You Know The Rapture Happened If...

My dad called today out of the blue and said, “The rapture is happening today. If you wake up tomorrow and someone’s missing, that’s why.” Apparently, he’d been listening to the new Pope speak, and something about the way he talked made my dad think a little deeper. Now, he’s on a personal mission, calling all his kids to make sure we’re aware and maybe start looking into the whole rapture thing. Meanwhile, as an agnostic leaning toward athiesim, the rapture has barely even crossed my radar—and suddenly, it’s front and center in my dad’s universe.  It's the end of the world, right? Or is it something more that I'm not aware of? So naturally, I poked around for a few facts: 

-What is it exactly? The rapture (also known as the secret rapture) is a future prophetic event that says that one day Jesus will take all Christians off earth, disappearing in an instant to meet him in the sky in heaven. 

- The modern rapture doctrine is not Biblical. It was developed in the 1800s by John Nelson Darby and later popularized by American Evangelicals. 

-The common belief amongst Evangelicals is that the rapture will happen pre-tribulation to save believers before the chaos. The Tribulation is a future period of intense suffering and chaos preceding the final return of Christ, typically lasting 7 years.

-Most Christian denominations do not subscribe to rapture theology. In fact, most reject it as a modern invention.

- Traditional Christian belief focuses on the Second Coming of Christ and the resurrection of the dead NOT a sudden disappearance of believers. 

-This particular rapture on September 23rd,2025, was predicted in June by a South African Pastor named Joshua Mhlakela. 

-Every time in history when the rapture has been predicted, it has never happened.

-The word "rapture" itself does not appear in the Bible at all. The idea of the rapture comes from a few different passages, one describing believers as "caught up" to meet Jesus in the air. 

-The rapture idea gained popularity in the U.S. through the Scofield Reference Bible (controversial bible published in 1909) and media like the Left Behind book series and movies.

-For believers, the rapture means escaping coming judgment and being united with Christ and loved ones — a comforting hope in times of uncertainty and hardship.