Just a word for a moment about this ongoing controversy. When I first heard about The Harbinger’s critics, it was from a fellow congregant at Beth Israel, who referred to me to an interview aired on Brannon Howse’s Worldview Weekend, in which he interviewed Jimmy DeYoung about Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn’s New York Times bestseller, The Harbinger.
She was and continues to be a frequent listener to Howse’s Worldview Weekend radio program, and usually enjoys listening to it, but what she heard in this particular broadcast troubled her greatly. She provided me with the link to it, and I listened to it. What I heard was more than just troubling to me; it was disheartening and beyond contemptible. Instantly I felt compelled to write the entire transcript of the interview and my response to it, which I sent to Howse, who never responded.
In this interview I heard the most horrendous accusations, mischaracterizations, outright lies, and calumnies against a man I’ve known for over ten years, and have served God under for almost as long in ministry, and whose teachings I am extremely well acquainted with, having attended Beth Israel Worship Center with my wife and family since 1998 when the ministry was at Lodi, NJ, and later in Wayne, NJ, at the Jerusalem Center, teaching at the Arise and Shine Academy. In thirty-six years as a born again Christian Evangelical believer in God’s grace, I had never heard such vitriol come out of the mouth of one Christian leader towards another as I did in that interview. I was shocked and dismayed at the things I heard said about a man whom I have known, loved, admired, and respected since I first met him in 1998.
I went to Howse’s website, where there was (and continues to be) posted links to other articles critical of The Harbinger and Rabbi Cahn, and I began reading these. As I read each article against Jonathan Cahn’s book, with each article that I read, the criticisms became increasingly elaborate, increasingly egregious, more personal, and entirely unfounded and without any semblance to fact. One article called Jonathan a mystic while accusing him of being a Kabbalist, and dabbling in the Occult. Another article accused him of being a Free Mason, still another one accused him of Gnosticism. It appeared that each article followed the lead of previous articles before it, but the one that began the entire row of misinformation about Jonathan Cahn and about his book, was David James. It was from this source that these articles got their impetus, so I began to correspond with him and posting replies and rebuttals to his charges on his website. Eventually, I was unable to post these because I had been blocked by him, and I then began posting them on my website The Pepster’s Post: A Voice in Cyberspace, where I’ve had quite a number of viewings since I became involved in this discussion.
At first, I was incensed by what he wrote, because having followed the teachings upon which The Harbinger is based – the sermons and messages that form part of the narrative through the years, and personally knowing what Jonathan believes and teaches – all mainline Evangelical Christian, but with the knowledge of traditional Judaism – I knew that not a single charge Mr. James had made had any basis in reality.
But having been engaged in this polemical exercise of one man’s against another, I have become more and more acquainted not only with The Harbinger and what it teaches, but also what it does not teach – which is what its critics write about. In a way, as I wrote in Part III of this ongoing series, I can thank David James for providing us with the material needed to address matters and issues that would not have been there if David James had not conjured them up from his mind when he read The Harbinger. This has given me the opportunity to biblically address the more egregious entries made by The Harbinger’s critics while writing a book that addresses both them and what The Harbinger does say about the events of 9/11 and Isaiah’s prophecy to ancient Israel. It is a sad thing to see one’s close friend and pastor being pilloried as he has, but it has accorded me the opportunity to be used of God to biblically address the lies, character assassinations – you’ll see them below where he is accused of misleading Dr. Reagan – and other personal attacks against his person, teachings, and ministry; so that when all has been said and done, Jonathan Cahn, being tried by the fire of criticism, will come shining as refined gold for Christ in God.
