Rapture No! Messianic Age Hopes Yes!

The Rapture is near — at least according to an apocalyptic prophecy by one South African man who said a few months ago that it will fall on September 23 or 24. His claim has gone viral, with some believing it will mark the end times; and many more mocking it.

“There are millions and millions of Christians in the world today, maybe even hundreds of millions of Christians in the world who believe in modern prophecy and consume media that’s populated by these modern prophecies,” said Matthew Taylor, a senior Christian scholar at the Institute for Islamic-Christian-Jewish Studies.

The Rapture is the belief of some evangelical Christians in a future event where Jesus will return to Earth to take all true believers to heaven before a period of great tribulation called Armageddon, that culminates in the end of the world. Some admirers of Charlie Kirk hope that, in response to his death, signals will start of religious revival

Many Christians believe Jesus’ return to Earth, also known as the Second Coming, is referenced in the Old Testament’s Book of Daniel and the New Testament’s Book of Revelation, said Randall Balmer, a professor of religion at Dartmouth College. Believers who were persecuted in early Christianity, during the time of the Roman Empire, saw the Book of Revelation as an assurance that God would eventually prevail over evil, Balmer said.

The figure of a Messiah has been central to Christianity, important but not central to Rabbinic Judaism, and a part of but not central or even very important to Islam.

Christians who believe in a divine Son of God Messiah, do not draw a distinction between the Hebrew Bible’s eschatological hopes for God’s glorious future age of world wide peace and justice, and an individual hero Messiah who is a descendant of Prophet David the king.

That a human being could be a Jewish Messiah and simultaneously be a God is totally foreign and repulsive to the Hebrew Bible and the Qur’an. As Qur’an 5:72 states: “They blaspheme who say: “Allah is Christ [Greek for Messiah] the son of Mary.” But said [Messiah] Christ: “O Children of Israel! worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord.” Whoever joins other gods with Allah,- Allah will forbid him the garden [of Eden], and the Fire [of Hell] will be his abode.”

And as Allah says: “O Jesus the son of Mary! Did you say to people, worship me and my mother as gods in derogation of Allah’?” He will say: “Glory to You; never could I say what I had no right (to say). Had I said such a thing, you would indeed have known it. You know what is in my heart . . .” (Qur’an. 5:116) Jews are in full accord with this.

In the Hebrew Bible the primary cause of the Messianic Age is God. That specific human beings would play an important role in ushering in the Messianic Age, became defined during the period of the Second Temple in the 5th to first century BCE.

For Jews, one of the most important events of the Messianic Age is the ingathering of those Jews still living in exile. “The Lord, your God, will bring back your exiles, and He will have mercy upon you. He will once again gather you from all the nations, where the Lord, your God, had dispersed you”. (Deuteronomy 30:3)

“He shall gather the lost ones of Israel, and the scattered ones of Judah He shall gather [them] from the four corners of the earth.” (Isaiah 11:12) and “I will return your captivity and gather you from all the nations, and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will return you to the place from where I exiled you”. (Jeremiah 29:14)

The Qur’an itself refers to this: “We conveyed to the Children of Israel in the Scripture that, “You will surely cause corruption on the earth twice [once before the first exile and again before the second exile], and you will surely reach [some degree of] great haughtiness. So when the [time of] promise came for the first [exile] of them {from Judea}, We sent against you servants of Ours [the Babylonians} those of great military might, and they probed [even] into the[the people’s] homes, and it was a promise fulfilled. Then We gave back to you a return victory over them [the defeat of Babylonia and the first ingathering aided by the Persian King Cyrus].

The word “rapture” does not appear in the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament. Belief in the Rapture began in the mid-19th century in Britain and elsewhere in the English-speaking world. It added a secret exclusivity to the Second Coming, which was an already accepted belief at the time.

The Rapture belief spread through 20th century Bible conferences, evangelical media and the publication of the Scofield Reference Bible, which detailed the Rapture in footnotes. Pop culture also advanced the belief, including through the evangelical Christian horror film “A Thief in the Night” and the popular “Left Behind” novel series.

Joshua Mhlakela, a South African man who describes himself as only a believer with no religious title, says God allowed him to see the future in a widely viewed YouTube video published three months ago. In it, he recounts seeing Jesus on a throne and hearing him say that he is coming soon: “He says to me: ‘On the 23rd and the 24th, 2025, I will come to take my Church.’”

His prediction has stoked debates by Christian commentators and gone viral on social media, including on TikTok under the hashtag #RaptureTok where many have mocked it as another false claim by another false prophet.

Some have noted the dates overlap with the start of Judaism’s High Holy Days, which began this year on Sept. 22-23 with Rosh Hashanah — the Jewish New Year of 5786. “Ideas about the Rapture are best understood within the larger framework of apocalypticism, an ancient Jewish worldview that predates Christianity,” Kim Haines-Eitzen, a professor of ancient Mediterranean religions at Cornell University, said via email. She said apocalyptic ideology often surges during or after traumatic events, noting that many early Christians believed the end times would come in their lifetime.

