It’s been a hot minute since the last Rapture scare, but here’s the newest one. Various grifters have latched onto September 23, 2025 as the big day when Jesus whisks all five TRUE CHRISTIANS™ on Earth up to Heaven, leaving nothing but clothes on the ground to mark where they once stood. Then, the Earth will shudder through the worst wars and disasters humankind has ever experienced before entering a glorious 1000-year reign under Jesus. (If you’re curious, after that he destroys the Earth.)
This Rapture scare follows the same trajectory as pretty much all of them. But it adds a few wrinkles: Soccer tournaments, Sammy Hagar songs, YouTube clickbait, and complete radio silence from the usual suspects!
Today, let’s check out the evangelical playbook dictating the current prediction—and hear from some Christian critics who entertain some doubts about whether or not Bullwinkle the Moose will pull a rabbit out of his hat this time.
(This post and its audio ‘cast first went live on Patreon on 9/19/2025. They’re both available now! Also: Watch Party time! We’re checking out the next Alpha Course videos on 9/20, 6pm PT in the Discord (invite code: 8pkasaySuD).)
SITUATION REPORT: The newest Rapture scare getting right-wing Christians into a lather
While normies are binge-watching the latest Netflix series, TRUE CHRISTIANS™ busily prepare for the end of the world as we know it.
A couple of months ago, I began hearing about the newest Rapture prediction. Evangelical prophets have set it for September 23, 2025, which is the second day of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year celebration.
YouTube videos from huge content creators explain the logic of this prediction—while racking up millions of views. The buzz online has been growing as we inch closer to the big day. For some reason, an old Sammy Hagar song, “Crack in the World,” even figures prominently into the prediction.
Here are the lyrics that have so astonished evangelicals:
Just fifty more years we’re all gonna know
Why, when, where, how, and who gets to go
So let’s all have a good time before the great divide
‘Cause things will start separating come 2025
Well! I’m convinced.
But as we saw last time evangelicals got all whipped up expecting the Rapture, the skepticism from the Christ-o-sphere pushes back against this prediction. Major Christian sites aren’t picking up the prediction at all—Christianity Today, Christian Post, etc. You name it, they’re ignoring it.
Only Charisma, a particularly gullible right-wing site, has written about it that I can see. But even they are hedging their bets. Otherwise, Christians will only learn about the new prediction if they read Daily Mail or New York Post or one of those tabloid-type sites. Or watch YouTube.
The anatomy of a Rapture prediction
To understand how these predictions work, let’s check out one of the many YouTube videos on the subject: “The Prophecy Everyone Is Talking About on September 23rd,” uploaded on September 12 by Grace Digital Network (archive link). So far, it’s racked up 773k views. It’s the most-viewed video I’ve found on this topic.
Here are the five reasons why this channel thinks September 23rd is a compelling prediction:
One: “The 7000 year prophetic clock is ticking.”
The video refers to a “prophetic convergence.” It considers Genesis 1 as a “template” involving 2 Peter 3:8, one of the major backtracks about a 1st-century Endtimes. This verse offers an expanded timeframe: 1 day = 1000 years actually. Basically, Creationists run this channel. They think the world is 6000 years old. Add the post-Tribulation thousand years of divine rule before the Earth is destroyed to get 7000 years. They’re combining this notion with the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah and it being a Jubilee year. However, this is not actually a Jewish Jubilee year. Even if it were, Jews haven’t observed or celebrated Jubilee since about 70 CE (guess why). This isn’t an important Jewish year at all.
Two: “The Jubilee clock hits zero: 2025 as the final Jubilee.”
It explains more about Jubilee, but as we’ve already seen it isn’t celebrated by Jews anymore—for good reason. However, this is a Catholic jubilee year.
Three: “The 2550-year prophetic countdown.”
This one name-checks Barry Scarbrough, an extremely minor fringe element I’ve never heard of. He’s the usual Endtimes conspiracy theorist, finding patterns where none exist. Of interest, the probable instigator of the current prediction, Joshua Mhlakela, claimed Jesus told him the date in a vision. Well, sort of. Specifically, Jesus first told him there’d be no World Cup soccer match in 2026. The WTAF look on his interviewers’ faces after he said that must be seen to be believed:
But don’t worry! Jesus recently gave him a much more specific date. What follows is a complicated dance with dates and numbers that exist only to confuse-and-lose listeners—and Grace Digital Network’s video does the same.
