Planets colliding, comets snuffing out all life, dragons vomiting floods … Hollywood has nothing on
these historical apocalyptic prophecies.
The "Chronica Majora" begins with the biblical story of the "Creation" and, in three volumes,
documents a contemporary version of world history until the year 1259. The work of a
celebrated historian of his time, a Benedictine monk named Matthew Paris, the "Chronica" records
his version of the final days. Paris believed he saw a pattern in world events leading to
an apocalypse he thought would occur sometime in December of 1250, and he painted a pretty
dark picture of what he thought would happen. Abnormal weather events like floods, famines,
and earthquakes took center stage in his prediction, but Paris also recorded strange
things appearing in the night sky. He wrote of falling stars, raging dragons, and a strange
incident where three suns appeared in the sky all at the same time. He further described a
wind that turned the air yellow and infected the earth's population with diseases. In the end,
Paris failed to predict the apocalypse, but his account was so relentless and terrifying it still
resonates with many people today.
The idea of an apocalypse-causing collision with another planet is rooted in a 1976 book called
"The Twelfth Planet." Supposedly based on ancient texts, it claimed the planet Nibiru showed up
every 3,600 years and was supposed to reappear in 2003. When the so-called "Nibiru cataclysm" didn't
happen, it was rescheduled to 2012, about the same time the Mayan calendar predicted the world's end.
When no rogue mystery planet destroyed the earth in a fiery collision in 2012, the date was reset
to April 2017. The April date came and went, but believers rescheduled for September, then October,
and finally, November. None of those dates saw Earth's collision with "Planet X," so, naturally,
the theory had to be adjusted. According to the new theory, Nibiru hadn't hit the Earth,
but the "near miss" had caused unusual weather and natural phenomena that would eventually
lead to Earth's destruction.
After the infamous "Waco siege" of their compound in 1993, David Koresh became famous as the leader
of the religious sect known as "The Branch Davidians." While Koresh made the headlines,
his religious organization had been around in another form long before the events in Waco,
and its teachings were always apocalyptic. In her book, "David Koresh and the Branch
Davidians," Sarah Harvey wrote that the movement was established by a man
named Victor Houteff. A member of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church,
Houteff was asked to leave when his controversial ideas about the
end of the world clashed with established church doctrine. Houteff started his own faith movement,
known as the "Shepherd's Rod," which preached a Bible doctrine that said followers would be
the only ones to survive the coming apocalypse.
"It says those of us who are alive and remain here
and aren't dead yet when He comes, they'll be taken up into Heaven, just like that."
In 1934, Houteff began calling his followers to a compound in Waco,
Texas, where they would begin preparations for the end times. According to Houteff's study of
Biblical prophecy, he calculated the "1260 days of Revelation" would start on November 9, 1955,
after the Earth was visited by seven plagues. Ultimately, Houteff didn't live to see if his
interpretation of prophecy was correct. He died in February of 1955, and the group
splintered into factions, including "The Branch Davidians" that David Koresh would later lead.
Apocalypse manuscripts
were the best-sellers of the medieval world. Surviving examples suggest that they were often
ornately illustrated and written in languages other than Latin. This indicates they were
intended to be accessible to the people and not just the clergy. The contents of many aren't just
fire-and-brimstone sermons; they depict graphic images of the end times arriving on the backs, and
even in the stomachs, of some very odd creatures. Terrible monsters vomiting up floods appears to be
a motif that appears in many depictions of the end-times. One 11th-century manuscript
illustrates a dragon vomiting a dark, murky flood and drowning sinners denied entrance
into Heaven. Monsters also vomited up floods of other disgusting things like frogs. This would
have horrified the people because frogs were considered "unclean spirits," and illustrations
of frogs coming out of the mouths of their preachers signified that when the end was near,
it would be hard to know who to trust.
While it might be tempting to laugh at our ancestors for believing some of the wilder
prophecies about the impending apocalypse, recent history has its fair share of these too. A book
written in 1974 entitled "The Jupiter Effect" claimed cataclysmic natural disasters would
destroy the world on March 10, 1982, when the planets aligned on the same side of the sun.
What made the claims put forth in the book seem plausible was that an astrophysicist and
an astronomer wrote it. Although most members of the scientific community did not take the
book seriously, others did. To them, it seemed perfectly logical the alignment might interfere
with gravitational forces acting on the planets and create some issues with natural processes.
Some people even added portents of widespread disease outbreaks to other natural disasters.
"If there is a zombie-like disease outbreak in our future, it could be
the spark that ignites the flame of our demise.
"Thankfully, nothing happened, and even the book's
authors backed off on their position before the prophesied day. Still, in an odd turn of events,
in 2022, researchers confirmed the interior of Jupiter contained what was described as
"remains of cannibalized baby planets," so maybe this vision of a possible "zombie" apocalypse
isn't so unbelievable after all.
In 1524, the world was thrown into chaos when a prophecy claimed a second great flood was on the
way that would destroy the earth. This prophecy was taken so seriously that many people fled their
homes, selling their property for a fraction of what they were worth, impoverishing themselves in
the process. Why did people find this particular prophecy so terrifying? Mainly because it came
from a well-respected, learned person. Johannes Stoffler was a professor and the
chair of mathematics at the University of Tubingen in Germany. A maker of astronomical instruments,
he had published works that recorded the position of celestial bodies over decades. Noticing the six
known planets would align inside the constellation of Pisces on February 24, 1524, he took it as a
sign a new flood was on the horizon. Fear of that coming catastrophe ruined countless lives,
however, and when the world didn't end as he'd predicted, Stoffler apologized. Apparently,
the mathematician had made a slight error in his calculations. Instead of the year 1524,
he had meant 1624.
