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This page attempts to list time-specific historical predictions (or prophecy) by claimed prophets or leaders within various churches and sects who identify themselves as Christian, but whose predictions failed to happen. Biblical prophecy is not included, and is dealt with in separate articles.

The "prophets" listed here include anyone who has predicted or prophesied about the future within visible Christian churches (Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox) — even where they were considered heretical, at the time or later. New Religious Movements that have their original basis in the Christian church are also included here. It should also be noted that the vast majority of Christians have never believed in these extra-Biblical prophecies.

- NB: There is a difference between using reason to try and understand Scriptures, and people claiming to have a prophetic word from God about the future. Many of the failed predictions cited below are examples of false prophesy, while others are examples of misinterpretation or misuse of biblical texts. For example, Chuck Smith, of Calvary Chapel, is not prophesying, but trying to interpret the meaning of Jesus' prophecy given almost 2000 years ago, that "Jerusalem shall be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.," (Luke 21:4). What should be noted in this discussion, is the fulfillment of the prophecy by Jesus that Jerusalem would both be destroyed by Rome, its people sent again into exile, and then, at some time in the future, be restored to Jewish hands, a sign which Jesus himself links to the coming of the Kingdom of God and the return of the Son of Man, (Luke 21:5-36).

Lutheran Church

The founder of the Lutheran Church was the reformer, Martin Luther (1483-1546 A.D.). According to one authority, Luther stated: "For my part, I am sure that the Day of Judgment is just around the corner. It doesn't matter that we don't know the precise day... perhaps someone else can figure it out. But it is certain that time is now at an end." (Reformation Principles and Practice: Essays in Honor of Arthur Geoffrey Dickens, p 169). Some take the position that this would not be a failed prophesy, because on the larger scale of time, "near" can be centuries in God's eyes. The reason for Martin Luther to say that the time is near, is to urge all people to examine themselves and ask themselves if they are sure they would be saved if the World were to end at any moment. However, his words indicate that he believed the end was near based on human understanding. Another work says: "In all of his [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." (Luther's View of Church History, John M. Headley, Yale University Press, 1963, pp 13,14) Even after his death in 1546, Lutheran leaders kept up the claim of the nearness of the end. About the year 1584, A zealous Lutheran named Adam Nachenmoser wrote a large volume entitled 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." (Prophecy and Gnosis—Apocalypticism in the Wake of the Lutheran Reformation, Robin Bruce Barnes, p 64) Other date predictions followed but all failed.

Roman Catholic Church

The members of the Roman Catholic Church also has a history of failed predictions about the "time of the end." For example, Gregory I who was pope from 590-604 A.D predicted that the end of the world was near in a letter that he wrote to Ethelbert, a European monarch. He advised: "Further, we also wish Your Majesty to know, as we have learned from the words of Almighty God in Holy Scriptures, that the end of the present world is already near and that the unending Kingdom of the Saints is approaching. As this same end of the world is drawing nigh, many unusual things will happen—climatic changes, terrors from heaven... All these things are not to come in our own days, but they will follow upon our times." (Visions of the End—Apocalypticism in the Wake of the Lutheran Reformation, Bernard McGinn, p 64). Cardinal Nicholas de Cusa (1401-1464 A.D.) was " a cardinal of great learning...At the age of 23 Nicholas became a doctor of law, but when he lost his first lawsuit he left the profession of law for the study of theology. Possessing a thorough knowledge of the Greek, Latin and Hebrew languages, and a rare degree of eloquence, soon attracted attention... was made a cardinal (1449 A.D.)" (Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature by McClintock and Strong, Volume II, p. 611). Cardinal de Cusa later held that the end of the world would come in the year 1700 A.D. Another Catholic scholar, Arnald of Villanova predicted that the Antichrist would appear in 1378 A.D. (Visions of The End, McGinn, p. 147)

Baptist Church

The Baptist Church also has a history of date and time predictions that have failed. In the early 1900s, the well-known Dr. Isaac M. Haldeman, pastor of the First Baptist Church in New York City, predicted that before the Jews returned to Palestine to establish a Jewish State--an event that happened in 1948--that the Antichrist would appear. Haldeman explained: 'The Scriptures teach that this man (the Antichrist) will be the prime factor in bringing the Jews back, as a body into their own land; that he will be the power that shall make Zionism a success; that through him the nationalism of the Jews shall be accomplished." There is still a group of believers that continue to believe that Haldeman was correct; and that in truth, Adolf Hitler was the antichrist predicted in the Bible (or perhaps one antichrist of many). They offer as "proof" the fact that the end result of WWII and the holocaust drove many Jews out of Europe to their new Israel. The fact that Hitler's Holocaust killed millions of Jewish believers (called "saints" in many Old Testiment prophectic passages) would correlate positively with several Bible predictions that antichrist will seek to murder multitudes of "saints." (The Signs of the Times, Isaac Massey Haldeman, pages 452, 453).

Anabaptist Church

The Anabaptists of the early Sixteenth Century believed that the Millennium would occur in 1533." (When Prophecy Fails, Festinger, Riecken and Schaeter, page 7) 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 Munster. Munster became a frightening dictatorship under Bockelson's control. Although all Lutherans and Catholics were expelled from that city, the millennium never came." (Soothsayers Of The Second Advent, William Alnor, page 57.)

Presbyterian Church

Thomas Brightman who lived from 1562 to 1607 has been called "one of the fathers of Presbyterianism in England." This well educated and esteemed fellow 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." (A Great Expectation--Eschatological Thought in English Protestantism to 1660 by Bryan W. Ball and E.J. Brill, page 117). This did not happen.

Christopher Love who lived from 1618-1651 was a bright graduate of Oxford and a strong Presbyterian. Love predicted that: (1) Babylon would fall in 1758 (2) God's anger against the wicked would be demonstrated in 1759 and (3) in 1763 there would occur a great earthquake all over the world. (The Logic of Millennial Thought by James West Davidson, page 200). None of this occurred.

Assemblies of God Church

The Assemblies of God Church has made an indelible impression because of its active, evangelical work. Like other popular groups, this community has a rich history of failed predictions. One definitive study of predictions made within this church was published by an Assemblies of God scholar and pastor, Professor Dwight Wilson. The book was entitled Armageddon Now! On the jacket of his book is this caveat: "The author cautions his fellow Premillenarians that they will lose their credibility if they continue to see in each political crisis a sure fulfillment of Biblical prophecy--despite their obvious errors concerning earlier crises."

During World War I, The Weekly Evangel, an official publication of the Assemblies of God, carried this prediction: "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." (April 10, 1917 edition, page 3). Other editions speculated that the end would come no later than 1934 or 1935 (May 13, 1916 pp 6-9 etc).

The Anglican Church (Episcopal Church)

In volume II of The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, author Leroy Edwin Froom tells us about a prominent Anglican prelate who made a relevant prediction: "Edwin Sandys (1519-1588), Archbishop of York and Primate of England was born in Lancastershire... 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 divers places. The signs mentioned by Christ in the Gospel which should be the foreshewers of this terrible day, are almost all fulfilled." (The Prophetic Faith of our Fathers, pages 417, 419.)

Calvary Chapel

The founder of the Calvary Chapel system is the charismatic Pastor Chuck Smith. Some years ago, he published a book entitled End Times. On the jacket of his book, Smith is called a "well known Bible scholar and prophecy teacher." In this 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 B.C. We don't know for sure which year acturally marks the beginning of the last generation." (pages 35, 36). This same viewpoint was published by the popular Pastor Hal Lindsey in his widely published book entitled The Late Great Planet Earth (see page 43).

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The founder of the Mormon church, Joseph Smith, made a number of failed predictions. In 1835, Joseph Smith predicted that if he lived to be 85, he would see the Son of God. We read: "President Smith then stated...it was the will of God that those who went to Zion, with a determination to lay down their lives, if necessary, should be ordained to the ministry, and go forth to prune the vineyard for the last time, or the coming of the Lord, which was nigh-even fifty-six years should wind up the scene."- See volume 2, page 182 of the History of The Church. Joseph added that the voice of the Lord told him the following: "'My son, if thou liveth until thou art eighty-five years of age, thou shalt see the face of the Son of Man,' I was left to draw my own conclusions concerning this; and I took liberty to conclude that if I did live to that time, He would make his appearance, But I do not say whether He will make his appearance or I shall go where He is... There are those of the rising generation who shall not taste death until Christ comes." See History of the Church, Volume 5, page 336.

