These Predictions About the End of the World Say More About Us Than the Future

Every few years, it seems like someone else predicts the end of the world. The idea that humanity is living on borrowed time is nothing new. In fact, apocalyptic thinking has been around for millennia, woven through sacred texts, folk traditions, and even pop culture. Humans are obsessed with the end of the world, but why?

Despite their dire tone, these predictions actually have something oddly comforting in common: they never actually happen. History is chock-full of confident declarations about our impending doom. And yet, we're still here, alive, scrolling, and reading about why and how the world is supposed to end yet again.

That's why 247 Tempo has collected some of the most notable doomsday prophecies from across eras and cultures that didn't come true. Sources include the National Catholic Register, Sky History, the Oxford Research Encyclopedia, Learn Religions, National Geographic, and historical documents dating back over a thousand years. Editorial discretion was used to highlight a diverse mix of predictions; let's check them out now.

This post was updated on July 17th, 2025, to reflect additional information.

Here are world-ending predictions that never happened.

• Supposed prediction: End of Earth

In the Book of Revelation of the Bible, the end of the Earth is followed by the final conflict between the forces of heaven and hell. At the end of the book, Jesus Christ is seen atop the throne after the Last Judgment.

• Supposed prediction: Rise of Adolf Hitler to power in Germany

Nostradamus, the famous French seer from the 16th century, wrote in a quatrain that the "great dictator shall rise to power, bringing destruction and suffering to the world." Many of Nostradamus's believers suggest this foretold the rise of Adolf Hitler more than 300 years after Nostradamus lived.

• Supposed prediction:The fate of humankind

In the sixth chapter of the Book of Revelation, Jesus Christ opens the first of seven seals contained on a scroll of which emerges the famed four horsemen of the apocalypse who represent conquest, war, famine, and death.

• Supposed prediction:The end of one world and a message of hope after the demise of oppressors

"When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth." The passage was written during a time of persecution of Christians by the Roman Empire.

• Supposed prediction:Those who have turned away from God will suffer

The Silos Apocalypse was a manuscript written in the 11th century by Spanish monks during a time when Islamic armies were invading the Iberian peninsula. An excerpt from the work refers to a "fallen star" that unlocks the "shaft of the Abyss." Emerging from the empty space are locusts who inflict suffering on those who have turned away from God. The image of locusts tormenting their hosts resonated with people in the Middle Ages because locusts devastated crops and endangered livelihoods.

• Supposed prediction:World War II

Among the predictions of Nostradamus was the outbreak of World War II: "The fire from the east shall consume the west, as nations clash in a devastating conflict."

• Supposed prediction: End of the world

Beatus, a Spanish monk who lived in the eighth century, predicted the world would end in 800 AD, two years after his death. He pegged his forecast to the end of the 6,000 years since the Creation. Beatus lived during the period when the Muslim Moors were driving up the Iberian peninsula, leading to the belief that the apocalypse was near.

• Supposed prediction:Biblical apocalypse

For Joachim of Fiore, a 12th-century monk from Calabria, Italy, signs of the biblical apocalypse were manifested in the conquest of Jerusalem in 1187 by Muslim leader Saladin. As interpreted through the Book of Revelation, Joachim saw Saladin as one of the heads of the seven-headed dragon and a symbol of evil, who precedes the seventh head — the Antichrist.

• Supposed prediction: The rise of Islam in apocalyptic terms

Pope Innocent III served as pontiff from 1198 to 1216, and during that time launched Crusades to try and drive Muslims out of the Holy Land. The pope predicted that the world would end 666 years after the birth of Islam (618 AD), meaning the Second Coming would arrive in 1284.

• Supposed prediction:COVID-19 outbreak

Nostradamus' believers think this quatrain is evidence of his prediction that foretold the COVID-19 outbreak more than 400 years before it happened: "From the depths of the east, a great plague shall emerge. Spreading death and fear throughout the world."

• Supposed prediction: End of the world

St. Vincent Ferrer was called the "Angel of the Apocalypse." In his letter to Pope Benedict XIII in 1412, you can see why. St. Vincent Ferrer mentions three afflictions that will be visited on the world: the Antichrist, the world's destruction by fire, and universal judgment. All of these will bring the world to an end. Ferrer implores Christians to seek penance and forgive others.

• Supposed prediction:Demonic possession

Cotton Mather was a fiery-speaking 17th-century Puritan minister in New England who saw witchcraft as evidence of demonic possession and proof that the Antichrist had appeared. In his interpretation of these events, such as the Salem witchcraft hysteria in Massachusetts in 1692, Mather believed Calvinists needed to combat the scourge and punish the witches.

• Supposed prediction: A flood would submerge the world

In 1499, German astronomer and mathematician Johannes Stöffler predicted the world would be submerged by a great flood on Feb. 20, 1524. He based his calculations on planetary alignments set to take place in 1524. When that failed to happen, he reset the forecast for the end of times to 1528.

• Supposed prediction:Invasion of Ukraine by Russia

Some of Nostradramus's followers believe that the quatrain "So high will the bushel of wheat rise, that man will be eating his fellow man" is an allusion to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Ukraine and Russia are two of the world's biggest growers of wheat and the conflict has caused a major disruption in the export of the crop.

• Supposed prediction: End of times

Jonathan Edwards was an 18th-century minister and influential figure in the Great Awakening movement in the American colonies. The crusade's leaders saw religious revivals as the last opportunity for people to redeem themselves before the apocalypse and final judgment. Edwards believed the end of times would occur after God conveyed the faithful to heaven.

