The British have long had a reputation as defenders of tradition. But especially in the waning years of the 20th century, radical changes have occurred. Suddenly the Scots have their own parliament and the Welsh a national assembly, not to mention basic revisions in the way Northern Ireland is governed. Even the House of Lords has undergone rather radical reforms.

Now there are fresh calls for revising the 300-year-old Act of Settlement that forbids British monarchs or the heir to the throne from marrying Roman Catholics. And many think that the disassociation of the Church of England from the crown would soon follow such a fundamental reform.

The parliamentary Act of Supremacy (1559) made Queen Elizabeth I and her successors the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. The Act of Settlement followed nearly a century and a half later in 1701. It is only in recent decades that these two acts of parliament have been seriously questioned.

At present, separation of church from state plus the Catholic marriage issue are at the pinnacle of the Anglican agenda. As The Times reported: "The Archbishop of York, Dr. David Hope, the second most important figure in the Church of England, was joined…by other senior Establishment figures in urging a lifting of the ban on monarchs marrying Roman Catholics."

Media observers indicate that Number 10 Downing Street supports the idea of revising the Act of Settlement. The Prime Minister's wife is a Roman Catholic and their children are being brought up in that faith. One also recalls that in the '80s it was reported that Queen Elizabeth had to stop Prince Charles from sharing mass with the pope on a state visit to Rome.

The level of support for these changes is surprising. As The Sunday Times observed, "When the Archbishop of York agrees with Scotland's Cardinal Thomas Winning that it is time to allow a Roman Catholic to sit on the throne of England, something momentous is happening in the way Britain's Christians think about themselves and their relationship to the State."

To those who do not comprehend the importance of Bible prophecy or where such prophetic themes directly affecting European affairs will take the world in the future, these proposed institutional revisions may seem of little importance. But to God's people who do understand what the Bible says about where Europe is heading, both politically and religiously, they are highly significant steps in a long history of general biblical prophecies affecting the destiny of the British people. (The Sunday Times, December 26, 1999; The Times, December 27, 1999.)