A pastor has given the 'exact date' Jesus is set to return on Earth, and it’s supposed to be a terrifying time for non-believers.
2025 has not been the best year for many of us. We’ve seen conflicts unfolding, WW3 warnings, natural disasters and even predictions from the Living Nostradamus, as well as claims beyond the grave from Bulgarian mystic Baba Vanga.
Now, things could be getting biblical - and not in a good way.
Forget burning bushes and locust infestations (which we’ve already seen, by the way).
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Pastor Joshua Mhlakela has instead claimed Jesus will be coming back, and the 'Rapture' will begin.
What is the Rapture?
According to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, there are two phases of Jesus Christ returning, which begins with the Rapture.
In Thessalonians 4:13-17, it states that: “For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”
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It talks of believers being resurrected from the dead and given eternal bodies, made in the likeness of Jesus himself, and everyone who believes in God will rise up into the clouds and be saved from Earth.
“We know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is,” 1 John 3:2 states.
Essentially, Christians will be taken away to Heaven, and the non-believers will stay on Earth to perish.
Apostle Paul calls it a ‘mystery’, writing: “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed,” (1 Corinthians 15:51–52).
For those who are not Christian, they won’t even know it’s happened until they notice the giant absence of a lot of the population.
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What is the Second Coming?
The Association claims that this is a time when Jesus returns to Earth to defeat his enemies (evil).
The website says that ‘after a period of seven years of tribulation on earth, Christ will return to the earth with His church, the saints who were raptured (Matthew 24:30, 2 Thessalonians 1:7, 1 Peter 1:13, Revelation 1:7)’.
He will ‘be victorious’ and then ‘reign on the earth for 1,000 years (the millennium) with His saints, the church’.
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After those 1,000 years are up, the non-believers who survived and the dead who also did not believe in God, will be resurrected to be judged at the ‘great white throne judgment’.
From there, they will be thrown into a lake of fire, and those who were saved will live in a new heaven and Earth.
However, Christians debate whether the Second Coming happens at the same time as the Rapture or whether they are separate events.
Others believe it is God who will stand on the Mount of Olives, creating a giant earthquake followed by God’s enemies being defeated during the Second Coming.
The world will be free from sin when this occurs, resetting the balance.
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People online have been so confused debating about whether the Rapture and Second Coming are happening at the same time, that they’ve started a Reddit thread about it.
Some say it’s clear the two events will happen side-by-side, while others claim it’s obviously a while away from each other.
One user wrote: “The Rapture Is The Belief Where All Christians Will Be Rose Up To Heaven Even Bad Ones (Yeah According To The Rapture Christians Can’t Go To Hell basically once saved always saved) which is just heretical since God will Judge us equally because he doesn’t have favorites it doesn’t matter if you are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Zoroastrian, Baha’i you will all be judge equally and not everyone will go to heaven and not everyone will go to hell.”
Another speculated it’s already happened, writing: “If you think about it, the world has been coming to 'the end times' since those words were written.”
However, someone else just says to focus on God and forget about it, commenting: “Basically I’m pretty sure it is Revelation aka the most confusing part of the Bible. I would say wait and focus on what God has tasked you with doing, growing a relationship with him and spreading his word.”
What did the pastor say?
No matter if you believe the two events happen concurrently or separately, one pastor claims it’s already in motion.
In a YouTube video posted this year, Pastor Joshua Mhlakela alleged that Jesus had appeared in a vision of his to reveal the day 'doomsday' would be upon us.
“The rapture is upon us, whether you are ready or not,” he explained.
“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 back to the Earth'.”
This means we would have around two weeks to figure out if we’re believers or not.
23 September aligns with the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, AKA the Feast of the Trumpets, which has been taken as a 'sign' by Rapture expectants.
Britt Jones