What would happen during the 'rapture' as people prepare for the end of the world as we know it
There have been plenty of people who've predicted that the end of days was right around the corner, only to end up with a proverbial egg on their face once that corner is turned and the steady continuation of days plods on like it always has.
People thought the world was going to end in 2012 because of Mayan calendars, or that it'd all go to hell in a handbasket on Y2K with the fear that the turn of the millennium would scramble up all our computers.
As far as we can tell, since days continue and the world is still here, every single prophecy predicting that it's all about to come to an end which has been and gone has turned out to be wrong.
Yet still the idea of the end of the world persists, as some people are quitting their jobs and selling their cars in anticipation of 'the rapture', the moment when Jesus Christ returns and all the true believers, whether living or dead, are taken up to meet God.
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One woman has even sold her house. You can't take it with you, I suppose, but the same goes for the money.
The reason why people think it's going to be the rapture tomorrow is because a South African man named Joshua Mhlakela has said so, and now his words are doing the rounds on platforms such as TikTok.
What has Joshua Mhlakela said about 'the rapture'?
Mhlakela claims that God will 'rescue the Christians out of the world' on 23 and 24 September, and that the world will apparently be left 'unrecognisable' after it's had a big dollop of divine judgement.
As for what's supposed to actually happen in the rapture, apparently the bodies of dead believers in Christ will be resurrected and they, along with the living, will go up into the sky to be glorified.
Basically, the true believers get raptured up while the wrath of God torments the Earth and all the non-believers on the planet below. The exact nature of this wrath is debated by Christians, but pretty much none of it sounds good.
Various interpretations suggest that the sun might go dark and the moon be turned to blood, while an Antichrist will rise to power after the rapture and cause much misery before Jesus returns.
It's all supposed to end after the rapture with the 'second coming' of Jesus, and everything will be sunshine and roses again, at least for the people who got raptured up out of the world to avoid everything that would happen during the bad times.
On the other hand, there's been a long succession of predictions over when the rapture would actually occur, and thus far none of them seem to have actually happened.
Yours truly is willing to eat a slice of humble pie if tomorrow people start getting raptured up into the sky, but for now, it's probably not a great idea to quit your job or sell your car in anticipation of no longer needing them.
Besides, if it really is the end of the world, then your boss probably has bigger concerns than you not showing up for work.
Joe Harker