When someone commented that the Charismatics and Pentecostals have liked The Harbinger, and therfore have embraced its message, it would appear by implication by the one who made that observation that he/she considers themselves "a cut above them" and therefore superior because he or she does not ascribe to their point of view, be it flawed or not.
First whether or not the Charismatics and Pentecostals are any less Christians for their beliefs in the gifts or their less than perfect practice at times of them is no reason to throw them out of the Body of Christ.
This is exactly at what Paul is getting at when he wrote his first letter to the Corinthians who practiced such gifts, but not in an orderly fashion (sound familiar), and who had the same problems these people have in accepting certain "types" of Christians because they weren't "like them," that is to say, that they did not practice their spiritual gift, but another spiritual gift, and perhaps not the way they thought was best. Well, hmnnn...hmnn, (let us clear our throats).
History has a way of repeating itself, and people who should know better don't, even when reading such passages as 1Corinthians 12 and 13 over and over and over again. Why? Man-made theology - Cessationism, the theology created to minimize or exclude the living God from activities in the here and now, but only exclusively have them for earlier "less sophisticated" times when the cannon of Scripture was as yet not complete as their argument goes.
This insidious theology posits that God does not work as He did in the pages of our Bible today, because with the closing of the cannon of Scripture, it is no longer necessary for Him to be Himself; that is, to be and do what He has since before any book of the Bible was ever written or any prophet ever walked the earth. Ridiculous! No wonder people think God is dead, or doesn't exist, or that the Bible is a book of fables and Middle Eastern myths, as some charge.
The Cessationist and the literalist/minimalist's dead scholastic approach to the study of the Bible in the nation's seminaries have created an army of unbelieving believers. People who claim to believe to know and walk with God, but who have denied His power. There is no dynamism in their walk, everything is intellectual. The Holy Bible is a textbook, Theology is a philosophy, God is a concept within the framework of that theology, and anyone who dares to breach the barriers created by that theology is a heretic.
As it divided the Corinthian Church but in a different manner, this is what divides Mainline Protestant Christianity today in America. The haves and the have nots - those who have and practice the gifts and those who do not have and do not practice the gifts. In the Corinthian Church, those practiced certain gifts and had certain roles ad responsibilities within the congregation looked askance at others who did not, and so it is today. Human beings are so predictable, yes even Christians sometimes.
Well, from there is where the writer had written to criticize The Harbinger on the basis that Charismatics and Pentecostals liked the book. Well, so do non-Charismatics and non-Pentecostals too. And to answer this writer, I wrote the following:
"Guilt by association?" They accused Christ of being a wine bibber and a glutton; a friend of the tax collectors and a sinner, because of the company He kept. Are we to do the same? No, of course not. Actually, The Harbinger has both supporters and critics on both sides of the Evangelical Protestant Divide. The biggest problem with the pure Cessationists is that any phrase, any word, any noun, pronoun, adjective, adverb, preposition, etc....that might appear to them to be a hint of a "revelation" or a "sign" when actually Cahn is using it to mean insight into a matter of Scriptural import and is referring to the clay seals in the story that are the "signs" of the events they represent is where The Harbinger's critics have gone completely awry and have weaved their protestations against it to form a false narrative they have embarked upon promoting, perhaps to help their waning ministry.
The fact that they have lost all reasoning on this topic is evidenced by the manner they respond to concise Biblical challenges to their arguments when presented to them. When faced with the facts that they have created nothing but a straw man controversy applying semantical gymnastics over words that they determine mean one thing when actually they mean quite another within the story; they insist that their analysis is the correct one. Yes, even when it is explained to them that the meaning they give Cahn's book is not what the story says.
For example Pastor Eric Douma of Twin Cities Fellowship claims that Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Cahn is revealing new revelation, because of his use of the word "mystery" and "secret" and other such words, “and therefore since he is not a prophet,” Pastor Douma infers, Rabbi “Cahn cannot reveal secrets.” Pastor Douma misses the point; Rabbi Jonathan Cahn is not claiming new revelation, nor is he claiming to be a prophet, and his use of the words he employs is in the context of God revealing through His Holy Spirit the knowledge of what His Word teaches, what is already contained in the written word - Sola Sciptura. When Rabbi Cahn employs such words as "mystery" and others like "secret", he is doing it in context of 1Corinthians 2. To the unsaved the Bible is a closed book and its content, mysteries and secrets, just as Paul the Apostle under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit writes the following:
Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but just as it is written,
“Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard,
And which have not entered the heart of man,
All that God has prepared for those who love Him.”
For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.
