Ten Top Bible Prophecy Stories of 2016

Jan Markell and Olive Tree Ministries

“When all of these things begin to happen, look up for your redemption draws near” (Luke 21:29)

Top Bible Prophecy Stories of 2016 By Jan Markell;  December 30, 2015 

At the end of each year I like to review how Bible prophecy played out during the year.  Seeing dark news items from a prophetic perspective causes the darkness to be more bearable.  

These Tribulation stage-setting events aren’t in any particular order.  But we must keep our eyes on Israel, God ‘s timepiece.  The minute-hand is Jerusalem, and the second-hand is the Temple Mount.  They have all been prominent in the news.

1. Zechariah 12:3 became a blunt reality on December 23.  This was the day the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to come against Israel.  America abstained which is essentially voting with the other members.  She symbolically became the world’s burdensome stone.  This was initiated and instigated by the President of the United States which means terrible repercussions are coming to this land.  So, Israel is to return to 1967 “Auschwitz” borders.  The holy city of Jerusalem becomes “occupied territory”.  And Israel is further isolated and alienated as predicted.

2. The great falling away didn’t stop falling in 2016.  Many evangelical churches became nothing more than advocates for open borders and multiculturalism.  The social gospel made such giant inroads and salvation issues became unrecognizable.  Emergent/Postmodernism raged.  Other churches fell into luke warmness.  Hardly any word deals with the issues of the day or the Lord’s return.

3. The longing for a ‘man with a plan” was never so prominent.  Even CNN’s Home page begged for a man who could restore order.  It asks in smaller print, “Is there a leader who can stop the chaos and heal America?”

4. II Timothy 3 character was on overdrive in 2016.  Various presidential candidates were consumed with pride and self-aggrandizement.  Values seemed to tank this past year.  National industries featured same-sex ads with no shame.  It seemed like everyone was drowning in the lake of me-myself- and I.

5. Israel’s re-convened Sanhedrin took the momentous step of nominating a High Priest for the Temple – for the first time since it’s destruction in 70 A. D.  The Tribulation Temple is in the works, even though the United Nations just declared this area off-limits to the Jews!

6. Israel struck Damascus in early December, targeting some weapons.  This is a precursor to what is predicted in Isaiah 17:1. 

7. God continues to intervene for His sovereign nation of Israel.  In November, He sent a pillar of a cloud of dust and rain to push back ISIS on Israel’s border. “He who keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps” (Psalm 121).

8. There was stage-setting for the Tribulation’s natural disasters which will be far worse than anything the world has known thus far.  Publications called many events “record setting,” “unprecedented,” and “of biblical proportions”.  The Bible calls them “birth pangs”.

9. The war on cash intensified.  A few nations are banning cash and this will eventually lead to the “Mark of the Beast” accounting. Technology was introduced that enables the total payment of goods and services using only an embedded chip.

10. Gog-Magog players ae getting ready.  Russia is the new power player in the Mideast, thanks to America’s absence.  So is Iran.  Turkey is in chaos and looking to Russia for support.  These are the three primary players in Ezekiel 38-39, although other nations participate.