One writer notes that: "in 1890 there was a widespread belief among church members that Joseph Smith's prediction of 1835, that fifty-six years would 'wind up the scene,' would be fulfilled." (See Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Klaus J. Hansen, page 76). One must bear in mind that Smith made this prediction based on what he said he heard the Lord tell him. Joseph Smith was assassinated in 1844 at the age of 38, a possibility he had allowed for, and he did not himself give the date of 1890.

Jehovah's Witnesses

Charles Taze Russell, the first president of what is now the Watchtower Society, predicted that Armageddon might break out in 1914. World War I, which broke out in that year, was referred to colloquially as "the beginning of the end", a view still held today by Witnesses who still believe the "last days" began in 1914. But Russell also stated numerous times that his teaching on prophecies are based on his understanding biblical prophecies, and that his chronological views are prone to error. In fact, Russell and Watchtower leaders since him have emphasized they were not inspired prophets, and are merely explaining their interpretation of Bible prophecies. Regarding what was to be expected of 1914 and other dates, the Watchtower wrote "We are not prophesying; we are merely giving our surmises . . . We do not even aver that there is no mistake in our interpretation of prophecy and our calculations of chronology. We have merely laid these before you, leaving it for each to exercise his own faith or doubt in respect to them". (see Zion's Watch Tower, January 1, 1908 (reprint) p. 4110)

Joseph Franklin Rutherford, the second president of the Watchtower Society, expected that in 1918, God would destroy churches and millions of its members He also predicted that in 1920, the world would descend into total chaos, and that in 1925, the Millennium would begin, with Biblical figures such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David coming back to life. However, the January 1925 issue of the Watchtower stated it may not happen: "The year 1925 is here. With great expectation Christians have looked forward to this year. Many have confidently expected that all members of the body of Christ will be changed to heavenly glory during this year. This may be accomplished. It may not be. In his own due time God will accomplish his purposes concerning his people. Christians should not be so deeply concerned about what may transpire this year." (The Watch Tower, January 1, 1925, page 3).

Some say that the Watchtower Society also predicted that the end (Armageddon) would come in 1975. However, a close study of the Watchtower publications do not show any emphatic prediction concerning 1975. And there is a clear disclaimer appears in an Awake! magazine published in 1968, that states that "no man can say" whether or not the end will come in 1975. Also, the Witnesses continued to teach that "the day nor the hour is known to man."

Catholic Apostolic Church

The well known Scottish cleric, Edward Irving, is the founder of the Catholic Apostolic Church and a forerunner of the Pentecostal movement. In 1828 he wrote a work headed The Last Days: A Discourse on the Evil Character of These Our Times, Proving Them to be the 'Perilous Times' and the 'Last Days' on pages 10-22 we find some telling information which includes the following: " 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." No more needs to be said about this prediction.

New Apostolic Church

In 1951 the then reigning head of the New Apostolic Church, Chief Apostle Johann Gottfried Bischoff declared that he would not die before Jesus Christ returned to take the predestined into his kingdom (First Resurrection). In 1954 this teaching, called "The Botschaft," became an official dogma. Those ministries especially the apostles who did not preach this lost their office and were excluded from the New Apostolic Church. Bischoff died in 1960, without this dogma being fulfilled.

Third century

• Christ returns and sets up the New Jerusalem in the small town of Pepuza in Phrygia. (Montanus)

Fifteenth century

• 1420
  • Christ returns and every city on earth is destroyed by fire. (Taborites)

Sixteenth century

• 1533
  • July 15: Henry VIII dies after disobeying God's will and marrying Anne Boleyn. (Elizabeth Barton)
  • Return of Christ in Strasbourg (Melchior Hoffman)

• 1534
  • April 15: Johann Matthys, a new Gideon, sallies forth from the town of Münster with 30 men and defeats the evil forces of Francis of Waldeck, the town's expelled Bishop.

Nineteenth century

• 1843
  • William Miller, founder of what would become the Seventh-day Adventist Church, used the Book of Daniel to predict the Second Coming, and said it would be between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844.
• 1844
  • October 22: William Miller revised the Return of Christ to this date, which is known as the Great Disappointment. (Members of the Bahá'í Faith believe that Christ did return on May 23 1844 as the Báb (the Gate), the forerunner of Bahá'u'lláh (Glory of God)
• 1873 or 1874
  • May 21: Charles Taze Russell, founder of what became many religions, including Jehovah's Witnesses, reinterpreted Miller's teachings.
• 1878
  • April: Nelson H. Barbour predicted believers would go to Heaven during April 1878.

