This is Part VI in our ongoing series of responses to David James reply to Dr. Reagan’s defense of The Harbinger. It is a good thing that we examine everything thoroughly, and to question anything that does not glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, or bear witness of His Gospel of grace. It is quite another thing to hang a fellow Evangelical brother or sister, fellow servant of God, out to dry, and throw them under the bus for a disagreement that is not fundamental to our faith, but a matter of opinion.
This is precisely what the critics of The Harbinger have done and been doing for the better part of a over a year and a half. It began with the contentions of one man, who being contacted by another over what the other had heard on the 700 Club about a book, and their personal narrow interpretation of what they believed the book to say before they heard read it, but based entirely at the time on how it was described by Pat Robertson when he interviewed my pastor and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn early in 2012. One of these two men purchased a copy of the book and began to read it, already predisposed to find error in it, since he already harbored a prejudiced feeling about it from the onset based at that time upon what the other person told him and how it was presented on the 700 Club by Pat Robertson. These men then consulted other like-minded men, what David James calls in his book – “trusted men” – which is code-speak for someone who thinks as you do; and this prompted Mr. James to put his objections to paper, which became his book, and which T.A. McMahon published through the Berean Call’s publishing house. They were quick to do this, and did not consult Jonathan Cahn about their disagreements over his book, and with this project mounted the most horrendous polemical public relations campaign against another Evangelical Christian in our day.
Mr. James’ objections were merely a string of misreading of what The Harbinger says, with repeated use of logical fallacies made to look and sound biblical, but are nothing but Mr. James’ personal theological biases and opinions without a single shred of evidence that what The Harbinger says is what he and other critics claim. From the logical fallacies and guilt by association arguments used, other camp followers of The Berean Call, The Alliance for Biblical Integrity, Worldview Weekend, and Prophecy Today; began to write their own objections to The Harbinger largely based upon what Mr. James wrote in his book, building on the fallacies and creating ever greater and more outlandish distortions about the book and about Jonathan Cahn and his teachings.
I came across these and answered a good many of them, posting my replies and rebuttals on my website, The Pepster’s Post: A Voice in Cyberspace, while others like Connie/Faith and Ladybug also biblically addressed these ridiculous charges and accusations publicly brought against Rabbi Cahn and his ministry. We were careful to stay as closely as possible to the biblical narrative, and to prayerfully contend with these people about their outlandish speculations against the book and against its author and his ministry. I recalled the Scripture which describes what we had undertaken to do in the Lord, which says:
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.
(2Corinthians 10:3-6)
This group of men, which basically is a very small group, was comprised of names that most Evangelicals have never heard from before, but who have a rather large group of camp followers and supporters for their previous Apologetic work. They are Thomas A. McMahon, Jimmy DeYoung, Brannon Howse, Paul Barreca, Roy B. Zuck, Gary E. Gilley, Thomas Ice, Larry Lebruyn, and Larry J. Waters. Not household names, but people with their own sizeable following. It might be noted that many of these men had already opposed other rather prominent Evangelical leaders, but none of these had ever received the personal treatment that Jonathan Cahn was given by this group. In almost thirty-seven years of walking in God’s grace in Christ, I had never witnessed an Evangelical minister of God being so maligned and mistreated as I had Jonathan Cahn by these men. NEVER.
When I embarked on writing about this, there were already others who had been engaged in the battle for The Harbinger; some really fine servants of Christ, wonderful servants of Christ blogging on Faith’s Corner and Connie Faith’s own review on Amazon.com, and, Ladybug’s review on Amazon.com, and more, as well as others’ postings on Amazon.com, etc.; but none of them had met, or worked with and under the pastoral leadership of Jonathan Cahn, except me.
My wife and I began to attend Beth Israel Worship Center in 1998, and sporadically attended services when these were conducted in the town of Lodi, New Jersey. But all this changed on 9/11, and afterwards, we began attending more frequently, having recommitted ourselves to the Lord, and agreeing that we had found a place where the teaching was biblically balanced and Scriptural, and where everyone is encouraged to serve according to the measure of grace and gift that God has given to each for service in His body by the Holy Spirit.
After much reflection and prayer, examining thoroughly the teaching and ministry of Beth Israel and concluding that of all of the houses of worship we had attended up until that time, it was by far the closest biblically to the ideals enshrined in God’s Word; we became members while still in Lodi, before we made the move to the Jerusalem Center in Wayne, New Jersey in 2007. I recalled at the time, that I said that I had been looking for a place like Beth Israel for thirty years, and that it was the answer to a prayerful longing I felt in my heart all those years – a place where Jew and Gentile can be one in Messiah, just as the early church had been, and as I had been calling Jewish and Gentile believers to do all those years. There at Beth Israel, God has blessed us with many dear and beloved friends and our family of faith in Christ has grown exponentially since. Beth Israel is our home away from home – our second home, and we have developed very close and dear friendships there over the years. By God’s grace and calling, I teach Biblical Studies at Beth Israel’s Jerusalem Center’s Arise and Shine Academy, and my wife Vivian is active in ministering at the Welcoming Center.
My wife and I have had a “front seat” to Rabbi Cahn’s teachings, and being well acquainted with them, we know precisely what he teaches, how he teaches, and what he does not teach all of these years. If there is one thing that I have known about Jonathan all these years is, he is one of the most mainline conservative expositors of God’s Word today. He is not given to hyperbole, nor is he sensational, but is extremely under-spoken though because he expounds the metaphors, symbolic types, and mysteries of Christ in God’s Word in a thoroughly Jewish manner, some like The Harbinger’s critics have accused Jonathan Cahn of just the opposite. This unfortunate.
They misunderstand and misread his book and teachings, and the man. They neither know the man, or his teachings, or his ministry, and have no idea of who he is and what he does, and what Beth Israel is all about. If they are this far from the mark on these things, most assuredly I can tell every reader here and beyond, that what they write about his book – which many of them have never read, and are going by David James’ hearsay – has nothing to do with reality. Here we present each logical fallacy, each guilt by association, each false witness, and address it accordingly with God’s Word, just as I do in my book, The Truth about The Harbinger: Addressing the Controversy and Discovering the Facts About This Prophetic Message, that is soon to be released Lord willing on October 1st. This is why I do this. I do it for the glory of God and the affirmation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a very important part of which is to call God’s people and this nation and its leaders to full repentance before God before it is too late and His wrath is unleashed upon the land and upon its ungodly. We now pick up from Part V in our reply to David James’ response to Dr. David Reagan’s defense of The Harbinger.
Jose J. Bernal
Systems Analyst
As a man thinks within himself, so he is.
Proverbs 23:7a
The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the Lord.
Proverbs 16:33
"Do not petition G-d to go where you are going; rather find where G-d is going and travel with Him."-- Unknown Jewish Wise Man
"I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer not neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.".--- Author Unknown
"It’s not failure, but the fear of failure that stops most people.”-- Philip Anschutz
"THERE IS NOTHING MORE FRIGHTENING THAN ACTIVE IGNORANCE." -- Goethe
"To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth." - Unknown Author
“ A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us. ”— Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Truth is in history, but history is not the truth." - Nicolás Gómez Dávila
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v DAVID JAMES: So, apparently anyone who has criticized The Harbinger falls into the category of “pillow prophet” (or at least in the category of “those who love pillow prophets”). However, anyone who has followed this controversy knows that no one could reasonably suggest that The Harbinger’s critics are the type of “pillow-prophets” he describes. This is a very hollow charge that has no basis in fact.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: What Dr. Reagan has written sounds hollow to David James because he doesn’t accept it, and now rails against it in the face of open criticism of his own methods and his personal attacks against others who disagree with him, especially if they’re Evangelical leaders. Again, in order to discredit Dr. Reagan and other supporters of The Harbinger, David James appeals to his readers by claiming that “anyone who has followed this controversy knows that no one could reasonably suggest that The Harbinger’s critics are the type of “pillow-prophets” he” (Dr. Reagan) “describes” yet disregards totally the evidence that supporters of The Harbinger have presented from the day Mr. James first posted his contentions and published his book. Websites such as Faith’s Corner and Connie Faith’s own review on Amazon.com, The Pepster’s Post: A Voice in Cyberspace, Ladybug’s review on Amazon.com, and the Pepster’s, and more, as well as others’ postings on Amazon.com, etc., have all presented biblical evidences and arguments that run completely contrary to Mr. James’ with historical evidences to support their rebuttals. Again, these have not been addressed by David James or any of the critics of The Harbinger, because to do so as we see here, would expose many of these contentions as nothing but the same “very hollow charge that has no basis in fact” that Mr. James attempts to project onto Dr. Reagan here. Why do I say this? Because as we peel back the layers of these arguments, and compare them to the light of Scripture, it is clear that they are merely contentions with no theological validity whatsoever. In many cases we see how these run counter to one another, while in others, who they run counter to God’s Word. Anyone who dares to challenge his methods and reprove him about them, gets targeted with a public post on The Berean Call’s website and a quick response from Mr. James. We can include also, print articles on the Berean Call’s monthly newsletter, and additional attacks from its readership. He claims humility, but his response to his critics is not a sign of humility. It is just the opposite. He writes to justify himself at the expense of others. This is clear from a sample reading of his “response” to Dr. Reagan here. A humble man does not need to justify himself as David James does here and has done with other critics of his elsewhere. Take the example of Jonathan Cahn, who has for months endured from David James and other critics of The Harbinger the worst type of personal attacks against his book, his teachings, and his ministry, - some of which appear here – and he has not spoken a word against any of them, nor has he tried to justify himself, or said anything in his defense, except to write one or two replies to some to provide them with the biblical explanation to his critics he deserves under God’s Law. The Harbinger’s critics have spent over a year and a half writing and mounting a public reproach against Jonathan Cahn, and he has not once said an unkind word towards any of them. Here, David James is all over Dr. Reagan for just saying that the multi-month polemical public relations campaign is not right; and David James does not consider the possibility – as remote as it may seem to him and to his colleagues – that Dr. Reagan and other Christians like him are correct. It appears here that there is not even the slightest scintilla of evidence showing that David James or his colleagues, may be reconsidering what they’ve done for all this time, or that Mr. James is wrong in responding in order to justify what he and they are doing. But it appears that they are doubling down on them, and now projecting to the public that they are the target of attack by other Christian Evangelicals. This is a ploy to deflect attention away from themselves and project on to others as they continue their eighteen plus month long polemical public relations campaign against Jonathan Cahn and The Harbinger. Although some like Brannon Howse might be having second thoughts. In the most recent broadcast of Worldview Weekend, he says the following during an interview with his guest, Vic Eliason, the Executive Vice President of VCY America Radio Network:
“Why do some discernment ministries and discernment divas seem bent on attacking Godly men on the most trivial and unbiblical issues that really come down to personal preference or non-essential Christian issues? What can we all learn when it comes to destroying arguments raised up against the principles of the Lord, as we are Biblically instructed to do in 2 Corinthians 10:5, versus destroying individuals?”
(Brannon Howse, Worldview Weekend radio program for August 14th, 2013)
This is rather a strange thing to hear from the mouth of Brannon Howse, because he spends the bulk of his time doing precisely what he accuses others of doing! If he is referring to himself, and this is the closest of a confession on his part that he is willing to make in public, though this is not likely, because he’s talking about others as he usually does on his broadcasts, then indeed he is making progress. But he has yet to come out and make a public confession that the group of critics who began this entire theological imbroglio a year and a half ago against The Harbinger and its author – includes himself and his attack at other Christian leaders like Jan Markell, Eric Barger, and others with whom he has personal differences over the issue of The Harbinger. And in the absence of such a public apology on the part of any of these people to Jonathan Cahn and other Christian Evangelicals they’ve offended in public, and David James’ own statements here, where he says, “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”; we must conclude that what they are actually doing is projecting themselves as victims of attack rather than those who’ve for some time hurled mud in other’s faces in the name of Christ, as they claim to “contend for the faith” with them. Again, nowhere in Scripture does it teach that legitimate servants of God are to contend with one another over doctrinal differences of interpretation for a faith they commonly hold. DO THESE PEOPLE REALIZE THAT EVERY TIME THEY STRIKE OUT AGAINST A BROTHER OR SISTER IN CHRIST ON THE AIRWAVES THAT THEY ARE PUTTING A MEMBER OF GOD’S HOUSEHOLD TO OPEN REPROACH IN THE EYES OF THE WORLD AND BEFORE GOD!!!???? ARE THEY EVEN AWARE OF WHAT THEY ARE DOING!!!???? This is not what Scripture prescribes we do over our differences.
LET ME MAKE THIS CLEAR, THE FOLLOWING IS NOT A PERSONAL OBSERVATION OF MINE. WHAT HAS HAPPENED FOR THE LAST EIGHTEEN MONTHS IS INDELLIBLY WRITTEN IN HEAVEN, just as everything else is. The behavior of The Harbinger’s critics, as typified here by David James and many other places on the Internet can be contrasted with Rabbi Cahn’s, and the two of them are worlds apart. Polar opposites. David James rails against his critics and attacks others without provocation – and is complicit in this with his colleagues whom he refers to in the first person plural “we” and “us,” when he and they mounted a polemical public relations campaign against another Christian Evangelical servant of Christ over an eighteen month long period – Who is that Christian Evangelical servant of Christ they’ve attacked? Jonathan Cahn. While Jonathan Cahn allows God to be the One to judge between himself and his critics, and does not say a word against them. Let the readers judge for themselves as to who behaves in a Christ-like manner, and who does not. I respectfully and in the love of Jesus Christ admonish David James and his colleagues to take up a copy of Dr. Michael Rydelnik’s work, The Messianic Hope, Is the Hebrew Bible Really Messianic? read it, and learn how to disagree without being disagreeable. Or in Ladybug’s words, “how to respectfully disagree with their brethren” without being malicious; in other words disagreeing without being disagreeable.
v DAVID JAMES: Another problem is the accusation that these “pillow-prophets” have subjected Jonathan Cahn to “irresponsible and vicious attacks.” With few, if any, exceptions the vast majority of critiques have focused only on the issues and have purposefully avoided personal attacks. I don’t think any of the primary, more well-known critics have said or written anything that could be characterized as anything close to “irresponsible” or “vicious.”
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: NOT TRUE. When David James writes that the vast majority of critiques have focused only on the issues and have purposefully avoided personal attacks. I don’t think any of the primary, more well-known critics have said or written anything that could be characterized as anything close to “irresponsible” or “vicious,” he is not telling the whole truth. The attacks have been vicious, and what David James writes here is the best face effort to present them in a positive light as if that were possible, but they are what they are. David James and other critics of The Harbinger – “do not seem to know how to respectfully disagree with their brethren and this is what needs correction,” as our friend Ladybug has so aptly put it. But take note how fast he reacts to legitimate servants of the Gospel like Dr. Reagan, who come to the defense of a brother in Christ who’s been pilloried publicly and whose reputation as a servant of God has been openly questioned by these critics. If Mr. James’ statement above had any modicum of truth behind it, I would not be addressing him here, on my website, or in my book, The Truth about The Harbinger: Addressing the Controversy and Discovering the Facts About This Prophetic Message.
But because he and his group have put a dear brother in Christ whom I’ve known for years and whose teachings I am extremely familiar with to public scorn and reproach, I must respond. When your friend is being slandered publicly, and you know what they are saying has absolutely no basis in fact, it is sin not to respond. I was compelled to respond as I have, and what I have done is biblical. For the Scripture is clear in this regard, when it says, Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin. (James 4:17) The right thing to do was to address their objections one by one to God’s Word, and to bring them to task for their unbiblical and divisive methods of targeting Christian ministers like Rabbi Cahn.
Look. Maybe I’m overstating it here, but then again maybe not; but I’m trying to drive home the truth that when someone (like David James), or a group of people (like the Berean Call, the Alliance for Biblical Integrity, and Worldview Weekend) spend a period of over eighteen months questioning a servant of Christ’s calling, teachings, ministry, and work; that’s pretty personal, and destructive. This is what the Bible calls putting someone to open reproach. Christians can disagree over matters of tertiary relevance and importance, while maintaining civility, speaking the truth in love, as we are commanded to do in Scripture. (Ephesians 4:15) The language, epithets, descriptions, and phrases David James uses here, in his book, and in his article about Jonathan Cahn is inexcusable and entirely unnecessary. It is unbiblical. This is not how differences are addressed between God’s people. Differences can be resolved without mounting polemical public relations campaigns to destroy the work and ministry of other servants of Christ. There are biblical methods that I discuss in my upcoming book, The Truth about The Harbinger: Addressing the Controversy and Discovering the Facts About This Prophetic Message, that have not yet been used in this discussion, which if they had been properly implemented, much of the damage done by publicizing these differences would have been averted, and isn’t that what we in the Body of Christ should seek to do?
Yet when an Evangelical leader like Pastor Dwight, Jan Markell, Eric Barger, Dr. Michael Brown, Terry James, Alan Kurschner, and here, Dr. David Reagan – a group equally as illustrious as the one David James claims his colleagues to be – and many others not named here, all speak out against this biblically, he responds in writing to justify himself rather than listening closely in humility before Christ, and taking into consideration what these people say. But he turns his attention once again to Jonathan Cahn, and begins to lambast him theologically again and again like a punching bag. DO THEY NOT REALIZE THAT ONE CAN KILL SOMEONE WITH WORDS IF THEY DO IT REPEATEDLY OVER A SPAN OF MONTHS? AND SEE IF THEY’RE NOT AFFECTED BY THE REPEATED BARRAGE OF INVECTIVES. There is something fundamentally un-Christ-like about people who do this to others, and unbiblical. This is not a personal slight or observation on my part; the polemical public relations campaign was mounted in the spring months of 2012 and has continued to this very day. And here David James writes to justify it while continuing to do it right before eyes!
v DAVID JAMES: These charges raise the question of whether Dr. Reagan has actually read some of the more significant critical reviews of The Harbinger. Has he actually considered the substance of our concerns? Has he read The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction?
