Unfulfilled Religious Prophecies and Messiah Claimants

Unfulfilled religious prophecies, Jesus and Messiah Claimants

This page attempts to list time-specific historical predictions (or prophecy) by claimed prophets or leaders within various churches whose predictions failed to happen.Biblical prophecyis not included, and is dealt within separate articles.The "prophets" listed here include anyone who has predicted or prophesied about the future within visiblereligions. It should also be noted that, where the prophesier belonged to religions affiliated toChristianity, thevast majority of Christians have never believed in these extra-Biblical prophecies

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Claims by mainstream churches

Lutheran Church

The founder of theLutheran Church was the reformer,Martin Luther (1483-1546A.D.). According to one authority, Luther ventured to predict: "For my part, I am sure that the Day of Judgment is just around the corner.It doesn't matter that we don't know the precise day... perhaps someone else can figure it out. But it is certainthat time is now at an end." (

Reformation Principles and Practice: Essays in Honor of Arthur Geoffrey Dickens

, p 169). Some take the position that this would not be a failed prediction, because on the larger scale of time,"near" can be centuries in God's eyes. The reason for Martin Luther to say that the time is near, is to urge all people to examine themselves and ask themselves if they are sure they would be saved if the World were to endat any moment. However, his words indicate that he believed the end was near based on human understanding.Another work says: "In all of his [Luther's] work there was a sense of urgency for the time was short... theworld was heading for Armageddon in the war with the Turk." (

Luther's View of Church History

, John M.Headley, Yale University Press,1963,pp 13,14) Even after his death in 1546, Lutheran leaders kept up the claim of the nearness of the end. About the year 1584,A zealous Lutheran namedAdam Nachenmoser wrote a large volume entitled

Prognosticum Theologicum

in which he predicted: "In1590 the Gospel would be preached to all nations and a wonderful unity would be achieved. The last days would then be close at hand. Nachenmoser offered numerous conjectures about the date;1635seemed most likely." (

Prophecy and Gnosis— Apocalypticism in the Wake of the Lutheran Reformation

, Robin Bruce Barnes, p 64) Other date predictionsfollowed but all failed.

Roman Catholic Church

Cardinal Nicholas de Cusa (1401-1464 A.D.) was " a cardinal of great learning...At the age of 23 Nicholas became a doctor of law, but when he lost his first lawsuit he left the profession of law for the study of theology.Possessing a thorough knowledge of the Greek, Latin and Hebrew languages, and a rare degree of eloquence,soon attracted attention... was made a cardinal (1449A.D.)" (

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

by McClintock and Strong, Volume II, p. 611). Cardinal de Cusa later held that the endof the world would come in the year 1700 A.D. Another Catholic scholar, Arnald of Villanova predicted that an Antichrist would appear in1378 A.D. (

Visions of The End

, McGinn, p. 147)

Baptist Church

Some Baptistsalso have a history of date and time predictions that have failed. In the early 1900s, the well- known Dr. Isaac M. Haldeman, pastor of the First Baptist Church in New York City, predicted that before the

Jews returned to Palestine to establish a Jewish State--an event that happened in 1948--that the Antichrist wouldappear. Haldeman explained: 'The Scriptures teach that this man (the Antichrist) will be the prime factor in bringing the Jews back, as a body into their own land; that he will be the power that shall make Zionism asuccess; that through him the nationalism of the Jews shall be accomplished." There is still a group of believersthat continue to believe that Haldeman was correct; and that in truth,Adolf Hitler was the Antichrist predicted in the Bible (or perhaps one antichrist of many). They offer as "proof" the fact that the end result of WWII andthe holocaust drove many Jews out of Europe to their new Israel. The fact that Hitler's Holocaust killed millionsof Jewish believers (called "saints" in many Old Testament prophetic passages) would correlate positively withseveral Bible predictions that the Antichrist will seek to murder multitudes of "saints." (

The Signs of the Times

,Isaac Massey Haldeman, pages 452, 453).The "one of many" Antichrist theory has some stability within Biblical limits. In 1 John 2:18, John writes that"many Antichrists have come."

Anabaptist Church

CertainAnabaptistsof the early Sixteenth Century believed that the Millennium would occur in 1533." (

When Prophecy Fails, Festinger

, Riecken and Schaeter, page 7) Another source reports: "When the prophecy failed,the Anabaptists became more zealous and claimed that two witnesses (Enoch and Elijah) had come in the formof Jan Matthys andJan Bockelson; they would set up the New Jerusalem in Munster. Munster became a frightening dictatorship under Bockelson's control. Although all Lutherans and Catholics were expelled fromthat city, the millennium never came." (

Soothsayers Of The Second Advent

, William Alnor, page 57.)

