Another Discussion On The Harbinger

The following is another discussion on The Harbinger between myself and author David James on The Harbinger. It is in reply to his responses to his readers.

Author: normanlabat Thu 11/22/2012 3:27 AM

Comment:

i am curious about the final chapter which talks about baruch who was really named barry. what's that all about?
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Author: Dave James Thu 11/22/2012 3:32 AM
Comment:

In the Bible, Baruch is a scribe who was to write down what the prophet gave him. In the story Nouriel Kaplan was called Barry as a child because his full name is Baruch Nouriel Kaplan. So, it is a literary device used by the author - and it seems for the purpose of giving the author himself some sort of biblical authority - or authority from God - although he would undoubtedly deny this.
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MY REPLY Submitted on Sunday, December 30th, 2012

Dear David,

I cannot speak for Rabbi Cahn, but I can speak for myself here, and I detect from your sarcasm (below a Christian) and what you have written, that once again, you are attributing to what Rabbi Cahn has written in his book more than what he put into it. This is intellectual dishonesty, because you have placed in the mind of another person, as in this case the person to whom you addressed your answer to; the impression that what you claim Jonathan Cahn meant when he wrote what he wrote, he did in fact mean as you define it; a complete falsehood and fabrication on your part. This is another trait that is not in keeping with the proper behavior of a Christian. One should not presume upon others to attribute to their writings and public statements meanings they did not have, especially believers. One does not redefine the meaning of what other people say or write. You do this repeatedly throughout your book. Why do you do this?
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Author: Alex Thu 11/22/2012 3:32 AM

Comment:

I understand that reading the scriptures, especially prophetic books can seem to mean different things to different people; but I'm going to make my comment short and relevant to both points of view...yes, in the past many of us have made assumptions based on speculation only for there is not enough written about a topic, time, nation etc....to claim this or that as facts when there is not enough of it. This is what I mean... many people believe (sic) that the promise to Israel made by the always truthful GOD somehow is revoked when sinners act like sinners and now he will forget his promise to Israel and place it on the church....NO, NO, NO. They are two different entities and they have different purposes and two distinct futures all though in the end they will both come together when GOD makes this happen. Neither will be foresaken. this, that...only speculation. I got to admit the Harbenger is a great book, that inspires repentence, but has't the bible said this all along, "repent for the kingom of heaven is at hand" Is something that GOD the son said when he was walking the earth. But Israel is Israel, the Church is the Church, America is America... let's not beging to start swapping one for the other...please
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Author: Dave James Thu 11/22/2012 3:36 AM

Comment:

I am pretty much with you until you talk about the distinction between the Church and Israel is merely speculation. It is not speculation when it can be shown that the Scriptures clearly teach this. Even for those who would reject this interpretation, they would not suggest it is speculation on our part.

Unfortunately, although The Harbinger talks about repentance - it does not tell how to repent or be saved - and even if for this reason alone it is not even a "good book" let alone a great one. Take a look at his chapter that is supposed to be about salvation - it does not mention faith, belief or trust even one time - and neither does it mention the resurrection of Christ apart from which there is no gospel.
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MY REPLY Posted on Sunday, December 30th, 2012

This is a most unfortunate statement on your part. How do you presume to criticize another servant of Christ because according to you, he does not measure up to your standards!? How dare you speak like this of another brother in Christ! How dare you sir! This is uncalled for. I stated early on that as time progressed it would become apparent to your readers and to many others by your statements, your claims, and by your behavior in this matter; who truly is speaking God’s Word and for God in this matter. Have you never read that the testimony of Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy!? As it says in the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ:

Then I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” (Revelation 19:10)

Do you not realize that if one is calling another to repentance, who are you to stand in God's way and protest the manner in which he is being called!? Have you not read the Scripture where Christ’s disciples come to the Lord Jesus protesting that others were casting demons out of people in His name, and what was Our Lord’s answer to them?

John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. For he who is not against us is for us. For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward.”
”

(Mark 9:38-41)

What is it about this statement that you have overlooked? What is it that drives people like you to hurl stones at their fellow brethren in the name of Jesus Christ without a single regard to that name or to that brother!? You have a complete disregard with what you are doing against your brother in Christ! Are you aware of this? I don’t think so. Therefore the Lord Jesus Christ has spoken about religious people – yes, even among God’s people – religious people, who are quick to hurl stones at other Christians in the name of Christ, thinking they are doing a service to God, and stand in judgment of them and their work and ministries, and this is what He has said:

And He was saying to them, “Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides.”

(Mark 4:24)

“For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.”

(Matthew 7:2)

Do you think it is for nothing that the Lord Jesus Christ has said this? It is precisely for moments and situations like this. History is replete with religious men judging other men as heretics and done every kind of evil against them in the name of God. Do you think that because you and the other critics of The Harbinger call yourselves Christians and invoke the name of Christ, you will not bear your own guilt over what you are doing? It is not a cult or a cult leader you are now pursuing with a vengeance, but person, a brother in Christ, and other Christians with whom you disagree over doctrinal issues pertaining to topical teachings written in the form of a fictitious literary work! Are you aware of what you are doing? Of course you’ll retort, declaring you are fully aware, and by your own words you will be either justified or condemned, according to the Scriptures. You won’t lose your salvation, but you will be made to account for what you’ve written about a pastor in God’s service, and your work in this regard will be burned up. Do you really want this?
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Author: Vicki Thu 11/22/2012 3:36 AM

Comment:

I am reading The Harbinger and must say that I am enjoying the book. I feel the reaction to The Harbinger is similar to the reaction over The Shack. Both books are fiction - and need to be regarded as such. While there are many books that inspire, encourage, and possibly point to some aspect of truth they should never take the place of nor be viewed as truth. Jesus is truth. His Holy Word is truth. We must be dilligent to rightly divide the truth and not be enslaved or led astray. In the last days, even the elect will be deceived. May we have eyes to see and ears to hear what THE Spirit is saying. You can read the Harbinger and not be deceived that it is an accurate reflection of prophesy. And, you can read The Harbinger and be reminded that it is to Jesus we must turn. You just have to remember that the plumb line is The Word of God, not of any other author. Maybe there are correlations to America and Isreal - but America is NOT Isreal. Yes, God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever and we would be remiss in America to think that we can escape judegment. But...Jesus said that He did not give us a spirit of fear. He reminded his disciples to fear not for I am with you...He sent His precious Holy Spirit to be my teacher. Praise His Name! Let The Teacher, teach!
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Author: Dave James Thu 11/22/2012 3:42 AM

Comment:

The reaction to the Shack was hardly overdone - it was filled with outright heresy on any number of points. If anyone thinks that the Shack's depiction of the Lord is anywhere close to accurate it raises the question as to whether that person knows him at all - because it is so radically different than what the His Word teaches.

Concerning The Harbinger being fiction - the author has stated publicly multiple times that the fiction is only a framework, but that what he has written is 90% fact.

I have an article here on the website that deals with the matter of Christian fiction.

In Ephesians, Paul said that the Lord had given pastors, teachers and evangelists to the church for the building up of the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the One who convicts our heart of the truth of what we read in the Scriptures or what we hear from a teacher who is faithful to the Word of God.
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MY REPLY: For once, you and I are in agreement on something. Well, we’ve agreed on some other things too.
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Author: Patty Thu 11/22/2012 3:43 AM

Comment:

It is obvious that you don't agree with the book, The Harbinger, but as a Christian I feel it is a great book that gets a person to really THINK about the things that have come to pass in our world, specifically our Country, and to remind us that we have 'rationalized' away the beliefs and morals of our Country for long enough and that IT IS TIME to TURN BACK TO GOD. I'm always stunned at the arrogancy of people, especially in government, when they use the phrase "...and may God bless America!"...why should God bless America?! We've done nothing but run him out of our homes, our schools, our government. This country no longer stands for anything decent, so we fall for everything that is indecent. I guess what I'm trying to say is that maybe you should stop 'knocking' this book! How do you know that God isn't using it to bring others back to Him?! Are you, then, being a 'stumbling block' to others?!
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Author: Dave James Thu 11/22/2012 3:48 AM

Comment:

Of course it is time to turn to God, but as I note clearly in the article, my book and in another reply to Alex's comment - The Harbinger is absolutely not a great book.

There I stated: Unfortunately, although The Harbinger talks about repentance – it does not tell how to repent or be saved – and even if for this reason alone it is not even a “good book” let alone a great one. Take a look at his chapter that is supposed to be about salvation – it does not mention faith, belief or trust even one time – and neither does it mention the resurrection of Christ apart from which there is no gospel.

I have no doubt that God has used The Harbinger to direct people to him - but he also used a demon possessed girl in Ephesus to tell people to listen to Paul's message - after which Paul delivered her. This is hardly a model to follow. God also used the Babylonians to get people to turn back to him, but that hardly means that we should emulate the Babylonian tactics simply because God used them to his glory. This pragmatic view of the Scriptures and the work of God is completely unbiblical. The end never justifies the means if the means are unbiblical.

Warning people of this and the associated danger is not being a stumbling block. For example, in my book I clearly presented the gospel, while it is not clear at all in The Harbinger. That is what is a stumbling block.
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MY REPLY:

Dear David,
Again you are incorrect in your application and interpretation of Scripture. In your quick response to this reader, you reply “I have no doubt that God has used The Harbinger to direct people to him,” an amazing admission on your part, that God is indeed using The Harbinger to bring people to repentance and to Christ, as has been reported throughout the nation; but you continue by writing, that in Ephesus “but he (meaning God, is what you appear to be saying) also used a demon possessed girl in Ephesus to tell people to listen to Paul's message.”

You are equating the rantings of a demon-possessed woman to the writings of a Holy Spirit-filled born again brother in Christ! Do you realize this!? You're even wrong in your interpretation of what did occur in the Book of Acts. Let me explain.

First, you are incorrect, because God did not use “a demon possessed girl in Ephesus to tell people about Paul’s message,” as you infer, but in order to discredit Paul and his associates, and the message of the Gospel they were bringing to the Jewish community and to the Gentiles of that city. Below is the passage of Scripture which records the event:

It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling. Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, “These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.” She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And it came out at that very moment.

(Acts 16:16-18)

Why would Paul be annoyed if what this woman was speaking the truth about him and his message? They were proclaiming the way of salvation. It was because this woman was both demon-possessed, and the demon within this woman, practiced divination, and if anyone in the Jewish Community in that city would hear her, it would bring discredit upon Paul and the others with him with the people they were trying to reach. Why is this the case? Because, as you well know, according to Jewish Law no self-respecting Jew or God-fearing Gentile would ever dabble in the occult or hire a spiritist or a medium for counsel. Therefore it was to discredit Paul and his message of the Gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ that the demon made statements that appeared to be correct. How can you compare this with the message of The Harbinger!?
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Author: Alex Thu 11/22/2012 10:03 AM

Comment:

Sorry, I did't mean to imply that the distinction between the church and Israel is speculation, you are right Dave it is not and I appologize that it came out that way. The bible is full of biblical truths that is obvious right...so why do we continue to bring about a complete doctrine on a single phrases in the bible that is never mentioned anywhere else when we have so much solid teaching in the scriptures....does our generation have itchy ears for teachings not supported by the bible? IF I was to say that the sabbath which we all know what it means ...but instead I said that every 7 days GOD will punish the nation to a certain degree because...fill in the blank.....and I tried to convince you that's how GOD uses the sabbath for or why GOD made the sabbath ....you should be able to know that it is eaither a lie or mere speculation becuase no were in the bible does it says that right...time and time again the bible gives its true meaning about the sabbath and even then the teachers of the law gave Jesus a hard time about him healing people on the sabbath and Jesus taught them a little more about the sabbath....what I'm saying is read your bible there are so many legit prophesies there. Know what's biblical and don't be taken away by every wind of doctrine. And you are so right Dave...any book that is suppose to bring any MESSAGE about GOD but doesn't care to go into who is Jesus and nor does it tell you how we can be saved...well need I say more?
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Author: Dave James Thu 11/22/2012 10:06 AM
Comment:
Hey, thanks Alex.

