Circle Nov. 13, 2026, on the calendar. More than six decades ago, three researchers published a study in one of the world’s leading scientific journals predicting that humanity would reach “doomsday” on that exact date.
The calculation has since collapsed. But as the date approaches, the resurfacing prediction offers a timely reminder: Human beings have repeatedly attempted to calculate the end of the world, even though Jesus Christ said its timing belongs to the Father alone.
The prediction originated with a 1960 paper published in the journal Science. Austrian American professor and cybernetics expert Heinz von Foerster wrote the study with students Patricia M. Mora and Lawrence W. Amiot.
Based on population growth during the previous 2,000 years, the researchers projected that the human population would “approach infinity” on Nov. 13.
“Our great-great-grandchildren will not starve,” the researchers wrote, according to the Daily Mail. “They will be squeezed to death.”
Despite its bizarre conclusion, the study was cited in textbooks covering genetics, ecology and demography. Its model remained relatively accurate for several decades, but the world’s changing birth rate eventually dismantled its prediction.
“Only around 1993 did that accuracy begin to falter and the global population began falling behind the forecasts,” Western University history professor Alan MacEachern wrote in The Conversation, according to the Daily Mail. “Today, the global birth rate is slightly less than half the 1960 rate.”
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MacEachern also noted that von Foerster had once worked as a stage magician. He suggested the researchers wrapped legitimate scientific observations in a theatrical conclusion to seize the public’s attention.
“To draw the world’s attention to a serious matter by way of absurdity — that’s a good trick,” MacEachern wrote.
“We will all wake up on 13 November to an ordinary day,” he added.
The failed population forecast may be scientifically interesting, but it exposes a deeper human obsession with discovering what God has chosen not to reveal.
“Concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only,” Jesus said in Matthew 24:36.
Before His ascension, Jesus gave His disciples the same boundary.
“It is not for you to know the times or the dates, which the Father has fixed by His own authority,” He said in Acts 1:7.
Those declarations leave no room for a scientist, self-appointed prophet or mathematical formula to announce the date of Christ’s return. Date-setting creates unnecessary fear, distracts believers from their calling and can damage Christian credibility when the appointed day inevitably passes.
Although Scripture withholds the date, it does reveal where human history is headed.
Jesus said the gospel of the kingdom would be proclaimed throughout the world before the end comes. He warned of wars, persecution, false prophets, lawlessness and spiritual deception. Second Thessalonians speaks of apostasy and the revealing of the man of lawlessness.
The Bible does not teach that humanity will simply overcrowd the planet and disappear. It points toward the personal and visible return of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the dead, God’s final judgment and the creation of a new heaven and new earth.
These biblical signs are calls to spiritual vigilance, not pieces of an equation that allow someone to produce a date.
Nov. 13, 2026, will not overturn the words of Jesus. Whether the day proves ordinary or eventful, no population graph has uncovered God’s prophetic calendar.
Christians have not been commanded to calculate dates, spread panic or chase every sensational prediction. We have been commanded to remain watchful, proclaim the gospel and live faithfully while awaiting the return of Jesus Christ.
James Lasher, a seasoned writer and editor at Charisma Media, combines faith and storytelling with a journalism background from Otterbein University and ministry experience in Guatemala and at the LA Dream Center. A Marine Corps and Air Force veteran, he is the author of The Revelation of Jesus: A Common Man’s Commentary and a contributor to Charisma magazine. For interviews and media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
