The European Union: Blessing or Modern Tower of Babel?

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A union of 27 nations with nearly half a billion people should not be carelessly underestimated. Yet the lofty ideals of the EU founding fathers and those of Europes current leaders should sometimes be taken with a grain of salt.

by John Ross Schroeder

Those in the political and business world generally hold one of two contrasting views of Europe. One view is that the continent is increasingly fading away. Many political leaders view China and India as the next superpowersnot the EU. Some observers state that the European Union is underperforming in a globalized world, thinking the EU is falling behind in industrial performance and far too slow in developing new technologies.

The introduction to a March 26, 2007, Newsweekarticle stated: "As the European Union celebrates the 50th anniversary of its founding Treaty of Rome, the pundits agree: Europe is in terminal decline. It is a continental-size museum dropping into the dustbin of history.

"This picture is especially popular in America. As U.S. skeptics tell it, the Old World (save for Britain, naturally) is finished. Economies are stagnant. Technological and entrepreneurial energy have passed to Silicon Valley and Bangalore. Politicians are powerless in the face of sclerotic social welfare systems" (Andrew Moravcsik, "The Golden Moment," emphasis added throughout).

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"The world is bipolar, and the other pole is Europe"

The author of the Newsweek article, Andrew Moravcsik, does not agree with this negative assessment of Europe. After all, he is the director of the European Union Program at Princeton University. He thinks of Europe as "the quiet superpower." To him, "the world is bipolar, and the other pole is Europe." Moravcsik believes that the EU uses (and will use) civilian and diplomatic power far more effectively than the United States.

Futurologist Jeremy Rifkin is quoted in the article as saying, "The American Spirit is tired and languishing in the past," and it is Europe that will provide leadership for a world in disarray. According to this line of thinking, U.S. military might is not working in today's complex world while Europe's emphasis on diplomacy, led by Germany and France, is in the process of gradually renouncing arms as a means of solving the periodic crises that threaten global stability.

Berlin is a leader in this new thinking. Longtime writer Gerhard Marx and I traveled to Berlin to report on the official commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome, the founding document of the EU. Not far behind London, Paris and Rome, the city of Berlin is now the fourth-most-visited city in Europe. Since the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989, this city has come a long way. It has been restored as the capital of Germany and is once again at the heart of European culture.

Mr. Marx and I met at Berlin's new central railway station. This impressive Hauptbahnhof opened in advance of the World Cup in May 2006. No other train station of such major proportions has been constructed in recent history. This is where many thousands of European rail passengers either change trains or disembark to visit the city. This highly functional, multileveled building features some 80 modern retail shops open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Rome would have dearly loved to have hosted these anniversary celebrations and festivities, but Berlin prevailed. Germany exercises the current presidency of the European Union.

Until late 1989 this city symbolized the divisions afflicting the European continent. A forbidding communist-built barrier ran right through the middle of Berlin, separating the peoples of Europe, East from West. Now, nearly 18 years later, the capital city appears symbolic of a new unity growing on much of the European continent.

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"The Berlin Declaration"

The celebrations culminated with a formal report called "The Berlin Declaration" signed by Angela Merkel (chancellor of Germany) for the Council of the European Union, Hans-Gert Poettering, president of the European Parliament, and Jose Manuel Barroso (of Portugal), president of the European Commission.

It proffers some interesting ideals if only Europe could live up to them in the long run.

"Thanks to the yearning for freedom of the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe, the unnatural division of Europe is now consigned to the past. European integration shows that we have learnt the painful lessons of history marked by bloody conflict . . .

"We, the citizens of the European Union, have united for the better . . .

"We are striving for peace and freedom, for democracy and the rule of law, for mutual respect and shared responsibility, for prosperity and security, for tolerance and participation, for justice and solidarity . . .

"We can thus shape the increasing interdependence of the global economy and ever-growing competition of international markets according to our values . . .

"We are committed to the peaceful resolution of conflicts in the world and to ensuring that people do not become victims of war, terrorism and violence . . .

"With European unification a dream of earlier generations has become a reality."

These are certainly idealistic sentiments. However, the Bible plainly states that "the [human] heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9, New International Version). Romans 8:7 adds that "the mind-set of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit itself to God's law, for it is unable to do so" (Holman Christian Standard Bible). Unless we are truly converted Christians, we human beings are lawless by nature and do not really know the way to peace (Romans 3:17).

Regardless of good intentions, can Europe fly in the face of these biblical truths in the long run?

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Fifty years of progress, prosperity and peace

Mr. Barroso praised the progress of Europe in his Berlin speech. "Let us recognise 50 years of achievement, peace, liberty and prosperity, beyond the dreams of even the most optimistic founding father of Europe. In 1957, 15 of our 27 members were either under dictatorship or were not allowed to exist as independent countries. Now we are all prospering democracies. The EU of today is around 50 times more prosperous . . .