Twentieth century

• 1973
  • January 11-January 21: Colossal doomsday event in USA heralded by comet Kohoutek (David Berg)

• 1975
  • Drought causes population of America to fall by one-third. (Herbert W. Armstrong)

• 1977
  • World Council of Churches takes over all Christian denominations. (William M. Branham)

• 1980s
  • A United States of Europe forms with its own central government and is in control of its own military and political structures. (Hal Lindsey) .
• 1981
  • Acting on the commands of a 900-foot-tall Jesus, Oral Roberts builds the City of Faith Medical Center.[1]

• 1983
  • Tens of thousands of people are converted in Britain. The faces of all Christians shine God's glory and unbelievers fall down in front of them in supermarkets. (Kenneth Copeland)
  • Cure for Cancer discovered 'in the next few decades'. (Oral Roberts)

• 1988
  • September 11-September 13: Return of Christ. (Edgar C. Whisenant, in the book 88 Reasons Why the Rapture is in 1988)
  • Ronald Reagan dies in office and a nuclear war breaks out between the USA and Soviet Union (Brother Stair)

• 1989
  • A short man appears within a "few" years who will rule the world as the Antichrist. (Benny Hinn)
  • The East Coast of America is badly damaged by earthquakes in the next ten years. (Benny Hinn)
  • Fidel Castro dies "within ten years". (Benny Hinn)
  • America's first female President will be appointed "in the next few years". Unfortunately, she ends up destroying the nation. (Benny Hinn)
  • Armies of perverts invade churches world-wide and engage in sexual activity. (Rick Joyner)
  • Televangelist Jim Bakker is put on trial for fraud but is found completely innocent. (Oral Roberts)

• 1991
  • March 31: Return of Christ, who then comes into Sydney Harbour

Rapture posters such as this one were spread across New England based on the prophesy of a South Korean cult. Made of latex or a like material, many of the posters continue to last after more than a decade.

• 1992
  • October 28: Return of Christ / Rapture (Lee Jan Rim)

• 1993
  • President Bill Clinton goes through a "Damascus Road" experience and is given by God to give blessing to America and to rescue them from the New World Order. (Paul Cain)
  • Christ returns (David Berg - Children of God)

• 1994
  • Massive world-wide revival. (Paul Cain)
  • The island of Guam is sunk after being hit by a tidal wave from an Earthquake in Japan and a subsequent volcanic eruption. (William Kann)
  • June 9: Evil is ripped off the face of the earth (John Hinkle)
  • Second Coming of Christ occurs September 6 (Harold Camping, in the book 1994?)

• 1995
  • God destroys America's Homosexual community. (Benny Hinn)

• 1996
  • Canadian Civil War (William Kann)

• 1997
  • Walter Martin, exposer of cults with false and misleading prophecies, dies. His organisation, the Christian Research Institute, is taken over by Hank Hanegraaff. (John Kilpatrick)

• 1998
  • Los Angeles destroyed by a combination of earthquakes and Nuclear Weapons. (Rick Joyner)

• 2000
  • Battle of Armageddon (Hal Lindsey)
  • October: Jesus returns and defeats HRH The Prince of Wales, who is the Antichrist (Jim Searcy)

Twenty-first century

• 2002
  • Detroit and San Francisco become terrorist targets.(Pat Robertson)

• 2003
  • August 11: Liberian President Charles Taylor, a "Christian, Baptist president" with links to al-Qaeda, was forced into exile after a civil war. Pat Robertson predicted the nation would be plunged into chaos because of the nation's lack of Christian leadership. In fact, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was democratically elected President after a transitional government. Taylor, known as Africa's most renowned warlord, was arrested in Nigeria in March 2006 on charges of crimes against humanity. He is wanted by a UN criminal tribunal in Sierra Leone.

• 2004
  • November 2: George W. Bush narrowly wins the US Presidential election. Pat Robertson had predicted in January 2004 that Bush would win in a "blowout".

See also

• Six Ages of the World
• Middle Ages
• Summary of Christian eschatological differences