Sign #2: Europe United

Back in 1989, Time Magazine said, “The wall crumbles overnight. Berliners embrace in disbelieving joy and a stunned world ponders the consequences.” Well, that’s been a decade ago, we remember and many of us shall never forget the Berliners dancing on the Berlin Wall. And you can’t pick up your paper today without understanding that Europe seems to be coming together in some very interesting ways. What connection could there possibly be between a revived Europe and the return of Jesus Christ? Well, that’s the topic that we have before us today.

As you know, this is a series of messages titled, Seven Signs of Christ’s Return. Last time we talked about the return of Israel, today we speak about the unification of Europe. Now you say, “Well, where is that found in the scriptures?” Well, what I want you to do is to take your Bibles and turn to the second chapter of the Book of Daniel.

Daniel 2, a pagan king at that time—though he was later converted—had a dream and he did not know how to interpret the dream. It says Daniel 2:1–4, “In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him. Then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be summoned to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king. And the king said to them, ‘I had a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream.’ Then the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, ‘O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.’”

And King Nebuchadnezzar said, “No way, Jose.” Now he said it in Aramaic, but that’s what he said [laughter]. “No way, Jose. I know you guys. I tell you my dream, and you give me the interpretation. You’re making this stuff up. But, I do have an agreement to make with you. If you tell me what I dreamed, then I’ll believe your interpretation and if you don’t and cannot tell me what I dreamed, then you will be cut in pieces.” It’s called pressure [laughter]. And they say Daniel 2:10–11, “There is not a man on earth who can meet the king’s demand, for no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean. The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh. (They’re off on vacation. What are we going to do?)”

By the way, when you’re walking in the streets of Chicago and you see those signs that say a palm reading, or astrologer, or horoscopes read. What you should do is to say a prayer and keep on walking because one of two things are true. Number one, either they’re making this stuff up. If they’re too good at it, and they’re too specific, and they know too much about you, you know that their source of information comes from the dark side of the spirit world. Well, you say, “How do you know that?” Because the Bible is very clear we’re to stay away from such things. God calls it a personal affront. He calls it an abomination to try to seek wisdom that way and knowledge. And if they have a hidden knowledge about you that could not have been received by ordinary means, clearly, it’s coming to them from the spirit world and there are spirits who know a whole lot about you, by the way. So maybe there’s a connection there.

But one way to call their bluff—and I don’t suggest you do it because you’re not supposed to go there—but one way to call their bluff would be to say, “You know, I had a dream and I’ve come for the interpretation.” And you can just imagine them saying, “Oh, sure. Tell us the dream and we’ll interpret it.” And then you say, “You know, you’re making that stuff up. You tell me what I dreamt and then I’ll believe you.” That’s what the king did here and all of them said, “We are en route to the gallows. This is not working very well.” And then Daniel steps in who had a responsibility of being the cupbearer. He was next to the king, had a responsibility. Information comes to him and he says, “I think I can help.”

By the way, have you ever thought of the unique providence of God in bringing Daniel to that position? I want you to know today that you are providentially where you are in offices, in business places, in banks, and factories. God has put you there and sometimes it is there for a specific reason at a need in time when they need you. You know God, and you walk with God, and your resources and abilities suddenly become very, very important. That’s what happened here.

Daniel prays a wonderful prayer in Daniel 2:20–23. He says, “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise knowledge to those who have understanding; he reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him. To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for you have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of you, for you have made known to us the king’s matter.”

The astrologers didn’t know, but God knows. By the way, did you know that God knows what you’re dreaming? And He not only knows the good dreams, He knows the nightmares. He knows the struggles that you have in the depths of your soul, perhaps even because of occult invasion, and occult harassment in your own experience. God knows all those things. He knows, the text says, “What is done in darkness because the darkness and the light are the same to him.” Now, Nebuchadnezzar goes to the king—I’m making a long story short here—and he says, “I want to tell you two things. I’m going to tell you what you dreamed, and I’ll tell you the interpretation.” And the king said, “If you can do that, you’re in. You’re in. I’ll believe you.”

Daniels 2:31–35, he says, “You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.”

If you have not done a lot of Bible study, or if you’re a new Christian, or you’ve had no orientation to the Scriptures at all, you say, “What in the world does that mean?” And if you say that, you’re not alone because that’s exactly what Nebuchadnezzar was saying. He said, “I had the dreams. I saw this metallic man, a huge statue, and I saw the different kinds of metal, but what could it possibly refer to?”

