The End Was Nigh: Failed Doomsday Prophecies Throughout Time

Published June 6, 2015
Updated February 27, 2024

We have better records of the Late Middle Ages than we do from the early period, so naturally there are dozens of lurid prophecies littering the archives dating from the period 1000 to 1500. According to various theologians, cardinal archbishops, and the occasional saint, the world met its doom in: 1260, 1284, 1290, 1335, 1351, 1370, and 1378. It’s worth noting that none of these prophets saw the Black Death (1346) or the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) coming, which you’d think would be useful information.

Failed Doomsday Prophecies Black Death

Never mind that, the Moon is kind of red tonight! It’s the END!!! Source: The Huffington Post

Christianity certainly doesn’t have a lock on end times, though that’s ironically what Christian doom preachers claim, and various schools of Islam have blazed their own trail of embarrassments. According to (some versions of) Islam, al-Qiyāmah – the Day of Judgment – is to be preceded by 12 signs. The reasoning here gets more complicated than Lord of the Rings fan fiction, but it boils down to this: the world will be ruled by corrupt men, wars will be fought, things will generally suck, and various other totally unusual occurrences will come to pass right near the end.

Specific dates are hard to come by, probably due to the Muslim abhorrence of mere men claiming to be prophets, but some of the specific signs are the sort of thing you’d expect to notice. Mecca, for example, is slated for total destruction along with the Kaaba. People will also reportedly fornicate in the streets “like donkeys,” and the Sun will rise in the west. So – if you happen to see any of this going on, maybe let someone know about it.

Miscellaneous Frauds

Con-men become con-men largely because getting a real job is hard work. To that end, many of the obvious fakes in the doomsday racket like to appropriate existing religious stories, rather than having to come up with their own stuff from scratch. Despite this, some characters practically leap off the page as going above and beyond the call of ordinary crazy. Nostradamus, for example.

Nostradamus

Did you see that reference coming? Because he didn’t. Source: Taki Mag

Michel de Nostredame was born in 1503 and grew up to be an apothecary, which, in 16th-century Europe, meant he was basically a drug pusher. Nostradamus supplemented his income by uttering purposely vague prophecies that could be taken as accurate predictions, or they could not be, depending on how hard you need them to be true. An example, written in a meter called iambic tetracycline – and backwards in Medieval French, at that:

The year 1999, seventh month,
From the sky will come a great King of Terror.
To bring back to life the great King of the Mongols,
Before and after Mars to reign by good luck.

Failed Doomsday Prophecies Potter

Those of us who survived the July 8, 1999 release of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban must never forget. Source: Wikia

author
Richard Stockton
author
Richard Stockton is a freelance science and technology writer from Sacramento, California.
editor
John Kuroski
editor
John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime.