A Christian pastor whose failed Rapture prediction triggered widespread panic is making another claim, saying the end-times event is now imminent.
Pastor Joshua Mhlakela, a South African preacher, says he has worked out the precise timing of the biblical event in which believers are taken into the clouds to meet Jesus Christ. He claims it will occur between October 12 and 13.
The Rapture is an end-times belief held by some Christians and is part of eschatology, the study of events surrounding the end of the world. Believers associate it with the Second Coming of Jesus, while Judgment Day is expected to follow for non-believers.
In interviews and videos posted online, Mhlakela has said that both God and Jesus appeared to him in visions. According to the pastor, those visions revealed when the Rapture would occur and what its consequences would be for people remaining on Earth.
“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,” Mhlakela declared.
His claims have attracted intense skepticism and criticism, particularly after he incorrectly predicted the date of the Rapture several times in 2025.
Social media erupted when Mhlakela said the event would take place on September 23, 2025. Some followers who accepted his predictions reportedly sold their homes and cars, while others left their jobs in preparation.
“There’s no other final. I mean, there’s no other rapture date. This is the final date for me,” Mhlakela said in an interview on September 17.
Pastor Joshua Mhlakela (Pictured) has repeatedly made false predictions about the biblical Rapture. He now says the event will begin on October 12, 2026
The Rapture is viewed by some Christians as a form of rescue, with believers taken from Earth to escape an approaching period of severe suffering known as the Tribulation (Stock Image)
Mhlakela has insisted that his earlier predictions were not mistakes. Instead, he said, God delayed the final judgment to allow more people time to repent.
He argued that the delay was consistent with Scripture, which says the days of the Tribulation will be shortened for the sake of the “elect” — those chosen by God before the return of Jesus.
According to this interpretation, the Rapture is a supernatural rescue in which believers are suddenly taken from Earth into Heaven before a period of extreme suffering known as the Tribulation.
Biblical passages are interpreted by some Christians as describing the Tribulation as seven years of turmoil and disaster. During that period, evil is said to rule on Earth before Jesus returns to establish a peaceful kingdom.
Mhlakela has said his first visions of Jesus occurred in 2018. At the time, he predicted that the Rapture would happen on September 23, 2025, coinciding with the Jewish Feast of Trumpets, or Rosh Hashanah.
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Some Christians have connected the annual holiday with the prophecy that Jesus will return “with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God.”
Mhlakela now claims the Feast of Trumpets had been dated one month too early, placing the supposed Rapture roughly 30 days after the annual observance of Rosh Hashanah.
“Many are saying Feast of Trumpets is September when you Google [it’s] September 11. [This] is not Feast of Trumpets. The true Feast of Trumpets is actually in October,” Mhlakela said during his interview with CettwinzTV.
Many Christians have rejected claims that the date of the Rapture has been disclosed, arguing that setting a date conflicts with Jesus’ teachings (Stock Image)
The pastor said his latest Rapture prediction was based on further visions of Jesus, which he believes directed him toward the later October dates.
According to Mhlakela, a vision involving two full moons convinced him the calendar itself was off by about a month because the current celebration of Passover was taking place under the astrological sign of Pisces.
He tied that gap to the Exodus story of Israel’s departure from Egypt, saying the ‘true’ Passover must fall when the sun is in Aries, just as it is said to have taken place during the biblical Exodus.
The pastor then applied that same one-month shift to his new Feast of Trumpets date in mid-October.
However, the Bible did not document the sun being in Aries during the Exodus. It only said Passover falls in the first month of spring, with the Aries link coming from later writers such as Josephus, a first-century Jewish historian – not from the Exodus account itself.
Moreover, Mhlakela’s end times predictions continue to receive pushback from many Christians who believe setting a definitive date for the Second Coming of Jesus goes against the teachings of the Bible.
Vladimir Savchuk, a pastor, author, and YouTube preacher, said last September: ‘If someone sets the date, they are directly contradicting Jesus’s word.’
He further debunked the Rapture claims by noting that Scripture says the son of perdition must be revealed first, referring to a figure often interpreted as the Antichrist.
‘2 Thessalonians 2:3, it says clearly that Jesus is not returning until the Antichrist is revealed, and that has not happened yet,’ Savchuk explained.
