In the Bible, in the book of Revelation, as already mentioned, the last days of the earth are described in very dramatic detail. Only one thing is not clear: exactly when to expect the appearance of the Antichrist and the final Second Coming of Christ. Many have tried to predict the exact date of the events described. And that's what they did …
One of the most famous doomsday predictions was made by astrologers on February 20, 1524. Based on the position of the planets - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn - on the celestial sphere it was predicted that the world would perish in a great flood.
Panic swept across Europe. In England alone, 20,000 people fled their homes in despair. A fortress was erected around the church of St. Bartholomew, filled with supplies, food and water for two months. All over Germany and France, people began to feverishly build large arks that could withstand the universal flood.
But on the appointed day, the "abyss of heaven" did not open at all; except that a light rain fell here and there. The mood of the crowd changed dramatically - those who, in anticipation of the flood, sold all their property, felt themselves deceived. The enraged townspeople and villagers began to smash everyone and everything. Several hundred people died in several days of riots.
However, human memory is short. And when in 1648 Sabbatai Tzvi, the son of a rich Jew from Turkish Smyrna, declared himself the messiah and predicted that the world would perish in 1666, many people again believed him. And in the spring of 1666, the Jews of France, Holland, Germany, Hungary and other countries again began to prepare for the Apocalypse.
However, further events began to develop not at all as the newly-minted messiah had promised. Anticipating the riots, the Grand Vizier of Constantinople ordered the arrest of Zvi and imprisonment. At the same time, he promised that if he did not abandon his predictions, he would be immediately publicly executed. And what? Facing danger, Sabbatai Zvi immediately threw off his Jewish clothes, put on a Turkish turban and converted to the Islamic faith. Tens of thousands of his devoted supporters felt betrayed in the most shameless way.
But the matter did not end there. The predictions of all kinds of prophets continued. So, in the USA, a certain William Miller announced that the Day of Judgment would come ten years later, on April 3, 1843. The news of this prophecy spread throughout the country. And many believed in this prophecy, because the year of the prediction was marked by a rare natural phenomenon - an impressive meteor shower.
By 1843, tens of thousands of Miller's loyal followers awaited Armageddon. However, April began and passed, then a year ended, and the promised miracle did not follow. By this time, the prophet himself preferred to leave in an unknown direction and hide. And his followers found themselves new prophets, splitting into several streams. One of the largest groups since 1863 is called the Seventh-day Adventist Church and has about 14 million baptized members in its ranks. However, given the mistake of their former leader, current Adventist leaders are prudently not announcing the exact date of Christ's second coming.
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And the leader of another group of Miller's breakaway followers - Charles Taze Russell - first pushed back the date of the Last Judgment to 1874, and then revised this prophecy too, moving the date to 1914. He himself did not live up to this date safely, but his sect, called Jehovah's Witnesses, still exists, numbering more than 6 million people in its ranks.
In turn, sects continue to split up, as soon as there is a more or less charismatic leader in their ranks, who wants to pull the blanket over himself. Thus, one small group that broke away from Seventh-day Adventists in the 1930s was named the Branch of David. A small congregation of this sect in the town of Waco, Texas, led by a preacher named David Koresh, began to prepare for the End of the World in 1993, locking themselves in a small farm with their wives and children. And when the FBI agents, realizing that it was unlikely to end well, tried to storm the farm and free at least the children, the sectarians set fire to the farm. The fire burned down 76 members of the sect, including 27 children, and Koresh himself.
Another misfortune associated with the expectation of the Day of Judgment happened in March 1997. Many then simply watched the Hale-Bopp comet approaching Earth. But 39 people committed suicide, believing that the comet flew just for their souls. People in the flourishing age of 18 to 24, by no means poor, committed suicide in a villa located in the respectable area of Rancho Santa Fe, San Diego, California. Moreover, as the investigation showed, the main motive for the suicide was the fact that its members were members of the Heavenly Gates sect and, according to their faith, hoped in this way to get places on the spaceship that followed in the comet's tail. It is no coincidence that at everyone's feet there was a suitcase with travel items.
You can, of course, simply dismiss such cases: they say, if people do not have a mind, then you cannot insert your mind into them. But, by the way, the fact of mass suicide of members of the "Heavenly Gate" sect made even people of scientists once again remember this. No one canceled the cometary threat. The most serious researchers believe that sooner or later, some crazy messenger of space - an asteroid or a comet - can direct its way directly to Earth. And this version of the End of the World should be borne in mind in advance, prepare for it …