1980 |
Leland Jensen |
In 1978 Jensen predicted that there would be a nuclear disaster in 1980, followed by two decades of conflict, culminating in God’s Kingdom being established on earth. |
1981 |
Chuck Smith |
The founder of Calvary Chapel predicted the generation of 1948 would be the last generation, and that the world would end by 1981 at the latest. |
1982 Apr–Jun |
Tara Centers |
Full-page ads in many newspapers April 24–25, 1982, stated that “The Christ is Now Here!” and that he would make himself known “within the next two months”. |
1982 Mar 10 |
John Gribbin, Stephen Plagemann |
Stated in their 1974 book The Jupiter Effect that combined gravitational forces of aligned planets would create a number of catastrophes, including a great earthquake on the San Andreas Fault. |
1982 Jun 21 |
Benjamin Creme |
Creme took out an ad in the Los Angeles stating the Second Coming would occur in June 1982 with the Maitreya announcing it on worldwide television. |
1982 |
Pat Robertson |
In late 1976 Robertson predicted that the end of the world would come in 1982. |
1984 Oct 2 |
Jehovah’s Witnesses |
Another prediction of the end from the Jehovah’s Witnesses. |
1985 |
Lester Sumrall |
This minister predicted the end in this year, even writing a book about it entitled I Predict 1985. |
1987 Apr 29 |
Leland Jensen |
Jensen predicted that Halley’s Comet would be pulled into Earth’s orbit on April 29, 1988, causing widespread destruction. |
1987 Aug 17 |
José Argüelles |
Argüelles claimed that Armageddon would take place unless 144,000 people gathered in certain places in the world in order to “resonate in harmony” on this day. |
1988 |
World Mission Society Church of God |
The religious group first predicted that the world would end in this year with the final “Passover” of 144,000 people. |
1988 Sep 13 |
Edgar C. Whisenant |
Whisenant predicted in his book 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Could Be in 1988 that the Rapture of the Christian Church would occur between 11 and 13 September 1988. After his September predictions failed to come true, Whisenant revised his prediction date to October 3. |
1989 Sep 30 |
Edgar C. Whisenant |
After all his 1988 predictions failed to come true, Whisenant revised his prediction date to this day. |
1990 Apr 23 |
Elizabeth Clare Prophet |
Prophet predicted a nuclear war would start on this day, with the world ending 12 years later, leading her followers to stockpile a shelter with supplies and weapons. Later, after Prophet’s prediction did not come to pass, she was diagnosed with epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease. |
1991 Sep 9 |
Menachem Mendel Schneerson |
This Russian-born rabbi called for the Messiah to come by the start of the Jewish New Year. |
1991 |
Louis Farrakhan |
The leader of the Nation of Islam declared that the Gulf War would be the “War of Armageddon which is the final war.” |
1992 Sep 28 |
Rollen Stewart |
This born-again Christian predicted the Rapture would take place on this day. |
1992 Oct 28 |
Lee Jang Rim |
Lee, the leader of the Dami Mission church, predicted the Rapture would occur on this day. |
1993 |
David Berg |
Berg predicted the tribulation would start in 1989 and that the Second Coming would take place in 1993. |
1994 May 2 |
Neal Chase |
This Bahá’í sect leader predicted that New York would be destroyed by a nuclear bomb on March 23, 1994, and the Battle of Armageddon would take place 40 days later. |
1994 Sep 6 |
Harold Camping |
Camping predicted the Rapture would occur on September 6, 1994. When it failed to occur he revised the date to September 29 and then to October 2. |
1995 Mar 31 |
Harold Camping |
Camping’s fourth predicted date for the end. This would be Camping’s last prediction until 2011. |
1996 Dec 17 |
Sheldan Nidle |
California psychic Sheldan Nidle predicted that the world would end on this date, with the arrival of 16 million space ships and a host of angels. |
1997 Mar 26 |
Marshall Applewhite |
Applewhite, leader of the Heaven’s Gate cult, claimed that a spacecraft was trailing the Comet Hale-Bopp and argued that suicide was “the only way to evacuate this Earth” so that the cult members’ souls could board the supposed craft and be taken to another “level of existence above human”. Applewhite and 38 of his followers committed mass suicide. |
