Speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai, Spanish economist Arturo Bris predicted that a major shock will soon bring about an end to the current America-led world order. “I totally agree that the world order, the way it is built today, doesn’t make any sense,” he told Indian political analyst Samir Saran and Arabian news presenter Imane Lohrache on February 13. “It is not in line with the economic powers like India, Brazil or Germany. They don’t have a massive role in the international order. But to me, the big question is how we are going to go through this transformation. It cannot be gradual. It has to be, has to be, driven by a part, by a certain shock that will happen.”

Global pandemic: The three panelists discussed the need for a world government when Professor Bris said that economic powers like India, Brazil and Germany need to play a bigger role in global governance. Yet Bris did not finish his thought because Dr. Samir Saran suggested that the covid-19 pandemic may be the shock he predicted.

Both Bris and Saran are agenda contributors at Prof. Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum, which has been calling for a “great reset” in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Bris’s comments were particularly alarming because he was dogmatic that the world’s transition to global government must not be gradual. Rather, he believes humanity needs to take advantage of the next big global crisis to reengineer global government completely.

German superstate: Professor Bris is the director of the imd World Competitiveness Center and one of the top 100 most-read finance academics in the world. But he is not the first European leader to predict that a global crisis will lead to an increase in Germany’s power.

The keynote speaker at the inaugural meeting of Schwab’s World Economic Forum in 1971 was Otto von Habsburg, the last crown prince of Austria-Hungary. Habsburg was a vocal advocate for European unification, and he told Plain Truth editor in chief Herbert W. Armstrong in 1983 that there were madmen in the world, such as Muammar Qadhafi and Ruhollah Khomeini, who could pull off some unexpected international act that would startle the nations of Europe into uniting into a global superpower overnight.

Prophetic beast: A Bible prophecy in Revelation 17:12-13 reveals that 10 kings will give their power and strength to the beast, a revived Holy Roman Empire. Even though this empire’s coming is foretold in the Bible, it will catch people off guard because of how suddenly it appears. Verse 8 indicates that the world will stand in “wonder” when this beast emerges from a “bottomless pit.” Although Professor Bris probably does not have a world dictatorship in mind, he is right about “a certain shock” that will transform government.

Learn more: Read Who or What Is the Prophetic Beast?, by Herbert W. Armstrong.