Familiar Terms

Words can be powerful things. With so many similar words to choose from—especially in the English language—I am often amazed at how the use of a particular word or phrase in just the right situation can stop a reader right in his or her tracks. Perhaps this has happened to you. You read a certain line and are so struck by it that you have to pause and consider what it means for you.

I can remember one such instance, myself. I was once reading an article in Newsweek, and the writer's concluding paragraph leapt off the page at me. The phrase was very meaningful. It was something that I had been hearing again and again throughout the years, but was now hearing from a different source. Something that I had been told would happen, something that I had been watching for, passed right in front of my eyes and it could not go unnoticed!

The End of the Euro, written by Niall Ferguson, concludes as follows:

Europe now faces a much bigger decision than whether to bail out Greece. The real choice is between becoming a fully fledged United States of Europe, or remaining little more than a modern-day Holy Roman Empire, a gimcrack hodgepodge of "variable geometry" that will sooner or later fall apart.

If you have been following Tomorrow's World for any length of time, you are probably quite familiar with some of the phrases used in this paragraph. Our free booklet, The Beast of Revelation: Myth, Metaphor or Soon-Coming Reality?, on page 24 asks the question, "Is this European Union setting the stage for the future—a seventh and final attempt at resurrecting the grandeur and might of imperial Rome?"

What about this "gimcrack hodgepodge"? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines gimcrack as "a showy object of little use or value," while a hodgepodge is a mixture of different parts; a jumble. Essentially, one of the possibilities for Europe's future is a showy but unsubstantial mixture of nations. This sounds very similar to the book of Daniel, where it is revealed that a future world superpower will be "partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided" (Daniel 2:41).

Will this modern day Holy Roman Empire fall apart as Niall Ferguson suggests? Again, I would like to reference our free booklet, The Beast of Revelation: Myth, Metaphor or Soon-Coming Reality?, page 26:

Yet beyond the bad news there is good news—really the best news possible. In the days of this final union of European rulers, "the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed … it shall stand forever" (Daniel 2:44).

What the article misses is the fact that Europe is not at a cross-roads of two possible futures. The Bible shows that Europe will again rise up with great strength, but only for a little while.

Events are unfolding before our very eyes that were prophesied long ago in the pages of the Holy Bible. I strongly encourage you to study the analysis of current events provided online at tomorrowsworld.org and the "News & Prophecy" section on lcg.org.

Then, as you watch world news, keep an eye out for events you have been told ahead of time would happen and know that the truth about what is to come for the entire world can only come from God Almighty as He alone is able to declare "the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done" (Isaiah 46:10).