Growing German power in Europe.

“The euro crisis will give Germany the empire it’s always dreamed of,” so wrote the Chief Political Correspondent Peter Oborne in his Telegraph-supported blog.  Oborne referred to the recent agreement by EU leaders to a German-led plan to continue “bailout” funding for Greece and Portugal—a decision that is likely to impact Spain, Italy and Ireland as well.   What this means is that Germany, with Europe’s strongest economy, will be footing most of the bill—with German tax money going to support Greece and Portugal, while these nations work to pay off their debt.  In some cases the debt payback periods have been extended to 40 years!

On the flip side, this opens up tremendous market potential for the sale of German manufactured goods well into the future.

Mr. Oborne also states, “By authorizing a huge expansion in the bail-out fund that is propping up the EU’s peripheral members (largely in order to stop the contagion spreading to Italy and Spain), the eurozone has taken the decisive step to becoming a fiscal union.  So long as the settlement is accepted by national parliaments, yesterday [July 20, 2011] will come to be seen as the witching hour after which Europe will cease to be, except vestigially, a collection of nation states.  It will have one economic government, one currency, one foreign policy.  This integration will be so complete that taxpayers in the more prosperous countries will be expected to pay for the welfare systems and pension plans of failing EU states… Yesterday’s witching hour of the European Union means that Germany has come very close to realizing Bismarck’s dream of an economic empire stretching from central Europe to the Eastern Mediterranean” (Telegraph, July 21, 2011; EU Observer, July 26, 2011).

According to one conservative source, “Germany is on the verge of once again becoming a great power… The French nightmare scenario of an unrestrained Germany is now possible” (Stratfor, July 26, 2011).

Oborne’s comments are particularly sobering in light of God’s end-time prophecies about a future European Beast power that will comprise ten kingdoms or nations (Revelation 17:7-13).  This group of kingdoms will give their power over to the Beast.  We are witnessing a situation in Europe where these debtor nations will be forced into fiscal subservience to rich European nations, particularly Germany, for many years to come.  Exactly how this all plays into Revelation 17 will be very interesting to watch.