David Reagan - Markell and Barger on America's Spiritual Crisis
Jan Markell and Eric Barger are co-hosts of one of the most popular Christian radio programs in America. It is called “Understanding the Times.” The program is devoted to presenting a biblical viewpoint on important national and international issues. Stay tuned for commentaries from both of them.
David Reagan: Greetings in the name of Jesus, our Blessed Hope, and welcome to Christ in Prophecy. Each year this ministry hosts a Bible conference in the Dallas, Texas area. Sometimes it focuses on Bible prophecy and other times our concern is apologetics. In 2014 the theme of the conference was “America’s Spiritual Crisis.” We had five outstanding guest speakers. And this week, and over the next four weeks, we are going to share portions of their presentations with you on this program. This week our guest speakers will be Jan Markell and Eric Barger.
Jan Markell is a Jewish believer who is the founder and director of a ministry in the Minneapolis area called Olive Tree Ministries. Jan’s radio program, called “Understanding the Times” is broadcast nationally on more than 650 stations. And Jan’s co-host on the program is Eric Barger, who is the founder and director of an apologetics ministry called “Take a Stand!” Eric was a rock musician, drug addict, alcoholic and practitioner of the occult when he discovered the Lord Jesus Christ and experienced a total transformation of his life.
At our Bible conference, Jan focused her remarks on the up and down relationship between the United States and Israel. She presented a sweeping overview, beginning with the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. Her point, of course, is that the Bible says that God will bless those who bless Israel and will curse those who curse Israel. Jan attempted to show that our nation has been in the process of turning its back on Israel, and that in doing so, we are literally begging for the wrath of God. Let’s pick up now with Jan’s analysis of the Clinton Administration.
Jan Markell: This was going to be another interesting administration, Bill Clinton. Interestingly enough Bill Clinton had more Jewish advisors, counselors, attorneys, pollsters, you name it in his administration, members of his cabinet, more Jews than any administration ever. He leaned on Jewish genius, he needed–he felt he needed to have the intellect.
This was going to be a sad day in the geo-political world when once again the world thought, “Aha, this creates world peace.” A simple handshake between a nation the size of New Jersey and the Arab World and we have peace in our time. Obviously we know that’s not going to happen until the Prince of Peace rules out of Jerusalem. We have the July 2000 Camp David and again Ehud Barak President Barak, Yasser Arafat, Bill Clinton. And I don’t know how many it’s not that long ago you remember everything including the kitchen sink was offered to Yasser Arafat. 98% of what Arafat demanded Ehud Barak gave him, offered him and Bill Clinton stood behind. It was turned down. And even Clinton said, “Arafat’s rejection of my proposal, error of historic proportion.” Obviously it was but since when do the Arabs or the Palestinians want peace? They want war, they want conflict, they want the chaos and they want to harm Israel. So it didn’t matter Yasser Arafat wasn’t at Camp David in 2000 for any kind of peace talk he was there as sort as a snake and he would go back and stir up the Second Intifada.
Now again we enter another era here with George W. Bush and again it’s a tremendously mixed bag. And I think that the fact that we can say that he was Mr. Palestine but so was Carter, so were so many of our Presidents thinking that a Palestinian State was the end all in the Middle East; this would solve the conflict over there. Well, we know that’s not the case. It’s not going to be the case he came up–I don’t know if you all remember a decade ago that Road Map for Peace he endorsed the disengagement from Gaza. How’s that working out? Huh? The disengagement from Gaza.
This was one of the biggest problems of the Bush Administration not because Condoleezza Rice isn’t a lovely lady, she’s even apparently an Evangelical Christian but she’s from the Replacement Theology background. She believed there was no relevance for the rebirth of the State of Israel and she carried that out in her policies working with Israel.
If you remember Bill Koenig’s book and my ministry carried it for years, Eye to Eye: Facing the Consequences of Dividing Israel. And here Bill Koenig White House Correspondent and I had him minister at my conferences a number of times documents going back to Bush 1 and 41, Clinton and Bush 43, what happens within 24 hours of those administrations turning on Israel, it’s shocking. The wreckage that happens to America as a result of turning on Israel and the Jewish people. Bush and Sharon have declared war on God and the Bible and that’s how many Jews and Christians felt. Why would we be for making the Jews disengage from Gaza? Aren’t terrorists just going to go in there and fill in the blanks? Well as we speak that’s exactly what’s happening. Nothing but rockets raining down on Israel since they disengaged from all sorts of places, South Lebanon, West Bank, Gaza, you name it because land for peace leaves Israel in pieces. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t work. It is strong delusion; it is end time strong delusion that giving up land is going to accomplish anything. It just emboldens the enemy.
