This article lists Christian religious predictions that failed to come about in the specified time frame, listed by religious group.
This article lists Christian religious predictions that failed to come about in the specified time frame, listed by religious group.
Adventism has its roots in the teachings of the Baptist preacher William Miller. He first predicted that the Second Advent of Christ would occur before March 21, 1844. [1] When that date passed he revised his prediction to April 18, 1844. [2] After that date also passed, another Millerite, Samuel S. Snow, derived the date of October 22, 1844. [3] The failure of those predictions has been named the Millerite Great Disappointment.
On May 27, 1856, Ellen G. White, prophet of the Seventh-day Adventist church, wrote: "I was shown the company present at the Conference, Said the angel: 'Some food for worms, some subjects of the seven last plagues, some will be alive and remain upon the earth to be translated at the coming of Jesus.'" [4] A newborn attendee at that conference would have been 100 years old in 1956. "As more and more of the conference attendees died off, the faithful became increasingly excited about soon seeing Jesus. Fifty-four years after the prophecy, they made a check-off list of attendees to show who was still alive and who was deceased—because it was prophesied that Jesus would return while some of them were still alive." [5]
Certain Anabaptists of the early 16th century believed that the Millennium would occur in 1533. [6] Another source reports: "When the prophecy failed, the Anabaptists became more zealous and claimed that two witnesses (Enoch and Elijah) had come in the form of Jan Matthys and Jan Bockelson; they would set up the New Jerusalem in Münster. Münster became a frightening dictatorship under Bockelson's control. Although all Lutherans and Catholics were expelled from that city, the millennium never came." [7]
In volume II of The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, author Leroy Edwin Froom wrote about a prominent Anglican prelate, who predicted: [8]
Edwin Sandys (1519–1588), Archbishop of York and Primate of England was born in Lancashire... Sandys says, "Now, as we know not the day and time, so let us be assured that this coming of the Lord is near. He is not slack, as we do count slackness. That it is at hand, it may be probably gathered out of the Scriptures in diverse places. The signs mentioned by Christ in the Gospel which should be the foreshewers of this terrible day, are almost all fulfilled."
During World War I, The Weekly Evangel, an official publication of the Assemblies of God, predicted: "We are not yet in the Armageddon struggle proper, but at its commencement, and it may be, if students of prophecy read the signs aright, that Christ will come before the present war closes, and before Armageddon...The war preliminary to Armageddon, it seems, has commenced." [9] Other editions speculated that the end would come no later than 1934 or 1935. [10]
The founder of the Calvary Chapel system, Chuck Smith, published the book End Times in 1979. On the jacket of his book, Smith is called a "well known Bible scholar and prophecy teacher". In the book he wrote:
As we look at the world scene today, it would appear that the coming of the Lord is very, very, close. Yet, we do not know when it will be. It could be that the Lord will wait for a time longer. If I understand Scripture correctly, Jesus taught us that the generation which sees the 'budding of the fig tree', the birth of the nation Israel, will be the generation that sees the Lord's return; I believe that the generation of 1948 is the last generation. Since a generation of judgment is forty years and the tribulation lasts seven years, I believe the Lord could come back for his church anytime before the tribulation starts, which would mean anytime before 1981. (1948 + 40 − 7 = 1981) However, it is possible that Jesus is dating the beginning of the generation from 1967, when Jerusalem was again under Israeli control for the first time since 587 BC. We don't know for sure which year actually marks the beginning of the last generation. [11]
— Chuck Smith, End Times, pp. 35, 36
The pastor Hal Lindsey published the same view in his book, The Late Great Planet Earth . [12]
In 1525, after Martin Luther (a former monk) married Katharina von Bora (a former nun), his enemies[ who? ] said their offspring would fulfill an old tradition that the Antichrist would be the son of such a union. The Catholic scholar and theologian Erasmus remarked that the tradition could apply to thousands of such children. [13]
In 1771, Bishop Charles Walmesley (under the pen name "Signor Pastorini" [14] ) published his "General History of the Christian Church from Her Birth to Her Final Triumphant State in Heaven Chiefly Deduced from the Apocalypse of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist". [15] In it he described a fifth age of the Church as a duration of 300 years, beginning with the Protestant Reformation in 1520 or 1525. [16] This was widely interpreted as predicting the downfall of Protestantism by 1825. [17] Four years later, the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 ended the process of Catholic Emancipation throughout the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
