When I read about, US Forces Vandalize Babylon, it was about the same time as the reporting on the Greek crisis and conjectures on the possible break-up (or the break-down?) of the Eurozone. “The Euro as we know it is dead,” said The Telegraph. “Nightmare vision for Europe as EU chief warns ‘democracy could disappear’ in Greece, Spain and Portugal” said the Daily Mail. “If Greece was to default it would effectively spell the end of the Euro as a currency, according to Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) strategist and chief European economist Jacques Cailloux.” We should be glad that Britain never joined the Euro, said one business blog, and David Cameron assured Parliament that Britain will not be joining the Euro. We were right not to join the Euro, was another business headline
The Prime Minister was adamant that the UK Budget Controls will not pass to Brussels. Everything that had been built up over the years with a hope of a United States of Europe all of a sudden seemed to be falling apart. Initially, just one country in crisis was enough to bring about the collapse of the whole Euro enterprise. Then came problems for Spain, Portugal and Italy, and we didn’t seem to be sure where we were in the crisis rankings “Worries about the banks, shares plunging and a faltering housing market… Are we on the brink of a new crash? asked the Daily Mail. There was the worry about UK & Europe’s banks plunging into debt.
The Euro was unlikely to last five more years. And so we had John Humphreys asking have the sceptics been proved right over Europe?
Uncertainty still remains - Bulgaria and Ireland are currently under pressure and there are those pundits who still believe the Eurozone is going to collapse with some speculating on its demise. On the other hand, there are business blogs and websites quite upbeat about a recovery, but then so was the Prime Minister John Major and Chancellor Norman Lamont prior to the 16th September 1992 when the UK Government crashed out of the ERM. We in the UK had gone up to 15% interest on our mortgages! Back then it showed how fragile political movements are, and the recent Euro crisis affirms that. Although we are getting a sense of recovery, it’s a costly one, not just for our generation, but for our children’s generation too.
In all of this that 2500 year-old prediction I had read in the Bible in Daniel 2 just stood out in my mind - that even if nations of modern Europe were re-united in someway - the text said, “The people will be a mixture (you can say that again!) and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay” (Daniel 2:43).
What I get from this 2500 year-old prediction is that we are down in the ‘feet and ten toes’ of this great metallic image composed of 5 different minerals. It says in the script there is to be a 5th world empire, the next to come is to last forever. “The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure for ever” (Daniel 2: 44).
Speculators may be jumping on the bandwagon of the current political uncertainties, but this one I wouldn’t speculate on - its been going to plan for the last 2500 years, I can’t see anything derailing it. When this is matched with the promises Jesus made in his apocalyptic speech in Matthew 24 and 25, it has something about it that makes sense, and that is what the Bible does for the times in which we live, it has a way of making sense of it all. And that is the purpose of the Bible - it takes away the uncertainties of the future because of the Person of Jesus Christ and what he has done for us (John 3:16)
