For a long list of prophecies, see the Wikipedia article: Unfulfilled Christian religious predictions
From ChatGPT 1/19/2025
B. Modern End Times Prophecies
- Hal Lindsey
- Statements: Predicted events leading to the end times, heavily based on interpreting Biblical prophecies.
- Book: The Late Great Planet Earth (1970).
- Financial Aspect: The book sold over 28 million copies by the late 1990s, earning Lindsey substantial royalties. Estimated revenue (not profit): $7 million–$8 million (approx., adjusted for inflation).
- Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
- Statements: Fictionalized depiction of the Rapture and events of Revelation.
- Book Series: Left Behind (1995–2007).
- Financial Aspect: Over 65 million copies sold as of 2016. Estimated revenue: $150 million+ for the series, including book royalties, movies, and merchandise.
- Harold Camping
- Statements: Predicted multiple dates for the end of the world (e.g., 1994 and May 21, 2011). YouTube video here.
- Book: 1994? and various pamphlets.
- Financial Aspect: As a leader of Family Radio, Camping used donations to support his broadcasts and predictions. Financial scrutiny post-2011 revealed Family Radio had $100+ million in assets, but he did not personally profit heavily.
- Jack Van Impe
- Statements: Frequent predictions of the end times on his TV broadcasts, tying current events to Biblical prophecy.
- Media: Television program and books such as Revelation Revealed.
- Financial Aspect: His ministry was funded by viewer donations and book sales. Estimates suggest a multi-million-dollar ministry, though personal income specifics are unclear.
From Wikipedia – Edgar C. Whisenant (September 25, 1932 – May 16, 2001) was an American former NASA engineer and Bible student from Little Rock, Arkansas, who predicted the rapture and World War III would occur during Rosh Hashanah in 1988, sometime between September 11 and September 13. Through studying the Bible and using numerology, he gathered 23,000 clues which he used to predict the date. Other information used to predict the end times included “sources as varied as U.S. Defense Department manuals and opinions by radical Rabbi Meir Kahane and pop scientist Carl Sagan.”[1][2][3] Whisenant believed the description of the sun being blocked out in Revelation chapter 11 was a prediction of nuclear winter.[4]
He initially published two books, 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988 and On Borrowed Time. Both were published by World Bible Society with financial backing from Norvell Olive, a Christian radio broadcaster. Eventually, 300,000 copies of 88 Reasons were mailed free of charge to ministers across America, and 4.5 million copies were sold in bookstores and elsewhere. On Borrowed Time was said to have reached the hands of 3 million people. 88 Reasons reached number two on the Christian Bookseller Association‘s list that year. Whisenant’s predictions were widely covered – and ridiculed – in the media as well as being satirized by humorist Dave Barry.[5][3][6][1]
When his predictions failed to materialize, Whisenant claimed the event would still happen that year and initially updated his prediction to October 3. He later stated his calculations were off by one year as he had not factored in the lack of a year zero, which he said gave Christians more time to prepare. He then published The Final Shout, giving a date of September 1, 1989, and later updated his prediction to 1993.[9][3][10]
The extracts below about three prophecies came from here.
Heaven’s Gate Spaceship Prophecy
DATE: March 26, 1997
If there was ever a belief structure that could put Christianity, new-age mysticism, and Area 51 in a blender and mix it all up, it would be a Heaven’s Gate smoothie, led by guru, Marshall Applewhite, that would come out.
Applewhite, founder of the group Heaven’s Gate, saw himself as one of the two witnesses of Revelation and preached that access to heaven was accomplished by death and transportation in outer-space flying saucers – or UFO’s.
Applewhite convinced 38 followers the end of time would take place with the Comet Hale-Bopp and behind the comet would be a UFO that would rapture them up. Applewhite and all 38 followers participated in a mass suicide with the belief that death would help them board God’s UFO.
The War Scroll Prophecy
DATE: 66AD
The War Scroll is one of the more well-known documents recovered from the Dead Sea Scrolls of the Jewish Essenes that predicted the end of time. The Essenes were not exactly followers of Christ, but they did live during the days of Jesus and strictly adhered to the teachings of the Torah – the same book that Jesus read – and they predicted that the end was immediately coming.
Many new Christians agreed with the Essenes about the end of time. After all, all of the things that they were hearing from the disciples seemed to be coming to pass. They saw Nero torture Christians in ways that could only be described as the Anti-Christ. They saw the nations – under Roman authority – attack Israel in a way that looked like the Armageddon. They saw the Temple destroyed without a stone left on top of another.
Everything lined up!
The Essenes dwelled in the remote desert caves waiting for the end to come on any given day, but it never did. They all died, leaving their scrolls behind.
The Crusade Prophecy
DATE: 1213
The rise of Islam came with rapid expansion and the rape and raid of Christian nations. Pope Innocent III saw Islam as the great Beast and Muhammad as the Anti-Christ. The Pope prophesied that Islamic Jihad was a sign that the end was near and Jesus would quickly return.
In 1213, the Pope wrote: “A son of perdition has arisen, the false prophet Muhammed, who has seduced many men from the truth by worldly enticements and the pleasures of the flesh… we nevertheless put our trust in the Lord who has already given us a sign that good is to come, that the end of this beast is approaching, whose number, according to the Revelation of Saint John, will end in 666 years, of which already nearly 600 have passed.”
The Pope’s apocalyptic theology helped to rally Europe to embrace the idea that the recapturing of Jerusalem would defeat the Anti-Christ and usher in the Second Coming of the Messiah. The crusaders repelled Islam and captured Jerusalem, but the end did not come.
