"A day will come when all the nations of this continent, without losing their distinct qualities or their glorious individuality, will fuse together in a higher unity and form the European brotherhood. A day will come when the only battlefield will be the marketplace for competing ideas. A day will come when bullets and bombs will be replaced by votes.”

Is this a quote from a recent EU Assembly session? No, it is a quote from Victor Hugo in 1849. For centuries, European thinkers have dreamed of a united Europe. In the past few years their dream has come true, and it is just as the Bible predicted.

In Daniel 2, the image that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream showed the breakdown of the Gentile empires leading into the final empire of the anti-Christ. Each portion of the statue—representing an empire—is abruptly cut off and gives way to the next section, except for the feet. The feet is a mixture of the Roman iron and clay. The Roman Empire never ceases to be; it just changes form. The ten toes represent ten kings who will give their power to the Beast (Antichrist) for one hour during the Tribulation (Revelation 17:12–13). The identities of these ten powers are not clearly stated, but they are clearly tied to the old Roman Empire, and therefore Europe.

Many events since the fall of the Berlin Wall have thrust Europe closer to unification. This past December, all members of the EU ratified a European constitution. A special council was appointed in 2001 to draft the constitution. They spent two years drafting the 300 page document (by contrast, the US Constitution is only twelve pages), then another four years revising it before it was ratified by all member states as the Lisbon Treaty. This is another preparation for the coming world leader known as the Antichrist.