DOOMSDAY SCOREBOARD

Amid the First Jewish–Roman war, Simon bar Giora emerged as a revolutionary leader who some of his followers regarded as a messianic figure. Apocalyptic sects like the Essenes interpreted the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple as fulfilling end-times prophecies. On Simon's authority, coins were minted declaring the redemption of Israel.

Simon’s leadership ended in 70 CE when he was captured by the Romans after the fall of Jerusalem, paraded in Titus’ triumph in Rome, and executed.

The Montanist movement, founded by Montanus in Phrygia, anticipated Christ’s imminent return within the founders’ lifetimes. Montanus and his prophetesses, Maximilla and Priscilla, proclaimed Pepuza as the 'New Jerusalem' where the world would end.

The prophecy failed within their generation, but the movement persisted for centuries.

In 365 CE, Hilary of Poitiers, a French bishop and theologian in Roman Gaul, was later cited in apocalyptic lists as predicting the end of the world. His surviving writings frequently accused emperors such as Constantius II and Arian bishops of being the Antichrist, and he described his age as the time of Antichrist. However, it is unclear where (or if) he explicitly named 365 CE as the year of doomsday, and the attribution appears to stem from later compilations rather than his preserved texts.

Attribution to 365 is unclear; later lists claim it, but Hilary’s extant works only say the time of Antichrist had arrived, with no explicit year.

Between 375 and 400 CE, Martin of Tours, a French bishop and saint, declared that the Antichrist had already been born and would rise to power within his generation. He predicted the world would end before the year 400.

This prophecy was not fulfilled.

In 500 CE, Hippolytus of Rome, an early Christian theologian, predicted the Second Coming of Christ. He based his calculation on biblical chronologies, including an allegorical interpretation of the dimensions of Noah’s Ark, which he read as a prophecy of the number of years until the end.

500 CE passed without fulfillment.

The Church Father Irenaeus (c. 130–202 CE) argued that human history would last six thousand years before the advent of the Second Coming of Christ. Later interpreters understood his chronology to point toward the year 500 CE as the time when Christ would return to judge the world.

His calculation did not manifest.

The Christian chronographer Sextus Julius Africanus is reported to have expected the world to end in 500 CE. Using elaborate biblical chronologies, he calculated that six thousand years from creation would conclude at that time, ushering in the return of Christ and the final judgment.

This scheme became influential on later writers but did not come to pass.

In front of a large crowd, Beatus of Liébana, a Spanish monk and theologian, prophesied the Second Coming of Christ and the end of the world would occur on April 6th, 793.

Beatus is best known for his Commentary on the Apocalypse, which strongly shaped medieval eschatology. This context influenced his 793 prediction, though his calculation failed.

Gregory of Tours, a French bishop and historian, calculated that the Second Coming of Christ and the end of the world would take place between 799–806 CE. This date range reflected early medieval chronological calculations tied to biblical interpretation.

The prediction failed to occur.

The Christian historian Sextus Julius Africanus originally predicted the end of the world around 500 CE, but later revised his calculation to point to the year 800 CE. He believed that six thousand years from creation would mark the Second Coming of Christ and the final judgment.

The year passed without incident.

Thiota, a Christian woman in 9th-century Germany, declared that the world would end in 847 CE.

After the prophecy failed, she confessed that she had fabricated it at the urging of a priest and for personal gain. She had persuaded many, including clerics, and collected gifts from followers. Thiota was brought before a synod, where she was compelled to confess, publicly flogged, and stripped of her claimed authority.

Between 992 and 995 CE, various Christians believed that the coincidence of Good Friday with the Feast of the Annunciation would herald the rise of the Antichrist and the arrival of the end-times within three years.

The expectation failed to manifest.

Pope Sylvester II was among the Christian clerics said to have predicted that the world would end on January 1, 1000 CE, marking the Millennium and the expected Second Coming of Christ. Accounts claim that riots broke out in Europe and that pilgrims traveled to Jerusalem in anticipation of the apocalypse.

Historians dispute whether riots or pilgrimages actually took place in connection with January 1, 1000, suggesting that later chroniclers may have exaggerated or invented these accounts.

Some theorists speculated that the end of the world would come in 1033 CE, one thousand years after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, since the earlier expectation tied to the year 1000 had failed. Historians note the idea circulated but evidence of widespread belief is debated.

This prediction did not manifest.

The Italian mystic Joachim of Fiore calculated that the Millennium would commence sometime between 1200 and 1260 CE, inaugurating a new age of the Holy Spirit. His prediction failed, though his ideas shaped later apocalyptic movements.

Joachim’s apocalyptic timetable deeply influenced medieval eschatology and later groups, but no millennium began in his timeframe.

Pope Innocent III predicted that the world would end in 1284 CE, 666 years after the rise of Islam, based on numerological calculation.

No end occurred.

The Joachimites, followers of Joachim of Fiore, predicted the end of the world in 1290 CE, after Joachim’s earlier calculation for 1260 had failed.

No apocalypse occurred.

The Joachimites, again revised Joachim's, timetable, expecting the end in 1335 CE.

The world continued without incident.

During the devastation of the Black Death (1346–1351), many Europeans believed the plague was a divine punishment and a sign of the imminent End Times.

The Black Death was catastrophic, killing millions, but it did not bring about the end of the world.

The French alchemist and Franciscan friar Jean de Roquetaillade predicted that the Antichrist would appear in 1366.

No Antichrist appeared in 1366; the year passed without fulfillment.

Jean de Roquetaillade proposed that the Millennium would commence in 1368, inaugurating a new age of the Holy Spirit.

1368 passed without the inauguration of a millennial age.

When 1368 failed, Jean de Roquetaillade also identified 1370 as a possible start for the Millennium.

1370 likewise passed without the predicted millennial transformation.

The Catalan theologian and physician Arnaldus de Villa Nova, influenced by Joachimite traditions, predicted that the Antichrist would come in 1378 CE.

The date passed without incident.

Many Russian Orthodox Christians believed that 1492 CE would mark the Second Coming of Christ, since it corresponded to the year 7000 in the Byzantine calendar — the end of the seventh millennium and the beginning of the eighth. Anticipation was strong enough that the Russian Orthodox Church decided in 1408 not to compute the date of Easter beyond 1491.

The world did not end.

The Italian painter Sandro Botticelli believed he was living during the Tribulation, and that the Millennium would begin around 1504 CE. In his painting The Mystical Nativity, he wrote that the Devil was loose but would soon be chained. No apocalypse came.

The prophecy failed to occur.

Thomas Müntzer, a radical Reformation preacher, taught that 1525 would inaugurate the Millennium. He mobilized his followers politically as well as spiritually, seeing emergent peasant revolts as tools of divine judgment. After leading insurgent forces into the Peasants’ War, he was defeated at Frankenhausen, tortured, and executed in 1525. His prophetic vision passed unfulfilled.

