August 10: Coping with Cognitive Dissonance in a Baha'i Sect

In 1969, Dr. Leland Jensen, leader of a small Baha'i splinter group in Montana, entered prison for sexually molesting a 15-year-old girl. That night, in the early hours of August 10, he had a revelation that he was the "promised Joshua". In the years after his eventual release from prison, between 1979 and 1995, he issued 20 separate predictions of global disaster. These included several nuclear strikes on New York City, the smashing of Halley's Comet into Earth, and many others. On the eve of Jensen's largest prediction - April 29, 1980 - his hundreds of followers across multiple northwestern states entered fallout shelters to ride out what they believed would be 20 years of Tribulation before Christ's return to Earth in 2000.

After each failed prediction, Jensen and his right-hand man Neal Chase issued press releases explaining how they had been correct. For instance, when New York was not destroyed in a nuclear attack on March 23, 1994 (after previously not being destroyed in a nuclear attack on November 29, 1992), Chase pointed to a gas pipeline explosion in New Jersey the following day, which one witness compared to a nuclear blast.

Source: Balch, Domitrovich, Mahnke, Morrison - "Fifteen Years of Failed Prophecy: Coping with Cognitive Dissonance in a Baha'i Sect"

August 9: d'Ailly Says 1789; and 45 Years Ahead of "Behind"

Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly died on this date in 1420. He was an extensive writer on cosmology and astrology, church powers, and the 14th-century Papal Schism in which competing popes claimed authority from Rome and Avignon. His cartographical views influenced Columbus, and a crater of the moon is named for him.

In a view accepted by a number of others (the Dijon Academy Rector Pierre Turrl, a certain Canon Rouessart, and Peter Pearson of London) d'Ailly claimed the world would end during 1789. As the French Revolution began, this may have appeared to have been a true prediction for awhile. (See February 6)

***

Ernest Angley was born on August 9, 1921. At age 91, Angley still operates an international evangelical ministry from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, boasting its own weekly television program, online Bible college, and Boeing 747.

Back in 1950, Angley penned the novel "Raptured", a fictional treatment of the modern American Evangelical synthesis of end-time beliefs, which foreran the "Left Behind" book series by some 45 years.

August 8: Supervolcanoes, Revisited

We took a look at supervolcanoes on May 18, focusing on the possibility of an eventual eruption in the Pacific Northwest, which could cause global famine by blocking the sun with floating ash. According to a Smithsonian article this week, the danger of such an eruption may be greater right now in Italy.

An eruption 39,000 years ago at this site - Campi Felgrei, outside Naples - was once thought to have been a possible reason for the extinction of the Neanderthals (this hypothesis has been discarded, but that it was considered possible in the first place shows how severe the eruption was).

On another note, many contemporary religion scholars, like Elaine Pagels in her most recent book Revelations, think the CE 79 Vesuvius eruption (connected with this same site near Naples) also played into the writing of the Book of Revelation. Particularly, Rev. 8:8 - "The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood...."

Smithsonian Magazine: Italian Supervolcano Could End Eurozone Crisis the Easy Way

August 7: Marvin Hamlisch

Musical theater and film-score composer Marvin Hamlisch has died in Los Angeles. During 1999, the Reverend Jerry Falwell said he couldn't be sure whether or not Hamlisch is the Antichrist.

Falwell spoke in response to a question from then-comedian and now-Senator Al Franken. According to Falwell, the Antichrist could be any living male Jew, which prompted Franken's question.


Here's the excerpt from Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, where Franken talks about asking Falwell about Hamlisch.

August 6: Branch-Davidian Survivors

Surviving members of the 1993 Branch Davidian disaster in Waco, Texas, claimed that the Biblical Tribulation would begin on this date in 1999.

August 5: How And Why To Eat Rat Meat

At least realize that I do feel bad sharing this.

