Divine inferiority complexes

What’s a god worth who sees extreme natural disasters as the only way to convince human beings of his existence and his love(!)? Is that a god worth praying to anyway?

Bertha Dudde (1891-1965), self-proclaimed prophetess from the wide range of Christian “new revelation” of whom several texts were available at that mysticism trade fair I mentioned earlier – which are all available online in German and several translated to English –, said: yes. Or rather she said her god said it, since the imagined he was talking (or writing) through her.

Dudde has written thousands of “proclamations” (all ending with “Amen”) covering all sorts of topics – I concentrate on those about the “worldshaking natural disaster” in this post. It’s quite telling that she started her prophecy business in 1937 and that the word “catastrophy” appears in her texts written during World War II about as often as in those from the other 22 years put together. Also the kind of catastrophy changes a bit with the start of space travel – in, for instance, 1940, there were mighty earthquakes setting free “enormous masses of water” (wherever they were supposed to be hidden), a misguided star is added in 1959. Quotes:

“[…] the roaring grows ever louder, and the earthly tremors ever more violent, the earth will open up and huge masses of water will break through from within the earth.”
(No. 1538: Sequence of the catastrophic event, 1940)

Wouldn’t lava masses make for a better scare? Did Bertha’s “dear” god know nothing about magma and volcanos? Well, Bertha’s limited knowledge apparently wasn’t enough to prompt this to the voice in her head…

“And thus a star will leave its usual orbit and move towards earth. This star takes its course independent of people’s will and poses a grave threat to them, yet its path will not be restrained, because earth must endure a tremor for the sake of humanity’s detriment as well as its benefit.”
(No. 7405: Announcement of a star, 1959)

Yeah, sure, it’s for the good of mankind if they can recognize God and their souls, their spiritual development can unfold by destroying everything physical. More on that:

“There is no doubt that that a terrible catastrophe is about to befall earth.... God’s love is infinite and so is His mercy, and whatever will come upon earth is only based on His love. For without this happening humanity would be doomed.”
(No. 2033: Catastrophe.... Fulfilment of the Scriptures.... God’s love for humanity....)

Put otherwise: Rather god, in his infinite love, will bring infinite suffering and the end of the world himself than leave this to man. »Mine! It’s mine! So I break it myself!«

“Human will alone is the reason for a work of destruction of inconceivable proportions and when the Lord proclaimed this He foresaw people’s wrong will. Yet it is His will to win back misguided humanity”
(No. 1795: Signs of the world catastrophe)

Oh how nice, so he gives us free will, knowing exactly that we’d do wrong – so he needed a pretended cause to kick up his heels with his work of destruction. God is just a little rowdy after all.

“and therefore He applies the last resort, which certainly seems to be an act of infinite cruelty, nevertheless, it is only motivated by divine love and mercy, for countless people will attain realisation, and they will be saved for all eternity....”
(No. 1795: Signs of the world catastrophe)

Divine love is catastrophy, catastrophy is love – now it’s not hard to imagine better marketing of god (like Po8 in German)…

“At the same time, however the disasters are intended to affect people such that they will look for a connection with God. People only consider the latter very rarely now, this is why God wants to bring Himself closer to them again if only by means which cause fear and terror in people; but if events are proclaimed in advance a person will recognise the correlations and then entrust himself to the Power Which is able to help him.”
(No. 2086: Purpose of natural disasters)

God could also for once think about why he’s regarded so little – but in this regard, he’s probably just like a little child who has to “redecorate” the apartment to receive the attention he desires. Or like pubescent teenagers full of inferiority feelings trying to find out who’s stronger:

“He will render powerless what previously was strong and mighty, and He will prove that His will and His might are stronger.”
(No. 2340: Divine justice.... Intervention.... Disaster....)

»I am stronger! I! I!« Well, maybe it’s just an act of defiance since he’s recognized that he can’t keep up with reason and science.

And then he even hopes that people entrust themselves to the power that brought them all the sorrow with all the catastrophies. And if that doesn’t work, well, let’s bring on the next catastrophy, and another one, etc. – until he has forced enough people into faith. But no, the heavenly hooligan doesn’t want to force us into faith – just look at this hellish hair-splitting:

“An extraordinary event for which no explanatioun could be found would force people into faith under compulsion, and such a faith is not wanted by God. But where man has an explanation of his own, he is not that much inclined to see a divine movement in a natural catastrophe. If he does so after all, then his faith is completely free and also right before God.”
(No. 1887: Spiritual and earthly explanation of the world catastrophe; my own translation)

So no force to compulsory faith, but a force to voluntary faith! That’s how blackmailers and other criminals like to argument, too. Such as torturers, for instance, who, while they sometimes may be on the good side like Jack Bauer, mostly only see themselved on the good side:

“Only death scares unbelieving people and thus I will bring death home to them, yet only with the intention of motivating them into calling upon Me in greatest fear, Who alone can keep them alive when earthly rescue no longer seems possible.”
(No. 5678b: Fulfilment of predictions.... Preceding disaster.... II)

But when will that catastrophe finally come? All we ever hear is “soon, soon” – that’s called procratination nowadays, isn’t it?

“I announce to you that you are already in the beginning of the inner revolt of Earth, that there is only a short time until I will make My appearance through My power, and that therefore you shall not hesitate long to prepare for the time of your [the prophets’/disciples’] work.”
(No. 3720: Announcement of the catastrophe (1946); my own translation)

Wishy-washy phrases are always good since you can’t be nailed down to anything. And so it’s the same old hogwash spread in new skins for decades; shortly before her death in 1965, for instance, Dudde wrote:

“And so I announce to you now the end of an earth period and I have alwways done so, so that even My disciples can expect this end during their earthly lives. But always My prophecies were worded such that no exact time was given to the people, so that they could reckon it all the time, since this also was My intention to let them always keep a near end in mind ....”
(No. 9008: The end will very certainly come; my own translation)

Now was she very disappointed that for all those decades not a single divine catastrophe occured? Anyway, the next “prophet” will come as certain as the end. For the end of this post is reached now.

Amen