So, last Saturday, September 23, the entire world waited anxiously for the magnificent earth to come to an unforeseen end, an event that clearly did not happen.
The apprehensions of this sudden apocalypse were raised by a man named David Meade, who the media was swift to dub a ‘Christian Numerologist’, a thing Ed Stetzer, a Professor and Executive Director of Wheaton College’s Billy Graham Centre for Evangelism has strongly denied.
According to Meade, based on the Bible and some ancient Egyptian pyramid scribes, a hypothesised Planet X called Nibiru was doomed to head down on earth, thereby bringing about the catastrophe in the form of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tidal waves and other cataclysmic events. These events would hit earth so bad and render it void.
All this was supposed to happen on Saturday, but look here we are on the end of a fresh new week, alive, uninjured and no signs of any unusual catastrophe have struck us. And about Nibiru, NASA has repeatedly debunked that as a hoax.
Now that the end did not happen we are left to wonder, should we even be paying attention to these so-called Christian Numerologists, Prophets, Prognostics, and or any other people who keep on hypnotising us by claiming that they know when the world will end?
Fact is, this doomsday tale is periodically recycled into new apocalyptic fables and from most of the observations we have accumulated, these are just fictional assertions, whether they are made in books, secular or holy, movies, documentaries or even over the internet.
Therefore, considering this recent Meade claim, it seems like a good time to put such and other notions of that sort in context. So, here we have compiled for our dearly Christian community ten of the most epic doomsday predictions that didn’t pan out, well, so far.
Side note; there are over ten of these for this URL to accommodate, but the few we have put together were really epic for the majority of the 19th, 20th Century and the new millennium.
Prophet Hen of Leeds, 1806
History has countless examples of people who have proclaimed that the return of Jesus Christ is imminent, but perhaps there has never been a stranger messenger than a hen in the English town of Leeds in 1806.
It seems that a hen began laying eggs on which the phrase “Christ is coming” was written. As news of this miracle spread, many people became convinced that doomsday was at hand — until a curious local actually watched the hen laying one of the prophetic eggs and discovered someone had hatched a hoax.
The Millerites, April 23, 1843
A New England farmer, William Miller, after several years of very careful study of his Bible, concluded that God’s chosen time to destroy the world could be divined from a strictly literal interpretation of scripture. As he explained to anyone who would listen, the world would end sometime between March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844.
He preached and published enough to eventually lead thousands of followers (the Millerites) who decided that the actual date was April 23, 1843. Many sold or gave away their possessions, assuming they would not be needed; though when April 23 arrived (but Jesus didn’t) the group disbanded—some of them forming what is now the Seventh Day Adventists.
Mormon Armageddon, 1891 or earlier
Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church, called a meeting of his church leaders in February 1835 to tell them he had spoken to God recently, and during their conversation, he learned that Jesus would return within the next 56 years, after which the End Times would begin promptly.
Halley’s Comet, 1910
In 1881, an astronomer discovered through spectral analysis that comet tails include a deadly gas called Cyanogen. This was of only passing interest until someone realized that Earth would pass through the tail of Halley’s Comet in 1910.
Would everyone on the planet be bathed in deadly toxic gas? That was the speculation reprinted on the front pages of “The New York Times“ and other newspapers, resulting in a widespread panic across the United States and abroad. Finally, even-headed scientists explained that there was nothing to fear.
Pat Robertson, 1982
In May 1980, televangelist and Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson startled and alarmed many when — contrary to Matthew 24:36 (“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven…“) he informed his “700 Club” TV show audience around the world that he knew when the world would end.
“I guarantee you by the end of 1982 there is going to be a judgment on the world,” Robertson said.
Heaven’s Gate, 1997
When comet Hale-Bopp appeared in 1997, rumours surfaced that an alien spacecraft was following the comet — covered up, of course, by NASA and the astronomical community. Though the claim was refuted by astronomers, the rumours were publicized on Art Bell’s paranormal radio talk show “Coast to Coast AM.”
These claims inspired a San Diego UFO cult named Heaven’s Gate to conclude that the world would end soon. The world did indeed end for 39 of the cult members, who committed suicide on March 26, 1997.
Nostradamus, August 1999
The obfuscated and metaphorical writings of Michel de Nostrdame have intrigued people for over 400 years. His writings, the accuracy of which relies heavily upon very flexible interpretations, have been translated and re-translated in dozens of different versions. One of the most famous quatrains read,
“The year 1999, seventh month / From the sky will come great king of terror.”
Many Nostradamus devotees grew concerned that this was the famed prognosticator’s vision of Armageddon.
Y2K, Jan. 1, 2000
As the last century drew to a close, many people grew concerned that ever-growing technology might bring about doomsday. The problem, first noted in the early 1970s, was that many computers could not tell the difference between 2000 and 1900 dates.
No one was sure what that would do, but many suggested catastrophic problems ranging from vast blackouts to nuclear holocaust. Gun sales jumped and survivalists prepared to live in bunkers, but the new millennium began with only a few glitches.
May 5, 2000
In case the Y2K bug didn’t do us in, Richard Noone, author of the 1997 book ‘5/5/2000 Ice: the Ultimate Disaster’ assured global catastrophe will.
According to Noone, the Antarctic ice mass would be three miles thick by May 5, 2000 — a date in which the planets would be aligned in the heavens, somehow resulting in a global icy death. Well, maybe global warming kept the ice age at bay.
God’s Church Ministry, Fall 2008
According to God’s Church Minister Ronald Weinland, the end times are upon us– again. His 2006 book “2008: God’s Final Witness” states that hundreds of millions of people will die and by the end of 2006,
“…there will be a maximum time of two years remaining before the world will be plunged into the worst time of all human history. By the fall of 2008, the United States will have collapsed as a world power, and no longer exist as an independent nation.”
As the book notes, “Ronald Weinland places his reputation on the line as the end-time prophet of God.”
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