False Predictions and the Hype

Jesus warned, "For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive even the elect, if that were possible." Matthew 24:24 Look at how many failed predictions people have made.

• In the first thousand years after Christ, about 10.
• In the next 500 years, about another 10.
• In the 1500s, about 13.
• In each of the 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s, about 20.
• In the 1900s, it jumped to about 35.
• In this century, we are already over 20. That is almost one a year.

These are the ones people usually put on lists of failed predictions, and that is being extremely generous with the list. If you look at social media, you are probably looking at well over 50, maybe hundreds, in the last five years.

A lot of false prophets now get to spread their message far. Often they put out massive amounts of information, get one thing kind of right, and build a following off of that. So it's not about God's message, it's about getting some sort of popularity out of predicting things. Honestly, if you have something coming up this weekend that you do not want to do, you can probably find someone saying the rapture is this week.

Some recent examples

• Harold Camping, a radio preacher, said the rapture would happen on May 21, 2011. That was a big failure.
• The 2012 Maya calendar. Pretty sure everyone remembers that one. I do not understand it. Everyone forgot that when you reach the end of a calendar, you go back to the beginning.
• The 2014 and 2015 blood moons. This is the one I really remember Christians picking up on. It was a tetrad, four total lunar eclipses in a row. More on that in Watching Without a Date.
• David Meade predicted the rapture in 2017.

Camping's earlier date was September 1994, and after May 21, 2011 he moved the date to October 21, 2011. Meade's date was September 23, 2017, tied to a star alignment in Virgo he read from Revelation 12. news reports, May-October 2011 and September 2017

What the hype costs

People get caught up in the hype and find out the rapture is happening next week. They sell all their possessions and quit their jobs. Many people have been ruined because they listened to some man telling them this is the date, instead of listening to God.

We cannot do that. God actually says that those of us who are supposed to be providing for our families are worse than unbelievers if we do not.

If anyone does not provide for his own, and especially his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. 1 Timothy 5:8

So do not do something like that. Be generous, absolutely. There are things we can do. But we should not get caught up in the hype, and we should not worry about it.

Back to the lesson: Watching Wisely.