Conor Marren is setting up a new email out of office signature. “If you’re reading this, I’ve been raptured. You’ve been left behind. Don’t worry. Never renounce Christ!”
At some point today (Conor’s guess is midnight Israeli time, so 10pm here) the Rapture might occur. Christians will float up to heaven and everyone else will wonder what happened.
The Rapture is largely an evangelical Christian concept, based on Thessalonians 1:4 – “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” – and a lot of people think it’s about to happen. It started when South African pastor Joshua Mhlakela announced this summer that he had dreamt Christ told him he would “come to take my church” on either September 23 or 24.
He sent the Christian internet wild. Mhlakela’s date was near the autumn equinox, and exactly seven years away from the 2,000th anniversary of Christ’s death, assuming he died in AD32. (After the Rapture will be seven years of chaos and tribulation before Christ’s triumphant return in 2032.)
On TikTok, RaptureTok was born. “Jesus is coming back, this is NOT the time to play,” one woman says. “This should NOT be fearful, guys.” “Only two, two and a half days left until I get to see Jesus!” grins a man. A young woman signs off in what she expects to be her last video: “See you in the clouds, my brothers and sisters.”
It is also the first full day of Rosh Hashanah – Jewish New Year, the Feast of the Trumpets. For RaptureTokers, that makes perfect sense. 1 Corinthians 15:52 is the Bible’s other major mention of the Rapture: “We will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”
Of course: surely the last trumpets will sound at the feast of the trumpets. And there are other links, once you start looking. “It’s interesting with the trumpets,” Conor reflects when we talk over the phone, “because Trump is the president now as well. It’s kind of a coincidence, but not really. An eye-opener. An eyebrow-raiser, anyway.”
He thinks Trump might be the Antichrist, who will appear in the seven years of tribulation, but he’s unsure. “The thing is, everybody has to like the Antichrist, and Donald Trump – so many people hate him,” he muses. “There are a few candidates. My first one would be Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia.” I decide not to ask if he’s heard of Peter Thiel, the billionaire Californian investor and Trump donor who, over the course of September and October (this cannot be another coincidence), is giving four lectures on the subject of the biblical Antichrist. “And then you have the false prophet,” Connor continues, “which could be the American Pope, or could be Elon Musk…”
Marren lives in Ireland and has been interested in American evangelical Christianity since Ireland’s 2018 abortion referendum. He researched the “No” argument, and began watching US political videos about abortion and God.
He started thinking about the Rapture during the Covid pandemic. “I knew Covid was a sign – a harbinger – of things to come,” he says. He’s barely been able to sleep this month. Right now, waiting for eternity, he’s full of fear and excitement. I ask what he’s doing on his last day on Earth. “I’m just going to the gym now so I can get rid of some nervous energy and wait for things to happen,” he says. “Then I’m just going to pray and read the Bible.”
Nas, who lives in the US, has stopped eating for the last few days. “I fasted for God, and to hear him and be closer with him,” he writes to me. Will he be disappointed if it doesn’t happen? “I know it will happen so I’m not worried,” he writes. “I’m VERY EXCITED.” He sends four prayer hands emojis.
Failed Rapture predictions are, nonetheless, quite common. Former Nasa engineer Edward Whisenant decreed it would happen in 1988, and when that date passed, adjusted his prediction to 1989, 1993 and 1994 before giving up. Baptist preacher William Miller caused the “Great Disappointment” by wrongly prophesying Christ’s second coming on 22 October, 1844. “Millerites”, who had given up their possessions in advance, were violently attacked by mobs and taunted with cries of “Have you not gone up?”.
Hannah Gallman is a 32-year-old former nurse and is currently working on a letter to leave behind once she ascends. “We have friends who do not believe. We have asked them: if we disappear, come to our house, get our letter and take care of our pets. Don’t take the mark of the Beast, get your Bible, just stuff like that.”
As a child, Gallman was “scared to death” of the Rapture. “I remember waking up from naps and freaking out thinking I was left behind because my mom walked out to get the mail,” she says. As she got older, she saw Rapture predictions, but when the predicted days came nothing ever happened. Her faith ebbed away.
But over the last year, while Gallman was working as a nurse in Nebraska, she returned to her belief. “It came down to what has the most truth,” she says. It made sense that this would happen in her lifetime. “I never thought I would be old. I’ve never been able to picture myself with grandkids or retired.” It’s perhaps no surprise the Rapture blew up on TikTok. A lot of RaptureTokers post with the air of a scared child about to go on holiday.
She started digging in to the numbers. Israel turns 77 this year. This reminded her of Jacob, who is given the name “Israel” in the Bible, and married his first wife at – guess what? – age 77. Gallman had to tell her husband. “I said, ‘Either I’m crazy and need to go to a mental hospital or we need to move back home and tell people.’” She showed him her research, and he had a panic attack. The couple moved home to Louisiana and have been spreading the word since last December.
Gallman lost her job recently, and in August, she and her husband found out their trailer is up for foreclosure. It will go up for auction on 1 October. “I should be freaking out, but I know we will not be here by then. I have peace about it.” With no future, there’s no fear. The chaos of the current moment might explain the mass appeal of floating up away from it all.
But if by 25 September Gallman is still firmly Earth-bound, she will be thankful for the extra time to spread the word. “I know I’m ready, and that’s it.”
[Further reading: After Charlie Kirk, Maga wants revenge]
Content from our partners
Related
Join the debate
Subscribe here to comment