A Brief history of failed prophecies

[kungfugrip]

About 90 CE: Saint Clement 1 predicted that the world end would occur at any moment.
2nd Century CE: Prophets and Prophetesses of the Montanist movement predicted that Jesus would return sometime during their lifetime and establish the New Jerusalem in the city of Pepuza in Asia Minor.
365 CE: A man by the name of Hilary of Poitiers, announced that the end would happen that year. It didn't.
375 to 400 CE: Saint Martin of Tours, a student of Hilary, was convinced that the end would happen sometime before 400 CE.
500 CE: This was the first year-with-a-nice-round-number-panic. The antipope Hippolytus and an earlier Christian academic Sextus Julius Africanus had predicted Armageddon at about this year.
968 CE: An eclipse was interpreted as a prelude to the end of the world by the army of the German emperor Otto III.
992: Good Friday coincided with the Feast of the Annunciation; this had long been believed to be the event that would bring forth the Antichrist, and thus the end-times events foretold in the book of Revelation. Records from Germany report that a new sun rose in the north and that as many as 3 suns and 3 moons were fighting. There does not appear to be independent verification of this remarkable event.
1000-JAN-1: Many Christians in Europe had predicted the end of the world on this date. As the date approached, Christian armies waged war against some of the Pagan countries in Northern Europe. The motivation was to convert them all to Christianity, by force if necessary, before Christ returned in the year 1000. Meanwhile, some Christians had given their possessions to the Church in anticipation of the end. Fortunately, the level of education was so low that many citizens were unaware of the year. They did not know enough to be afraid. Otherwise, the panic might have been far worse than it was. Unfortunately, when Jesus did not appear, the church did not return the gifts. Serious criticism of the Church followed. The Church reacted by exterminating some heretics. Agitation settled down quickly.
1000-MAY: The body of Charlemagne was disinterred on Pentecost. A legend had arisen that an emperor would rise from his sleep to fight the Antichrist.
1005-1006: A terrible famine throughout Europe was seen as a sign of the nearness of the end.
1033: Some believed this to be the 1000th anniversary of the death and resurrection of Jesus. His second coming was anticipated. Jesus' actual date of execution is unknown, but is believed to be in the range of 27 to 33 CE.
1147: Gerard of Poehlde decided that the millennium had actually started in 306 CE during Constantine's reign. Thus, the world end was expected in 1306 CE.
1179: John of Toledo predicted the end of the world during 1186. This estimate was based on the alignment of many planets.
1205: Joachim of Fiore predicted in 1190 that the Antichrist was already in the world, and that King Richard of England would defeat him. The Millennium would then begin, sometime before 1205.
1284: Pope Innocent III computed this date by adding 666 years onto the date the Islam was founded.
1346 and later: The black plague spread across Europe, killing one third of the population. This was seen as the prelude to an immediate end of the world. Unfortunately, the Christians had previously killed a many of the cats, fearing that they might be familiars of Witches. The fewer the cats, the more the rats. It was the rat fleas that spread the black plague.
1496: This was approximately 1500 years after the birth of Jesus. Some mystics in the 15th century predicted that the millennium would begin during this year.
1524: Many astrologers predicted the imminent end of the world due to a world wide flood. They obviously had not read the Genesis story of the rainbow.
1533: Melchior Hoffman predicted that Jesus' return would happen a millennium and a half after the nominal date of his execution, in 1533. The New Jerusalem was expected to be established in Strasbourg, Germany. He was arrested and died in a Strasbourg jail.
1669: The Old Believers in Russia believed that the end of the world would occur in this year. 20 thousand burned themselves to death between 1669 and 1690 to protect themselves from the Antichrist.
1689: Benjamin Keach, a 17th century Baptist, predicted the end of the world for this year.
1736: British theologian and mathematician William Whitson predicted a great flood similar to Noah's for OCT-13 of this year.
1792: This was the date of the end of the world calculated by some believers in the Shaker movement.
1794: Charles Wesley, one of the founders of Methodism, thought Doomsday would be in this year.
1830: Margaret McDonald, a Christian prophetess, predicted that Robert Owen would be the Antichrist. Owen helped found New Harmony, IN.
1832?: Joseph Smith (1805-1844) was the founder of the Church of Christ, which became the Restorationist movement after many schisms. It now includes The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- a.k.a. the Mormons, and about a hundred other denominations and sects. He heard a voice while praying. He wrote, in Doctrines and Covenants section 130:

14: "I was once praying very earnestly to know the time of the coming of the Son of Man, when I heard a voice repeat the following:"

15: "Joseph, my son, if thou livest until thou art eighty-five years old, thou shalt see the face of the Son of Man; therefore let this suffice, and trouble me no more on this matter."