His movement failed militarily; he was captured, tortured, and executed. No millennium began in 1525.

A group of London astrologers distributed flyers that predicted that a flood would engulf London on February 1st, 1524, marking the end of the world. Their calculations (from June 1523 based on a grand conjunction in Pisces) were taken seriously: an estimated 20,000 people abandoned their homes seeking higher ground. Luca Gaurico was identified by historians as one of the authors of this pamphlet.

The deluge never came.

The German astrologer Johannes Stöffler predicted that a planetary alignment in Pisces on 20 February 1524 would unleash a catastrophic flood and signal the start of the Millennium.

When the date passed without incident, his prophecy was discredited.

The German astrologer Johannes Stöffler, whose earlier flood prediction for 1524 failed, revised his timetable and pointed instead to 1528 CE.

He was incorrect again.

The German Anabaptist Hans Hut predicted that the world would end on May 27th 1528, three and a half years after the outbreak of the Peasants’ War. Hut calculated that Christ’s return would occur exactly three and a half years after the Peasants’ War of 1524–1525. He was imprisoned and died (likely accidentally, in a cell fire) before the predicted date.

Nothing happened on May 27th, 1528.

The Anabaptist prophet Melchior Hoffman predicted that Christ’s Second Coming would occur in 1533 CE in Strasbourg. He declared that 144,000 believers would be saved while the rest of the world would be consumed by fire.

Hoffman was imprisoned in Strasbourg that same year and died after ten years in captivity. His teachings directly influenced the Münster Rebellion.

The German mathematician and theologian Michael Stifel used numerology to calculate the precise hour of Judgement Day would begin, at 8:00 a.m. on October 19th, 1533.

On the morning of October 19, 1533, his followers gathered in expectation, but nothing occurred. He was mocked for the blunder and later found refuge under Martin Luther’s protection.

During the Münster Rebellion, the Dutch Anabaptist leader Jan Matthys declared that the apocalypse would arrive on 5 April 1534. When the day came and no divine deliverance occurred, he led a suicidal charge against the besieging troops of Prince-Bishop Franz von Waldeck.

Matthys was killed in battle and his head displayed as a warning.

The French theologian and cardinal Pierre d’Ailly calculated around 1400 that approximately 6845 years of human history had passed. He concluded that the world would end in the 7000th year, placing the apocalypse around 1555 CE. He also offered a separate calculation for the appearance of the Antichrist in 1789.

His chronology influenced later apocalyptic writers but proved incorrect.

During the Great Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in 1583, European astrologers predicted cataclysmic events and even the end of the world, interpreting the alignment’s position in a water sign as an omen of destruction.

The fears proved unfounded. In 1586, Pope Sixtus V issued the bull Coeli et terrae, condemning astrological end-time predictions.

The Spanish-born reformer Michael Servetus wrote in The Restoration of Christianity (1553) that the Devil’s rule had begun at the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE and would endure for 1,260 years, ending in 1585 CE with the world’s renewal.

Servetus was burned at the stake in Geneva in 1553, long before his prediction failed.

The German mathematician and astronomer Regiomontanus was credited with a prediction that the world would end in 1588 CE, likely derived from his astrological calculations.

No event occurred, though his reputation kept his works circulating long after his death in 1476.

The reformer Martin Luther believed that the end of the world was imminent, predicting it would occur by 1600 CE at the latest. He reasoned that the world could not endure more than 300 years after his era.

His prediction influenced early Protestant eschatology but failed.

The same circle of astrologers who had predicted the Great Flood of 1524 recalculated their prophecy, declaring that the world-ending deluge would instead occur on 1 February 1624.

The revised date also failed, and London endured no flood.

The Ottoman rabbi Sabbatai Zevi declared, based on Kabbalistic calculations, that the Messiah would come in 1648 CE.

When nothing happened, Zevi later recalculated to 1666, which became the center of his messianic movement.

An anonymous author in Lübeck, Germany, produced a manuscript of apocalyptic maps predicting that Judgement Day would fall in 1651 CE. The images portrayed the Antichrist, the rise of Islam, and other calamities that would unfold after the world’s end.

No such events occurred. The apocalypse manuscript now belongs to the Huntington Library in San Marino, California.

The German physician and astrologer Helisaeus Roeslin claimed that the nova of 1572 was a heavenly warning of the approaching end. He predicted the apocalypse for 1654 CE

The year passed without fulfillment.

The radical English sect known as the Fifth Monarchists, inspired by the Book of Daniel, believed that between 1655 and 1657 CE the final apocalyptic battle would take place, culminating in the destruction of the Antichrist and the reign of Christ. The years passed without fulfillment, though the group continued to agitate for revolution in England.

The movement collapsed after their failed uprising, Venner’s Rising (1661), when leaders were executed and the sect was suppressed.

In his Book of Prophecies (c. 1501), Christopher Columbus predicted that the world would end in 1656 CE. Drawing on medieval chronologies, he believed that human history would total 7,000 years, leaving only ~150 years remaining in his time. Columbus viewed his voyages as part of God’s plan to spread Christianity and help usher in the Second Coming.

This prophecy failed to come true.

In his Book of Prophecies, Christopher Columbus argued that the world was created in 5343 BCE and would last 7,000 years. Assuming no year zero, he placed the end in 1658 CE.

This prophecy also did not come true.

The English theologian Joseph Mede argued that the Antichrist had appeared in 456 CE and would reign for 1,260 years. On this basis he predicted the end would come in 1660 CE.

The year passed without incident, though his apocalyptic scholarship influenced later Protestant eschatology.

The Ottoman rabbi Sabbatai Zevi recalculated his failed 1648 prophecy and declared that the Messiah would come in 1666 CE. The year inspired enormous excitement among Jews across Europe and the Middle East.

Instead of redemption, Zevi was imprisoned by the Ottomans and, under threat of death, converted to Islam. His messianic movement disintegrated.

The year 1666 carried ominous weight for English Christians, especially the Fifth Monarchists. The presence of 666 in the date, combined with the devastation of the Great Plague of London (which killed around 100,000) and the Great Fire of London, led many to believe the End Times were at hand.

Fears subsided when no apocalypse occurred.

The English radical William Aspinwall, associated with the Fifth Monarchists, predicted that the Millennium would commence by 1673 CE.

The prophecy failed, marking one of the last notable dates tied to the movement.

The Scottish mathematician and theologian John Napier, best known for inventing logarithms, also wrote extensively on apocalyptic prophecy. In A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St. John (1593), he predicted that the world would end in 1688 CE, basing his calculations on the Book of Revelation. His prophecy failed, though his apocalyptic writings were influential in the 17th century.

The year passed uneventfully.

The Calvinist theologian Johann Heinrich Alsted (1588–1638), a prolific encyclopedist and millenarian thinker, predicted that the Millennium would begin by 1694 CE. His prophecy failed, though his writings influenced later Protestant eschatology.