Dr. Reagan goes on to say:
Jonathan Cahn’s message is thoroughly biblical. It is not based on any new revelation from God. Rather, it is based on the biblical principles that govern God’s relationship with nations.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: The more significant critical reviews of The Harbinger, considered the substance of your concerns? WHO DO THESE PEOPLE THINK THEY ARE!!!????? Here again, David James resorts to the logical fallacy tactic using arguments meant to solicit a thought and therefore create a belief that only those who agree with him are among the ones who “actually read some of the more significant critical reviews of The Harbinger,” and therefore Dr. Reagan by implication here, could not have read them, otherwise he would not be supporting The Harbinger as he does in his article. This is another argument that adds absolutely nothing to the discussion, because it is a gratuitous attempt by David James to claim something without presenting anything. This is nothing but a logical fallacy, and he uses many of them here and throughout his book. He appeals to us and to Dr. Reagan that if we would read his and other critics’ of The Harbinger’s writings against it, we too would see things his way. NOT true. I and many others have followed this for over a year now, and have read David James’ book, his writings, the writings of other critics, but we have also read The Harbinger for ourselves – unlike many of its critics who go by hearsay from one another and from David James – and some of us have viewed and listened to the various teachings Jonathan Cahn has given through the years upon which much of the book is based, and having cross-referenced the public records and all of historical data available – and believe me, it is voluminous – we have reached a totally different conclusion to Mr. James, who writes primarily as a Cessationist and disbeliever that God speaks in this day and age apart from the closed cannon of Scripture. He forgets that the Holy Spirit spoke to him and made the Gospel very real the day he gave his life to Christ and converted. He forgets that even today, in his current theological state of disbelief (Cessationism is a form of disbelief), God uses him for service when he preaches Christ and does not speculate to aggregate his opinions to God’s Word. Oh, and by the way; yes Dr. Reagan has “read some of the more significant critical reviews of The Harbinger. and has “actually considered the substance of” David James’ “concerns.” This is why he is compelled to write as he has. It’s about time. We can express our gratitude to Dr. Reagan for the courage to tell it like it is, and come out against the behavior and practice of some Christians who target and attack other Christian Evangelicals for warning the nation of impending judgment if they do not heed and repent and seek God, calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus for their salvation. I pray that God keeps raising up more courageous men and women like Dr. Reagan to warn these gentlemen about what they have engaged themselves in for more than a year and a half. As for having “actually read some of the more significant critical reviews of The Harbinger,” and considered the substance of” their “concerns,” I repeat once more what I have written above; I’ve read The Harbinger, seen and heard every teaching on it at Beth Israel over the years (the CD collection), and seen The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment video. Then I’ve examined David James’ book, The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? about what he claims The Harbinger says, as well as in over a dozen articles and a few periodicals.
I can tell everyone that what Rabbi Cahn has taught, written, and said is not what is described in David James’ book or in his articles, and articles written by critics of The Harbinger, and periodicals by them. This is why I and others like Faith, Laura/Ladybug, and many more have come out and posted what we’ve discovered at websites like Faith’s Corner and Connie Faith’s own review on Amazon.com, The Pepster’s Post: A Voice in Cyberspace, Ladybug’s review on Amazon.com, and the Pepster’s, and more, as well as others’ postings on Amazon.com, etc., where anyone can read for themselves just how far off the narrative David James and his colleagues have strayed from The Harbinger’s narrative, and from the biblical norm of how to discuss differences of opinion and interpretation.
TO DAVID JAMES I WOULD RESPECTFULLY SUGGEST THAT HE Let The Harbinger speak for itself, don’t try to put into it what is not there, and then claim that you’re biblical. Satan can make that claim because no one cites the Bible more than he does to destroy and discredit God’s servants, and their ministries and work. No Christian Evangelical born again servant of Christ targets other Christian Evangelical born again servants of Christ over an article or a book, or a doctrinal disagreement. This is not the biblical method to redress disagreements over theology amongst God’s people, and those who conduct themselves in this way under the banner of “discernment” are in short order mounting a public reproach of their brother in Christ. Are these people even aware of this!??
This is why a multi-month polemical public relations campaign against any of God’s servants is nothing but a blasphemous fool’s errand. From the beginning until the present, I have not minced with words with these people, and I will not begin to here either. What small group is doing is unbiblical and it is contemptible in the sight of God. It is dividing the body of Christ, and does not serve His purpose or does a thing to save a single soul. I would strongly admonish David James and other critics of The Harbinger to stop what you’re doing and seek God’s forgiveness and make restitution by retracting what you’ve written and said publicly against other Christians. And make a public apology to Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn for defaming him publicly, and rephrase your aspersions and epithets against him. Because it is not right. It is not Apologetics and it is not biblical.
I ADDRESS MYSELF TO DAVID JAMES AND ALL OTHER CRITICS OF THE HARBINGER: YOU HAVE SAID THAT YOU WISH TO ELEVATE THIS DISCUSSION ABOVE THE PERSONAL, THEN YOU MUST BEGIN TO SET THE EXAMPLE BY REPHRASING WHAT YOU HAVE WRITTEN AND DOING SO HERE. IT IS UNNECESSARY AND INFLAMATORY TO CALL A LEGITIMATE EVANGELICAL LEADER SUCH AS PASTOR CAHN, A “FALSE TEACHER,” CLAIMING THAT HIS TEACHING IS “THOROUGHLY UNBIBLICAL,” THAT HE “LIFTS VERSES OUT OF CONTEXT,” AND “MISUNDERSTANDS AND MISAPPLIES THE OLD TESTAMENT,” CLAIMING AS YOU DO THAT “THE ISAIAH 9:10 EFFECT IS UNBIBLICAL,” CALLING THE VOW “AN OCCULTIC SPELL OR INCANTATION RATHER THAN A BIBLICAL PRINCIPLE” WHEN THE SCRIPTURE ITSELF AND HISTORY BEARS WITNESS THAT IT BROUGHT NATIONAL JUDGMENT ON ANCIENT ISRAEL, AND THE PREPONDERANCE OF EVIDENCE INDICATES THAT IT HAS OCCURRED HERE IN AMERICA LONG BEFORE PASTOR CAHN WROTE HIS BOOK, FORGETTING THAT THE VOW HAS BEEN OFT-QUOTED BY OUR NATIONAL LEADERS ON VARIOUS OCCASIONS COMMEMORATING AND TIED TO 9/11 BY ALL OF THEM; BIBLICALLY TIED TO THE VOW SPOKEN BY THE ANCIENT ISRAELITES THEY QUOTE AS “NOTHING LIKE THIS MYSTICAL POWER OF WORDS IS SEEN IN SCRIPTURE,” WHEN IN FACT, IT IS AS WE SHALL SEE BELOW, AND GOING ON TO CLAIM THAT ALL CLAIMS AGAINST THE HARBINGER, THAT IT IS FULL “OF UNBIBLICAL IDEAS AND CONJECTURE,” AND AS YOU PHRASE IT, “A SUBSTANTIAL PART OF THE HARBINGER IS BUILT EXCLUSIVELY ON … UNBIBLICAL PREMISE AND CONJECTURE” – ARE CHARGES WITH NO BIBLICAL BASIS IN REALITY, BECAUSE IT IS ENTIRELY BASED UPON YOUR OPINION, AND SHOULD BE EXPRESSED AS THAT, OR REPHRASED SIMPLY AS A PERSONAL DISAGREEMENT OF YOURS.
AND PERHAPS THE GREATEST PERSONAL CANARD AGAINST RABBI CAHN IS WHERE DAVID JAMES ACCUSES HIM OF MISREPRESENTING WHAT GOD HAS REALLY SAID IN HIS WORD, SAYING: he is misrepresenting what God has really said in His Word—and this is no different from saying that God has said things He has not said.” A HORRENDOUS PERSONAL ATTACK ON A MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL BY ANOTHER.
IF MR. JAMES WISHES TO RAISE THE BAR ON THIS DISCUSSION, I RECOMMEND HE SET THE EXAMPLE AND GET HIMSELF A COPY OF DR. MICHAEL RYDELNIK’S BOOK, THE MESSIANIC HOPE: IS THE HEBREW BIBLE REALLY MESSIANIC? AND READ IT FOR HIMSELF, AND LEARN HOW ONE CAN SCHOLARLY AND BIBLICALLY DISAGREE WITH SOMEONE ELSE WITHOUT PERSONALIZING IT WITH DISPARAGING REMARKS AND USELESS EPITHETS LIKE THOSE HE USES AGAINST PASTOR CAHN.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: As for Dr. Reagan’s statement above. It is absolutely correct and biblical. To take issue with this, is to take issue with God’s Word and standard to the nations. God judges the nations by one standard and one standard only; His inerrant, written Word. He is a God of just weights and measures – sin is sin whether it is committed by a Jew or a Gentile. Sin is sin regardless of whether one commits here, or in the farthest reaches of space. Or is God a god of differing weights and measures? Or as the Apostle Paul in the Holy Spirits asks, Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one. Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law. (Romans 3:29-31) That is the biblical norm.
There is absolutely no other standard whereby which nations, kingdoms, potentates, and states are judge than by the standard of God’s written Word – the Holy Bible. In fact, let’s take it a little further; let’s focus even more narrowly and say, as Paul does in the Holy Spirit of God where he writes:
…with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. (Ephesians 1:10) Compare this with what David James writes below.
The destiny of men is contingent on whether they know Christ as their personal Savior or not; but nations are judged by God’s Word and His standards within His Word. His Word is universal and His commandments are for all people. “You shall not commit murder” means the same thing in Samoa as it does in British Columbia, as it does here; and it is equally as applicable. This is why the proverb declares without making any distinction between nations or races, or religions, that Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a disgrace to any people. (Proverbs 14:34) What righteousness does it speak of? The righteousness based upon the standards established by God in His Word. To argue against that on some theological belief is to contradict Scripture and to think as men think and not as God thinks.
v DAVID JAMES: This is quite a gloss that overlooks a number of serious issues.
For example, the most important principle of biblical interpretation is to never lift a verse from its context. If the context is not considered, it is impossible to understand a passage correctly.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: There is no “gloss that overlooks a number of serious issues,” because the “serious issues” David James refers to here and elsewhere in this response do not exist, but only in the mind of David James according to what he has read into The Harbinger. Let me explain. First of all, nowhere does The Harbinger lift a single verse of Scripture out of context, as David James, and its critics who follow his lead, claim above. I have read the book. I know what misquoting a Scripture out of context is, because I once studied under a friend of mine long before I was a Christian, who was a Jehovah’s Witness. I know the difference. I know when Scripture is misquoted, or quoted out of context. The Harbinger DOES NOT quote Scripture out of context, or misquote it. We are going to see why it is equally as wrong to paint with a broad brush as David James does here with his blanket statement claiming that the most important principle of biblical interpretation is to never lift a verse from its content, and as he writes, “If its context is not considered, it is impossible to understand a passage correctly.” Really? Let’s have a look where this applies and where it cannot apply. While it is true that in many cases this holds true, it is not always true in dealing with prophecy and the prophetic. Take for example the Evangelists’ use of various prophecies that hold ancient historical and prophetic fulfillments, and applying them as a Sensus Plenior on events that occurred in their day to which they were eye-witnesses. If we were to accept David James’ blanket and broad statement above as a rule of thumb, and apply it to all of the Scriptures, as he claims we should here and throughout his writings, then much of the New Testament would be, according to this criteria, quoting the Hebrew Scriptures out of context, and applying them erroneously to the Messiah’s life. This is where such broad statements and argumentations, which Mr. James is very adept at performing, should never be entirely embraced without first considering its ramifications even though on their surface such statements may appear at first glance to be plausible and even true. They are not, and we shall see why. Now, I am not advocating that a Sensus Plenior should be applied to The Harbinger’s use of Isaiah 9:10, though a very biblical case can be made for this if necessary, but I am not making that claim here. I am only and very simply stating that it is NOT impossible to understand a Scripture when a Sensus Plenior is applied to it, because if this were true, none of the prophetic Scriptures quoted and applied by the Evangelists in their Gospels would be understood by its readers, and recognized by them to be direct fulfillments of the passages used as biblical corroborations from the Hebrew Scriptures of events described in the Gospel Narratives to which the Evangelists write as eye-witnesses. If David James’ rule of thumb were true, then he is at odds with all four Gospels and how they apply historically prophetic events to events in the lifetime of Christ. Also, the Scriptures speak directly to people right out of its pages as the Holy Spirit imparts to them personally on a given situation or circumstances, often regarding an important decision or work that person is about to make and embark upon that holds great significance to their calling in Christ. We’ve seen and experienced this so often that it is good for one to keep a journal of such occurrences. This is part of what the Scriptures do, this is why they were written, and how they work in the framework of our lives. No Evangelical Christian who treasures God’s Word will argue that a Bible verse or passage that has jumped out to speak directly to one’s situation, is equivalent to taking that verse out of context because it speaks about someone else in the Bible. Additionally, the argument David James uses here is precisely the one used by Counter-Missionaries and Rabbinical Judaism against The Gospel and the methods used by the Evangelists in the New Testament, and Mr. James’ use of it here so broadly as he does to apply against The Harbinger, if accepted, lends credence to Judaism’s contention that the Evangelist’s lifted Hebrew prophecy out of its original context because of their use of quoting it often singular verses to apply to Christ’s life, and accuse them of lifting entire passages of prophetic Scriptures out of context to apply it to a facet of Jesus’ life. We know this is not true, because of the evidences throughout the rabbinical writings that predate these modern contentions as applying almost identically these prophecies exclusively to the Messiah. But here David James uses the same Counter-Missionary arguments Jews for Judaism use against Sensus Plenior use in the Scriptures to support his polemical attacks on The Harbinger, and The Harbinger doesn’t even use Sensus Plenior to Isaiah’s prophecy, although a case for its use can be supported, and I’ve made it elsewhere. This argument does not work, because its premise has no basis in reality, just as the arguments used by Jews for Judaism against Christ have no basis in reality. In explaining how a biblical pattern of warning followed by judgment that first manifested itself in ancient Israel, and has now manifested itself in the Nine Harbingers in America, The Harbinger does not lift a verse out of context. David James has read that contention into the book, but anyone who has read it, can say with confidence, that what he accuses it of doing it does not do. It is a figment of David James’ imagination and a product of his own reasoning. As I have written above, I repeat here: David James didn’t read THE HARBINGER; David James read into THE HARBINGER and then wrote what he read into it and published it.
v DAVID JAMES: However, this is precisely what Jonathan Cahn has done with Isaiah 9:10. The (sic) nine verses which precede Isaiah 9:10 represent one of the most important Messianic Kingdom passages in the entire Old Testament, yet they are completely ignored in The Harbinger.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: Jonathan Cahn does not lift Isaiah 9:10 out of context, nor are the preceding and following verses ignored in The Harbinger, as claimed here. On pages 217 and 218 in the chapter titled Things to Come, the rest of Isaiah’s 9th chapter is dealt with and addressed in the context of God’s ongoing pattern of warning and judgment, warning and judgment. This is why I write that I do not know what book Mr. James read, because it was not The Harbinger. Just what he writes here based upon what he writes in his book, illustrates that David James either didn’t read The Harbinger or he’s tried to read things into it that it does not have. What David James presents before us is another logical fallacy. There are nine verses that precede Isaiah 9:10, and they are the most important Messianic Kingdom passages in the entire Old Testament. The Harbinger doesn’t mention them. Therefore The Harbinger purposely ignores them. WRONG. The Harbinger does not ignore the other part of Isaiah’s prophecy, what David James rightly calls “the most important Messianic Kingdom passages in the entire Old Testament,” it cites only the part of Isaiah 9 that has relevance to the occurrences which three prominent American leaders; two senators and one president, and several other leaders from across the nation have quoted and applied both to 9/11 in modern America, and tied it directly to this nation’s rebuilding, replanting, and recovery efforts without the single and slightest mention of God, though they quote from His Word and apply it to our day. But David James followed by other critics of The Harbinger have chosen to ignore that, and many other very important details which the book brings out. On the contrary, much of what has happened to America – the rapid moral and spiritual degeneration, the biblical illiteracy rampant throughout the land, the rise of false “apologetics” ministries passing themselves off as “discernment” ministries, twisting the meaning and clear application of Scripture in 1Corinthians 12:10 to mean intrusive ad hominem attacks of some Evangelicals against others – are all signs to the discerning that the wheel of judgment, preceded by warnings, is about to turn full circle, with America caught in its middle. It is very likely that the groundwork for the persecutions of Christian Evangelicals in this country will be coming directly from within our own ranks, and similar arguments as those made here by critics of The Harbinger against Jonathan Cahn, will be used to brand us as “heretics, “false teachers,” “false prophets,” and many other epithets used here by the critics of The Harbinger. The persecution is already manifesting itself where one Evangelical, or a group of them, attacks another in public. This is unprecedented. It won’t just come in the most obvious ways that we’re beginning to see, like being branded “homophobe,” “bigot,” “intolerant,” “dinosaur,” but from within our own ranks, by leaders within our own Body, just as Christ has prophesied, “At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another.” (Matthew 24:10) Are we beginning to see this already? Wouldn’t this be what we are witnessing in many of these “discernment” groups who conduct the public outing and holding of another Christian Evangelical brother or sister to scorn on the Internet, or in print, or book form as nothing but an overt act of open betrayal and reproach? Of course, we can anticipate that Cessationists like David James, his colleagues, and other critics of The Harbinger; will retort, “But look at the next verse, where Christ says, ‘Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many,’ (Matthew 24:11) and their favorite, “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.”
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:15-23) in support of their contention against anything prophetic in nature to use that argument, as they often do, to attack Evangelical Christian Pentecostals and Charismatics as illegitimate.
Yet, those who would use that argument forget that history’s false teachers did not mitigate in the least the message of God’s genuine prophets and His messengers. The false prophets in ancient Israel didn’t keep God from sending His true prophets did they? If He did this when the work and dispensation of the Holy Spirit was limited to a few kings, judges, prophets, and leaders, God will most certainly speak to His people in this age when He causes His Holy Spirit to dwell in all of His people. And God will continue to speak prophetically to His people when it is necessary and in His will to do so, as He has done since the beginning of time, and He will do this until Christ returns in glory. We see two of these prophets in the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ that John penned in the Holy Spirit. (Revelations 11:3) We cannot recklessly throw out all prophets and teachers because some are false, can we?
But at this hour, we see rampant promiscuity, increasing corruption and graft in all levels of government, from the presidency on down to the state and local level, the social Marxist Liberation Theology and Black Liberation Theology gospel replacing the true Gospel, preached across the land and implemented as liberal Socialist government policy, Crony capitalism from the federal to the state and local level of our government, stolen elections and stuffed ballots, illegal wars of national liberation in the name of helping “the Arab Spring” as this government replaces friendly foreign governments with Islamist ones, even helping enemies like Al Qaeda, while negotiating “peace” deals with our enemies such as the Taliban and the Muslim Brotherhood, and welcoming Islamists and Jihadists into the White House, funding terrorist Hamas, an enemy of our ally Israel and of the hapless Lebanese people.
I can go on and on, but these examples such suffice. We have made evil good and good evil, what we now call “tolerance” does not tolerate free speech, but calls it “hate speech,” what we call now marriage is nothing but the forced legitimization of a deviant life style which the Bible calls not just sin, but an abominable sin. The current President of the United States now promotes and enforces this lifestyle in all branches of our armed forces, our government bureaucracy, our public school system (which he has quietly nationalized without it being reported by any of the major news media), and is seeking to impose by force of law onto our religious institutions through Obamacare.
All of the above are signs and indicators that our nation is in rapid degeneration, and instead of spending their time, efforts, energy, and people’s hard earned money which they give to these people via donations arguing endlessly against the messenger and the message; they ought to join Jonathan Cahn and others like him in the Evangelical community, in sounding the alarm loud and clear. It escapes their notice that ARE NOT dealing here with a cultist teaching aberrant New Age Philosophy who gets people’s ears tickled, they’re addressing themselves in the most blasphemous ways against a fellow servant of God in Christ, and have engaged in trying to bring him down for a year and a half. THIS IS NOT BIBLICAL, THIS IS NOT CHRIST-LIKE, THIS IS NOT CHRISTIAN. AND DR. REAGAN IS RIGHT TO BRING THIS MATTER UP TO THEIR ATTENTION SO THAT THEY’LL AWAKEN AND REALIZE WHAT THEY’RE INVOLVED IN.
v DAVID JAMES: Neither are the following verses considered. How is it that a single verse in the middle of a chapter with twenty-one verses is a template for events which have happened in America and the other twenty verses have no connection whatsoever? If just 9:10 is a template, why not the entire chapter? And if not the entire chapter, why 9:10? Surely a Bible teacher like Dr. Reagan realizes just how serious this problem really is. It is difficult to understand how he can suggest that The Harbinger’s message is “thoroughly biblical.” And this only begins to scratch the surface.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: So why does David James, say that “Neither are the following verses considered,” and then continue the lie by asking, “How is it that a single verse in the middle of a chapter with twenty-one verses is a template for events which have happened in America and the other twenty verses have no connection whatsoever? If just 9:10 is a template, why not the entire chapter? And if not the entire chapter, why 9:10? Surely a Bible teacher like Dr. Reagan realizes just how serious this problem really is. It is difficult to understand how he can suggest that The Harbinger’s message is “thoroughly biblical.” And this only begins to scratch the surface. Because he uses these logical fallacies to re-write the narrative of The Harbinger and insist that The Harbinger misquotes Scripture, when it does not.
Let’s examine each one of these logical fallacies Mr. James presents before us to befuddle us and redirect our attention to the fact that not a single contention of his disproves what The Harbinger says.
The first logical fallacy David James uses here is the following example: “Neither are the following verses considered,” the premise: The Harbinger considers only one verse and ignores the others. Conclusion: The Harbinger misquotes Isaiah because it only focuses on a single verse. This is not true. We cite below the next paragraph the precise locations of where The Harbinger describes the historical context in the biblical text.
Our next example of his next logical fallacy by rhetorically asking, “How is it that a single verse in the middle of a chapter with twenty-one verses is a template for events which have happened in America and the other twenty verses have no connection whatsoever?” The premise: is a single verse in the middle of a chapter with twenty-one verses cannot be a template for events which happened in America, because The Harbinger ignores the other twenty-one verses, and disconnects the one verse from the other twenty-one verses in the chapter. Conclusion: The Harbinger takes the verse out of context, and cannot be used as a template of judgment. These gratuitous logical fallacies do not present any evidence to support the charge David James attempts to establish. They are there simply there to distract from the facts in order to re-write the narrative and replace it with another one.
Well, who said the other verses were not connected? You won’t find it in The Harbinger, but that doesn’t keep Mr. James from asking the question. As a matter of record, The Harbinger’s description of the historical context provides the evidence that what Mr. James claims here is simply another logical fallacy of his invention in order to create the illusion that The Harbinger overlooks a part of Scripture while quoting another. It does not. The Harbinger does not overlook the rest of Isaiah’s chapter, but describes a good part of it in vivid detail on pages 9, 16, 17, 18, 23, 27, 28.
David James continues to use his logical fallacy repeatedly by asking, If just 9:10 is a template, why not the entire chapter? And if not the entire chapter, why 9:10?” This is done in order to perpetuate the illusion that The Harbinger ignores one part of Isaiah 9 while focusing on another. This has already been disproven as another logical fallacy of Mr. James. The reason people use logical fallacies, such as those David James uses here and in his book, is so that they will not have to prove what they have to say. Since their argument is weak, and the evidence paltry at best, none existent really, then the best tactic is the use of repeated logical fallacies, and there is no end of them either here in Mr. James’ reply to Dr. Reagan, or throughout his book.
Finally, in a fit of mocking sarcasm, David James directs his next statement as a personal jab at Dr. Reagan. He writes, Surely a Bible teacher like Dr. Reagan realizes just how serious this problem really is. It is difficult to understand how he can suggest that The Harbinger’s message is “thoroughly biblical.” And this only begins to scratch the surface.” This coupe de grace offered up by David James to Dr. Reagan is meant to solicit a response, as well as giving the illusion that Mr. James somehow has the theological and moral high ground in the discussion. His tone is patronizing, and it is meant to be. Unfortunately, by doing this, Mr. James diminishes himself and adds nothing to advance his criticism of The Harbinger. None of these statements have added any credibility to David James’ contentions. If this is the best that he can come up with, then he isn’t worth addressing, and Dr. Reagan who realizes this, has chosen not to.
What David James does here he’s also done in his book, The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? Reviewing this book on Amazon.com, Ladybug, makes the following very good observation about how Mr. James handles this prophecy. She writes:
“SIGNS, BY THEIR VERY NATURE, ARE PROPHETIC.
“10. On pp. 124, David James gets himself all worked up over Jonathan Cahn saying "It has to happen", meaning the prophesied judgment if people do not repent. He says, and I quote:
'Conversely, if something must happen because of something that was said, then there is a prophetic connection. This is precisely why Cahn cannot legitimately deny that he sees a prophetic connection between Isaiah 9:10 and America. The Prophet said, "If the warning is rejected, then, yes, it has to happen." So, what is it that must happen? The prophesied judgment.'
“Rabbi Cahn does not deny that his message is prophetic nor that there is a ‘connection.’ He never has. He's used those terms himself. But this does not mean Isaiah 9:10 was written TO or ABOUT America. It can still just be a template or pattern of judgment without touching the hermeneutic.
“There is one thing we ALL seem to agree on and that is that America is heading down a road to judgment and needs to repent. Even David James has said this. So why is he getting on Rabbi Cahn's case for saying the SAME thing? Any Bible and/or prophecy teacher worth his salt is saying this too. So why pick on Rabbi Cahn when he is in good company with conservative Bible teachers here? Doesn't the Bible teach that "the wages of sin is death"? Is this only to be applied to individuals? Can't it be applied to nations or relationships, for instance? OF COURSE judgment HAS to happen if the warning is not heeded. I don't know anyone who would say otherwise. This criticism is absolutely bizarre!
“Then David says in the following paragraph:
‘"The author has tried to get around this problem by explaining that Isaiah 9:10-11 is merely functioning as a sign to America (as noted in chapter 3 of this book). However, if what did happen had to happen, then the sign has prophetic force, and any attempt to distinguish a sign from a prophecy in relation to the Isaiah passage is not convincing."’
Ladybug’s retort to David James’ inability to understand The Harbinger’s “prophetic force” – as he calls it here – is brilliant. She writes:
“Rabbi Cahn has never distanced himself from calling THE HARBINGER a prophetic message simply by "downplaying" the harbingers as "signs". Let's think for a moment. What is a "sign"? A sign tells you of something REAL that's just ahead. Have you driven on a road lately? When there is a sign posted that a stop light is coming, guess what? You should expect a REAL stop light to be just ahead on that road so prepare to stop, if necessary. The sign, by its very nature, IS prophetic! I don't understand David's argumentation here.”
Again, I repeat, on pages 217 and 218 in the chapter titled Things to Come, the rest of Isaiah’s 9th chapter is dealt with and addressed in the context of God’s ongoing pattern of warning and judgment, warning and judgment. It appears that in his theological rule book David James uses broad generalizations in order to convince his readers who do not have as broad an understanding about hermeneutics to counter Mr. James’ charges against The Harbinger, and taking advantage of that, he places conditions which he lifts out of thin air and apply them broadly in order to counter the message of The Harbinger. We have already seen above where we see this happen. But all one has to do is go straight to the Scriptures themselves and see for oneself the very use of biblical interpretation he claims above should NEVER be done by anyone, as we have seen with how his broad rules apply to the Gospel Narratives. Let’s go straight to God’s Word and examine what it says and compare it to what David James is saying here, and in his book, then compare how this squares with the facts.
David James rhetorically ask, “How is it that a single verse in the middle of a chapter with twenty-one verses is a template for events which have happened in America and the other twenty verses have no connection whatsoever? If just 9:10 is a template, why not the entire chapter? And if not the entire chapter, why 9:10?” without giving thought that such a technique has been used not once, but several times by the Evangelists when addressing Messianic Prophecy in their Gospels. Let’s go to the Scriptures in God’s Word for our answers.
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.
Hosea 11:1 and Matthew 2:15
Hosea, whose name is a variant of the name of the Hebrew Yeshua, which means “salvation,” lived in the northern kingdom 8th century B.C., during the reign of Jeroboam. His contemporary was Amos the prophet who also prophesied to the northern kingdom, though he was from Tekoa, a town about six miles north east of Bethlehem of Judah. Hosea the prophet describes how God loved the people of Israel as His own Son since his youth and mentions the Exodus out of Egypt as an example of how the Lord loved and cared for him (Hosea 11:1) though Israel sacrificed to Baal and bowed to graven images (Hosea 11:2). The lad Israel was a enslaved in Egypt and the Lord God brought them whom He calls “My Son” out, because He loved His people as though they were His own Son. Now move several centuries into the future, to sometime around 4 B.C., about the time of Herod the Great’s death, where in his Gospel Matthew writes that hearing news of Herod’s death (Matthew 2:19-23) Mary and Joseph return from Egypt with Jesus, applying Hosea’s prophecy of the Exodus to Jesus’ return from exile in the land of Egypt (Matthew 2:15). 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’ return to the land of Israel.
Jeremiah 31:15 and Matthew 2:16-18
Our third example is even greater in contrast as we shall see. The Babylonian Exile was so seared into the hearts and minds of the Jewish people that ninety years after the tragic event, Jeremiah, who lived around the year 627 B.C. raised a loud prophetic lamentation over his people and their plight in Ramah (modern Er Ram), a settlement in the area of Gibeon and Beeroth (see Joshua 18:25) approximately five miles north from Jerusalem, where Jeremiah was released from prison (Jeremiah 39:11-14, 40:1) describing as seeing Rachel who was buried in Ramah (Genesis 35:19, 49:7, 1Samuel 10:2) barren until she gave birth to Benjamin and died as he was born (Genesis 35:18); is seen by the prophet weeping bitterly for her grandchildren (Jeremiah 31:15), whose descendants – (from Ephraim and Manasseh, sons of Joseph; Rachel’s son, Genesis 30:22-24, see 48:1-2) were taken into exile into Babylon on 722 B.C. Now move several centuries into the future, to a period sometime towards the end of the reign of Herod the Great, when according to Matthew’s Gospel, Herod ordered the slaughter of Bethlehem’s children up to two years old and younger (Matthew 2:16—18). This type of brutality from Herod is attested to by Josephus and other historians of the period. 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.; Herod’s genocidal act of slaughtering Bethlehem’s innocents – a day that will live in infamy.
The argument that David James attempts to use here to posit that Isaiah 9:10’s prophecy does not and cannot be applied to the events of September 11th, 2001 and subsequent events which the Nine Harbingers characterize prophetically because the verse denotes a specific historical event; cannot be defended under the circumstances, because herein lies the duality of the prophetic. We’ve seen three examples of this in Matthew’s Gospel. One Internet site describes the duality of Prophetic Scripture, and thereby defining its role in history:
“In fully understanding how the Bible utilizes this principle of "double fulfillment", one becomes armed against many Amillennial and Postmillennial objections. One will also begin to unlock many of the predictions the Bible has for the ‘last days’.”
(Pastor Joey Faust, Double Fulfillment)
Were these people to critique the writings of the New Testament as they do The Harbinger, using the same linear/minimalist/literalist Cessationist method they use against The Harbinger, they would brand the entire New Testament heretical, because its writers employ the very same principles Jonathan Cahn does to prophecy in The Harbinger, only he allows the events themselves as they occurred to define the prophetic reenactments of God’s judgment on this nation. This is something these people cannot bring themselves either to understand or accept.
In The Harbinger, the observation David James makes is also made, but with the question of the incredible probability that out of all of the verses of the Bible, two prominent leaders decided on separate occasions to utter the prophecy of Isaiah 9:10 in our nation’s capital. Let’s follow the conversation, Nouriel Kaplan has been relating to the publisher, Ana Goren how John Edwards, the vice presidential candidate on Senator John Kerry’s ticket in 2004, had uttered the precise verse of Isaiah 9:10 to a gathering of the Congressional Black Caucus, and we pick up the conversation where Ms. Goren asks:
“But how,” she asked, “did it happen that the vice presidential candidate could end up saying those words?”
(Nouriel Kaplan) “That’s the same thing I wanted to know. I asked the prophet how many verses were in the Bible?”
(The prophet) “Over thirty thousand, “ he told me.
(Ana Goren) “So how on earth did he end up choosing that particular verse?”
(Nouriel Kaplan) “How was the Sycamore cut down?” he asked. “Through a series of twists and quirks. But now the twists and quirks take place in the realm of speech writing, in the searching through quotations deemed most appropriate for such occasions, in the borrowing of passages and quotes from other proclamations and speeches. It doesn’t matter how it happened: the point is it happened. One of the most prominent of American leaders had now proclaimed the ancient vow – one of the most obscure verses in the Bible and one of the most ominous.”
(Pastor Jonathan Cahn, The Harbinger, page 108, copy write 2012, Charisma Media/Charisma House Book Group, Lake Mary, Florida)
Additionally, Mr. James, who claims above to be as graciously impersonal as he can be, is just the opposite. He incorrectly describes Rabbi Cahn’s teaching is “thoroughly unbiblical,” claiming that he “lifts verses out of context,” and “misunderstands and misapplies the Old Testament,” claiming that “the Isaiah 9:10 effect is unbiblical,” calling the vow nothing but “an occult spell or incantation rather than a biblical principle.”
Then in a form of blasphemous theological relativism that is surprising from an Evangelical Christian, David James describes the reiteration and quoting of this vow by American leaders as public policy and The Harbinger’s depiction of it as “nothing like this mystical power of words is seen in Scripture,” when in fact, Scripture does offer us examples of this, as we shall see below. Then he continues to claim that the book is full “of unbiblical ideas and conjecture,” and, “a substantial part of The Harbinger is built exclusively on … unbiblical premise and conjecture.” Another logical fallacy that Mr. James would like us to believe. Respectfully, this is the kind of rhetoric and theological relativism that has stricken the Church and especially its seminaries in recent years, and it is most unfortunate to hear it come from an Evangelical Christian like David James. It is most unfortunate.
In his polemical book against The Harbinger, David James tries to create two problems regarding Isaiah 9:10 and the judgment surrounding it; one hermeneutic, the other historic. He writes:
“This leaves Cahn with two major problems. If Isaiah 9:10 is to both ancient Israel and America, he is faced with an insurmountable hermeneutical problem. But if instead there really is such a thing as the Isaiah 9:10 Effect, he then has a historical problem.”
(David James, The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction?, page 130, The Berean Call, 2012, Bend, Oregon)
Mr. James then continues by citing the years 1812, 1861, and 1941; years which allude to the War of 1812, the American Civil War Between the States, and Japan’s strike against Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 as examples of what appear to him as historical problems, because according to him, “it could have happened at any time in the past or it could happen again at any time in the future.” (ibid, page 130, bottom) He is correct in this assumption. Yes, such events have happened in the past and can recur in the future, if the nation does not heed the warnings – The Harbingers – as greater judgments befall the nation that ignores them. We see it in biblical history, where the northern kingdom suffered a minor breach, but ten years later was invaded, raped, and its people carried off into exile by the Assyrians, and many years later where the southern kingdom suffered the same fate at the hands of the Babylonians.
But David James unnecessarily complicates the equation with the following logical fallacy (he does this repeatedly throughout his book), concluding, “On the other hand, if it could only have happened one time on September 11, 2001, then there is no such thing as the Isaiah 9:10 Effect as a principle.” (ibid, page 130, bottom) Well, no one is saying this, but David James. It is David James and David James only who is positing that it could only have happened one time. The Harbinger certainly doesn’t do it, because it warns in chapters Fourteen and Fifteen, the biblical principle of God’s repeated warnings to the nation and its repeated rejections of those warnings ultimately results in its national judgment. Thus, the reason for the Nine Harbingers having occurred. What book is this guy reading?
So why does David James come up with this logical fallacy that The Harbinger speaks of only one incident when America’s hedge of protection was lifted, and its defenses breached, and a limited strike was made upon the land? Because he must do this in order to create the illusion using the logical fallacy that because (according to him) it “only … happened one time on September 11, 2001” – for that reason, the Isaiah 9:10 Effect “does not exist as a principle,” when in fact The Harbinger doesn’t make this distinction, but describes only the one that effected America in our day, and documents and warns about the others – what it calls Harbingers, used by God to warn our nation.
Additionally, it is a logical fallacy to claim that because David James, or anybody else cannot make the biblical connections and significance of these other dates and the tragedies that befell our nation when they occurred, therefore such connections do not exist. This doesn’t indicate that such connections do not exist. Because we do not see them does not mean they don’t exist. Their existence is not depended upon whether or not we are able to recognize them. David James wants us to think it does and sets up a logical fallacy as a rule in the process.
THE CHARGE For example, if God removed his "hedge" on 9/11, how are we to understand Pearl Harbor? Washington, D.C. was burned in the War of 1812. The World Trade Center was bombed in 1993. Radical Muslims have been attacking America since 1979.[1] And what about the numbers of dead from our Civil War and the Second World War compared to just 3,000 on 9/11?
Never, but never should the number of dead in any tragedy be used as an excuse to discount God’s judgment on a nation. To use such a metric shows a callous disregard for human life that no Christian should ever display. This is how man thinks and determines things, not how God thinks. One death is a death too many. Human life is precious in the sight of God, so much so that He gave His only Begotten Son for that life.
So let’s be careful with our arguments and be sober and biblical with our reasoning, and not get carried away for the sake of rebuttals. On the day the Law was given three thousand Israelites perished by the sword of their fellow Israelites.[2]
The Scriptures are clear that there are none righteous, no not one.[3] Because we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.[4] This presages that we must be very careful how we think and interpret things, and not read into them things that are not there, or dismiss God from them. As the Apostle Paul admonished Timothy in very strong terms to take pains with these things and pay close attention to himself and his teaching.[5]
Man looks at the outward appearance and makes his determinations based upon what he sees; whereas to God who looks at the heart, He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Pleading with Israel, the Lord says this:
Say to them, ‘As I live!’ declares the Lord God, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?’[6]
We should not be quick to dismiss a warning’s historical and Scriptural origin’s/connections on the flimsiest of arguments of our own inabilities to connect other tragic moments in human history – the War of 1812, the American Civil War, Pearl Harbor, the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, and the Oklahoma City Bombing, and every other disaster – with the prophetic.
Anyone can makes excuses why they don’t believe in the prophetic, and it’s done all the time; atheists and agnostics and unbelievers do it quite often in fact, against the Scriptures and against Bible Prophecy.
But it is a very strange thing to see the same type of thinking from people who believe to be professing Christians. It is stranger still to read these people’s articles about the certainty of the prophetic, while reading opinions of theirs that contradict these beliefs.
If my excuse to dismiss the various signs and subsequent events which followed 9/11 is because I cannot understand or connect the underlying prophetic and spiritual origins and outcomes of other historic events such as the burning of Washington, D.C. by the British during the War of 1812, the War Between the States, or other events in our history; then my excuse is nothing but an excuse to dismiss and be disbelieving the obvious.
We will cite two examples that The Harbinger’s critics use in arguments against Pastor Cahn’s New York Times best-seller; the Burning of Washington during the War of 1812 and the American Civil War Between the States.
THE WAR OF 1812: ONE OF THE FAVORITE EXAMPLES USED BY CRITICS
It is strange that The Harbinger’s critics would mention the burning of Washington, D.C. during the War of 1812, because if there were any definite signs of divine intervention, these occurred during that war.
Perhaps the most telling is the one which follows, which involves of all things, the British invasion of our capital. During the summer of 1814, a fleet of British warships sailed into Chesapeake Bay carrying over 4,500 British troops as they headed towards Washington.
With the defeat of Napoleon on April 6th, and his exile to the island of Elba in on April 6, the British were free to fight their war against the new nation of the United States in North America.[7] These soldiers were fresh from their successful victories against Napoleon in Europe, some of the finest troops in Europe.
They dispatched three large invasion armies, with a brigade consisting entirely of battled hardened veterans from the army of the Duke of Wellington under the command of Major General Robert Ross.
Their warships sailed up the Patuxent River and anchored at Benedict, Maryland on August 19, 1814. After these troops had landed, they wasted no time and marched towards Washington.
Their mission was to capture the capital and destroy it in revenge for the American burning of the Provincial British Parliament in York, Canada in early 1813; something for which they held the United States responsible.
Although the Americans had hastily organized a force of 7,000 Americans near the Potomac River to defend Washington, when the two armies clashed in August 24th, the British quickly routed the less disciplined Americans, comprised mostly of inexperienced civilian volunteers. The British victory at the Battle of Bladensburg in August 1814 allowed them to capture and burn Washington, D.C.
Because of a series of American blunders President Madison and Secretary of State Monroe, who had led a group of officials to watch the battle, were almost captured in the melee that followed. The 100°F temperatures made the fighting more difficult for both sides in the conflict, but the resistance the British expected did not materialize.
The British continued their march into Washington as all American forces and government officials retreated hastily, and scattered across Maryland and Virginia. President Madison, fled the capital carrying the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence along with a Gilbert Stewart’s portrait of Washington and others, saved by First Lady Dolly Madison.
That same night British forces entered Washington unopposed and proceeded to set fire to many of the public buildings in what later became known as “the Burning of Washington,” but not before they had had their fun.
Although Lieutenant General Prevost had earnestly counseled Vice Admiral Cochrane to avenge the burning of Port Dover on Lake Erie’s north shore earlier that year by American forces, Cochrane issued the order that American lives were to be spared, but their property forfeit. He allowed his troops to levy a type of protection money in return for sparing buildings.
The result was that during their advance into Washington and their occupation of it, there was little or no looting that took place either by Ross’s troops or Cochrane’s sailors. “However, when the British later withdrew to their ships in the Patuxent, discipline was less effective (partly because of fatigue) and there was considerable looting by foraging parties and stragglers and deserters.”[8]
The British admiral[10] ate his dinner in the White House that evening. Afterwards he gave orders to his troops to burn the White House, the Capitol, the US Treasury, and almost all public buildings within the city. When British forces entered the abandoned Capitol Building; they staged a mock session, toasted President Madison, and then set fire to the building.
“Dr. William Thornton ran the Patent Office and just as the soldiers were set to torch the building, he told the perpetrators that they would be no better than the barbarians who had put ablaze the Ancient Library of Alexandria. I suppose in shame, the Redcoats backed off and the Patent Office was saved. Then, Divine Providence showed up.[11]
The British had succeeded in burning as many public buildings in Washington as they could, and when it dawned on August 25th, the capital was still burning. It was reported that smoke could be seen from as far away as Baltimore, Maryland.
The British continued destroying ammunition supplies and set more buildings ablaze, but as the morning progressed the sky began to darken, and soon lightning and thunder was heard, heralding an approaching storm.
As the storm neared the capital, the winds increased dramatically, and was reported to have built into a "frightening roar." All of a sudden severe thunderstorm was bearing down on Washington and everything and everyone in it.
The center of the storm tore through the city with a tornado boring into the British occupation forces within it. Buildings were lifted off of their foundations and completely obliterated, while others had their roofs sheared off. Trees were uprooted, and the heavy chain bridge across the Potomac River buckled under the onslaught of cyclonic winds and torrential rain, was rendered useless.
The rest of what happened I quote here from an excellent account of what befell the British invasion and burning of our capital, written by Kevin Ambrose for the Washington Post, July 15th, 2010.
“The winds subsided quickly, but the rain fell in torrents for two hours. (There may have been a second thunderstorm that followed quickly after the first thunderstorm.) Fortunately, the heavy rains quenched the flames and prevented Washington from continuing to burn.”[12]
The freak hurricane doused the flames and saved much of the city. The tornado that accompanied it, had cut directly into and decimated the British Army. This compelled the British General to order a hasty retreat of all forces out of the city and back to their ships on the Patuxent River.
“Hours later, the British forces left Washington and returned to their ships on the Patuxent River. The journey back was made difficult by numerous downed trees that lay across the roads. The war ships that lay waiting for the British force had also encountered the fierce storm. Wind and waves had lashed at the ships and many had damaged riggings. Two vessels had broken free from their moorings and were blown ashore.
“The occupation of Washington lasted 26 hours. President Madison and other government officials returned to Washington and began the difficult process of setting up government in a city damaged by fire and wind.[14]
When the British withdrew from Washington, they appeared to be a defeated army, though they had met almost no human resistance! The weather, brought on by divine interposition, as an eye-witness observed,[15] achieved what no army had, the routing of the finest of Great Britain’s invasion of our capital. America’s capital was saved not by its military might, but by divine providence manifested through the power of nature.
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR BETWEEN THE STATES: A BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE
Perhaps no other conflict evokes more emotion in the hearts of patriotic Americans than the War Between the States, or what is commonly known as the American Civil War. No other military engagement resulted in more American casualties than that war.
No other conflict divided the nations, even families and tore apart more close friendships and relationships than that war. It is even claimed that the infamous feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys was an outgrowth and continuation of that war.
Abraham Lincoln had enough biblical insight to understand that the terrible Civil War the nation was suffering was directly and proportionally related to the sin of slavery that a large part of its population was suffering in his day. While there was slavery in the land, there was injustice, while one part of our population suffered under the iron yoke of being someone else’s property, and living under the master’s whip, and seeing the rape and abuse of the women of his family, as too often occurred; there was great injustice and sin in the land.
Here are some observations of Lincoln’s regarding the suffering and slaughter that befell our great nation in those years.
Abraham Lincoln[16]
After the Union army was defeated at the First Battle of Bull Run, President Abraham Lincoln declared a National Day of Prayer and Fasting:
It is fit and becoming in all people, at all times, to acknowledge and revere the Supreme Government of God; to bow in humble submission to His chastisement; to confess and deplore their sins and transgressions in the full conviction that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and to pray, with all fervency and contrition, for the pardon of their past offenses, and for a blessing upon their present and prospective action.
And whereas when our own beloved country, once, by the blessings of God, united, prosperous and happy, is now afflicted with faction and civil war, it is peculiarly fit for us to recognize the hand of God in this terrible visitation, and in sorrowful remembrance of our own faults and crimes as a nation and as individuals, to humble ourselves before Him and to pray for His mercy...that the inestimable boon of civil and religious liberty, earned under His guidance and blessing by the labors and sufferings of our fathers, may be restored.
After losing the Second Battle of Bull Run, Lincoln wrote his famous Meditation on the Divine Will:
The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong. God can not be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party -- and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose.
I am almost ready to say this is probably true -- that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet. By His mere quiet power, on the minds of the now contestants, He could have either saved or destroyed the Union without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And having begun He could give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds.
President Lincoln is quoted making this statement to Eliza Gurney on October 6, 1862:
If I had my way, this war would never have been commenced. If I had been allowed my way, this war would have ended before this. But we find it still continues; and we must believe that He permits it for some wise purpose of His own, mysterious and unknown to us; and though with our limited understanding we may not be able to comprehend it, yet we cannot but believe, that He who made the world still governs it.
We are indeed going through a great trial -- a fiery trial. In the very responsible position in which I happened to be placed, being a humble instrument in the hands of our Heavenly Father, as I am, and as we all are, to work out His great purposes, I have desired that all my works and acts may be according to His will, and that it might be so, I have sought His aid.
Near the end of 1862, Lincoln made this tremendous statement to Reverend Byron Sunderland:
The ways of God are mysterious and profound beyond all comprehension -- 'Who by searching can find Him out?' God only knows the issue of this business. He has destroyed nations from the map of history for their sins. Nevertheless, my hopes prevail generally above my fears for our Republic. The times are dark, the spirits of ruin are abroad in all their power, and the mercy of God alone can save us.
Here is the text of Lincoln's Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day, issued March 30, 1863:
Whereas, the Senate of the United States devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation:
And whereas, it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history: that those nations only are blessed whose God is Lord:
And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisement in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the request and fully concurring in the view of the Senate, I do, by this proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer.
And I do hereby request all the people to abstain on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.
All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the nation will be hard on high and answered with blessing no less than the pardon of our national sins and the restoration of our now divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and peace.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. By the President: Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln remained steadfast in his faith even when General Robert E. Lee led his army of 76,000 men into Pennsylvania. He explained to a general wounded at Gettysburg:
When everyone seemed panic-stricken...I went to my room...and got down on my knees before Almighty God and prayed...Soon a sweet comfort crept into my soul that God Almighty had taken the whole business into His own hands...
On September 5, 1864, the Committee of Colored People from Baltimore presented Lincoln with a Bible. Here's what Lincoln told them in his speech:
In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, I believe the Bible is the best gift God has given to man. All the good Savior gave to the world was communicated through this Book. But for this Book we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man's welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it. To you I return my most sincere thanks for the elegant copy of the great Book of God which you present.
Most school textbooks claim that this war was fought primarily to free the slaves, but it the reasons for it was much more nuanced than that given by a good many history books; though one of the reasons it was fought was to rid our nation of the sin of slavery. The North claimed it fought it to preserve the Union while the South claimed it fought for State’s rights. Both were correct.
PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS
We go to President Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Speech for insight into this great conflict where more American blood was shed than any other, because Lincoln (himself a devout Christian) had been given divine insight to know why the nation had suffered such a tragedy as to see so many of its own succumb to its violence. As he stood on the Capitol steps, Lincoln spoke the following words, we quote here in part:
“…Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”[17]
How telling and insightful were Lincoln’s words. He understood what most of The Harbinger’s critics have failed to comprehend; that God deals in the affairs of men,[18] having the insight to understand that both sides in this horrendous conflict “read the same Bible and” prayed “to the same God;” each invoking “His aid against the other.”
He understood what eludes a good many others to whom God is a distant and unapproachable Being; that it was “strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged.”
Lincoln realized that “the prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither,” in his words, “had been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes.”
Quoting from Scripture, Lincoln applied it directly to the conflict for which the nation had shed so much blood, ‘"Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh."’ If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him?
What amazing insight this man had, that he should posit before a bereaved nation the reason for so much bloodshed; that he should express such a firm belief that the time for the nation to break the bonds and yokes of human slavery and the trafficking thereof was a word of pure knowledge imparted by the Holy Spirit of God to give meaning to a struggling nation just coming out of its own national suicide.
Lincoln’s next words bespoke of one who walked with God and understood what it meant to accept His divine judgments when a nation sins such as ours sinned.
“Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
Who then can argue that the God of the Bible, the Lord God whom we serve is a distant and impersonal God, when He calls everyone to repentance, and deals directly with nations, as the Scriptures teach?
It is only the inconvenient theologies of men and their interpretations of the Bible and interpolations of it with their hermeneutical polemics against other men and women of faith that cause the type of division and confusion pertaining to God’s purposes and elicits questions such as those – sincere as some may seem – what God’s purpose may be in all of this.
If for whatever reason one does not understand or see how a specific event in history fits into God’s plan because they lack either the Scriptural reference point to reach at that understanding, or they willfully choose to ignore and deny it (if and when one exists); such an act does not mitigate the fact that God indeed is in history as Benjamin Franklin observed, regardless of whether or not we choose to accept that reality.
Abraham Lincoln and many of our Founders understood this. A good many Christians understand this. It is both a sign of our age and these times (the end times) and a fulfillment of prophecy that a good many of God’s people do not.
The Harbinger describes it very well; the same pattern of judgment that befell ancient Israel is befalling America. God has given us nine harbingers – nine warnings to avert disaster.
The Lord wants and is calling America to repent; He wants and is calling everyone who calls upon His name to pray for our leaders, pray for our nation, pray for God’s forgiveness, repenting and supplicating that the Almighty may bring us leaders who will honor Him; that in His limitless mercy and understanding, may have compassion on us and spare our beloved nation the judgment it rightfully deserves for having forsaken His counsel, removed His Word and prayer to Him from our public places, and adopted the abominable practices of the most horrendous nations in history.
Now, let us return to our examination of the historical backdrop to Isaiah’s prophecy and Israel’s vow of defiance and arrogance made in the throes of national pride following a national calamity such as the one it suffered on 735 B.C.
In the previous verse, Isaiah the prophet describes this vow as an “assertion in pride and arrogance of heart,” (v. 9), and then quotes the vow spoken in pride and used it as evidence to pronounce the judgment which followed in the rest of the chapter. It is a vow of defiance made in pride and arrogance of heart, as Isaiah describes it in the Holy Spirit, and it is used not as David James calls it; “an occult spell or incantation rather than a biblical principle,” but as evidence of Israel’s guilt and sin, resulting in God’s judgment and its exile by the Assyrians ten years later. We will specifically examine Isaiah’s 10th chapter below, and address David James’ contention regarding it which is completely groundless. Scripture itself and history bear witness that this precise vow Isaiah denounced prophetically in the following way:
“The Lord sends a message against Jacob,
And it falls on Israel.
And all the people know it,
That is, Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria,
Asserting in pride and in arrogance of heart:
‘The bricks have fallen down,
But we will rebuild with smooth stones;
The sycamores have been cut down,
But we will replace them with cedars.
(Isaiah 9:8-10)
But, we will examine this contention below biblically and see the historical context that preceded it, and how it played out in the history of what became the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah. But how did this come about? The Scriptures give us the prophetic backdrop to what brought this about, first with God’s prophecy pertaining to what would befall Solomon’s kingdom after his death, when his son, Rehoboam was to ascend his throne. We read:
Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, “You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods.” Solomon held fast to these in love. He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon. Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
Now the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not observe what the Lord had commanded. So the Lord said to Solomon, “Because you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant. Nevertheless I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.”
(1Kings 11:1-13)
I cannot but well up with tears when I read this passage, for even in judgment, God’s graciousness provided that Solomon’s son would have one tribe to lead for the sake of David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which the Lord would deliver from the hand of King Sennacherib of Assyria (2Kings 18, 19, 2Chronicles 32:1-23, Isaiah 36, 37) after the fall of Damascus, but would later deliver into the hands of King Nebuchadnezzar of the Babylonians (Jeremiah 39), as prophesied by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 27). Solomon’s unfaithfulness to God brought judgment on his kingdom. This manifested itself as various adversaries arising towards the end of his reign. These were; Hadad the Edomite (1Kings 11:14-22), Rezon the son of Eliada, who reigned over Aram from Damascus and was an adversary to Israel all of the days of Solomon. (1Kings 11:23-25) Also Jeroboam, an Ephraimite of Zeredah, Solomon’s servant; who was a valiant warrior (1Kings 11:27) rebelled against Rehoboam, and when Rehoboam disregarded the sage advice of the elders who had served his father, and instead went by the foolish counsel of the young men who grew up with him, and misspoke to Israel; all Israel – ten tribes – went with Jeroboam and made him king. (1Kings 12:1-20) This is how the people of Israel became two kingdoms; one in the north led by the tribe of Ephraim in, and other in the south led by Judah in Jerusalem.
By Isaiah’s time, Solomon’s kingdom had been divided into northern and southern kingdoms for many years. The southern kingdom of Judah and Benjamin (ca. 740 B.C.) faced attack by Israel (northern kingdom) and Syria. (Isaiah 7) Assyria overcame Syria and threatened Israel. Samaria fell and looked toward Egypt for help. Isaiah wrote historically and prophetically.”
Judah would fall because of Hezekiah’s pride, but when he humbled himself before the Lord in prayer and supplication, in tears and humiliation, God granted him an additional fifteen years to his life and spared Jerusalem. Jerusalem would fall, but not in the days of Hezekiah but later. But before that would occur, the northern kingdom would be struck by the Assyrians. The first strike was a limited strike on the land, and it foreshadowed a greater one that would follow. This is where Isaiah’s prophecy falls into place. In the year 735 B.C. Isaiah prophesied in the following verses what was to occur and did occur ten years later in 725B.C., when the Assyrian Empire invaded the land, despoiled it, and took most of its inhabitants away – Samaria fell, and Israel was taken captive. We read:
Therefore the Lord raises against them adversaries from Rezin
And spurs their enemies on,
The Arameans on the east and the Philistines on the west;
And they devour Israel with gaping jaws.
In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away
And His hand is still stretched out.
Yet the people do not turn back to Him who struck them,
Nor do they seek the Lord of hosts.
So the Lord cuts off head and tail from Israel,
Both palm branch and bulrush in a single day.
The head is the elder and honorable man,
And the prophet who teaches falsehood is the tail.
For those who guide this people are leading them astray;
And those who are guided by them are brought to confusion.
Therefore the Lord does not take pleasure in their young men,
Nor does He have pity on their orphans or their widows;
For every one of them is godless and an evildoer,
And every mouth is speaking foolishness.
In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away
And His hand is still stretched out.
For wickedness burns like a fire;
It consumes briars and thorns;
It even sets the thickets of the forest aflame
And they roll upward in a column of smoke.
By the fury of the Lord of hosts the land is burned up,
And the people are like fuel for the fire;
No man spares his brother.
They slice off what is on the right hand but still are hungry,
And they eat what is on the left hand but they are not satisfied;
Each of them eats the flesh of his own arm.
Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh,
And together they are against Judah.
In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away
And His hand is still stretched out.
(Isaiah 9:11-21)
This vow which Israel made, Isaiah called an expression of pride and arrogance of heart, and the preponderance of evidence bear witness that it brought national judgment on the people and land of northern kingdom of Israel, led by its largest and most powerful tribe, Ephraim along with the inhabitants of Samaria.
In the next chapter, Isaiah calls Assyria “the rod of My anger,” for He would use the Assyrians to humble sinful Israel and Judah. (Isaiah 10:5) However, the proud and mighty Assyrians would themselves eventually be humbled. (Isaiah 10:12) This is the historical backdrop to Isaiah’s prophecy concerning the northern kingdom of Israel and what later would eventually befall Judah when the Babylonians invaded under Nebuchadnezzar. By the time of Jeremiah the prophet (born 627 B.C. commissioned by God to prophesy in 607 B.C.), three great world powers vied for control of the region; Assyria, Babylonia, and Egypt, but Babylon broke Assyria’s power at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 B.C., and crushed Egypt as well. The Harbinger does not in any way take this out of context. In fact, it describes a good part of this in vivid detail on pages 9, 16, 17, 18, 23, 27, 28, Chapter 5 (pages 34 to 42), etc…
And now the preponderance of evidence before us show it repeating here in North America, manifesting itself on September 11th, 2001 – long before Jonathan Cahn wrote his New York Times bestseller. The critics of The Harbinger as well forget that the vow has been often quoted by our national leaders on various occasions all commemorating the tragic events of 9/11 by all of them; biblically tying the public statements of these men – who all quote from the vow in one form or another, tying it to the vow spoken by the ancient Israelites.
And the reason this verse (which is a vow of defiance, as Isaiah himself describes it Isaiah 9:9) that is quoted by the Isaiah when pronouncing God’s judgment over Israel for its defiance (by one’s words [testimony] one is either justified or condemned in a matter according to Scripture – see Matthew 12:37, and is held up in a court of law as testimony); is also quoted not once, not twice, but three times by three prominent leaders in our nation’s capital on separate occasions, and all directly in reference to the tragic events of September 11th, 2001 in remembrance and commemoration of that calamity.
This one obscure Scripture is confirmed by these three witnesses as a judgment against this nation and directly connects it to the judgment of ancient Israel by its use by these three witnesses – Senator John Edwards who was running for the second highest office in the land when he made it to the Congressional Black Caucus; Senator Thom Daschle, who as Majority Leader of the US Senate held the highest elected office of the US Legislative Branch of our government, quoted it on September 12th, 2001, the day following the tragic events of 9/11 within the capitol building; and President Barack Obama,; who held the highest Executive office of our seat of government, uttered it in his first State of the Union Address to a joint session of congress on September, 2009.
According to the Scriptures, every matter is confirmed on the word and testimony of two or three witnesses. (Deuteronomy 17:6, 19:15, Matthew 18:16, 2Corinthians 13:1, 1Timothy 5:19, Hebrews 10:28) Even if The Harbinger’s critics were to argue that only two (Daschle and Edwards) made the direct quotation and connection to the verse, with President Obama paraphrasing the same verse; the Scriptures accept the testimony of two witnesses. Here we have three, and the connection is unmistakable and undeniable. What’s more, The Harbinger documents several others also making the same vow as these three, increasing the number of witnesses. Jonathan Cahn didn’t force this, it happened long before he wrote his book.
Additionally, David James’ claim that “the other twenty verses have no connection whatsoever? If just 9:10 is a template, why not the entire chapter? And if not the entire chapter, why 9:10?” is invalid, because, as anyone who has read The Harbinger will tell you, as I have above, the chapter titled Things to Come, on page 217 and 218, addresses these other versus fully. For David James to make the claim he makes above, he would’ve had to have either bypassed this chapter, or as I say elsewhere here, read another book and not The Harbinger; because these other verses are dealt with on pages 217 and 218 of Rabbi Cahn’s bestseller. I don’t know what book David James read, but it was not The Harbinger.
The Harbinger never claims that Isaiah 9:10 prophesies of America, but that a biblical pattern of warning followed by judgment has manifested itself in the land in these nine Harbingers. And it will repeat and grow in severity with each occurrence, until we pay attention and repent. Brannon Howse – no supporter of The Harbinger – himself has written: “I believe God uses the same template to judge nations and I believe that template can be understood by studying what God said would happen to the nation of Israel if they did not obey God and follow His precepts and principles. I believe God always warns nation's before He judges them and in doing so gives them the chance to repent. However, if the nation does not repent, God's judgment will become more severe. In reading what God said He would do to the nation of Israel if they continue in their rebellion against God as found in Deuteronomy 28, Leviticus 26, and Isaiah 5, it is in many ways like reading the newspapers here in America.” An amazing admission on his part, except that he made it long before The Harbinger was written and appeared on bookstores across the land. He wrote this in an article titled Is America At a Dangerous Tipping Point for Receiving God's Judgment?, which he wrote on September 14th, 2009. This statement alone contradicts everything David James, his colleague and fellow critic of The Harbinger tries to support here and in his book.
I don’t know how often this has to be said for The Harbinger’s critics to realize this, and retract this charge. The Harbinger only reports what public officials, three of whom were the highest elected officials in the land said at our nation’s capital regarding this Scripture, how they applied it to 9/11, and how other public officials have done the same. This is a far cry from claiming Isaiah 9:10 prophesies of America. Dr. Reagan realizes this after reading The Harbinger, why doesn’t David James and the other critics of The Harbinger realize this?
v DAVID JAMES: Another issue is Cahn’s speculation concerning the Sh’mitah (Israel’s Sabbath year). He claims that America experienced a judgment (or at least a warning) from God in both 2001 and 2008, tied to the Hebrew Sabbath year in the form of stock market crashes. To suggest that God is using the Sh’mitah as a basis or principle of judgment against any nation except Israel is thoroughly unbiblical. What about 1994, 1987, 1980, 1971….? Why did it begin in 2001 and without any warning that we, as a Gentile nation, were obligated to the Sh’mitah?
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: What David James calls “speculation” is in fact, “fact,” because 2Chronicles calls the Exile is the "Sabbath of the land." His unfortunate ignorance of this is betrayed by his use of the term “speculation” to describe Rabbi Cahn’s mention of it, when in fact it did historically occur both in ancient Israel, when the land was given rest during the exile, and on the 29th day of the month of Elul, when the stock market collapsed in 2008. What he calls speculation is historical precedence; these events happened, and no amount of denial of them will change that fact. What he writes here is a matter of his opinion. It is pure Hyper-Dispensationalist Theology, not what the Word of God teaches, nor has it any basis in fact, because it denies historical biblical precedent. He’s arguing for the sake of arguing a point foolishly he knows absolutely nothing about, and attempts to posit a conjecture on his part to argue against the biblical Shemitah being applied outside of the Bible. What’s more – now listen closely – if we were to reason, as David James does here, that “To suggest that God is using the Sh’mitah as a basis or principle of judgment against any nation except Israel is thoroughly unbiblical,” then the commandments as enjoined in the Pentateuch, ten of them cited universally as applicable for Christian conduct – otherwise known as the Ten Commandments – would not apply because, according to his reasoning, Gentiles and by extension (according this line of reasoning) Gentile nations are not obligated to follow them. This is where this train of thought can be mishandled and misapplied when people try to use human reasoning couched as theology to explain away things out of the Bible they find personally objectionable. We must be very careful not to do this.
v DAVID JAMES: This isn’t the way God does things. And beyond this, in terms of percentage, neither of these even rank in the top ten crashes—that they were the largest in absolute numbers means nothing more than saying gas was so much cheaper in 1976 at only 60 cents per gallon.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: The claim that “This isn’t how God does things,” is an amazing claim on David James’ part, but speaks volumes about how little he really knows how God works. It is a blanket theological opinion thrown out to simply blunt any other argument, but is completely wrong and without merit in this regard, because the event he denies occurred did in fact occur, and it happened on the 29th day of the Hebrew month of Elul in ancient Israel, and in modern America eight years after the events of September 11th, 2001. He can deny it all he wants, but it did happen, and it happened precisely as described in The Harbinger.
Now as to his statement, “that they were the largest in absolute numbers means nothing more than saying gas was so much cheaper in 1976 at only 60 cents per gallon, that’s only a valid point if you’re talking about inflation as an index of the market, but Rabbi Cahn correctly is not. David James’ attempts to compare an apple with an orange, and thinks he can get away with it, because most people have little knowledge of the stock market and its history.
Additionally, Pastor Cahn does not claim that “America experienced a judgment (or at least a warning) from God in both 2001” and 2008, tied to the Hebrew Sabbath year in the form of stock market crashes,” but that eight years on the 29th day of the Hebrew month of Elul, the stock market crashed. This is no coincidence, it happened, and it happened to this nation. In his prophetic relativism, David James may try to deny this, but the events The Harbinger depicts what happened. Not only did they happen, but other events and dates directly tied to them occurred too. Pastor Cahn did not create or develop this, he discovered it, and outlines it in his book as does World Net Daily in its compelling fact-based documentary The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment. Pastor Cahn’s book, The Harbinger and the producers of the documentary based upon it – The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment – both did their homework researching and verifying everything that is written and presented in both the well-documented book and in the compelling and extremely detail-oriented documentary over a period of ten years. The fact that eludes most of The Harbinger’s critics if not all is the fact that what the book and the documentary outline happened precisely as presented and in the order presented. It is a matter of public record, and The Harbinger presents a copious index of sources one can reference and cross reference if they wish to conduct their own study of them.
The Harbinger’s critics cannot argue against the empirical evidence of how all of these events figure. Let me make this clear; Pastor Cahn didn’t event these things, and he certainly did not as the critics of his book claim, invent them, because they happened long before he discovered and wrote about them. This is undeniable facts. These Harbingers took place precisely on the dates and places where they occurred, in some cases years before Jonathan Cahn wrote The Harbinger. They were not invented, they were not manipulated or forced in any way to conform to The Harbinger’s narrative; they happened just as The Harbinger outlines. Anyone who has read the book understands this. And those, like myself, who’ve read The Harbinger and Mr. James’ book see through his attempt to re-write the narrative.
v DAVID JAMES: There wasn’t anything approaching a total collapse as happened in ancient Israel. Neither was there a “wiping out of debt” as Cahn claims in his book. How is it that he is being given a pass on these claims by those who are normally critical thinkers?
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: I ADDRESS MYSELF TO DAVID JAMES. If David James is referring to a collapse of Modern Civilization, then he is technically correct; but what The Harbinger describes as a collapse is precisely what occurred in 2008. It is not describing a collapse of Civilization, and anyway, Israel’s exile was not a collapse of Civilization either, but a Clash of Civilizations, as Assyria swallowed up the Northern Kingdom and exiled most of its population. To deny it is to deny biblical history.
As for debts being wiped out, any 401K or employee retirement fund, or pension plan is a company’s debt as holder of the person’s assets to pay to that person beginning the first day of their retirement. It is estimated that hundreds of billions of people’s personal wealth and retirement funds were wiped clean overnight by this collapse. Therefore the companies and pension holders in whose trust these people held their life’s savings, lost these holding, and the ability to pay them to their beneficiaries. They had a fiduciary trust to keep and couldn’t honor it, because overnight on the 29th day of the Hebrew month of Elul, these pension funds were wiped out by the collapse of the stock market.
This is why the charge David James makes above equating this with inflation is ludicrous, because one has absolutely no bearing upon the other. His strenuous comparison above and in his book serves to show that he really is drawing at straws to find anything to disagree with in this discussion. He’s literally comparing a rhinoceros with a pit bull. What caused the collapse of 2008 were several factors – over-leveraged unfunded liabilities, the collapse of the real estate market, over-extended hedge funds by 40 to 1 ratios, etc., not inflation, as he tries to interject above. Tens of trillions of people’s life’s savings and investments disappeared over night, and the greatest redistribution of wealth was transferred from these people’s pockets via congress’ unnecessary transfer of $780 billion dollar to these banks by an joint act of congress known as TARP, Troubled Asset Relief Program, followed by two stimulus bills, and massive spending exceeding all of the spending of every single administration since the founding of the republic. A sign that this Shemitah has not let up is the fact that what is known as a Joint Resolution of Congress to continue pouring money into the debt, has resulted since 2009 in increasing the federal debt to a staggering $16 trillion dollars and resigning, even though not one congress has passed a budget to support that debt in years. God forced a Shemitah on the land of Israel for 70 years, from an exile that 2Chronicles the "Sabbath of the land." could He be doing the same to America? The Harbinger answers that affirmatively and provides the relevant information and the documentation to support it with the Scriptural citation that bears it out.
v DAVID JAMES: Besides this, there isn’t even any indication that God imposed judgment on Israel related to the Sh’mitah specifically on 29 Elul as Cahn says happened in America. The only element of judgment against Israel which was connected with the Sh’mitah involved the length of the Babylonian captivity, which at seventy years was one for each of the Sabbath year cycles Israel had failed to observe. And yet, a substantial part of The Harbinger is built exclusively on this completely unbiblical premise and conjecture that God judged America in this way, at this time and for this reason. This is just factually wrong on innumerable counts as I demonstrate in my book.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: David James is speaking out of both sides of his mouth, and for the sake of contradicting The Harbinger, first he writes “there isn’t even any indication that God imposed judgment on Israel related to the Sh’mitah specifically on 29 Elul,” then contradicts himself immediately after by writing, “The only element of judgment against Israel which was connected with the Sh’mitah involved the length of the Babylonian captivity, which at seventy years was one for each of the Sabbath year cycles Israel had failed to observe.” He just contradicted himself. This almost gets lost in his circular argument, because the main thrust of it is to deny a historical event such as the crash of the stock market on the 29th day of the Hebrew month of Elul in 2008. He can deny it as often and as much as he can, but he cannot erase history, and it is a fact that it did occur precisely on that day as The Harbinger describes it. David James is arguing against something that has already happened and its biblical significance according to God’s Word, and he’s using the most extreme strenuous arguments to support what he has to say! Incredible! If he had not made the argument he makes above, it would not be so apparent that he does not know what he writing about, but there it is.
v DAVID JAMES: It would also be difficult to overstate just how serious this is in terms of misunderstanding and misapplying the Old Testament. It is equally difficult to overstate just how puzzling it is that Dr. Reagan has overlooked this issue (as have so many others), especially when it makes up such a significant part of The Harbinger.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: NOT PERSONAL? DAVID JAMES HAS JUST ACCUSED JONATHAN “MISUNDERSTANDING AND MISSAPPLYING THE OLD TESTAMENT,” AND DR. REAGAN OF OVERLOOKING WHAT HE CALLS “THIS ISSUE,” WHICH HE WRITES THAT HE FINDS “PUZZLING.” David James’ personal attacks against Dr. Reagan is unwarranted and biblically unjustified here, because his premise is incorrect, as we have examined above. his contention is based upon an ignorance of Judaism, Jewish History, and the application of judgment and how these elements come into play regarding them. His contention is strictly according to his own invention and the rules he’s created to support them. As we have seen above and elsewhere here, he often contradicts himself as he rushes to contend against any postulation made that disagrees with his. David James simply argues for the sake of arguing and brings up pointless straw man points in his arguments.
v DAVID JAMES: Then there is the serious problem of the unbiblical “Isaiah 9:10 Effect,” which also forms a major theme in The Harbinger. Jonathan Cahn contends that the Isaiah 9:10 Effect actually caused a series of events to inevitably happen once the effect was triggered. (All emphasis in quotes below is mine.)
[Kaplan] “And this all has to do with America?” I asked.
[The Prophet] “Seven years after 9/11,” he said, “the American economy collapsed, triggering a global economic implosion. Behind it all, and all that followed, was something much deeper than economics.”
[Kaplan] “Behind the collapse of Wall Street and the American economy was . . . .”
[The Prophet] “Isaiah 9:10.”2
In the author’s mind a repetition of the Lord’s words as recorded by Isaiah, the alleged Isaiah 9:10 Effect, actually causes things to happen. This is clearly affirmed in the following exchange at the end of chapter 16:
[Kaplan] “As in the Isaiah 9:10 Effect?”
[The Prophet] “Yes, but in this mystery the connections are even more beyond the realm of the natural.”
[Kaplan] “They’re supernatural?”
[The Prophet] “You could say that.”
[Kaplan] “And they connect 9/11 to the economic collapse?”
[The Prophet] “Not only do they connect them . . . they determined them . . . down to the time each would take place.”3
v Surely it is obvious that this is a thoroughly unbiblical, entirely made-up principle that has no scriptural foundation. How did this slip by Dr. Reagan?
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: Again David James present us with another logical fallacy. This time, he sets up specific charges first, and then follows them up with persistent continual accusations. His first logical fallacy is:
EXAMPLE: “Then there is the serious problem of the unbiblical ‘Isaiah 9:10 Effect,’ which also forms a major theme in The Harbinger.”
THE PREMISE: “Jonathan Cahn contends that the Isaiah 9:10 Effect actually caused a series of events to inevitably happen once the effect was triggered. This is a thoroughly unbiblical, entirely made-up principle that has no scriptural foundation.”
CONCLUSION: ‘The Isaiah 9:10 Effect,’ has no scriptural foundation, and therefore did not happen at all.
In order to deny a historical event, even one such as the one cited above, where there are voluminous public records of the specific events, David James falls back on his tried and true method of denying it ever happened. How and why? Because in his estimation the events recorded in these public records could not have happened as The Harbinger describes them because according to David James there is no principle that a prophetic pattern has recurred in the land, even though the events occurred precisely on those dates and in precisely the order described, and are completely verifiable, and these events happened independently of one another and long before Jonathan Cahn wrote his book. Not one of them were made up. For example, in his book, David James “... even if he were discussing only the fulfillment of Isaiah 9:10 in ancient Israel, this would not be a good way to explain how prophecies work. The reason that prophesied events happen is because God causes them to happen, not because the prophecy itself somehow causes them to happen. Yet Cahn seems to be suggesting that as a principle the Isaiah 9:10 Effect can cause these same events to happen anywhere at any time once it is triggered.” (David James, The Harbinger, Fact or Fiction? page 129, The Berean Call, 2012 Bend, Oregon). This is an amazing admission from David James. Here he argues when “prophesied events happen is because God causes them to happen, not because the prophecy itself somehow causes them to happen,” forgetting that this is the precise premise upon which The Harbinger is built. These events happened long before Jonathan Cahn wrote his book, and they occurred without the input or aid of any human intervention. Yet David James again contradicts himself by writing that it “is a thoroughly unbiblical, entirely made-up principle that has no scriptural foundation.” Again, David James uses a logical fallacy in order to argue a point that he knows he has absolutely no reason to support. What is he trying to say? God causes prophecy to happen. God didn’t cause the Isaiah 9:10 Effect. Therefore the Isaiah 9:10 Effect is not prophetic, and didn’t happen. In the face of the events having occurred and the documentation and public records about them we can access, it is foolish to deny its existence. Where does David James get the biblical evidence to support his charge that the above analysis as discussed by its two protagonists, is as he blasphemously call it, thoroughly unbiblical, entirely made-up principle that has no scriptural foundation? Where? I challenge him to show me one Scripture that would proscribe applying a Sensus Plenior to Isaiah 9:10 under current the circumstances, when the events themselves dictate the evidence independently of Jonathan Cahn long before he wrote his book!!!???? I ADDRESS MYSELF DIRECTLY TO DAVID JAMES: Where is the evidence to support your claim!?? The events themselves transpired – the Harbingers – happened and they happened long before The Harbinger appeared in bookstores in 2012. Where were you all this time, David? AND WHY DO YOU RESORT TO THIS PERSONAL ATTACK ON JONATHAN CAHN AND DR. DAVID REAGAN? COULDN’T YOU REPHRASE WHAT YOU WROTE TO SAY THAT YOUR DISAGREE WITH THIS BASED UPON YOUR OPINION? DID YOU HAVE TO RESORT TO TERMS WHICH QUESTIONS THE VERACITY OF ANOTHER’S FINDINGS BASED SOLELY ON YOUR OPINION? BECAUSE IT IS BASED SOLELY ON AN OPINION OF YOURS.
This is where the Christian needs to be truly discerning, truly compassionate, truly unequivocating, and truly honest to the Lord, to himself/herself/the other person/ and Body of Christ. What’s more, here is where the discerning Christian must approach the other party in a spirit of love and humility, and treat the other party with honor bestowing a fellow servant of Christ, and dear brother or sister in the Lord. This is where they have failed, and have failed miserably. One reads their reports on other Christians, even now Mainline ministries, and are left quenched and saddened with lack of consideration and love, even mercy that these people have towards others whom they deem less “orthodox” or inferior theologically because of some minor belief they hold, or association they have with another ministry that they deem heterodox because they gathered for prayer with a ministry that these people consider part of the NAR (New Apostolic Reformation).
These are people to whom doctrine or hermeneutics mean more than a person’s personal confession of faith in Jesus Christ, or even their new birth experience. It is incredible. No doctrine, good or bad has ever saved anyone, but true faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ is what saved, and implicit and complete trust in that finished work on the cross of Calvary, not whether or not that individual is a Pre-Trib, Mid-Trib, Post-Trib, Pre-Wrath, Post-Wrath, A-Millenialist, Pre-Millenialist, Post-Millenialist, Preterist, or hails from any other theological school of thought.
Every example of how Christians should behave towards one another is given to us in Scripture. We have some very good examples of how believers should properly handle a brother who is fervent in the faith, but who may have an incomplete or faulty knowledge of God’s Word. We go to the Book of Acts, and read the following:
Now a Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John; and he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.
(Acts 18:24-26)
When Apollos preached an incomplete Gospel, having been acquainted only with the baptism of John, (Acts 18:25)Aquila and Priscilla took him aside and explained to him the complete work of God. (Acts 18:26) What’s more, after explaining the way of God more accurately to him, when he wanted to go across to Achaia, the brethren encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him; and when he had arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah. (Acts 18:27-28) They did not bring him into public ridicule and accuse him of being a false servant of the Messiah, nor did they claim that the reason they would degenerate to commit such act as bringing a brother in Christ to open repudiation (as the critics of The Harbinger have done to Rabbi Jonathan Cahn and to many other Christians, and continue to do in the name of “discernment,” as what they believe is their calling and service to God.)
Another example of the proper manner in which correction is given to those who believe, but whose theology is unclear or incomplete is in the manner which the Apostle Paul, while traveling through Ephesus handled a group of Jews whom Luke calls “disciples” who had heard the message of John the Baptist, but had not received the Holy Spirit. We go to the Biblical record Luke’s Acts:
It happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus, and found some disciples. He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said to him, “No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” And they said, “Into John’s baptism.” Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying. There were in all about twelve men.
(Acts 19:1-7)
These two examples present to us the Biblcal manner in which to resolve issues that arise from either incomplete or defective theological points of view among one or more parties within the Body of Christ; not the manner employed by many of the so-called “discernment minstries” who target a person and then rip them to shreds in public. This is what the critics of The Harbinger have done to Rabbi Cahn and his book, and that is what they do to many other Christians whom they have targeted as heretics.
v DAVID JAMES: But beyond being unbiblical because it isn’t found in Scripture as a principle, another extremely unbiblical idea is the very nature of the Isaiah 9:10 Effect itself. The way it is used here is more like an occultic spell or incantation than a biblical principle. The idea is that once the words were said by a couple of American leaders, they set into motion and determine a whole cascade of specific events. Nothing like this mystical power of words is ever seen in Scripture and it is surprising that Dr. Reagan has missed such an extremely serious problem.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: WRONG. One has to question what Bible David James is reading, what more importantly, he’s reading into it. The Bible I hold in my hands and read daily, provides extensive evidence of the consequences of words; words spoken wisely and words spoken foolishly, and its results. The Scriptures teach of what the tongue can do; for James writing in the Holy Spirit in his letter testifies that the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. (James 3:6)
We can cite here a recent example of this that is fresh in our memories. We know of former a president, who when running for reelection, lost because of a promise he made that he did not keep. President George H.W. Bush promised, “Read my lips, ‘no new taxes,’” and then broke his promise and raised taxes, and his opponent used it as a campaign slogan, and went on to win the election, even though at one point President Bush’s approval rating had been as high as 89 according to Gallup’s Historical Statistics and Trends. What president Bush said followed up by what he did had great significance to his reelection and the course of this nation. No mumble jumble, no mystical power of words, but statements that had very real ramifications to the outcome of future events in the lives of George H.W. Bush and his opponent, William Jefferson Clinton, which directly impacted the destiny of America for the next eight years. And that’s just one example of the influence that words – promises kept and promises broken in this case, have on a nation.
Another more recent example also fresh on our memories was that of the son of the forty-first president, President George W. Bush, the forty-third president. In the aftermath of 9/11 he secured congressional approval from a joint session of both houses of congress for his war in Iraq on the premise that Saddam Hussein had biological and chemical weapons hidden from UN inspectors spread throughout the land, and it was on the basis of this belief that he had Secretary of State Colin Powell, testify before the United Nations in support of this premise, but because he never followed up by providing evidence of this (some say that these weapons had been shipped to Syria where they are used today), he lost all credibility with much of the public. In this situation, all we would have had to do was to provide the areal satellite photographs of the chemical and biological weapons being transported across the Iraq/Syrian border, but he didn’t and lost credibility. We see in this situation that it is foolish to make a claim that one will not support with evidence. No mumble jumble mystical power of words here either, just plain words that one must account for later on, and the ramifications it has on a presidency and nation’s credibility with the world. We are reminded of our Lord’s warning, “For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:37)
But there are many examples in Scripture that show that what a nation’s leader speaks as public policy has great ramification for that leader and the nation he leads. God’s Word is full of examples for us to follow and apply to our own lives and walks, as He leads us in His grace. One of these examples is the story of Gideon, from the Book of the Judges of Israel, where, following his army’s victory over the much larger armies of the Midianites, Amalekites, and children of the east, (Judges 6:33) the very powerful Tribe of Ephraim confront him about his having kept them out of the fight, for they had selfishly sought to gain all of the credit of the victory for themselves. This explains God’s strange choice of using such a small number of three hundred men from only three tribes to defeat several powerful professional armies. No one but the Lord would receive glory for the destruction of such vast numerically superior forces being destroyed and routed by only 300 warriors.
Next, we see Gideon and his 300 men going out to battle two kings, Zebah and Zalmunna who were in Karkor, and their armies with them, about 15,000 men, all who were left of the entire army of the sons of the east; for the fallen were 120,000 swordsmen. (Judges 8:10) Gideon and his men are in hot pursuit of what is left of their enemy, and they come upon Succoth, where we pick up the story in the sacred text:
Then Gideon and the 300 men who were with him came to the Jordan and crossed over, weary yet pursuing. He said to the men of Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the people who are following me, for they are weary, and I am pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.” The leaders of Succoth said, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hands, that we should give bread to your army?” Gideon said, “All right, when the Lord has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will thrash your bodies with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.” He went up from there to Penuel and spoke similarly to them; and the men of Penuel answered him just as the men of Succoth had answered. So he spoke also to the men of Penuel, saying, “When I return safely, I will tear down this tower.”
(Judges 8:4-9)
Now before we continue, a word of explanation will be good, because some may find this passage rather difficult to understand. It was the custom in those days that one be hospitable to passers-by, especially if they were from among the armies of Israel who were battling for the Lord against Israel’s enemies. Not only were the leaders of Succoth inhospitable and rude to Gideon and his men, but they added insult to injury by taunting them. Thus, Gideon’s reply to them and his promise that once he had vanquished Israel’s enemies, he and his men would return to exact punishment to these arrogant leaders.
The arrogant taunts and actions of these leaders of Succoth sealed their fate, for after Gideon returned from routing the Midianite kings and their armies (Judges 8:10-12), after ascertaining their names from a youth of the city by interrogation (Judges 8:14), he exacted the punishment upon them as he had promised (Judges 8:15-17). Later, Gideon himself executes the two Midianite kings they captured earlier. (Judges 8:21)
This is one example that we are not to be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap, (Galatians 6:7) be it by something we’ve said or something we’ve done; but that the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace or as in the case above, war. (James 3:18) And Christ has said that what we say is a mirror into our soul – what is in our hearts – “For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart,” (Matthew 12:34b) and “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.” (Luke 6:45) And what does God’s Word say in the Hebrew Bible when He commissioned Samuel to look for a king for Israel? “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1Samuel 16:7b) What we say has great import, because it reflects oftentimes what we will do, and here we have our first example in Scripture of how this can determine the outcome of a matter; in this case, the fate of these seventy-seven foolish leaders of Succoth, who having spoken arrogantly, paid with the punishment Gideon exacted upon them.
There is more.
Then it came about, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the sons of Israel again played the harlot with the Baals, and made Baal-berith their god. Thus the sons of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side; nor did they show kindness to the household of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in accord with all the good that he had done to Israel.
(Judges 8:33-35)
Israel’s faithlessness
29th chapter of the Book of Jeremiah the Prophet, and the second example is the prophet Balaam and his commissioning by the Moabite king Balak. It is found in the 22 chapter of the Book of Numbers.
Yet read the prophet Jeremiah, read the story, and see history repeat itself – while God’s servants are calling for prayer and a return to God to the nation and its leaders, and for us to pray for our leaders in the land of many exiles (the United States); The Harbinger’s critics are telling the people to disregard this counsel, and that God is not speaking in it. The prophets of Judah were telling the people to disregard what the Lord God was saying through the prophet Jeremiah to them. But what does it say in the Book of Jeremiah the prophet? We begin with our first example, and it is found in the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, the 29th chapter, where we read:
‘“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, ‘Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.’ For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams which they dream. For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them,’ declares the Lord.”’
(Jeremiah 29:4-9)
God wanted His people to be fruitful and multiply in the land of their exile, and He set a time for their exile; 70 years, saying:
“For thus says the Lord, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’
(Jeremiah 29:10-14)
The Lord had plans to bless His people who were exiled in Babylon, He would protect them and watch over them and look after their welfare in the land of their exile. And He would give His land rest for seventy years. But now take note the repercussions for what their leaders said in Judah, and all of the ones who did were not exiled to Babylon, but who lived in Jerusalem and thought they were safe, who did not listen to the voice of God through His messenger, the prophet Jeremiah, but who made statements which had repercussions on their destiny. We read:
“Because you have said, ‘The Lord has raised up prophets for us in Babylon’— for thus says the Lord concerning the king who sits on the throne of David, and concerning all the people who dwell in this city, your brothers who did not go with you into exile—thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Behold, I am sending upon them the sword, famine and pestilence, and I will make them like split-open figs that cannot be eaten due to rottenness. I will pursue them with the sword, with famine and with pestilence; and I will make them a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse and a horror and a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them, because they have not listened to My words,’ declares the Lord, ‘which I sent to them again and again by My servants the prophets; but you did not listen,’ declares the Lord. You, therefore, hear the word of the Lord, all you exiles, whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.
(Jeremiah 29:15-20)
Not only did these rulers choose not to listen to the words of the prophecy of Jeremiah, but they declared that the prophets who contradicted what he said, were the ones to listen to under the Babylonian rule. They would not listen, and declared erroneously to speak for God through false prophets while their brethren lived in Babylon, far from their ancestral lands. But their obstinate declaration of ‘The Lord has raised up prophets for us in Babylon’— because of this word, the Lord God pronounced the following to their leaders:
“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah and concerning Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying to you falsely in My name, ‘Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will slay them before your eyes. Because of them a curse will be used by all the exiles from Judah who are in Babylon, saying, “May the Lord make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire, because they have acted foolishly in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives and have spoken words in My name falsely, which I did not command them; and I am He who knows and am a witness,” declares the Lord.’”
(Jeremiah 29:21-23)
To Shemaiah the Nehelamite you shall speak, saying, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have sent letters in your own name to all the people who are in Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, and to all the priests, saying,“The Lord has made you priest instead of Jehoiada the priest, to be the overseer in the house of the Lord over every madman who prophesies, to put him in the stocks and in the iron collar, now then, why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth who prophesies to you? For he has sent to us in Babylon, saying, ‘The exile will be long; build houses and live in them and plant gardens and eat their produce.’”’”
Zephaniah the priest read this letter to Jeremiah the prophet. Then came the word of the Lord to Jeremiah, saying, “Send to all the exiles, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite, “Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, although I did not send him, and he has made you trust in a lie,” therefore thus says the Lord, “Behold, I am about to punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants; he will not have anyone living among this people, and he will not see the good that I am about to do to My people,” declares the Lord, “because he has preached rebellion against the Lord.”’”
(Jeremiah 29:24-32)
First, we have the example of public statements made by “the king who sits on the throne of David, and concerning all the people who dwell in this city, those of Judah “who did not go with you into exile” (Jeremiah 29:15) These were the people of the southern kingdom of Judah and Benjamin, who declared that God had given them prophets in Babylon, and who disregarded the words of the prophet Jeremiah to them, who warned them previously of what was about to befall the land, but they did not listen and listened the false prophets – the pillow prophets of the land who spoke to them soothing words they wanted to hear. David James calls vowed made in arrogance against God’s will “ unbiblical because it isn’t found in Scripture as a principle,” when we have just read here a biblically historical example of the significance of public declarations made by leaders, as well as claiming that the Isaiah 9:10 effect “is used here is more like an occultic spell or incantation than a biblical principle,” calling it an “extremely unbiblical idea.”
Again, we’ve seen how these contentions are nothing but logical fallacies based upon opinions that do not carry any weight whatsoever in this discussion. Mr. James wants to convince everyone else to believe his re-written narrative based upon his logical fallacies, but when held up one by one; they are seen as nothing but personal observations and objections and nothing more. Certainly not having the least to do with hermeneutics or with the facts.
In what appears to be something very close to blasphemy, David James posits, “The idea is that once the words were said by a couple of American leaders, they set into motion and determine a whole cascade of specific events. Nothing like this mystical power of words is ever seen in Scripture and it is surprising that Dr. Reagan has missed such an extremely serious problem.” Well, we’ve seen one example above how the words spoken by the leaders of Judah literally wrote their own epitaph. This is biblical and it is not “mystical power of words,” as David James writes here.
In this example from Scripture, we see the significance of what a ruler says which correlates with the blessings from heaven to the public statements these leaders spoke and then followed in policy. It has great significance in the highest levels of government. We see then the significance of a national leader’s public statements and declarations on the nation and concerning its policy. What they say in public sends ripples throughout their domain. This is thoroughly biblical, as we can see here, but let us go to the next example of the significance of promises and vows made.
Our next example deals with the prophet Balaam, who was hired by a pagan rule to put a curse on the Jewish people traveling through the land of their Fathers. We find the story in the Pentateuch where we read:
Then the sons of Israel journeyed, and camped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan opposite Jericho.
Now Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. So Moab was in great fear because of the people, for they were numerous; and Moab was in dread of the sons of Israel. Moab said to the elders of Midian, “Now this horde will lick up all that is around us, as the ox licks up the grass of the field.” And Balak the son of Zippor was king of Moab at that time. So he sent messengers to Balaam the son of Beor, at Pethor, which is near the River, in the land of the sons of his people, to call him, saying, “Behold, a people came out of Egypt; behold, they cover the surface of the land, and they are living opposite me. Now, therefore, please come, curse this people for me since they are too mighty for me; perhaps I may be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land. For I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.”
So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the fees for divination in their hand; and they came to Balaam and repeated Balak’s words to him. He said to them, “Spend the night here, and I will bring word back to you as the Lord may speak to me.” And the leaders of Moab stayed with Balaam. Then God came to Balaam and said, “Who are these men with you?” Balaam said to God, “Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, has sent word to me, ‘Behold, there is a people who came out of Egypt and they cover the surface of the land; now come, curse them for me; perhaps I may be able to fight against them and drive them out.’” God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.” So Balaam arose in the morning and said to Balak’s leaders, “Go back to your land, for the Lord has refused to let me go with you.” The leaders of Moab arose and went to Balak and said, “Balaam refused to come with us.”
Then Balak again sent leaders, more numerous and more distinguished than the former. They came to Balaam and said to him, “Thus says Balak the son of Zippor, ‘Let nothing, I beg you, hinder you from coming to me; for I will indeed honor you richly, and I will do whatever you say to me. Please come then, curse this people for me.’” Balaam replied to the servants of Balak, “Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not do anything, either small or great, contrary to the command of the Lord my God. Now please, you also stay here tonight, and I will find out what else the Lord will speak to me.” God came to Balaam at night and said to him, “If the men have come to call you, rise up and go with them; but only the word which I speak to you shall you do.”
So Balaam arose in the morning, and saddled his donkey and went with the leaders of Moab.
But God was angry because he was going, and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as an adversary against him. Now he was riding on his donkey and his two servants were with him. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand, the donkey turned off from the way and went into the field; but Balaam struck the donkey to turn her back into the way. Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path of the vineyards, with a wall on this side and a wall on that side. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she pressed herself to the wall and pressed Balaam’s foot against the wall, so he struck her again. The angel of the Lord went further, and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn to the right hand or the left. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she lay down under Balaam; so Balaam was angry and struck the donkey with his stick. And the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” Then Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have made a mockery of me! If there had been a sword in my hand, I would have killed you by now.” The donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden all your life to this day? Have I ever been accustomed to do so to you?” And he said, “No.”
Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand; and he bowed all the way to the ground. The angel of the Lord said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out as an adversary, because your way was contrary to me. But the donkey saw me and turned aside from me these three times. If she had not turned aside from me, I would surely have killed you just now, and let her live.” Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned, for I did not know that you were standing in the way against me. Now then, if it is displeasing to you, I will turn back.” But the angel of the Lord said to Balaam, “Go with the men, but you shall speak only the word which I tell you.” So Balaam went along with the leaders of Balak.
When Balak heard that Balaam was coming, he went out to meet him at the city of Moab, which is on the Arnon border, at the extreme end of the border. Then Balak said to Balaam, “Did I not urgently send to you to call you? Why did you not come to me? Am I really unable to honor you?” So Balaam said to Balak, “Behold, I have come now to you! Am I able to speak anything at all? The word that God puts in my mouth, that I shall speak.” And Balaam went with Balak, and they came to Kiriath-huzoth. Balak sacrificed oxen and sheep, and sent some to Balaam and the leaders who were with him.
Then it came about in the morning that Balak took Balaam and brought him up to the high places of Baal, and he saw from there a portion of the people.
(Numbers 22)
We continue reading in the 23rd chapter to the Book of Numbers in the Pentateuch:
Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.” Balak did just as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam offered up a bull and a ram on each altar. Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand beside your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps the Lord will come to meet me, and whatever He shows me I will tell you.” So he went to a bare hill.
Now God met Balaam, and he said to Him, “I have set up the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.” Then the Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and you shall speak thus.” So he returned to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, he and all the leaders of Moab. He took up his discourse and said,
“From Aram Balak has brought me,
Moab’s king from the mountains of the East,
‘Come curse Jacob for me,
And come, denounce Israel!’
“How shall I curse whom God has not cursed?
And how can I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced?
“As I see him from the top of the rocks,
And I look at him from the hills;
Behold, a people who dwells apart,
And will not be reckoned among the nations.
“Who can count the dust of Jacob,
Or number the fourth part of Israel?
Let me die the death of the upright,
And let my end be like his!”
Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, but behold, you have actually blessed them!” He replied, “Must I not be careful to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?”
Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from where you may see them, although you will only see the extreme end of them and will not see all of them; and curse them for me from there.” So he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. And he said to Balak, “Stand here beside your burnt offering while I myself meet the Lord over there.” Then the Lord met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” He came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the leaders of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, “What has the Lord spoken?” Then he took up his discourse and said,
“Arise, O Balak, and hear;
Give ear to me, O son of Zippor!
“God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent;
Has He said, and will He not do it?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
“Behold, I have received a command to bless;
When He has blessed, then I cannot revoke it.
“He has not observed misfortune in Jacob;
Nor has He seen trouble in Israel;
The Lord his God is with him,
And the shout of a king is among them.
“God brings them out of Egypt,
He is for them like the horns of the wild ox.
“For there is no omen against Jacob,
Nor is there any divination against Israel;
At the proper time it shall be said to Jacob
And to Israel, what God has done!
“Behold, a people rises like a lioness,
And as a lion it lifts itself;
It will not lie down until it devours the prey,
And drinks the blood of the slain.”
Then Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all nor bless them at all!” But Balaam replied to Balak, “Did I not tell you, ‘Whatever the Lord speaks, that I must do’?”
Then Balak said to Balaam, “Please come, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will be agreeable with God that you curse them for me from there.” So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor which overlooks the wasteland. Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.” Balak did just as Balaam had said, and offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.
(Numbers 23)
Again we return to the Book of Numbers in the Hebrew Bible, the 24th Chapter, and read:
When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he did not go as at other times to seek omens but he set his face toward the wilderness. And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel camping tribe by tribe; and the Spirit of God came upon him. He took up his discourse and said,
“The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor,
And the oracle of the man whose eye is opened;
The oracle of him who hears the words of God,
Who sees the vision of the Almighty,
Falling down, yet having his eyes uncovered,
How fair are your tents, O Jacob,
Your dwellings, O Israel!
“Like [g]valleys that stretch out,
Like gardens beside the river,
Like aloes planted by the Lord,
Like cedars beside the waters.
“Water will flow from his buckets,
And his seed will be by many waters,
And his king shall be higher than Agag,
And his kingdom shall be exalted.
“God brings him out of Egypt,
He is for him like the horns of the wild ox.
He will devour the nations who are his adversaries,
And will crush their bones in pieces,
And shatter them with his arrows.
“He couches, he lies down as a lion,
And as a lion, who dares rouse him?
Blessed is everyone who blesses you,
And cursed is everyone who curses you.”
Then Balak’s anger burned against Balaam, and he struck his hands together; and Balak said to Balaam, “I called you to curse my enemies, but behold, you have persisted in blessing them these three times! Therefore, flee to your place now. I said I would honor you greatly, but behold, the Lord has held you back from honor.” Balaam said to Balak, “Did I not tell your messengers whom you had sent to me, saying, ‘Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not do anything contrary to the command of the Lord, either good or bad, of my own accord. What the Lord speaks, that I will speak’? And now, behold, I am going to my people; come, and I will advise you what this people will do to your people in the days to come.”
He took up his discourse and said,
“The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor,
And the oracle of the man whose eye is opened,
The oracle of him who hears the words of God,
And knows the knowledge of the Most High,
Who sees the vision of the Almighty,
Falling down, yet having his eyes uncovered.
“I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near;
A star shall come forth from Jacob,
A scepter shall rise from Israel,
And shall crush through the forehead of Moab,
And tear down all the sons of Sheth.
“Edom shall be a possession,
Seir, its enemies, also will be a possession,
While Israel performs valiantly.
“One from Jacob shall have dominion,
And will destroy the remnant from the city.”
And he looked at Amalek and took up his discourse and said,
“Amalek was the first of the nations,
But his end shall be destruction.”
And he looked at the Kenite, and took up his discourse and said,
“Your dwelling place is enduring,
And your nest is set in the cliff.
“Nevertheless Kain will be consumed;
How long will Asshur keep you captive?”
Then he took up his discourse and said,
“Alas, who can live except God has ordained it?
“But ships shall come from the coast of Kittim,
And they shall afflict Asshur and will afflict Eber;
So they also will come to destruction.”
Then Balaam arose and departed and returned to his place, and Balak also went his way.
(Numbers 24)
Thus far we see in the biblical narrative that a Gentile king has hired a Moabite prophet to curse God’s people, but when the moment comes for this prophet to make his utterance, he does not curse – though he could’ve, but didn’t because he chose to speak only what God had given him to speak and nothing more – therefore he blessed God’s people. What’s more, when the Spirit of God came upon him, this Gentile prophet was compelled to speak as he did even of the Messiah who would come someday. Here, we have another biblical example of words which carry weight, great weight, because they are spoken before the presence of God. Every word we speak we are accountable for. This is biblical, not the logical fallacy presented by this disbelieving detractor. There is no truth to the charge made by The Harbinger’s critic above cynically in disbelief and in the flesh, that blasphemously declares, “Nothing like this … occultic spell or incantation mystical power of words is ever seen in Scripture,” but we see how this blasphemous observation is itself unbiblical and contradicts the clear text of God’s written Word, and this principle which is throughout Scripture. Indeed, according to God’s Word our words either vindicates us or indicts us. (Matthew 12:37)
Here is another example where we read the following:
Now Ben-hadad king of Aram gathered all his army, and there were thirty-two kings with him, and horses and chariots. And he went up and besieged Samaria and fought against it. Then he sent messengers to the city to Ahab king of Israel and said to him, “Thus says Ben-hadad, ‘Your silver and your gold are mine; your most beautiful wives and children are also mine.’” The king of Israel replied, “It is according to your word, my lord, O king; I am yours, and all that I have.” Then the messengers returned and said, “Thus says Ben-hadad, ‘Surely, I sent to you saying, “You shall give me your silver and your gold and your wives and your children,” but about this time tomorrow I will send my servants to you, and they will search your house and the houses of your servants; and whatever is desirable in your eyes, they will take in their hand and carry away.’”
Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land and said, “Please observe and see how this man is looking for trouble; for he sent to me for my wives and my children and my silver and my gold, and I did not refuse him.” All the elders and all the people said to him, “Do not listen or consent.” So he said to the messengers of Ben-hadad, “Tell my lord the king, ‘All that you sent for to your servant at the first I will do, but this thing I cannot do.’” And the messengers departed and brought him word again. Ben-hadad sent to him and said, “May the gods do so to me and more also, if the dust of Samaria will suffice for handfuls for all the people who follow me.” Then the king of Israel replied, “Tell him, ‘Let not him who girds on his armor boast like him who takes it off.’” When Ben-hadad heard this message, as he was drinking with the kings in the temporary shelters, he said to his servants, “Station yourselves.” So they stationed themselves against the city.
Ahab Victorious
Now behold, a prophet approached Ahab king of Israel and said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Have you seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will deliver them into your hand today, and you shall know that I am the Lord.’” Ahab said, “By whom?” So he said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘By the young men of the rulers of the provinces.’” Then he said, “Who shall begin the battle?” And he answered, “You.” Then he mustered the young men of the rulers of the provinces, and there were 232; and after them he mustered all the people, even all the sons of Israel, 7,000.
