The month of October brought a staggering wake-up call to many church members. Some had been in attendance for months, and some for years. A few had been active for a decade. They loved their church family and felt the pulpit was sound.

Their church has salvation right, and baptism. The music is acceptable, and the youth program is outstanding. It is missions-minded. And, after all, no church is perfect.

The Rude Awakening

But in October, many church attendees were going to get a rude awakening because too many hadn’t done a deep dive on all of the church’s theology.

Many had been grieved over the silence in the pulpit as it concerned Bible prophecy and current events. They accepted the flaw and got daily doses of those items online. After all, the church didn’t get involved in the cultural issues either. It is not unusual for a church to not take a stand.

Then came October 7 in Israel. What would the church response be that next day – October 8? What happened on October 7 was a game-changer! Surely, this would be front and center at their church!

It is true—the headlines, photos, and videos coming out of the latest Mideast conflict are not seeker-sensitive. They won’t make church attendees feel good. Talking about the sensitive situation won’t fit into any church-growth strategy. It won’t encourage anyone to become purpose-driven. It could even create divisiveness.

So, I should not have been so thrown when I began to get e-mails from across the country stating variations of the following:

Jan, I was very dismayed that the church we attended did not even make mention of what was going on in Israel on Sunday, October 8. Nor did the topic arise on Wednesday night—though there were several mentions of the Houston Astros game…

No One Can Say We Didn’t Know

Since then, there has been wall-to-wall coverage on all media outlets, day and night, for over three months. Can anybody claim they didn’t know? We have now all watched the sickening demonstrations begging the world to “gas the Jews.” Some are saying World War III is at hand. We have evil at a new level on display. The likelihood of terror cells embedded in America, Canada, Europe, and other places is a guarantee.

The Silence of the Shepherds Is Rooted in Theology

And yet, I was hearing many times a day about the silence of the shepherds! Could this silence be rooted in theology? A resounding “yes”!

I encourage all readers to do a study on modern theology. People hear terms that need to be explored: Replacement Theology, Covenant Theology, Amillennial Theology, Dominion Theology, and more. You just might not be in agreement with what all of these theologies entail! Most of these teach that the Church is the new Israel, that God has cast away His people Israel due to unbelief.

Prayer: The Only Effective Weapon

Human suffering has been on display since October 7, 2023. Media outlets that have a shred of integrity revealed the darkened hearts and deeds of Islamic thugs. There is only one adequate weapon in our arsenal: prayer, and better yet, corporate prayer.

Prayer from the pulpit. Prayer from a radio, TV, or Internet website. Prayer for innocent hostages, although now it is likely too late. Prayer for any innocent caught in a battle crossfire. Prayer for soldiers trying to liberate and set captives free.

And pastors, your people want you to lead in this effort! People are now tired of the silence of the shepherds. Our world is too volatile, too angry, and too evil to stand on the sidelines and be silent! You must take a stand and set theology aside.

Yes, your theology says you should minimize Israel, but then you marginalize the suffering, which Jesus would never do!

When Should I Leave a Church?

All of my radio guests have stated since October 7 that if a church will not relent on this, then it is time to leave. Period. God cannot bless this church or congregation. It is weighed in the balances and found wanting (Dan. 5:7). It is time to move on to much greener—and more spiritually fruitful—pastures.

Perhaps this is the next big church divider. Churches will either be for Israel or against her. Which side will you be on? Israel is to become the world’s burdensome stone (Zech. 12:3), but God will destroy ALL who come against Jerusalem (Zech.12:9). You want to be on God’s side!

In the new year of 2024, I pray that all in leadership will at least take a stand against evil, for much of the world is calling evil good (Isaiah 5:20). And evil is spreading like a cancer throughout the world as we trend towards the Tribulation.

***

Jan Markell is an author, speaker, host of Understanding the Times radio heard on over 1,000 stations across America, and the Founder and President of Olive Tree Ministries.

 

The World has been in an Uncontrollable Rage since October 7, 2023

We are witnessing global Israel Derangement Syndrome and renewed anti-Semitism more brutal than the 1930s. And toward whom is the rage directed? Toward those who were invaded, slaughtered, and kept as hostages.

Imagine worldwide hatred against innocent victims and global sympathy for barbarians because Israel supposedly stole land. So, now it is occupied land—the provocation for the deadly pogrom.

God’s land is not occupied territory. Jesus did not live in occupied territory. God owns it (Leviticus 25). He permanently gifted it to the Jews (Genesis 15).

The World Calls Evil Good!

Following the attack, the logic said that sympathy would eventually shift toward those who suffered the unspeakable blow since many victims were women, children, and the elderly. Apparently not. The world stage featured, over several weeks, millions of people in global demonstrations on behalf of the terrorists—Hamas! Talk about a classic case of calling evil good (Is. 5:20).

