Predictions And Claims For The Second Coming

This article lists the predictions and claims for the Second Coming of Jesus.

The Second Coming is a Christian concept regarding the return of Jesus to Earth after his first coming and his ascension to heaven about two thousand years ago. The belief is based on messianic prophecies found in the canonical gospels and is part of most Christian eschatologies. Views about the nature of Jesus’ Second Coming vary among Christian denominations and among individual Christians.

A number of specific dates have been predicted for the Second Coming. This list shows the dates and details of predictions from notable groups or individuals of when Jesus was, or is, expected to return. This list also contains dates specifically predicting Jesus’ Millennium, although there are several theories on when the Millennium is believed to occur in relation to the Second Coming.

Past predictions

Predicted date	Claimant	Description
500	Hippolytus of Rome, Sextus Julius Africanus, Irenaeus	These three Christian theologians predicted Jesus would return in the year 500. One prediction was based on the dimensions of Noah’s ark.
6 April 793	Beatus of Liébana	The Spanish monk prophesied the second coming of Christ and the end of the world would take place that day to a crowd of people.
1 January 1000	Pope Sylvester II	The Millennium Apocalypse at the end of the 1st millennium. Various Christian clerics predicted the end of the world on this date. Following the failure of the 1 January 1000 prediction, some theorists proposed that the end would occur 1000 years after Jesus’ death (1033), instead of his birth.
1260	Joachim of Fiore	The Italian mystic determined that the Millennium would begin between 1200 and 1260.
1370	Jean de Roquetaillade	The Antichrist was predicted to come in 1366 and the Millennium would begin in 1368 or 1370.
1504	Sandro Botticelli	Believed he was living during the time of the Tribulation, and that the Millennium would begin in three and a half years from 1500.
20 February 1524	Johannes Stöffler	A planetary alignment in Pisces was seen by this astrologer as a sign of the Millennium.
1524–1526	Thomas Müntzer	1525 would mark the beginning of the Millennium, according to this Anabaptist.
19 October 1533	Michael Stifel	This mathematician calculated that the Judgement Day would begin at 8:00 AM on this day.
1673	William Aspinwall	This Fifth Monarchist claimed the Millennium would begin by this year.
1694	Johann Jacob Zimmermann	Believed that Jesus would return and the world would end this year.
1694	John Mason and Johann Heinrich Alsted	Both claimed the Millennium would begin by this year.
1700	Henry Archer	Archer counted 1335 years from the end of the reign of Julian the Apostate (the dates of whose reign he was uncertain), taking the 1335 days in Daniel 12:12 as years.
1757	Emanuel Swedenborg	In 1758 Swedenborg reported that the Last Judgment had taken place in the spiritual world in 1757, the year before his report (so he presented this not as a prediction but as an eye-witness account). This was one of many events recounted in his works resulting from visions of Jesus Christ returned. He tells of almost daily interaction with Christ over the course of almost 30 years. His return is not in the flesh but in His Holy Spirit. “Neither shall they say see here or see there, for behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20).
1793–1795	Richard Brothers	This retired sailor stated the Millennium would begin between 1793 and 1795. He was eventually committed to an insane asylum.
25 December 1814	Joanna Southcott	This 64-year-old self-described prophet claimed she was pregnant with the Christ child, and that he would be born on Christmas Day, 1814. She died on the day of her prediction, and an autopsy proved that she was not pregnant.
15 September 1829 Sep 15	George Rapp	Founder and leader of the Harmony Society, predicted that on 15 September 1829, the three and one half years of the Sun Woman would end and Christ would begin his reign on Earth. Dissension grew when Rapp’s predictions went unfulfilled. In March 1832, a third of the group left and some began following a man named Bernhard Müller who claimed to be the Lion of Judah. Nevertheless, most of the group stayed and Rapp continued to lead them until he died on 7 August 1847. His last words to his followers were, “If I did not so fully believe, that the Lord has designated me to place our society before His presence in the land of Canaan, I would consider this my last.”
1836	John Wesley	Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, foresaw the Millennium beginning this year. He wrote that Revelation 12:14 referred to the years 1058–1836, “when Christ should come”.
22 October 1844	William Miller, Millerites	The fact that this failed to happen the way people were expecting was later referred to as the Great Disappointment. Some Millerites continued to set dates; others founded the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the Advent Christian Church, which continue to expect a soon Second Coming but no longer set dates for it. Followers of the Baháʼí Faith claim that Miller’s prediction of the year 1844 was in fact calculated correctly, and refers to the advent of the Báb.
7 August 1847	George Rapp	Rapp, the founder of the Harmony Society, preached that Jesus would return in his lifetime, even as he lay dying on 7 August 1847.
