William Miller Sets 1843 for Second Coming

William Miller seemed an unlikely striker of panic. He tended a farm in Vermont, fought in the War of 1812, and served as a justice of the peace. His ...

Prophet Speaks to Denzel Washington

In a "60 Minutes" interview with Ed Bradley, Denzel Washington spoke of a pivotal moment in his life.

Washington was in college at the time and ...

Really Bad Predictions

In a recent article in The Futurist magazine, writer Laura Lee catalogues some of the worst predictions of all time:

"Inventions have long since reached ...

Another Purpose of Preaching

A prophet once came to a city to convert its inhabitants. At first the people listened to his sermons, but they gradually drifted away until there was ...

An Early View of Aviation

The demonstration that no possible combination of known substances, known forms of machinery, and known forms of force can be united in a practical machine ...

Montesquieu's Opinion of the Population Crisis

The population of the earth decreases every day, and, if this continues, in another ten centuries the earth will be nothing but a desert.

Webster's View of American Expansion

I have never heard of anything, and I cannot conceive of anything more ridiculous, more absurd, and more affrontive to all sober judgment than the cry ...

A Nineteenth Century Opinion on Invention

The advancement of the arts from year to year taxes our credulity and seems to presage the arrival of that period when further improvement must end.

The Necessity of Storytelling

Prophecy can explain only so much. Storytelling is required for the rest.

Misunderstanding Prophecy

We do not question that holy men moved by the Holy Spirit have foretold things that were to come to pass, which could not have been foreseen by the natural ...