The German Blitz That Crumbled Before It Started – Thanks, Demographics!

For decades, Armstrongism has clung desperately to the long-held delusion that Germany will once again rise as a military juggernaut, invade the United States, England, Australia, Canada, and other so-called “Israelitish” nations, slaughter a third of the inhabitants, haul off millions of prisoners (especially the young and fit), and ship them across the Atlantic to serve as slaves for their European overlords. It even reached peak absurdity at one point with the claim that when the Germans stormed ashore, they’d be so dazzled by the Ambassador Auditorium and surrounding properties in Pasadena that they’d declare it the invasion headquarters. Heaven forbid they tear it down—after all, why destroy such a fine example of God’s (or at least Herbert’s) handiwork when you could just occupy it instead?

Herbert Armstrong kicked off this paranoid fever dream by repeatedly insisting that Hitler was still alive and hiding out in South America, most likely Argentina, plotting his comeback tour. Then Rod Meredith had what can only be described as a particularly vivid wet dream about Americans being cooked in Nazi ovens, hung on meat hooks to die slow deaths, and—because nothing says “biblical prophecy” like extra cruelty—skin from those with tattoos being turned into lampshades, just like the Nazis actually did in some concentration camps.

Scores of breathless articles flooded the Plain Truth, Good News, and World Tomorrow magazines, warning of the imminent German blitz. And who could forget Gerald Waterhouse’s traveling road show of unhinged stupidity, where he not only regurgitated these delusions but happily invented fresh ones for the flock? Even today, the usual suspects—Bob Thiel (a.k.a. Bwana Bob, the Crackpot Prophet), Gerald Flurry, Ron Weinland, Alton Billingsley, Dave Pack, and a whole clown car full of other self-appointed know-it-alls—continue to peddle this nonsense as if it’s cutting-edge revelation instead of moldy 1930s-era geopolitical fan fiction. It should be painfully obvious by now that mental illness and grand delusions are occupational hazards for far too many Church of God leaders and evangelists.

These Church of God leaders need this German invasion to happen. It simply must occur! Only then can they finally declare victory and prove that every wild-eyed prediction they’ve ever made wasn’t the ravings of paranoid men living in perpetual fear of being exposed as frauds.

All of this stems from their stubborn refusal to leave the Old Covenant behind—those heavy chains of law-keeping, enforcement, and threats used to keep the sheep in line. Armstrongism’s allergic reaction to fully embracing the New Covenant is precisely why they keep recycling this apocalyptic garbage. Instead of finding rest in the One who accomplished it all, they prefer to wallow in fear and cower before imagined divine wrath.

They desperately need to see an invading army of jackbooted Germans marching down the streets of Charlotte or Grover Beach. But not once do they sit down and actually think this mythical scenario through. Germany currently fields around 1,000,000 active and reserve military personnel, while the United States has about 3,000,000. Oh wait, they always have an escape hatch: After Germany miraculously drops nuclear bombs on all the major military installations and cities, the number of defenders will be minimal. And of those who remain, many will conveniently perish from hunger and disease. Armstrongism has a convenient workaround for everything!

One thing these prophetic geniuses never had the intellectual honesty to consider is the current state of Germany’s military. This tidbit was on a German page on X:

“Germany can no longer raise an army, simply because of how many Muslims are now German citizens” 

 

“Now, allegedly, Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz has privately admitted that he's worried about the country's ability to raise an army, simply because Germany doesn't want to put weapons in the hands of hundreds of thousands of Muslim Germans. And he'd be right in worrying, because a recent study of young Muslim Germans showed that nearly half expressed latent Islamist attitudes, which are, you know, the kind of attitudes that turn Muslims into terrorists, and more than half said that their religious commandments were more important to them than even German democracy. And if you ask me, these don't sound like the attitudes of Germans. These sound like the attitudes of Germany's enemies”

Let’s get into the facts. A 2025–2026 German government-backed study by MOTRA, Radicalization Monitoring System, involving the Federal Criminal Police Office, found that 45.1% of Muslims under 40 in Germany hold either “manifest” (11.5%) or “latent” (33.6%) Islamist attitudes. This includes preferences for Sharia over the constitution, antisemitic views, and Islamist leanings. When you have a significant population of Muslims who hold a pro-Sharia Law mindset, you can’t trust them in your military.

In the end, the entire edifice of Armstrongist prophecy about a German invasion crumbles under the slightest scrutiny, revealing itself as nothing more than a fear-based control mechanism dressed up in biblical language. While these leaders continue to hype imaginary jackbooted hordes, the real world moves on—Germany grapples with its own demographic and security challenges that make conquering the United States about as likely as Herbert Armstrong returning from Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena to lead the charge himself.

The tragedy is that generations of sincere people have lived in dread, sacrificing time, money, and peace of mind to support a fantasy that has failed spectacularly for decades. The New Covenant offers rest, freedom, and security in Christ, not endless paranoia about European superpowers or nuclear doomsday scenarios conveniently rigged in favor of the “one true church.” It’s long past time for those still trapped in this system to step away from the delusions, embrace the finished work of the Savior, and leave the failed prophets to their increasingly desperate echo chambers. True peace doesn’t come from watching for German tanks on the horizon—it comes from the One who has already overcome the world.