now all I could do was wait and see what would happen next.

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.4

I realized that the beast of Revelation and the WEU had a lot in common, making me start to wonder if they were one and the same. They both had 10 horns, and they both wanted to take their place on the world stage. But something was holding them back.

Yet this is what the Bible tells us. It says the evil spiritual forces trying to raise this beast from the sea – the beast being the revived Roman Empire and the Antichrist – are already at work. Fortunately, God has been holding these evil spiritual forces back.

This is what the Apostle Paul meant when he said:

   For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, only he who now restrains 
   will do so until he is taken out of the way. And then that lawless one will be 
   revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an 
   end by the appearance of His coming (2 Thessalonians 2:7-8).

The mystery of lawlessness has a religious side to it. Satan wishes to destroy the true faith found in the Bible. You see, the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been interfering with Satan’s grip on the world since the time of the Roman Empire.

Where true Christianity has been accepted in the world, Satan’s mystery of lawlessness has been restrained. And when this faith we find preserved in the Bible has been lost, Satan’s mystery of lawlessness has returned. This is what the Apostle John meant by saying, “greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). 

My point is, God used America – a nation known for its many Bible-believing churches – to liberate Europe from the tyranny of Hitler. And after the war, God again used America to establish the NATO alliance that has proven so successful in holding back atheistic Communism and keeping the peace in Europe.

If the 10 Brussels Treaty Powers in the WEU are to become the 10 kings of Bible prophecy that the Antichrist will rise from, then God has been using America to restrain the rise of the 10-horned beast of Revelation. This being the case, it won’t require the rapture of the church for America to lose her restraining power in the world. All that would be required is for the churches in America to fall away from the faith and the authority of the Bible.

And if this falling away should happen, then the consequence may well be the rise in Europe of the 10-horned beast of Revelation – the Antichrist and his kingdom. I will be showing that events have been occurring that appear to indicate the prophecies are being fulfilled. And most Christians haven’t noticed.

… a crisis in the Mediterranean area leads to the formation of the revived Roman Empire composed of a ten-nation confederacy.5

The first Gulf War crisis was the spark that re-ignited Europe’s interest in the long inactive Western European Union. Iraq invaded and was occupying Kuwait. America was asking its allies for help. It frustrated the European leaders to find out how little they could do. After a long period of dormancy, the WEU began coming back to life.

As members of NATO, these European leaders were not allowed to project military power off the continent of Europe. And by themselves, compared to the United States these European nations were military pigmies.

According to a Los Angeles Times report, this is when Europe decided to bring the dormant WEU back to life. I was reminded of what John Walvoord said. He said a crisis in the Mediterranean area would lead to a ten-nation confederacy in Europe.6

But after the American-led Coalition forces kicked Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait, things in the Mediterranean began to calm down. America’s overwhelming military victory brought a new political reality to the region. Before the Gulf War, there was a general feeling of distrust for America among the Arab leaders. They didn’t like the way America supported Israel, and so they naturally resented any American military presence in the area. 

But when President Bush accomplished in the Gulf War exactly what he had promised – the liberation of Kuwait – their opinions about America changed. After many long years of disbelieving the motives of the Western world, the Arab leaders were finally willing to accept America as an honest broker. And in October 1991, at the Madrid Conference, these Arab leaders sat down with Israel and began to talk about peace.

Now, once again, information on the WEU became almost impossible for me to find. It was as if those evil spiritual forces in the “mystery of lawlessness” had gone back to sleep. Soon my interest shifted away from the 10-horned beast of Revelation and the WEU. My attention returned to the first great sign of the woman – Israel and the Middle East.

1. Alfred H. Burton, The Future of Europe; Religiously and Politically, In The Light of 
Holy Scripture, 4th ed. (London, Alfred Holness:1915) 14-15.
2. Charles C. Ryrie, The Bible and Tomorrow’s News (USA: Scripture Press Publications, 1969) 35-7.
3. Clarence Larkin, Dispensational Truth, 122.
4. New American Standard Bible, 2 Thessalonians 2:7.
5. John F. Walvoord, The Nations in Prophecy, 103.
6. Ibid.