Europe has endured a summer heat wave with few rivals in history. Temperatures repeatedly reached the triple digits and broke record after record. Wildfires scorched 1.5 million acres from January to August. Rivers dried up, exposing World War ii relics, while satellite imagery revealed the dramatic loss and browning of vegetation. The Associated Press reported on August 13 that economic consequences like crop failure could reduce the entire European Union gross domestic product by 1 percent (about $210 billion).

Europeans are also suffering drastically higher numbers of hospitalizations and heat-related deaths as the high temperatures affect an aging population in ill-equipped homes. The New York Times reported on August 15: “In One Week During Europe’s Record Heat Wave, Deaths Increased by 16,000.”

The headlines and numbers are hyped up to scare people into believing these serious situations are due to climate change caused by carbon emissions. In reality, the causes are more spiritual in nature than physical.

In earlier centuries, people facing such a crisis would have asked: Why are we being cursed? But the world’s religions had no answers. Today’s climate-change believers pin all the blame on carbon emissions and other similar causes. But God’s Word reveals the true reason for the suffering in Europe this past summer.

Why Weather Disasters?

Throughout the Bible, God uses environmental disasters to punish disobedient peoples and nations. Examples include the Flood (Genesis 7), the 10 plagues against Egypt (Exodus 7-12) and the three-year famine in Israel (2 Samuel 21). God also inspired prophets to warn that if nations disobeyed in the future, He would use weather curses to punish them (Zechariah 14:17-18).

God has used weather plagues to punish a variety of sins in the past and He continues to do so today. That’s why natural disasters are a global problem today. The United States, Canada and the United Kingdom are experiencing wildfires, storms and earthquakes because they have rejected God’s law and their history with God (for more information, request a free copy of The United States and Britain in Prophecy).

There are also specific Bible prophecies that reveal that God will use weather disasters to punish modern Germany and, by extension, the European nations that follow its lead—and these prophecies explain why.

Europe Cursed?

At the end of August, the Guardian reported an estimated 35,000 excess deaths in Europe for the month.

Not all these deaths are directly attributable to the heat. This estimate only states that 35,000 more people died than expected based on historic averages.

Use of these figures is controversial because they generally give wildly higher figures than tallying up individual causes of death. A range of factors can contribute to the totals. For example, hotter weather means more people traveling to enjoy it. A higher number of cars on the road pushes up the number of fatal accidents. These extra fatalities are then counted as “heat-related” deaths, though the weather isn’t a primary cause. In many cases, the heat aggravates existing underlying health conditions, contributing to death.

In this case, though, the figures are widely reported because they serve the approved narrative. The media and government use climate change as an excuse for massive socialist policies. Hot summers suit this narrative, so they are highly dramatized. Meanwhile, excess death figures due to the cold in winter are rarely discussed.

Yet looking at this story even while staying alert to the propaganda, this summer has seen record-breaking extremes.

Major European cities such as Paris have experienced once-in-a-generation temperatures of 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

This has been France’s driest summer on record. Roughly 250,000 acres burned in France, making 2026 its worst wildfire season in decades. More than 200,000 people were forced to evacuate in July, and 25,000 insurance claims were made. The damage was declared “exceptional” by France Assureurs and was estimated to cost approximately $570 million.

One wildfire in France was so large it generated a thunderstorm, which produced additional wildfires—the first such instance to occur in France and one of only a few such instances in recorded European history. In fact, this summer, France experienced its largest wildfire since 1949.

As France experiences excess fire, its rivers are also drying. As of September 1, 1,424 of France’s 3,000 small waterways had interrupted flows, according to the French Office of Biodiversity.

To the southwest of France, Spain had 650,000 acres burn from January through August. That’s less than last year, but the year isn’t over yet. At the time of writing, wildfires continue to rage.

The Loire in France and the Po in Italy, down in places to about a 10th—or even a 20th—of normal flow, dried so much that people could walk across some sections of the rivers. The Po is Italy’s longest and most important river. Roughly one third of Italy’s entire agricultural production comes from the valley through which it flows, making such a recession particularly concerning.

