On the 23rd of June, 2016 the British people voted to leave the European Union over 40 years after entering the European in union in 1973. This sparked David Cameron, the Prime Minister of the day, to resign.

Teresa May, a “vote stay” politician became Britain’s prime minister. Her bold statement, of “BREXIT means BREXIT” was accepted as a clear direction forward.

The Prime Minister’s government was challenged at the supreme court, where they lost, and would be forced into putting the BREXIT deal to parliament for ratification.

Almost a year later, on March 29, 2017, the British government invoked Article 50 of the Treaty on the European Union, which set March 29, 2019 as the date that Britain was to leave the EU.

For over a year BREXIT negotiations ground on without much progress at all. Teresa May gambled by calling an election during the month of May which cost her the majority in the House of Commons and forced her to make a deal with the Democratic Unionist Party to prop up her government.

May’s “Checker’s Deal”, her BREXIT plan, caused ministers David Davis, Boris Johnson, and eventually Domanic Raab, to all resigned from the government, along with others. 

The Deal could not received enough backing to pass the British Parliament, and looks doomed to fail in a vote that has been pushed off until mid January 2019.

Calls for a second referendum are being made. 

So have we got it wrong with BREXIT?

The Destiny of Europe in Bible Prophecy

We do not know how Britain’s extraction from the European Union is going to take place, but we know it is a foregone conclusion based on different destinies outlined by Bible for the European Union and Britain. 

Consider an overview of the European Union as symbolized in Bible prophecy:

1. It is identified with the successor of Rome in the divided iron/clay toe kingdoms of Daniel’s image, during whose time the Kingdom of God is going to be established:

“And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay…. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” (Daniel 2:41-44)

So it is during the toe-kingdoms that the kingdom of God is setup.

2. The toe kingdoms are destroyed with the image when the little stone, (the kingdom of God), smites the image:

“Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” (Daniel 2:35)

3. The European Union is also identified with the horns of Daniel’s 4th beast, which has 10 horns (like the 10 toes) and these are identified with 10 kingdoms:

“And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.” (Daniel 7:24)

4. These will be destroyed with the beast at the coming of Christ, because of the blasphemy of the little horn that comes up amongst them:

“I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.” (Daniel 7:11)

5. Daniel’s beast is found in the book of Revelation where it goes through a metamorphous. Its last phase is that of the great red beast with 10 horns on which the woman rides in chapter 17:

“So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.” (Revelation 17:3)

6. The 10 horns are identified with 10 kingdoms, just like the toes of the image, and these kingdoms pool their sovereignty together to form the last beast phase:

“And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.” (Revelation 17:12–13)

7. These 10 horn kingdoms are destroyed (like the toe kingdoms of Daniel 2, and the Horn Kingdom of Daniel 7), when they make war with Christ and the saints:

“These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.” (Revelation 17:14)

The Destiny of Britain in Bible Prophecy

Now Britain has an entirely different destiny. We have considered comprehensively  in the Bible in the News over the past few years, and in the Bible Magazine how Britain is identified with Tarshish. The Tarshish nation is found to be involved in the restoration of the Jews and the establishment of the Kingdom of God:

It was to be the ships of Tarshish that would be involved in the restoration of Israel to the land:

“Surely the isles shall wait for me, And the ships of Tarshish first, To bring thy sons from far, Their silver and their gold with them, Unto the name of the LORD thy God, And to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee. And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, And their kings shall minister unto thee: For in my wrath I smote thee, But in my favour have I had mercy on thee.” (Isaiah 60:9–10)

This was partially fulfilled in the role Britain would play in removing the Ottoman Turks from Palestine, paving the way for the creation of the state of Israel.

In the time of the end, when the nations of Europe do come against Israel, Britain will be allied with its young lion nations, and the Sheba and Dedan in protesting Russia and Europe’s invasion of the land:

 “After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee…. Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?” (Ezekiel 38:8-9,13)

So we see here the Tarshish nations are not participants in the invasion, like the European nations, but rather are protesters against it.