16: "I was left thus, without being able to decide whether this coming referred to the beginning of the millennium or to some previous appearing, or whether I should die and thus see his face."

17: "I believe the coming of the Son of Man will not be any sooner than that time." 14
The year in which this event occurred is not recorded. However, one commentator suggested 1832 or earlier. 16 Smith is later recorded as having said:
"I prophesy in the name of the Lord God, and let it be written--the Son of Man will not come in the clouds of heaven till I am eighty-five years old." 17

Smith would have reached the age of 85 during 1890. Unfortunately, by that year, Smith had been dead for almost a half century, having been assassinated by a mob. Note that his prophecy is ambiguous. It can be interpreted that:

Jesus would return during 1890 (which did not materialize) or that
1890 would pass without Jesus' return (which did come to pass).

Some anti-Mormon sources quote only verses 14 and 15, and draw the former conclusion -- that Smith's prophecy failed.

About 1990: Peter Ruckman concluded from his analysis of the Bible that the rapture would come within a few years of 1990.
Early 1990's: In 1992, David Koresh led the Students of the Seven Seals (a.k.a. Branch Davidian) group in Waco Texas. He changed the name of their commune from Mt. Carmel to Ranch Apocalypse, because of his belief that the final all-encompassing battle of Armageddon mentioned in the Bible would start at the Branch Davidian compound. They had calculated that the end would occur in 1995. After a 51-day standoff, on 1993-APR-10, 76 members died as a result of a fire deliberately set by the Branch Davidians.
1990-APR-23: Elizabeth Clare Prophet, leader of the Church Universal and Triumphant made a series of statements that many members believed indicated the start of nuclear war on this date. At least 2,000 followers traveled to Montana to take refuge in CUT's fallout shelters.
1991: Mother Shipton, a 16th century mystic predicted the end of the world: "...The world to an end shall come; in nineteen hundred and ninety-one."
1991: C.M. Edwards reported that he regularly receives messages from God. One series in mid-1991 predicted a heavy judgment for the U.S. 1991-SEP would bring extreme devastation to the mid-west. One message stated, in part: "Before the close of this year you shall see My signs-true signs of My coming." 1 Interestingly, although the messages allegedly come from God, Edwards retains the copyright.
1992-OCT-28: Lee Jang Rim, a Korean Christian pastor, taught that the Rapture would occur on this date, at 10:00 AM EST. It didn't happen; many of his followers allegedly committed suicide.
1993: Benny Hinn, an Assemblies of God pastor from Florida predicted that the rapture would come in 1993. He also said that God would destroy all homosexuals by 1995 at the latest.
A millennial new religious movement in the Ukraine predicted the end of the world would happen in 1993-NOV. 7