Thank you
v DAVID JAMES: Although I wrote The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? as a critique and response to The Harbinger, I am definitely not alone in my criticism of the book. A good number of conservative Bible teachers, pastors and theologians have also expressed their deep concerns about various issues related to the message of the book and its author. The critics of The Harbinger include many respected men and women in the conservative evangelical community such as (the late) Roy Zuck, Gary Gilley, T.A. McMahon, Jimmy DeYoung, Larry DeBruyn, Ken Silva, Danny Isom, Paul Barreca, Sarah Leslie, Gaylene Goodroad, Chris Lawson, Brannon Howse, Tommy Ice, Keith Gibson, Berit Kjos, and Susan Puzio to name a few.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: It is true, David James is not alone in his criticism, but others – those whom he names here, have followed his lead, by reading what David James has written, and formed opinions of their own without having read The Harbinger or consulted Jonathan Cahn about it to verify if what Mr. James says is fact or fiction. (no pun intended.) Then to complicate the matter, they have gone on to write articles of their own – without having read the book – but simply going on your hearsay and opinion. This is not right, even in secular circles it is considered intellectual dishonesty and is looked askance by people of intellectual integrity in any venue. That these are Christian Evangelical leaders is most troubling, because they ought to be mature enough in the faith to exercise discretion in such matters when opinionating on another in public, and it is incumbent upon them to verify all of the facts before they parrot what David James has written, and elaborating on it. The first question anyone should ask is how many of these people hold to a Cessationist Theology like Mr. James’? This is important and central to this discussion, because the inclusion of a fictitious prophet into the story complicates things for Cessationists and they immediately find any work – fiction or non-fiction – objectionable that includes a prophet in the narrative, as does David James. And how many of these people listed here by David James actually read The Harbinger? Then having read the book, how many of them communicated with its author about how they felt about the book and what it says? Did its author reply to their questions? And what did the author reply to them? Then after having done this, did any of them, including Mr. James, obtain any additional materials regarding The Harbinger, including verifying for themselves the documentation and source materials available on the topic which the book covers? After doing this, did any of these people, including Mr. James, actually study the various other examples of warning and judgment throughout the Bible which would corroborate the template of God’s dealings with nations? And finally, are any of these questions answered to everyone’s full satisfaction?
The answer, if pursued as it should be, I am sure will yield that while some of the things listed here might have been done by one or two of the people David James cites, including himself, nobody in this list, including David James, did all of the things listed before passing judgment on The Harbinger and making their opinion public. This would be a terribly unfair omission on their part.
This is my objection; first that what has been written and said about Jonathan Cahn has no basis in reality. It is nothing but what a small group of men and women who do not know him have conjured up out of a complete misunderstanding of what he wrote and what he teaches. These people speak and write out of ignorance, though they are respected in their field, and because I personally know that what they write is false and cannot be applied to The Harbinger in any way, and therefore I address them here and elsewhere on my website, The Pepster’s Post: A Voice in Cyberspace. This is nothing strange. David James cites them here to say that he is not the only critic as though this in and of itself had any merit or virtue, when in fact, it has absolutely no bearing on The Harbinger’s legitimacy as an end time warning – because this is what he is challenging, and adds no nothing to the discussion. But has it escaped his notice regardless of the efficacy of Jesus’ sacrifice, Judaism itself continue to develop into the Rabbinical religious construct that completely rejects all of His claims, regardless of how true they are? And that they’ve developed a theology around that rejection to justify it for almost two thousand years. Does this then, add to the validity of their claims? Of course not. Then why should David James think that by naming others who have read his objections and been swayed by these, would add any value to his postulations?
Because from the beginning, the critics of The Harbinger have mishandled their differences with Jonathan Cahn over the book, and have publicized their opinions, this has required that people like myself who know Jonathan personally and have worked with him, as I have, could answer these charges. The critics themselves have made it possible for people like me to thoroughly verify Scripturally the validity of the message in The Harbinger. Without the unfounded criticisms by people whom have never met Jonathan or know a thing about his ministry to write as they have, I would not have had the opportunity to thoroughly biblically verify everything Jonathan has taught on this topic. In a strange way, I and others like me, have debt of gratitude to David James and those who’ve followed in his stead and have written the errors made against the book; God has turned a curse into a blessing inasmuch as it has given me and others like me, to step up and dispel the lies and complete fabrications made against Jonathan Cahn and his bestselling book.