Recipes for the Post-Apocalpse: How and Why to Eat Rat Meat (io9)

August 3: Wulfstan

Wulfstan was variously Bishop of London, Worcester, and/or York during the span 996-1023. He wrote in depth as a homilist about the imminent coming of the Antichrist and return of Jesus. He produced his central work, Sermon of the Wolf to the English, in 1014.

Wulfstan died on May 28, 1023.

August 2: The Gulf War, and Contemporary Muslim Apocalypticism

The Gulf War began on August 2, 1990 with Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. Though Saddam Hussein would famously call the American-led counterassault “the mother of all battles”, in America itself, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan was even more pointed. To him the launch of Desert Storm was “the War of Armageddon… the final war.”

A fundamentalist strain in the larger Islamic world was also given strength because of the war. Several Muslim writers, many based in Cairo, grew popular during the 90s for their prophetic and apocalyptic work. The most famous of them, Sa’id Ayyub, built a career on a series of books beginning with “The Antichrist” in 1987.

Ayyub has helped spread belief in al-Dajjal: the Jewish Messiah now reconceived as a world-deceiver and Islam’s Antichrist. The Dajjal is expected to rule Earth from Jerusalem before being defeated by the second coming of Jesus. Of course, Jesus will be returning as a Muslim in this case, and according to popular belief will personally behead the Dajjal (although Ayyub himself is hesitant to encourage Christians by endorsing a too-literal return of Jesus). The final defeat of the Dajjal will clear the way for the appearance of the true messiah, the Madhi. The Madhi is the Twelfth Shi’a Imam, disappearing in 941 CE and expected to return ever since. The returned Madhi will defeat the Satanic hoards of Gog and Magog, and establish the Meccan shrine of the Ka’aba in Jerusalem where he will rule in glory.

Obsessively anti-Semitic, Ayyub tends to elevate the concept of Dajjal above one man, and into a principle underlying all of western civilization. Among Ayyub’s more bizarre claims is that Christianity itself is a Jewish conspiracy to delude and control Europeans and Americans. All Popes, and even the notably anti-Semitic Martin Luther, were secretly Jews, according to Ayyub.

(References: David Cook, “Contemporary Muslim Apocalyptic Literature”, 2008, and “Muslim Fears of the Year 2000” in Middle East Quarterly, June 1998)

August 1: The Red Heifer

Numbers 19:2 describes the most profound ritual of purification within Hebraic law. It entails slaughtering and burning a purely-red heifer, age three; mixing the ashes with water, scarlet, cedar, and hyssop; and sprinkling it on the person in need of purification. Since such heifers are a genetic anomaly, no more than nine were sacrificed in the history of the Temple in Jerusalem.

A small number of Jews today - like the Temple Mount Faithful (see Sunday, 7/29), and members of the Temple Institute - believe a red-heifer purification is required for any Jew to access the full Temple Mount without incurring God's wrath. So in order to rebuild Solomon's Temple there, and reinstate daily sacrifices within it, there has first been a search on for a pure red heifer. (Of course, in addition to sacrificing this cow, the Al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock will first need to be demolished.)

In 1990, an evangelical cattleman in Mississippi named Clyde Lott, hoping to do his part to help trigger Armageddon, began directed breeding experiments in an attempt to produce a red heifer. This was done in cooperation with the Temple Institute and its director Chaim Richman - but the two eventually had a falling-out, apparently over religious differences.

Unrelatedly, a cow named Missy was born in Israel in 1996 and appeared to fit the bill... but then unfortunately grew non-red hairs before reaching age three. In 2002, another cow briefly looked like it would qualify. But to date, the search for a red heifer continues.

July 31: George W. Bush Is Asked Whether The Iraq War Is The Start Of The Apocalypse

As I keep reading up on things apocalyptic, I'll use "empty" dates in this second half of the year for items I "missed" earlier. So today's entry is about March 20, 2006, when George W. Bush gave a press conference on the fourth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. (per CNN transcript:)

QUESTION: Thank you for coming to Cleveland, Mr. President, and to the City Club.

