SPIRITUAL ASPECTS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

by: Pieter Bos
date: 1/1/2001
Category: Nations

NOTES ON SPIRITUAL ASPECTS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
SPIRITUAL DYNAMICS BEFORE, IN AND AROUND THE EUROPEAN UNION, AMONG OTHERS IN RELATION TO BELGIUM AND BRUSSELS.

1 BRUSSELS A EUROPEAN SPIRITUAL POWER CENTRE?
1a Brussels has been as a "European capital" four times in history:

1 In the period of roughly 200-100 BC, a major Bel temple existed near Brussels, with extensive Bel-worship, and with dependences in a circle around this centre, connected to the centre with what could be called ley lines. The total area covered was reaching into the present Netherlands and Northern France. This Bel-worship was a sun-worship, and has given Belgium her name.
2 Brussels was the capital city of Charles Vth 1515-1559, whose realm at that time covered much of Central, Southern and Western Europe.
3 After the War of Spanish Succession (1734)
4 In the last quarter of the twentieth century Brussels has emerged as the capital of the European Union, which covers 15 nations (1997) in Western Europe.
Cities like Rome, Berlin, Paris and London have played major roles throughout European history, more prominent roles than Brussels; yet no European city can claim to have been a "European capital" in the sense as Brussels can. However, this does as such not really have implications.

5 The battle of the War of Spanish Succession 1701-14.
6 The final battle of the European Allies against Napoleon was fought near Brussels, 1813.
7 During World War I the terrible "Trench war" was (not fought but) suffered on Belgian soil.
8 Towards the end of World War II, the "Battle of the Ardennes" took place.
Concerning wars in general we need to understand, that it most of the times, at least on one side, waging war is a sacrifice of human blood for human ideals, which basically is human sacrifice to the evil spirits behind the human ideals. And blood sacrifice is feeding Satan. We must conclude, that insofar human ideals caused these wars, the Belgian soil is soaked with European blood, and that the Belgian territory has been used as a European altar. This has major spiritual implications: 1c.

Can the spiritually relevant facts (5-8) together with the seemingly irrelevant facts (1-4) indicate that a "throne" of a "local god" (or guardian angel or territorial spirit) of a large area was originally located in or near Brussels? If this is the case, it means that this spirit has been well "fed" through the wars of his scale, so that he could remain exercising his influence, notwithstanding the influence of Christendom. This then causes regional power dynamics to always gravitate towards this original centre.
The international bloodshed is a longstanding invitation to evil powers to come back to this place of sacrifice; this poses a continual threat to the nation of Belgium, especially concerning international affairs/connections of Belgium.

Some historians say that the origin of the EU (from Benelux to ECSC to EC to EU) is purely one of economic stability. Others claim that the EU is born out of idealism of unity, reconciliation and lasting peace. But neither the motiv of economic survival, nor the motiv of man-made peace, can stand before God, since He is our Provider and He is our Peace.
But when we try to see what is beneath this very young foundation of this very young economic/political alliance, we discover fragments of foundations that are even worse. We see layer after layer of wars, with WOUNDS AND GUILT AND HATRED AND CURSES AND BLOODSHED, ALL OF THEM ONLY VERY THINLY COVERED UP WITH FORMAL PEACE TREATIES. The church could have and should have carried out her ministry of reconciliation after every war (after having confessed her own involvement in case she had blessed weapons on any one side), by spiritually dealing with war through corporate representative confessions, corporate representative forgiveness and corporate representative restitution, but in most cases she has not.
In other words: superficially speaking, the European nations involved can do and choose whatever they want, as long as the motives are right and in the light. But spiritually speaking none of the nations is free toward most of the others; the nations are bound by old spiritual ties, mainly spiritually negative ties of war-guilt, ties that Satan is known to abuse, as he is the "accuser of the brethern."

By saying this, I am not trying to rip up old sores; I am trying to be serious in discussing a true and spiritually trustworthy foundation for a political alliance like the EU. "Ancient histories" are still relevant to day. Many historians acknowledge this, when they describe certain internationally sensitive dynamics; they certainly are relevant today. The relevance, the pain and guilt, of these "ancient histories" can be spiritually dealt with IF THE CHURCH STARTS TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for the past of "her" nations. As long as that has not happened, or at least started, the EU is on its way to Bosnia-type explosions. The historic foundation of the (participating nations of the) EU is prone to make the building collapse.

