Danielle Parisi's Thesis Project
TIMELINE OF APOCALYPSE PREDICTIONS
BC
ca. 2800 BC
An inscription found on an Assyrian clay tablet dating to approximately 2800 BC reads:
“Our Earth is degenerate in these later days; there are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end; bribery and corruption are common; children no longer obey their parents; every man wants to write a book and the end of the world is evidently approaching.”
It is the earliest known example of the perception of moral decay in society being interpreted as a sign of the imminent end. The Assyrian Empire ended in 612 B.C., thanks to the Babylonian army attacking its capital.
634 BC
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)
THE NEW MILLENNIUM
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!)
(66–70
Simon bar Giora, Jewish Essenes – The Essene sect of Jewish ascetics saw the Jewish revolt against the Romans in 66–70 in Judea as the final end-time battle before the arrival of the Messiah. By the authority of Simon, coins were minted declaring the redemption of Israel.)
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 (an early French bishop) predicted the world would end in 365. (Source: Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance)
Late 4th Century
The early French bishop, 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.”
Implying that the world would end before 400 AD.
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) He then revised the date of Doomsday to 800 AD. (Kyle p.37)
– 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)
April 6th, 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.(Abanes p. 168-169, Weber p.50)
806
French 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)
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)
1000S
1000
There are speculations that a “panic terror” swept Europe in the years and months before the turn of the millennium. Many Christian clerics predicted that the end of the world would occur in the year 1000, including Pope Sylvester II. Riots broke out Europe and pilgrims headed east to Jerusalem in hopes they would be saved.
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)
Following the failure of the January 1, 1000 prediction, some theorists proposed that the end would occur 1000 years after Jesus’ death, instead of his birth.
1100S
1184
Various Christian prophets foresaw the Antichrist coming in 1184. (Abanes p.338)
September 23rd, 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)
1200S
1260
Italian mystic Joachim of Fiore (1135-1202) determined that the Millennium would begin between 1200 and 1260. (Kyle p.48) His followers (the Joachites) rescheduled the End to 1290 when his 1260 prophecy failed. (McIver #58)
1284
Pope Innocent III believed that the Second Coming of Christ would take place in 1284 because it would be 666 years after the rise of Islam. He attempted to rally Europe to capture Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land from the Ayyubid Empire. He thought of the rise of Islam as reign of the Antichrist—whose defeat would usher in the Second Coming. In 1213, Innocent III wrote:
“A son of perdition has arisen, the false prophet Muhammed, who has seduced many men from the truth by worldly enticements and the pleasures of the flesh… we nevertheless put our trust in the Lord who has already given us a sign that good is to come, that the end of this beast is approaching, whose number, according to the Revelation of Saint John, will end in 666 years, of which already nearly 600 have passed.”
However, the last crusader kingdom did fall to Sultan Khalil in 1284, while the rest of the world was fine.
1300S
1346-51
The black plague spreading across Europe was interpreted by many as the sign of the end of times.
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)
1400S
February 14th, 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)
1500S
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)
(Believed he was living during the Tribulation, and that the Millennium would begin in three and a half years from 1500. Wrote into his The Mystical Nativity that the Devil was loose and would soon be chained.)
Art historians believe that Botticelli was influenced by the sermons of Girolamo Savonarola—a Dominican monk who urged both rich and poor alike to repent for their sins and renounce worldly pleasures. Certain that the apocalypse was near, Savonarola predicted, “the sword of the Lord will come upon the earth swiftly and soon” in the form of war, pestilence and famine.
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. As it happened, it didn’t even rain in London on that date. (Randi p.236-237)
(A group of astrologers in London predicted the world would end by a flood starting in London, based on calculations made the previous June. 20,000 Londoners left their homes and headed for higher ground in anticipation.)
February 20th, 1524
In 1499, the German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Stöffler predicted that a vast flood would engulf the world on February 20, 1524. (His calculations foretold 20 planetary conjunctions during this year—16 of which would take place in a “watery sign,” a.k.a. Pisces.) In Europe, more than 100 different pamphlets were published endorsing Stöffler’s doomsday prophecy. Business boomed for boat-builders, not least for German nobleman Count von Iggleheim, who constructed a three-story ark on the Rhine. Although 1524 was a drought year in Europe, a light rain did fall on the designated day. Crowds of people—hoping to gain a seat on Iggleheim’s ark—began to riot. Hundreds were killed and the count was stoned to death. Stöffler later recalculated the actual date to be 1528, but by then his reputation as a soothsayer had been ruined. That’s kind of a shame because, according to a story told in 1558 by German historian Hieronymus Wolf, Stöffler once predicted that his life would be endangered by a “falling body.” He chose to spend that day indoors, where, during a discussion with friends, Stöffler reached to grab a book from a shelf, which came loose and smashed him on the head, seriously injuring him.
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)
May 27th, 1528
Reformer Hans Hut predicted the end would occur on Pentecost (May 27, Julian calendar). (Weber p.67, Shaw p.44)
1532
Frederick Nausea, 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)
October 19th, 1533
Mathematician Michael Stifel calculated that the Day of Judgement would begin at 8:00am on this day. (McIver #88)
April 5th, 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)
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)
April 28th, 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)
1588
Regiomontanus – Predicted the end of the world during this year.
1600S
1600
Martin Luther believed that the End would occur no later than 1600. (Weber p.66)
February 1st, 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, would be Zevi himself. (Randi p.239, Festinger)
1651
unknown author from Lübeck, Germany – The apocalypse maps tell of an Antichrist, the rise of Islam and other events following Judgement Day that was predicted to occur in 1651.
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)
1656-58?