Dreams, by the way, are very interesting. They come to us sometimes from outside the situation. When you go to bed at night and you’re thinking about something, oftentimes you dream about it. And my mind has such creativity, sometimes I’m overwhelmed by what I dream. But, none of my dreams have ever come to pass. But this one did.

Now Daniel says—I’m going to give you the interpretation, so hang on. Don’t be discouraged if there was too much symbolism, if you don’t know what all of this metal is about. Daniel 2:36–38, “This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation. You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all—you are the head of gold.”

Wow. So, the head of gold is none other than Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian Empire. Then he says, “And after you, there will be another kingdom, an inferior kingdom to yours.” That is the breast and arms of silver known as the Medo-Persian Empire. Do you see the accuracy of Scripture? God says, after Babylon there’s going to be an empire that’s going to have two arms. The reason it will have two is because it is Medo-Persian and its metal is inferior to gold. It is silver, but nonetheless, it is going to be in existence. Then after that, it will pass off the scene. And he says a third ruler, Daniel 2:39, “A third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth.” And that of course refers to Greece. We think of Alexander the Great who conquered the then known world and extended the Grecian Empire as far as India. He did encompass the whole earth. That’s the next empire to rise.

Then our interest is focused on the fourth empire because this is the key to where we’re going. Daniel 2:40–44, “And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these. And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. (Key verse here now, everybody awake) And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever”

You know what Daniel’s saying? He’s saying, “King, you had a vision that really began from when you’re ruling all the way to the end of time till the return of Jesus Christ.” The stone that is cut out of the mountain is Jesus and Jesus comes. When does He come? Daniel 2:44, “In the days of those kings,” when there is a 10-nation confederacy roughly united, it is at that time that Christ comes. Now, everyone that I know and have read agrees that when it talks about the legs of iron, that is the Roman Empire that followed the Grecian Empire. Yet, Rome is no longer in existence today as the Roman Empire. And what do we have? We have an extension of those legs in toes that are mixed with iron and clay and it’s during those days that Christ comes. There’s really no way to interpret this except to say that there’s a gap of time here, that the Roman Empire has to be revived. The legs of iron perhaps took place in ancient Rome during the centuries that Rome ruled, but there is still a future time when that empire is going to have 10 toes, 10 kings, because that’s the time that Christ is going to come back and establish His kingdom.

Now, what about the Roman Empire? You know that it existed for centuries and according to Edward Gibbon, who wrote The [History of the] Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, says that there is some disagreement as to when Rome fell because it really disintegrated from within. So, historians dated variously. The Roman Empire has kind of, what shall we say, fallen apart. Now it’s been fragmented.

Interestingly, during this 10-toe stage, the book of Revelation has something to say about this too. It would take too long to show all the parallels and how they fit in, so I’m just going to read a verse to you. This verse is going to show that these 10 kings are going to get together not by force, but voluntarily. It’s going to be a voluntary federation of 10 states. This is what it says. And now the imagery is not 10 toes, but it’s 10 horns. “And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour (that means a brief period of time), together with the beast” (Revelation 17:12).  They have one purpose and it is to give their power and authority to the beast. They give the power and the authority to the beast and the Bible says they make war against the lamb.

Notice that these 10 toes—by the way, as we shall see in the next message when we talk about the rise of Antichrist, this is where he’s going to come from is among those 10-nation confederacy. You’ll notice it says they give their power to the beast. It isn’t forced upon them. Because they are iron mixed with clay, you’ll notice it says in Daniel, they are united and yet they’re not really united. They’re maintaining some kind of identity. It’s during those days the Lord will come.

Now, let me simply remind you of the fact that historically people have always tried to revive the old Roman Empire. We go back to the days of Charlemagne, Charles the Great. He was in St. Peter’s Basilica on Christmas day in the year 800 AD, and the Pope surreptitiously—I don’t use that word often, but I love it, I’m going to say it again. The Pope surreptitiously came and put the crown on his head and said, “I need you.” Charles the Great became the beginning of what is sometimes called the Holy Roman Empire, which Voltaire says “Was neither Roman, nor holy, nor was it an empire.” He became the civil head. He tried to unify Europe and the Holy Roman Empire never really unified Europe. They were all independent states, but there was a rough kind of unification. How long did that last? Nearly a thousand years until the time of Napoleon in 1806. So, you have the year 800 to 1800. That is a thousand years. The Holy Roman Empire had this rough fragmented existence.