When David’s son is established on his throne in Jerusalem, the Tarshish nation will be suppliant to him, and will not be destroyed like the nations of Europe:

“Give the king thy judgments, O God, And thy righteousness unto the king’s son. He shall judge thy people with righteousness, And thy poor with judgment… The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: All nations shall serve him.” (Psalm 72:10–11)

So we see from these few passages entirely different destinies for Britain and the nations of Europe.

May Wrexit?Replace this text to add a caption.

Many have pointed out that Prime Minister Teresa may was a “remainer” during the original BREXIT vote, campaigning for Britain to stay in Europe. When the vote failed to go the way of the establishment in Britain, David Cameron resigned, and Teresa May was catapulted into the leadership position, even though she didn’t support the direction the country had decided to go.

Has Teresa May, has been involved in a WREXIT, and not a BREXIT, sabotaging the vote to leave Europe?

This is certainly the view of Nigel Farage, interviewed this past week:

“…the people had a vote, despite being threatened by everybody, and being told it would be terrible for us economically and everything else. We were big enough and ugly enough to say, “You know what, we want to be free. We want BREXIT.”

The difficulty is parliament just doesn’t accept that still. That is why two years  and nine months on we are still struggling with this.   This will come to a head in January. The second to third week in January will be the absolute key moment when we understand where we are going. Mrs. May has negotiated a deal, but it is a dreadful deal as we have discussed already.

There are then two options:

One is we leave on what is called World Trade Organization Rules, and that is the basis at the moment that we trade with America and China. There is nothing to be scared of, but of course the globalists are telling us that would be awful. That is one option, and I cross everything and hope that is what happens. And even if we do have a bit of short term disruption, because all change in life… you move house and there is a bit of disruption, and I hope that happens passionately.

My fear is that the establishment just do not respect the result, and they are going to do their damnedest to try and make us vote again, which seems totally extraordinary, and it could come to that.

What I am doing, is I’m preparing for every eventually. It would be criminally negligent of me to pretend that there is no prospect of a second referendum. So, I am getting ready, and rebuilding a people’s army, and you know something if they want to take me on again, next time it will be no more Mr. Nice Guy from me.

We shouldn’t be dismayed if there is a second referendum, or lose faith in the clear destiny of Britain and Europe as outlined in the Bible.

Don’t forget, the Irish voted against ratifying one of the European Union agreements, and the EU forced them into a second vote where the agreement was ratified.

Remember the rule of law when it comes to God’s plans and mans:

“This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.” (Daniel 4:17)

For instance, like him or hate him , Donald Trump has been installed by angelic hands as president of the United States. He has moved the American Embassy to Jerusalem and has recognized it is as the legitimate capital of the Jewish people. Like him or hate him, he is doing the Father’s will.

Even in the Bible there were times when the kings of the earth struggled against the angels and the will of God. Consider the testimony of the Angel Gabriel:

“The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.” (Daniel 10: 13)

Gabriel had to get help from Michael, the chief prince of the angels, because the king of Persia (Cyrus at this time) withstood him for a three weeks. However, Cyrus eventually yielded to the angelic hand as is recorded in 2 Chronicles 36:

“Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the LORD God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The LORD his God be with him, and let him go up.” (2 Chronicles 36:23)

A similar statement is recorded on the Cyrus Cylinder. The angels are at work in the nations bringing about his will. Even if a second referendum happens, we know the eventual destiny of Britain.

Closer Ties with the Young Lions

The scripture depicts an alliance between Sheba and Dedan and the Merchants of Tarshish with all the young lions in Ezekiel 38:13. We’ve already seen America’s response to the slaying of the Turkish journalist, and how the USA is not willing to sacrifice its relationship with Saudi Arabia.

In the same interview mentioned earlier, Farage pointed out the benefits BREXIT would have between British and US relationships:

Firstly, President Trump is a believer in Brexit, because President Trump believes in nation-states, he believes in democracy, not in global bureaucracy. He has always wanted Brexit to happen. I think there is no great secret that he feels Mrs May’s negotiating position, frankly, has been pretty weak, from day 1. Second point, one of the things President Trump has always wanted to do from day 1 is to show the world that because he believes in America first, because he believes in some trade relationships around the world are unfair, doesn’t mean he wants to close America off from the rest of the world. He is for trade deals if it is with countries that don’t under cut, countries that have equivalents.

