By Gerald Flurry, J. Tim Thompson and Stephen Flurry
“The Resurgence of Nazi Germany”
How could the appalling evil and message of hate inspired by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime during World War ii ever resurface in this sophisticated age? World history and Bible prophecy should strike us like a bolt of lightning with the proper answer to that question! But man has not learned history’s lesson, and Bible prophecy is laughed to scorn.
Yet for those with an open mind, history and prophecy reveal where this modern-day resurgence of Germany is leading. The spirit and message of Hitler did not die when the war ended. It lives on. And soon, its ugly head will resurface to thrust this world into one final all-out battle before Christ returns (Matthew 24:21-22).
In 1941, before the war ended, German author Emil Ludwig wrote a book titled The Germans: Double History of a Nation. Ludwig was not the least bit surprised to find Germany leading nations into another worldwide conflagration. On page 484, he wrote, “A nation that has for a thousand years borne whatever authority was imposed upon it, that never fought of its own will for its freedom, that quickly sought its way back under the yoke when it attained freedom against its will—the world ought to grasp that this German nation as a whole shows no inclination to change. The first error to which we succumbed when we believed after the [First] World War that a new Germany was possible—that first error should protect us against a second.”
We should have learned our lesson from the First World War—the war that was supposed to end all wars. But we didn’t. People shunned Winston Churchill in the years preceding World War ii, even calling him a warmonger. Yet true to Churchill’s prediction, the Nazi war machine set out to rule the world and destroy anything that happened to be in its path. If not for Churchill’s unyielding leadership, the Germans would have realized their goal.
Did the Germans and the rest of mankind finally learn the lesson?
Miracle of the 1950s
Herbert Armstrong described Germany’s devastating destruction in 1944 and 1945 as “one of the worst beatings” ever administered to any nation. “By the end of World War ii,” he wrote, “all cities of over 50,000 population in Germany were left in a heap of ruins, and also a great many smaller towns. Every fourth house in all of Germany was smashed. Most of the cities were 80 percent destroyed. Cologne and Essen were 90 percent destroyed. Of 29 bridges spanning the Rhine, all were destroyed. The view of wreckage over all this major nation was absolutely indescribable. People by hundreds of thousands rendered homeless were dragging their weary feet along clogged and crowded highways impeding traffic, other thousands stomping across fields and sleeping in ditches. The Germans were defeated. War, this time, struck their own Fatherland” (Plain Truth, August 1959).
Western leaders from both sides of the Atlantic assured our peoples that a demoralized Germany would never rise up to strike again. In a signed document about American-British policy on Germany in February 1945, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill said, “It is our inflexible purpose to destroy German militarism and Nazism and to ensure that Germany will never again be able to disturb the peace of the world. We are determined to disarm and disband all German armed forces, break up for all time the German General Staff that has repeatedly contrived the resurgence of German militarism; remove or destroy all German military equipment; eliminate or control all German industry that could be used for military production. … It is not our purpose to destroy the people of Germany, but only when Nazism and militarism have been extirpated will there be hope for a decent life for Germans and a place for them in the community of nations.”
But while Washington and London were promising that Germany would never again be able to strike, Herbert Armstrong was preaching to the whole world that Germany would rise again.
Notice what he said in a report he gave from the United Nations on May 9, 1945: “The war is over, in Europe—or is it? We need to wake up and realize that right now is the most dangerous moment in United States national history, instead of assuming we now have peace!
“Men plan, here, to preserve the peace of the world. What most do not know is that the Germans have their plans for winning the battle of the peace. Yes, I said battle of the peace. That’s a kind of battle we Americans don’t know. We know only one kind of war. We have never lost a war—that is, a military war; but we have never won a conference, where leaders of other nations outfox us in the battle for the peace.
“We don’t understand German thoroughness. From the very start of World War ii, they have considered the possibility of losing this second round, as they did the first—and they have carefully, methodically planned, in such eventuality, the third round—World War iii! Hitler has lost. This round of war, in Europe, is over. And the Nazis have now gone underground. In France and Norway they learned how effectively an organized underground can hamper occupation and control of a country. Paris was liberated by the French underground—and Allied armies. Now a Nazi underground is methodically planned. They plan to come back and to win on the third try” (Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong, vol. 2, pp. 114-115). He said that in 1945! But very few people really believed Mr. Armstrong. Many, even today, ridicule his statements.
Brian Connell wrote Watcher on the Rhine in 1957 to report on the new Germany just 12 years after the war. “You have to look hard in Germany today,” he began his book, “for the visible remnants of defeat. You have to look even harder if you remember the catalepsis of total surrender only a dozen years ago.”
Another historian described Germany’s astonishing recovery after World War ii as the “miracle” of the ’50s. Mr. Armstrong, who visited Germany in 1954 and 1956, witnessed the miraculous turnaround firsthand.
When the West (led by the United States) started rebuilding Germany, even Konrad Adenauer, the German leader after World War ii, said it was “taking a calculated risk.” He knew his own people. He knew Nazism was not dead. It was never destroyed; it just went underground.
Nazism Did Not Die
In his book, Brian Connell sums up the ridiculous situation that developed after World War ii. He wrote that in the spring of 1947, “The vexed problem of denazification, which had been handled up to that time by the Allied authorities, was handed over to the Germans” (p. 37). Just two years after their defeat, the Germans were actually told to denazify themselves!
Later, using Bavaria as just one example, Connell called the German denazification effort a farce, saying the “Bavarian administration is largely in the hands of those who controlled it under Hitler.” Connell’s research substantiated the claim: “Statistics show that 20,682 of the 49,445 civil servants belonged to the Nazi Party or its affiliates. A total of 14,443 of these were dismissed and later reinstated in the service. Almost all of the 11,000 teachers who were removed for political reasons have been reappointed, representing roughly 60 percent of the teaching staff employed by the Ministry of Education. Sixty percent of the 15,000 employees in the Finance Ministry are former Nazis, and 81 percent of the 924 judges, magistrates and prosecutors in the Ministry of Justice” (p. 107).
To make matters worse, just four years after the Allies handed the denazification process over to the Germans, “The German government declared officially that the denazification procedure had been terminated” (ibid.). So much for cleansing itself of the Nazi virus!
Public opinion after the war indicated that Nazism was still in full force. Roger Eatwell referred to these revealing opinion polls in his book, Fascism: “Although only about 10-15 percent of the population were classified as hard-core Nazi, the researchers found that there was a strong, lingering sense of racism. In 1946, 48 percent of Germans thought that some races were more fitted to rule than others; even more remarkably in 1949, 59 percent were willing to say that Nazism was a good idea badly carried out…. Few claimed to have been opponents of the regime.”
Several other historical documents released in the past few years add to Connell’s evidence that the Germans failed to denazify themselves. In 1991, Mark Aarons and John Loftus released a book titled Unholy Trinity which told the story of how Vatican-sponsored underground networks illegally smuggled Nazi leaders out of the country after the war. Aarons and Loftus based their findings on newly released u.s. intelligence documents that had been classified for almost 50 years.
In 1996, another shocking intelligence document was released to the public. It revealed that when Nazi leaders realized they were losing the war in 1944, they met with top German industrialists to seek financing for the underground Nazi party “so that a strong German empire can be created after the defeat.” This intelligence document, which should have sent shock waves through every newsroom in the world, received only sparse coverage.
And in 1997, Martin Lee, in his fascinating book, The Beast Reawakens, revealed that “there had never really been a clean break from the Nazi past, given that the original leadership of the West German Bundeswehr was recruited directly from the upper echelons of Hitler’s army. (Only three out of 217 Bundeswehr generals in 1976 were not Third Reich veterans, and 37 military bases in the Bonn Republic were named after soldiers who made their reputations during the Hitler years” (p. 286).
From these documented facts and from what we see in Germany today, there are two overriding themes we ought to let sink into our minds. First, the almost overnight transformation of Germany from a devastated nation sifting through rubble and ashes to one of the most dominant and powerful nations in the world is nothing short of miraculous!
Second, and equally miraculous, is the relative ease at which prominent Nazi leaders were either carted away to safety through vast underground networks or else admitted into the same positions they held during Hitler’s regime!
The Wall Comes Down
Ever since the Communist stranglehold on Eastern Europe loosened, and then finally let go during the late ’80s and early ’90s, fascists have been clamoring to fill the power vacuum. Nothing hastened this power changeover more than when the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989, exactly 66 years after Hitler was arrested for his famous beer hall putsch. Almost overnight, a neo-Nazi revival was underway in the Fatherland. They had been dwelling underground long enough. The Beast Reawakens, as the title plainly suggests, reveals the insidious details of this sinister revival.
The chronology of events, coupled with some alarming statistics since the wall came down in 1989, should serve as warning enough that Nazi Germany is storming back, and with a vengeance.
From 1990 to 1991, the number of organized right-wing extremists jumped from 32,000 to 40,000. Not surprisingly, the number of violent racist incidents also increased in 1991. There were 1483 of these violent incidents recorded that year—ten times more than in 1990. Even more frightening are the surveys indicating 50 to 60 percent of the police in some areas sympathize with the Nazi cause! In preventing racial hate crimes, law enforcement, in some areas, was at best half-hearted.
By 1991, German officials admitted they had seriously underestimated the Nazi movement.
The situation worsened in 1992, when it was estimated that the number of organized, right-wing extremists exceeded 65,000. There were over 2,100 violent racial incidents in which 17 people were killed. Explosions and fire bombings were up 33 percent over 1991. By this time, observers outside of Germany were beginning to take notice. “The situation had deteriorated to the point,” Martin Lee wrote, “where for the first time since World War ii, immigrants began to flee Germany to hoped-for safe havens in other countries” (ibid., p. 269).
One particularly frightening incident occurred in 1992 in the small Baltic seaport of Rostock, located about 100 miles north of Berlin. “In a scene starkly reminiscent of the 1930s, thousands of local residents roared approvingly as a throng of neo-Nazis attacked a refugee center for Romanian Gypsies” (p. 273). The Nazis ended up torching that shelter and another nearby hostel while local police stood by and watched. One officer later admitted, “The police had an arrangement with the rowdies not to intervene.”
Even more disturbing was the admission of government authorities in the state of Mecklenberg that they were aware of neo-Nazi plans to “clean up” Rostock before the torchings occurred. But due to a “shortage of manpower,” they were unable to send in heavily armed riot police. They were able, however, to show up days later when more than 1000 people, many of them immigrants, turned out to protest the Nazi attacks.
Yet the most shocking event to come out of the week-long hostilities occurred toward the end, when “the German government caved in to the neo-Nazi mob by ordering all refugees out of Rostock. Henceforth, this economically depressed city of 250,000 would be foreigner-free, just like Hoyerswerda and several other ethnically cleansed redoubts in the Fatherland. Next came an official announcement that close to 100,000 Gypsies would soon be deported to Romania and other parts of Eastern Europe” (ibid., pp. 274-275).
Hoping to stamp out the fiery racial tensions, the government’s decision to deport immigrants only added fuel to the fire. Emboldened by their victory in Rostock, a new wave of neo-Nazi violence and attacks on foreigners spread into 100 different cities over the next two weeks. As German newspapers splashed startling headlines across the nation, some observers had to ask themselves, “Could it happen again?”
Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s administration, after dawdling for months, finally appeared to clamp down on right-wing extremism in early 1993 when it outlawed certain groups. But it amounted to little more than a slap on the wrist.
That very year, on May 27, the Bundestag buckled under to further neo-Nazi demands when it passed the asylum law, which set firm restrictions on immigrants seeking asylum in Germany. The United Nations and various human rights groups vehemently denounced the law.
Government action like that above confirmed what many outsiders already suspected: that the influence of right-wing extremism was penetrating even the moderate political parties like Kohl’s Social Democrats.
Something dark and sinister was brewing in the Fatherland. The wave of neo-Nazi violence in 1991 and 1992 frightened German immigrants and alerted the world to the fact that Nazism was not dead, at least not within right-wing circles. But there were rumblings of far greater seriousness unfolding within the highest levels of the German government.
Blatant Fascist Reminders
In the early 1990s, right-wing parties like the Rupublikaner and Deutsche Volksunion began enjoying greater success at the ballot box. Opinion polls at the time explained why. In 1990, just months after the wall came down, one survey revealed that more than a third of Germans from the east and west felt they “need not be ashamed of the legacy of German fascism.”
In 1991, the German news magazine Der Spiegel polled readers and found that 62 percent felt it better not to “talk so much about the persecution of the Jews.” The following year, 36 percent of Germans surveyed agreed that “Jews have too much influence in the world.” Another survey found that one fourth of German schoolchildren felt that Jewish Holocaust stories were “greatly exaggerated.”
Not surprisingly, right-wingers were finding it easier to attract larger audiences. No doubt, these poll indicators have had an effect on the Social Democrats. In June of 1991, the Bundestag voted to move their capitol from Bonn back to imperial Berlin, headquarters of the Second and Third Reich. The Reichstag, Adolf Hitler’s seat of hate, was completely renovated in anticipation of the move.
