I Was Thrown off the Rapture Bus

Joshua Mhlakela is forty-three years old, lives in Johannesburg, South Africa, and claims to be a pastor, but he does not have a church. He’s a good-looking young man, but I am unsure about his mental health. He says he had a visit from Jesus, who told him, “I’m coming soon.” From that dream, he concluded that Jesus would arrive on Rosh Hashanah, which in 2025 was celebrated on Tuesday, September 23. He claimed that Jesus would return and his followers would be taken up to heaven. Apparently, some people sold all their possessions and were waiting for “the rapture.”

I’m unsure whether it’s fortunate or unfortunate, but no such celebration happened on Rosh Hashanah or any other day.

The word rapture has two meanings: (1) a feeling of deep happiness or pleasure and (2) the time when Jesus comes back to take certain people to heaven.

I like the first definition. I think the second one borders on the absurd.

Throughout my life, I’ve noticed Fundamentalist pastors predicting the date of the rapture. Of course, none of these predictions have come true, but many of the predictors have gained a lot of publicity. Eventually, they all become “failed prophets.” I have often wondered whether they are then labeled “loser” or “mistaken.” I have never met a predictor, but if I do, I’d be eager to discuss what happened to his or her life after this error.

The Bible doesn’t refer to a rapture specifically. Thessalonians 4:15–17 talks about those “who are left until the coming of the Lord” while 1 Corinthians 15:51–53 talks about “and the dead . . . will all be changed.” Some think these passages refer to the rapture.

As you might have guessed, I associate this kind of thinking with a form of mental illness. When I worked in a mental hospital, I met patients who considered themselves Jesus and one who claimed to be God. The idea of a man returning 1,992 years after he died in a human body to the United States—which didn’t exist back then—in some vehicle to take 144,000 (see Revelation 7:4) true believers through a deadly atmosphere into a place with over two trillion galaxies, ending up in a utopia called “heaven” where God and Jesus live, is about as far from reality as you can get. Yet millions of Christians believe the rapture will happen.

For me, talk of the rapture and the book of Revelation—which are both first-century science fiction—has nothing to do with Jesus and makes Christianity a very weird religion.

I have no idea why so many so-called believers seem to do anything not to follow what Jesus commanded. My guess is they think that pretending a rapture is about to occur looks like they’re doing Jesus’s work. But Jesus’s command to “love the least of these” (Matthew 25:40) requires a lifelong, incredibly difficult commitment.

Because of my belief system, if there were a rapture bus, I would be thankful that I would be thrown off before it even arrived.

Are you ready for the rapture?

PeaceLoveJoyHopeKindness

Bil

Get my book at Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon!

P.S. People often ask me provocative questions about current events, both religious and secular. I have found that some of these questions are being asked universally. I’ll be periodically alternating regular articles with one of those questions and my answer. I invite you to send me your question to bilaulenbach@yahoo.com.

 

Photo courtesy of La Tribune de Art via Wikimedia Commons