Social media users in hysterics over latest bizarre ‘end of the world’ theory
There are hysterical reports of people selling their houses, quitting their jobs, and packing up their pets in preparation for the end of life as we know it.
Have you raptured yet?
Symptoms are supposed to include floating away like a balloon. Materialising out of dust to suddenly return from the dead. Or simply disappearing in a puff of logic.
Other signs include driverless cars and pilotless aircraft. Gods in the clouds. Or holy jump-scares.
Experiences may vary (nobody’s entirely certain about what is involved).
But we’re supposed to find out.
Today.
Or perhaps tomorrow.
Time zones can be confusing.
Social media is abuzz with expectation.
There are hysterical (but unverified) reports of people selling their houses, quitting their jobs, and packing up their pets in preparation.
apparently, some zealot at KPMG’s S/Africa office went off the rails and sent this company wide email 2 days ago 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/il63d2bOpP
— Timilehin🇺🇦 (@timihndrxx) September 18, 2025
It all started when one South African evangelical Pastor, Joshua Mhlakela, insisted Jesus Christ would ‘rescue the Christians out of the world’ on September 23-24.
What special knowledge he has over the heads of the other 4.2 million global Christian congregations (divided into tens of thousands of different denominations) is not made clear.
But things do seem a bit grim.
US President Donald Trump is in a rage. Russian President Vladimir Putin is strutting his nuclear stuff. Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping has built the world’s biggest military. Elon Musk has slipped to being the second-richest man in the world …
“The rapture is upon us, whether you are ready or not,” Pastor Mhlakela insists.
“God took me to see the future and then he brought me back …
“I saw Jesus sitting on his throne, and I could hear him very loud and clear saying, I am coming soon. He said to me on the 23rd and 24th of September 2025, ‘I will come back to the Earth’.”
Mhlakela has theological support.
Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, a member of a sect with an extra emphasis on Judaism while also acknowledging the New Testament, agrees. To a point.
“Do I believe that there may be major [things] like the rapture or the coming of the Lord linked to the trumpets?” he asked, in reference to the Jewish Feast of Trumpets (September 22-24).
“Yes. Because that all goes together with everything that was, and it makes sense. It’s in line. It’s consistent.”
#RaptureTok Revelations
“They are selling their cars, clothes, some people are making post-rapture kits for the people who are left behind,” stand-up comedian Kevin Fredericks quips.
That’s about as substantive as the evidence for a “Christian panic” gets.
However, the notion has sparked hundreds of thousands of posts, photos, memes, and videos on global social media channels.
Some advice is practical.
What should you say in your farewell letter?
Will those named in your will actually be left behind?
Is there any point in going to work?
How to cope with your first moments of free-air flight …
Others are having theological crises.
Do pets have souls?
Where are the four horsemen?
Have all elements of prophecy (the building of the Third Temple in Jerusalem, the World Government, the Antichrist) been fulfilled?
Does this match my own’ Church’s beliefs?
These aren’t new issues.
We’re supposed to have been raptured before.
Many times.
Televangelist Harold Camping insisted 1994 would be the end.
He whipped his supporters into a cash-splashing frenzy. They prepared. They prayed. They waited.
When it didn’t happen, Camping went back to his drawing board.
D’oh! It was supposed to be 2011!
That didn’t happen, either.
But wait: The Mayan Calendar was going to end in 2012 …
Then the Sword of God Brotherhood survivalist group in the US became convinced it would be January 1, 2017 …
However, these — like #RaptureTok — may be more a symptom of the times than the end times.
A 2022 survey in the United States found 40 per cent of the population was convinced “the end times” were already upon us. Political polarisation. Economic disparity. Out-of-whack weather. All contribute to a general atmosphere of doom and gloom.
“There is an important feature of apocalypticism that is often overlooked and it helps to explain why it continues to resurface throughout history and in our own times,” argues Christianity researcher Professor Kim Haines-Eitzen.
“Apocalypticism cultivated a sense of meaning and encouragement through dire circumstances. It sought to make sense of suffering, and it predicted an end to suffering. In doing so, it gave people hope. Above all, apocalyptic thinking bonded people together in uncertain and challenging times.”
What is Rapture anyway?
Rapture theory is not biblical. The word is not used in the accepted translations of the New Testament.
Instead, it represents a diverse collection of attempts to combine several Biblical texts about Judgement Day into a standard model for the end times.
It became a popular theological practice in the 1830s when British minister John Nelson Darby wrote a treatise on the topic. The ideas have continued to flow thick and fast ever since.
One key clue comes from the New Testament book of Thessalonians, 4:16-17.
Here, the apostle Paul describes his vision for the End of Days.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Literal readings require a physical visitation by Jesus Christ, the Archangel Michael and Yehova himself.
And those living deemed righteous enough to go to heaven (Paul puts the number at 144,000) will fly through the sky to meet their maker.
This is supported by the Gospel According to Mark 13:26.
And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.
But this must be reconciled with Thessalonians 5:2 and Peter 3:10. Both describe the return of Jesus Christ as a surprise similar to that of a “thief in the night”.
And Matthew 24:40-41 is more abrupt:
Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Another passage, from Corinthians 15:51-52, offers a different scenario. It states that the righteous dead will physically manifest themselves once again.
Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
Then there’s the biblical prophecies suggesting the Rapture is not actually the end, just the beginning of the end. Daniel 12:1 and Matthew 24:21 talk of a time of “tribulation” – a traumatic epoch that precedes the actual end date.
But many online commentators appear to base their understanding of this seminal event on reading popular novels such as Left Behind, by Tim LaHaye. Or movies, such as The Moment After: The Awakening. And then there’s the HBO series currently streaming — The Leftovers.
These depict the Rapture as a sudden disappearance of the faithful. Puff. Gone. No warning. No explanation.
Everyone left behind has to simply deal with it (including – depending on your theological perspective on animals having holy spirits – their pets).
But the rapture panic may, in fact, be a coping mechanism.
One Oxford study suggests apocalypticism has a powerful impact on society: “It has fostered among adherents a strong sense of purpose and personal identity, it has helped them interpret the challenges they face all around them, and it has provided them with a triumphant vision of the future.”
Jamie Seidel is a freelance writer | @jamieseidel.bsky.social
Originally published as Social media users in hysterics over latest bizarre ‘end of the world’ theory
