The failed rapture prophecy of a South African pastor Joshua Mhlakela has left many who believed in his prediction in shock and despair, with some lamenting losing jobs, homes, and belongings.
Mhlakela had predicted that the rapture would take place between Tuesday, September 23, and Wednesday, September 24.
Rapture is a popular Christian belief that Jesus Christ would return to take his followers to heaven after angels have sounded trumpets.
While this Biblical teaching is believed to be true, several doomsday preachers had made predictions about when it would happen, which had failed.
Mhlakela claimed that Jesus appeared to him in a vision and revealed the exact date when the world would end.
He had stated that the rapture would take place during the Feast of Trumpets, also called Rosh Hashanah, a two-day Jewish festival that some Christians believe pointed prophetically to the rapture and the second coming of Christ.
“The rapture is upon us, whether you are ready or not, the rapture will happen in 14 days from now,” Mhlakela said in an interview with a YouTube channel CettwinzTV.
“I’m a billion per cent sure that we are going to see the Lord, the rapture is going to happen. I don’t know how to assure you, but I give you a billion per cent that it is going to happen. The date of the 23rd which is going to be the rapture of the church, this date is irrefutable, it is final,” he added.
The prophecy later went viral and generated mixed reactions.
While some dismissed it as another doomsday prediction, others took it seriously, resigning from their jobs, selling off property, and preparing for what they believe will be the end of days.
Using the hashtag #RaptureTok, many users on TikTok expressed their preparation for the rapture.
One user, Hannah Gallman, claimed God confirmed the prophecy with her in a vision.
She said, “When I heard about Joshua’s vision, I took it seriously because it lined up with a timeframe I was already looking at. I really do believe this is happening next week. I’m not going to say 100 per cent that it will, but the confirmation God has given me seems to be pointing to next week.”
Another TikTok user, Spencer Vans, announced that he was giving away his possessions because he believed they would no longer be needed.
He said, “I’m giving away my car for free, the rapture is happening tomorrow, I’m not going to need any of my earthly things anymore. I think someone will get a lot more use out of it because I’m not going to need it when I’m gone.
“I have already sold off most of my belongings; we are not going to need all of these material things anymore because the rapture will happen tomorrow.”
On the day predicted by Mhlakela, videos showing hundreds of people gathered in the woods, waiting to be taken up went viral.
Mhlakela also went live online, declaring with confidence that the rapture was imminent.
During the live video, he was joined by some of his followers.
But after several hours passed without the rapture taking place, Mhlakela said, “I wonder how God works this out. What I know is that it will happen within these two days, but I cannot tell how He arranges the minutes and the seconds, because at any moment something could happen.”
He urged his followers to remain patient and hopeful.
However, many of them took to social media to express disappointment and regret.
A TikTok user, Sath Babii, said the failed prediction had left her devastated, lamenting that she quit her job and gave away her belongings because she believed the prophecy.
He said, “Some of you might have seen my video where I was talking about how the rapture is upon us and as we approach the end of the day it is looking like it is not happening. I feel foolish, I feel dumb. I left my job, I gave away my things, I am feeling really lost. I’m feeling like everything I believed in has been a lie, I’m losing my faith.
“I was so ready to go home to Jesus, why would He (Jesus) leave me here, things are as bad as they have ever been, if the rapture is not now, it is never going to happen and I don’t know where to go from here. I don’t think that I could really be Christian anymore.”
Another user lamented that starting life again would be difficult after giving out all her belongings believing that she would be raptured.
“I don’t know what to do. I woke up this morning and everyone is still here. I donated…, I sold my car, I gave away my favourite funko pop, everything is gone. I guess I have heard that it can still be today but I’m starting to worry,” he said while sobbing.
Earlier, the Shepherd Superintendent of the House of the Household of God Church, Pastor Chris Okotie, had described Mhlakela’s prediction as “prideful ejaculations of a spiritual charlatan or the spurious agitations of religious mountebankism.”
Okotie, in a video on YouTube, argued that the prediction was unbiblical, insisting that Mhlakela was wrong to claim the rapture would occur during the Feast of Trumpets
He said, “The rapture will not and cannot take place on a Jewish feast and your conclusions are diametrically opposed to new testament doctrine and they are at variance with biblical revelation.
“This is from me to you brother Joshua, at the end of the month of September and you discover that the rapture has not taken place and indeed it will not, my encouragement to you is that you don’t become despondent and begin to blame yourself and begin to think that the Lord has abandoned you. Do not get into some kind of flagellation or penitent bastinado because He will always be with you, He will never leave you nor forsake you. Just pick up the pieces, be a man and get on with your faith.”
The National Director of National Issues and Social Welfare of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Abimbola Ayuba, in an interview with Sunday PUNCH, cautioned Christians against following “heretical preachers”.
He added that such preachers should face sanctions.
He said, “These types of people are those that the government should penalise for misguiding and misinforming the people. The pastor should be raptured into detention.”
Ayuba noted that it was regrettable that some people still fell for Mhlakela’s prophecy, adding that history was marked by failed doomsday predictions.
He also called for checks on the misuse of religious freedom.
“Freedom of religion should have a limit, freedom of worship should have a limit, freedom of speech should have a limit, especially when it comes to misleading vulnerable people.”
On his part, the Lagos State Chairman of CAN, Bishop Stephen Adegbite, dismissed Mhlakela’s prophecy as misleading and unbiblical.
“We have been hearing such claims since we were born, and those calling themselves pastors in this manner are fake pastors because the Bible says, ‘woe unto him who says thus says the Lord when the Lord has not spoken.’ We don’t know where they are getting their prophecies from. I think some of them are astronomers; they are not pastors of the Lord.
“The Bible says to us that no one knows the time and the season when the Lord will come. It will be like a thief in the night, so for anybody to give a specific date for the rapture is a fallacy, and such should not be respected by any serious-minded Christian,” Adegbite said.
He argued that many of those behind such predictions were only seeking attention and material gain.
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