There is no shortage of commentators predicting the demise of Project Europe. From the eurozone financial crisis to the refugee crisis, Europeans are becoming increasingly skeptical about the future of the European Union.

Some European leaders, however, are either denying reality or simply lying about the challenges facing the Continent. The Telegraph reported January 29 that European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s inner circle believes that “the sex attacks that took place in Cologne on New Year’s Eve were simply a ‘matter of public order’ and had nothing to do with the refugee crisis.” Yet, the Telegraph continued, “The minutes of the European Commission’s weekly cabinet meeting from January 13 hint at officials’ fears that the events in Cologne could turn public opinion sharply against the million migrants who have entered Europe.”

Europe’s leaders themselves are worried about the future of the Continent—howbeit privately. But publicly, Europe’s citizens are increasingly expressing their concerns.

An insa poll released Friday showed that 40 percent of Germans want Chancellor Angela Merkel to resign over her liberal refugee policy. The poll was conducted for the German Focus newsmagazine, and it marked the first time the pollster asked voters whether Merkel should quit. Another Telegraph article said the poll findings “are the strongest indication yet of the degree of public opposition the German chancellor is facing over her controversial ‘open-door’ refugee policy.The poll was released just hours after Ms. Merkel and her coalition partners agreed to toughen Germany’s asylum rules in the wake of the Cologne sex attacks.”

Merkel was 2015’s Time Person of the Year, and as the Telegraph noted, she has “enjoyed seemingly unassailable approval ratings”—that is, until the “dramatic turnaround” of the refugee crisis.

Some senior politicians in Germany have already imposed deadlines on Merkel to provide “clarity on the refugee crisis by spring.” As we noted on theTrumpet.com, former Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber gave Merkel a similar deadline.

Asia Times editor Herbert London warned January 27:

Some in Europe realize this migration increase could be a cancer that metastasizes throughout the Continent. Poland and Hungary have raised their red flags. However, the cells of radical Islam are already well ensconced throughout Europe. As I see it, unless governments engage in a coordinated surge to eliminate separate Islamic communities in Western Europe, the murders in Paris, the wilding in Cologne, the bombing in Madrid will increase and spread.

About project Europe, the Economist noted that “Europe’s power no longer extends outward; instead, the surrounding countries have turned their pathologies on Europe.” It continued, “Russia’s bloody intervention in Ukraine tore up the European belief that borders may not be changed by force—and Europe initially struggled to respond. It dithered again last year as the stream of migrants coming through Greece swelled, eventually leaving Ms. Merkel with little choice but to shower gifts upon [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan in the hope of an agreement to stanch the flow.”

Europe is clearly in a crisis that’s threatening the future of the Union. But that crisis will not doom Project Europe to utter collapse. In fact, it’s setting the stage for the fulfillment of a remarkable Bible prophecy that we have written about for decades: the emergence of a strongman from Germany to revive and unite a smaller, much more powerful version of the European Union as we know it today.