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Description: What happens when a self-proclaimed prophet like Montanus declares that the New Jerusalem is about to descend upon Asia Minor, only for his elusive prophecies to dog the emerging Christian church for centuries? What happens when a brilliant theologian like St. Augustine devises a theory of the millennium that leads to widespread disappointment when Jesus fails to return at the stroke of midnight in the year 1000? What happens when a young Scottish woman named Margaret McDonald has visions of a “secret Rapture” that capture the imagination of American Christians, spawning countless doomsday cults and end-times speculations?
What happens when Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, boldly proclaims that Jesus will return within a mere 56 years, leaving his followers disillusioned when the prophecy fails to materialize? What happens when Baptist preacher William Miller convinces thousands that the Second Coming will occur in 1844, only to face the “Great Disappointment” when the day passes without incident? What happens when Ellen G. White, the prophetess of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, makes erroneous predictions about the Civil War and the “shut door” of salvation?
What happens when Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, boldly sets dates for Christ’s return ranging from 1789 to 1915, only to pass away with his prophecies unfulfilled? What happens when Hal Lindsey’s “The Late, Great Planet Earth” and Tim LaHaye's “Left Behind” series captivate millions with their vivid depictions of the Rapture and the Tribulation, yet the years march on without the promised apocalypse?
The answer to these questions is simple: disappointment, disillusionment, and the realization that something has gone terribly wrong. For nearly two thousand years, Christians have grappled with the New Testament’s clear and direct pronouncements that Jesus would return within the lifetimes of his first disciples. As generations have come and gone, the Second Coming has remained an elusive promise, a source of hope and frustration in equal measure.