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One interesting characteristic of his (the Antichrist’s) coming is that he has a bow in his hand, symbolic of aggressive warfare, but no arrow, indicating that he will conquer by diplomacy rather than by war. Ushering in a false peace, he will be the superman who promises to solve all the world’s problems. That he will be ultimately victorious is seen by the fact that he has a crown upon his head.1 Tim
Lahaye, 1975
J.
Dwight Pentecost, 1961
What are the interests of these people who join the Club of Rome? It seems their main concern is for the creation of some form of global government. They believe that – unless we can soon establish a global government – our world may experience a sudden and uncontrollable collapse in its ability to sustain its population.3 It is apparent that the Club of Rome is a secular humanist organization. In fact, that’s why its members want global government in the first place. Secular humanism teaches that humans are the product of evolution, not created by God. Since we can’t depend on God, we must take control of our own evolutionary process to create a better world. So humanists believe global government is necessary to advance man’s evolution.4 At the beginning of the Declaration of the Club of Rome, we find these words: We,
the members of the Club of Rome, are convinced that the future of
As I thought about
the implication of those words, I realized that the Declaration of the
Club of Rome could actually be interpreted as a declaration of war against
the Bible and God’s people. In their declaration they say, “We, the members
of the Club of Rome, are convinced that the future of humankind is not
determined once for all.”
Yet the members of the Club of Rome say, in their declaration, that they are “convinced that the future of humankind is not determined once for all.” Does this sound like something the Antichrist might think or say? I believe it does. In fact, this may shed light on a difficult prophecy. Regarding the Antichrist, an angel said: “And he will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half time (3 1/2 years, Daniel 7:25). As I read this prophecy, I realized that the Antichrist’s self-serving agenda could easily be disguised behind the humanistic ideas advocated by the Club of Rome. If so, the Antichrist would attempt to abolish all knowledge of the true God and destroy God’s people. He would try to evade the fulfillment of the end-times prophecies and establish a worldwide humanist paradise based on a new, godless, global ethic. And, for a period of three and a half years, God will allow him to have success. Is creating a new, godless, global government something the members of the Club of Rome could support? I believe it might be. In a recent paper written for the Club of Rome’s annual meeting, titled “Governance in an era of Globalization,” we find these frightening words: We have
come to the conclusion that the globalizing world suffers from
What exactly do the writers of this Club of Rome paper mean by saying the “states and the interstate systems suffer governmental shortcomings” and that we need to be looking for “governance alternatives?” It seems they are suggesting that our world’s current independent nation states can’t be trusted anymore to do the job, and so we need to replace, or supplement, them with something better. So what is the game plan of the Club of Rome? Are they just a group of concerned global citizens who are trying to create a new, global awareness? Or could there be something a little more menacing in the works? I believe there may well be. And since Solana has control over the foreign and security policy for the EU, perhaps we should consider what his club has to say about foreign policy. The writers of the same paper for the Club of Rome say: By coupling
trade rules with other issues you can force countries to adopt just
Is this how Solana believes the EU’s new foreign policy should be implemented? Is his purpose to bring countries into a trade agreements that later will be used against them? There is good reason to believe it is. In fact, it looks like Solana may already be following some of the suggestions made in this paper. For example, Solana’s use of the Club of Rome’s “carrot and stick” approach is credited with persuading the Serbian people to vote for the recent change in their government. His “carrot” was an offer to the Balkan nations of full integration into the economies of the EU nations. His “stick” was economic and political sanctions that wouldn’t go away until they complied with his wishes. But economic sanctions
aren’t the only tool the Club of Rome suggests to establish their world
government. The paper also suggests a supplement to our existing nation
state system – the creation and implementation of some kind of new, global
ethic.
New
governance refers to the capacity to realize societal values, while this
It sounds like the Club of Rome paper is calling for the development and propagation of a new, global ethic. As a Christian, and knowing what the Bible prophecies say the Antichrist will do, I can’t help but suspect they may also want to do away with the old Judeo-Christian ethic. Does Javier Solana agree with these ideas found in the Club of Rome paper? Once more the evidence suggests that he does. Solana was invited to speak at Madrid’s University of Alcala’ de Henares, for the inauguration of a new class, “Towards a New International Morality; the Humanitarian Interventions.” In this speech, Solana not only reveals his support for teaching a new, global ethic, but he also reveals what this new ethic means to him – global interventions. He said: Looking
at the activities which are at the heart of the work of this Center, I
Solana then went on to say that this new ethic – global interventions to help out one’s fellow human being – was the reason he was creating the EU’s new military. So here we find Solana giving a speech that appears to be promoting his Club of Rome’s so-called “New Governance.” Not only that, but he is also using the new ethics being taught by this college to supplement his own foreign policy scheme for global interventions. Evidently, Solana realized that – for some of the more critical thinkers in his audience – his interventionist foreign policy ideas still required more justification. So he closed his speech by saying:
Because foreign policy nowadays is, ultimately, about people, not just
about
Yes, what Solana is offering the citizens of Europe certainly sounds good. The problem is, these so-called humanitarian interventions he is arming the EU to respond to are not only meant for the EU nations – they are global. Solana plans on intervening with his new military anywhere in the world he feels it’s necessary. With his global humanitarian agenda in mind, in the same speech Solana said: Specific
tasks include monitoring potential crisis areas around the globe, and
