David Reagan - Jan Markell on the Mockery of Bible Prophecy
The Bible says that one of the signs of the end times will be people who will mock Bible prophecy. Stay tuned for a shocking presentation by Jan Markell in which she reveals this mockery today.
Dr. Reagan: I am about to share with you a portion of a shocking presentation by Jan Markell concerning Christian mockery of end time Bible prophecy. Jan is a Messianic Jew who is the founder and spokesperson for Olive Tree Ministries in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area. She has a weekly radio program called, “Understanding the Times,” that is carried on over 800 radio stations located all across our nation.
Jan’s presentation was made at this ministry’s 2018 annual Bible conference. The theme of that conference was “God’s Prophetic Voices to America.” Jan is definitely one of those voices. Here, now, is Jan Markell speaking about “The Mockery of Bible Prophecy.”
Jan Markell: I have a burden and I talked with the leadership here of Lamb & Lion, Dr. Reagan and others, you know I’m not sure exactly which one that I should be sharing today. And we concluded that I’m going to talk a little bit here about the Church. And I’m going to talk about a message that the Church has compromised. Christ died for His Church, we know He loves it. It’s just probably in years and decades gone by it has been a little more healthy than it is today.
So, how did the blessed hope become the blasted hope? And how and why is there such an attack on the greatest message, one-third of the Bible that the King is coming again? How did this happen? To kind of fully reveal this I’m going to have to name some names today. So some of you may not be fully happy with all the names I name. And it is just in the interest of time I’ve cut this down a little bit here.
Let’s go through it real quickly. And let’s kind of consider: How did this happen? When did it happen? And who let it happen? How did the greatest news in the Bible become to some last days madness? Now, these are Christians speaking calling this last days madness.
Tom Hughes he’s the pastor of Calvary Chapel 412 Church in San Jacinto, California he wrote an article recently and he summed it up brilliantly why the church rejects Bible prophecy. These are his opinions, but I certainly agree with each and every one. And we don’t have time to go into everything but number one he feels pastors don’t understand it. Perhaps their seminary didn’t train them to deal with eschatology. He feels that they fear offending members. They fear offending those attending their church. Can you imagine that the greatest news that Jesus Christ is coming perhaps today, could possibly offend someone? But in cases in fact it does. They don’t want to scare people. And if we look at some headlines today they certainly can be a bit foreboding. He feels that they might, the pastors the church leadership might lose ties if they talk about the end. If you’ve got a building program going to take ten years, the Lord is coming back tomorrow?
Who’s going to give to the building program? Well, these are Tom’s opinions. And I frankly I do agree having ministered in the churches a long time. But they might be identified with the looney fringe. I mean there has been a looney fringe, Harold Camping and others, date setters. They don’t want to be aligned, and I don’t blame them. I don’t blame them. Those are just some of the reasons Pastor Tom Hughes wrote in this article that has been picked up and republished just about everywhere.
Okay, another reason this message has declined is that there is a decline in Dispensationalism. Now, when I was young growing up, teenager in my 20’s and all, I mean every evangelical church believed in Dispensationalism. I mean the basics that distinguishes between the Church and Israel. It believes in the literal Rapture, the literal Tribulation, the literal Antichrist, the Millennium, the literal Second Coming. So, there is a decline in all this and the belief that the timing of the Rapture can be debated, we’ll still be friends. Its hard folks if you don’t believe in Pre-Trib, but we can still be friends. We can debate and not divide over some of these issues.
And then again the emphasis on Israel’s end time role, the Tribulation is for Israel and for the pagan world, for Israel. So these are some of the basics of Dispensationalism. And all of this is declining interest in the Church, and this theology. And I am calling just some destructive theologies and honestly we could write an encyclopedia on destructive theologies that have come in. And Amillennialism is very old, and takes nothing literally, it wouldn’t have any favorable impression of Israel’s end time role. This Kingdom Now, Dominionism has come on the scene now; and that says that the Church if we work hard enough, and get enough social justice programs we can make the world perfect. And how’s that working out? You know that’s going to take 20 trillion years for the Church to make the world perfect.
Preterism. How do you possibly believe that all Bible prophecy happened in 70 AD? We missed it. We missed it. It all happened. Its history that’s what Preterists believe. Another destructive theology that is crowding out I think probably 100% of us believe would be Replacement Theology; the Church is the new Israel. That’s just working its way, it’s even working its way into once extremely solid denominations and churches.
Christian Palestinianism that deserves a message on its own. Some of you might have remembered Yasser Arafat being lowered from a helicopter to the top of the Church of the Nativity in 2004. The belief of Christian Palestinianism being that Jesus was a Palestinian; He wasn’t even Jewish. And so we celebrate the Palestinian people– there is no such thing as a Palestinian, okay? That’s another message. But there isn’t. But none the less Christian Palestinianism, you know what I’m trying to say, is creeping into our churches, and some of them once sound.
