The predicted "end of the world" is three days away: South African pastor Joshua Mhlakela has declared that the rapture of believers will occur on October 12–13, 2026. His previous predictions failed, but the preacher now calls the date final, according to infohub.kz.
Mhlakela claims he learned the timing from visions of God and Jesus. According to him, the religious calendar is calculated incorrectly, and the Feast of Trumpets, known as Rosh Hashanah, should fall in October. It is with this that the pastor links his prediction.
This concerns the "rapture"—an event that some Christians understand as the taking up of believers to meet Jesus before a period of great tribulation. In the media, the pastor's statement is called a prediction of the "end of the world," though this simplifies the meaning of his words.
Mhlakela initially predicted the event for September 23–24, 2025. When those days passed, he moved the date to October 7–8, explaining the failure as confusion between the Julian and Gregorian calendars.
However, the second prediction also failed. Now the pastor claims that God supposedly deliberately gave humanity extra time for repentance. The new date—October 12–13, 2026—he says, is final.
According to reports cited by Pulse Nigeria, some followers, in light of previous predictions, sold their homes and cars and quit their jobs in anticipation of the rapture. The publication does not provide independent confirmation of these stories.
The pastor's new calculations have already drawn criticism from other Christian preachers. They point out that attempts to name the exact date of Jesus' return contradict biblical teaching that the day and hour of this event cannot be known. Mhlakela has provided no evidence that the predicted "rapture" will occur on October 12–13.