Since time immemorial various people have been predicting the end of the world as we know it. Whether these predictions resulted from disillusionment, desperation, otherworldliness, delusions, and hallucinations no one really knows. But those who made such forecasts were convinced in their own minds that their prognostications were true. All those who believed and followed them were similarly persuaded. Some of the most notable end-time predictions that failed are as follows.
2012 Maya Apocalypse
December 21, 2012, signified the end of the first “Great Cycle” of the Maya Long Count calendar. Many misunderstood this to mean an absolute end to the calendar, which tracked time continuously (they thought) from a date 5,125 years earlier, consequently, doomsday predictions emerged. End-of-the-world scenarios included the Earth colliding with a concocted imaginary planet called Nibiru, giant sun flares, an interplanetary adjustment that would cause massive tidal catastrophes, and a realignment of Earth’s axis. Preparations for the end of the world as we know it included a modern-day Noah’s ark built by a Chinese citizen in China and extensive sales of survival kits.
Harold Camping
Among the most extravagant modern predictors of end times, Harold Camping has publicly forecasted the end of the world as many as 12 times, based on his interpretations of biblical numerology. In 1992, he published a book, ominously titled 1994? which predicted the end of the world sometime around that year. Perhaps his most high-profile prediction was for May 21, 2011, a date that he calculated to be exactly 7,000 years after the Biblical flood. When that date passed without incident, he declared his math to be off and pushed back the end of the world to October 21, 2011.
True Way
Taiwanese religious leader Hon-Ming Chen formulated Chen Tao, or True Way, a religious movement that blended elements of Christianity, Buddhism, UFO conspiracy theories, and Taiwanese folk religion. Chen prophesied that God would appear on U.S. television channel 18 on March 25, 1988, to announce that he would arrive on Earth the following week in a physical form resembling Chen. The following year, he predicted, millions of demons, together with massive flooding, would result in the mass destruction of the human population. Followers could be spared by buying their way aboard spaceships, disguised as clouds, sent to rescue them.
Halley’s Comet Panic
Halley’s comet shoots by the Earth approximately every 76 years, but the proximity of its approach in 1910 led to the hysteria that it would destroy the planet, either by a celestial collision or through the poisonous gasses it was believed to contain. A worldwide panic ensued, stoked by the media and such newspaper headlines as “Comet May Kill All Earth Life, Says, Scientist.” A group in Oklahoma attempted to sacrifice a virgin to ward off the anticipated impending doom, and bottled air became a hot commodity. The Earth probably did pass through part of the comet’s tail, but with no apparent effect.
Millerism
Religious leader William Miller began preaching in 1831 that the end of the world as we know it would occur with the second coming of Jesus Christ in 1843. Because he thought that such was a correct interpretation of “And he said to me, “For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.” Daniel 8:14 (NKJV). He attracted as many as 100,000 followers who believed that they would be carried off to heaven when the date arrived. When the 1843 prediction failed to materialize, Miller recalculated and determined that the world would actually end in 1844. Adventists later reinterpreted this passage to mean that the cleansing of The Heavenly Sanctuary would commence with the Investigative Judgement in 1844. Follower Henry Emmons wrote, “I waited all Tuesday, and dear Jesus did not come … I lay prostrate for 2 days without any pain—sick with disappointment.”
Joanna Southcott
Commencing when she was 42 years old, Joanna Southcott revealed that she was hearing voices that predicted future events, including the crop failures and famines of 1799 and 1800. She began publishing her own books and eventually developed a following of as many as 100,000 believers. In 1813, she announced that in the following year she would give birth to the second messiah, whose arrival would signal the last days of the Earth—despite being 64 years old and, as she told her doctors, a virgin. She died before a baby could be born.
The Prophet Hen of Leeds
In 1806, a domesticated hen in Leeds, England, appeared to lay eggs inscribed with the message “Christ is coming.” Great numbers of people reportedly visited the hen and began to despair of the coming Judgment Day. It was soon discovered, however, that the eggs were not in fact prophetic messages but the work of their owner, who had been writing on the eggs in corrosive ink and reinserting them into the poor hen’s body.
Great Fire of London
Because the Bible calls 666 the number of the Beast, many Christians in 17th-century Europe feared the end of the world in the year 1666. The Great London Fire, which lasted from September 2 to September 5 of that year, destroyed much of the city, including 87 parish churches and about 13,000 houses. Many saw it as a fulfillment of the end of the world prophecy. Given such a large amount of property damage, though, the death toll of the fire was remarkably low, reportedly only 10 people–not quite the end of the world.
The Great Flood
Johannes Stöffler, a respected German mathematician and astrologer, predicted that a great flood would cover the world on February 25, 1524, when all of the known planets would be in alignment under Pisces, a water sign. Hundreds of pamphlets announcing the coming flood were issued and set in motion a general panic; Count von Iggleheim, a German nobleman, went so far as to build a three-story ark. Though there was light rain on the day of the predicted flood, no actual flooding materialized.
Montanism
Montanism, a 2nd-century schismatic movement of Christianity, began in Phrygia (modern Turkey). Based on the visions of Montanus, who claimed to speak under the influence of the Spirit, Montanists believed the second coming of Christ to be imminent. Many Christian communities were almost abandoned when believers left their homes and migrated to a plain between the two villages of Pepuza and Tymion in Phrygia, where Montanus claimed the heavenly Jerusalem would descend to Earth.
(BRITTANICA: Paraphrased from 10 Failed Doomsday Predictions).
aadventuresinghana.wordpress.com 