Actually, I thought that may be what you meant - but I just wanted to clear it up for someone else who might read it.

You're right about there are enough clear things we can teach about - we don't have to make things up. And a point I make in my book is, if it's not in the text someone made it up.

Happy Thanksgiving.

(I'm in the Philippines right now - so I'm missing the holiday back home.)
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Author: Ray Grace Fri 11/23/2012 4:35 AM

Comment:

Your comments on the Harbinger Book remind me of my youth. I was raised in a group of people who were so holy that God himself had to take off His Sandals to walk in their presence. These people and their Pharisee attitude drove me from God for a quarter century of my life because no one could be saved using their rules. I walked away from God until He let me know that what went on between them and me was not between them and me, but between them and Himself! It was after that that I found, reading the Bible, that the only time Jesus Corrected Himself was when He spoke of those who 'hurt one of these little ones', meaning HIS little ones, that it would be better if they had a' millstone hung about their neck and they were drowned in the depths of the sea, No, it would be better for them if they had NEVER BEEN BORN!"
It's always easier to tear down than to build, to use 'man's knowledge of God' (Theology) to explain why no one is right but you. If you were right, I'd have to go back to Jesus and tell him what I did at the beginning of my wandering in the desert, 'No one can be saved by these standards, I'd just as well go it alone'. Fortunately, I met the Jesus who is the "Good Shepherd" at the end of my wandering. He's not the hireling who takes his 357 pistol to 'do-away' with the wounded little ones who survived the attack of the Wolf, but the "ONE who leaves the 99 and goes into the desert to pick up and nurture and bring back the wounded 'Little Ones'.
I thank the Father God that I have met this Jesus. None of us can make it without his Loving Care, but many are willing to be Pharisees, and to use the '357' on those who don't make it according their 'gospel'.

Ray Grace
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Author: Dave James Fri 11/23/2012 4:54 AM
Comment:

Ray,

I'm sorry I offended you with what I wrote. I would encourage you to consider reading my book where I explain myself more fully and try to be as gracious as possible in acknowledging the good things about The Harbinger.

Jesus spent a lot of time saying, "You have heard it said, but I say unto you..." - that was extensive correction. And his spent a huge amount of time on correcting wrong thinking / theology - so I'm not sure what you mean that Jesus on corrected on one occasion.

Beyond that the prophets and apostles were continually confronting and correcting false teachers based upon the Word of God. I think I have been have careful to show that "corrective" thing I have said is grounded in Scripture. In Ephesians Paul wrote that "he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, pastors/teachers and evangelists for the building up of the Body of Christ." We have a tremendous responsibility to teach people when serious error is brought into the church. Paul told Timothy that in the last days there would be many false teachers. Peter and Jude warned about this as well.

Concerning being a Pharisee: That's a pretty strong word. Would you mind explaining what you mean when you refer to me in that way? And also what I actually said in the article that caused you to come to that conclusion?

I was saved 28 years ago from a life of wickedness and sin by God's wonderful grace. I have been serving Him full time for the last 25 years, as a teacher, elder, Bible institute founder and director and a missionary for 16 years in Eastern Europe. This isn't to say that doing these thing necessarily means someone isn't a Pharisee - but I do think it is at least an indication that they do not wish to be.

I'm in the Manila as I write this - and today I gave 2 keynote messages and 3 seminars that focused on being a better Christian teacher who reflects the love and grace of God in everything we say and do that our students might become more like Christ - and that we are all completely dependent upon the Cross of Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to bring about change of any eternal value. Again, if I am a Pharisee, it is not because I want to be - and my guess is that the 1300 or so that were in attendance would probably say that this is a false and unfair charge. But I am open to correction and always wish to be teachable.

So, if you could be more specific, that would be helpful.

In His Loving Care,
Dave
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MY REPLY: Talk about tooting one’s horn. Let your works speak for themselves sir. Let them be written in heaven, or be burned up. Why should your whereabouts really matter? According to the teachings and precepts of Our Lord, he who is least in the kingdom of heaven will be greater than you or I, or anyone else on this list. Why do you set yourself above other servants of Christ? This is not the behavior that we ought to emulate. (Proverbs 18:12, 22:4, Ephesians 4:2, Philippians 2:3, Colossians 3:12, James 1:21, 1Peter 5:5 Perhaps it might do us all good to listen to what Ray Grace wrote, which I quote above to remind all of us of what he said. His plain and simple prose spoke volumes to me. I hope they did to you too.
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TWO ADDITIONAL WRITE-UPS ON THE HARBINGER FOR AMERICA

I just finished reading The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn.

On one level I'm blow away by Cahn's ability to write such a compelling fictional novel that is grounded on the scripture reference of Isaiah 9:10. He threads the story with events that happened to ancient Israel paralleled with events that has happened to America both in our history and modern day.

On another level I'm left wondering. The reader must remember this is a work of fiction, but when fiction becomes laced with facts the lines become blurry. Is that a bad thing? What do you think?

What I liked . . . this book was a compelling story that I could hardly put down. It's about a writer who is pitching a story to a publisher. That's it. So where's the action? Where's the conflict? It's in flashback and comes to light as the writer tells the publisher. It's very tricky to make a story interesting and not confusing for the reader when flashbacks make up the bulk of a novel. But Cahn's writing is clear and he does a wonderful job of keeping tension and conflict high.

You may ask, so what is the story the writer pitched? It's about an ancient mystery revolving around Isaiah 9:10 and holds the secret of America's future. The protagonist encounters a man he calls "the prophet" who sends the protagonist on a type of scavenger hunt seeking out hidden meanings behind different harbingers. I became caught up in the story and eager to learn the meaning behind each harbinger. I was always surprised.

What I didn't like . . . Cahn uses talking heads a lot. This must have been a deliberate choice on his part so the focus of the reader stayed on the plot and meaning behind the book. I don't mind it every once in a while, but then it becomes annoying because I want to see the characters talking and what they're doing. I think an opportunity to more fully flesh out the characters was lost. Also sometimes the conversations between the writer and publisher, and "the prophet" and the protagonist was frustrating and seemed to go in circles. There were times I just wanted them to say what they meant. But, of course, what's the fun in that? A good writer will sometimes frustrate the reader on purpose.

Overall, I measure a book on how much I think about it after I've finished reading it. Believe me, the story of The Harbinger stays with you for a long time. Did it blur the lines between fact and fiction and is that a bad thing? You be the judge. Do your homework and find what is fact and what is fiction. You may not agree with some of the thought provoking issues that Cahn raises, but that you're thinking about them and learning more is a good thing.

About the author: Jonathan Cahn is well known for deep study of the Scriptures and actually leads the Hope of the World ministries while also leading the Jerusalem Center/Beth Israel, which is made up of people of all backgrounds Jews and Gentiles alike. He is a Messianic Jewish believer.
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KATHY: I just finished reading The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn.

On one level I'm blow away by Cahn's ability to write such a compelling fictional novel that is grounded on the scripture reference of Isaiah 9:10. He threads the story with events that happened to ancient Israel paralleled with events that has happened to America both in our history and modern day.
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ME: The Harbinger is the culmination of a series of topical teachings that Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn gave during a eleven year period at the Beth Israel Worship Center in Lodi, New Jersey and at the Beth Israel Jerusalem Center in Wayne, New Jersey put to the form of a fictional novel; an arduous task which Rabbi Cahn pulls off amazingly to his credit. I believe that the Lord provided the inspiration for the impetus which flowed in the writing of this book.

I must commend Rabbi Cahn for the work, because consider the amount of information and teaching that comprises these various messages through the years, it is nothing less than a miracle that he was able to write the book he did in its current form. I cannot speak as to whether the Lord led him to write the book in its current form, or whether it was a decision he made on his own, but I do understand the reason for its writing. I am of the opinion that Rabbi Cahn wrote his book to reach the maximum amount of people who can be reached to warn primarily the Christians of this nation and as many of its public officials as will listen; of the impending judgment of God upon it if they and we do not change course.
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KATHY: On another level I'm left wondering. The reader must remember this is a work of fiction, but when fiction becomes laced with facts the lines become blurry. Is that a bad thing? What do you think?

What I liked . . . this book was a compelling story that I could hardly put down. It's about a writer who is pitching a story to a publisher. That's it. So where's the action? Where's the conflict? It's in flashback and comes to light as the writer tells the publisher. It's very tricky to make a story interesting and not confusing for the reader when flashbacks make up the bulk of a novel. But Cahn's writing is clear and he does a wonderful job of keeping tension and conflict high.
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ME: I am not a lover of fictional works, though in the past I have read very well written and conceived works of fiction such as Tom Clancy novels, but I prefer to read non-fiction books. Reading The Harbinger was difficult in some places for me precisely for this reason, but since I am well acquainted with the series of topical teachings , sermons, and presentations upon which The Harbinger is based; reading Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Cahn’s book a return to these messages of contemporary events that are interconnected with something much greater than a superficial glance would indicate. You’re absolutely correct in your observation that it is very difficult to keep the story going and not confuse the reader when using flashbacks as the writer – Nouriel Kaplan – retells his story to the at first skeptical publisher. Excellent observation.
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KATHY: You may ask, so what is the story the writer pitched? It's about an ancient mystery revolving around Isaiah 9:10 and holds the secret of America's future. The protagonist encounters a man he calls "the prophet" who sends the protagonist on a type of scavenger hunt seeking out hidden meanings behind different harbingers. I became caught up in the story and eager to learn the meaning behind each harbinger. I was always surprised.
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ME: I highly recommend to you DVD companion to The Harbinger, The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment by World Net Daily. The original messages on The Harbinger are also available through Hope of the World Ministries. These will take you further into the details behind The Harbinger.
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KATHY: What I didn't like . . . Cahn uses talking heads a lot. This must have been a deliberate choice on his part so the focus of the reader stayed on the plot and meaning behind the book. I don't mind it every once in a while, but then it becomes annoying because I want to see the characters talking and what they're doing. I think an opportunity to more fully flesh out the characters was lost. Also sometimes the conversations between the writer and publisher, and "the prophet" and the protagonist was frustrating and seemed to go in circles. There were times I just wanted them to say what they meant. But, of course, what's the fun in that? A good writer will sometimes frustrate the reader on purpose.
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ME: This is perhaps the place where the facts of the topical teachings of The Harbinger didn’t “translate” as well as it could have, but all things considered; transferring as much of the information contained within these topical messages into a single volume – a novel no less – is perhaps even more difficult than writing a work of non-fiction. All things considered, I believe that what amounts to an encyclopedic volume of information being transferred into a single written work of fiction is an incredible undertaking; something I appreciate and understanding because of my own exposure to these messages Rabbi Cahn gave over a decade in approximately seven or more messages.
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KATHY: Overall, I measure a book on how much I think about it after I've finished reading it. Believe me, the story of The Harbinger stays with you for a long time. Did it blur the lines between fact and fiction and is that a bad thing? You be the judge. Do your homework and find what is fact and what is fiction. You may not agree with some of the thought provoking issues that Cahn raises, but that you're thinking about them and learning more is a good thing.
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ME: God is again using an ancient prophecy to warn His current day people of impending judgment if they do not change their ways, and turn to Him, and He is using this book – The Harbinger – precisely for this purpose. I’ve written elsewhere:

As to the duality of the events behind prophecy of Isaiah 9:10 in ancient Israel and now in twenty-first century America; there are examples of prophetic events in Scripture which had their historical fulfillment at one point in history in the Hebrew Bible (The Old Testament) which had a second fulfillment long after the events of its first fulfillment in the period of the New Testament hundreds of years later. One example I can cite is the following from Isaiah 7:14 and the Gospel of Matthew.

Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:18-25

The pages of our Bibles are filled with such examples. I’ll cite the following three examples, though it is not an exhaustive sampling, it’ll suffice for the purposes of our current discussion:

After Solomon’s reign, during the years of the divided kingdoms of Israel (Ephraim, the Northern Kingdom with its capital in Samaria) and Judah (Judah and Benjamin, the Southern Kingdom with its capital in Jerusalem), in the days of Jotham when the Syrian-Samaritan alliance had come about against Judah, and its intention was to replace Judah’s King Ahaz with their own puppet-king who would be more amenable to their wishes (II Kings 15:37, Isaiah 7:5-9)). It was during this time that the word of the Lord came to the prophet Isaiah, and he challenged King Ahaz to ask God for a sign. “To make it as deep as Sheol and as high as heaven.” (Isaiah 7:10-11) But when Ahaz refused to test God by asking Him for a sign that would help strengthen his faith, at God’s explicit command through Isaiah the prophet, he was given a sign that indicated that his enemy would soon be removed (Isaiah 7:16). The Sign? An adolescent Jewish woman who is of marriageable age would bear a son and name him Immanuel – “with us, God” (Isaiah 7:14). Now move several centuries into the future, to sometime around 6 B.C., to the time when Jesus’ mother Miriam (Mary) had been betrothed to Joseph, before they had sexually consummated their marriage; she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit, which Matthew attributes as a direct fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy to Ahaz (Matthew 1:18-25). Two distinct completely unconnected historical events connected by a single prophetic verse of Scripture whose literal sense and meaning indicate two completely different things, except when interspersed with the latter historical event, i.e.; Jesus miraculous conception and birth by the Holy Spirit.
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KATHY: About the author: Jonathan Cahn is well known for deep study of the Scriptures and actually leads the Hope of the World ministries while also leading the Jerusalem Center/Beth Israel, which is made up of people of all backgrounds Jews and Gentiles alike. He is a Messianic Jewish believer.
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ME: I hope you will visit the Beth Israel Jerusalem Center and meet Rabbi Cahn and witness for yourself a fulfillment of prophecy in the making; Jews and Gentiles worshipping the God of Israel in the Lord Jesus Christ. You will go away with great joy and thanksgiving. God bless you, and allow you to visit us soon. I take my leave of you with the following excellent article on The Harbinger that illuminates further its message to our troubled nation. I quote it in its entirety for you:

Another Reviewer (TC) wrote on Nov 16, 2011, more than a year ago the following post titled, The Watchman, 911 And The Harbingers...

"On October 11, 2001, Pastor Wilkerson gave a message to his congregation to address the World Trade Center attacks the preceding month. Although the once mighty republic had for decades been in spiritual descent, the weeks of the late summer in 2001 carried disturbing urgency and Pastor Wilkerson chose a verse from Isaiah 9 to examine the attack.

The ninth chapter of Isaiah is familiar to all: "For unto us a child is born, a Son is given," but this was not what Pastor Wilkerson was called to address. Instead, he used the subsequent verses, frequently applied to the pattern used in the judgment of two houses of Israel. Providentially and prophetically, Pastor Wilkerson read Isaiah 9: 8--11:

And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart, The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: The sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.

The significance was clear: Israel had turned her back. Ezekiel cites the conditions that preceded the departure of the Glory and the judgment of the nation. He saw at the gate of the altar, looking to the north, the image of jealousy, perhaps Baal, but a strong enough affront to a jealous God who was Himself married to Israel. Ezekiel was promised a vision of greater desolations: at the door he saw "every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel portrayed on the wall," the sins of the "ancients" of Israel, their self love, their dark deeds.

As the sins of the nation are expanded and exposed, the women of the land are included: at the door of the gate of the north entrance, Ezekiel saw the women "weeping for Tammuz," engaged in craft and cult, sorceries, castings and lewdness, participants in rites of the idol later called by the Greeks, Adonis.

As his vision continued, Ezekiel saw men in contempt, their backs to the altar, facing the sun. Here, in view of the brazen altar of burnt offerings, they worshipped the sun, the god of the eastern idolaters: the worship of creature over Creator.

The final abomination witnessed by Ezekiel was the violence in the land, the defiance of God and the celebration of Bacchus, to whom they bent their bodies in the ritual ceremony of bundled branches. For these offenses, after the warnings of the prophets, there would be no pity, no hearing of cries. Judgment was due, and judgment was delivered. The nations are called, the nations choose: Ninevah saw brief repentance, but later departed once more.

For Israel, the watchmen sounded: the warning unheeded, the northern house fell to the Syrians, the chosen rod of judgment, the powers came, an initial attack. Rather than heeding the warning, there was defiance and arrogance of heart.

Again in character and mercy, a warning is given, a lull which would precede greater judgment if grace is rebuffed in defiance and arrogance of heart.

Four times in Isaiah 9: 8-10, Israel was accused and four times the judgments followed. There is consistent agreement among commentaries describing the patterns of the unleashing of destruction. Matthew Henry speaks of the consequences of impenitence, "The Lord warns before he wounds: He tries to call his people back but if they do not, there will come greater judgment." The Interpreter's Bible defines the consequences: "What further horror of judgment is yet to fall on unrepentant man?"

The nation's leaders spoke in defiance and arrogance of heart: "We will build, we will replace," with the inference of larger and stronger. Devastation fell on the southern kingdom. The Diaspora of the nation had begun."

WHAT WOULD IT BE LIKE WITHOUT MESSIAH?

This morning as we listened on the radio to Dr. Charles Stanley, beloved teacher of G-d’s Word, he said something that brought home for us in his message about the free gift of God’s salvation in Messiah. He said that when we sin, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1John 1:9), if we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and the truth is not in us. (1John 1:10)

When we confess our sins to Him, we are not forgiven because we confessed our sins (that is simply an admission of our guilt), we are forgiven because Messiah died for our sins and paid the penalty for them. This is why we are forgiven. Because of this, we are forgiven by G-d and cleansed by His blood from all unrighteousness. It is the sacrifice of G-d’s only Begotten Son, Who paid the penalty for our sins, having taken upon Himself the full force of G-d’s wrath that paid the price required by G-d for our redemption. This is why we are forgiven, and redeemed for G-d by the offering provided by Jesus the Messiah on our behalf.

Our confession to G-d of our guilt and repentance for having broken the commandment, asking for G-d’s pardon is our confession that we understand that we in and of ourselves are unworthy of G-d’s mercy, and cannot save ourselves, or do anything on our part to obtain our forgiveness (from G-d), but that we entrust ourselves, putting our complete trust in the complete sufficiency of G-d’s provision on our behalf to provide for us that which is needed to spare us of G-d’s wrath, and that such a provision has been made for us by the Lord Jesus the Messiah, for by faith you have been saved, and that not of yourselves, it is the free gift of God, lest any man should boast. (Romans 3:21-31, Ephesians 2:8-9) This is what is meant to live by faith; by faith in whom or what? By total faith in Him who died for us, rather who was raised and is seated at the right hand of G-d the Father; that He is who He says He is – the way, the truth, and the life, no can come to the Father but by Him. (John 14:6)

But the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart in taking this truth a step further – that is in giving me deeper appreciation of this life transforming truth – and this is what He disclosed and made so real to me, and brought it home.

Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. (Hebrews 9:22) If Jesus had not surrendered His life to pay the price for our redemption, and had not resurrected from the dead – defeating the price and power of sin over the grave; when coming to G-d to confess our sins before Him, the guilt would remain because there would be nothing to expiate the wrath of G-d for that sin upon us, and we would be lost, and still in our sins – the commandment bearing witness against us in the court of G-d’s assembly, making it abundantly evident that we are violators of G-d’s Law. Without Messiah there is no forgiveness for sins. What am I saying here? I am saying that without Jesus, every time we’d come before G-d to confess our sins, admit our guilt before Him, and ask for His forgiveness, there would be nothing to appease the wrath of G-d we merited for those sins, and we would remain with our guilt, separated by the holiness of G-d, and dead in our sins. The Law through the commandment would continue to bear witness against us that we have violated the Law by breaking the commandment through the sin committed, and there would be nothing to remove this guilt from us. We would be without an Advocate with the Father.

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. (Galatians 4:4-7) We were slaves to sin and were guilty before G-d, but now in Messiah we have been made righteous with the righteousness of G-d, granted to us who are undeserving, and yet made deserving through the blood of the New Covenant G-d has made with His people. Just as the Scripture describes this magnificent work of G-d in Messiah, through whom He has reconciled the world to Himself, just as He created it through Him and for Him.

But God commended His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Messiah died for us, (Romans 5:8), and having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross, (Colossians 2:14) We are forgiven because of Jesus, not because of ourselves. No man can save himself by himself, but he can obtain salvation by G-d through that which G-d has provided on his behalf – Jesus, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” (John 1:29)

There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Messiah Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of life in Messiah has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did; sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4) He made Him who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2Corinthians 5:21) Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Messiah, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Messiah reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. (2Corinthians 5:18-19) We are forgiven by G-d and reconciled to Him because of what He did through Jesus the Messiah, not because of anything we did. He has done it all. All we have done is admit our guilt and surrender to His mercy in Messiah. And we do this every day, as we continue to live under His grace, trusting implicitly the G-d and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who has become salvation for us. (Exodus 15:2, Psalm 68:19, 118:14, Isaiah 12:2)

So having been forgiven by G-d through Messiah, cleansed by His blood; the price of our redemption paid in full by the Lord Jesus, we are resurrected in our spirits to a new life – a new reality - awakened from our death sleep of sin and corruption; for though we were alive, we were dead in our sins without G-d in the world – but now we have been made alive again through a new birth to this new life by the power of that life which death could not keep in its clutches – the life of G-d – we are now joint heirs with Jesus of the glory of G-d’s wonderful realm, being made partakers of that secret unseen kingdom (all around us), even as we live in this life, as living letters as testimonies of the faithfulness and truth of G-d’s limitless love – His eternal grace. No one is beyond the reach of G-d’s love, and because of the reality that our salvation, our redemption, and the penalty for our guilt has been paid in full by the Lord Jesus, we know what it means when the Scripture declares with great boldness:

Salvation is FROM the Lord, (Jonah 2:9) It is not from us, nor do we possess the power of it or for it; it is exclusively G-d’s. This is why the Scripture also says, Salvation BELONGS to the Lord. (Psalm 3:8) Salvation begins and ends with G-d. It is not in the power of man to redeem himself, but it is in G-d’s power through the redemption He has provided, the forgiveness He offers, and the salvation He freely gives to all who come to Him through His lamb of sacrifice; His Son. If not for the lamb, and His shed blood, our sins would remain, and our guilt would follow us to the grave, and we would be separated forever from the Presence of G-d; but G-d has provided the Lamb for the sacrifice, and because of this, we are saved, having been reconciled to the Eternal Father by the Eternal Son, Who has given us the Eternal Spirit as His Pledge of this redemption (2Corinthians 5:5) – G-d in us, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27). So it says in the Scripture, therefore if any man is in Messiah, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold new things have come. (2Corinthians 5:17) And Peter bears witness of this in describing it so beautifully and fully in the following Scripture:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Messiah, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God though faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1Peter 1:3-5)

To sum it all up, we can’t save ourselves, but we know who can save us, and has, and the evidence of this salvation is this new life which we share; a common faith in One G-d, being of One Spirit, One Lord, One Savior, through whom we also have this magnificent salvation which we share. This is G-d’s unmerited favor; this is His grace. Praise be to G-d!

This is what Christmas is really all about. It is about the Gift of G-d in His Son whom He brought into the world through a nation – Israel, of a tribe – Judah, of a Royal Dynasty – David’s, of the Highest Priesthood – Melchizedek’s, born of a virgin – Miriam of Judah, conceived by the zeal and power of G-d – the Holy Spirit, born in a town – Bethlehem of Judea, precisely at an hour of G-d’s choosing according the prophetic word He gave to Daniel – during the politically-charged and religiously troubled Second Temple Era when Israel was under Roman Occupation, immediately following the reemergence and appearance of Elijah the prophet – John the Baptist who came in the spirit and power of Elijah preparing the way before Him. Yes, all of these things specifically having come to pass two thousand years ago from which time itself and every event known to man has been marked – B.C. (B.C.E.) and A. D. (C.E.); yes, Yeshua/Jesus the Glory and Hope of all Israel, amen.

