THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: This is Part VII of our ongoing series of replies to David James’ response to Dr. David R. Reagan’s defense of The Harbinger.
I had to write here a separate comment in reply to what David James has written below, because as I’ve been pointing out throughout this response of his to Dr. Reagan’s defense of The Harbinger; all David James does here and has done in his book, is to present before us one Logical Fallacy after another in a continuous effort to re-direct our attention away from what The Harbinger does say, to another narrative he wishes to insert and have us accept in its place.
Let’s take each Logical Fallacy he presents here – each red herring, each guilt by association, each straw man argument, each claim to authority, and dissect it, peel away the pretenses, peel away the flawed theology and Eisegesis of his creation, and deconstruct each fallacy point by point, until nothing remains, but the raw contention and compare it to the facts, and ultimately to the Scriptural record, and the Historical record, and see if it stands on its own. Thus far, we’ve had some very good results in our previous examinations in this series.
We begin Part VII of this series with the definition of what a Logical Fallacy is so that the reader will be able to understand and even identify them as Mr. James makes very good use of them here and in his book, as do the other critics of The Harbinger. A Logical Fallacy in its simplest terms is defined as an error in reasoning that renders an argument invalid. When someone posits an opinion based on an error in reasoning and attempts to persuade someone else to adopt that position, they have committed a Logical Fallacy. David James uses logical fallacies here and throughout his book to persuade people that his re-writing of The Harbinger’s narrative is actually what it says, and not what he reads into it.
Thus far in this discussion, we’ve taken each of David James’ logical fallacies and compared it to the facts and to Scripture. We will continue to do this here and to the end of this series of discussions as God wills. The reason for this is plain and simple. David James, encouraged by Jimmy DeYoung, T.A. McMahon, and Brannon Howse, and others; has made claims against the teachings and ministry of one of God’s most dedicated servants. The charges, accusations, false witness, reproaches, and lies that the critics of The Harbinger have made – primarily based upon what Mr. James has written and said, but not exclusively by him – must be examined and answered biblically, factually, and with respect.
I will endeavor here to do this, as I have done in many of my previous articles on my website, The Pepster’s Post: A Voice in Cyberspace. Because I myself am a redeemed sinner, saved by the grace of Almighty God in the Lord Jesus, and am imperfect, as is Mr. James and his colleagues, as are we all; on occasion my emotions have gotten the best of me, and I have erred in allowing them to do so. When someone you know and have known for many years, whose most cherished beliefs and faith is under attack, and his work and ministry is brought into question by people who do not know the slightest thing about him, nor have ever met him, and who have absolutely no idea what his beliefs are; you are compelled by the Holy Spirit who speaks to our conscience and directs our way – well, you are compelled by God to act for the defense of Jesus Christ, because He is being attacked. When a servant of Christ is under attack, Christ is under attack. (Matthew 25:31-46) Thus, I have been compelled by God to act, and post what I have posted, and what I have written in my new book, The Truth about The Harbinger: Addressing the Controversy and Discovering the Facts About This Prophetic Message to set the record straight.
Now, I have since strived to allow the Lord, the Holy Spirit to keep me in what Tim LaHey used to call a “Spirit-Controlled Temperament,” which was the title of a book he wrote long before he wrote his famous Left Behind Series. I must confess, it has been difficult at times, but God is faithful, and the Holy Spirit’s fellowship grants the peace and equanimity one needs for the task, even when it seems hardest. In the inspired words of the Apostle Paul in Scripture, I concur that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)
By God’s grace, my new book, The Truth about The Harbinger: Addressing the Controversy and Discovering the Facts About This Prophetic Message, manages to do this. It addresses biblically and concisely each of the charges brought by The Harbinger’s critics, as well as explaining what The Harbinger is and what it says, including what it does not say. It is a book that had to be written, and which the Lord Himself worked so that I would be writing it. I did not seek a publisher for this book, nor did I seek anyone out about publishing what I had written, but I was approached and sought out for it. And the timing of it was most Providential; I was in prayer about continuing to write on this topic and seeking God’s will on it for days, because I had been working on another two books based upon two classes I had given at Beth Israel’s Arise and Shine Academy, and The Harbinger was taking up most of my time. I was conflicted about continuing, asking the Lord to confirm for me whether I should abandon writing any further on The Harbinger or to continue. After three days, I was approached about writing this book, and it is now about to be released. The October 1st, 2013 date is most propitious. There were some delays, some hiccups along the way, some re-writes – rearranging this, some editing, re-editing, adding this and removing that, etc. – but it all worked out as God had planned. I didn’t’ see it at the time, but after I looked at my calendar I realized the significance of the date. I remember writing at the time:
The Truth about The Harbinger: Addressing the Controversy and Discovering the Facts About This Prophetic Message is bring released immediately after Rosh Ha Shannah (Head of Year, Yom Teruah, see Numbers 29:1, also known as the Feast of Trumpets, Leviticus 23:24-25), and Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement, see Leviticus 16:29, it is a strict day of rest, see Leviticus 23:26-32), six days following Sukkot (Feast of Booths, see Leviticus 23:33-44), Hoshana Raba (the Day of Supplication), and five days after Simchat Torah (Numbers 29:35-30:1)!!! BARUCH HA SHEM Y’SHUA!!! I am without words! The Truth about The Harbinger: Addressing the Controversy and Discovering the Facts About This Prophetic Message is going to be released immediately after the ten Yamim Nora'im ("Days of Awe")!!! And it follows the Day of the Lord, Sunday, which is the first day of the week!!! (Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:2, Luke 24:1, John 20:1, 19, Acts 20:7, 1Corinthians 16:2)
WHAT AN HONOR!!! I HAVE NO WORDS BUT TO SAY TODAH RABAH RABAH!!! THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH!!! That the Lord of All creation would allow me this honor, this privilege for me to share Him and His truth and His word for this hour to this nation – to as many as would hear, as many as would listen, and as many as YHWH will call to Himself of those coming from Zion and out of the nations from among His people here and abroad.
I am filled with a great sense of how Great He is, and how small and insignificant I am before Him. Oh that I may see the salvation of Zion and its restoration in my day!!! Oh, that I may see G-d’s people blessed by what the Holy Spirit inspired me and everyone involved in this book write!!! Praise be to G-d, praise the name of Y’shua, and praises and thanksgivings be to Him for His Spirit of revelation given to those with whom He discloses His precious secrets to so that they may know Him and share Him and His truth and confirm His Word at this very late hour.
Well, in the late Paul Harvey’s word, “Now you know the ‘rest of the story.’” And now let us continue. Oh, one last word before I continue. I must personally confess that it is – at least to me – almost embarrassing that I must remind a theologian of David James’ caliber of the essential truths contained in this series of reports. But as is often happens to all of us if we’re not careful to divide doctrines of men from the clear teachings of Scripture and the history behind them, anyone of us can forget these essentials truths, and run after a speeding locomotive to its destruction. Anyone of us can forget. I write this with a very clear sense of my own weaknesses and imperfections; completely cognizant that I too have made only recently my own very glaring error in judgment, and had to retract what I had written, and made my public apology to David James, a beloved brother in the Lord with whom I have some very stark differences of opinion, but whom I respect and admire, and write here only to admonish and correct in the love of Christ.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: Supplemental Material – Regarding the Shemitah
The topic of the Shemitah is covered amply in my upcoming book The Truth about The Harbinger: Addressing the Controversy and Discovering the Facts About This Prophetic Message, but I offer some information here to supplement what we have covered thus far in Part VI.
The following answer is in connection to the previous reply to David James in this series (Part VI) which dealt with the Shemitah, and is a brief write-up regarding the severity and precariousness of the current economic system, which this nation and no other nation has ever faced. This is offered as additional evidence that a forced Shemitah has manifested itself, and if the derivatives market impacts the next Shemitah, it will most assuredly collapse the current economic system and totally wipe out all debt, because there is no nation and there is not enough liquidity available in the world to cover just the interest on what is due that speculators have borrowed to invest and will most assuredly will have to pay when what they have borrowed from our banking system comes due.
No amount of money. No connection to some power broker within the elite of the world – the global banking cartels that play with nations and their wealth as people play with Monopoly; will insulate even the most powerful and affluent from the coming collapse in derivatives and what it will bring upon the world stage. Are we staring down the next Shimtah, when everything will be wiped clean, and the global economic order is erased and replaced by another?
Then will come to pass that which was written by James where he writes prophetically the following:
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure! Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and put to death the righteous man; he does not resist you.
(James 5:1-6)
A website I visited recently made the following observation:
It has been estimated that the value of all the derivatives in the world is somewhere between 600 trillion dollars and 1.5 quadrillion dollars. Nobody really knows the real amount, but when this derivatives bubble finally bursts there is not going to be nearly enough money on the entire planet to fix things.
According to the Comptroller of the Currency, the "too big to fail" banks have exposure to derivatives that is absolutely mind blowing. Just check out the following numbers from an official U.S. government report....
JPMorgan Chase --- $70.1 Trillion
Citibank --- $52.1 Trillion
Bank of America --- $50.1 Trillion
Goldman Sachs --- $44.2 Trillion
So a 2 billion dollar loss for JP Morgan is nothing compared to their total exposure of over 70 trillion dollars.
Overall, the 9 largest U.S. banks have a total of more than 200 trillion dollars of exposure to derivatives. That is approximately 3 times the size of the entire global economy. There is not enough liquidity, that is money, to cover this albatross when it comes due – my observation.
Also on the site is the following warning:
Get out of paper assets immediately! Close your bank account if you do not want to lose it all, buy tangible assets such as gold, silver, seed for planting of every crop possible, store provisions, and if you can, buy farmland.
Bank runs are happening all over Europe. They’re not being reported now as they were last year, but they’re still occurring. The sign to look for is the crack that will happen in the derivatives market which started with JP Morgan's 2 billion dollars loss.
If the current trends continue with this corrupt government, the Dollar will be dead in two, possibly three years no matter how good they’re reporting things look like right now. The Derivatives Market Collapse is Coming Soon! The Economy is about to collapse due to the derivatives market.
But I ask the question rhetorically, “Why should we be surprised at this? And where are God’s people in all of this? Why aren’t our voices heard in opposition to it? And why are so many of US apathetic and complacent, wanting to be delivered at the proper time, when we are supposed to occupy and be heard; when we are to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world to bring salvation to it, and to see to it that we preserve our society while we live in it, within the realm of the Judeo-Christian Ethic which made our great nation the shining city on a hill and what President Ronald Reagan called, “The last great hope for mankind.”
The next Shemitah is going to be on the 29th day of the Hebrew month of Elul, seven years to the day of Elul 29, 2008. This puts the date at Elul 29th, 2015. If the derivatives market bottoms out, the financial collapse that it will entail will make all other financial collapses in human history combined look like nothing but a walk in the park by comparison. It will most assuredly be the beginning of woes, and may be the catylist that ushers in the Antichrist and his system before the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to the earth, though the date for that cannot be set, but the signs can be discerned, and God’s people can have a sense of the approximation of these things if they understand it eschatologically correctly.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: Supplemental Material – Vows Spoken by Leaders of Nations
The topic of the vow of defiance and its repeated utterings in modern America is covered amply in my upcoming book The Truth about The Harbinger: Addressing the Controversy and Discovering the Facts About This Prophetic Message, but I offer some information here to supplement what we have covered thus far in preceding parts of this discussion.