Okay, so let’s look at some attacks on what we believe. “Christian Today,” not “Christianity Today,” “Christian Today,” “Why a Zombie Invasion is More Likely Than a Religious Apocalypse.” Christian magazine out of the UK. A zombie apocalypse is more likely than the playing out of the Bible prophecy outlined in the Bible? Okay. You might say, “Well, these are extreme, Jan.” I’m sorry they are not. Every year my conference in the fall gets labeled, “Jan Markell’s End Time Hysteria Conference.” This is coming from Christians. Again last days madness because again the message that most of us here love is at best mocked, and at worst, well, people get really ugly. Okay, here this particular article said, “For centuries Bible prophecy pundits have predicted the end is near. They appeal to the same types of signs, wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, famines, false religions, they have one thing in common, they’ve all been wrong.” Well, not so. Not so.
So, I started looking around and I saw that other organizations were raising the same question I’m asking. This is Friends of Israel, a wonderful outfit, pro-Israel, pro-Jewish evangelism type of ministry to the Jewish people. Whatever happened to the Rapture? And probably if I wanted to rename my title, put a new title on this message it might be something like this: Whatever happened to the Rapture? So others are asking. I was kind of relieved because I didn’t want to be the only one out there picking on people even though the most frequent e-mail Olive Tree Ministries gets is: Where can I find a church that will not marginalize one-third of the Bible, eschatology? Can you name it? You fill in the blank city, would you refer a church? Because they cannot find a church that talks about this glorious good news.
These people have hurt the cause: Edgar Whisenant, 88 Reasons Why the Rapture will be in 1988. He missed it and then what do these folks do that makes it even worse? They come out, oh, well, we missed it by a few months it is going to be 1989, 89 Reasons Why it Will Be in 1989. This is what they do. And they throw egg on the face of all of us. And I go back to that article by Tom Hughes it is why some don’t want to align themselves, pastors, and leaders because they might be identified with a date setter. And again Harold Camping, judgment day he said May 21st, 2011. Didn’t happen. And he said, “Well, I calculated wrong. It is going to be October 2011.” Of course it didn’t happen. So, who can blame a Christian leader for not wanting to be aligned with this? And, so, I think that these gentlemen have come along, and the last 40 years or so and thrown that proverbial cold water on this wonderful, wonderful message.
Now, I need to deal with this gentleman for just a minute or two. I’m going to play a clip as well. Hank Hanegraaff has done enormous damage. Enormous, enormous damage. He is a Preterist. He believes all prophecy happened in 70 AD. He cannot stand what you and I all believe. The problem is he’s had a 30 year ministry on radio. And he wrote this book, this was his response to Left Behind. And he thought it was the Apocalypse Code it was his Preterist Theology. And by the way when he finally declared himself a Preterist it took him years to do that, his support went just like this. So, the listenership, and he’s hung on none the less.
Dr. Thomas Ice reviewed that book. He said, “The great majority of the book, Apocalypse Code is a rant against Hanegraaff’s distorted view of Dispensationalism.” I told you it is now it is kind of being attacked. It is a distorted view of Dispensationalism in general, and Tim LaHaye in particular. And Thomas Ice goes on to say as he is reviewing this book, “There is precious little exegesis if any at all to support his Preterist idealist eschatology. However there are great quantities of some of the most vicious tirades against Tim LaHaye and many other Bible prophecy teachers that I have ever read in print.” Again, trying to make the blessed hope, the blasted hope.
Now, let me just play a real short clip of Hank. Here again 30 years of this. And at the end of this little clip he say, “You know what? There is no such thing as any Chosen People.” So, now we are getting into we are not only going to deny let’s say the Rapture, and all the other things that we believe along with that even a Millennium, etcetera, we are going to come against the Jewish people.
Caller: What I am trying to understand is where do they get the teaching that the Church will be raptured out and will not have to go through Tribulation? Where is that found at?
Hank Hanegraaff: It’s not found. That’s the whole point. The point is it’s something that is imposed on the Scripture. The notion is a very new notion in Church history; it is a 19th Century notion that was popularized by John Nelson Darby. And it comes with the presupposition that God has two distinct people; and therefore He has two distinct plans for the two distinct people. And He has two distinct phases of the Second Coming, and two distinct destinies. This however, is an imposition on Scripture because the truth of it is God has only, always had one chosen people. One covenant community. Beautifully connected by the cross and illustrated by a cultivated olive tree in Paul’s letter to the Romans. So, the point here is that all those who are followers of Jesus Christ are the one chosen people. And this is prior to the cross as well because all that looked forward to Christ prior to the cross are God’s covenant chosen people. And the covenant chosen people are made up of people from every tongue, and language and nation and people. You are not a son of Abraham because of some genealogical construction. You are a son of Abraham because you believe in the God of Abraham.