Two months later, on August 17, the remains of Frederick the Great were buried at the Sans Souci Palace in what used to be East Germany. Frederick ruled the Prussian Empire from 1740 to 1786. Protected in West Germany until the wall came down, Frederick’s bones were buried in their original resting place outside of Potsdam. Chancellor Kohl, along with 200 other dignitaries and 80,000 others, came to pay their respects. The event was broadcast live on German television. “Some felt that this officially sanctioned display of necrolatry [worship of the dead] would send the wrong message to neo-Nazis and other right-wing extremists. Within these circles, Emperor Frederick was venerated as a cult figure because of his martial accomplishments. He often invaded foreign lands and boasted of gobbling up Polish Silesia ‘like an artichoke’” (The Beast Reawakens, pp. 282-283).
Hitler stood at the foot of Frederick’s grave in 1933 to proclaim the beginning of the Third Reich!
At a time when Germany was experiencing its worst outbreak of Nazi violence since World War ii, Kohl’s administration seemed more than willing to fan the flames of right-wing extremism!
In December of that same year, Germany decided to recognize breakaway Yugoslav republics Slovenia and Croatia despite stiff opposition from the eu, the u.s. and the United Nations, and despite the fact that the move again resurrected unsavory memories of Germany’s fascist past.
The eu eventually recognized the two states a month later. The un also backed away from a direct confrontation with Kohl. And the u.s., which at first blamed the Germans for provoking the Balkan crisis by recognizing the two breakaway states, eventually flip-flopped to support Germany’s decision! (Write for our booklet The Rising Beast for more information.)
It seemed no one was interested in meeting the Germans head-on. It gives you an idea of how quickly after the Berlin Wall fell, only two years, that Germany ascended to world dominance—marching to its own drum, with little concern for world opinion.
Yugoslavia had existed as one unified country since 1919, with the exception of one particularly deadly interlude: when Hitler made Croatia his own puppet state during World War ii. Over 700,000 Serbs were slaughtered by the Croats during the war, which is why Serbia was more than uneasy about Germany’s snuggle-up to Croatia.
Then-Croatian President Franjo Tudjman refused to disassociate himself from his country’s fascist roots. Yet his shocking stance did not dissuade Germany from pledging its full support. According to Martin Lee, the Germans exported over $320 million worth of military hardware to Croatia between 1992 and 1994. And in 1995, for the first time since World War ii, Germany committed 4,000 troops beyond its borders—inside Croatia, to enforce the tenuous peace agreement.
Since the wall fell in 1989, the world has not only witnessed an alarming upsurge in neo-Nazi violence, we have witnessed the escalating spirit of independence and arrogance within the German nation as a whole. Germany has rapidly risen to the ranks of a bona fide world power.
Today, Germany is second only to the United States in arms exports. It has a standing army of about 300,000, the largest in Europe. It has pushed itself to the forefront of influence in the European Union, which is increasing in presence and respectability on the world scene politically, economically and militarily. With France’s help, Germany will soon, very likely, be recognized as a major nuclear power. Add to that the great financial sword Germany is wielding, and you have the makings of a world force to be reckoned with.
The world, especially Europe, is growing increasingly uneasy with the prospect of being dominated by a nation historically prone to bully its neighbors and to acquire a sizable appetite for more living space.
Modern-Day Jeremiahs
For several decades God’s Church has been warning of the emergence of Germany as the most dominant player in a European Union of nations. The Bible teaches that this force will suddenly catapult the world into the third and final world war.
Yet, even if we set aside Bible prophecy for a moment, there are more than enough modern-day Jeremiahs warning about Germany’s developing links with its fascist past. We have quoted one of these modern writers, Martin Lee, in this chapter. In his words, “Something awful was laid bare by the fall of the Berlin Wall. The fascist beast had reawakened and was on the prowl again.” Other well-known books, like Roger Eatwell’s Fascism, Bernard Connolly’s The Rotten Heart of Europe, and Margaret Thatcher’s The Downing Street Years, all serve as Churchillian warnings for a world that has proven itself prone to slumber as events grow worse. Most of the mainstream press is oblivious to the dangerous, foreboding presence developing on the horizon in Central Europe. That’s the way it was before World War ii.
We must wake up and heed the words of this handful of informed and astute political analysts. “You have not anchored Germany to Europe,” Margaret Thatcher said in 1995. “You have anchored Europe to a newly dominant, unified Germany. In the end, my friends, you’ll find it will not work.” It is Germany’s national character to dominate, she said.
While Germany lay in ruin and ashes after World War ii, Herbert W. Armstrong had the crystal-clear, prophetic vision to see a Germany that would again rise to world dominance. He knew the Nazis were not eliminated altogether. They only hid themselves, like cockroaches when the kitchen light is switched on.
With the implosion of the former Soviet Union and the gigantic power vacuum it left in the heart of Europe, we have seen Mr. Armstrong’s stunning predictions unfold with uncanny preciseness. A few observers are alert to the grave danger set before us. Are you?
Let us now consider where these events inside Germany fit within the framework of biblical history and prophecy.
Dirty Laundry in the German Army
Neo-Nazi related incidents in Germany have multiplied so much in recent years that most crimes no longer warrant much press coverage in the Fatherland. It appears that racial hate stories are now old news. Like “soft” pornography, off-color language or gratuitous violence, the more we are around it, the less we are shocked—that is, unless something far worse grabs our attention. What will it take for this world, especially those nations that nearly surrendered to the Nazi regime in World War ii, to wake up to the frightening stew of racial hate stirring in Central Europe?
Nazism did not die when Hitler’s forces were crushed—it merely went underground. A host of surveys, violent incidents, and even recent German government policies confirm it.
When the Berlin Wall crumbled in 1989, the signal to all underground fascists could not have been more clear. It was time to resurface. At first, hate crimes were sporadic and unrelated. But each “success” converted more adherents to right-wing doctrine. Soon, surveys revealed that many German citizens even sympathized with certain Nazi views. In fact, in 1997, a European survey revealed that 34 percent of Germans consider themselves “quite racist” or “very racist.”
In recent years, far-right views have wedged their way into the highest levels of German government. Recently, another sector within the German sphere has been tainted by Nazi influence—the Bundeswehr, or the German Army.
Fascist Memories in the Balkans
In December 1991, just two years after the Berlin Wall collapsed, with complete disregard for strong world opinion and for the fate of the Serbs, Germany adamantly declared full support for the secession of Slovenia and Croatia from the republic of Yugoslavia. A violent civil war erupted in Yugoslavia thereafter.
The war in Yugoslavia signaled a new era in the German Army, which had been dormant since World War ii. Between 1992 and 1994, the Germans exported more than $320 million worth of military hardware to Croatia. In 1995, Germany agreed to send military transport planes, medical personnel, and other support to the Balkan combat zone. At that time, however, they would not send ground troops. “This would render us part of the problem rather than its solution,” admitted Volker Rühe, the German defense minister. (Over 700,000 Serbs were massacred during World War ii by the Nazi regime which absorbed Slovenia into the Third Reich and created a puppet state in Croatia.) Obviously, Germany knew that any show of force in the Balkans would make the Serbs extremely nervous.
Yet in 1995, not long after Rühe’s statement, Germany committed 4,000 troops inside Croatia to help enforce the so-called peace agreement. It was their first troop deployment outside Germany since World War ii.
At first, Germany’s extended effort in the Balkans seemed noble. But it wasn’t long before disturbing reports surfaced, including one where German soldiers in Croatia were heard chanting “Sieg Heil” and “Heil Hitler.”
Even more unsettling was a video discovered in 1997. In it, soldiers who were training for their mission in the Balkans acted out executions and rapes. The question is, how many soldiers were involved and how many officers knew about it? The German defense minister and Chancellor Kohl both insisted that these were only isolated incidents, which is the same argument they used for other such reports.
A Nazi Rally—in the Bundeswehr?
Manfred Roeder is a convicted Nazi terrorist. In 1973, he wrote the foreword in the book Auschwitz Lie. He set up a terrorist group which was linked to several bombings in 1980, including an Italian train station and a Jewish synagogue in Paris. In 1981, he was convicted for killing two Vietnamese immigrants in Germany with a fire bomb. The following year, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison. After his early release in 1990, he again joined extreme right-wing organizations. Roeder has been linked to a bevy of right-wing activity for nearly 30 years. German intelligence even lists him as a terrorist!
So why was this convicted neo-Nazi bomber invited to speak to new recruits at an elite officers academy for the Bundeswehr? Good question. Roeder’s address to the Bundeswehr in May 1995 only became public knowledge in 1997. He spoke about “ethnic German” Russians residing in Kaliningrad—a Russian city on the banks of the Baltic. (German nationalists would like to see the region absorbed into the Fatherland.)
In addition to the speech invitation, Roeder says the German defense ministry donated a small amount of cash, vehicles, and other tools to his organization in 1993. The whole incident has been quite embarrassing for German officials. They suspended the officer in charge of the academy and denied any involvement in the decision-making leading up to the invite. Another “isolated incident.”
The “isolated incidents” have been popping up regularly in the Bundeswehr for several years now. There were 72 right-wing incidents in the German Army in 1996. This number had climbed to 135 in 1999 and jumped to 196 in 2000. One particular outrage occurred in the small German town of Detmold. Uniformed German soldiers, while shouting “Wogs out of Germany,” attacked two Turkish immigrants and a 16-year-old Italian boy with baseball bats and knives.
In 1997, the Sunday Telegraph in London quoted Helmuth Priess, a retired lieutenant-colonel in the German Army. Priess claims that there are far too many officers in the Army with right-wing sympathies. He recalled one incident where a commanding officer told him to stress the importance of a familiar Nazi motto: “Work makes you free” (a sign bearing that inscription hung above the entrance to Auschwitz). Priess was shocked to hear such admonition—and from a high-ranking officer! He was later startled when he heard the officer became a general.
More recently, 21-year-old Christian Krause, the son of a former German minister, told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag that he had encountered numerous right-wing extremists during his ten-month stint in the army. According to Krause, at his base there were two or three right-wing incidents a month. At parties, “There were always toasts made to the führer and after drinking alcohol many officers would give each other the Hitler salute.…”
German officials continue to downplay neo-Nazi-related activities within the Bundeswehr. But how much longer can they keep saying that such events are only “isolated” cases—especially when statistics reveal an upward trend in violent incidents?
Time Will Tell
A document which circulates among right-wing circles admonishes converts, for now, to lay low. It says, “They should not even identify themselves as nationalists. They should join the army and the police and see to it that they acquire specialized knowledge and abilities.”
Time will tell if there are thousands more in the Bundeswehr with right-wing sympathies who have,
“Germany's Earliest Roots”
Could the German Reich, the oldest political institution in Europe, which ruled the Continent as the Holy Roman Empire for a thousand years and almost gained control of the whole world in two wars in the 20th century—could a people with a role in human affairs that large be completely ignored in the Bible? That’s what some scholars would have you believe.
The Bible does not mention the word Germany, and for good reason: They did not acquire that name until the Romans collectively labeled them Germani almost 2,000 years ago. In fact, the Germans refer to themselves as Deutsch, not German. They call their beloved country Deutschland. If we are to find the German people mentioned in the Bible, it must be under some name other than what the Romans labeled them.
In this chapter, we will prove from the Bible and other historical sources that modern-day Germany descended from the ancient Assyrians. Certainly, the Bible is the greatest historical source of all. In fact, it is the only complete historical source we have concerning the civilization of man. And once you prove who the ancient Assyrians are today, it will suddenly open your eyes to dozens and dozens of end-time Bible prophecies concerning those people.
One third of the Bible is prophecy, most of which is for our day. And you can be sure that Assyria is mentioned in numerous Bible prophecies.
But much of the Bible is also history. Bible history says much about the beginning and development of the nation of Assyria. Together, Bible history and prophecy outline the complete story of the German people from beginning to end.
The Assyrian Empire Begins
For those who scoff at the prospect of the German people moving from the upper regions of the Mesopotamia Valley into Central Europe, consider this undeniable fact: all of mankind, at one point or another, has descended from that very cradle of civilization—the Mesopotamia Valley! That is where civilization began after the flood waters receded in Noah’s day. “And the ark rested … upon the mountains of Ararat” (Genesis 8:4). Ararat is just north of the Mesopotamian Valley (the eastern part of modern-day Turkey).
As Noah’s family multiplied exceedingly, many migrated down from the mountains of Ararat to a plain in the land of Shinar, or Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq). Genesis 10 gives a brief account of this occurrence, mainly listing the lineages of Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. But God does draw special attention to Nimrod, grandson of Ham, the father of the black races. Nimrod means “he rebelled”—against God, that is. Nimrod established the kingdom of Babylon. Babylon means confusion, which is what happened when God confounded their language at the tower of Babel. Reading these early accounts of civilization clearly reveals that God names things for what they are!
Aside from Nimrod, Genesis 10 also draws special attention to Asshur. “Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah” (verse 11). As the margin suggests, a better translation of this verse reveals that Asshur and Nimrod went out of the land of Shinar to build Nineveh and other cities. There is strong evidence to indicate that Asshur worked with Nimrod, probably in the military field, and helped to build Babel and Nineveh, as well as other cities.
