Extremely late nights were a rarity in my childhood, especially during the week. There were some exceptions, such as the odd movie or the occasional Saturday-night sleepover. There was also the night of Nov. 9, 1989.

I was 11. The details are dim. But I remember the atmosphere in our house being electric. That night the tv blared for hours, spitting out a constant stream of images from a foreign land of a foreign people speaking a foreign language. Although I hadn’t the foggiest idea of what they were saying, their emotion was written across their faces. They were ecstatic.

I remember the giant wall, its gray pocked face splashed with tattered posters and bright graffiti. It was ugly and unpractical, and needed to go. Men with pickaxes picked away; others with sledgehammers slugged away. Electric grinders, sparks flying, chewed into the wall, like angry mosquitoes attacking an elephant. Others, lacking instruments of destruction, egged on by the hordes, cheerfully kicked, hit and desecrated the concrete giant.

Powered by emotion more than muscle, the mob worked fast. Eventually, a large section of the wall began swaying, back and forth, back and forth—like a baby tooth not fully severed from the gum—slow and gentle at first, then more violently. Finally, after what felt like hours, the wall crashed to the ground, giving way to a stampede of rapturous East Germans. It was a chaotic scene. Concrete was flying, axes and hammers were swinging, and thousands were jostling. No one cared. Exhilaration and hope overpowered the danger and chaos.

In my house, the excitement and anxiety had overpowered nightly bedtime rituals. It was bizarre. Obviously something major was unfolding. But it was happening thousands of miles away, in another country, on another continent. I didn’t understand. My parents were nearly as excited as those we were watching on tv. By now the phone had jumped into the noisy fray. My parents were darting between the phone and the television. Are you watching this? This is it! they told friends. This is what we’ve been waiting for.

During the hours and days surrounding the fall of the Wall, my parents’ attention didn’t remain solely on Berlin. They also cast an anxious gaze toward Pasadena, California, the location of the headquarters of the Worldwide Church of God. While the collapse of the Berlin Wall was a watershed event for Germany and Europe, and the future of international relations, it came with an added dimension for those in the wcg. Virtually from the beginning of his ministry, the founder and pastor general, Herbert W. Armstrong, had forecast the unification of Germany, and the subsequent emergence of a unified European superstate.

On Nov. 9, 1989, wcg members watched that forecast come to fruition!

You can imagine what many members were thinking: What is headquarters going to say about this? Not surprisingly, some outside of the wcg were wondering the same thing. Mr. Armstrong was a global personality. Under his stewardship, the work of the wcg—via television, radio, the printing press, personal appearances and various humanitarian activities—had touched the lives of tens of millions. In terms of world news, the unification of Germany, and eventually Europe, was Mr. Armstrong’s keynote prophecy.

That’s why in hindsight it is strange that church officials were caught off guard when the director of a Seattle-based news program “unexpectedly” contacted them after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Recalling their conversation with the news director, wcg officials wrote: “The news director was well aware of the World Tomorrow program and the fact that for more than 40 years the Church [more specifically, Herbert W. Armstrong] had been predicting the reunification of Europe in some form. He asked for on-air comments about whether the Church believed the opening of the Wall was the commencement of end-time prophetic events” (Pastor General’s Report, Nov. 21, 1989).

Most churches would have considered this a golden opportunity. The world had just witnessed an event of historic importance. Cognizant that the wcg had been forecasting this exact event for more than 40 years, this news director, without solicitation, requested that Worldwide officials weigh in on it.

Their response?

We responded that it was premature to make statements like that, but that the Bible was very clear about a 10-nation consortium in Europe. We also pointed out that history shows that past episodes of European unification have not proven positive for the rest of the world and that the Church would continue to watch events very closely.

It was impotent and deflating. The Berlin Wall had just collapsed, Germany was uniting for the first time since World War ii, the map of Europe was being redrawn and the Soviet Union was on its last legs. The world was entering a new era. And the best Worldwide officials could muster was to say that it was “premature” to comment on the prophetic implications of these events.

Church officials recalled that the news director was “disappointed” by their response to the events unfolding in Germany. Of course he was! Under Mr. Armstrong, the wcg provided the world with accurate, definitive and clear understanding of world news and Bible prophecy. Within three years of Mr. Armstrong’s death, those who inherited his legacy were refusing to talk about one of the most important events of the century, which, at that time, also happened to be fulfilled prophecy.

It’s too bad the news director didn’t have my parents’ number. They might have been tucked 9,000 miles away in Perth, Western Australia, but they—like many other wcg members at that time—could have talked for hours about this power-packed, prophetically significant event!

The Berlin Wall was constructed in 1961, after the Berlin crisis between the ussr and Western forces. Consider what Mr. Armstrong wrote at that time (Plain Truth, September 1961): “More than 27 years ago I proclaimed over the air, and wrote in the Plain Truth, the Bible prophecy that the old Roman Empire was going to come to life—in our time. I said it would come as a United States of Europe .”

The same issue goes on to say, “Americans and Britons do not seem to fathom that Germany is once again a power to be reckoned with! Make no mistake! Nuclear war will not come over the Berlin crisis! But out of it all—in a very short times—a United States of Europe will!”

Impressive, isn’t it?

Even as the Berlin Wall was going up, Herbert Armstrong, using the “more sure word” of Bible prophecy, was forecasting that it would precipitate the emergence of a German-led “United States of Europe.” He was even more specific in October 1985 when he wrote in the Plain Truth, “Do not discount the possibility that this resurrection of the medieval Holy Roman Empire may start by some arrangement to reunite East and West Germanyfirst.”

According to Mr. Armstrong, should the unification of East and West Germany occur, it could be considered the starting point of the final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire.

This week, people across the world are pondering the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the far-reaching effects it had on Germany, Europe and international relations. For those familiar with the life and work of the late Herbert Armstrong, this anniversary affords us the opportunity to ponder his legacy of accurate, Bible-based forecasting.

Herbert Armstrong was so full of faith, he saw the fall of the Berlin Wall and German unification years, decades, before it ever happened!

Also, if you’re interested in Herbert Armstrong’s broader legacy, including his impressive and enduring work as a teacher, global ambassador and philanthropist, author and tv personality—and how that legacy has been castigated and cast aside by those who inherited it after Mr. Armstrong’s death—request your free copy of Raising the Ruins.