There is another element that has developed on the world scene concurrent with the formation of the EU, which will also play an intriguing role in the formation of the final world order. The Apostle John saw a beast having both seven heads and ten horns arise out of a “sea” of political turmoil. Previously, we had interpreted the seven heads to be a symbolic representation of the seven world empires of Biblical history. That interpretation is certainly correct, but could there also be another application to this prophecy which no one could have suspected until our day? Is it possible these seven heads also represent seven literal powers which will arise at the same time as the ten horns of the revised Roman Empire? This speculation gets even more interesting when we consider that since the mid-1970s seven major nations actually have become associated and meet on a yearly basis to discuss and control global economic issues. Every summer, the political and finance leaders of France, Britain, West Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan, and the United States get together to decide upon the economic course of the world. They called themselves the “Group of Seven” (or the G7 nations), which certainly identifies the group as consisting of seven heads [of state]. But that’s not all. Also present with them at every meeting has been the current president of the European Commission representing the entire EU. The seven most important economic powers of the world have been gathering together annually with the parliamentary head of a growing European empire. Was this alliance of nations just coincidental or does it reflect a growing fulfillment of Biblical prophecy? Let’s look more closely.
The Western Alliance
The annual meeting of the Group of Seven came about as a perfect reflection of how the power structure of the world developed after World War II. The fact was that up through the 1990s, the controlling powers of global economics and commerce were not represented by the nations of the EU alone. The movers and shakers of the new global system had come from three main areas: North America, Europe, and Japan. These three regions associated together with common purpose became known as the Western Alliance, and they were initially formed to be the counter-balance to the threat of the Soviet Union’s military strength and expansionism. However, the allies of the post-World War II era created much more than merely a defensive alliance during the Cold War; they formed a dominant, global economic and political system that was far more powerful than any other group of nations the world had seen. The Western Alliance controlled the global banking system and literally set trade and financial policies that the rest of the world had to abide by if they wanted to do business with them.
By the end of the century, it would have been nearly impossible for even a totally integrated and unified Europe to completely control the world. Not only did they have the allied economies of the West to contend with, but also they still had to consider the former nations of the Soviet Union (CIS), India, and the surging Asia-Pacific (APAC) nations, represented best by China.
This is not a denial of the potential of Western Europe. A type of United States of Europe certainly would have had dramatic influence in the later part of the 1990’s. Even Henry Kissinger warned during the Nixon years that…
“In the long run we could be confronted by an ‘expanded Europe’ comprising a Common Market of at least ten full members, associated memberships for the EFTA (European Free Trade Area) neutrals, and preferential trade arrangements with at least the Mediterranean and most of Africa. This bloc will account for about half of world trade, compared with our 15%; it would hold monetary reserves approaching twice our own; and it will even be able to outvote us constantly in the international economic organizations” (41 ∑).
This long-term speculation on Kissinger’s part could come true quickly, especially on an economic front, if the Europe succeeds at full integration. However the military potential of Western Europe lags farther behind. For at least the foreseeable future, the United States will play a crucial role as a military superpower and the main defensive force of the Western Alliance. The decided victories in Iraq and Afghanistan after 911 only underscore the unequalled ability of America’s might. It would take decades for the balance of power to change in any appreciable fashion, even if Europe, led by Germany, should begin a major arms program.
However, if we take into consideration a broader “seven headed, ten horned” alliance which consists of North America, Europe and Japan, we have a totally different perspective. This expanded “empire” not only has the military firepower to insure its own security in the face of any conceivable enemy, but also so completely dominates the world economically that it has virtually no rivals whatsoever. Even the growth of the APAC nations of the Far East can’t withstand the combined economic, political, and military power of North America, Europe, and Japan. At least in theory, the Western Alliance could control the world through a calculated plan of economic persuasion backed by military might.
This is a viewpoint shared by others as well. In the aftermath of the deaths of 269 passengers on Korean Airlines flight 007 shot down by the Soviet’s, former President Richard Nixon said that the incident “provided the United States, Western Europe, and Japan with an issue that unifies them” (excerpt from “Real Peace: A Strategy for the West”, by Richard Nixon, 1983). At that time, Nixon called for the Western nations to do two things to counter the Russian threat and to consolidate their position in the world. “First”, he said, “we must restore the military balance on both the conventional and nuclear levels.” The former president believed that the west had fallen dangerously behind in matching the Soviet buildup.
President Reagan certainly echoed Nixon’s feelings on this issue and increased America’s defense budget by unprecedented amounts during the 1980s. He also sought similar commitments among our European allies to re-arm.
The second thing that Nixon said we must do is “mobilize and use the economic power of the West as both a carrot and a stick.” He continued to say, “The industrial democracies out produce the Soviet bloc by a ratio of 3-to-1. But this advantage is being frittered away because of our failure to unite in using it as a strategic weapon. The Korean jetliner incident has united the West on the political front. It is time to unite on the economic front as well.”
It appears that the assembling of the Beast of Revelation has been coming to pass not merely as a ten-nation confederacy limiting itself to the confines of the European continent, but as a world-encompassing alliance of unequaled power and influence.
The fall of Communism
A major, if not the major factor in the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union was their inability to compete with the Western Alliance economically. Communist philosophy excluded Russia from the club. Try as they might, the old Warsaw Pact could never hope to prosper when the richest nations in the world considered them outsiders.
However, with the democratization of Eastern Europe and the disintegration of the USSR, all that changed dramatically. Suddenly, Eastern European countries were applying to the EU for associate memberships in the community, while the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was looking for multi-billion dollar aid packages to help them integrate into the free-market economies of the West.
The globalization of economic markets was rushing the world toward unity as no military force ever could. The Chicago Tribune said, “The growing internationalization of all markets is reducing the ability of national governments to control their own economies” (Chicago Tribune, Apr. 25, 1985). They went on to speak of the one aspect of this globalization that will eventually make it easy for the Antichrist to control the world: “Rapid improvements in technology and communications have brought the world closer together; interdependence is the wave of the future.”
When the seven-headed, ten-horned Empire-Beast finally gets its satanic leader, he will be able to influence and control even his enemies because of the vast economic and military might of the empire. The necessity of being a part of this new world order will subdue the East as well as the Third World. All nations will have to go along with the Antichrist’s decrees or face certain economic (and perhaps even military) catastrophe.
Next: Globalist Movements (coming soon)