It is interesting that the Gazit Stone of which The Harbinger makes mention, which the builders who vowed in Isaiah 9:10 they would use to replace the bricks of clay after the first Assyrian devastation and strike on their land two thousand seven hundred years ago, became the first “stone of defiance” was repeated when a quarried and polished stone – another Gazit Stone – a New York stone from upper New York State’s Adirondack Mountains, and has now become this nation’s “stone of defiance” and rock of offense – another Harbinger – to warn America of impending judgment. Yet to the critics of The Harbinger, it has become a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense as well – the result of their disbelief in the genuineness of the Harbinger itself, as they are a latter day version of the Pharisees who repeat the mistakes of their spiritual forebears by questioning the warnings God has set in place. Remember, it was a group of religious leaders who stumbled over the rock; the Stone which the builders erected became the corner stone which later became a rock of offense to the builders who rejected the claims made about that stone! Amazing how the typology fits! If the shoe fits wear it.
v DAVID JAMES: Compounding the controversy has been the deep division caused by some very emotional articles aimed at critics of The Harbinger, with very little response to the actual substance of our critiques.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: The articles have not compounded the problem, as David James asserts here, but he and his colleagues have prolonged and continued a public relations campaign against The Harbinger for over eighteen months, with no end in sight. For over a year, several people have responded biblically point by point to their contentions. Therefore David James’ claim that what has been written rebutting his book and articles and those of other critics of The Harbinger where he describes as “very little response to the actual substance of our critiques” is nothing inaccurate, inasmuch as I and several other people have addressed these contentions, as I do here, argument by argument as he well knows.
Evidence of this is how he has blocked me and others who have Scripturally exposed his contentions as nothing more than theology and opinionated arguments rather than what God’s Word teaches. Those whom he cannot answer, he does not give equal time to, although about a year ago, Brannon Howse asked Jonathan Cahn to give him and David James and Jimmy DeYoung, and T.A. McMahon – those in Mr. James’ group “equal time. As more and more people begin to see that what he has written against The Harbinger is nothing but his own theological bias as a Cessationist, it will become evident that what he promotes as biblical is nothing but his personal theological bloviating as an avowed Cessationist.
I ADDRESS MYSELF DIRECTLY TO DAVID JAMES. Again, with regards to those whom you name here as being in your camp, I’ve personally written some of these whom you name here, and have posted my responses point by point, argument by argument Scripturally and historically with them. And so have a good many other people. We’ve done this for the past eighteen months. Where have you been? Anyone who visits websites like Faith’s Corner and Connie Faith’s own revue on Amazon.com, The Pepster’s Post: A Voice in Cyberspace, Ladybug’s and the Pepster’s, and more, as well as others’ postings on Amazon.com, and elsewhere, etc. – can determine for themselves if what those who expose you and the inaccuracies of what you have written biblically, are as you say having very little response to the actual substance of our (your) critiques. Once they have read how in many places, what you have written and said challenged point by point, clearly in a biblical manner, they will see for themselves, as well they should, just how far you’ve strayed off of the plantation, and how you equivocate in claiming that no one has challenged your contentions. Nothing personal, but there is no truth in your claim that there is “very little response to the actual substance of our” (your) “critiques.” Many people for months, myself included, have challenged your contentions on biblical grounds, but you’ve chosen to ignore us, and have only addressed some of our challenges with more self-justifying arguments that do not address the challenges put to you.
v DAVID JAMES: One example of just how personal this has gotten at times is the following from a blogger who says of The Harbinger’s critics:
…you fit the bill as the modern version of the Sanhedrin, the Catholic Inquisition, and every man-made religious construct of destruction that the human race has ever erected against the face of God to obstruct His purposes and persecute His servants in the name of God and now in the last two thousand years – in the name of Christ.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: AS YOU ADDRESS ME, I ALSO ADDRESS YOU HERE. YOU DESERVE AN EXPLANATION AND SO DOES EVERYONE ELSE READING THIS. HERE IT IS.