The Scottish cleric Edward Irving was the forerunner of the Catholic Apostolic Church. [18] In 1828 he wrote a work entitled The Last Days: A Discourse on the Evil Character of These Our Times, Proving Them to be the 'Perilous Times' and the 'Last Days'. He believed that the world had already entered the "last days": [19]
I conclude, therefore, that the last days... will begin to run from the time of God's appearing for his ancient people, and gathering them together to the work of destroying all Antichristian nations, of evangelising the world, and of governing it during the Millennium... The times and fullness of the times, so often mentioned in the New Testament, I consider as referring to the great period numbered by times...Now if this reasoning be correct, as there can be little doubt that the one thousand two hundred and sixty days concluded in the year 1792, and the thirty additional days in the year 1823, we are already entered upon the last days, and the ordinary life of a man will carry many of us to the end of them. If this be so, it gives to the subject with which we have introduced this year's ministry a very great importance indeed.
Harold Camping, who was then president of Family Radio, stated that the rapture and Judgement Day would occur on May 21, 2011, and claimed the Bible as his source. [20] He suggested it would happen at 6 p.m. local time with the rapture sweeping the world time zone by time zone. Following the failure of that prediction, Camping stated that the physical rapture would occur on October 21, 2011. [21]
Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon faith, made dozens of prophecies during his lifetime, many of which are recorded in the sacred texts of the Mormon faith. The prophecies included purported predictions of the Civil War, the second coming of Jesus, and several less significant predictions. Church apologists cite prophecies that they claim came true, [22] and church critics cite prophecies that they claim did not come true. [23]
Michael Stiefel predicted the end of the world in 1533 and consequently lost his position as minister. He was given another position by Philip Melanchthon. [24]
One later writer noted, "In all of [ Martin Luther's] work there was a sense of urgency for the time was short... the world was heading for Armageddon in the war with the Turk." [25]
Even after Luther's death in 1546, Lutheran leaders maintained the claim of the nearness of the end. About the year 1584, a Lutheran named Adam Nachenmoser wrote the volume Prognosticum Theologicum in which he predicted: "In 1590 the Gospel would be preached to all nations and a wonderful unity would be achieved. The last days would then be close at hand." Nachenmoser offered numerous conjectures about the date; 1635 seemed most likely. [26]
The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod issued a study in 1989 refuting any end times claims, declaring that "repeatedly taught by Jesus and the apostles is the truth that the exact hour of Christ's coming remains hidden in the secret counsels of God (Matt. 24:36)". [27]
Russian Mennonite minister Claas Epp, Jr. predicted that Christ would return on March 8, 1889, which was subsequently revised to 1891. [28]
Montanus, who founded the Montanist movement in 156 AD, predicted that Jesus would return during the lifetime of the group's founding members. [29]
Thomas Brightman, who lived from 1562 to 1607, has been called "one of the fathers of Presbyterianism in England." He predicted that "between 1650 and 1695 [we] would see the conversion of the many Jews and a revival of their nation in Palestine...the destruction of the Papacy...the marriage of the Lamb and his wife." [30]
Christopher Love, who lived from 1618 to 1651, predicted that Babylon would fall in 1758, God's anger against the wicked would be demonstrated in 1759, and a worldwide earthquake would occur in 1763. [31]
Charles Taze Russell, the first president of the Watch Tower Society, calculated 1874 as the year of Christ's Second Coming, and taught that Christ was invisibly present and ruling from the heavens since that year. [32] [33] [34] [35] Russell proclaimed Christ's invisible return in 1874, [36] the resurrection of the saints in 1875, [37] and predicted the end of the "harvest" and the Rapture of the saints to heaven for 1878, [38] and the final end of "the day of wrath" in 1914. [39] 1874 was considered the end of 6,000 years of human history and the beginning of judgment by Christ. [40] A 1917 Watch Tower Society publication predicted that in 1918, God would begin to destroy churches and millions of their members. [41]
