Last week another meeting took place, French President Emanuel Macron sat down for a chat with Russian President Vladimir Putin.  When these meetings happen there is always interest from a Bible Prophecy perspective as Bible students have long waited for an empire develop that would include Europe and Russia.  What came out of that meeting certainly shows that those in power in Europe are moving events directly in line with where the scriptures have indicated millennia ago they would.  And with Britain showing every sign that she really may Brexit, Europe will be left to finally pursue her ambitions unimpeded.

Welcome to another edition of the Bible in the News.  This is John Billington with you this week.

From the reading of the prophecy of Ezekiel 38 Bible students have waited for the time when a great northern confederacy of nations would develop on the territory of Europe and Russia.  The basic area these nations call home according to Ezekiel is in “the uttermost parts of the north” (verse 15), north of Israel that is.  This gives us a vague idea of the area we are looking at.  But we are also given a list of national names in the prophecy, some are still recognizable today, however others not so much.  

Of particular interest is that of ‘Rosh,’ a proper name as we see it in the RV in verse 2, a name that today is not used.  There is an old manuscript that has survived called the Septuagint, which was a complete Bible in Greek from over 100 years before Christ, and rather helpfully the Greek word the translators used for ‘Rosh’ is actually still recognizable today.  That word is Ῥώς and refers to the ‘Rus’ peoples.  A name that has carried through to Russia and Belarus.  More can be found about the background of ‘Rosh,’ and also the other nations mentioned in Ezekiel 38 in the back issue of the Bible Magazine Vol 21. No. 4 (http://www.biblemagazine.com/magazine/vol-21/v21i4mag.pdf).

One thing is for certain, many Bible students have looked for this great confederacy or empire to develop for many years.  This expectation did not come from Ezekiel alone, but also from the book of Daniel, Revelation, and others.  It was John Thomas writing in the 1800s who wrote in the exposition of Daniel the following:

“By turning to a map of Europe and Asia, the reader may trace out the territory of the Kingdom of Babylon as it is destined to exist in its last form under the King of the North in his Gogian manifestation. The names of countries furnished by Ezekiel will lead him to a just conception of its general extent. Besides "All the Russias", it will take in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Prussia, Austria, Turkey, Persia, Tartary, Greece, the Roman Africa, and Egypt. This will be a dominion of great magnitude, extending from the North Sea to the Wall of China and Afghanistan, and from the Ice-Sea to the Deserts of Africa and Arabia.

The organization which this vast empire will assume, when fully developed, is represented in the second chapter of Daniel by a Colossus in human form, which as an apparition flitted before the mind of Nebuchadnezzar in a dream. Daniel says that the scene of which it was the subject, was representative of what should be "in the Latter Days". This being admitted, it follows that what is recorded in that chapter is yet in the future. The scene exhibits a Colossus standing on its feet in unrivaled brightness of glory, and terrible to behold.”

Gaining the full extent of this empire has certainly been tried, but it has always been slightly elusive in coming - Napoleon and Hitler both came to their ends in Russia.  God was keeping parameters on these nations, and when the time was right it would not be lead militarily from the west, but from Russia.  

It is no big reveal that there have been discussions about a Europe that stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but recently Russia’s actions in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine among other things certainly ended most of those conversations.  Not all of them, however.  This past week Emanuel Macron sat down as we said with Vladimir Putin.  On Macron’s English Facebook page it gave the following message:

“I hear that it is useless to talk to Russia, that it does not have an impact. I don't agree: not talking to her would be to isolate her, push her into a privileged dialogue with a handful of powers like China. That's what wouldn't be in our interest.

We are two permanent members of the security Council: we need to talk to each other, find points of agreement, convergence.”

On Macron’s Russian Facebook page he went a little further however with the following message, this was translated using Google translate:

“Russia is a very deeply European country. We believe in Europe, stretching from Lisbon to Vladivostok.

Progress is evident on many political or economic issues, for we are making efforts to develop Franco-Russian relations.

I am convinced that in the course of this multilateral restructuring we must develop an architecture of security and trust between the European Union and Russia.”

A Europe integrated with Russia stretching from Lisbon to Vladivostok is what we have been waiting for.  But one may wonder why.  Well, an article from the Ukrainian news outlet 112, from a country certainly with skin in the game, wrote the following after the meeting:

“Macron called Russia a great European power and called a meeting with Putin - a historical moment in international relations; he spoke about the need to build a new security architecture to create Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok, and even stated that the cooperation of liberal democracies with another system could give positive results. Macron accepted Putin’s invitation to attend the Victory Parade in Moscow on May 9, 2020, where leaders of foreign countries, who attach particular importance to relations with Russia, gather most often. The meeting in Bregancon indicates that France is making a foreign policy turn towards Russia due to certain circumstances, which may not bring the most favorable consequences for Ukraine.

“There is nothing new in Macron's discussion of Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok. He simply borrowed the idea of ​​Greater Europe, which has existed in political and expert circles since the beginning of the twentieth century. British geopolitics Helford John Mackinder and his German counterpart Karl Haushofer believed that the rapprochement of continental Europe and Russia could lead to the emergence of a powerful center of power that could successfully compete with the United States and Britain and prevail over these maritime powers. This idea came to taste to the ex-president of France, Charles de Gaulle, who was going to build Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals, together with Germany, the Soviet, and the countries of the social camp.”

It is clear to the Ukrainians, France wants to move away from the maritime powers, the United States and Britain, and is now willing to give Russia another try.  How incredible is that sentence in a news article?  It will be France and Russia against the maritime powers.  Language almost lifted straight from Ezekiel 38.  For more information on those maritime powers, specifically in the language of the prophecy, the “traders of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof” you can read Bible Magazine Vol. 20 No. 3 (http://www.biblemagazine.com/magazine/vol-20/v20i3mag.pdf), and Vol 26, No 4 (http://www.biblemagazine.com/magazine/vol-26/v26i4mag.pdf)

It was also seen in that article that “this may not bring the most favorable consequences for Ukraine.”  That’s an understatement.  Hanging the Ukrainians out to dry is however supported by the Vatican.  The following excerpt is from the Catholic Herald and was written after Putin’s last visit to the Vatican in July:

“It’s clear what Putin wants. An aggressor in Syria and Ukraine, and a supporter of the murderous regime of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, he wants to exploit his warm relations with Pope Francis for moral cover. He got that on this visit, with the Holy Father overlooking Russia’s role in Syria’s civil war. Instead, “Russia’s efforts to preserve and protect the [Christian] holy places were praised.”

The next day, when the Holy Father greeted the leadership of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, it was clear that Russia’s annexation of Crimea and invasion of eastern Ukraine was not on the table. Pope Francis spoke of a Ukraine “wounded” by more than five years of “war in which those responsible are camouflaged”.

It is not such a great mystery who the wounding is being done by. The Ukrainian bishops to whom the Holy Father was speaking have made it abundantly clear that Russia is the aggressor. Putin, though, got what he wanted: the Holy Father sees ambiguous camouflage where Ukrainian Catholics see Russian colours, bright and bloody. Yet despite what Ukrainian Catholics think, Pope Francis has made it clear that Rome will not be making any fuss over Russian military action.”

The Vatican never made any fuss over German military action in the second world war either.  Since the loss of the Holy Roman Empire and the papal states, the Vatican has always desired to build a European empire once again.  And so today, this European project is known to be a Roman Catholic project in many ways, and prophetically Britain just does not belong.  It was in an article written by Tim King on Politico (politico.eu) back in 2005 where he writes the following:

“What is now the EU was the creation of Roman Catholics: Robert Schuman, Konrad Adenauer, Jean Monnet, Alcide de Gasperi and Walter Hallstein. Roman Catholicism was in at the birth of the EU. Britain was not…

…The Vatican’s influence on European politics may now be weaker, but still the imprint is there. There are mainstream newspapers in the likes of Spain and Belgium that are still distinctively Catholic.

All of this matters to Britain and its relations with the EU. The UK talks a different language. It does not share the same assumptions. The UK, for instance, does not suffer the same agonies as some EU states over admitting Turkey to the EU, because it has never accepted the EU as a Catholic construct. It may have signed up to the Treaty of Rome, but it didn’t sign up to Rome.”

The differences seen by Tim King are real and certainly in line with Bible Prophecy.  And with the coming exit of Britain from Europe, as we said at the beginning, Europe will be free to pursue her agenda of building with Russia an unrivaled empire, unimpeded by that forever troublesome maritime power to the northwest.  This final great empire that Bible students have waited for is finally getting some wind in its sails.  

Things will, however, get ugly when this Empire rises up to challenge the power of the United States, Britain, and their allies.  What it does mean though, is that we are another week closer to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ who will shatter the power of this empire on the mountains of Israel, as Ezekiel the prophet foretold in chapter 39.

This has been John Billington with you this week. 

Come back next week as we continue to watch the incredible events in the world unfold according to God’s word and plan at www.bibleinthenews.com