The Second Coming is a Christian and Islamic concept regarding the return of Jesus to Earth after his first coming and his ascension to heaven about two thousand years ago. The belief is based on messianic prophecies found in the canonical gospels and is part of most Christian eschatologies. Views about the nature of Jesus's Second Coming vary among Christian denominations and among individual Christians.

A number of specific dates have been predicted for the Second Coming. This list shows the dates and details of predictions from notable groups or individuals of when Jesus was, or is, expected to return. This list also contains dates specifically predicting Jesus's Millennium, although there are several theories on when the Millennium is believed to occur in relation to the Second Coming.

Past predictions

Predicted date Claimant Description 500 Hippolytus of Rome, Sextus Julius Africanus, Irenaeus These three Christian theologians predicted Jesus would return in the year 500. One prediction was based on the dimensions of Noah's Ark. In Hippolytus's Commentary on Daniel, he writes that six thousand years must pass, since the creation of the world, and he believes it was created 5500 years before Christ. 1260 Joachim of Fiore The Italian mystic determined that the Millennium would begin between 1200 and 1260.Richard Kyle, The Last Days are Here Again. Baker Books, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1998. 1368/1370 Jean de Roquetaillade The Antichrist was predicted to come in 1366 and the Millennium would begin in 1368 or 1370.1492Various RussiansMany Russian Orthodox Christians beginning from the start of the 15th century believed this year would mark the end of the world (and by extension, the Second Coming) since it would be the end of the seventh millennium and the start of the eighth millennium according to the Byzantine calendar. In 1408, this belief led to the Russian Orthodox Church making the decision not to compute the date of Easter beyond 1491. 1504 Sandro Botticelli Believed he was living during the time of the Tribulation, and that the Millennium would begin in three and a half years from 1500. 20 February 1524 Johannes Stöffler A planetary alignment in Pisces was seen by this astrologer as a sign of the Millennium. 1524–1526 Thomas Müntzer 1525 would mark the beginning of the Millennium, according to this Anabaptist. 19 October 1533 Michael Stifel This mathematician calculated that the Judgement Day would begin at 8:00 am on this day. 1673 William Aspinwall This Fifth Monarchist claimed the Millennium would begin by this year.Richard Abanes, End-Time Visions. Four Walls Eight Windows, New York, 1998. 1694 Johann Jacob Zimmermann Believed that Jesus would return and the world would end this year.Daniel Cohen, Prophets of Doom. The Millbrook Press, Inc., Brookfield, Connecticut, 1999. John Mason and Johann Heinrich Alsted Both claimed the Millennium would begin by this year. 1700 Henry Archer Archer counted 1335 years from the end of the reign of Julian the Apostate (the dates of whose reign he was uncertain), taking the 1335 days in Daniel 12:12 as years. 1757 Emanuel Swedenborg In 1758 Swedenborg reported that the Last Judgment had taken place in the spiritual world in 1757, the year before his report (so he presented this not as a prediction but as an eyewitness account). This was one of many events recounted in his works resulting from visions of Jesus Christ returned. He tells of almost daily interaction with Christ over the course of almost 30 years. His return is not in the flesh, but in His Holy Spirit. "Neither shall they say see here or see there, for behold, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:20).1770Emanuel SwedenborgOn 19 June 1770, Swedenborg reported that upon completion of the theological work "True Christian Religion", that the Lord had completed his Second Coming by means of a man. Not returning again in the flesh, but instead as the Spirit of Truth. 1770 Ann Lee In the late 1700s, the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing also known as the Shakers, believed that the second coming of Christ would be through a woman. In 1770, Ann Lee became the leader of the Shakers and they believed she was revealed in "manifestation of Divine light" to be the second coming of Christ and was called Mother Ann. 1793–1795 Richard Brothers This retired sailor stated the Millennium would begin between 1793 and 1795. He was eventually committed to an insane asylum.Tom McIver, The End of the World: An Annotated Bibliography. McFarlane & Co., Jefferson, North Carolina, 1999. 25 December 1814 Joanna Southcott This 64-year-old self-described prophet claimed she was pregnant with the Christ child, and that he would be born on Christmas Day, 1814. She died on the day of her prediction, and an autopsy proved that she was not pregnant.Stephen Skinner, Millennium Prophecies. Longmeadow Press, Stamford, Connecticut, 1994. 