Now notice verse 22: “The children of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram.” Asshur was a son of Shem, the father of the white racial strain—those of fair skin and lighter hair. Notice that Arphaxad is listed in this verse as the third son of Shem. Now read Genesis 11:10: “These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood.” Neither of Shem’s first two sons, Elam or Asshur, are mentioned! That’s because they were rejected as the heirs of Shem’s inheritance. If they were working alongside Nimrod, you can see why Shem (and God) rejected them! Asshur parted with his father and became the progenitor of the Assyrian people.
Over 300 years later, Abraham, through whom God was to raise up His chosen nation Israel, was begotten of the line of Arphaxad, the third son of Shem.
It is significant that Asshur, father of the Assyrians, and Arphaxad, whose line Abraham descended from, both came from Shem. This means that while there may be some distinguishable physical differences between the Assyrians and Israelites, both peoples came from the fair-skinned, white racial strain of Shem. More on this later.
But first, let us consider this early beginning of the Assyrian people. We have already uncovered much, just from a few Bible verses. Notice what the historian Josephus recorded concerning Asshur: “Shem, the third son of Noah, had five sons…. Ashur lived at the city of Nieve; and named his subjects Assyrians, who became the most fortunate nation, beyond others” (Antiquities, i, vi, 4). Assyria quickly became the most prosperous, powerful nation of the day.
Abraham Defeats the Assyrians
By the time Abraham was growing up, Assyria was already a powerful world empire. God brought Abraham, along with his nephew Lot, into the land of Canaan and showered a multitude of wealth and prosperity on their people. It was only a matter of time before they were to be confronted by the mighty Assyrians.
Let’s pick up the story in Genesis 14:1-2: “And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations; That these made war….” These four kings were allied as a gigantic Assyrian empire, as Josephus points out: “At this time, when the Assyrians had the dominion over Asia, the people of Sodom were in a flourishing condition … the Assyrians made war upon them; and, dividing their army into four parts, fought against them. Now every part of the army had its own commander … Amraphel, Arioch, Chodorlaomer and Tidal. These kings had laid waste all Syria, and overthrown the offspring of the giants” (Antiquities, i, ix, 1). Josephus confirms that the four kings mentioned in Genesis 14 were in fact Assyrian.
Concerning Genesis 14:1, Lange’s Commentary says, “According to Ktesias and others, the Assyrians were the first to establish a world-dominion” (vol. 1, p. 403).
The last king listed in Genesis 14:1 is Tidal, the “king of nations.” He ruled in the region of Asia Minor. The name Tidal comes from a Hebrew word which means “to fear, make afraid, dreadful and terrible.” For centuries, Assyria caused many nations great fear!
These four Assyrian generals came to make war with the kings in Canaan (verses 2‑4). The Assyrians routed the people of Canaan, including the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. And in taking captives, they captured Abraham’s wealthy nephew, Lot (verses 11-12). “And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan. And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus” (verses 14-15). Josephus records that Abram and his men “marched hastily, and the fifth night fell upon the Assyrians, near Dan…and before they could arm themselves, he slew some as they were in their beds, before they could suspect any harm; and others, who were not yet gone to sleep, but were so drunk they could not fight, ran away” (Antiquities, i, x, 1).
Genesis 14:17 says that Abram also killed the four top leaders of the Assyrian empire, mentioned in verse 1. It was a complete rout. The power of Assyria was smashed in one night. The course of history was changed. Abraham and his descendants were able to continue living peacefully in the land of Canaan free from Assyrian aggression. And Egypt, without the Assyrian threat, grew into one of the leading nations in the ancient world. God wanted Egypt to dominate the Middle East, not Assyria. Egypt, though the people didn’t know it at the time, was preparing for the arrival of Joseph and the children of Israel.
For the next 1200 years, the Bible says little about Assyria. But they did not disappear. Their resurgence around 700 b.c., once again as a world power, proved to be yet another thorn in the Israelites’ side.
Fierce Assyrians
Virtually every historian draws attention to the war-like nature of the Assyrian people. James McCabe, author of History of the World, says the Assyrians were a “fierce, treacherous race, delighting in the dangers of the chase and in war. The Assyrian troops were notably among the most formidable of ancient warriors…. They never kept faith when it was to their interest to break treaties, and were regarded with suspicion by their neighbors in consequence of this characteristic…. In organization and equipment of their troops, and in their system of attack and defense and their method of reducing fortified places, the Assyrians manifested a superiority to the nations by which they were surrounded” (vol. 1, pp. 155, 160).
Dr. Herman Hoeh, historian and author of Compendium of World History, wrote, “Ancient Assyria was the greatest war-making power in all history” (Plain Truth, Jan. 1963, “Germany in Prophecy!”).
James Hastings wrote, “The Assyrians of historic times were more robust, warlike, ‘fierce,’ than the mild industrial Babylonians. This may have been due to the influence of climate and incessant warfare; but it may indicate a different race…. The whole organization of the State was essentially military” (“Assyria and Babylonia,” Dictionary of the Bible).
Leonard Catrell, in Anvil of Civilization, wrote: “In all the annals of human conquest, it is difficult to find any people more dedicated to bloodshed and slaughter than the Assyrians. Their ferocity and cruelty have few parallels save in modern times.” It’s interesting that Catrell can only compare their ferocity with those “in modern times.” In the 20th century, many would admit that the Germans have indeed been dedicated to much bloodshed.
After 800 b.c., Assyria was poised and ready to take the world by storm. Their resurgence would soon clash head-on with the powerful Israelites.
In his Compendium, Dr. Hoeh wrote, “In 745 a new dynasty sat upon the Assyrian throne in Nineveh. It commenced with Tiglath-pileser iii. This dynasty existed to the collapse of Assyria in 612” (vol. 1, p. 296).
The Encyclopedia Britannica concurs with Dr. Hoeh’s synopsis: “Under Tiglath-pileser iii arose the second Assyrian empire, which differed from the first in its greater consolidation. For the first time in history the idea of centralization was introduced into politics .… The Assyrian forces became a standing army, which, by successive improvements and careful discipline, was molded into an irresistible fighting machine, and Assyrian policy was directed towards the definite object of reducing the whole civilized world into a single empire and thereby throwing its trade and wealth into Assyrian hands” (“Babylonia and Assyria,” 11th ed.). By now, you should be noticing some definite similarities between ancient Assyria and the modern-day Germany which has thrust this world into two great wars, endeavoring to create one single empire. More on that later.
Israel Taken Into Assyrian Captivity
Let us continue with Assyria’s documented history within the upper Mesopotamian region. In 2 Kings 16, you will read of a war between Israel and the Jews. By this time, the children of Israel had divided into two nations, the northern ten tribes keeping the name Israel, the southern tribes taking on the name Judah. Israel was allied with Aram (Syria). Judah solicited the help of Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria (2 Kings 16:7). In defense of the Jews, the Assyrians attacked Aram first and Israel later.
In his 14th year of rule, Shalmaneser iii, Assyrian king at Calah, besieged the land of Samaria, where the ten tribes of Israel resided. The year was 721 b.c. Notice ii Kings 17:5-6: “Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years [721-718]. In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.”
Despite numerous warnings from their prophets, the people of Israel refused to turn from their rebellion against God. It was God who sent the Assyrians as the rod of His anger to take the Israelites into captivity (Isaiah 10:5). They were removed out of their land. “For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them; Until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day” (verses 22-23).
Josephus records that Shalmaneser “made an expedition against Samaria … besieged [it] three years and took it by force … and quite demolished the government of the Israelites, and transplanted all the people into Media and Persia” (Antiquities, ix, xiv, 1).
Religious scholar and author Herbert W. Armstrong wrote in The United States and Britain in Prophecy, “In the years 721-718 b.c., the House of Israel was conquered and its people were soon driven out of their own land—out of their homes and cities—and carried captives to Assyria, on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea! And then … lost from view!” (p. 68, 1980 ed.). At this point in Israel’s history, they were completely lost from view—known as the “lost ten tribes” of Israel. But do you know why they became “lost” from the world’s view? Because scholars and historians also lost sight of the Assyrians! And during captivity, Israel went into Assyria, located anciently at the southern shores of the Black and Caspian seas. Our free booklet The United States and Britain in Prophecy, tracks the northwestern migration of the children of Israel into western Europe, the Scandinavian peninsula, and the British Isles. Why this migration? Because the Assyrians took them in that direction when they migrated northwest into Central Europe!
As both peoples moved into Europe, the Israelites did not remain as slaves of the Assyrians. Instead, they separated into the regions listed above while the Assyrians mainly settled into Central Europe, where Germany and Austria are located today.
The Assyrian Migration
Before their migration, Periplus, who lived around 550 b.c., wrote, “The coast of the Black Sea … is called Assyria” (Perrot and Chipiez, History of Art in Sardinia, Judaea, Syria and Asia Minor, vol. 2, p. 261). C. Leonard Woolley described what these people looked like in his book, The Sumerians: “In the Zagros hills and across the plain to the Tigris, there lived a … fair-haired … people akin to the Guti (Goths) who … remained in what was afterwards Assyria” (p. 5). This description certainly matches those who descended from the line of Shem.
Here is what Dr. Herman Hoeh wrote in “Germany in Prophecy!”: “When the ancient Greek writers wanted to distinguish the Assyrians from the Arameans or Syrians, the Greeks called the Assyrians ‘Leucosyri’—meaning ‘whites’ or ‘blonds,’ as distinct from the very brunette Syrians who still live in Mesopotamia” (Plain Truth, Jan. 1963, p. 17).
By the time of Christ, the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder recorded that the Assyrians were now dwelling north of the Black Sea (Natural History, iv, 12, p. 183). By this time, they had moved north.
But they did not stop there, as Mr. Armstrong wrote in The United States and Britain in Prophecy: “The Assyrians—before 604 b.c.—left their land north of Babylon and migrated northwest—through the lands that are now Georgia, the Ukraine, Poland, and into the land that is called Germany today. Today the descendants of those Assyrians are known to us as the German people” (pp.‑143-144, 1980 ed.).
Tracing Germany’s Roots
For centuries, the German people have dominated the heartland of Central Europe. Yet they are a people who know very little about their true origin—or at least refuse to know. (The Germans themselves are responsible for hiding much of this knowledge, just as many tried to hide their past at the end of the Hitler era.)
Just as the modern-day Israelites are one family of people from many different tribes, so too are the German people today. They number well over 100 million people worldwide—most of them residing in Germany and Austria.
Much was written about the early German tribes that poured into Europe during the first and second centuries a.d., thanks in large part to the Roman historian Tacitus, who lived at that time. Among the most significant of these early German tribes are the Chatti (ancestors of the modern Hessians), Treveri, Tungri, and the Alammanni, to name just a few. Chatti means “to break down by violence; to make afraid or terrify.” The ancestors of this German tribe, before migrating, lived mostly in Asia Minor, and were called the Assyrian Chatti.
Many of these early German tribes were in constant conflict with the Roman Empire, which is why the Romans collectively labeled them Germani, meaning “war men.” As Encyclopedia Britannica points out, “There is no evidence that [Germani] was ever used by the Germans themselves. According to Tacitus it was first applied to the Tungri, whereas Caesar records that four … tribes … were collectively known as Germani” (“Germany,” 11th ed., vol. 11).
The Romans called them Germani because of their fierce, warring nature. “Not a single neighbor of the Germans,” wrote Emil Ludwig, “could ever trust the Germans to remain peaceable. No matter how happy their condition, their restless passion would urge them on to ever more extreme demands” (The Germans: Double History of a Nation, 1941, p. 12).
These early tribes migrated into central Europe, as historians verify. The Romans labeled all of them “war men.” But from where did they come? Smith’s Classical Dictionary answers: “There can be no doubt that they [the Assyrians] … migrated into Europe from the Caucasus and the countries around the Black and Caspian seas” (“Germania,” p.‑361).
Speaking of the Indo-Germanic tribes which were invading Europe while he was alive, the historian Jerome, who was born in a.d. 340, wrote, “For ‘Assur (the Assyrian) also is joined with them’”! (Letter 123, sec. 16, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers). Jerome was quoting from Psalm 83:8. Jerome wrote of this Assyrian migration because he lived while it was happening! He was an eyewitness to these events.
With many Germanic tribes flooding into Central Europe, the stage was set for the Assyrian empire of old to again rise to world dominance. All the Germanic people needed was dynamic leadership to establish unity; visionaries whom the people could rally around. For the next 1500 years, the Germans found just that in the “Holy Roman Empire.”
Language of the Assyrians
Some have argued that the Assyrian people spoke a Semitic language, not Indo-Germanic, and therefore the Germans could not be the descendants of the ancient Assyrians.
Yet there is a passage in the Bible which clearly reveals how and why most of the ancient Assyrians acquired a new and different language.
