Does a video genuinely show people waiting in a hospital "vanishing [into] thin air" during the religious phenomenon known as the rapture? No, that's not true: An edited video shared to social media in October 2023 was created by Perhaps Today!, a religious group that creates "thought-provoking pre-enactment video clips of the moment of the Rapture." The video was originally published on September 18, 2023, to promote a religious leader's "prophecy book" that "examines the next event on God's prophetic timetable, the Rapture."
The claim originated in a video shared to TikTok on October 2, 2023, (archived here) with a text overlay that read:
More people have been caught vanishing to thin air alive
can this be rapture taking place ?
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken Fri Oct 6 10:50:26 UTC 2023)
The above video is not a genuine clip showing people who have vanished from "thin air" as they were waiting in what appeared to be a hospital lobby. Rather, Lead Stories sourced the clip to Perhaps Today!, a religious group that creates "thought-provoking pre-enactment video clips of the moment of the Rapture" they call "Rapture Pre-Enactments" (archived here). These videos are described by the group as:
... realistic 'caught on camera' user-generated footage grabs the viewers' attention and creates curiosity that leads them to our Perhaps Today! website (the one you are on, right now!), where they discover more about the Rapture and find the Gospel message.
Lead Stories searched the YouTube channel of David Jeremiah, a pastor who is affiliated with the Perhaps Today! movement. Scenes from the video shared on TikTok (and later on Facebook) match those featured at the eight-second mark of a video titled, "The Great Disappearance" (archived here).
A description that accompanied the video on YouTube read:
The Perhaps Today! Rapture pre-enactment videos aim to create content so intriguing that the world will want to stop and consider the reality of this imminent prophetic event and look to the Word of God for the answers to their spiritual questions.
Rapture is described by Jeremiah as an "event where all who have put their trust in Christ, living and deceased, will suddenly be caught up from earth, be joined with Christ in the air, and taken to heaven." The concept is referenced in the Bible in Thessalonians 4:13-18.
Lead Stories contacted Perhaps Today! for comment on the video but did not receive a response at the time of publication. We will update the article accordingly as needed.
Other Lead Stories fact checks involving the religious concept know as the rapture can be viewed here.
