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Every single week, sometimes even several times a week, people in the groups here go on and on about the 2012 CRAP. Satan himself told me it certainly won't be the end of the world, just another YK2000. In addition, 'Maya' in Sanskrit means 'illusion.' Sanskrit is the oldest of known languages and is very spiritual. What this translates into it 'The END of ILLUSION' i.e., the END of LIES.
One of the most hilarious was the xian preacher/pastor who just KNEW the end of the world would occur on some certain date. This was some 10-20 years ago and on the news. Of course, he also knew he would DEFINITELY be one of the chosen amongst the 144,000 who would be saved! He KNEW the very exact date this rapture would occur. He revealed this most guarded secret to his congregation. They all quit their jobs, sold their homes, and every piece of property they owned and of course, ALL of their material possessions and were left with only the clothes on their backs. They all climed up to the top of this large hill where the nazarene and ild was supposed to swoop down and SAVE THEM!! Well, they waited, and waited and waited..............
After several days of waiting, some lost faith and left. The preacher, then getting a bit nervous said he was 'two weeks off.' Two weeks later, some of the more vulnerable again showed up and they waited, and waited and waited..............
Now, I have posted this before and I am reposint it again. For those of you who are impressionable concerning the predictions that the world will end, please read the following article:
http://www.abhota.info/index.htm
Circa. 2800 BC
According to Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts (1979), an Assyrian clay tablet dating to approximately 2800 BC was unearthed bearing the words "Our earth is degenerate in these latter days. There are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end. Bribery and corruption are common." This is one of the earliest examples of the perception of moral decay in society being interpreted as a sign of the imminent end.
634 BC
Apocalyptic thinking gripped many ancient cultures, including the Romans. Early in Rome's history, many Romans feared that the city would be destroyed in the 120th year of its founding. There was a myth that 12 eagles had revealed to Romulus a mystical number representing the lifetime of Rome, and some early Romans hypothesized that each eagle represented 10 years. The Roman calendar was counted from the founding of Rome, 1 AUC (ab urbe condita) being 753 BC. Thus 120 AUC is 634 BC. (Thompson p.19)
389 BC Some Romans figured that the mystical number revealed to Romulus represented the number of days in a year (the Great Year concept), so they expected Rome to be destroyed around 365 AUC (389 BC). (Thompson p.19)
1st Century Jesus said, "Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." (Matthew 16:28) This implies that the Second Coming would return within the lifetime of his contemporaries, and indeed the Apostles expected Jesus to return before the passing of their generation.
ca. 70 The Essenes, a sect of Jewish ascetics with apocalyptic beliefs, may have seen the Jewish revolt against the Romans in 66-70 as the final end-time battle. (Source: PBS Frontline special Apocalypse!)
2nd Century The Montanists believed that Christ would come again within their lifetimes and establish a new Jerusalem at Pepuza, in the land of Phrygia. Montanism was perhaps the first bona fide Christian doomsday cult. It was founded ca. 156 AD by the tongues-speaking prophet Montanus and two followers, Priscilla and Maximilla. Despite the failure of Jesus to return, the cult lasted for several centuries. Tertullian, who once said "I believe it just because it is unbelievable" (a true skeptic if ever there was one!), was perhaps the most renowned Montanist. (Gould p.43-44)
247 Rome celebrated its thousandth anniversary this year. At the same time, the Roman government dramatically increased its persecution of Christians, so much so that many Christians believed that the End had arrived. (Source: PBS Frontline special Apocalypse!)
365 Hilary of Poitiers predicted the world would end in 365. (Source: Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance)
380 The Donatists, a North African Christian sect headed by Tyconius, looked forward to the world ending in 380. (Source: American Atheists)
Late 4th Century St. Martin of Tours (ca. 316-397) wrote, "There is no doubt that the Antichrist has already been born. Firmly established already in his early years, he will, after reaching maturity, achieve supreme power." (Abanes p.119)
500 Roman theologian Sextus Julius Africanus (ca. 160-240) claimed that the End would occur 6000 years after the Creation. He assumed that there were 5531 years between the Creation and the Resurrection, and thus expected the Second Coming to take place no later than 500 AD. (Kyle p.37, McIver #21)
Hippolytus (died ca. 236), believing that Christ would return 6000 years after the Creation, anticipated the Parousia in 500 AD. (Abanes p.283)
The theologian Irenaeus, influenced by Hippolytus's writings, also saw 500 as the year of the Second Coming. (Abanes p.283, McIver #15)
Apr 6, 793 Elipandus, bishop of Toledo, described a brief bout of end-time panic that happened on Easter Eve, 793. According to Elipandus, the Spanish monk Beatus of Liébana prophesied the end of the world that day in the presence a crowd of people. The people, thinking that the world would end that night, became frightened, panicked, and fasted through the night until dawn. Seeing that the world had not ended and feeling hungry, Hordonius, one of the fasters, quipped, "Let's eat and drink, so that if we die at least we'll be fed." (Abanes p. 168-169, Weber p.50)
800 Sextus Julius Africanus revised the date of Doomsday to 800 AD. (Kyle p.37)
Beatus of Liébana wrote in his Commentary on the Apocalypse, which he finished in 786, that there were only 14 years left until the end of the world. Thus, the world would end by 800 at the latest. (Abanes p.168)
806 Bishop Gregory of Tours calculated the End occurring between 799 and 806. (Weber p.48)
848 The prophetess Thiota declared that the world would end this year. (Abanes p.337)
Mar 25, 970 Lotharingian computists foresaw the End on Friday, March 25, 970, when the Annunciation and Good Friday fell on the same day. They believed that it was on this day that Adam was created, Isaac was sacrificed, the Red Sea was parted, Jesus was conceived, and Jesus was crucified. Therefore, it naturally followed that the End must occur on this day! (Source: Center for Millennial Studies)
992 Bernard of Thuringia calculated that the end would come in 992. (Randi p.236)
995 The Feast of the Annunciation and Good Friday also coincided in 992, prompting some mystics to conclude that the world would end within 3 years of that date. (Weber p.50-51)
1000 There are many stories of apocalyptic paranoia around the year 1000. For example, legend has it that a "panic terror" gripped Europe in the years and months before this date. However, scholars disagree on which stories are genuine, whether millennial expectations at this time were any greater than usual, or whether ordinary people were even aware of what year it was. An excellent article on Y1K apocalyptic expectations can be found at the Center for Millennial Studies. (Gould, Schwartz, Randi)
1033 After Jesus failed to return in 1000, some mystics pushed the date of the End to the thousandth anniversary of the Crucifixion. The writings of the Burgundian monk Radulfus Glaber described a rash of millennial paranoia during the period from 1000-1033. (Kyle p.39, Abanes p.337, McIver #50)
1184 Various Christian prophets foresaw the Antichrist coming in 1184. (Abanes p.338)
Sep 23, 1186 John of Toledo, after calculating that a planetary alignment would occur in Libra on September 23, 1186 (Julian calendar), circulated a letter (known as the "Letter of Toledo") warning that the world was to going to be destroyed on this date, and that only a few people would survive. (Randi p.236)
1260 Italian mystic Joachim of Fiore (1135-1202) determined that the Millennium would begin between 1200 and 1260. (Kyle p.48)
1284 Pope Innocent III expected the Second Coming to take place in 1284, 666 years after the rise of Islam. (Schwartz p.181)
1290 Followers of Joachim of Fiore (the Joachites) rescheduled the End to 1290 when his 1260 prophecy failed. (McIver #58)
1306 In 1147 Gerard of Poehlde, believing that Christ's Millennium began when the emperor Constantine came to power, figured that Satan would become unbound at the end of the thousand-year period and destroy the Church. Since Constantine rose to power in 306, the end of the Millennium would be in 1306. (Source: Christian author Richard J. Foster)
1335 Another Joachite doomsday date. (McIver #58)
1367 Czech archdeacon Militz of Kromeriz claimed the Antichrist was alive and well and would manifest himself between 1363 and 1367. The End would come between 1365 and 1367. (McIver #67)
1370 The Millennium would begin in 1368 or 1370, as foreseen by Jean de Roquetaillade, a French ascetic. The Antichrist was to come in 1366. (Weber p.55)
1378 Arnold of Vilanova, a Joachite, wrote in his work De Tempore Adventu Antichristi that the Antichrist was to come in 1378. (McIver #62)
Feb 14, 1420 Czech Doomsday prophet Martinek Hausha (Martin Huska) of the radical Taborite movement warned that the world would end in February
1420, February 14 at the latest. The Taborites were an offshoot of the Hussite movement of Bohemia. (McIver #71, Shaw p.43)
1496 The beginning of the Millennium, according to some 15th Century mystics. (Mann p. ix)
ca. 1504 Italian artist Sandro Botticelli wrote a caption in Greek on his painting The Mystical Nativity:
"I Sandro painted this picture at the end of the year 1500 in the troubles of Italy in the half time after the time according to the eleventh chapter of St. John in the second woe of the Apocalypse in the loosing of the devil for three and a half years. Then he will be chained in the 12th chapter and we shall see him trodden down as in this picture."
Apparently, he thought he was living during the Tribulation, and that the Millennium would begin in three and a half years or so, which is understandable given the fact that he is known to have been a follower of Girolamo Savonarola. (Weber p.60)
Feb 1, 1524 The End would occur by a flood starting in London on February 1 (Julian), according to calculations some London astrologers made the previous June. Around 20,000 people abandoned their homes, and a clergyman stockpiled food and water in a fortress he built. (Sound familiar? It's just like the doomsday cultists and Y2K nuts of today!) As it happened, it didn't even rain in London on that date. (Randi p.236-237)
Feb 20, 1524 A planetary alignment in Pisces was seen as a sign of the Millennium by astrologer Johannes Stoeffler. The world was to be destroyed by a flood on this date (Julian), Pisces being a water sign. (Randi p.236-237)
1525 The beginning of the Millennium, according to Anabaptist Thomas Müntzer. Thinking that he was living at the "end of all ages," he led an unsuccessful peasants' revolt and was subsequently tortured and executed. (Gould p.48)
1528 Stoeffler recalculated Doomsday to 1528 after his 1524 prediction failed (Randi p.238)
May 27, 1528 Reformer Hans Hut predicted the end would occur on Pentecost (May 27, Julian calendar). (Weber p.67, Shaw p.44)
1532 Frederick Nausea (what a name!), a Viennese bishop, was certain that the world would end in 1532 after hearing reports of bizarre occurrences, including bloody crosses appearing in the sky alongside a comet. (Randi p. 238)
1533 Anabaptist prophet Melchior Hoffman's prediction for the year of Christ's Second Coming, to take place in Strasbourg. He claimed that 144,000 people would be saved, while the rest of the world would be consumed by fire. (Kyle p.59)
Oct 19, 1533 Mathematician Michael Stifel calculated that the Day of Judgement would begin at 8:00am on this day. (McIver #88)
Apr 5, 1534 Jan Matthys predicted that the Apocalypse would take place on Easter Day (April 5, Julian calendar) and only the city of Münster would be spared. (Shaw p.45, Abanes p.338)
1537 French astrologer Pierre Turrel announced four different possible dates for the end of the world, using four different calculation methods. The dates were 1537, 1544, 1801 and 1814. (Randi p. 239)
1544 Pierre Turrel's doomsday calculation #2. (Randi p. 239)
ca. 1555 Around the year 1400, the French theologian Pierre d'Ailly wrote that 6845 years of human history had already passed, and the end of the world would be in the 7000th year. His works would later influence the apocalyptic thinking of Christopher Columbus. (McIver #72)
Jul 22, 1556 In 1556, a rumor was circulating that the world would end on Magdalene's Day, as recorded by Swiss medical student Felix Platter. (Weber p.68, p.249)
Apr 28, 1583 The Second Coming of Christ would take place at noon, according to astrologer Richard Harvey. This was the date of a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, and numerous astrologers in London predicted the world would end then. (Skinner p.27, Weber p.93)
1584 Cyprian Leowitz, an astrologer, predicted the end would occur in
1584. (Randi p.239, McIver #105)
1588 The end of the world according to the sage Johann Müller (aka Regiomontanus). (Randi p. 239)
1600 Martin Luther believed that the End would occur no later than 1600. (Weber p.66)
1603 Dominican monk Tomasso Campanella wrote that the sun would collide with the Earth in 1603. (Weber p.83)
1623 Eustachius Poyssel used numerology to pinpoint 1623 as the year of the end of the world. (McIver #125)
Feb 1, 1624 The same astrologers who predicted the deluge of February 1, 1524 recalculated the date to February 1, 1624 after their first prophecy failed. (Randi p.236-237)
1648 Using the kabbalah, Sabbatai Zevi, a rabbi from Smyrna, Turkey, figured that the Messiah would come in 1648, accompanied by miracles. The Messiah, of course, would be Zevi himself! (Randi p.239, Festinger)
1654 In 1578, physician Helisaeus Roeslin of Alsace, basing his prediction on a nova that occurred in 1572, foresaw the world ending in 1654 in a blaze of fire. (Randi p.240)
1656 Believed to be a possible date for the end of the world, 1656 is the number of years between the Creation and the Flood. (Skinner p.27)
1657 Final apocalyptic battle and the destruction of the Antichrist were to take place between 1655 and 1657, as per the Fifth Monarchy Men, a radical group of English millenarians who attempted to take over Parliament to impose their extremist theocratic agenda on the country. Not unlike the Christian Coalition of modern-day America! (Kyle p.67)
1658 In his The Book of Prophecies, Christopher Columbus claimed that the world was created in 5343BC, and would last 7000 years. Assuming no year zero, that means the end would come in 1658. Columbus was influenced by Pierre d'Ailly. (McIver #77)
1660 Joseph Mede, whose writings influenced James Ussher and Isaac Newton, claimed that the Antichrist appeared way back in 456, and the end would come in 1660. (McIver #147)
1666 As this date is 1000 (millennium) + 666 (number of the Beast) and followed a period of war and strife in England, many Londoners feared that 1666 would be the end of the world. The Great Fire of London in 1666 did not help to alleviate these fears. (Schwartz p.87, Kyle p.67-68)
Sabbatai Zevi recalculated the coming of the Messiah to 1666. Despite his failed prophecies, he had accumulated a great many followers. He was later arrested for stirring up trouble, and given the choice of converting to Islam or execution. Pragmatic man that he was, he wisely elected for the former. (Festinger)
1673 Deacon William Aspinwall, a leader of the Fifth Monarchy movement, claimed the Millennium would begin by this year. (Abanes p.209, McIver #174)
1688 John Napier's doomsday calculation #1, based on the Book of Revelation. Napier was the mathematician who discovered logarithms. (Weber p.92)
1689 Pierre Jurieu, a Camisard prophet, predicted that Judgement Day would occur in 1689. The Camisards were Huguenots of the Languedoc region of southern France. (Kyle p.70)
1694 Anglican rector John Mason calculated this date as the beginning of the Millennium. (Kyle p.72)
The beginning of the Millennium, as predicted by German theologian Johann Alsted. (Kyle p.66)
