The rapture was predicted to happen this week
The Daily Article
The Denison Forum
4.9 • 576 Ratings
🗓️ 25 September 2025
⏱️ 8 minutes
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Summary
Many expected the rapture on September 23, a prediction traced to a dream claimed by Joshua Mhlakela in South Africa and amplified on TikTok. Yet Jesus said, “Concerning that day and hour no one knows . . . the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” This latest false prophecy has fueled online ridicule and given skeptics more reasons to dismiss the gospel, a reminder of Billy Graham’s fear of bringing disrepute to Christ. What truly matters is living ready today—because we are always one day closer to eternity than ever before.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Thursday, September 25th, 2025 edition of Denison Forum's Daily Article Podcast. |
| 0:09.6 | I'm Chris Elkins, narrating today's daily article written by cultural theologian and friend, Dr. Jim Denison. |
| 0:18.1 | Quote, when you finally start moving up into the air, I recommend that you don't hold on to anything. |
| 0:24.5 | I definitely don't recommend looking down. Just keep calm, take a deep breath, slowly release it, |
| 0:30.9 | and keep your face looking upward, end quote. This is how one person advised her fellow Christians to experience the rapture |
| 0:39.1 | when it came two days ago, except it didn't. Or if it did, you and I, and everyone else as far |
| 0:47.0 | as I can tell, were left behind. This, despite the fact that so many expected the rapture |
| 0:52.8 | to come on September the 23rd, that the New York Times, Newsweek, and numerous other outlets cover the story. |
| 1:01.0 | The date appears to have originated with a person named Joshua Mlakela in South Africa. |
| 1:07.0 | He said in a YouTube video that he is not a pastor, though news reports widely described him as such. |
| 1:14.5 | In his video, he reported that Jesus came to him in a dream in 2018 and told him, quote, |
| 1:21.3 | On the 23rd and the 24th of September, I will come back to take my church, end quote. |
| 1:27.1 | His prediction aligned with this year's observance of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. |
| 1:33.2 | Evangelical TikTok users picked up Michaela's assertion, some pointing to signs in Revelation 12, |
| 1:40.7 | and various astrological alignments involving the constellations Virgo and Leo to claim that his prophecy was being fulfilled. |
| 1:49.8 | On social media, some said they had given away their belongings and quit their jobs. |
| 1:55.3 | Others satirically celebrated the coming lower rents and asked believers to hand over their money or keys to their |
| 2:02.1 | homes. And that response points to my point today. The rapture is a belief held by some that Jesus |
| 2:10.4 | will take believers out of the world prior to a period of great tribulation on earth. The word does |
| 2:16.7 | not appear in the Bible, which is not |
| 2:18.6 | definitive. The word Trinity is not in Scripture either, but the idea is based on passages |
| 2:24.6 | such as 1 Thessalonians 4 verses 16 and 17 and 1st Corinthians 15 versus 51 and 52. |
... |
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