Copyright © 1999 Ed Ladeur,

To carry on from the September Eddie-Torial the last 3 articles of 1999 will focus on our attitudes to recent prophecy. With recent I mean prophecies made during the Christian era. This month the topic of doomsday seem appropriate. It is apparent that all doomsday prophets base their predictions on several books in the bible according to their personal interpretation. Mind you, with millions of independent minds come millions of interpretations, and millions of people yelling "blasphemy" at each other. It's been a wild ride, and the circus act ain't over by a long shot. Needless to say, the years 3000 and 4000 will be a replay of the years 1000 and 2000. Insanity reigns happily ever onward.

Whether these 'interpreters' claim 'second sight' or claim they are prophets by the gift of God doesn't really matter. They are humans with brains who may or may not have insight or may just be crazy people (schizophrenics) with voices and visions in their heads, but who always seem to find followers, no matter how 'off the wall' they appear to the rest of the world. Whether communist or capitalist, whether Christian or Pagan, whether Canadian or Bulgarian...we all love to listen and some we love to hate. In any event...it's a good show, so please excuse if I make light of some and hearken the words of others.

Doomsday prophets have come and gone throughout history. From the old testament to the last book in the new testament...and more recently the doomsayers of our modern ages.

1 - 1000 AD...

Montanus was one to suggest that the world would end soon (156 AD) and pointed to the Apocalypse of the Bible. It was to take place in Pepuzza (near Ankara, Turkey). This sect seriously created schisms in the early Christian church and survived until about 400 AD.

Novatian, in the Mediterranean region, preached the doomsday belief in the 3rd century.

Donatus from Africa in the 4th century preached of the 144,000 righteous souls who were chosen by God, and in our century the Jehova's Witnesses do likewise, although carefully not setting a date. The 'Rapture' theory is not a new idea...it goes back to the 1st century.

In 999 AD millennium-mania swept over Europe like a plague of locusts. (Actually for some religious people the turning of each century brought the same mania and paranoia). A great upswing in church attendance, mass conversions of newly repentant beings, huge gatherings of town populations around massive crosses throughout the continent. That Europe was the only place with this plague is logical...it is only the Christian church and its calendar which points to this particular omen (the turning of the millennium) as a portend of God's wrath. Before and after prophets enjoyed their status as seers and leaders of the Christian community. That dates came and went did not faze many, mistakes in interpretation of the prophecies were quite often preached to be a period of grace until the next definitive date. (Editor's note...With brains or without, sheep are on this earth for only two things, to be fleeced or led to the slaughter. A follower who considers him/herself a sheep in a flock really must be considered as 'unintelligently devout'.)

1000 - 2000 AD...

Here are documented instances of some apocalypses past.

• Anabaptists predicted 1533
• Sabbatai Zevi predicted 1648, then 1666
• Johann Zimmerman predicted 1694
• William Miller predicted 1843
• Henry Adams predicted 1950
• Alexander Bedward predicted Dec 31, 1920
• Garner Ted Armstrong predicted 1972, then 1976
• the Bashilele's predicted 1936
• Huynh So predicted 1940
• Edward Elson predicted Dec 25, 1973
• Winnie Barton predicted June 13, 1976
• John Strong predicted October 1978
• Rock Theriault predicted Feb 19, 1979
• Criswell predicted August 18, 1999

  Some play it extremely safe...