Alsted predicted the Millennium would arrive no later than 1694, but he died in 1638 and the date passed without fulfillment.

The German Lutheran theologian and astronomer Johann Jacob Zimmermann taught that Jesus would return in 1694 CE and that the world would end.

He and his Pietist followers prepared for the event, but he died in 1694 before the prophecy was disconfirmed.

The Anglican clergyman and poet John Mason (1645–1694), known for his devotional hymns, also preached that the Millennium would commence by 1694 CE. His writings, sermons, and hymns show the era’s blend of Anglican devotion and millenarian fervor in late 17th-century England.

Mason died in 1694, the year he predicted the Millennium, which did not occur.

The Puritan minister Cotton Mather predicted that the world would end in 1697 CE. When the prophecy failed, he revised his timetable twice more, to 1716 and then 1736.

No apocalypse came.

In his 1642 treatise The Personall Reigne of Christ Upon Earth, the English writer Henry Archer predicted that the Second Coming of Jesus would take place around 1700 CE, ushering in the Millennium. The prophecy failed, though the book contributed to mid-17th-century English millenarianism.

The year passed without fulfillment, and his writings circulated mainly among English millenarians.

The Scottish mathematician and theologian John Napier, best known for inventing logarithms, also wrote extensively on the Book of Revelation. In A Plaine Discovery (1593), he offered two possible dates for the apocalypse — 1688 and 1700 CE.

Both failed, though his book was widely read and influenced Protestant apocalyptic thought.

The German cardinal and philosopher Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464) predicted that the end of the world would occur between 1700 and 1734 CE.

His long-range forecast proved wrong, as the years passed without incident.

During the Camisard revolt in the Cévennes, prophets among the persecuted Huguenots proclaimed that the world would end in 1705 CE. Their visions promised divine deliverance from the forces of Louis XIV, but the year passed without fulfillment, and the rebellion suffered brutal repression.

The expected 1705 apocalypse did not arrive; by then, French royal troops had burned villages and suppressed much of the rebellion.

After the failed prophecy of 1705, some Camisard prophets shifted their apocalyptic expectation to 1706 CE, declaring that God would bring judgment against Louis XIV and vindicate the persecuted Huguenots. The revised date passed uneventfully, and the rebellion was further diminished.

Hopes for supernatural intervention dwindled as royal forces tightened control.

A final wave of Camisard prophets predicted the apocalypse would occur in 1708 CE. Despite years of bloody resistance in the Cévennes, the promise of divine deliverance for the Huguenots never came. Instead, the rebellion collapsed under the might of Louis XIV’s forces, and the prophetic movement lost credibility.

1708 was the last major Camisard prophetic date; by then the revolt was collapsing, and the end-time hopes faded along with the movement.

The Puritan minister Cotton Mather, who had earlier predicted the apocalypse for 1697, revised his timetable to 1716 CE.

When nothing happened, he would later push the date out once more to 1736.

After his 1697 and 1716 end-times calculations failed, the Puritan minister Cotton Mather adjusted his interpretation of biblical chronology, suggesting that the world might end or the Millennium begin in 1717. When nothing occurred, he ultimately deferred the event to 1736.

No apocalypse came; Mather later extended the timeline to 1736, dying in 1728 before that date.

The Swiss mathematician Jacob Bernoulli predicted that a comet would strike Earth on 5 April 1719, bringing about its destruction. The catastrophic collision never happened, but the claim reflected early modern anxieties over comets as apocalyptic omens.

No such event occurred, though public fear was stirred by the prediction.

The Puritan minister Cotton Mather gave a third prediction for the apocalypse, setting it at 1736 CE after his earlier dates of 1697 and 1716 had failed.

He died in 1728, eight years before the prophecy failed, and the year passed quietly.

The English theologian and natural philosopher William Whiston predicted that a comet would strike Earth on 16 October 1736, destroying the world. His forecast, which blended astronomy with apocalyptic interpretation, caused public alarm in London.

No disaster occurred and his credibility was damaged.

The Swedish scientist and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg claimed that the Last Judgment occurred in the spiritual world in 1757 CE, rather than as a visible earthly event. This interpretation distinguished his theology from mainstream Christianity and became foundational to the later Swedenborgian movement.

Swedenborg taught that the Last Judgment took place invisibly in the spiritual world in 1757, not on Earth. His followers accepted this reinterpretation, forming the basis of the Swedenborgian Church.

"Shaker leader Ann Lee was regarded by her followers as the female embodiment of the Second Coming of Christ, marking a spiritual rather than physical apocalypse.

The Shakers redefined Lee’s 'Second Coming' as a spiritual manifestation rather than a literal end of the world.

On May 19th, 1780, skies across New England turned so dark that candles were needed at midday. Some members of the Connecticut General Assembly and many New Englanders feared it was a sign of the End Times, interpreting the event as biblical Judgment.

Scientists now attribute the phenomenon to a mix of forest fire smoke, dense fog, and thick cloud cover.

The French cardinal Pierre d’Ailly predicted that the Antichrist would appear in 1789 CE. The prophecy was not fulfilled, though the year coincided with the outbreak of the French Revolution. He had earlier given a different calculation pointing to 1555 as the end of 7000 years of history.

D’Ailly projected 1789 as the year of the Antichrist’s arrival, but he died in 1420; the date later gained symbolic weight because of the Revolution, though it was not tied to his prophecy.

The Shakers, a millenarian sect founded in 18th-century England and established in colonial America, predicted that the world would end in 1792 CE. When the prophecy failed, they recalculated the end for 1794.

When nothing happened, they postponed the date to 1794.

The retired naval officer and self-styled prophet Richard Brothers predicted that the Millennium would begin between 1793 and 1795 CE, and proclaimed himself the leader chosen to guide the Israelites to restoration. His apocalyptic claims attracted followers, among them MP Nathaniel Brassey Halhed.

When no Millennium appeared, Brothers was arrested for treason in 1795 and confined as insane.

The Shakers reset their failed 1792 apocalyptic prophecy to 1794 CE. When that year passed without the Second Coming, they gave up fixed timetables and instead emphasized ongoing spiritual renewal, celibacy, and communal living as signs of God’s kingdom on Earth.

They abandoned date-setting after this one failed to occur as well.

While campaigning for the release of the imprisoned prophet Richard Brothers, the English orientalist and MP Nathaniel Brassey Halhed declared that the apocalypse would occur on 19 November 1795.

When the date passed without event, Brothers remained confined and Halhed’s reputation collapsed.

Presbyterian minister Christopher Love predicted that the world would be destroyed by a massive earthquake in 1805, after which an age of everlasting peace would follow when God was universally known.

Love’s prophecy of global destruction in 1805 did not occur; he had already been executed in 1651, so the prediction circulated posthumously.

