A number of prophetic voices have proclaimed the truth to our culture, but one is unique. As both a woman and a Christian with a Jewish heritage, Jan Markell represents a modern-day watchman, or watchwoman.
Jan began following Yeshua when she was 11 years old. As a young woman, she traveled to Israel, studied Bible Prophecy, and served with Jews for Jesus. In 1982, Jan launched Olive Tree Ministries “to help people understand the times according to the Bible, contend for the faith in Jesus Christ, and help the Church stand against deception as watchmen on the wall in these last days.”
I can’t think of a more significant or timely calling. Now we’ll hear from this giant in the Bible prophecy realm, who the Lord has disguised as a wonderfully petite woman.
Jan’s Burden
Tim Moore: Jan, what message did God lay on your heart that you have been sharing through Olive Tree Ministries these many years?
Jan Markell: I think that we are living in the most profound of times when it comes to the prophetic and social topics that I cover on a daily basis. These are the most profound, stunning times. But, perhaps with the least amount of interest by the Church. Perhaps this last year with the pandemic may have changed that a little bit. This past year has been so significant with incredible happenings around the world with how this pandemic transformed both the world and the Church and set the stage for global government. I think now there is, at last, a little more interest by the Church, but it has been tough to get the Church to get really interested in these important issues.
Tim Moore: Your ministry focuses on sharing the truth from a biblical perspective and calling the Church away from apostasy. To quote your purpose statement at Olive Tree Ministries: “To help people understand the times according to the Bible, contend for the faith in Jesus Christ, and help the Church stand against deception as a watchman on the wall in these last days.” As a watchwoman, you have most assuredly fulfilled that mission statement.
Jan Markell: I would like every Christian to become a watchman on the wall. I don’t want them running away from the difficulty of our times.
I was watching some clips on YouTube by the Media talking about how people are running away from reality because reality is getting scary. But, for the Christian, that shouldn’t be the case. The Bible laid all of this out for us — everything! There should not be any uncertainty for the believer, for we know what is going to happen. We don’t know the timing exactly, but we know that we are living in exciting times.
Tim Moore: It certainly is. One of the aspects I got excited about when encountering your ministry is that you named it Olive Tree Ministries. When I travel around Israel, it always amazes me to see the number of olive trees growing naturally and have been planted. The olive tree has become a symbol of modern-day Israel — a stump that was cut down which is now springing forth new life.
When our pilgrimage group Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum located in Israel, they can find a pin that the museum sells. It’s a lapel pin that has an olive branch intertwined on a strand of barbed wire, symbolizing that out of the Holocaust of the last century there is yet new life being sprung forth in the Jewish people.
The Lord is not done with the Jewish people. He still has a purpose and a plan to bring a number of them to salvation. So, Jan, you are a living witness of God’s goodness and His graciousness in bringing Jewish believers along with Gentile believers into His Church here in the United States and in Israel.
Jan Markell: Out of the terrible evil of the Holocaust, God brought good by creating the nation of Israel. Israel became a nation once more because the Jewish people had been so persecuted that the world came together in 1948 and said, “Yes, they should become a nation.” The United Nations agreed because they’d seen the wreckage of the Holocaust. That means that God allowed the Holocaust to happen for the primary result of rebirthing the nation of Israel back in their own land.
Jan’s Calling
Tim Moore: Growing up as a young woman, did you ever see yourself becoming a prophetic voice to America, or even to the world?
Jan Markell: No, I did not. As a matter of a fact, the first couple of decades of my ministry were very difficult. I had a very serious illness for the first couple of decades and it kind of held me back. I don’t need to go into details. I only started airing on the radio some 20 years ago because I kind of started late. My radio ministry began in 2001. The first couple of decades of ministry were a great struggle for me. So, the fact that God has been able to use me in any way, well I find miraculous.
Again, I am just trying to wake people up to see the tide of our times, because the Bible says in Ezekiel 33 that Christians are all called to be watchmen. If we don’t sound the alarm over whatever God has placed on our hearts and made us aware of, then the blood will be on our hands. And so, I am encouraging people, particularly as the hour now is so late, so speak up, to not hold back giving forth the truth as the Bible sees it concerning the lateness of the hour. We need to be winning the lost while there is still time because I don’t know that we have a lot of time left before God comes to judge the world.
