Did the World Turn This January 16?
January 16 marked the 40th anniversary of the death of Herbert W. Armstrong, founder of the Trumpet’s predecessor, the Plain Truth. We’ve emphasized this date a lot, with Mr. Armstrong on the cover of both our latest Trumpet and Royal Vision magazines.
In the first edition of his first book, Malachi’s Message, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote: “You are going to see the date of Mr. Armstrong’s death take on more significance as time goes on.” The next year on that date, the United States entered the Gulf War with Operation Desert Storm.
This year, the events of January 16 and 17 could mark a huge shift in world events. Within a few months, we may look back at this weekend as the moment the world changed.
Consider everything we saw.
Greedy for Greenland
President Donald Trump wants Greenland. There are legitimate ways he could get it: buying it from the Danish government; offering citizens $100,000 each if they approve a U.S. takeover in a referendum. He has discussed those options. He has also discussed invasion.
Thus far, European Union nations have dealt with Trump largely by flattering and placating him. This time is different.
Germany is understandably restrained and strategic about how it uses its military. It has refused to get involved with conflicts like the Iraq invasion and the assassination of Libya’s Muammar Qadhafi. These strategic choices have been misinterpreted as a general reluctance to use its military.
But for Greenland, Germany moved fast, deploying 13 soldiers to Greenland on January 16. Other EU nations joined.
In response, President Trump announced 10 percent tariffs on the United Kingdom, Germany, France and other nations that were sending in troops. These will rise to 25 percent on June 1. They come on top of other tariffs the U.S. has imposed and will end only after “a deal is reached for the complete and total purchase of Greenland,” according to Trump’s statement.
Is this the moment Europe turns on the U.S.? This past summer, European leaders humiliated themselves to avoid Trump’s tariffs. Will they do so again, knowing that an issue like Greenland can blow up without warning and undo all their work?
“The Europeans are far more disturbed about their safety in relying on United States military power to protect them than Americans realize!” wrote Mr. Armstrong in 1978. “… Europeans want their own united military power! They know that a political union of Europe would produce a third major world power, as strong as either the U.S. or the ussr—possibly stronger!”
Just over a week ago, EU Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius called for a “powerful, standing European military force” of 100,000 troops. Many others are thinking similarly and have the will to make it happen.
Uniting the military forces of Europe will take some sacrifices. But in the face of Trump’s Greenland grab, European voters may finally be willing to make them. This January 16 seems set to be a decisive milestone in the fulfillment of Herbert W. Armstrong’s signature prophecy: the rise of the Holy Roman Empire.
World’s Largest Trade Deal
Germany is already building alternative trade networks. The EU signed the largest trade deal in history with the mercosur Latin American trade bloc on January 17. Nearly a billion people and a gross domestic product of more than $22 trillion are coming together. On Saturday, Mr. Flurry wrote:
The mercosur countries possess resources Europe needs. In return, Europe is supplying some of Latin America’s needs as well. The reality, though, is that by linking itself with Europe in this way, Latin America is contributing to the rise of a modern resurrection of the medieval Holy Roman Empire—the prophesied beast of Revelation 17!
Europe will draw a lot of power from its relationship with Latin America. Mr. Armstrong foretold that this combined power bloc would overtake the United States. His Plain Truth magazine stated in May 1962 that “the United States is going to be left out in the cold as two gigantic trade blocs, Europe and Latin America, mesh together and begin calling the shots in world commerce.”
Mr. Armstrong prophesied precisely what we see happening today! This is a union that will become stronger than Russia and China. It will be stronger than the U.S.
Germany is leading Europe against America and is entrenching itself in America’s backyard. What very few people realize, but what Bible prophecy reveals, is that it is actively preparing to bring down the U.S.
Breaking With Israel
President Trump announced a new Board of Peace on January 15, with invitations going out over the next few days. On January 16, he announced a new National Committee for the Administration of Gaza. It includes Turkey’s foreign minister and a senior Qatari official. Both these nations support Hamas. Meanwhile, the Israeli government has no representation.
“It was a sharp slap in Israel’s face,” stated our Morning Brief.
“The announcement regarding the composition of the Gaza Executive Board, which is subordinate to the Board of Peace, was not coordinated with Israel and runs contrary to its policy,” read a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office. “The prime minister has instructed the foreign affairs minister to contact the U.S. secretary of state on this matter.”
The same weekend, President Trump included the UK on the list of nations he would impose tariffs on over Greenland because it joined Germany in sending troops. Trump is severing ties with key allies while the Holy Roman Empire Mr. Armstrong warned of is training its sights on America.
