April 5, 2010 | From theTrumpet.com
Though each appears to be presently enduring crisis, Rome and Berlin continue their respective efforts to assert themselves at the helm of the rising European empire.
To really come to grips with just how the final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire is steadily developing to global status, one has to dig deeply behind the headlines, behind the bias and the shallowness of reports in the press and mass media. It takes a long view of history and a unique handling of predictive analysis based on current events linked to history to see the European Union in its true perspective. The plain truth is that the European Union is the second-greatest power on the world scene today, destined to soon become the dominant superpower in the very near future.
Those who scoff at the idea of a resurrected Holy Roman Empire under the domination of Rome and Berlin simply reflect a shallow perspective of history as it is attached to ongoing current world events. They lack the understanding of the modern-day identity of nations which from ancient times were prophesied to fulfill predominant roles in major world events today. Thus they are simply unable to rise above shallow reactions to world events and find the confidence with which the Trumpet forecasts the future outcome of such events quite disconcerting.
Yet, our rejoinder to the scoffers is as simple as that which Jesus Christ gave to those who doubted Him. Just believe our works! It is only a matter of time before you will witness, live through and have to endure the results of the great world events portrayed in the prophecies of your Bible.
Throughout the previous six resurrections of the Roman Empire, each of those imperial revivals, dating from the time of Justinian’s restoration in A.D. 554, was only made possible by the cooperation of two traditionally competing entities—the church and the state. Though, from time to time, one predominated over the other in a perpetual vying for dominant power, it was only by the two cooperating with each other in their respective imperial aims that the Roman Empire was able to perpetuate itself through various revivals throughout the past two millennia.
Under the influence of the Vatican, the empire became known from the time of Charlemagne—crowned emperor in A.D. 800—as the “Holy” Roman Empire. Then under Emperor Maximilian, from 1510 on the empire was known as “the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.” This title attested to the political, military and economic power of the German state in union with the spiritual influence of the Vatican as being the two predominant forces conjoined to hold the empire together.
Under the influence of the Vatican, the empire became known from the time of Charlemagne—crowned emperor in A.D. 800—as the “Holy” Roman Empire. Then under Emperor Maximilian, from 1510 on the empire was known as “the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.” This title attested to the political, military and economic power of the German state in union with the spiritual influence of the Vatican as being the two predominant forces conjoined to hold the empire together.
Tracking forward to that which our editor in chief has identified as the seventh and latest resurrection of this ancient imperial entity, it is already apparent to legitimate commentators that the European Union is in fact the second-greatest power on the world scene today, next to a United States in very obvious and increasingly rapid decline.
One of the most incisive and accurate views of Europe (albeit unfashionable in foreign-policy circles) is that of Andrew Moravcsik, professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University. In an interview published by Global Europe, Sept. 14, 2009, Moravcsik stated, “Europe, singly and collectively, is the most underrated actor in world politics today. … In fact, the world is bipolar. Europe and the U.S. are the only two global superpowers. This will remain true for the foreseeable future. Indeed, European power is rising. … It is the most ambitious and successful international organization of all time, pioneering institutional practices far in advance of anything elsewhere. … European nations, singly and collectively, are the only other states in the world today, besides the U.S., to exert global influence across the full spectrum from ‘hard’ to ‘soft’ power.”
Students of international relations recognize that it is in the military sphere that both the imperial prestige and the potential for the projection of imperial initiatives of any world power come to the fore. In this respect, Moravcsik has a firm grasp on the realities. In the same interview, he maintained that “Europe is comfortably established as the world’s ‘second’ military power, with 50,000-100,000 combat troops active throughout the globe over most of the past two decades. … In nuclear power, air power, weapons production, or naval power as well, no one except the U.S. comes close to European power projection capability” (emphasis mine).
This is exactly the position that the Trumpet has taken on Europe over the past two decades. Check our archive to verify that. Until recently, few have acknowledged the reality of European power. The chattering classes have been busy promoting headlines touting the rise of such powers as China and India, contrasting this with their shallow view of Europe as a spent geopolitical force. Meanwhile the elites who guide the development of the European Union have been content to let the world be fooled by such spurious headlines. The world press and media have done a great service to the European imperialists by diverting the attention of the public significantly away from the reality of their ongoing engagement in promoting their vision of a resurrection of European power under the aegis of Rome and Berlin.
The biggest story emanating from Rome today is, in reality, not the revelations of the behavior of pedophile priests. It is the largely unpublicized fact of the powerful influence of the Vatican in every single institution of note that comprises the European Union. The biggest story emanating from Berlin today is not the constant crises faced by Angela Merkel’s failing coalition. It is how the German power elites manage each crisis to the advantage of the promotion of Germanic imperial power.
The power of Vatican influence in the EU was recently portrayed by an EU Commission quietly moving to institutionalize Sunday as the mandatory day of worship across the whole EU spectrum. Germany has already mandated Sunday as that nation’s national day of rest and worship. It is now only a matter of time before the powerful Catholic elites force that mandate onto all member nations of the European Union. When that has been achieved, and Rome’s official day of worship enshrined in European law, the penalties for non-compliance will soon be enacted on those who refuse to bow to Rome. The results are prophesied in Revelation 13 in your Bible.
In a more recent article published in the March 2010 edition of Current History, Professor Moravcsik dates Europe’s rise to power from 1989. Why that particular year? On Nov. 11, 1989, the Berlin Wall collapsed and Germany, divided since defeat in World War ii, united to quickly become the EU’s leading political force. Moravcsik states that “Since 1989, Europe’s ‘power of attraction’ has helped stabilize the polities and economies of over a dozen neighboring countries.” It is more than coincidence that this “stabilization” happens to coincide with Germany’s post-Soviet rise to power in Europe.
A feature article in the March 11 edition of the Economist stated that Germany “has spent the past decade smashing its own taboos. In 1999 it sent its armed forces into battle for the first time since the Second World War … to protect Kosovo from Yugoslavia.” What the article does not state is that it was Germany and the Vatican’s deliberate challenge to the balance of power in the Balkans at that time—by their recognition of Croatia and Slovenia as sovereign nation states separate to greater Yugoslavia—that started the Balkan wars. This invited German participation in the subsequent Balkan conflict under the NATO umbrella. The upshot is that Germany has now announced that its occupation force in Kosovo will not be leaving!
German nationalism enjoyed a convenient and seemingly benign revival during the nation’s hosting of the football World Cup in 2006. The German flag was paraded openly and prolifically during that tournament demonstrating a great revival in national patriotism and pride. The Economist noted that “Germany now defends its national interests more frankly, especially in Europe.” To those with a decent memory of 20th-century history, this presents a degree of concern, for, as the Economist noted, “a more self-confident Germany would also be a more selfish one.” That has recently been demonstrated by Germany’s approach to the Greek financial crisis.
Noting that “Germany’s most popular politician is Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, the aristocratic defense minister,” the Economist notes that “few people doubt that Germany’s destiny lies within it. National pride is partly linked to a sense of international duty.”
What is the German perception of its “international duty”? The Economist makes a fatal mistake in its answer to that question by declaring that “Germany’s friends no longer worry much that pride will ever become hubris again.” That is a classic Anglo-Saxon pacifistically naive assumption which denies the realities of history. It denies the very nature of German history from the time that Bismarck united Germany into a single nation which soon became a singular military power. The results were the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, less than half a century later the First World War, and less than a quarter century following that, the Second World War. There followed 44 years of a divided Germany, with no outbreak of war on the Continent. Then within two years of the reunification of Germany in 1990, the newly united nation, supported by the Vatican, triggered conflict in the Balkan Peninsula.
Can we not get the point—the true lesson of history here? Germany united is a danger to peace in Europe! In fact, Germany united at the helm of a superpower now only second in global power projection to the United States is a threat to world peace!
That Germany is the powerhouse of Europe economically, financially, industrially and militarily is an undeniable fact. Professor Moravcsik states the unvarnished truth that “In trade and investment affairs, Europe is a global economic superpower larger that the United States and far ahead of countries such as China and India” (Current History, op. cit.). By simple extrapolation, that places Germany, as Europe’s leader in all these spheres, at the very forefront of global powers.
Moravcsik adds, “Taken together with its military activities, Europe’s civilian capabilities, economic importance, and political attractiveness render it a full-spectrum power, wielding a wide range of instruments for regional and global influence.” Once again, Europe’s leading power by far, Germany, is at the forefront in demonstrating these capabilities.
Yet Andrew Moravcsik is sufficiently astute as to detect the near absolute blindness of foreign-policy exponents in Washington in not even beginning to recognize the dangers posed by the new European superpower. He notes that “in Washington, Europe is still widely viewed as a declining region, barely able to take care of its own geopolitical interests, and increasingly irrelevant …. This is a failure to learn not simply from history, but from international relations theory.”
Washington will soon rue its failure to learn the lesson of history and the lessons of the very theory of international relations taught at its institutions of higher learning. In the meantime, as the gullible Western press and mass media divert the public’s attention to the spurious, the banal and the salacious, Rome and Berlin rise as the powers of the future soon to put paid to the views of the naive and the ignorant who view Europe simply as a spent force. Nothing could be farther from the truth!
For a firm grasp on the reality of global affairs, in particular the rising power of the European superstate, read our latest booklet, He Was Right. •
Archived at Europe—the Hidden Superpower
