What is the Rapture and why is a doomsday prediction spreading on TikTok?

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The Rapture is near — at least according to an apocalyptic prophecy by one South African man who says it will fall on Sept. 23 or 24.

His claim has gone viral, with some believing it will mark the end times and many more mocking it on social media.

“There are millions and millions of Christians in the world today, maybe even hundreds of millions of Christians in the world who believe in modern prophecy and consume media that’s populated by these modern prophecies,” said Matthew Taylor, a senior Christian scholar at the Institute for Islamic-Christian-Jewish Studies.

Here’s a look at the theological concept of the Rapture and its role in history:

The Rapture is the belief of some evangelical Christians in a future event where Jesus will return to Earth to take true believers to heaven before a period of great tribulation that culminates in the end of the world.

“Everyone else remains on earth for a tumultuous and troubled period," said Amy Frykholm, author of “Rapture Culture: Left Behind in Evangelical America.”

“Usually, in this kind of storytelling, the people who are ‘taken up’ in the Rapture are a surprise,” she said, “while many people who were believed to be good Christians are left behind.”

Jesus’ return to Earth, also known as the Second Coming, is referenced in the Old Testament’s Book of Daniel and the New Testament’s Book of Revelation, said Randall Balmer, a professor of religion at Dartmouth College.

Believers who were persecuted in early Christianity during the time of the Roman Empire saw the Book of Revelation as an assurance that God would eventually prevail over evil, he said.

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But there are commonly cited passages used to support the belief, including in 1 Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians and Matthew 24.

Belief in the Rapture began in the mid-19th century in Britain and elsewhere in the English-speaking world, said Frykholm. It added a secret exclusivity to the Second Coming, which was an already accepted belief at the time, she said.

The Rapture belief spread through 20th century Bible conferences, evangelical media and the publication of the Scofield Reference Bible, which detailed the Rapture in footnotes, Frykholm said. Pop culture also advanced the belief, including through the evangelical Christian horror film “A Thief in the Night” and the popular “Left Behind” novel series.

Joshua Mhlakela, a South African man who describes himself as only a believer with no religious title, says God allowed him to see the future in a widely viewed YouTube video published three months ago.

In it, he recounts seeing Jesus on a throne and hearing him say that he is coming soon: “He says to me: ‘On the 23rd and the 24th, 2025, I will come to take my Church.’"

His prediction has stoked debates by Christian commentators and gone viral on social media, including on TikTok under the hashtag #RaptureTok where many have mocked it as another false claim by another false prophet.

Some have noted the dates overlap with the start of Judaism’s High Holy Days, which began this year on Sept. 22 with Rosh Hashana — the Jewish New Year. Others pointed out that if it occurred now, it would follow the killing of U.S. conservative activist and evangelical Christian Charlie Kirk and coincide with the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.

“Ideas about the Rapture are best understood within the larger framework of apocalypticism, an ancient Jewish worldview that predates Christianity,” Kim Haines-Eitzen, a professor of ancient Mediterranean religions at Cornell University, said via email.

She said apocalyptic ideology often surges during or after traumatic events, noting that many early Christians believed the end times would come in their lifetime.

“Their writings are now used by contemporary Christians who share Mhlakela’s view that the Rapture is imminent—perhaps even today,” she said.

California doomsday preacher Harold Camping predicted the Rapture would happen on May 21, 2011. His independent Christian media empire spent millions of dollars to spread the word. He gave up public prophecy when it did not come to pass.

Predictions about Jesus' impending return to Earth and the end to the world are not unusual, but they don't all include a Rapture element.

One notable example came in the 19th century, when U.S. farmer and Bible interpreter William Miller began to tell his followers that Jesus would return sometime between 1843 and 1844. Miller said he based his calculations on his reading of the Bible.

“A lot of his followers gathered and were preparing to be translated into heaven. It didn’t happen by the date that he thought it would,” Balmer said. “Then he went back to his calculations and set another date, that is: October 22, 1844, when he assured his followers that they’d be translated into heaven. And of course, it didn’t happen.”

That moment is known in Christian history as the Great Disappointment.

More recently, a Korean evangelical group known as the Mission for the Coming Days predicted, wrongly, that Jesus would return on Oct. 28, 1992.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church traces its roots to Miller’s preaching,

When Jesus did not return as expected, the “Great Disappointment” occurred, and the Millerites split into smaller groups. One, influenced by the visions of Ellen White, led to Seventh-day Adventist practice today. Some became Jehovah’s Witnesses.

“Others started the secret rapture movement that became more broadly evangelical,” Frykholm said.

What they had in common, she said, is that they refused to name a date for the Second Coming, saying that Jesus had said that we could never know a time.

When prophecies don’t come true, Taylor said, modern-day prophets often frame it in terms of spiritual warfare where they were right to reveal the prophecy but humanity is to blame for not cooperating with God’s will.

Historically, failed predictors "have a lot of egg on their face,” Taylor said.

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AP journalists Jessie Wardarski, Peter Smith and Tiffany Stanley contributed.

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