In the days of Nimrod, a tower was constructed at Babel which was to be the capital city of a world-ruling dictatorship, under which God’s truth would have been completely stamped out. Concerning the rebellious people of Nimrod’s day, God said, “Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do” (Genesis 11:6).
To keep civilization from progressing to a point of self-destruction so soon, God had to “confound their language” (verse 7). This miraculous intervention by God was the origin of differing languages. This was when most of the Assyrians acquired the Indo-Germanic tongue and other related languages.
Dr. Herman Hoeh wrote, in his article “Germany in Prophecy!”, “European scholars have thoroughly studied the language of the land of Hatti—the ancestors of the Hessians. They found it to be an Indo-Germanic tongue—numerous words of which were akin to Old High German! ... The language of the Hatti was the language of the West Assyrians.... Scholars admit that for centuries the language of the people who inhabited Assyria was not merely Semitic” (Plain Truth, Jan. 1963, p. 27).
Ancient City of Trier
On the banks of the Mosel River in western Germany, just six miles from the Luxembourg border, is the ancient German city of Trier. The Romans claim to be the founders of this ancient city. But German tradition, and even the name of the city, suggests otherwise.
“On das Rotes Haus (the Red House) beside the Steipe, there is a text in Latin boasting that Trier, or Treves, is older than Rome, 1300 years older in fact. That is when Trebeta, son of Semiramis, is said to have founded the town.” That’s what it says in the opening paragraph of the Trier Colorphoto Guide to the Town.
Josef K.L. Bihl writes in his German textbook, In Deutschen Landen, “Trier was founded by Trebeta, a son of the famous Assyrian King Ninus” (p. 69). Ninus, according to Roman, Greek and Persian records, was the first ruler who began the systematic conquest of the ancient world after the death of Nimrod.
Semiramis was married to Nimrod, the founder of Babylon (Genesis 10:8-10). Verse 11 says that Asshur and his descendants went out of Babylon and constructed the Assyrian capital—Nineveh. But as the margin correctly indicates, it was Nimrod who led Asshur out of Babylon and who actually supervised the construction project in Nineveh. Early on, the Bible indicates a close alliance between Nimrod and Asshur.
There is an obvious reason why the German city of Trier traces its origins back to Trebeta, the son of Nimrod's successor, Ninus, as well as the ancient Assyrian capital of Nineveh. It’s because modern-day Germany is mostly made up of Assyrian people!
The Ancient Tribe of Chatti
The name Chatti, or Hatti as it sometimes reads, in Hebrew means to break down by violence or confusion; to abolish, make afraid, scare or terrify. Chatti is a derivative of the Hebrew word for Hittite, Chittiy—mentioned numerous times in the Bible. The Canaanite Hittites—a fierce people who continually clashed with the Israelites in biblical accounts—were known by this name. They were descendants of Ham—those of a darker-colored skin.
Yet there was another people, with much lighter skin, who were also known by this name, Chatti or Hatti: the Assyrians! Historians recognize that there were two distinct peoples which went by the name of Chatti, or Hittite, as it reads in the Bible.
James Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, written in 1899, refers to the northern “kings of the Hittites” mentioned in 1 Kings 10:29, and then comments, “Besides the northern Hittites, other Hittites, or ‘sons of Heth,’ are mentioned in the [Old Testament] as inhabiting the south of Palestine” (“Hittites,” vol. 2). These sons of Heth are the Canaanite Hittites of the line of Ham (see Genesis 10:15). Abraham asked these people for a burial place for Sarah in Genesis 23.
But what about these northern Hittites? Hastings refers to 1 Kings 10:29 where Solomon obtained war forces through trade with the “kings of the Hittites.” But these are not the same sons of Heth mentioned in Genesis 23. Notice the explanation for 1 Kings 10:29 in Lange’s Commentary: “The Hittites are not the same as those named in chap. 9:20, but were an independent tribe, probably in the neighborhood of Syria [biblical Assyria was just north of Syria], as 2 Kings 7:6 mentions them as in alliance with the Syrians” (vol. 3, p. 123 of 1 Kings).
Dr. Herman Hoeh adds further insight about this verse in 1 Kings: “The Assyrian Hessians were called ‘kings of the Hittites’ because the Canaanite Hittites, driven out by Joshua, migrated into Asia Minor where the Assyrians dwelt” (Plain Truth, Jan. 1969, “Germany in Prophecy!”).
It was the Assyrians who labeled many of their own people in the western part of their empire as Hittites, or Chatti, as the Hebrew reads. Hastings confirms this: “The Assyrians … caused the name of ‘Hittite’ in the Assyrian period to be applied to all the nations west of the Euphrates.” He went on to say that Hittite proper names can be traced far to the west in Asia Minor.
Virtually all historical authorities recognize that there were two different peoples that took on the name Hittite, or Chatti. The Encyclopedia Britannica acknowledges this phenomenon: “The identification of the northern and southern Hittites, however, presents certain difficulties not yet fully explained; and it seems that we must assume Heth to have been the name of both a country … and of a tribal population not confined to that country” (“Hittites,” 11th ed., vol. 13). How clear! There was a nation of people, known as Hittites, sons of Heth, who were great warriors. But there was also a tribal population which acquired this name because they too were a fierce people that scared and terrified other nations, which is what Hittite means. These were known as the Assyrian Hittites.
Concerning the Canaanite Hittites, Dr. Hoeh suggests that after Alexander the Great conquered Asia, they too migrated northwest into Europe, “and then, across the Atlantic to North America where the colonists rediscovered them as the Chatti Indians of the Central Plains.”
But the Assyrian Chatti remained in Central Europe, as the Encyclopedia Britannica and any student of German history will plainly confirm. The Britannica describes the Chatti as “an ancient German tribe” which “frequently came into conflict with the Romans during the early years of the first century” (“Chatti,” vol. 6). Certainly these German Chatti, whom the Roman historian Tacitus also wrote about, could not be of the sons of Heth, for they were a dark-skinned people. The German Chatti were of the sons of Asshur, a fair-skinned people. And it is from this early tribe that the more modern German tribe, called the Hessians, received their name.
Notice again what the Encyclopedia Britannica says: “The earliest known inhabitants of the country [Germany] were the Chatti, who lived here during the first century a.d …. ‘Alike both in race and language,’ says Walther Schultze, ‘the Chatti and the Hessi are identical’” (“Hesse,” vol. 13). Furthermore, the Old High German spelling of Hesse was Hatti!
Dr. Hoeh wrote in the above-mentioned Plain Truth article, “The land of the Hatti was the western part of the Assyrian Empire …. The ancient kings of Assyria called themselves Khatti-sars—meaning the ‘Kaisers of Hatti,’ or ‘Kings of Hatti.’ The chief people of Hatti regarded themselves as Assyrians …. The ancient capital of the land of Hatti was popularly known among the Romans as ‘Ninus Vetus—the old Nineveh.’”
For those honestly seeking the truth concerning the origin of the German people, proof is abundant! In fact, concerning some of the early Hittite monuments, Hastings says, “The Hittites seem to have had a special fancy for combining parts of different animals into strangely composite and sometimes grotesque forms” (“Hittites,” Dictionary of the Bible, vol. 2). He then went on to say that they were responsible for bringing the two-headed eagle into Europe, which has long been a symbol of the German Empire!
There can be no doubt that one of the earliest German tribes, known as the Chatti, descended from the Assyrian Chatti who resided in Asia Minor.
“The Unholy Roman Empire”
Somewhere on a shelf, in the average home, nestled between the complete works of Shakespeare and a partial set of Britannica, sits the Holy Bible, as good as new, with a thin layer of dust on it from neglect. The majority of people who consider themselves “Christian” simply do not read and study the Bible. The best excuse for not reading the Bible is that it “does not make sense.” How can I understand it, most reason, when so much of it speaks metaphorically about great images, ominous beasts and deceitful harlots?
It’s true that the Bible is filled with prophetic visions and utterances. In fact, one third of the Bible is prophecy, most of which is for the end time. But the Bible also contains many prophecies which have already been fulfilled exactly as predicted. Those fulfilled prophecies should compel us to blow the dust off our Bibles and begin studying. But most people do not.
Much of the Bible’s most famous prophetic text centers around a system of successive world-ruling Gentile kingdoms that precede the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. These successive “beasts,” as they are called, are discussed throughout the Bible, but especially in four prophetic chapters: Daniel 2 and 7, and Revelation 13 and 17. Studied in that order, each chapter adds a few more details to the one preceding it. Together, they build a complete and yet simple foundation for all Bible prophecy.
In Daniel 2, you will find the best one-chapter overview of prophecy in all the Bible. There God reveals through Daniel a vision of a great image representing these four successive kingdoms. History proves these to be the Chaldean Empire, followed by the Persian, then Greco-Macedonian, and finally the Roman Empire. These four were to continue in succession right up to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
In Daniel 7, the prophet describes four beasts, again representing four Gentile kingdoms, but with special emphasis on the fourth—the Roman Empire. This beast has ten horns, which the prophet says “are ten kings that shall arise” out of, or after, the Roman Empire (verse 24). Daniel also describes a “little horn” which grew among the ten horns and uprooted the first three (verse 8). The meaning of this prophecy is made plain in the book of Revelation.
Unlike Daniel 7, Revelation 13 only discusses one beast—which represents the fourth and final kingdom, the Roman Empire. Because John lived during the rule of the Roman Empire when he wrote the book of Revelation, he had little to say about the three previous kingdoms. They were already fulfilled prophecy!
In chapter 13, John describes a beast with seven heads and ten horns, one head of which received a deadly wound. Historians agree that the Roman Empire existed from 31 b.c. to a.d. 476, at which point the kingdom was crushed. It died. But its deadly wound was healed just as John prophesied (verse 3). There were to be ten resurrections to come out of that Roman Empire (just as Daniel said), the first three of which were plucked up by the roots by the “little horn”—suggesting that they were not altogether Roman, but nevertheless ruled within the ancient Roman territory after the empire collapsed. And that’s what happened. Three barbaric tribes did rule in the region before Justinian restored the Roman Empire in a.d. 554 and effectively healed the deadly wound.
Revelation 17 fills in the remaining details. In that chapter, once again John describes a beast with seven heads, but none of these heads is wounded. This time a woman, which throughout the Bible symbolizes a church, is riding the beast. She is called a whore in verse 1, and therefore symbolizes a great false church which rides, or heavily influences, this political beast.
Comparing the historical account with these prophecies makes the meaning quite clear. When Justinian recognized the supremacy of the pope in 554, the Roman Empire was revived. And because of its close association with the great false church, this empire eventually assumed the name Holy Roman Empire. Counting Justinian’s empire, there have been six major, historically documented resurrections of the so-called Holy Roman Empire—all of which have been heavily influenced, and in some cases dominated, by the Vatican.
These historical facts shed light on the prophetic passages we have briefly covered. Like the woman riding the beast in Revelation 17, the “little horn” in Daniel 7 represents the great false church. The little horn uprooted the three non-religious kingdoms ruling within the region and then proceeded to guide the seven remaining horns, or resurrections. Similarly, the woman riding the beast holds sway over all seven heads, which represent the last seven resurrections of what has been called the Holy Roman Empire.
That brings us to the purpose for this chapter. There have been six resurrections of the Roman Empire with the great false church straddling them all. The seventh is now forming. These unions, though heavily influenced by religion, have been anything but holy. Students of the Bible are not surprised by this fact because the Bible describes this political force as a terrifying beast and the great church as the mother of harlots, drunken with the blood of God’s saints. But most people do not read the Bible.
Then what about history? Sad to say, most do not study history either. In this chapter, let us take a closer look at the historic relationship between European emperors and the papal throne throughout the Middle Ages. What are the historic fruits of this union of church and state? And how do these unions square with Bible prophecy?
As we briefly review these historical events, you will notice how Germany has, for most of the Middle Ages, been the most dominant influence in Europe.
Peaks and Valleys
John refers to the seven resurrections of the Roman Empire as “mountains” in Revelation 17:9-10. But between each “mountain peak,” there were valleys. Though these resurrections were prophesied to be successive, right up to Christ’s return, there were lapses between each of them. H.G. Wells effectively describes this “up and down” scenario in his book The Outline of History: “The Roman Empire staggers, sprawls, is thrust off the stage, and reappears, and—if we may carry the image one step further—it is the Church of Rome which plays the part of the magician and keeps this corpse alive” (p. 544).
Anciently, the Roman Empire was divided into two regions. Rome was the capital in the west, Constantinople in the east. Amazingly, the image of Daniel 2 refers to the two legs of iron being the Roman Empire. By a.d. 476, Rome had been sacked by fierce barbarian tribes of Germanic origin (remember, it was the Romans who labeled these fierce fighters Germani). The eastern empire in Constantinople was virtually powerless. The Roman Empire was officially wiped out.
By 554, Catholicism had gained enough strength to dominate the world. At the pope’s behest, Justinian, the most famous of all emperors in the east, moved his government in the defunct eastern division to the west—Rome. The empire was temporarily revived as the “Holy Roman Empire”—a union of European nations with a Roman pope riding it like a woman on a beast.
