Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Image
Topics: Religion, TikTok, Weird, Social Media
Joshua Nair
A woman has explained why she's convinced the world is ending, as we know it, tomorrow (23 September).
Apparently, numerous people around the world believe that we are nearing the end of life as we know it, according to a Christian prophecy.
It all began when a South African Pastor named Joshua Mhlakela claimed that God will be coming to 'rescue the Christians out of the world' on both 23 and 24 September.
Speaking on YouTube, the preacher said that this would be the fateful date for followers of Christ, coinciding with Rosh Hashanah, or the Feast of Trumpets.
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It's called 'the Rapture', but many have been left confused over what it really is, and why people are selling their cars and quitting their jobs in anticipation of the fated date.
So what is it, and should we be worried?
It is stated in Thessalonians 4:13-17: "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.
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"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."
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association states that this is the first of two phases signalling the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Believers are said to be resurrected and given eternal bodies, made to look like Jesus himseld, while those who believe in God are said to rise up into the clouds and be saved, with 1 John 3:2 reading: “We know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
It's said that non-Christians will simply not notice this happening until they see a chunk of the population absent from the streets.
It's said that Jesus will then return to Earth to defeat his enemies, before reigning for the millennium 'with His saints, the church', the site details.
While many people believe in Christianity and the Bible, a lot of its stories and prophecies have been deduced to be metaphors, or to be representative of deeper messages, though some people are set on this event coming true.
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One of these is TikTok user @alpharoyce_, who has made content about the prophecy.
She explained in a viral video: "As many of you know, the Rapture's on Tuesday. I've given away all my earthly possessions to the heathens that I know will not be coming with us, the chosen ones."
"I've already transferred the deed to my house. I just need to give this car away," she said to over 1.1 million people.
The social media personality claimed that 'none of this material stuff' will matter when she 'gets raptured', adding: "I just wanna say it's not too late for you to be a part of the Rapture."
Real name Gehl, she even made a follow-up video which gave tips about the Rapture out to believers.
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Whether it's satire or if she's being serious, the bottom line is that some are genuine believers in the Rapture, though Gehl has kept viewers guessing in the comments.
Stand-up comedian Kevin Fredericks remarked: “They are selling their cars, clothes, some people are making post-rapture kits for the people who are left behind.”
He questions the concept though, pointing out that if it were to take place on 23 September, how would each country know what time that would be?
“What time zone is it happening in? Because the whole thing about the rapture that I was taught was that no man knows the date or the hour…
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“There are 24 time zones on Earth, 38 if you include the ones that have half-hour times. No man knows how you all know,” he said.
I guess time will tell... or it won't, just like 2012 came and went.