It amazes me how people can recognize false prophecy except they seem to have amnesia over the false prophecy of Jesus, Paul, and many Church leaders over the centuries.
FAILED END-OF-THE-WORLD PREDICTIONS WHICH WERE TO OCCUR BEFORE 1998
From 30-90 ad the gospels recorded many failed predictions of end times:
in Matthew 16:28: "...there shall be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." Since the life expectancy in those days was little over 30 years, Jesus predicted his second coming sometime during the 1st century CE. It didn't happen. more failed end time rants can be found in (I Cor. 10:11 -KJV) (Heb. 1:2 -KJV) (I Peter 1:20 -KJV) (I Peter 4:7 -KJV)(1 John 2:15-17) (I John 2:18 -KJV)
About 60 CE: Paul of Tarsus believed that Jesus would return and usher in a rapture during the lifetime of persons who were living in the middle of the 1st century. About 90 CE: Saint Clement 1 predicted that the world end would occur at any moment.
375 to 400 CE: Saint Martin of Tours, a student of Hilary, was convinced that the end would happen sometime before
400 CE. 500 CE: This was the first year-with-a-nice-round-number-panic. The antipope Hippolytus and an earlier Christian academic Sextus Julius Africanus had predicted Armageddon
at about this year 992: Good Friday coincided with the Feast of the Annunciation; this had long been believed to be the event that would bring forth the Antichrist, and thus the end-times events foretold in the book of Revelation.
1000-JAN-1: Many Christians in Europe had predicted the end of the world on this date. As the date approached, Christian armies waged war against some of the Pagan countries in Northern Europe. The motivation was to convert them all to Christianity, by force if necessary, before Christ returned in the year 1000. Meanwhile, some Christians had given their possessions to the Church in anticipation of the end. Fortunately, the level of education was so low that many citizens were unaware of the year. They did not know enough to be afraid. Otherwise, the panic might have been far worse than it was. Unfortunately, when Jesus did not appear, the church did not return the gifts. Serious criticism of the Church followed. The Church reacted by exterminating some heretics.
1033: Some believed this to be the 1000th anniversary of the death and resurrection of Jesus. His second coming was anticipated. Jesus' actual date of execution is unknown, but is believed to be in the range of 27 to 33 CE only because they weren't educated to know of the story of Yeshu ben Pandera who lived a century before the dating of the icon.
1147: Gerard of Poehlde decided that the millennium had actually started in 306 CE during Constantine's reign. Thus, the world end would happen in 1306 CE.
**Notice a pattern where people displace why the events didn't occur, they keep pushing the dates farther and farther rather then admit they have been deceived. **
1179: John of Toledo predicted the end of the world during 1186. This estimate was based on the alignment of many planets. 1205: Joachim of Fiore predicted in 1190 that the Antichrist was already in the world, and that King Richard of England would defeat him. The Millennium would then begin, sometime before 1205. 1284: Pope Innocent III computed this date by adding 666 years onto the date the Islam was founded. 1346 and later: The black plague spread across Europe, killing one third of the population. This was seen as the prelude to an immediate end of the world. If they knew what SEA meant they would have known that 1/3 the fish (Christians) in the sea (Rome) meant Christians in Roman teritory who did die when Rome was trying to remove Christianity before they adopted the sect to mask their unity movement similar to the one you see today. Most unexecusable was the fact they diplaced the blame onto the Jews for the Plague to hide the fact it was their fault as the Christians had previously killed many of the cats, fearing that they might be familiars of Witches. The fewer the cats, the more the rats. It was the rat fleas that spread the black plague. 16XX Mother Shipton, a 16th century mystic predicted the end of the world: "The world to an end shall come; in eighteen hundred and eighty-one."
1669: The Old Believers in Russia believed that the end of the world would occur in this year. 20 thousand burned themselves to death from 1669 to 1690 to protect themselves from the Antichrist. *Yikes* 1794: Charles Wesley, one of the founders of Methodism, thought Doomsday would be in this year. 1832: Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon movement, heard a voice and interpreted it as implying that if he lived to the age of 85, Jesus would return. This would be the year 1890. Unfortunately, by that year, Smith had been dead for almost a half century.
1936: Herbert W Armstrong, founder of the Worldwide Church of God, predicted that the Day of the Lord would happen sometime in 1936. When the prediction failed, he made a new estimate: 1975.
1959: The Branch Davidians of Waco TX believed that they would be killed, resurrected and transferred to heaven by APR-22.
1967: During the six day war, the Israeli army captured all of Jerusalem. Many conservative Christians believed that the rapture would occur quickly. However, the final Biblical prerequisite for the second coming is that the Jews resume ritual animal sacrifices in the temple at Jerusalem. That never happened. 1970's: The late Moses David (formerly David Berg) was the founder of the Christian religious group, The Children of God. He predicted that a comet would hit the earth, probably in the mid 1970's and destroy all life in the United States. One source indicated that he believed it would happen in 1973. Back in the 70's Pastor Arnold Murray of Chepherds Chapel predicted that the Antichrist would appear before 1981.
1978: Chuck Smith, Pastor of Calvary Chapel in Cost Mesa CA predicted the rapture in 1981.
1982: Pat Robertson predicted a few years previously that the world would end in the fall of 1982.
1986: Moses David of The Children of God faith group predicted that the Battle of Armageddon would take place in 1986. Russia would defeat Israel and the United States. A worldwide Communist dictatorship would be established. In 1993, Christ would return to earth.
1988: Hal Lindsey predicted in his book "The Late, Great Planet Earth" that the Rapture was coming in 1988 - one generation or 40 years after the creation of the state of Israel. This failed prophecy did not appear to damage his reputation. He continues to blunder on prophecy like his y2k scare and other mistakes yet still writes books of prophecy which sell very well indeed. I and others have continually outted his false prophecy and scripture interps yet he's stilll allowed to teach.
1989: Orlando Christian Center, Dec. 31st, 1989. Benny Hinn tells everyone The Spirit tells me - Fidel Castro will die - in the 90's. Oooh my! Some will try to kill him and they will not succeed. But there will come a change in his physical health, and he will not stay in power, and Cuba will be visited of God. 1990-APR-23: Elizabeth Clare Prophet, leader of the Church Universal and Triumphant made a series of statements that many members believed indicated the start of nuclear war on this date. At least 2,000 followers traveled Montana to occupy CUT's fallout shelters.
1992-OCT-28: Lee Jang Rim, a Korean Christian pastor, taught that the Rapture would occur on this date, at 10:00 AM EST. It didn't happen; many of his followers allegedly committed suicide. 1993: Benny Hinn, an Assemblies of God pastor from Florida predicted that the rapture would come in 1993. He also said that God would destroy all homosexuals by 1995 at the latest.
1993 to 1997: Rulon Jeffs was spokesperson for the The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Mormon polygamist splinter group. In 1993, he allegedly told high school graduates to not attend college. The reasoning was that the world would end before they could finish. Now why are some of these people still followed or allowed to teach when the bible makes it clear about the world NOT ENDING, but also about these false prophets who do not speak for G-d.
Ezekiel CH 13, Deut 18:20-22, Isa. 30:10, Jer. 5:30-31, 14:14, 23:16, 26, 31-32. Sources:Religious tolerance web site, with my additions and commentary and follow up lesson with bible verse as that source.