Picture this: you quit your job and sell your car because a pastor on YouTube said Jesus was coming this week. Then picture the morning after: you crash in your parents’ guest room with no car and no paycheck, while the same pastor explains there’s actually a new date.
South African pastor Joshua Mhlakela has announced that the Rapture will happen on October 12 or 13, 2026. “God told me because there’s no other date coming out, 12 to 13 October, which is the true feast of trumpets, which is when I will be meeting my savior face to face in the Rapture,” he said in a YouTube interview.
The only issue is that Mhlakela has already gotten this wrong…twice. And people have reportedly made some pretty expensive decisions based on his predictions.
Pastor Announces New Rapture Date, Still Won’t Apologize for the Old Ones
His first date was September 23 and 24, 2025, timed to coincide with Rosh Hashanah, also known as the Feast of Trumpets. The prediction spread across TikTok, where some followers reportedly quit their jobs and sold property in preparation.
Then September 24 came and went. Everyone was still here, and the people who’d sold their homes and cars had to explain themselves. Mhlakela explained that he’d used the wrong calendar and moved the date to October 7 and 8.
That didn’t work out, either.
One TikTok user described the unfortunate academic consequences of believing him. “I didn’t do my exams because I [thought] it doesn’t matter,” they wrote. “Now look at me.”
For his latest prediction, Mhlakela claims the Feast of Trumpets was calculated about a month early. He’s also cited a vision involving two full moons. How that explains the previous two failed predictions is anybody’s guess. He’s refused to apologize and still insists God personally gave him the information.
Even other Christians are getting fed up. Apologist Mike Winger accused Mhlakela of “spiritually lying and deceiving people” and included him among the year’s biggest scumbags. Evangelist Greg Stier has also urged Christians to stop trying to predict the Rapture.
And Mhlakela seems all too comfortable overlooking a fairly important biblical detail. Matthew 24:36 says, “But of that day and hour knoweth no man.”
People have been ignoring that warning for centuries. Baptist preacher William Miller predicted Christ’s return on October 22, 1844. When Jesus failed to appear, the event became known as the Great Disappointment.
As for October 12 and 13, you probably have better things to do than spend the next 48 hours staring at the sky. Go to work. Keep your car. And for God’s sake, take your exams.
The post Pastor Who Got the Rapture Wrong Twice Says It’s Definitely Happening This Week appeared first on VICE.
