Yesterday was the day that the world was supposed to end according to Harold Camping’s latest prophecies, Yet, amazingly we’re all still here. No rapture. No Apocalypse. No zombie descended on a cloud and none rise from their graves. 

There is an old saying that there is nothing new under the sun, and predictions of the end of the world are certainly nothing new. There’s also a biblical passage that says that no one will know the day or the hour of Christ’s return, a very true statement since it’s never going to happen anyway.

Today marks the 167th aniversary of the Great Disappointment. The day that William Miller and the early Adventist movement were sure that Jesus would return to the earth. That day came and went, most gave up and returned to their former churches or left Christianity all together, but the stubborn ones who were sure that the date must have been right concluded they misinterpreted the event and through a period of several splits they formed such groups as the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Church of God Seventh Day, Branch Dividians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and several other religious denominations.. 

All of those groups, along with many other apocalyptic Christian sects, believe that the end is very, very near. Of course that’s what just about every Christian has believed for the last 2000 years. It’s an awfully sick joke if you ask me. Two thousand years is not soon in any sense of the word, even 167 years is a long time if you consider that these people mostly believe the earth is only 6000 – 10,000 years old.