The Rapture | Belief, Definition, & Predictions - Encyclopedia Britannica

Predictions

Endtime prophecies promoting a specific date for the Rapture are myriad. Number symbolism is often an important element, with the numbers 7, 12, and 40 being significant to many such predictions. For example, many Biblical literalists and young-Earth creationists, believing that God created the universe in seven 24-hour days more than 6,000 years ago, have attempted to calculate the date of the start of the seventh millennium of Earth’s existence as the precise date of the Rapture and the Second Coming. It was in this vein that American televangelist Rex Humbard predicted the Rapture for 1983 and American Baptist Peter Ruckman repeatedly attempted to establish a date for the Rapture in the 1980s and ’90s. Similarly, two dates in 2011 were predicted by the American evangelist Harold Camping.

The Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah has often been tied to predictions of the Rapture. The holiday, which marks the religious New Year, is also called the Day of Judgment and distinctively features the blowing of the ram’s horn (shofar)—which some Christians posit is the last trumpet sound described by St. Paul in his epistles. Former NASA rocket engineer Edgar Whisenant famously predicted Rosh Hashanah in 1988 as the date of the Rapture. In 2025 South African pastor Joshua Mhlakela publicly described a vision in which Jesus announced that the Rapture would take place during Rosh Hashanah that year (September 23–24). His declaration quickly spread across social media platforms, with “RaptureTok” trending on TikTok as the date approached.

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Despite the enduring popularity of predictions surrounding the Rapture and other end-of-times scenarios, many Christians reject the premise that such dates can be known. Indeed, many cite Christ’s own words in the Gospel According to Matthew:

But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man (24:36–37).

Melissa Petruzzello