Now we come up to our current administration. Obviously this should have been a big clue during his inauguration we have Ingrid Mattson from the Islamic Society of North America as part of the inauguration activities back in ’09. We’ve had a little fork in the road and we’ve gone down the left lane. This isn’t good news. This is not a good sign. It became obvious real soon that the current administration was not going to be Israel’s good friend. But how bad would it get? This would be the first call Barack Obama made when in office. First call on his inauguration day he called Mahmoud Abbas the head of the PLO, the head of the Palestinian Authority. The man who financed the 1972 Munich attack on Israeli athletes, he financed it. This was the first call made.
Then if you might remember, and boy do I, June of ’09 he went to Cairo, and a new beginning he told the Muslim world, “I’m on your side. America has done an awful lot wrong.” Israel well she’s on her own. He didn’t say that but that could be easily be implied. I believe perilous times went into overdrive in June of ’09 when Barack Obama addressed the Arab world from Cairo. The invited guests in the front row were the Muslim Brotherhood. Uninvited was Hosni Mubarak President of Egypt. He addressed the Muslim Brotherhood as his good friends, and they are, they were and they are. Things were going to take a terrible, terrible, turn here. He compared the sufferings, in this speech, he compared the suffering of the Palestinians to the suffering of the Jews of the Holocaust.
The Israeli Ambassador in 2010 Michael Oren said, “Israel’s ties with the United States are a crisis of historic proportion.” Yet American Jews would continue to be supportive of Barack Obama. Israeli Jews by now, 2010, were extremely cautious, extremely skeptical but American Jews would stick with him; end time strong delusion. Even more so when he makes continual gestures to the Islamic world both in America and around the world, the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam. How about to those who beat up on the little nation of Israel? When he takes into his administration well known Muslim Brotherhood operatives and leaders brought right into his administration. Again that’s Michael Oren its saying, “We are in a crisis of historic proportion.” Thomas Sowell said, “Barack Obama’s relationship with Israel has been consistent with the President’s pattern of selling out our allies to curry favor with our adversaries.” So well said, by a wonderful black scholar. In the liberal “Washington Post,” “Obama is treating Benjamin Netanyahu like an unsavory third world dictator.” You see actions like this folks have consequences.
In the Rosh Hashanah message of 2010 there is no mention of any contribution that the Jews did to America. Ramadan message 2010, “American Muslims have made extraordinary contributions to our country.” Really? Somebody remind me please. But again Israel is getting the picture. Now don’t you think it’s probably necessary that Israel start to get her eyes off of America the savior so that she could be prepared for the real Savior?
In 2011 Barack Obama says, “Israel Palestinian partners sincere in wanting a peaceful settlement.” Really? Could have fooled me. The Knesset said on election November 2012, election night, “Israel can only rely on herself.” Well God wants them not relying on themselves. God wants them relying on Him and we know that that’s a process and the process has begun. So if there is anything positive about what we’ve been seeing and this again last November P5+1 the secret negotiations with Iran other nations as well but spurred on by John Kerry and Barak Obama to allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon. Is this insane foreign policy or what? But other nations went along with it. It’s this strong delusion has spread out over the whole world. But who’s caught in the crossfire? God’s little nation, His Covenant Land and His Covenant people because these five nations basically are saying, these four nations and another couple of them but they’re all collectively saying it’s ok that Iran gets nukes. It’s ok that Iran do whatever she wants with her nukes. We are going to keep an eye on here, we’ll contain her. Oh, no you won’t. You know you won’t. March 2014 Barack Obama states that the Palestinians do not have to recognize Israel’s legitimate existence. So this is kind of the descending scenario as it concerns the current administration.
We know that there are verses that warn, and that’s sort of been my whole purpose for this presentation. And that is basically I’m going to bless those who bless you, Israel, and curse those who curse you. God is going to curse the nation, the denomination, the church, the individual, the conference who blesses Israel; I’m going to curse those who are going to be cursing you Israel. Another warning Joel 3 God will judge the nations for their treatment of my people and for the dividing up of my lands.
David Reagan: You have been listening to a presentation by Jan Markell of Olive Tree Ministries at our 2014 Bible conference. As I said earlier, she has a nationally broadcast radio program, and the co-host of that program is Eric Barger of Take a Stand! Ministries. He has been a frequent guest on this program in the past. Eric was also a speaker at our conference. He focused on the dismal state of the current Church in America and how the Church’s ineffectiveness is contributing mightily to our national spiritual crisis. Eric identified what he called three “adversarial attacks” on the Church today: The first from the Secular World, the second from the Spirit World, and the third from within the Church itself. Here now is what he had to say about two of those attacks.