In the past, apocalyptic predictions were the domain of religious leaders and philosophers,
but in the 21st century, all it takes is a single Instagram post. That happened in 2012 when a post
on the social media site kicked off a whole theory that the end of the world had already
happened, and not a soul had even noticed. The idea was that physicists working with
the CERN collider had discovered the Higgs boson – the so-called "god particle" – and
accidentally created a black hole and opened a gateway into another dimension.
"The Higgs-Boson, of course, is the… was…was a kind of a Holy Grail to find because we knew it
was there and finally we… we… managed to find it." Scientists were quick to debunk the story that the
CERN collider was a black hole-making machine, but the idea of the world disappearing with
the flip of a switch was so unnerving that the "conspiracy theory" kept circulating.
Then, in 2016, the story took on new life when the tabloid press reported strange-looking
clouds hanging over the border between France and Switzerland. This added fuel to speculation that,
despite what the scientists said, CERN actually had opened a gateway to another dimension.
Although scientists continue to reassure the public a CERN-driven black-hole incident never
happened, some believe their story is just a cover-up of an apocalypse that happened more
than ten years ago.
In 1500, Sandro Botticelli painted something entirely unique. "The Mystical Nativity" was
Botticelli's most unusual piece. Not only was it the only piece he ever signed,
it was also painted on canvas instead of wood and includes some unusual imagery for a nativity.
Experts believe this painting was probably never meant for public display because it
depicts a mystical vision of the world's end. Botticelli lived in a time of great social,
economic, and political upheaval, so it isn't surprising his work would reflect a belief that
he might also be living during the time referenced in the Book of Revelation. It's believed that
Botticelli's work was heavily influenced by the preaching of Girolamo Savonarola,
a charismatic friar who took to the streets of Florence to share his apocalyptic visions with
the people. Looking at Botticelli's "Mystical Nativity" can be puzzling for viewers today.
Still, the people of Botticelli's time would have understood the glimpses he provided of what to
expect during the apocalypse, including images of demons waiting to impale sinners and even a tiny,
almost invisible dragon.
In 1910, French astronomer Camille Flammarion started a panic when he calculated our planet
would pass directly through the tail of Halley's Comet. The New York Times caused great alarm when
it quoted Flammarion saying that passing through the comet's tail would create events that could
"...possibly snuff out all life on the planet." Although other authorities swore that wasn't going
to happen, the general population was thrown into a panic. People crowded into churches
and panic-bought supplies. Others decided to capitalize on the hysteria by selling "protective
gear" and "anti-comet pills" as well as even "an elixir for escaping the wrath of the heavens." Of
course, when the comet didn't bring about the apocalypse, Flammarion returned to pursuing
his interest in spiritualism and psychic research, eventually becoming a successful
science fiction writer.
There are few apocalyptic predictions more terrifying than the end of days described by the
Vikings. Much of what's known today about their beliefs comes from the "Prose Edda," an Icelandic
manuscript written in the early 13th century. The "Edda" predicts the world's end as a series
of events beginning with a terrible winter that lasts for three years. The resulting famine leads
the mortals to turn on each other and eventually involves the gods, ending in a great battle known
as "Ragnarok" or "the twilight of the gods." "The Norse myths are very different. The gods
are different from the Greek ones in the sense that they always know that they are going to die."
After the horrible winter, the sun, moon, and stars are swallowed by wolves, and darkness reigns
on Earth. A massive wolf named "Fenrir" breaks its chains and devours Odin, and a great sea serpent,
"Jormungandr," is killed by Thor, who dies as the serpent rains poison down on everything
left. Ultimately, the Norse gods lose their fight against the Fire and Frost Giants,
and the "fire giant" Surtr engulfs the earth in flames. In time, the flames are quenched as
the Earth is swallowed by water and reborn. Some gods return, and a pair of mortals who
survived the apocalypse repopulate the Earth. Recently, The Jorvik Viking Center predicted
Ragnarok would begin on February 22, 2014. That may have been a publicity stunt, however,
because that date coincided suspiciously with the end of their 30th annual Viking festival.
On November 18, 1978, Jim Jones
ordered the deaths of over 900 people at the Jonestown Agricultural Commune in Guyana. Images
of the Jonestown mass murder-suicide are among the most shocking in recent history, making it easy to
overlook everything that led up to that moment. Jim Jones was born in 1931 and would have been
a young teenager when the world changed forever with the dropping of the bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Like many living in the post-World War II generation,
it's not hard to imagine that Jones grew up with a deep-seated fear of a nuclear apocalypse.
As an adult and leader of "The Peoples Temple," a semi-religious cult originally based in Indiana,
Jones claimed to have received a vision of the midwestern United States being targeted
by nuclear bombs. To escape this disaster, Jones relocated his followers, first to
California and later to Guyana in South America. Unfortunately, Jones' paranoia grew over time,
probably fueled by his growing dependence on drugs and his fear that the world was
edging closer to nuclear annihilation.
"Here's to say that when I go, I'll be
the most hated man on the planet. You know, my name will be on the lips… on everybody's lips."