The European Union in Prophecy The EU in Prophecy I | Page 210

The European Union in Prophecy
It had been Rome's policy, under a profession of reverence for the Bible, to keep
it locked up in an unknown tongue and hidden away from the people. Under her rule
the witnesses prophesied "clothed in sackcloth." But another power --the beast from
the bottomless pit--was to arise to make open, avowed war upon the word of God. "The
great city" in whose streets the witnesses are slain, and where their dead bodies lie,
is "spiritually" Egypt. Of all nations presented in Bible history, Egypt most boldly
denied the existence of the living God and resisted His commands. No monarch ever
ventured upon more open and highhanded rebellion against the authority of Heaven
than did the king of Egypt. When the message was brought him by Moses, in the name
of the Lord, Pharaoh proudly answered: "Who is Jehovah, that I should hearken unto
His voice to let Israel go? I know not Jehovah, and moreover I will not let Israel go."
Exodus 5:2, A.R.V.
This is atheism, and the nation represented by Egypt would give voice to a
similar denial of the claims of the living God and would manifest a like spirit of
unbelief and defiance. "The great city" is also compared, "spiritually," to Sodom. The
corruption of Sodom in breaking the law of God was especially manifested in
licentiousness. And this sin was also to be a pre-eminent characteristic of the nation
that should fulfill the specifications of this scripture. According to the words of the
prophet, then, a little before the year 1798 some power of satanic origin and character
would rise to make war upon the Bible. And in the land where the testimony of God's
two witnesses should thus be silenced, there would be manifest the atheism of the
Pharaoh and the licentiousness of Sodom. This prophecy has received a most exact
and striking fulfillment in the history of France. During the Revolution, in 1793, "the
world for the first time heard an assembly of men, born and educated in civilization,
and assuming the right to govern one of the finest of the European nations, uplift
their united voice to deny the most solemn truth which man's soul receives, and
renounce unanimously the belief and worship of a Deity."--Sir Walter Scott, Life of
Napoleon, vol. 1, ch. 17.
"France is the only nation in the world concerning which the authentic record
survives, that as a nation she lifted her hand in open rebellion against the Author of
the universe. Plenty of blasphemers, plenty of infidels, there have been, and still
continue to be, in England, Germany, Spain, and elsewhere; but France stands apart
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