So, the Jews just got disinherited. This goes over the airways now for 30 years; and it has done huge damage. Mr. Hanegraaff joined the Greek Orthodox Church I believe one of the Orthodox Churches a year or two ago and a number of radio outlets including the entire Bott Network dropped Hank Hanegraaff. But the damage had been done.
Jan Markell: Okay, another name I have to name because damage has been done. Pastor Rick Warren wrote a book some years ago, The Purpose Driven Life. I don’t have any issues with The Purpose Driven Life. But I do have issues what he is saying on page 285 of that book where he misquotes Jesus and suggests that Jesus said the details of my return are none of your business. What is your business is the mission I have given you, focus on that. Well, obviously when Jesus was troubled by the Pharisees not knowing the signs of His First Coming. He wants the Church to know the signs of His return. And Pastor Warren went on to say, he said, “Those who focus on Bible prophecy are not fit for the Kingdom of God.” Again it has done damage. It’s done huge damage. It has enable the Blessed Hope to become the blasted hope. Now, Pastor Warren in March of this year went back on all of this. I think he’d gotten pressure over the years. He said, “I’m relenting on this kind of a message.” And I don’t know his heart, but I’m glad to hear that he is certainly taking another look at it in defense of him, he certainly is taking another look at it.
Okay, Tim Challies a popular blogger, Reformed Theology. He says, “There are seven false teachers in the church today one is the speculator. The speculator obsesses about end times and somehow his failed predictions dissuade neither him nor his followers.” None of you are obsessing about end times. That’s the tragedy is the whole perception is wrong. We are not obsessing. We are rejoicing that God has allowed some of us to be able to have eyes that are perusing headlines, and seeing headlines as a harbinger of His return. And that again reminds us of the only hope we have in a hopeless world, and it is getting more hopeless literally every day. Thank God for the one-third of the Bible that is hopeful.
Now, another attack and we are going to spend just a minute on this. I am going to play another short clip here. Another attack and I’ve never seen it so vicious, that is coming against people like myself, J.D. Farag and others is the attack on the Pre-Trib Rapture. How this has happened, this little clip here will help explain a little bit, but I never thought I would see in my lifetime the kind of assault on Pre-Tribulation theology. Which is in the Bible, and to me it is as clear as can be in the Bible. But those that are attacking, and those that are contending against Pre-Trib are contending contentiously. I am going to play a clip here of Joel Richardson, and he is going to say to pastors if you are not equipping your flock to meet the Antichrist that’s the worst service you could do to your church members. We’ll just play this little clip.
Announcer: To say the world is in a state of shock this morning would be to understate the situation. Suddenly and without warning literally thousands, perhaps millions of people just disappeared. What if the end of the world really isn’t as so many have portrayed it? What if the Church is not raptured to Heaven before the Great Tribulation as many are teaching? People from all over this plane have simply vanished.
What if the Church has been left ill prepared to face the Antichrist and the Mark of the Beast? What if Tim LaHaye’s claim that if the Pre-Tribulation Rapture is false than the Blessed Hope will become the blasted hope, actually comes true for millions of Pretribulationists? What if millions who have been led astray by the Pre-Trib teaching become part of the great falling away that Jesus warned would take place at that time? Left behind, or led astray? Examining the origins of the secret Pre-Tribulation Rapture features vital end time insights from prophecy teachers: Joe Schimmel, Jacob Prasch, and Joel Richardson.
Joel Richardson: The issue of the Pre-Tribulational versus the Post-Tribulational Rapture is one of the premier pastoral issues of our day. If you are a pastor that is not preparing your people to face potentially the Antichrist in the Great Tribulation, in this hour simply because your denomination teaches it or whatever, personally I think you’re failing in your role as a shepherd and a pastor.
Jan Markell: This is a four hour nonsense film, filled with nothing but bologna. It is available on-line if you ever want to spend a lot of money to watch four hours of this. And I’ll stop there. But again these things do damage, that’s all I’m saying. As the product spreads, the message spreads on-line. John Nelson Darby rolling over in his grave if he knew what people were saying about him. That he started this whole theology. Of course he didn’t! He may of popularized it somewhat. But I was going to say back in the early church they were saying, “Maranatha” to one another. They were expecting the Lord’s return during the early church.
