End Times
MILLERITES
Some prophets have taken action concerning Apocalypse in the past without violence or suicide. Massachusetts farmer, Wllliam Miller – born in 1782 – became convinced that the Book of Daniel predicted the Second Coming of Christ between March 1843-44.
In the 1830s he began preaching, gaining a following of thousands. As the date arrived, thousands gathered to be taken up to heaven in the rapture. When it didn’t come, he recalculated, and again thousands gathered.
Failing once more, many of them went hungry after getting rid of their belongings or ignoring their farms. Remnants of the Millerites did, however, form the later Seventh Day Adventist movement.
(c) Anthony North, Feb 2007
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THIRD SECRET OF FATIMA
A famous prediction of the End Times is the Third Secret of Fatima, known only to the pope. In 1917 three children witnessed a globe of light that spoke with a woman’s voice near Fatima Portugal.
Venerated as the lady of the rosary, she supposedly gave the children secrets of the world. One of the children, Lucia, became famous and claimed to have further visions, finally writing the Third Secret in 1943.
Popes who have read it are appalled by our future. However, it is interesting that both the vision and final ‘secret’ happened at crucial times in both world wars. Prediction? Or an expression of fears for the future?
(c) Anthony North, Feb 2007
