We Are the Convergence Generation

[Note: Our guest contributor, Jan Markell, is a Messianic Jew from Minneapolis. She is the founder of Olive Tree Ministries and shares her poignant insights with a nationwide audience via radio. She produces a periodic newsletter and book titled Understanding the Times.]

The malady goes by many names: End-time weariness; Rapture fatigue; Rapture-watch burn-out. The scoffers and skeptics are gaining too much territory and too many followers. The fact that the King is coming is “boring” and just “old news.”

What Hal Lindsey wrote in 1969 in his classic The Late-Great Planet Earth, in the eyes of many, did not come to pass. Thus, there is a collective apathetic sigh. The pulpits marginalize or ignore this glorious good news. How much longer can we look up with expectation?

Late-Great Burn-Out?

Recently, I read a revealing article in The Guardian that further mocks those with an end-time view and reinforces the growing skepticism. This article suggests:

• Authors like Tim LaHaye and Hal Lindsey prophesied a lot of things that have not come to pass. Haven’t you Rapture-watchers waited long enough? Perhaps it’s time to move on from this message. (Never mind that a ton of things they predicted HAVE come to pass.)
• Larry Norman told us in his 1970s song, “I Wish We’d All Been Ready,” that life was filled with guns and war and everyone gets trampled on the floor, but a generation later, that’s still happening. It’s far worse today. A generation later, the world is groaning even more! We’ve waited long enough and it’s time to change the channel.
• Hal Lindsey told us that 1988 was a key year, as that was 40 years since Israel’s re-birth. He never said he was targeting that year for the Rapture, but he encouraged us to anticipate His soon return surrounding that 1988 date. We’re still anticipating years later, but alas, no trumpet or shout to date!

These are just three talking points from The Guardian article.

To be frank, there is now a “we’ve been through this all before” mindset rather than apocalyptic anticipation. Words of warning are falling on deaf ears. I now see way too much end-time weariness and left-behind indifference. The article in The Guardian suggests all this and more, but the Bible tells us to expect this (2 Peter 3:4).

The Bashers and Scoffers

Then came the bashers who are respected in some circles—just not mine. Hank Hanegraaff said there was no Rapture to be found in the Bible. Who knew? Well, he’s no Bible Answer Man to me, but at one time he had a sizable audience whom he greatly influenced. In 2017, he called me out on air as one of the biggest troublemakers in evangelical leadership and said that I engage in “script-torture” due to my Premillennial Dispensationalism. Maybe I should be honored.

What’s in the water Frankie Schaeffer was drinking? When he, like Hanegraaf, joined the Eastern Orthodox Church, he went sideways. He now goes into tirades on MSNBC against what his parents—Francis and Edith Schaeffer—might have believed about the End Times. He has tried to shame anyone who would embrace “left behind” theology, as he calls it.

Frankly, the lineup of bashers and scoffers is so long that I need a book to document them properly, so I am not dwelling on them. Rick Warren calling eschatology “a distraction” did not help.

Legions on the religious left, including Brian McLaren, Tony Campolo, Rob Bell, and more, have denigrated this glorious Good News for two decades. Social justice is of far greater interest to them.

Déjà vu All Over Again

Stunning events are breaking daily with a convergence of predicted prophecies exploding weekly. We are on the cusp of digital money. Russia, who is likely Gog from the land of Magog, is stirring and roaring. Mark of the Beast technology is staring us in the face.

The spirit of the Antichrist is manifesting globally. And yet many suggest this is just déjà vu all over again! “You have talked about such things for decades. We’re weary of your warnings!”

Artificial intelligence has plans to take over the world. Talk about a tool for the Antichrist!

The secular world has embraced the idea of globalism. A one-world system. They can’t wait. Someday, they may wish they had waited!

Violence and lawlessness are the new normal.

And who can keep up with all that is happening in Israel—God’s timepiece? As I write this, she has angry neighbors on seven sides of her. She may never recover from the trauma of October 7, 2023. Like the Holocaust of 80 years ago, October 7 will leave a permanent mark and scar.

Throw in wars and rumors of war, persecution, deception, pestilence, and the earth’s groaning!

All Falling Into Place!

So, the fact that things are all coming together—all falling into place—excites only a tiny remnant who will never grow weary of keeping their eyes on the sky! If you are among them, hang in there. He is coming soon. As things continue to deteriorate, we may be left with only one hope—the Blessed Hope.

We are the convergence generation. Get excited about it!