It’s almost the end of another year and the beginning of a new calendar. Somewhere, someone must be preparing for the end of the world. Because, for some reason, humans love predicting doomsday and prepping for it.
We’ve seen it on TV with Doomsday Preppers, we’ve read predictions and forecasts, and everyone has tried to crack the code of Nostradamus and Siener van Rensburg, amongst other great modern prophets. The thing is, that prophecies were so vague it’s possible to ascribe them to any period in time, making the seers uncorrectable simply because they word-played doom and gloom in great, opaque language.
Books like the Bible Code claim to have deciphered God’s word, while the Y2K crisis at the turn of the millennium amounted to much the same as every other prediction. Naught.
The 2012 Mayan Apocalypse
The 2012 panic remains one of the most commercially successful doomsdays in history. On 21 December, just before Christmas, the world was supposed to end. The Mayan Long Count calendar reached the end of a cycle, soothsayers said. There were supposed to be planetary collisions, all sorts of disasters. All the world got instead was a second term for Barack Obama as US President, the month before.
The Double Rapture by Harold Camping
In 2011, American broadcaster Harold Camping predicted the Rapture on 21 May of that year. When the day played out like, well, every other day, he revised the date to 21 October. Followers of his codswallop spent life savings promoting the message. After the second uneventful date, Camping admitted he was, in his own words, “flabbergasted”. All bets are on that at some point a new truth would be revealed, and the cycle will rinse and repeat.
Also Read: Rocker: Confessions of a man in love… with his dishwasher
God was to star on TV in 1988
Hon-Ming Chen’s True Way movement promised that God would appear on US television screens in 1988. He did not specify whether it would be as an actor, a news anchor or a weatherman. But, of course, it did not happen. Instead, the prophecy segued to mass deaths from floods and evil spirits. It didn’t happen. The True Way movement has since lost its own way.
Halley the Killer Comet
In 1910, the comet that’s in an endless loop around Earth sparked global fear after scientists detected cyanogen gas in its tail. People rushed to buy gas masks and special anti-poisoning comet pills because they were convinced all of Earth would be mass poisoned by the gas. But alas, apart from early exhaust emissions, the air didn’t move.
Christ’s return in 1843
Adventist William Miller’s calculations convinced thousands that Christ would return in 1843. When the date passed, he reinterpreted it as 1844. Followers packed up their lives to wait for the end. But Jesus did not appear, and after a double entendre, the non-event became known as the Great Disappointment. Those who could not leave the idea alone reinterpreted the prophecy, likely with date-change disclaimers.
The Chicken that knew the future
How a chicken could fool a nation is, well, unimaginable. But, in 1806, a hen in Leeds in the United Kingdom gained fame for allegedly laying eggs inscribed with apocalyptic messages. People flocked to see the chicken and its divine prophesies. Of course, it was discovered that the hen’s owner had written the messages herself and forced the eggs back into the hen. Most believers clucked off after that.
Numbers and 1666
A predicted planetary alignment in 1524 was said to herald a catastrophic flood. Of course, it caused panic, but nothing happened. In 1666, fear spread because the 666 at the end of the date was the number of the beast as described in the Bible in Revelation. Life went on as usual.
Heavens Gate Kills
Prophesies can turn deadly, and in 1997, the Heaven’s Gate cult proved exactly that. Members, blind followers if you wish, believed a spacecraft trailing Comet Hale-Bopp would take them to a higher plane. When the spacecraft did not appear, as any rational person could have shared at the time, 39 members took their own lives.
Now Read: VIDEO: How Jakkie Louw rocks Pretoria restaurant with pasta
About the Author