A Harbinger of The State of Our Nation

What follows are some excellent and well written articles that agrees with the basic premise of Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn’s The Harbinger; America is being warned, and it is not listening, and it is due for a RUDE AWAKENING - Judgment is eminent, because America is not listening. It's made its choices and they're not good, not one of them.

Almost every elected official in the United States is corrupt and part of the machinery that put them there. Almost every public official in office is part of the machineries that feed into the corruption and maintains it for the party in power – be it Democrat or Republican.

Almost every federal employee is part of the system that feeds the corruption that maintains the apparatus that has brought America to its economic knees.

Almost every financial institution with ties to the Federal Reserve System is part of the construct that has monetized our currency, and debased it to the point that it has brought this country to the status of a third world economy.

Almost every media person is part of the corruption that maintains the lie of the government/media complex upon which it was built and has maintained itself for the past sixty-plus years.

Almost every entertainment media mogul is part of the system of secular humanists and Marxists who have worked hard for decades to convert the minds and beliefs of an unsuspecting public to favor an amoral, morally decrepit and deviant life style as an alternative to the Judeo-Christian one that for generations predominated our society.

Almost every public speaker, every educator, and every pundit today is part of the secular humanist progressives who have infiltrated the minds and beliefs of our people and have hollowed them out from within; filling in their places the trash of a deviant Post Modern culture.

Almost every religious institution has been corrupted throughout the land, and have fallen into three camps – those who seek signs and wonders instead of their G-d, those who seek the favor of man and compromise, and those who seek intellectual and theological predominance over others in the name of Christ – all of these have in one way or another missed the calling, missed the mark, and are adrift as regards their faith.

Today, sexual deviants of all sorts preach from many pulpits and hold marriage ceremonies in defiance of the clear teaching of Scripture. All of these have, like millions of ants eating an elephant slowly, eaten the moral underpinnings that formed the fabric of American society. Sexual deviancy of all types has plagued this administration with the sexual scandals at Janet Napolitano’s Homeland Security and within the ranks of the Secret Service in the Call Girl scandal that blew wide open earlier just months ago. Eric Holder’s Justice Department has been plagued with all sorts of allegations of racial irregularities. The ongoing investigation into voter intimidation and suppression of white voters in Philadelphia by the New Blank Panther Party has been suspended. And the Fast and Furious illegal government-sponsored and government-directed operation has uncovered corruption at the highest levels of this White House and in the Justice Department. Now with the 9/11 murder of four Americans, including our ambassador in Benghazi, Libya; it has been discovered that the senior officials at the highest levels of the State Department had immediate knowledge of what was happening at that consulate, and did nothing as our people were being brutalized and murdered by Jihadists. This president even went campaigning to Las Vegas without addressing the matter on the night of Tuesday, September 11th, 2012. Incompetence and corruption are at unprecedented levels in our government and across our land. Is it any wonder that our fiscal state of being and our debt is at unmanageable, and perhaps unrecoverable levels? America has reached a tipping point, and it is most assuredly headed off a cliff to its own demise and destruction. America has chosen for itself its grave.

The recent tragic shooting in Connecticut and all of the others, are harbingers of where this country is headed, where the heart of its people lie. It is a nation the glorifies death and killing. Its movies and entertainment such as games, glorify death and killing, revenge and hatred. Is it any wonder that we see our youth so desensitized by the madness of what's piped into their television sets and their computers in place of sound moral and Biblical ethics and teachings; and wonder why so many of them have lost their soul!? This is the Post-Modern/Post-Christian America of the godless and the unbelieving, and among Christians and Jews; the disbelieving and the materialistic self-centered. This is Twenty-first Century America.

And now we see the political opportunists with agendas calling for sweeping gun control laws, knowing that the states that have the most stringent gun laws are the ones that have seen crime rise as a result of these laws, because anyone will realize that if you disarm law abiding citizens of their fire arms only the criminal elements and law enforcement will have access to them. In a town or city where everyone has been disarmed, only the criminals and the police carry fire arms and use them. No law no matter how stringent, no matter how it is imposed or enforced upon a citizenry will prevent the criminal element from obtaining fire arms or any other means they employ to terrorize and brutalize others.

The same corrupt leadership that has sworn to uphold our Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic are the same people who in violation of that oath, we see and hear now calling for gun control and the banning of all so-called assault rifles. They prey on the ignorance of the public who does not know that every weapon that is semi-automatic is an assault weapon, regardless of whether it is a rifle or a pistol.

They know that no military in the world uses assault weapons, because they use automatic weapons such as machine guns that fire multiple rounds when the trigger is pressed. The assault weapon fires single rounds when the trigger is pressed. Yet, the corrupt leadership in our nation is now calling of a ban on “all assault weapons.” I repeat; no military in the world uses assault weapons, because they are semi-automatic. However they do use automatic weapons. Assault weapons are for the citizenry, not the military, and in order for any private citizen to obtain an automatic weapon, they must purchase it from our government after having gone through over a year of ATF investigation and background checks to verify that they have reason to own one, and our emotionally and psychologically competent and stable. There are private citizens who own them, but they are very few in number.

The voices that are calling for a federal ban on all “assault weapons” are playing off of the public’s ignorance and emotions on this matter. They are capitalizing as much as possible off of the tragedies of cities and towns that already have in place the most draconian anti-gun laws in the land; whereas states such as Texas where there people are allowed to carry concealed weapons, have the lowest crime rates in the nation.

People know that if a crazed gun man breaks into a crowded theater to shoot the people in it, he will think twice before he pulls the trigger if he knows that those people – every one of them – are armed and proficient in the use of their fire arm, and will shoot back. People realize that no demonically crazed and medicated gunman will break into a public place where the people are armed and can fire back. Every place where there has occurred a mass killing of people by demonically crazed and medicated gun men the hapless targets of those gunmen have without exception been unable to defend themselves or return fire. Why? Because of the gun laws in those place.

The politicians calling for more and tougher gun laws know that. They also know that these laws will do nothing to stop the criminal and psychotic from obtaining their fire arms or whatever other weapons they choose, because they are outside of the law, and will obtain them by other means outside of the conventional ways law abiding citizens do. They know all of this, but they’re unwilling to admit it publicly and will not discuss it with anyone. The only discussion they will have is how to pass gun laws that will curtail the law abiding public’s access to purchase all fire arms – yes, all fire arms – because assault weapons is the wide umbrella they are using to convince the public to give up their fire arms to the federal government in direct violation of the United States Constitution.

They know that emotions are running high in the wake of the Connecticut massacre, and they are capitalizing on it. Their aim is to neutralize the Constitution piece by piece by turning public opinion against the liberties protected under it without knowingly giving them up. They realize that no one in their right mind would willingly surrender their liberties, so they create a straw man argument against gun ownership by capitalizing on the public’s raw emotions soon after tragedies such as the mass shootings that have occurred across our nation in recent years. Instead of addressing the real root cause of the problem of violence in our land – not gun violence – but violence in general; these people are capitalizing on promoting their agenda of Constitution-Neutralization and with the surrender of key liberties of our national sovereignty to unelected foreign courts and organizations like the UN – and are actively doing this at this moment at every level, with this current administration and its president as its chief spokesperson.

But the real cause of violence and mayhem in our land is the rank lawlessness and godlessness that has overrun our streets, our public places, and our schools. What do we expect when we’ve expelled G-d and His Law from our society and replaced Him with situation ethics and the religion of secular humanism and the Eugenics of Margaret Sanger, a woman who sought the elimination of our Black citizens through government funded abortion on demand!?

We feed into the mind and into the heart of the young teen murder, mayhem, distrust, insecurity; having erased completely from his conscience any semblance to knowing the difference between doing right and doing wrong, that there are repercussions for one’s acts and behavior towards others – if such strictures were ever put in place to begin with. We removed prayer from our public schools – thanks NEA (National Education Association), thanks NFT (National Federation of Teachers) – we removed the concept of knowing right from wrong from our public discourses, we removed the Ten Commandments from our public places, we threw G-d from almost every facet of our society, even from our Pledge of Allegiance! WHAT DO YOU THINK WE’RE GOING TO GET!?

What are we to think about all of this? What can we make of it? Our nation is turned on its head. What it once called evil, it now calls good. What it once called good, it now calls evil. There is no concept of good versus evil, because according to these people, there is no evil. It doesn’t exist, because to admit the existence of pure evil is to admit that the Bible is correct about the human condition. It is not basically good, but inclined to do evil. King David of old, once wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.” (Psalm 51:5) King Solomon, reputed to be the wisest man who ever lived, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit comments, “Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.” (Ecclesiastes 7:20) Isaiah the prophet was quite correct when in the Spirit he observed, “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” (Isaiah 64:6) G-d Himself bears witness that all of mankind is corrupt from the heart, for He declares that “all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised of heart.” (Jeremiah 9:26b) But it is not hopeless, because the prophet Micah, promises under divine inspiration that, “He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, You will cast all their sins Into the depths of the sea.” (Micah 7:19) This hope is extended to all of mankind, those who will return and turn to G-d in hopeless remorse, knowing that they cannot save themselves; for it promises escape through the Gate of Messiah, promising - But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Yeshua the Messiah might be given to those who believe. (Galatians 3:22) However, the question remains is to whether or not we are turning. All indications are that America is not.

Because we cannot define right from wrong, we cannot even define who our enemy is. Mention is made of a group named Al Qaeda; we hear of another called Hamas, and Hezbollah, but little is known about these groups, and no one can definitively say why these organizations are a threat to the United States of America. When Jihadists murder in the name of their prophet and their god, our national leaders cannot bring themselves to address the religious ideology that spawned such fanatical hatred. Neither can they bring themselves to prosecute these people under our laws. As of this writing Major Nidal Hassan remains incarcerated without a trial, and other Jihadists connected with the death of almost three thousands of our fellow citizens who perished on 9/11, such as Khalid Sheik Mohamed; have yet to stand trial. All of these have not been prosecuted and have yet to be sentenced to capital punishment for their heinous crimes, because the current White House cannot bring its Department of Justice to action on any of these cases. Why? Because they cannot define who the enemy is, or where they stand in regards to Islamic Terror – which they have claimed does not exist. If you cannot define who your enemy is, you cannot defeat him, and if you cannot defeat him, he will in time defeat and conquer you.

We have sown to the wind and have reaped the whirlwind. (Hosea 8:7) Fifty years of secular progressive philosophy and Laissez Faire Amorality and outright immorality, have made US into the most self-centered, egotistical, materialistic, and corrupt people on the face of the earth. We have no peers. We are our own worst enemies.

We export pornography around the world. Since the horrendous politicization of the Supreme Court in its abortion decision thirty-two years ago, America has put to death fifty million innocent human beings by abortion. Under the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare; federal funding of abortion will be enforced upon organizations that because of their religious and moral convictions, cannot comply with a law requiring them to provide abortion services or contraceptives to troubled pregnant women. At the very core of this is the right of conscience, the right to privacy of both the woman and the institution, and the right to one’s own religious conviction, as well as the right of private enterprises to be free and independent from federal meddling in the conduct of its business. We now under this administration openly promote abortion on demand and tie our foreign aid policies to favor countries that promote abortion on demand as our federal government does. This was first introduced by the Clinton Administration, but had been ended by the George W. Bush Administration. Under the Obama Administration, it is now enforced and promoted globally, and our foreign aid is directly tied to favor nations that acquiesce to our “requirements” with regards to their policies.