Now after Napoleon, of course it broke apart and you have the end of the first Reich. That’s the German word for kingdom. When I was growing up, we used to always say the Lord’s prayer in German: “Dine Reich komme. Your kingdom come.” That’s the first Reich. Years go by, and in 1871, Kaiser Wilhelm is crowned in the Hall of Mirrors in France to spite the French. Otto von Bismarck had Kaiser Vilhelm I crowned there in France. And why is he called Kaiser? The German word, Caesar. He is Caesar Wilhelm. The intention was to revive the Roman Empire and to finally unify Europe. If it takes war, let it be war, but let us unite Europe together in one.

Well, you know, of course that failed after Germany lost World War I, 1918. Then there was another man who arose and this other man was Adolf Hitler, and Hitler began what was known as the third Reich. The third attempt now, major attempt, since ancient Rome collapsed to unify all of Europe. He always said that he was beginning a Reich that would last a thousand years. He knew that Charlemagne had not really accomplished it because the empire was too loosely federated. But he thought he could begin something that would last for a thousand years. It lasted 12 years and six months.

Now today, do we begin to see this voluntary association of states in Europe coming together, not with war yet, but with a federation, a sense of voluntary, as the Scripture says, giving their authority? Some people have thought it would be the European common market. We don’t know. There’s always some danger in trying to read the present trends into what we are seeing.

But let me give you some ideas as to how I think Europe will look under the unification that is described here in the Book of Daniel. First of all, we can expect some kind of geographic unity. The rough outline of the old Roman Empire, it doesn’t have to be the exact boundaries because those boundaries even changed. But roughly speaking, and that included parts of North Africa, even some of England, Southern Europe. All of those countries that were roughly the Roman Empire, we can expect them to be unified at least in a general sense as the nations give their authority and their power.

Secondly, we can also expect economic unity. Back in 1988, The Economist said low a central bank for Europe. And it predicted the day when Europe would have a single European currency. Well, wouldn’t you know that on January 4, 1999, some 12 years or so later, what do we have? We have the Euro. You have the Euro bringing Europe together in that economic powerhouse that will be important for its survival. What you find is now trade happens more easily, tourism is easier because all that you need to do is to change your money once. Then you can go from France and Germany and the different countries, 13 of which now belong to this federated union.

Time Magazine about 10 months ago had its lead cover story entitled “The Future of Money.” And Time said that the day is going to come when cash will no longer be needed, that it is much better to have what they called “electronic cash” that can be sent and therefore all transactions can be known—you can’t have drug dealership where there’s thousands of dollars passing in cash under the table. But what you can do is to make sure that all transactions therefore are done on a computer and it’s going to be so much easier, so much better, so much faster, and so much more accurate. Now we’re going to discuss that in the next message when I talk about the rise of the Antichrist. But we can expect in Europe today economic unity.

[Thirdly,] political unity. I came from the National Religious Broadcasters meeting less than a month ago. In the final banquet, my wife and I sat with a correspondent from England and also a representative from Germany. It was interesting to hear the two of them discuss something, namely now that Europe is having a central currency, are they also going to have a central government? Is there someplace where this loose federation is finally going to have a clearinghouse? The feeling is beginning to grow that a country when you have 10, or 12, or 15 different countries all using the same currency, you need some kind of centralized economic control. And central economic control means a central government. It’s interesting that the conversation, I had not thought of that, but that’s what they were talking about. So, we can expect political unity.

We can expect military unity because wherever there is wealth that is concentrated, that wealth of course, must always be protected. And so, Europe has this. Now this was the dream of Eisenhower. Eisenhower talked about the day when there would be the United States of Europe, he said. And the Scripture says that when you have that 10-nation confederacy, it is then that Jesus Christ will appear.

Seven signs of Christ return, possibly one of the signs is what is happening before our eyes as Europe begins to come together. Let me draw some final thoughts from this passage of Scripture here in the book of Daniel. First of all, remember God is in control of the nations. It is He who has ultimately the headlines in His hand.

You’ll notice that Daniel says that it is “He who gives knowledge to the wise.” And we read it there in Daniel 2:21, “He removes kings and sets up kings.” God is God. Here is God looking into the future. If you take the book of Daniel and say that it was in four or five centuries BC, He’s looking into the future 2,500 years or even maybe beyond our era and He is saying, “This is what is going to happen in the end of time.” And Nebuchadnezzar has a dream that talks about four kingdoms, and the fourth kingdom extends to the return of Christ, all the way he sees it. So let us keep in mind that God is God. When you pick up the headlines, and when you see things politically that are very disquieting, and you feel that there are people who are getting by, always remember that God is God.