1861	Joseph Morris	Morris told his followers not to plant crops because he firmly believed that “Christ will come tomorrow.”
1863	John Wroe	The founder of the Christian Israelite Church calculated that the Millennium would begin this year.
1874	Charles Taze Russell	The first president of what is now the Watchtower Society of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, calculated 1874 to be the year of Christ’s Second Coming, and until his death taught that Christ was invisibly present, and ruling from the heavens from that date prophesied. Russell proclaimed Christ’s invisible return in 1874, the resurrection of the saints in 1875, and predicted the end of the “harvest” and rapture of the saints to heaven for 1878, and the final end of “the day of wrath” in 1914. 1874 was considered the end of 6,000 years of human history and the beginning of judgment by Christ.
1890	Wovoka	The founder of the Ghost Dance movement predicted in 1889 that the Millennium would occur in 1890.
1891	Joseph Smith, Church of the Latter Day Saints	In the History of the Church Volume 2, page 182, an eyewitnesses account of Joseph Smith’s prophecy in 1835 is recorded as: “President Smith then stated that the meeting had been called, because God had commanded it; and it was made known to him by vision and by the Holy Spirit. He then gave a relation of some of the circumstances attending us while journeying to Zion—our trials, sufferings; and said God had not designed all this for nothing, but He had it in remembrance yet; and it was the will of God that those who went to zion, with a determination to lay down their lives, if necessary, should be ordained to the ministry, and go forth to prune the vineyard for the last time, or the coming of the Lord, which was nigh—even fifty-six years should wind up the scene.” Though this was not a prediction from Joseph Smith, he stated, “I believe the coming of the Son of Man will not be any sooner than that time” (D&C 130:14–17). According to FairMormon, an organization that responds to criticism of Mormons, Smith believed no one knew the hour of the Second Coming. (see D&C 49:7, given May 1831)
1901	Catholic Apostolic Church	This church, founded in 1831, claimed that Jesus would return by the time the last of its 12 founding members died. The last member died in 1901.
1914	Jehovah’s Witnesses	The “Second Coming” is important in the doctrine of Jehovah’s Witnesses, although they do not use this term. Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that Christ’s visible (to humans) return will be at Armageddon. They believe that 1914 marked the beginning of Christ’s invisible presence (Matt. 24:3 gr. “parousia”) as the King of God’s Kingdom (Psalm 110; Revelation 12:10), and the beginning of the last days of the human ruled system of society. They believe the signs Christ revealed about his return in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 began to occur starting in 1914. In a parallel biblical account in Revelation 6, they believe the ride of the symbolic four horsemen began in the same year, and that the first rider on the white horse depicts Christ. He goes forth to complete his conquest of the earth, while the rule by human leaders continues for a short while until they meet their end at Armageddon by the power of Christ (Revelation 19:11–21).
1915	John Chilembwe	This Baptist educator and leader of a rebellion in Nyasaland predicted the Millennium would begin this year.
1917–1930	Sun Myung Moon	The followers of Reverend Sun Myung Moon consider Reverend Moon to be the Lord of the Second Advent called by Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday at the age of 15 on a Korean mountainside (see Divine Principle).
1930–1939	Rudolf Steiner	Steiner described the physical incarnation of Christ as a unique event but predicted that Christ would reappear in the etheric, or lowest spiritual, plane beginning in the 1930s. This would manifest in various ways: as a new spiritual approach to community life and between individuals; in more and more individuals discovering fully conscious access to the etheric plane (clairvoyance), and in Christ’s appearance to groups of seekers gathered together.
1935, 1943, 1972 and 1975	Herbert W. Armstrong	Armstrong, Pastor-General and self-proclaimed “Apostle” of the Radio Church of God, and then the Worldwide Church of God, felt the return of Jesus Christ might be in 1975. Of particular note was the book 1975 in Prophecy! written by Armstrong and published by the Radio Church of God in 1956. Though never explicitly stated date in the booklet, the title led people to believe the date was the second coming. It was actively preached in sermons in the 1960s by all of his ministers that his church would “flee” to Petra, Jordan in 1972 and Christ would return 3+1⁄2 years later. After the failure to flee in 1972 (and the defection of his ministry) Armstrong was careful not to set specific dates but claimed that Christ would return before he died. He died on 16 January 1986. Armstrong had previously predicted in a 1934 edition of The Plain Truth magazine that Christ would return in 1936. After that prediction failed, he stated in a 1940 edition of The Plain Truth that “Christ will come after 3 1/2 years of tribulation in October 43. After those failed predictions and the loss of members, he moved his operation from Oregon to Pasadena, California. After Armstrong’s death in 1986, his Worldwide Church of God and the empire he created slowly disintegrated, abandoning his beliefs and philosophies and eventually the name. His three college campuses and the majority of his Pasadena headquarter properties were closed and sold. His successors changed the name to Grace Communion International in 2009.
