commentary: Yet Another Call for a European Army

Where Is the Beast's Military?
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Given 20-Nov-21; Sermon #1626c; 11 minutes

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If the Church of God's previous prophetic speculations about a military might emerging from the European Union (assuming the Beast rises out of Europe) are to happen, obstacles need to be surmounted. Except for Emmanuel Macron's call for a European army (perhaps prompted by French pride), none of the other members of EU want to contribute anything to an army, even in the recent craven, cowardly behavior displayed by the Biden Administration, making NATO defunct in power. The German Bundeswehr (vastly different from the Wehrmacht) now uses broomsticks rather than rifles for maneuvers. If the Daniel 11:40 prophecy (referring to the King of the North) represents the combined EU army (10,000 strong armed with broomsticks) is to emerge, it could take years. Is it possible that the King of the North will arise from somewhere else? God is on His throne, and prophecy will be fulfilled. Dogmatically locking on prophecy is foolish. We do not know how we will get from here to there. We patiently need to see how God will work out future events.




Listen to this quote:

Before World War II, Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong preached about Europe uniting under a coming world dictator, and when the Axis Powers fell to the Allies in 1945, he proclaimed that a United States of Europe would rise from the ashes of the devastated continent. Now, 51 years later, we continue to preach the same message, and its fulfillment still seems years away.

I wrote those words for a 1996 Forerunner “Prophecy Watch” article. It has now been 76 years since the end of WWII—and a quarter-century since writing those words—and still no King of the North or Beast power has risen in Europe.

Europe’s military “might” has interested me for quite some time—obviously a quarter-century of writing articles. In fact, my first ever Forerunner article, in July 1992, was a “Prophecy Watch” titled “Europe Edges Toward Common Army.” In 2005, I wrote another titled “The Beast’s Militarism.” This topic interests me because it stands to reason that, if the Beast (or the King of the North) is to rise out of Europe, he will have to command significant military power to overwhelm the modern nations of Israel and whoever else stands in his way. The Bible’s prophecies all point to him being a heavy hitter militarily. Let's to to Daniel 11:40 just to see one. I won't go through all the prophecies about the Beast because that would take a while and I only have about 10 minutes. But I want to read this because it is important for us to see this fact:

Daniel 11:40 At the time of the end [and I hope we all believe we are in the ballpark there] the king of the South shall attack him; and the king of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind, [now notice this:] with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through.

I don't know if that sounds like overwhelming military power to you, but it does to me. I have been hanging my writings on this for a quarter-century now. This kind of gives you a flavor that the Beast is going to be at the head of very strong armies. So, we look for a strong military power to arise in Europe.

Recently, there has been yet another call for a European army within Europe, this time spearheaded by French President Emmanuel Macron, as part of his reelection campaign. He apparently hopes to replace outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel as the de facto leader of Europe. The EU needs its own military because, he claims, the US is no longer a reliable ally. He cites Biden's rash exit from Afghanistan. He also cites the uncomfortable pressure America is putting on Europe to side with it over China. And he is chaffing a bit at France's exclusion from a new security alliance in the Indo-Pacific region. That really stings because you have heard about French pride; they still think of themselves as a great power, and whenever they are left out of something they feel very slighted.

The EU consists of 27 member states that disagree on almost everything. Perhaps they will agree on some overarching principles for how they want to unite and how they want things to go, but they will bicker and dither over the details. The apple has to be this size and not this size—a difference of millimeters, rather than, "The apple looks good to eat; let's sell it."

The same sort of bickering and division is happening on this issue of an independent European army. Some agree with France that the EU needs one, and some do not. Some want to remain in the comfort of the NATO alliance, with the presence of American troops and all our materiel, and work through NATO. And some do not, and usually they say they don't want all the American influence. Because, generally, Europeans hate Americans when it comes to most things—we are crude and young upstarts.

Many do not want to pony up the money—it usually comes down to that. They do not even want to pay the agreed-upon 2% of their GDP to finance anything. They don't even want to give it to NATO, and they sure don't want to give it to the EU to fund some incipient army. Many of them—sad to say—are broke and very much in debt because of their bloated social programs, and the politicians don't want the repercussions of taking money out of social programs and putting it into soldiers and guns. They feel that would be devastating to them politically, so they back away from that sort of thing.

Such problems have always quashed the idea of Europe becoming a military superpower in the pas, and it is happening again. It is an economic powerhouse, especially Germany, but militarily, alone, it can hardly fight its way out of a paper bag. Here’s proof: In 2020, Germany, the biggest economy in the EU and the fourth-largest in the world, spent only 1.53% of GDP on defense. Now, it's a lot of money, but it is still not enough to do anything useful. The German Parliament published a critical report in January 2019, finding that critical equipment was scarce and that readiness and recruitment were at all-time lows. A high-ranking German officer stationed in Berlin admitted, “No matter where you look, there's dysfunction.”

The German magazine, Der Spiegel, revealed in May 2018 that only four of Germany’s 128 Eurofighter jets were combat ready. NATO requires Germany to have at least 80 combat-ready jets for crisis situations. They only need to get 76 of them ready. As 2017 ended, not even one of the German Air Force’s 14 large transport planes was deployable due to a lack of maintenance. In October 2017, the German Navy admitted that all six of the nation’s submarines were in the dock for repairs. They could not even get out of they wanted to. In February 2015, its defense ministry admitted its forces were so under-equipped that German soldiers had to use broomsticks instead of machine guns during a NATO exercise in Norway. That's how bad the German army is today.

EU affairs analyst Matthew Karnitschnig ("Ritenbaugh" is bad enough; "Karnitschnig" is . . .) quipped: “With Merkel on her way out, fixing the Bundeswehr will likely be up to her successor. Until then, plans for a ‘European Army’ that includes Germany have about as much chance of getting off the ground as the German Air Force.” France—along with many other European nations, is little better. They don't have what it takes to field an army, and even if you put them all together in one place, they don't amount to much. The only EU nations that could be relied on in a crisis are Poland and Belgium, of all places, both of which have fully committed to integrating with NATO for their defense.

Most of us considering Bible prophecy, this leaves us in a bit of a quandary, doesn't it? The Europeans keep saying they want their own EU army, but so far, the best they have done is a Rapid Reaction Force with about 10,000 men. Where is the mighty army the King of the North will use? Must we wait for many more years, deep into this twenty-first century, before Europe gets its act together and fields an army of its own? Or, are we all wet, and the King of the North will rise from somewhere else?

Legitimate questions. Legitimate answers, I cannot give you. I do not know. What I do know is that God is on His throne, and He will work in His own time to bring about Bible prophecy and the return of Jesus Christ. The scenario I've discussed today points out the folly of becoming too locked-in to our own interpretation of prophecy. Knowing what the Bible tells us about these things—that's good. We should know what the Bible says about the times ahead. But we don't know how it is going to work out. We don't know how we are going to get from here to there, so we need to stay alert and see how God works all this out.

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