Fall 1694 Drawing from theology and astrology, German prophet Johann Jacob Zimmerman determined that the world would end in the fall of 1694. Zimmerman gathered a group of pilgrims and made plans to go to America to welcome Jesus back to Earth. However, he died in February of that year, on the very day of departure. Johannes Kelpius took over leadership of the cult, which was known as Woman in the Wilderness, and they completed their journey to the New World. Fall came and went and, needless to say, the cultists were profoundly disappointed at having traveled all the way across the Atlantic just to be stood up by Jesus. (Cohen p.19-20)
1697
The beginning of the Millennium, according to Anglican rector Thomas Beverly. (Kyle p.72, McIver #224)
The notorious witch hunter Cotton Mather was the Ken Starr of Puritan New England. When he wasn't out hunting witches, he was busy predicting the end of the world, 1697 being his first doomsdate. After the prediction failed, he revised the date of the End two more times. (Abanes p.338)
1700 The end of the world, according to some Puritans. (Kyle p.79)
John Napier's doomsday calculation #2, based on the Book of Daniel. (Weber p.92)
The date of the Second Coming, according to Henry Archer, a Fifth Monarchy Man. Archer made this prediction in his 1642 book The Personall Reign of Christ Upon Earth. (McIver #158)
1705 The End, according to some Camisard prophets. (Kyle p.70)
1706 The End, according to some Camisard prophets. (Kyle p.70)
1708 The End, according to some Camisard prophets. (Kyle p.70)
1716 Cotton Mather's end-of-the-world prediction #2. (Abanes p.338)
Apr 5, 1719 The return of a comet was supposed to wipe out the Earth, said Jacques Bernoulli, progenitor of the mathematical Bernoulli family. (Randi p.240-241)
1734 Doomsday was to come between 1700 and 1734, predicted 15th century Cardinal Nicolas of Cusa. (Weber p.82, McIver #73)
1736 Cotton Mather's end-of-the-world prediction #3. (Abanes p.338)
Oct 13, 1736 William Whitson predicted that London would meet its doom by flood on this day, prompting many Londoners to gather in boats on the Thames. (Randi)
1757 In a vision, angels supposedly informed mystic Emanuel Swedenborg that the world would end in 1757. Few took him seriously. Ah, the 18th century, the Age of Reason! (Randi p.241, Weber p.104)
Apr 5, 1761 Religious extremist William Bell claimed the world would be destroyed by earthquake on this day. Since there had been an earthquake on February 8 and another on March 8, he reasoned that the world must end in another 28 days' time! Again, Londoners gathered in boats on the Thames or headed for the hills. When his prediction didn't come true, he was promptly thrown into Bedlam, London's notorious nuthouse. (Randi p.241)
Feb 28, 1763 Devout Methodist George Bell foresaw the end of the world on this date. (Weber p.102)
May 19, 1780 On this day in New England the skies mysteriously turned dark for several hours in the afternoon, causing people to believe that a biblical prophecy had come true and Judgement Day had arrived. In reality, the darkness was caused by smoke from large-scale forest fires to the west. (Abanes p.217)
1789 The coming of the Antichrist, according to 14th century Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly. (Weber p.59)
1790 The Second Coming, according to Irish orator Francis Dobbs. (Schwartz p.181)
1792 The end of the world according to the Shakers. (Abanes p.338)
1794 The end of the world according to the Shakers. (Abanes p.338)
Charles Wesley, brother of Methodist Church founder John Wesley, predicted Doomsday would be in 1794. (Source: Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance)
1795 The Millennium would begin between 1793 and 1795, claimed retired English sailor Richard Brothers, who called himself "God's Almighty Nephew." He was convinced that he would lead the ten lost tribes of Israel, and once said that God told him he would become king of England. He was eventually committed to an insane asylum. (Kyle p.73, McIver #301)
Nov 19, 1795 While campaigning for Richard Brothers' release, Nathaniel Brassey Halhead proclaimed that the world would end on Nov 19. (McIver #310)
1801 Pierre Turrel's doomsday calculation #3 (See 1537). (Randi p. 239)
1805 Destruction of the world by earthquake in 1805, followed by an age of everlasting peace when God will be known by all, as foretold by 17th century Presbyterian minister Christopher Love. He eventually lost his head, literally. (Schwartz p.101)
1814 Pierre Turrel's doomsday calculation #4 (See 1537). (Randi p. 239)
Dec 25, 1814 Jesus was to be re-born on Christmas Day, according to the 64-year-old virgin prophet Joanna Southcott, who claimed to be pregnant with the Christ child. Witnesses claimed that she did indeed appear pregnant. She died on Christmas Day, and a subsequent autopsy proved that she was not pregnant after all. (Skinner p.109)
Oct 14, 1820 Southcott follower John Turner claimed the world would come to an end on this day. After this prophecy failed, John Wroe took over leadership of the cult. (Randi p.241-242)
1832 The beginning of the Millennium, according to John Dilks. (Weber p.176)
1836 Methodist Church founder John Wesley foresaw the Millennium beginning in 1836, the same year that the Beast of Revelation was to rise from the sea. (McIver #269)
1843 Harriet Livermore's Parousia prediction #1. (McIver #699)
Apr 28, 1843 Although this date was not officially endorsed by the Millerite leadership, it was a popular belief among William Miller's followers that the Second Coming would take place on this day. (Festinger p.16)
Dec 31, 1843 Many Millerites expected Jesus to return at the end of 1843. (Festinger p.16)
Mar 21, 1844 William Miller, leader of the so-called Millerite movement, predicted through careful calculation that Christ would return sometime between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. He gathered a following of thousands of devotees. After the failure of Jesus to show up during this window, the cult experienced a crisis of faith and in the confusion began reinterpreting the prophecy and aggressively proselytizing. (Gould p.49, Festinger p.16-17)
Oct 22, 1844 It's Miller time again! Rev. Samuel S. Snow, an influential Millerite, predicted the Second Coming on this day. The date was soon accepted by Miller himself. On that day, the Millerites gathered on a hilltop to await the coming of Jesus. After the inevitable no-show, the event became known as the "Great Disappointment." (Gould p.49, Festinger p.17)
1845 The Second Coming according to the Second Adventists, a group that formed from the remaining hardcore members of Miller's cult. The Second Adventists were the forerunners of the Seventh Day Adventists (Kyle p.91)
1846 Another Second Coming according to the Second Adventists. (Kyle p.91)
1847 Harriet Livermore's Parousia prediction #2. (McIver #699)
Aug 7, 1847 "Father" George Rapp, a German ascetic who founded a sect known as the Harmonists (aka the Rappites) and established a utopian commune in Economy, Pennsylvania, was convinced that Jesus would return before his death. Even on his deathbed he refused to give up hope for Christ's return, saying "If I did not know that the dear Lord meant I should present you all to him, I should think my last moment's come." It turned out that his last moment had indeed come, yet Jesus failed to show up. Rapp died on August 7, 1847. (Cohen p.23, Thompson p.283, Encyclopedia Britannica)
1849 Yet another Second Coming according to the Second Adventists. (Kyle p.91)
1851 You guessed it! Still another Second Coming according to the Second Adventists. (Kyle p.91)
1856 The Crimean War (1853-56) was seen by some as the Battle of Armageddon. After all, Russia had plans to wrest control of Palestine from the Ottoman Empire. Perhaps it was this war that triggered the popularity of the "Russia invades Israel" scenario so popular among modern prophecy teachers. (McIver #437)
1862 The end of 6000 years since Creation, and thus the end of the world, according to John Cumming of the Scottish National Church. (Abanes p.283)
1863 Southcott follower John Wroe, who in 1823 tried (and failed) to walk on water and underwent a public circumcision, calculated that the Millennium would begin in 1863. (Skinner p.109)
1867 The Anglican minister Michael Paget Baxter was an ardent date setter, a veritable Charles Taylor of the 19th century. In one of his earliest publications he predicted the End for 1861-1867. (McIver #348)
1868 In another publication Michael Baxter claimed the Battle of Armageddon would take place this year. (Abanes p.338, McIver #349)
1869 Another End according to Michael Baxter. (McIver #350)
Jun 28, 1870 The end of the world as per Irvin Moore's book The Final Destiny of Man, to be followed by Christ's millennial reign on Earth. He predicted that during this year, France would fall, and Jerusalem would become the capital of the world. (McIver #746)
1872 Michael Baxter predicted another Armageddon in 1871-72 or thereabouts. (McIver #351)
1874 The end of the world according to the Jehovah's Witnesses. This was to become the first in a long string of failed doomsday prophecies by members of this group. (Gould p.50, Kyle p.93)
The Parousia according to the newly formed Seventh Day Adventists, a group founded by former Millerites. (Abanes p.339)
1878 The end of the world according to the Jehovah's Witnesses. (Kyle p.93)
1880 Thomas Rawson Birks in his book First Elements of Sacred Prophecy determined that the end of the world would be in 1880 by employing the time-honored Great Week theory. (McIver #371)
1881 The end of the world according to the Jehovah's Witnesses. (Kyle p.93)
The end of the world according to some pyramidologists. (Randi p.242)
16th century prophetess Mother Shipton is said to have written the couplet:
The world to an end shall come In eighteen hundred and eighty one.
In 1873, it was revealed that the couplet was a forgery by Charles Hindley, who published Mother Shipton's prophecies in 1862. This did not stop people from expecting the end in 1881, however. (Schwartz p.122, Randi p.242-243)
1890 Northern Paiute leader Wovoka predicted the Millennium beginning in 1890. This prediction came from a trance he experienced during a solar eclipse in 1889. Wovoka was a practitioner of the Ghost Dance cult, a bizarre hybrid of apocalyptic Christianity and American Indian mysticism. (Gould p.56-57, p.69)
1891 In 1835 Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism, foresaw the Second Coming taking place in 56 years' time, or about 1891. (Source: exmormon.org)
1895 The Millennium, according to Reverend Robert Reid of Erie, Pennsylvania. (Weber p.176)
1896 Michael Baxter (he's baaaack!) wrote a book entitled The End of This Age About the End of This Century in which predicted the Rapture taking place in 1896. According to Rev. Baxter, 144,000 true Christians were supposed to be summoned to Heaven during this year. (Thompson p.121)
1899 Charles A.L. Totten predicted that 1899 was a possible date for the end of the world. Interestingly, the infamous "NASA discovers missing day" urban legend has its roots in Totten's writings. (McIver #924)
1900 Father Pierre Lachèze foresaw Doomsday occurring in 1900, eight years after the Temple in Jerusalem was to be rebuilt. (Weber p.136)
Followers of Brazilian ascetic Antonio Conselheiro expected the end to come by the year 1900. (Thompson p.125-126)
Nov 13, 1900 Over 100 members of the Russian cult Brothers and Sisters of the Red Death committed suicide, expecting the world to end on this day. (Sources: Portuguese article and this site)
1901 A sect calling itself the Catholic Apostolic Church claimed that Jesus would return by the time the last of its 12 founding members died. The last member died in 1901. (Boyer p.87)
Rev. Michael Baxter foresaw the end of the world in 1901 in his book The End of This Age About the End of This Century. (Thompson p.121)
Apr 23, 1908 Once again, it's Michael Baxter. In his book Future Wonders of Prophecy, the Rapture was to take place on March 12, 1903 between 2pm and 3pm, and Armageddon was to take place on this day, which is after the Tribulation. (McIver #353)
Oct 1908 Pennsylvanian grocery store owner Lee T. Spangler claimed that the world would meet a fiery end during this month. (Abanes p.339)
1910 The end of the world according to the Jehovah's Witnesses. (Kyle p.93)
May 18, 1910 Many people believed the arrival of Halley's Comet would spell the end of the world. Some thought that cyanide gas from the comet's tail would poison the Earth's atmosphere. In Germany, one could buy postcards depicting apocalyptic scenes bearing the caption, "End of the World on May 18". Con artists took advantage of people's fears by selling "comet pills" to make people immune to the toxins...or so they claimed. (Weber p.196-198, Abanes p.339)
1911 19th century Scottish astronomer and pyramidologist Charles Piazzi Smyth concluded from his research on the dimensions of the Great Pyramid of Giza that the Second Coming would occur between 1892 and 1911. (Cohen p.94)
Oct 1, 1914 The end of the world according to the Jehovah's Witnesses. In fact, they viewed World War I as the Battle of Armageddon. (Skinner p.102)
1915 The beginning of the Millennium according to John Chilembwe, fundamentalist leader of a rebellion in Nyasaland (present-day Malawi). (Gould p.54-55, p.69)
1918 The end of the world according to the Jehovah's Witnesses. (Kyle p.93)
Dec 17, 1919 According to meteorologist Albert Porta, a conjunction of six planets on this date would cause a magnetic current to "pierce the sun, cause great explosions of flaming gas, and eventually engulf the Earth." Panic erupted in many countries around the world because of this prediction, and some even committed suicide. (Abanes p.60-61)
1925 The end of the world according to the Jehovah's Witnesses. (Kyle p.93)
Feb 13, 1925 According to Margaret Rowan, the angel Gabriel appeared before her in a vision and told her that the world would end at midnight on this date, which happened to be Friday the 13th. (Abanes p.45)
Spring 1928 J.B. Dimbleby calculated that the Millennium would begin in the spring of 1928, with the Rapture and Second coming taking place between 1889 and 1928. But the true end of the world, he claimed, wouldn't take pace until around the year 3000. (McIver #495)
1934 Final apocalyptic battle was to begin, claimed Chicago preacher Nathan Cohen Beskin in 1931. (Abanes p.280)
Sep 1935 In 1931, Wilbur Glen Voliva announced that "the world is going to go 'puff' and disappear in September, 1935." (Abanes p.287)
1936 Herbert W. Armstrong, founder of the Worldwide Church of God, told members of his church that the Rapture was to take place in 1936, and that only they would saved. After the prophecy failed, he changed he date three more times. (Shaw p.99)
End of the world according to some pyramidologists. (Randi p.242)
1938 Gus McKey claimed in a pamphlet that the 6000th year since Creation would come between 1931 and 1938, signifying the end of the world. (Abanes p.283)
1941 The end of the world according to the Jehovah's Witnesses. (Shaw p.72)
The end of the world according to Leonard Dale-Harrison. (Kyle p.111)
1943 Herbert W. Armstrong's Rapture prediction #2. (Shaw p.99)
Sep 21, 1945 In 1938 a minister named Long had a vision of a mysterious hand writing the number 1945 and a voice saying the world would be destroyed at 5:33pm on September 21. His prophecy failed, naturally. (Source: Portuguese article)
1947 In 1889, John Ballou Newbrough (aka "America's Greatest Prophet") foresaw the destruction of all nations and the beginning of post-apocalyptic anarchy in 1947. I guess he wasn't such a great prophet after all. Newbrough was the founder of the Oahspe cult. (Randi p.243)
1950 The end of the world, as per Henry Adams. (Mann p.x)
1952 In 1950, a young Billy Graham stated "We may have another year, maybe two years. Then I believe it is going to be over." (Source: Article by Hugo McCord)
Jan 9, 1953 The end of the world, according to Agnes Carlson, the founder of a Canadian cult called the Sons of Light. (Source: Portuguese article)
Aug 1953 Pyramidologist David Davidson, in his book The Great Pyramid, Its Divine Message, wrote that the Millennium would begin sometime during this month. (Source: article by John Baskette)
Dec 21, 1954 The world was to be destroyed by terrible flooding on this date, claimed Dorothy Martin (a.k.a. Marian Keech), leader of a UFO cult called Brotherhood of the Seven Rays (a.k.a. The Seekers). Among the members of this cult were George Hunt Williamson and the aptly named Charles Laughead. This case became the subject of Leon Festinger's book When Prophecy Fails, the classic, ground-breaking case study of cognitive dissonance and the effect that failed prophecy has on "true believers". (Festinger, Heard p.46-48, McIver #1949)
Apr 23, 1957 According to Mihran Ask, a pastor from California, "Sometime between April 16 and 23, 1957, Armageddon will sweep the world! Millions of persons will perish in its flames and the land will be scorched."
