The prophet Daniel relates in chapter 2 of his book an incident that takes place involving himself and King Nebuchadnezzar, ruler of all Babylonia. The king is looking for someone who will not only tell him the interpretation of a dream he had, but will relate the dream itself. Daniel's God is able to satisfy the monarch, and in the process gives us some very important history.

The dream is of a statue of a human body, the parts of which tell the story of mankind from Daniel's day until past our own time. There is the Babylonian period, the Medo-Persian and Greek periods, and finally, the Roman. Important to point out here is that the Roman period is the final one. It is the legs and feet, which on most bodies reach the floor when standing. From the end of Greece until the end of time, one Empire is to dominate Earth's affairs. It is to be concluded with a ten-part kingdom.

We talk about the revival of the Roman Empire, and so it shall be. But not a revival from death, for Rome still lives. It is more of a revival from a long illness. First pagan Rome, then Papal Rome, then the gradual weakening until its present state. Yet is there a power on earth today that is greater in number and in potential political and financial power than Roman Catholicism and its powerful Pope?

A treaty that was signed in (political) Rome back in the 50's gave rise to the European Common Market and its offspring the EU. Prophecy students have long salivated over this piece of work, looking at its telling flag, and its currency and its potential military might. Surely this is the world's last power, they have said. I was of course swept into this thinking too until the number of members so far exceeded 10 as to cause one to lose count.

I shall share my speculation about what I believe the ten-nation confederation is after this brief run-down of the Biblical facts. Here is what Daniel and John (Revelation 17) tell us:

• after the iron-like entry of Rome into the world, it will resolve eventually into a mixture of iron and clay, in ten separate parts. Ten toes, using the language of the body.
• the iron and clay will not adhere to each other. Strong nations, weak nations.
• when this final empire is in place, the seventh world ruler will arise and moderate it for a short time.
• the miraculous and foreceful appearance of the man of sin will cause the 8th ruler, who is really one of earth's 7 great anti-God anti-Israel anti-Christ personages, to gain the ascendancy.
• using the 10-nation alliance as a base, he will eventually conquer the world.
• in the days of these 10 kings and this world ruler, God will establish His own rule out of the New Jerusalem, a true city set on a hill in Israel.

Speculation: Since John and Daniel see antichrist rising from the Great Sea, it seems to me that a Mediterranean Alliance, and not the European Union, will be the seat of the Beast. Headquarters, Rome. If this man is Antiochus (about which I have written elsewhere), Greece must be a part of it. Add on Turkey and Syria, part of the kingdom he reigned when here before. Then there are Libya and Egypt, mentioned in Daniel 12 as part of his final conflict.

Oh, and let's add on France and Morocco, who have begun making deals, with an eye toward a Mediterranean union. That leaves only two more nations.

I go from speculation to true subjectivity and ask not that you agree but consider. While thinking about all of this and wondering if indeed the world was headed toward what the Scripture seemed to be saying, the phrase "Mediterranean Alliance" came to my mind and I felt I should Google it. I had never, to my knowledge, heard that phrase. I was gratified to find that indeed the men of earth are contemplating a Mediterranean Union or Alliance, and the sooner the better, as the security issues in that part of the world get out of control more and more by the day.

That's as far as I can go for now. Like the statue's toes, today I offer you iron-clad facts mixed with some not so solid clay. Perhaps readers will care to respond with research of their own.