Droughts like these affect crop yields. The EU forecasts a 14 percent decrease in European summer crop yields from the five-year average. That’s a serious decline, especially considering that Ukraine, Europe’s main agricultural exporter, is not producing as much as it used to.

Germany Cursed?

It is not unusual for France or Spain to experience wildfires—but it is unusual for Germany, which had to evacuate more than 2,000 people because of a wildfire this summer.

But the more serious curse for Germany is its falling river levels.

The Rhine, the main circulatory system for German factories, fell in August to its lowest level since 1880, when record-keeping began.

In some areas, the river fell from an average depth of 10 to 20 feet to just 4 feet. Cargo vessels were forced to carry lighter loads: Some with 2,000-ton capacities could carry only 500 tons. This necessitated more trips, more fuel and reduced productivity. In some sections, like Kaub, shipping was completely halted for up to two weeks in August.

This comes as Germany’s economy is already under pressure from the fuel crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, compounded by the Iran war.

Nearly 300 million tons each year transit the Rhine to Cologne, Dortmund, Düsseldorf and Germany’s other industrial cities. Roughly 80 percent of Germany’s domestic water traffic travels on it.

The government suspended its ban on Sunday truck driving to compensate for reduced Rhine traffic.

Can the receding of the Rhine give a clue as to why Germany is being cursed?

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry writes in Nahum—An End-Time Prophecy for Germany, “God wants this world to learn that He controls nature. Many natural disasters are anything but natural.”

The Rhine functions as a freeway for the factories of the Ruhr region. This is where Germany has forged its steel for its tanks and aircraft: This is where it has begun building its war machines.

The drought has forced ThyssenKrupp’s Duisburg steel factory to reduce production. ThyssenKrupp was a major supplier of Third Reich military hardware. To a smaller degree, it continues today to rebuild Germany’s rapidly forming war machine.

The drought has also affected Salzgitter, another major steel producer, along with chemical company basf—a corporate descendant of IG Farben. IG Farben is infamous for producing the Third Reich’s chemical weapons.

Millions of troops and civilians died from bombs, bullets and gases that originated in some form in the Ruhr Valley.

The last time the Rhine dried to critical levels was in the summer of 2022, the year that the current push for large-scale German remilitarization began. It was also the year Russia invaded Ukraine while Germany blocked sanctions on Russia and delayed military aid to Ukraine. Ever since, Germany has used the slow grinding Ukraine war to develop its weapons industry.

The low riverbeds have exposed the relics of past wars that Germany started: sunken warships, bomb casings and other military hardware. This should remind the nation of its bloody past and serve as a warning against repeating it.

However, Germany is once again rebuilding its military power.

The biblical book of Nahum, as Mr. Flurry explains, is a specific warning to Germany to repent of its militaristic mindset. While other biblical prophecies show that God will use the nation’s military power to fulfill His will (Revelation 17:17). God can, in His great power, use Germany’s evil ambitions, and will do so for His purpose. But He would rather the German people repent of their militaristic nature.

The curses that Germany and Europe face need to be seen in that context.

“Woe to the bloody city,” God warns in Nahum 3:1, referring to Nineveh, the ancient capital of the Assyrians, who were the ancestors of the Germans. Nahum reveals that God controls the storms and clouds, and He is the one who “drieth up all the rivers” (Nahum 1:3-4).

Through the book of Nahum, God is reaching out to Germans today, saying: I am the one drying up your rivers. I can humble you, and I can prosper you. Remember your bloody history and repent before you repeat it!

These scriptures should get the Germans’ attention. They show that God is in charge of the weather and that He can solve all our problems if we turn to Him. But instead of seeing God behind these weather curses, Germany blames climate change, ignores the biblical warning, and continues to revive its capacity for forging weapons and spilling blood.

God is angry about this! In Nahum 2:13, He prophesies that He will punish Germany specifically: “Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions: and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.”

These weather curses are a warning to Europe not to continue on the warmaking path Germany is leading it down.