Four: “Trouble in Jerusalem.”
Because that’s never been an issue up until now, right?
Five: Shit gets real
All kinds of real-world disasters will occur all at once. Then, suddenly TRUE CHRISTIANS™ will vanish. The video devolves into scare tactics about Hell and Tribulation—and marketing promises about Heaven. We never actually get a title for this section, either.
So this scare is like any other. They all share these elements:
- Complicated dates and often miscounted days and years
- Frequent references to Jewish holidays and customs
- Creationism-based history timeline (6000-year-old Earth, etc)
- Major headlines of the current day
- Preaching about how awful it’d be to miss the Rapture
- Most especially: ignoring previous failed predictions
Back in the late 1980s, the “88 Reasons” Rapture scare involved the exact same elements. That time, it centered heavily on Israel becoming a nation in 1948. This one does too, at least in Joshua Mhaleka’s vision, but instead of 40 years, which obviously passed a long time ago, he has Rapture occurring 77 years later.
I can’t wait to see what Rapture nerds offer up as explanations in a couple more decades. 2048 is gonna be lit.
Sidebar: My favorite Rapture diagrams
(Almost all of these diagrams are huge. Click to embiggen.)
Conspiracy theorists love nothing more than diagrams to explain their whackadoo ideas, and Rapture nerds are no exception at all.
No matter the religion, diagrams put audiences into “duh mode,” a highly suggestible state making them far more likely to accept poor support for claims. Back when I was pagan, I once completely pissed off a pagan forum mod by asking him to explain his woo diagram in real-world terms. He couldn’t, which is why he had deployed a diagram in the first place. Diagrams circumvent the need for explanations.
Generally speaking, Rapture predictions rely heavily on the supposed “Seventy Weeks” prophecy from Daniel 9:24-27. This is the diagram that launched a thousand ships of failed predictions:
There’s no improving the classic, but evangelicals keep trying.
Some get really colorful.
And others get really LOOOOONNNNNNNNNNGGGGGG.
But they still follow the predictable pattern set two centuries ago. There’s always a mystery period of time when the countdown clock stops, as we see in all of them.
You might notice that these diagrams don’t normally include specific dates. Some do, but it gets embarrassing when the predictions inevitably fail.
I love Endtimes diagrams so much. They are a symbol of everything wrong with that entire end of Christianity. It’s really sad that this scare has so few of them, but I’m guessing that’s because they have AI animations and stock footage to distract viewers instead. If they didn’t have access to such stuff, they’d likely be using way more diagrams.
I feel the same way, incidentally, about animation. I vastly prefer classic hand-drawn animation, but 3D’s captured the field forever, it seems.
Social media folks are making fat bank on Rapture prediction videos
The videos I saw on YouTube are almost all slop. Many, like the Grace Digital Network, consist solely of AI animations and AI voices. A few include stock video footage here and there. Videos like that are very quick to make and slick-looking to boot. It’s a winning formula for YouTubers who want fast clicks and easy money.
On Instagram, I mostly see pushback against the entire idea of the Rapture. TikTok seems more evenly split between those wholeheartedly accepting the idea and those rejecting it. Facebook users mostly seem to accept the idea. I’m guessing spaces that are friendlier to right-wing Christianity, like Truth Social and Telegram, are similar.
So this seems to be mostly a YouTube and Facebook phenomenon. A pity Facebook doesn’t offer users any money for clicks, eh? Because the folks on YouTube are making a mint off of gullible Christians.
You know who isn’t talking about this new prediction, though?
Anyone who is anyone in the Christ-o-sphere.
Not a single one of the usual suspects is spreading this new Rapture date. Nobody. No major pastors, no major authors, no major speakers. On his official Twitter account, even John “Blood Moon Rapture” Hagee seems to be sitting this one out.
(But while hunting for his potential involvement, I did run across this meme. It made me laugh, so I’m sharing it.)