Justinian’s rule in western Europe was short-lived. He died in 565 and the empire languished. True to John’s prophecy in Revelation 17, from its perch on a mountain peak, the beast descended into a valley where it went into hibernation. But not for long. Even before Justinian died, there was another, far more terrifying, political presence emerging which would forever change the face of politics and religion in Europe.
Charles the Great
The Franks were the first barbaric tribe to embrace Catholicism, but it was for political gain, not religious. Mostly of Germanic origin, the Franks used the church to support their expansionist policies, while the church relied on Frankish rulers for protection. It was a union based on politics alone.
The Frankish kingdom reached the pinnacle of its power during the rule of Charlemagne (meaning Charles the Great). Before Charlemagne’s emergence as world ruler, the political scene in Europe was greatly divided. Germany was sliced into many different tribes. Much of Italy was occupied by the Lombards. And Byzantium was recognized as the successor to the eastern region of the old Roman Empire. Charlemagne, in conjunction with the papal throne, eventually changed all that—but not without much bloodshed.
Charlemagne felt it his duty to defend the church. In 774, at the request of Pope Leo iii, he entered into northern Italy and conquered the Lombard kingdom, uniting Italy for the first time in centuries. In 799, he again came to the aid of the pope, who was assaulted, brutally beaten, and thrown into prison by a band of conspirators. With the military backing of Charles and his Frankish troops, the pope was exonerated of all wrongdoing and reinstated to his ecclesiastic office.
The following year, in Rome, while Charlemagne was kneeling in prayer during a Christmas celebration inside old St. Peter’s Church, the pope placed a crown upon his head, pronouncing him “the 73rd emperor of the Fourth World Empire.”
At this point, we should note that throughout the Middle Ages, many scholars, theologians, even popes, knew the Roman Empire was the fourth world-ruling kingdom. Many of them even identified this fourth kingdom with the one Daniel spoke of in his prophecy. That’s why Europeans and Catholics kept trying to revive the empire! The Bible said there would only be four empires. More on this later.
As king of the Franks, Charlemagne was able to subjugate every single German tribe but one: the Saxons. The Saxons clung to their own faith and refused, even on pain of death, to submit to Roman Catholicism. Charlemagne determined to force his brand of Christianity on them with the sword. For years the Saxons obstinately resisted. At one point, out of sheer frustration, Charlemagne executed 4,500 Saxon prisoners. This barbarous act angered the Saxons even more.
It took 30 years for Charles to completely extinguish the “Saxon” problem, but not before multiple thousands had been executed for their religious beliefs. After more than 18 conquests against the Saxons, Charles finally prevailed. In the end, Saxons either subjected themselves to the rule of Charles, or their defiance ended in death.
As emperor of the “Holy” Roman Empire, Charles felt it his duty to spread the Christian faith using whatever means necessary. The New Encyclopedia Britannica says, “The violent methods by which this missionary task was carried out had been unknown to the earlier Middle Ages, and the sanguinary [bloody] punishment meted out to those who broke canon law or continued to engage in pagan practices called forth criticism in Charles’ own circle” (“Charlemagne, Emperor,” vol. 4).
The violence Charlemagne used to enforce the Catholic religion on his subjects was simply unknown in earlier empires! He forced his brand of Christianity on everyone. His empire may have had distinct ties to the ancient Romans, but it was certainly not “holy”—even if there was a great church guiding it.
And yet, for centuries to come, the aim of succeeding emperors was to restore the traditions of Charlemagne in their quest to revive the Roman Empire!
The German Holy Roman Empire
Charlemagne’s empire, one of the greatest to ever rule in Europe, did not even outlive his son and successor. When it dissolved, the peoples on the western side of his empire eventually became known as French. The German-speaking peoples between the Rhine and the Slavs in the east developed into Germany. The fact that he ruled over both peoples is why some dispute the national heritage of Charlemagne.
While there might be some controversy over Charlemagne’s roots, there is none when it comes to the next Roman revival. Otto the Great, anointed as German king in 936, was the first of a long line of German emperors to dominate the European political arena. The pope bestowed the imperial crown upon Otto in 962. For the next 800 years, German kings called themselves “Roman emperors of the German nation.”
Like so many who followed in his footsteps, Otto was a ruthless warrior. He forcefully extended “Christianity” with the sword. Encyclopedia Britannica says he was “subject to violent bursts of passion” and that “his policy was to crush all tendencies to independence” (“Otto i,” 11th edition, vol. 20).
In each new territory he conquered, Otto carefully planted new German colonies. This marked the dawn of German nationalism. Prior to this time, the Germans were still largely divided according to tribe. “But when their kings acquired the right to be crowned Roman emperors, they themselves became the imperial race. They began therefore to take pride in the common German name. A feeling of nationality was thus aroused, which never afterwards quite left the Germans even in their darkest periods” (Henry Northrop, History of the World, vol. 1, p. 529).
This world-ruling, nationalistic spirit is what drove so many German kings across the Alps into Italy in search of things Roman. Though relations between German emperors and Catholic popes have not been without competition and struggle for supremacy, it is clear why the affair has endured the test of time. German emperors have always known that the road to world dominion goes through Rome. Equally so, the papacy has long known that the only way to forcefully spread its religion is to straddle the terrifying political beast wielding the sword.
Preserving the Union
Though there is not enough space to elaborate on every emperor who ruled during the third revival of the Holy Roman Empire, it is important to at least show the length at which many German kings went to secure close ties with the papacy. Otto the Great’s next two successors, his son and grandson, spent much of their lives, and eventually died, in the neighborhood of Rome. Later, Henry iv (1056-1106), after being excommunicated from the church, waited outside the pope’s castle in freezing conditions for three days before the pontiff came out to grant him forgiveness. Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190) spent 15 years in northern Italy during six different military expeditions. He too was intent on keeping alive the ancient glory and power of the Roman Empire.
Barbarossa’s grandson, Frederick ii (1212-1250), is the last great emperor to rule during this German-dominated revival of the Roman Empire. Frederick was one of the most notable German emperors ever. To him, the ideal government was a totalitarian state.
Like emperors before him, Frederick also considered himself quite religious. In 1224, he established legislation which permitted burning heretics at the stake. Pope Honorius iii and his successor, Gregory ix, were delighted with the bill.
After Frederick’s death, the Roman Empire again went to sleep—another valley among the seven “mountain peaks.” The stage was set for another German family to curry favor with the Vatican in their quest for world rule. Their royal line would eventually span 600 years of history!
The Habsburg Dynasty
For some time, the Roman Empire endured without an emperor. In 1273, the Austrian Rudolf of Habsburg was crowned king in Aachen, but not emperor. Early on, the Habsburgs seemed more concerned about the power of their own dynasty in Germany and Austria than they were about world dominion.
It wasn’t until the 15th century that the emperorship would again play a key role in the aspirations of German-speaking kings. That’s when Frederick v, the Habsburg king of Germany, was crowned by the pope as Holy Roman Emperor. That title remained in the family until the dynasty ended in 1806.
The greatness of the Habsburg dynasty lies more in its duration than it does in its dynamic leaders. Yet it did produce at least two outstanding kings, reigning successively in the 16th century—Maximilian i (1493-1519) and Charles v (1519-1556).
Maximilian laid the groundwork for an international empire by arranging two marriages with the Spanish House of Castile and Aragon. In one marriage, Maximilian’s son Philip married Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella. The genealogy of the Habsburg dynasty thus divided along German and Spanish lines.
It was Charles, son of Philip and Joanna, who was crowned Roman emperor in 1520 as Charles v. He became one of the greatest German emperors in history. Like Frederick ii, Charles believed the emperor reigned supreme. It was during his reign that this fourth revival of the Holy Roman Empire reached its peak.
At age 19, Charles became ruler over Spanish and German dominions, including Germany, Burgundy, Italy and Spain, along with sizable overseas possessions. His kingdom became known as “the empire where the sun never set.” Not since the days of Charlemagne had a German emperor ruled over such a vast territory.
Before his coronation in Aachen, Charles was asked the traditional questions by the Elector of Cologne: “Wilt thou hold and guard by all proper means the sacred faith as handed down to Catholic men? Wilt thou be the faithful shield and protector of the holy church and her servants? Wilt thou uphold and recover those rights of the realm and possessions of the empire which have been unlawfully usurped? … Wilt thou pay due submission to the Roman pontiff and the Holy Roman Empire?”
“I will,” Charles responded.
Ten years later he was crowned emperor in Rome by the pope, and the love affair between church and state was rekindled once more. Though Charles was sworn to defend the Catholic Church, he did make a few vain attempts to mend the rift in the religious world sparked by Luther’s rebellion in 1517. Nevertheless, his persecution against Arabs and Jews is well documented. In fact, he ascended to the height of his power while the Spanish and Roman inquisitions were raging in Europe.
After Charles’ death, the Habsburg dynasty severed along Spanish and Austrian lines. The Austrian Habsburg line still assumed the title “Roman emperors of the German nation” just like their predecessors five centuries before, except they no longer pilgrimaged to Rome to be crowned by the pope. The imperial office became hereditary within the Habsburg line.
By this point, the power and might of the fourth revival of the Holy Roman Empire began to wane. The Protestant Reformation considerably weakened the once-dominant church in Rome. On the secular side, the tide of power was beginning to shift toward France. The fourth revival of the “Holy” Roman Empire was on its last leg.
When Napoleon finally crushed what remained of the Habsburg empire in the 19th century, it appeared that the last vestige of the “Holy” Roman Empire was destroyed. But what historians do not realize is that when Napoleon pompously grabbed the emperor’s crown from the pope’s hands and crowned himself in 1804, the Holy Roman Empire had merely transferred into the hands of the ambitious Frenchman.
After centuries of German and Austrian dominance, the Holy Roman Empire revived again for a brief interval of French dominance. It was the Roman Empire in disguise. Napoleon set out to carry on the ideals of Charlemagne, only in a more modern world. Like the German emperors before him, Napoleon envisioned himself ruling the world—and once again through the Vatican.
French dominance was short-lived. In the 20th century, the same Roman Empire reared its ugly head for a sixth time, once again with a German “emperor” and the Catholic Church as the main players. Though disguised by modern advancement, it was the Middle Ages all over again—this time on a much larger scale and with more sophisticated weaponry. (More on this in Chapter 4).
The Great Mistake of the Middle Ages
During Rudolf of Habsburg’s reign in the 13th century, a man named Jordan of Osnabrueck wrote a book about how the Roman Empire was transferred into the hand of the Germans. He was not the only one in the Middle Ages to harbor such ideology. It was the Germans, many thought, who had the monumental task of ruling and preserving the Holy Roman Empire. But why?
Remember that when Charlemagne was crowned, the pope called him emperor of the fourth world empire. The idea that the Roman Empire was the fourth to rule the world did not originate with this pope. In fact, centuries before, while the old Roman Empire still existed, most Jews and Christians thought it would be the world’s last kingdom because of what the Prophet Daniel wrote.
Many scholars knew the Roman Empire was prophesied to be the fourth and final world empire. But beyond that, they tragically misinterpreted Bible prophecies. That is what led to so much violence and bloodshed during the Middle Ages.
People falsely assumed that the Antichrist would emerge on the world scene once the Roman Empire was extinguished. What the Bible actually says is that after the fourth empire passes from the scene, God’s Kingdom would be set up (Daniel 2:44).
This also was misinterpreted because people during the Middle Ages assumed the Holy Roman Empire was God’s Kingdom on Earth! That elevated their laws and aspirations for world rule above God’s. Thus, the groundwork for the tragedy of the Middle Ages was laid, not upon a holy empire, but upon Satan-inspired, gross misinterpretations of God’s Word.
The Germans, more than any other people, felt it their divine duty to preserve this “Holy” Roman Empire so that “Antichrist” might not appear. So time and time again, when the empire sank into the depths of doom, it would somehow muster enough strength to again raise itself—usually behind one powerful leader, oftentimes German, supported by a powerful religious head in Rome.
What the people of these empires also failed to understand was that these same Roman resurrections were themselves prophesied in God’s Holy Bible! The Bible does prophesy of four, and only four, world-ruling empires. But as we have seen, that final empire, after it was crushed in a.d. 476, was to resurrect ten more times, the last seven of which would be in conjunction with the papal authority in Rome as the resurrected “Holy Roman Empire.”
It is that same Roman Empire, under new names and titles, which again resurrected earlier this century under German dominance, and which awaits one last hurrah, again prodded by a strong European hand, probably German.
A Call to Remembrance
On May 8, 1997, former German President Roman Herzog was presented with the International Charlemagne Prize for his efforts to unite Europe. In his acceptance speech, Dr. Herzog said, “For 1000 years the destiny of our continent has revolved round the choice between a cohesive or a fragmented Europe. Charlemagne, after whom our prize is named, made his own particular choice: the first unification of Europe. At such an hour the truth must be told: only by wading through a sea of blood, sweat and tears did he reach his goal.”
Indeed, the history of European unification has been one of much blood. And Germany has been Europe’s greatest perpetrator in instigating that bloodshed.