(Watchtower, Oct 15, 1958, p.613)
1958 David A. Latimer, in his book Opening of the Seven Seals and the Half Hour of Silence, predicted that the Second Coming would take place in 1956 or 1958, right after the Battle of Armageddon. (McIver #1501)
Apr 22, 1959 Victor Houteff, founder of the Davidians -- an offshoot of the Seventh Day Adventists -- prophesied that the End would be coming soon, but he never set a date. After his death, however, his widow Florence prophesied that the Rapture would take place on April 22, 1959. Hundreds of faithful gathered at Mount Carmel outside Waco to await the big moment, but it was not to be. (Thompson p.289)
1960 Pyramidologist Charles Piazzi Smyth (see the 1911 entry) claimed that the Millennium would begin no later than 1960. (Source: article by John Baskette)
Feb 4, 1962 A planetary alignment on this day was to bring destruction to the world. Incidentally, the Antichrist was supposed to have been born the following day, according to pop psychic/astrologer Jeane Dixon. (Abanes p.340)
1966 Between 1965 and 1966, an apocalyptic battle was to occur, resulting in the fall of the United States, claimed the Nation of Islam. (Kyle p.162)
1967 The establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven, according to Rev. Sun Myung Moon. (Kyle p.148)
A young Jim Jones, who later became guru of the Kool-Aid cult People's Temple, had visions that a nuclear holocaust was to take place in 1967. (Weber p.214)
Aug 20, 1967 The beginning of the third woe of the Apocalypse, during which the southeastern US would be destroyed by a Soviet nuclear attack, according to UFO prophet George Van Tassel, who claimed to have channeled an alien named Ashtar. (Alnor p.145)
Dec 25, 1967 Danish cult leader Knud Weiking claimed that a being named Orthon was speaking to him, saying that there would be a nuclear war by Christmas 1967 that would disturb the Earth's orbit. His followers built a survival bunker in preparation for this catastrophe.
Aug 9, 1969 Second Coming of Christ, according to George Williams, leader of the Morrisites, a 19th century branch of Mormonism. (Robbins p.77)
Nov 22, 1969 The Day of Judgement, according to Robin McPherson, who
supposedly channeled an alien named Ox-Ho. (Shaw p.154)
1972 Herbert W. Armstrong's Rapture prediction #3. (Shaw p.99)
1973 David Berg (aka Moses David), guru of the Children of God (aka the Family of Love, or just "The Family"), predicted in his publication The Endtime News! the United States would be destroyed by Comet Kohoutek in 1973. (McIver #2095)
Jan 1974 David Berg predicted in his so-called Mo Letters that Comet Kohoutek would destroy the US during this month. (Kyle p.145)
1975 The end of the world according to the Jehovah's Witnesses. (Kyle p.93) Herbert W. Armstrong's Rapture prediction #4. (Shaw p.99)
The Rapture, as per end-time preacher Charles Taylor. This is the first in a long series of failed predictions. (Abanes p.99)
1976 Charles Taylor's Rapture prediction #2. (Abanes p.99)
1977 John Wroe (the Southcottian who had himself publicly circumcised in 1823) set 1977 as the date of Armageddon. (Randi p.243)
Fundamentalist cult leader William Branham predicted that the Rapture would take place no later than 1977. Just before this, Los Angeles was to fall into the sea after an earthquake, the Vatican would achieve dictatorial powers over the world, and all of Christianity would become unified. (Babinski p.277)
Pyramidologist Adam Rutherford expected that the Millennium would begin in 1977. (Source: article by John Baskette)
1978 In his book The Doomsday Globe, John Strong drew on scriptures, pyramidology, pole shift theory, young-earth creationism and other mysticism to conclude that Doomsday would come in 1978. (McIver #3237)
Sometime in the 1980s In his book Armageddon 198? Stephen D. Swihart predicted the End would occur sometime in the 1980s.
1980 Charles Taylor's Rapture prediction #3. (Abanes p.99)
Apr 1, 1980 Radio preacher Willie Day Smith of Irving, Texas, claimed that this day would witness the Second Coming. (Source: What About the Second Coming of Christ?)
Apr 29, 1980 Leland Jensen, founder of the Bahá'ís Under the Provisions of the Covenant -- a small sect that mixes mainstream Bahá'í teachings with pyramidology and Bible prophecy -- predicted that a nuclear holocaust would occur on this day, killing a third of the world's population. After the prophecy failed, Jensen rationalized that this date was merely the beginning of the Tribulation. (Robbins p.73)
1981 The establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven, according to Rev. Sun Myung Moon. (Kyle p.148)
Charles Taylor's Rapture prediction #4. (Abanes p.99)
Pastor Chuck Smith, founder of Calvary Chapel, wrote in his book Future Survival, "I'm convinced that the Lord is coming for His Church before the end of 1981." Smith arrived at his calculation by adding 40 (one "Biblical generation") to 1948 (the year of Israel's statehood) and subtracting 7 for the Tribulation. When 1981 passed by, the group members experienced a mini version of the Great Disappointment of 1844. (Abanes p.326)
June 28, 1981 Rev. Bill Maupin, leader of a small Tuscon, AZ, sect named Lighthouse Gospel Tract Foundation, preached that the world would come to an end on this day, which they called "rapture day." Those who were saved would be "spirited aloft like helium balloons." Some 50 people gathered in a Millerite-like fashion, only to have their dreams predictably dashed. (Source: Philosophy and the Scientific Method by Ronald C. Pine)
August 7, 1981 When his June 28 prediction failed, Bill Maupin claimed that doomsday would take place 40 days later. Maupin said that just as Noah's ark was gradually raised to safety over a period of 40 days, the same would happen to the world. (Source: a former member of Maupin's church, who was kind enough to share this information with me.)
1982 Charles Taylor's Rapture prediction #5. (Abanes p.99)
Jesus was to return and rapture Christians away from the Tribulation in 1982, taught Canadian prophet Doug Clark. He used the Jupiter Effect to support his thesis, claiming it would trigger earthquakes and fires that would kill millions. (Abanes p.91)
Emil Gaverluk of the Southwest Radio Church suggested that the Jupiter Effect would pull Mars to out of orbit and send it careening into the Earth. (Abanes p.100-101)
Mar 10, 1982 When the planets lined up, their combined gravitational forces were supposed to bring the end of the world. A book called The Jupiter Effect, by John Gribbin and Stephen Plagemann, helped to spread these fears. An excellent article on planetary lineups can be found here. (Abanes p.62)
Jun 25, 1982 Benjamin Creme, British artist and founder of Tara Center, on April 25, 1982 took out an ad in the Los Angeles Times proclaiming "THE CHRIST IS NOW HERE", referring to the coming of Maitreya within 2 months. Creme supposedly received the messages from Maitreya through "channeling." Perhaps his ad should have read, "THE CHRIST IS NOWHERE"! (Grosso p.7, Oropeza p.155)
Fall 1982 In the late '70s, Pat Robertson predicted the end of the world would occur in the fall of 1982. "I guarantee you by the end of 1982 there is going to be a judgment on the world," he said in a May, 1980 broadcast of the 700 Club. (Boyer p.138)
1983 Apocalyptic war between the US and the Soviet Union was supposed to break out by the end of 1983, said the End Times News Digest. (Shaw p.182)
Charles Taylor's Rapture prediction #6. (Abanes p.99)
Oct 2, 1984 The end of the world according to the Jehovah's Witnesses. (Shermer p.203, Kyle p.91)
1985 The end of the world according to Lester Sumrall in his book I Predict 1985. (Abanes p.99, 341)
Charles Taylor's Rapture prediction #7. (Abanes p.99)
The Socialist National Aryan People's Party was convinced that Jesus would return in 1985. (Weber p.209)
Mar 25, 1985 The beginning of World War III, as prophesied by Vern Grimsley of the doomsday cult Family of God Foundation. This cult was a small offshoot of the Urantia Foundation, a loosely organized religious group that uses as its scripture a tedious 2000 page tome called the Urantia Book. (Sources: here and here)
Aug 1985 Date of World War III, according to the 1977 bestseller The Third World War: August 1985 by retired NATO General Sir John Hackett. While not really a prophecy, the book was written as a warning to world leaders about what could realistically happen based on world developments at that time.
1986 Charles Taylor's Rapture prediction #8. (Abanes p.99)
Apr 29, 1987 Leland Jensen of the Bahá'ís Under the Provisions of the Covenant predicted that Halley's Comet would be pulled into Earth's orbit on April 29, 1986, and chunks of the comet would pelt the Earth for a year. The gravitational force of the comet would cause great earthquakes, and on April 29, 1987, the comet itself would crash into the Earth wreaking widespread destruction. When the prophecies failed, Jensen rationalized the failure as follows: "A spiritual stone hit the earth." (Robbins p.73, 78)
1987 Charles Taylor's Rapture prediction #9. (Abanes p.99)
Aug 17, 1987 The "Harmonic Convergence." New Age author José Argüelles claimed that Armageddon would take place unless 144,000 people gathered in certain places in the world in order to "resonate in harmony" on this day. Apparently, their resonating succeeded: we're still here. (McIver #2023, Kyle p.156, Wojcik p.207)
1988 Hal Lindsey's bestseller The Late, Great Planet Earth, suggested that the Rapture would take place in 1988, reasoning that it was 40 years (one Biblical generation) after Israel gained statehood. (Abanes p.85)
Charles Taylor's Rapture prediction #10. (Abanes p.99)
Canadian prophet Doug Clark suggested 1988 as the date of the Rapture, in his book Final Shockwaves to Armageddon. (Abanes p.91)
David Webber and Noah Hutchings of the Southwest Radio Church suggested that the Rapture would take place "possibly in 1987 or 1988." (Abanes p.101)
The Rapture, according to TV prophet J.R. Church in hiss book Hidden Prophecies in the Psalms. He used a bizarre theory that each of the Psalms referred to a year in the 20th century (i.e. Psalm 1 represents the events in 1901, etc.), to arrive at this conclusion. (Abanes p.103)
Colin Deal wrote a book entitled Christ Returns by 1988: 101 Reasons Why. (Oropeza p.175)
Sep 13, 1988 Edgar C. Whisenant lightened the wallets of many a believer with his best-selling book 88 Reasons Why The Rapture Will Be in 1988. He predicted the Rapture between September 11 and 13 (Rosh Hashanah). After his prediction failed, he released another book: The Final Shout: Rapture Report 1989. (Kyle p.121, Abanes p.93)
Sep 15, 1988 After Whisenant's prediction failed, he insisted that the Rapture would take place at 10:55 am on September 15. (Abanes p.94)
Oct 3, 1988 Incredulous that yet another prediction failed, Whisenant pushed the date of the Rapture forward to October 3. (Abanes p.94)
1989 Charles Taylor's Rapture prediction #11. (Abanes p.99)
In his 1968 book Guide to Survival, Salem Kirban used Bishop Ussher's calculations to conclude that 1989 would be the year of the Rapture. (Abanes p.283)
In 1978, Oklahoma City's Southwest Radio Church published a pamphlet entitled God's Timetable for the 1980s in which were listed prophecies for each year of the 1980s, culminating with Christ's return and the establishment of his kingdom on Earth in 1989. With the exception of a couple predictable astronomical events, none of the predictions came true.
