Source library
Read source passages and their interpretations here, or browse the full bibliography for additional works.
1160 bibliography entries
Lawrence Farley; OCA website
Orthodox response to 2012 and Camping expectations, favoring present duties. Not reliable as primary Maya or Millerite evidence: it cites nonexistent Daniel 8:44 and repeats purported white-robes stories without verification.
Bibliography entry · Read at the cited source
Orthodox Church in America HTML publication
Comparisons of failed end dates; concluding use of Didache and 2 Peter
Andreas Grünschloß
Analyzes UFO salvation and Fiat Lux expectations of 1998–1999 catastrophe, evacuation and a renewed planet. Records delay explanations before and after missed dates.
Bibliography entry · Read at the cited source
German public text
EZW-Texte 153, introduction and pages 22–23, 41–44
John Wesley
Separates the questions about Jerusalem and the end of the world while allowing some warnings to refer to further events.
Text available here
Wesley: Jerusalem’s generation and the day of judgment · commentary →
Wesley explains his debt to Bengel · commentary →
Wesley explains his debt to Bengel · commentary →
The 1810, 1832 and 1836 chronology in Wesley’s notes · commentary →
Wesley’s notes place the end of the period in 1836 · commentary →
Bible Hub English transcription of Wesley's Notes on the Bible; exact print edition requires collation.
Matthew 24:3-15
Westminster Assembly; Orthodox Presbyterian Church edition
Declares a universal judgment of angels and humans by Christ and explicitly leaves its date unknown to encourage watchfulness.
Bibliography entry · Read at the cited source
Institutional English web presentation at cited URL
Chapter 33
Westminster Assembly; Orthodox Presbyterian Church edition
Places final general judgment immediately after bodily resurrection and describes different outcomes for righteous and wicked; future sequence is explicit.
Bibliography entry · Read at the cited source
Institutional English web presentation at cited URL
Questions 87–90
Westminster Assembly; Orthodox Presbyterian Church edition
Distinguishes believers' state after death from public acquittal and complete blessedness at resurrection.
Bibliography entry · Read at the cited source
Institutional English web presentation at cited URL
Questions 37–38
John Piper; Desiring God
Interprets the future appearing as applying the salvation purchased by Christ’s completed sacrifice, with eager expectation marking genuine faith.
Bibliography entry · Read at the cited source
Author ministry English web text
Hebrews 9:27–28; Christ Joins Us in Death and Judgment through Faith That Is Eager for Him to Come
Sven Gronemeyer and Barbara MacLeod
Argues for a future investiture associated with Bolon Yokte’, while rejecting the idea that the calendar simply ends. Preserves a substantial scholarly alternative to Houston and Stuart.
Bibliography entry · Read at the cited source
Public English text identified above
Wayeb Notes 34, pages 4–7, 17, 22–23, 34, 39–41 and 56–58
Family Radio (Harold Camping, president)
Unsigned web page of Family Radio, posted after 21 May 2011 and archived on 20 June 2011. It says that on 21 May Christ came spiritually to put all the unsaved into judgment, and that the world will be annihilated on 21 October 2011, when the elect will be raptured.
Text available here
Family Radio (Family Stations, Inc.), “What Happened on May 21?”, web page www.familyradio.com/graphical/literature/whathappened.html, read in the Internet Archive’s copy of 20 June 2011 (https://web.archive.org/web/20110620004316/http://www.familyradio.com:80/graphical/literature/whathappened.html): the first four sentences of the first paragraph; the last two sentences of the fourth paragraph from the end, from “Indeed, on May 21” to “October 21, 2011.”; and the first two sentences of the last paragraph but one. Retrieved 5 October 2026; copied from the archived page text; space before “?” closed; whitespace normalized; omissions marked “…”. The page is unsigned; Harold Camping was president of Family Radio.
web page
Stephen Houston
Retracts an earlier divine-descent interpretation using parallel inscriptions whose narratives move from future dates back to contemporary dedications.
Bibliography entry · Read at the cited source
Public English text identified above
Main essay and note, before reader comments
Lorne L. Dawson
Distinguishes group survival from increased proselytizing and describes multiple responses to failed expectations. Supports richer outcome categories than a single success/failure label.
Bibliography entry · Read at the cited source
Edition identified above; exact limits in inspection note
Nova Religio 3(1), pages 60–64 and comparative tables
Scholarship
Gyongyi Hegedus
Gyöngyi Hegedüs compares accounts of paradise and resurrection in medieval Jewish and Islamic thought, including Saadya’s distinction between messianic redemption and resurrection.
Bibliography entry · Read at the cited source
Publisher-hosted Dionysius PDF
Dionysius XXV, pp. 153–176; inspected pp. 153–157
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society; unsigned institutional article
Calculates six thousand years from Adam to autumn 1975 and discusses possible millennial coincidence while acknowledging fallibility and uncertainty about Adam–Eve chronology. Claims of chronological accuracy and 607 BCE are the publication’s premises.
