Some of our longtime readers may still remember the pink “facts you should know” letters that were mailed with the old Bible correspondence courses that Herbert W. Armstrong published during the 1950s and ’60s. My father enrolled in the course before he was baptized in 1961 and later received one of those pink packets on Jan. 4, 1962. The headline at the top of the letter blared, “A Hot World War iii Is Coming!”

Germany was responsible for both world wars, the letter explained. And in 1943, when Germany’s top generals, scientists, industrialists and bankers realized they were about to lose the second round, secret plans for a third round of world war began in earnest.

The first step in Germany’s quest for world dominion was the creation of a United States of Europe, the letter said. It continued with these additional facts you should know: “We know how the United States of Europe will be used by [Germany] to attempt world domination. Prophecy shows 10 kings—10 dictators—will arise in Europe and give their power to Germany” (emphasis added throughout).

Prophecy also showed that Germany would need the Vatican’s help to achieve world domination, the letter said. “The astounding union of a German-dominated United States of Europe with a great church is the next thing prophesied to occur.”

A reunited Germany rising from the ashes of World War ii to dominate the final resurrection of Holy Roman Empire. That was the signature prophecy of Herbert W. Armstrong’s 50-year ministry. Anyone familiar with his work instantly remembers his many articles, booklets, radio programs and television shows on Bible prophecy—particularly Daniel 2 and 7 and Revelation 13 and 17.

Daniel 2 gives us the big overview. The great image Nebuchadnezzar saw in that chapter represented four successive, world-ruling kingdoms. History proves these to be the Chaldean Empire, followed by the Persian, then the Greco-Macedonian, and finally the Roman Empire. These four were to continue in succession right up to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

In Daniel 7, the prophet again describes four “beasts,” representing the four Gentile kingdoms, but he places special emphasis on the fourth beast—the Roman Empire. This “dreadful and terrible” beast attained world domination around the time of 30 b.c. and ruled for about 500 years until it was crushed in a.d. 476.

But this beast, it says in Daniel 7:8, had 10 horns. And in the midst of those horns was a “little horn” that plucked up the first three horns by the roots. This little horn, it says, has a mouth that speaks great things, just like the second beast in Revelation 13, which looks like a lamb, but speaks like a dragon (Revelation 13:11). It looks religious, in other words, but it speaks like the devil!

Now back to Daniel 7, verse 24: “And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another [referring to the little horn that plucks up the first three] shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.” The fourth beast, then, has 10 horns, which “are ten kings that shall arise” out of, or after, the Roman Empire.

The plain truth of this passage is obvious and clear! There were to be 10 resurrections out of the Roman Empire, the first three of which were uprooted by the church at Rome—meaning these three horns weren’t distinctly Roman. They were barbaric tribes that ruled the region after Rome’s collapse in 476. But when Justinian recognized the supremacy of the pope in 554, the Roman Empire sprung to life! And because it was a union of church and state, it was eventually called the Holy Roman Empire.

Counting Justinian’s empire, there have been six major, historically documented resurrections of the so-called Holy Roman Empire—all of which have been heavily influenced, and in some cases completely dominated, by the Vatican.

Two and a half centuries after the imperial restoration of Justinian, Charlemagne and the Vatican again revived the Holy Roman Empire. When Pope Leo iii crowned Charlemagne in 800, he even pronounced him “the 73rd emperor of the fourth world empire.” He knew well that this was yet another resurrection of that fourth world-ruling system—the Roman Empire!

After the Frankish kingdom, it was Otto the Great who picked up the mantle and revived the church-state combine in the heart of Europe. This was followed by the Habsburg dynasty of the Middle Ages, Napoleon’s 19th-century kingdom and then the World War ii axis of Hitler and Mussolini.

Today, we are now witnessing the seventh and final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire. And right up until he died in 1986, Mr. Armstrong never stopped warning about this prophetic reality—and how the United States of Europe would lead to the catastrophic events Jesus described in the Olivet prophecy.

These prophetic warnings are now making headlines every day!

Earlier this week, British politician and European parliamentarian Nigel Farage delivered a blistering speech in Brussels about the EU’s blatantly undemocratic, German-dominated agenda.

“I don’t want to live in a German-dominated Europe!” Farage bellowed before the assembly.

That, however, is the inescapable reality of today’s Europe. And it’s firmly rooted in the pages of Bible prophecy and secular history. This German-dominated, undemocratic machine is now on full display as never before!

One of the most popular conservative thinkers in Britain, who blogs under the pseudonym Archbishop Cranmer, recently penned this relevant historical context: “The European Union is essentially the recreation of the old Empire of Charlemagne: from the moment the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1951, the European Coal and Steel Community (ecsc) bound together the economic and political destinies of France and Germany.”

Now that’s what a conservative British commentator wrote two weeks ago. But who, besides Herbert W. Armstrong, was writing about that 50 years ago?

In the 1963 version of the Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course, Mr. Armstrong and his editorial staff warned that the original six-nation European Coal and Steel Community would eventually transform into a 10-nation European superstate.

“Remember that there must be 10 nations or groups of nations to comprise the final resurrection of the modern ‘Holy Roman Empire,’” Mr. Armstrong wrote.

This group of 10 is clearly identified in Revelation 17:12 and in Daniel 2. The image of Daniel 2, for example, is described as having two legs of iron—which represent the Roman Empire. Its feet are composed of part iron and part miry clay.

Notice verse 42: “And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.” These 10 toes do not refer to 10 successive kingdoms, like the 10 horns in Daniel 7. They symbolize 10 contemporaneous kings that join together during the final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire. It will be a short-lived reign because of the inconsistent mixture of iron and clay—and because of Jesus Christ’s direct intervention in world affairs.

But while it lasts, the final resurrection of the fourth kingdom will have all the dreadful and terrible strength we should expect from an empire following in the tradition of Charlemagne! As Archbishop Cranmer concluded in the blog post quoted above, the spirit of Charlemagne has now been revived in Europe. The Franco-German axis has already chewed and spat out Greece and Italy. Soon, it will be Portugal and Spain.

It won’t be long before this oversize union of disparate parts will be radically altered and then cut down to a much more fiscally responsible and militarily powerful consortium of 10 kings—10 undemocratic “dictators,” as Mr. Armstrong said, who will give their power to Germany.

“By now it should be evident to all that Germany is out to conquer the world,” Mr. Armstrong wrote on that pink fact sheet my father received back in 1962. People who refused to believe it then had better wake up and reexamine the overwhelming amount of evidence!

Think about and review often this incredible statement, posted by Archbishop Cranmer on November 10: “Never forget that the EU’s answer to the EU’s problems is invariably ‘more Europe’: Every crisis is an opportunity for more regulation and centralization. And the sovereign debt crisis that threatens to engulf European financial markets is no exception. The eurozone will be stabilized economically in accordance with Bundesbank discipline and bound politically by Teutonic politico-militarism. The German Constitutional Court would have it no other way. The outcome will be 10 nations intent upon political union.”

That last statement is simply remarkable. Who knows if it’s based on the sure word of Bible prophecy? But he certainly got it right, as students of that old Bible correspondence course should well understand.

These are facts, after all, that we should definitely know!