Sep 30, 1989 After his 1988 Rapture prediction failed, Edgar C. Whisenant pointed to Rosh Hashanah 1989 as a possible date for the Rapture. (Abanes p.94)
Hart Armstrong, president of Christian Communications of Wichita, repeatedly suggested that the Feast of Trumpets 1989 would be the date of the Rapture. (Abanes p.93)
1990 Baptist preacher Peter Ruckman predicted that the Rapture would come round about the year 1990. (Source: article by Thomas Williamson)
Singaporean prophecy writer Kai Lok Chan foresaw Jesus Christ returning sometime between 1986 and 1990. Armageddon (a war between the US and USSR) would take place between 1984 and 1988. He argued that the Jupiter Effect corroborated his claims. (McIver #2195)
Apr 23, 1990 Elizabeth Clare Prophet, leader of the Church Universal and Triumphant, foresaw nuclear devastation and the end of most of the human race on this day, and convinced her followers to sell their property and move with her to a ranch in Montana. (Kyle p.156, Grosso p.7)
1991 The Rapture, according to fundamentalist author Reginald Dunlop. (Shaw p.180)
Louis Farrakhan declared that the Gulf War would be the "War of Armageddon which is the final war." (Abanes p.307)
Mar 31, 1991 An Australian cult looked forward to the Second Coming at 9:00 am on this day. They believed that Jesus would return through Sydney Harbour! (Source: Knowing the Day and the Hour)
1992 Charles Taylor's Rapture prediction #12. (Abanes p.99)
Apr 26, 1992 On April 26, 1989, prophecy nutcase Doug Clark announced on Trinity Broadcasting Network's show Praise the Lord that World War III would begin within 3 years. (Abanes p.92)
Apr 29, 1992 When the LA riots broke out in response to the verdict of the Rodney King trial, members of white-supremacist group Aryan Nations thought it was the final apocalyptic race war they had been waiting for. (20/20, NBC, Dec 12, 1999)
Sep 28, 1992 Christian author Dorothy A. Miller in her book Watch & Be Ready! 1992 Millions Disappear? predicted the "last trumpet" would sound on Rosh Hashanah, heralding the Second Coming. (McIver #2923)
"Rockin'" Rollen Stewart, a born-again Christian who made himself famous by holding up "John 3:16" signs at sporting events, thought the Rapture would take place on this day. Stewart went insane, setting off stink bombs in churches and bookstores and writing apocalyptic letters in a mission to make people get right with God. He is now serving a life sentence for kidnapping. (Adams p.18-20)
Oct 28, 1992 Lee Jang Rim, leader of the Korean doomsday cult Mission for the Coming Days (also known as the Tami Church), predicted that the Rapture would occur on this date. Lee was convicted of fraud after the prophecy failed. Lee's cult was part of the larger Hyoo-Go (Rapture) movement, which took Korea by storm in 1992. (Thompson p.227-228, McIver #2747)
1993 David Berg of the Children of God claimed in The Endtime News! that the Second Coming would take place in 1993. The Tribulation was to start in 1989. (McIver #2095, Kyle p.145)
Nov 14, 1993 Judgement Day, according to self-proclaimed messiah Maria Devi Khrystos (neé Marina Tsvigun), leader of the cult Great White Brotherhood. Members of the cult planned to congregate in Kiev on that day to celebrate God's coming to Earth, but their plan was thwarted by the arrest of many of the cultists. (Alnor p.93)
Dec 9, 1993 James T. Harmon added 51.57 years to May 15, 1949 (the date the UN recognized Israel) and subtracted 7 to arrive at the date of the Rapture, approximately December 9, 1993. He also suggested 1996, 2012 and 2022 as alternative rapture dates. (Oropeza p.89)
1994 R.M. Riley, in his book 1994: The Year of Destiny, wrote that 1994 would be the year of the Rapture. (McIver #3098)
Charles Taylor's Rapture prediction #13. (Abanes p.99)
Om Saleem, an Arab Christian, prophesied that the Rapture would take place in 1994, after the Antichrist was to reveal himself. (Oropeza p.148)
Dutch authors Aad Verbeek, Jan Westein and Pier Westein predicted the Second Coming in 1994 in their book Time for His Coming. (McIver #3348)
May 2, 1994 Armageddon. Neal Chase of the Bahá'ís Under the Provisions of the Covenant predicted that New York would be destroyed by a nuclear bomb on March 23, 1994, and the Battle of Armageddon would take place 40 days later. (Robbins p.79)
June 9, 1994 Pastor John Hinkle claimed that God told him the Apocalypse would take place on this day. In a cataclysmic event, God was supposed to "rip the evil out of this world." When the prophecy failed, he claimed that it's only the beginning and it's taking place invisibly. (Oropeza p.167-168)
Jul 25, 1994 On July 19, 1993, Sister Marie Gabriel Paprocski announced to the world her prophecy that a comet would hit Jupiter on or before July 25, 1994, causing the "biggest cosmic explosion in the history of mankind" and bringing on the end of the world. Indeed, a comet did hit Jupiter on
July 16, 1994. However, it is important to note that her announcement was made nearly two months after astronomer Brian Marsden discovered that Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 would hit Jupiter. (Skinner p.116, Levy p.207)
Sep 23, 1994 Reginald Dunlop claimed this was the last date encoded in the Great Pyramid of Giza, meaning that the world would not last beyond this date. (Oropeza p.128)
Sep 27, 1994 Harold Camping, head of Oakland's Family Radio and host of the station's Biblical discussion talk show Open Forum, predicted the end in his book 1994? He calculated that the Tribulation would end on September 6, followed by the Last Day and the Second Coming of Christ between Sep. 15 and Sep. 27. (Camping p.526-7, p.531)
Sep 29, 1994 Harold Camping's doomsday prediction #2. (Abanes p.95)
Oct 2, 1994 Harold Camping's doomsday prediction #3. (Abanes p.95)
1995 Armageddon, according to Henry Kresyler, head of the doomsday group Watchers in the Wilderness. (Shaw p.181)
The Second Coming of Christ, as foreseen by J.R. Church, using his Psalms theory (see 1988 above). The Battle of Armageddon would take place in 1994. (Abanes p. 103)
Mar 31, 1995 Harold Camping's doomsday prediction #4. He gave up setting dates afterwards. (Abanes p.95)
1996 James T. Harmon's Rapture prediction #2. (Oropeza p.89)
Sep 1996 The Second Coming of Christ, according to Guatemalan preacher Marvin Byers. (Oropeza p.29)
Nov 1996 The Second Coming of Christ, as foreseen in doomsday author Salty Dok's book Blessed Hope, 1996. (Oropeza p.48)
Dec 13, 1996 The resurrection of David Koresh, according to the surviving Branch Davidian cult members. Koresh, of course, never showed up. (Jordan p.113)
Dec 17, 1996 Famed psychic Sheldon Nidle predicted that the world would end on this date, with the arrival of millions of space ships. (Abanes p.341)
1997 Mary Stewart Relfe, claiming that God communicated with her in her dreams, predicted the Second Coming in 1997, right after the battle of Armageddon. "America will burn" and be totally destroyed in 1993 or 1994, she claimed. (Kyle p.120, Oropeza p.104)
The end of the world, as per a tongue-in-cheek numerological calculation by Superdave the Wonderchemist.
Mar 23, 1997 Richard Michael Schiller, posting under the name Eliyehowa and a host of other pseudonyms, flooded various Usenet newsgroups with his prediction that an asteroid trailing behind Comet Hale-Bopp would bring destruction to the Earth on this date. As the date drew near, be began backpedalling, claiming the world would be destroyed 9 months later when the Earth supposedly would pass through the comet's tail, and anyway there was no way the world would survive beyond 1997. You can see a characteristic post of his on Google.
Mar 26, 1997 Heaven's Gate suicides. The suicides occurred between March 24 and March 26, during a window of time that the cultists had predicted a UFO trailing behind Comet Hale-Bopp would pick up their souls and save them from the imminent Apocalypse. Notice the similarity between their prophecy and Schiller's one above? Both claim that an object is following the comet. This rumor started when amateur astronomer Chuck Shramek mistook a star for what he thought was a "Saturn-like object" following the comet. With the help of the Internet and the Art Bell show, the false rumor that a UFO or asteroid was trailing the comet spread like wildfire. And we all know how hard such urban legends are to quash! (Alnor p.13, 38)
May 5, 1997 On this date, the solar system was supposed to enter the Photon Belt, a mystical energy field floating through space. Once we enter the Photon Belt, something unusual is supposed to occur. Depending on the source, the world will end, aliens will land, mankind will be enlightened or achieve super powers, electrical equipment will fail...you get the picture. Nothing happened, but that hasn't stopped people from thinking we're still going to enter the Photon Belt SOON! Perhaps in 2011. (Sources: The Straight Dope, The Photon Belt Page)
Oct 1997 The Rapture, according to Brother Kenneth Hagin.
Oct 11, 1997 Internet prophet posted in various Usenet newsgroups that this date would be Judgement Day. His post can be seen on Google.
Oct 23, 1997 6000th anniversary of Creation according to the calculations of 17th Century Irish Archbishop James Ussher. This date was a popular candidate date for the end of the world. (Gould p.98)
Nov 27, 1997 According to the Sacerdotal Knights of National Security, "A space alien captured at a UFO landing site in eastern Missouri cracked under interrogation by the CIA and admitted that an extraterrestrial army will attack Earth on November 27 with the express purpose of stripping our planet of every natural resource they can find a use for -- and making slaves of every man, woman and child in the world!" (Source: Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance)
2000 There's something about those three zeroes that makes 2000 a favorite year among doomsday prophets. But now that mysterious year, anticipated and wondered about for centuries, has slipped into realm of history. There are far too many doomsday predictions to list for 2000, but here are some of the more notable ones:
Hal Lindsey, whose 1988 prediction failed, suggests the end in his recently published book, entitled Planet Earth - 2000 A.D. However, he leaves himself a face-saving outlet: "Could I be wrong? Of course. The Rapture may not occur between now and the year 2000." (Lindsey p.306)
The beginning of Christ's Millennium according to some Mormon literature, such as the publication Watch and Be Ready: Preparing for the Second Coming of the Lord. The New Jerusalem will descend from the heavens in 2000, landing in Independence, Missouri. (McIver #3377, Skinner p.100)
19th century mystic Madame Helena Petrova Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophy, foresaw the end of the world in 2000. (Shaw p.83)
Even Sir Isaac Newton was bitten by the millennium bug. He predicted that Christ's Millennium would begin in the year 2000 in his book Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John. (Schwartz p.96)
Ruth Montgomery predicts Earth's axis will shift and the Antichrist will reveal himself in 2000. (Kyle p.156, 195)
The establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven, according to Rev. Sun Myung Moon. (Kyle p.148)
The Second Coming, followed by a New Age, according to famed psychic Edgar Cayce. (Hanna p.219)
The Second Coming, as forecasted in Ed Dobson's book The End: Why Jesus Could Return by A.D. 2000.
The end of the world according to Lester Sumrall in his book I Predict 2000. (Abanes p.99, 341)
The tribulation is to occur before the year 2000, said Gordon Lindsay, founder of the Christ for the Nations Ministry. (Abanes p.280)
According to a series of lectures given by Shoko Asahara in 1992, 90% of the world's population would be annihilated by nuclear, biological and chemical weapons by the year 2000. (Thompson p.262)
One of the earliest predictions for the year 2000 was made by Petrus Olivi in 1297. He wrote that the Antichrist would come to power between 1300 and 1340, and the Last Judgement would take place around 2000. (Weber p.54)
According to American Indian spiritual leader Sun Bear, the end of the world would come in the year 2000 if the human race didn't shape up. (Abanes p.307)
18th century fire-and-brimstone preacher Jonathan Edwards concluded that Christ's thousand-year reign would begin in 2000. (Weber p.171)
The world will be devastated by AIDS in the year 2000, according to Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Afterwards, the world will be rebuilt by a peaceful matriarchal society. (Robbins p.164)
William Kamm, aka Little Pebble, is the leader of the Australian doomsday cult Order of St. Charbel, predicts that a comet will destroy the Earth before the dawn of the new millennium.
Fundamentalist conspiracy advocate Texe Marrs stated that the last days could "wrap up by the year 2000." (Abanes p.311)
Members of the Stella Maris Gnostic Church, a Colombian doomsday cult, went into Colombia's Sierra Nevada mountains over the weekend of July 3-4, 1999, weekend to be picked up by a UFO that would save them from the end of the world, which is to take place at the turn of the millennium. The cult members have disappeared. Perhaps they were picked up by aliens! (Source: BBC News).
A radical apocalyptic sect emerged in early 18th century France: the Convulsionaries. One of the members, Jacques-Joseph Duguet, anticipated the Parousia in 2000. (Kyle p.192)
Timothy Dwight (1752-1817), President of Yale University, foresaw the Millennium starting by 2000. (Kyle p.81)
Martin Luther looked at 2000 as a possible end-time date, before finally settling on 1600. (Kyle p.192)
Sukyo Mahikari, a Japanese cult, preaches that the world might be destroyed in a "baptism of fire" by 2000. (Source: ABC News)
A Vietnamese cult headed by Ca Van Lieng predicted an apocalyptic flood for 2000. But doomsday came much earlier for the cult members: he and his followers committed mass suicide in October 1993. (Source: Cult Observer archives)
Before the end of 1999, Hon-Ming Chen of the 30-member cult Chen Tao began backpedalling on his prediction of a nuclear holocaust and UFO rescue by December 31. Now Doomsday has been rescheduled to sometime "in the next year," according to cult spokesman Richard Liu. (St. Cloud Times, Dec. 26, 1999)
Sometime in 2000 ("either a few days or a few months away," according to this Sep. 12, 2000 CNN article) the End of Days will take place, say members of a Mormon-based cult near the Utah-Arizona border. Hundreds of memmbers of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have pulled their kids out of school' in preparation for the Big Day.
Jan 1, 2000 January 1, 2000. Jesus did not descend from the heavens. President Clinton did not declare himself dictator-for-life. The Antichrist did not rise to power. Nuclear missiles were not launched. Aircraft did not fall out of the sky. The global economy did not collapse. Terrorist bombs did not explode. The power did not go out. My computer still works.
What we did have were some huge parties, spectacular fireworks displays, a Barry Manilow concert, head-splitting hangovers, lots of confetti to clean up, and some embarrassed survivalists who had spent their New Years holed up in armed fortresses when they could have been partying in Times Square.
Y2K!! Compounding people's apocalyptic hopes and fears for 2000 was a technological problem that came to be known as Y2K. This problem was hyped by the media, preachers, doomsayers and the authors of a myriad Y2K preparedness books as something that promised to bring the world to a catastrophic standstill. But thanks to the diligent efforts of programmers, governments and companies throughout the world, the bite of the "Y2K bug" turned out to be mostly harmless. There were a few minor glitches here and there, but nothing serious. The fundamentalists who claimed that Y2K is all part of God's plan or that the Antichrist would use Y2K to seize power have been proven wrong! In the aftermath of this ultimate disconfirmation many of them have tried to salvage their dignity by saying "Just you wait! It's only the beginning of the end!" To the Y2K doomsayers I smugly say, "I told you so!" Here's an interesting article about the combination of Y2K with mystical
expectations.
In the honored tradition of the "comet pills" of 1910, many hucksters took advantage of people's Y2K fears to reap a tidy doomsday profit by selling survival gear. Now all those who "stocked up for Y2K" will have to figure out what to do with all those packets of freeze-dried food, bottles of water, gasoline generators, wood-burning stoves and shotgun shells.
For an example of the extent that Y2K doomsday paranoia can grip someone, take a gander at Gary North's page. In your face, Gary!!!
The Christian apocalyptic cult House of Prayer, headed by one Brother David, expected Christ to descend onto the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem on this day. The Israeli government recently kicked them out of the country in a preemptive strike against potentially violent doomsday nutcases who may attempt to catalyze the Apocalypse through terrorist acts such as blowing up the Dome of the Rock.
John WorldPeace sent this post to Usenet, claiming that the failure of Jesus to return on January 1 will lead to the people of the world finally abandoning war and hatred as foolish pursuits and instead embracing peace, love and tolerance. Wouldn't it be great if he were right?
Bobby Bible, a 60-year-old fundamentalist, believed that Jesus would descend from Heaven at the stroke of midnight in Jerusalem and rapture his church.
A Philippine cult called Tunnels of Salvation taught that the world would end on January 1. The cult's guru, Cerferino Quinte, claimed that the world would be destroyed in an "all consuming rain of fire" on January 1. (I guess his prediction came partially true: there were plenty of fireworks going off around the world that night.) In order to survive the world's destruction, the cult members built an elaborate series of tunnels where he had stockpiled a year's worth of supplies for 700 people. CESNUR)
UK native Ann Willem spent the New Year in Israel, expecting to be raptured by Jesus on New Year's Day. "It didn't happen the way it was supposed to," she said of the failure of the Rapture to take place. (USA Today p.5A, 1/3/00)
Jerry Falwell foresaw God pouring out his judgement on the world on New Year's Day. According to Falwell, God "may be preparing to confound our language, to jam our communications, scatter our efforts, and judge us for our sin and rebellion against his lordship. We are hearing from many sources that January 1, 2000, will be a fateful day in the history of the world." Happy New Year! (Christianity Today, Jan. 11, 1999)
Timothy LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, authors of the bestselling Left Behind series of apocalyptic fiction, expected the Y2K bug to trigger global economic chaos, which the Antichrist would use to rise to power. As the big day approached, they, like other doomsayers, backpedalled. (Source: Washington Post)
Jan 16, 2000 Religious scholar Dr. Marion Derlette (.pdf link) claims the world is to end on January 16, according to an article in Weekly World News. This event is to occur after a series of natural and manmade catastrophes starting in 1997, and will be followed by an era of paradise on Earth. (This date is shown as January 6, 2000 in Richard Abanes' book End-Time Visions.) (Abanes p.43)
Feb 11, 2000 On his bro<br/<br/(Message over 64 KB, truncated)
One of the most hilarious was the xian preacher/pastor who just KNEW the end of the world would occur on some certain date. This was some 10-20 years ago and on the news. Of course, he also knew he would DEFINITELY be one of the chosen amongst the 144,000 who would be saved! He KNEW the very exact date this rapture would occur. He revealed this most guarded secret to his congregation. They all quit their jobs, sold their homes, and every piece of property they owned and of course, ALL of their material possessions and were left with only the clothes on their backs. They all climed up to the top of this large hill where the nazarene and ild was supposed to swoop down and SAVE THEM!! Well, they waited, and waited and waited..............
