The penties and others predictions are all over the map:
“We’ll start with the founder of Australia’s Christian Revival Crusade - Leo Harris who confidently predicted that 1979 will be the date for the return of Christ. This probably happened for those who actually died in 1979 but for the rest of the world – it was a failed prediction. Afterwards some members of his movement predicted that the actual time would be the year 2000 and not 1979. The Worldwide Church of God (founded in 1934 by Herbert W Armstrong) predicted that 1972 would be the year of the Rapture –or the “Great Tribulation” followed by the return of Jesus sometime in 1978. In 1955 Herbert predicted that all Americans “will be totally consumed and carried away captive to other nations as slaves within 20 years.”
The 450 member True Light Church of Christ of North and South Carolina predicted the end of the world to take place in 1970. Another group called “The Children of God: predicted catastrophe in early 1974 by the then rapidly approaching comet named ‘Kohoutec’. Another religious cult called “The Great White Brotherhood, located in Kiev, Russia, took over the city’s St Sofia Cathedral preparing for the end of the world on November 14 1993 resulting in over 600 of their members being arrested for trespassing and citing a riot. Various writers in the early 19th and 20th centuries set precise dates for end time events – which also has come and gone without major incidents. Writers from the Pentecostal movement predicted precise dates as well. A pamphlet created in 1974 by Leon Bates titled ‘Tribulation Map’ included a picture of a hypothetical future newspaper reporting the “rapture” which is a religious event whereby Christians will be secretly snatched off the Earth to meet Jesus in the sky. This was to take place on February 8 1996.” SNIP
http://hubpages.com/hub/Religious-Leaders-and-Their-Doomsday-Predictions
What you can’t explain, DEFLECT REDIRECT!
The false prophets including the “self-proclaimed” here are the worst!
It isn’t so much religion as the POWER that the exercise of religion and prophecy gives an individual. Note that it is the INDIVIDUAL who claims the Holy inspiration.