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July 13, 2008: A Prophetic Day is Here!
by Rodrigo Silva
First let me point out that I am not setting any date for the Rapture of
the Church as many have wrongly done in the past. So, what is the
significance of July 13,2008?
On this day, a summit will take place in Paris, France. This summit will
launch the Union for the Mediterranean proposed by French President
Nicholas Sarkozy. Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia describes the
Union for the Mediterranean as follows:
''The Union for the Mediterranean (French: Union pour la Méditerranée;
previously known as Mediterranean Union, French: Union méditerranéenne)
is a proposed community of European Union member states and countries
bordering the Mediterranean Sea planned to be established in July 2008.
It was suggested by French President Nicolas Sarkozy as an alternative
to Turkish membership of the European Union, which would instead form
the backbone of the new union,[4] but with the scaling down of plans in
March 2008 that idea has been abandoned. When Turkey was offered a
guarantee in March 2008 that it would not be an alternative to the EU,
Turkey accepted the invitation to participate.
Proposal
The proposal was originally made as part of Sarkozy's election campaign.
Following his victory the idea was reiterated, with plans being drawn
up. Despite the potential division it could cause with the Muslim world,
President Sarkozy sees the initiative as a way of promoting peace
between Israel and its Arab neighbors. It is hoped that an
institutional core will be established by the end of the French
presidency of the European Union in 2008. On 23 October 2007 Sarkozy
invited all Mediterranean leaders to a summit in France to take place in
June 2008 where they would "lay the foundations of a political, economic
and cultural union founded on the principles of strict equality."
Those of us who study Bible prophecy know that such an event has a great
prophetic significance. The Bible says that the final world power will be
centralized in Europe and the Middle East. Prophecy scholars refer to
this political kingdom of the last days as the ''Revived Roman
Empire''. I personally believe this last days empire will be more that
just a Revived Roman Empire. I believe it will be a revival of all the
seven empires of
history, namely, Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greecian, Roman, and
Ottoman Empires combined together into one geopolitical entity to be
used by the Antichrist as his kingdom.
For more information on this view, read our related article titled
''The Kingdom of the Antichrist: An Alternate View'' at:
If the view held by most prophecy scholars is the correct one, the Union
for the Mediterranean or Mediterranean Union will be geographically
identical to the Roman Empire and will be the power base which will
give rise to the Antichrist.
Click here to view map of the Union for the Mediterranean
Click here
to compare it to the map of the Roman Empire
As we have seen above, the proposal suggests the initiative as a ''way
of promoting peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors''. That is
exactly what the Antichrist will do in the beginning of his career as a
man of peace who will initially favor Israel by confirming a covenant
with the Jewish state fro seven years. This covenant will probably
include a proposal to convince the Arabs to allow the Jews to rebuild a
Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount in order to fulfill Daniel 9:27.In the
middle of the seven years, the Antichrist will break his covenant with
Israel and will unleash the worst persecution ever faced by the Jewish
people. This will be the time of Jacob's trouble as spoken by Jeremiah
the prophet (Jeremiah 30:7) and the Great Tribulation as referred by
Jesus in Matthew 24.
Union for the Mediterranean on the Headline News
On March 14,2008 the Jerusalem Post reported:
'EU leaders back closer ties with Mediterranean rim'
''French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday he won "unanimous"
backing for his plan to forge closer political ties with Europe's North
African and Mideast neighbors on the Mediterranean Sea.
Sarkozy addresses the media at the end of the first day of a two-day EU
summit at the EU Council headquarters in Brussels.
The agreement came at the end of the first day of a two-day EU summit,
but the specific details of the plan will still have to be worked out by
June, other leaders said.
The project would involve 39 partners - the 27-nation EU plus a dozen on
the Mediterranean's southern shores, from Mauritania to Algeria, Egypt,
Israel, the Palestinian Authority to Syria and Turkey.''
On March 15, 2008 the European Jewish Press reported:
EU leaders give green light to new ‘Barcelona Process: Union for the
Mediterranean’
''BRUSSELS (EJP)---European Union EU leaders gave Friday the green light
to a watered down plan to create a "Union for the Mediterranean," a
project initiated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and aimed at
upgrading the EU's relations with its neighbors from North Africa and
the Middle East.
The new version of the plan, adopted at a regular EU spring summit
meeting in Brussels, will include the 27 EU member states and some 12
Mediterranean nations, including Israel.''
Interestingly enough, the Israeli government supports such proposal.
On March 12,2008 the European Jewish Press reported:
Peres supports ‘100 percent’ Sarkozy’s plan for Mediterranean Union
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