When Will We Learn?

Apparently the Rapture of the church is set for another date superseding the September 23rd and 22nd dates so many people said it would be as we see in an article from MSN.com:

For weeks, anticipation and anxiety swirled online over claims that the Christian Rapture, the belief that Jesus will return to take his followers to heaven, would occur on 23 or 24 September 2025. The prophecy, made by South African preacher Pastor Joshua Mhlakela, spread widely across YouTube, TikTok and church networks, prompting some believers to prepare for the end while others turned the prediction into memes.

As we know Blessed Hop didn’t happen as predicted:

But when the sun rose on 25 September, the world remained unchanged. Now, Mhlakela insists the Rapture is still imminent, just on a revised date.

I reported on this obviously before the 24th and I did the same thing then that I am doing now. Here is a brief recap:

The initial prediction began when Mhlakela appeared on a video on Cettwinz TV's YouTube channel, declaring, 'The Rapture is upon us. Whether you are ready or not... On the 23rd and 24th of September 2025, I will come back to the Earth.' He described hearing Jesus say the words directly to him in a vision.

As in the past so many people saw the dates come and go with them being very disappointed as well as upset about investing so much time into the predictions”

When nothing happened on those dates, skepticism grew both among the faithful and the broader public. Critics pointed to a long history of failed doomsday predictions, while some followers expressed confusion and disappointment.

These people have to get in line with so many others who got caught up in the hype of Jesus taking His bride with Him. Unfortunately, the date setting isn’t over.

Sort Of An Apology

Brother Joshua as people call him had to apologize for missing the dates which Jesus Himself gave him in July of this year. That in itself should cause us pause since saying he’s wrong is actually also saying that Jesus was wrong. He clearly said that he saw Jesus in person, not a vision or dream and was given the September dates. I can live with misinterpreting the Bible but to get something that Jesus told him directly and then say he got it wrong is troubling for me. In any event he blamed the dates being off this way:

Responding days later, Mhlakela argued that the Julian calendar, which lags 13 days behind the widely used Gregorian calendar, had caused the miscalculation. In a follow-up video, he announced the new Rapture date as 7 or 8 October, aligning it with what he called the 'real Feast of Trumpets'.

So Jesus used the wrong calendar. It’s not like He didn’t see that coming being all knowing and all. Fortunately Brother Joshua is here to help God out and he’s just as certain for October as he was for September:

'The 7th and 8th of October is the real Feast of the Trumpets. I'm a billion percent sure,' he told viewers.

So now we are again looking for the Rapture happening in two to three days.

He Wasn’t Alone

As the article continues others shared in the excitement but also the disappointment of Jesus letting them down:

Mhlakela was not the only figure promoting the 23 September prophecy. South African singer-turned-preacher Danie Botha also repeated the claim in his own videos, saying he believed God had revealed it to him.

Botha did apologize without agreeing to another future date, though:

After the date passed uneventfully, Botha issued an emotional apology to his followers. 'I am very, very sorry,' he said, explaining that he felt 'disappointed and heartbroken' by the failure of his prediction, which had also left him with financial losses.

Financial losses? I can only imagine how many of his followers also invested or in some cases divested money in the hype which is sad all by itself. He believes the Rapture will still happen, but he unlike Brother Joshua is not setting dates again, at least now for now:

Still, Botha maintained that the 'signs of the end times' remain visible, a sentiment echoed by some evangelicals who continued to support the idea even after its non-fulfilment.

Social media was a hotbed of advice leading up to September:

The prophecy took on a life of its own beyond church circles, especially on TikTok, where users shared both preparations and humor.

Christian content creators like @kingdomwealth_christina urged followers to 'get your homes in order' and prepare their families for heaven. Others filmed tearful videos about what they believed would be their final days with loved ones.

Christina also went online to explain why the Rapture didn’t happen. Strangely she actually said that those mocking her for being wrong fulfilled prophecy. In her defense she didn’t agree with specific dates, but she did encourage people to prepare for it as it was going to happen then.

The Knives Are Out

Now that we have another Rapture date come and go, the usual suspects are online berating those who got on the date setting bandwagon. While taking potshots at them, they were actually clever and funny:

But many approached the claims with irony. One viral video showed a woman jokingly 'preparing her husband for the Rapture' by teaching him basic household chores, while another TikToker offered to accept donations of life savings before the supposed end.

Now that Brother Joshua is back at the date setting the social media is churning out the often caustic criticism with the same believing crowd accepting the new dates:

The frenzy has not ended there. Mhlakela's new October date is already stirring a fresh wave of content on TikTok, with some users openly mocking the revised prediction and others expressing hope that this time, it might actually be real.

Even the article gets the Rapture wrong, but I can excuse unbelievers to miss it:

The word 'Rapture' itself does not appear in the Bible, but the concept is drawn from passages in the New Testament, particularly 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17, which some interpret as describing a sudden gathering of believers when Jesus returns. However, not all Christians agree on its timing or even its existence.

The author did make sure to remind us of past date setting to get one last dig in making sure to note what they see as metaphysical crap shooting:

That has not stopped predictions from surfacing repeatedly in recent decades. From Harold Camping's failed 2011 prophecy to countless online claims linked to blood moons, eclipses or numerology, doomsday dates tend to attract attention and criticism.

So yes, date setting can draw attention to the Bible and Bible prophecy but it predictably leads to more haters of both in the long run:

Despite September's disappointment, Pastor Mhlakela remains resolute in his revised timeline. His insistence that 7–8 October 2025 will mark the 'true' Rapture date has once again sparked debate and curiosity. Whether October will bring another global moment of anticipation or another series of 'rapture memes' remains to be seen.

The attention isn’t worth the aftermath of derision that always comes. To be frank, I’m tired of having to try and clean things up on something as simple as just not knowing the day or the hour of the Rapture. I’m ok with it. And you should, too.