• Rudolfo Benavides 1987 - 2001
• Jeane Dixon 4980
• Jack Hills 25 Billion Years

Apocalyptic Sects and Cults

• The Rappites
  Led by 'Father' Rapp who was convinced the second coming of the Lord was imminent and would happen during his lifetime. Several communities throughout the early USA flourished, and operated a distillery apply named 'Golden Rule Distillery'. He died at age 90, with the last words...'If I did not know that the dear Lord meant I should present you all to him I should think my last moment has come'. The movement died shortly after.
• The Millerites
  One of the 'scariest' of apocalyptic cults of its day, the followers of an uneducated farmer have good reason to disavow knowledge of him. Mr. Miller, it must be said, was a devout Christian who studied the Bible in his own way, notably the book of Daniel, of which he converted days to weeks and years, a 'time and time and a half' to some other human time frame and was invited to give a talk on prophecy. He made his views and interpretations public and a movement was firmly established within a short time. It would not be too far off to say that he gained hundreds of thousands of followers in the Eastern USA, all being convinced the world would end in a great inferno in the year 1843. At a convention held in Boston the date was set, and most major newspapers carried the news. Afterwards Miller published his personal beliefs, and in it he narrowed the dates to anytime between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. Nevertheless March 22/44 came and so did ridicule, until once again the date was changed to October 22, 1844. From ecstatic hope to deepest disappointment, the Millerites faded into oblivion soon after.
• The Anabaptists
  This Dutch sect believed that doomsday was set for 1533. As the year approached these pious people exemplified brotherhood and equality, giving away their wealth to the poor, destroyed their debt owing to them, renounced all things worldly and studied the word of God. When the year passed by few considered it a liability, and living as Christians they kept whipping up their convictions, only to dwindle over the years. It was a lesson in realization that God's time cannot be figured by man's time, and the exhortation in the Book that the Messiah would come as a thief in the night was taken to heart, never again to be so wicked as to set a date for the wrath of God to arrive. This is perhaps the most Christian of the sects, learning from their own mistakes and being corrected by their own wisdom.
• The Woman in the Wilderness
  Johann Zimmerman preached that doomsday would come late in 1694. In February of that year he died as his followers set sail to the new world to set up a doomsday commune in Pennsylvania. The reason for the wilderness setting for the Zimmerites came from the bible's text in Revelation of a woman given wings of an eagle so she could fly into the wilderness, hence the name. When the time passed the cult faded slowly over the years and by the mid 1700's was no more.
• The Zevi-ites
  A monastic Turk from Smyrna knowledgable of the Kabala let his followers into a great secret only he knew...he himself was the one the whole world was waiting for. He was the Messiah come to save and judge the world. He turned his attention mainly to the Jews, who had as their time considered 1648, but when that time passed Zevi proclaimed himself to know the date...that of 1666. Through several networks it became known to most Jewry in Europe, and by 1665 many of them were ready to head back to Palestine under his leadership. But Zevi was arrested as he set foot on the shores near Constantinople, and became a prisoner of the Sultan who tried to convert him to Islam. His followers held the opinion that his suffering was foretold and required. Zevi did convert, and appeared to his followers to convert them as well. Needless to say, some did convert, most turned away and the movement fizzled.
• Bedwardism
  Jamaica had its own prophet of doom, Alexander Bedward based the cult on himself. In 1920 he preached that he would ascend to heaven and later would return to destroy the earth. His ascencion predicted for Dec 31, 1920 failed but he was able to soothe the masses by claiming that God has granted more grace to earn their salvation. He ended his days in a lunatic asylum, and true to real believers, his followers hung on to their Messiah in true belief that his lunacy pointed to the fact he did not belong to this world.
• The Worldwide Church of God
  I personally remember listening to Herbert and Garner Ted Armstrong during my younger years. Here are people who are quite believable, people like you or I. Their 'Plain Truth' magazine had a great circulation, and in it has been published several dates of doom. In 1955 it was printed that we will be totally consumed within 20 years. In 1956 it was written it would be in 15 to 20 years. In 1957 it would only be 15 years. I finally got to the point that this doomsday and paranoia factory had as it's head the most ignorant of preachers.

Predictions, read all about it!

Jeane Dixon

• a comet will strike the earth in the 1980's.
• germ warfare will kill many 'like ants' in the 1980's
• the Catholic church will transfer much of its papal power to the cardinals.
• By the end of the century a pope will be assassinated.
• a world war will break the peace in 1999
• a stolen nuclear weapon will terrify a continent in 1981
• African equivalent of World War II will be in swing in 1987
• a 3rd Indo-China war will break out in 1985
• Mexico will undergo the same type of disruption as Iran in 1987
• The USA will have a woman president in the 1980's
• By the end of the century Canada and Brazil will be the most powerful nations because of their wealth.
• Peace in Northern Ireland in 1988
• By the end of the century world hunger will be obliterated
• Canada, Australia and New Zealand will form a union in the 1990's
• Before Watergate Richard Nixon had 'excellent vibrations'

On doomsday she is really distant...the world ends in another 3000 years, The antichrist now alive in the middle east and will be a political entity. He will come to power and rule the whole world under one government. (witness the paranoia against the United Nations, which holds no such power). She is very vague, sometime in the near future from Jerusalem we will witness the shadow of the cross, the one who will fight the antichrist. The earth will tremble and darkness will last 3 days. (We apparently aren't ready to hear her complete prediction).

Obscure Prophets, the Irish Saints

St. Columbcille, living in the 6th century was an Irish prophet who penned the following doomsday prediction:
(some prophets really did have something to say, and not surprisingly be quite accurate about other matters not pertaining to God). (~portions of these scripts are missing or lost...)