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)
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. (Kyle p.67)
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)
-Also, the death of 100,000 Londoners to bubonic plague
– 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 (#2 in 1700), 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 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 (1716 and 1736). (Abanes p.338)
1700S
1700s
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, 1706, & 1708
The End, according to some Camisard prophets. (Kyle p.70)
April 5th, 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)
1757
In a vision, angels supposedly informed mystic Emanuel Swedenborg that the world would end in 1757. (Randi p.241, Weber p.104)
April 5th, 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)
1776
The American Revolution. Apocalyptic rhetoric fuels the rebellion: colonial pamphleteers equate the hated Stamp Act with the “mark of the beast” from Revelation, and cast King George in the role of Antichrist. They also see their victory in apocalyptic terms, as a sign that America is truly destined to become Christ’s new millennial kingdom.
May 19th, 1780
At 9 a.m. on May 19, 1780, the sky over New England was enveloped in darkness. An 1881 article in Harper’s Magazine stated that, “Birds went to roost, cocks crowed at mid-day as at midnight, and the animals were plainly terrified.” The unnatural gloom is believed to have been caused by smoke from forest fires, possibly coupled with heavy fog. But at the time, some feared the worst. “People [came] out wringing their hands and howling, the Day of Judgment is come,” recalled a Revolutionary War fifer. The “Dark Day” ended at midnight, when the stars once again became visible in the night sky.
1789
The coming of the Antichrist, according to 14th century Cardinal Pierre d’Ailly. (Weber p.59)
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)
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)
November 19th, 1795
While campaigning for Richard Brothers’ release, Nathaniel Brassey Halhead proclaimed that the world would end on Nov 19. (McIver #310)
1800S
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. (Schwartz p.101)
1806
In Leeds, England in 1806 a hen began laying eggs on which the phrase “Christ is coming” was written. Eventually it was discovered to be a hoax. The owner, Mary Bateman, had written on the eggs in a corrosive ink so as to etch the eggs, and reinserted the eggs back into the hen’s oviduct.
December 25th or October 19, 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)
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)
(He wrote that Revelation 12:14 referred to the years 1058–1836, “when Christ should come”.)
1843
Harriet Livermore’s Parousia prediction #1 (#2 in 1847). (McIver #699)
April 28th, 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)
December 31st, 1843
Many Millerites expected Jesus to return at the end of 1843. (Festinger p.16)
March 21st, 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)
October 22nd, 1844
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)
August 7th, 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)
1853-56
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)
1861-65
America is torn by the Civil War, a conflict so great it taps into apocalyptic fears and expectations. For example, the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” written by Julia Ward Howe, clearly is drenched in apocalyptic imagery: “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord … He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword …”
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 (and founder of the Christian Israelite Church), 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) Other predicted dates for apocalyptic events include: 1868, 1869, 1871-72, 1896, 1901, 1903, and 1908.
1874
Charles Taze Russell, founder of theJehovah’s Witnesses, predicted the return of Jesus to occur in 1874, and after this date reinterpreted the prediction to say that Jesus had indeed returned in invisible form.
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
– 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)
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)
1900S
November 13th, 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)
1910S
May 18th, 1910
Comets have long been viewed as portents of doom—and the reappearance of Halley’s comet in 1910 was no exception. Early that year, British and Irish writers opined that the comet was a harbinger of a forthcoming invasion by Germany. Some Parisians blamed the comet for a massive flood of the Seine River that devastated their city. But full-fledged panic would erupt when Chicago’s Yerkes Observatory announced in February 1910 that it had detected a poisonous gas called cyanogen in Halley’s tail. The New York Times reported that the noted French astronomer, Camille Flammarion believed the gas “would impregnate that atmosphere and possibly snuff out all life on the planet.” Most scientists sought to reassure the public. The famed astronomer Percival Lowell explained that the gases making up Halley’s tail were “so rarefied as to be thinner than any vacuum.” But the damage had already been done. People rushed to purchase gas masks and “comet pills.” The New York Times reported that “terror occasioned by the near approach of Halley’s comet has seized hold of a large part of the population of Chicago.” Likewise, the Atlanta Constitution reported that people in Georgia were preparing safe rooms and covering even keyholes with paper. (One man, the paper said, had “armed himself with a gallon of whiskey” and requested that friends lower him to the bottom of a dry well, 40 feet deep.) After Halley’s passed by the Earth in May, the Chicago Tribune announced (unnecessarily) “We’re Still Here.” Not everyone, however, was caught up in the apocalyptic frenzy. Rooftop “comet parties” were all the rage in cities throughout the United States.
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)
1914
– The outbreak of the First World War, the largest-scale conflict the world had ever seen, unleashes a torrent of apocalyptic fears.
– The Jehovah’s Witnesses also believe that this will be the year of the Second Coming, when Christ will free the world from Satan’s domination through national governments. Charles Taze Russell, founder of the movement, had predicted Christ’s invisible return in 1874, followed by his Second Coming in 1914, which would mark the end of “the time of the Gentiles.” In 1884 he founded the Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society, which produced books and pamphlets explaining his system. In 1931, the Society would change its name to the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
October 1st, 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)
Charles Taze Russell – “…the battle of the great day of God Almighty… The date of the close of that “battle” is definitely marked in Scripture as October 1914. It is already in progress, its beginning dating from October, 1874.”
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)
December 17th, 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)
1920S
1920
International Bible Students Association – In 1918, Christendom would go down as a system to oblivion and be succeeded by revolutionary governments. God would “destroy the churches wholesale and the church members by the millions.” Church members would “perish by the sword of war, revolution and anarchy.” The dead would lie unburied. In 1920 all earthly governments would disappear, with worldwide anarchy prevailing.
February 13th, 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)
1930S
1933
National Socialist leader Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany, within months establishing single-party rule and turning the country into a police state. His twisted millennial vision of a Third Reich, while not overtly religious, borrows heavily from the religious apocalyptic tradition. The most obvious parallel is the Nazi’s demonization of the Jews, which would mark a new low in the long history of antisemitism.
September 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 (1943, 1972, and 1975). (Shaw p.99)
1939-45
The Second World War outpaces the first, making it the most destructive event the world has ever known. In 1945, the world enters the Atomic Age with the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Suddenly, the second epistle of Peter didn’t sound so far-fetched: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night … the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with a fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” (2 Pet. 3:10 KJV) The fact that man now clearly possessed the means of his own destruction would reawaken apocalyptic fears among believers and non-believers alike.
