Alternative History
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Martin Luther King Jr, was a prophet and Civil Rights leader, that lead the nonviolent Civil Rights Movement of the old United States In his lifetime he was credited with bringing out peaceful liberalization of racial policies in the country, he also revered internationally, even in the Socialist World. This page is about the impact of King's life after Doomsday. King, has become the most famous of historical figures, following Doomsday, and his impact is measured in wildly differing intrerpretations.

Alleged Prophecies and deification

It has been suggested since the late 1980s as many parts of history were falling into myth and legend, Martin Luther King Jr had powers of precognition or powers to predict the future. King, never claimed to have such powers in his life, but his speeches, as well as some after the fact testimony by friends, have occasionally been interpreted as evidence that he was a divine figure, who predicted Doomsday.

Throughout the farthest southern areas of the former United States, surviving African Americans deified Martin Luther King Jr. In need of a guiding figure of inspiration to deal with the pain of a fallen world, the memory of MLK Jr became religious. In many cases, lay people without access to voice or video recordings turned King into a supernatural being. The most common cult of personality makes King as some sort of messenger of God, but some extremists view King as an incarnation or a relative of Jesus. It is important to note that was never claimed by King himself during his lifetime.

Claims of King as an Apocalyptic Prophet

In particular, King's 1968 speech given in as a sermon Why I oppose the War in Vietnam has been taken as a forewarning, that a Doomsday would occur to punish the United States for transgressions in foreign policy and racism. The following quote has often been used as the original basis of prophecy claims.[1]

God has a way of standing before the nations with judgment, and it seems that I can hear God saying to America, “You’re too arrogant! And if you don’t change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power, and I’ll place it in the hands of a nation that doesn’t even know my name. Be still and know that I’m God

This quote is problematic, in that Post Doomsday perceptions of this quote diverged widely from its original audience. This original quotation was in reference to America's Vietnam War which concluded in 1973, after King's death and ten years before Doomsday.

Black American Christians as well as followers of Jimmy Carter in the former U.S state of Georgia state that God was using King as a messenger of warning of an apocalypse to come unless the political and economic elite drastically changed course. Observers believe that King's messages as biblical prophecy were fulfilled not just with Doomsday but the following transformations which took place afterward. The dissolution of the American provisional government in 1995, and the continued survival of Socialist Siberia is taken as a self-evident proof that King had received messages from the Holy Spirit, on a similar level to the biblical prophets of Moses, and Isaiah. The following line has continued to be drastically misunderstood

Be still and know that I'm God

Without full context or understanding of the context of the sentence, some supporters and opponents believe that King claimed to be an incarnation of God, or the second coming of Jesus Christ. Opponents cite the above line as evidence that King was the Anti Christ foreshadowing the end of the current earth.

Church ministers and theologians supportive of King further postulate, that the course of history after King's death and before Doomsday, correctly collaborate with King's alleged warnings. While Detent between the two nuclear powers took place remarkably after King's death, the Second or Final Cold War erupted in earnest after the election of Ronald Reagan. Candidate's Reagan's connections with the racist senator Strom Thurmond of former South Carolina. Later, President Reagan's used Contra mercenaries to attack peasants in Nicaragua in the years leading up to Doomsday.

In the view of the King-messenger hypothesis, Regan's collaboration with old supporters of racial segregation and aggressive foreign policy are collective proof that Doomsday was a punishment for the United States sins. King often spoke of triple evils of "Militarism, Racism, and Exploitation" it is suggested that President Reagan not heading God's warnings through the late King and as consequence brought destruction upon the United States. Placing firm blame of nuclear war, beyond a shadow of the doubt, on the remnants of the Southern Planter Elite, and what remains of the former American Military-Industrial Complex.

Opponents

Consequently, allegations of King's infuriates Christians, who continued to traditional Protestant doctrine, or those who identified as conservatives in the United States prior to Doomsday.

Beware good Christians the wolves in sheep clothing! You think our war with the devils ended with the mushroom clouds? Nay! the devils who adopted Communism as their human clothing are now infiltrating our church from farthest Siberia, Vietnam and the depths of hell. Those who use the words of the 'so called' King are false prophets, that will be thrown into the sea! Christians, I give you a choice today, do you follow the path of Jesus or the Anti Christ?

- Jerry Falwell.[2]

There are also American protestants who are opposed to the deification of Martin Luther King, but still support the personal character of King. Billy Graham of Blue Ridge believed that Christians who defied King, were committing a grave theological error, not so much for their pacifist political views but that their belief as King as a prophet or messenger was theologically incorrect. Graham often used the following biblical quotation, to criticize those who deify King, without attacking King himself.

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

A standard English Bible 2 Peter 2:1-3

Most vicious in attacking King's status as a foreteller of the future, are Black Separatist groups who continue to view the late King and his followers as defenders of the racism of the old United States. Even worse, Black Separatists hold King responsible for Doomsday for not attacking the governmental establishment- and therefore allowing Doomsday to occur. Black Nationalists, currently claim to their followers that had Anti-racist forces rose to depose the United States government, surely a utopia without nuclear annihilation would have come to pass. Black supremacists have shown some of their greatest brutality to Black supporters of King, rather than their traditional White supremacist enemies.

Religious Texts

In some circles, there have been controversial attempts in many different denominations of Christianity to add a testament in reference to King's life and teachings, often using excerpts of Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam and I have a dream. These books range from collections of parables with an overarching theme, to quotations and proverbs attributed to King or his greatest disciples.

There have been others such as the Book of Roanoke to certainly use King's rhetoric and ideas even without explicitly referring to King in name. Since at least 1990 there have been hundreds of religious texts, which deify King, or recycle his quotations. In fact it is estimated by ANZS that in the absence of Copyrright in most of the world including the former United States

Differing Views of Martin Luther King's personality

Legacy in the Post Doomsday World

References and Notes

  1. The following quotation is taken from the OTL "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam. The text can be found here https://original.antiwar.com/martin_luther_king/2017/01/15/why-i-am-opposed-to-the-war-in-vietnam/
  2. Vietnam has not been a Communist State since 1984, but this was unknown and irrelevant to former American citizens at the time.
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