The Rapture didn’t happen (again). Why do some people keep falling for it?
A South African preacher’s viral prophecy fizzled, but the real story is how these lies keep finding an audience
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If you’re reading this, that means you were not Raptured yesterday. (Sorry?) But that’s not because you were Left Behind. It’s because no one ascended to Heaven despite a viral prediction from a barely known preacher that the Big Day as supposedly foretold by the Bible would finally occur on September 23.
The prediction really took off earlier this month when South African preacher Joshua Mhlakela said on an episode of the CentTwinz TV podcast that the Rapture would definitely occur in two weeks—on September 23. He was sure of it.
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.
He also said in the interview that he was a “billion percent” sure he was right. A billion!
That would come as a surprise to anyone who’s read the Bible, as this Associated Press article pointed out:
You may be wondering: What church does Mhlakela run? Is this guy at least famous in his country? He doesn’t and he isn’t. He’s not an apostle. Or a pastor. Or a bishop.
He’s just a dude.
[Co-host: So, you’re not like… a full-time pastor or anything… like any of a five-fold ministry? You just… have a burning message from the Lord?]
Yes. I’m just a simple person. No title… I’m not an apostle. I’m not a pastor. I’m not a bishop. I am just a believer. Simple believer in Jesus… Born again… Blood-washed…
He’s the theological equivalent of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. giving medical advice with no relevant expertise. He’s just going with his gut. And this irresponsible show with over 420,000 subscribers on YouTube put a damn microphone in front of him.
That’s why a lot of people believed it, including the twins from The Shining who were interviewing him. Mhlakela seemed confident! He must have known something, right?!
Of course he didn’t. That should have been obvious the moment he used a percentage higher than 100%.
But it’s not like those believers were anomalies. A 2022 survey from the Pew Research Center found that 55% of Americans are deluded enough to believe Jesus will eventually return to Earth, including 92% of evangelical Christians and 86% of historically Black Protestants.
Even the believers, though, don’t have a certain date in mind for when that will happen—a fact that helps downplay any cognitive dissonance in their minds.
Clips from that first interview with Mhlakela went viral on TikTok, which led a lot of very gullible Christians to talk about how they were preparing for this day they’ve always been dreaming about: when they would finally be taken to Heaven to hang out with Jesus while everyone else—the less pious people, everyone reading this newsletter, etc.—had to remain on Earth and live in chaos.
One video showed a woman leaving notes in her bibles for others to find in the hopes they would convert. Another person lamented that the Big Day wouldn’t be happening on her birthday, but it’s okay, because at least her next birthday would “be a heavenly one.” One woman on #RaptureTok said she believed Jesus would be returning on September 23, requested the day off from work, didn’t get it, and then lost her job in the aftermath.
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Obviously, the Rapture didn’t happen yesterday. (Or it did and very devout Christians are now scrambling to figure out why Jesus didn’t find them worthy.) As of this writing, Mhlakela hasn’t made any public statements about why his prediction failed.
But we can take some lessons from his obvious lie because all of this has happened before—nearly 15 years ago.
Back in 2011, Radio evangelist Harold Camping staked his entire reputation on the idea that the Rapture would occur on May 21. His company, Family Radio, spent more than $5,000,000 on 5,000 billboards announcing that date, and a media frenzy soon followed. (Unlike the recent prediction, which only became popular in some circles a week or so ago, Camping was on the record about his prediction several months before the date. It had a LOT of time to build.)
May 21 came and went. Camping claimed the Rapture would still happen a few months later, but by that point, he and his ministry had become laughingstocks, forever reminding us why other so-called “prophets” never attach specific dates to their Rapture predictions. Prophecies are always supposed to occur “soon.” Never “tomorrow.” Good grifters know you always deal in vagueness, not specificities. Mhlakela, I guess, never got the memo.
Within months of his epic failure, Camping announced his retirement. Months after that, he formally admitted he was wrong (“We humbly acknowledge we were wrong about the timing”). In 2013, Camping died. In 2018, Family Radio stopped airing his old sermons.
Whenever Camping’s name comes up today, it’s only in association with his biggest lie, whether he truly believed it or not. He dedicated his life to spreading the Gospel message but his legacy is nothing more than that of a Christian huckster who used the Bible to convince people of a different kind of religious lie.
It’s too early to tell what fate awaits Mhlakela because most people talking about the Rapture don’t even seem to connect this particular lie to him. He’s not the face of the supposed Rapture like Camping was in 2011. He just kickstarted the process, which then took on a life of its own.
The best-case scenario here is that, within a couple of weeks, a voice that never needed to be heard will have even less of an audience. But it won’t be the last time a Christian liar pretends to know with certainty the date that Jesus will return. It’s too easy of a grift for some people to pass up, and proper marketing mixed with religious overconfidence always makes up for the subsequent embarrassment. That’s what happens when people remember the hits and forget the misses. These so-called revelations never withstand the test of reality, yet they persist because fear and hope are powerful currencies for anyone who wants to exploit them.
(The irony is that a lot of atheists probably wanted the Rapture to happen more than the Christians who genuinely believed it. Can you even imagine a world where the religious conspiracists just magically disappeared one day?! Our government might actually function again.)
But there is a silver lining in all of this. Every failed prediction chips away at the credibility of the individuals peddling it. They chip away at the idea that faith should be grounded in blind submission rather than critical thought. They remind us that people rearranging their lives, quitting their jobs, or leaving farewell notes in their bibles—all because of their misplaced trust in a religious spokesperson—isn’t just embarrassing, it’s harmful.
The Rapture didn’t happen yesterday for the same reason it didn’t happen in 2011 and won’t happen in the future. It’s fiction.
Maybe that’s the upside. Every time a self-appointed prophet gets a big prediction wrong, it’s a crack in the façade—an invitation to ask harder questions and demand better answers. You don’t have to give in to the empty promises of men who speak louder than they think. You don’t need an escape hatch to Heaven.
You’re still here. You have the opportunity to make this world better now. So make smarter choices. Don’t let yourself be fooled by people who look to the Bible for guidance when actual experts are all around them.
And when you’re wrong, just admit it instead of making up excuses for it.
"He’s the theological equivalent of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. giving medical advice with no relevant expertise."
Actually one needs zero expertise for theology since nothing it espouses is evidence or reality based.
Do believers never consider the fact that the Rapture can't happen in one day due to the Earth having 24 different time zones and is not a single time zone? That their today is someone's yesterday or someone's tomorrow?
Reality, xtians. Look into it.