“Threats in the world are increasing,” wrote Mr. Flurry in 2021. “Other nations are betraying and attacking America and Britain and Israel. Many Bible prophecies show these trends will intensify. In a world this hostile, Britain, America and the Jewish nation of Israel need to stick together and to turn toward God. But they are splitting from God and from each other. There will be no helper for Israel—not even from other modern Israelite nations.”
Was this January 16 a decisive moment in the divide between these three?
A Day of Warning
In his book America Under Attack, Mr. Flurry shows how America has been weakened within before it will suffer attack from without. He also traces that attack to its true cause.
“With evil increasing in our world, I have seen more and more commentators talking about the fact that there is a spiritual dimension to human life,” Mr. Flurry writes. “A number have openly acknowledged the existence of God. Some have even said American politics are being influenced by the devil. They likely do not realize how right they are.”
Revelation 12:9 describes a time close to the end of man’s rule over man when Satan is once again cast down to Earth. “This verse tells us that Satan and the fallen angels—millions of demons—were driven out of heaven and cast down to Earth and are now confined here!” Mr. Flurry writes. “Never before has this world been so infested with demons. Look around: The evil proliferating in every direction has a source, and this prophecy exposes it.”
Other scriptures relate the moment that happened with the day the man God was using was taken out of the way. Satan and the demons were cast down the day Mr. Armstrong died. Our free booklet January 16: God’s Miracle Day has more on those scriptures.
God has blessed America and Britain to fulfill the promises He made thousands of years ago to Abraham. God has given our people incredible blessings and protection. But we have refused to obey or even acknowledge Him, so God is withdrawing them.
Satan’s anger against this nation that has a history with God is real. He first focused his attack on God’s Church, then moved on to the U.S. We are 40 years on from when he was cast down. Are the events we witnessed this past weekend symptoms of a deeper spiritual cause? Is God removing more of His protection as Satan’s wrath intensifies?
A Day of Hope
The new Board of Peace entrusts Donald Trump with the peace of the world. It is essentially an alternative United Nations Security Council with Donald Trump at its head. He has no term limits, can hire and fire other members of the board, and has total veto power.
As with his Greenland grab, this seems sure to antagonize much of the rest of the world. But it also a trap for President Trump.
Mr. Armstrong attended the UN’s founding, and he warned that it would not work. “I do not see peace being germinated here, but the seeds of the next war!” he said. The event opened with a minute of silence, not with prayer. “You see, Mr. Molotov and the Russian delegates do not believe in God, and if Mr. Molotov were insulted, there could be no peace!” he said. “But neither can there be peace without God!”
This is the key ingredient missing from the UN. And Donald Trump’s Board of Peace does not look to God either.
God warns us that the soon-coming leader of the United States of Europe shall “by peace … destroy many” (Daniel 8:25). He uses peace as a weapon. Israel in the Middle East is lulled into a false sense of security by a Europe-led alliance of “moderate” Middle Eastern powers. European peacekeepers will be invited into the region and take over.
The way America is pursuing “peace” right now is also having some terrible consequences, and there are certain to be more in the time ahead. Setting up the Board of Peace may prove another critical milestone on the road to America’s destruction that comes out of this January 16.
But January 16 is firmly tied to the only source of true hope.
When Jesus Christ was asked, “[W]hat shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” He replied that “this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come” (Matthew 24:3, 14). A few decades after Christ died and was resurrected, His gospel was suppressed and “another gospel” supplanted it just as He had warned. False Christianity spread, and true Christianity barely survived. The true gospel—as Jesus prophesied—was not restored until the era leading up to His return—our time today (see Matthew 17:1-11).
That gospel includes a message about how peace will be restored to Earth and how to have it in your life now.
Christ said that before He returns, “Elijah truly shall first come, and restore all things” (Matthew 17:11). He was prophesying that in the end time a type of Elijah would restore the gospel, and the other truths He had taught, and preach it around the world.
Herbert W. Armstrong was that end-time Elijah, preaching the gospel around the world and restoring God’s truth to His Church. He was even actively involved in a Middle East peace process, giving a tangible example of the true way to peace.
Christ’s prophecy has been fulfilled.
Jan. 16, 1986, was the date that end-time Elijah died. That date, which reminds the world that an end-time Elijah has come and gone, points to the only true source of hope for all the world.
That date also shows us Jesus Christ is real; He is active; He is fulfilling His prophecies. As He said in Matthew 17, He has sent His Elijah. He has restored the way of peace to His Church. In that sense, the process of restoring peace to the world has already begun.
Read more in our free booklet January 16: God’s Miracle Day.