They went out at noon, while Ben-hadad was drinking himself drunk in the temporary shelters with the thirty-two kings who helped him. The young men of the rulers of the provinces went out first; and Ben-hadad sent out and they told him, saying, “Men have come out from Samaria.” Then he said, “If they have come out for peace, take them alive; or if they have come out for war, take them alive.”
So these went out from the city, the young men of the rulers of the provinces, and the army which followed them. They killed each his man; and the Arameans fled and Israel pursued them, and Ben-hadad king of Aram escaped on a horse with horsemen. The king of Israel went out and struck the horses and chariots, and killed the Arameans with a great slaughter.
Then the prophet came near to the king of Israel and said to him, “Go, strengthen yourself and observe and see what you have to do; for at the turn of the year the king of Aram will come up against you.”
Now the servants of the king of Aram said to him, “Their gods are gods of the mountains, therefore they were stronger than we; but rather let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we will be stronger than they. Do this thing: remove the kings, each from his place, and put captains in their place, and muster an army like the army that you have lost, horse for horse, and chariot for chariot. Then we will fight against them in the plain, and surely we will be stronger than they.” And he listened to their voice and did so.
Another Aramean War
At the turn of the year, Ben-hadad mustered the Arameans and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel. The sons of Israel were mustered and were provisioned and went to meet them; and the sons of Israel camped before them like two little flocks of goats, but the Arameans filled the country. Then a man of God came near and spoke to the king of Israel and said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because the Arameans have said, “The Lord is a god of the mountains, but He is not a god of the valleys,” therefore I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord.’” So they camped one over against the other seven days. And on the seventh day the battle was joined, and the sons of Israel killed of the Arameans 100,000 foot soldiers in one day. But the rest fled to Aphek into the city, and the wall fell on 27,000 men who were left. And Ben-hadad fled and came into the city into an inner chamber.
His servants said to him, “Behold now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings, please let us put sackcloth on our loins and ropes on our heads, and go out to the king of Israel; perhaps he will save your life.” So they girded sackcloth on their loins and put ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Israel and said, “Your servant Ben-hadad says, ‘Please let me live.’” And he said, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.” Now the men took this as an omen, and quickly catching his word said, “Your brother Ben-hadad.” Then he said, “Go, bring him.” Then Ben-hadad came out to him, and he took him up into the chariot. Ben-hadad said to him, “The cities which my father took from your father I will restore, and you shall make streets for yourself in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria.” Ahab said, “And I will let you go with this covenant.” So he made a covenant with him and let him go.
Now a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to another by the word of the Lord, “Please strike me.” But the man refused to strike him. Then he said to him, “Because you have not listened to the voice of the Lord, behold, as soon as you have departed from me, a lion will kill you.” And as soon as he had departed from him a lion found him and killed him. Then he found another man and said, “Please strike me.” And the man struck him, wounding him. So the prophet departed and waited for the king by the way, and disguised himself with a bandage over his eyes. As the king passed by, he cried to the king and said, “Your servant went out into the midst of the battle; and behold, a man turned aside and brought a man to me and said, ‘Guard this man; if for any reason he is missing, then your life shall be for his life, or else you shall pay a talent of silver.’ While your servant was busy here and there, he was gone.” And the king of Israel said to him, “So shall your judgment be; you yourself have decided it.” Then he hastily took the bandage away from his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized him that he was of the prophets. He said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because you have let go out of your hand the man whom I had devoted to destruction, therefore your life shall go for his life, and your people for his people.’” So the king of Israel went to his house sullen and vexed, and came to Samaria.
(1Kings 20:1-43)
The claim by David James’ contention contradicts the events that already happened. Does David James realize that he is arguing about something that took place? That the evidence of it having taken place indicates that the biblical pattern of warning and judgment has come over this land and its people, as the Scriptures teach? His almost blasphemous choice of calling the description of these “this mystical power of words is ever seen in Scripture” betrays a lack in understanding of God’s Word, although he is well-versed in theology, man’s imperfect attempts to explain the perfect written Word of God. One wonders if David James has read these passages of Scripture for himself, for if he had, he would not had made the unfortunate statement about Israel’s vow of defiance for which it suffered judgment nothing more than “this mystical power of words ever” being “seen in Scripture,” when in fact the vow itself is the first and primary evidence from Scripture against what David James writes above regarding the Isaiah 9:10 effect. Dr. Reagan, and many others like him, some of whom have not made it public because they do not want to become these people’s latest punching bag, all understand it.
Your misrepresentation of the prideful vow made by various American public officials by directly quoting Isaiah 9:10 and applying it to the tragic events of September 11th, 2001, and then all stating that the nation’s public policy will be to “rebuild, and recover,” without even on mention of God in the process – although they almost all quoted from this Scripture or paraphrased it in some form – is not as you call it blasphemously “this mystical power of words is ever seen in Scripture” - but a legal acknowledgement on their part as witnesses to what the nation will do in the aftermath of these attack; thus taking possession of the vow and transforming the verse they quoted and connected to 9/11 and its recovery public policy for the nation.
What’s more, his contention that there is no precedent set in Scripture pertaining to the legal right of a national leader’s confession setting into motion God’s favor or disfavor over that nation is incorrect, because it is in both the First and Second Books of the Kings of Israel, and in both the First and Second Books of the Chronicles of Kings of Israel, where it is recorded that each national leader either did good in the sight of God, and made public declarations which set into motion polices whereby which that nation benefitted and was blessed by the Lord; or did evil in the sight of God, and made public declarations which set into motion policies whereby which that nation did not benefit and was not blessed by the Lord, but cursed. This is biblical inasmuch as a nation’s leader either proclaims God or he does not.
Even Gentile kings were under its effect, for we read how Nebuchadnezzar lost his mind for a period of time when pride swelled up in him about his greatness and the greatness of his kingdom, and it wasn’t until he regained his senses and proclaimed the Lord God of Israel as the One true God and praised His name, that his kingdom and power and complete senses returned to him. (Daniel 4)
We read that Cyrus, a Gentile King, was prophesied about one hundred and fifty years before God chose him to begin the rebuilding of His temple. Indeed the prophecy of Isaiah even mentions him by name one hundred and fifty years before he was born for such a task. (Isaiah 44:28)
So what a national leader says has a direct correlation with that nation’s policies and the outcome of those policies, and has immense implications for its welfare, and God’s blessings upon in light of what God’s Word says. In the current case three national leaders – two US Senators, one was functioning Senate Majority Leader, the other a Vice Presidential candidate, and the third, a sitting US President; all quoted (two directly) from Isaiah 9:10 – Israel’s ancient vow of defiance as Isaiah prophetically characterized it – and took possession of it by tying it directly to the tragic events of 9/11, and using it to pledge the nation’s domestic policy to fulfill what was said in that vow, without knowing the historical/spiritual/Scriptural context of what they were quoting, much in the same manner that Caiaphas, speaking as the national leader of Israel at that time, spoke for its leaders and nation in proclaiming Jesus’ substitutionary death for the people of Israel and for all those whom God would call to be His from among the nations. (John 11:48-50)
Under Mosaic Law, there are at least two witnesses, but even three needed to confirm any matter, or ratify any treaty or contract (bilateral covenant), and set into motion legally any course of action in any matter whether it be governmental, civil, or religious. This is why throughout the New Testament, it is used as a benchmark by the Apostles in dealing with all matters, the Lord Himself leading the way by using it in this context.
When all three national leaders (two sitting US Senators, one sitting US President) all spoke this vow and used it to affirm America’s domestic rebuilding, replanting, and recovery efforts as active US policies, they unwittingly set into motion the legal binding of three witnesses towards a fact (the rebuilding effort following 9/11, the replanting effort following 9/11, and the recovery effort following 9/11), and unwittingly like Caiaphas had, ratified and set into motion the God’s judgment upon the nation.
What’s more, the governmental and civil authorities and the law enforcement that serves and protects the people are called in Scripture God’s ministers, and we are instructed to pray for them so that we may live quiet lives without molestation or tyranny. (Romans 13:1-7) As such, there is great responsibility and authority that they possess in their varied capacities. Because of the balance of power, the structure of governments, and the various chain of command of such ministers, their authority and their responsibilities incumbent with the seat they hold also determine a good many things pertaining to that nation’s domestic and foreign policies – policies which can be good or evil – towards its citizenry or to its neighbors. National policy can doom a nation or bring it prosperity under Scripture.
So there is much precedent set biblically for this throughout Scripture. David James and his colleagues, who want to grab at any straw they can and redefine the narrative from a biblical one (three spoken vows by three national leaders setting into motion the judgment of Isaiah 9), to a non-biblical one of David James’ own invention – “mystical power of words” as he calls it. It’s not but biblical legal precedent and God’s judgment that is at play here, regardless of whether or not David James wishes to acknowledge it or not. God doesn’t need David James’ permission to do His work, and He certainly does not need David James’ permission to do it as He pleases, regardless of what Mr. James’ theology would say to the contrary.
v DAVID JAMES: Yet another example of the unbiblical ideas in The Harbinger is the assumption that in some way Isaiah 9:10 must be connected to the United States because of events the author believes parallel events in ancient Israel. Although he has tried to mitigate the implication by calling it a “template,” this doesn’t solve the problem or make it any more “thoroughly biblical” at all. No such template is identified or described in Scripture either before or after Isaiah 9:10. It is a unique prophecy concerning Israel’s response to God in the face of judgment that has no precedence and is never repeated. There is no biblical (nor historical) basis to call it a “template”—especially to the degree that it determines or causes specific events to happen.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: This is a far cry from your accusation of it.
David James’ claim that Isaiah’s prophecy here “has no precedence and is never repeated. There is no biblical (nor historical) basis to call it a ‘template’—especially to the degree that it determines or causes specific events to happen.” Is not true, because we’ve just seen Jeremiah prophecy of Judah’s fall at the hands of the Babylonians, and its exile. The Scriptures, and the events they prophesied would occur after Jerusalem’s destruction and Israel’s exile from its ancestral land; squarely contradict the claims made by David James here that God’s warning to Israel through the prophet Isaiah in chapter 9 of his book (prophesying of the Assyrian invasion of the land, the fall of its capital in Samaria, and the exile of its people in 722 B.C.) in our Bibles, “has no precedence and is never repeated.” History is not on the side of David James, as we have seen.
There is absolute biblical and historical precedence, because the same occurred to Judah, when the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judah, captured Jerusalem, and exiled its people In fact, there were three deportations of Jews to Babylon: the exile of King Jeconiah, his court and many others during King Nebuchadnezzar's eighth year (597 BC), as well as Jeconiah's successor Zedekiah and the rest of the people in Nebuchadnezzar's eighteenth year (587 BC), followed by a later deportation in Nebuchadnezzar's twenty-third year (582 BC).
This forced exile came to an end in 538 BC after the fall of Babylon to the Persian king Cyrus the Great, who authorized the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem and a return of the exiles to their ancestral lands, both events of which are considered significant events in Jewish History. These events affected the development of Judaism for centuries to come. HOW CAN DAVID JAMES CLAIM THAT “No such template is identified or described in Scripture either before or after Isaiah 9:10. It is a unique prophecy concerning Israel’s response to God in the face of judgment that has no precedence and is never repeated. There is no biblical (nor historical) basis to call it a “template”—especially to the degree that it determines or causes specific events to happen.,” WHEN IN FACT THERE IS REPEATED PRECEDENCE SET NOT ONLY IN SCRIPTURE, BUT IN ISRAEL’S HISTORY RIGHT DOWN TO THIS VERY DAY, AND WELL INTO THE FUTURE!!!!??????? I don’t know what Bible he’s been reading, and where he’s been for the last three thousand years, but my Bible and its history has a lot of precedence, both before and after, and up to this very day; for the pattern of warning and judgment and exile, warning and judgment and exile that God’s people have undergone, has repeated throughout history, and yes; it is a template as how God judges nations.
What’s more, his contention that “No such template is identified or described in Scripture either before or after Isaiah 9:10,” is historically and eschatologically, and biblically incorrect, inasmuch as we have the following from the Scriptures themselves predating the preceding the final destruction of Jerusalem – after such warnings – and the exile and dispersion of the Jewish people from their ancestral land for two thousand years.
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house (the Temple) is being left to you desolate! (without God’s presence) For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
(Matthew 23:37-39)
When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
(Luke 19:41-44)
Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him. And He said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.”
As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will mislead many. You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.
“Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.
“Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house. Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath. For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Messiah,’ or ‘There He is,’ do not believe him. For false messiahs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told you in advance. So if they say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out, or, ‘Behold, He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe them. For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”
(Matthew 24:1-28)
The words of Our Lord here prophesy of what would befall Jerusalem just forty years after He spoke those words to His disciples. On the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av in the year 70 of that era, Titus surrounded the city, with three legions (V Macedonica, XII Fulminata, XV Apollinaris) on the western side and a fourth (X Fretensis) on the Mount of Olives to the east. These legions invaded Jerusalem, and destroyed it. It was the culmination of hostilities which had developed and had grown for years due to the abuses of successive Roman governors appointed by Rome. The last great struggle of Rome and the Jewish people was during the Bar Kochbah Wars in 135 A.D., and it proved disastrous for the Jewish people, because the false messiah many of them who had followed the false messiah Ben Kosibah also known as Bar Kochba, followed him to their deaths and exile for those who survived and were not taken as slaves. What David James writes above, he writes in pure ignorance of the history of the Jewish people, and is at variance with prophecy, and is entirely unbiblical.
We also have the warnings of John the Baptist who contended with that generation to warn them about the coming day of the Lord (Luke 3:7-9, 17), and the Apostles who warned the people of Israel to be saved from that wicked and perverse generation (Acts 2:40), and Paul who himself spoke in the following manner when we see him last in Rome under house arrest, addressing the leaders of the Jewish communities of Rome in the following manner:
When they had set a day for Paul, they came to him at his lodging in large numbers; and he was explaining to them by solemnly testifying about the kingdom of God and trying to persuade them concerning Jesus, from both the Law of Moses and from the Prophets, from morning until evening. Some were being persuaded by the things spoken, but others would not believe. And when they did not agree with one another, they began leaving after Paul had spoken one parting word, “The Holy Spirit rightly spoke through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers, saying,
‘Go to this people and say,
“You will keep on hearing, but will not understand;
And you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive;
For the heart of this people has become dull,
And with their ears they scarcely hear,
And they have closed their eyes;
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
And hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart and return,
And I would heal them.”’
Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will also listen.” When he had spoken these words, the Jews departed, having a great dispute among themselves.
And he stayed two full years in his own rented quarters and was welcoming all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered. (Acts 28:23-29)
David James the one who makes the connection between Isaiah 9:10 and the United States by accusing The Harbinger of making the connection. The Harbinger does not make any connection between Isaiah 9:10 and America. What The Harbinger does, is describe in vivid detail and accuracy the timeline of events that have manifested themselves in the nine Harbingers and the Isaiah 9:10 Judgment that has reshaken this nation’s economic foundations, that has resulted in the greatest economic collapse since the Great Depression. All of these form a prophetic progressive pattern of warning and judgment identical to the ones that first manifested themselves in ancient Israel 2700 years ago. Not only is this biblical, it is historical. And it has precedence. It has happened regardless of any arguments to deny it.
[1] Jim Denison, The Harbinger a Review on Denison Forum On Truth and Culture, written on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012.
[2] The Levites administered the capital punishment to three thousand in the camp. (Exodus 32:28, 1Corinthians 10:8) It has been observed by some that the number of people who received Christ on the Day of Pentecost were about three thousand (Acts 2:41), and that what was lost on the day the Law was given, was then restored on Pentecost.
[3] Psalm 14:1-3.
[4] Romans 3:23.
[5] 1Timothy 4:15-16.
[6] Ezekiel 33:11.
[7] Only twenty-three years had elapsed from the time the colonies won their independence from Great Britain and had become a new nation on April 30th, 1789 with the inauguration of its first president in New York City.
[8] John R. Elting, Amateurs to Arms! A Military History of the War of 1812, page 222, New York, Da Capo Press.
[9] Picture is from an Internet article titled, 6 Real Historic Battles Decided by Divine Intervention written By: Jacopo della Quercia December 15, 2010. Mr. della Quercia is not a Christian and I object to his use of profanity in his article.
[10] Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane, the commander in chief of the Royal Navy's North American Station.
[11] Bob Symon, Simon Sez – Hurricane of Providence Saved Washington DC and perhaps the Nation. This entry was posted on Friday, June 18th, 2010 at 7:23 pm.
[13] Picture is from an Internet article titled, 6 Real Historic Battles Decided by Divine Intervention written By: Jacopo della Quercia December 15, 2010. Mr. della Quercia is not a Christian and I object to his use of profanity in his article.
[14] Ibid.
[15] After the storm, the British Army regrouped on Capitol Hill, still a bit shaken by the harsh weather. They decided to leave the city that evening. As the British troops were preparing to leave, a conversation was noted between the British Admiral and a Washington lady regarding the storm: The admiral exclaimed, "Great God, Madam! Is this the kind of storm to which you are accustomed in this infernal country?" The lady answered, "No, Sir, this is a special interposition of Providence to drive our enemies from our city." The admiral replied, "Not so Madam. It is rather to aid your enemies in the destruction of your city." Ibid.
[16] From an Internet article titled Abraham Lincoln citing the following quotes from Lincoln and these observations.
[18] Benjamin Franklin had expressed this belief when he made his request for prayer during endless days of deliberations could not resolve the differences of various parties to draft a document they could agree upon. It was only after praying to the Almighty that a Constitution was drawn up and drafted agreeable to all.
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