The following guest sermon was submitted by ULC Minister Morris Pike. All ULC Ministers are invited to contribute their own sermons for consideration/publication. To submit a sermon, please email it to sermons@ulc.org.
Life on Earth has always carried a certain hum of anxiety. A hum which grows louder every news cycle, as stories of wars, wildfires, economic collapse, and moral decay take center stage. Social media magnifies every headline until it feels like the world is perpetually teetering on the brink. For the unenlightened, these are just the ordinary rhythms of a chaotic age. But for many followers of Christ, these events are not random misfortunes. They are signs, flashing like neon in the dark, that history is racing toward its end.
Whispers grow louder with every disaster: perhaps the Rapture, that long-foretold moment when the faithful are taken up and the rest left behind, isn’t a distant prophecy after all, but a door ready to burst open any second.
What is the Rapture?
Sadly, I often meet people who have no idea what the Rapture really is. The Bible teaches us that the Rapture is the moment when Christ Himself descends from heaven with a shout, the dead in Christ rise first, and the faithful are swept up into the clouds to meet their Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17).
It is the dividing line between the righteous and the damned, when the wheat is gathered into the barn and the chaff is cast into the fire. For centuries, preachers have warned that this day would come swiftly and without warning, “like a thief in the night.”
And if you listen to believers on platforms like TikTok today, that thief is already at the door. Scores of viral videos predicted that Tuesday, September 23 would mark the holy ascension.
The first man to sound the alarm was a Christian pastor out of South Africa named Joshua Mhlakela, who declared that Jesus told him He would return during Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish feast of trumpets. Fitting, as 1 Thessalonians describes the event this way: “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.”
This very church posted about the potential event on Facebook:
It was an interesting prediction. However, September 23rd has come and gone. It would appear that Jesus didn’t return, and the saved and the damned both still walk this mortal coil together. "Ha, the Rapture didn’t come!" the cynics happily shout.
But are we so sure?
What If the Rapture Did Happen?
The Rapture won't just happen someday. It already did.
You read that right. The trumpet sounded, the clouds parted… and not a single one of us went anywhere. Because let’s face it – look around. If this planet is the roster of the “redeemed,” then heaven must be shaking its head in disappointment.
I believe the Rapture quietly came and went, and the reason we’re all still here is simple: no one was worthy of being taken. Our greed, our violence, our endless division and cruelty – the scales tipped too far into wickedness for anyone to be saved.
We poisoned the air and the oceans for the sake of material goods. We dropped bombs on children, and stood by as famine overtook millions. We attacked those we disagree with, and embraced cruelty and division instead of Christ’s love.
And for those of us who did not participate directly? Well, we stood by and did nothing. Only a hair better than the sinners themselves, if you ask me.
The threshold for salvation was higher than we ever wanted to believe. And when the day of judgment came, we were not worthy.
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