You might have missed it, but last week saw the passing of yet another failed rapture prediction.
Apparently last Tuesday 23rd September was “Rapture Day”, and the guy who started it all was a “billion percent” sure it was happening.
So where did this latest sure-thing Rapture date come from?
It all took flight in mid September when a fanatical religious zealot named Joshua Mhlakela took part in a South African podcast named CentTwinz TV. To be very specific, here he is …
Here is what he claimed …
I’ll say this again. The Rapture is among us. The Rapture is upon us. Whether you are ready or you are not ready, the Rapture in 14 days from now is going to take place. 14 days.
…
I’ll say this again. The date of the 23rd, which is going to be the Rapture of the church, this date is irrefutable. [Co-host: It’s final.] It is final. It is… [Other co-host: What day of the week is it? I haven’t even checked.] I think it’s Tuesday…
This date cannot be disproven. In fact, no one has disproven this date. People have said a lot of things on the internet, but no one has disproven this date. No one. So, I say again, you have to listen to what I say, because the words that are coming out of my mouth are coming straight from the mouth of the Almighty God.
“This date cannot be disproven“
(Checks calendar)… er, I think reality just did that … again!.
Why did some obscure guy on a foreign podcast go Viral?
If you have never heard of Joshua Mhlakela, then do not be shocked. He is not a pastor or “prophet”, or “Bishop”, or cleric, or “Apostle”, or whatever fancy title many self-appoint to themselves dream up, just a guy with a message. This is not a case of him being an unknown here, he really is a complete unknown.
Unfortunately, whenever somebody sticks a mic in front of a religious zealot, they will grasp it with relish and proceed with a torrent of claims.
CentTwinz might sound obscure but the dynamic duo, Innocent Sadiki and Millicent Mashile, do have a bit of influence via their 428K subscribers.They also have 557,000 followers in Instagram and over 1 million on TicTok, so they are best termed as semi-public figures and whatever they endorse can gain traction.
So the question of the moment is this – have they challenged Joshua about his failed rapture that he was “one billion percent” certain about?
Actually, yes they have …sort of …
- Side Note: If you are on a diet then be cautious with the clip below. The degree of rich trickle that they dollop all over this “prophet” is a wonder to behold
Joshua has gone full Harold Camping in this and has come up with a new date.
In other words they are vigorously promoting this fraudster and his new date, principally because the old one was so popular.
- The initial prediction clip gains 433K views
- The new one above is already over 200K views
People – this is all about clicks designed to generate $$$, but hey, if you are reading me then you had already worked that bit out.
A fun bit of Rapture History
Harold Camping was the guy who famously predicted that the rapture would be May 21, 2011. Do you remember all those billboards up and down the highways?
When that date came and went, he appeared before the press, and stated that he had reinterpreted his prophecy. In his revised claim, May 21 was a “spiritual” judgment day, and the physical Rapture would occur on October 21, 2011.
When Camping was challenged about the money donated to advertise it all, he said that his company would not return money stating: “We’re not at the end. Why would we return it?“.
After October 21, 2011, had passed without his predictions coming true he went into seclusion. Then finally in March 2012, when pressed, he admitted he had been very wrong. He was however right about one thing, it really was the end times … for him. The 92 year old Mr Camping passed away in Jan 2014.
If curious to know more, then you will find that that his Wikipedia page covers it all.
The “Rapture” belief is popular … or is it?
Pew revealed as insight in 2022. There they laid out something that you might perhaps guess – the idea that Jesus is coming back really is popular…
It is absolutely no surprise to observe that 92% of Evangelicals believe Jesus coming back, and yes, the more Republican you are and the less educated you are, the more inclined you will be to embrace the idea that Jesus will be back any day now (for the past 2000 years). That’s not what makes the above “interesting”.
What does is this …
- Apparently 1% of evangelicals don’t believe in Jesus at all.
- And apparently 1% of Atheists do believe that Jesus will be coming back
Please people, make any of that make sense to me.
Actually no, you don’t need to, we live in a world filled with Trump voters. This is also a landscape where people will identify as “Evangelical” for political reasons, and not actually hold any evangelical beliefs. What can I say except to welcome you to 2025.
Now here is an important clarification – the concept of the Rapture and the belief that Jesus will be coming back are not the same thing. It would have been fascinating if Pew had asked them to explain what they think will happen when Jesus comes back.
- A general end-times belief that has been around since the beginning of Christianity is that Jesus is coming back
- The specific Rapture belief, the claim that all Christians will be suddenly taken away and leave the rest of us behind, is quite new and not a historical Christian belief at all.
The Rapture belief is a subset of the belief amongst those who believe Jesus will return one day. For some it’s the same thing, Jesus comes and takes the “true” believers away, for others the Rapture and the second coming are separate events.
Where does this Rapture belief come from?
As is often pointed out, the word “Rapture” does not exist in the bible.
What is also not often appreciated is that there is no universal understanding of what “end-times” or “the second coming of Jesus” actually is at all. Instead there exists a vast diversity of claims. To describe all this there exists a vast array of terms such as – Pretribulational premillennialism, Midtribulational premillennialism, Prewrath premillennialism, Partial rapture premillennialism, Posttribulational premillennialism, Postmillennialism, Amillennialism, and much much more.
Permit me to save to a lot of glazed-eye time – it’s all BS.
What is perhaps the most commonly accepted variation of the specific Rapture belief is that all dead Christian believers will be resurrected and joined with Christians who are still alive, then together will rise “in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.” – they call that “dispensational premillennialism”.
The belief itself is rather new and originates in the 1830s via a guy named John Nelson Darby.
In other words, all of this Rapture nonsense came from that one guy, gained traction, and so here we are now, awash with multiple whacky claims that are all resting upon the “foundation” of his 1830 whacky beliefs.
I should also add, that this is very much now an evangelical thing. Most Christian denominations do not subscribe to rapture theology and have a very different interpretation of the various bible verses used to justify it.
Be Skeptical
How you think matters. The methodology you deploy to reach conclusions will have long-term consequences.
Carl Sagan best explained it like this …
Science is more than a body of knowledge. It is a way of thinking; a way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we are up for grabs for the next charlatan (political or religious) who comes rambling along.
One last thought
It is oh so tempting for the rational and the scientifically literate to secretly yearn for the Rapture to be real, but alas, it is not, that’s just a fantasy.
Think of how amazing the world would become if suddenly all the fanatical religious zealots were taken away by Jesus.
I’m not along in that daydream …
Social Media
As always, Social Media does its thing wonderfully well …
According to one tabloid the lack of Rapture is being blamed on Trump …
Remember to tick 23 Sept off on your Rapture card …
Delta will be ready …
April Ajoy, who is actually a Christian, but not a completely nutty one, has a few observations about what Rapture believers are doing to prepare their pets for their absence …
For those worried about pets, we have you covered for a fee …
… and finally … Amen to this …