The following answer is in connection to the previous reply to David James in this series (Part VI) which dealt with his charge about the Isaiah 9:10 Judgment and the claim he makes that there is no biblical example of a vow impacting or affecting people or nations. This incredible objection in the face of the actual text where God – speaking through the mouth of Isaiah the prophet – pronounces judgment on Israel (the northern kingdom headed by Ephraim in Samaria) in 732 B.C. for the arrogant vow its leaders made to replace the fallen bricks with hewn and quarried polished stones, replant the uprooted sycamores with Cedars, and recover the devastating blow the limited Assyrian incursion visited upon their land in that year. Additionally, how America’s leaders used this same vow in declaring on three separate occasions that commemorated the tragedy of September 11th, 2001 in our nation’s capital, right within the halls of congress that this would be America’s domestic policy for the upcoming years without a single mention of God, though what they were citing was Scripture – the passage of Isaiah that resulted in God’s judgment on ancient Israel ten years later in 722 B.C. when the full force of the Assyrian Empire swept the northern kingdom of Syria and overthrew Damascus, and exiled ten tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel. Mr. James has made the following unbiblical observation as a theological statement, “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.” We already established that not only is the principle that what one says, be he a public figure or a private individual speaking to another in confidence; what he says has great import upon not only himself, but those who hear, as they can act as witnesses to either indict or to affirm whether that person has made such statements privately or publicly; and that by our words we are justified and by our words we are condemned (Matthew 12:37), because Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.(Proverbs 18:21); in other words, “…every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.” I didn’t say that; Christ said that. (Matthew 12:36) And James in the Holy Spirit is very descriptive of its attributes and their results – either for good or for evil, where he writes:
Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. Now if we put the bits into the horses’ mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things.
See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And 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. For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.
Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
(James 3:1-18)
We have quoted it here, because it serves as a Scriptural affirmation of the Proverb we have just quoted, that says Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit. (Proverbs 18:21) Not to rehash our arguments here, those who are interested in looking up our Scriptural references as proofs and evidence that this biblical principle is found multiple times throughout both the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and the New Testament. We present this one additional example cited below. We find it in the First Book of Samuel Chapter 14, that is 1Samuel 14, verse 1, where we read:
Now the day came that Jonathan, the son of Saul, said to the young man who was carrying his armor, “Come and let us cross over to the Philistines’ garrison that is on the other side.” But he did not tell his father. Saul was staying in the outskirts of Gibeah under the pomegranate tree which is in Migron. And the people who were with him were about six hundred men, and Ahijah, the son of Ahitub, Ichabod’s brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the priest of the Lord at Shiloh, was wearing an ephod. And the people did not know that Jonathan had gone. Between the passes by which Jonathan sought to cross over to the Philistines’ garrison, there was a sharp crag on the one side and a sharp crag on the other side, and the name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh. The one crag rose on the north opposite Michmash, and the other on the south opposite Geba.
Then Jonathan said to the young man who was carrying his armor, “Come and let us cross over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; perhaps the Lord will work for us, for the Lord is not restrained to save by many or by few.”(Hebrews 11:34) His armor bearer said to him, “Do all that is in your heart; turn yourself, and here I am with you according to your desire.” Then Jonathan said, “Behold, we will cross over to the men and reveal ourselves to them. If they say to us, ‘Wait until we come to you’; then we will stand in our place and not go up to them. But if they say, ‘Come up to us,’ then we will go up, for the Lord has given them into our hands; and this shall be the sign to us.” When both of them revealed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines, the Philistines said, “Behold, Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have hidden themselves.” So the men of the garrison hailed Jonathan and his armor bearer and said, “Come up to us and we will tell you something.” And Jonathan said to his armor bearer, “Come up after me, for the Lord has given them into the hands of Israel.” Then Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet, with his armor bearer behind him; and they fell before Jonathan, and his armor bearer put some to death after him. That first slaughter which Jonathan and his armor bearer made was about twenty men within about half a furrow in an acre of land. And there was a trembling in the camp, in the field, and among all the people. Even the garrison and the raiders trembled, and the earth quaked so that it became a great trembling.
Now Saul’s watchmen in Gibeah of Benjamin looked, and behold, the multitude melted away; and they went here and there. Saul said to the people who were with him, “Number now and see who has gone from us.” And when they had numbered, behold, Jonathan and his armor bearer were not there. Then Saul said to Ahijah, “Bring the ark of God here.” For the ark of God was at that time with the sons of Israel. While Saul talked to the priest, the commotion in the camp of the Philistines continued and increased; so Saul said to the priest, “Withdraw your hand.” Then Saul and all the people who were with him rallied and came to the battle; and behold, every man’s sword was against his fellow, and there was very great confusion. Now the Hebrews who were with the Philistines previously, who went up with them all around in the camp, even they also turned to be with the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan. When all the men of Israel who had hidden themselves in the hill country of Ephraim heard that the Philistines had fled, even they also pursued them closely in the battle. So the Lord delivered Israel that day, and the battle spread beyond Beth-aven.
Saul’s Foolish Order
Now the men of Israel were hard-pressed on that day, for Saul had put the people under oath, saying, “Cursed be the man who eats food before evening, and until I have avenged myself on my enemies.” So none of the people tasted food. All the people of the land entered the forest, and there was honey on the ground. When the people entered the forest, behold, there was a flow of honey; but no man put his hand to his mouth, for the people feared the oath. But Jonathan had not heard when his father put the people under oath; therefore, he put out the end of the staff that was in his hand and dipped it in the honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth, and his eyes brightened. Then one of the people said, “Your father strictly put the people under oath, saying, ‘Cursed be the man who eats food today.’” And the people were weary. Then Jonathan said, “My father has troubled the land. See now, how my eyes have brightened because I tasted a little of this honey. How much more, if only the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies which they found! For now the slaughter among the Philistines has not been great.”