1993-NOV-11: The 1993-JUL-20 issue of the Weekly World News contained an article titled "Doomsday Asteroids." Top scientists allegedly wrote a top-secret document which revealed that M-167, a known asteroid, would hit the earth on NOV-11 and perhaps end all life on earth. The M series of astronomical objects were catalogued by Messier: M-1 is the crab nebula; M-31 is the Andromeda galaxy; M-45 are the Pleiades. There is no M object with a number higher than M-110.
1993 to 1997: Rulon Jeffs was spokesperson for the The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Mormon polygamist splinter group. In 1993, he allegedly told high school graduates to not attend college. The reasoning was that the world would end before they could finish. The splinter group was founded in 1929 and was excommunicated from the Salt Lake City-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because of their promotion of polygyny. 26
1994, approximately: There have been continual reports that Jesus and Mary have been appearing in Conyers, GA on the 13th of every month to deliver a message to Nancy Fowler, a homemaker and nurse. Over 1 million pilgrims have visited her prayer site. On 1994-FEB-6, Jesus is recorded as saying: "Conflicts will turn into wars....Then so will the earth tremble in many places. The earth will divide. The earth will divide and take away your riches. Some of you will die suddenly. You will have no warning...The clock continues to tick. The hour is rapidly approaching when one disaster after another will befall you. There will be fighting everywhere. There will be famine and polluted water in many places." Unfortunately, no specific dates were given for these occurrences. 2
1994: A major, though unofficial, Jehovah's Witness prediction date.
1994-SEP: Harold Camping, president of Family Radio predicted on his radio programs that the end of the world would happen sometime between 1994-SEP-5 and SEP-27. He said that he did not know the precise day because Matthew 24:36 of the Christian Scriptures says that "no man knows the day nor the hour." He interpreted a reference in John 21:1-14 to the disciples being 200 cubits from the shore in the Sea of Galilee as meaning that there would be 2,000 years between the birth and the second coming of Jesus. He estimates that Jesus was born on 0007-OCT-4 BCE. 8
Sometime in 1996: The book "The Return of Jupiter: End of the world in the light of the Bible" Dorrance Publishing, Pittsburgh PA predicted a disaster starting in the Pacific Ocean: "A terrible earthquake is going to break the oceanic earth crust under the Pacific Ocean by the year 1996 AD"
1996-OCT-23: Since 1658, many Christians have accepted the calculations of James Ussher, an Irish archbishop, who estimated that the first day of creation occurred on 4004-OCT-23 BCE. This would make the time interval between the creation of the world and a common estimate of the birth of Christ to be precisely 4000 years. Some people believe that Ussher fudged the data to make it come out neatly. He also estimated that the end of the world would occur exactly 6000 years later, in the fall of 1996. This is based on the concept of the "millennial week": that each of the 6 days of creation mentioned in Genesis is linked to a 1000 year time span in the life of the earth. On the 7th millennial day, 1996-OCT-23, Ussher expected that life as we know it will cease.
1997-MAR-8: The Vortex of the Star of David religious sect of Luskville, Quebec, Canada was quoted as predicting the end of the world on Saturday, MAR-8. 3 A father, Jean Leon Marcoux, was interviewed; he was worried because his children will be visiting their mother at the sect's commune on that weekend. He approached the Quebec police but was unable to get them to take any action. A spokesperson for the sect stated that they do not follow a doomsday scenario.
1997-APR-10: Dan Millar, of Surrey, BC, Canada and Bob Wadsworth of the Biblical Astronomy newsletter are both religious researchers. They followed the age-old tradition of looking for signs in the heavens for the arrival of the Antichrist, second coming of Christ, etc. Ancient prophecies told of heavenly events and even a cross in the sky in advance of momentous developments. Millar and Wadsworth predicted the arrival of the Antichrist on APR-10. Dan suggested that we watch news from the Vatican and from Jerusalem on that day, because he expected some sort of coup by the Antichrist. He was expected to come to power in the Vatican as Pope Peter II.
One heavenly indicator was the intersection by two comets of the star Algol in the constellation Perseus. Comets Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp intersected the star on the same date (APR-11) on two adjacent years (Hyakutake in 1996 and Hale-Bopp in 1997). Plotting the two comets' trajectories over the period APR-1 to APR-30 on the two years forms an almost perfect cross. They intersected between the eyes of the Medusa head that Perseus is holding in his left hand. "Algol" means "Demon Star" in Arabic. The head is known as Rosh Satan (the head of Satan) in Hebrew. There was one further heavenly sign: on the evening of APR-10, there will be a lunar occultation of the star Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus.

1997-OCT-20: A Jewish group, called the Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement were expected to attempt to place the cornerstone of a new temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This is a small piece of real estate that is the most sacred spot in the world to Jews, and one of the most sacred to Muslims. The Rapture Ready home page has predicted that the "Tribulation" would be triggered by that event. Previous attempts had failed either because of riots, or police action. There was one report that they were going to try to airlift the stone by helicopter this time. On OCT-20, several thousand police officers were deployed throughout Jerusalem; they successfully prevented access to the Temple Mount.
1997-NOV-27: The Sacerdotal Knights of National Security report that "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!"
1997: Superdave the Wonderchemist took the magic number 1331 and added it to 666 the "Number of the Beast" from the Book of Revelation to get the year of the arrival of the Antichrist and the end of the world. 4 Why is 1331 a magic number? 1331 is the same backwards as forwards.
It is 11 raised to the 3rd power
It displays the unlucky number 13 when read in either direction.
it is the fourth row in Pascal's Triangle:


1
1 1
1 2 1
1 3 3 1
1 4 6 4 1 etc.
1997-DEC-31: The 1997-JUL-29 issue of the Weekly World News reported that the biggest end of the world scare since the Cuban missile crisis was circulating through Washington. President Clinton called a secret meeting with leading Bible scholars for the week of JUL-27. A confidential Pentagon memo sparked the scare; it predicted a worldwide cataclysm of unprecedented proportions. Earthquake activity was allegedly on a rise and will peak at year-end; the earth's crust was believed to have been shifting ominously.
Sometime in late 1997 or early 1998: The 1997-JUL-29 issue of the Weekly World News carried a statement by a spokesperson of the International Association of Psychics. 92% of their 120,000 members have had the same "end time" vision. Spokesperson Madame Vredeau predicted: A rise in religious belief. Prophets and saints will appear and lead the faithful to safety
The oceans will shrink. Deserts expand. Crops will fail; there will be massive starvation
Widespread emotional and mental collapse; increase in crime and violence
Changing weather patterns; basic laws of nature will be disrupted
Satanic demons will appear in broad daylight. War, pestilence, a worldwide plague will spread.
Humanity will disappear around the year 2001 CE.

If almost all psychics believed that, then one can conclude that their predictions are generally quite unreliable.



-- ------------------------
found at
http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl12.htm