After several days of waiting, some lost faith and left. The preacher, then getting a bit nervous said he was 'two weeks off.' Two weeks later, some of the more vulnerable again showed up and they waited, and waited and waited..............
Now, I have posted this before and I am reposint it again. For those of you who are impressionable concerning the predictions that the world will end, please read the following article:
http://www.abhota.info/index.htm
Circa. 2800 BC
According to Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts (1979), an Assyrian clay tablet dating to approximately 2800 BC was unearthed bearing the words "Our earth is degenerate in these latter days. There are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end. Bribery and corruption are common." This is one of the earliest examples of the perception of moral decay in society being interpreted as a sign of the imminent end.
634 BC
Apocalyptic thinking gripped many ancient cultures, including the Romans. Early in Rome's history, many Romans feared that the city would be destroyed in the 120th year of its founding. There was a myth that 12 eagles had revealed to Romulus a mystical number representing the lifetime of Rome, and some early Romans hypothesized that each eagle represented 10 years. The Roman calendar was counted from the founding of Rome, 1 AUC (ab urbe condita) being 753 BC. Thus 120 AUC is 634 BC. (Thompson p.19)
389 BC Some Romans figured that the mystical number revealed to Romulus represented the number of days in a year (the Great Year concept), so they expected Rome to be destroyed around 365 AUC (389 BC). (Thompson p.19)
1st Century Jesus said, "Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." (Matthew 16:28) This implies that the Second Coming would return within the lifetime of his contemporaries, and indeed the Apostles expected Jesus to return before the passing of their generation.
ca. 70 The Essenes, a sect of Jewish ascetics with apocalyptic beliefs, may have seen the Jewish revolt against the Romans in 66-70 as the final end-time battle. (Source: PBS Frontline special Apocalypse!)
2nd Century The Montanists believed that Christ would come again within their lifetimes and establish a new Jerusalem at Pepuza, in the land of Phrygia. Montanism was perhaps the first bona fide Christian doomsday cult. It was founded ca. 156 AD by the tongues-speaking prophet Montanus and two followers, Priscilla and Maximilla. Despite the failure of Jesus to return, the cult lasted for several centuries. Tertullian, who once said "I believe it just because it is unbelievable" (a true skeptic if ever there was one!), was perhaps the most renowned Montanist. (Gould p.43-44)
247 Rome celebrated its thousandth anniversary this year. At the same time, the Roman government dramatically increased its persecution of Christians, so much so that many Christians believed that the End had arrived. (Source: PBS Frontline special Apocalypse!)
365 Hilary of Poitiers predicted the world would end in 365. (Source: Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance)
380 The Donatists, a North African Christian sect headed by Tyconius, looked forward to the world ending in 380. (Source: American Atheists)
Late 4th Century St. Martin of Tours (ca. 316-397) wrote, "There is no doubt that the Antichrist has already been born. Firmly established already in his early years, he will, after reaching maturity, achieve supreme power." (Abanes p.119)
500 Roman theologian Sextus Julius Africanus (ca. 160-240) claimed that the End would occur 6000 years after the Creation. He assumed that there were 5531 years between the Creation and the Resurrection, and thus expected the Second Coming to take place no later than 500 AD. (Kyle p.37, McIver #21)
Hippolytus (died ca. 236), believing that Christ would return 6000 years after the Creation, anticipated the Parousia in 500 AD. (Abanes p.283)
The theologian Irenaeus, influenced by Hippolytus's writings, also saw 500 as the year of the Second Coming. (Abanes p.283, McIver #15)
Apr 6, 793 Elipandus, bishop of Toledo, described a brief bout of end-time panic that happened on Easter Eve, 793. According to Elipandus, the Spanish monk Beatus of Liébana prophesied the end of the world that day in the presence a crowd of people. The people, thinking that the world would end that night, became frightened, panicked, and fasted through the night until dawn. Seeing that the world had not ended and feeling hungry, Hordonius, one of the fasters, quipped, "Let's eat and drink, so that if we die at least we'll be fed." (Abanes p. 168-169, Weber p.50)
800 Sextus Julius Africanus revised the date of Doomsday to 800 AD. (Kyle p.37)
Beatus of Liébana wrote in his Commentary on the Apocalypse, which he finished in 786, that there were only 14 years left until the end of the world. Thus, the world would end by 800 at the latest. (Abanes p.168)
806 Bishop Gregory of Tours calculated the End occurring between 799 and 806. (Weber p.48)
848 The prophetess Thiota declared that the world would end this year. (Abanes p.337)
Mar 25, 970 Lotharingian computists foresaw the End on Friday, March 25, 970, when the Annunciation and Good Friday fell on the same day. They believed that it was on this day that Adam was created, Isaac was sacrificed, the Red Sea was parted, Jesus was conceived, and Jesus was crucified. Therefore, it naturally followed that the End must occur on this day! (Source: Center for Millennial Studies)
992 Bernard of Thuringia calculated that the end would come in 992. (Randi p.236)
995 The Feast of the Annunciation and Good Friday also coincided in 992, prompting some mystics to conclude that the world would end within 3 years of that date. (Weber p.50-51)
1000 There are many stories of apocalyptic paranoia around the year 1000. For example, legend has it that a "panic terror" gripped Europe in the years and months before this date. However, scholars disagree on which stories are genuine, whether millennial expectations at this time were any greater than usual, or whether ordinary people were even aware of what year it was. An excellent article on Y1K apocalyptic expectations can be found at the Center for Millennial Studies. (Gould, Schwartz, Randi)
1033 After Jesus failed to return in 1000, some mystics pushed the date of the End to the thousandth anniversary of the Crucifixion. The writings of the Burgundian monk Radulfus Glaber described a rash of millennial paranoia during the period from 1000-1033. (Kyle p.39, Abanes p.337, McIver #50)
1184 Various Christian prophets foresaw the Antichrist coming in 1184. (Abanes p.338)
Sep 23, 1186 John of Toledo, after calculating that a planetary alignment would occur in Libra on September 23, 1186 (Julian calendar), circulated a letter (known as the "Letter of Toledo") warning that the world was to going to be destroyed on this date, and that only a few people would survive. (Randi p.236)
1260 Italian mystic Joachim of Fiore (1135-1202) determined that the Millennium would begin between 1200 and 1260. (Kyle p.48)
1284 Pope Innocent III expected the Second Coming to take place in 1284, 666 years after the rise of Islam. (Schwartz p.181)
1290 Followers of Joachim of Fiore (the Joachites) rescheduled the End to 1290 when his 1260 prophecy failed. (McIver #58)
1306 In 1147 Gerard of Poehlde, believing that Christ's Millennium began when the emperor Constantine came to power, figured that Satan would become unbound at the end of the thousand-year period and destroy the Church. Since Constantine rose to power in 306, the end of the Millennium would be in 1306. (Source: Christian author Richard J. Foster)
1335 Another Joachite doomsday date. (McIver #58)
1367 Czech archdeacon Militz of Kromeriz claimed the Antichrist was alive and well and would manifest himself between 1363 and 1367. The End would come between 1365 and 1367. (McIver #67)
1370 The Millennium would begin in 1368 or 1370, as foreseen by Jean de Roquetaillade, a French ascetic. The Antichrist was to come in 1366. (Weber p.55)
1378 Arnold of Vilanova, a Joachite, wrote in his work De Tempore Adventu Antichristi that the Antichrist was to come in 1378. (McIver #62)
Feb 14, 1420 Czech Doomsday prophet Martinek Hausha (Martin Huska) of the radical Taborite movement warned that the world would end in February
1420, February 14 at the latest. The Taborites were an offshoot of the Hussite movement of Bohemia. (McIver #71, Shaw p.43)
1496 The beginning of the Millennium, according to some 15th Century mystics. (Mann p. ix)
ca. 1504 Italian artist Sandro Botticelli wrote a caption in Greek on his painting The Mystical Nativity:
"I Sandro painted this picture at the end of the year 1500 in the troubles of Italy in the half time after the time according to the eleventh chapter of St. John in the second woe of the Apocalypse in the loosing of the devil for three and a half years. Then he will be chained in the 12th chapter and we shall see him trodden down as in this picture."
Apparently, he thought he was living during the Tribulation, and that the Millennium would begin in three and a half years or so, which is understandable given the fact that he is known to have been a follower of Girolamo Savonarola. (Weber p.60)
Feb 1, 1524 The End would occur by a flood starting in London on February 1 (Julian), according to calculations some London astrologers made the previous June. Around 20,000 people abandoned their homes, and a clergyman stockpiled food and water in a fortress he built. (Sound familiar? It's just like the doomsday cultists and Y2K nuts of today!) As it happened, it didn't even rain in London on that date. (Randi p.236-237)
Feb 20, 1524 A planetary alignment in Pisces was seen as a sign of the Millennium by astrologer Johannes Stoeffler. The world was to be destroyed by a flood on this date (Julian), Pisces being a water sign. (Randi p.236-237)
1525 The beginning of the Millennium, according to Anabaptist Thomas Müntzer. Thinking that he was living at the "end of all ages," he led an unsuccessful peasants' revolt and was subsequently tortured and executed. (Gould p.48)
1528 Stoeffler recalculated Doomsday to 1528 after his 1524 prediction failed (Randi p.238)
May 27, 1528 Reformer Hans Hut predicted the end would occur on Pentecost (May 27, Julian calendar). (Weber p.67, Shaw p.44)
1532 Frederick Nausea (what a name!), a Viennese bishop, was certain that the world would end in 1532 after hearing reports of bizarre occurrences, including bloody crosses appearing in the sky alongside a comet. (Randi p. 238)
1533 Anabaptist prophet Melchior Hoffman's prediction for the year of Christ's Second Coming, to take place in Strasbourg. He claimed that 144,000 people would be saved, while the rest of the world would be consumed by fire. (Kyle p.59)
Oct 19, 1533 Mathematician Michael Stifel calculated that the Day of Judgement would begin at 8:00am on this day. (McIver #88)
Apr 5, 1534 Jan Matthys predicted that the Apocalypse would take place on Easter Day (April 5, Julian calendar) and only the city of Münster would be spared. (Shaw p.45, Abanes p.338)
1537 French astrologer Pierre Turrel announced four different possible dates for the end of the world, using four different calculation methods. The dates were 1537, 1544, 1801 and 1814. (Randi p. 239)
1544 Pierre Turrel's doomsday calculation #2. (Randi p. 239)
ca. 1555 Around the year 1400, the French theologian Pierre d'Ailly wrote that 6845 years of human history had already passed, and the end of the world would be in the 7000th year. His works would later influence the apocalyptic thinking of Christopher Columbus. (McIver #72)
Jul 22, 1556 In 1556, a rumor was circulating that the world would end on Magdalene's Day, as recorded by Swiss medical student Felix Platter. (Weber p.68, p.249)
Apr 28, 1583 The Second Coming of Christ would take place at noon, according to astrologer Richard Harvey. This was the date of a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, and numerous astrologers in London predicted the world would end then. (Skinner p.27, Weber p.93)
1584 Cyprian Leowitz, an astrologer, predicted the end would occur in
1584. (Randi p.239, McIver #105)
1588 The end of the world according to the sage Johann Müller (aka Regiomontanus). (Randi p. 239)
1600 Martin Luther believed that the End would occur no later than 1600. (Weber p.66)
1603 Dominican monk Tomasso Campanella wrote that the sun would collide with the Earth in 1603. (Weber p.83)
1623 Eustachius Poyssel used numerology to pinpoint 1623 as the year of the end of the world. (McIver #125)
Feb 1, 1624 The same astrologers who predicted the deluge of February 1, 1524 recalculated the date to February 1, 1624 after their first prophecy failed. (Randi p.236-237)
1648 Using the kabbalah, Sabbatai Zevi, a rabbi from Smyrna, Turkey, figured that the Messiah would come in 1648, accompanied by miracles. The Messiah, of course, would be Zevi himself! (Randi p.239, Festinger)
1654 In 1578, physician Helisaeus Roeslin of Alsace, basing his prediction on a nova that occurred in 1572, foresaw the world ending in 1654 in a blaze of fire. (Randi p.240)
1656 Believed to be a possible date for the end of the world, 1656 is the number of years between the Creation and the Flood. (Skinner p.27)
1657 Final apocalyptic battle and the destruction of the Antichrist were to take place between 1655 and 1657, as per the Fifth Monarchy Men, a radical group of English millenarians who attempted to take over Parliament to impose their extremist theocratic agenda on the country. Not unlike the Christian Coalition of modern-day America! (Kyle p.67)
1658 In his The Book of Prophecies, Christopher Columbus claimed that the world was created in 5343BC, and would last 7000 years. Assuming no year zero, that means the end would come in 1658. Columbus was influenced by Pierre d'Ailly. (McIver #77)
1660 Joseph Mede, whose writings influenced James Ussher and Isaac Newton, claimed that the Antichrist appeared way back in 456, and the end would come in 1660. (McIver #147)
1666 As this date is 1000 (millennium) + 666 (number of the Beast) and followed a period of war and strife in England, many Londoners feared that 1666 would be the end of the world. The Great Fire of London in 1666 did not help to alleviate these fears. (Schwartz p.87, Kyle p.67-68)
Sabbatai Zevi recalculated the coming of the Messiah to 1666. Despite his failed prophecies, he had accumulated a great many followers. He was later arrested for stirring up trouble, and given the choice of converting to Islam or execution. Pragmatic man that he was, he wisely elected for the former. (Festinger)
1673 Deacon William Aspinwall, a leader of the Fifth Monarchy movement, claimed the Millennium would begin by this year. (Abanes p.209, McIver #174)
1688 John Napier's doomsday calculation #1, based on the Book of Revelation. Napier was the mathematician who discovered logarithms. (Weber p.92)
1689 Pierre Jurieu, a Camisard prophet, predicted that Judgement Day would occur in 1689. The Camisards were Huguenots of the Languedoc region of southern France. (Kyle p.70)
1694 Anglican rector John Mason calculated this date as the beginning of the Millennium. (Kyle p.72)
The beginning of the Millennium, as predicted by German theologian Johann Alsted. (Kyle p.66)
Fall 1694 Drawing from theology and astrology, German prophet Johann Jacob Zimmerman determined that the world would end in the fall of 1694. Zimmerman gathered a group of pilgrims and made plans to go to America to welcome Jesus back to Earth. However, he died in February of that year, on the very day of departure. Johannes Kelpius took over leadership of the cult, which was known as Woman in the Wilderness, and they completed their journey to the New World. Fall came and went and, needless to say, the cultists were profoundly disappointed at having traveled all the way across the Atlantic just to be stood up by Jesus. (Cohen p.19-20)
1697
The beginning of the Millennium, according to Anglican rector Thomas Beverly. (Kyle p.72, McIver #224)
The notorious witch hunter Cotton Mather was the Ken Starr of Puritan New England. When he wasn't out hunting witches, he was busy predicting the end of the world, 1697 being his first doomsdate. After the prediction failed, he revised the date of the End two more times. (Abanes p.338)