J. F. Rutherford, who succeeded Russell as president of the Watch Tower Society, predicted that the Millennium would begin in 1925, and that biblical figures such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David would be resurrected as "princes". The Watch Tower Society bought property and built a house, Beth Sarim, in California for their return. [42]
Starting in 1966, statements in Jehovah's Witness literature (published by the Watch Tower Society) raised strong expectations that Armageddon could arrive in 1975. In 1974, Witnesses were commended for selling their homes and property to "finish out the rest of their days in this old system" in full-time preaching. [43] In 1976, The Watchtower advised those who had been "disappointed" by unfulfilled expectations for 1975 to adjust their viewpoint because that understanding was "based on wrong premises". [44] Four years later, the Watch Tower Society admitted its responsibility in building up hope regarding 1975. [45]
According to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Armageddon is the prophesied location of a gathering of armies for a battle during the end times, which is variously interpreted as either a literal or a symbolic location. The term is also used in a generic sense to refer to any end of the world scenario. In Islamic theology, Armageddon is also mentioned in Hadith as the Greatest Armageddon or Al-Malhama Al-Kubra.
Christian eschatology, a major branch of study within Christian theology, deals with the doctrine of the "last things", especially the Second Coming of Christ, or Parousia. Eschatology – the word derives from two Greek roots meaning "last" (ἔσχατος) and "study" (-λογία) – involves the study of "end things", whether of the end of an individual life, of the end of the age, of the end of the world, or of the nature of the Kingdom of God. Broadly speaking, Christian eschatology focuses on the ultimate destiny of individual souls and of the entire created order, based primarily upon biblical texts within the Old and New Testaments.
Eschatology concerns expectations of the end of the present age, human history, or the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions, which teach that negative world events will reach a climax. Belief that the end of the world is imminent is known as apocalypticism, and over time has been held both by members of mainstream religions and by doomsday cults. In the context of mysticism, the term refers metaphorically to the end of ordinary reality and to reunion with the divine. Various religions treat eschatology as a future event prophesied in sacred texts or in folklore.
The Second Coming is a Christian, Islamic as well as Baha'i belief that Jesus will return after his ascension to heaven about two thousand years ago. The idea is based on messianic prophecies and is part of most Christian eschatologies.
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. As of 2022, the group reported a worldwide membership of approximately 8.5 million adherents involved in evangelism, with 19.7 million attending the annual Memorial of Christ's death. The denomination is directed by a group of elders in Warwick, New York, United States, known as the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses, which establishes all doctrines based on its interpretations of the Bible. They believe that the destruction of the present world system at Armageddon is imminent, and the establishment of God's kingdom over earth is the only solution for all problems faced by humanity.
The rapture is an eschatological position held by some Christians, particularly those of American evangelicalism, consisting of an end-time event when all Christian believers who are alive, along with resurrected believers, will rise "in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air." The origin of the term extends from the First Epistle to the Thessalonians in the Bible, which uses the Greek word harpazo, meaning "to snatch away" or "to seize". This view of eschatology is referred to as dispensational premillennialism, a form of futurism that considers various prophecies in the Bible as remaining unfulfilled and occurring in the future.
Jehovah's Witnesses have been criticized by adherents of mainstream Christianity, members of the medical community, former Jehovah's Witnesses, and commentators with regard to their beliefs and practices. The Jehovah's Witness movement's leaders have been accused of practicing doctrinal inconsistencies and making doctrinal reversals, making failed predictions, mistranslating the Bible, harshly treating former Jehovah's Witnesses, and leading the Jehovah's Witness movement in an autocratic and coercive manner. Jehovah's Witnesses have also been criticized because they reject blood transfusions, even in life-threatening medical situations, and for failing to report cases of sexual abuse to the authorities. Many of the claims are denied by Jehovah's Witnesses and some have also been disputed by courts and religious scholars.
