Greece and investors who own its bonds have reached a tentative deal to significantly reduce the country's debt and pave the way for it to receive a much-needed...130 billion [euro] bailout.

"Negotiators for the investors...said it [the deal] could become final next week. If the agreement works as planned, it will help Greece remain solvent and help Europe avoid a blow to its already weak financial system, even though banks and other bond investors will have to accept multibillion-dollar losses...

"If no debt-exchange deal is reached with private creditors and Greece is forced to default, it would very likely spook Europe's—and possibly the world's—financial markets" (Demetris Nellas, "Private Investors Near Deal on Greek Debt," Jan. 28, 2012).

The bigger picture here involves two things—how this might affect the emergence of a biblically foretold European-centered superpower and how what's happening in Europe will contribute to America's diminishing power in the world.

If Greece is successfully propped up by other governments and investors, then America and Europe could retain the power they presently enjoy for a while longer. But it's all tenuous, and in one wrong slip it could all come falling down like dominoes. The results of this scenario are in the hands of the one true God who sets up and takes down nations (Daniel 4:25; 5:21).