They struck among the Philistines that day from Michmash to Aijalon. And the people were very weary. The people rushed greedily upon the spoil, and took sheep and oxen and calves, and slew them on the ground; and the people ate them with the blood. Then they told Saul, saying, “Behold, the people are sinning against the Lord by eating with the blood.” And he said, “You have acted treacherously; roll a great stone to me today.” Saul said, “Disperse yourselves among the people and say to them, ‘Each one of you bring me his ox or his sheep, and slaughter it here and eat; and do not sin against the Lord by eating with the blood.’” So all the people that night brought each one his ox with him and slaughtered it there. And Saul built an altar to the Lord; it was the first altar that he built to the Lord.
Then Saul said, “Let us go down after the Philistines by night and take spoil among them until the morning light, and let us not leave a man of them.” And they said, “Do whatever seems good to you.” So the priest said, “Let us draw near to God here.” Saul inquired of God, “Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will You give them into the hand of Israel?” But He did not answer him on that day. Saul said, “Draw near here, all you chiefs of the people, and investigate and see how this sin has happened today. For as the Lord lives, who delivers Israel, though it is in Jonathan my son, he shall surely die.” But not one of all the people answered him. Then he said to all Israel, “You shall be on one side and I and Jonathan my son will be on the other side.” And the people said to Saul, “Do what seems good to you.” Therefore, Saul said to the Lord, the God of Israel, “Give a perfect lot.” And Jonathan and Saul were taken, but the people escaped. Saul said, “Cast lots between me and Jonathan my son.” And Jonathan was taken.
Then Saul said to Jonathan, “Tell me what you have done.” So Jonathan told him and said, “I indeed tasted a little honey with the end of the staff that was in my hand. Here I am, I must die!” Saul said, “May God do this to me and more also, for you shall surely die, Jonathan.” But the people said to Saul, “Must Jonathan die, who has brought about this great deliverance in Israel? Far from it! As the Lord lives, not one hair of his head shall fall to the ground, for he has worked with God this day.” So the people rescued Jonathan and he did not die. Then Saul went up from pursuing the Philistines, and the Philistines went to their own place.
Constant Warfare
Now when Saul had taken the kingdom over Israel, he fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab, the sons of Ammon, Edom, the kings of Zobah, and the Philistines; and wherever he turned, he inflicted punishment. He acted valiantly and defeated the Amalekites, and delivered Israel from the hands of those who plundered them.
Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan and Ishvi and Malchi-shua; and the names of his two daughters were these: the name of the firstborn Merab and the name of the younger Michal. The name of Saul’s wife was Ahinoam the daughter of Ahimaaz. And the name of the captain of his army was Abner the son of Ner, Saul’s uncle. Kish was the father of Saul, and Ner the father of Abner was the son of Abiel.
Now the war against the Philistines was severe all the days of Saul; and when Saul saw any mighty man or any valiant man, he attached him to his staff.
(1Samuel 14:1-52)
Saul, who was king over all Israel at that time, had put the people under oath, saying, “Cursed be the man who eats food before evening, and until I have avenged myself on my enemies.” But his son Jonathan had not heard when his father Saul made this rash oath, and afterwards having entered a forest where there was a flow of honey, he put out the end of the staff that was in his hand and dipped it in the honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth, and his eyes brightened. (1Samuel 14:27-30)
Saul had done a grievous thing before the Lord that day in his rashness, for he unknowingly – and I will add – unnecessarily – pronounced judgment not only on his own son, who unknowingly violated the conditions of that vow, but Saul had put himself, his house, and his people under this foolish vow, and now he unknowingly pronounced judgment on his own throne, for Jonathan was his heir, even though he had other sons and daughters (1Samuel 14:49).
Yet as a leader of his nation and its people, Saul had begun a troubling pattern of willful compulsive behavior in rebellion to God’s will, because everything he did that day, and henceforth, he did before inquiring of the Lord, so that when he did inquire of God as to whether or not to engage the Philistines in battle, God did not answer him. (1Samuel 14:37) There was great confusion in the camp that day, and when the people of Israel rushed greedily upon the spoil, and took sheep and oxen and calves, and slew them on the ground; and the people ate them with the blood. Then they told Saul, saying, “Behold, the people are sinning against the Lord by eating with the blood.” And he said, “You have acted treacherously; roll a great stone to me today.” Saul said, “Disperse yourselves among the people and say to them, ‘Each one of you bring me his ox or his sheep, and slaughter it here and eat; and do not sin against the Lord by eating with the blood.’” So all the people that night brought each one his ox with him and slaughtered it there. And Saul built an altar to the Lord; it was the first altar that he built to the Lord. (1Samuel 14:32-35)
Yet the Sacred Text is strangely silent as to whether or not these offerings made by Saul were accepted by the Lord, and all indications are that his offering was not, perhaps because of the oath he had made the people take, and what this oath meant to his heir and to his throne, which would be removed by God.