Roman Herzog has long been one of Germany’s biggest promoters for European unification. He and many other European leaders frequently hearken back to Charlemagne as the inspiration behind modern-day unification.
Very soon now, ten nations, or groups of nations, in Europe will band together in a union influenced by a great church. Everything about the union will seem right. The religion, the prosperity, the military might. But the final fruits of this union will be horrifying. History bears this out. Conspiracy, betrayal, bloodshed, intolerance, execution. These words best describe the “Holy” Roman Empire of the Middle Ages.
Approximately 40 million people were butchered during the so-called Holy Inquisition—the papacy’s nightmarish vaccine for the “heresy” virus! The Roman and Spanish inquisitions virtually eliminated Protestantism in Italy and Spain! The world has probably never seen a more vile period than those dark and miserable years of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries.
The historical fruits of this union between a powerful political beast and a great false church have not been holy—rather unholy. And when those rotten fruits are revealed one last time, the world will be shocked. How could something which seems so right—so religious—be so evil? That answer is found written upon thousands of pages of history. More importantly, God prophesied it long ago in the pages of the book almost no one reads and studies—the Holy Bible. Perhaps it is time we grab that book from the shelf, blow off the dust and crack it open. You’ll be shocked at how accurately God predicts the future.
“Hitler and the Holy Roman Empire”
When Adolf Hitler was 17 years old, a radical change occurred in his life. A friend close to Hitler was deeply shaken by his voice. In his book called The Psychopathic God—Adolf Hitler, Robert G.L. Waite wrote (emphasis mine throughout): “After gazing intensely at his friend for a full minute, he began to speak. ‘Never before and never again have I heard Adolf Hitler speak as he did in that hour as we stood there alone under the stars as though we were the only creatures in the world.’ [August] Kubizek thought there was something strange about Hitler that night. ‘It was as if another being spoke out of his body, and moved him as much as it did me. It wasn’t at all a case of a speaker being carried away by his own words. On the contrary; I rather felt as though he himself listened with astonishment and emotion to what burst forth from him with elementary force. I will not attempt to interpret this phenomenon, but it was a state of complete ecstasy and rapture.’ What Hitler said that night has been lost, but one thing was burned into Kubizek’s memory. Adolf did not speak of becoming an artist or an architect. Now he saw himself, like Rienzi, as the Messiah of his people. He spoke of a ‘mandate which, one day, he would receive from the people to lead them out of servitude to the heights of freedom.… He spoke of a special mission which one day would be entrusted to him’” (p. 205).
We need to think about and let God interpret this very rare phenomenon. Hitler’s friend said another voice spoke through him! Both of them were stirred emotionally.
After that experience, Hitler no longer thought like a 17-year-old boy. He saw himself as “the Messiah”! This is exactly the way the devil thinks! (Isaiah 14:14). Hitler knew he would receive a mandate—a “special mission” to lead his people. Something extremely rare and radical occurred that night.
The Sixth Head
When Benito Mussolini became the Italian leader before World War ii, he called his regime the Holy Roman Empire. Herbert W. Armstrong knew this was the sixth head of the Roman Empire (Revelation 17:8). What Mr. Armstrong didn’t understand was that Hitler played the key role in the Holy Roman Empire—not Mussolini. More information has become available that Mr. Armstrong didn’t have. Satan was the real power behind the sixth head of the Holy Roman Empire (Revelation 13:4). But he gave the leading human role to Hitler. Hitler led the Holy Roman Empire, even though he didn’t openly call his regime by that name. However, the Third Reich has a similar meaning.
The Bible says this political beast is always guided, or heavily influenced, by a great church. However, much of this church connection is usually carried out behind the scenes. But the single unifying force is the devil.
“The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is” (Revelation 17:8). The Greek word for “bottomless pit” is abyss, which means underground. That means this great empire has continued to survive from the original Roman Empire; it has just been “underground” at times. There have been valleys in between the mountain peaks. The last seven heads, or resurrections, were prophesied to be guided by a great church. That is how church and state get the name “Holy” Roman Empire.
The sixth head ascended out of the underground. That means most of the world was ignorant of its existence. After it was defeated by the Allies in World War ii, it went back underground where it began deceitfully working to regain power over the world. There is no final defeat in their thinking. A defeat is only a setback in their goal of world domination!
This empire will continue until God destroys it, because it is ruled by Satan.
The beast preys mightily on the world’s ignorance. Deceit is its greatest weapon. The Bible says this is how it crushes its “lovers”!
Satan keeps it alive to rule the world, and it is about to burst on the world scene again—this time with greater power than ever before. Worldwide, most people’s faces suddenly will turn white with unparalleled fear! This European power is about ready to shock the world—again!
Thankfully, it will be the last time.
We can understand the rising seventh head much better and more easily if we understand the sixth. The sixth head gives us a dramatic preview of what is to happen in the near future one final time. All we have to do is grasp what the sixth head did, then multiply it by about 20 or 30! The Bible reveals that the sixth head has a very close tie to the seventh.
Satan’s Power
“And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?” (Revelation 13:4). Satan is the power behind this European combine that is rising. His beast demonstrates its power by going to war. Satan is the master destroyer. He is about to aim his hate-filled power at the u.s., Britain and the Jewish nation. Those are Satan’s main targets among the nations. They are the people who have had a history with God.
The devil used Hitler and the Holy Roman Empire to destroy around 50 million people in World War ii. They brought intense suffering upon much greater numbers of people. We have repeatedly seen the many concentration camps on television. Edward R. Murrow rightly called them extermination camps—their main function was to exterminate people! That is only a small preview of what is about to impact this world again.
Satan already demonstrated his power in World War ii. We should receive that as a warning of what is about to happen again, but on a much larger scale!
But Satan has an even greater target spiritually. “And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months” (verse 5). The world is about to be plunged into a 31/2-year tribulation—the “times of the Gentiles” (Luke 21:24). It will be the worst suffering this Earth has ever known (Jeremiah 30:6-7; Daniel 12:1; Matthew 24:21-22).
“And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven” (Revelation 13:6). This European combine speaks blasphemy against God. It has awesome power and satanic arrogance.
“And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations” (verse 7). Satan’s main war will be against God’s own saints. He overcomes, or kills, them. Right now most of the saints are rebelling against God. If they don’t repent before the Tribulation, they must sacrifice their physical lives to qualify for the Kingdom.
“And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (verse 8). Satan will force everyone under his power, by the threat of death, to worship his religion. Only those whose names are written in God’s book of life will refuse.
The world can’t even imagine how horrifying this nightmare is going to be!
We need to see how Satan worked through a man in World War ii. Then we can better understand how he will use a man to plunge the world into World War iii.
Hitler’s Religion
In 1926 Hitler said, “Christ was the greatest early fighter in the battle against the world enemy, the Jews…. The work that Christ started but could not finish, I—Adolf Hitler—will conclude” (John Toland, Adolf Hitler, p. 302). He did not consider Jesus a Jew, but only a half-Jew, because He was begotten by God.
Hitler received revelation from his god about leading the Third Reich in World War ii.
He was obviously being used by the god of this world—Satan—and his demons (2 Corinthians 4:4). Most are ignorant of the spirit world because people refuse to know God and the devil!
Hitler said, “We are not a movement, rather we are a religion .… I’m going to become a religious figure” (Waite, op. cit.). Even Hitler’s “thousand year Reich” was a religious belief based on the 1000-year biblical Millennium.
It is truly amazing that the world knows so little about the satanic power which was behind Hitler. So much has been written, but not understood. “The colossal Assembly Hall planned for his new capital of Germania should be seen as a secular cathedral rather than a civic building. The dome was to be large enough to encompass the dome of St. Peter’s seven times—a favorite number. As Albert Speer has noted, ‘It was basically a hall of worship.… Without such cult significance the motivation for Hitler’s main structure would have been senseless and unintelligible …’” (ibid., p. 32).
What is he saying? Albert Speer, a very intelligent and close associate to Hitler, clearly stated that Hitler was motivated by an extreme cult worship. That means we cannot understand what motivated Hitler unless we comprehend his radical religion! We must perceive why he planned to build a great “hall of worship” with such bizarre “cult significance.”
Those people close to Hitler have told the world about his satanic religion. Still, the world usually refuses to believe them!
The murderous fruits of Hitler’s regime should make us see a sickness beyond the human realm!
Humanity must learn the reality of Satan—either by word or by experience through suffering!
Hitler was prepared for his job. Satan is the great counterfeiter. As God uses one man to lead His Church, so does Satan. The devil has a “very elect” also. Mr. Waite comments on a telling statement of Hitler’s: “‘Above all, I have learned from the Jesuit order.’ Certainly the oath of direct obedience to the führer was strikingly reminiscent of the special oath that Jesuits swear to the pope. Moreover, Hitler spoke of his elite ss, who wore the sacred symbol and dressed in black, as his Society of Jesus. He also ordered ss officers to study the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola for training in the rigid discipline of the faith” (ibid., p. 32).
There is a combined church and state in the Holy Roman Empire. Notice what John Toland wrote about the close tie between Hitler and leaders in the Catholic Church: “By mid-1933 the majority of Germans supported Hitler …. ‘Hitler knows how to guide the ship,’ announced Monsignor Ludwig Kass, leader of the recently outlawed Catholic Party after an audience with the pope. ‘Even before he became chancellor I met him frequently and was greatly impressed by his clear thinking, by his way of facing realities while upholding his ideals, which are noble …. It matters little who rules so long as order is maintained.’ Pius xi subscribed to the same principles, as was proved on July 20 when a concordat between the Vatican and Hitler was signed. The church agreed to keep priests and religion out of politics while Hitler, among other things, granted complete freedom to confessional schools throughout the country, a notable victory for German Catholics. His Holiness welcomed Hitler’s representative, Franz von Papen, most graciously and remarked how pleased he was that the German government now had at its head a man uncompromisingly opposed to Communism and Russian nihilism in all its forms.’
“The Vatican was so appreciative of being recognized as a full partner that it asked God to bless the Reich. On a more practical level, it ordered German bishops to swear allegiance to the National Socialist regime. The new oath concluded with these significant words: ‘In the performance of my spiritual office and in my solicitude for the welfare and the interest of the German Reich, I will endeavor to avoid all detrimental acts which might endanger it’” (op. cit., pp. 430-432).
This illustrates how the church and state have cooperated during the six resurrections of the Roman Empire. Now it is happening once again in Europe.
Many Catholics today don’t like to admit Hitler’s connection with Catholicism. We have written often about how most of the Nazi leaders escaped after World War ii through the Vatican “ratlines.” That is a well-documented truth. The highest leaders in the Catholic Church helped the worst criminals of the 20th century escape! That is not a holy relationship. That truth alone ought to electrify people into an intense concern about what is happening in Europe today!
It’s more than a deep sleep that people are in—it is a coma! But not for long. The time of blindness is about over.
What Happened in Vienna?
Adolf Hitler said the foundation of his philosophy was laid in Vienna. Why Vienna? What happened there?
“He insisted … that his early years in Vienna were absolutely crucial to his career because ‘at that time I formed an image of the world and a view of life which became the foundation for my actions …. I have had to change nothing.’ …
“Albert Speer, who knew Hitler best during World War ii, was convinced that the führer’s intellectual development stopped with the world as he had known it in Vienna in 1910” (Waite, op. cit., p. 14).
Hitler later wrote about this critical period in Vienna in his book, Mein Kampf: “This was the time in which the greatest change I was ever to experience took place in me. From a feeble cosmopolite I had turned into a fanatical anti-Semite.”
Waite then continues in his book: “It is difficult to overstate the importance to Hitler of his commitment to anti-Semitism. It meant almost everything to him” (pp. 216-217).
However, the biggest change in Hitler was not becoming a fanatical anti-Semite. That is only part of the story. This is where many people are deceived.
Much of the world looks upon the Jews as God’s chosen people. In Vienna, Hitler came to believe that God had replaced the Jews with the Germans and the Holy Roman Empire. He believed the Germans were God’s chosen people. This is why the crown jewels of that empire meant so much to him.
In 1938, at a rally in Nuremberg, “Hitler had brought from Vienna, after a hundred and forty years, the insignia of the First Reich—the Imperial Crown, the Orb of Empire, the Scepter and the Imperial Sword. At the presentation of these symbols of imperialism he solemnly vowed that they would remain in Nuremberg forever” (Toland, op. cit., p. 644).
That was a strong statement. He “solemnly vowed” that the crown jewels of the Holy Roman Empire were to “remain in Nuremberg forever.” This is like a death-defying commitment to the Holy Roman Empire and his god! He made a vow for ever!
The crown jewels were to be a key part of the Third Reich, as they were of the First Reich!
When and where did Hitler become so fiercely loyal to the crown jewels? Logic tells us it had to happen while he was growing up in Vienna. Much of that information has remained underground. The god of this world wants that truth to remain hidden until he is once again ruling this great beast power (Revelation 13, 17).
Hitler gave his most “inspired” speeches at the frenzied, torch-lit meetings in Nuremberg. That is where the crown jewels were. And where you find the crown jewels, Satan—the king—is near.