The richest sources for new ideas about Messiahs come from the Dead Sea Scrolls, which have revolutionized our view of last days debates in the generations before and after Jesus’s lifetime.

Taking the Dead Sea Scrolls documents together, the vision of an individual messiah king got a boost from events during the Maccabean (Hasmoneans) age, even though that dynasty clearly represented a break from the Davidic line to a novel priestly line of rulers. As messianic visions became more important to Jewish thought during the second and first century BCE the Dead Sea Scrolls give evidence of the diversity of those approaches.

The Qumran Scrolls are usually associated with a Jewish sect tied to the Essenes and to First and Fourth Book of Enoch traditions. Most of the texts were written or at least preserved at the Jewish settlement of Qumran, founded around 160 BC, which survived over two hundred years, until the Jewish revolt of the late 60s CE. The Dead Sea Scrolls discoveries show the role of multiple messiahs, and eschatological figures. At least three figures in the Scrolls, all of them totally human, fit the messianic definition; a Prophet, a Priest and a King.

When Prophet John the Baptist came, the Jews asked him if he was a Messiah and he said “No”; they asked him if he was a pre-Messiah warner like Elijah and he said “No”. then in apparent reference to Deuteronomy 18:18, they asked him “Are you that Prophet [like Moses}” and he answered, “No”. (John 1:19-21).

The Damascus Covenant, for instance, refers to the messiahs from Aaron and Israel. Broadly, the Scrolls offer a “dual messianism,” with two key figures, so that the messiah of Aaron is a priestly religious counterpart to the more political or militant Davidic messiah.

Davidic titles are, though, much more common. The Genesis Pesher (4Q252 5:1-4) includes the words, “until the Messiah of Righteousness comes, the Branch of David.” Also 4Q521, a “Messianic Apocalypse,” which specifically mentions a Messiah, describes God alone “releasing captives, giving sight to the blind and raising up those who are downtrodden.’

According to the Qur’an (6:85) the last of the Jewish Prophets were: “Zakariya, John, Jesus and Elias: all in the ranks of the righteous.” Prophet Jesus was also a Messianic figure who will return during the Last Days of turmoil preceding the victory of good over evil in God’s Judgement Day and Messianic Age for all the righteous of mankind. The term for Prophet Jesus “al-Masih” [the Messiah in Hebrew] is used eleven times in the Qur’an in verses: 3:45, 4:157, 4:171, 4:172, 5:17 (twice), 5:72 (twice), 5:75, 9:30, and 9:31

If Prophet Jesus was a Messianic figure, a Messiah of Righteousness, the Branch [descendent] of David; then Prophet Muhammad would be the Khatam an-Nabiyyin, the Seal of the Prophets; who was able to inspire a very long lasting religious community; plus being a Prophet validating previous messengers and their sacred scriptures. This dual role is unique to Prophet Muhammad as the Khatam an-Nabiyyin, the Seal [validator] of the Prophets.

“Indeed, the believers, Jews, Christians, and Sabians—whoever truly believes in God and the Last Day and does good will have their reward with their Lord. And there will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve.” (Quran 2:62)

O mankind, We created you from male and female, and made you peoples and tribes, that you may know (respect) one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted. (Quran 49:13)

“Let there be no compulsion in Religion: truth stands out clear from error: whoever rejects evil and believes in Allah (one God) has grasped the most trustworthy unbreakable hand hold: Allah hears, and knows all things.” (Qur’an:2:256)

“Say: we believe in God and in what has been revealed to us, and what was revealed to (Prophets) Abraham, Isma’il: Isaac, Jacob and The [12] Tribes, and in (the Books) given to Moses, Jesus and the Prophets, from their Lord: We make no distinction between one and another, among them, and to God do we bow our will (in Islam).” (Qur’an 3:84)

I remember when California doomsday preacher Harold Camping predicted the Rapture would happen on May 21, 2011. His independent Christian media empire spent millions of dollars to spread the word. He gave up public prophecy when it did not come to pass.

If God wanted to rescue millions of righteous people before Armageddon there would be hundreds of different religious leaders who would be alerted all around the world.

But, I do believe that we are in the early stages of major long term improvement changes that will leave us on a peaceful planet. The Qur’an refers to Prophet Abraham as a community or a nation: “Abraham was a nation/community [Ummah]; dutiful to God, a monotheist [hanif], not one of the polytheists.” (Qur’an 16:120) If Prophet Abraham is an Ummah; then fighting between the descendants of Prophets Ishmael and Isaac is a civil war and should always be avoided. And prior to the 20th century Arabs and Jews never did make war with each other. “Lo yisa goy el goy kherev velo yilmedu od milkhama” “Nation shall not lift sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. (Isaiah 2:4)

If all Arabs and Jews can live up to the ideal that ‘the descendants of Abraham’s sons should never make war against each other’ is the will of God; we will help fulfill the 2700 year old vision of Prophet Isaiah: “On that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel  will join a three-party alliance with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing upon the heart. The LORD of Hosts will bless them saying, “Blessed be Egypt My people, Assyria My handiwork, and Israel My inheritance.”…(Isaiah 19:23-5) So Rapture No! The ongoing hopes for a Messianic Age Yes!