This is the blog version of my PDF ‘The Rapture Survival Guide (TRSG)’.
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Date Setters
These are any individuals or religious groups that have attempted to predict the day of the rapture, a practise referred to as “date setting”. They have been thoroughly embarrassed and discredited, as the predicted date of fulfilment has invariably come and gone without event. Some of these individuals and groups have offered “correct” target dates, while others have offered excuses and have tried to “correct” their target dates, while simply releasing a reinterpretation of the meaning of the scripture to fit their current predicament, and then explain that although the prediction appeared to have not come true, in reality it had been completely accurate and fulfilled, albeit in a different way than many had expected.
Mark 13:32
“But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.”
Christians should never try and set a date and time for the Rapture. Despite many attempts throughout the years to acertain the date, the truth is we cannot calculate the day Christ will return because God specifically chose not to reveal this to us. Only God the father knows the day, the time and the hour, and He knows when time will run out. When Jesus was asked about the apocalyptic time by the apostles, He replied:
Acts 1:7
“It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.”
Year(s) Predicted – Individual
● 1260 – Joachim of Flores
● 1365 – Militz of Kromeriz
● 1660 – Joseph Mede
● 1688 – John Napier
● 1689 – Pierre Jurieu of France
● 1715, 1734, 1866 – William Whitson
● 1836 – J.A. Bengal
● 1843, 1844 – William Miller predicted that Christ would return between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844, then revised his prediction, claiming to have miscalculated the Bible, to October 22, 1844. The realization that the predictions were incorrect resulted in the Great Disappointment.
● 1874 – C.T. Russell
● 1914, 1918, 1925 – Various dates predicted for the Second Coming of Jesus by the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
● 1978-1981 – Chuck Smith predicted that Jesus would probably return by 1981.
● 1988 – Edgar C. Whisenant published a book called “88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988”.
● 1994 – Radio evangelist Harold Camping predicted September 6, 1994.
● 2011 – Harold Camping’s revised prediction put May 21, 2011 as the date of the rapture. After this date passed without apparent incident, Camping made a radio broadcast stating that a non-visible “spiritual judgement” had indeed taken place, and that the physical rapture would occur on October 21, 2011. On that date, according to Camping, the “whole world will be destroyed.”
● 2012 – Many Christians thought that the end of the Mayan calendar would coincide with the rapture and the end of the world.
● 2017 – Christian numerologist David Meade motivated this date with astrological theories.
They were all wrong and so will anyone else who tries to predict the timing of the rapture.
So in summary, we are to not try and predict the timing of the rapture as God has not revealed this to us and His timing is perfect. Although we can see the times and the seasons falling into place like the progression towards a ‘mark of the beast’ and the push for a one world government.
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Jump To
◄ Previous – Part 3 – Rapture Timing | Next – Part 5 – Rapture Prerequisites ►
Part 1 – Introduction
Part 7 – Left Behind?
Part 10 – Post Rapture Steps
Part 13 – The Tribulation (First Half)
Part 30 – Mid Tribulation
Part 38 – Armageddon
For a full list of the parts, see the bottom of Part 1.
