False Prophets
May 3rd, 2008 by Wyatt
William Miller was a Baptist minister who went off the rails a bit and became known as the founder of the “Millerites”. He predicted that Christ would return sometime between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. He later adjusted his prediction to April 18, 1844. Finally, he adjusted one more time to October 22, of 1844. Miller died in 1849.
Ellen White, a founder of the Seventh Day Adventists, predicted in June of 1850 that only a few months remained until the end of the world. During an 1856 conference of the Adventists, she predicted that some of those at the conference would witness Christ’s return. The church now has the dilemma of reconciling her predictions to the reality that none of those attendees are still living.
The Watchtower society predicted that Christ would return in 1914. When He did not, they changed their prediction to say that He had in fact returned, but invisibly. They went on to predict Armageddon would occur in 1925, 1941, 1975, and 1994.
The one that made me chuckle, though, was a meteorologist named Albert Porta who predicted that the conjunction of six planets would generate a magnetic current that would cause the sun to explode and engulf the earth on December 17, 1919. I would venture to say that this was not the last time a prophet of meteorology was wrong.
Do you notice a pattern in the other cases I’ve presented? Each time a prophecy was incorrect, the prophet simply recalculated and came up with a new date. When that one failed, more calculations were done and explanations were made to show that the original ones weren’t exactly wrong, but just incomplete or misunderstood. The fact is that doubt about these prophets is well-deserved.
So, imagine my skepticism when I read the opening paragraphs of this article at the BBC News Website:
The Earth’s temperature may stay roughly the same for a decade, as natural climate cycles enter a cooling phase, scientists have predicted.
A new computer model developed by German researchers, reported in the journal Nature, suggests the cooling will counter greenhouse warming.
However, temperatures will again be rising quickly by about 2020, they say.
Let me get this straight. Back in the 70s, you told me we’d be living in an ice age by now. Al Gore has been telling me we have “ten years left” for a while. And, now, when it becomes clear that the temperature graph isn’t going your way, you want me to believe that it’s just a lull? I’m sorry, but I think the time has passed.
I’ll add global warming to the long list of failed prophecies.