1940S
September 21st, 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. (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. Newbrough was the founder of the Oahspe cult. (Randi p.243)
p.289)
1950S
December 21st, 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)
April 23rd, 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)
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)
1960S
February 4th, 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
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)
August 20th, 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)
December 25th, 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.
1969
Charles Manson predicted that an apocalyptic race war would occur in 1969 and ordered the Tate-LaBianca murders in an attempt to bring it about. Manson based his prediction on his interpretation of The Beatles’ self-titled album.
August 9th, 1969
Second Coming of Christ, according to George Williams, leader of the Morrisites, a 19th century branch of Mormonism. (Robbins p.77)
November 22th, 1969
The Day of Judgement, according to Robin McPherson, who supposedly channeled an alien named Ox-Ho. (Shaw p.154)
1970S
1970
Hal Lindsey publishes Late Great Planet Earth, which becomes so popular the New York Times has called him the best selling author of the 1970s. Espousing a basic premillennialist vision, the former Campus Crusade for Christ recruiter pitches his argument to young people, cleverly demonstrating how current events could best be viewed in light of prophecy. In 1977, Orson Welles would narrate a movie version of Late Great Planet Earth.
Lindsey’s success spawns a host of imitators, whose books, films, videos, web sites and other products are a multi-million dollar business today.
1973-January 11-21st 1974
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)
David Berg predicted in his so-called Mo Letters that Comet Kohoutek would destroy the US during this month. (Kyle p.145)
1975
The Rapture, as per end-time preacher Charles Taylor. This is the first in a long series of failed predictions. (1976, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1994, and 2001)(Abanes p.99)
1976
The Brahma Kumaris founder, Lekhraj Kirpalani, has made a number of predictions of a global Armageddon which the religion believes it will inspire, internally calling it “Destruction” but externally presenting it as “Transformation”. During Destruction, Brahma Kumari leaders teach the world will be purified, all of the rest of humanity killed by nuclear or civil wars and natural disasters which will include the sinking of all other continents except India. All other religions will also be destroyed, so that they alone will inherit the Earth for 2,500 years. These predictions are generally hidden from outsiders and, as they have failed, have been removed from their literature.
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)
1978
The world is shocked by the mass suicide at the Jonestown community in Guyana. The Reverend Jim Jones had established branches of his People’s Temple up and down California in the late 1960s, appealing to the urban poor, especially African Americans, with his curious blend of religious and socialistic messianism. By 1976 he had accumulated enough influence and political power in San Francisco that he was named to the city’s Housing Commission. But beginning in July 1977, exposes of his group’s outlandish practices forced Jones to flee permanently to the colony he had begun building in Guyana a few years before, which he saw as “a revolutionary challenge to a corrupt world.” The mass suicide was ordered by Jones after members of the Temple had murdered Congressman Leo Ryan and four others as they prepared to depart Guyana after an investigation. Before the grisly end came, Jones had been preparing the group for a possible relocation to Russia, which he had been slated to be the next “heaven on earth,” an interesting departure from the anti-communism of most American Christian millennial sects.
1980S
April 29th, 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)
– 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)
(The founder of Calvary Chapel predicted the generation of 1948 would be the last generation, and that the world would end by 1981. Smith identified that he “could be wrong” but continued to say in the same sentence that his prediction was “a deep conviction in my heart, and all my plans are predicated upon that belief.”)
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.”(Source: Philosophy and the Scientific Method by Ronald C. Pine)
1982
– 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)
March 10th, 1982
In 1974, John Gribbin and Stephen Plagemann wrote a best-selling book, The Jupiter Effect, warning that in March 1982, an alignment of the major planets on the same side of the Sun would trigger a series of cosmic events - culminating in an earthquake along the San Andreas fault that would wipe out Los Angeles. The book had an aura of credibility, since both authors were Cambridge-educated astrophysicists and Gribbin was an editor at the prestigious science magazine Nature. The scientists claimed that the combined gravitational force of the planets (especially dense ones, such as Jupiter and Saturn) would exert tidal forces on the Sun, causing an increase in sunspot activity that would douse the earth with high-speed particles, which, in turn, would cause abrupt changes to our planet’s rotation, leading to earthquakes. Several scientists criticized The Jupiter Effect, saying its argument was based on a tissue-thin chain of suppositions. (Seismologist Charles Richter of Caltech called the thesis “pure astrology in disguise.”) Still, the book spooked people worldwide—thanks, in part, to the endorsement of other doomsayers such as Hal Lindsey (author of the best-selling 1970s book, The Late Great Planet Earth) who, in 1980, wrote that earthquakes across the planet would trigger meltdowns at nuclear power plants and would smash dams, causing massive floods.
June 25th, 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)
1985
The end of the world according to Lester Sumrall in his book I Predict 1985. (Abanes p.99, 341)
August 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.
April 29th, 1986
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)
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. (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)
September 13th, 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)
After Whisenant’s prediction failed, he insisted that the Rapture would take place at 10:55 am on September 15.
Incredulous that yet another prediction failed, Whisenant pushed the date of the Rapture forward to October 3. (Abanes p.94)
1989
– 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)
EARLY 1990S
1990
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)
April 23rd, 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
Louis Farrakhan (leader of the Nation of Islam) declared that the Gulf War would be the “War of Armageddon which is the final war.” (Abanes p.307)
March 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)
April 29th, 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)
September 28th, 1992
“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. (Adams p.18-20)
October 28th, 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)
November 14th, 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)
1994
– R.M. Riley, in his book 1994: The Year of Destiny, wrote that 1994 would be the year of the Rapture. (McIver #3098)
– 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 2nd, 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 9th, 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)
July 25th, 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)
September 23rd, 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)
September 27th, 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)
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)
LATE 1990S
December 17th, 1996
Famed psychic Sheldon Nidle predicted that the world would end on this date, with the arrival of millions of space ships and a host of angels. (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)
March 23rd, 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.
