Pastor who sparked doomsday panic claims the Rapture is just DAYS away

The Christian pastor who sparked panic with a failed prediction of the Rapture has made a new claim that the end-times belief is near.

Pastor Joshua Mhlakela, a South African preacher, recently said he has calculated the exact time of the biblical event in which believers are lifted into the clouds to meet Jesus Christ, claiming that it will happen between October 12 and 13.

The Rapture is a belief held by some Christians called 'eschatology,' which is the study of end-times events, marking the Second Coming of Jesus and Judgment Day for non-believers.

Mhlakela has claimed in multiple interviews and his own videos online that both God and Jesus have appeared to him in visions, revealing when the Rapture would take place and what the fallout on Earth would look like.

The controversial pastor declared: 'God told me because there's no other date coming out, 12 to 13 October, which is the true feast of trumpets, which is when I will be meeting my savior face to face in the rapture.'

Mhlakela has drawn widespread skepticism and criticism for his wild predictions, including incorrectly marking the date of the Rapture multiple times in 2025.

He sent social media into a frenzy when he alleged the biblical event would take place on September 23, 2025, convincing scores of believers who watched his predictions online to sell their homes and cars and even quit their jobs.

'There's no other final. I mean, there's no other rapture date. This is the final date for me,' Mhlakela claimed in an interview on September 17.

The pastor claimed his previous false predictions were not errors, but the work of God, who was delaying the final judgement to give humanity more time to repent.

HISTORY OF FALSE PROPHETS AMONG OUR CHRISTIAN BROTHERS

In every generation after the apostles, there have been Christians who mistakenly believed that they were in the last days. They have thought that their generation was the one Jesus spoke of when He prophesied that “all these things” would happen in “this generation.” Failed prognosticators have been a persistent embarrassment to Christianity. Perhaps there is something fundamentally wrong with these predictions.

Francis Gumerlock, in his book THE DAY AND THE HOUR: CHRISTIANITY’S PERENNIAL FASCINATION WITH PREDICTING THE END OF THE WORLD, lists end times prophecy predictions made by Christians beginning in the early centuries. He catalogs more than a thousand failed predictions since the early days of Christianity, beginning with the apostolic fathers.

For example, Ignatius writes around the year AD 100 that “the last times are come upon us.” Cyprian (200-258) writes that “the day of affliction has begun to hang over our heads, and the end of the world and the time of the Antichrist. . . draw near, so that we must all stand prepared for the battle.”

Martin Luther (1483-1546) made this statement: “I am satisfied that the last day must be before the door; for the signs predicted by Christ and the Apostles Peter and Paul have now all been fulfilled, the trees put forth, the Scriptures are green and flourishing. . . . We certainly have nothing now to wait for but the end of all things.”

Famous among predictors of the end of the world was Christopher Columbus (1452-1506). Columbus wrote a book entitled BOOK OF PROPHECIES in which he called on many of the same passages of Scripture that false prophets cite today to predict the imminent end of the world. He apparently thought that his discoveries marked the beginning of the end.

The famous American Puritan preacher Cotton Mather (1663-1728) believed Christ’s return to be imminent and saw apocalyptic meaning in the conflicts and challenges of the American frontier. Mather was also a date setter. He predicted the Second Coming for 1697, then 1716, and finally 1736. The New Jerusalem, he believed, would be located in New England.

Here are more examples of end-times dating from Christians as well as pseudo-Christian cultists:

―William Miller (founder of Adventism): 1843/1844
—Ellen G. White (co-founder—Seventh Day Adventist Church): 1843, 1844, 1850, 1856.
—Joseph Smith (founder—Mormon Church): 1891.
—Jehovah’s Witnesses: 1874, 1878, 1881, 1910, 1914, 1918, 1925, 1975, and 1984.
—Hal Lindsey: 1982, 1988, 2007, with contingency dates going as far as 2048.
—Jack Van Impe: 1975, 1980, 1992, 2000, 2012. Also, in May of 1991 he said the Anti-Christ would be revealed and the Great Tribulation would begin within 20 months.
—Chuck Smith (founder of Calvary Chapel): 1981, 1988
―Herbert W. Armstrong: 1965
—Pat Robertson: 1982.
—Edgar C. Whisenant: 1988, 1989.
—Bill Maupin: 1981.
—J.R. Church: 1988.
—Charles R. Taylor: 1992.
—Benny Hinn: 1993.
—F. M. Riley: 1994.
—John Hinkle: 1994.
—Grant R. Jeffrey: 2000.
—Lester Sumrall: 1985, 1986, 2000.
—Kenneth Hagin: 1997 to 2000.
—Jerry Falwell: 2010.
—Louis Farrakhan: 1991.
―John Walvoord: before he died (He died in 2002.)
—John Hagee (at age 71): before he dies.
—Harold Camping: 1994, 2011.
—Ronald Weinland: 2011, 2012.
—Perry Stone: 2009-2015
—John McArther: said in a sermon on April 21, 2024 that based on Revelation 8 he was “absolutely certain” that God was “about to destroy” the planet
—Billy Graham: Even this venerable preacher began telling us in the 1940’s to expect the soon return of Christ.

Pastors all across America’s fruited plains have books of some of these authors proudly displayed in their office libraries. The same books, and videos too, fly off Christian bookstore shelves, and the money continues to flow to these authors and many others of the same ilk. While some of these authors may be good teachers on other subjects, their false predictions force us to doubt their views on eschatology. Many of the above people will be forgotten, but whenever you happen to be reading this book, you will probably be hearing from a new generation of false teachers.

All of these prognosticators had something in common: They all thought they knew better than Jesus, who over and over told his followers that his prophecies would come to pass while some of them were still alive (Matthew 10:23; 16:27-28; 26:64; Luke 21:22, 32; Hebrews 10:37; Revelation 1:1-3; 22:5-20; etc.) There are over 100 such time statements in the New Testament that limit fulfillment of prophecy to the first century.

Maybe Christians should stop “newspaper eschatology” and read their Bible―and believe it.

For more eschatology, check this out: https://prophecyquestions.com/

Matthew 24:36 says it best: no one knows the day or the hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in Heaven or the Son Himself but only the father knows.

Then there's the immediate context, which suggests that the antecedent of *that* day is the day when the "heaven and earth shall pass away", but consensus dogma is what it is, so no wonder people will be caught off-guard.

Matthew 24
34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. 36 But of *that* day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

In any case, re D-Day and H-Hour, everyone knows "that's classified."

Perhaps he got confused with the real Columbus Day. It does actually fall on the observed date this year, so there's that. And the Navy's birthday is the 13th.

If he had done his homework, he'd know that the majority of the Navy Balls this year will be on the 10th.

Well, what can you do.

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