The current president of these United States was the first national leader in the history of mankind to redefine an institution that God established – marriage. He has replaced the entire upper echelon of the armed forces with progressives who have turned our military – the greatest in the world with the finest traditions – into platforms for social engineering. The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that protected the rights of our military men and women from reprisals for their sexual preferences and kept the military traditions that made our fighting units the best in the world, has now been removed, and in its place, this administration is promoting openly the LGBT lifestyle. This administration has appointed sexual deviants to the highest posts in our government, and is slated to do more.

One generation of secular humanist teaching sans the Bible and its Ten Commandments, prayer in our public schools and public life, as well as the erosion of the ethical and moral compass these Judeo-Christian values provided to our young, has resulted in the most confused and debauched generation in our nation’s history. Today, more than half of our children are being taught in our public schools the LGBT deviancy as normal alternatives to the heterosexual lifestyle, and a large number of our teens are seen on the Internet as well as in their own private lives, acting out the deviancy taught in our schools.

It is any wonder that a philanderer could get away with his indiscretions with an intern while serving in this nation’s highest office? Is it any wonder that the road to his political ascendancy was littered with over thirty dead bodies of people who knew too much about him? Is it any wonder that so many of our preteens have been discovered in many of our schools to engage in oral sex, because they believed what their president had said in testimony about the Monica Lewinsky scandal? Is it any wonder that John Corzine could come before a congressional committee, and having committed the greatest theft of peoples’ personal investments in this country’s history, remains at large to do as he pleases without any accountability for the high crime he has committed!? Is it any wonder that regardless of political party the same policies continue unabated from administration to administration? Is it any wonder then that with each successive four years; our liberties and way of life continue to erode, while those of our public servants improve?

G-d help forgive US our trespasses and heal our nation and restore it once more.

The Pepster


Election 2012 — Was God Concerned?
By Don McGee
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The 2012 presidential election is over, and President Obama has been reelected to the office for four more years. Some are elated and some are saddened by the outcome. Among those who are saddened by Obama’s reelection is what might be called a sub-group; a group of people that is not only saddened, but terribly confused regarding what happened. That sub-group consists of Christians who, knowing the president’s stand on spiritual issues, cannot understand why God allowed this to happen. “Was God not concerned?”, they ask. The answer is He was, and was also aware of what the two candidates stood for and aware of the consequences for America should either be elected. What God did was to simply allow America to chart her own destiny. Of course she will also be allowed to suffer whatever consequences that will certainly arise as a result.

Most people look at elections from a partisan perspective, but most Christians look at them from a biblical perspective. That is, choices are not made according to party affiliation because that is far too broad. Christians understand that a candidate’s worldview is what determines the presence or absence of God’s blessings upon an administration. Thus, they look for the candidate who is not only capable, but whose life reflects biblical standards knowing those high standards will govern his political conscience and his administrative agenda.

Many Christians are confused for a couple reasons. They cannot understand why God chose to not intervene at such a critical time. Nor can they understand how fellow believers could choose to support a political platform that supports abortion on demand, the acceptance of the homosexual agenda, and other practices abhorrent to God.

Regarding Governor Romney, we can only speculate as to the consequences for America had he been elected, yet such speculation is based upon evidence presented from his past as a governor and business man. However, with President Obama winning the race there need be no speculation regarding the future, for in like manner his own past as president offers ample evidence as to what America can expect.

Religiously speaking, Obama’s record indicates he is probably close to being nothing. Though he claims to be a Christian, his life offers no real evidence. And, when one considers what he has said, written and done it seems he actually leans toward Islam. Other evidence regarding his spiritual convictions comes from his being a 20-year parishioner of Jeremiah Wright, a black-liberation-theology preacher whose own track record causes many to see him as being strongly racist.

Romney is a Mormon, and as such he is a member of a cult. For any number of reasons Mormons are not Christians, including the fact they believe Jesus is the child of Adam and Mary and that salvation is a process that ends by achieving godhood.

That said, it is important to note that in context of the election, Mormon moral standards and ethics are very similar to those of the Christian worldview. That similarity is just one of the indicators showing Americans had a very clear choice. There could be no mistaking what was morally and ethically important to either man.

So, did God simply ignore the prayers, fasting and intercessions of His people who understood those distinctions? No, of course not. Then, why did He not intervene?

Well, to be quite blunt it could be that national America, like the northern kingdom of Israel in the days of Amos, is beyond repentance. Israel had been a nation for many centuries when Amos issued warnings about her choices; warnings that were ignored. Less than 40 years later God sent severe judgment when the cruel Assyrians took them captive.

Consider America’s choices. When our nation was less than 200 years old God, prayer and the Bible were officially dismissed from its public sector. For almost 40 years America has officially sanctioned the murder of the pre-born by the most draconian means. Since that infamous day in 1973 over 50 million babies have been murdered in their mother’s wombs. In 1973 the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of disorders, and in 1975 the American Psychological Association essentially did the same thus clearing the way for perversion to be labeled as a normal lifestyle. It means nothing to either professional group, nor to national America, that God long ago declared homosexuality to be a loathsome sin. The list could go on. National America’s heart is so calloused and hard that God’s word on these matters is ignored while His people who refuse to capitulate to social correctness are tyrannized.

Consider another choice. In a 2009 closed meeting with several Jewish leaders, when President Obama declared he will put more daylight between America and Israel in order to gain more credibility with the Arab states, two things became clear. One, Israel could no longer expect the U.S. to remain a serious partner in defense against jihadism. Two, it became all too clear that the U.S. is willing to put at risk its only ally in the Middle East while in pursuit of this political phantom. The Obama administration believes such a move will endear the U.S. to Moslems and reduce the risk of Islamic attacks. Evidence clearly shows that kind of thinking is foolish. Appeasement never lessens conflict.

With these things in mind we could conclude that it is not unreasonable to think God’s patience has been depleted.

God’s seemingly silent response to the concerns of His people on election day should give us reason to pause, get rid of all emotion that clouds objectivity and force ourselves to see America for what it has really become. When the cover is pulled back nationally, things are ugly. This is not the America of earlier days; those days when God was America’s God and the Bible was America’s primer. Though with a degree of difficulty, it is necessary to say that it would behoove Christians to wake up from their dream-world version of the America of the past and to admit to what the nation has become. Yes, there are many godly, patriotic people in the land, but their leadership does not reflect their values.

After reading the graphic description of God’s judgment upon Judah — His own special people, by the way — for her sin and hardened heart in Ezekiel chapter 5, it would be hypocritical and inconsistent for God to ignore our nation’s resolute and godless choices. We should learn from Judah and Israel. As God cannot lie, neither can His unlimited love and grace annul the eternal and immutable law of sowing and reaping.

And, there is also the matter of future events. Most of our readers have a good understanding of what God has mapped out for us, but the overwhelming majority of Christians do not have a clue. All the reasons for this cannot be addressed here, but a few are: no personal Bible study, ignoring or rejecting prophetic texts in Bible classes and in sermons, fear of coming events, etc. So, we might ask, if God were to do something to cause His people to relax their grip on this world, and to force them to look to Him instead of secular government for hope, what might He use? An election, maybe?

He might open the curtains and give His people a good look at what they have been basing their security upon for so long. The flag, those beautiful and emotional national hymns, the parading of our military might, and other such patriotic displays are good and noble. But, in today’s America they have been reduced to mere window dressing and a kind of sentimental camouflage that is effectively concealing the nefarious work of those who are gutting our country of liberty and destroying our system of free enterprise. If Christians have ever placed any degree of trust in government and politicians, recent events should be more than sufficient to expose the recklessness of such confidence. God is doing all He can to bring our attention to the absolute fact that the Oval Office, the Congress and the Supreme Court are not on His side. Read: they are thus not on our side! What God says does not even make their list of top 100 concerns.

It is one thing for Christians to submit to civil law, to respect public office and to serve our country. It is quite another for them to give misplaced honor to officialdom at the expense of faith in God. This means we must allow nothing to interfere with our belief in God, or in our believing God. And undue trust in any party or government does just that.

It could be that events of the last several decades are rapidly ushering our nation to the point where God’s judgment falls. It could come suddenly from out of left field in the form of any one of numerous potentially catastrophic events. The “what” is not known and is not even important; what is important is that it is coming. When the national agenda of late is projected into the future, somewhere very near on that projected time line judgment is waiting. And we can believe it will not be a comfortable thing. It is a fact that the church will not go through any part of the tribulation period, but it is also true that should the return of Jesus be prolonged, the church could very well see some hard times.

Judgment is a hard, flint-like word. It is like the voltaic electrical shock felt when a person with dental work bites a piece of aluminum foil. Judgment is meant to be like that. However, God gave America an option, and it had to do with conducting national and international affairs from the biblical perspective. It was all a matter of choice. Clearly and most unfortunately, America has chosen to turn from her former relationship with God. Ultimately, when it is all over, this decision will clearly be seen as the one that took our country to a place its people did not really want to go, and which cost its people more than they really wanted to pay . But, unlike the prodigal whose heart was susceptible to conviction that lead to repentance, our nation has no such heart.

Why is that so? There have been several events in America’s history that were remarkable in the sense of being agents of change. One was the rise of humanism. With the introduction of that deceptive philosophy into America’s system of public education came one of the first major attacks on the nation’s spiritual health. Another was the acceptance of a very similar twisted worldview, the theory of evolution. Like termites whose destructive work is silent and initially unseen, those two attacks had a collaborative effect upon the moral and ethical foundation of the nation — it became rotten and hollow to its core. Today the rot can no longer be concealed, but it is too late; the national heart is now too hard.

Humanism is essentially a religion in itself whose cardinal premise is that humanity is inherently capable of taking care of itself. God is therefore not needed, and is dismissed. Rules no longer mean much. Regarding governmental ethics, not only is the faith of the Founding Fathers no longer cherished, but the Constitution itself becomes a document that is open to challenge. Evidence? Its being regularly violated through executive orders, so-called security measures and other unchallenged unilateral decisions by those entrusted with authority. This has resulted in bureaucratic pronouncements that unconstitutionally restrict the open practice of religion, remove protections from unreasonable searches, etc.

To believe that the human race came from an unexplained event that triggered the creation of life, and to force-feed that into young minds is to destroy any notion of God. If there is no God then there is no heaven and no hell, no ultimate accountability and thus no reason to not satisfy any desire and give way to any lust. The notions of “right and wrong” become blurred concepts that are relative to time and culture. Thus, no moral or ethical law is absolute.

We do not know what judgment is before this nation. What must not be missed, though, is that it will come, and perhaps soon. President Obama encouraged his supporters to “vote out of revenge”. Such talk reveals what is actually in the heart of any elected official; the obvious absence of dignity and respect. Further, it springs from biblical ignorance, for such people do not have an inkling about real revenge (Deuteronomy 32:35). One day soon, however, they will.

The Christian’s charge is to remain faithful to God and to live in peace with human authority as long as such authority does not demand a compromise of our faith and does not interfere with our duty to protect and provide for our families (1 Timothy 5:8). Be at peace, for God was certainly concerned about what happened, but He was not taken by surprise.
________________________________________
The Campaign for Immorality
November 1, 2012

Evangelical Christians have become distracted from the Great Commission in order to engage in partisan politics. And for what purpose? Our corrupt culture will not be transformed for the better by political movements or pop culture anyway—that is the work of God’s Word; the Gospel, in particular. That’s what our ministry is devoted to (Cf. 1 Corinthians 2:1-5).

In this current campaign season, however, politicians have stepped—overstepped—into spiritual and moral areas, promoting horrific wickedness and blasphemous immorality.

As you know, I am not one to talk about politics as such, but I was amazed that one of the historic political parties here in the United States adopted the sins of Romans 1 as their platform. This is a new day in our country. Parties that used to differ on economics now differ dramatically on issues that invade the realm of God’s law and morality.