• Supposed prediction:Humans planning to colonize Mars

A cryptic quatrain of Nostradamus is "the "light on Mars falling." His followers say this might be an allusion to humans planning to colonize the red planet. Entrepreneur Elon Musk, owner of SpaceX, suggested in 2022 that humans will land on Mars by 2029.

• Supposed prediction:World's end

In the 1840s, William Miller began to preach about the world's end. He said Jesus Christ would return and that Earth would be consumed in fire sometime between March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844. Miller transmitted his message via pamphlets and newspapers. Many people believed him. They sold their possessions and went to the mountains to prepare for the end. When the end did not come, Miller moved the date to Oct. 22, 1844. That prediction didn't come true either.

• Supposed prediction: Wrath of nature

Many of Nostradamus's dire predictions concern nature's excesses such as earthquakes, heavy storms, and floods, and what they will do to humankind: "The earth shall rumble, and the skies shall weep, as nature unleashes its fury upon mankind."

• Supposed prediction: Armageddon

Charles Taze Russell, founder of Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society (forerunner of the Jehovah's Witnesses), predicted Jesus Christ would invisibly return in 1874. Hedging his bets, Russell forecasted another messianic coming in 1914. Russell interpreted the outbreak of World War I as a sign of the Armageddon. He was right that the war was an armageddon.

• Supposed prediction: Decimation of the planet

When Halley's Comet was due to pass by Earth in 1910, at least one scientist forecasted doom. That was French astronomer Camille Flammarion, who predicted that the toxic gas cyanogen contained in the comet's tail would decimate the planet. A run on gas-mask sales occurred and shysters sold anti-comet pills and umbrellas. The 1.7 billion residents of Earth survived.

• Supposed prediction: Uprising against the rich

The following quatrain from Nostradamus seems to indicate a revolt against the world's monied classes: "The trumpet shakes with great discord. An agreement broken: lifting the face to heaven: the bloody mouth will swim with blood; the face anointed with milk and honey lies on the ground."

• Supposed prediction: Jesus Christ's return to Earth

William Branham was a Pentecostal minister who scaled Sunset Mountain in Arizona in 1963. While there, he claimed he encountered angels who told him about the meaning of the seven seals from the Book of Revelation. Branham then preached seven sermons in seven nights and explained the meaning of the seals in visions that he received. Branham predicted that Jesus Christ would return to Earth in 1977. He died in a car accident in 1965.

• Supposed prediction:Rise in temperature and sea levels

A Nostradamus quatrain says "Like the sun the head shall seal the shining sea: The Black Sea's living fish shall all but boil. When Rhodes and Genoa half-starved shall be, the local folk to cut them up shall toil." His believers maintain that Nostradamus predicted a major rise in temperatures and sea levels, seemingly supporting predictions from some climate-change believers.

• Supposed prediction: End of the world

Writer Hal Lindsey is the author of the best-selling apocalyptic book "The Late Great Planet Earth," and created a genre of prophecy books. He predicted that the world would come to an end sometime before Dec. 31, 1988. And 1993. And 1994. Lindsey cited events such as nuclear war, the communist threat, and the creation of the state of Israel as reasons the end times were nigh.

• Supposed prediction:The rise of Communism in Russia

"The rise of the red flag shall darken the world, as revolutions and upheavals engulf the world" was a quatrain from Nostradamus that seems to refer to the red flag of communism. The communists, marching under the red flag, took over Russia more than 300 years after Nostradamus's prediction.

• Supposed prediction: End of the world

David Koresh was the self-styled messianic leader of Branch Davidians, a group that split from the Seventh Day Adventists. He convinced followers that he was Jesus Christ. Koresh persuaded followers to hunker down at the Mount Carmel Center in Waco, Texas, to prepare for the end of the world. The end came for many of his followers in 1993 when the U.S. government, fearing the cult was hoarding guns and endangering children, stormed the complex, and 76 people were killed.

• Supposed prediction: End of the world

Evangelist Harold Camping has been wrong about when the world would end, but that did not deter him from further predictions. He had forecast that sometime in mid-September 1994, Jesus Christ would return and the world would end. He also predicted the end of days on March 31, 1995, after the 1994 date passed without incident. Camping prognosticated the world's demise yet again on May 21, 2011. He's been basing his forecasts on numbers and dates found in the Bible.

• Supposed prediction: Last leader of the Soviet Union was the Antichrist

White evangelicals believed Mikhail Gorbachev, who became the last leader of the Soviet Union in 1985, was the Antichrist. That was because of the birthmark on his forehead that they believed was the mark of the beast or the devil.

• Supposed prediction: Decline and fall of the Roman Empire and other great nations

One of Nostradamus's 16th-century quatrains says "The great empire shall fall from within, as corruption and strife consume the land." Drawing on historical precedents such as the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, Nostradamus foretold that internal decay and corruption would fell great nations.

• Supposed prediction: End of the world

The Mayan calendar was scheduled to run its course on Dec. 21, 2012, after completing a 5,126-year-long cycle. Its end was interpreted to mean the end of days and people grew concerned. Historians and cultural experts refuted this by saying that the Maya did not interpret the cycle's end as armageddon.

• Supposed prediction: End of the world

White evangelicals in 2022 saw Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a sign of the end of the world. They were convinced of this because they believed Russia played a special role in the fate of humankind.