Yes. I am he; I am that blogger, and I take full responsibility for those words, knowing precisely the history behind them, and precisely what Mr. James and his colleagues have engaged in for eighteen months without end. I know the ministries they’ve targeted for supporting The Harbinger, and the hurt and damage they have done to those people personally. And yet here, I will strive to keep this reply as impersonal as possible under the circumstances. You accuse me and others like myself, of making this personal, but it is you who have made it very personal with Jonathan Cahn – you and Brannon Howse, and T.A. McMahon, and Jimmy DeYoung, and others in your group – who for more than a year and a half have been stalking Jonathan Cahn to find the smallest scintilla of fault in anything he might say or do, or a program he has visits over that time that do not meet your expectations – to pounce on him and personally discredit him until he and his ministry are completely marginalized and made ineffective by your continual harassments. In private correspondence with you, I and others attempted to help resolve the matter by trying to do it biblically – through several moderated private meetings, but in the end you and your colleagues rejected all of these, and nothing became of it.
There is a biblical basis in my charge above, and it is based on the teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ, where addressing Himself to a group of His detractors comprised in the current encounter of Pharisees, He denounces them, and then equates them as those who honor the prophets by building monuments to them – as every religious opposition has done throughout history who’ve persecuted the followers of those to whom they’ve built these monuments – but that these monuments serve as indictments that they would just as readily murdered those prophet had they been living in their day. In this Scripture, the Lord Jesus connects every religious opposition to God in history and goes so far as to say that the group of Pharisees standing I front of Him were spiritually connected to those who murdered the prophets in previous eras. (Matthew 23:29-36)
1.) On the basis of this Scripture, using it as a hermeneutic, I made that statement David James quotes above, because there are striking similarities between the religious opposition of Jesus’ day and how they think and the religious opposition that has emerged today as Jonathan Cahn’s detractors and other critics of The Harbinger.
2.) The only truth faith in the Second Temple Era was Judaism, and God’s people were (and still are) the Jewish people. Jesus’ opposition came from within its ranks. The only true faith today is the one which proclaims Jesus as the risen Lord and Savior and Way of Salvation and Redemption to God and whose people is come from among Jews and Gentiles who comprise the Body of Christ. And it is from within this group that Jonathan Cahn’s detractors and other critics of The Harbinger have emerged.
3.) Jesus’ detractors were a group within the religious leadership in the Judaism of Jesus’ day; Jonathan Cahn’s detractors and other critics of The Harbinger are a group of Evangelical leaders of this day.
4.) Jesus’ detractors within Judaism mounted a polemical public relations campaign against Jesus and followed Him wherever He went to entrap Him and discredit Him over a protracted period of time; Jonathan Cahn’s detractors and other critics of The Harbinger have followed Jonathan Cahn for more than a year and a half, and have mounted a polemical public relations campaign against him – another minister within Evangelical Christianity – within the Body of Christ.
5.) Jesus’ detractors claimed to uphold the Law and the teachings of the Hebrew Scriptures, while accusing the Lord Jesus as violating that Law and teaching heresy; Jonathan Cahn’s detractors and other critics of The Harbinger claim to uphold the integrity of the Scriptures and claim that Jonathan Cahn teaches error.
6.) Jesus’ detractors claimed that Jesus worked His miracles through Satanic sorcery; Jonathan Cahn’s detractors and critics of The Harbinger such as David James and his colleagues have allowed other critics of The Harbinger to make similar claims, and link prominently to their websites the writings of people who claim that Jonathan Cahn is a Kabbalist, promotes the Occult and Gnosticism, and elevates the Book of Zohar and writings of the rabbis above Scripture. Anyone who is a practicing Kabbalist involved in the Occult and teaches Gnosticism, practices sorcery. This is what these people are accusing Jonathan Cahn of doing, with no rebuke from David James or his colleagues, who continue to prominently link to these articles on their websites.
7.) Jesus’ detractors sought to discredit Jesus everywhere He went; Jonathan Cahn’s detractors and other critics of The Harbinger are doing the same.