1700 The end of the world, according to some Puritans. (Kyle p.79)
John Napier's doomsday calculation #2, based on the Book of Daniel. (Weber p.92)
The date of the Second Coming, according to Henry Archer, a Fifth Monarchy Man. Archer made this prediction in his 1642 book The Personall Reign of Christ Upon Earth. (McIver #158)
1705 The End, according to some Camisard prophets. (Kyle p.70)
1706 The End, according to some Camisard prophets. (Kyle p.70)
1708 The End, according to some Camisard prophets. (Kyle p.70)
1716 Cotton Mather's end-of-the-world prediction #2. (Abanes p.338)
Apr 5, 1719 The return of a comet was supposed to wipe out the Earth, said Jacques Bernoulli, progenitor of the mathematical Bernoulli family. (Randi p.240-241)
1734 Doomsday was to come between 1700 and 1734, predicted 15th century Cardinal Nicolas of Cusa. (Weber p.82, McIver #73)
1736 Cotton Mather's end-of-the-world prediction #3. (Abanes p.338)
Oct 13, 1736 William Whitson predicted that London would meet its doom by flood on this day, prompting many Londoners to gather in boats on the Thames. (Randi)
1757 In a vision, angels supposedly informed mystic Emanuel Swedenborg that the world would end in 1757. Few took him seriously. Ah, the 18th century, the Age of Reason! (Randi p.241, Weber p.104)
Apr 5, 1761 Religious extremist William Bell claimed the world would be destroyed by earthquake on this day. Since there had been an earthquake on February 8 and another on March 8, he reasoned that the world must end in another 28 days' time! Again, Londoners gathered in boats on the Thames or headed for the hills. When his prediction didn't come true, he was promptly thrown into Bedlam, London's notorious nuthouse. (Randi p.241)
Feb 28, 1763 Devout Methodist George Bell foresaw the end of the world on this date. (Weber p.102)
May 19, 1780 On this day in New England the skies mysteriously turned dark for several hours in the afternoon, causing people to believe that a biblical prophecy had come true and Judgement Day had arrived. In reality, the darkness was caused by smoke from large-scale forest fires to the west. (Abanes p.217)
1789 The coming of the Antichrist, according to 14th century Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly. (Weber p.59)
1790 The Second Coming, according to Irish orator Francis Dobbs. (Schwartz p.181)
1792 The end of the world according to the Shakers. (Abanes p.338)
1794 The end of the world according to the Shakers. (Abanes p.338)
Charles Wesley, brother of Methodist Church founder John Wesley, predicted Doomsday would be in 1794. (Source: Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance)
1795 The Millennium would begin between 1793 and 1795, claimed retired English sailor Richard Brothers, who called himself "God's Almighty Nephew." He was convinced that he would lead the ten lost tribes of Israel, and once said that God told him he would become king of England. He was eventually committed to an insane asylum. (Kyle p.73, McIver #301)
Nov 19, 1795 While campaigning for Richard Brothers' release, Nathaniel Brassey Halhead proclaimed that the world would end on Nov 19. (McIver #310)
1801 Pierre Turrel's doomsday calculation #3 (See 1537). (Randi p. 239)
1805 Destruction of the world by earthquake in 1805, followed by an age of everlasting peace when God will be known by all, as foretold by 17th century Presbyterian minister Christopher Love. He eventually lost his head, literally. (Schwartz p.101)
1814 Pierre Turrel's doomsday calculation #4 (See 1537). (Randi p. 239)
Dec 25, 1814 Jesus was to be re-born on Christmas Day, according to the 64-year-old virgin prophet Joanna Southcott, who claimed to be pregnant with the Christ child. Witnesses claimed that she did indeed appear pregnant. She died on Christmas Day, and a subsequent autopsy proved that she was not pregnant after all. (Skinner p.109)
Oct 14, 1820 Southcott follower John Turner claimed the world would come to an end on this day. After this prophecy failed, John Wroe took over leadership of the cult. (Randi p.241-242)
1832 The beginning of the Millennium, according to John Dilks. (Weber p.176)
1836 Methodist Church founder John Wesley foresaw the Millennium beginning in 1836, the same year that the Beast of Revelation was to rise from the sea. (McIver #269)
1843 Harriet Livermore's Parousia prediction #1. (McIver #699)
Apr 28, 1843 Although this date was not officially endorsed by the Millerite leadership, it was a popular belief among William Miller's followers that the Second Coming would take place on this day. (Festinger p.16)
Dec 31, 1843 Many Millerites expected Jesus to return at the end of 1843. (Festinger p.16)
Mar 21, 1844 William Miller, leader of the so-called Millerite movement, predicted through careful calculation that Christ would return sometime between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. He gathered a following of thousands of devotees. After the failure of Jesus to show up during this window, the cult experienced a crisis of faith and in the confusion began reinterpreting the prophecy and aggressively proselytizing. (Gould p.49, Festinger p.16-17)
Oct 22, 1844 It's Miller time again! Rev. Samuel S. Snow, an influential Millerite, predicted the Second Coming on this day. The date was soon accepted by Miller himself. On that day, the Millerites gathered on a hilltop to await the coming of Jesus. After the inevitable no-show, the event became known as the "Great Disappointment." (Gould p.49, Festinger p.17)
1845 The Second Coming according to the Second Adventists, a group that formed from the remaining hardcore members of Miller's cult. The Second Adventists were the forerunners of the Seventh Day Adventists (Kyle p.91)
1846 Another Second Coming according to the Second Adventists. (Kyle p.91)
1847 Harriet Livermore's Parousia prediction #2. (McIver #699)
Aug 7, 1847 "Father" George Rapp, a German ascetic who founded a sect known as the Harmonists (aka the Rappites) and established a utopian commune in Economy, Pennsylvania, was convinced that Jesus would return before his death. Even on his deathbed he refused to give up hope for Christ's return, saying "If I did not know that the dear Lord meant I should present you all to him, I should think my last moment's come." It turned out that his last moment had indeed come, yet Jesus failed to show up. Rapp died on August 7, 1847. (Cohen p.23, Thompson p.283, Encyclopedia Britannica)
1849 Yet another Second Coming according to the Second Adventists. (Kyle p.91)
1851 You guessed it! Still another Second Coming according to the Second Adventists. (Kyle p.91)
1856 The Crimean War (1853-56) was seen by some as the Battle of Armageddon. After all, Russia had plans to wrest control of Palestine from the Ottoman Empire. Perhaps it was this war that triggered the popularity of the "Russia invades Israel" scenario so popular among modern prophecy teachers. (McIver #437)
1862 The end of 6000 years since Creation, and thus the end of the world, according to John Cumming of the Scottish National Church. (Abanes p.283)
1863 Southcott follower John Wroe, who in 1823 tried (and failed) to walk on water and underwent a public circumcision, calculated that the Millennium would begin in 1863. (Skinner p.109)
1867 The Anglican minister Michael Paget Baxter was an ardent date setter, a veritable Charles Taylor of the 19th century. In one of his earliest publications he predicted the End for 1861-1867. (McIver #348)
1868 In another publication Michael Baxter claimed the Battle of Armageddon would take place this year. (Abanes p.338, McIver #349)
1869 Another End according to Michael Baxter. (McIver #350)
Jun 28, 1870 The end of the world as per Irvin Moore's book The Final Destiny of Man, to be followed by Christ's millennial reign on Earth. He predicted that during this year, France would fall, and Jerusalem would become the capital of the world. (McIver #746)
1872 Michael Baxter predicted another Armageddon in 1871-72 or thereabouts. (McIver #351)
1874 The end of the world according to the Jehovah's Witnesses. This was to become the first in a long string of failed doomsday prophecies by members of this group. (Gould p.50, Kyle p.93)
The Parousia according to the newly formed Seventh Day Adventists, a group founded by former Millerites. (Abanes p.339)
1878 The end of the world according to the Jehovah's Witnesses. (Kyle p.93)
1880 Thomas Rawson Birks in his book First Elements of Sacred Prophecy determined that the end of the world would be in 1880 by employing the time-honored Great Week theory. (McIver #371)
1881 The end of the world according to the Jehovah's Witnesses. (Kyle p.93)
The end of the world according to some pyramidologists. (Randi p.242)
16th century prophetess Mother Shipton is said to have written the couplet:
The world to an end shall come In eighteen hundred and eighty one.
In 1873, it was revealed that the couplet was a forgery by Charles Hindley, who published Mother Shipton's prophecies in 1862. This did not stop people from expecting the end in 1881, however. (Schwartz p.122, Randi p.242-243)
1890 Northern Paiute leader Wovoka predicted the Millennium beginning in 1890. This prediction came from a trance he experienced during a solar eclipse in 1889. Wovoka was a practitioner of the Ghost Dance cult, a bizarre hybrid of apocalyptic Christianity and American Indian mysticism. (Gould p.56-57, p.69)
1891 In 1835 Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism, foresaw the Second Coming taking place in 56 years' time, or about 1891. (Source: exmormon.org)
1895 The Millennium, according to Reverend Robert Reid of Erie, Pennsylvania. (Weber p.176)
1896 Michael Baxter (he's baaaack!) wrote a book entitled The End of This Age About the End of This Century in which predicted the Rapture taking place in 1896. According to Rev. Baxter, 144,000 true Christians were supposed to be summoned to Heaven during this year. (Thompson p.121)
1899 Charles A.L. Totten predicted that 1899 was a possible date for the end of the world. Interestingly, the infamous "NASA discovers missing day" urban legend has its roots in Totten's writings. (McIver #924)
1900 Father Pierre Lachèze foresaw Doomsday occurring in 1900, eight years after the Temple in Jerusalem was to be rebuilt. (Weber p.136)
Followers of Brazilian ascetic Antonio Conselheiro expected the end to come by the year 1900. (Thompson p.125-126)
Nov 13, 1900 Over 100 members of the Russian cult Brothers and Sisters of the Red Death committed suicide, expecting the world to end on this day. (Sources: Portuguese article and this site)
1901 A sect calling itself the Catholic Apostolic Church claimed that Jesus would return by the time the last of its 12 founding members died. The last member died in 1901. (Boyer p.87)
Rev. Michael Baxter foresaw the end of the world in 1901 in his book The End of This Age About the End of This Century. (Thompson p.121)
Apr 23, 1908 Once again, it's Michael Baxter. In his book Future Wonders of Prophecy, the Rapture was to take place on March 12, 1903 between 2pm and 3pm, and Armageddon was to take place on this day, which is after the Tribulation. (McIver #353)
Oct 1908 Pennsylvanian grocery store owner Lee T. Spangler claimed that the world would meet a fiery end during this month. (Abanes p.339)
1910 The end of the world according to the Jehovah's Witnesses. (Kyle p.93)
May 18, 1910 Many people believed the arrival of Halley's Comet would spell the end of the world. Some thought that cyanide gas from the comet's tail would poison the Earth's atmosphere. In Germany, one could buy postcards depicting apocalyptic scenes bearing the caption, "End of the World on May 18". Con artists took advantage of people's fears by selling "comet pills" to make people immune to the toxins...or so they claimed. (Weber p.196-198, Abanes p.339)
1911 19th century Scottish astronomer and pyramidologist Charles Piazzi Smyth concluded from his research on the dimensions of the Great Pyramid of Giza that the Second Coming would occur between 1892 and 1911. (Cohen p.94)
Oct 1, 1914 The end of the world according to the Jehovah's Witnesses. In fact, they viewed World War I as the Battle of Armageddon. (Skinner p.102)
1915 The beginning of the Millennium according to John Chilembwe, fundamentalist leader of a rebellion in Nyasaland (present-day Malawi). (Gould p.54-55, p.69)
1918 The end of the world according to the Jehovah's Witnesses. (Kyle p.93)
Dec 17, 1919 According to meteorologist Albert Porta, a conjunction of six planets on this date would cause a magnetic current to "pierce the sun, cause great explosions of flaming gas, and eventually engulf the Earth." Panic erupted in many countries around the world because of this prediction, and some even committed suicide. (Abanes p.60-61)
1925 The end of the world according to the Jehovah's Witnesses. (Kyle p.93)
Feb 13, 1925 According to Margaret Rowan, the angel Gabriel appeared before her in a vision and told her that the world would end at midnight on this date, which happened to be Friday the 13th. (Abanes p.45)
Spring 1928 J.B. Dimbleby calculated that the Millennium would begin in the spring of 1928, with the Rapture and Second coming taking place between 1889 and 1928. But the true end of the world, he claimed, wouldn't take pace until around the year 3000. (McIver #495)
1934 Final apocalyptic battle was to begin, claimed Chicago preacher Nathan Cohen Beskin in 1931. (Abanes p.280)
Sep 1935 In 1931, Wilbur Glen Voliva announced that "the world is going to go 'puff' and disappear in September, 1935." (Abanes p.287)
1936 Herbert W. Armstrong, founder of the Worldwide Church of God, told members of his church that the Rapture was to take place in 1936, and that only they would saved. After the prophecy failed, he changed he date three more times. (Shaw p.99)
End of the world according to some pyramidologists. (Randi p.242)
1938 Gus McKey claimed in a pamphlet that the 6000th year since Creation would come between 1931 and 1938, signifying the end of the world. (Abanes p.283)
1941 The end of the world according to the Jehovah's Witnesses. (Shaw p.72)
The end of the world according to Leonard Dale-Harrison. (Kyle p.111)
1943 Herbert W. Armstrong's Rapture prediction #2. (Shaw p.99)
Sep 21, 1945 In 1938 a minister named Long had a vision of a mysterious hand writing the number 1945 and a voice saying the world would be destroyed at 5:33pm on September 21. His prophecy failed, naturally. (Source: Portuguese article)
1947 In 1889, John Ballou Newbrough (aka "America's Greatest Prophet") foresaw the destruction of all nations and the beginning of post-apocalyptic anarchy in 1947. I guess he wasn't such a great prophet after all. Newbrough was the founder of the Oahspe cult. (Randi p.243)
1950 The end of the world, as per Henry Adams. (Mann p.x)
1952 In 1950, a young Billy Graham stated "We may have another year, maybe two years. Then I believe it is going to be over." (Source: Article by Hugo McCord)
Jan 9, 1953 The end of the world, according to Agnes Carlson, the founder of a Canadian cult called the Sons of Light. (Source: Portuguese article)
Aug 1953 Pyramidologist David Davidson, in his book The Great Pyramid, Its Divine Message, wrote that the Millennium would begin sometime during this month. (Source: article by John Baskette)
Dec 21, 1954 The world was to be destroyed by terrible flooding on this date, claimed Dorothy Martin (a.k.a. Marian Keech), leader of a UFO cult called Brotherhood of the Seven Rays (a.k.a. The Seekers). Among the members of this cult were George Hunt Williamson and the aptly named Charles Laughead. This case became the subject of Leon Festinger's book When Prophecy Fails, the classic, ground-breaking case study of cognitive dissonance and the effect that failed prophecy has on "true believers". (Festinger, Heard p.46-48, McIver #1949)
Apr 23, 1957 According to Mihran Ask, a pastor from California, "Sometime between April 16 and 23, 1957, Armageddon will sweep the world! Millions of persons will perish in its flames and the land will be scorched."