Apocalypticism is the religious belief that the end of the world is imminent, even within one's own lifetime. This belief is usually accompanied by the idea that civilization will soon come to a tumultuous end due to some sort of catastrophic global event. Apocalypticism is one aspect of eschatology in certain religions—the part of theology concerned with the final events of world history, or the ultimate destiny of humanity.
The post-tribulation rapture doctrine is the belief in a combined resurrection and gathering of the saints coming is after the Great Tribulation.
The Bible Student movement is a Millennialist Restorationist Christian movement. It emerged from the teachings and ministry of Charles Taze Russell (1852–1916), also known as Pastor Russell, and his founding of the Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society in 1881. Members of the movement have variously referred to themselves as Bible Students, International Bible Students, Associated Bible Students, or Independent Bible Students.
The Dawn Bible Students Association is a Christian organization and movement, and a legal entity used by a branch of the Bible Student movement.
Jehovah's Witnesses originated as a branch of the Bible Student movement, which developed in the United States in the 1870s among followers of Christian restorationist minister Charles Taze Russell. Bible Student missionaries were sent to England in 1881 and the first overseas branch was opened in London in 1900. The group took on the name International Bible Students Association and by 1914 it was also active in Canada, Germany, Australia and other countries.
The eschatology of Jehovah's Witnesses is central to their religious beliefs. They believe that Jesus Christ has been ruling in heaven as king since 1914, a date they believe was prophesied in Scripture, and that after that time a period of cleansing occurred, resulting in God's selection of the Bible Students associated with Charles Taze Russell to be his people in 1919. They believe the destruction of those who reject their message and thus willfully refuse to obey God will shortly take place at Armageddon, ensuring that the beginning of the new earthly society will be composed of willing subjects of that kingdom.
"Faithful and discreet slave" is the term used by Jehovah's Witnesses to describe the group's Governing Body in its role of directing doctrines and teachings. The group is described as a "class" of "anointed" Christians that operates under the direct control of Jesus Christ to exercise teaching authority in all matters pertaining to doctrine and articles of faith.
The doctrines of Jehovah's Witnesses have developed since publication of The Watchtower magazine began in 1879. Early doctrines were based on interpretations of the Bible by Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society founder Charles Taze Russell, then added to, altered or discarded by his successors, Joseph Rutherford and Nathan Knorr. Since 1976, doctrinal changes have been made at closed meetings of the group's Governing Body, whose decisions are described as "God's progressive revelations".
Three Worlds, and the Harvest of This World is a 194-page religious book published in 1877 by American Adventist preacher Nelson H. Barbour and Charles Taze Russell, who later founded the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania.
American Christian radio host Harold Camping stated that the rapture and Judgment Day would take place on May 21, 2011, and that the end of the world would take place five months later on October 21, 2011.
The Second Coming is a Christian and Islamic concept regarding the return of Jesus to Earth after his first coming and his ascension to heaven about two thousand years ago. The belief is based on messianic prophecies found in the canonical gospels and is part of most Christian eschatologies. Views about the nature of Jesus' Second Coming vary among Christian denominations and among individual Christians.
The beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses are based on the Bible teachings of Charles Taze Russell—founder of the Bible Student movement—and successive presidents of the Watch Tower Society, Joseph Franklin Rutherford, and Nathan Homer Knorr. Since 1976, all doctrinal decisions have been made by the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses, a group of elders at the denomination's headquarters. These teachings are disseminated through The Watchtower magazine and other publications of Jehovah's Witnesses, and at conventions and congregation meetings.
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society publications have made a series of predictions about Christ's Second Coming and the advent of God's Kingdom, each of which has gone unfulfilled. Almost all the predictions for 1878, 1881, 1914, 1918 and 1925 were later reinterpreted as a confirmation of the eschatological framework of the Bible Student movement and Jehovah's Witnesses, with many of the predicted events viewed as having taken place invisibly. Further expectations were held for the arrival of Armageddon in 1975, but resulted in a later apology to members from the society's leadership.