Last Night on Earth Trivia Quiz

Montanism was an early Christian movement that emerged in the 2nd century CE in Phrygia, a region in what is now modern-day Turkey. The movement was founded by Montanus, a former pagan priest who converted to Christianity and began to experience what he and his followers believed were direct revelations from the Holy Spirit. Montanus claimed that these revelations marked a new and final age in the history of salvation, often referred to as the "New Prophecy".

Montanus was soon joined by two women, Priscilla and Maximilla, who also claimed to be prophetesses. Together, they preached that the end of the world was imminent and that the New Jerusalem, a heavenly city mentioned in the Book of Revelation, would soon descend near the small Phrygian towns of Pepuza and Tymion. This gained a significant following in the early Christian world, particularly among those who were dissatisfied with the emerging structure of the orthodox Church, which they viewed as overly institutionalized and spiritually stagnant. The Montanists' emphasis on ecstatic prophecy and strict asceticism appealed to many early Christians who longed for a more immediate and personal experience of the divine.

This apocalyptic expectation drove the movement's strict moral code and emphasis on spiritual purity, as Montanists sought to prepare themselves for the impending end times. The belief in the world's imminent end distinguished Montanism from other early Christian groups and contributed to its eventual condemnation as heretical by the broader Church, which saw such extreme eschatological claims as a threat to ecclesiastical stability and authority.

In the end, New Jerusalem never descended on Phrygia and the Montanists were soon left behind in history.

Pope Innocent III, who served as Pope from 1198 to 1216, made a significant apocalyptic prediction that was directly tied to the rise of Islam. Innocent III, one of the most powerful and influential popes of the medieval period, interpreted the growth of Islam as a major sign of the end times. He believed that the world was moving towards a climactic final conflict between Christianity and Islam. He saw this as the embodiment of the forces of the Antichrist. According to his calculations, the world would end in 1284, exactly 666 years after the founding of Islam in 618 CE, a number symbolically connected to the Antichrist in Christian eschatology.

This prediction was not just a matter of theological speculation; in fact, it influenced Pope Innocent III's actions, particularly his efforts to launch crusades against Muslim territories in the Holy Land. His belief in an imminent apocalyptic battle drove his commitment to these military campaigns. These he saw as part of a larger divine plan to prepare for the end of the world and the final judgment.

In the end, the end of the world never came, and Islam and Christianity live side-by-side in our present-day world.

The Anabaptists of Münster were a radical Christian sect that took control of the city of Münster in Westphalia, Germany, during the early 16th century, in what became known as the Münster Rebellion (1534-1535). This movement was part of the broader Anabaptist tradition, which emerged during the Protestant Reformation and was characterized by its rejection of infant baptism in favour of adult baptism and its belief in a return to the practices of the early Christian church. However, the Anabaptists in Münster took these ideas to an extreme, merging their religious beliefs with apocalyptic fervour.

Led by figures like Jan Matthys and, later, John of Leiden, the Münster Anabaptists believed that the end of the world was imminent and that Münster was destined to become the New Jerusalem - a divine city that would survive the impending apocalypse. They envisioned themselves as God's chosen people, those who would establish a theocratic kingdom on Earth in preparation for Christ's second coming. To this end, they instituted a radical social and religious order in the city, which included communal ownership of property, the abolition of private wealth, and the establishment of polygamy, all of which they justified as necessary preparations for the end times.

In the end, the rebellion was put down by Bishop Franz von Waldeck and his allies, and Münster is now known as a stinky cheese.

The Fifth Monarchy Men were a radical Puritan sect in 17th-century England, deeply influenced by apocalyptic beliefs and millenarianism - the expectation of a coming thousand-year reign of Christ on Earth. This movement emerged during a period of intense political and religious turmoil, particularly during and after the English Civil War (1642-1651), when traditional authority structures were being questioned and reimagined.