"The enlarged European Union gives us not just economic but also a political and strategic dimension . . . Size matters in today's world." This statement is well worth noting since "strategic dimension" is most probably a euphemism for the military dimension. We must ask the question here: How long can an economic giant like the EU remain a relative military dwarf?

German Chancellor Merkel stated in her official Berlin speech: "A common Foreign and Security policy is therefore absolutely vital . . . Europe needs to be able to act, to act more effectively than it can at present . . . The founding fathers of Europe knew that in the long run the economic and the political world could not be kept separate . . . For we know that we must always renew the political shape of Europe in keeping with the times."

What was originally promised as a simple union of economic cooperation would inevitably become political, strategic and military.

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Recognizing Europe's Christian dimension

Early in her speech Chancellor Merkel added an important aside: "And if I may make a personal comment, I would add that this view of the individual is for me also part and parcel of Europe's Jewish-Christian heritage." Earlier in the year Newsweek quoted the German chancellor as saying, "We must give a soul to Europe; we have to find Europe's soul" (Jan. 29, 2007).

A Jewish Chronicle article critical of Dr. Merkel, written by a Liberal member of the British Parliament, stated that "the German Chancellor is suggesting injecting a Christian clause into the European constitution . . . [She] has reignited the argument about whether the EU should 'do God,' saying: 'We need a European identity in the form of a constitutional treaty and it should be connected to Christianity and God, as Christianity has forged Europe in a decisive way'" ("God and Politics Don't Mix. Merkel Should Know That," March 23, 2007).

Bible prophecy clearly foretells that religion will play a decisive future role in a world-dominating union to come, a union grounded in the general geographic sphere of the ancient Holy Roman Empire of Europe.

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A babel of languages no longer a problem

As a press representative of The Good News, I attended the final media conference hosted by the signatories of "The Berlin Declaration"Chancellor Merkel, Professor Poettering and Mr. Barroso. Many hundreds of journalists attending in the press building could hear immediate translations in their own languages. When Mr. Barroso spoke in English, Dr. Merkel and Professor Poettering donned earphones and listened to a simultaneous translation into German.

All of the major speeches were printed and freely available in English and other languages. Europe is a place of many tongues, but many citizens speak several languages and competent translators are available in abundancesome waiting on a long list of potential employees in the EU. Clearly, different languages are not the problem they once were in Europe.

Is the European Union a modern Tower of Babel? Most of its leaders and proponents seem to see the EU as a definite blessing for mankind. They simply do not envision what the Bible foretells in the books of Daniel and Revelation.

Excepting their leaders, probably many of those who began to build the ancient Tower of Babel did not fully understand where that enterprise would eventually lead, had not God intervened. Notice the biblical account:

"Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there . . . They said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth" (Genesis 11:1-4, NIV).

A far-seeing God knew what would eventually happen. "But the Lord came down to see the city that the men were building. The Lord said, 'If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language, so they will not understand each other" (verses 5-7, NIV).

Only now in this present modern age are we seeing the massive potential of human beings come to fruition. It was prophesied that at the time of the end knowledge and transportation across the earth would greatly increase (Daniel 12:4).

The motives of European leaders seem coated with aspirations for many good things that would help humankind immeasurably. But where is this powerful union really headed in the long run? Will it eventually turn out to be a modern Tower of Babel?

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Original intentions and future reality

It is appropriate here to recall a prophecy of Isaiah: "Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger, in whose hand is the club of my wrath! I send him against a godless nation [the house of Israel], I dispatch him against a people who anger me . . . But this is not what he intends, this is not what he has in mind, [yet] his purpose is to destroy, to put an end to many nations" (Isaiah 10:5-7, NIV).

Leaders of nations do not always understand their own minds and motives. Many can be self-deceived. So God can use one nationor a coalition or alliance of nationsto punish others because of their transgressions and violations of His law. Will the Creator use a final union of nations or groups of nations in Europe to punish the modern nations descended from ancient Israeleven if the perpetrators don't have any intention of doing so now?

You have to put a number of biblical prophecies together properly to comprehend where Europe is really headed. It takes time, study and effort to understand the significance of these events.

According to the Holy Scriptures, the end result of efforts to unify Europe will not be a friendly group of democratic nations that will bless mankind in countless ways. Instead these efforts will lead to the rise of a new superpower led by a powerful dictator who will institute an unrivaled period of global tyranny and turmoil.

Yes, a modern Tower of Babel is coming in Europeone that is going to work together in unity for a whileand you need to be armed with spiritual knowledge of how to cope with what lies ahead! GN