Predictions of the World’s End
“For thousands of years prophets of gloom have been predicting that the world was about to end.”—Premonitions: A Leap Into the Future.
IN 1033, just 1,000 years after the death of Christ, the inhabitants of Burgundy, France, were in great fear because it was predicted that the world would end that year. Expectations of doom were heightened when an unusual number of destructive thunderstorms and a severe famine occurred. Large crowds engaged in public displays of repentance.
A few decades earlier, as the thousandth year from Christ’s birth approached (according to the chronology then accepted), many believed the world’s end was at hand. Artistic and cultural activity in Europe’s monasteries is said to have nearly ground to a halt. Eric Russell observed in his book Astrology and Prediction: “‘Seeing that the end of the world is now approaching’ was a fairly common formula in wills executed during the second half of the tenth century.”
Martin Luther, who started the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, predicted that the world’s end was near in his day. According to one authority, he stated: “For my part, I am sure that the day of judgment is just around the corner.” Another writer explained: “By correlating historical events with Biblical prophecies Luther could announce the nearness of the final cataclysm.”
In the 19th century, William Miller, who is generally credited with the founding of the Adventist Church, predicted that Christ would return sometime between March 1843 and March 1844. As a result, some then expected to be taken away to heaven.
In more recent times, a Ukraine-based religion called the Great White Brotherhood predicted that the world would end on November 14, 1993. In the U.S.A., a radio evangelist, Harold Camping, said the end of the world would come in September 1994. Obviously, these predictions of dates for the world’s end have been wrong.
Has this caused people no longer to believe that the world will end? On the contrary. “The approach of a new millennium in the year 2000,” noted U.S.News and World Report of December 19, 1994, “is unleashing a flood of doomsday prophecies.” The magazine reported that “nearly 60 percent of Americans think the world will end sometime in the future; almost a third of those think it will end within a few decades.”
Why have there been so many predictions regarding the end of the world? Is there good reason to believe it will end?