Afterwards the king and Jonathan his son separated themselves from Israel, perhaps to keep his conversation with Jonathan his son from being heard by anyone (1Samuel 14:40), then Saul said to the Lord, the God of Israel, “Give a perfect lot.” (1Samuel 14:41) And Jonathan and Saul were taken, but the people escaped. Saul said, “Cast lots between me and Jonathan my son.” And Jonathan was taken. (1Samuel 14:41b-42) Then Saul said to Jonathan, “Tell me what you have done.” So Jonathan told him and said, “I indeed tasted a little honey with the end of the staff that was in my hand. Here I am, I must die!” Saul said, “May God do this to me and more also, for you shall surely die, Jonathan.” But the people said to Saul, “Must Jonathan die, who has brought about this great deliverance in Israel? Far from it! As the Lord lives, not one hair of his head shall fall to the ground, for he has worked with God this day.” So the people rescued Jonathan and he did not die. Then Saul went up from pursuing the Philistines, and the Philistines went to their own place. (1Samuel 14:43-46)
We see then that it didn’t stop with this oath, for Saul compounded his guilt, by pronouncing on himself the following oath, and therefore commenced to doom his own kingdom and throne, by pronouncing before the people; Saul said, “May God do this to me and more also, for you shall surely die, Jonathan.” (1Samuel 14:44)
Thus, Saul was duty-bound by the oath he had put himself and all Israel under, to exact capital punishment on his son for having violated the terms of that oath he had made before the people. But the people of Israel prevailed upon the king, and rescued Jonathan that day, and his life was spared, because God had used him to deliver Israel from its enemies. (1Samuel 14:45)
He and Jonathan died when they were overwhelmed by their enemy at the Battle of Gilboa (1Samuel 31:1-3). A leader’s public pronouncements, and oaths have great import upon themselves and their nations, as does their public policies. We expect statements against biblical principles from unbelievers who do not have a knowledge of God, much less even know Him personally, and it goes without saying that they lack an understanding of the Scriptures; but to hear and read the same from a Christian Evangelical in the guise of conservative “Christian discernment,” is almost incomprehensible. The theological relativism upon which such statements are made, that dismisses these biblical patterns as nothing more than mere coincidences and happenstance, appear in stark contrast to the assured rock-solid biblical record and the most fundamental teachings of our faith.
If our words and actions and those of our leaders are nothing but expressions that flow out into empty space without any repercussion and accountability to the Living God, then men are irresponsible free agents to do as they please and sin without consequences. Then everything that our Bible teaches about sin, about the need for repentance, about the Gospel are nothing but lies. One cannot have it both ways – spiritual and hermeneutical relativism or biblical truths that stand on the solid rock of God’s Word. Of course, we know from the Holy Scriptures that the second prospect is the true one, and therefore any blasphemous expression that attempts to dismiss this in any form is unbiblical and incorrect.
In what is perhaps the most bizarre criticism of a minister of the Gospel by another Christian Evangelical, in his next objection and contention against The Harbinger, David James takes aim at how Jonathan Cahn has his characters present the Gospel. Read on and see for yourselves.
v DAVID JAMES: And finally, one of the most serious examples of a thoroughly unbiblical aspect of The Harbinger is the supposed presentation of the gospel in the chapter titled “Eternity.” Tragically, the author does not explain how to be saved at all. He does present some important principles and could have made the gospel clear with nothing more than a few key sentences. And yet, the words “faith” and “believe” are nowhere to be found, being replaced with very ambiguous ideas about what needs to happen in one’s heart and mind. The following is the essence of how Cahn explains what someone must do to in order to be saved:
[The Prophet] “By receiving . . . by letting go . . . by letting the old life end and a new one begin. By choosing . . . by opening your heart to receive that which is beyond containing—the presence . . . the mercy . . . the forgiveness . . . the cleansing . . . the unending love of God.”
And this is put in the mouth of a prophet of God?
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: WRONG. David James is entirely wrong. The entire chapter, if he were to read it thoroughly and not through the lens of a prejudiced critic grasping at straws to use against The Harbinger; he’d realize that the long conversation between Nouriel Kaplan and the prophet centers around eternity, the question of personal salvation and Christ. This charge is an out and out lie, and we will prove it from the text of the narrative of The Harbinger itself, which we will examine and compare to his claim below. I am not impugning Mr. James’ motivations here, so let me make this clear; this is not bringing his motivations into question. On September 9th, earlier this month, Jonathan Cahn was a guest on Chris Rosebrough’s radio program, Fighting for the Faith. On this segment of the program the two gentlemen discussed this precise topic regarding Rabbi Cahn’s presentation of the Gospel. At the bottom of this report is a precise a reproductive transcript of a good portion of the program as I could write it of the interview and exchange between these two brothers, since the two men stuttered and at times what they said was inaudible. Here again, David James presents another Logical Fallacy, because he’s really on very shaky ground and he knows it. He’s attempting to criticize how another brother in the faith shares Jesus Christ and the Gospel. This is a very dangerous place to delve into, but Mr. James enter where even angels fear to tread. He writes, “And yet, the words “faith” and “believe” are nowhere to be found, being replaced with very ambiguous ideas about what needs to happen in one’s heart and mind. The following is the essence of how Cahn explains what someone must do to in order to be saved:
[The Prophet] “By receiving . . . by letting go . . . by letting the old life end and a new one begin. By choosing . . . by opening your heart to receive that which is beyond containing—the presence . . . the mercy . . . the forgiveness . . . the cleansing . . . the unending love of God.” And he finishes with asking, “And this is put in the mouth of a prophet of God?”
He does this in order to convince the reader that the Gospel is not properly presented because presumes to believe that it does not meet his criteria as to how it should be shared. This is an amazing accusation based upon an equally audacious presumption on his part! I have never witnessed such a thing in my life. Why is he doing this? In order to establish the following Logical Fallacy in order to put another nail against The Harbinger by claiming another fault with the book. Here is the Logical Fallacy: The prophet doesn’t present the Gospel properly. Since the prophet doesn’t present the Gospel properly, therefore the Gospel is not presented. The prophet is therefore a false prophet, and The Harbinger therefore preaches a false and unbiblical gospel. And in fact, below, he does precisely this. David James here is on very thin ice. One does not question how another servant of Christ shares his faith. The key is that the Gospel is affirmed and shared, and the lost are being reached for Christ. Even Paul wrote regarding those with whom he disagreed with while in prison the following:
Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else, and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will; the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel; the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice.
