Excerpt from an essay by Martin Gardner - Seems appropriate with the Doomsday prophets coming out of the woodwork again...

'For the son of man shall come in the glory
of his Father, with his angels, and then he
shall reward every man according to his
works. Verily I say unto you. There be
some standing here, which shall not taste
of death till they see the Son of man
coming in his kingdom' - Matthew 16; 27,28

The statement of Jesus quoted above from Matthew, and repeated in similar words by Mark (8.38, 9:1) and Luke (9:26,27) is for Bible fundamentalists one of the most troublesome of all New Testament passages.

It is possible, of course, that Jesus never spoke those sentences, but all scholars agree that the first-century Christians expected the Second Coming in their lifetimes. In Matthew 24, after describing dramatic signs of his imminent return, such as the falling of stars and the darkening of the moon and sun, Jesus added: Verily I say unto you. This generation shall not pass until all these things be fulfilled."

Until about 1933 Seventh-Day Adventists had a clever way of rationalizing this prophecy. They argued that the spectacular meteor shower of 1833 was the falling of the stars, and that there was a mysterious darkening of the sun and moon in the US in 1870. Jesus meant that a future generation witnessing these celestial events would be the one to experience the Second Coming.

For almost a hundred years Adventist preachers and writers of books assured the world that Jesus would return within the lifetimes of some who had seen the great meteor shower of 1833. After 1933 passed, the curch gradually abandoned this interpretation of Christ's words. Few of today's faithful are even aware that their church once trumpeted such a view. Although Adventists still believe Jesus will return very soon, they no longer set conditions for an approximate date.

How do they explain the statements of Jesus quoted in the epigraph? Following the lead of Saint Augustine and other early Christian commentators, they take the promise to refer to Christ's Transfiguration. Ellen White, the prophetess who with her husband founded Seventh-Day Adventism, said it this way in her life of Christ, The Desire of Ages: "The Savior's promise to the disciples was now fulfilled. Upon the mount the future kingdom of glory was represented in minature..."

Hundreds of adventist sects since the time of Jesus, starting witht he Montanists of the second century, have all interpreted Christ's prophetic statements about his return to refer to THEIR generation. Apocolyptic excitement surged as the year 1000 approached. Similar excitement is now gathering momentum as the year 2000 draws near. Expectation of the Second Coming is not confined to adventist sects. Fundamentalists in mainstream Protestant denominations are increasingly stressing the imminence of Jesus' return. Babtist Billy Graham, for example, regularly warns of the approaching battle of Armageddon and the appearance of the Anti-Christ. He likes to emphasize the Bible's assertion that the Second Coming will occur after the gospel is preached to all nations. This could not take place, Graham insists, until the rise of radio and television.

Preacher Jerry Falwell is so convinced that he will soon be raptured--caught up in the air to meet the return of Jesus--that he once said he has no plans for a burial plot. Austin Miles, who once worked for Pat Robertson, reveals in his book Don't Call Me Brother (1989) that Pat once seriously considered plans to televise the Lord's appearance in the skies! Today's top native drumbeater for a soon Second Coming is Hal Lindsey. His many books on the topic, starting with The Late Great Planet Earth, have sold by the millions.

For the past two thousand years individuals and sects have been setting dates for the Second Coming. When the Lord fails to show, there is often no recognition of total failure. Instead, errors are found in the calculations and new dates set. In New Harmony, Indiana, an adventist sect called the Rappites was established by George Rapp. When he became ill he said that were he not absolutely certain the Lord intended him and his flock to witness the return of Jesus, he would think this was his last hour. So saying, he died.

The Catholic Church, following Augustine, long ago moved the Second Coming far into the future at some unspecified date. Liberal Protestants have tended to take the Second Coming as little more than a metaphor for the gradual establishment of peace and justice on earth. Julia Ward Howe, a Unitarian minister, had this interpretation in mind when she began her famous Battle Hymn of the Republic with "Mind eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord..." Protestant fundamentalists, on the other hand, believe that Jesus described actual historical events that would precede his literal return to earth to banish Satan and judge the quick and the dead. They also find it unthinkable that the Lord could have blundered about the time of his Second Coming.

[personal note: I'm omitting the remainder of the text. But one gets the point that Gardner is making. And so we now have yet another divined date come and gone...]