In 1806, a prophetic craze in Leeds, England, arose when a hen reportedly laid eggs inscribed with “Christ is coming.” The scheme was revealed as a hoax by Mary Bateman, who had etched the message using corrosive ink and reinserted the eggs into the bird.

The fraud discredited Bateman, and she was executed in 1809 for other, unrelated criminal activities.

On September 15, 1813, rebel leader Lin Qing proclaimed himself the incarnation of Maitreya and launched a coordinated uprising to overthrow the Qing dynasty and usher in a new age. The prophecy of cosmic renewal failed when the revolt was crushed.

The revolt was launched on the prophesied date but quickly suppressed; Lin Qing was executed.

English prophetess Joanna Southcott, aged 64, declared that she was miraculously pregnant with the new Messiah and that the child would be born on October 19, 1814.

She died later that year without delivering, and an autopsy confirmed she had never been pregnant. Her followers (Southcottians) came up with alternate explanations that sustained the sect well into the 20th century.

On November 12–13, 1833, the spectacular Leonid meteor shower was widely seen across North America. Prophet Joseph Smith and others interpreted the event as a cosmic sign heralding the Second Coming of Christ. The world did not end, but the event was later reinterpreted as a symbolic fulfillment of biblical prophecy, reinforcing millenarian belief within the early Latter Day Saint movement.

The 1833 Leonid meteor storm was interpreted by Joseph Smith and others as a harbinger of Christ’s imminent return. When no apocalypse followed, it was later spiritualized as a “sign of the times” rather than a failed date.

Lutheran theologian Johann Albrecht Bengel taught in the 1730s that the Last Judgment would occur in 1836. He associated the pope with the Antichrist and the Freemasons with the “false prophet” of Revelation. Bengel’s prediction gained attention among Protestant millenarians, but he died decades before the appointed year

He died in 1752, long before the date, and the year passed uneventfully.

John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement, interpreted Revelation 12:14 as spanning from 1058 to 1836, at which time Christ would return and the Millennium would commence.

Wesley died in 1791, long before the date, and nothing occurred when the year arrived.

American preacher Harriet Livermore proclaimed that the end of the world would come in 1843.

The prophecy failed, and she went on to announce another apocalyptic year, 1847.

William Miller, a Baptist preacher and founder of the Millerite movement, calculated that the Second Coming would occur between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. The window began on March 21, 1843, but the date passed without fulfillment, leading to further anticipation and recalculations.

Miller first predicted that Christ would return between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844, with March 21, 1843 marking the beginning of the prophetic window. Nothing occurred on that date.

Within the Millerite movement, April 28, 1843 was one of the widely circulated dates for the Second Coming. While never formally endorsed by Miller himself, believers eagerly anticipated the event. When the day passed without fulfillment, hopes shifted to later dates that year.

The date passed uneventfully.

The Millerite movement also fixed December 31, 1843 as a boundary date for Christ’s return, drawn from William Miller’s prophetic window of March 21, 1843 to March 21, 1844. When the year closed without the Second Coming, Millerites looked to 1844 for revised dates, setting the stage for the “Great Disappointment.”

Nothing occurred by the year’s end, leading to further recalculations.

Baptist preacher William Miller adjusted his earlier 1843 predictions and identified March 21, 1844 as the date of Christ’s return. When the day passed without incident, his followers — known as Millerites — recalculated and fixed new dates later that year.

Nothing occurred, leading to further recalculation among his followers.

Following the failure of Miller’s March prediction, the Millerites recalculated and fixed October 22, 1844 as the date of the Second Coming. When nothing occurred, the crisis became infamous as the Great Disappointment.

The collapse of expectations fractured the movement, but reinterpretations of the prophecy gave birth to new Adventist denominations, including the Seventh-day Adventists.

American preacher Harriet Livermore, known for her millenarian sermons, issued her second prophecy of the world’s end for 1847.

Like her earlier prediction, it failed, and the year passed uneventfully.

George Rapp, founder of the millenarian Harmony Society, preached throughout his life that Jesus would return before his death. Even on his deathbed on August 7, 1847, he affirmed the belief. The prophecy failed, and while his followers carried on the Harmony Society for decades, the community declined after his passing.

He died without the prophecy being fulfilled, leaving his communal followers disillusioned but continuing as the Harmony Society.

On January 11, 1851, visionary leader Hong Xiuquan proclaimed the founding of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, declaring himself the brother of Jesus and herald of the end times. His followers believed they were fighting in an apocalyptic struggle against demons embodied by the Qing. The kingdom lasted until 1864, but the final transformation never came.

Hong declared himself the younger brother of Jesus on January 11, 1851, launching the “Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace” as the new divine order; it collapsed after massive war.

In 1856, the Xhosa prophet Nongqawuse announced that if her people destroyed their crops and cattle, the sun would turn red on February 18, 1857, ancestors would rise, and the Europeans would be driven into the sea. The prophecy failed, leading to mass famine and the devastation of the Xhosa nation.

When nothing happened on February 18, 1857, some followers set a new “eight-day” extension, but famine ensued and the prophecy collapsed.

Anglican evangelist Michael Paget Baxter forecast the end of the world sometime between 1861 and 1867, interpreting prophetic time periods in Daniel and Revelation

When 1861 passed uneventfully, Baxter revised his calculations and set new dates.

Scottish preacher John Cumming proclaimed that 1862 marked 6,000 years since Creation, a prophetic threshold signaling divine judgment and the world’s end.

No apocalypse came; Cumming adjusted his calculations and moved the expected end to 1867.

English convert Joseph Morris proclaimed revelations instructing his followers to gather and await the Second Coming of Christ. In 1862 he announced at least three successive dates for the event, all of which failed. When these repeatedly failed, disillusion spread.

The collapse of expectations led to a violent confrontation with territorial authorities known as the "Morrisite War,” during which Morris was killed.

John Wroe, founder of the Christian Israelite Church, made several millennial forecasts during his career, often warning the end was imminent. His most definite calculation proclaimed that the Millennium would commence in 1863.

The year passed without fulfillment.

The Anglican theologian Edward Bishop Elliott predicted in his multi-volume work Horae Apocalypticae that the end of the prophetic 1,260-year period—and the dawn of Christ’s millennial reign—would occur around 1865.

When 1865 passed uneventfully, Elliott revised his calculations to point instead to 1941.

After 1862 passed without fulfillment, John Cumming revised his eschatological scheme and highlighted 1867 as the year of Christ’s return and the Millennial kingdom. In works such as The Sounding of the Last Trumpet and Behold, the Bridegroom Cometh, he urged readers to prepare for the final judgment.

No world ending occurred in 1867; Cumming’s popularity waned as critics accused him of sensationalism.

After the failure of his 1861–1867 window, Baxter reset the expected return of Christ to 1868, citing miscounted prophetic years.

The year ended without incident, prompting further revisions.

Baxter again adjusted his prophetic scheme, identifying 1869 as the year of the Rapture and the onset of tribulation.