(Watchtower, Oct 15, 1958, p.613)
1958 David A. Latimer, in his book Opening of the Seven Seals and the Half Hour of Silence, predicted that the Second Coming would take place in 1956 or 1958, right after the Battle of Armageddon. (McIver #1501)
Apr 22, 1959 Victor Houteff, founder of the Davidians -- an offshoot of the Seventh Day Adventists -- prophesied that the End would be coming soon, but he never set a date. After his death, however, his widow Florence prophesied that the Rapture would take place on April 22, 1959. Hundreds of faithful gathered at Mount Carmel outside Waco to await the big moment, but it was not to be. (Thompson p.289)
1960 Pyramidologist Charles Piazzi Smyth (see the 1911 entry) claimed that the Millennium would begin no later than 1960. (Source: article by John Baskette)
Feb 4, 1962 A planetary alignment on this day was to bring destruction to the world. Incidentally, the Antichrist was supposed to have been born the following day, according to pop psychic/astrologer Jeane Dixon. (Abanes p.340)
1966 Between 1965 and 1966, an apocalyptic battle was to occur, resulting in the fall of the United States, claimed the Nation of Islam. (Kyle p.162)
1967 The establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven, according to Rev. Sun Myung Moon. (Kyle p.148)
A young Jim Jones, who later became guru of the Kool-Aid cult People's Temple, had visions that a nuclear holocaust was to take place in 1967. (Weber p.214)
Aug 20, 1967 The beginning of the third woe of the Apocalypse, during which the southeastern US would be destroyed by a Soviet nuclear attack, according to UFO prophet George Van Tassel, who claimed to have channeled an alien named Ashtar. (Alnor p.145)
Dec 25, 1967 Danish cult leader Knud Weiking claimed that a being named Orthon was speaking to him, saying that there would be a nuclear war by Christmas 1967 that would disturb the Earth's orbit. His followers built a survival bunker in preparation for this catastrophe.
Aug 9, 1969 Second Coming of Christ, according to George Williams, leader of the Morrisites, a 19th century branch of Mormonism. (Robbins p.77)
Nov 22, 1969 The Day of Judgement, according to Robin McPherson, who
supposedly channeled an alien named Ox-Ho. (Shaw p.154)
1972 Herbert W. Armstrong's Rapture prediction #3. (Shaw p.99)
1973 David Berg (aka Moses David), guru of the Children of God (aka the Family of Love, or just "The Family"), predicted in his publication The Endtime News! the United States would be destroyed by Comet Kohoutek in 1973. (McIver #2095)
Jan 1974 David Berg predicted in his so-called Mo Letters that Comet Kohoutek would destroy the US during this month. (Kyle p.145)
1975 The end of the world according to the Jehovah's Witnesses. (Kyle p.93) Herbert W. Armstrong's Rapture prediction #4. (Shaw p.99)
The Rapture, as per end-time preacher Charles Taylor. This is the first in a long series of failed predictions. (Abanes p.99)
1976 Charles Taylor's Rapture prediction #2. (Abanes p.99)
1977 John Wroe (the Southcottian who had himself publicly circumcised in 1823) set 1977 as the date of Armageddon. (Randi p.243)
Fundamentalist cult leader William Branham predicted that the Rapture would take place no later than 1977. Just before this, Los Angeles was to fall into the sea after an earthquake, the Vatican would achieve dictatorial powers over the world, and all of Christianity would become unified. (Babinski p.277)
Pyramidologist Adam Rutherford expected that the Millennium would begin in 1977. (Source: article by John Baskette)
1978 In his book The Doomsday Globe, John Strong drew on scriptures, pyramidology, pole shift theory, young-earth creationism and other mysticism to conclude that Doomsday would come in 1978. (McIver #3237)
Sometime in the 1980s In his book Armageddon 198? Stephen D. Swihart predicted the End would occur sometime in the 1980s.
1980 Charles Taylor's Rapture prediction #3. (Abanes p.99)
Apr 1, 1980 Radio preacher Willie Day Smith of Irving, Texas, claimed that this day would witness the Second Coming. (Source: What About the Second Coming of Christ?)
Apr 29, 1980 Leland Jensen, founder of the Bahá'ís Under the Provisions of the Covenant -- a small sect that mixes mainstream Bahá'í teachings with pyramidology and Bible prophecy -- predicted that a nuclear holocaust would occur on this day, killing a third of the world's population. After the prophecy failed, Jensen rationalized that this date was merely the beginning of the Tribulation. (Robbins p.73)
1981 The establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven, according to Rev. Sun Myung Moon. (Kyle p.148)
Charles Taylor's Rapture prediction #4. (Abanes p.99)
Pastor Chuck Smith, founder of Calvary Chapel, wrote in his book Future Survival, "I'm convinced that the Lord is coming for His Church before the end of 1981." Smith arrived at his calculation by adding 40 (one "Biblical generation") to 1948 (the year of Israel's statehood) and subtracting 7 for the Tribulation. When 1981 passed by, the group members experienced a mini version of the Great Disappointment of 1844. (Abanes p.326)
June 28, 1981 Rev. Bill Maupin, leader of a small Tuscon, AZ, sect named Lighthouse Gospel Tract Foundation, preached that the world would come to an end on this day, which they called "rapture day." Those who were saved would be "spirited aloft like helium balloons." Some 50 people gathered in a Millerite-like fashion, only to have their dreams predictably dashed. (Source: Philosophy and the Scientific Method by Ronald C. Pine)
August 7, 1981 When his June 28 prediction failed, Bill Maupin claimed that doomsday would take place 40 days later. Maupin said that just as Noah's ark was gradually raised to safety over a period of 40 days, the same would happen to the world. (Source: a former member of Maupin's church, who was kind enough to share this information with me.)
1982 Charles Taylor's Rapture prediction #5. (Abanes p.99)
Jesus was to return and rapture Christians away from the Tribulation in 1982, taught Canadian prophet Doug Clark. He used the Jupiter Effect to support his thesis, claiming it would trigger earthquakes and fires that would kill millions. (Abanes p.91)
Emil Gaverluk of the Southwest Radio Church suggested that the Jupiter Effect would pull Mars to out of orbit and send it careening into the Earth. (Abanes p.100-101)
Mar 10, 1982 When the planets lined up, their combined gravitational forces were supposed to bring the end of the world. A book called The Jupiter Effect, by John Gribbin and Stephen Plagemann, helped to spread these fears. An excellent article on planetary lineups can be found here. (Abanes p.62)
Jun 25, 1982 Benjamin Creme, British artist and founder of Tara Center, on April 25, 1982 took out an ad in the Los Angeles Times proclaiming "THE CHRIST IS NOW HERE", referring to the coming of Maitreya within 2 months. Creme supposedly received the messages from Maitreya through "channeling." Perhaps his ad should have read, "THE CHRIST IS NOWHERE"! (Grosso p.7, Oropeza p.155)
Fall 1982 In the late '70s, Pat Robertson predicted the end of the world would occur in the fall of 1982. "I guarantee you by the end of 1982 there is going to be a judgment on the world," he said in a May, 1980 broadcast of the 700 Club. (Boyer p.138)
1983 Apocalyptic war between the US and the Soviet Union was supposed to break out by the end of 1983, said the End Times News Digest. (Shaw p.182)
Charles Taylor's Rapture prediction #6. (Abanes p.99)
Oct 2, 1984 The end of the world according to the Jehovah's Witnesses. (Shermer p.203, Kyle p.91)
1985 The end of the world according to Lester Sumrall in his book I Predict 1985. (Abanes p.99, 341)
Charles Taylor's Rapture prediction #7. (Abanes p.99)
The Socialist National Aryan People's Party was convinced that Jesus would return in 1985. (Weber p.209)
Mar 25, 1985 The beginning of World War III, as prophesied by Vern Grimsley of the doomsday cult Family of God Foundation. This cult was a small offshoot of the Urantia Foundation, a loosely organized religious group that uses as its scripture a tedious 2000 page tome called the Urantia Book. (Sources: here and here)
Aug 1985 Date of World War III, according to the 1977 bestseller The Third World War: August 1985 by retired NATO General Sir John Hackett. While not really a prophecy, the book was written as a warning to world leaders about what could realistically happen based on world developments at that time.
1986 Charles Taylor's Rapture prediction #8. (Abanes p.99)
Apr 29, 1987 Leland Jensen of the Bahá'ís Under the Provisions of the Covenant predicted that Halley's Comet would be pulled into Earth's orbit on April 29, 1986, and chunks of the comet would pelt the Earth for a year. The gravitational force of the comet would cause great earthquakes, and on April 29, 1987, the comet itself would crash into the Earth wreaking widespread destruction. When the prophecies failed, Jensen rationalized the failure as follows: "A spiritual stone hit the earth." (Robbins p.73, 78)
1987 Charles Taylor's Rapture prediction #9. (Abanes p.99)
Aug 17, 1987 The "Harmonic Convergence." New Age author José Argüelles claimed that Armageddon would take place unless 144,000 people gathered in certain places in the world in order to "resonate in harmony" on this day. Apparently, their resonating succeeded: we're still here. (McIver #2023, Kyle p.156, Wojcik p.207)
1988 Hal Lindsey's bestseller The Late, Great Planet Earth, suggested that the Rapture would take place in 1988, reasoning that it was 40 years (one Biblical generation) after Israel gained statehood. (Abanes p.85)
Charles Taylor's Rapture prediction #10. (Abanes p.99)
Canadian prophet Doug Clark suggested 1988 as the date of the Rapture, in his book Final Shockwaves to Armageddon. (Abanes p.91)
David Webber and Noah Hutchings of the Southwest Radio Church suggested that the Rapture would take place "possibly in 1987 or 1988." (Abanes p.101)
The Rapture, according to TV prophet J.R. Church in hiss book Hidden Prophecies in the Psalms. He used a bizarre theory that each of the Psalms referred to a year in the 20th century (i.e. Psalm 1 represents the events in 1901, etc.), to arrive at this conclusion. (Abanes p.103)
Colin Deal wrote a book entitled Christ Returns by 1988: 101 Reasons Why. (Oropeza p.175)
Sep 13, 1988 Edgar C. Whisenant lightened the wallets of many a believer with his best-selling book 88 Reasons Why The Rapture Will Be in 1988. He predicted the Rapture between September 11 and 13 (Rosh Hashanah). After his prediction failed, he released another book: The Final Shout: Rapture Report 1989. (Kyle p.121, Abanes p.93)
Sep 15, 1988 After Whisenant's prediction failed, he insisted that the Rapture would take place at 10:55 am on September 15. (Abanes p.94)
Oct 3, 1988 Incredulous that yet another prediction failed, Whisenant pushed the date of the Rapture forward to October 3. (Abanes p.94)
1989 Charles Taylor's Rapture prediction #11. (Abanes p.99)
In his 1968 book Guide to Survival, Salem Kirban used Bishop Ussher's calculations to conclude that 1989 would be the year of the Rapture. (Abanes p.283)
In 1978, Oklahoma City's Southwest Radio Church published a pamphlet entitled God's Timetable for the 1980s in which were listed prophecies for each year of the 1980s, culminating with Christ's return and the establishment of his kingdom on Earth in 1989. With the exception of a couple predictable astronomical events, none of the predictions came true.