Not only there are these individual cracks in the foundation under the EU; there are also cracks in the corporate foundation, major weaknesses in the foundation of Europe as a whole. It is to be discussed in what way the EU represents all of Europe, but spiritually speaking, each part becomes, by joining together, responsible for the whole. So in the case of the EU, with 15 (1997) nations, most of which have a remarkable history of all sorts of international relations, the EU is representative and responsible for European history.
I understand that there are five major corporate sins of European scale, that blot our history. Again: this is not a way to be negative about the EU, but a contribution in being serious about the functioning of the EU.
1 The church was split in Europe, first in the tenth century, then in the sixteenth century, and from then onward seemingly without ceasing. And the rest of the world has received the gospel out of Europe, including these splits. The sin of division before the Bridegroom Jesus, and the weakness through the division in opposing the enemy of the church, are unfathomable.
2 Anti-Semitism is a sin of the European church. Instead of acting out the prayer of Jesus to forgive the Jews, the church has kept accusing the Jews. In stead of "comforting" the people of God (by telling her that "her sin has been paid for... that she has received double for all her sins," Isa 40:1,2) the church of Europe has discriminated against the Jewish people. The pain in the heart of God and his anger about this sin are unfathomable.
3 Europe has brought forth religious wars, caused by the misunderstood relation of state and church, and a misunderstanding of the spiritual nature of the church. The Cross turned into a sword, through the Crusades to begin with. The church was designed to be "God’s spiritual " "power tool"; instead this power tool was in fact handed over to the enemy of the church, causing the most dreadful of bloodshed all over Europe. Spiritually this has become a terrible defeat in the spiritual battle. The shame of the abuse and the pollution of the church is unfathomable.
4 Colonialism and slave- and opium trade. In aggressive pride and greed almost none of the European nations have refrained from going overseas and doing elsewhere, what would immediately cause a war in case it would occur in their own country. Colonialism is like incest and rape in the family of nations. The trade in slaves and opium was a further expression of this attitude, causing enslavement and degradation of humans and peoples. The pain, the corporate pain of racism and exploitation... unfathomable.
5 Humanism, causing rationalism, sparking enlightenment, developing into dialectic philosophy, craddling materialism, ending up in complete fragmentation of society... and exporting this over the whole world. The consequences are unfathomable.

These are, as I see them, the five major sins of Europe.
Though in each of these there were, by God’s grace, some good by-products, we must be ready to call sin sin. These sins are terrible and of the grossest scale. "Woe to him who build a city on bloodshed" (Hab 2:12). The hope for Europe is that IF the church of Europe takes responsibility for these sins, she can prepare the way for the secular leaders to follow and to come to grips with their corporate past... on her way to the future.

While the EU heads of state and ministers hardly can reach consensus on the Treaty of Amsterdam, or EMU, or whichever next topic after June 1997, EU-delegates who represent the EU in UN circles, on the contrary show forth an amazing unity. In UN-conferences the EU delegations, together with the USA and Canada delegations, CONSISTENTLY AND AGRESSIVELY VOTE FOR "reproductive health", FOR "sustainable settlements," FOR "governance", FOR "on-going education", FOR numerous newly termed concepts, all covering up extreme environmentalism, anti family feminism, "real (meaning: not representative but grassroots) democracy" and hardly covered New Age influence and New Age utopism.
Also: the pressure of the EU to legalise abortion in Belgium and Ireland is debated. However, knowing the EU-position in UN-discussions, the debate is over: the EU pushes aggressively for abortion on demand as a human right.
The point here is this. The seemingly weak and careful steps towards European integration, only partially mask the, on the contrary, strong and straightforward political positions the EU fights for at the international scene. These positions are purposely and aggresively throwing out the societal values that are at least reminders of the Christian heritage of the European partners.

Concluding on the spiritual past and future of the EU. The national cracks and the European-scale cracks in the foundation of Europe, AND the cracky future orientation of the EU suggest, to say the least, that the Church of Europe has a major task at hand. She must boldly and prophetically speak into the past, the present and the future of Europe and of the EU. She must raise standards of righteousness on smaller and larger scales. The church must, at European level, be a model of unity and a model of reconciliation, because without that, the church cannot be a salt and light. And without such salt and light, Europe and the EU is in bondage of her past and not free toward God’s future.

