This vote, for Britain to leave the European Union,
is going to have huge ramifications which we can't really predict or foresee.
Some we can, but many we can't.
But at the moment it's hard to see these many different countries
with their very different histories, including histories of enmity to each other,
it's very hard to see them being able to cleave together.
The European Union's origin is, of course, in World War II -
this extraordinary catastrophe - a generation of people
Europeans, who said, "We cannot do this again!"
There was an understanding that, if you want to preserve peace,
you need to have some kind of economic system
that doesn't cause hatred or cause rivalry.
Many people won't understand or know that religion was actually
a very important ingredient in the establishment of the
European economic community.
There is still a religious element to much of the debate in the European Union.
In the early 2000s, the then President of the European Commission,
Romano Prodi, actually published a book.
It was in Italian, but the translated title means, "An Idea of Europe".
And he said, "What can hold these many different countries?
It's not enough for the elites to propose a political union.
There has to be something cultural."
And he said, "The one thing that all Europeans have in common,
the one thing that can bind us all together,
is loyalty to the Church."
But he was Italian. What did he mean?
He meant, the Roman Catholic Church.
That's the story of people trying to make Europe into a powerhouse
and yet failing, again and again.
Think about Napoleon: everything looked perfect, and yet, a decade, and it fell.
Think about Hitler: it failed.
As a European, I grew up with the question: "How does Europe fit into Bible prophecy?"
Daniel chapter 2: the king has a dream - Nebuchadnezzar has a dream -
and in that dream, he sees a huge statue, a beautiful statue.
Different metals are used to indicate different kingdoms.
He starts off as the head, the golden head, Babylon, Medo-Persia, the Greek empire
and then, finally, the strength of the Roman empire,
but there is something else. There are toes, and feet,
that are made up of mixed clay and iron.
And Daniel, somehow, he says, "They will not stick together.
Some are strong, some are weak." And that seems to be the story of Europe.
Especially given recent circumstances - the situation in Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus -
where the core EU countries, the northern EU countries, are seen as oppressive,
as meddling in people's affairs, at the same time we have to say,
all kinds of ethnic and nationalist hatreds that seem to have died in the
ruins of World War II, and have not been seen for 70 years, are somehow magically
and disturbingly reappearing.
So given all these strains that are on the European Union, for one of the
three biggest economies, the chief contributor to a common defense and
foreign policy, to leave - this is just going to create a vacuum at the heart.
Prophecy is not just
something interesting we study, you know, in history books, or in Bible classes.
We can get our bearings, the great direction, the big picture
from prophecy.
Scripture tells us that there will not be another united Europe,
it will be weak and strong, and we can see that.
But that's not where the story ends. Daniel chapter 2 doesn't end with
the statue and the feet of mixed clay and iron.
There's a rock: it's small at first, but that rock smashes the entire statue.
That little rock that becomes a huge rock, is Jesus Christ.
A new kingdom. God's kingdom.