September 23: The Aftermath

As I wrote about a few weeks ago, a group of self-proclaimed prophets, doomsday preppers, and conspiracy theorists proclaimed that “something would happen” at some point in September, 2015�"and on September 23rd, specifically.

As I also wrote about, the majority of the reasons they cited for knowing that “something would happen” were either irrelevant coincidences, such as Pope Francis and President Obama meeting on the same day as Yom Kippur, or completely made up, such as the Large Hadron Collider opening a portal to another dimension and destroying the Earth�"or something.

The actual substance of these omens of doom were a goofy mix of scriptural mumbo-jumbo, creative fiction, and “predictions” with no compelling evidence to support them. Typical of what you’d see with September 23rd prophecy was this bundle of nonsense from financial collapse maven Michael Snyder, a figure I’ve written about on Skeptoid before, for his Fukushima fearmongering, and babble about China buying the state of Idaho:

So precisely what will happen on September 23, 2015? Well, we do know that it is Yom Kippur �" the most solemn of all the festival days that we find in the Scriptures. September 23rd is also the last day of the summer, and as I have discussed previously, it is when Pope Francis will be arriving at the White House to meet with Barack Obama. Other than that, I do not know of any specific major event that either will or will not happen on that day, but I do believe that September 23rd is going to be extremely significant.

Snyder typifies the tone of September 23rd predictions: too vague to be either meaningful or held against him. Something is going to happen because something is going to happen but maybe something isn’t going to happen.

Other self-proclaimed prophets at least address the day with more specifics, such as this post on ProphecyClub.com from August:

This is a message from the LORD given to Patricia Green on July 29, 2015.

“September 23rd is the day Obama makes a pact with the devil. It was not by chance that the Pope and Obama are meeting on the Day of Atonement. (September 23, 2015) They will make a pact that will seal the fate of the United States of America. My vengeance will be poured out from this point forward. (September 23rd) There is no turning back."

At least this is something with some kind of detail that can be investigated. Of course, we don’t know if President Obama and Pope Francis sealed a pact with the devil, and maybe they did and we just don’t know about it. But given the absence of evidence for either any such pact or the existence of the devil in general, it’s a safe bet they didn’t.

ProphecyClub.com chose not to comment on their website about the failure of their prophecy, but their “September 23rd Gift Offer” of a DVD entitled “Fall 2015 Preparations” is still for sale, for the low, low price of $48.

Meanwhile, a July post on the website Intellihub offered “12 things that point to something BIG happening in September 2015”

These “things” were the usual list of religious coincidences and cherry-picked scriptural babble, along with a few new wrinkles, including [sic]:

4. �" There’s something in the Jewish religion which is called Shmitah. Rabbi Johnathan Cahn noted that the Shmitah in 2001 caused the stock market collapse at the end of September, and then in 2008 the Shmitah also caused the economy trouble. The next Shmitah happens to be at the end of the 29th day of Elul this September.

7. �" There’s a guy in Puerto Rico called Efrain Rodriguez I think who’s saying that a huge meteor will fall near Puerto Rico this September in the Ocean and will cause huge tidal waves that will affect the east coast of the US.
Interestingly, some other people are also reporting about an asteroid or comet on collision course with Earth this September.

9. �" Some french politician or scientist said in 2013 that we have 500 days to avoid climate chaos. Coincidentally these 500 days end on September 24.

10. �" A very revered Jewish Rabbi has been recently announcing that the return of the Messiah (which we know as the Antichrist) is imminent, and he’s calling all the Jews to migrate to the land of Israel.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:
“When asked about the timing of the Messiah’s arrival, Rabbi Kanievsky answered, “At the end of the Sabbatical year.” Several people have asked the Rabbi to verify this and he has given the same answer each time. This year is the Sabbatical year and it will be ending on the 29th day of Elul, which, by the Gregorian calendar falls on Saturday, September 12, 2015.”

As I wrote about in the previous piece, the economic issues of fall 2001 and 2008 weren’t caused by any Biblical coincidence, but by the September 11th attacks and the real estate bubble bursting, respectively. Cause and effect, not calendar-based coincidence.

Efrain Rodriguez does appear to be a Latin American “seer” who predicted a number of calamities, including 30 million people dying in an asteroid strike�"in 2014. He apparently just moved the goalposts and continued spouting nonsense about asteroids, martial law, people eating each other, and so forth.

Also, both September 12, the 29th day of Elul, which was the end of the Shimitah year, and September 24th, which was the deadline for “climate chaos” both passed without incident.

A post on PrepperFortress.com, written by an “Amy S.” laid things out even in starker terms:

"An asteroid or meteor will hit the earth on September 24, 2015 �" you have been warned!!!"

It did not, but thanks for the warning.

Another prophecy site, JesusonMyMind.com, laid it out just as clearly, though with a lot more math involved:

Daniel 9:25 seems to have a complex fulfillment with amazingly specific dates, first for the arrival of Jesus on the donkey on March 30, 33 and next with the arrival of Jesus on the clouds in a rapture event on September 23, 2015 possibly simultaneous with the arrival of the Antichrist.

There was no “rapture event” that day, nor did Jesus arrive on the clouds. Unsurprisingly, JesusonMyMind.com doesn’t make mention of their failed prophecy, but does keep the crazy train moving with some babble about September 24th:

You don't want to be here. Possible beginning of the 458 inclusive days of shortened "great tribulation" with the great deception of an alien invasion supposedly responsible for the disappearance of millions of people to deceive those left behind to follow Obama and Francis rather than to know that it was the Rapture. Pope Francis speaks at Joint Session of Congress, making it the first time any Pope has done so. 500th day (climate chaos) mentioned on March 13, 2014. Revelation 13?

Needless to say, none of that happened either.

Nor did any of the catastrophes foretold by John Hagee's “Four Blood Moons” prophecy, such as this:

"God is literally screaming at the world: 'I'm coming soon.'”

Or this one, from the Biblical Book of Joel:

"‘And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.’”

Or this, from “discoverer of the blood moons phenomenon” Mark Blitz:

“My interpretation is that we have at least another 1,000 years. But I do believe these signs portend major changes, including a possible major war involving Israel and an economic collapse.”

In the aftermath of the Blood Moons, we’ve had no Second Coming, no pillars of smoke, no economic collapse, nothing. In fact, nothing happened at all�"except a cool scientific event that produced some neat pictures and probably lots of amazed kids looking at the skies. The rapture was a bust, as they always are, and as they likely always will be.

As with all apocalyptic prophets, expect the purveyors of the September 23/Four Blood Moons theory to do three things in the failure of their warnings:

1. Not acknowledge they were wrong.
2. Shift the date of the rapture based on “new information” they received.
3. Count the money they made off fearful, gullible people.