March 26th, 1997
Heaven’s Gate Cult suicides, led by Marshall Applewhite. 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.(Alnor p.13, 38)
May 5th, 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. (Sources: The Straight Dope, The Photon Belt Page)
October 23rd, 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)
November 27th, 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)
1998
– Larry Wilson of Wake Up America Seminars predicted the Second Coming “around 1998”. The Tribulation was supposed to start in 1994 or 1995, and during this period an asteroid was to hit the Earth. (Robbins p.220)
– Centro, a religious cult in the Philippines, predicted that the end of the world would come in 1998. (Source: Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance)
– The year of the Rapture, claimed Donald B. Orsden in his book The Holy Bible – The Final Testament: What is the Significance of 666?. “Take your super computers, you scientists, and feed the number 666 into them. The output will be the proof God gives that 1998 is the year Jesus will take the faithful with him….” (McIver #2986)
– In Ominous Portents of the Parousia of Christ, by Henry R. Hall, the author pours vitriol on atheists and liberals while praising Reagan as a “wise man” sent by God for the End Times. Hall predicts that the world will end in 1998 because, among other reasons, 666 + 666 + 666 = 1998. The Rapture was to take place in 1991.(McIver #2488)
January 8th, 1998
31 members of a splinter group of the Solar Temple cult headed by German psychologist Heide Fittkau-Garthe were arrested by police on the island of Tenerife, Canary Islands, amid fears that the cultists were planning a mass suicide. They were convinced that the world would end at 8:00 pm on this day, but that the cult members’ bodies would be picked up by a space ship. (Hanna p.226 and FACTNet)
March 8th, 1998
A doomsday cult from Karnataka in southern India claimed that much of the world would be destroyed by earthquakes on this day, and the Indian subcontinent would break off and sink into the ocean. After the destruction, Lord Vishnu would appear on Earth. The leaders of the cult claimed that El Nino and the chotic weather that accompanied it was a sign of the coming destruction.
March 31st, 1998
Hon-Ming Chen, leader of the Taiwanese cult God’s Salvation Church, or Chen Tao – “The True Way” – claimed that God would come to Earth in a flying saucer at 10:00 am on this date. Moreover, God would have the same physical appearance as Chen himself. On March 25, God was to appear on Channel 18 on every TV set in the US. Chen chose to base his cult in Garland, Texas, because he thought it sounded like “God’s Land.” (Shermer p.204, McIver #2199)
May 31st, 1998
– Author Marilyn J. Agee used convoluted Biblical calculations to predict the date of two separate Raptures. In her book The End of the Age, she boldly proclaimed, “I expect Rapture I on Pentecost [May 31] in 1998 and Rapture II on the Feast of Trumpets [September 13] in 2007.” (Agee) This is her first in a long series of predictions. (June 7th 1998, June 14th 1998, June 21st 1998, September 20th 1998, May 22nd 1999, May 30th 1999, June 20th 1999, June 10th 2000, August 20th 2000, May 28th 2001, November 3rd 2001, December 19th 2001, September 13th 2007, and May 29th 2011)
June 6th, 1998
Eli Eshoh uses all sorts of numerical games to show that the Rapture was to take place in 1998. On this page he explains away the apparent failure of the June 6 Rapture, claiming that it did indeed occur, but the number of raptees was small enough not to be noticed.
July 5th, 1998
The Church of the SubGenius, the only religion worthy of calling itself the One True Faith, designated this day X-Day. Xists from Planet X would arrive in flying saucers and destroy humanity on this day, and only ordained clergy who have paid their dues to the Church would be “ruptured” to safety! When that didn’t come to pass, XX-Day (July 5, 1999) was declared the true end of the world.
October 10th, 1998
Monte Kim Miller, leader of the Denver charismatic cult Concerned Christians, was convinced that the Apocalypse would occur on this date, with Denver the first city to be destroyed. The cult members mysteriously disappeared afterwards; but later resurfaced in Israel, where they were deported on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack at the end of 1999. Miller had also claimed he will die in the streets of Jerusalem in December 1999, to be resurrected three days later. (Sources: Watchman Fellowship, Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance)
December 12th, 1998
The beginning of the end, according to Linda Newkirk of www.prophecies.org. On her comical site, in which she transcribed dialogs she supposedly had with God, God told her that the “USA will be invaded by Russia, China, an Arab Alliance, and even the UN and NATO. It will take place at around 1:45 AM on this date, and 75 million people will die immediately. Huge cities will be nothing more than potholes. Places like San Francisco will be eradicated immediately. Millions more will die of starvation and all kinds of diseases brought about by chemical, nerve and biological warfare.”
1999
– Apocalyptic battle, followed by peace, as per a vision of George Washington. According to this apocryphal tale, the apparition of a beautiful woman appeared before George saying, “Son of the Republic, look and learn.” Thereupon he saw the world as it would be in 1999. Black clouds with red lights in the center, representing invading armies, spewed forth from all around the world and poured into America. After a massive battle, an angel sprinkled water on the world and peace is restored. (Uncle John p.2092)
– The height of the Antichrist’s power, when a terrible holocaust will occur, as foreseen by astrologer Jeane Dixon. In The Call to Glory, Dixon wrote, “As the [Russian] armies begin to move on the Middle East about 1999, Russian MIRVs and FOBSs will rain down a nuclear holocaust upon our coastal cities, both east and west.” Dixon also claimed the Antichrist was born on Feb. 5, 1962.. (Kyle p.153, Dixon p.168)
– A pole shift will cause natural disasters and World War III, or so the “Sleeping Prophet” Edgar Cayce claimed. (Skinner p.127)
– The end of the world according to linguist/credophile Charles Berlitz, as predicted in his book Doomsday: 1999 A.D. Any of a number of scenarios could happen, claimed Berlitz, including nuclear devastation, asteroid impact, pole shift or other earth changes. (Kyle p.194)
– Internut Dore Williamson, who spams various Usenet groups with claims that she is the incarnation of Christ, claimed repeatedly that the world would end in 1999, due to varying causes such as a biological war unleashed by Clinton. She also claimed that Clinton is the Antichrist. She is still an active Usenet participant.