Presbyterian Church

Thomas Brightmanwho lived from 1562 to 1607 has been called "one of the fathers of Presbyterianismin England." This well educated and esteemed fellow predicted that "between 1650 and 1695 [we] would see theconversion of the many Jews and a revival of their nation in Palestine...the destruction of the Papacy...themarriage of the Lamb and his wife." (

A Great Expectation--Eschatological Thought in English Protestantism to1660

by Bryan W. Ball and E.J. Brill, page 117). This did not happen.Christopher Love who lived from 1618-1651 was a bright graduate of Oxford and a strong Presbyterian. Love predicted that: (1) Babylon would fall in 1758 (2) God's anger against the wicked would be demonstrated in1759 and (3) in 1763 there would occur a great earthquake all over the world. (

The Logic of Millennial Thought

by James West Davidson, page 200). None of this occurred.

Assemblies of God Church

TheAssemblies of GodChurch has made an indelible impression because of its active evangelical work. Likeother popular groups, this community has a rich history of failed predictions. One definitive study of predictionsmade within this church was published by an Assemblies of God scholar and pastor, Professor Dwight Wilson.The book was entitled

Armageddon Now!

On the jacket of his book is this caveat: "The author cautions hisfellow Premillenarians that they will lose their credibility if they continue to see in each political crisis a surefulfillment of Biblical prophecy--despite their obvious errors concerning earlier crises."DuringWorld War I,

The Weekly Evangel

, an official publication of the Assemblies of God, carried this prediction: "We are not yet in the Armageddon struggle proper, but at its commencement, and it may be, if students of prophecy read the signs aright, that Christ will come before the present war closes, and before

Armageddon...The war preliminary to Armageddon, it seems, has commenced." (April 10, 1917 edition, page3). Other editions speculated that the end would come no later than 1934 or 1935 (May 13, 1916 pp 6-9 etc).

The Anglican Church (Episcopal Church)

In volume II of

The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers

, author Leroy Edwin Froom tells us about a prominentAnglicanprelate who made a relevant prediction: "Edwin Sandys (1519-1588), Archbishop of York and Primate of England was born in Lancastershire... Sandys says, 'Now, as we know not the day and time, so let us beassured that this coming of the Lord is near. He is not slack, as we do count slackness. That it is at hand, it may be probably gathered out of the Scriptures in diverse places. The signs mentioned by Christ in the Gospel whichshould be the foreshewers of this terrible day, are almost all fulfilled." (

The Prophetic Faith of our Fathers

, pages 417, 419.)

Mennonites

Russian Mennoniteminister Claas Epp, Jr.predicted that Christ would return on1889-03-08and when that date passed, 1891.

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Calvary Chapel

The founder of theCalvary Chapelsystem is the charismatic Pastor Chuck Smith. Some years ago, he publisheda book entitled

End Times

. On the jacket of his book, Smith is called a "well known Bible scholar and prophecyteacher." In this book he wrote: "As we look at the world scene today, it would appear that the coming of theLord is very, very, close. Yet, we do not know when it will be. It could be that the Lord will wait for a timelonger. If I understand Scripture correctly, Jesus taught us that the generation which sees the 'budding of the figtree', the birth of the nation Israel, will be the generation that sees the Lord's return; I believe that the generationof 1948 is the last generation. Since a generation of judgment is forty years and the tribulation lasts seven years,I believe the Lord could come back for his church anytime before the tribulation starts, which would meananytime before 1981. (1948 + 40 - 7 = 1981) However, it is possible that Jesus is dating the beginning of thegeneration from 1967, when Jerusalem was again under Israeli control for the first time since 587 B.C. We don'tknow for sure which year acturally marks the beginning of the last generation." (pages 35, 36). This sameviewpoint was published by the popular Pastor Hal Lindseyin his widely published book entitled

The LateGreat Planet Earth

(see page 43).

Claims by other groups

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Though not strictly unfulfilled (due to its predication on the Prophet’s longevity), the first President of TheChurch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints(colloquially, though incorrectly, known as the “Mormon church”),Joseph Smith, Jr., prophesied that if he lived to be 85, he would see the Son of God. We read: "President Smiththen stated… it was the will of God that those who went to Zion, with a determination to lay down their lives, if necessary, should be ordained to the ministry, and go forth to prune the vineyard for the last time, or the comingof the Lord, which was nigh—even fifty-six years should wind up the scene."- See volume 2, page 182 of theHistory of The Church. Joseph added that the voice of the Lord told him the following: "'My son, if thou livethuntil thou art eighty-five years of age, thou shalt see the face of the Son of Man,' I was left to draw my ownconclusions concerning this; and I took liberty to conclude that if I did live to that time, He would make hisappearance, But I do not say whether He will make his appearance or I shall go where He is." See History of theChurch, Volume 5, page 336.