My question is that author and former Nixon administration official Kevin Phillips in his latest book, "American Theocracy," discusses what has been called radical Christianity and its growing involvement into government and politics. He makes the point that members of your administration have reached out to prophetic Christians who see the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism as signs of the Apocalypse.

QUESTION: Do you believe this, that the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism are signs of the Apocalypse?

And if not, why not?

BUSH: Hmmm.

(LAUGHTER)

The answer is I haven't really thought of it that way.

(LAUGHTER)

Here's how I think of it.

First, I've heard of that, by the way.

I guess I'm more of a practical fellow. I vowed, after September the 11th, that I would do everything I could to protect the American people. And my attitude, of course, was affected by the attacks....

[Bush goes on to emphasize the seriousness of terrorism in its effect on small-business owners, and the need to bring terrorism to heel where it begins - in Afghanistan, for instance, or elsewhere preemptively - rather than fighting terrorists at home. He intimates that for this reason action could be needed against Iran.]

...I'm, kind of, getting off subject here, but not because I don't want to answer your question. But I guess that's what happens in Washington, we get a little long-winded.

(LAUGHTER)

But now that I'm on Iran, the threat from Iran, of course...

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

The threat from Iran is, of course, their stated objective to destroy our strong ally Israel.

That's a threat. A serious threat. It's a threat to world peace. It's a threat in essence to a strong alliance.

I made it clear, and I'll make it clear again, that we will use military might to protect our ally Israel....

(APPLAUSE)

[Bush concludes his answer to the question by repeating some of his prior points about terrorism and the importance of protecting the American people.]

July 29: The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement

On July 29, 2001, the ‘Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement’ was repelled by violent Muslim demonstrations from Jerusalem's Temple Mount, where they had come to place a new cornerstone for the construction of a third Temple of Solomon.

The group was led by one Gershon Salomon, a former Israeli Army officer and follower of the somewhat improbably-named Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook.

--More soon on Temple restoration efforts, Rabbi Kook, and a mysterious project to breed a pure red heifer....

July 28: Tisha B'Av

Sundown today is the beginning of Tisha B'Av, the Jewish day of mourning for the destruction of the first and second Temples in Jerusalem (583 BCE by the Babylonians, and 70 CE by the Romans, respectively). The day also commemorates the failed Simon Bar Kochba uprising against the Romans in 132 CE - in which the Roman historian Cassius Dio reports that 580,000 Jews were massacred.

(The apocalyptic significance of the Temple is that, in the view of apocalypse-looking Christians, its restoration would trigger the end times.)

July 27: The Oneida Community

I'm going to use this slow apocalypse day to pick up a date I missed about a month ago. On June 25, 1950, the last member of the Oneida Perfectionist community died in upstate New York. The community was established in 1848 by John Humphrey Noyes on utopian principles of communal marriage and economics, comprising about 300 members at its peak.

Noyes believed the second coming of Christ had occurred in 70 CE, and that humanity had an opportunity to realize a form of millennial perfection which it had been neglecting. This meant relinquishing all forms of ownership - including sexually exclusive relationships - and living in harmonious groups. This sort of perfection was expected to hasten Christ's return to Earth yet again.

In 1879, a breakdown in the communal marriage arrangement led to a group of Oneidans reorganizing as one of the first joint stock companies in the United States, supporting themselves by producing silverware and animal traps. The silverware business still exists today.

Two of the community's most famous members were Charles Guiteau (assassin of President James Garfield) and Leon Czolgosz (assassin of President William McKinley).

July 26: Two Disturbed Elizabethans (Only One Of Whom Ate A Nose)

William Hackett was an English workingman who converted to Puritanism after a dissolute life (once, in a pub brawl, he bit off and swallowed a schoolmaster's nose). Around Easter 1591, Hackett came down to London and announced that he was the messiah. Since he publicly demanded Queen Elizabeth abdicate her throne to him, he was put on trial for treason on July 26, 1591. The trial was quickly concluded and Hackett hanged, then drawn and quartered.

