Does the Bible prophesy a one-world government and a one-world currency in the end times?

Just as nothing would restrain the builders of the tower of Babel, so today ambitious leaders in the world will be restrained by no barriers. The nations want to share their technology so that they may out do every past generation in their advances in science and every other element of men's culture. They work hard to overcome all the difficulties of language barriers and of national prejudice, but God continues to work by these things in order to frustrate them. There is constant talk of a one world government, but the great tribulation will prove this to be mere folly. Nations will not co-operate with one another to make this possible. Only when the Lord Jesus takes His throne will this take place, when all shall submit to Him.

Just as nothing would restrain the builders of the tower of Babel, so today ambitious leaders in the world will be restrained by no barriers. The nations want to share their technology so that they may outdo every past generation in their advances in science and every other element of men's culture. They work hard to overcome all the difficulties of language barriers and of national prejudice, but God continues to work by these things in order to frustrate them. There is constant talk of a one world government, but the great tribulation will prove this to be mere folly. Nations will not co-operate with one another to make this possible. Only when the Lord Jesus takes His throne will this take place, when all shall submit to Him.

Many have desired it; but the result of their desires, when action has followed before the time, is that such perish. But by and by it will be accomplished. Then the beast will be reconstituted. There will be unity, one central authority, without extinguishing the separate kingdoms, save that the little horn acquires three. Thus there will be the revived Roman empire, with distinct kingdoms. The future state will consist of the imperial headship, along with the subordinate kingdoms of the once united western empire. The balance of power will then be required no longer. The day is coming when Satan will deceive the world. God has accomplished His own purpose of gathering out His saints to Himself. And then the world is allowed to have its little moment when Satan has consummated his power on earth. (See verses 12 and 13.)

At the appointed time the Beast will be reconstituted. There will be unity, one central authority, without extinguishing the separate kingdoms, except that the little horn acquires three. Thus there will be the revived Roman empire with distinct kingdoms. The future state will consist of the imperial headship along with the subordinate kingdoms of the once united western empire. The so-called balance of power then will be required no longer in the West. In the East and North there will be mighty adversaries. One will besiege and the other be besieged. And the day is coming when Satan will deceive the world. God also will accomplish His own purpose of gathering out His saints to Himself. Then the world will be allowed to have its little moment when Satan has consummated his power on earth. (Rev. 17:12-13)

The state here described never occurred before or since the fall of the Roman empire. Here the principle of national independence will have disappeared. The time will have come for a vast change in the world: a great imperial power will arise, called the Beast. It will not absorb all the nations, but will control and use the separate powers of the West. The Beast is a symbol of strength, but absolutely destitute of reference to God. The western imperial system will have thrown off all owning of God or thought of Him: yea, it will defy Him. Apostasy will have prepared the way. This imperial power will have the direction of the distinctive Roman dominion, the western nationalities of Europe.* The kings will be flattered with the idea that they each have a separate existence and will. But they are only as the muscles of the strong head who uses and controls them all. What follows their destruction of Babylon? “These shall make war with the Lamb.” What a difference from the blessed reign of peace and righteousness, and from what men dream to be the optimistic future!

But though that wound seemed to be unto death, it was healed notwithstanding. "I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed." That is, at the period of which the vision speaks, the Roman power is to be consolidated afresh: not as formerly, with God's good hand over it and controlling all, whatever might have been the ways of individual emperors; but all is abandoned to the will of the beast as the immediate instrument of Satan. Satan can no longer accuse the saints before God, but now he is at work on the earth to produce open blasphemy against God. And this is first done by means of political influence. There is the Roman empire reorganised, and the imperial power revived, and a head over it that gathers everything under his own control, so that all the world wonders after the beast to whom the dragon had given his power, and throne, and great authority. In the next verse we have not merely this; but "they worshipped the beast saying, Who is like the beast? and who is able to make war with him?" (verse 4.)

