Personal Thoughts On Jan Markell's Program Yesterday

I was responding to a comment by Lance in the previous post and it started getting way too long... so this post will be my general thoughts regarding WHY I think Jan Markell and Pastors Crone and now Hibbs are against this sign.  Many of my other thoughts are in the comments section of that previous post.

My view of why these prophecy leaders are against the Rev 12 Sign...

In their minds they are trying to PROTECT people and the reputation of Bible prophecy.  If I had to guess, the first moment they heard about this sign they made up their mind that it was bogus (likely without ever really looking at it).  They failed the Proverbs 18:13 test. As soon as they saw a date...any date... they made up their mind then and there that there was no way this "sign" had merit.

Once it became such a huge thing Jan scrambled to put together a segment that would put the fire out.  Surely she figured she must protect us from this "date setting" fad. I had been in communication with Jan in the Fall/ Winter of 2016 to discuss this sign and show it to her.... yet she dismissed it multiple times. I offered to explain it and let her see it with her own eyes and show her that it wasn't as trivial as she thought it was. She turned me down.... I believe she said if she met with someone about every crazy idea she would never get anything done.

Once it became so huge (#1 Google search term according to her / highly doubt that, but ok) then she tried to squash it like a bug back in the Spring by bringing in Billy.  Unfortunately for all of us they did it sooooo poorly it just made people mad. They tried to take down a bear with a BB gun.  They totally underestimated the amount of study people had done and instead figured they would just appeal to authority.... aka, tell us to listen to the experts.  It didn't work. The mischaracterization that happened on their part led to many upset people and unfortunately some of them took that frustration out in ways not becoming of a Christian.  In the previous post I apologized to Jan and Billy for my siblings in Christ who did that... The pushback was justified, the way much of it was done was not.

Anyway, from there they lost control of it and probably stepped back, hoping it would go away.  It didn't.  The bear just got bigger. This new show was a last ditch effort to wash their hands of this sign.  Jack and Amir are buddies and surely Amir influenced Jack, who then put out a memo which Jan saw. That memo gave her the reinforcement she needed to bring the subject up again because Jack is so well respected.  It was clear Jack didn't really know the first thing about the sign other than the fact that it happens on September 23rd.  He gives no specifics and speaks in generalities.  They don't address Rev 2:26-27, Micah 5:3 or any of the other the relevant Scripture passages.  He assumes we are taking it out of context and that clearly we are way off because Rev 12 is "just a mid trib chapter".  Basically, we are idiots and we should leave the prophecy interpretation to the professionals. I still love Jack, but I have a feeling that at some point he will regret not taking this sign more seriously.... even if nothing happens on or around the 23rd.

As far as Billy goes, it seems as though Jan had him on to give him some sense of "closure" and help him feel better about the situation because it was her program (along with the Prophecy Watchers debacle) that started the firestorm back in the Spring.  Unfortunately Billy got treated in a not so good way by some and this was a chance to let Billy address all the "haters".  They all felt so bad for Billy that during the last 5 minutes they basically ganged up on everyone who believes in the sign and compared us to Antifa.  Again, I am sorry that happened to him, but no true Christian wishes Billy physical harm.

These guys are in a leadership role and part of what they are doing is trying to protect us and also the reputation of prophecy in general. Remember, prophecy people are often considered "weirdo's", even by most pastors, so they want to keep things as mainstream as they can so more people will open their eyes to the awesome world of end time Bible prophecy... which really is a super relevant but vastly under taught subject in churches today.

In other words, prophecy is their passion (and livelihood) and they don't want it to get a bad name. In their own words, they are scared more people will tune it out if/when nothing happens.  Clearly they are more afraid of looking bad than being wrong. I doubt they have even considered the possibility that they could be wrong and that this sign could actually point to Christ's soon return. If they did surely they wouldn't be so flippant and dismissive about it. The have elevated the doctrine of imminence above other parts of the Bible (Rev 3:3, Heb 10:25, etc) and the Rev 12 sign has revealed that and they don't like it.  In their minds, anything that remotely threatens imminence must be squashed.  Nevermind the fact that this sign doesn't need to threaten imminence, but put it in hyper-drive as our brother Greg Lauer so eloquently wrote about.

So back to the idea of PROTECTING people which I have been trying to get to this whole time.  Imagine the scene from Numbers 13 when the spies return after viewing the Promised Land.  Caleb was convinced they could take the land because of Gods PROMISES...but the other spies were afraid.  They were afraid that the giants would rip apart their friends and family.  They were so focused on the bad that could happen, they totally forgot that God had made a PROMISE to them for GOOD.  They wanted to keep the people safe, and in doing so they short circuited on trusting God.  So out of fear and the guise of PROTECTION, they bent the truth (Num 13:32) and gave a bad report in order to convince others of their view. Sound familiar?

Bad Report

Fast forward to today.  We could very well be standing on the cusp of the promised land of heaven... a moment we have all dreamed of many times.  Jan and Billy surely have, they have taught about the rapture for years.  But here we are less than a month away from the fulfillment of a Great Sign in the heavens with the word HARPAZO connected to it (Rev 12:5)... yet they are so afraid the reputation of Bible prophecy might be tarnished they flatly dismiss the sign without a serious investigation.  They are more focused on what could go wrong, rather than all that could go right.

Ask yourself this, if they are so excited about Christ's return, why wouldn't they be trying to see if they could prove it right, rather then flatly dismissing it as wrong?  Even if there was a 10% chance of it being right, wouldn't they want to be trying to see if it was true!  But no, they are doing the exact opposite.  (If they had a 10% chance of winning the Powerball last week, I guarantee they would be all over trying to see if those numbers were correct!  Surely the legit possibility of Christ's soon return is worth way more than 700 million dollars!)

Anyone who has looked at this sign fairly can see right through their tired and disproven arguments.  It is clear to all of us that they have not given this a fair and open minded review based on facts and scripture.   Instead they decided to cling to what's comfortable and urge others to do the same... completely ignorant of the fact that they may be actively opposing a true sign from God. 
A verse comes to mind... 

But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.  Acts 15:39

I don't doubt their salvation, but perhaps they may be the ones who will shrink from Christ in shame at His coming (1 John 2:28) because their pride and fear kept them from seeing what was so obvious to the rest of us.  This unique sign in the heavens seems to be the fulfillment of Rev 12:1-2, and it COULD mean that we are going home very soon!  That should have you, me, Jan, Jack, and Billy all very, very excited!