No predicted events occurred; Baxter continued to defend the nearness of the end in new pamphlets.

In later writings, Baxter widened his timeline to 1871–1872 for Armageddon and the beginning of the Millennium.

The anticipated global conflict and Second Coming did not materialize, drawing criticism from clergy and newspapers.

Adventist preacher Jonas Wendell predicted the Second Advent for 1873, publishing his case in The Present Truth, or Meat in Due Season. The date passed without fulfillment, but his message reinvigorated millenarian expectation.

The failure helped inspire fellow Adventists, including Nelson H. Barbour, and indirectly influenced Charles Taze Russell and the Bible Students movement.

Nelson H. Barbour, an Adventist preacher, recalculated the Second Coming for 1874 after Wendell’s 1873 failure. When no visible return occurred, Barbour and his new associate Charles Taze Russell declared that Christ had indeed returned in 1874, but invisibly in heaven. This reinterpretation became a cornerstone of the early Bible Student movement.

Barbour and Russell soon split over further predictions, but the 1874 invisible return doctrine endured as a key teaching among Bible Students and later Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Russell, carrying forward Barbour’s chronology, predicted the translation of the saints for 1878, marking the visible Rapture and the inauguration of Christ’s heavenly reign. He also linked 1878 to the end of God’s favor for Christendom and its institutions.

The event did not occur; Russell revised his chronology, moving the expected Rapture to 1881.

A spurious prophecy attributed to English seer Mother Shipton warned that “the world to an end shall come, in eighteen hundred and eighty one.” Although printer Charles Hindley admitted in 1873 that he had forged the couplet for his 1862 edition of her works, the claim circulated widely. When 1881 arrived, some still believed it would mark the end of the world, but nothing occurred.

In 1873 it was exposed as a forgery by Charles Hindley, who admitted inventing the verse. Despite this, some continued to expect the world’s end in 1881. Obviously, nothing occurred.

Russell shifted his failed 1878 Rapture prediction to 1881, teaching it marked the close of the “high calling” and the likely date for the saints’ translation to heaven.

No Rapture occurred, but Russell’s followers persisted, pushing hope forward to 1914 as the decisive date.

In 1881, Sudanese religious leader Muhammad Ahmad proclaimed himself the Mahdi, announcing that the end of corrupt rule was at hand and a new divine order was imminent. His forces overthrew the Turco-Egyptian regime, but the prophesied eschaton never came.

He declared himself Mahdi in 1881, promising imminent divine judgment and renewal; his state rose but the universal end did not arrive.

Paiute prophet Wovoka, founder of the Ghost Dance movement, foretold that the Millennium would come in 1890, restoring Native ancestors and buffalo while sweeping settlers away. The prophecy failed literally, but it inspired a widespread revival that ended in tragedy when the U.S. Army massacred Ghost Dancers at Wounded Knee.

The year passed without fulfillment of the prophecy; hopes collapsed after the U.S. Army massacred Ghost Dancers at Wounded Knee in December 1890.

Astronomer Charles Piazzi Smyth, an early proponent of pyramidology, claimed that the dimensions of the Great Pyramid of Giza revealed a prophetic timeline pointing to the Second Coming

Smyth’s pyramidological theories never produced a fulfillment; he died in 1900 before the end of his predicted window, and the prophecy was later dismissed as pseudoscience.

Baxter predicted the Rapture would occur in 1896, when the faithful would be taken up before the tribulation.

Nothing happened; even millenarian peers began distancing themselves from his serial revisions.

Connecticut physician Annie Keeler predicted that planetary alignment in 1901 would trigger the end of the world, echoing the Flood of Noah. She claimed the cosmos would “complete the planetary cycle.”

Connecticut physician Annie Keeler predicted that planetary alignment in 1901 would trigger the end of the world, echoing the Flood of Noah. She claimed the cosmos would “complete the planetary cycle,”

The Catholic Apostolic Church, founded in 1831, believed that the Second Coming of Christ would occur before the death of its last apostle. When the final member of the twelve apostles died in 1901, the prophecy failed, leading to the church’s decline.

The final surviving apostle died in 1901, and the predicted return of Jesus did not occur. The sect gradually declined in membership afterward.

In Fifteen Predicted Events from 1892 Until the End of This Age on April 11, 1901, Baxter fixed April 11, 1901 as the definitive “end of the age.”

1901 passed quietly, and Baxter soon advanced fresh deadlines.

In a later publication, Baxter set March 12, 1903 as the date of the Rapture preceding the final judgment.

The day came and went without event; he later reassigned Armageddon to 1908.

Baxter’s final printed timetable fixed Armageddon for April 23, 1908, closing decades of revised doomsday forecasts.

No cataclysm occurred; this final failure effectively ended his prophetic influence.

French astronomer Camille Flammarion warned that the 1910 passage of Halley’s Comet might fill Earth’s atmosphere with deadly cyanogen gas, potentially extinguishing life.

Public panic spread, with vendors selling “comet pills” and gas masks, but Halley’s Comet passed without incident. Flammarion’s dire warnings were discredited.

Charles Taze Russell declared that the “Gentile Times” would end in October 1914, ushering in the translation of the saints, Armageddon, the fall of Christendom, and Christ’s Millennial reign.

Nothing visible matched expectations, but World War I broke out, which was reinterpreted as spiritual confirmation. Later Jehovah’s Witnesses taught that 1914 marked Christ’s invisible enthronement in heaven.

Baptist pastor and anti-colonial leader John Chilembwe of Nyasaland (modern Malawi) preached that the Millennium would begin in 1915. He launched an uprising against British colonial rule, framed as part of this divine transformation. The revolt was brutally suppressed, and Chilembwe was killed, leaving his prophecy unfulfilled but remembered as a revolutionary act.

The rebellion was swiftly crushed by colonial forces, and he was killed. His followers saw his martyrdom as spiritually significant despite the prophecy’s failure.

The International Bible Students Association predicted that in the spring of 1918 Christendom would be destroyed and the “Little Flock” glorified in heaven. Publications such as The Finished Mystery declared that God’s vengeance would strike churches “wholesale” and kill millions of their members.

The prophecy failed, but was later reinterpreted to fit the outbreak of the Spanish Flu pandemic and the imprisonment of Watch Tower leaders, presented as symbolic fulfillments.

The IBSA warned that by 1920 Christendom would be annihilated, with churches destroyed, members perishing in war and revolution, and earthly governments disappearing amid global anarchy.

None of these events occurred, further damaging the credibility of Watch Tower predictions in the public eye. The failure set the stage for Rutherford’s better-known 1925 “Millions Now Living Will Never Die” campaign.

In 1921, Deguchi Onisaburō, leader of the Ōmoto movement, declared that a cosmic upheaval would soon destroy the present world and establish a divine new order. Though no apocalypse came, the group reinterpreted the prophecy as symbolic, continuing under heavy suppression.

