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The Watchmen of the Night is a small religious group based in Aalten (in the Dutch province of Gelderland), that lives in the expectation of Jesus Christ’s imminent return to the earth. The Watchmen consider themselves belonging to the historicist school of interpretation of biblical prophecies. They expect the seventh vial of God’s wrath (Rev. 16:17) to be poured out soon and think the period 2017-2018 will be of crucial significance. In this article their prophecies concerning the end of times are presented and the question is discussed what will be the consequences for the group and its views when these predictions will be confronted with the (possible contradictory) reality of 2017-2018.

An overview of definitions of religion and magic is followed by an outline of the main questions (inequality, cohesion, rationalization) and major scientific research programmes (historical materialism, structural functionalism, interpretative individualism, and rational choice and market-theory) in which the history of the scientific debate and the state of the art is delineated. Then, research on actual themes since the nineteen sixties is presented, viz. the evolution of the gods, secularization & unchurching, and new religious movements. How progress can be realised in the sociology of religion is discussed in the concluding section.

In the debate on religious conversion it has been often stated that conversion stories are not factual accounts but interpretations in retrospect of the convert’s biography, which he has rewritten after the way the (ideal) conversion is depicted in the doctrine of the group he has joined. Is the rewriting a continuous affair or does it stop when the conversion has been fashioned after the way the religious group prescribes? In the article we present data on the prophetic healing movement ‘Uit de Bron van Christus’ (From the Source of Christ) to give insight into how converts describe their conversion process and if reinterpretation does end after accepting the conversion model of the movement.

The expectation of the end of times is of all times and of all places. Yet, in the various religions the frequency of millennial outbursts fluctuates. In Christianity, the frequency is related to the nature of its soteriology. It is argued that although a post-Calvinist conception of salvation may heighten the belief in millenarian dreams, yet it is highly likely that recruits are members of mainline protestant churches. By means of rational choice–theory it is made plausible which believers will be recruited and under what conditions joining may occur. A particular millennistic group in the Netherlands believing to live in the end of times and expecting to be taken to heaven in 2001, the Efraïm Society led by the prophet Elijah, is taken as a case. The effects of failed prophecy on leadership, on the followers and the doctrine are examined as well.