In an ideal situation, their platform would mean that the government passes out condoms so people can fornicate at will. For those who happen to get pregnant in the process, the platform advocates that you kill the baby at the will of the mother, up to and including the ninth month. At the same time, it advocates homosexual marriage—which is an oxymoron, an utter impossibility and a gross violation of the law of God.

Add to that a platform that originally left God out. All that is Romans 1. Romans 1 says God will judge—and God has judged throughout human history— nations that experience sexual freedom. Romans chapter 1 lays that out clearly: The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against those who advocate sexual freedom—sexual conduct outside of marriage. And that’s an indication of the demise of a nation. Romans 1 also says God will judge those nations that advocate homosexual behavior, men with men and women with women, doing what is unnatural.

They are also haters of God. Leaving God out, advocating abortion, advocating homosexuality, advocating free sexual conduct and government-provided condoms so that everybody can do what they want. That is literally creating a platform out of what God hates.

This is not about politics, although there are things we could talk about. You are not voting for a pastor. You are not voting for a spiritual leader. You are voting for someone who has some sense of morality. Since the Bible says the role of government is to punish evildoers and protect the good, you’d better have somebody in power who understands what is good and what is evil.

And if you think homosexuality, abortion, sexual freedom and hating God are not evil, then you’d better go back and check your Bible again. How can people with that kind of agenda protect those who do good and punish those who do evil? (That’s the Romans 13 definition of the role of government.)

We could talk about foreign policy—should we protect as many defenseless people from evil aggressors as possible? We could talk about economics—is it right to get into irreparable debt? Is that being responsible? We could talk about that. We could talk about the economics of if you don’t work, you don’t eat, which is what the Bible says.

But those things are not what concern me here. I’ve seen something happen in these political conventions that is just stunning. The adoption of a Romans 1 platform: sexual freedom, homosexuality on an equal level with marriage, the murder of infants and the elimination of God. And, by the way, I didn’t like it any better when they put God back in, because that’s blasphemy. To connect God with that agenda is a horror. It is taking His name in vain. In fact, I don’t think God should be in either agenda. But when you have an advocacy of support for the slaughter of infants and homosexuality and complete sexual freedom, you have a formula for divine judgment. If we have any sense of justice, if we have any sense of righteousness, if we want to make a little bit of a voice heard about what is right and about the role of government being to punish evildoers and protect the people who do right, then we had better step up. I’m not sure what God has in the future, but I do know that we can take His side and give Him honor.

Romans 1 is not politics. The Bible is not politics. This has nothing to do with politics. This has to do with speaking the Word of God to the culture in which we live. It’s not about personalities. It’s about iniquity and judgment.

And why do we say this? Because this must be recognized for what it is: sin—serious sin, damning sin, destructive sin. You say, “Well our society cultivates tolerance, and you’re giving hate speech.” What I’m saying is not hate speech. What the Democratic Party is saying is hate speech, because they must hate homosexuals if they will allow them to go the direction they are going, if they affirm that direction, knowing that it will take them to hell. That’s hate speech. This is love speech. You either warn them or affirm them.

Romans 1 warns them. And any faithful Christian warns: this is dangerous, this is deadly. Better to warn them than to affirm them. You might be the nice guy to affirm them, but that’s not love speech, that’s hate speech.

Used by permission of John MacArthur, pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, Calif. Macarthur is also president of The Master’s College and Seminary and is heard daily on “Grace to You,” a nationally syndicated radio broadcast.

A NEW LETTER TO THE CRITICS OF THE HARBINGER

Dear David,

Hello again. In my last post – which you did indeed post on your website, but after I had posted it on mine and shared it on Google Plus – I had made an entry in my post that I did not complete because I was interrupted while writing it. I repost it here for the benefit of your readers and mine, and continue another part of our discussion. Some of what is posted here will make it to the book, some may not, but it is my intent in Christ Jesus our Lord according to the grace given me into this matter and God’s election and calling upon me – to present as much as possible an accurate, Scriptural, and fair report of what you have written about Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn’s book, The Harbinger in your own review of it in your own book, The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction?

I do this for two reasons; as a service to the Lord Jesus Christ, whose cause has suffered from the division over what one person thinks the book says versus what another thinks; and the distraction this unnecessary controversy has created among Evangelical Christians which has led many of us to refocus our attention away from sharing the Gospel of Christ to argue and wrangle over words and their meanings, something we are warned to stay away from, but the publishing of your book has created the stir and as I’ve mentioned before, as its author you have placed yourself at its epicenter. Maybe that’s where you wish to be, I don’t’ know; but Christ knows.

If what I am about to write will put an effective end to this controversy by correcting the various misunderstandings, misapplications of what Rabbi Cahn meant or was alleged by others to mean, and any or all other questions related to this topic that has since arisen; then I will consider it a success. These are my reasons for writing about this topic at this time, and my intent to publish what I have uncovered with the Lord’s direction and in accordance to His will. But here is what I wrote in my previous post, only this time with the complete train of thought.
Your entire theology dictates that it is not only improbable that God heard the prayers of the Puritans or any of the others who settled this land (America) for the propagation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or that He heard the prayers given to God at Saint Paul’s Chapel in New York City on the day of George Washington’s Inaugural, where it is reported Washington led our nation’s first leaders to pray for two hours, (and I add to this the following: and he offered up his prayer to God from there, but that if one takes your premise to its full application, God has not, did not, does not, and will not hear the prayers and petitions, much less answer them; of people who are not Jews and who do not belong to Abraham’s children through the covenant God established uniquely with Israel. And therefore by extension, if God has not heard these prayers, then there is no way that this land and the nation founded upon it, can be in any way or form in covenant relationship with Him, because God does not hear the prayers of people outside of His covenant people, and nations outside of His covenant nation. I am using your logic here, as your posit in your book.)
Indeed, your assessment denies what Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God wrote:
First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.
(1Timothy 2:1-8)
And also what Peter also writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, saying:
For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit.
(1Peter 3:18)
And I must add here that the Scripture is absolute and unmistakable regarding who He died for and the purpose of this death, where the Apostle Paul again under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit declares:
For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
(Romans 6:10)
Absolute and unmistakable unlimited atonement. As a theologian you are aware of what I mean by this phrase, and I stand by it, in fact, it forms what is an unmistakable fact and truth – God hears the prayers of people and nations who repent and come to Him for forgiveness; otherwise no one but Israel, and no one but a High Priest of Aaron’s Order, presiding at the temple in Jerusalem, with Levites under service to God, under the Mosaic Covenant (which erected a wall of separation between God’s people Israel and all of the other nations), could ever hope of communicating their thoughts, concerns, fears, and hopes, or faith to a God they could and would not reach without the Mediator (1Timothy 2:5) and Advocate (1John 2:1) and faithful High Priest (Hebrews 2:14-18) between themselves and that the God who imparts life to all flesh and has provided this salvation – the blessing He promised Abraham when He ratified His covenant with him, long before the covenant at Sinai under which the Mosaic Law was ratified. (Genesis 12:1-8, 13:14-18, 15:1-21, 17:1-17, 18:10-14, 21:1-8, 22:15-19, Abraham himself bears witness of this, Genesis 24:7a) If it were not so, He would not have inspired the Apostle Paul through the Eternal Holy Spirit to write that this promise to bless all of the nations of the earth was itself the Gospel preached to Abraham!
Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.

(Galatians 3:6-9)

Indeed, the Apostle to the Gentiles even calls Abraham the father of all who believe without being circumcised. (Romans 4:11c) And we see the Apostle declare boldly as a believing Observant Jew that the Gospel he preaches saves both Jew and Non-Jew alike:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”

(Romans 1:16-17)

This Gospel that God preached to Abraham is the one which has broken down the wall erected by the Mosaic Covenant under which the Law came four hundred and thirty years after the Abrahamic Covenant, of which the Apostle Paul continues to write in the Spirit the following regarding its perfect observance – which according to God’s Word is an impossibility (1King 8:46b), because there is no one who can claim that they are free from sin (2Chronicles 6:36 part of the same prayer rendered by Solomon) – just as the Apostle John also writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit the following Scripture:

If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

(1John 1:8-10)

And the following Holy Spirit inspired observation of the precarious reality of every human being:

Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.

(Ecclesiastes 7:20)

This is why Solomon in the Holy Spirit, asks elsewhere, “Who can say, I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin’”?

(Proverbs 20:9)

And the Psalmist pleads with God in the following manner:

And do not enter into judgment with Your servant,
For in Your sight no man living is righteous.

(Psalm 143:2)

Isaiah understood this. In the Holy Spirit, he confessed, bearing witness of man’s lost condition before the righteousness of God:

For all of us have become like one who is unclean,
And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment;
And all of us wither like a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

(Isaiah 64:6)

This is because, as the Apostle Paul writes in his Letter to the Romans, every person is locked into an inclination towards sinning, and this evil inclination – this fallen nature – this original proclivity to sin – drives them to break the commandments of God:

… all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.

(Romans 3:23, 11:32)

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.

(Romans 5:12-14)

What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written,

“There is none righteous, not even one;
There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave,
With their tongues they keep deceiving,”
“The poison of asps is under their lips”;
“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”;
“Their feet are swift to shed blood,
Destruction and misery are in their paths,
And the path of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

(Romans 3:9-18)

And what will the result be for the human race – that is for those who are Abraham’s physical descendants through Isaac, as well as those who are not physically descendant from Abraham through Isaac?

There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.

(Romans 2:9-11, see Jeremiah 9:25-26)

But of the promise made to Abraham which extends to the nations, the Apostle Paul in the Holy Spirit writes the following:

For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them.” Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “The righteous man shall live by faith.” However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, “He who practices them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”—in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

(Galatians 3:10-14)

What am I saying here quoting the Apostle’s writing about Jews and Non-Jews receiving the same grace from God through Christ? I am saying that anyone who invokes the name of Christ to call upon it, most definitely will be heard by God, and saved. Make no mistake about it, the Scripture is clear about this fact (Acts 2:21, Romans 10:13), and about the fact that regardless of the limitations that man will try to place on God by citing the Abrahamic Covenant as having relevance for Jews only, and not for the entire human race – a blurring of one covenant of promise and faith with one of Law and works; which is all inclusive through the promise of Christ made to Abraham with one which is exclusive to one nation, Israel – the Abrahamic Covenant with the Mosaic Covenant – a practice in the most blatant example of Eisegesis; this does not nullify the universality of what God has wrought in Christ for the entire human race – for every person, nationality, ethnic group, and race under heaven.

And although His works were finished from the foundation of the world (Hebrews 4:3b), The Harbinger’s critics erect the old wall of separation between God and the nations. This because one is independent of the other, and the Mosaic Covenant has no relevance on the Abrahamic, but the Abrahamic does on the Mosaic because it has been replaced by the New Covenant with the better promises (Hebrews ) God made to Abraham long before the Law and its covenant were given to Israel:

Brethren, I speak in terms of human relations: even though it is only a man’s covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it. Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ. What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.

Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made. Now a mediator is not for one party only; whereas God is only one. Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.

Galatians 3:1-29)

And what the Scripture teach us about this promise? The promise was made to Abraham at the mount of sacrifice, where God made Abraham four specific promises, and they were:

1.) God would greatly bless him.
2.) God would greatly multiply his descendants as much as the sand which is on the seashore and make them as numerous as the stars in the night sky.
3.) God promised that Abraham’s seed – that is Christ would possess the gates of His enemies.
4.) God promised that in His seed – that is Christ - all of the nations of the earth would be blessed.

Let us look at the entire text, and examine this promise God made to Abraham, and the scope of it, in order to understand fully what it would cover. Doing this will allow us to appreciate more fully the grace and provision of God for His people – the physical descendants of Abraham through Isaac and the spiritual descendants of through Christ – Abraham and Isaac’s greater Son from whom Abraham would be made the father of the nations.

Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance. Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.” Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.

Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the Lord it will be provided.”

Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham lived at Beersheba.

