European Union Expansion & Bible Prophecy

Some believe the European Union will serve as an end time version of the Roman Empire. A key question these proponents must answer is whether the European Union’s borders have finished expanding. I assess whether the European Union’s borders have finished expanding in this article.

A Revised Roman Empire?

Some believe that the Antichrist’s empire will largely resemble the Roman Empire in geographic terms. Daniel 2, Daniel 7, and Revelation 13 provide depictions of the Antichrist’s empire. For instance, Daniel 2 depicts a statue featuring five empires: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Seleucid/Greece, Rome, and the empire of the Antichrist:

“(31) Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. (32) This image’s head was of fine gold [Babylon], his breast and his arms of silver [Medo-Persia], his belly and his thighs of brass [Seleucid/Greece], (33) His legs of iron [Rome], his feet part of iron and part of clay [empire of the Antichrist]. (Daniel 2:31-33)”

Notice how a different material represents each empire. For instance, gold represents Babylon while iron represents Rome. Meanwhile, clay and iron, the same material representing Rome, represents the empire of the Antichrist. Proponents of the theory that the empire of the Antichrist will largely resemble the Roman Empire geographically point out the presence of clay in the empire’s depiction.

Proponents view the European Union as an effort to unite much of Europe in a modern day version of the Roman Empire. The question of European Union expansion is important to consider for proponents:

• If the E.U. has finished expanding then its current boundaries may serve as the boundaries of a potential a new Roman Empire.
• If the E.U. has not finished expanding then the start of the end times may be delayed at least until the time when the remaining countries are finally integrated into the E.U.

European Union Expansion

If you examine a current map of the European Union you’ll notice a few things:

• The E.U. has expanded to the edge of Eastern Europe
• Switzerland and Norway are two significant Western European countries which have not joined the E.U..
• The E.U. has not yet expanded into the Western Balkans, which include: Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, and Kosovo.

The following map displays the current members of the European Union in light blue and non-members in grey.

The European Union’s enlargement website lists the countries that are candidates to join the European Union and the countries are potential candidates to join the E.U. The following is a current list of candidate countries and potential candidate countries:

Candidate Countries

• Albania
• Macedonia
• Montenegro (Negotiations Underway)
• Serbia (Negotiations Underway)
• Turkey (Negotiations Underway)

Potential Candidates

• Bosnia Herzegovina
• Kosovo

E.U. leaders declared in 2003: “The future of the Balkans is within the European Union.” However, at the time of this writing, there’s little sense that E.U. leaders are in a hurry to incorporate any of the countries listed into its union. Also, many of the countries listed have a long way to go before the European Union is ready to award membership status. Therefore, do not expect the E.U. to expand rapidly in the near future.

Bible Prophecy Considerations

If you believe that the European Union has already expanded enough or do not believe that European Union officials are serious about incorporating the Western Balkans, then the incorporation of the Western Balkans is probably not an important issue when assessing where we are in relation to the end times. However, if you believe the European Union must incorporate the Western Balkans and believe that European Union officials actually want to incorporate the Western Balkans someday, then you may conclude that it might be some time before the European Union reaches its final form/boundaries.

• One potential detail to consider when gauging the relevance of the Western Balkans is that the Western Balkans were a part of the Roman Empire. If the E.U. becomes an end time version of the Roman Empire-as some believe-then one would think that the Western Balkans will probably be incorporated into the E.U.’s boundaries eventually.

If you would like to know whether we can use the Bible to support the notion that there’s an ongoing effort to bring a New World Order to the forefront, click this link for my article on the topic: New World Order?! What Does the Bible Say?