I hate to think what would happen if someone like Solana was successful in implementing all the humanistic ideas for global government found in that Club of Rome paper. Yet this may actually be occurring – not only in Solana’s EU Superstate, but also in Kofi Annan’s recently reorganized United Nations. I say this because one of the authors of this Club of Rome paper is Professor Ruud Lubbers. He teaches courses on Globalization Studies at both Tilburg and Harvard Universities. And guess what? The UN Secretary General Kofi Annan recently announced the appointment of Dr. Ruud Lubbers to a high-profile position within the United Nations. As I asked before, could there be something a little more sinister going on here? If you compare Solana’s plans for the creation of a rapid reaction force for Europe with Kofi Annan’s plans for the creation of a rapid reaction force for the UN, they appear to be coming from the same playbook Could that playbook be from the Club of Rome? The City and Tower of Babel The one-world government, the one-world religion, and the one-world banking system that make possible the commerce of the world are already gathering momentum. It is just a matter of time before they decide to locate in a single spot. That spot will be Babylon.8 Tim
Lahaye, 1975
Yet, the week earlier, the scene at the New York Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was even stranger. Here we had spiritual leaders representing more than 50 religions gathering together for their own summit – the World Peace Summit. In addition to Western clergy, there were African drummers, Hindu chanters and tribal holy-men. The religious gathering had been organized by a group of interfaith activists with a little help from their friends – New Age billionaire Maurice Strong and Time-Warner’s chief, Ted Turner. The purpose of the gathering was to find a way the world’s religious leaders could contribute to the UN’s quest for world peace. After arriving in the UN General Hall, Ted Turner took the podium. He received hoots and cheers from the audience when he detailed the reasons he denounced his childhood Christian faith, according to Austin Ruse, a professional UN observer. Darren Logan, a foreign policy analyst for the Washington-based Family Research Council, described Turner’s speech as “the most blasphemous thing I have ever heard in my life.”9 When the clamor had settled, a Declaration for World Peace had been created. It called for the establishment of an International Advisory Council of Religious and Spiritual Leaders to serve the UN in crises resolution and prevention. The following week, the world’s political leaders met in the same assembly hall. The meeting began with a moment of silence for three UN staff members who had recently been killed in East Timor. This moment of silence set the stage for UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to make his appeal to the world leaders. He asked them to support his and the Security Council’s proposals to strengthen the UN’s peacekeeping ability by giving them their own military forces. The UPI reported that Annan called for: “strengthening the United Nations in the crucial area of peace and security — the area where people look especially to the state, and where the world’s people look to the United Nations, to save them ‘from the scourge of war.’”10 Annan was telling these world leaders that, like it or not, their UN organization was due for a complete overhaul. In fact, at that time, Congress was already working on H.R. 4453 – a bill in response to a Presidential Directive issued by Bill Clinton that called for the creation of a “United Nations Rapid Deployment Policy and Security Force.” When the summit was over, the Security Council issued a joint declaration approving the strengthening of the UN’s peacekeeping ability. The declaration said: Bearing
primary responsibility under the Charter for the maintenance of
As I thought about this, I was reminded that a rapid deployment force was what the European leaders were asking Javier Solana to create for the EU. In other words, the EU and the UN were doing almost exactly the same thing, and at the same time. Yet what intrigued me about the UN’s plans for strengthening its peacekeeping ability was the fact that it included a religious element – the World Peace Summit. While the world’s secular heads of state were attempting to find ways to control the physical side of globalization, the world’s religious leaders were attempting to find ways to control the spiritual side of globalization. The reason this interested me was because of the Bible prophecies. If you recall, in Revelation 13 two beasts are scheduled to come on the scene in the end times. And a beast in Bible prophecy refers to both a king and a kingdom. The first beast we already learned about – the 10-horned beast from the sea. As you know, I believe the first beast may well be the current revival of the Roman Empire under the European Union. I believe the second beast could well be this reorganized United Nations under some kind of religious control. Here’s another interesting point: In his statement at the beginning of this segment, Tim Lahaye says he believes it’s possible the UN could someday move its headquarters to Babylon in modern Iraq. And, in the aftermath of the second Iraqi war, his idea does look conceivable. However, even if the UN doesn’t move its headquarters, there are good reasons for believing the UN may become the second beast from the earth. The second beast has two horns. Horns are prophetic signs of power. In Revelation 13, these horns appear to represent someone who has great economic and religious control over the world. According to the Bible, the second beast will require people to take a mark on their right hand or forehead in order to buy or sell. The mark will be associated with the worship of an image. And, instead of rising from the sea as the first beast does, this second beast rises from the earth. There are two things that make this interesting to me. One reason is something the Apostle John once said about false prophets. He said, “They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them” (1 John 4:5). And here, in the UN, we have world leaders listening to the clergy who reject the Gospel of Jesus. Another interesting thing about the second beast rising from the earth is because, from John’s perspective on the island of Patmos, Babylon is inland. This further suggests the possibility of this new UN being located in Babylon, Iraq. Again, I’ll deal more with this subject and the second Iraqi war later. Back to the new UN: Do you recall what these anti-Christian religious leaders want to do? They want to establish an International Advisory Council within the UN These world religious leaders want to advise the secular world leaders about ways to achieve global peace. When you add the
plans of these religious leaders to the fact that the world’s political
leaders are already looking for ways the UN can control the global economy,12
then the prophecy about people being required to take a mark and worship
an image in order to buy or sell doesn’t seem so farfetched.
As I thought about the Club of Rome’s Declaration – what sounds like a declaration of war against the Bible and God’s people – and the two UN summits recently held in New York, a passage of Scripture came to my mind. I opened my Bible and read those familiar words from Psalms 2. But this time they had a different meaning: Why
are the nations in an uproar, and the peoples devising a vain thing? The
For the first time, these words from the Old Testament made me shudder. But, they also reassured me. In the end, God will prevail. Chapter 9 Notes 1. Tim Lahaye, Revelation:
Illustrated and Made Plain, 101.
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