We recently noted a new book by Ian Bremmer (president of Eurasia Group) entitled Every Nation for Itself: Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World. He writes on the very same theme that we covered in our latest book of some three years ago, Global Financial Apocalypse Prophesied. An even earlier article that was written in January 2009, “10: The Magic Number of Endtime Post-Globalism” specifically dealt with the prophetic significance of just such a development. While these topics may sound a little dense — i.e. just what is post-globalism? — they really deal with the clear-cut stages in the geopolitics of the last days. In our view, given the developments that we are observing, the world definitely seems to be hurtling towards the final stages of geopolitics and politically economy according to Bible prophecy.
Let’s do a short review before we turn our attention to the foretold choices of the modern geopolitical world of mankind. Contrary to popular opinion, globalism is not the final power organization of an end time world. Many promote the idea of a one-world government. This is not so much wrong as it is an imbalanced and incomplete view. Quoting a section from the above-mentioned article:
“To be clear, the Bible clearly does prophesy that globalism will take place in the last days. God often pronounces his last-day judgments upon all the nations collectively, as they are all engaged in rebelliousness; are pursuing similar ideologies; and together rise up against Israel. For example, “Come near, you nations, and listen; pay attention, you peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, the world, and all that comes out of it! The LORD is angry with all nations; his wrath is upon all their armies” (Isaiah 34:1-2).”
From prophecy we can deduce that the world would have forums such as the United Nations and global media networks that would be representative of world opinion and consensus. When Balaam prophesied, “For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations” (Numbers 23:9, KJV), this presumed that the world, or collectively “the nations,” was united in not “reckoning” Israel. As it happens, that state of affairs exists today.
Most certainly, Bible prophecy tells us in advance that the world’s nations will all choose to oppose God and in this they will remain unified. In this sense, the world will retain its globalism. However, its power structure will be superseded. How so?
To answer, we must study the stages of Ruler Kings that the Bible mentions in Daniel and Revelation. (Please see our current 4-part series entitled “Prophecy: Wrong- or Right-Headed” for a detailed exposition of these views. It will be published first in Midnight Call magazine, beginning with the July issue.) A 10-king phase follows the 6th Ruler King (this being of Roman heritage in our opinion). From among these 10 kings rises the final leader, the Antichrist. Three phases apply to the Roman era (See Daniel 7:24).
As such, there are yet two regimes that come after the present one — minilateralism and autocracy — with the latter being a form of government in which the political power is held by a single, self-appointed ruler. Both forms yet lie ahead.
But what is minilateralism? This is a term coined several years ago by MoisésNaím, the well-known former Editor-in-Chief of Foreign Policy magazine and former executive director of the World Bank. While it is not a term that has attracted common usage, it can be seen to convey a concept of which the Bible prophecy has foreknowledge. This is further explained in the following quote:
“When was the last time you heard that a large number of countries agreed to a major international accord on a pressing issue? Not in more than a decade […] These failures represent not only the perpetual lack of international consensus, but also a flawed obsession with multilateralism as the panacea for all the world’s ills. It has become far too dangerous to continue to rely on large-scale multilateral negotiations that stopped yielding results almost two decades ago. So what is to be done? To start, let’s forget about trying to get the planet’s nearly 200 countries to agree. We need to abandon that fool’s errand in favor of a new idea: minilateralism. By minilateralism, I mean a smarter, more targeted approach: We should bring to the table the smallest possible number of countries needed to have the largest possible impact on solving a particular problem. Think of this as minilateralism’s magic number.4”
Cutting to the nub of Mr. Naím’s argument: Today’s multilateral “globalism” is ineffective as there is no accountability and no power to enforce change. He is saying that a small group of powerful nations — not the global, toothless forum such as the United Nations with its 192 members or the G20 — should therefore dictate global agendas.
Though he may not realize it, he strikes upon a very important eschatological issue. His recommendations fit hand in glove with Bible prophecy, but not necessarily in the way popularly thought. He is talking of a world that is moving to a post-globalism state. That is minilateralism. That could be the reign of 10 nations getting together to form what we have called a Global Power Coalition. This would not be globalism or multilateralism but would be a powerful group of opportunist nations taking things into their own hands and dominating the world.
To review, what we see is that the prophetic fulfillment of ten kings first requires an age of multipolarism and multilateralism. This is a world power arrangement balanced between many countries and not dominated by one or more powerful nations. It is the late stages of this development that is playing out today, the era of the 6th head shown on the beast of Revelation 17. This is the G-zero world that Ian Bremmer describes in his book.
Says Bremmer in a recent conference presentation: “If not the West, the rest, or the institutions where they come together, who will lead? The answer is, no one. Neither the once-dominant G7 nor the unworkable G20. We have entered the G-Zero, a world in which, for the first time since the end of World War II, there is no single power or alliance of powers ready to take on global leadership.”
After this would come minilateralism as we have already explained — what we see to be the 10-nation coalition that then gives its authority over to the Antichrist. He represents that last state of world governance before the Millennium period — autocracy.
Again, says Bremmer: “The G-Zero is not the new normal. It can’t last, because it will create too many problems that demand cooperative solutions. We have to look beyond this era of transition and to consider what will come next. Who will provide leadership in the post G-Zero world?” The Bible provides the answer.
Recent European financial tremors add to the maelstrom. Frankly, there is no way of knowing just which nations might exit the Eurozone, or in fact, the European Union. Frankly, it is possible that a group of 10 nations will emerge from the financial wreckage of Europe at some point. Says Helen Wallace, a leading EU scholar at the London School of Economics, “In looking for sticking plasters and ways that will stabilize today, the temptation to do it with a smaller number of member states becomes greater and greater.”
Recently, Jean-Claude Piris, a top EU lawyer and highly influential figure in Brussels, published a book arguing also for a smaller Europe but with more complete monetary union. All in all, it is obvious that we are living in a time where things can change…and quickly.
Will all of the 10 final nations come out of Europe? There are other possibilities as to the final make-up of the “minilateralist” ten nations as we have laid out before. Time will tell.
In conclusion, quoting from our book Global Financial Apocalypse Prophesied: “It will take at least one more big crisis, if not many more, to bring about the prophesied globally coordinated condition of ten kings. In fact, it is not unreasonable to think that an even greater crisis than the GFC must occur. It need not be a new crisis. It could simply be the second stage of the GFC that is shortly ahead. Therefore, please note that the probabilities are very high that a much bigger crisis could still occur before the Tribulation period begins.”
We wrote this more that 3 years ago. Indeed, the Global Financial Crisis continues to morph, impacting the entire world, lately most explosively in the European Eurozone. A seemingly uncontrollable and unforecastable crisis will eventually give rise to the 10-nation stage of minilateralism.