Worse to Come

The Bible reveals that if Europeans reject God’s calls for repentance, they will end up trusting a man who will lead them to commit terrible atrocities. God will not prevent this from happening. In fact, He will use this militaristic Europe under German leadership to punish the modern descendants of Israel (mainly America and the British Commonwealth) for their disobedience.

This European power, called Tyre or Tyrus in Isaiah 23 and Ezekiel 27, will economically besiege those nations of Israel, cutting them out of global trade before launching a military invasion (Ezekiel 4-5).

God will use Germany to execute this punishment.

In Isaiah 10:5, God calls the Assyrians, the ancestors of the Germans, the rod of His anger. He is raising up a German-led European superpower to fulfill His prophesied punishment of the nations of Israel. But if God is raising Europe up, why would He punish it? The same chapter gives the answer.

God inspired Isaiah to write in verse 15: “Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.”

The March 1962 Plain Truth states: “God explains here that despite the fact that He has used Assyria to punish Israel, Assyria is also rebellious against His law and government, His way, and since it will magnify itself against the very God of creation, as Daniel 11:36 and 37 explain, God will have to punish it for this!”

How will Europe be punished? The Bible provides tremendous detail on this.

In Jeremiah 50:9, God says He will raise “an assembly of great nations from the north country.” As other passages, such as Ezekiel 38, Joel 2 and Revelation 9 elucidate, this refers to a great Asian superpower led by Russia and comprising China, India, Japan, Korea and much of Southeast Asia.

That Asian superpower will launch nuclear strikes against Europe. Jeremiah 50:13 states that because of God’s wrath against Europe, “it shall be wholly desolate,” and that everyone who sees it “shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.” Only nuclear weapons could accomplish such total devastation. Verse 38 has another reference to God sending a drought to punish Germany.

The current heat wave, drought and wildfires are no comparison to what is coming on an unrepentant Europe. But God would never bring such devastation without sending a warning first.

Revelation 18 gives more details. Verse 2 states that “Babylon the great,” a prophetic term for that European empire, “is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.”

In Nahum 2:1, God says He will dash the modern Assyrians in pieces. This means “a massive crushing of the German people!” Mr. Flurry writes. “The Germans got a taste of that kind of punishment in World War ii when the Russians conquered East Germany. Many German women asked to be killed after they were brutalized and raped by Russian soldiers. But that onslaught was mild compared to what it will be like in World War iii” (Nahum—An End-Time Prophecy for Germany).

In Revelation 16:12, the Bible prophesies that another river will be dried up: the Euphrates. A 200 million-man army from Asia will march down the riverbed, gathering against European forces in the valley of Megiddo (verse 16). The final showdown will be so violent that no person would be left alive if Christ didn’t intervene (Matthew 24:22; Moffatt translation).

That is where Germany’s militarization is leading: If Germany puts its trust in its military might, it will indeed conquer and destroy—before it too is conquered and destroyed by superior military might. The same fate awaits the European nations that marvel at it, saying, “Who is able to make war with the beast?” (Revelation 13:4).

God wants Germany to change its course and turn to Him. Today’s weather curses are a warning to Germany, and the European nations it is dominating and leading, of the carnage to come.

They could be spared this punishment if they would heed God’s correction today. “This mayhem and slaughter could be prevented if they listened to the pcg’s warning message,” Mr. Flurry wrote. The Germans’ ancient forebears, the Assyrians, are the only nation recorded in the Bible to have repented and escaped sure destruction. God recorded this inspiring history in the book of Jonah. “If Germany were to repent, as its ancient city Nineveh did, God would prevent this massive catastrophe,” Mr. Flurry continued.

But even if they don’t repent now, there is hope—because other prophecies show that the surviving Germans will forsake their militaristic nature thereafter.

Isaiah 19 prophesies that Assyria will use its engineering prowess to build highways rather than war machines. In the long term, Germany’s future is sure to be bright. In the short term, however, its brightness depends on its receptiveness to this warning. If it turns from its current path, it can avoid this prophesied destruction.