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Extremist Movements

The September Doomsday Bust: 'Prophets' Blow Claims About Series Of Calamities

For much of this year, right-wing pundits such as Glenn Beck(link is external) and Pat Robertson(link is external) were swept up in an End Times frenzy largely created by author and messianic rabbi Jonathan Cahn, who claimed that an extremely disastrous event would happen in the U.S. during the month of September, more specifically, around September 13, as a sign of God’s judgment on America. “This is down to the day, the hour,” he told(link is external) Robertson of his prophecy.

When Robertson recently asked Cahn — who devised his prophecy by linking together Jewish holidays, the appearance of blood moons and the Supreme Court decision on gay marriage — why no tremendous and horrible event had occurred in the country on the much-heralded doomsday date(link is external), he insisted that the August 18 stock market selloff came close enough, and that a minor earthquake off the Mexican coast was also a sign that God is punishing the U.S. Cahn then claimed(link is external) that if something — anything — bad happens between now and September of next year, that will prove that his prophecy was right all along!

One televangelist who was enthralled by Cahn’s claims was Jim Bakker, who after hosting Cahn many times on his program, made several predictions about cataclysmic events that would occur in September, all the while urging people to buy his survivalist gear and food buckets in order to prepare.

Among the calamities(link is external) that Bakker warned might happen on September 13(link is external): Typhoons, earthquakes, bombings and a stock market crash.

Bakker also confidently predicted(link is external) that whatever happened, Pope Francis would “be involved(link is external).”

Two months after France dropped a potential UN resolution on Palestinian statehood “in wake of pressure by Israel and the U.S.(link is external),” Bakker’s co-host Zach Drew said that the U.N. would soon take up a vote on the resolution, and that the U.S. would likely support it.

While he failed to mention that France had already abandoned the resolution and that it never won American support, he and Bakker said(link is external) that the resolution would trigger a massive earthquake in the U.S. in mid-September.

In another September broadcast(link is external), Bakker told his audience that they were running out of time to prepare for the end of days (by buying his food buckets(link is external)) because “there is going to be a crash on September 13(link is external).”