May 8th, 1999
According to an astrological pamphlet circulating in India, the world was to meet its doom by a series of severe natural disasters on this date. This prediction caused many Indians to panic. (Source: BBC News)
June 30th, 1999
“Father” Charles L. Moore appeared on the Art Bell show November 26-27, 1998, claiming he knew the Third Secret of Fatima. According to Moore, the prophecy said that an asteroid would strike the Earth on June 30, bringing about the End.
July 1999
The month made famous by 16th century soothsayer Nostradamus, the month that people have wondered about for over four centuries, is now at long last a part of history. In the following quatrain, he made a grim-sounding prediction (Source: The Mask of Nostradamus by James Randi):
“L’an mil neuf cens nonante neuf sept mois
Du ciel viendra un grand Roy deffraieur
Resusciter le grand Roy d’Angolmois
Avant apres Mars regner par bon heur.”
“The year 1999, seven months,
From the sky will come a great King of Terror:
To bring back to life the great King of the Mongols,
Before and after Mars to reign by good luck. (Quatrain X.72)”
But it was not to be. When July passed, the inevitable date postponement began. The folks on the alt.prophecies.nostradamus newsgroup and the webmasters of various Nostradamus fan sites extended the deadline of fulfillment to August 13 (the end of July according to the Julian calendar used in Nostradamus’ day), then September 30 (“sept mois” must have meant “September” after all!), then October 10 (the end of the 7th month of the Hebrew calendar), and finally October 22 (the end of the seventh month of the Zodiac). Some said that the prophecy referred a meteor that exploded over New Zealand in early July or perhaps the total eclipse of August 11.
July 7th, 1999
The Earth’s axis was to shift full 90 degrees at 7:00am GMT, resulting in a “water baptism” of the world, according to Eileen Lakes. Her site is still there, but she’s deleted all references to July 7, 1999. The caption above the picture of the Earth originally read:
“7:00 a.m., on Wednesday, July 7, 1999
at the World Greenwich Mean Time
The earth will turn right by 90 degrees very instantly.”
July 28th, 1999
A lunar eclipse would signify the end of the Church Age and the beginning of the Tribulation, according to Gerald Vano. (Source: The Doomsday List.)
August 11th, 1999
During the week between August 11 and August 18 a series of astronomical events took place: the last total solar eclipse of the millennium (Aug 11), the Grand Cross planetary formation (Aug 18), the Perseid meteor shower (Aug 12), the swingby of NASA’s plutonium-bearing Cassini space probe (Aug 17-18), and Comet Lee‘s visit to the inner solar system. Add to this the fact that some of these events are taking place before the end of July according to the Julian calendar, and you have a recipe for rampant apocalyptic paranoia. Fashion designer Paco Rabanne claimed that Mir would crash into Paris on August 11. It didn’t. Others said that a monstrous asteroid or comet, previously unseen, would become visible during the eclipse and strike the Earth thereafter.
August 18th, 1999
The end of the world, as foreseen by Charles Criswell King (aka The Amazing Criswell) in his 1968 bestseller Criswell Predicts: From Now to the Year 2000. As he wrote:
“The world as we know it will cease to exist…on August 18, 1999…. And if you and I meet each other on the street that fateful day…and we chat about what we will do on the morrow, we will open our mouths to speak and no words will come out, for we have no future.”
Many alarmists were convinced that the Cassini space probe would crash into the Earth on August 18. Some even went so far as to say it would poison a third of the world’s population with its plutonium, fulfilling the prophecy of Revelation 8:11 concerning a star named Wormwood — supposedly a metaphor for radiation poisoning (“Chernobylnik” is the Ukrainian word for a purple-stemmed subspecies of the wormwood plant). But as expected, Cassini passed by the Earth without a hitch.
The date also happens to be Criswell’s birthday. (Abanes p.43)
September 9th, 1999
9/9/99, touted by some Y2K paranoiacs as a possible day that computers would crash and bring modern civilization to its knees. Apparently, some old programs used 9999 as a “terminate” flag. Not a single computer crashed due to this problem. Fact is, using 9999 to denote September 9, 1999 is an exceedingly inefficient way to represent this date. It’s more efficient to use 090999, 990909, or something similar. (Source: SF Gate)
September 11th, 1999
– Bonnie Gaunt used the Bible Codes to prove that Rosh Hashanah 5760 (September 11, 1999) is the date of the Rapture. Not surprisingly, her web page promptly disappeared on Sep. 12. However there is still a newspaper article available online about her prediction.
– Jason Hommel spammed Usenet with claims that the Rapture was to take place on this date, and used a plethora of over-imaginitive numerology and unorthodox scriptural interpretation to arrive at this conclusion. He used the famous “know not the day nor the hour” verse to paradoxically pinpoint the date of the Rapture.
– Michael Rood also jumped on the Rosh Hashanah bandwagon. He claimed that this day is the first day of the Hebrew calendar year 6001, and after it failed, he changed the date to April 5, 2000. In reality, this day was the first day of 5760, but Michael claimed that there was a mistake in the calendar.
– Jan Weaver Gindorf posted an email to the webmaster of The Doomsday List, in which she predicted the Rapture would occur on or around this date. Please see The Doomsday List for more details.
– Philip Berg, dean of the worldwide Kabbalah Centre, stated that on this date “a ball of fire will descend, destroying almost all of mankind, all vegetation, all forms of life.”
December 31st, 1999
Hon-Ming Chen’s cult God’s Salvation Church, now relocated to upstate New York, preached that a nuclear holocaust would destroy Europe and Asia sometime between October 1 and December 31, 1999. (Source: the Religious Movements Page)
THE YEAR 2000
2000
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 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 predicted 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 were reported to have disappeared, but later it was revealed that the disappearance was a hoax. (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, preached that the world might be destroyed in a “baptism of fire” by 2000.
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.
January 1st, 2000
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 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 kicked them outof 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.”