15 September 1829 George Rapp Founder and leader of the Harmony Society, predicted that on 15 September 1829, the three and one half years of the Sun Woman would end and Christ would begin his reign on Earth.Frederic J. Baumgartner, Longing for the End: A History of Millennialism in Western Civilization (1999) p. 166 Dissension grew when Rapp's predictions went unfulfilled. In March 1832, a third of the group left and some began following Bernhard Müller who claimed to be the Lion of Judah. Nevertheless, most of the group stayed and Rapp continued to lead them until he died on 7 August 1847. His last words to his followers were, "If I did not so fully believe, that the Lord has designated me to place our society before His presence in the land of Canaan, I would consider this my last."William E. Wilson, The Angel and the Serpent: The Story of New Harmony (Indiana University Press, 1984) p. 11 1836 John Wesley Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, foresaw the Millennium beginning this year. He wrote that Revelation 12:14 referred to the years 1058–1836, "when Christ should come". 22 October 1844 William Miller, Millerites The fact that this failed to happen the way people were expecting was later referred to as the Great Disappointment. Some Millerites continued to set dates; others founded the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the Advent Christian Church, which continue to expect a soon Second Coming but no longer set dates for it. Followers of the Baháʼí Faith claim that Miller's prediction of the year 1844 was in fact calculated correctly, and refers to the advent of the Báb. 7 August 1847 George Rapp Rapp, the founder of the Harmony Society, preached that Jesus would return in his lifetime, even as he lay dying on 7 August 1847. 1861 Joseph Morris Morris told his followers not to plant crops because he firmly believed that "Christ will come tomorrow." 1863 John Wroe The founder of the Christian Israelite Church calculated that the Millennium would begin this year. 1874 Charles Taze Russell The first president of what is now the Watchtower Society of the Jehovah's Witnesses, calculated 1874 to be the year of Christ's Second Coming, and until his death taught that Christ was invisibly present, and ruling from the heavens from that date prophesied."The writer, among many others now interested, was sound asleep, in profound ignorance of the cry, etc., until 1876, when being awakened he trimmed his lamp (for it is still very early in the morning.) It showed him clearly that the Bridegroom had come and that he is living "in the days of the Son of Man."Russell explained how he accepted the idea of an invisible return of Christ from N.H. Barbour in "Harvest Gatherings and Siftings" in the 15 July 1906 Watch Tower, Reprints page 3822.The Three Worlds and The Harvest of This World by N.H. Barbour and C.T. Russell (1877). Text available online at: http://www.heraldmag.org/olb/contents/history/3worlds.pdf Russell proclaimed Christ's invisible return in 1874, the resurrection of the saints in 1875, and predicted the end of the "harvest" and a rapture of the saints to heaven for 1878, and the final end of "the day of wrath" in 1914. 1874 was considered the end of 6,000 years of human history and the beginning of judgment by Christ.In 1935, the idea that the 6,000 years ran out in 1874 was moved forward 100 years. 1890 Wovoka The founder of the Ghost Dance movement predicted in 1889 that the Millennium would occur in 1890.Stephen Jay Gould, Questioning the Millennium. Harmony Books, New York, 1997. 1891 Joseph Smith, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The minutes of a meeting held on 14 February 1835 (in which the first twelve apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were chosen, ordained, and instructed) state that "President Smith then stated that the meeting had been called, because God had commanded it; and it was made known to him by vision and by the Holy Spirit. He then gave a relation of some of the circumstances attending us while journeying to Zion—our trials, sufferings; and said God had not designed all this for nothing, but He had it in remembrance yet; and it was the will of God that those who went to zion, with a determination to lay down their lives, if necessary, should be ordained to the ministry, and go forth to prune the vineyard for the last time, or the coming of the Lord, which was nigh—even fifty-six years should wind up the scene" ("History of the Church Volume 2", page 182).

However, in a revelation dated 2 April 1843, and published as scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 130:14–17, Smith states: "I was once praying very earnestly to know the time of the coming of the Son of Man, when I heard a voice repeat the following: Joseph, my son, if thou livest until thou art eighty-five years old, thou shalt see the face of the Son of Man; therefore let this suffice, and trouble me no more on this matter. I was left thus, without being able to decide whether this coming referred to the beginning of the millennium or to some previous appearing, or whether I should die and thus see his face. I believe the coming of the Son of Man will not be any sooner than that time". Smith was born December, 1805, which would put that date at no earlier than 1890.

Furthermore, in a revelation dated 7 May 1831, Smith records: "Thus saith the Lord; for I am God, and have sent mine Only Begotten Son into the world for the redemption of the world, and have decreed that he that receiveth him shall be saved, and he that receiveth him not shall be damned—And they have done unto the Son of Man even as they listed; and he has taken his power on the right hand of his glory, and now reigneth in the heavens, and will reign till he descends on the earth to put all enemies under his feet, which time is nigh at hand—I, the Lord God, have spoken it; but the hour and the day no man knoweth, neither the angels in heaven, nor shall they know until he comes" (Doctrine and Covenants 49:5–7).