why do people think the rapture is today

People think the Rapture is happening today, September 23, 2025, primarily because a South African evangelical pastor named Joshua Mhlakela posted a widely shared YouTube video claiming Jesus appeared to him in a vision and told him the Rapture would begin on this date, which coincides with the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, also known as the Feast of Trumpets. This timing connects to Biblical references to the "trumpet call of God" in scriptures like 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, fueling belief in a prophesied event when believers will be taken to Heaven. The Rapture concept, popular among some American Evangelicals, holds that true Christians will be suddenly taken up to meet Christ in the air, while non-believers remain on Earth to face tribulations. This idea has been promoted repeatedly over the years, driven by interpretations of Biblical prophecy and end-times theology called pre- millennial dispensationalism, which predicts a Rapture followed by a seven- year tribulation period. The recent surge in attention on social media, especially TikTok, has been amplified by viral videos, cultural events like the assassination of a prominent evangelical figure, and ongoing global crises, which prompt people to look for hopeful signs of salvation. Nevertheless, such date-setting for the Rapture has consistently been proven wrong historically, and key Biblical passages caution that no one knows the exact day or hour for these events.