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Cults Still Trying to Predict the End
By Ken Horn | April 9, 2008
A Russian doomsday cult is in the news.
Two members of the group that went underground five months ago to await the end recently emerged with a tale of two deaths among the group. Thirty-five cult members entered a cave in early November, threatening to blow up gas canisters that blocked the entrance if authorities attempted to remove them.
But like so many before them, they saw the predicted date pass with no Apocalypse.
The Times reported:
Their leader, Pyotr Kuznetsov, 43, did not join his followers underground. He attempted suicide last week by hitting himself over the head with a log, apparently after realizing that his prediction of the Apocalypse was wrong.
One should probably not follow someone prone to hitting himself in the head with a log.
Though this group is much more sinister, the cult brings to mind the prediction of William Miller now known as “The Great Disappointment.” When Miller’s first predicted date of the Lord’s return passed uneventfully, a second was set, based on this Christian farmer’s complex and questionable calculations. Tens of thousands earnestly awaited the Lord’s return on October 22, 1844. Followers abandoned their farms and jobs, and sold their homes and possessions.
When the date came and went, the disappointment hit. There was weeping and despair, especially from those who had given up everything. Many walked away from God and Miller died in disgrace a few years later.
Others have set dates since then, all with the same result.
It is impossible to date the time of the Lord’s return.
Way back in A.D. 425, Saint Augustine stated: “In vain, then, do we attempt to compute definitely the years that may remain to this world … it is not for us to know this. Yet some have said that four hundred, some five hundred, others a thousand years, may be completed from the ascension of the Lord up to His final coming. But on this subject, He puts aside the figures of the calculators, and orders silence, who says, ‘It is not for you to know the times, which the Father hath put in His own power’ ” [Acts 1:7] (City of God).
A thousand years was the outside limit Augustine listed — but even the year 1000 came and went, followed by 10 more centuries until today we are well into the third millennium A.D. Our current calendar, meant to be dated from the birth of Christ (A.D. stands for Anno Domini, meaning “in the year of our Lord”), was actually a few years off by most estimates anyway.
Over the years, many have set dates that have gone by the wayside. One obviously discredited book gave 88 Reasons for the Rapture to take place on Rosh Hashanah in 1988. This was revised to Rosh Hashanah 1989, then every Rosh Hashanah thereafter for a series of years. I received a catalogue in 1982. Its sale page included a book that predicted the Lord’s return in 1981. I’ve always wondered if anyone actually bought it.
In his book Are You Ready, West Coast broadcaster Harold Camping predicted the Lord would return in September 1994. Again, a dud.
Other apocalyptic events are also “prophesied” from time to time. One newsletter predicted a 1999 nuclear attack on the U.S. And a recent book reads, “I now believe … that it is possible to date the Rapture.”
Let Jesus speak on the subject: “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only” (Matthew 24:36, NKJV).
Read The Times‘ full story on the Russian Doomsday Cult here.
Topics: theology, death, news |
