Armstrongism has long insisted that Germany will unite Europe under its rule and conquer the United States. HWA made this defeatist prediction during World War II. But after Nazi Germany fell and as West Germany and later the unified Germany developed into a prosperous liberal democracy it became necessary to insist that their democracy would soon come to an end. Some sort of crisis would erupt to turn them back into Nazis.
This Armstrongite tradition continues again following the frightful incident in Berlin in which twelve people were killed by a truck in what is suspected to have been a deliberate act of mass murder. And so soon after it PCG's Brad MacDonald wrote an article about it. (Brad MacDonald, Berlin Attack: Was This Germany’s 9/11?, December 20, 2016.)
Wow, there it is. The gruesome, heart-wrenching terrorist attack on Germany’s capital that many expected, and that the West’s radical Islamist enemies warned was coming. The question now is, what effect will this attack have on Germany and Europe?
Only time will tell. But there is reason to think that this could be a game changer. One analyst said Tuesday morning that this could be Germany’s 9/11. It’s easy to exaggerate in moments like this, but he may be right. The death count isn’t nearly as high, but the symbolism and more importantly the consequences—on Germany and Europe, and even the international community—could be similar.PCG has a long history of scare mongering about Muslims. so this makes them inclined to view certain criminal acts as confirmation of their negative views about an entire community instead of assessing people individually.
And why does PCG's leaders think this massacre could transform a liberal democracy like Germany into a land of Nazis? Because they have been saying similar things for decades.
To insist that Germans are somehow especially attached to Christmas compared with the many other people who also celebrate Christmas he cites an anecdote from when he visited Germany lately.
Visiting Germany last week, I experienced this unique and deep affection. Last Wednesday evening I wanted to have dinner with a German friend, but it was almost impossible to find a restaurant with a spare table. In the end we found one and sat down, surrounded by happy Germans in red hats and opening gifts. “We Germans love Christmas,” explained my elderly German friend.
Today this love of Christmas is perhaps more cultural and social than spiritual or religious.MacDonald then strangely states that Christmas is somehow especially important to Germans. Never mind that it is joyously celebrated all over the world.
He also insists that Christmas originated from ancient Babylon. That accusation is nonsense derived from The Two Babylons by Alexander Hyslop, a highly flawed anti-Catholic polemic dating from the 1850s.
The timing of Monday’s attack, less than a week before Christmas, resonates powerfully with the German people. Germans have a special, fervent love of this holiday. The Christmas tradition is rooted in ancient Babylon, but was perpetuated particularly well by the Germans. This wasn’t just just an attack on a crowd of people, a community or even a city. It was an attack on a deep-seated cultural and social tradition. It was an attack on what it means to be German, at least at this time of the year.It is insisted that this attack will weaken Merkel. Since 2009 PCG's leaders have often speculated that zu Guttenburg may arise as the leader fated to conquer the United States. Consequently PCG's leaders constantly insist to their followers that Merkel will soon lose power.
It will be hard for us foreigners to detect, but Monday’s attack will drive home the message to Germans that Germany’s Christian culture, its Christian traditions, and its Christian values and morality are under attack. The response, quite naturally, will be for growing numbers of Germans to gravitate toward the politician or political party they believe will best defend them. Hint: That politician is NOT Angela Merkel.He states that this attack proves that liberalism, multiculturalism, secularism, tolerance and open mindedness has failed.
This attack in Berlin—a city that supposedly testifies to the countless benefits of being multicultural, progressive and sophisticated—dealt a significant blow to German liberalism. Many Germans will spend Christmas 2016 pondering this attack and seeing more clearly than ever how it exposes the deep and dangerous flaws of multiculturalism, secularism, tolerance and open-mindedness.
Time will tell, but this could be a milestone event in the evolution of the post-unification German psyche. This attack could mark the moment Germany stopped moving toward being progressive, secular and multicultural and began moving much more quickly toward its more traditional, conservative, nationalist roots.MacDonald scare mongers about migrants. Instead of condemning criminal behavior regardless of one type of people such as migrants are vilified. Also being "open-minded and multicultural" is implied to be somehow deficient.
