End of the World

An Internet Bible apologist proclaims that "2,500 prophecies appear in the pages of the Bible, about 2,000 of which already have been fulfilled to the letter--no errors."
 
However, despite that enthusiasm, there is no universally accepted example in which a holy text can be conclusively shown to have predicted a specific future event in clear, unambiguous language before the event occurred and without plausible alternative explanations such as coincidence, later editing, retrofitting, or symbolic interpretations.
 
 
9-11 PROPHESY
Consider how the date of 9-11 could have been, but wasn't, used to predict the disaster:
 
911 is the emergency number; 9+1+1=11; 9-11(September 11) is the 254th day of the year, 2+5+4=11; After 9-11 there are one hundred and 11 days left in the year; The twin towers look like an 11; The first flight to hit the towers was 11; There were 92 people on board: 9+2=11; New York is the 11th state added to the union; New York City has 11 letters; The winning lottery number on that day was 911. All elaborated after the event.
 
 
APOLLO 13 MISSION
The Apollo 13 mission, launched on April 11, 1970 (the sum of 4, 11 and 70 equals 85 - which when added together comes to 13), from Pad 39 (three times 13) at 13:13 local time, and exploded on April 13. All elaborated after the explosion.
 
 
THE END OF THE WORLD              
A common evangelistic tactic in Christianity is to prophesize the end of the world. The message is: Believe what my religion says, or be doomed in a coming apocalypse. 

Beginning in the year 44 CE, there have been documented over 200 religious-based predictions of the end of the world. Many more are undocumented. The Bible is used as the main source of most of these.
            
 
THE ORIGIN OF THE ARMAGEDDON STORY
Pompeii and its sister Roman city, Herculaneum, were turned to ashes by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius (79 CE). It and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE created the language and metaphors for Biblical eschatology (final prophetic events) that have inspired prophetic doom for the past 2000 years.
 
When Vesuvius erupted, an estimated 4,000 feet of the 8,000-foot mountain exploded into the sky and across land and sea. The sun darkened as far away as Rome. 

​People close to ground zero were blinded. When they attempted a breath, they inhaled volcanic cinders that were more than a thousand degrees. The pyroclastic flow was so fast and lethal that it would disintegrate a person before nerves could transmit to the brain that anything was even happening.
 
Food and water were decimated. Disease became rampant. The volcano's impact on life and survival created a memory burned into minds for centuries.

The "world," to the Italians, was Rome and its provinces. For Pompeii and Herculaneum, the Vesuvian cataclysm was interpreted as an act of gods to end the world.
 
The Vesuvian end of the world and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D. provided fodder for religious stories.
 
Dio Cassius, some 130 years after the eruption, wrote in his History of Rome:
 
". . . giants (black volcanic dust clouds) appeared, now, on the mountain, now in the surrounding country, and again in the cities, wandering over the Earth day and night, and also flitting through the air . . . day was turned into night and light into darkness . . . a sound of trumpets was heard . . . others believed the whole universe was being resolved into chaos and fire . . . it destroyed all fish and birds . . . believed the whole world was being turned upside down, that the sun was disappearing into the Earth, and the Earth was being lifted into the sky . . . a terrible pestilence upon them."
 
Out of the mix of the Vesuvius disaster, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the desire for an end to Roman persecution, the apocalyptic narrative in the New Testament was created:
 
"There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down . . . there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened . . . and lightning will come out of the east and shine even into the west . . . the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give light, and the stars shall fall from heaven . . . and great earthquakes, and famines and pestilences and fearful sights and great signs will there be from heaven – the sea and the waves roaring and men's hearts filling with fear . . . the angel took the censer and filled it with fire and cast it to Earth and there were voices, thunderings, lightnings and earthquakes . . . followed hail mingled with fire and blood . . . and a third of the trees were burnt up. And the second angel sounded and a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea, and a third part of the sea became blood and a third of the creatures in the sea died . . . and he opened the bottomless pit and there arose smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened . . . and I saw the three horses of the apocalypse and these three were the third part of the men killed by the smoke and brimstone." (Revelation)
 
Now, some 1700 years later, Bible readers ignore the political, religious, volcanic, and historical context of the writings.
 
 
MODERN DAY ARMEGEDDON
Millions have been butchered in holy wars justified by holy book end-time prophesies. The present-day warring in the Middle East can be tracked to religions.
 
The president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, spent millions renovating Tehran in preparation for the imminent return of the Mahdi, a ninth-century figure who will emerge from a well, partner with Jesus, and convert the world to Islam.
 
For many Bible believers, Jewish and Christian, the end times started clicking on May 15, 1948, when the United Nations recognized Israel. So, there is no time to spare in making prophecy fit world events.
 
Some Orthodox Jewish groups and Christian supporters are preparing for the possible rebuilding of a Third Temple in Jerusalem, the coming of the Messiah, and the unfolding of a world-wide "Greater Israel."
 
The close union of America with Israel in military actions in the Middle East is justified by end-time beliefs in both countries. Those beliefs have resulted in millions suffering and dying.
 
 
THE ONLY SALVATION POSSIBLE
End-of-the-world religious predictions fuel fear and false hope. They keep some people industriously calculating dates and watching the newspapers hoping they read more and more like the events presaging Revelation's Armageddon, or Islam's coming of al-Mahdi and "The Hour." 

Life is not about finding which modern or ancient "prophet" or holy book has the right prediction. That has only resulted in man-made Armageddon death and misery.
 
Holiness, purity, grace, or ethics have nothing to do with making presumptuous world predictions based on man-made religions.
 
Our purpose lies in the here and now, using the gifts the non-religious Creator has instilled in each of us: free will, reason, conscience, and a sense of justice.

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