That "deranged Australian", Denis Michael Rohan, was partly influenced by Armstrongism. He was a subscriber to The Plain Truth. Garner Ted Armstrong was the executive editor for The Plain Truth back in 1969, second only to his father Herbert Armstrong."Just the other day [while visiting the Holy Land in the early 1990s], I was reading the Jerusalem Post in my room in Jerusalem's Hyatt Regency Hotel. A letter from an indignant citizen took issue with Arab charges that the `Jews had tried to burn down the A1 [sic] Aqsa mosque' many years earlier when considerable damage was done by an arsonist."The writer pointed out that a `deranged Australian' not a Jew and certainly not a citizen of Israel, had torched the mosque. (Source.)
Rohan's arson attack caused intense trouble. It destroyed a famous 800 year old pulpit dating back to the time of Saladin. It almost provoked a Palestinian intifada.
Astonishingly Garner Ted Armstrong writes about this tragic act of vandalism as though it had nothing to do with him or with his inflammatory speculations that a third temple is fated to be built before the Great Tribulation. How disgraceful.
Soon after that visit Garner Ted Armstrong was disgraced and kicked out out of his own group because of shameful behavior.
Several years ago, when David "bent" Ariel was on the rampage, writing to members of the Bundestag to encourage them to live up to what he termed as their "prophetic role in history", and calling Schwarzenegger's office to enquire as to whether he had considered becoming president of Austria, a poster on one of the Armstrong-related forums had some words of caution for ben Ariel.
ReplyDeleteHe stated that when you attempt to force prophecies you believe may be from God, you run the risk of causing additional pain, suffering, and death that God had not intended, invoking the law of unintended consequences.
The arson at the Al Aqsa Mosque is seen today as being the offense or event that spawned radical Islam. It literally woke Muslims up to the fact that they needed to galvanize to protect all that they considered sacred. This, and the six day war sent a powerful lesson to them that their sovereignty in the region was in serious jeopardy, and that world opinion was predominantly with Israel.
Up until the 1980s, the Muslims and Arabs in general were not seen as having a significant role in the Beast/Catholic/German dominated Armstrong prophecy mold. In fact, the events of 9-11 came as a shock to all the people whose attention was diverted to the Germans, and who never expected an attack on our soil from Arab sources.
Rohan, it would seem, caused a major deviation not only from the delusional Armstrong prophecies, but also from the international geopolitical status quo. This should provide a powerful lesson to all aspiring zealots.
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Agreed. Those carried away by impractical ideas should be careful not to do something to gain infamy.
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