Again, who is the real king of the Holy Roman Empire? “And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born” (Revelation 12:3-4). Satan is the ruler of those seven heads! He wore the six crowns of the Holy Roman Empire, and he is about to wear the seventh. He is the real king of the beast (see Revelation 13:4).
He has the kind of power that led one third of the angels to rebel (Revelation 12:4). How much more he can do to puny men!
When are we going to wake up?
Understand this significant truth! Hitler’s foundational lesson in Vienna was about the Holy Roman Empire! If we can’t learn that lesson by hearing God’s message, then we must learn it by becoming a victim.
In his book The Young Hitler I Knew, August Kubizek reveals a teenage Hitler talking about personally solving homosexuality and other “social problems” when he established his Reich. According to Kubizek, the young Hitler was “absolutely convinced that one day he, personally, would give commands whereby hundreds and thousands of plans and projects he had at his fingertips would be carried out” (pp. 207, 212-213).
Hitler was discussing rule over the world, even giving specifics of how he would do it! How could such a young man, a teenager, think such thoughts? Because he knew it had been done many times before by the Holy Roman Empire.
Hitler was convinced that he alone understood the true meaning of world history. Waite quotes two of Hitler’s own speeches where he stressed his own importance. The first speech was given to the commanding generals of the Wehrmacht on November 23, 1939. Hitler said, “I must in all modesty say that my own person is indispensable. Neither a military nor a civilian personality could replace me.… I am convinced of the strength of my brain and my resolution.… The fate of the Reich is dependent entirely upon me.”
In another speech given on February 15, 1942, Hitler said, “I have created a world power out of the German Reich. I am boundlessly proud that I was blessed by Providence with the permission to lead this battle.”
Hitler Heard Voices
Hitler considered the Jew to be the devil personified. In truth, the Jews have been specially commissioned to preserve the oracles of God (Romans 3:1-3). The oracles include the sacred calendar, knowledge of the biblical week, including the seventh-day Sabbath, and the Old Testament Scriptures.
Jews suffered at Hitler’s hand more than any other race. Historically, the main victim of the Holy Roman Empire has been the spiritual Jews—or God’s Church (Revelation 6:9-11; 17:5-6).
So Hitler’s hatred of Jews goes much deeper than the world has ever even imagined. The main force of this emotion is Satan’s hatred for God!
“Something clicked in the Pasewalk Hospital. It was there at the turn of the year 1918-1919 that Hitler resolved his identity problem and reached what he called ‘the most decisive decision of my life.’ For now, finally, he knew who he was and what he must do. He was the leader sent by destiny. He must answer the ‘voices’ that he said he heard—like Joan of Arc—distinctly calling him as he lay in his hospital bed. The voices told him to rescue his Motherland from the Jews who had violated her” (Waite, op. cit., p. 236).
On page 29 of his book, Waite wrote, “He told an aide that during the preceding autumn, as he lay wounded in a military hospital, he had received a supernatural vision which commanded him to save Germany.”
Hitler heard voices. He had a “supernatural vision which commanded him to save Germany.” Commanded? Of course he actually caused Germany’s destruction, but only because God intervened.
He obeyed the command of his false god! He listened to and heeded the supernatural voice of Satan! Hitler knew this voice was not from men. But most people don’t know it! Most still refuse to understand. When are we going to wake up and understand the god of this world? How much suffering will it take?
Hitler’s Eyes
Why did Hitler have such shining eyes with a “curiously hypnotic effect”? “The most impressive feature of his otherwise coarse and rather undistinguished face was his eyes. They were extraordinarily light blue in color, with a faint touch of greenish-gray. Almost everyone who met him mentioned his strangely compelling eyes. This includes Robert Coulondre, the French ambassador, and the German dramatist Gerhart Hauptmann who, when first introduced to Hitler, stared into his famous eyes and later told friends, ‘It was the greatest moment of my life!’ Martha Dodd, daughter of the American ambassador, was not disappointed in the famous eyes, finding them ‘startling and unforgettable….’
“He knew the power of his own slightly protruding, shining eyes, whose lashless eyelids added to their curiously hypnotic effect” (ibid., p. 5).
A boyhood friend of Hitler’s said his “eyes were so outstanding that one didn’t notice anything else. Never in my life have I seen any other person whose appearance—how shall I put it—was so completely dominated by the eyes .… It was uncanny how those eyes could change their expression, especially when Adolf was speaking …. In fact, Adolf spoke with his eyes, and even when his lips were silent one knew what he wanted to say. When he first came to our house and I introduced him to my mother she said to me in the evening, ‘What eyes your friend has!’ And I remember quite distinctly that there was more fear than admiration in her words. If I am asked where one could perceive, in his youth, this man’s exceptional qualities, I can only answer, ‘In the eyes’” (Kubizek, op. cit., pp. 17-18).
Waite continues in his book: “Women in particular continued to be impressed and frightened by his eyes. Nietzsche’s sister, typically, was fascinated and disturbed by them: ‘They … searched me through and through.’ The penetrating quality remained to the end. A young military adjutant who saw his führer just before Hitler killed himself in 1945 was deeply shocked by the appearance of ‘a sick, almost senile old man.’ But the eyes were still effective: ‘Only in his eyes was there an indescribable flickering brightness … and the glance he gave me was strangely penetrating’” (ibid., p. 6).
H.S. Chamberlain, after meeting Hitler, later told him, “It is as if your eyes were equipped with hands, for they grip a man and hold him fast” (ibid., p. 131).
Waite wrote on page 182, “Hitler’s eyes were particularly important to him, and others began to notice them in early adolescence. His secondary school teacher, Dr. Gissinger, described Adolf’s eyes as ‘shining.’”
It is not natural to have shining eyes that can cast such a spell. Anybody who knows the Bible knows he was Satan or demon-possessed.
In Ezekiel 28:11-14, God refers to an evil king and Satan interchangeably. That is because the king was either possessed or totally controlled by Satan—the god of this world. Satan has deceived the whole world about his power (Revelation 12:9).
From the above quotes, we find that Hitler’s eyes were “strangely compelling,” “shining,” “startling and unforgettable,” they caused fear, and “frightened” and disturbed people. His eyes would “grip a man and hold him fast.” They had a “curiously hypnotic effect.”
His eyes were not normal. Why? The first physical sign to indicate demon possession is through the eyes. How could such a ghastly experience not affect the eyes intensely?
Love can be shown through the eyes. So can hate. The Bible describes the evil women of Israel as having “wanton eyes” (Isaiah 3:16). The Hebrew means they are “deceiving with their eyes.” Also their “countenance doeth witness against them” (verse 9). Nothing about the human body is more revealing than the eyes.
People in this world see so much of Satan and know so little about him. He can be staring right at them and they don’t have a clue he is there.
A Willing Subject
“Hitler did not like to be told that the ways of God were not always revealed to him. On one occasion an aide noted that ‘God does not let people look at the cards He holds.’ Hitler immediately broke forth into such a paroxysm of fury that he himself feared a heart attack. He gave orders that the aide never repeat the offensive phrase.
“The feeling that he was being specially guided from on high grew more intense through the years. On September 16, 1935, he said, ‘What was denied to millions of men was given to us by Providence, and our work will be still remembered by the last members of posterity.’ In a speech in his hometown of Linz, March 12, 1938: ‘When once departed from this city, I carried with me the very same confession of faith that fills me today …. If Providence once then called me from out of this city … then Providence must thereby have given me a mission.’…
“His convictions were reinforced by miraculous escapes from assassination. After the failure of the bomb plot of July 20, 1944, he told a naval aide, ‘Now the Almighty has stayed their [assassins’] hands once more’” (Waite, op. cit., p. 30).
In early October of 1923, “While motoring in his new car through the Bavarian hills with Rosenberg and the Hanfstaengls, fog unexpectedly enshrouded the highway and the open red Mercedes lurched into a ditch. No one spoke on the way back to Munich, then he turned to Helene. ‘I noticed you were not at all frightened by our mishap. I knew we would not be injured. This will not be the only accident which will leave me unharmed. I shall pass through them all and succeed in my plans’” (Toland, op. cit., p. 200).
In a speech in Munich on March 14, 1936, Hitler said, “I go the way that Providence dictates for me with all the assurance of a sleepwalker” (Waite, op. cit.).
This is a very disturbing statement—if you understand Satan and his powers. Hitler had no real control of his own mind! He totally depended on his god for guidance!
This is very common in history. Satan rules this world through people. As Hitler totally yielded to Satan, he was given great power.
“His effectiveness as a demagogue is attested by nearly everyone who heard him. The Munich police reports for November 1919 describe his performances as Party orator as ‘masterful’ and note time and again that he was received with ‘tumultuous applause.’ Ernst Hanfstaengl, a sophisticated Harvard graduate, found Hitler ‘absolutely irresistible … a master of the spoken word.’ Konrad Heiden, then a university student and political opponent of Hitler who had heard him dozens of times, [said]: ‘Suddenly this man, who has been awkwardly standing around… begins to speak, filling the room with his voice, suppressing interruptions or contradictions by his domineering manner, spreading cold shivers among those present by the savagery of his declaration, lifting every subject of conversation into the light of history … the listener is filled with awe and feels that a new phenomenon has entered the room. This thundering demon was not there before; this is not the same timid man with the contracted shoulders. He is capable of this transformation in a personal interview and facing an audience of half a million.’
“Other opponents observed the same phenomenon: a limp, little man changed into a force of overwhelming power, the stream of speech stiffening him ‘like a stream of water stiffens a hose’” (ibid., pp. 240-241).
Mr. Waite says that as a youth, Hitler ate two pounds of chocolates a day. He also generally followed a vegetarian diet. Hitler was physically weak throughout his life. But during his speeches, he spoke with awesome power.
After a speech at the Reichstag, an English observer, Major Francis Yeats-Brown, said this about Hitler: “During the rhetorical passages his voice mounted to the pitch of delirium: he was a man transformed and possessed. We were in the presence of a miracle” (Toland, op. cit., p. 598). It was a supernatural miracle!
Hitler was a “possessed” man. These events can only be interpreted by God. Writers usually attribute this power to Hitler the man. But they are dead wrong. That was power beyond the human realm.
Observers saw his “domineering manner” and noticed a “new phenomenon has entered the room.” “This thundering demon was not there before”! He was “possessed,” and it was a “miracle.” A “limp, little man changed into a force of overwhelming power”!
Men saw the effect but didn’t understand the cause. They should have. All they had to do was bel
“Germany in Prophecy”
Most people have ignored the fact that Herbert W. Armstrong warned the world that Germany would rise again. Only a very few listened.
Mr. Armstrong said German industry and the German people's will power and determination to work, produce and organize was the very heart and lifeblood of all Europe. He said the prostrate body of Europe could not come back without the leadership of a revived and vigorous Germany.
The world is witnessing history repeat itself one more time. Soon, it will all be over. Only the returning Jesus Christ will be able to put a stop to it.
The book of Nahum is an end-time prophecy about Germany. Nahum 3:16-17 talks about this illusive power. “Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth, and flieth away. Thy crowned are as the locusts [Winston Churchill even called the Germans and their military machine ‘the locusts’], and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.”
After World War ii, the Nazis just went underground and disappeared like grasshoppers in wintertime. Suddenly, they were gone. But just as suddenly, they have burst back on the world scene. That’s exactly the way God foretold it was going to happen in this end time.
God’s Word is true! That is why Mr. Armstrong could preach with such absolute authority about the certainty and terrible consequences of Germany rising again—because the Bible said so.
Fierceness in Germany
Let’s examine some of the prophecies Mr. Armstrong covered to come to his startlingly accurate predictions about Germany in the end time. God is raising up the Germans to correct an evil Israel, comprised of nations who have had a history with God. They have failed God. Now God is going to punish them for this most heinous of all sins.
In verse 6 of Habakkuk 1, God says, “For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation….” The Chaldeans are an ancient people of Babylon. Ancient Babylon and the Chaldeans have passed from the world scene. But the old Babylonian religion remains.
“Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate” (Isaiah 47:1). Who is Babylon today? Which religion in this world has a throne today?
“Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms. I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst shew them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke” (verses 5-6). A woman or “lady” in Bible prophecy refers to a church. As described in Chapter 3, a great false church either dominates or heavily influences the seven resurrections of the “Holy” Roman Empire (Revelation 17:5-6). This empire is now forming in Europe for the seventh and final time. Revelation 17:12 says it will be a ten-nation European combine. And Germany, ancient Assyria, will be the dominant player in this Euroforce.
God calls this German-led war machine “bitter and hasty” in Habakkuk 1—a very good description. They are full of bitterness, complete with lightning-fast blitzkrieg warfare. God says they are a “nation which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs” (Habakkuk 1:6). God says He is going to “raise up the Chaldeans.” Everything will revolve around Germany. The other countries are just along for the ride.
In verse 7, God gives us more understanding of these fierce, warlike people. “They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.” The Jerusalem Bible renders verse 7, “A people feared and dreaded, from their might proceeds their right, their greatness.” If you know anything about history, you know about whom God is talking. The German people are warriors whose strength gives them the right to do anything they want, anytime they want.
