Historically, it has been done for reasons such as diverting attention from actual crises like poverty and war, pushing political agendas, and promoting hatred of certain groups antisemitism was a popular theme of Christian apocalyptic predictions in medieval times, while French and Lutheran depictions of the apocalypse were known to feature English and Catholic antagonists respectively. Little research has been done into why people make apocalyptic predictions. While these disasters are generally accepted within the scientific community as plausible 'end of the world' scenarios, the events and phenomena are not expected to occur for hundreds of thousands or even billions of years from now. Predictions of the end from natural events have also been theorised by various scientists and scientific groups. Often this takes the form of mathematical calculations, such as trying to calculate the point where it will have been 6000 years since the supposed creation of the Earth by the Abrahamic God, which according to the Talmud marks the deadline for the Messiah to appear. Many religious-related end-time events are predicted to occur within the lifetime of the person making the prediction, who often quote the Bible, and in particular the New Testament, as either the primary or exclusive source for the predictions. Christian predictions typically refer to events like the rapture, the Great Tribulation, the Last Judgment, and the Second Coming of Christ. Most predictions are related to Abrahamic religions, often standing for or similar to the eschatological events described in their scriptures.

Predictions of apocalyptic events that would result in the extinction of humanity, a collapse of civilization, or the destruction of the planet have been made since at least the beginning of the Common Era. In Christian belief, the Last Judgement is an apocalyptic event where God makes a final judgement of all people on Earth. The Last Judgment by painter Hans Memling.

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