Here is the problem:  Mrs. May’s deal ties us in to what is called the Custom’s Union, ties us in to all of the European Union’s rules on external tariffs and all the rest of it, and effectively means we will not be able to negotiate a free trade deal with America for many, many years to come.

 I think Trump, and I did speak to him about it, and basically this is a big lost opportunity for the both of us. Do you know America is the biggest investor in the UK, the biggest overseas investor; and we are the biggest overseas investor in the USA. There is a wonderful relationship between our countries that could get even better.

So rather than end in disaster, although there may be an adjustment period, the end result would be stronger ties between the UK and the USA, which is the picture painted by the Bible.

A New Cold War with Europe

The scriptural reality is that the diverging roles of Britain and Europe mean hostilities must grow between the two. This is what is developing out of Britain’s divorce with the European Union. In the recent G20 Summit in Argentina, the EU

President offered two options:  the current deal, or no BREXIT at all.

The European Union has just agreed to an orderly divorce with the United Kingdom. A few days before the vote in the house of commons it is becoming more and more clear that this deal is the best possible. In fact, the only possible one. If this deal is rejected in the commons, we are left with, as was already stressed a few weeks ago by Prime Minister May, an alternative, No deal, or no BREXIT at all.

When May solicited the EU for concessions following the pending rejection of the deal, the EU refused. She has since pushed the vote out until January 16th admitting she could not get it passed in the house of commons.

A hostile relationship is developing between the EU and Britain. Farage was asked about this:

Reporter: You said that “the EU was basically starting a Cold War with United States.” What did you mean by that?

Farage: We effectively yes, I think that is right. I think that in two ways.

Firstly, in terms of trade. They just don’t want to budge an inch. You charge 2½% on BMW’s coming in here, but they charge 10% on your cars, and hey, that’s just not a fair deal.

More than that,  deeper than that, and more worrying than that is NATO. Whatever its imperfections, NATO has been there since the 1940’s. The USA is the absolute key player, but the second key player is the UK. Between us we have had this alliance going for nearly 75 years, now what the European Union want to do is build their own army. Now they say it will be complementary to NATO, but in reality, kind of what they are saying is we don’t like America, we don’t like Trump, and we are trying to break down all these things that have existed for so long. Frankly, it is an act of the most extraordinary ingratitude. I have said in the European Parliament in the last few months, that maybe what we ought to do  is say to ourselves, “If it wasn’t for America, we’d all be speaking German, and we wouldn’t be free countries.” It is a very odd psychological attitude that the EU has to America, and yeah, we are in a new Cold War.

So in the tumultuous heaving of the sea and the waves, let us not lose sight of the course the figure of God has set out for Britain and Europe.

In order for the nations of Europe to participate in Ezekiel 38, they must be militarized. The participation of Britain in the EU has blocked the militarization of Europe, and specifically, a European Army from the beginning. With Britain out of the way the EU has forged ahead to make this a reality, clearing the way for them to live up to the scriptural requirement of an…

“…army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:” (Ezekiel 38:4)

Britain will leave the European Union. It may not be an easy extraction, it might be quite violent, the British Government has even gone so far as to put 3500 troops on standby to support the government, as Gavin Williamson, the Defence Secretary stated in the house of commons:

What we are doing is putting contingency plans in place, and what we will do is have 3,500 service personnel held at readiness, including regulars and reserves, in order to support any government department on any contingencies they may  need.

It may be a rough ride for Britain over the next year or so, but the finger of God has indicated a course that must be pursued by the leaders of the UK, whether they like it or not. Circumstances will arise that will force their hand in fulfilling the Father’s will.

As Bible students what we eagerly look for is a change of government, not just in Britain, but world-wide. There will be a melt-down in world order, and world government, but ultimately, this will pave the way for the creation of the Kingdom of God on earth:

“Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation (lifestyle) and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens (the political heavens) being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.” (2 Peter 3:11–14)

The exhortation to us is to prepare ourselves for the time when the roaring of the sea and the waves will be replaced with the tranquility of the reign of Christ, where righteousness will be the order of the day.

For the Bible in the News, this has been Jonathan Bowen joining you.