Today, Saturday May 21, 2011, is the day that Jesus comes back. At least, that is what Harold Camping is telling us. According to Camping Jesus will touch down today at precisely 4:00 PM Central Standard Time.
This isn’t the first time Camping has predicted the return of Christ and the Rapture of the Church. Camping previously predicted that Jesus would come back in 1994. Oops.
Dr. Harold L. Willmington shares the following list of other End of World prophecies that did not come to be:
2800 B.C.: The oldest surviving prediction of the world’s imminent demise was found inscribed upon an Assyrian clay tablet which stated, “Our earth is degenerate in these latter days. There are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end. Bribery and corruption are common.”
Second Century A.D.: The Montanists, founded around A.D. 155 by a man called Montanus, were perhaps the first recognizable Christian end-of-the-world cult. They believed that Christ’s triumphant return was imminent and established a base in Anatolia (699 A.D), central Turkey, where they anxiously awaited doomsday.
1284: Pope Innocent III predicted Christ’s second coming would occur in 1284. He arrived at that year by adding 666 years to the date of the inception of the Muslim faith.
February 1, 1524: Panicked by predictions made by a group of London astrologers, some 20,000 people abandoned their homes and fled to high ground in anticipation of a second great flood that was predicted to start from the Thames.
1556: Martin Luther felt this might be the year.
1715: Isaac Newton thought Christ would return.
1792: Shakers predicted the end of the world.
1914: Jehovah’s Witnesses have set several dates for the prophetic end-1914, 1915, 1918, 1919, 1920, 1925, 1941, 1975, and 1994.
1844: Baptist preacher William Miller predicted Jesus would return to upstate New York on October 22, 1844. This became known in American history as the “Great Disappointment.”
1988: There was even a major book titled 88 Reasons Why Christ Will Return in 1988, by Edgar Whisenant. The following year he published 89 Reasons Why Christ Will Return in 1989, claiming to have been slightly off on his calculations. Make that twice.
, by Paul Copan.