Suppressed by government crackdowns, the prophecy was spiritualized.

Evangelist Wilbur Glenn Voliva, leader of the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church in Zion, predicted the world would end in 1923. When nothing happened, he postponed the date.

After 1923 passed uneventfully, Voliva revised his prediction to 1927.

Russell’s successor J. F. Rutherford predicted the resurrection of the “ancient worthies” — Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and other patriarchs — for 1925, to inaugurate the earthly Kingdom. He promoted the slogan “Millions Now Living Will Never Die” and even built Beth Sarim in San Diego to house the returning princes.

No resurrection occurred. The high-profile failure brought public ridicule but did not end the movement; Rutherford continued leading until his death in 1942.

Seventh-day Adventist preacher Margaret Rowen claimed the angel Gabriel had revealed to her that the world would end at midnight on February 13, 1925. When the prophecy failed, Rowen’s credibility collapsed, and she was later imprisoned for fraud.

Rowen’s prophecy failed at midnight, February 13, 1925. She was later exposed as a fraud, convicted of mail fraud, and imprisoned.

British MP Spencer Perceval, a leading figure of the Catholic Apostolic Church, taught that Europe’s immorality signaled the imminent End Times. He died in 1926, and the prophecy failed to materialize.

Perceval, one of the 12 “apostles” of the Catholic Apostolic Church, expected the approaching apocalypse due to Europe’s moral decline. He died in 1926 without seeing fulfillment, and the movement itself waned.

Southcottian leader Mabel Barltrop, who renamed herself Octavia, claimed in 1927 to be the divine daughter of God and the successor to Joanna Southcott’s mission. She proclaimed that a new messianic age would soon dawn, ushered in by divine judgment. The prophecy failed to materialize, and she died in 1934.

Her sect, the Panacea Society, continued to promote Southcott’s sealed “Box of Prophecies” as a future doomsday key.

Voliva next warned that the world would end in 1927. When the prophecy failed, he revised his timeline yet again.

After 1927 failed, Voliva shifted his prophecy to 1930.

Rudolf Steiner taught that Christ would reappear in the etheric (spiritual) realm during the 1930s, perceptible only to those prepared through spiritual development.

Followers regard this as an ongoing spiritual event, not a failed prophecy.

Voliva’s 1930 prediction of the world’s end again proved false, continuing his series of failed apocalyptic timetables.

With 1930 passing uneventfully, Voliva deferred the apocalypse to 1934.

Voliva again delayed the apocalypse to 1934, but when the year ended without catastrophe, he pushed the prediction to the following year.

After the failure of 1934, Voliva announced the new date as September 1935.

Voliva declared the world would go “puff” and vanish in September 1935. When it did not, he lost credibility, though he continued preaching flat-earth and apocalyptic doctrines until his death in 1942.

Voliva’s final prophecy set the apocalypse for September 1935, claiming the world would suddenly disappear. The prediction failed, discrediting him and fueling his reputation as an eccentric preacher.

Herbert W. Armstrong, founder of the Worldwide Church of God, told members that the Rapture would occur in 1936, exclusively saving his flock. When it failed, he rescheduled the event repeatedly, keeping his apocalyptic message central to the church’s identity.

Armstrong claimed the Rapture would occur in 1936 and that only his followers would be saved. When nothing happened, he postponed the date several times over the following decades. Despite failures, his church grew into an influential religious movement.

After 1865 passed without fulfillment, Edward Bishop Elliott revised his prophetic timeline, extending the expected end of the papal age and the coming of Christ’s kingdom to about 1941.

Elliott died in 1875; the year 1941 brought global war but no Second Coming.

In 1941, Jehovah’s Witnesses, heirs of the Bible Student movement, taught that the end of the present world order was near. At a convention that summer, youths were urged to devote themselves to service rather than marriage in expectation of Armageddon. When the prophecy failed, it was reinterpreted as spiritual preparation, and the movement endured through the war years.

With no apocalypse, leaders reframed the urgency as a test of faith, and followers pressed on with evangelism during WWII.

Following the collapse of his 1936 prophecy, Herbert W. Armstrong revised his forecast, teaching that the Rapture would occur in 1943. When the year passed without event, he rescheduled yet again, eventually pushing the date into the 1970s.

When it failed, he again postponed the event, keeping apocalyptic urgency central to his teachings.

John Ballou Newbrough, author of the spiritualist text Oahspe: A New Bible, prophesied that in 1947 all nations would collapse and a post-apocalyptic anarchy would begin.

Newbrough died in 1891; his followers expected 1947 to fulfill his prophecy of national destruction and worldwide anarchy, but nothing occurred. Interest in Oahspe declined after the date passed.

Dorothy Martin, founder of the Brotherhood of the Seven Rays, claimed the world would be destroyed by catastrophic flooding on December 21, 1954, but that UFOs would rescue the faithful. When the prophecy failed, she told followers their devotion had saved humanity. The episode was later documented in When Prophecy Fails, a foundational study of failed apocalyptic prophecy.

When the flooding failed to occur, Martin claimed her group’s faith had spared the world from destruction. The cult fragmented; some left, others doubled down in belief. This case became a classic study of cognitive dissonance in the book When Prophecy Fails (1956).

Florence Houteff, prophetess of the Branch Davidians, proclaimed that the Book of Revelation would be fulfilled on April 22, 1959. When nothing happened, the movement fractured into rival sects, most prominently the faction led by Benjamin and Lois Roden.

When the prophecy failed, Florence resigned and the Branch Davidians split. Factions emerged under Benjamin and Lois Roden, eventually leading to the rise of David Koresh.

American psychic Jeane Dixon and several Indian astrologers predicted that a planetary alignment on February 4, 1962 would unleash worldwide destruction. In India, large prayer gatherings were held in anticipation, but no calamity occurred.

The day passed uneventfully.

Jim Jones, founder of the People’s Temple, preached that a nuclear holocaust would devastate the world in 1967. When the prophecy failed, he redirected his movement toward communal living and apocalyptic survivalism, laying the groundwork for its catastrophic end in Jonestown.

When it failed, he shifted focus to building the People’s Temple into a utopian movement, later culminating in the 1978 Jonestown tragedy.

UFO contactee George Van Tassel prophesied that August 20, 1967 would initiate the “third woe” of the Apocalypse, with the southeastern United States annihilated by a Soviet nuclear attack.

Nothing occurred, and the prediction was abandoned.

Cult leader Charles Manson prophesied an apocalyptic race war, which he called “Helter Skelter”, would take place in 1969.

When no such war materialized, he ordered his followers to commit the Tate–LaBianca murders in an attempt to ignite it. He was later arrested and imprisoned for life.

George Williams, founder of the Church of the Firstborn, predicted the Second Coming of Christ would occur on August 9, 1969. The day passed uneventfully, leaving his prophecy unfulfilled.