Part 2
David Reagan: You know when I talk about the adversarial attacks that are going on today there’s probably many, many more. But I’ve narrowed it down to three different categories and a couple of side bars as well.
Eric Barger: The first one of course is what is going on in the secular world and their attitude toward Christians. There is a more bold and more brazen opposition out there than has ever been, in my opinion since the First Century Church. Any tactic is now an option to marginalize the Church as they sneer at us and look down their noses at us. And the Church today even though they don’t realize it is really the force that is holding back the tide of destruction. Can you imagine what this world would be like if the Church wasn’t here? Well they are about ready to find out what it’s going to be like.
The group American Atheists erected a billboard in Time Square last December. I could show you the animation, decided to cut a lot of the movies out because of the little crash that I had with my computer. But the picture just says it all, “Who needs Christ during Christmas?” and then it says, “Nobody.” And that was a huge billboard in Time Square. I’m grateful that Ken Ham put one up in retort to them too. So we have the force of Christianity working in there as well.
In April 2013 Jan Markell and myself investigated and we did a segment on radio about the US Army training session that happened in Pennsylvania that talked about extremism and extremist organizations. And the first thing on the list is Evangelical Christianity, the first one. That is a slide from the presentation. I mean they didn’t talk about all of the radical Muslim opposition and all of that kind of thing. They didn’t talk about the White Supremacists. They talk about the Evangelical Christians as the number one most dangerous operative in the world today. These stories are so common as many of you know, it’s just common place we don’t think anything about them anymore. We see so many of them and I had about 15 more, I had pictures of them I could show you but we don’t have time this morning for it. But we see story after story like that.
American Atheist have now sued to have the cross the World Trade Center cross that many of you have seen removed from the memorial. And here you’ll see a picture of it as they had raised it up out of the rubble over on the left side, and then the memorial on the right. And the Atheists they want that cross removed. In fact they said the reason they want it removed is because one of the guys got heartburn. Seeing the cross gives him heartburn. I have some extra strength Tums for my Atheist friends right here. I may need them later. It gives me heartburn to think about it. Why are the Atheists so intent on shutting down all vestiges and all remembrance of Christianity? They don’t probably realize what is really going on, but this is a spiritual war. And if you are not with Him Jesus said you’re against Him. And when you have people like that who do not believe there’s a God. And have gone out of their way to prove Evolution is a fact; which it’s not. And you see all of these things taking place around us, these people don’t realize what they’re doing. It’s because there is a clashing of the spirits going on. The name of Jesus, the Cross itself, and God’s Word all evoke a hostile reaction when a man’s heart is given over to depravity. So they don’t realize why they do what they do.
Here are pro-abortion groups who protest outside of the Supreme Court last winter because of the Hobby Lobby case because it was going to go all the way to the Supreme Court. It says, “It’s not a Church it’s a craft store. This is not a healthcare plan the Holy Bible.” Yeah, yes it is. Well as we know the Supreme Court rendered a 5-4 decision, it’s as close as it can get. I’m happy about it too for a minute because I know what’s coming down the road. Angry protestors have descended on the Hobby Lobby stores nationwide this week. Over a 100 in Tulsa one afternoon, I think it was Tuesday, that happened this week. And they are going to keep protesting, and keep protesting, and keep protesting.
Now here’s our current Supreme Court notice Judge Alito on the far left standing up. I think he’s either watching for the Second Coming or he’s looking for fire to reign down from Heaven, one of the two, probably the later. But I want you to just imagine for a second if that Supreme Court was stacked with five or six extreme left-wing liberal judges. I want you to think about that. That’s how important the Presidential election is because that to me is the big prize in the Presidential election. The liberals in Congress have already crafted a bill to undo what the court decided about Hobby Lobby my friends. They have already presented the bill in the House of Representatives.
Evil has indeed become good, Isaiah 5:20 & 21 is happening right before our eyes. Congress passes laws. The Executive Branch ignores them. Evil has become good when Congress passes bad laws, the Supreme Court reverses them, and then of course the pagans protest and Congress passes more bad laws to appease them. This is what we have going on today in our secular world. The point is Christian values are declining and the opposition to us is fierce and going to only get more fierce.