The name "Fifth Monarchy Men" comes from their interpretation of the prophecy in the Book of Daniel, which describes a series of four earthly kingdoms that would be succeeded by a fifth and final kingdom: the Kingdom of God. The Fifth Monarchy Men believed that the first four monarchies, identified as the Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman Empires, had already come and gone. They saw their own time as the threshold of the Fifth Monarchy, which they interpreted as the imminent establishment of Christ's divine rule on Earth.

This belief in the impending apocalypse drove the Fifth Monarchy Men to actively seek the overthrow of existing political systems, which they viewed as corrupt and standing in the way of God's plan. They were particularly opposed to the rule of Oliver Cromwell, who they initially supported but later rejected when he failed to implement their vision of a theocratic government.

In the end, Cromwell became known as the Lord Protector and ruled England as a sort-of military governor, but was executed by beheading... three years after he passed away. Oh, and we're still here.

William Miller was an American Baptist preacher who became the central figure in a religious movement that anticipated the imminent Second Coming of Christ, known as the "Millerite" movement. Miller, a farmer and veteran of the War of 1812, began a deep study of the Bible in the early 19th century, focusing particularly on the prophetic books of Daniel and Revelation. Through his studies, he became convinced that he had discovered the exact timing of Christ's return, an event that would herald the end of the world.

Miller's precise calculations predicted that the Second Coming would occur between March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844, based on his interpretation of Daniel 8:14, which refers to "2,300 evenings and mornings." He believed these days symbolized years, starting from a decree to rebuild Jerusalem in 457 BCE, which led him to the conclusion that Christ would return in the mid-19th century. Miller's predictions struck a chord with many Americans during a time of social and religious ardour, and his teachings spread rapidly across the United States, attracting tens of thousands of followers.

Millerites believed that Christ's return would bring about the end of the current world order, the resurrection of the dead, and the establishment of God's eternal kingdom. As the predicted dates approached, many Millerites sold their possessions, abandoned their jobs, and gathered together to await the end of the world. When the first date that Miller predicted did not bring the apocalypse, he revised the date to later that year. When that also came and passed, it became known as the "Great Disappointment".

In the end, Miller's followers went on to found the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and Miller Lite is now known as a very bland American beer.

Mother Shipton is a legendary figure in English folklore, often portrayed as a 16th-century prophetess who made numerous predictions about the future. While her historical existence is debated, the prophecies attributed to her became widely known through various publications, especially in the 17th and 19th centuries. These publications played a significant role in popularizing apocalyptic ideas, even though many of the prophecies were likely fabricated or heavily embellished by later authors.

The most influential of these publications was "The Prophecies of Mother Shipton", which was first printed in 1641, long after her supposed death in 1561. This work and subsequent editions claimed that Mother Shipton had foreseen various significant events, for example, the Great Fire of London in 1666 and the defeat of the Spanish Armada. However, it was the later 19th-century editions, particularly one published in 1862 by Charles Hindley, that emphasized apocalyptic themes. Hindley's version included a famous rhyme predicting the end of the world:

"The world to an end shall come, In eighteen hundred and eighty-one."

This prophecy, predicting the world's end in 1881, captured the public's imagination and contributed to a wave of apocalyptic anxiety as the date approached. Although nothing catastrophic happened in 1881, the prophecy continued to be a point of reference for those interested in esoteric knowledge and end-times predictions.

In the end, Mother Shipton's entire existence is now deemed likely to be a hoax, and Charles Hindley later admitted to being a fraud. And, somehow, the world kept turning.

Halley's Comet, one of the most famous comets visible from Earth, made a particularly notable appearance in 1910 that became associated with widespread apocalyptic fears. Halley's Comet orbits the Sun approximately every 76 years, and its return in 1910 was anticipated with a mixture of both excitement and dread, mostly due to the growing influence of media and scientific advancements of the time.

The 1910 approach was especially significant because it was the first time that the comet had been closely observed with modern telescopes allowing astronomers to study it in greater detail. As scientists analyzed the comet's tail, they discovered that it contained toxic gases, including cyanogen, a substance chemically related to cyanide. French astronomer Camille Flammarion sparked public panic by suggesting that when Earth passed through the comet's tail, the toxic gases could potentially poison the planet's atmosphere and end all life on Earth.