The Corporate Identity (CI) of Belgium is "CREATIVE FRIEND." This reflection of God’s image in the Belgian nation emphasises the creativity and cultural heritage, and the friendliness and "homi-ness" of the Belgians (elaborated elsewhere). The corruption of the CI has, among others, been caused by the contempt of this corporate quality and of the Belgians by the surrounding nations: what was (more) appreciated centuries ago in the field of artisticity and personal relations, in our days is not appreciated at all: the Creative Friendship of the Belgians has been regarded as an irrelevant societal factor. This has caused a VERY LOW SELF IMAGE in the Belgians. The cruel irony of the choice of Brussels to be the European capital is, that the self image has not really recovered. On the contrary, the European nations seem to have abused the Belgian CI as "soft ground" to do "their own thing": they are not friendly and creative, but bureauratic and pragmatic. The immediate result of this dynamic is the ISOLATION OF BRUSSELS: the establishment of the EU in Brussels has elevated the city of Brussels, which had of course a real European history, on a "higher" level, out of the internal Belgium weakness of the Flamish-Wallonian strife. At the same time this has aggravated the tension between the two parts, as they were "left alone" by the city of Brussels. This has now caused the nation to be divided in three areas: Flanders, Wallonia... and Brussels! The establishment of the EU in the city of Brussels has caused the nation of Belgium, in stead of being honoured and confirmed in who she is, to be even more removed from the European scene than she already was .

4-1 Two international intercessor leaders, in 1990 Roland Smith, and in 1991 Pieter Bos , independent of each other, felt from the Lord that the "spirit of Tyre" rules over the city of Brussels. Both times it was shared and tested in a small gathering of spiritual leaders in the city, and accepted as from the Lord.
4-2 The statue of Godfried de Bouillion is erected exactly at the rectangle crossing of two lines:
one line connects the Palace of Justice with the Parc of Brussels (between the Royal palace and the House of Parliament); the other line connects the statue to the Town Hall. This statue stands at the altitude of and is directed to the spire of that Town Hall, which carries a statue of Michael fighting the serpent (Michael is the "guardian angel" of the city of Brussels).
4-3 The line from the Palace of Justice to this statue onward to the Parc of Brussels is one of the lines of the "compass" in the design of the Parc of Brussel, which is a Free Mason design.
4-4 Godfried de Bouillion was one of the leaders of the first Crusade, and is depicted as the "First King of Jerusalem."

These four "facts" together raise the suggestion of the following spirtual dynamic.
Masonic influence in city planning is always directed to controlling the spiritual powers of the city. In this case the Mason-inspired design connects (e.i.: tries to controll) the Palace of Justice, the Royal palace, the House of Parliamant and the Town Hall!
Where the two lines intersect, by strict geometry, the statue is erected, celebrating "the first King of Jerusalem." Considering that Jesus is THE king of Jerusalem, the choice of this subject must be understood to be blasphemous.
If there is any spiritual significance in the choice of Michael to be the guardian angel of Brussels, certainly this "responds" to the understanding that "the" serpent, the spirit of Tyre, tries to control the city. This corresponds also with understanding, developed under 1, that a major spiritual power has residence in (the environment of) Brussels. It cannot be misunderstood what role the "first king of Jerusalem" tries to play in the angel fighting the serpent: the parliament, the judiciary system, the king and the town are claimed for the spiritual power that Michael tries to fight.

I have been studying spiritual dynamics of nations for ten years.
Conclusion about Belgium: In my, nevertheless restricted, experience I do not know a nation as spiritually perilous as Belgium. BELGIUM IS A VICTIM.
Conclusion about the European Union: As far as the 15 nations of the EU can be identified with Europe (in a spiritual way they can), and as far as Europe once was evangelised (which does not mean that it was a Christian continent), one could say that "the evil spirit was cast out, but the house was not cleansed, and so seven spirits, worse than the first, have come back" (acc. to Matt 12:44-45). With the emergence of the EU, Europe is in greater danger than ever. Historically, the individual nations and the continent as a whole have such deep and dangerous cracks in the foundation, and the future orientation of the EU is already to be suspected, that one must conclude that the EU cannot survive too long, unless spiritual help is accepted, either from God through the reformed and united and cleansed Church, or from he enemy of the Church. Economically, un-employment and maffia are a threat. Ethnically, from Bosnia to Chechenia, from new fascism to minority tensions, Europe is a boiling pot, Spiritually the church is diminishing and pushed out, to make room for any form of new spirituality, while the above mentioned spiritual dynamics are not regarded.
Without denying or ignoring the positive results and opportunities that are also coming "out of Brussels" the conclusion is: EUROPE IS IN DANGER, AND THE EUROPEAN UNION, as she functions now, IS PART OF THE PROBLEM RATHER THAN TO BE PART OF THE SOLUTION.

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