What a fickle thing is man! No doubt, just before there had been a state of anarchy and confusion, and thence the beast arose and becomes an object of wonder and worship to men weary of all their previous turmoil, and strife, and insecurity. Something like it was seen in a neighbouring country. Men were convulsed by a revolution which tore up all the landmarks and filled their minds with anxiety and restlessness. And what came out of that? A strong hand takes the reins, a military despotism, a quasi-imperial power. And what was enacted on a small scale, because in one country only, will prevail in all the western powers of Europe. So that instead of men having things to themselves, some vigorous chief will take the rule; but it will not be the hand of man merely, but the dragon's power. God will permit him to have his own way; and so for a short time he is allowed to do his very worst. Then, besides distinct governments and rulers, each over his own country, there will be an imperial unity under one great head, who will wield their power and preside over all. Thus will be accomplished those desires of men that have hitherto proved but idle dreams, or at most abortive efforts.

The Beast will arise out of the sea; the sea being a symbol of the nations in tumult, a state of things easily understood after the opening of the seals (Rev. 6). He will know no law but his own will, and will tread down all opposition, so that the nations will say, “Who is like the Beast? Who is able to make war with him?” He will unify ten kingdoms within the bounds of the old Roman Empire into one mighty kingdom. Three of these kingdoms will resist him for a while, but he will subdue them, He will pluck them up by the roots Daniel tells us. We cannot say which of the present kingdoms of Europe these ten kingdoms will be for the Scripture says, “The ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet, but receive power as kings one hour with the beast” (Rev. 17:12). It is probable that all present dynasties will be swept away in the tumultuous condition of things out of which the Beast arises. Then there will emerge a league of nations in which there will be no dissentient voice, after the beast has shown his ruthless power: “They have one mind, and shall give their power and strength to the Beast” (Rev. 17).

Here then is a new state of things — ten horns as well as the beast; not the beast alone as in ancient days, nor ten horns alone as in the middle ages, but the beast and the ten horns. You who desire to be under history as the rule for interpreting prophecy, do you not hear history? Can it be intelligently said that such a state of things has ever yet been? This is the state, I feel no hesitation in affirming, that will be. St. John shows us most clearly what we are to expect for the future of this age, and more particularly in the west. Naturally this must be of so much more solemn interest to us, inasmuch as our country forms a part of it. The continental powers with ourselves, the western powers, compose the material of the future ten horns or kingdoms. The countries of Europe, which boast of themselves as the flower of civilization at the present time, are destined to be redistributed into ten kingdoms when the beast rises up from the abyss; that is, when an imperial power is allowed with Rome as the centre to become Satan's leader of the west. Such will be the beast, a Roman emperor with his satellite kings. When this future empire becomes established again, it will not be such an absorbing power as to blot out separate nationalities. There will be the combination of an imperial authority with each power acknowledged in its own quasi-independent state. I grant that there may be only a sham in such subordinate kings: still there has been usually no lack of vapour in the earth, and the future in question will be a day of shams. The grand point however will be this, that the chief who governs all will govern as firmly with iron hand as if the separate kingdoms belonged to himself exclusively. Such is the state of things described here.

The course of Gentile rule was shown to Nebuchadnezzar in the vision of the image composed of four metals, and to Daniel in the vision of the four wild beasts (Dan. 2; Dan. 7). The empires thus represented are Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. Concerning the latter power very much is stated in Scripture. It is singular in this respect that while none of its predecessors will ever again fill any important place in the earth, the Roman Empire is destined to reappear and to become the leading factor in the politics of the last days. It will revive as a consequence of the disturbed condition of the European nations, and it will be energised by Satan for his evil purposes. This is the force of the symbols "sea" and "bottomless pit," out of both which the Beast is seen to emerge in Rev. 13:1, and Rev. 17:8 respectively. It will be a confederation of ten kingdoms, under the presidency of a powerful chief called in Dan. 7:8 "a little horn." Each State will retain its own Sovereign, as in the German Empire to-day, but the whole mass will be swayed by one head.

The resuscitation of the Roman empire, ten of the western powers being more or less under one head. It will at first exercise a protectorate over the Jewish nation. Isa. 28:14-18; Dan. 2:40-43; Dan. 7:7-8; Dan. 9:27; Rev. 17:7-8, 10-13.

While, however, God is over all, ever working behind the scenes, He commits the outward government of the world to the Gentiles under a form of government entirely new upon the earth. God establishes a system of government by "imperial unity." As another has said, "Instead of independent nations having each its own ruler, God Himself sanctions in His providence the surrender of all nations of the earth to the absorbing authority of a single individual." This is the characteristic form of government given to the nations during "the times of the Gentiles."