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. (Source: Washington Post, Dec. 27, 1999)
February 29th, 2000
This day was the Gary North types’ last best hope for the collapse of civilization due to the millennium bug. February 29 happens to be the exception to the exception to the 4-year leap year rule, which some programmers may have neglected to incorporate into their date algorithms, and some believe computers may crash on this day.
April 6th, 2000
The Second Coming of Christ according to James Harmston of the Mormon sect True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of The Last Days . (McIver #2496)
May 5th, 2000
– According to archaeologist Richard W. Noone in his book 5/5/2000 Ice: The Ultimate Disaster, a buildup of excess ice in Antarctica (strange — I thought global warming making it melt…) is causing the earth to become precariously unbalanced, which is a ridiculous idea to anyone with the slightest understanding of earth science. All that’s needed to upset this supposed imbalance and cause the obligatory pole shift — which would cause billions of tons of ice to go cascading across the continents — is the planetary alignment that took place on this date!
– The Nuwaubians (also known as the Holy Tabernacle Ministries or Ancient Mystical Order of Melchizedek) claimed that the planetary lineup would cause a “star holocaust,” pulling the planets toward the sun. (Alnor p. 121)
Sep 17, 2000
– Many pyramidologists, basing their calculations on measurements of the Great Pyramid of Giza, claim that the Second Coming will occur on this date. (Abanes p. 71)
– Moira Timms, author of Beyond Prophecies and Predictions, claims that the Great Pyramid’s supposed 6000-year “prophetic timeline,” and thus the world, will end on this day. In case this fails, she posits the Mayan calendar date of December 23, 2012, as a backup doomsday. (Skeptical Inquirer, Sep/Oct 2000, p. 23)
September 29th, 2000
According to the Jewish-based cult, Love the Jew, whose website has disappeared without a trace, claimed the world would end on Rosh Hashanah, 2000. According to the cult, “America will be destroyed in one hour after the Rapture by an all out nuclear attack by Russia. Russia may also decide to destroy other countries as well at this time (South America, Mexico, Canada, notably the entire Western hemisphere will be a wasteland).” A reference to the cult is available at The Doomsday List.
October 14th, 2000
According to the House of Yahweh, the seven-year Tribulation began on September 13, 1993, when Yitzhak Rabin shook hands with Yasser Arafat at the White House. This means the end of the world is due on October 14, 2000. (Source: religioustolerance.org
November 17th, 2000
The famous handshake between Arafat and Rabin on Sep 13, 1993 started the seven-year peace process, claims David Zavitz, and Armageddon will take place seven years later. David shows on this page why he thinks the Last Day will be on November 17, 2000.
December 31st, 2000
Joseph Kibweteere’s doomsday prediction #2. On March 17, 2000, over 600 members of a Ugandan cult calling itself the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God sealed themselves into a church and were burned to death. It remains to be seen wither it was a mass suicide, or a murder by their leader. Cult leader Joseph Kibweteere, who had previously claimed that the world would end on December 31, 1999, re-set his doomsday prediction to December 31, 2000 when his first prediction failed. (Source: CESNUR)
2000S
September 11, 2001
– One of the most tragic and significant days in US history. The World Trade Center was destroyed and the Pentagon attacked by madmen, causing thousands of deaths, billions of dollars in damage and untold suffering. If there’s any day that the doomsayers should have foreseen, it’s this day. However, NOBODY was able to predict this event or pinpoint this day.
– Some people insist that Nostradamus predicted the event, but these claims have been debunked. Others claim that predictions had been made, but all of these claims were put out AFTER the date in question.
Dec 8, 2001
The author of the Ninth Wave site is convinced that the Church would be raptured on this date, and millions would disappear mysteriously. People would explain away the disappearance as alien abductions.
2001
– Pyramidologist Georges Barbarin, subscribing to the concept of the Great Week, predicted that Christ’s Millennium would begin in 2001. (Mann p. 118)
– Earth changes maven Gordon-Michael Scallion predicted major earth changes taking place between 1998 and 2001, culminating in a pole shift. (Heard p. 26-27)
– Nation of Islam numerologist Tynetta Muhammad figured that 2001 would be the year of the End. (Weber p. 213)
April 14th, 2002
This is another of those sites that has to be seen to be believed. Mike Keller claims that the “doomsgate” will open a half second before midnight (Israel time) on this day, followed immediately by the return of Jesus, as well as a nuclear war within 45 days.
– The end of the world, according to Church Universal and Triumphant leader Elizabeth Clare Prophet, following a 12-year period of devastation and nuclear war. (Kyle p. 156)
– Charles R. Weagle’s now-defunct website warning2002ad.com predicted a “nuclear judgement” on the world’s industrialized nations in 2002. A reference to his prophecy can be found here.
– Yoruba priests predicted dramatic tragedy and crisis in 2002, including coups, war, disease, and flooding.
May 5th, 2003
A UFO will pick up true believers on this date, according to the Nuwaubians, a Georgia cult headed by Dr. Malachi Z. York, who claims to be the incarnation of God and a native of the planet Rizq. (Time Magazine, July 12, 1999)
Extra Planet (10th/12th?)
May 13th, 2003
Nancy Lieder of ZetaTalk believed that the “end time” would take place on this day with the approach of a giant planet known as the “12th Planet”. This planet supposedly orbits the sun once every 3600 years. The planet will cause a pole shift. Ms. Lieder gives some information about this on her Troubled Times site.
May 15th, 2003
A Japanese cult called Pana Wave, whose members dress in white, claimed that a mysterious 10th Planet would pass by Earth, causing its axis to tip and engendering devastating earthquakes. (Source: WWRN)
May 27th, 2003
Nancy Lieder originally predicted the date for the Nibiru collision as May 2003. According to her website, aliens in the Zeta Reticuli star system told her through messages via a brain implant of a planet which would enter our solar system and cause a pole shift on Earth that would destroy most of humanity.