October 1964	Movement within Seventh-day Adventism	Since the 1950s there was a movement within the Seventh-day Adventist Church that quoted the Bible where it says: “As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be when the Son of Man comes” Matthew 24:37 and it was suggested that if the end-time was as long as the days of Noah (who preached for 120 years Genesis 6:3) Christ would come around October 1964, 120 years after the Great Disappointment of 1844.
21 June 1982	Benjamin Creme	The followers of the New Age Theosophical guru Benjamin Creme, like Alice A. Bailey, believe the Second Coming will occur when Maitreya (the being Theosophists identify as being Christ) makes his presence on Earth publicly known—Crème believes Maitreya has been on Earth since 1977, living in secret. Creme put advertisements in many of the world’s major newspapers in early 1982 stating that the Second Coming would occur on Monday, 21 June 1982 (summer solstice in the northern hemisphere), at which time Christ (Maitreya) would announce his Second Coming on worldwide television (this is called the Emergence or Day of Declaration; this is when, Creme’s followers believe, the Maitreya will telepathically overshadow all of humanity when he appears on worldwide television) When this event did not occur, Crème claimed that the “world is not yet ready to receive Maitreya”; his followers continue to believe it will happen “soon”.
1988	Edgar C. Whisenant	Published a book, 88 Reasons Why The Rapture Will Be in 1988. When this didn’t happen he wrote a follow-up book entitled “89 Reasons Why the Rapture will be in 1989.”
6 September 1994	Harold Camping	Camping, general manager of Family Radio and Bible teacher, published a book, in 1994 a prediction that Christ’s return was likely pointing to 1994.
1999–2009	Jerry Falwell	Fundamentalist preacher who predicted in 1999 that the Second Coming would probably be within 10 years.
2000	Frank Cherry	Founder of the Black Hebrew Israelite religion, who predicted the end would occur in A.D. 2000.
	Ed Dobson	This pastor predicted the end would occur in his book The End: Why Jesus Could Return by A.D. 2000.
	Timothy Dwight IV	This President of Yale University foresaw Christ’s Millennium starting by 2000.
	Edgar Cayce	This psychic predicted the Second Coming would occur this year.
6 April 2000	James Harmston	The leader of the True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days predicted the Second Coming of Christ would occur on this day.
21 May 2011 21 October 2011	Harold Camping	See: 2011 end times prediction. Camping claimed that the rapture would be on 21 May 2011 followed by the end of the world on 21 October of the same year. Camping wrote “Adam when?” and claimed the biblical calendar meshes with the secular and is accurate from 11,013 BC–AD 2011.
29 September 2011 27 May 201218 May 2013	Ronald Weinland	Weinland predicted Jesus would return on 29 September 2011. When his prediction failed to come true, he moved the date of Jesus’ return to 27 May 2012. When that prediction failed, he then moved the date to 18 May 2013, claiming that “a day with God is as a year,” giving himself another year for his prophecy to take place. Weinland was convicted of tax evasion in 2012 and sentenced to 3+1⁄2 years in federal prison.
2012	Jack Van Impe	The televangelist has, over the years, predicted many specific years and dates for the Second Coming of Jesus, but has continued to move his prediction later. Many of these dates have already passed, and he recently pointed to 2012 as a possible date for the second coming. After 2012, Van Impe no longer claimed to know the exact date of the Second Coming but quoted verses which imply that mankind should know when the Second Coming is near.
28 September 2015	Mark Biltz	Starting in 2008, Mark Biltz began teaching that Christ’s return would correspond with the 28 September 2015 lunar eclipse. His idea, known as the Blood Moon Prophecy, attracted attention from pastor John Hagee (who stopped short of claiming Christ would return on that precise date) and mainstream media such as USA Today.
9 June 2019	Ronald Weinland	Weinland believed that Jesus Christ would return on Pentecost in 2019.
2020	Jeane Dixon	The alleged psychic claimed that Armageddon would take place in 2020 and Jesus would return to defeat the unholy Trinity of the Antichrist, Satan, and the False prophet between 2020 and 2037.
22 July 2020	Chad and Lori Daybell	Chad and Lori Daybell, the couple charged with the murder of Lori’s children Tylee Ryan and J. J. Vallow, believed that the second coming would be on 22 July 2020.
2021	F. Kenton “Doc” Beshore	Beshore bases his prediction on the prior suggestion that Jesus could return in 1988, i.e., within one biblical generation (40 years) of the founding of Israel in 1948. Beshore argues that the prediction was correct, but that the definition of a biblical generation was incorrect and was actually 70–80 years, placing the Second Coming of Jesus between 2018 and 2028 and the Rapture by 2021 at the latest.