Why evangelicals love Rapture predictions
On some matters, evangelicals and other right-wing Christians (like tradcaths, traditional Catholics) share opinions and beliefs. But the Rapture is almost exclusively evangelical. There’s a reason for it, of course.
- No central authority figures to check prophets or their predictions.
- A culture that refuses to question claims or their peddlers—and dogpiles anyone who does.
- People who consider divine revelation (dreams, visions, disembodied voices, etc) to be perfectly acceptable evidence for claims.
- Anger toward popular culture for rejecting their demands.
- Fear of the future in general, but of death in particular.
Rapture represents the answer to all evangelical dreams. It’s a smug “That’ll show you! You’ll see!” It’s a raised middle finger to normies as well as a solution to evangelicals’ overall fear of death. It’s a beloved fantasy about the world collapsing without its Designated Adults to guide humanity.
Most of all, it’s a super-complicated conspiracy theory that puts Rapture nerds at the very epicenter of the most important event in human history. They think they know something that almost nobody on Earth even suspects. When it happens, they’ll be proven right while the rest of the planet suffers enormously.
The concept of the Rapture reveals the truth about evangelicals’ claims about themselves. All of them. It’s a nasty, vengeful, fearful fantasy that shows their true hearts. They don’t care about what Jesus told his followers to do. Instead, they want their enemies to finally get what’s coming to them—and, of course, faithful believers to finally get their material rewards for believing exactly the right package of blahblah.
Some of them are learning; some have already learned
On Christian forums, we find nothing but pushback. A blogger on Christian Forums, Lilac, even notes that no major Christian leaders have picked up the prediction. She describes being burned hard by another false prediction of 2021, so she’s learned to be cautious. Good. Her religious leaders depend on her having a very poor memory for these things, so if she can temper herself by remembering past events, then she’ll be ahead of the game for next time.
On Quora, we see the same hesitation about this new prediction. Many note the numerous failed predictions that have already come and gone.
Another Christian on Christian Chat hasn’t learned the lesson yet, though. Candycane7 brought the prediction to her friends’ awareness, only to get it thoroughly trashed. She wrote:
[T]hat’s discouraging. And why are there so many christians who say they asked God and God confirmed it to them?
Does this basically mean that all these christians who now say that it’s gonna happen are basically untrustworthy cause if they say God confirmed it to them and it does not happen then what does this say about them? Should they then be avoided alltogether?
I wonder what they’re gonna do if nothing happens. Does this even bother them or cause them to doubt?
Bless her sweet little cotton socks. I remember being that disappointed. It took me a while to figure out that prophecy hucksters are either lying their asses off or seriously delusional. She’s still getting there. I think she’ll figure it out eventually, thanks to the Christians around her not entertaining such nonsense.
(Confidential to Christmas Girl: 1: They’re attention-seekers. 2: Yes, definitely avoid anyone peddling prophecies. 3: They’ll ignore the failure, make a new prediction, and count on Christians’ very limited memories for past fizzles.)
There’s always another Rapture prediction
The rule with Rapture nerds is that there’s always a Rapture date for them to panic about. If one date fails to pan out, then someone will soon get another “word from the Lord” about another one. So every time there’s a new Rapture prediction, it feels like a reenactment of the iconic scene in Men in Black.
Jay: I don’t know whether or not you’ve forgotten, but there’s an Arquillian Battle Cruiser that’s about to—
Kay: There’s always an Arquillian Battle Cruiser, or a Corillian Death Ray, or an intergalactic plague that is about to wipe out all life on this miserable little planet, and the only way these people can get on with their happy lives is that they DO NOT KNOW ABOUT IT!
The difference between the Rapture and Men in Black, of course, is that Rapture enjoyers want everyone to know about it.
That’s how they know they’re safe.
That’s how they know Jesus likes them best.
But you gotta know things are dire when the Rapture Ready site refuses to sign off on this one!
NEXT UP: Yet another ultra-authoritarian branch of Christianity faces a huge sex abuse crisis amid ongoing declines in all key metrics. Also, don’t miss our next Alpha Course watch party on 9/20, 6pm PT in the Discord (invite code: 8pkasaySuD).See you soon!
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