November 29th, 2003
The human race all but wiped out by nuclear war between Oct 30 and Nov 29, 2003, according to the Japanese cult, Aum Shinrikyo. (Alnor p. 98)
2003
A number of Internet prophets predicted that a giant planet called Planet X or the “Twelfth Planet” will pass by Earth in 2003 and cause anything from pole shifts to altered orbits or what have you. The results were supposed to be catastrophic and apocalyptic.
2004
Major world events beginning in August 1999 will lead to full-scale war in the year 2000, followed by a rebirth from the ashes in 2004, according to Taoist prophet Ping Wu.
April 24th, 2005
Ted Porter claims that the Second Advent will take place April 23 or 24, 2005. He also said that the Rapture would occur at 6:13 pm (Jerusalem time) on April 23, 2002.
2006
An atomic holocaust started by Syria is to take place between the years 2000 and 2006, according to Michael Drosnin’s book The Bible Codes (O’Shea p. 178). Here’s an excerpt from Drosnin’s discreditedbook: “I checked ‘World War’ and ‘atomic holocaust’ against all three ways to write each Hebrew year for the next 120 years. Out of 360 possible matches for each of the two expressions, only two years matched both – 5760 and 5766, in the modern calendar the years 2000 and 2006. Rips later checked the statistics for the matches of ‘World War’ and ‘atomic holocaust’ with those two years and agreed that the results were ‘exceptional.'”
April 29th, 2007
In his 1990 book The New Millennium, Pat Robertson suggests this date as the day of Earth’s destruction. (Abanes p. 138)
2009
According to Earth changes prophetess Lori Adaile Toye of the I AM America Foundation, a series of Earth changes beginning in 1992 and ending in 2009 will cause much of the world to be submerged, and only 1/3 of America’s population will survive.
2010S
2010
The final year according to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. (Shaw p. 223)
May 21st, 2011
Harold Camping, whose rapture predictions failed in 1994 and 1995, decided to jump back in to the date-setting game, predicting this as the day of the Rapture. His prediction attracted major publicity. “The Bible Guarantees It”, the billboards proclaimed, and thousands of people around the world actually fell for it.
(Camping predicted that the Rapture and devastating earthquakes would occur on May 21, 2011 with God taking approximately 3% of the world’s population into Heaven, and that the end of the world would occur five months later on October 21.)
After May 21, Harold Camping called the non-event an “invisible Judgement Day” and reset the Rapture to October 21.
August – October 2011
There were fears amongst the public that Comet Elenin travelling almost directly between Earth and the Sun would cause disturbances to the Earth’s crust, causing massive earthquakes and tidal waves. Others predicted that Elenin would collide with Earth on October 16. Scientists tried to calm fears by stating that none of these events were possible.
December 31st, 2011
In an interesting parallel to the Harmonic Convergence concept, Solara Antara Amaa-ra, leader of the “11:11 Doorway” movement, claimed that there was a “doorway of opportunity” lasting from January 11, 1992 to December 31, 2011 in which humanity was given the final chance to rid itself of evil and attain a higher level of consciousness, or doom will strike. (Wojcik p. 206)
June 30th, 2012
José Luis de Jesús predicted that the world’s governments and economies would fail on this day, and that he and his followers would undergo a transformation that would allow them to fly and walk through walls.
December 21st, 2012
Terence McKenna combines Mayan chronology with a New Age pseudoscience called Novelty Theory to conclude that the collision of an asteroid or some “trans-dimensional object” with the Earth, or alien contact, or a solar explosion, or the transformation of the Milky Way into a quasar, or some other “ultranovel” event will occur on this day.
December 21st, 2012
The supposed Mayan apocalypse at the end of the 13th b’ak’tun. The Earth would be destroyed by an asteroid, Nibiru, or some other interplanetary object; an alien invasion; or a supernova. Mayanist scholars stated that no extant classic Maya accounts forecasted impending doom, and that the idea that the Long Count calendar ends in 2012 misrepresented Maya history and culture. Scientists from NASA, along with expert archeologists, stated that none of those events were possible.
December 23rd, 2012
The endpoint of the ancient Mayan calendar. Some interpret it to signify the end of the world, though there’s no evidence the Maya believed this. (Abanes p. 342)
Early 21st Century
Legend has it that, in 1143, St. Malachy prophesied that there would only be 112 more popes left before the end of the world. Pope Benedict is the 111th, which means that the world will end in the early 21st century. According to Malachy, the last pope will be named Peter of Rome. Time will tell. (Skinner p.74-75)
Augus 23rd, 2013
Grigori Rasputin prophesied a storm would take place on this day where fire would destroy most life on land and Jesus Christ would come back to Earth to comfort those in distress.
April 2014 – September 2015
The so-called Blood Moon Prophecy, first predicted by Mark Blitz in 2008 and then by John Hagee in 2014. These Christian ministers claimed that the tetrad in 2014 and 2015 may allegedly represent prophecies given in the Bible relating to the second coming of Jesus Christ.
July 29, 2016
A viral video from the YouTube channel “End Time Prophecies” claimed that the world would end on this day. They predicted that the Earth would undergo a “polar flip”, which would apparently cause the Earth’s atmosphere to be pulled to the ground as the surface reels like a vacuum, causing a “rolling cloud” to cover the planet. They also claimed that a worldwide “megaquake” would ensue.
2017
The “Prophet Gabriel” supposedly told the Sword of God Brotherhood that the “dying time” will come in 2017, and only members of the cult will survive. Everyone else will “perish in hellfire.”
FUTURE
2020
Jeane Dixon claimed that Armageddon would take place in 2020, and Jesus will return to defeat the unholy Trinity of the Antichrist, Satan, and the False prophet between 2020 and 2037. She had also previously predicted the world would end on February 4, 1962.[105]
Sep 28, 2020
George Madray predicts a Yom Kippur Parousia in 2020. (McIver #2854)
2021
F. Kenton Beshore bases his prediction on the prior suggestion that Jesus would return in 1988, i.e., within one Biblical generation (40 years) of the founding of Israel in 1948. Beshore argues that the prediction was correct, but that the definition of a Biblical generation was incorrect and was actually 70–80 years, placing the Second Coming of Jesus between 2018 and 2028 and the Rapture by 2021 at the latest.[106]
2022
James T. Harmon’s Rapture prediction #4. (Oropeza p.89)
2023
Ian Gurney predicts in his book The Cassandra Prophecy – Armageddon Approaches that the “final date, Judgement Day, the end of mankind’s time on this planet, is less than twenty two years away” from 2001, which means that the world is set to end by 2023 at the very latest.