These are just seven points, but they serve to illustrate vividly in any thinking and discerning Christian why I chose to bring up these comparisons when address Jonathan Cahn’s detractors and other critics of The Harbinger. Nobody has been more personal than Jonathan Cahn’s detractors and other critics of The Harbinger – among them, David James, Brannon Howse, Thomas A. McMahon, and Jimmy DeYoung.
Because I personally know Jonathan Cahn, have served in ministry under him for many years, and I am intimately acquainted with what he teaches, his core beliefs as a mainline Evangelical Christian and Messianic Rabbi, and know precisely what his book, The Harbinger says, that I write as strongly as I do. I have never had to do this before because I have never been as sure about someone and what he believes and has written as I am about Jonathan and his book and ministry. Only my faith in the Lord Jesus surpasses my assuredness in anything or anyone else. I write as I do as a witness for Jonathan Cahn against his detractors and other critics of The Harbinger and what they say about him, his teachings, his ministry, and his book. They are all false witnesses before God because they write about things they do not know about and about a man they do not personally know and have never met, and have done this for months.
I object to the multi-month’s long polemical public relations campaign of discreditation, accusations, personal attacks of “false teaching,” “mishandling God’s Word,” and other charges made against Jonathan and his book by his detractors and other critics of The Harbinger. This is not how differences are handled, it is horrendously wicked, and serves no purpose but to create dissension, suspicion, and hurt the purpose of the Gospel, because it pits God’s people against one another. It puts them at each other’s throats. This is not biblical. For this reason I have written as I have above and below, because this is the type of behavior God’s people have had to endure from “the religious leadership” right down to this age, and according to the Scriptures; will continue to endure. It’s going to come from somewhere, and where it is going to come from is going to appear legitimate and within the church itself. Should we be surprised that one of our own is the catalyst to present the theological underpinnings of such an enterprise, especially when aim is to attack another person within Evangelical Christianity – another minister WITHIN the Body of Christ? Jonathan Cahn’s detractors and other critics of The Harbinger are not targeting a cult leader or false apostle outside of the Body of Christ; they’re targeting a minister of the Gospel from within the church itself; within the Body of Christ!
v DAVID JAMES: Despite this, we have tried to stay focused on The Harbinger and deal exclusively with the teaching and views of Jonathan Cahn as presented in his book, interviews and messages. In doing so, we have chosen to say very little about those who have so strongly supported and promoted The Harbinger and its author, and who have also leveled some serious personal accusations against those with concerns. However, with The Harbinger phenomenon showing few signs of letting up, it seems that the time has come to begin to address not only the specific issues at hand, but also some of what has been said about those who have been critical of the book because in many ways it has just gotten out of hand.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: I ADDRESS MYSELF TO DAVID JAMES. So you’re doubling down and ramping up your attacks, not only against Jonathan Cahn and his book, but now against anyone who supports it and him? Search and destroy, scorched earth are two terms that appear to fit the vernacular in describing and defining the methods you and your colleagues bring to bear against anyone who disagrees with you. I have written above the reasons for why I use the term here “search and destroy” and “scorched earth,” because the end result of contentions such as these is nothing short of destruction. You don’t seem to realize that it is doubly dangerous because it is being done within the Body of Christ. You are not contending with outside interlopers that have crept into the Body, but with genuine Evangelical believers – with brethren over your disagreements with them. You’re making your disagreements a polemical public relations campaign against them – it is within the Body – and this DOES NOT BRING CHRIST GLORY. NOWHERE IN THE SCRIPTURES ARE WE CALLED TO DO THIS WITH A BROTHER, BUT TO HANDLE SUCH DIFFERENCES WITH TACT AND PRIVATELY AMONG OURSELVES. YOU ARE NOT AND HAVE NOT DONE THIS. THE EVIDENCE IS BEFORE US. WERE THIS A PRIVATE MATTER, I WOULD NOT ADDRESS YOU HERE AS I DO.
