Recycled Doomsday

The latest doomsday prediction points to April 23, 2018, as the end.

Call it the recycled doomsday: A new prediction for the end of the world sets the apocalypse date as Monday, April 23, based on a mishmash of old numerology, re-readings of the biblical Book of Revelation and rehashed conspiracy theories about a rogue "Planet X."

Even the calendar date of the prediction, April 23, hearkens back to one of the most famous failed apocalypse predictors of all time, William Miller. A Baptist preacher whose followers would eventually form the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Miller predicted multiple doomsday dates in the mid-1800s, including one on April 23, 1843. He was most famous for a later prediction of Oct. 22, 1844, a date that would live on in infamy as "The Great Disappointment" when Jesus Christ did not appear to kick off the end of the world.

The latest doomsday predictor with a slippery grasp on dates is David Meade, who previously claimed that a rare alignment of stars on Sept. 23, 2017, heralded the end. Meade said that the star alignment would precede the passage by Earth of a rogue planet called Planet X, which would cause all sorts of geological trials and tribulations, culminating in the eventual return of Jesus per the Book of Revelation.