Sep 30, 1989 After his 1988 Rapture prediction failed, Edgar C. Whisenant pointed to Rosh Hashanah 1989 as a possible date for the Rapture. (Abanes p.94)
Hart Armstrong, president of Christian Communications of Wichita, repeatedly suggested that the Feast of Trumpets 1989 would be the date of the Rapture. (Abanes p.93)
1990 Baptist preacher Peter Ruckman predicted that the Rapture would come round about the year 1990. (Source: article by Thomas Williamson)
Singaporean prophecy writer Kai Lok Chan foresaw Jesus Christ returning sometime between 1986 and 1990. Armageddon (a war between the US and USSR) would take place between 1984 and 1988. He argued that the Jupiter Effect corroborated his claims. (McIver #2195)
Apr 23, 1990 Elizabeth Clare Prophet, leader of the Church Universal and Triumphant, foresaw nuclear devastation and the end of most of the human race on this day, and convinced her followers to sell their property and move with her to a ranch in Montana. (Kyle p.156, Grosso p.7)
1991 The Rapture, according to fundamentalist author Reginald Dunlop. (Shaw p.180)
Louis Farrakhan declared that the Gulf War would be the "War of Armageddon which is the final war." (Abanes p.307)
Mar 31, 1991 An Australian cult looked forward to the Second Coming at 9:00 am on this day. They believed that Jesus would return through Sydney Harbour! (Source: Knowing the Day and the Hour)
1992 Charles Taylor's Rapture prediction #12. (Abanes p.99)
Apr 26, 1992 On April 26, 1989, prophecy nutcase Doug Clark announced on Trinity Broadcasting Network's show Praise the Lord that World War III would begin within 3 years. (Abanes p.92)
Apr 29, 1992 When the LA riots broke out in response to the verdict of the Rodney King trial, members of white-supremacist group Aryan Nations thought it was the final apocalyptic race war they had been waiting for. (20/20, NBC, Dec 12, 1999)
Sep 28, 1992 Christian author Dorothy A. Miller in her book Watch & Be Ready! 1992 Millions Disappear? predicted the "last trumpet" would sound on Rosh Hashanah, heralding the Second Coming. (McIver #2923)
"Rockin'" Rollen Stewart, a born-again Christian who made himself famous by holding up "John 3:16" signs at sporting events, thought the Rapture would take place on this day. Stewart went insane, setting off stink bombs in churches and bookstores and writing apocalyptic letters in a mission to make people get right with God. He is now serving a life sentence for kidnapping. (Adams p.18-20)
Oct 28, 1992 Lee Jang Rim, leader of the Korean doomsday cult Mission for the Coming Days (also known as the Tami Church), predicted that the Rapture would occur on this date. Lee was convicted of fraud after the prophecy failed. Lee's cult was part of the larger Hyoo-Go (Rapture) movement, which took Korea by storm in 1992. (Thompson p.227-228, McIver #2747)
1993 David Berg of the Children of God claimed in The Endtime News! that the Second Coming would take place in 1993. The Tribulation was to start in 1989. (McIver #2095, Kyle p.145)
Nov 14, 1993 Judgement Day, according to self-proclaimed messiah Maria Devi Khrystos (neé Marina Tsvigun), leader of the cult Great White Brotherhood. Members of the cult planned to congregate in Kiev on that day to celebrate God's coming to Earth, but their plan was thwarted by the arrest of many of the cultists. (Alnor p.93)
Dec 9, 1993 James T. Harmon added 51.57 years to May 15, 1949 (the date the UN recognized Israel) and subtracted 7 to arrive at the date of the Rapture, approximately December 9, 1993. He also suggested 1996, 2012 and 2022 as alternative rapture dates. (Oropeza p.89)
1994 R.M. Riley, in his book 1994: The Year of Destiny, wrote that 1994 would be the year of the Rapture. (McIver #3098)
Charles Taylor's Rapture prediction #13. (Abanes p.99)
Om Saleem, an Arab Christian, prophesied that the Rapture would take place in 1994, after the Antichrist was to reveal himself. (Oropeza p.148)
Dutch authors Aad Verbeek, Jan Westein and Pier Westein predicted the Second Coming in 1994 in their book Time for His Coming. (McIver #3348)
May 2, 1994 Armageddon. Neal Chase of the Bahá'ís Under the Provisions of the Covenant predicted that New York would be destroyed by a nuclear bomb on March 23, 1994, and the Battle of Armageddon would take place 40 days later. (Robbins p.79)
June 9, 1994 Pastor John Hinkle claimed that God told him the Apocalypse would take place on this day. In a cataclysmic event, God was supposed to "rip the evil out of this world." When the prophecy failed, he claimed that it's only the beginning and it's taking place invisibly. (Oropeza p.167-168)
Jul 25, 1994 On July 19, 1993, Sister Marie Gabriel Paprocski announced to the world her prophecy that a comet would hit Jupiter on or before July 25, 1994, causing the "biggest cosmic explosion in the history of mankind" and bringing on the end of the world. Indeed, a comet did hit Jupiter on
July 16, 1994. However, it is important to note that her announcement was made nearly two months after astronomer Brian Marsden discovered that Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 would hit Jupiter. (Skinner p.116, Levy p.207)
Sep 23, 1994 Reginald Dunlop claimed this was the last date encoded in the Great Pyramid of Giza, meaning that the world would not last beyond this date. (Oropeza p.128)
Sep 27, 1994 Harold Camping, head of Oakland's Family Radio and host of the station's Biblical discussion talk show Open Forum, predicted the end in his book 1994? He calculated that the Tribulation would end on September 6, followed by the Last Day and the Second Coming of Christ between Sep. 15 and Sep. 27. (Camping p.526-7, p.531)
Sep 29, 1994 Harold Camping's doomsday prediction #2. (Abanes p.95)
Oct 2, 1994 Harold Camping's doomsday prediction #3. (Abanes p.95)
1995 Armageddon, according to Henry Kresyler, head of the doomsday group Watchers in the Wilderness. (Shaw p.181)
The Second Coming of Christ, as foreseen by J.R. Church, using his Psalms theory (see 1988 above). The Battle of Armageddon would take place in 1994. (Abanes p. 103)
Mar 31, 1995 Harold Camping's doomsday prediction #4. He gave up setting dates afterwards. (Abanes p.95)
1996 James T. Harmon's Rapture prediction #2. (Oropeza p.89)
Sep 1996 The Second Coming of Christ, according to Guatemalan preacher Marvin Byers. (Oropeza p.29)
Nov 1996 The Second Coming of Christ, as foreseen in doomsday author Salty Dok's book Blessed Hope, 1996. (Oropeza p.48)
Dec 13, 1996 The resurrection of David Koresh, according to the surviving Branch Davidian cult members. Koresh, of course, never showed up. (Jordan p.113)
Dec 17, 1996 Famed psychic Sheldon Nidle predicted that the world would end on this date, with the arrival of millions of space ships. (Abanes p.341)
1997 Mary Stewart Relfe, claiming that God communicated with her in her dreams, predicted the Second Coming in 1997, right after the battle of Armageddon. "America will burn" and be totally destroyed in 1993 or 1994, she claimed. (Kyle p.120, Oropeza p.104)
The end of the world, as per a tongue-in-cheek numerological calculation by Superdave the Wonderchemist.
Mar 23, 1997 Richard Michael Schiller, posting under the name Eliyehowa and a host of other pseudonyms, flooded various Usenet newsgroups with his prediction that an asteroid trailing behind Comet Hale-Bopp would bring destruction to the Earth on this date. As the date drew near, be began backpedalling, claiming the world would be destroyed 9 months later when the Earth supposedly would pass through the comet's tail, and anyway there was no way the world would survive beyond 1997. You can see a characteristic post of his on Google.
Mar 26, 1997 Heaven's Gate suicides. The suicides occurred between March 24 and March 26, during a window of time that the cultists had predicted a UFO trailing behind Comet Hale-Bopp would pick up their souls and save them from the imminent Apocalypse. Notice the similarity between their prophecy and Schiller's one above? Both claim that an object is following the comet. This rumor started when amateur astronomer Chuck Shramek mistook a star for what he thought was a "Saturn-like object" following the comet. With the help of the Internet and the Art Bell show, the false rumor that a UFO or asteroid was trailing the comet spread like wildfire. And we all know how hard such urban legends are to quash! (Alnor p.13, 38)
May 5, 1997 On this date, the solar system was supposed to enter the Photon Belt, a mystical energy field floating through space. Once we enter the Photon Belt, something unusual is supposed to occur. Depending on the source, the world will end, aliens will land, mankind will be enlightened or achieve super powers, electrical equipment will fail...you get the picture. Nothing happened, but that hasn't stopped people from thinking we're still going to enter the Photon Belt SOON! Perhaps in 2011. (Sources: The Straight Dope, The Photon Belt Page)
Oct 1997 The Rapture, according to Brother Kenneth Hagin.
Oct 11, 1997 Internet prophet posted in various Usenet newsgroups that this date would be Judgement Day. His post can be seen on Google.
Oct 23, 1997 6000th anniversary of Creation according to the calculations of 17th Century Irish Archbishop James Ussher. This date was a popular candidate date for the end of the world. (Gould p.98)
Nov 27, 1997 According to the Sacerdotal Knights of National Security, "A space alien captured at a UFO landing site in eastern Missouri cracked under interrogation by the CIA and admitted that an extraterrestrial army will attack Earth on November 27 with the express purpose of stripping our planet of every natural resource they can find a use for -- and making slaves of every man, woman and child in the world!" (Source: Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance)
2000 There's something about those three zeroes that makes 2000 a favorite year among doomsday prophets. But now that mysterious year, anticipated and wondered about for centuries, has slipped into realm of history. There are far too many doomsday predictions to list for 2000, but here are some of the more notable ones:
Hal Lindsey, whose 1988 prediction failed, suggests the end in his recently published book, entitled Planet Earth - 2000 A.D. However, he leaves himself a face-saving outlet: "Could I be wrong? Of course. The Rapture may not occur between now and the year 2000." (Lindsey p.306)
The beginning of Christ's Millennium according to some Mormon literature, such as the publication Watch and Be Ready: Preparing for the Second Coming of the Lord. The New Jerusalem will descend from the heavens in 2000, landing in Independence, Missouri. (McIver #3377, Skinner p.100)
19th century mystic Madame Helena Petrova Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophy, foresaw the end of the world in 2000. (Shaw p.83)
Even Sir Isaac Newton was bitten by the millennium bug. He predicted that Christ's Millennium would begin in the year 2000 in his book Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John. (Schwartz p.96)
Ruth Montgomery predicts Earth's axis will shift and the Antichrist will reveal himself in 2000. (Kyle p.156, 195)
The establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven, according to Rev. Sun Myung Moon. (Kyle p.148)
The Second Coming, followed by a New Age, according to famed psychic Edgar Cayce. (Hanna p.219)
The Second Coming, as forecasted in Ed Dobson's book The End: Why Jesus Could Return by A.D. 2000.
The end of the world according to Lester Sumrall in his book I Predict 2000. (Abanes p.99, 341)
The tribulation is to occur before the year 2000, said Gordon Lindsay, founder of the Christ for the Nations Ministry. (Abanes p.280)
According to a series of lectures given by Shoko Asahara in 1992, 90% of the world's population would be annihilated by nuclear, biological and chemical weapons by the year 2000. (Thompson p.262)
One of the earliest predictions for the year 2000 was made by Petrus Olivi in 1297. He wrote that the Antichrist would come to power between 1300 and 1340, and the Last Judgement would take place around 2000. (Weber p.54)
According to American Indian spiritual leader Sun Bear, the end of the world would come in the year 2000 if the human race didn't shape up. (Abanes p.307)
18th century fire-and-brimstone preacher Jonathan Edwards concluded that Christ's thousand-year reign would begin in 2000. (Weber p.171)
The world will be devastated by AIDS in the year 2000, according to Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Afterwards, the world will be rebuilt by a peaceful matriarchal society. (Robbins p.164)
William Kamm, aka Little Pebble, is the leader of the Australian doomsday cult Order of St. Charbel, predicts that a comet will destroy the Earth before the dawn of the new millennium.
Fundamentalist conspiracy advocate Texe Marrs stated that the last days could "wrap up by the year 2000." (Abanes p.311)
Members of the Stella Maris Gnostic Church, a Colombian doomsday cult, went into Colombia's Sierra Nevada mountains over the weekend of July 3-4, 1999, weekend to be picked up by a UFO that would save them from the end of the world, which is to take place at the turn of the millennium. The cult members have disappeared. Perhaps they were picked up by aliens! (Source: BBC News).
A radical apocalyptic sect emerged in early 18th century France: the Convulsionaries. One of the members, Jacques-Joseph Duguet, anticipated the Parousia in 2000. (Kyle p.192)
Timothy Dwight (1752-1817), President of Yale University, foresaw the Millennium starting by 2000. (Kyle p.81)
Martin Luther looked at 2000 as a possible end-time date, before finally settling on 1600. (Kyle p.192)
Sukyo Mahikari, a Japanese cult, preaches that the world might be destroyed in a "baptism of fire" by 2000. (Source: ABC News)
A Vietnamese cult headed by Ca Van Lieng predicted an apocalyptic flood for 2000. But doomsday came much earlier for the cult members: he and his followers committed mass suicide in October 1993. (Source: Cult Observer archives)
Before the end of 1999, Hon-Ming Chen of the 30-member cult Chen Tao began backpedalling on his prediction of a nuclear holocaust and UFO rescue by December 31. Now Doomsday has been rescheduled to sometime "in the next year," according to cult spokesman Richard Liu. (St. Cloud Times, Dec. 26, 1999)
Sometime in 2000 ("either a few days or a few months away," according to this Sep. 12, 2000 CNN article) the End of Days will take place, say members of a Mormon-based cult near the Utah-Arizona border. Hundreds of memmbers of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have pulled their kids out of school' in preparation for the Big Day.
Jan 1, 2000 January 1, 2000. Jesus did not descend from the heavens. President Clinton did not declare himself dictator-for-life. The Antichrist did not rise to power. Nuclear missiles were not launched. Aircraft did not fall out of the sky. The global economy did not collapse. Terrorist bombs did not explode. The power did not go out. My computer still works.
What we did have were some huge parties, spectacular fireworks displays, a Barry Manilow concert, head-splitting hangovers, lots of confetti to clean up, and some embarrassed survivalists who had spent their New Years holed up in armed fortresses when they could have been partying in Times Square.
Y2K!! Compounding people's apocalyptic hopes and fears for 2000 was a technological problem that came to be known as Y2K. This problem was hyped by the media, preachers, doomsayers and the authors of a myriad Y2K preparedness books as something that promised to bring the world to a catastrophic standstill. But thanks to the diligent efforts of programmers, governments and companies throughout the world, the bite of the "Y2K bug" turned out to be mostly harmless. There were a few minor glitches here and there, but nothing serious. The fundamentalists who claimed that Y2K is all part of God's plan or that the Antichrist would use Y2K to seize power have been proven wrong! In the aftermath of this ultimate disconfirmation many of them have tried to salvage their dignity by saying "Just you wait! It's only the beginning of the end!" To the Y2K doomsayers I smugly say, "I told you so!" Here's an interesting article about the combination of Y2K with mystical
expectations.
In the honored tradition of the "comet pills" of 1910, many hucksters took advantage of people's Y2K fears to reap a tidy doomsday profit by selling survival gear. Now all those who "stocked up for Y2K" will have to figure out what to do with all those packets of freeze-dried food, bottles of water, gasoline generators, wood-burning stoves and shotgun shells.
For an example of the extent that Y2K doomsday paranoia can grip someone, take a gander at Gary North's page. In your face, Gary!!!
The Christian apocalyptic cult House of Prayer, headed by one Brother David, expected Christ to descend onto the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem on this day. The Israeli government recently kicked them out of the country in a preemptive strike against potentially violent doomsday nutcases who may attempt to catalyze the Apocalypse through terrorist acts such as blowing up the Dome of the Rock.
John WorldPeace sent this post to Usenet, claiming that the failure of Jesus to return on January 1 will lead to the people of the world finally abandoning war and hatred as foolish pursuits and instead embracing peace, love and tolerance. Wouldn't it be great if he were right?
Bobby Bible, a 60-year-old fundamentalist, believed that Jesus would descend from Heaven at the stroke of midnight in Jerusalem and rapture his church.
A Philippine cult called Tunnels of Salvation taught that the world would end on January 1. The cult's guru, Cerferino Quinte, claimed that the world would be destroyed in an "all consuming rain of fire" on January 1. (I guess his prediction came partially true: there were plenty of fireworks going off around the world that night.) In order to survive the world's destruction, the cult members built an elaborate series of tunnels where he had stockpiled a year's worth of supplies for 700 people. CESNUR)
UK native Ann Willem spent the New Year in Israel, expecting to be raptured by Jesus on New Year's Day. "It didn't happen the way it was supposed to," she said of the failure of the Rapture to take place. (USA Today p.5A, 1/3/00)
Jerry Falwell foresaw God pouring out his judgement on the world on New Year's Day. According to Falwell, God "may be preparing to confound our language, to jam our communications, scatter our efforts, and judge us for our sin and rebellion against his lordship. We are hearing from many sources that January 1, 2000, will be a fateful day in the history of the world." Happy New Year! (Christianity Today, Jan. 11, 1999)
Timothy LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, authors of the bestselling Left Behind series of apocalyptic fiction, expected the Y2K bug to trigger global economic chaos, which the Antichrist would use to rise to power. As the big day approached, they, like other doomsayers, backpedalled. (Source: Washington Post)
Jan 16, 2000 Religious scholar Dr. Marion Derlette (.pdf link) claims the world is to end on January 16, according to an article in Weekly World News. This event is to occur after a series of natural and manmade catastrophes starting in 1997, and will be followed by an era of paradise on Earth. (This date is shown as January 6, 2000 in Richard Abanes' book End-Time Visions.) (Abanes p.43)
Feb 11, 2000 On his bro<br/<br/(Message over 64 KB, truncated)
