Brexit Is Fulfillment Of Biblical Prophecy (?)

[stromboli]

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/leavingfundamentalism/2016/06/24/brexit-now-shall-the-antichrist-arise/

.......“I believe God has his eye on Europe for the last move of God, the last outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Throughout the New Testament, it is continually announcing that Christ will return. No one knows when. But there are seasons that you can watch for â€" rumours of war, nations fighting with nations â€" Israel becoming a nation. And the European Community is extremely important, though don’t quote us on this.”

“Rumours of war” here is a reference to Matthew 24:6, that one of the signs of the End Times shall be “wars and rumours of war”. Since there has never been a time in human history without war or rumour of war, this was a fairly safe bet. I also love Rory’s “don’t quote us on this”, revealing that he had at least some idea how absurd this sounded (and no idea how journalists operate).
“You mean,” I said, “that the European Union is another sign of the last days?”
“Oh it sure is, right.”
Rory says, “The 10 nations, yeah.”
I point out, “It’s more than 10 already.”
When this article was published, the EU had 15 member states…
Wendy says, “Two will drop away, and when it’s 10 and has been 10 for a while, then…”
Rory: “…We’re very close.”
… so as well as being rubbish at biblical exegesis, Rory and Wendy were also quite bad at counting.
Neither I nor anyone I knew regularly read the Independent, but I remember reading this article when it came out, so I guess some industrious church member heard they were being interviewed and made photocopies to pass around the congregation. And of course, what the Alecs were saying made complete sense to us, because we heard this stuff all the time. I remember thinking how brave it was for them to predict that the EU would shrink to ten nations in a national newspaper, but also how the whole world would see the truth of biblical prophecy when they were vindicated, as they surely would be.

So what were they talking about?
In the book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. In it, he sees a statue with a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, and belly and thighs of bronze. Its lower legs were iron, and his feet part iron and part clay. The prophet Daniel is brought before Nebuchadnezzar to interpret the dream. Daniel tells the king that the head represents his empire (the Babylonians). After him will come three more empires before the End of Days. At the end of the fourth empire, God will set up his kingdom on earth:
In the time of those kings, 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 forever.
A lot of evangelicals believe this refers to Christ’s return. DON’T ASK ME HOW. I was ten when I learned this shit. I didn’t ask questions, I just believed. I am not going to try to defend to you a bunch of evangelicals with almost no knowledge of history, textual criticism, or literary genres trying to claim that a Hebrew apocalyptic book is actually about Jesus coming back in the present day.
ANYWAY, the ‘Prophecy Update’ blog gives a fairly good representation of what I believed:
Gold Head: Babylonian Empire (626 BC â€" 539 BC)
Silver Chest/Arms: Medo-Persian Empire (539 BC â€" 330 BC)
Bronze Belly and Thighs: Greecian Empire (330 BC â€" 63 BC)
Iron Legs: Roman Empire (63 BC ->)
This gives Christians a problem. The Roman Empire collapsed quite a while ago, and there’s still no sign of Jesus’ return. Since the Bible can’t possibly be wrong (and apparently their interpretation is also unquestionable), the Roman Empire must be going to spring back to life somehow just before Jesus comes back.
THEREFORE the European Union is the Roman Empire reborn (just go with it, OK?).
THEREFORE the European Union is a GIANT CONSPIRACY to bring about the rise of the Antichrist and must be RESISTED AT ALL COSTS (There were lots of Illuminati/New World Order/Rothschild conspiracy theories attached to this. 10-year-old Jonny would have voted Brexit so hard).
THEREFORE there must be ten countries to represent the ten toes in Nebuchadnezzar’s vision.
THEREFORE some countries have to drop out.
Back when there were only 15 countries in the EU, I guess that seemed a vaguely plausible story, assuming you accept the other premises of the evangelicals’ interpretation of scripture (and why wouldn’t you?). With 28 countries, it looked… a bit shaky. I haven’t kept up with evangelical eschatology in the years since I left church, so I don’t know what the score is today. Are they pretending they never made those wild predictions, just like they pretend they never said Jesus was definitely coming back in 1988? Have they moved on to some new interpretation of Daniel 2? Will Brexit lead to wild predictions of a stampede of nations leaving the EU, shrinking it to the necessary ten?
Various sites discuss the ten toes and their relationship to the EU with a perfectly straight face. A blogger called housetops explains that in the Last Days “The 200+ nations of the earth will be amalgamated into ten super-nations”.
Meanwhile, theTrumpet.com rings with the headline “Bible Prophecy Foretold Brexit!” However, this was only published today. Personally, I find prophecies which describe events that have already happened to be the less impressive kind of prophecy.
Turns out Bible in the News called it bang on. On January 17, they ran a post entitled “Britain’s exit from Europe is inevitable!”