I told you when I first wrote you that as this controversy grew, God would make evident who His wheat and the devil’s tares are, and whose side would eventually be vindicated by its own self-evidence before God and man. It is coming to pass. It is not enough for Jonathan Cahn’s detractors and other critics of The Harbinger to have subjected Jonathan Cahn for eighteen long months to the death of by a thousand cuts; oh no. They – according to what David James writes above – are now doubling down and going even more full throttle in your efforts.
This is not how God’s servants work, for if Paul admonishes us in the Holy Spirit, to Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. (Romans 12:14) If we are called to bless our persecutors, how much more should we bless our brethren? For as long as Jonathan Cahn’s detractors and other critics of The Harbinger have sought to destroy and discredit The Harbinger and its author, and have cursed it to damnable hell; Jonathan Cahn has not lifted his voice against them, nor has he said anything or done anything against David James and his colleagues, but has blessed them, even as Mr. James and his colleagues have mounted a multi-month’s long polemical public reproach of him. Who has displayed a genuine Christian conduct throughout this period? Jonathan Cahn’s detractors and other critics of The Harbinger? Or Jonathan Cahn? I believe we know the answer to that question, and so do those reading this, and comparing what David James writes here and has written elsewhere against Rabbi Cahn’s, we can best assess who’s speaking the truth.
THIS IS NOT A PERSONAL AFFRONT OF MINE; THIS IS WHAT JONATHAN CAHN’S DETRACTORS AND OTHER CRITICS OF THE HARBINGER HAVE BEEN ENGAGED IN FOR MONTHS, AND AS DR. REAGAN DOES HERE, I AND MANY OTHERS HAVE BEEN ADMONISHING THESE PEOPLE NOT TO DO THIS. IT DOES NO GOOD TO THE BODY OF CHRIST AND DIMINISHES THEM BEFORE A CYNICAL AND UNBELIEVING WORLD WHOM WE’RE ALL TRYING TO REACH FOR GOD.
v DAVID JAMES: On the front cover of the latest edition of his magazine, Lamplighter, Dr. David Reagan suggests that Jonathan Cahn is “an end-time prophet to America.” This cover is consistent with the fact that he has been repeatedly referred to as a prophet in many interviews, articles and promotions. And although Jonathan Cahn denies that he has ever personally called himself a prophet, I am not aware of any time when he has denied he is a prophet or corrected someone who has introduced him as a prophet. Rather he has always accepted that appellation the many times it has been used of him.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: David James’ statements above would make no sense to anyone reading this, except him, if they were not aware that he is an avowed Cessationist. Knowing that he is a Cessationist brings into proper perspective his objections above to Jonathan Cahn being called a prophet by anyone. Cessationists believe that the sign gifts of the Holy Spirit ended with the death of the Apostles at the end of the Apostolic Age. This is a doctrine that began seeing the light of day as early as the period of the Church Fathers, having its roots in pagan antecedents, taking root in Montanism, and as it has spread and developed through the centuries primarily in Protestants such as Calvinists and many Dispensationalists, and was popularized in the last century by the polemicist Benjamin B. Warfield of Princeton University. As Ruthven writes in his Introduction to his seminal work on Cessationism:
“Cessationism did not originate within orthodox Christianity, but from within contemporary paganism, normative Judaism, and in Christian sects during the first three centuries of the Common Era.”
(Jon Mark Ruthven, On the Cessation of the Charismata The Protestant Polemic on Post-Biblical Miracles, page 15, Word and Spirit Press, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 2011. This is one of the finest and most complete works on the topic of Cessationism.)
