German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will lead a newly established National Security Council designed to enable swift and decisive action in times of crisis. “The National Security Council will make an important contribution to systematically strengthening the resilience of the state,” reads the key points of the council’s rules of procedure to be adopted on August 27 at a cabinet meeting at the Ministry of Defense.

The council’s responsibilities will include conducting crisis simulations and threat assessments, strategic forecasting and planning. It will replace the existing Security Cabinet and the Federal Security Council, which primarily make decisions on arms exports. The pooling and coordinating of all relevant information and analyses will enable the German chancellor to plan ahead and act more decisively under pressure.

The decision to establish a National Security Council “brings decades of discussion to an end” Deutsche Welle wrote on August 12. “This is partly because Germany was rarely asked to take on a leadership role in the past and could therefore afford to have slower coordination processes.”

For Germany to lead in matters of foreign policy, it will need a clear and consistent strategy. The new council is mean to provide that. “However, unlike in the United States or France, it will not be possible to govern unilaterally on security issues in Germany in the future either,” wrote Deutsche Welle. The council intends to draw up strategies together with think tanks and national security councils of allied states. “Nevertheless, [the National Security Council] is intended to make the federal government more capable of acting in times of crisis” (ibid).

As our world is heading into greater and greater conflict, this newly established council is likely to grow in responsibility and may be of great prophetic relevance.

Few today are humble enough to admit that the crises of our world are beyond mankind’s ability to solve. The Bible, however, specifically reveals where they are heading. Dozens of prophetic passages provide a detailed explanation of the events that will lead to what Jesus Christ called the Great Tribulation (Matthew 24:21). Based on these prophecies, the late Herbert W. Armstrong foretold in the aftermath of World War ii that Germany would rise again to military strength. You can read about his forecast in He Was Right.

Now that Germany is quickly rising militarily, we need to pay close attention to these prophecies.

Daniel 8 and 11 and Revelation 13 and 17 prophesy of a European military empire. This German-led empire, that is now almost completely formed, is prophesied to be ruled by one overarching ruler.

Concerning this ruler, Daniel 11:24-25 read: “He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers’ fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time. And he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army; but he shall not stand: for they shall forecast devices against him.”

This man will have unusual military foresight and success. This National Security Council may very well help inform the decision-making of this overarching European leader. However, just as it was the case with Adolf Hitler, some of his military strategies will have a different source of inspiration.

Commenting on these verses, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote in the July 2012 Trumpet issue:

Notice the word “forecast.” The New Englishman’s Hebrew Concordance states that it means the future. So this man will have forecasting ability—a limited prophetic power. Through this man, Satan, who knows Bible prophecy, will forecast his plots.

Germany is at the forefront of Europe’s militarization. Many of its strategists have plans to secure German interests in this world through military means. But it will be this prophesied strongman that will bring those plans to fruition and lead the nation into a war that these strategists themselves could not have imagined. In fact, Isaiah 10:7 notes about this leader’s destructive will: “Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.”

The Bible is the world’s bestseller, yet almost no one pays attention to these prophecies that are leading to the return of Christ.

To understand the Bible’s perspective of present-day events, request a free copy of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire.