JC's Weekly May 23

According to the UK Times (http://www.timesonline.co.uk) the President of France, Jacques Chirac is threatening to ignore the French public and press ahead with the new European constitution even if the people of France vote "no". It was once difficult for me to imagine any western leader saying such a thing, let alone actually doing it, yet as history progresses as we see the prophecies of the Bible come to pass before our eyes, nothing surprises me anymore.

Francis Schaeffer wrote: "Today we are left largely not only with a religion and a church without meaning, but we are left with a culture without meaning. Man himself is dead."(1) This is the position of the French People. Recently, I had the great pleasure of visiting with Pastor Fred Decoster who leads a Baptist congregation in Honfleur, France. This church now has 400 people attending, which in France is a vast number. Pastor DeCoster shared with me why France, which had such a rich Chrisitian history during the reformation, has become cold, pagan and dead. Beginning at age 5, French children are educated in philosophy - secular philosophy, which is atheistic, teaching the citizens of France that there is no God. This is why France is a morally bankrupt country (with the United States not far behind). If there is no God, then one's own personal good is the supreme desire of every man, woman and child. So, if the French people don't want to be a part of a grand new Europe, as it is designed, then their President's personal desire for this new government trumps the desires of the people he leads and so he is free to make any decision he chooses. In America, we recently had such a leader - Bill Clinton.

How does this affect those of us outside of France? Well, there is an old saying which is largely true, "As goes France, so goes Europe". History tells us this is correct. But the French people, who struggle to live each day as does everyone else in the world, can see that something is wrong with a united empire called Europe. There was once a united empire on the European continent; this empire was called Rome, which ended sometime around the year 400.(2)

The Bible tells us that once again, as history draws to a close, there will be a new united empire, consisting of ten nations, which forms out of Europe. This prediction, or prophecy was given to the Prophet Daniel, approximately 600 years before the birth of Christ, while the Jews were in exile in Babylon. (Daniel chapter 11)

The French people may largely deny the existence of God, but inside each of us is a yearning to know Him. Solomon wrote that, "God has placed eternity in their hearts"(3) and this is true, even for a people who don't understand why. Each person instinctively knows that this life on this planet is not all there is. I believe it is this innate feeling that there must be something more, is what is keeping the French people from ratifying the European constitution.

At any rate, history is indeed unfolding before our eyes, and whatever the outcome of the French referendum on the EU, there will one day be a new "Roman Empire". The question for all is "are you ready for this time?" This new empire isn't important simply for the economic and social power it will bring (a truly United Europe would dwarf the United States and as a trading partner with China would make the U.S. at best the third most powerful country in the world) but also because it signals the coming of the end of human history. Are you ready?





















1. (Francis A. Schaeffer, Death In The City, Ch. 1)
2. Rutilius Numantius: On His Return, I.xi.47, The Greatness of Rome in the Days of Ruin, 413
3. Ecclesiastes 3:11