The end is nigh! Well, at least according to one corner of TikTok. Under the hashtag #RaptureTok, creators are claiming that on September 23 and 24, 2025, faithful Christians will be swept into Heaven, leaving everyone else behind to endure seven terrible years of tribulation.
The prediction comes from South African preacher Joshua Mhlakela, a born-again Christian who shared his “vision” in a YouTube interview earlier this year. He described Jesus as “handsome, with brown hair, a trimmed beard and a white gown,” delivering commands directly to his mind. “God wants to rescue the Christians out of the world before what is coming comes,” Mhlakela said, adding that September’s rapture would be “the final one.”
Content under the #RaptureTok ranges from solemn warnings to earnest prep, and plenty of tongue-in-cheek advice. Christian creators are sharing spiritual advice, writing farewell “rapture letters” and demonstrating how to ready their homes for ascension. Others are cleaning house, drawing elaborate flow charts of the end-of-days logistics and staging outfit try-ons for their ascent. One creator offered practical advice for the moment of lift-off: “When you finally start moving up into the air, I recommend that you don’t hold on to anything. I definitely don’t recommend looking down. I think we learned that lesson from Lot’s wife.”
The Rapture isn’t universally held in Christian theology. The concept seems to date back to the 1830s, when it was reportedly popularized by British minister John Nelson Darby. Apocalyptic predictions have popped up repeatedly since: televangelist Harold Camping famously forecasted Raptures in 1994 and 2011. None, of course, have come to pass.
Even so, fascination with the end times persists. A 2022 Pew Research Survey found that about four in 10 Americans believe humanity is “living in the end times.” Whether tomorrow brings cosmic upheaval, one thing is certain: the next apocalypse is always just around the corner.
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