1997 Oct 23 |
James Ussher |
This 17th-century Irish Archbishop predicted this date to be 6000 years since Creation, and therefore the end of the world. |
1998 Mar 31 |
Chen Tao |
Hon-Ming Chen, leader of the Taiwanese cult God’s Salvation Church, or Chen Tao — “The True Way” — claimed that God would come to Earth in a flying saucer at 10:00 am on this date. Moreover, God would have the same physical appearance as Chen himself. Chen chose to base his cult in Garland, Texas, because he thought it sounded like “God’s Land.” On March 25, God was to appear on Channel 18 on every TV set in the US. |
1999 |
World Mission Society Church of God |
The religious group modified their original 1988 prediction and again predicted that the world would end in this year with the final “Passover” of 144,000 people. |
1999 Jul |
Nostradamus |
A prediction attributed to Nostradamus stating the “King of Terror” would come from the sky in “1999 and seven months” led to fears of the end. |
1999 Aug 18 |
The Amazing Criswell |
The predicted date of the end of the world, according to this psychic well known for false predictions. |
1999 Sep 11 |
Philip Berg |
Berg, dean of the worldwide Kabbalah Centre, stated that on this date “a ball of fire will descend, destroying almost all of mankind, all vegetation, all forms of life.” |
1999 |
Charles Berlitz |
This linguist predicted the end would occur in this year. He did not predict how it would occur, stating it may involve nuclear devastation, asteroid impact, pole shift or other earth changes. |
1999 |
Hon-Ming Chen |
Hon-Ming Chen’s cult God’s Salvation Church, now relocated to upstate New York, preached that a nuclear holocaust would destroy Europe and Asia sometime between October 1 and December 31, 1999. |
1999 |
James Gordon Lindsay |
This preacher predicted the tribulation would begin before the year 2000. |
1999 |
Timothy Dwight IV |
This President of Yale University foresaw Christ’s Millennium starting by 2000. |
1999 |
Nazim Al-Haqqani |
Predicted that the Last Judgment would occur before the year 2000. |
2000 Jan 1 |
Various |
Predictions of a Y2K computer bug were to crash many computers and would malfunction causing major catastrophes worldwide and that society would cease to function. |
2000 |
Credonia Mwerinde, Joseph Kibweteere |
An estimated 778 followers of this Ugandan religious movement perished in a devastating fire and a series of poisonings and killings that were either a group suicide or an orchestrated mass murder by group leaders after their predictions of the apocalypse failed to come about. |
2000 |
Jerry Falwell |
Falwell foresaw God pouring out his judgement on the world on this day. |
2000 |
Tim LaHaye, Jerry B. Jenkins |
These Christian authors stated the Y2K bug would trigger global economic chaos, which the Antichrist would use to rise to power. As the date approached however they changed their minds. |
2000, April 6 |
James Harmston |
The leader of the True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days predicted the Second Coming of Christ would occur on this day. |
2000 May 5 |
Nuwaubian Nation |
This movement claimed that the planetary lineup would cause a “star holocaust,” pulling the planets toward the sun on this day. |
2000 |
Peter Olivi |
This 13th-century theologian wrote that the Antichrist would come to power between 1300 and 1340, and the Last Judgement would take place around 2000. |
2000 |
Isaac Newton |
Newton predicted that Christ’s Millennium would begin in the year 2000 in his book Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John. |
2000 |
Ruth Montgomery |
This self-described Christian psychic predicted the Earth’s axis would shift and the Antichrist would reveal himself in this year. |
2000 |
Edgar Cayce |
This psychic predicted the Second Coming would occur this year. |
2000 |
Sun Myung Moon |
The founder of the Unification Church predicted the Kingdom of Heaven would be established in this year. |
2000 |
Ed Dobson |
This pastor predicted the end would occur in his book The End: Why Jesus Could Return by A.D. 2000. |
2000 |
Lester Sumrall |
This minister predicted the end in his book I Predict 2000. |
2000 |
Jonathan Edwards |
This 18th-century preacher predicted that Christ’s thousand-year reign would begin in this year. |
