Predictions that never happened!
Hey folks,
It looks like most of us are addicted to apocalyptic predictions somehow.
So, I´ve decided to make this thread about predictions that failed!
What can we conclude about these failed predictions? Can you see similarities between them and those that constantly come and go, here at PA? Can we, humans, actually predict the future? Why are we addicted to this sort of stuff? Why, even after making failed predictions, some people still continue to sell a lot of books?
Please, feel free to share your perspectives or collect some other unfulfilled predictions, from any time in history, and post them here, right?
So, let me start:
Ancient Predictions:
About 30 CE: The Christian Scriptures (New Testament), when interpreted literally, appear to record many predictions by Yeshua of Nazareth (Jesus Christ) that God's Kingdom would arrive within a very short period, or was actually in the process of arriving. For example, Jesus is recorded as saying in Matthew 16:28: "...there shall be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." In Matthew 24:34, Yeshua is recorded as saying: "...This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." Since the life expectancy in those days was little over 30 years, Jesus appears to have predicted his second coming sometime during the 1st century CE. It didn't happen.
About 60 CE: Interpreting the Epistles of Paul of Tarsus literally, his writings seem to imply that Jesus would return and usher in a rapture during the lifetime of persons who were living in the middle of the 1st century. More details.
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, as it later did in the year 2000.
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.
1783: On JUN-08, a volcanic eruption in southern Iceland started. It pumped massive amounts of toxic dust, sulphur dioxide and fluorine into the atmosphere. Cattle died, crops failed, and about one quarter of the island's population died of starvation. By the end of June, poisonous clouds had reached England and much of Europe. Boats had to stay in harbor because they could not navigate. There was massive loss of life in England, particularly among farm workers. Many predicted that the end of the world was imminent.
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 that Doomsday would occur 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.
Recent Predictions:
Gary D. Blevins (1998) Ronald Reagan (who it turns out is the Antichrist, since each of his three names has six letters) would, despite being out of power for two years, return to rule the world -- aided by the Masons, UFOs and a supercomputer.
In 1996, Reagan would begin his reign of terror by casting New York City into the Lake of Fire.
But luckily, two short years later, Jesus would return to Earth, triggering the Rapture (the faithless need not apply) and tossing satanic Reagan into the fire for 1,000 years.
Blevins apparently had little to say after his predictions failed to come to fruition, no doubt preferring to comfort himself with the stacks of money bilked from people gullible enough to buy his book.
Ed Dames (Spring, 1999 / Rescheduled for 2014) Former US Army Major Ed Dames was a participant in the government's Stargate Project to determine the existence of psychic abilities -- you know, like The Men Who Stare at Goats -- but although the project was shut down for lack of evidence, that hasn't stopped Dames from trumpeting his ability to see ("remote view") the future and to teach others to do the same (for a small fee). His specialty seems to be doom and gloom predictions (Can no one predict peace accords or a 40% increase in rainbows?), from earthquakes to disease to nuclear war, but his pičce de résistance since at least 1998 has been the "killshot." It goes a little something like this:
An unknown planet-sized object will suddenly come in close proximity with Earth, destroying our planet's magnetic field.
An inconveniently timed period of unusually high solar flare activity will cause lethal flares to strike the Earth's surface, triggering tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes, global warming, hurricane-level winds and a very smug Ed Dames.
Amidst the chaos but unrelated to the killshot, the Earth will coincidentally decide to shift on its axis, wiping out what life is left on the planet after the solar flares hit.
But have no fear: a humanoid alien race will show up after the devastation (thanks a lot) and help the few remaining survivors rebuild. In the meantime, they've left crop circles as indicators of the best places to be when the end of times occurs. Rural Kansas, here we come!
Dames first predicted that the killshot would occur in the spring of 1999, and he and his employees spent a few days inside a lava tube in Hawaii waiting for the big event. Aw-kward. Undeterred, he has since continued to push out the date to "right around the corner" -- most recently somewhere between 2012 and 2014.
Hon-Ming Chen (March 31, 1998) Taiwanese political science professor-turned-cult leader Hon-Ming Chen moved his God's Salvation Church to the US in the mid-'90s, settling in Garland, Texas because the name sounded like "God's Land." There, in 1997, he began to make some interesting predictions:
Nuclear war would ravage the Earth in 1999, but like He had done five times before since the age of the dinosaurs, God would arrive in a flying saucer and save a select few beings -- i.e., members of God's Salvation Church. Chen pinpointed the landing spot to be Lake Street Beach in Miller, Indiana.
But before all of that, at midnight on March 25, 1998, God would appear on Channel 18 on every television set in the US (sorry, rest of the world) to warn us about the impending global crisis.
God would look exactly like Chen.
Apparently, even though God is speaking, and He's talking about our imminent destruction, people would still become bored, so God would arrange for some entertaining movie programming to be shown as well. (When God didn't show, Chen explained that God had instead declared his intentions in strong winds and unusual cloud patterns.)
Before things hit the fan, God would appear at Chen's house in Garland at 10:00 AM on March 31, 1998. Again, He would resemble Chen. He would even duplicate himself to personally greet followers at the same time and would speak in whatever language his followers spoke. (When that didn't pan out, Chen explained to reporters gathered at the scene that they are all God.)
