The Word "Rapture" Is not actually in the Bible.
A response to a fellow writer who is worried about A.I., the end times, and what Christianity actually teaches
Last September, a man I had never heard of convinced millions of people that the world would end on a Tuesday.
His name was Joshua Mhlakela. He was a preacher from South Africa. He went on a podcast and told the host that Jesus had personally revealed to him the date of the Rapture — the 23rd or 24th of September 2025. Mark your calendars.
The clip went viral on TikTok. Within a few weeks, the hashtag #RaptureTok had racked up roughly 300,000 posts. People quit their jobs. Some sold their cars. A handful wrote goodbye notes and left them for family members who were not in on the plan.
Then Tuesday came. Then Wednesday. Then the internet filled up with apologies and memes, and somebody coined the phrase “Worst Rapture Ever.”
I thought about that moment a lot the week I read Christian’s op-ed, “Worried About A.I.?”
A Writer I Can Respect, An Argument I Don’t
The piece I was reading wasn’t from a stranger on TikTok, but a writer here on Medium. It was careful. It was earnest. The author was looking at artificial intelligence, political unrest, natural disasters, and moral confusion, and they were reading all of it as evidence that the Rapture is near. They wanted their readers to be ready.
I want to say up front that I share some of their worries. A.I. is moving faster than our ability to think clearly about it. Wars are real. The climate is real. The feeling that something is slipping is real.
What I don’t share is the theological story they were using to hold all of that together.
And I’ve been sitting with why that matters.
The Word That Isn’t There
Here is something I wish more people knew before they pick up a book about the end times.
The word “rapture” is not in the Bible.
I don’t mean it’s hidden in a tricky Greek verb that only seminary students can find. I mean, the English word isn’t there, and the specific event the word describes, Jesus secretly removing believers from earth before a seven-year tribulation, is not something the early Christians wrote about, believed in, or prepared for.
That last sentence is the one that usually gets people’s attention.
If you grew up hearing about the Rapture the way a lot of us did, you probably assumed it was ancient. Everybody seems to talk about it. There are novels and movies. Bumper stickers are warning you that the car ahead will be unmanned. There are whole church signs devoted to it. How could something that loud be recent?
And yet.