How prosperous Eire is this night!
Her immense substance is free from taxation
Her princes are hospitable, her palaces are full,
Her people numerous, and her crops productive.

Though this Eire is so prosperous this night,
A time will come when she will be reduced to destitution;
A powerful force of strangers will invade her,
From Lochlan of the sea-faring Galls.

Another race of invaders will come hither across the seas,
Their number shall be few, though their power prove great,
Six hundred years and ninety more in full,
Shall they impose their tributes upon us.

They will take possession of a portion of Ireland,
Their progress shall be but slow in the beginning;
But they will forcibly extend their supremacy,
With a lubriciousness similar to that of a mist stealing upon a headland.

They will persecute the Gaels with galling ferocity;
Their petitions for restitution will be disregarded.

An uninterrupted course of warfare will mark their carreer
While their keen-edged swords shall be ever reeking with blood;
Fire, robbery, and every species of infliction will prevail,
They will persecute the Gael into exile.

An uncultivated language will be found in every person's mouth,
Proud abbots will rule over every sanctified church;

In both north and south iron wheels shall support
Fiery chariots, which shall resemble druidical deception.

Dearth will become oppressive throughout the land,
Plague will consume the powerful as well as the weak.
The pure fair Gael will fly away
Into exile into both the eastern and western regions of the world.

The Saxons afterwards shall dwindle down into a disreputable people,
And every obstacle shall be opposed to their future prosperity;
Because they did not observe justice and rectitude,
They shall be for ever after deprived of power!

Three warnings shall be given them before their final fall,
The burning of the Tower of the great kings,
The conflagration of the Dockyard of the Galls,
And the burning of the Treasury where gold is deposited.

Great shall be Ireland's renown and her power...

...And seven years before the last day,
The sea shall submerge Eirin by one inundation...

St. Malachy was archbishop of Armagh some 500+ years after St. Columbcille. He jotted down 112 successors and a descriptor of popes to come after the see of Innocent II, pope of his day. Not all were successful, but many were. Not to bore anyone, but a couple of proofs...Benedict XV, 'religio depopulata' (his reign saw the depopulation of the church during WWI and the Russian revolution); John Paul I, 'de medietate lunae' (his reign lasted from one half moon to the other, one month); John Paul II, 'de labore solis' (our present pope did indeed labor under/in the sun during the Nazi regime, also he is from Poland, and aggrarian country).

St. Malachy gives only two more names or motto's, the next pope will be known as 'Gloria Olivae' (perhaps a peace making pope, someone who offers or glorifies olives/branches, the usual symbol for peace making ability). The last pope on his list after this one is one named 'Petrus Romanus', Peter of Rome or the Roman, with a postscript:
"In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church, there shall sit Peter of Rome, who shall feed the sheep among great tribulations. When these have passed the City of the Seven Hills will be destroyed and the dreadful judge will judge the people".
When reading prophesies I always look to the more positive, and here is a pointer to a complete upheaval of the church as we know it. No doubt that calamities will come and go, and wars and destruction are inevitable parts of our lives. But with each one comes renewal, and my sincere hope that the church will be renewed, that women will finally gain their long wanted equalities in the church and state. Perhaps each prophecy of the end of the world is a chance for rebuilding, and God knows, some institutions need to be completed torn down and rebuilt.

Obscure Prophets, the Brahan Seer

Coinneach Odhar was one of the most respected of the Scottish prophets. Several predictions have yet to come about, and although dead for more than 300 years his fame lives on. He used a rock or pebble with a hole in it, and placed it over his dead eye (he was one-eyed) to be able to see events.
He was of extremely sharp wit, which got him into constant trouble, and it was this which caused his death. He was called to the Seaforth estate by the Lady to divine for her the actions of her absent husband. He saw with the aid of the pebble and gave Lady Seaforth this report:

"Fear not, he is safe and sound, merry and happy. Your lord is in a gilded room, decked out in velvets, with silks..........and on his knees before a fair lady, his arms around her and her hand pressed to his lips".

The long line of Seaforth will end in extinction....The last of this house both deaf and dumb. He will father four sons, all of whom he will follow to the tomb. His estate will be inherited by a lassie from the east, who shall kill her sister. As a sign that this will come to pass there will be four great lairds in the days of the deaf and dumb Seaforth - Gairloch, Chisholm, Grant, and Raasay - one shall be buck-toothed, another hare-lipped, one half-witted, and the fourth a stammerer.

