The end of the world, which had been scheduled to occur by Monday according to Christian pastors and internet theorists, has not eventuated.
Two doomsday prophecies, one that life would be destroyed by a massive asteroid and the other that the destruction of the world would coincide with yesterday’s 'blood moon', have exploded on the internet over the last few weeks, culminating in a media release from NASA denying the apocalypse.
However, proponents of the theories have not abandoned their end-of-times predictions, even though they have retreated from firm dates for doomsday.
Those predicting the apocalypse by asteroid claimed a comet named 2012 TT5 would impact the earth off the coast of Puerto Rico.
According to NASA’s near-earth object project, which monitors asteroids, the 300m-diameter rock passed by earth at a distance of 8 million kilometres on September 24.
Online theorists say 2012 TT5 could be just one of a number of asteroids that could impact the earth, although none are predicting when.
Monday’s 'blood moon' also passed without incident.
Christian pastors Mark Blitz and John Hagee, who predicted the end on September 28, when the last of four total lunar eclipses coincided with the Pope’s visit to the United States, are back-pedalling on their doomsday forecasts.
The two pastors predicted the second coming of Jesus Christ on that day.
“I believe and have always taught these signs in the heavens do not mark the end of the world,” Mr Biltz said, contradicting earlier predictions.
“My interpretation is that we have at least another 1000 years.
“But I do believe these signs portend major changes, including a possible major war involving Israel and an economic collapse.”
Mr Hagee, who is in a dispute with Mr Blitz over who first predicted the blood moon apocalypse, said only God knew the timing of the end of the world.
“Matthew 24:36 makes clear that only God knows the timing of such, anyone who makes such a prediction is acting contrary to the Word of God,” he said.
Mr Hagee spent Sunday hosting live television coverage of the 'blood moon'.
Predictions of the apocalypse are not new and to date, none have proved accurate.
Followers of medieval monk Rodulfus Glaber predicted the world would end in the year 1000.
The Fifth Monarchy Men believed Jesus Christ would return to earth to rule over humanity in 1666, a year chosen because of its numerical relationship to the Bible’s Book of Revelation.
More recently, an apocalypse was predicted for December 21, 2012, by several new age authors based on the ending of a 5126 year phase of the Mayan calendar.
Each scheduled doomsday passed without incident.
The next scheduled end-of-the-world is in 2020, when followers of self-proclaimed psychic Jeane Dixon predict armageddon when Jesus Christs returns to earth to defeat an unholy trinity of the Antichrist, Satan and a 'false prophet'.
Sir Isaac Newton predicted doomsday to occur in 2060, based on his occult reading of the Bible.
