Bad news for all the DoomsDay preppers and believers – We’re still alive, and nothing’s changed. Life on Earth continues to happen in its own sweet time! This only echoes the past failures of false prophets and preachers predicting the end of the world.
Harold Camping is just one of many claiming the end of the world on 12-12-12. According to sociologists, doomsday prophets have been around for many years, and failed predictions rarely stop them.
Here’s a list of 10 false Doomsday claimants:
On this page
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 watched the hen laying one of the prophetic eggs and discovered someone had hatched a hoax.
The Millerites, April 23, 1843
After several years of careful study of the Bible, a New England farmer named William Miller concluded that God’s chosen time to destroy the world could be divined from a strictly literal interpretation of scripture. According to him, the world would end sometime between March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844.
He preached and published enough to eventually lead thousands of followers (known as Millerites), who decided that the actual date was April 23, 1843. Many sold or gave away their possessions, assuming they would not be needed. However, when April 23 arrived, the group eventually disbanded, some of them forming 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 that he had spoken to God recently. 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 (related, as the name implies, to cyanide). 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 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, rumors 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 (and could be refuted by anyone with a good telescope), the rumors 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 cult members, who committed suicide on March 26, 1997.
Y2K, Jan. 1, 2000
As the last century drew close, many people grew concerned that computers might bring about doomsday. The problem, first noted in the early 1970s, was that many computers would 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.
Nostradamus, August 1999
The heavily 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, the seventh month, from the sky will come a great king of terror.” Many Nostradamus devotees grew concerned that this was the famed prognosticator’s vision of Armageddon.
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.”
Harold Camping, 2011
In May 2011, radio preacher Harold Camping drew international media attention with his predictions that Judgment Day would come on May 21, kicked off by earthquakes around the globe and rapture of the faithful. According to Camping, this dreadful day would be followed by months of torment and the end of the world on October 21.
When May 21 passed quietly, Camping retreated from the limelight for a brief time before announcing that Judgment Day had, in fact, come and gone on that date. Instead of physical earthquakes, Camping wrote on his radio station’s website, Family Radio, May 21 brought spiritual earthquakes, and God completed judging souls. Now Camping contends that the end of the world will indeed come on October 21, albeit quietly and without fire and brimstone.
In the end, all I can say is there are many gullible people out there, there will always be such prophecies filled with false claims, and people shouldn’t go on believing everything they hear. As is written in Matthew 24:36, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven …”. People should be leaders of God rather than followers of men.