For months, the world was given a sickening overdose of, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Participants in global demonstrations appeared to be many mind-numbed young robots, most not knowing any facts on the ground. Facts didn’t matter.

This was a conflict of the oppressed versus the oppressor. The so-called Palestinian was the classic representative of the world’s oppressed. Israel was the Goliath who needed to be punished and exterminated, as all oppressors must be.

Brainwashed Agitators from the TikTok Generation

The demonstrators, in two dozen nations, are ignorant concerning the history, as well as the geographical and political implications of the Mideast. What the Bible says is irrelevant. The rabble-rousers know nothing of Israel’s endless concessions over the decades to her Islamic neighbors, all in the name of peace.

They know nothing of the 2,000 years of wandering, persecution, and endless attempts by kings, generals, Fuhrers, potentates, and presidents to fulfill Psalm 83 and wipe out the very memory of Israel’s existence. The brainwashed agitators are feeding off of social media propaganda, swallowing the lies like they were candy, and impressing their friends with how tolerant and justice-minded they are.

They are also victims of Marxist indoctrination in the Western world’s education systems. They are persuaded to see red— and now they also see Hamas green.

They are naïve and cannot comprehend that those they are championing, celebrating, and defending would obliterate them in a heartbeat, in just as brutal a manner, as they incinerated Israelis on October 7, 2023. And again, for no reason other than to exercise their barbarism against the enemies of Islam.

Befriending Monsters

Those Israelis in southern Israel were championing the people of Gaza! The Israelis were there to benefit the Gazans—to employ them, take them to appointments, and more. They lived and believed the liberal lie: That we can befriend monsters and make them like us. That Islam is not so bad, in fact. We can all get along.

Rushing Toward the Time of Jacob’s Trouble

So, let’s look at this from a spiritual perspective. We are in a run-up to the Tribulation—the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. The Jews are the primary player in that horrific drama. Believers are enjoying heaven. The Jews are Jacob; believers are the bride.

Satan longs to defeat God’s end-time plan, which seriously trounces him. Whether it’s Sennacherib, the King of Assyria, or Haman, from Persia, they plot and scheme. Whether it is Hitler or the Iranian mullahs, they never cease their plot to eliminate all Jews. The persecutors will come and go, but the persecution will remain until Jesus returns in the Second Coming!

As the people of Israel get more and more war-weary, as they tire of relying on fences that fail and agreements that are broken, they will accept the cunning lies of a man who comes on the scene right before the start of Daniel’s 70th Week. He will overwhelm them with promises of “peace and security” (I Thess 5:3).

They can tear down their walls, thanks to his friendship! What a smooth talker. What a man who speaks healing words. What a peacemaker! What a devil.

They sign a fateful agreement as outlined in Daniel 9:27, not realizing that Mr. Fix-It will eventually turn on them in an attempt to fulfill Satan’s plan of the ages: the extermination of every Jew, to foil God’s end-time plan. Others had only partially succeeded. This man will be convinced he can finish the job.

The Genie is Out of the Bottle!

What happened on October 7, 2023, is not just “one more Mideast conflict.” It was inspired by demons, and it unleashed demons on the world. The perpetrators were demon-possessed. The facts on the ground are clear evidence of that. In the natural, mankind cannot dream up such brutality. Satan can.

A genie was let out of the proverbial bottle. Something ominous spread all over the world in October of last year. It has apocalyptic overtones. You can’t put it back in the bottle! Our world was forever changed.

And all of this hatred against a people who have been a blessing to the earth! A people who gave us the Prophets, the Apostles, the Messiah; in fact, salvation itself is of the Jews (John 4:22).

Spitting in the Apple of God’s Eye

In spite of such blessings, there are entire denominations that are standing with those who perpetrated the worst massacre of the innocent in recent history. They worship social justice. They teach that the church is the new Israel (Replacement Theology). They major in minors and lead the flock astray. They fly rainbow flags in front of their church. They spit in the “apple of God’s eye” (Zech. 2:8).

I close this article with something I inserted in my book about Holocaust survivor Anita Dittman—Trapped in Hitler’s Hell. It is a quote from Dr. Natan Kellerman:

“There is something unprecedented about the European Holocaust. For the first time in the bloodstained history of the human race, a decision was birthed in a modern state, in the midst of a civilized continent, to track down, register, mark, isolate, dispossess, humiliate, concentrate, transport, and murder, every single person of an ethnic group as defined by the perpetrators.

“This was targeted at an ethnic group who so generously contributed to the culture of the world; to a people who have borne the brunt of enmity toward them because they dared to be different and dared to insist on their difference.”

Is it 1938 again?

 

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