Watch Pastor Joshua Mhlakela's Reaction To The Failed Rapture 2025 - It Was Awkward

On 23 September, 2025, South African pastor Joshua Mhlakela told his followers with full confidence, 'This day we will be raptured. I give you his word and I give you my word.'

He promised the faithful that Jesus would return, backed by 'a host of angels,' to take believers to heaven in what TikTok had already dubbed #RaptureTok. The date was tied to Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which is sometimes symbolically connected with the End Times in certain Christian circles.

But as the hours passed and nothing happened, Mhlakela's livestream turned awkward. First came reassurances, 'God does not lie,' then nervous adjustments to the timeline, '23rd, 24th, one of these two days.'

Finally, after midnight, he signed off by asking followers to 'please keep waiting with us.' The rapture, of course, never came.

What Is RaptureTok?

If you missed it, TikTok's Christian evangelical community has spent months hyping a September 23–24 prophecy, preparing with emotional videos, heartfelt prayers, and even last-minute life decisions. Some believers sold belongings or made contingency plans for pets and family members.

When the day came, though, the skies stayed clear. One North Carolina TikToker admitted, 'I haven't seen anybody floating upwards...so maybe it hasn't happened yet.'

By the next morning, the only thing rising was a flood of memes. Commenters joked about still having to pay rent and do laundry, while satirists churned out parody videos pretending to livestream from heaven.

A Familiar Story of Failed Predictions

History has no shortage of failed end-time prophecies. In 1844, Baptist preacher William Miller famously predicted Christ's return, only for the event to be met with anticlimax, earning it the nickname 'The Great Disappointment.' More recently, conspiracy theorists hyped September 23, 2017, as a rapture date based on celestial alignments.

RaptureTok is the first such phenomenon to spread widely on social media, with the hashtag #rapture topping 350,000 videos. But after the deadline passed, many of the most viral creators began deleting posts or making their accounts private.

Pastor Mhlakela's Next Move

As for Pastor Mhlakela, clips of his now-deleted livestream are being archived and shared widely. His wavering sign-off, '23rd, 24th...one of these two days,' has become a symbol of the prophecy's collapse.

Viewers noted his increasingly hesitant tone as the hours ticked by. At one point, he wondered aloud, 'I don't know... I wonder how God works this out, in terms of the minute and the second.'

Some believers have doubled down, pushing the date to September 25. Others have quietly fallen silent. Meanwhile, the broader internet has already moved on, treating the whole affair as both content fodder and a cautionary tale about viral misinformation.

Pop Culture Reacts

The failed prophecy didn't just ripple through church livestreams; it spilt onto stages, too. At her Visions of Damsels & Other Dangerous Things tour stop in Forest Hills, pop star Chappell Roan referenced the internet frenzy mid-show.

'Guys, thank God the rapture didn't happen today. Thank God I could sing my show,' she joked during her performance of Coffee. The line drew loud cheers, cementing how the prophecy had become a wider cultural talking point, not just a religious one.

Whether you laughed, sighed, or worried, Rapture 2025 will be remembered as another 'Great Disappointment' in history, but one made for the TikTok age.