Clergy
Martin Luther Luther, the German priest and professor of theology, predicted the end of the world would occur no later than 1600.
John Mason, an Anglican priest, predicted the Millennium would begin by 1694. Johann Heinrich Alsted, a Calvinist minister, also predicted the Millennium would begin by 1694. Johann Jacob Zimmermann, believed that Jesus would return and the world would end in 1694.
Christopher Love, a Presbyterian minister, predicted the destruction of the world by earthquake in 1805, followed by an age of everlasting peace when God would be known by all.
Johann Albrecht Bengel, an educated Lutheran clergyman and an expert in Greek, prophesied in the 1730s that Judgment Day would come in 1836. He had discerned the pope was the anti-Christ and the Freemasons represented the “false prophet” of Revelations.
John Wesley’s reputation was on the line when he prophesied 1836 as the Millennium’s beginning. He wrote that Revelation 12:14 referred to 1058 to 1836, “when Christ should come.”
Pierre d’Ailly, a French theologian around 1400 wrote that 6845 years of human history had already passed, and the end of the world would be in the 7000th year: 1555.
The Spanish-born reformer Michael Servetus, in his book The Restoration of Christianity, claimed that the Devil’s reign in this world had started in 325 AD at the Council of Nicea, and would last for 1260 years, thus ending in 1585.
Emanuel Swedenborg, a former Lutheran, claimed that the Last Judgement occurred in the spiritual world in 1757.
Charles Taze Russell said: “… the battle of the great day of God Almighty… The date of the close of that ‘battle’ is definitely marked in Scripture as October 1914. It is already in progress, its beginning dating from October 1874.”
John Chilembwe, a Baptist educator and leader of a rebellion in the British protectorate of Nyasaland, predicted the Millennium would begin in 1915.
James Ussher, a 17th-century Irish archbishop, predicted Oct 23, 1997 to be 6000 years since creation, and therefore the end of the world.
Timothy Dwight IV, a 19th century president of Yale University, foresaw Christ’s Millennium starting by 2000.
Ed Dobson, pastor, predicted the end would occur in his book The End: Why Jesus Could Return by A.D. 2000.
Jonathan Edwards, the 18th-century preacher, predicted that Christ’s thousand-year reign would begin in the year 2000.
Chuck Smith, founder of Calvary Chapel, predicted the generation of 1948 would be the last generation, and that the world would end by 1981. Smith admitted he “could be wrong,” but continued to say in the same sentence that his prediction was “a deep conviction in my heart, and all my plans are predicated upon that belief.”
Evangelists
Michael Paget Baxter, an Anglican evangelist and author, made the last of numerous apocalyptic predictions for April 23, 1908; this prediction was published in 1894.
Wilbur Glenn Voliva, an evangelist, announced that “the world is going to go ‘puff’ and disappear” in September 1935.
William Branham, a healing evangelist, predicted the rapture would occur no later than 1977.
Pat Robertson, the televangelist, predicted in late 1976 on his 700 Club TV programme, the end of the world would come in 1982. In his 1990 book The New Millennium, he suggested April 29, 2007 as the date for the Earth’s destruction.
Lester Sumrall, an evangelist and revivalist, predicted the end in 1985 in his book I Predict 1985. He waited 15 years before his sequel: I Predict 2000.
Gordon Lindsay, an evangelist and revivalist, predicted the great tribulation would begin before 2000.
Jerry Falwell, the televangelist, foresaw God pouring out his judgment on the world on January 1, 2000.
In 2014, John Hagee, a televangelist, because of the so-called blood moon prophecy, claimed that the tetrad in 2014 and 2015 may represent the beginning of the Messianic end times. The time block was April 2014 to September 2015. Some Mormons in Utah combined the September 2015 blood moon with other signs, causing a large increase in sales of preppers survival supplies.
Retractions
Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, two Christian authors, stated that 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.