The second thing is the opposition from the spirit world. And having come out of the New Age movement and come out of watch the world of the occult quite a bit. And my wife being a partaker of it, the occult, the New Age and paganism is growing like never before now. Christians have become enamored with the paranormal. And the world sees the occult as normal for the first time ever. We think nothing of it, the world is enamored with it. Take a look at what the most popular movies, and books, and games and toys are. It’s coming at us in all these different directions. So when I do this particular seminar about the end time occult invasion. And I talk about how the normalization of the occult has taken place, man it’s happened right before our eyes. And we have it in the church, we have people that think nothing about watching the very things that God has spoken adamantly against in His Word. We it see–by the way the little fire there that kind of shows you where it’s coming from, right?
Well, let’s define the word occult, it’s from the Latin word “occultust” it means things hidden, things in darkness, things left unrevealed. The practices of sorcery and divination. And it includes that laundry list there, witchcraft, Wicca, psychics, palmistry, reading of palms, numerology, Satanism, the New Age movement and probably many more things could be on that list but for one slide.
I wrote a book about this several years ago, Entertaining Spirits Unaware we have them at our table. We did a 35,000 word update to that book. There are nine chapters in that book that come from this one passage in the Bible. Don’t ever ask me to write a Bible Commentary if I can write a 100 pages on four verses. Deuteronomy 18 speaks very strongly about this issue, “When thou art coming into the land in which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shall not learn to do after the abominations of those nations,” or the pagans who were there, “there shall not be found among you anyone that maketh a son or daughter to pass through the fire.” There is forbidden practice number one or an observer of times number two, or an enchanter number three, or a witch number four, or a charmer or a consulter from the spirits or a wizard or a necromancer; someone who speaks to someone besides God in the spirit realm. “For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord and because of these abominations the Lord thy God does drive them out before thee.” You know the word abomination appears three times there and it is the Hebrew word, “To’ebah” I won’t get hung up there but I want to point out what it means, a disgusting thing, an abomination, unclean, idolatry, wickedness, God calls these practices that we now call entertainment an abomination. And that is the strongest condemnatory language anywhere in the entire Bible out of the mouth of God. Think about that. He reserved it for speaking about people who are opposing, or doing the opposite to following Him in the spirit realm.
And I can cite all these different countless ways about how the occult is being made normal to us today. I think many of you are quite aware of what’s going on in television, the motion pictures that are out there today just take a look at the supernaturalisms being built in and the computer technology we have down today makes things so real. It looks like these events that we see in the movies could actually happen even though they haven’t, it’s all because of the skill and because of the ability of the computer. The video games, the music industry, literature is stacked with occultism. There is an exact reason why the occult is being made normal today my friends, the culture is going through a mass desensitization about spiritual things. The culture around us and every one of us who it effects to some extent as well. And the world today is hooked on the supernatural but they’re not hooked on God’s supernatural. The god of this world, i.e. Satan is currently preparing the world for future events. And the biblical end times could never have taken place a 100 years ago because the world wasn’t prepared spiritually for it. But today the world is.
And how’s it coming? Computer screens, television sets, motion picture theaters. We are being conditioned the generation behind us is being conditioned like never before to accept the occult as normal. We had to be conditioned first for these end time events to take place because now we have the UFO craze and we have witchcraft all around us. We have the sci-fi craze of course. We have all kinds of creatures and monsters. The New Age Movement in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, still today and now sorcery being openly taught on college campuses. The conditioning process is in full swing and it’s just not “Harry Potter,” “Twilight”, and the most popular show on TV, “The Walking Dead,” which is about zombies. Has anybody stopped to think that “Twilight,” which is about vampires is really an affront to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ? Because there is life in the blood and vampires need life to live and we need Jesus’ blood to live don’t we? It’s a mockery of the Cross of Jesus Christ. Has anybody stopped to talk about, “The Walking Dead,” and the zombies that’s a mockery of the resurrection? A mockery of the resurrection is what it comes down to. Satan’s mockery.
Then we have it from the church these adversarial attacks going on from the Church. Most dangerous cult, what I call Liberalism is the most dangerous cult. An old fashioned Liberalism from 100-150 years ago still lives today. And remember the denominations that went down the tubes 100-150 years ago because of the affront of Liberal Theology, they were the Evangelicals of that day.
Part 3
David Reagan: You have been listening to Eric Barger discuss the adversarial attacks on the Church today from the Secular World, the Occult World and from within the Church itself. I wish we had the time to share his detailed remarks with you about the attacks coming from within the Church from groups like The Emergent Church Movement. Next week, the Lord willing, we will take a look at excerpts from two more presentations; the ones made by Warren Smith and Mike Gendron. Warren Smith will be speaking about the impact on the Church of the New Age Movement. Mike Gendron will speak on how we as Christians should respond to the crisis in the Church. Until next week, this is Dave Reagan speaking for Lamb & Lion Ministries, saying, “Look up, be watchful, for our Redemption is drawing near.”