Date-Setting Eschatology

Definition and Meaning

Date-setting eschatology is an eschatology that attaches a fixed deadline to the end times. The term refers to claims that calculate and announce a specific date or year for Christ's Second Coming, the Rapture (the event in which believers are said to be caught up into the air), or the end of the world.

Belief in an "imminent return," the conviction that the Second Coming is near, is shared by many denominations. Date-setting eschatology differs in that it goes further and specifies the date. The term is used to distinguish such claims from eschatology in general.

Biblical and Historical Background

Date-setters chiefly base their calculations on numbers found in apocalyptic literature such as Daniel and Revelation. Interpretations linking the parable of the fig tree in Matthew 24:32–34 to the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 have also been used.

Opponents cite the following passages:

• Mark 13:32–33: "But of that day and that hour knoweth no man"
• Acts 1:7: "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons"
• 1 Thessalonians 5:1–11: "the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night"

In church history, the movement associated with William Miller in nineteenth-century America is commonly cited as a leading example. The movement predicted that the Second Coming would take place in 1844, but it did not occur, and the episode became known as the "Great Disappointment." The Seventh-day Adventist Church emerged from this movement, but the denomination has since maintained that it does not set a date for the Second Coming.

In Korean Churches

In South Korea, the term came into wide use through the 1992 Dami Mission incident. Lee Jang-rim, leader of the Dami Mission, claimed that the Rapture would occur on October 28, 1992. Some of his followers quit their jobs or abandoned their studies, and some donated their property to the group. Before the predicted date, Lee was arrested on fraud charges and was subsequently convicted. Nothing happened on the predicted day, and the incident drew widespread public attention.

Around this time, the general assemblies of several Korean denominations, including the Presbyterian Church of Korea (Tonghap), reportedly declared date-setting eschatology a heretical teaching or warned their members against it. Since then, date-setting eschatology has become a frequently used criterion in Korean Protestant discussions of heresy designation.

Denominations differ in their eschatological frameworks. Some churches accept the dispensationalist understanding of the Rapture, while others interpret the millennium differently. Nevertheless, the major Korean denominations—Presbyterian, Methodist, Holiness, Baptist, and Full Gospel—are broadly united in rejecting any attempt to specify a date.