2001 |
Tynetta Muhammad |
This columnist for the Nation of Islam predicted the end would occur in this year. |
2002 |
Various Yoruba |
Yoruba priests predicted dramatic tragedy and crisis in 2002, including coups, war, disease, and flooding. |
2003 May |
Nancy Lieder |
Lieder originally predicted the date for the Nibiru collision as May 2003. According to her website, aliens in the Zeta Reticuli star system told her through messages via a brain implant of a planet which would enter our solar system and cause a pole shift on earth that would destroy most of humanity. |
2003 Nov 29 |
Aum Shinrikyo |
This Japanese cult predicted the world would be destroyed by a nuclear war between October 30 and November 29, 2003. |
2006 Sep 12 |
House of Yahweh |
Yisrayl Hawkins, Pastor and Overseer, The House of Yahwah, Abilene, Texas in the Feb. 2006 newsletter predicted the start of nuclear war on September 12, 2006. |
2007 Apr 29 |
Pat Robertson |
In his 1990 book The New Millennium, Robertson suggests this date as the day of Earth’s destruction. |
2008 Sep 10 |
Various |
A number of groups claimed that activation of the Large Hadron Collider experiment would bring about the end of the world through the production of planet-eating micro black holes or strangelets. Similar claims were made about 2010, March 30, when the collider reached 7 TeV, half of its maximum energy. See safety of particle collisions at the Large Hadron Collider. |
2010 |
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn |
This order predicted the world would end in this year. |
2011 May 21 |
Harold Camping |
Camping predicted that the Rapture and devastating earthquakes would occur on May 21, 2011 with God taking approximately 3% of the world’s population into Heaven, and that the end of the world would occur five months later on October 21. |
2011 Sep 29 |
Ronald Weinland |
Ronald Weinland stated Jesus Christ would return on this day. He prophesied nuclear explosions in U.S. port cities by July 2008 as the blowing of the Second Trumpet of Revelation. After his prophecy failed to come true he changed the date for the return of Jesus Christ to May 27, 2012. |
2011 Oct 21 |
Harold Camping |
When his original date failed to come about, Camping revised his prediction and said that on May 21, a “Spiritual Judgment” took place, and that both the physical Rapture and the end of the world would occur on October 21, 2011. |
2011 Aug–Oct |
Various |
There were fears amongst the public that Comet Elenin travelling almost directly between Earth and the Sun would cause disturbances to the Earth’s crust, causing massive earthquakes and tidal waves. Others predicted that Elenin would collide with Earth on October 16. Scientists tried to calm fears by stating that none of these events were possible. |
2012 May 27 |
Ronald Weinland |
Ronald Weinland stated Jesus Christ would return and the world would end on this day. |
2012 Jun 30 |
José Luis de Jesús |
José Luis de Jesús predicted that the world’s governments and economies would fail on this day, and that he and his followers would undergo a transformation that would allow them to fly and walk through walls. |
2012 |
World Mission Society Church of God |
The religious group made a third prediction that the world would end in 2012 with the final “Passover” of 144,000 people after the failure of it’s original two predictions in 1988 and 1999. |
2012 Dec 21 |
Various |
The so-called Mayan apocalypse at the start of the 13th b’ak’tun. The Earth would be destroyed by an asteroid, Nibiru, or some other interplanetary object; an alien invasion; or a supernova. Mayanist scholars stated that no extant classic Maya accounts forecast impending doom, and that the idea that the Long Count calendar ends in 2012 misrepresented Maya history and culture,[89][90][91] Scientists from NASA, along with expert archeologists, stated that none of those events were possible. |
2012 Dec 23 |
Warren Jeffs |
The president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints predicted from his prison cell that the world would end by December 23. |
2012 Dec 31 |
Warren Jeffs |
When the end failed to occur as he had predicted on December 23, Jeffs blamed it on his followers’ “lack of faith”, and moved the prediction to December 31. |