Verse 11: “Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.” The mind of this man who leads this political beast will change because his god, Satan, is going to heavily influence him, if not possess him. The power of Satan will be behind a revived and terrifying Nazi Germany!
One of the greatest miracles this world has produced in our time is the resurrection of Germany: the rise of Germany from rubble to the greatest power in Europe—and soon to be the greatest power in the world! It is mind-boggling.
The Beast Power
In Revelation 17:1-3, the angel says to John, “Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication … and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.” God says a wondrous beast shall arise which will affect all inhabitants of the Earth.
Continuing in verse 7: “And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.” God revealed to Mr. Armstrong, through these verses in Revelation 17 and other scriptures, that a great political beast is rising in Europe which will be joined by a great European religious beast in an unholy alliance to conquer the world. Religion is going to emotionally stir the Europeans. And then a megalomaniac will come on the scene to stir up the people as only someone like Hitler could.
Verse 8 of Revelation 17 says, “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder … when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.”
The word translated “bottomless pit” or abyss in verse 8 actually means underground. That’s where the Nazis have been since before the end of World War ii.
The so-called Holy Roman Empire is going to rise to power one final time. In Revelation 17:9-12, it says, “And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings: five are fallen and one is”—that’s when Mr. Armstrong came on the scene and began to understand all of these prophecies—“and the other is not yet come”—but it is rising now—“and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.”
This unholy union won’t last long, but “these have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast” (verse 13). Their entire existence will revolve around doing what Satan commands them to do. And it will be dreadful! “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21).
In Revelation 18:3, God tells us more about this great satanic system called Babylon. “For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.”
And this great religious power—this woman on the beast—what will she do with her power? Verses 12 and 13 say she will make merchandise of “slaves, and souls of men.”
In Isaiah 10:5, God says, “O Assyrian [the modern Germans], the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.” Notice God talks about the Assyrian, not the ten nations. Just the one powerful nation. It is the Germans that are the big threat. God is using them for a special purpose.
God says, “I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets” (verse 6). God says the Germans are a tool in His hands. They tread humans down “like the mire of the streets.”
Verse 7: “Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so ….” Even the soon-coming leader of the German-led beast power will not think he would ever destroy or cut off nations. But that’s what the rest of the verse says: “… but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.” As it says in Habakkuk 1:11, his mind will change.
Many nations have been destroyed by the power of the Germans. Remember Leonard Catrell’s statement: “In all the annals of human conquest, it is difficult to find any people more dedicated to bloodshed and slaughter than the Assyrians. Their ferocity and cruelty have few parallels save in modern times”—meaning Germany.
The greatest war machine in all of history was Assyria. They were great conquerors. They had superior weapons and superior organization. And they are back on the world scene today!
Germany in Prophecy
By the time Mr. Armstrong came on the scene, much of Daniel’s prophecy had become history. However, there is a crucial part of this prophecy yet unfulfilled—which will happen soon!
In Daniel 8:23, God says, “And in the latter time of their kingdom”—an end-time Roman Empire—“when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.” This is the political beast which is about to rise up and astound the world!
For a while, Germany and the European Union are going to have a great burst of economic growth as a benefit of their political union. Then, this colossal superstate, with its great military power, will turn on Israel. God says it’s going to happen.
Continuing in Daniel 8:24: “And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power.” There are nine other nations in the beast alliance besides Germany, but the real power behind the beast is Satan (Revelation 13:4)—that’s what “not by his own power” means. There will be ten nations or groups of nations, and this German leader, a “king of fierce countenance,” will control them all.
Verse 24 continues, “And he shall destroy wonderfully….” That means nuclear destruction! Germany is going to obtain nuclear missiles and bombs and a mighty army. They will “destroy wonderfully” many millions of people!
Whole cities will be laid waste. Yet God promises protection to His faithful people. We are going to need protection. What will happen to those who scoff at God’s protection? Verse 24 shows their fate: “He shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.”
In verse 25, we see the fate of mankind at the hands of this “king of fierce countenance.” “And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many….” Or, as the New English Bible translates that phrase, “he shall conjure up great plans and, when they least expect it, work havoc on many.” Through masterful, satanic deceit, this beast power will destroy and wreak havoc on millions!
Worst of the Heathen
Why does God allow this terrible beast power to rise and destroy? Ezekiel 7 tells us God allows it to punish His people. Read verses 2-3.
Why must God do this? Verse 23: “Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.” Who is this talking about? Read your newspaper headlines. This violence epidemic is in the United States most of all. The cities are full of violence. God is going to punish the modern-day Israelites because our lands are full of violence and our nations still will not turn to God.
Here is what God will do. “Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be defiled” (verse 24). When the “worst of the heathen” get into power, they do what they have always done. Only this time, God says they’re going to wreak worse havoc, death and destruction than has ever occurred in man’s history (Ezekiel 5:9).
The Germans have many wonderful characteristics. But when Satan leads them into war, they become brutal!
Sometimes we need to be reminded of how horrible man can be toward fellowman. There is probably no greater example of inhumanity than the Germans in World War ii. But how much have we forgotten? Have we completely shut it out of our minds? Do we think it won’t happen again? God says it’s going to happen far worse than ever before.
We need to remind ourselves of what happened in the German concentration camps during those ugly times of modern “civilization.” The phrase “worst of the heathen” applies to Germany today.
Sidebar: Have We Forgotten?
The following are some graphic and lamentable excerpts from Shoah, An Oral History of the Holocaust, by Claude Lanzmann.
When we first opened the graves, we couldn’t help it, we all burst out sobbing, but the Germans almost beat us to death. We had to work at a killing pace for two days, beaten all the time, and with no tools. The Germans even forbade us to use the words “corpse” or “victim.” The dead were blocks of wood, dung, with absolutely no importance. Anyone who said “corpse” or “victim” was beaten. The Germans made us refer to the bodies as Figuren, that is, as puppets, as dolls, or as Schmattes, which means “rags.”
The head of the Vilna Gestapo told us there are 90,000 people lying there and absolutely no trace must be left of them ….
At that time we started working in that place that they called Treblinka. Still I couldn’t believe what had happened over there on the other side of the gate, where the people went in, everything disappeared, and everything got quiet. But in a minute we find out, when we start to ask the people who worked here before us what had happened to the others, they said: “Well, what do you mean, what happened? Don’t you know that? They’re all gassed, all killed.” It was impossible to say anything—we were just like stones. We couldn’t ask what had happened to the wife, to the kid. “What do you mean—wife, kid? Nobody is anymore!” …
So that while 5,000 Jews arrived in Treblinka, 3,000 were dead in the cars. They had slashed their wrists or just died. The ones we unloaded were half dead and half mad. In the other trains from Kielce [Poland] and elsewhere, at least half were dead. We stacked them, here, here and here. Thousands of people piled one on top of another on the ramp. Stacked like wood. In addition, other Jews still alive, waited there for two days: the small gas chambers could no longer handle the load. They functioned day and night in that period.
More people kept coming, always more, whom we hadn’t the facilities to kill. The brass was in a rush to clean out the Warsaw ghetto. The gas chambers couldn’t handle the load. The small gas chambers. The Jews had to wait their turn for a day, two days, three days. They foresaw what was coming. They may not have been certain, but many knew. There were Jewish women who slashed their daughters’ wrists at night, then cut their own. Others poisoned themselves ….
The corpses lying there were cleared away. There was the period of the old gas chambers. Because there were so many dead that they couldn’t be gotten rid of, the bodies piled up around the gas chambers and stayed there for days. Under this pile of bodies was a cesspool three inches deep, full of blood and worms and dung. No one wanted to clean it out. The Jews preferred to be shot rather than work there.
Crisis at the EndThe head of the Vilna Gestapo told us there are 90,000 people lying there and absolutely no trace must be left of them ….
At that time we started working in that place that they called Treblinka. Still I couldn’t believe what had happened over there on the other side of the gate, where the people went in, everything disappeared, and everything got quiet. But in a minute we find out, when we start to ask the people who worked here before us what had happened to the others, they said: “Well, what do you mean, what happened? Don’t you know that? They’re all gassed, all killed.” It was impossible to say anything—we were just like stones. We couldn’t ask what had happened to the wife, to the kid. “What do you mean—wife, kid? Nobody is anymore!” …
So that while 5,000 Jews arrived in Treblinka, 3,000 were dead in the cars. They had slashed their wrists or just died. The ones we unloaded were half dead and half mad. In the other trains from Kielce [Poland] and elsewhere, at least half were dead. We stacked them, here, here and here. Thousands of people piled one on top of another on the ramp. Stacked like wood. In addition, other Jews still alive, waited there for two days: the small gas chambers could no longer handle the load. They functioned day and night in that period.
More people kept coming, always more, whom we hadn’t the facilities to kill. The brass was in a rush to clean out the Warsaw ghetto. The gas chambers couldn’t handle the load. The small gas chambers. The Jews had to wait their turn for a day, two days, three days. They foresaw what was coming. They may not have been certain, but many knew. There were Jewish women who slashed their daughters’ wrists at night, then cut their own. Others poisoned themselves ….
The corpses lying there were cleared away. There was the period of the old gas chambers. Because there were so many dead that they couldn’t be gotten rid of, the bodies piled up around the gas chambers and stayed there for days. Under this pile of bodies was a cesspool three inches deep, full of blood and worms and dung. No one wanted to clean it out. The Jews preferred to be shot rather than work there.
Let’s look at a prophecy yet to be fulfilled which shows that events we see developing today are leading to the crisis at the end of this age. “And at the time of the end shall the king of the south [a Middle Eastern power] push at him; and the king of the north [the German-led European Union] shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over” (Daniel 11:40). The Germans are going to get control of the Middle East.
Verse 41: “He [king of the north] shall enter also into the glorious land [Jerusalem and the Promised Land], and many countries shall be overthrown .…”
The events in the Middle East are going to lead to seriously escalating problems. They are going to trigger World War iii. The Bible says so. The king of the north is almost in place for this global tragedy. The king of the south is virtually there as well—and they have the oil. They’re just not fully aware yet of how much power that oil gives them over Europe.
Germany, which has virtually no oil, is waiting for an opportunity to take control of the Middle East. They have planned this for years. The need for oil was the trigger that caused Japan to attack Pearl Harbor and start World War ii in the Pacific. That same trigger could be the main reason for the clash between the king of the north and the king of the south.
Control of Jerusalem could also lead to war. Both the Catholics and Muslims desperately want Jerusalem.
Punishment and Salvation
But the Assyrians are going to be humbled. God is going to punish Assyria, just like He will punish Israel and His Church. All these end-time prophecies show the same end result for Germany: destruction!
Germany’s terrible fate is shown in Isaiah 13:17-19. God will crush the German war machine by sending Asiatic hordes against them!
In Isaiah 10:12-13, God says, “Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks. For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom….” The ego of the Germans will lead them to their own destruction. Isn’t it amazing how humans always want to take credit for what God has done?
In Nahum 3:18-19, God says, “Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: thy nobles shall dwell in the dust: thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them. There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: and all that hear the [news] of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?” History proves that the wickedness of the Germans has passed on the world continually.
Daniel 8:25 gives us the final outcome of the beast power, at the time of the glorious return of Christ: “And he [the beast power] shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.” Jesus Christ is going to break them without physical hands—supernatural intervention by God!
This arrogant beast power is going to fight against Jesus Christ and will be crushed and destroyed! The good news is that Jesus Christ is about ready to return to this Earth in all power and glory! He is going to smash that European combine that is rising up before our eyes in great strength.
Yes, thankfully, there is good news. When the glorified Jesus Christ returns, “These [allies of the beast] shall make war with the Lamb, and the lamb shall overcome them: for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings…” (Revelation 17:14). In the end, God will restore peace to mankind (Zechariah 10:6, 10-11).
God is going to bring Germany and the Holy Roman Empire down after that ancient war machine has brought the world down. But then God raises it all back up again—His way—with His government, His law and His righteousness. The Germans are an exceptionally talented people who are going to be a very great people in the World Tomorrow. God just needs to channel that talent in the right direction. Then they will serve God with the same zeal they have unknowingly served Satan all these years. All will be to the glory of God the Father.
What Can We Do?
It’s obvious that Satan is going to take advantage of all the hatred smoldering in Europe against the United States and England. He is going to stir all that hatred into a nuclear holocaust—a flaming fire that we can hardly even imagine. We need to be prepared for it.
In Zephaniah 2:1-3, it says, “Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired [God’s faithful people]; Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord’s anger come upon you. Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.” God is saying that if His people are loyal to what they have learned from Him, they can be hidden from the horrors that are soon to come upon this Earth!
What is the key to being protected? We must seek God before the Tribulation strikes. That is the formula for escape. Seek God now! “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:6-7).
The history of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire reveals where the events in Europe today are leading. More importantly, God’s prophecies give us an advance preview of what is about to occur in Europe—and how it will affect the whole world. What can you do before it is too late? Seek God while He may be found.