You understand that as a bona fide Cessationist, David James objects to anyone being called a prophet, so rather than equivocating about it, he should come out and declare to his readers that he is a self-proclaimed Cessationist, and therefore it is not just Jonathan Cahn being called a prophet that he objects to, but that he objects to anyone calling themselves or being called a prophet. Every Christian today has a prophetic calling to bring the Gospel of God’s Messiah – Jesus Christ – otherwise known as the Great Commission. It is a prophetic calling, because like the prophets of old, we are called to preach repentance, and to bring the people to God in the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit of God. To deny the prophetic calling of each and every born again believer today is to deny the work of the Holy Spirit in teaching, exhorting, warning, reproving, rebuking, instructing, counseling, and much more; all of which are part of this prophetic calling. Cessationists forget that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. (Revelations 19:10)
Are they aware, or do they fail to understand and recognize for themselves that EVERY born again child and servant of God through Jesus Christ has a prophetic mantle over them to preach and teach the Gospel of Jesus the Messiah? Do they fail to fully recognize that anyone with this calling – to share Christ in His Great Commission – as we call it – has been given by God a responsibility to be ambassadors of Christ for God to spread His Good News to all creation? This is prophetic, it is today’s version of the ancient prophet’s office of warning the people and the nations of impending judgment, but also of Good News, because there is with repentance acceptance and reconciliation, offered by God to everyone. To belittle this calling and this office, and cheapen it to a meaningless caricature of what it really is, is blasphemous. It is a blanket denial of the office and work of the Holy Spirit that began with Christ’s Ascension following the advent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and will last until the return of Christ.
v DAVID JAMES: Then, in an article titled “In Defense of a Prophetic Voice,” Dr. Reagan launches a fairly serious attack against the critics of The Harbinger. This is a response to that article (although this response could be generally directed to many who have supported The Harbinger and defended Jonathan Cahn and have said many of the same things.)
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: Because David James has dropped the gauntlet by saying, “this response could be generally directed to many who have supported The Harbinger and defended Jonathan Cahn and have said many of the same things” I take up that challenge to address what he writes here, and have been addressing what he’s written elsewhere – much the same as here and much the same as what appears on his website. I do this because what he’s written here and elsewhere is tacitly incorrect, and has absolutely no substantive theological truth with regards to what he writes about.
I respectfully submit to him and other critics of The Harbinger that anyone who understands God’s Word, and knows what some of the various schools of theology teach, and has read The Harbinger, is able to see that. If David James were to rephrase how he objects to The Harbinger’s message by saying that he disagrees with such and such a position and this is his opinion as sees it, rather than resorting to personal ad hominem attacks such as those we see here, I wouldn’t spend my time addressing these charges. It is with honor that I am found worthy to be numbered among those whom he and your colleagues address here.
In what can only be termed the first direct accusation on the part of David James against Dr. David Reagan, David James writes “Dr. Reagan launches a fairly serious attack against the critics of The Harbinger,” making it quite clear that although Dr. Reagan never mentions David James or any of his colleagues by name, David James interprets Dr. Reagan’s article as a personal attack against him, just for disagreeing. This also is David James’ first example of incriminating himself because he identifies with those of whom Dr. Reagan mentions in his article, though he doesn’t call him by name. But that has not stopped David James from making the connection between himself – the first one to write against The Harbinger – and therefore the source of all of the other articles against it who have read his polemic and have publicized their opinions without reading the book itself. And although he uses the first person plural in reference to “the critics of The Harbinger” here, he personalizes it as Dr. Reagan’s “launches a fairly serious attack against the critics of The Harbinger.”
v DAVID JAMES: NOTE: The section titles are from Dr. Reagan’s article
Pillow Prophets?
As I have followed The Harbinger controversy, I have tried to read everything that has been written about the issue, both positive and negative. What I have found is that theological liberals have been almost uniformly silent about The Harbinger. Although one might expect that it would provoke a response from some in mainstream denominations or from some emerging church leaders, I don’t recall reading anything specific from them. This makes the opening quote in Dr. Reagan’s article both puzzling and troubling:
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: David James opens up with his second charge against Dr. Reagan by saying that though what he’s written has not garnered the type of responses he believed from theological liberals and theological conservatives that he expected, though he has read everything there is to read from those who have written on The Harbinger – both pro and con – he is puzzled that Dr. Reagan should address himself publicly to the critics of The Harbinger to support its author and the book’s premise. Why should that be puzzling? It can only be puzzling if the one who writes about it seeks to discredit the other person’s support for the author and his book, and finds such support a strange phenomenon by calling it “puzzling.” There’s absolutely nothing “puzzling” about Dr. Reagan writing in support of The Harbinger and its author, Jonathan Cahn.
