A Newsweek article related a common viewpoint in its introduction, stating, "It's become all fashionable in Washington, Moscow and Beijing these days to dismiss Europe as an aging continent in terminal decline" (Nov. 16, 2009). But the writer, Stefan Theil, did not agree with that assessment—his piece being titled "The Modest Superpower."

A London Sunday Times article was similarly titled "Europe Rises as a Modest Superpower." The text noted that "the EU is now wealthier than the United States" (Nov. 15, 2009).

Gareth Harding in The Wall Street Journal adds his voice to the chorus in a piece titled "Europe Reborn." He states categorically: "Contrary to the view of Europe as sclerotic and incapable of reform, no continent on earth has changed more radically—at least in political terms—than Europe since the end of the 1980s. Of the 47 countries that comprise the Council of Europe, 19 did not even exist in 1989...

"The EU, which emerged from the ashes of a world war that left Europe shattered, humiliated and sidelined, is now the world's biggest economic power, exporter, trading bloc, aid donor and foreign investor" (Nov. 3, 2009).

The recently approved Lisbon Treaty enabled the EU to add two new potentially pivotal offices: a long-term president and a foreign policy secretary, with the Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy and Baroness Catherine Ashton of Britain being appointed to these offices, respectively. It took eight years to push this treaty through.

But where does Europe go from here? Nowhere, according to many skeptics who predict that the EU will ultimately fail. But the EU contains the framework and perhaps even the seeds of a future union foretold in the Bible. (To understand more, request or download our free booklet Are We Living in the Time of the End?)