6 Ancient Prophecies That Foretell the Apocalypse

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Doomsday. Armageddon. The Apocalypse. The much-prophesied end of the human race has held many names throughout the ages, and some of these predictions even bear eerie similarities to scriptural accounts of how the world will end.

The Christian Bible describes the events leading up to the apocalypse—there will be earthquakes, famine, diseases, and other natural disasters. There will be “something like a huge mountain, all ablaze,” that falls into the sea. The sun and moon will darken, and there will be fire in the heavens. There will be a terrible series of wars and political upheaval.

On when all of this will happen, however, the Bible is silent.

But prophecies of the end aren’t limited to the Bible. Before the age of religious radio and televangelists, doomsday scenarios were being predicted by ancient civilizations, 16th century astrologers, and scientific communities, as well.

Many of these have been thoroughly debunked, but a few have stood the test of time, continuing to resonate within our cultural consciousness—especially so because they bear similarity to the Biblical signs of the end described above.

Has God given us additional warning through these predictions? Do these 5 ancient prophecies give us clues that foretell the apocalypse?

Read on to find out more.

Gochihr

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Zoroaster was an ancient Iranian prophet whose teachings eventually formed the Zoroastrian religion—the very first faith which focused on a single God. Dating back to the 5^th century BCE, Zoroastrianism is one of the oldest religions on the planet.

According to Zoroaster, the end of the world will be ushered in by a comet called Gochihr, when it strikes the earth at some undetermined point in the future. This impact will burn up the world, resulting in a boiling flow of metal and minerals which will flow over the continents like a river.

For those who are wicked, this river of molten material will be a purifying punishment, causing unimaginable pain as they are made clean. But for those who are already righteous, the heat will merely feel like “warm milk.”

This is very similar to one of the scriptural signs of the end times. Revelation 8:8-9 tells us that “something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.”

Could these two predictions be saying the same thing? With its emphasis on the pain of the wicked, the Zoroastrian prophecy gives us yet another reason to be ready when the end comes.

Ragnarok

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Norse mythology probably isn’t the first thing you’d think of when searching for parallels to the Christian apocalypse. But Ragnarok, the end-of-the-world story hailing from the Norse myths, bears undeniable similarities to the Biblical account.

At the heart of this story lies a future battle between the Norse gods and their enemies, the giants. These giants begin destroying the gods’ realm, as well as the rest of the cosmos. One of them, Surt, will bear a flaming sword that ignited the lands in his wake. Another creature, Fenrir the giant wolf, will run with his lower jaw on the ground, and his upper jaw in the heavens, consuming the very sun. Finally, a titanic serpent rises from the sea to join in the battle against the gods.

The gods fight valiantly to the end, but many die, and all the lands sink into the sea in a reversal of the initial creation process.

The parallels between this Norse prophecy and that of scripture are many. In Revelation, 13:1, a great, serpent-like creature rises from the sea. In Acts 2, it is predicted that the sun will be “turned to darkness,” and that there will be “blood and fire and clouds of smoke.” One of the gods—Heimdall—even blows a trumpet that sets off the events of the end, just as the angels do in Revelation 8:1-2.

Most tellingly of all, however, is the fact that the world is made anew, just as God promises it will be in Revelation.

Are these similarities coincidences? Could the "gods" be stand-ins for the angels of heaven going to war with the forces of hell? Despite their fantastical bent, the writers of these myths may have had some inkling of the truth.

Messiah Clock

Rabbi Eliyahu of Vilna, an 18^th-century Judaic scholar, created something called the Messiah clock, and it may just predict the end of our world. Eliyahu’s calculations are based on the six days of creation, with each day equaling one thousand years on the Hebrew calendar.

Using the Talmud and the Hebrew calendar, Rabbi Eliyahu created a method of tracking the return of the Messiah, which he predicted would happen in the year 6000 of the Jewish calendar, which is the year 2239 of the standard Gregorian calendar.

Although in the Jewish tradition, Christ has yet to appear, Eliyahu’s calculations give a possible date for what, in the Christian tradition, will be Christ’s second coming.

Compared to many of the other prophecies in this list, this one is fairly straightforward. With the second coming of Christ comes the passing away of our current world, and the creation of a new and perfect earth. Rabbi Eliyahu’s possible date of 2239 only serves to give us something to which we can look forward.

Nostradamus

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Michel de Nostredame, also known by his Latinised name, Nostradamus, was a French astrologer, physician, and quite possibly, the most famous end-of-the-world predictor of all time.

Nostradamus, born in 1503, worked as a healer by trade, fighting outbreaks of the plague across his native France. His true passion, however, was in various occult practices, despite the fact that he was a devout Roman Catholic.

He began writing out prophecies, writing an almanac in 1550 and going on to create over six thousand predictions. Despite some thinking him evil or insane, the nobility took a liking to his work, and the wife of King Henry II of France became one of this chief admirers.

His predictions are notably clear, and his vision of the apocalypse follows this tradition. In a letter to his newborn son, Cesar, he describes the end in a brief, businesslike fashion, beginning with descriptions of a great flood.

“After those floods, such a great amount fire of glowing stones will fall from the sky that nothing will be able to escape this last destructive fire storm.”

Immediately, we can see similarities to the Biblical account—it is that same fiery mountain from the sky described in Revelation 8. But the difference here is that Nostradamus suggests not only the way the world will end, but gives a date, as well.

That year is 8555.

Has Nostradamus given us the long-awaited missing piece of the puzzle? Only time will tell.

The Great Filter

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It may not exactly be an ancient prophecy in the proper sense, but one of the most interesting and terrifying apocalypse theories is the Great Filter. This idea attempts to answer a question our scientific communities have been asking for ages.

Why are we alone in a universe that is nearly infinitely vast?

The Great Filter theory brings up a possible answer: there must be some force that wipes out every civilization at some point, before they can explode outward into the galaxy and colonize other planets. Perhaps there is some step along the development of a civilization that is simply too difficult to conquer—something that prevents further development, and causes a civilization’s downfall.

And what if that step still lies ahead of us?

Now, for an interesting connection to scripture, take a look at Matthew 5:38-48. Here, Christ says “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven…”

Consider this: what if hatred and self-destruction are the Great Filter? Scripture, after all, does describe unprecedented warfare as a precursor to the end. If ever there were other civilizations out there, perhaps they destroyed themselves, and humankind is set to do the same.

Fortunately, within the Christian tradition, we know that even if this does come to pass, we can look forward to God remaking the world anew.

If nothing else, making the connection between scripture and alien civilizations will give you a great conversation starter for the future!