It’s the story of the boy who cried wolf all over again. Joshua Mhlakela adamantly predicted that the rapture of the church would occur on September 23 and 24 (not two days, but according to Jewish reconning of days of sundown to sundown, one day) coinciding with Rosh Hashanah. In an interview broadcasted on CettwinzTV, Mhlakela said, "The Rapture is upon us, whether you are ready or not. … I saw Jesus sitting on his throne, and I could hear him very loud and clear saying, 'I am coming soon.'… He said to me, 'On the 23rd and 24th of September 2025, I will come to take my church.'"
His prediction supposedly caused the gullible to quit jobs and sell their homes. Now what? Unfortunately, Mhlakela is not the first to make a false prediction of the date of the rapture and, even more unfortunately, he probably will not be the last. William Miller predicted that Christ would return in the 2nd advent on October 22, 1844. That didn’t happen. The failure of his prediction became known as the “Great Disappointment.” More recently, Edgar Whisenant predicted that Christ would return for His church on Rosh Hashanah in 1988. When that didn’t happened Whisenant realized that in the calculation of years, there was only 99 years in the first century (no year 0) and so he was off by one year. He amended his prophecy to say that Christ would return on Rosh Hashanah in 1989. That didn’t happen either. Not too long ago, Harold Camping predicted that the Judgment Day would occur on or about September 6, 1994. When it failed to occur, he revised the date to September 29 and then to October 2. In 2005, Camping predicted the Second Coming of Christ to May 21, 2011, whereupon the saved would be taken up to heaven in the rapture, and that "there would follow five months of fire, brimstone and plagues on Earth, with millions of people dying each day, culminating on October 21, 2011, with the final destruction of the world.” We’re still here, Camping was wrong as well.
What is the fallout from all of this? Like in the story of the boy who falsely cried wolf, when the wolf finally showed up, the citizens of the town did not have an ear for the boy’s true declaration. And so many today are, at the very least, questioning, if not outwardly denying the reality of a coming rapture. But God and His Word are still true. Jesus promised that if He would go away, He would return for His disciples (John 14:1-6). The Apostle Paul stated very clearly in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 that when Christ returns believers would be “caught up” (Greek word “harpadzo” translated into Latin with the verb “raptio” = rapture). But nowhere does the Bible state a time for it.
The Apostle Peter, writing by inspiration, knew of what would transpire in the future when he wrote, “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you…” (2 Peter 2:1). The false teachers would cause those who relied on their failed predictions to become, “scoffers … saying where is the promise of his coming…” (2 Peter 3:3-4).
It's been nearly 2000 years since Jesus first spoke of His return for His church. Obviously, He has come yet. Perhaps it will be in another 2000 years or even more. But that does not invalidate His promise. But perhaps, just maybe, it might be a whole lot less. Perhaps today!