 "Is the world ending today? Why some Christians believe so")
Is the world ending today? Some Christians believe so. TikTok is swamped with videos using the hashtag #Rapture, with people telling how they are preparing for the apocalyptic event.
After the world did not end yesterday, there are predictions that it will today. But why are some people earnestly waiting for the end of humanity?
We will explain.
What is the Rapture?
Some forms of Christianity believe that the Bible predicts the Rapture, which marks the beginning of the end of humanity.
They believe that all Christians, dead or alive, will be raised into heaven when the event occurs.
However, the word “rapture” does not appear in the Bible, according to Bible scholar Bart Ehrman, author of Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says about the End.
As per NewsNation, the term was developed by theologian John Nelson Darby in the 1800s.
Some evangelical Christians who believe in the Rapture interpret parts of the Christian New Testament, including a passage from First Thessalonians that says followers of Jesus Christ “who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air,” reported New York Times (NYT).
While true Christians will ascend to Heaven, non-believers will be left behind on Earth to face trials and tribulations, including plagues and fires.
There are differing views on when the Rapture will occur. Some say it will coincide with the second coming of Jesus Christ. Others view the two as separate events, with the Rapture beginning a period of tribulation before the second coming.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsIs the Rapture on Sept 24?
A prediction has emerged on social media in recent days that the Rupture will occur on September 23 or 24.
As the world did not end yesterday, believers are now expecting it to happen on Wednesday (September 24).
On TikTok, the hashtag #rapturenow has more than 311,000 videos, with some supporting the prediction and others mocking it.
In a video, a woman tells her best friend: “You need to repent. Now. I don’t want you to be left behind.”
She recalled a dream where she tried to warn people that “Jesus is coming,” but while she screamed, she said “nobody was listening to me.
“Some were making fun of me. I’m like, everyone needs to repent now. He’s coming,” she added.
The #RaptureTok includes videos of people selling items like cars or homes, quitting their jobs, or setting their phone lock screens with photos to explain what happened to them and why they have disappeared.
Some are also sharing dos and don’ts when ascending into the sky.
sorry haven’t been around here much. i’ve been distracted by rapturetok pic.twitter.com/hQrVAOqfQA
— SLUG (@generalslug) September 20, 2025
i’m on rapturetok now apparently and y’all they selling cars, homes and stuff thinking they gonna float to heaven
— Saf (@muzziemulti) September 21, 2025
“I truly believe that we will be rapture during Feast of Trumpets this year,” a user named ‘romans.ten. 9through11’ said in a four-minute goodbye video.
But why now?
The latest “prophecy” appears to have originated from Joshua Mhlakela. While reports say he is a South African pastor, he said in a YouTube video from June: “I’m just a simple person, no title. I’m not an apostle, I’m not a pastor, I’m not a bishop. I’m just a believer.”
In the video, Mhlakela claimed that Jesus came to him in a dream in 2018 and told him, “On the 23rd and the 24th of September, 2025, I will come to take my church.”
He said Jesus will return to the world on Rosh Hashanah. The Jewish holiday began on September 22 and will end on the 24th.
The prediction has taken hold of several people, resulting in the emergence of hundreds of TikTok videos, Facebook groups and names like “RAPTURE WARNING GROUP.”
When the Rapture prophecies didn’t come true
The Rapture’s prediction is not new.
Radio evangelist Harold Camping believed it to happen on September 6, 1994. When it did not materialise, he then changed his prediction to May 21, 2011, and then again to October 21, 2011.
Numerologist David Meade predicted the Rapture in 2017. Other predicted dates include 2000, inspired by the Left Behind book series, and 2012, based on the Mayan apocalypse.
There is a long history of people using numbers and dates in the Bible to calculate when end times will come, Peter Sherlock, a professor and theologian at Charles Sturt University in Australia, told NYT.
“The Bible is full of patterns and symbolism,” he said in an email. “It’s no wonder that in trying to interpret this sacred text, many readers end up decoding these patterns to arrive at prognostications of doom, sometimes even dates for when the world will end.”
However, he said that people wanting to believe that the world will end on a certain date usually “says more about the uncertainty of our own times than it does about what is actually in the Bible.”
If the next day comes…
After the Rapture prediction does not come true, it is hard for believers to explain what happened.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, clinical social worker and author Josie McSkimming said such beliefs can become deeply entrenched, particularly for people who grew up learning about them in church, with real-life events like Israel’s war in Gaza likely bringing those emotions to the surface.
“I have clients who have exited those churches, who have found themselves very dysregulated, very distressed, hypervigilant, fearing that this is the end times,” said McSkimming.
“Even though they don’t believe in hell, and they don’t believe in the Apocalypse, and they don’t believe in Armageddon, they’re very distressed because their family members are saying it to them. Their friends are saying it to them,” McSkimming added.
When the apocalypse does not happen, some people can feel lost.
“Some people may suffer a crisis of faith, others may wait for the next prophet to tell them when the end will be,” Professor Sherlock said to the American newspaper.
While some people may cling to the new predictions, others could experience psychological distress when the rapture does not happen.
With inputs from agencies
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