Hackett's end happened to fall near the birth of Eleanor Davies - daughter to Earl George, Lord Audley. As the English Civil War brewed in the 17th century, Davies repeatedly predicted the end of the world in her copious prophetic writings on Daniel, Revelation, and King Charles I. After vandalizing a church altar, she was committed to the asylum at Bedlam. Although she was a wife and mother, she claimed at one point that she would give immaculate birth to Christ in 19 and one half years.

July 25: EOW Fears During the English Civil War

The English Civil War was a high-water mark for apocalyptic thinking (see Jan. 30, Mar. 14, and tomorrow). One figure from the period was Robert Fleming, a Scottish Presbyterian minister whose opposition to the restoration of Charles II led to his exile in Holland in 1673, where he ministered to an expat community of Scots.

In 1685 Fleming wrote The Confirming Worke of Religion, claiming Protestantism's travails would lead to the apocalyptic "pouring of the fifth vial" - since the French wars of religion, the reign or Mary Tudor, and Phillip II's war in the Netherlands had clearly constituted the pouring of the second and third vials. Fleming wrote two other books, 1687-8, On the Coming of Christ and The Jews' Jubilee which also celebrated the imminent end of the world.

Robert Fleming died on July 25, 1694, shortly after being allowed to return to England.

July 24: If Your Neighbor is the Antichrist...

The lesson here is that if you are Jesus and, by sheer coincidence, your next-door neighbor is the Antichrist, your first move should be to shoot at him with a BB gun. If that does not work, vandalize the Antichrist's car.

Florida 'Jesus' threatens 'Antichrist' neighbor with tire iron (The Raw Story)

July 23: Doomsday Sedgwick

William Sedgwick (1610-69) was an English Puritan clergyman who picked up the nickname "Doomsday Sedgwick" after insisting from the pulpit that the world would end within a fortnight. He'd first heard the prophecy from a woman in nearby Cambridgeshire and become convinced she was correct. The world did not end on the appointed night, although there was a pretty big storm.

July 22: The Feast-Day of Mary Magdalene

Today is the feast day of Mary Magdalene. In 1556, the renowned Swiss physician Felix Plater reported in his writings that a popular end-of-the-world prophecy was circulating for this date.

July 20: Seventh-Day Adventism

Ellen White and her husband James were followers of the prophet William Miller. Miller's series of predictions of the end of the world in 1843-4 were embraced by tens of thousands of Americans, and their failure came to be known as the "Great Disappointment".

White, however, remained convinced that Miller's predictions had actually been correct, albeit misinterpreted. The Temple of God - she explained in her ministry and in more than 100 books' worth of writings - had been spiritually opened on October 22, 1844, and the end of the world was yet approaching. Her influential views led to the creation of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in 1861.

The anniversary of White's death in 1915 was earlier this week, on July 16.

July 19: EOW fears of the 5th Century

A solar eclipse occurred in Europe on this date in 418 CE. Combined with a number of troubling events in the early fifth century, the event fueled general end-times speculation.

• Eight years prior, Rome had finally fallen to the Visigoths - and the city's next conqueror, the Vandal Genseric, would be identified as the Beast 666 by Victorinus of Pettau.
• In Spain and the near east, mystics claimed to be reincarnations of Elijah and John the Baptist (the "two witnesses" of Revelation [see July 14]).
• An earthquake in Palestine around the time was also interpreted as the shaking of the Earth after the breaking of the sixth seal in Revelation.
• No less an authority than Saint Augustine reported on apocalyptic predictions that were circulating for the year 500.
• Atilla the Hun's raids through Europe occurred in this period as well, drawing comparison to the armies of "Gog and Magog".

The once-widespread notion has been debunked that Europe was gripped by apocalyptic terror as the year 1000 approached. However, the year 500 does seem to have inspired a fair amount of hysteria.