This is Part IV in the series which are my reply to David James’ response to Dr. David R. Reagan’s excellent article on The Harbinger. For those who wish to read the previous reply of mine (Part III) which includes Dr. Reagan’s article, I recommend they’d go to The Pepster’s Post: A Voice in Cyberspace.
Just a word for a moment about this ongoing controversy. When I first heard about The Harbinger’s critics, it was from a fellow congregant at Beth Israel, who referred to me to an interview aired on Brannon Howse’s Worldview Weekend, in which he interviewed Jimmy DeYoung about Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn’s New York Times bestseller, The Harbinger.
She was and continues to be a frequent listener to Howse’s Worldview Weekend radio program, and usually enjoys listening to it, but what she heard in this particular broadcast troubled her greatly. She provided me with the link to it, and I listened to it. What I heard was more than just troubling to me; it was disheartening and beyond contemptible. Instantly I felt compelled to write the entire transcript of the interview and my response to it, which I sent to Howse, who never responded.
In this interview I heard the most horrendous accusations, mischaracterizations, outright lies, and calumnies against a man I’ve known for over ten years, and have served God under for almost as long in ministry, and whose teachings I am extremely well acquainted with, having attended Beth Israel Worship Center with my wife and family since 1998 when the ministry was at Lodi, NJ, and later in Wayne, NJ, at the Jerusalem Center, teaching at the Arise and Shine Academy. In thirty-six years as a born again Christian Evangelical believer in God’s grace, I had never heard such vitriol come out of the mouth of one Christian leader towards another as I did in that interview. I was shocked and dismayed at the things I heard said about a man whom I have known, loved, admired, and respected since I first met him in 1998.
I went to Howse’s website, where there was (and continues to be) posted links to other articles critical of The Harbinger and Rabbi Cahn, and I began reading these. As I read each article against Jonathan Cahn’s book, with each article that I read, the criticisms became increasingly elaborate, increasingly egregious, more personal, and entirely unfounded and without any semblance to fact. One article called Jonathan a mystic while accusing him of being a Kabbalist, and dabbling in the Occult. Another article accused him of being a Free Mason, still another one accused him of Gnosticism. It appeared that each article followed the lead of previous articles before it, but the one that began the entire row of misinformation about Jonathan Cahn and about his book, was David James. It was from this source that these articles got their impetus, so I began to correspond with him and posting replies and rebuttals to his charges on his website. Eventually, I was unable to post these because I had been blocked by him, and I then began posting them on my website The Pepster’s Post: A Voice in Cyberspace, where I’ve had quite a number of viewings since I became involved in this discussion.
At first, I was incensed by what he wrote, because having followed the teachings upon which The Harbinger is based – the sermons and messages that form part of the narrative through the years, and personally knowing what Jonathan believes and teaches – all mainline Evangelical Christian, but with the knowledge of traditional Judaism – I knew that not a single charge Mr. James had made had any basis in reality.
But having been engaged in this polemical exercise of one man’s against another, I have become more and more acquainted not only with The Harbinger and what it teaches, but also what it does not teach – which is what its critics write about. In a way, as I wrote in Part III of this ongoing series, I can thank David James for providing us with the material needed to address matters and issues that would not have been there if David James had not conjured them up from his mind when he read The Harbinger. This has given me the opportunity to biblically address the more egregious entries made by The Harbinger’s critics while writing a book that addresses both them and what The Harbinger does say about the events of 9/11 and Isaiah’s prophecy to ancient Israel. It is a sad thing to see one’s close friend and pastor being pilloried as he has, but it has accorded me the opportunity to be used of God to biblically address the lies, character assassinations – you’ll see them below where he is accused of misleading Dr. Reagan – and other personal attacks against his person, teachings, and ministry; so that when all has been said and done, Jonathan Cahn, being tried by the fire of criticism, will come shining as refined gold for Christ in God.
Thank you
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