The Church of the Firstborn continued as a small sect after the failure.

Herbert W. Armstrong, founder of the Worldwide Church of God, reset his failed apocalyptic forecast to 1972, teaching that the faithful would be raptured. When nothing happened, he shifted the date forward once more, maintaining urgency while his church continued to grow.

Armstrong set 1972 as the revised date for the Rapture after his earlier 1936 and 1943 predictions failed. When the year passed without event, he postponed the apocalypse again to 1975. His ministry nevertheless expanded, broadcasting worldwide.

In his 1973 book The Vision, evangelist David Wilkerson warned of a worldwide economic depression and social upheaval to begin within a few years. Though the 1970s saw inflation, oil shocks, and recession, no true global collapse occurred.

Economic hardship in the 1970s echoed parts of Wilkerson’s prophecy, but no global economic collapse materialized. His lack of specific dating allowed him to continue this theme in later writings.

David Berg, founder of the Children of God, declared that the appearance of Comet Kohoutek in January 1974 would herald a colossal doomsday event. When nothing happened, the failed prophecy damaged his credibility outside the sect, but his movement persisted.

While his prophecy collapsed, but the Children of God continued under his charismatic leadership.

Herbert W. Armstrong, founder of the Worldwide Church of God, set 1975 as the culmination of his series of failed Rapture predictions. The year passed without incident, marking the end of his explicit date-setting even as his apocalyptic message continued to shape his movement.

Armstrong had previously predicted the Rapture for 1936, 1943, and 1972, each time postponing when the date failed. His final forecast set the event for 1975. Nothing occurred, and though his church remained influential, it gradually distanced itself from specific date-setting.

Beginning with the 1966 book Life Everlasting in Freedom of the Sons of God, the Jehovah’s Witnesses taught that the year 1975 might mark the end of 6,000 years of human history and therefore coincide with the onset of the Millennium and Armageddon. Conventions and publications urged urgency, with slogans like “Stay Alive till ’75.” Many Witnesses sold homes, postponed medical care, or avoided higher education in expectation of the imminent end.

Nothing occurred in 1975. Membership growth slowed sharply, and many became disillusioned. In 1980 the Watch Tower Society acknowledged that leaders had fueled “overly eager” expectations, though they insisted the responsibility was shared with members.

The Brahma Kumaris, a Hindu-inspired apocalyptic sect founded by Lekhraj Kirpalani, taught that a global “Destruction” would take place in 1976. Leaders predicted nuclear and civil wars, natural disasters, and the sinking of all continents except India, leaving the sect to usher in a purified world. Nothing occurred, but the movement persisted, later abandoning precise date-setting.

When the year passed without the predicted annihilation, the movement gradually deemphasized date-setting but continued to preach a soon-coming purification.

John Wroe, founder of the Christian Israelite Church, set 1977 as the year of Armageddon. The prophecy failed to materialize, and the sect continued only in small communities, particularly in Australia.

Wroe, who had earlier predicted other failed dates in the 19th century, was retrospectively cited by followers as expecting Armageddon in 1977. The prophecy failed.

Pentecostal revivalist William M. Branham, a key figure in the mid-20th-century healing revivals, predicted that the Rapture and the end of the church age would occur by 1977. When the date passed without event, his followers reinterpreted the claim, though some sects within the Branham movement continue to venerate him as a prophet.

Nothing happened. Many adherents later spiritualized the prophecy.

On November 18, 1978, Jim Jones led the People’s Temple in Jonestown, Guyana, into mass suicide and murder, killing 918 people. Though not a literal apocalypse, the tragedy was the culmination of Jones’s failed doomsday prophecies and apocalyptic vision of a world doomed to nuclear war.

Jones’s earlier nuclear war prophecy failed, but in 1978 he reframed survival as suicide in Jonestown, leading to the mass death of 918 followers.

British pyramidologist Adam Rutherford interpreted the Great Pyramid’s passages as prophetic, marking 1979 as the beginning of the Millennial reign of Christ. His calculations linked pyramid measurements to biblical chronology and world history.

British pyramidologist Adam Rutherford interpreted the Great Pyramid’s passages as prophetic, marking 1979 as the beginning of the Millennial reign of Christ. His calculations linked pyramid measurements to biblical chronology and world history.

Speaker and ex-occultist John Todd claimed that in 1979–1980 the Illuminati would install a global government, and that President Jimmy Carter was the Antichrist pulling strings via secret cabals.

No global Illuminati regime or Carter-Antichrist scenario occurred; Todd’s claims are widely regarded as contradictory and unverified.

On November 20, 1979, insurgents led by Juhayman al-Otaybi seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca, proclaiming his brother-in-law Muhammad al-Qahtani as the Mahdi. They declared the end times were at hand and called on Muslims to rise up. Saudi forces retook the mosque after two weeks, and the prophecy failed.

The Mahdi proclamation on November 20, 1979 triggered a violent siege of the Grand Mosque; both leaders were killed or executed, and the end did not come.

Evangelical broadcaster Pat Robertson declared on The 700 Club that 1980 would be “a year of sorrow and bloodshed that will have no end soon, for the world is being torn apart, and my kingdom shall rise from the ruins of it.” The message was presented as a direct revelation from God predicting violent global upheaval.

The year saw geopolitical turmoil but no apocalyptic fulfillment. Robertson’s phrasing blurred prophecy and exhortation, reflecting Cold War tensions rather than a concrete timeline.

Baháʼí splinter leader Leland Jensen, founder of the “Baháʼís Under the Provisions of the Covenant,” predicted that a nuclear disaster in 1980 would plunge the world into 20 years of conflict, culminating in the establishment of God’s Kingdom on Earth. The prophecy failed, though Jensen went on to issue further apocalyptic forecasts.

Nothing happened, but he continued revising dates, later predicting 1986, 1987, and 1991.

Chuck Smith, founder of Calvary Chapel, taught that the generation alive in 1948 would not pass before the Second Coming of Christ. On this basis he predicted the world would end by 1981. The year passed without incident, though Smith’s church thrived despite the failed prophecy.

Smith, citing Israel’s founding in 1948 as the start of the final generation, predicted the world would end by 1981. When the date passed uneventfully, he admitted fallibility, but Calvary Chapel continued to grow as a major evangelical movement.

Evangelical author Hal Lindsey, whose 1970 bestseller The Late Great Planet Earth popularized modern rapture theology, reasoned that the generation witnessing Israel’s rebirth in 1948 would see the end times. Interpreting a generation as 40 years, he suggested the rapture could occur by 1981, followed by seven years of tribulation before Christ’s return.

No rapture occurred in 1981. Lindsey softened his dating in later books but maintained that world events confirmed the approach of Armageddon. His works became foundational to Late Cold War Evangelical apocalypticism.

On The 700 Club in 1976, Pat Robertson predicted that the Great Tribulation and the end of the world could come in 1982, linking contemporary unrest and Israel’s prophetic role to the imminent return of Christ.