(Philippians 1:12-18)
Here Paul had a legitimate reason for despairing, if anyone had one, for how the Gospel was being preached by some, because – TAKE NOTE – he was concerned with not in how they were preaching it, but their motivations in preaching it; and even in this, he rejoiced that regardless of the motivation, the Gospel was being preached to the lost. He could have been critical here. He had a legitimate reason for it, but instead he rejoiced in the knowledge that the lost were being reached for Jesus Christ. For this he had great cause to rejoice, and does so twice here in order to underscore his reasons for his joy.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with the narrative where it has the prophet saying “By receiving . . . by letting go . . . by letting the old life end and a new one begin. By choosing . . . by opening your heart to receive that which is beyond containing—the presence . . . the mercy . . . the forgiveness . . . the cleansing . . . the unending love of God,” this is part and parcel what the New Birth is all about. But here, as he does throughout his book, David James even criticizes how the New Birth is presented; nit-picking, and searching for anything he can criticize without realizing that it is Scripture he criticizes here, where under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit the Apostle Paul writes: Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. (2Corinthians 5:16-19) Again, the Apostle Paul describes precisely what The Harbinger above says, where he writes in the Holy Spirit: that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. (Ephesians 4:22-24) David James’ contention contradicts the clear text of God’s Word, and the Gospel. What’s more, he violates a rule that no Christian should ever violate, and that is to criticize someone else about how he or she shares their faith in Jesus Christ. Why do I say this? Because as born again Christians, the Holy Spirit in us provides for us the witness we share with others when we present the Gospel to them for salvation.
Now it’s true, the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets (1Corinthians 14:32); that is to say, we are not automatons – we either walk in God’s Spirit or we walk in the flesh – we have free will. But this is dealing in our free will within God’s sovereignty. Because we are warned by James, the Lord’s brother, in the following manner:
Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?
(James 4:11-12)
And here David James is not critically judging his neighbor, but his brother in Christ, an even more serious offense. This also falls in the context of Christ’s own warning,
“Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”
(Matthew 7:1-5)
And do we ignore Paul’s admonition where he writes in the Holy Spirit?
But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written,
“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me,
And every tongue shall give praise to God.”
So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.
Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this—not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother’s way.
(Romans 14:10-13)
If we then are so accountable to God, dare we become our brother’s critic as to how the Spirit of God in them uses them to share the faith that they hold in common with us? Does this man (David James) even realize what he has done here? And how others have followed his lead in doing the same? Is he even aware of this? This is not a personal snipe, but a very deep concern. This is extremely serious. We can disagree on certain secondary, or what I call “tertiary” matters of interpretation that do not deal with the primary fundamentals of our faith, but when it comes to how we share the Gospel, that is one place I do not want to go and would advise my fellow brethren that they also be very careful how they handle it. We are not perfect, and it is not our place with how someone else shares their faith in Christ – the primary matter is that Christ is shared and the Gospel is preached and the lost are reached. Beyond that is sin.
v DAVID JAMES: The idea that Christ died in our place for our sins is very much obscured—to the point that only someone who is already familiar with the gospel would understand what the author is getting at. And the complete absence of any mention of the resurrection of Christ, which Paul says must be believed, renders Cahn’s presentation of the gospel incomplete, ineffective and unbiblical. How would a prophet of God not include the resurrection in what is supposed to be a clear presentation of the gospel? This is not just nitpicking. I would encourage Dr. Reagan to examine this chapter carefully and read the corresponding chapter in The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction?
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: No, the fact “that Christ died in our place for our sins is” NOT “very much obscured,” as David James falsely accuses here. The very life of Christ following His crucifixion, having died a physical death – the sacrifice Rabbi Cahn writes of in The Harbinger on page 231, where the sign of the cross – Christ’s death, burial and resurrection – is mentioned, even mentioning – and I quote: (the prophet) “On the third day after the calamity, a construction worker was standing in the ruins of one of the shattered buildings. When he looked up, he saw it.” (Nouriel Kaplan) “The sign…” (the prophet) “The sign…unmistakable … glaring…forged not by human hands but by the force of the calamity… a cross …a perfectly formed cross … twenty feet high … of cast iron beams from the fallen towers standing in the midst of a landscape of devastation … as if rising up from the ruins. When he saw it, he couldn’t hold back from weeping. In the days and weeks that followed, it would become known as the Cross of Ground Zero, a sign of faith and hope in the midst of the calamity, a sign again calling to a nation to return. But not only to a nation… a sign calling each to return.”
But on the next page, the meaning of that sign of that sacrifice is given, as Rabbi Cahn affirms the deity of Jesus Christ, as well as preaches the Gospel of God, where the conversation continues in this manner:
(Nouriel Kaplan) “The love of God.
(The prophet) “The love of God. For God is love, and the nature of love is what?”
(Nouriel Kaplan) “To give?” I replied.
(the prophet) “Yes, to give of itself, to put itself in the place of the other even if it means that by doing so it must sacrifice itself. So if God is love, then what would the ultimate manifestation of love be?”
(Nouriel Kaplan) “I don’t know.”
(the prophet) “The giving of Himself … God giving Himself to bear the judgment of those under judgment if, by so doing, it would save them. Love puts itself in the place of the other. So then the ultimate manifestation of love would be …”
(Nouriel Kaplan) “God putting Himself in our place.”
(the prophet) “In our life, in our deaths, in our judgment … the sacrifice.”
(Nouriel Kaplan) “As in Jesus …”
(the prophet) “The infinite sacrifice,” said the prophet, “to bear an infinite judgment, in which all sins are nullified and all who partake are set free … forgiven … saved. An infinite redemption in which judgment and death are overcome and a new life given … a new beginning … a new birth. The love of God is greater than judgment … Remember … There is no sin so deep that His love isn’t deeper … and no life so hopeless … no soul so far away … and no darkness so dark that His love isn’t greater still.”
(Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, The Harbinger, page 231-232, Charisma Book Group, 2012, Lake Mary, Florida)
For where there to have been a sacrifice – a death, there follows that there is a resurrection, because you wouldn’t receive a dead person as a Savior, but One who has conquered death and is alive, and is at the right hand of God making intercession for the saints. (Hebrews 7:25) The name that is above every other name is proclaimed here as the One upon which one calls for salvation, the name of Jesus; and there is no other, no other path, not even religion, the prophet makes it clear, that it is Jesus Christ whom one must go to for salvation, and not religion, when he says: “Being religious has nothing to do with it…” “there’s no religion in heaven, only love. It’s the heart, Nouriel. And you couldn’t have been born into it to begin with, only born again into it. And it can’t happen without you choosing it.”
(Nouriel Kaplan) “To be born again?”
(the prophet) “Yes. Do you know His real name?”(Nouriel Kaplan) “Jesus?”
(the prophet) “Yes.”
(Nouriel Kaplan) “I thought that was His real name.”
(the prophet) “His real name is Yeshua. It’s Hebrew. He was Jewish, as were all His disciples, and the message they proclaimed was all about the Jewish Messiah, the fulfillment of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Hope of Israel. Yeshua is Hebrew for God is Salvation, or God is Deliverance … Protection … Rescue … Refuge … and Safety. In the Day of Judgment, there’s no safe ground … no salvation, except in Him who is salvation.”
(ibid, page 233 top)
And from there, Nouriel asks how one becomes saved, and the prophet explains it to him, and to the reader who follows the narrative to the end. I don’t know what book David James was reading, but it was not The Harbinger. This is the reason he continues to resort to one Logical Fallacy after another, because his contentions cannot be proven. There is a very big problem when resorting to verbal gymnastics and logical fallacies to make points that neither the Bible teaches, or are supported by the facts; they mislead.
Once again the clear text of Scripture, and in this case; the clear text within The Harbinger’s narrative itself, contradicts what David James claims it doesn’t say. This is why I’ve said before and I’ll say it again, I do not know what book David James read, because it was not The Harbinger, at least not the copy I’m holding in front of my hands right now, or the ones that its supporters (like myself) have read.
v DAVID JAMES: Concerning Cahn’s message not containing “new revelation from God,” it must be pointed out that even the subtitle of The Harbinger is designed to make the reader think that the author has discovered a never-before-seen “ancient mystery.” In more than one interview, Jonathan Cahn has said it was as if The Harbinger had already been written. At the very least, this statement is ambiguous enough for a lot of his readers to think that God had revealed it to him (as evidenced by what so many have said in the positive comments on Amazon.com).
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: David James gives no quarter, as he searches for error and heresy. He looks for error even in the book’s title, or in this case, its subtitle, THE ANCIENT MYSTERY THAT HOLDS THE SECRET OF AMERICA’S FUTURE. Well, again Mr. James resorts to his try and true method of promoting a Logical Fallacy to replace reality. He writes, “the subtitle of The Harbinger is designed to make the reader think that the author has discovered a never-before-seen “ancient mystery.” This is what the Logical Fallacy presupposes and concludes with: Because The Harbinger’s subtitle says, THE ANCIENT MYSTERY THAT HOLDS THE SECRET OF AMERICA’S FUTURE it claims it “has discovered a never-before-seen ‘ancient mystery.”” Therefore, The Harbinger claims it contains new revelation from God. Nowhere in The Harbinger does either the prophet or Nouriel Kaplan, or Anna Goren make such a claim as David James describes it in so many words. And even if it could be found anywhere in the book, so what? Writing as a Cessationist, David James disbelieves that outside of the written cannon of God’s Word – the Bible – God speaks to anyone anymore. To Cessationists such as him, if anyone were to make such a claim, it would be in violation of the concept of Sola Scriptura, and therefore extra-biblical revelation. Cessationism has made him forget that following Christ’s ascension to the right hand of God, the Third Person of the Tri-Un Godhead descended and filled all of His followers who were in Jerusalem. Now it is obvious that not all of His followers – other believers outside of Jerusalem had yet received the Spirit, because we are told this in Scripture. Some who had believed, had only been acquainted with John’s baptism, but they did receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit later on. (Acts 8:14-17, 10:44-48, 19:1-7) And Scripture teaches that only those who have the indwelling Holy Spirit belong to God (Romans 8:9), and that it is He who imparts us with the life of Christ to live in sanctification to God (Romans 8:13-17), specifically, For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. (Romans 8:14) There is no margin for error here, Christ’s followers have the Holy Spirit, and therefore according to Scripture, are led of God, as long as they walk in the Spirit for God. If we have the Holy Spirit of God indwelling us, and are led by the Holy Spirit, we can know God’s will, because God reveals Himself to His children through His Spirit. The Holy Spirit is given as God’s pledge of His salvation to those who belong to Christ. (Ephesians 1:13-14) And He is given to provide us with a knowledge of God and power to live in that knowledge according the measure of grace given to each one of us according to God’s calling; as it says; Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God. (1Corinthians 2:12) How then can anyone believe that God, whose Holy Spirit lives as one with our spirit (1Corinthians 6:17) does not communicate with us, when He teaches us from His Word? (John 14:16-17, 26, 1 John 2:19-21,) Is this not communication? Because Mr. James writes as a Cessationist, it is not even worth addressing this contention, the Scriptures themselves attest to the existence of revelatory knowledge as imparted by the Holy Spirit to born again believers who read the Word of God. This revelatory knowledge is the ability to read the Scriptures and understand them, and interpret them. This is impossible for the unsaved. (1Corinthians 2:6-16) To possess this knowledge is not to have, as he calls it, “new revelation from God,” but insight into the Scriptures which the Holy Spirit imparts to God’s servants for service and teaching, etc.. It is of this that the prophet Daniel prophesies that his book would be sealed until the last days, when once again it would be opened and the meaning of its contents revealed by a special impartation of revelatory knowledge by the Holy Spirit. In order for this to occur, the advent of the Holy Spirit would have to have taken place, as we know it did and has since Pentecost. Such revelatory knowledge does not violate the concept of Sola Scriptura, because Christians are alike agreed – whether Pentecostal/Charismatics or Cessationists – that the cannon of Scripture is complete and therefore closed from additional entries. Additional entries are now written in heaven of our lives as we live in Christ, but they are not being recorded in book form here on earth, though there are many Christian books, but only One Bible. This is made plain by Scripture, for it says:
The court sat, And the books were opened. (Daniels 7:10) Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who esteem His name. (Malachi 3:16) And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. (Revelations 20:12) And what shall we say regarding how Paul expresses himself in the Holy Spirit when writing in his Second Letter to the Corinthians, where he writes, Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you? You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. (2Corinthians 3:1-3)
v DAVID JAMES: It must also be noted that it has been strongly suggested and implied that The Harbinger is, in fact, based on new revelation from God. In September 2011, the program It’s Supernatural aired shows produced around interviews with Jonathan Cahn. The following are excerpts from an advertisement for a DVD set featuring those shows:
v DAVID JAMES: Rabbi Jonathan Cahn’s new book gives a fresh prophetic Jewish perspective and insight that clearly shows the future of America. . . . And is it possible that God is now sending a prophetic word to America, a word of warning that the nation lies in danger and unless it returns to Him is heading for impending judgment?