Strange as it may seem to you this day, the time will come, and it is not far off, when full-rigged ships will be seen sailing eastward and westward by the back of Tomnahurich.

From the ridiculous to the sublime

The Cheshire Idiot, fifteenth century Robert Nixon, was an somewhat homely (I am being kind) plowboy handicapped by crippling conditions. At times he was quite lucid, more times that he wasn't. His prophecies to be fulfilled...Foreign nations shall invade England with snow on their helmets and shall bring plague, famine, and murder in the skirts of their garments. He died by being starved to death, after being locked up and forgotten for constantly asking for food.

The Great Pyramid of Gizeh is said to contain the future in code:

2116-+ The physical Messiah will pass away, only to re-appear around 2135 for another life, and do it again in 2265

These figures come from "Pyramid Prophesies" taking as an extension of its importance the verses from Isaiah 19:19,20...'In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of Hosts in the land of Egypt.'

The Canadian, Ralph Centennius in his 1883 essay "The Dominion in 1983" predicts the future of Canada...There are no taxes, murder and suicide are no more, states of disease are all but obliterated. Each city only needs one clinic with 3 doctors, Churchill will be a resort city, cars will drive 500 feet above ground, can travel from Toronto to Vancouver in 50 minutes and will be polution free, the population of Canada will be at 93 million, wars have ceased in Europe and only the Russians retain much of their brutish disposition and ferocity in the midst of our civilized influences.
(This must be an ultra-optomist one can always sell some swampland to...hehehe)

Death Sects and Cults

Little needs to be said of the doom sayers who preach death as a way to gain a footstep into Heaven. The churches of Jim Jones, Daved Koresh are but fresh in our minds. The Solar Temple with it's adherents in North America and Europe who regularly commit 'tribal' suicide, the Heaven's Gate organization with its Spaceship belief all point to extremely intelligent people who for some reason give even their own free will away to some questionable concept. In South Africa in 1857 about 25000 natives starved after a seer had commanded that the spirits told his people to eat or destroy everything edible after which a hurricane would flush all white people off their lands...after which edibles would miraculously appear.
The sects now making their way to Israel either to witness the new millennium or to cause (or at least help) the end time to come along makes one think that all reasoning has left us. Most evangelists say that Satan is loose, yet most Christians who are acting on this millennium disease figure that others must be driven by Satan, oh no, not them, after all, they pray to the Messiah. Each bona-fide church can lay claim to its fringe elements, from Catholic to the Adventists, even the Jews. This apocalyptic urge within us sometimes seems to catch us unaware, like a contageous condition of human idiocy.

Vittorio Lanternari's 'The Religions of the Oppressed' states it quite plainly....

Belief in the end of the world, its regeneration as well as a heavenly kingdom is the expression of a people who yearn to break away from whatever holds them in an effort to find a world where forces against them are wiped out.

Experience seems to teach us nothing, in fact we gladly forget mistakes, and make them all over again if only for a sense of hope. It is like a lottery, one buys in, but one is not surprised that one doesn't win. Maybe next time. And as the new millennium draws nearer there is no shortage of those on the doomsday bandwagon, and what surprises me, some extremely (who I thought) intelligent people. Taking away the obvious money making schemes by both church and private business, and disallowing for outright kooks, I find people like myself being calm and collected, and expecting the clock to tick over, and expecting nothing other than what the present kooks can get away with.

Click on the Turkey to collect number 20...here is a clue to help you when you arrive there...

...in your race to the end in your quest...
...information invaluable...
...symbols speak louder than words...

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Well, don't know if you agree or disagree, or just find this a bunch of bunk, feel free to respond on the
The Eddie-Torial Message/Discussion Board
So until next month, play safe, surf wisely, and help yourself to a cookie..(make sure your dog gets one too).

*smiles*, Eddie

Previous Eddie-Torials
September, 1999 Child Abuse
August, 1999 Khazaria
July, 1999 Islam
June, 1999 the Bible and Christianity
May, 1999 Buddhism
April, 1999 Love in the new millennium
March, 1999 Some accomplishments
February, 1999 Surviving the new millennium
January, 1999 Dates and prophecies
December, 1998 Holiday greetings
November, 1998 A sense of humour
October, 1998 The good, bad and unwise of the internet
September, 1998 Volunteerism
August, 1998 Websites on free servers

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Ed Ladeur
All rights reserved.

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