Future predictions

Predicted date	Claimant	Notes
2024	Unsealed World News	Some Christians believe that the Revelation Sign (as popularised by the site Unsealed.org) marks the year of the Rapture and that after a seven-year tribulation period the Second Coming of Jesus would occur. This seven-year span would also be marked by the 2017 Great American Eclipse and the subsequent 2024 American Eclipse.
After 2025	Alice A. Bailey	In January 1946, the New Age Theosophical guru prophesied that Christ would return “sometime after AD 2025” (Theosophists identify “Christ” as being identical to a being they call Maitreya) to inaugurate the Age of Aquarius; thus, this event will be, according to Bailey, the New Age equivalent of the Christian concept of the Second Coming. Alice A. Bailey stated that St. Germain is the manager of the executive council of the Christ (Like C.W. Leadbeater, Alice A. Bailey refers to St. Germain as the Master Rakoczi or the Master R. in her books); thus, according to Alice A. Bailey, St. Germain’s primary task is to prepare the way for the Second Coming.
2029	Jakob Lorber	Austrian musician who wrote for 24 years a vast number of works later called the New Revelation, claimed to be received through an inner voice which belonged to Jesus Christ, offered many detailed prophecies concerning the unfolding of the Second Coming, pointing to a time before the passing of 2,000 years after the death of Christ on the cross (note that most scholars assume a date of birth of Jesus between 6 BC and 4 BC).
By 2057	Frank J. Tipler	In 1994, the physicist Frank J. Tipler published a book called The Physics of Immortality, in which he claimed to scientifically prove the existence of God as a consequence of what he calls the Omega Point Theory. In 2007, he published a sequel to The Physics of Immortality called The Physics of Christianity, which applies the principles of the Omega Point Theory to the Christian religion. In this 2007 book, he asserts in the first chapter that the Second Coming of Christ will occur within 50 years, i.e., by 2057, and will be coincident with what futurist Ray Kurzweil calls the Singularity (which Kurzweil himself predicts will occur by 2045).