Jan Markell Says the Remnant Church are People Who Agree with Her and Attend her Conferences

Jan Markell, who desperately wants people to keep following prophetic indicators (as she defines it), has resorted to attacking every other Bible-believing Christian in the world who dares to question her interpretation of news events.

In one of her latest newsletters (original is here), Jan makes several statements that we simply cannot let stand. These statements range from nasty, to unbiblical, to just plain goofy. And none of this is helpful to the building up of the Body of Christ.

The title of her newsletter is “Rules for Remnant Survival: How to Survive These Last Days”. In this newsletter, Jan shares that she has been speaking with other like-minded Endtimes hobbyists who are bemoaning the fact that their friends and family are not being nice to them. One of these people says this:

I try to talk to people about issues that are important, including end-times, and they look at me like I am an alien. A few of you help me celebrate my alien status…Prophecy is coming true right before our eyes. You and a few others are making a huge difference with all of us aliens in the world.

Jan’s reply is that the person should hold on to their viewpoints regardless of what people might say. In fact, she insinuates that being an “alien” is a badge of honor:

So I spoke to and with fellow aliens on this January journey. 

I would agree that Christians who live a true Christian life are ostracized, but people making predictions about a soon-coming day when millions of people vanish from the planet is not what the Apostle Paul had in mind when he talked about being “aliens” in Ephesians 2:12-13:

That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

Paul’s use of “alien” here is that of a group of people – Gentiles – who were alienated from God until they became followers of Jesus Christ. Not alienated from their families because they are obsessed with Prophetic News interpretations.

Though almost always in vain, these believers have talked to church leadership about their concerns, including topics missing from the pulpit, but they are generally blown off. Some are asked to leave the church.

It’s sad if pastors don’t even take an audience with members who have questions or concerns, but to make a blanket statement that people who want their pastors to discuss the news of the day in a “Prophetic” light are “generally blown off” is an unfair characterization.

Many churches today do not want to be caught up in the endless speculation that Jan thinks is important. They rightly discern that recycled hype has no place in the pulpit. And if pushy members are going to insist that they start holding meetings to discuss these topics, perhaps that pushy member should find somewhere else to meet.

We should expect mockery and worse as it is predicted (II Peter 3:3, 4). Watchmen are going to be seen as trouble makers for we are studying and keeping alert. We understand the times as did the sons of Issachar (I Chronicles 12:32). The tragedy is that our critics are the clueless ones.

There is a lot I could say here, because this is truly pathetic. For Jan to call anyone who questions her view of news events as a “mocker” is mean-spirited, unhelpful and just plain ignorant of this verse in 2 Peter.

Peter wasn’t talking about hype-driven speculation regarding the Second Coming of Christ. He was talking about Jews, which is why he references “The Fathers”, in his day, the last days (see 1 Peter 4:7). We know that all of the Apostles talked about their time as being “the last days” (1 Cor 10:11, Heb 1:2, 1 John 2:18). Peter was thus warning that his time would be marked by people doubting the coming judgment of Jesus on Jerusalem and the second temple that He had promised would happen within a generation (Matt 24:34).

It might be convenient for Jan Markell to simply wave off opposition by calling people lustful mockers. But it is Jan Markell who continues to wake up every morning with absolutely zero of her predictions in place.

Nonetheless, when it comes to charting our times and the lateness of the hour, stick to the Bible. Trendy new “signs” and theologies come along frequently. Some are intriguing and thus become an Internet sensation. 

Not much to say here, other than “Jan, take your own advice.”

Understand that the end-time church is racing towards Laodicea and is more interested in conforming than transforming.

This is probably one of the more mean-spirited comments I hear from these Endtimes Professionals. They believe that Revelation 2-3 speak of the history of the church, and that the last church, of the Laodiceans (Rev 3:14-22) is the final church of the Age. None of this is actually in the Bible, by the way – so much for reading the Bible “literally” and not adding to it. But meanwhile Jan makes an enormous fallacy by assuming WE are that last church period. Therefore we MUST see the church slide into lukewarm behavior. I find this mean-spirited because even Jan herself would admit that millions of people are being saved in China and the Middle East, where you can be imprisoned or executed just for being a Christian. Is Jan going to call all of those people “lukewarm”??

Things are going to grow darker and we must shine brighter! News of the day can be shocking and disheartening. God is trying to wake us up and shake us up so we will look up. 

Tragically, this message is a key component of pre-millennial teaching. Jan and others preach that we are on board the sinking Titanic and there isn’t anything we can do to stop the inevitable slide into hell. Notice that her charge to the Christian remnant is to “look up.” Not “get busy about the Father’s business”. Not “get out on the street and preach”. No…Jan wants us to be about the business of Endtimes Speculation, which is what a “Remnant” believer does. And it just so happens that Jan’s business is producing content to support that.

I will try to be kind in my summation here. Jan Markell is simply not consistent. She does not have an honest view of either the present time or history, and she does not interpret the Bible honestly. Somehow she can stand behind pulpits and tell people they are a small remnant, a special group, and in the next breath boast about her conference overflowing the church she uses to host it. She can admit freely that people like her have been predicting the end for 100s of years, even in the face of mocking. But then tell her followers that mocking is a sign that we are at “the end.” And so on.

Hopefully more Christians will start holding people like Jan Markell accountable for what she says. Jan makes a very good living pushing these views (her public records show an annual income of nearly $200,000 the past few years). I’m not saying that she is behaving in a fraudulent manner. What I am saying is that pushing a view that is known to be debated in the church, as if only people who follow your view are true Christians, while meanwhile you make a tidy living from followers of you view … smells funny.