Buckle up your chastity belts ladies, the shits gonna hit the fan! (soon as we get back to 10 nations in the EU....) when the EU numbers grew past 10, it put the kibosh on prophecy. Now maybe we're heading the other direction. If the EU gets dissolved, that would really create a conundrum for the bible thumpers.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

I didn't actually count, but I suspect there are 666 words in the previous post..

[Baruch]

Rome isn't the capital of the EU, Brussels is.  No prophecy in the Bible about Brussels and their demonic sprouts ;-)

[stromboli]

Rome isn't the capital of the EU, Brussels is.  No prophecy in the Bible about Brussels and their demonic sprouts ;-)

True, but Rome will always be included prophetically with the end times. I am sure Brussels wasn't in the biblical writers geography books. And some religions, including 7th Day Adventist identify the pope as the antichrist. Back then Rome was the big kanuha in every respect, and the bad guy for anyone living in or around Judea.

[Flanker1Six]

"But there are seasons that you can watch for â€" rumours of war, nations fighting with nations"    Boy!   I don't know; that's pretty darn specific...........will there  be enough time to build my bunker? 

Has anyone passed this memo on to all those muslim refugees?   Kind of ironic they show up in Europe and get turned into ionized atoms, floating gently at 40,000 ft just as they get the first welfare stipend.  Fuck!  what are the odds??!! 

[Mermaid]

I didn't actually count, but I suspect there are 666 words in the previous post..

Ahahahaha

[Baruch]

Why is Brexit biblical?  The billionaires lost, on paper, 127 billion dollars, on Friday alone.  Cry me a river.  They have been robbing the planet blind since 1980, thanks to Thatcher and Reagan ... and the quislings who have come after them, who are in the White House and #10 Downing Street.

The Germans are now saying, we won't let anyone leave, not Greece, not Britain.  Wonder where they are hiding the Hinkel bombers to blitz London with ;-)

[stromboli]

Why is Brexit biblical?  The billionaires lost, on paper, 127 billion dollars, on Friday alone.  Cry me a river.  They have been robbing the planet blind since 1980, thanks to Thatcher and Reagan ... and the quislings who have come after them, who are in the White House and #10 Downing Street.

The Germans are now saying, we won't let anyone leave, not Greece, not Britain.  Wonder where they are hiding the Hinkel bombers to blitz London with ;-)

Its biblical in somebody's mind because of any "relevant" scripture they quoted. Personally I'm still waiting for Gog and Magog. Now that is going to be fun. Might include the Zombie Apocalypse. All that ammo and nothing to shoot at........

[Baruch]

Its biblical in somebody's mind because of any "relevant" scripture they quoted. Personally I'm still waiting for Gog and Magog. Now that is going to be fun. Might include the Zombie Apocalypse. All that ammo and nothing to shoot at........

Illiterate folks of the last 60 years would tell you that God and Magog refer to Russia and China.  As best as scholars can tell, Gog refers to king Gyges of Lydia, who died about 2600 years ago.  He was a contemporary to the Babylonian Exile.  Magog may refer to the king of the Medes, who ruled Iran before Cyrus.  When Cyrus became king of Media, he renamed it Persia, and defeated the descendant of king Gyges.  Indirectly initiating the Greco-Persian wars.  Cyrus also defeated the Babylonians and freed the Jews.  He is called the Messiah in the OT.  As king of kings and lord of lords ... his title is the origin of the monarchial title of Jesus.

[Blackleaf]

Everything is a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. The end times are nigh, just like they were for nearly 2000 years. How arrogant do you have to be to think that the moment you're living in happens to be the exact one vaguely described in a book that is 19 centuries old, and that you are the one smart/enlightened enough to discover the hidden meanings in the texts?

[drunkenshoe]

[Blackleaf]

This crap is on my YouTube ads now...

[widdershins]

True, but Rome will always be included prophetically with the end times. I am sure Brussels wasn't in the biblical writers geography books. And some religions, including 7th Day Adventist identify the pope as the antichrist. Back then Rome was the big kanuha in every respect, and the bad guy for anyone living in or around Judea.

If it was still the last guy I wouldn't have dismissed this claim outright.

I have no doubt that there were equally "compelling" arguments for the start of a "one world government" when the European Union formed.