Every few years, someone claims to know the exact date of the rapture — the hour of Jesus’ return. This fall, that prediction belongs to Pastor Joshua Mhlakela, a South African preacher whose prophecy has gone viral on TikTok and YouTube.
But whether or not the rapture arrives on schedule, what the social media buzz about it also revealed is how Black folks continue to live, laugh, pray, and persist, even when the internet insists the end is near.
A Direct Message
Mhlakela insists that Jesus told him he would return Sept. 23 during the Feast of Trumpets, which coincides with Rosh Hashana, the start of the Jewish High Holy Days. His video has been viewed nearly 600,000 times on YouTube, and he told the hosts of CettwinzTV that the message was direct.
‘The rapture is upon us, whether you are ready or not. I saw Jesus sitting on his throne, and I could hear him very loud and clear saying, I am coming soon,’ Mhlakela said during the interview.
‘He said to me on the 23rd and 24th of September 2025, I will come back to the Earth,’ the pastor declared.
Failed Predictions
For Bible readers of all faiths, Mhlakela’s words raise a tension. Matthew 24:36 is clear: no one knows the day or the hour. And yet, prophecies about the rapture have surfaced throughout history — and repeatedly proven false. Televangelist Harold Camping famously predicted the rapture would come in May 2011. When it didn’t, he claimed his calculations were off, then set another date that also failed.
Still, each new prediction seems to capture attention. The difference today is the speed and reach of social media. What might have been a sermon to a few hundred people in one congregation can now be a viral video reshared by millions within hours.
Social Media Reacts: From Panic to Punchlines
Social media is new, but what’s not new is the Black community’s ability to make meaning out of what’s happening around us. Generations have lived with end-times language woven into sermons, gospel songs, and church culture. At the same time, humor has always been a way Black folks overcome fear and hold onto hope.
On TikTok, the hashtag #rapture appears in thousands of posts. And the responses reveal a spectrum: fear, preparation, sarcasm, and satire.
One woman posted a detailed list for whoever might take over her home when she’s gone. Another user, declared she had already given away all her earthly possessions “to the heathens who will be left.”
Brand strategist Naomi Olutayo recalled on Threads that the family of a friend of hers in third grade sold all their possessions because they believed they would be raptured. “Their entire family flew in to celebrate their last day on earth together too,” she remembered.
“When she came back to school the day after the supposed rapture, it was pure chaos,” she wrote. The school’s principal ended up banning “the whole school from talking about the rapture. And this was a Christian school.”
Given the nation’s problems with racism, theologian and author Candice Benbow also pointed out the irony of so many white Christians preparing for the rapture.
“When these white Christians find out that a Black South African pastor started this rapture frenzy and they’ve been following the words of a Black man, they are gonna LOSE it!” she wrote on Threads.
Others approached it with humor. Comedian Kevin Fredericks, joked about checking time zones: “Asian brothers and sisters, if you’re left behind, please check in.”
Meanwhile, a user named Saron asked the obvious question: “If you are still here, earth-side with the rest of us heathens on Sept. 24, 2025 — what then?”
Whether Sept. 23 comes and goes like every other day, the buzz around Mhlakela’s prophecy reminds us of the difference between faith and the material world, what can be seen, touched, and felt. And no matter what, for believers, the scripture still stands: no one knows the day or the hour.