Text available here
The Watchtower: 6,000 years end in the autumn of 1975 · commentary →
Watchtower Online Library transcription of identified issue
The Watchtower, pp. 494–501, especially paragraphs 26–33
William Miller
William Miller’s 1845 Apology and Defence recounts his calculations, dated expectations and disappointment after the expected return of Christ.
Text available here
William Miller’s expectations for 1843–1844 →
Miller’s 1843–1844 prediction · commentary →
Miller’s later October 1844 expectation · commentary →
Modern 35-page PDF transcription carrying1845 Himes imprint and embedded original-page markers
Definiteness of Prophetic Time: PDF pp22–24; embedded original pp24–26
William W. Phelps
W. W. Phelps’s letter from Kirtland to his wife Sally in Liberty, Missouri, April 1836. It describes the temple dedication of 27 March and reports that on 3 April Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery learned in a manifestation that the great and terrible day of the Lord named by Malachi was near, even at the doors.
Text available here
William W. Phelps, holograph letter to Sally Phelps, Liberty, Clay County, Missouri, from Kirtland, Ohio, April 1836, signed “WW Phelps”; four pages, headed “Letter 27” and paginated 187 on the first page. L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Vault MSS 810, William Wines Phelps papers, series 1, item 10; digital images in BYU’s CONTENTdm collection SCMisc (record 54671; page 3 is record 54669). Page 3, from “On Sunday, April 3” through “six years old this day:”. Transcribed from the page image. Spelling, capitalization and punctuation as written; line ends joined; “&” kept. Square brackets enclose letters supplied where the paper is torn or stained (“Josep[h],” “Lo[rd],” “M[a]lichi”); “[…]” marks a word lost at the torn right edge.
Page 3
Nichiren; Soka Gakkai English translation and editorial background
Comforts Myoichi using claimed fulfillment of the Mongol prediction and promised propagation of the Lotus teaching.
Bibliography entry · Read at the cited source
WNDI65
Whole letter/background, WNDI pp.535–537
Discourse attributed to the Buddha, transmitted in the Aṅguttara Nikāya
Contains an explicit prediction that the true teaching will remain five hundred years rather than one thousand, in the narrative of women’s admission to monastic life.
Text available here
Gotamī’s ordination and five hundred years →
Bhikkhu Sujato English translation, SuttaCentral Bilara published branch; segment identifiers retained as locators.
AN 8.51 §§25–30, with the admission narrative in §§1–24
Marvin R. Vincent
Explains the lightning as the worldwide recognizability of the coming and the trumpet as a summons of God's people.
Text available here
Vincent: a coming visible throughout the world · commentary →
Vincent: the trumpet summons God’s people · commentary →
Bible Hub English transcription of Word Studies in the New Testament; exact print edition requires collation.
Matthew 24:24-31
The Mother (Mirra Alfassa)
Places a 1954 future-light statement alongside 1956 claims that a new world has manifested and later expectations of universal recognition.
Bibliography entry · Read at the cited source
Public English edition identified above
Transformation and the Supramental, pages 93–99
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society; unsigned article
Unsigned lead article of The Watch Tower for 1 January 1925. It acknowledges that many expected the church’s change to heavenly glory during 1925 and says this “may not be.”
Text available here
The Watch Tower at the start of 1925: “It may not be” · commentary →
The Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence (Brooklyn), vol. XLVI, no. 1, 1 January 1925, unsigned lead article “Work for the Anointed,” p. 3, paragraph 2, complete. Internet Archive scan of the 1925 volume, page image inspected (leaf 3). Printed paragraph number omitted; italics rendered plain; whitespace normalized.
The Watch Tower, p. 3, paragraph 2
Grace Dangberg
Dangberg distinguishes Wodziwob from Wovoka, examines claims of Christian influence and discusses the reliance on translated or late remembered accounts.
Text available here
How the account reached print · commentary →
English web text or digitized publication at cited URL
Printed pp.5–7; PDF pp.6–8
Avestan traditional hymn; James Darmesteter English · Avestan hymn; historical author unknown
Saoshyant and helpers restore an immortal world and overcome deceit; distinguish hymn from later Pahlavi expansions.
Text available here
Resurrection and the renewal of the world →
Darmesteter historical translation; Peterson digital
19.88–96
Peterson digital edition, 1995, spelling normalized; Darmesteter SBE American edition 1898 as webpage identifies
Yasht 19.88–96; especially 89–90 and 92–96
Zoroastrian liturgical tradition; English translation principally L. H. Mills
Invokes the victorious Saoshyant, the removal of evil, and fire enduring until the renovation is complete.
Bibliography entry · Read at the cited source
Avesta.org English text based on Mills with explicitly marked adaptations and additions.
Yasna 59.28; 61.1–5; 62.1–11
Alvin R. Dyer; Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Connects the final dispensation and gentile mission with preparation for the return, while retaining unknown day and hour and urging faithful preparation without fear.
Bibliography entry · Read at the cited source
Official English web text
Three considerations on nearness and subsequent scriptural exposition