Close Calls 1: Ten Days The World Didn't End Quiz

Answer: Assyrian

According to the tablet, "Our Earth is degenerate in these later days; there are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end; bribery and corruption are common; children no longer obey their parents; every man wants to write a book and the end of the world is evidently approaching."

Despite obnoxious children and flagrant corruption, Assyria's best days were yet to come. The civilization lasted another 2,000 years.

Answer: Her hen laid eggs with "Christ is coming" inscribed on them.

Bateman's 'Prophet Hen of Leeds' created a panic among villagers when the eggs began showing up. It was later found that Bateman inscribed the message on the eggs with acid then reinserted them into the poor hen.

Later in the year, Bateman poisoned a couple who asked her to lift a spell they believed had been placed on them. The man survived but his wife died and in 1809 Bateman was hanged for the crime.

Answer: Bronson Alpha

Planet X, Marduk, Nibiru or any of several other names is a myth that shows up as early as Babylonian cosmology and as recently as modern science fiction. Nancy Lieder has been predicting earth's demise on her 'Zeta Talk' website since 1995. Her first prediction was that Nibiru would arrive in May, 2003. She now says that was a 'white lie' intended to fool the authorities. Although she won't give another date prediction some of her followers have done so. Some even tied Planet X to the 2012 'end of cycle' of the Mayan calendar which supposedly predicted the end time.

Bronson Alpha is the earth-killer planet in the 1933 sci-fi novel 'When Worlds Collide'.

Answer: Harold Camping

Camping's first end of the world prediction was mid-September 1994. He said he was "99.9% certain" that his calculations were correct. He didn't give odds for his fallback date, March 31, 1995. Camping told the press, "I'm like the boy who cried wolf again and again and the wolf didn't come. This doesn't bother me in the slightest." It probably did bother numerous followers who had sold their property and given their savings to help finance Family Radio's $100 million advertising campaign.

Answer: The Great London Fire

Londoners of the time had reasons to think the world was ending when their city burned for three days. First, there was the year itself - 1666 contained the biblical 'number of the beast', 666. Numerologists, theologians and even scientists had warned them of the dangers inherent in the year. And just the year before, a plague had killed 100,000 citizens, 20% of London's population, putting people in a mood to think end times might have arrived.

When the fire burned out there was a flurry of 'blame gaming'. Foreigners, especially the French, and Catholics were singled out for responsibility. In the end, some 13,000 houses burned and monetary loss was in the billions of pounds in today's currency. But fewer than ten people died and the fire killed enough rats that the plague never returned to London. The Great Fire was certainly a catastrophe but not one of world ending proportions.

Answer: Bahá'í

Chase's splinter sect, Bahá'ís Under the Provisions of the Covenant, only had about 200 members at its peak. Membership fell rapidly when New York still existed on March 24. Chase also lays claim to being the current Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, and successor to the Throne of David, claims which the church's Assembly rejects.

A large natural gas pipe did explode in New Jersey on the prescribed day. Witnesses described the explosion as "like an atomic explosion". Chase used those descriptions as evidence that his prediction was correct. Nuclear Armageddon is only one of 18 failed predictions made by Chase. He later claimed to have "a 100% track record".

Answer: On television Channel 18

Teacher Chen moved his followers to Garland because "it sounds like God's Land". Had God appeared on Channel 18, in Garland he would have interrupted Home Shopping Network. Chen said that after his TV appearance God would arrive in person on a flying saucer. He also said that Jesus had arrived on earth earlier and was living in Vancouver, Canada.

When 12:01 AM came and went on the appointed day, The Teacher and his 160 unhappy disciples appeared before the gathered press. He announced that because God didn't appear on Channel 18, "my predictions of God arriving on March 31st can be considered nonsense." Chen offered to let his followers crucify or stone him to death but they passed up the opportunity.

Answer: Jehovah's Witnesses

When it became apparent that World War I wasn't the Armageddon he had predicted, Russell moved the date to 1915. Upon his death in 1916, the Watch Tower Society stated that the end would be in 1918. When that year came and went, Watch Tower said that Christ's millennial kingdom on earth would be established "before the generation who saw the events of 1914 passes away". Even that generous deadline is rapidly expiring as we have passed the centennial of Russell's original prediction.

Answer: The Jupiter Effect

'The Jupiter Effect' carried a hint of credibility. Both authors were Cambridge-educated astrophysicists. Most scientists faulted their theory, though, feeling it was based on a linking of dubious suppositions.

As the target day approached, observatories throughout the western US reported calls from concerned residents, some asking if they should sell their houses and move away.

Of course March 11 dawned with Los Angeles still high and dry and a year later Gribbin and Plagemann wrote another book, 'The Jupiter Effect Reconsidered'.

Answer: Hal Lindsey

Lindsey's second book, 'The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon' and other writings generally repeated and expanded upon his theories from 'The Late, Great Planet Earth' as did a motion picture narrated by Orson Welles.

In a world that continues to exist, Lindsey has hosted shows on Christian television networks. In 2008 he wrote on the WorldNetDaily website that Barack Obama was "a messiah-like figure, charismatic and glib ... The Bible calls that leader the Antichrist."