Bible prophecy reveals that, at the time of the end, ten kings will come together and give their power to the "Beast," a supreme federal leader (Revelation 17:12-13). This Beast "will make war with the Lamb" (v.14), confirming that this prophecy takes us right up to Jesus Christ's second coming. This Beast-power is the final successor to the pagan empires of Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome.

The Roman Empire, which collapsed in the West over 1500 years ago, has seen a number of would-be successors, all of which attempted European reunification and none of which lasted very long—though the loosely bound Holy Roman Empire did survive for a thousand years. The European Union is the latest attempt to unite Europe.

With the EU consisting of 25 members, how ten dominant "kings" would emerge out of it was anybody's guess. Now, however, we are beginning to see indications of how this could happen.

On Sunday May 29th French voters rejected the new European constitution which would have created a more federal EU. Three days later voters in The Netherlands also said "No." Yet, immediately prior to the French vote, the German parliament approved the new constitution.

At the time of the French referendum nine countries had approved the treaty. A day after the Dutch vote, Latvia became the tenth. If twenty approve, it could still go ahead.

Since Germany still opposes any constitutional re-negotiation, the most likely outcome will probably be a two-tier Europe. This would mean that a solid hard core of countries would form a federal European state, while the others would be a part of the economic union attached to it. In effect, countries like France (and Britain which also is likely to reject the constitution) will have abdicated their leadership role in favor of Germany—which will then be the undisputed leader of the new Europe.

Germany is the EU's biggest economy. By itself, it is the third biggest economy in the world, the biggest single trading nation and the world's second biggest creditor nation. It is also home to the euro, one of the two major currencies in the world. The EU remains the world's biggest single trading bloc and biggest single market, giving Germany, its dominant member, considerable clout.

Looking at the map, what is particularly interesting is that the nations that are supportive of the new constitution are basically the nations that formed the Axis alliance with Germany during World War II. Added to which is Spain, supposedly neutral at the time, though its fascist government received Nazi military support during the Spanish Civil War that preceded WWII.

However, it is unlikely that the EU's economic union will divide. With the exception of the United Kingdom, Germany is the major trading partner of every other EU nation. The UK does about as much trade with the US as Germany.

This means that if a coalition of 10 hard core members move ahead to form what eventually would be the Beast power, the others would be in no position to oppose it. They would be tied to the Beast as surely as if they were full members. Only Britain could perhaps avoid this. But if the UK opted out it would be surrounded by hostile European powers, an unenviable position to be in.

We are going to see some interesting developments in Europe in the next two years. The EU will have to resolve the present division and move on—most probably with a two-tier Europe. New leaders are set to come to power in the big three nations of Europe: Germany, France and the United Kingdom.

Germany seems likely to have a Christian Democratic government in a few months, committed to structural changes in the economy that will move the country closer to the Anglo-Saxon economic model, thereby further strengthening the economy. It probably will also have its first woman Chancellor, Angela Merkel.

At the same time, we can expect American and European interests to continue to move in different directions. There are a lot of questions about how we will get from today's Europe to one dominated by "ten kings"—but the French and Dutch votes have likely moved us closer to that development.