Now, here’s another voice. I’m going to play another clip here. Now some of you if you are not an on-line person you won’t know who Rick Wiles is, but he is a very popular on-line broadcaster. He is a conservative. He’s also as far as I can tell he is an evangelical. He talks about the Lord a lot. But when you hear what he’s saying again, all I’m saying is damage is being done by lots of people within our internet world. A click of a mouse spreads this next message around the world in literally seconds.
Rick Wiles: The secret Pre-Trib Rapture story and Christian Zionism that is a two headed...
Doc Burkhart: Monster.
Rick Wiles: ...monster. It is a two headed freak monster. Okay. They come together, both of them come together because they were started by the same people. The Christian Zionists started the Pre-Trib Rapture doctrine.
Doc Burkhart: And this was seed planted decades ago, but it came into full fruit in within the last 30 years.
Rick Wiles: That’s right. They had to create the Pre-Trib Rapture doctrine to justify Christian Zionism. That’s where it all came from. But isn’t it interesting that in the recent decades where the American Evangelical Church has been taken over by Christian Zionism, that the American Evangelical Church has lost its flavor.
Doc Burkhart: Yes.
Rick Wiles: It has lost its saltiness. It is of no use anymore to God in this country.
Doc Burkhart: Right. In fact things are worse off now than they were 30 years ago.
Rick Wiles: We’ve become a pagan nation.
Doc Burkhart: We’re Babylon.
Rick Wiles: We’re Babylon and it happened on the watch of the Christian Zionist. I’m laying it on your doorstep Christian Zionists. You are the cause of America’s decline.
Doc Burkhart: Those are strong words there.
Rick Wiles: They are strong words, and I mean it. They took control of the churches in America, the Christian Zionist. They changed the Gospel. They took Jesus off the cross. They replaced the cross with the Star of David. They took the focus off God, and holiness. They put it all on a piece of land in the Middle East. And America has gone to hell. America has gone to hell. We’ve become a pagan, heathen nation because the Christian Zionists have taken our eyes off Jesus.
Jan Markell: Well, frankly I wish Christian Zionists had that kind of influence but we don’t.
How many of you remember, well I know you’ll all remember Francis and Edith Schaeffer, wonderful people the L’Abri Fellowship they had in Switzerland. And the wonderful books they wrote, and ministry they had. Their son Frank Schaeffer in the 1970’s he was making–80’s he was making some wonderful movies. Somewhere along the way he went sideways. And again he is doing damage, that’s all I’m saying. You put all this together damage is being done, the message of the King is Coming is being compromised. This is Frank or Frankie Schaeffer on MSNBC.
Frank Schaeffer: Yeah, you have to understand that the Evangelical Christian movement in America latched on to a 19th Century concept that was hatched by someone called John Nelson Darby, who said that Jesus could not come back until Israel had been restored as a nation, people by Jews, and Jerusalem was the capital. This is not traditional Christian teaching going back into the ages, even of the Protestant Church. You know this was not a concern of Martin Luther or any Roman Catholic, or the Greek Orthodox or anyone else. If you went update to the present you know when I was a kid with my parents and their ministry of L’Abri we had a number of Christian leaders come by and one of them had written, Hal Lindsey had written a book called, The Late Great Planet Earth in which he predicted the end times coming in 1980’s. He said it is now possible because Israel has been restored. And then others came back and said, “No, no, Jesus can’t come back yet because Jerusalem is not restored.” Fast forward to the 16 books and 4 films that you had that came out of the Left Behind series written by a friend of mine Jerry Jenkins, and his sidekick co-author that wrote it with him. And you’ve got 60 million copies sold that essentially are total fiction. I am going to give you an analogy, this is as if the Twilight Zone had been taken as gospel by some religious group and they were going back through old episodes and basing an entire cultic kind of religion on it. Now you can–
Jan Markell: Okay, so now what we believe is cultic. So, you put all of this together and damage has been done. And the glorious message, the good news message has been marginalized, compromised, made fun of. Of course all of that is fulfilling scripture as well.
Closing
Dr. Reagan: The rest of this hard-hitting presentation by Jan Markell is available on our 2018 conference video, titled “God’s Prophetic Voices to America.” In just a moment, our announcer will tell you how you can get a copy.
As I said at the beginning of the program, the mockery of the Lord’s return that we are witnessing today is one of the signs of the times that indicate we are living in the season of the Lords’ return. I sincerely hope you are ready for the Lord’s return. To prepare for that great event, all you need to do is repent of your sins and reach out in faith and receive Jesus as you Lord and Savior.
Well, folks, that’s our program for this week. I hope it has been a blessing to you, and I hope you will be back with us again next week, the Lord willing. Until then, this is Dave Reagan speaking for Lamb & Lion Ministries saying, “Look up, be watchful, for your Redemption is drawing near!”