Jan Markell

Hoofbeats of the Four Horsemen?  By Jan Markell

Published on: by RR7
According to Lifeway Research , many pastors are apparently having an “aha” moment due to the tide of our times. It’s about time. I am now hope-filled. They are seeing current events today as things the Bible forecast for the end-of-days.  But I maintain their pulpits could still be silent.
Let’s be optimistic. When real church resumes, the pulpits will boldly announce that we are in the last days and Jesus is coming soon. Get your houses in order!
Darrell Bock, New Testament professor at Dallas Seminary , noted that the Bible has several lists of potential signs of Jesus’ return, such as the Olivet Discourse passages, and some include concepts of global sickness. These are Tribulation references.
“Numerous biblical texts speak of disturbances in the creation that disorient and trouble people,” said Bock. “These disturbances have quite a range with earthquakes and wars being the most common. Jesus mentions plagues or pestilence explicitly in Luke 21.”
Three out of four pastors in the survey have noted that world and church events have meaning today. They include the rise in apostasy, the love of believers growing cold, the decline in traditional morals, national conflicts, natural disasters, famines, and even the rise in anti-Semitism. Even if they are Tribulation events, they are casting a shadow on the Church Age.
So is a new day in the church approaching thanks to some kind of a wake-up call? Almost 25 years ago, the church-growth movement said teaching any kind of eschatology would not grow the church.
Pastors were encouraged to keep quiet about the soon return of the Lord. Pastor Rick Warren even said in his Purpose Driven Life book that teaching Bible prophecy would distract you from your purpose and make you unfit for the Kingdom of God. Pastors listened to him!
In the information produced by Lifeway Research , Joel Rosenberg states, “For too long, many pastors have shied away from teaching on birth pangs and events leading up to the Second Coming of the Lord, but the current pandemic demonstrates the need for solid, non-sensational preaching done in a biblical manner.”
The Lifeway report reveals that more than half the pastors expect Jesus to return in their lifetime.  So why on earth are their pulpits not proclaiming this?
But there is more to the survey! Almost 70% of those surveyed believe the modern re-birth of Israel and the re-gathering of millions of Jewish people were fulfillments of prophecies in the Bible. 
That’s great news but that was 72 years ago. Why haven’t you been preaching that, pastors? More than that, 40% of the pastors surveyed believe that the establishment of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem two years ago was a sign of the last days!
This is great sermon material! It could get a church fired up! But most pulpits I hear about are silent on the topic.
The most frequent e-mail Olive Tree Ministries receives has to do with this topic: Where can I find a prophecy-preaching, relevant issues-focused church? Where can I find a church that is warning of things to come instead of emphasizing your best life now?  
Brent Miller, Jr. of Ingenuity Films made the new Rapture-themed film production, Before the Wrath , because his research, which also tapped into Lifeway , revealed that 98% of the church will not teach on anything end-time related. Both eschatology and Israel are marginalized. You read that right: 98%.
Let’s add one more equation into our discussion and that is what should be obvious to every observer. The book of Revelation tells us there is coming a one-world system run by the Antichrist. That new world order requires a crisis—a global crisis, not a local crisis. We have it—a global pandemic.  Isn’t this more fuel for a discussion?
The world is in meltdown mode right now and people are asking a lot of questions. We don’t even know if life as we once knew it will ever happen again. It may not!
Pastors, are you talking about this?
The Church is to be removed before the revealing of the lawless one, the Antichrist. I maintain he is just over the horizon, raring to go. And the four horsemen of the apocalypse may be training on some race track somewhere! You can almost hear their hoofbeats.
Pastors, don’t be silent! Maybe this is truly a new day for you. Seize the opportunity. Please see that all things are falling into place. Be excited. Be truthful. Don’t marginalize such important news. Connect the dots for your people.
Jesus is returning any moment. Please stop the silence of the pulpits.

A World Turned Upside Down :: By Jan Markell

Published on: by RR7

Why are we surprised? Prophecy watchers have been warning people for years that end-time events could be shocking, even before the Rapture. We have let people know that Tribulation events would cast a shadow on the Church Age as God gears up to close the Church Age. We have talked about the “birth pangs” of the last days for decades.

God doesn’t shake the entire globe very often. He did during the time of Noah and at the Tower of Babel. There was a terrible plague in the 1300s and a pandemic in 1918. Two world wars took a stunning toll.

But now an unseen enemy—a virus, no less—has created fear-driven chaos, and some unknown factors are causing people to embrace a worst-case outlook for the world. At this time, we don’t know how this plays out. It certainly has apocalyptic implications.

The world is in a set-up mode for the longing of a man-with-a-plan, sort of a Mr. Fix-It. Perhaps he is waiting in the wings. No doubt, Satan has always had such a man in the shadows, as the prince of darkness does not know the date when God plans on bringing society to an end, at least as we know it. He does not know the day ordained for the Rapture of the Church.

Someone may be needed to calm the storm. Presidential proclamations aren’t doing the trick. There is going to be a mess to clean up since the world is in a meltdown, markets are crashing, economies are tanking, people are losing all stability, and lives are being lost.

Still, there is much that is puzzling! The Swine Flu of 2009-2010 affected 61 million Americans, yet produced little panic. Neither Barack Obama nor U.S. Governors stopped life as we know it back then. Sporting events went on, schools remained open, as did churches. Disneyland was not affected!

Fast-forward to 2020. Have you read the headlines on Drudge Report? Sure, journalism knows that if it bleeds it leads, but to look at various media, the sky is truly falling. It’s the end-of-the-world as we know it, even though most who get this new disease, Covid-19, will recover.

So, I have to ask if this is the crisis the globalists have waited for — or have their hand in — to make the world as one? Two men mess up their plans: Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. Recently celebrities lauded John Lennon’s song “Imagine” which visualizes the world united with no religions.

My prophecy colleague, Todd Hampson, writes, “I believe what we are witnessing with COVID-19 is part of the birth pains Jesus talked about in the Olivet Discourse. In fact, I think it is a major birth pain; as is the locust plague that is ravaging Africa and the Mideast; as is the large number of social uprisings in countries around the world; as is the increase in earthquake activity; as were the record-breaking Australian wild fires; as is—you get the picture. Birth pains increase in frequency and intensity, and they only increase until the moment of delivery.”

Todd continues, “This particular birth pain happens to be one that the entire world is feeling. Again, increased intensity. It’s also a birth pain that has shaken all earthly things. Sports, financial markets, distractions, hobbies, concerts, you name it—have all been shut down.

“Those things aren’t bad in themselves, but it’s as if God is removing any distractions for a moment in history to plead with the world again, ‘Look up! Look to me! This world is temporary. Think about eternal things. I love you. I died for you. Please don’t ignore me. Turn to me now while there is time.’”

Hampson writes, “I should also add that this is a pebble in the ocean compared to a yet-future global event that will rock the world to its core. If one rapidly spreading virus can cause this type of global disruption, can you imagine what the Rapture will do when tens of millions are removed from the world in an instant?”

Todd concludes, “That singular event will set all the end-time events of John’s Revelation into motion. There have been condensed periods of major supernatural events in the past—creation, the exodus, and the events surrounding the first coming of Jesus, culminating with the resurrection. Now, after roughly 2,000 years, we await another period of immense supernatural events which will begin with the Rapture.”

What we see playing out before our eyes is a part of the predicted scenario. Remember, everything is falling into place. These things must happen. God is shaking the nations. They have been too consumed with pleasure to pay Him the least bit of attention.

We keep getting feedback that people who would never listen before are now asking questions.

I trust that you are there with answers.