(Genesis 22:1-19)

But, if indeed if Abraham was only referring to the place where the Lord provided the ram for the sacrifice when he named the place “The Lord Will Provide,” then why was it called in antiquity “In the mount of the Lord it will be provided?” And why did he still call it in a future tense, “The Lord Will Provide?” if he was referring to the Lord’s provision of the ram for the sacrifice which was given to him to offer in place of Isaac, which he did offer in place of Isaac? It was because Abraham looked ahead at the seed God promised – the One who would deal a crushing blow to the enemy of Israel and mankind (the devil and his servants) on the head (Genesis 3:15, John 3:15, See Dr. Michael Rydelnik, The Messianic Hope: Is the Hebrew Bible Really Messianic? , page 143.), and for this reason Abraham named the place “The Lord Will Provide” and it was said of this place in antiquity “In the Mount of the Lord it will be provided,” for they were looking ahead to the promise of Christ, where He laid down His life on the mount of the Lord.

And to accentuate the promise over the Law, the writer in his Letter to the Hebrews writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit:

For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also. (Hebrews 7:12) What priesthood is he referring to? To Aaron’s from which came the Law four hundred thirty years later, nor does it invalidate the promise God made to Abraham which established the Abrahamic Covenant between Himself and the father of nations. (Galatians 3:17) Aaron’s priesthood has been replaced by Melchizedek’s. (Hebrews ) And the writer in his Letter to the Hebrews writes further down what this change entails and what it pertains to:

Now if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the people received the Law), what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be designated according to the order of Aaron? For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also. For the one concerning whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no one has officiated at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning priests. And this is clearer still, if another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become such not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life. For it is attested of Him,

“You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek.”

For, on the one hand, there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness (for the Law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God. And inasmuch as it was not without an oath (for they indeed became priests without an oath, but He with an oath through the One who said to Him,

“The Lord has sworn
And will not change His mind,
‘You are a priest forever’”);

so much the more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.

(Hebrews 7:11-22)

And pertaining to this salvation, it is not man who first initiated it, but God, which is why the Apostle Paul writes again in the Holy Spirit in reference to the sovereign grace of God’s election:

So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.

(Romans 9:16)

That is to say, that it was not man who initiated this, but God who first brought it into being – this salvation. Otherwise He would not have made the following promise, which He made to Israel and has extended to all peoples:

Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.

(Ezekiel 36:15)

For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you.” And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

(Hebrews 6:13-20)

Therefore any man or woman who invokes and calls upon the name of Jesus Christ as Lord for blessing and in faith, believing in that name, honors God (John 5:23), and is honored by God by calling him “son,” or her “daughter.” There is no exception to this, this is for all and for all time. The cross stretches back to those who lived in faith of the promise and forward to us and beyond us to the end of days. (Hebrews 4:3b, see also Revelation 13:8, 17:8) It is for all peoples and all nations, for we have seen that God’s Word establishes that there is no partiality with God, and that He is the God of all creation, and He has promised to give the nations as His inheritance. (Psalm 2:7) Of Him, the Scriptures say that He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. (Colossians 1:15) Christ has said that one day He will say to His elect:

“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’

(Matthew 25:34)

And it commands us to do the following:

Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!

(Psalm 2:12)

Thus, it has been established by Scripture itself that God’s intent since before the foundation of the world was laid, was to extend the offer of salvation to the entire human race by blessing it with the promise He made to Abraham that through Isaac (the son of promise through whom Gentiles and Jews would be blessed), one of his descendants would bring this salvation – indeed this descendant would be the catalyst of this salvation – the Savior – as the angel of the Lord said to Joseph when he was considering divorcing Mary quietly because he had discovered that she was pregnant with a Child: “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) In other words, Jesus Christ would be their Savior, and the Savior of all who come to Him. John the Apostle is very clear when writing in the Holy Spirit, and makes the following declaration:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Not only was all creation come into being through Him, but He possessed and possesses life and it is this life – His life – that is the light of men; that is to say, both to Jews and to Gentiles. Further down John the Apostle in the Holy Spirit writes:

There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

(John 1:1-5, 9-13)

He is the life and He is the light that “enlightens EVERY man.” What does this mean? Does it mean that every person on the face of the earth is enlightened? Of course not, but that every person who comes to Him, regardless of ethnicity, national origin, or race – Jew or Gentile, male or female – anyone who comes to Him for life, will receive His light, for the proverb says that the spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, Searching all the innermost parts of his being, (Proverbs 20:27) because the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. (1Corinthians 6:17)

There is nothing in these promises that indicate that only a people or a nation with whom God has made a covenant with (such as the Abrahamic Covenant, and or the Mosaic Covenant, or any others such as the Davidic Covenant – covenants God made with the children of Israel – are the only ones to share in this blessing, for if that had been the case, then the Apostle Paul would not have had recourse to strongly advocate full admission of Gentiles into the Way without first becoming Jews by undergoing circumcision according to the Law and converting to Judaism before coming to faith in Christ. Indeed, the Apostle Paul underscores this truth when writing under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration about the Gentiles receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit:

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions. Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim Him, (admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.

(Colossians 1:24-29)

Moreover, he and Barnabas and others, including the Apostle Peter advocated full Gentile autonomy in Christ from conversion to Judaism as a requirement for salvation, since it had been proven experientially with the conversion of Cornelius the Roman Centurion and his entire household that Gentiles were being saved independent of the need for conversion to Judaism, (Acts 10, 11:1-26, 15) which is precisely what the Apostle Paul was referring to when he wrote: The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” (Galatians 3:8) This is the Gospel that has reached the nations and has converted countless numbers to Christ, the Gospel which the first settlers to this land called America in which these United States reside, was dedicated to God for, and by way of this dedication, these servants of Christ made their vows to God and thereby established this land for God, and it is why for over two hundred years it has been so blessed by Him.

What has made this possible? The promise God made to Abraham that in his seed, the nations of the earth would be blessed. Indeed, the Apostle Paul declares under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that this is the great mystery that had been hidden in ages past, specifically that the Gentiles with God had no covenant and a people who were not God’s people; would be through Christ God’s covenant people with Israel – something that had been hidden in God in ages past, but which with the consummation of the ages – was revealed with and in Christ something that has been overlooked by the critics of The Harbinger when comparing America to Israel. The Apostle writes:

By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.

(Ephesians 3:4-10)

In his book The Jew of Tarsus, Hugh J. Schonfield brings draws this mystery out with its complete ramifications for the Body of Christ, where he writes pertaining to the Apostle Paul’s Gospel and the mystery of which he wrote with such passion:

“His distinctive aim, which involved him at this stage in a great many theological intricacies, was to establish that believers from the Gentiles, unencumbered by subjection to the Law, were under the New Covenant genuine Israelites, and not merely associates, resident aliens.”

(Hugh J. Schonfield, The Jew of Tarsus, page 191 bottom paragraph. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1947)

Although there is much to disagree with in regards to many of Schonfield’s assertions, he is correct here when writing about Gentile full admission into the nation of Israel. Additionally Schonfield actually believed that Gentiles who came to faith in Christ were now full fledge Israelites with natural born Jews, and had become by virtue of the new birth and water baptism, naturalized citizens of Israel, an interesting interpretation to the Apostle Paul’s inspired writings on it the the topic. Schonfield writes:

“Few Christians now accept the teaching of Paul; for if they did they would have to hold not only the identity of the Church and Israel, but that all who become Christians immediately surrender their former nationality in favour of Israelite nationality. According to Paul, if you are a Christian you belong to another nation with another allegiance spiritually and actually, and in the country of your birth or choice your status is that of friendly alien. If the Church had followed Paul we should see it to-day as a distinct nation, and not simply as a distinct religion. Baptism is more than an act of faith, it is a rite of naturalization. Paul’s demand, put plainly, was ‘Equal Israelite citizenship for all Ex-Gentiles on terms of faith in Jesus the Messiah.’”

(Hugh J. Schonfield, The Jew of Tarsus, page 196-197. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1947)

Though it bears deeper scrutiny to what the Scriptures teach about this aspect of the Gospel; this is not a far cry from what the writer to the Letter to the Hebrews posits under divine inspiration, where after summing up the lives of great men and women of God who had come before him, he writes:

All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be (called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.

(Hebrews 11:13-16)

And the greatest prophet who ever lived, John the Baptist, bore witness that Jesus would save Jews and Gentiles of their sins. The Scriptures record the moment, again from John’s Gospel:

The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

(John 1:29)

And additionally we have the story of the centurion’s servant who was deathly ill, who was healed by Jesus. This man was a Gentile slave of a Gentile – a Roman, a Centurion no less – who petitioned Jewish leaders to approach the Lord Jesus for his servant’s healing. Now before anyone comes forward with the claim that Jesus only healed this servant because the leaders from the Jews approached Him with the Roman’s request, understand that the Lord Jesus did not heal this man because a group of Jewish leaders were the ones who petition on the Centurion’s behalf, although it can be said that they did petition on behalf of the Centurion. It was not for their sakes that He healed the man, but because of the great faith the Centurion displayed, for Jesus said of him, “I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith.” (Luke 7:19) Our Lord granted this righteous Gentile his request and healed his servant. We read in Luke’s Gospel:

When He had completed all His discourse in the hearing of the people, He went to Capernaum. And a centurion’s slave, who was highly regarded by him, was sick and about to die. When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders asking Him to come and save the life of his slave. When they came to Jesus, they earnestly implored Him, saying, “He is worthy for You to grant this to him; for he loves our nation and it was he who built us our synagogue.” Now Jesus started on His way with them; and when He was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to Him, “Lord, do not trouble Yourself further, for I am not worthy for You to come under my roof; for this reason I did not even consider myself worthy to come to You, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man placed under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled at him, and turned and said to the crowd that was following Him, “I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith.” When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.

(Luke 7:1-19)

Matthew’s version of this story has the Centurion approaching Jesus for his servant’s healing, which we may surmise happened minutes after our Lord arrived on the scene, and the Centurion who was waiting was told by his servants that Jesus had come. This is how Mathew’s Gospel relates the story to us:

And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.” Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” And Jesus said to the centurion, “Go; it shall be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed that very moment.

(Matthew 8:5-13)

Not only did Jesus grant the Centurion’s request by healing his servant, but He did so after the Centurion himself approached Him with this request. We first see the Centurion make his request through the agency of the Jewish leadership of Capernaum. They approach the Lord Jesus with their petition on the Centurion’s behalf, and Jesus grants it, but when Jesus arrives on the scene, the Centurion approaches the Lord and repeats his request to Him – perhaps not realizing yet that the request has already been granted by the Lord – because he is not inside his house but outside with the Lord Jesus, and not in his servant’s room to know about his recovery.

The point is, though the petition had been given by the Jewish leadership on behalf of the Centurion, and granted by the Lord, when Jesus arrived on the scene, the Roman Centurion left his house and approached the Lord Jesus Himself, because he still believed himself unworthy that the Lord should enter his residence, and we see in Matthew’s Gospel that the Lord Jesus granted this man his request and healed his slave.

This occurred before the cross by the way, for the cross awaited the Lord Jesus, but God’s plan extended from the cross to the past and into the future, because it was established before time itself by God Himself – and how do we know this? Because God had established it before the foundation of the world was laid. Elsewhere in his Gospel, Matthew records that Jesus healed the people of the regions of Syria, Galilee, the Decapolis, and Jerusalem and Judea.

The news about Him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them. Large crowds followed Him from Galilee and the Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan.

(Matthew 4:24-25)

Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast; these then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip came and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.”

(John 12:20-26)

And I quote the following from a web site, because I could not have explained it better. It is the story of the Canaanite woman who approached the Lord Jesus, begging for her demon-possessed daughter. I quote:

B. Jesus answers a Gentile’s request.

1. (21-22) Jesus is met with a request from a Gentile woman.

Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.”

a. To the region of Tyre and Sidon: Tyre and Sidon were Gentile cities, located some 50 miles (80 kilometers) away. Jesus went all this way to meet this one Gentile woman’s need. This shows remarkable and unexpected love from Jesus to this woman of Canaan.

i. “Matthew’s used of the old term ‘Canaanite’ shows that he cannot forget her ancestry: now a descendant of Israel’s ancient enemies comes to the Jewish Messiah for blessing.” (Carson)

ii. It was especially unlikely for Jesus to go to the region of Tyre and Sidon. “Even at that time, or not much later, Josephus could write: ‘Of the Phoenicians, the Tyrians have the most ill-feeling towards us.’” (Barclay)

iii. “Let us always plow to the very end of the field, and serve our day and generation to the extreme limits of our sphere.” (Spurgeon)

b. Have mercy on me . . . My daughter is severely demon-possessed: This woman came to intercede for her daughter, and she provided a picture of an effective intercessor – her great need taught her how to pray. When she came to Jesus she made her daughter’s needs her own.

c. Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! This Gentile woman also understood who Jesus was. Many of Jesus’ own countrymen didn’t know who Jesus was, but this woman of Canaan knew.

i. Perhaps this woman knew that Jesus had healed Gentiles before (Matthew 4:24-25; 8:5-13). Yet what made this encounter unique is that Jesus did those miracles as Gentiles came to Him in Jewish territory. Here, Jesus came to Gentile territory and met this woman.

2. (23-24) Jesus’ cold response to the request of the Gentile woman.

But He answered her not a word. And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, “Send her away, for she cries out after us.” But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

a. But He answered her not a word: Though the Gentile mother interceded for her daughter, Jesus did not immediately give her an encouraging reply. His reticence drew a more energetic and faith-filled response from the Gentile woman.

i. “As Augustine says, ‘The Word spoke not a word,’ and that was so unlike him. He who was always so ready with responses to the cry of grief had no response for her.” (Spurgeon)

b. Send her away, for she cries out after us: It is likely that the disciples meant, “Send her away by giving her what she wants.” It is entirely possible that they just wanted her to go away, and the easiest way was for Jesus to fix her problem.

i. Send her away: “The same verb in Luke 2:29 applies to a dismissal with desire satisfied.” (France)

ii. Matthew Poole observed that some Roman Catholics look to this as an example of bringing prayers to saints, so that they would intercede on our behalf. “How many of the papists think that this text patronizeth their invocation of saints departed I cannot tell, for these disciples were alive, and we do not read that she spake to any of them to intercede for her.” (Poole)

c. I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel: Jesus defined the focus of His mission of to His irritated disciples and to the Gentile woman. He made it clear that He was not sent to Gentiles like her.

i. It is fair to ask whether Jesus meant the lost sheep among the house of Israel, or meant to say that Israel as a whole were lost sheep. Jesus’ instructions to His disciples in Matthew 10:6 (“go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”) would seem to imply the latter.

3. (25-27) The Gentile woman’s persistent appeal to Jesus.

Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, help me!” But He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” And she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”

a. Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, help me!” She responded to the rebuff from Jesus with increased dedication to prevail with her request. In so doing, the Gentile woman continued to show what a dedicated intercessor does.

i. “She could not solve the problems of the destiny of her race, and of the Lord’s commission; but she could pray. . . . If, as a Shepherd, he may not gather her, yet, as Lord, he may help her.” (Spurgeon)

ii. “Herein she reads us all a lesson. If we have had no answer to our pleading, do not give up, but go nearer to Christ.” (Spurgeon)

iii. “I urge you who seek the conversion of others to follow her example. Notice, she did not pray, ‘Lord, help my daughter;’ but, ‘Lord, help me.’” (Spurgeon)

iv. “I commend this prayer to you because it such a handy prayer. You can use it when you are in a hurry, you can use it when you are in a fright, you can use it when you have not time to bow your knee. You can use it in the pulpit if you are going to preach, you can use it when you are opening your shop, you can use it when you are rising in the morning. It is such a handy prayer that I hardly know any position in which you could not pray it: ‘Lord, help me.’” (Spurgeon)

b. It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs: Jesus continued to say discouraging things to the woman, yet this was not quite as severe as it might first sound. When Jesus called her one of the little dogs, He used little as a way to soften the harshness of calling her a dog. This softened the traditional Jewish slur towards Gentiles, which called them dogs in the most derogatory sense.

i. We are at the great disadvantage of not hearing the tone of Jesus’ voice as He spoke to this woman. We suspect that His tone was not harsh; we rather suspect that it was winsome with the effect of inviting greater faith from the woman. It is possible to speak harsh words in a playful or winsome manner.

ii. “Its harshest word [dogs] contains a loophole. [Dogs] does not compare Gentiles to the dogs without, in the street, but to the household dogs belonging to the family, which have their portion though not the children’s.” (Bruce)

c. Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table: The woman responded with great faith. She admitted her low estate, and did not debate the issue when Jesus called her one of the little dogs. She did not demand to be seen as a child; but only to be blessed as a dog.

i. It was as if she said, “Jesus, I understand that the primary focus of Your ministry is to the Jews – that they have a special place in God’s redemptive plan. Yet I also understand that Your ministry extends beyond the Jewish people, and I want to be part of that extended blessing.”

ii. Her response is especially meaningful in light of the increasing rejection of Jesus by the Jewish religious leaders. It was as if the woman said, “I’m not asking for the portion that belongs to the children, just the crumbs that they don’t want.” In the flow of Matthew’s gospel, there was more and more that the Jewish religious establishment did not want to receive.

iii. These were two faith-filled words: Yet even. She accepted Jesus’ description and asked for mercy despite it – or perhaps because of it. “She would not give over, though he gave her three repulses. So as she said, like Jacob, I will not thee go, until thou bless me. And as he, like a prince, so she, like a princess, prevailed with God and obtained the thing which she desired.” (Poole)

iv. “Dear friend, possibly someone has whispered in your ear, ‘Suppose you are not one of the elect.’ Well, that was very much what our Lord’s expression meant to her. She was not one of the chosen people, and she had heard Christ say, ‘I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ Notice that this woman does not battle with that truth at all, she does not raise any question about it; she wisely waives it, and she just goes on praying, ‘Lord, help me! Lord, have mercy upon me!’ I invite you, dear friend, to do just the same.” (Spurgeon)

4. (28) Jesus rewards the great faith of the Gentile woman.

Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

a. Then Jesus answered: Finally, the woman will receive and encouraging word from Jesus.

b. O woman, great is your faith! Jesus never said this to another person. He complimented the great faith of the Roman centurion who asked Jesus to heal his servant (Matthew 8:10), but He said it to the crowd, not to the centurion directly. This Gentile woman heard it from Jesus directly.

i. Significantly, the only two people to receive this compliment from Jesus were these Gentiles. This shows us that:

• Great faith may be found in unexpected places – not merely Gentiles, but a centurion and a woman!

• Great faith is sometimes measured from its disadvantages. Their faith was great because it did not have the advantage of being nourished by the institutions of Judaism.

• Faith is often greatest when it is expressed on behalf of someone else’s need.

ii. Great is your faith! “No-one else receives from Jesus the accolade.” (France)

c. O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire: Her faith was great enough to receive her request – what she desired from Jesus.

• Her faith was great, even compared to her other virtues. She was humble, she was patient, she was persevering, she cared for her child. Yet Jesus didn’t compliment any of these good things, but only her faith.

• Her faith was great because it was unlikely. No one might have expected a Gentile to trust Jesus so much.

• Her faith was great because she worshipped Jesus even before she had an answer from him.

• Her faith was great because it had been tested so severely. It’s hard to think of a greater test than a demon possessed child; but her faith was also tried by the seeming indifference or coldness to Jesus.

• Her faith was great because it was clever. She turned Jesus’ word inside-out and made what might have been taken as an insult as a door open for faith.

• Her faith was great because it concerned a need right in front of her, and a real need at that. Many people have faith for everything except those things that are right in front of them.

• Her faith was great because it would not give up. She did not stop until she got what she needed from Jesus.

• You could say that her faith conquered Jesus. He not only healed her daughter but He did so immediately, something that she had not even asked for.

i. We read of nothing else that Jesus did during this time in Tyre and Sidon. It would seem that His only divine appointment was to meet the need of this woman of faith and her afflicted daughter.

Was is the point of all of these stories? That the Lord Jesus not only granted the request of Gentiles before His cross, but that He did so in contrast to what the critics of The Harbinger make pertaining to America and the American people with regards to God; that according to these critics of The Harbinger, America and its people, do not have a covenant with God, and therefore should not be equated with the conditions God sets forth with Israel with whom He established His covenant. These passages of Scripture makes it clear that not only does God hear the prayers and petitions of Gentiles – non-Jews – people with whom God had no covenant established; but that He answers their prayers and petitions when they’re made in faith to God through Jesus Christ the Lord. What’s more, God has already initiated this through His cross, even before the foundation of the world was laid, long before all the covenants and the people they affected came into being.

This is how everyone who invokes the name of Christ and believes in that name for salvation and blessings from the God of heaven (John 1:12-13), will be heard and answered regardless of whether they are Abraham’s natural descendant through Isaac or Ishmael, or not of Abraham’s stock; regardless of national origin, ethnicity, race, or even affiliation of any type – all who come to God through Christ and invoke that name to seek God’s pleasure and His blessing shall not by any means be turned away. Christ Himself affirmed this and so do the Scriptures. (John 6:37, 39, 17:2, ) This is because all things have been given into Christ’s hand. (John 3:35)

Indeed, in the Psalms we see the Psalmist admonishing the rulers and leaders of the Gentile nations of the earth in the following manner:

Now therefore, O kings, show discernment;
Take warning, O judges of the earth.
Worship the Lord with reverence
And rejoice with trembling.
Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way,
For His wrath may [n]soon be kindled.
How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!

(Psalm 2:10-12)

The Psalm cited above is preceded where the nations of the earth – those who do not have a covenant relationship with the God of Israel – the Gentile nations – are devising a vain thing as they take their stand against the Lord and His Messiah, wishing to break themselves from God’s influence and authority. The Psalmist has them saying: “Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!” (Psalm 2:1-3) But it is God who has the last and final word in this, for He has installed His King – Christ on David’s Throne, (Psalm 2:4-6) and promises the nations as an inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as His possession. (Psalm 2:7-9)

It is the promise made to Abraham that the inheritance of Christ would be shared by those who come to faith in Him, for we are from every nation under heaven and share in this inheritance through our faith in Christ. Need I say more? It is clear that all who come to God through Christ, invoking His name in prayer for blessing, or repentance, for wisdom, for counsel, for anything that God can bestow upon them will be heard and not turned away. This is how the prayers of a people, indeed of a nation is heard and answered by the God of Israel, who is the God of all the Creation. This is how the people of Nineveh – a people with no covenant relationship with God, indeed a people who by and large were pagan – were warned by God of their eminent destruction without even a word of mercy from the prophet, for he declared to them, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” (Jonah 3:4), and when they – from the greatest to the least of them – repented, they were forgiven and that generation was spared the wrath of Almighty God. (Jonah 3:5-10)

This is what The Harbinger is all about; it is a warning to this nation that must be heeded by God’s people, and if possible by all Americans, and we must turn to Him in individual and national repentance. It is a warning with a promise of restoration given via topical teachings, put into the form of a novel, which the critics of Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn have lambasted hermeneutically because they have taken it to be something it is not; doctrine.

The Harbinger like it or not, is a prophetic warning that Cessationists will simply not accept, just as they reject any and all manifestations of God because of their belief. The same people who have trouble accepting this or any other prophetic warning, or teaching will have a lot of trouble with the appearance of God’s two witnesses during the Great Tribulation; oh, but yes, they believe that they won’t be around to see this when it happens, so they won’t have to struggle with their disbelief, oh excuse me; their Cessationist clash with the prophetic witnesses who will appear to the world in those days.