(1Corinthians 2:6-14)
It is in this context that Rabbi Cahn speaks of the mystery of the Nine Harbingers contained in clay tablets that are signs of each Harbinger, or warning. In this regard, I have posted the following on my web site to explain what Rabbi Cahn means by the phraseology he uses, which his critics find objectionable because of their misunderstanding of them; a misunderstanding that began and has been perpetuated by T.A. McMahon, David James, and Jimmy DeYoung and others of the Berean Call and other self-professed “discernment ministries” associated with theirs.
I have spoken with Rabbi Cahn, I have read his book The Harbinger, I know what he means when he employs words such as sign, mystery, etc.. and it is within the context of the story itself. You read the book, you realize that the clay seals depicting each Harbinger is a sign, much in the context of an Exit or Stop sign one sees when travelling a road. And as to mystery that is revealed, no Rabbi Cahn is not practicing divination as Pastor Douma claims in a Sunday school sermon he gave at his church, but Rabbi Cahn employs the word in the context of 1Corinthians 2, where the Apostle Paul studies the dichotomy between the regenerative man and the unregenerate man, and the two separate world views the two have and the completely different lives each leads, and how they understand things and view the world around them.
When Rabbi Cahn speaks of mysteries, he is referring to the fact that the Holy Scriptures and what they contain are both a mystery and a sealed book to the unsaved, not some new revelation or new prophecy outside of the cannon of Scripture that is to be treated as authoritative as the Bible as these people charge. There is no new revelation, but the revelation is in God’s written Word, understood through careful study of the Scriptures as the Holy Spirit of God provides the believer the insight into His Word. When Rabbi Cahn speaks of these harbingers, and they are variably called “signs,” he is using the word as one uses it plainly as for example that a “sign” of inflation is the rise in the price of good or fuel. This is what he means by “sign.”
Moreover, to those who do not understand economics, these indications or signs are simply a mystery, inasmuch that they are inexplicable to them because they do not have a technical reference point to connect them one to the other other than they just know it costs more to purchase goods and services, and energy. To those who know the “mystery” behind the economics, it is understood that when the Federal Reserve inflates the currency, it devalues the currency in circulation. Therefore it costs more to purchase an item because now the item’s price has increased relative to the value of the dollar used in purchasing that item, because the dollar is now worth less requiring more of it to purchase the item. Therefore it can be said that higher prices are a harbinger of inflation.
This is what is meant by the harbingers being signs, because they indicate or point to something greater than themselves; to their culminations. A harbinger is a warning or an indication of something coming which has not yet arrived. Why David James and other Cessationist critics of The Harbinger wish to attach to the plain meaning of what Rabbi Cahn is writing other nefarious meanings is beyond me, but this is precisely what they do, and this is precisely what David James does throughout his book.
The accusation flung at him (Rabbi Cahn) that he is attempting to teach a new revelation or reveal hidden mysteries is absurd and completely groundless. Those who make such charges know themselves that this is not true; they are merely using hyperbole, and in so doing creating a false witness against Rabbi Cahn that should not exist. This is very serious.
Some websites in complete ignorance of the facts have accused Rabbi Cahn of being a Gnostic, or a Kabbalist, or even worse a false prophet because he has often used Extra-Biblical literature such as the writings of the rabbis to help illustrate the fact that even hostile witnesses within Judaism unknowingly support the truth of the Gospel.
He's even been accused wrongly of elevating the writings of the rabbis to that of the Holy Scriptures and the rabbis to the status of the prophets. Absolute hyperbole and nonsense. Like many of the finest Bible scholars and teachers of our times have done themselves; he uses historical, archeological sources, and the writings of the rabbis to help illustrate and support what the Bible says. He does not elevate their status to that of the Holy Scriptures, as David James accuses him of doing, but uses them as hostile witnesses to support the Bible.
He's even been accused wrongly of elevating the writings of the rabbis to that of the Holy Scriptures and the rabbis to the status of the prophets. Absolute hyperbole and nonsense. Like many of the finest Bible scholars and teachers of our times have done themselves; he uses historical, archeological, and the writings of the rabbis to help illustrate and support what the Bible says. He does not elevate their status to that of the Holy Scriptures, as David James accuses him of doing, but uses them as hostile witnesses to support the Bible.
I would strongly suggest that everyone who follows and reads this trend, purchase or borrow a copy of The Harbinger and read it for themselves, and not be allowed to be influenced by people whose premise in entirely incorrect, and whom have formed conclusions based upon those incorrect premises, all based upon unsupported charges concerning semantical questions about the meanings of words Rabbi Cahn uses that do not have the meanings they give it.
And as to whether or not any nation other than Israel can have its own covenant with the God of all Creation, I recommend everyone do a serious study of what the Bible says about this, and how it applies both to individuals, communities, organizations, and yes; nations. A covenant is a contract between two parties. Do the homework, and discover for yourselves just how far off these critics of The Harbinger are regarding correct hermeneutics and the concise application of Biblical exegesis when studying and expounding the Word of Almighty God. Thank you.
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