If you are reading this, we are still here and Harold Camping’s prediction that the rapture would occur on May 21 wasn’t correct. I make fun of these predictions, but I must say that I do have sympathy for the followers that really believe and especially those that sell off their possessions.
Anyhow, back to more failed doomsday predictions. Mormon founder Joseph Smith made his own prediction back in 1835 that Jesus would return in 56 years. I guess the good news for Smith was that he was dead well before 1891, so he didn’t have to listen to any naysayer’s “I told you so!”
Comets have taken a lot of heat for the rapture. Back in 1910, the Earth passed through the tail of Halley’s Comet and there was fear we could be engulfed in deadly toxic gases. This speculation even made the front page of “The New York Times” and caused quite a stir before scientists explained there was no danger.
You would think being a NASA engineer would give someone a lot of credence, but apparently, it doesn’t help you when predicting the end of the world. Edgar C. Whisenant, who was also a bible student, predicted Christ would return in 1988. His book “88 Reasons Why The Rapture Could Be in 1988” sold over four million copies. At least he put “could” in the title.
In 1997, the Hale-Bopp Comet (which I must say was more spectacular than Halley’s) was coming. The Heaven’s Gate cult leader Marshall Applewhite believed he and his wife were the two witnesses mentioned in Revelation and therefore had the key to the rapture. He convinced his followers that the comet contained a spaceship and they had to evacuate the Earth, which was about to recycled. The only way to evacuate was to kill themselves and 39 followers, in a quite orderly manner, did just that on March 26, 1997.