I feel so sorry for atheists. We ought to weep for atheists. We ought to weep for the naturalists who simply say that there is no God because for them that means that there will never be justice brought to a situation. Never. It’ll always be unjust. I have an atheistic friend who lives actually on the same block as we do, and because he’s Jewish in his orientation, I said to him one time, “Do you feel a little bit disquieted? Does it trouble you to think that Hitler will never be judged?” And he did agree that that was troubling to atheists. Well, I want you to know today that the Bible teaches that God is actively involved, but God is also judge, and therefore all the things that seem to be slipping through our fingers never escape the notice of God. Always remember God rules.

There’s a second lesson Daniel can teach us, the return of Jesus Christ is certain. There are few things in life that are absolutely certain. Mathematics, I think we would all agree is absolutely certain. Two plus two is equal to four even if other things should happen that you wouldn’t expect to happen. There’s a certain amount of certainty in the connection of ideas. When it comes to other matters, nothing seems to really be certain. But there’s only a few inevitabilities in history and one is that God’s word will be fulfilled and Jesus Christ shall come. Count on it.

Now here’s what strikes me. Here’s Jesus being born in Bethlehem under Roman rule, by the way, as Palestine was in those days. The Jews were under the heel of Roman occupation. Here’s Jesus born under Roman rule, and then He comes again and the Scripture says that that fourth kingdom is going to last. It’ll have to be revived so that Jesus Christ can come again. You’ll notice it says, He is like a rock coming out of the mountain. This is Daniel 2:34–35, “A stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors”

He’s coming back when Israel will be under Roman rule because the Antichrist is going to have his peace treaty with Israel. The simple fact is, what a difference in how He’s going to come. Not that little baby in the manger you could pick up and cuddle. Now He comes as the rock, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. The Romans who crucified Him and nailed Him to the cross, there will be a Roman ruler who will again try to defy Christ as the Antichrist. But no matter, never mind. Jesus will show that He is king and all others before Him as chaff. And to think, we get to love Him. We get to love Him and we get to rule with Him.

Finally, your relationship with God today, my dear friend, is determined by your relationship with Christ. We don’t know when Jesus will come. All that we can do is see that things seem to be coming together in ways that were unthinkable even years ago. But all we know is, come He will and whether He comes or not, we’re all going to die. Some people die young. It comes in such a haphazard way. And then we shall be in His presence.

If you are standing on your own record, you will be damned because nobody stands in the presence of God on his own record. It’s like standing 10 yards from the Son, the holy God about whom we heard this morning. The only way you can do it is to flee to Christ who is our righteousness, who is the one who makes us acceptable to the Father. The only one qualified out there. There is no other person who’s qualified, and you come to Him, and you receive Him as Savior, and say,” I want to receive Him so that I too may look forward to his coming.”

And by the way, I just want you to know I look forward to His coming. I’m anxious to see Jesus. Now He’s with us by His Spirit. I understand that, but wouldn’t it be wonderful to see Him in person with the body that He was resurrected and the body that was taken to heaven? To actually see the nail prints on His hands. That’s how real the body is. To know that we shall be with Him forever and ever.

Isaac Watts was a great hymn writer and one day he wrote a song that many of us sing, and we shall be singing in a moment.

“Jesus shall reign where’er the sun
does its successive journeys run,
his kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
till moons shall wax and wane no more.

“To Him shall endless prayer be made,
and praises throng to crown His head.
His name like sweet perfume shall rise
with every morning sacrifice.”

There are only few inevitabilities and one is that He shall come as the stone and smash everything in His way. Let’s pray.

Father, we ask that you in these moments might help us to love Him more. Help us to share the good news that we can be forgiven and cleansed and belong to Him forever. Make us that kind of the people we pray.

Father, help us to be done with lesser things knowing that the Lord shall come. He shall come. And Lord, even as we see events, we pray that we might not be foolish in thinking we know times or dates or years, but Lord, we are amazed at what you’re doing in the nations of the earth. Make us faithful until we see you face to face.

And now for those of you who’ve never received Christ as Savior, even where you are seated, you can say, “Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner. Save me.” Would you tell Him that?

Father, in those lives in which you’ve begun a work, do not leave Lord. Do not leave them until they have met you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Editor’s Note: In this transcript, the verbatim intelligent transcription process simplifies and enhances spoken content by eliminating redundant words, unnecessary sounds, fixing grammar errors, and clarifying meaning while preserving the author's original intent. All Scripture quotes are according to the biblical text, not as they were originally spoken.