Despite some Christians’ very earnest predictions, today’s solar eclipse turned out to be just an eclipse and not the beginning of the End Times. Who could have guessed it?
Some Christians really did think today’s event would actually usher in the rapture was it. The eclipse would happen, and Left Behind movies would turn from cringe entertainment to a truthful documentary. But this isn’t the first time Christians have made some false predictions about the end of the world. There have been, truthfully, too many theories to track, but some major ones have made headlines. Here are seven times Christians predicted the world would end, and seven times the world kept on spinning:
7. Ed Dobson’s Y2K Prediction
Another 2000-predictor was pastor Ed Dobson, a nationally known speaker and author who wrote a dozen books on a variety of Christian topics, including the end times. In 1997, he published The End: Why Jesus Could Return by A. D. 2000, arguing that the increasingly chaotic world was a sign that Jesus would be returning soon. While he did accurately predict that things would get more hectic, he clearly didn’t get everything right.
6. The 88 Reasons (1988)
Speaking of authors, Edgar C. Whisenant, a former NASA engineer and seminary student, predicted the rapture would occur in 1988, sometime between September 11 and September 13. He detailed all his theories in his 1988 book, 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988. The following year, he released a new book, titled The Final Shout: Rapture Report 1989. A better title would have been 89 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1989. Just saying.
5. Harold Camping’s Double Whammy (2011)
American Christian radio broadcaster and evangelist Harold Camping deserves an award for never giving up, no matter how wrong he was. Camping first predicted Judgement Day would occur on September 6, 1994. When it didn’t happen, it revised the date to September 29, and later to October 2. After that, he put his thinking cap back on for a few decades before reemerging with a new prediction: May 21, 2011. And when that didn’t happen, again, he quickly revised it to October 21, 2011. After going 0/5 on predictions, he decided to give it a rest. Probably for the best.
4. John Hagee and Blood Moon Predictions (2014-2015)
Televangelist John Hagee started spreading a theory about blood moons being a sign of the end times around 2013, even co-writing a book with Mark Blitz, Four Blood Moons: Something Is About to Change. The two men claimed that a tetrad — the occurrence of four consecutive lunar eclipses — which began with the April 2014 lunar eclipse and ended with the lunar eclipse on September 27–28, 2015 was s sign of the end times. We can all see how that prediction turned out.
3. Comet Hale-Bopp Cult (1997)
One of the more devastating false predictions was The Heaven’s Gate cult, which believed that the appearance of the Hale-Bopp comet was a sign that Earth was about to end, and they had to hitch a ride on a spaceship hidden in the passing comet to reach salvation. However, their attempt to gain passage on the ship was through a massive suicide ritual, which resulted in the death of 39 members.
2. Jerry Falwell (1999-2009)
Like other televangelists on this list, Jerry Falwell Sr. made some predictions about when the rapture would occur. He played it on the safe side, however, throwing out a wide net by saying the Antichrist would make an appearance sometime between 1999 and 2009. He also said “of course he’ll be Jewish,” which as one could suspect, was met by a slew of antisemitic accusations that Falwell later apologized for and explained he was simply expressing the theological belief that the Antichrist and Christ will share many attributes.
1. The 2020 Catastrophe (2020)
Some voices in the Christian community warned that the end was coming with the arrival of 2020, this time citing technological collapse or other cataclysms. Well, they got one thing right — the year 2020 was indeed catastrophic, but not in the way they expected. Many Christians pointed to worldwide disease and socioeconomic unrest as a sign that the end times had begun, but four years later, it’s safe to say they were, once again, wrong.