1982 came and went without global cataclysm. Robertson quietly retired the date, continuing to host his program and expand the Christian Broadcasting Network.

Financial analyst R. E. McMaster Jr., founder of the War Cycles Institute, published Cycles of War: The Next Six Years (1977), arguing that economic and military events follow predictable cycles. He projected a period of major conflict and depression around 1982 as the world entered a new phase of upheaval.

Although the early 1980s experienced a global recession and heightened Cold War tensions, no world war or systemic collapse occurred. McMaster continued to publish cyclical analyses through his investment newsletter into the 1990s.

Astrophysicist John Gribbin and Stephen Plagemann predicted in their book The Jupiter Effect (1974) that the planetary alignment of March 10, 1982, would trigger global catastrophes, including a devastating quake along California’s San Andreas Fault.

Nothing occurred, and Gribbin later admitted the book had been a mistake.

Scottish esotericist Benjamin Creme announced via a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times that on June 21, 1982, the Maitreya—the awaited messianic figure—would appear on worldwide television. No such broadcast occurred, and Creme later explained that humanity’s unpreparedness had delayed the manifestation.

When the event did not occur, he reinterpreted it spiritually, claiming the world was not yet ready for the revelation.

Pentecostal preacher Lester Sumrall forecast the world’s end in 1985, even authoring a book titled I Predict 1985. When the year ended without incident, his prophecy was discredited, though his ministry continued.

The year passed uneventfully, and the prophecy was abandoned.

Pat Robertson predicted that a worldwide economic collapse would strike by 1985, describing it as divine judgment against materialism and sin. His broadcasts urged believers to prepare spiritually and financially for an approaching global reckoning.

While recession and inflation marked the early 1980s, no global economic collapse occurred. Robertson continued using economic warning themes as moral exhortation rather than fixed prophecy.

Leland Jensen, founder of a Baháʼí splinter sect, predicted that on April 29, 1986, Halley’s Comet would be drawn into Earth’s orbit, devastating the planet.

Nothing happened, and Jensen’s reputation for failed prophecies deepened. He nevertheless continued issuing doomsday forecasts.

After the failure of his 1986 Halley’s Comet prophecy, Baháʼí splinter leader Leland Jensen forecast a nuclear holocaust in 1987 as part of his series of apocalyptic predictions. The year passed without incident, compounding his reputation for failed prophecies.

It failed, further marginalizing his movement.

New Age writer José Argüelles promoted the “Harmonic Convergence,” urging 144,000 people to assemble at sacred sites on August 17, 1987, to avert Armageddon. While the gatherings took place, no apocalypse followed, and Argüelles later reinterpreted the event as a shift into a new spiritual age.

Argüelles later reframed it as a spiritual success that opened a new cosmic cycle.

Prophecy writer Colin Deal asserted that the Second Coming of Christ would occur by 1988, publishing books such as Christ Returns by 1988: 101 Reasons Why (1979) and The Day and Hour Jesus Will Return. His arguments blended biblical chronology with contemporary signs of apostasy and Middle East unrest.

1988 passed without incident. Deal’s date-setting became a symbol of late-Cold-War evangelical futurism; his books circulated alongside Hal Lindsey’s and other prophecy paperbacks in Christian bookstores.

Expanding on his earlier chronology, Hal Lindsey taught that the Second Coming of Christ could occur by 1988—forty years after the founding of Israel—following a seven-year tribulation that would begin with the 1981 rapture. Books and media appearances during the 1980s framed that decade as the “countdown to Armageddon.”

The 1980s ended without the expected return. Lindsey continued to publish prophecy books interpreting Middle East events through an eschatological lens, but avoided specific dates.

American cartoonist and tract publisher Jack Chick, founder of Chick Publications, circulated millions of illustrated evangelical tracts warning of the imminent Rapture and ensuing World War III. In his 1972 tract The Last Generation, he suggested the Rapture might occur forty years after Israel became a nation (1948 + 40 = 1988), echoing popular dispensationalist timelines of the era.

Chick anticipated that the end could arrive by 1988 but also acknowledged uncertainty, adding: “Note: Many Bible scholars contend a generation is 40 years; others say 70 years. As to the Second Coming, the Bible says ‘But of that day and hour knoweth no man … but my Father only.’ (Matthew 24:36).” The year passed without rapture or war; Chick continued publishing apocalyptic tracts into the 2000s.

In his bestselling pamphlet 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Could Be in 1988, Edgar C. Whisenant, a former NASA engineer, claimed the Rapture would occur between September 11–13, 1988.

When nothing happened, he quickly adjusted the date.

Following his failed September 1988 prophecy, Whisenant revised his Rapture prediction to October 3, 1988.

Its failure forced him to move the date forward to 1989.

David Berg, founder of the Children of God, proclaimed that the Great Tribulation would begin in 1989.

When nothing happened, he reset expectations to 1993 for the Second Coming.

Whisenant, still promoting imminent Rapture, announced September 30, 1989 as the revised date.

When this too failed, he extended his timeline to 1993.

Elizabeth Clare Prophet, leader of the Church Universal and Triumphant, predicted that a nuclear war would begin on April 23, 1990, eventually ending the world within 12 years. Prophet led her followers in stockpiling supplies and building a large underground shelter in Montana for the expected nuclear war.

Nothing happened on April 23, 1990, leading to disillusionment and financial/legal troubles for the sect. Prophet was later diagnosed with epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease.

Continuing his pattern of apocalyptic forecasts, Leland Jensen predicted that 1991 would see nuclear war and worldwide collapse, culminating in the establishment of God’s Kingdom.

Nothing occurred.

Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, proclaimed that the 1991 Gulf War marked the biblical War of Armageddon. The conflict ended within months, and no final battle unfolded.

The war ended quickly in early 1991, without apocalyptic consequences.

Chabad-Lubavitch leader Menachem Mendel Schneerson proclaimed that the Messiah would come by the start of the Jewish New Year on September 9, 1991. When this did not occur, his followers’ messianic expectations persisted, with some later declaring him the Messiah after his death.

After his death in 1994, some Hasidim continued to venerate him as the Messiah despite the failed prophecy.

A channelled being known as “Commander Hatonn” warned in 1992 that Earth was about to enter the photon belt, triggering five days of darkness, electromagnetic shutdown, and catastrophic Earth changes. The messages, published through the Phoenix Liberator, cast the event as an inevitable cleansing of the planet.

Earth did not enter a photon belt in 1992. No electromagnetic collapse or planetary transformation occurred. The date was later reinterpreted or ignored in newer channelings.

Evangelical activist Rollen Stewart, famous for displaying “John 3:16” signs at televised events, predicted the Rapture would occur on September 28, 1992.

Nothing happened, and later that year he was arrested for kidnapping and other crimes, ending his public ministry.