This suggestion was widely reported in the press, leading to a surge of apocalyptic anxiety. Some people bought "comet pills" or gas masks to protect themselves from the anticipated toxic gases, while others sealed their homes in an attempt to survive what they believed would be an imminent catastrophe. The idea that a celestial event like Halley's Comet could bring about the end of the world played into long-standing apocalyptic themes in Western culture, where comets were often viewed as omens of doom or divine judgment.

In the end, our atmosphere exists for a reason and protected us even then. It returned in 1986 to much less doom and gloom, reached its farthest point in December 2023, and will be back again in 2061 (giving us several more years to live...)

Aum Shinrikyo, a Japanese doomsday cult founded by Shoko Asahara in 1984, is infamous for its involvement in the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack. The cult, whose name means "Supreme Truth" in Japanese, combined elements of Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, and apocalyptic prophecies, attracting followers with its promises of spiritual enlightenment and salvation in the face of an impending global apocalypse.

Shoko Asahara, the charismatic leader of Aum Shinrikyo, claimed to be a reincarnation of various religious figures, including Jesus Christ and the Hindu god Shiva. He prophesied that the world was on the brink of a catastrophic war, which he referred to as Armageddon, that would lead to the end of human civilization. Asahara taught that only his followers would survive this apocalyptic event, after which they would be tasked with rebuilding a new, purified world under his leadership.

The cult's most notorious act was the sarin gas attack on March 20, 1995, when members of the cult released the deadly nerve agent in the Tokyo subway system during the morning rush hour. The attack killed thirteen people, seriously injured over fifty, and affected thousands more with temporary vision problems and other symptoms. The sarin gas attack was intended to hasten the apocalyptic scenario that Asahara had predicted.

In the end, Shoko Asahara and six other of the cult's leaders were tried and hanged, bringing their world to an end, and the cult switched to a more benign, nonviolent existence. And the world didn't end.

The Y2K Bug was a widespread computer programming issue that created significant anxiety leading up to the year 2000. The problem stemmed from the way many computer systems represented dates, using only the last two digits of a year (e.g., "98" for 1998). As the year 2000 approached, there was concern that computer systems would interpret "00" as 1900 instead of 2000, potentially causing failures in date-sensitive operations across various sectors, including finance, utilities, transportation, and government.

This technical flaw, which was initially identified in the 1980s, gained increasing attention in the late 1990s as the new millennium neared. The potential consequences of the Y2K Bug were widely publicized, with experts warning that critical systems could malfunction, leading to disruptions in essential services such as power grids, water supply, banking, and transportation. The fear was that these disruptions could cascade into a global catastrophe, effectively bringing society to a standstill.

In the end, nothing much happened. The overreaction to the Y2K Bug serves as a significant example of how technological concerns can intertwine with apocalyptic fears. And even if systems had crashed, the world would have still kept turning.

The Mayan Calendar end date, specifically December 21, 2012, became the focus of widespread apocalyptic speculation in the years leading up to it. The Maya civilization, which flourished in Mesoamerica from about 2000 BCE to the 16th century CE, developed an intricate system of calendars to track time. Among these, the Long Count calendar was particularly significant, as it was used to chronicle longer periods of time, spanning over 5000 years.

The Long Count calendar begins on what the Maya believed was the creation date of the current world cycle, corresponding to August 11, 3114 BCE in the Gregorian calendar. This calendar tracks time in units called baktuns, each lasting approximately 394 years. The completion of 13 baktuns-amounting to about 5,125 years-marks the end of a full cycle in the Long Count calendar. The significance of this date in the Mayan calendar led to various interpretations, particularly outside of academic and cultural contexts. Some scholars and enthusiasts speculated that the Maya predicted that this date would mark a cataclysmic event or the end of the world. This idea gained traction in popular culture, fueled by media reports, documentaries, and even movies, such as the 2009 film "2012", which depicted global disasters leading to the collapse of civilization.

In the end, when the old Mayan calendar ended, they just started a new one, and (not surprisingly) the world kept turning.