QAnon crashes and burns
Poor QAnon conspiracy kooks. Inauguration Day was to be the day that “the plan” was to culminate in Joe Biden being arrested and hauled off to Gitmo before he could take his oath of office. The National Guard troops were in place at the Capitol and the stage was set. This was checkmate! And the beginning of the worldwide Great Awakening that Q promised. But the moment came and went with Joe Biden being sworn in as 46th President of the United States.
Since many QAnon conspiracy theorists are evangelicals, the movement has borrowed a familiar end-times storyline, including sudden judgement of evildoers followed by the restoration of the world for the faithful.
As a kid in 1971, I remember being enthralled when my pastor would explain his theory that the “rapture” — when all true believers in Jesus Christ would magically disappear, leaving cars and buses driver-less, and planes pilot-less — had to happen before the end of 1981.
He had his Bible passages and his prophetic charts to back up his elaborate timeline, and he dismissed those who said that Jesus wasn’t coming soon as naysayers. He would get the congregation worked up to a fever pitch, especially when world events transpired that seemed like they were happening in fulfillment of end-times Bible prophecy.
Finally, the day came. Many believers came to the 1981 New Year’s Eve Service not expecting to go home that night, because their pastor had been telling them for more than a decade that the rapture had to happen before the end of that year.
After midnight, they all left the parking lot, realizing that they now had to face 1982, earthbound and disillusioned. Likewise, QAnon followers are now faced with cold reality that the Great Awakening was a fever dream and Joe Biden isn’t going to Gitmo.
