which includes an overview of the history of End Times prophetic speculation, of assistance in evaluating the wisdom of your plans, or in dissuading a friend or family member from making foolish choices. And if you would like information on specific End Times Prophecy teachers, see the Who’s Who Digest.
You may also find it helpful to read the When Prophecy Fails chapter that follows, which explains what often happens to followers of self-proclaimed prophets and prophecy interpreters when their prophecies or interpretations are proven false.
Examination
Teachers and groups proclaiming that the fulfillments of major Bible prophecies are imminent have been around since the time of Christ. The following are just a tiny few examples of such up to the 1800s. (Abbreviations of titles in the citations refer to books in the bibliography at the end of this chapter.)
In the second half of the second century, a Christian convert named Montanus succeeded in convincing many that he had been given a personal revelation directly from God that the Second Coming was at hand. It would happen at Pepuza (near modern Angora). “The prophet’s personality and eloquence won him a host of disciples, who flocked in such numbers to the appointed spot that a new town sprang up to house them.” (P. Hughes, quoted in WPF, p. 6.)
Joachim of Fiore (ca 1135-1202) a Catholic Abbot, did not believe in a literal second coming, but rather in a new stage of earthly influence on earth by the Church, which would come after the three and a half year rule of the Antichrist. He announced to Richard the Lionhearted in 1191 that the Antichrist had already been born. And he declared the end of the current age would be somewhere between 1200 and 1260, with the rule of Antichrist to immediately follow. A famine in Europe in 1258 and a plague in 1259 led to the rise of the “flagellants” (men who beat themselves in a form of public penance), many of whom were believers in Joachim’s prediction regarding 1260. (TLD, pp. 50-51)
An Anabaptist preacher of the early 1500s named Hoffman declared that the events of The End would begin in 1533, and that Strassburg would be the New Jerusalem. “... there the magistrates would set up the kingdom of righteousness, while the 144,000 would maintain the poor of the City, and the true Gospel and the true Baptism [adult immersion] would spread over the earth. No man would be able to withstand the power, signs and wonders of the saints; and with them would appear, like two mighty torches, Enoch and Elias, who would consume the earth with the fire proceeding from their mouths.” (Richard Heath, quoted in WPF, p. 7)
In the early 1600s, a common belief of many Jews was that the Messiah would appear in 1648. Just prior to that date, a young Jewish teacher named Sabbatai Zevi declared to his small group of disciples that he was the expected Messiah. Although the 1648 year passed without a public acknowledgement of Zevi’s claims, he continued to gather followers. Around this same time, there arose speculation among Christians that the Millennium would begin in 1666, and Zevi seems to have latched onto that date. From 1651-1665 he continued to gather followers, and in the fall of 1665 “... he proclaimed himself the Messiah in a public ceremony in Smyrna: The madness of the Jews of Smyrna knew no bounds. Every sign of honor and enthusiastic love was shown to him ... All prepared for a speedy exodus, the return to the Holy Land. Workmen neglected their business and thought only of the approaching Kingdom of the Messiah.”
In an attempt to go to Constantinople and depose the Muslim Sultan there, Zevi was captured and imprisoned by the Muslims. Rather than dampen the enthusiasm for Zevi’s Messianic claims, this temporary setback was viewed as just a short time of suffering he must go through before his glorification. “A constant procession of adoring followers visited the prison where Sabbatai held court, and a steady stream of propaganda and tales of miracles poured out all over the Near East and Europe.” As one contemporary European Jewess wrote, “Many sold their houses and lands and all their possessions, for any day they hoped to be redeemed. My good father-in-law left his home in Hamelm, abandoned his house and lands and all his goodly furniture and moved to Hildesheim. He sent on to us in Hamburg two enormous casks packed with linens and with peas, beans, dried meats, shredded prunes and like stuff, every manner of food that would keep. For the old man expected to sail any moment from Hamburg to the Holy Land.”
The whole Movement came to a screeching halt when the Sultan persuaded Zevi to convert to Islam. (WPF, pp. 8-12)
Many in Britain were very wary of the year 1666 (1000+666) and thus, “Quaker George Fox wrote that in 1666 nearly every thunderstorm aroused end-time expectations.” (TLD, p. 68)
Up to the early 1800s, most prophetic speculators based their scenarios on a number of fairly vague premises. These included personal revelations, or the assumption that current conditions (plague, attacks of barbarians, astronomical phenomena) were so awful that it must mean The End was near. Dates were often chosen for mystical significance (multiples of 1000, or 500, or 666 and the like).
But the 1800s brought a new breed of prophecy speculators, with new, more “scientific” methods. Many of the factors that they built into their speculations are still common to this day. They have been compiled into a special chapter of this book called Aunt Pam’s Prophetic Recipe Collection.
Evaluation
After the Resurrection of Jesus, and before His ascension to heaven, the following dialogue occurred between Him and His eleven Apostles:
Acts 1:6-8
So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (NIV)
Jesus made it clear He wasn’t going to reveal the exact details of future events even to His closest followers. So it isn’t clear why so many Bible teachers who have come along in the intervening centuries have felt that He did reveal to them these details. From that day to this there has been a continual stream of prophecy pundits who have claimed to have unlocked the keys to the apocalyptic passages of scriptures which would reveal those things which Jesus said it was not for His Apostles to know. Generation after generation, they have put forth their speculations—never couched in tentative terms, but rather in dogmatic predictions—that He was going to return in their own generation and inaugurate The Kingdom. Some have claimed to have received specific, personal communication from the Lord regarding these matters. Even more have claimed to have special inspiration to interpret the Bible, so that the hidden meanings would be revealed. And all of these have managed to convince others of the validity of their schemes of prophetic interpretation, and thus gather a following of True Believers around themselves.
Some have specifically pin-pointed an exact date for the fulfillment of a prophetic event that would signal the End of the Age. This might be the date for the beginning of the final Tribulation period, the date for the Rapture of the Church, or the date for the actual Return of Christ in glory. More common than this have been those who have set a “time frame” for one of these events, using terms such as “in the next three to five years,” or “before the end of this coming decade.” And even more common have been those who have merely insisted it would be “within the lifetime of most of those now living.” At this point in history, it doesn’t really make much difference which one of these styles of date setting that such teachers from past centuries have used. For all of their predictions have failed. All of the dates have passed, all of the decades have passed, and all of the generations have passed.
And yet none of this has slowed down the current crop of those in this century who would insist that this time
