Europe and Muslims

Well, greetings friends! This is John Ogwyn with commentary for the Living Church of God. My friends, do you realize that there is a growing tension in Europe regarding the Muslim population that exists there? Earlier this year the nation of France has expelled eight different men—Muslim men—on the grounds that they're preachers who foment anti-western sentiment and violence in their sermons. Earlier this year, France also passed a law that bars Muslim girls from wearing headscarves at public schools. This sort of thing has stirred up quite a bit of controversy among what is really a growing Muslim population in France and other European nations. This new practice of expelling Muslim preachers, France is actually taking its campaign against extremism a step further. France's hardball approach comes as Europe faces stark questions about how to integrate its surging Muslim population. This is part of a Wall Street Journal article of recent date focusing in on the fact that the once tiny Muslim population in Europe has now grown tremendously. That's because it has been fueled by immigration from nations such as Turkey and Pakistan as well as by the fact that the Muslim birthrate in Europe, as well as elsewhere, is much, much higher than the European birthrate. In fact, the birthrate in France and many of the other European nations has actually fallen below replacement level. France right now has a population of about 60 million people and about five to seven million of those are Muslims. That makes France having the largest Muslim population of any nation in Western Europe.

Now, my friends, where is this conflict going to lead? Because there is a conflict that is building up increasingly—a tension that is building up in Europe—between the traditional European population and the growing Muslim population. On the one hand, Europe has allowed this influx of Muslims because, frankly, their birthrate has been so low that they have needed the work force both to do work as well as to pay into their social pension funds. Yet, it has led to conflict. European nations now find themselves on the verge of losing their ethnic and cultural identity in the decades that are ahead. Now, frankly, this growing tension is setting the stage for events that are mentioned in Bible prophecy. In Daniel, chapter 11, we have a prophecy that focuses on a conflict between what is called a King of the North and King of the South—heirs to the Greco-Macedonian civilization that Alexander the Great spread over the known world. The system that was headed—or the heirs of that civilization—come down to two individuals or two groups called the King of the North and the King of the South and that is brought out in prophecy here in Daniel 11. All the way down to the end time we read about this coming conflict.

You know, down through time, down through centuries, there has been a conflict of civilizations between Catholic-European civilization north of the Mediterranean and Muslim-Arab civilization south of the Mediterranean. And this conflict of north and south is highlighted right in your Bible in Daniel chapter 11. The conflict that is going on in Europe right now; the religious, ethnic, cultural conflict, is setting the stage for some of what is described. It talks about a King of the South being stirred up and a King of the North being stirred up. It talks about agreements that they seek to make and yet working deceitfully with one another, as is described here in Daniel 11. And then we find that at the time of the end, Daniel 11:40, the King of the South is finally going to push at this northern civilization, Europe, and the King of the North is going to come against him. My friends, the stage is being set for events in the Middle East, and some of the tensions that are going to result in these fulfillments are occurring right now. You need to understand and you need to watch what is going on, because the pages of Bible prophecy lay out in advance what the future holds.

This has been John Ogwyn with commentary for the Living Church of God.