2025
In this post, Georgann Chenault, a frequent poster on Usenet, wrote “I think the rapture of the church will be before 2025.”
November 13th, 2026
According to an article published in Science magazine in 1960, this was the date that the world’s population would reach infinity, a result of the so-called “doomsday equation.” (Source: Jacksonville.com)
2026
Messiah Foundation International – Members predict that the world will end in 2026, when an asteroid would collide with Earth in accordance with Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi‘s predictions in The Religion of God. The chances are only 1 out of 300,000.
2033
Believed by many to by the 2000th anniversary of the Crucifixion, this is a date just begging to be targeted by doomsayers whose prophecies for 2000 and 2001 will have failed.
2035
The Raëlians are working hard to establish an embassy in Jerusalem in anticipation of the 2035 arrival of aliens called “elohim”, who will usher in a New Age. However, their arrival is contingent on the completion of the embassy. (Robbins p.164)
2037
In her book The Call to Glory, psychic Jeane Dixon wrote, “The years 2020-2037, approximately, hail the true Second Coming of Christ.” The Battle of Armageddon is to take place in 2020. (Dixon p.170, 172)
2040
– Pyramidologist Max Toth predicts the physical reincarnation of Jesus Christ occurring in 2040. Like other pyramidologists, he used the dimensions of the Great Pyramid’s passageways to predict future events. (Weber p.195)
– Futurist John Smart of Acceleration Watch (formerly Singularity Watch) estimates that a technological singularity will take place around the year 2040, when technological advancement reaches asymptotic levels. After this apocalyptic event, a new era of balance and compassion will begin.
2060
According to Isaac Newton’s research of the Bible, Jesus will rapture his Church one jubilee from the time of Israel re-acquiring Jerusalem.[109]
2129
Said Nursî – According to abjad interpretation of a hadith, this Sunni Muslim theologian who wrote the Risale-i Nur Collection, which expects the end in 2129.[110]
2200
Using a cricket analogy of the doomsday argument, the last humans will be born before the start of the year 2200.Doomsday Argument By Cricket Analogy
2239
Talmud, Orthodox Judaism – According to an opinion on the Talmud in mainstream Orthodox Judaism, the Messiah will come within 6000 years from the creation of Adam, and the world could possibly be destroyed 1000 years later. This would put the beginning of the period of desolation in the year 2239 CE and the end of the period of desolation in the year 3239 CE (Year 6000)
2280
According to Rashad Khalifa’s research on the Quran Code, the world will end during that year.[111]
11120
John A. Leslie – According to Leslie’s figures for the doomsday argument, the last humans will be born within the next 9120 years.Doomsday Argument[112]
DISTANT FUTURE / SCIENTIFIC PREDICTIONS
500,000 Years from Now
Nick Bostrom – Earth will have likely been hit by an asteroid of roughly 1 km in diameter during this period, assuming it cannot be averted. Bostrom writes “In order to cause the extinction of human life, the impacting body would probably have to be greater than 1 km in diameter (and probably 3 – 10 km)”.[113]
1 Million Years from Now
The Geological Society – Earth will likely have undergone a supervolcanic eruption large enough to erupt 3,200 km3 of magma, an event comparable to the Toba supereruption 75,000 years ago.
100 Million Years from Now
Stephen A. Nelson – Earth will have likely been hit by an asteroid about 10–15 km in diameter (comparable in size to the one that triggered the K–Pg extinction which killed dinosaurs 66 million years ago), assuming it cannot be averted.[115]
500 Million Years from Now
James Kasting – The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will drop dramatically, making the Earth uninhabitable.[116]
500–600 Million Years from Now
Anne Minard - Estimated time until a gamma ray burst, or massive, hyperenergetic supernova, occurs within 6,500 light-years of Earth; close enough for its rays to affect Earth’s ozone layer and potentially trigger a mass extinction, assuming the hypothesis is correct that a previous such explosion triggered the Ordovician–Silurian extinction event. However, the supernova would have to be precisely oriented relative to Earth to have any negative effect.
1–5 Billion Years from Now
The estimated end of the Sun‘s current phase of development, after which it will swell into a red giant, either swallowing the Earth or at least completely scorching it, will occur around five billion years from now. However, as the Sun grows gradually hotter (over millions of years), the Earth may become too hot for life as early as one billion years from now.[116][118]
/ca. 4,500,000,000 AD
The sun will swell into a red giant star, swallowing Mercury, Venus, Earth, and perhaps Mars. This will be the true end of the world.
1.3 Billion Years from Now
S. Franck, C. Bounama, W. Von Bloh – Eukaryotic life will die out due to carbon dioxide starvation. Only prokaryotes remain.[119]
7.59 Billion Years from Now
David Powell – The Earth and Moon will be most likely destroyed by falling into the Sun, just before the Sun reaches the tip of its red giant phase and its maximum radius of 256 times the present day value. Before the final collision, the Moon possibly spirals below Earth’s Roche limit, breaking into a ring of debris, most of which falls to the Earth’s surface.[120]
22 Billion Years from Now
VariousThe end of the Universe in the Big Rip scenario, assuming a model of dark energy with w = −1.5. Observations of galaxy cluster speeds by the Chandra X-ray Observatory suggest that the true value of w is ~-0.991, meaning the Big Rip will not occur.[121]
10 Duotrigintillion Years from Now
The heat death of the universe is a scientific theory, in which the universe will diminish to a state of no thermodynamic free energy and therefore will no longer sustain motion or life.
Heat death of the universe