The most recent “rapture craze” is rooted in a prediction from a South African man named Joshua Mhlakela, whose dream in 2018 predicted that Jesus would return on Sept. 23 or 24, 2025. That prediction first gained traction on TikTok and then went viral. If history is any guide, Mhlakela’s prediction will not be the last.

There is a special interest in Russia’s war in Ukraine, along with the war in Gaza. Both of these wars interest Christians influenced by dispensationalist theology, especially as it is popularized by authors such as Lindsey and LaHaye, or those who listen to preachers who share their beliefs. They look at world events through this lens and begin to see patterns that suggest the end is near.

This is especially true when Israel is involved, because many Christians influenced by dispensationalism believe that the re-establishment of Israel and the return of Jews to Palestine, especially since the 1920s, is a sign that the end is near. The centering of the re-establishment of Israel has important political implications, including unquestioned support for Israeli actions by many evangelicals.

  • tal@olio.cafe
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    4 days ago

    Jesus would return on September 23 or 24, 2025.

    The Lamb of God had, in fact, returned on September 23, 2025. Unfortunately, he had chosen to appear to His faithful in rural Mississippi, who, after millennia of material suggesting otherwise, did not recognize a Middle Eastern man with shabby clothing as the Prince of Peace. He was quickly picked up for vagrancy, and after it was established he had no legal entry documentation, was bundled up into an ICE holding facility for deportation to El Salvador.

  • HubertManne@piefed.social
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    4 days ago

    I feel like rapture obsessed christians constantly are looking to make a world so bad you would want to be raptured off it.

    • cokeslutgarbage@sh.itjust.works
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      3 days ago

      I’m actually so excited for the apocalypse because all the people that want to get raptured will go away and everyone left behind can finally start fixing the planet and being kind to one and other

  • Log in | Sign up@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    “No one knows the day or the hour” - Jesus.

    “It’s Wednesday” - “christians” who disbelieve Jesus.

    “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” - Jesus

    “Best sell my car before I go to heaven. I won’t need a car in heaven, but cash always comes in handy.” - American corpochristians.

    And don’t get me started on how to treat poor people.

  • danglybits27@sh.itjust.works
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    4 days ago

    Have they ever considered that this “rapture”, which was only really added as a thing in the 1800s, has actually already happened and just no humans were worthy and here we all still are?

  • BlueFootedPetey@sh.itjust.works
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    4 days ago

    I was hanging with family one or two days before. We are all either agnostic or atheist or deist, no churchgoers. But yea my big brother and mom knew of it, we were joking that hopefully the rapture does happen. Like all the christian zealots would get beemed off of earth. O noooooo. Any chance you could take the charlatans also?

    No hate on christians or anyone else of faith, except for zealots and people who use religion for personal gain or mass control. And honeslty a zealot who leaves others alone and doesnt force their shit on public policy, their cool too.

  • Zier@fedia.io
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    4 days ago

    The only Rapture that will ever matter is the song by Blondie, Rapture.