Chen claimed to have amongst his followers a reincarnation of Jesus Christ ("Jesus of the East") and prophesized that linking him up with a "Jesus of the West" would save lives in the impending war.
The other Jesus was supposedly a six-foot-tall 28-year-old man living in Vancouver, British Columbia who looked like Abraham Lincoln. The group placed a personals ad in local newspapers, but no one came forward. As nutty as they were to follow Chen in the first place, his followers were smart enough to see the writing on the wall after several botched prophecies. Most abandoned God's Salvation Church even before the predicted doomsday.
Nancy Lieder (May, 2003) In 1995, Nancy Lieder, founder of the Zeta Talk website and supposed alien contactee (and surrogate mother), targeted May 2003 as doomsday, stating amongst other things that:
A planet-sized object, dubbed Planet X, about four times the size of Earth would sweep through our solar system, causing the Earth to stop spinning for six days.
The Earth's poles would shift, causing the crust to move and leading to all sorts of nasty weather -- winds, tidal waves, lightning, whirlpools and enough humidity for a billion bad hair days.
About 90% of the Earth's population would die, and their souls would be reincarnated as various entities, based on how selfless they are -- ranging from Earth-bound humans (the most selfless) to lesser beings flung off onto other planets (the most selfish). If you haven't decided whether to be selfless or selfish, you would be reincarnated as an octopus. Seriously.
She knows this because she's been communicating with aliens ("Zetas") since she was a child, having been implanted with Zetan genetic material that gives her telepathic abilities. Or so they tell her.
When the date came and went with no cataclysm, Lieder and her followers stated that the 2003 date was a "white lie" and that "no date would be given as it would allow the establishment to mistreat the populace." The Man has to ruin everything.
Moses David (1993) David Berg (AKA Moses David), founder of the hippie religious cult The Children of God, made headlines nationwide in 1973 when he prophesized that the passing of the Comet Kohoutek would signal the end of the world, but he later made more ridiculous predictions, namely:
The Battle of Armageddon would occur in the mid-1980s, during which the USSR would defeat a tag team of the United States and Israel.
In 1986, a Communist leader would emerge from Egypt and become dictator of the world, but around three years later, he would announce that he is in fact Satan (Surprise!) and would demand worship from everyone.
But have no fear; Jesus Christ would return in 1993 to conquer the Antichrist. The saved individuals would Rapture on up the road to Heaven, while Jesus would rule over the Earth for 1,000 years, with the assistance of Children of God members -- though you'd imagine all of them would be in Heaven at that point.
If accusations of Berg's rampant child molestation didn't frighten his followers away, I supposed a few failed prophecies wouldn't seem like such a big deal. As such, although Berg died in 1994, his group continues to function under the name The Family International, with membership reported to be over 10,000.
Eileen Lakes (July, 1999) In 1997, Eileen Lakes, self-proclaimed as "a Utopian, Spiritual Leader and Japanese," predicted that the following series of events would commence in July 1999:
The planets in the solar system would suddenly align into a "Grand Cross" configuration.
This movement would cause the Earth's poles to shift by 90 degrees, leading to a worldwide flood known as the "Water Baptism."
Survivors would form a worldwide society -- the "Kingdom of God" -- using a form of socialism dubbed "Eileenism." Jerusalem would be the capital of Earth, and Earth would the capital of the solar system.
Humans would have life spans of over 1,000 years and would swear loyalty to aliens and their almighty supercomputer, seeing as how humans were created by aliens. Duh.
Although the events didn't unfold quite as expected in 1999, Lakes continues to tell her follower(s) to prepare for the "Kingdom of God," which now will occur around 2070, by which time she should be dead enough to avoid scrutiny when nothing happens.
Albert Porta (December 17, 1919) Most meteorologists today are satisfied with getting the weekend forecast correct, but back in 1919, respected meteorologist Albert Porta went beyond the call of duty and predicted that December 17 of that year would arrive with a 100% chance of your face melting off. That is, the alignment of six planets would create a magnetic charge that would cause the sun to explode and engulf the Earth. When doomsday came and went without so much as a severe sunburn, Porta lost all his credibility and ended up writing the weather column for a local newspaper.
Sheldan Nidle (March 1995 - December 1996, thereabouts) Scientist Sheldan Nidle helped popularize the pseudoscience of the Photon Belt with his 1994 book You are Becoming a Galactic Human, supposedly a transcript of messages channeled from an alien being from the Sirius star system (a "Sirian"). So, I suppose Nidle can blame him/her for these failed prophecies:
Between March of 1995 and December of 1996, Earth would enter the Photon Belt, an immense ring of light particles (whose presence scientists have somehow not yet managed to recognize), that will transport the entire solar system close to the Sirius star system.
The Photon Belt would elevate humans into a higher state of being, from the third dimension, skipping 4-D altogether and going all the way to 5-D: a semi-ethereal shared consciousness between all humans.
Before the Photon Belt arrives, alien "counselors" from the Galactic Federation of Light would land on Earth to help prepare us for our new consciousness, teaching us not only how to speak telepathically with other people, but also with the dead and with plants and animals.
When 1996 came and went without incident, Nidle proclaimed that the rituals and meditations of his followers "greatly assisted the local Spiritual Hierarchy in changing both the timing and the intensity of the Earth Changes." Well played, crazy person, well played.
Cheers,
Raf.
PS: Let´s keep this thread polite and focused on the topic, ok?
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