Berlin today is a city in which altruistic dreams are meeting grim reality. Being open-minded and multicultural is wonderful and empowering—until an Islamist terrorist hijacks a lorry and plows into innocent bystanders enjoying a Christmas market. Being altruistic and welcoming of migrants feels great—until migrants begin waving Islamic State flags and stalking your teenage daughters.Claiming that outsiders are threatening "our" women is a common trope in vilifying vulnerable groups. This is an appeal to fear and anxiety instead of trying to understand things and find ways to manage problems.
He ends the article with these words.
This is the new reality: Berliners, the German people—and even Europeans in general—are grappling with a choice between who they want to be and who they need to be. The message from Berlin is that while many Germans might want to be progressive, open-minded and tolerant, they need to be more cynical, more unforgiving and more confrontational.
And this, you can be sure, is a trend that will affect us all!This terrible attack will not cause HWA's dire story of Germans conquering America to come true. I do not know what will happen as a result of this murder of twelve innocent people but one thing will not happen, namely Germany turning into a Nazi state to conquer the United States. That will never be fulfilled.
First of all I think you now and then produce real gems like the observation in the other posting on the naive assumption that all jews would be religiously inclined. While Zionism started like some kind of socialist utopia.
ReplyDeleteSecond I think you wade through a lot of drivel to expose obvious flaws in the reasoning of some publishers.
I feel however inclined to enlighten you somewhat on the German psyche. I am affraid MacDonald is right about the deep rooted connection that Germans have with Christmas. No Australian, American or Canadian festivity matches the psychological social impact of Christmas for Germans. Even if an Anglo Saxon may judge German festivities as quite sober or perhaps even austere as compared to American joy.
As a lot of post armstrongites would deny. Christmas is rooted in ancient German rituals concerning the Winter Solstice and is anchored in the soul of every German. The attack is like someone pissing on the Declaration of Independence. More recent attachment to Christmas is rooted to the deep rooted and ingrained knowledge that the Germans will NEVER deny their Christian roots again after the experience of WWII where these roots were expressly denied.
So unfortunately I must agree with MacDonald here. Not for the sake of attacking your good work but moreso to enlighten you so that your output may progress in the manner that you like.
nck
Only time will tell.
ReplyDeleteNonsense. Time has already told us that any who speak for Armstrongism are full of it. This "Only time will tell" business is one of these place holders that raise questions in the minds of those who hear or see it to question themselves -- "maybe this could be" they think.
But some things in this universe are fixed. The arrow of entropic time cannot be violated and Armstrongism can never return to the glory days (if that's what you'd call them) of the WCG of the 1970s (also accompanied with splits, ouster of GTA, the Ramona divorce for $5 million, the Herbert Armstrong heart attack, 60 minutes and the lawsuit). The time is also past for 1975 in prophecy and nothing can fix that.
So proposing possibilities can be quashed immediately by past experience, reason, logic and science. We can know of a certainty that some things are not going to happen and just by saying "Only time will tell" won't solve a thing. British Israelism has been debunked as a kook idea and everything based on it -- like, for example, prophesies -- are bound to fail. Just saying that something could possibly might come to happen (based on wishful thinking) and creating doubts with "Only time will tell" is a strategy that the wily and wise will reject without a second thought with nary a doubt.
And as for Christmas Trees in Germany, it is high time we took a look at that at As Bereans Did. The article ends with:
"How much credence would Armstrong have gotten were it not for the Nazi effort to paganize Christmas? We'll never know. Many of the nationalist, socialist and communist movements of the 1900s have died out, but one must wonder whether useful idiots are still promoting their propaganda today."
I'm not so sure though that the idiots are that useful.
Oh yes,
ReplyDeleteI was talking about the timing of the extremist in Berlin. Not the 1972 timing of a deities return.
nck
That's so like a narcissist: Make comments about a blog article and he thinks the comments are all about him.
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable.
That is so narcissist to think my response was a response to your idiotic comment. It did make me realise however that my first comment could be interpreted as an endorsement of the macdonald article.
ReplyDeleteWhy do I call your comment out as specifically idiotic. Because you repeat the same and same and same as a mantra. Since you have expressed a keen interest in psychology I urge you to look up persons who repeatedly repeat and repeat and repeat the same mantra.
nck
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ReplyDeletenck, I see your being a bad boy again. Time to take your toys and go home.
ReplyDeleteHebrew 11:13 - These all died in faith, not having received the Germans...
ReplyDeleteAll the people who have lived a life of HWA's predictions and died with none of them coming true. What a waste.