Tim Moore: It’s not just learning about what’s going on with the events swirling around us, but really the motivation is to save as many as are called to win the lost for Christ.
Jan Markell: Christians are on a rescue mission.
Tim Moore: We are not just yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater, rather we are trying to give people an understanding of the threat that exists and call them to the greater hope in Jesus Christ.
Jan, you’ve coined a phrase that Dr. David Reagan has used many times and that I’ve come to borrow, which I give you credit for. As our society and the world in general descend into chaos, you like to say, “Things are not falling apart, rather they are falling into place.” What do you mean by that?
Jan Markell: The tide of our times are tumultuous, and they are troubling. If you look at headlines as often as I do, I’ve often had to look away because they were troubling. But, the Bible outlines everything that is to happen in detail. We are watching events line up just as the Bible said they would line up in the last days. Unfortunately, the Bible says the last days will be perilous. It says that the last days will see mankind slipping into a reprobate mind kind of thinking. Therefore, the last days are going to be troubling. And yet, they are falling into place just as outlined scripturally.
So, my question is, “Are the pulpits talking about these things?” And, if not, “Why not?” There is still time. What a year we had with 2020 — an unbelievable year! My hope is that pastors are building on what happened in this past year. There are lessons to be learned by the Church from this past year. There have been testings for the Church over this past year. The Church was closed for much of 2020, at least in certain states. Churches were fighting governors to even allow 10 people in their buildings, even though they may have been a megachurch. So, there were tremendous challenges upon the Church in the last year. But, I am hoping that has provided churches a great opportunity to refocus and reprioritize as well.
Tim Moore: I pray that it will be. I think you are exactly right; did we seize this opportunity? Listening to you I am reminded that you said it took a season for your ministry really to take off, but the Lord was preparing you for such a time as this, much like another lady of Scripture — Esther — whom the Lord obviously placed in a particular time so she could be a voice to save some of her people.
In the second part of this interview with Jan Markell, we’ll address the alarming rise in Anti-Semitism.
Being a believer, I have noticed the rebellion going on throughout the world particularly in the US. The lies used by Trump to incite rebellion causing people to attack their own capital. In all of Jan Markell’s criticisms of groups causing strife and division (The police were not restraining Floyd, they were killing him by suffocation), she seemed to miss what Trump has been doing to divide this country. He’s causing the turmoil and claiming that only he can fix it like Hitler. Markell seems to be consistent amongst most Republicans who claim to be believers but they constantly show they lack any true discernment. They would rather follow a person and his lies and conspiracies rather than the truth of the Word of God, being Godly people themselves letting the fruit of the Spirit be revealed in their actions. Hear this, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear.
Politics are politics, we have so often treated the “party” we have voted for time and again as OUR team…They are not,Trump was a servant of the people, the insurection at the Capital was the wrong thing to do, but if it would have been the other party, you would have heard “THE SUMMER OF LOVE”. sad but true, this world is a passing thing awaiting the return of our Lord and Savior, the Bible says even the earth groans for the coming of the Lord Romans 8:22. I dont believe God has a favorite party, but I do know by gleaning the things that people stand for I cannot see how you can lay claim to God when you butcher the unborn,you directly go against the bible in lifestyle,and you can allow hate to destroy cities, kill people,and live in a state of corruption. George Floyd will be revisited by the Lord Himself, He is now the Lords business, so are the Police that were there that day- give it to God He will sort it out,The rebellion you speak of is EVERYWHERE, it is in the largest cities of this country,killing,robbing,molesting,destroying what doesnt belong to them, and looting, while doing so under the protection of the authorities. EWC I hope you are doing well, I hope your faith and trust in in Jesus- remove the blinders from your own eyes,; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.Rev 3:18….Be looking for the return of our Lord-for He is our Hope.
Politics is being used to destroy a Godly society, it enters and interferes with morals, healthcare, truth, and the Word of God….. Paul minced no words as he spoke of a culture in which people would love themselves and money, be proud, boastful, blasphemous, disobedient to their parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, and have a form of Godliness while denying its power. He warns us to turn away from such people. 2 Timothy 2-5.
Good Call Jan, We shouldn’t run away from reality because everything Jesus told us is coming to pass, (His word is Truth,). and we will share in God’s kingdom everything we love, living with the Almighty in all his Glory, love, peace, harmony, and kindness.