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: The next Logical Fallacy David James foists upon us is the following: “It must also be noted that it has been strongly suggested and implied that The Harbinger is, in fact, based on new revelation from God”. The Logical Fallacy: “Some suggests The Harbinger is based on new revelation from God. Sid Roth calls it ‘prophetic,’ declaring Jonathan Cahn a prophet. There is no new revelation from God, Jonathan Cahn is a false prophet.” Well, there is absolutely no truth to this charge, inasmuch as Jonathan Cahn himself does not consider himself a prophet, so he can’t be a false prophet by any metric, least of all what the Scriptures teach are false prophets. Jonathan Cahn simply does not fit the biblical pattern of either a false teacher or a false prophet. What’s more, nowhere does The Harbinger claim that it is prophecy or Jonathan Cahn claim that The Harbinger is prophecy. I address myself to David James. Have you never read Daniel? Have you not read from the prophecy which declares that Daniel’s prophecy on the end times would be a sealed book until the last days? Do you not understand what that implies? That it implies a revelatory knowledge of the interpretation to Daniel’s prophecy, and prophecy in general inasmuch as it is dealing with end time prophecy? Now we are either in the last days or we are not, and if we are in the last days, then Daniel’s prophecy is open to us, and this implies with it revelatory knowledge into its meanings and interpretation. It is interesting how Cessationists pick and choose for their convenience whether or not one thing applies in one instance, but it does not apply in another because it does not fit their rigid method. No one will dispute that we are most definitely in “Last days,” therefore, Daniel’s prophecy pertaining to “the Last Days” applies. If it applies, then there is by an impartation of revelatory knowledge through the Holy Spirit of God prophetic information that augments what we know that is already written in the cannon of Scripture. NOTHING IS BEING ADDED TO THE CANNON, but we are being given revelatory knowledge – that is to say, insight into its meaning and interpretation as events unfold around us. There is nothing strange about this, and The Harbinger does not add a single thing to it, but sheds light to the most significant occurrences of our day in a biblical manner regardless what its critics claim. Dr. Reagan is correct in his observation regarding The Harbinger. It is a book that “gives a fresh prophetic Jewish perspective and insight,” as Dr. Reagan writes. He is correct in making this observation regardless of whether or not David James believes it. David James’ disbelief does not mitigate God’s work one bit. It is his prerogative to either believe and accept it, or disbelieve it and reject it as he does. But he will give an account either way to God for his decision and what he has chosen to do with it, as will every other person listening.
v DAVID JAMES: The same promotional ad says the following of the author:
Jonathan Cahn is a Jewish believer in Messiah and leader in the Messianic movement. His teachings and messages are known for their profound and prophetic nature and for revealing the deep mysteries of biblical truth.
The following is from another website that exclusively promotes The Harbinger and an accompanying DVD set:
Listen as Jonathan Cahn shares the revelations, the details, and the significance that lie behind and within the mysteries and prophetic message of The Harbinger.
In a promotional video for the DVD set, Cahn affirms the prophetic nature of his message (and not simply in the generic sense of being a “forthtelling” of God’s Word from Scripture):
[Jonathan Cahn] Could there exist an ancient mystery that holds the secret of America’s future? And could this mystery touch everything, explains everything from 9/11, to the global war on terror, to Wall Street, to your bank account, to your future, to your well-being? The answer is yes.
[Voice-over] Call now and receive Rabbi Jonathan Cahn’s two-part prophetic audio CD revelation….
On Amazon.com the book description includes the following:
Hidden in an ancient biblical prophecy from Isaiah, the mysteries revealed in The Harbinger are so precise that they foretold recent American events down to the exact days. The revelations are so specific that even the most hardened skeptics will find it hard to dismiss or put down. It sounds like the plot of a Hollywood thriller with one exception…. IT’S REAL.
A promotional article by WND (formerly World Net Daily) quotes Jonathan Cahn as saying, “There’s nothing natural about this book!”
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: All true if you are not a Cessationist, and believe that all believers have a prophetic calling on them without all being necessarily prophets. Since you are a Cessationist, you reject any notion of the sign gifts of the Holy Spirit, because you believe they ended when the cannon of Scripture was organized, and had been well on its way to its demise by the end of the Apostolic Age. But there is not a single place in any book of the Bible that posits this heretical belief. In fact, the Scriptures warn against it, and Paul prophesies that this type of disbelief would become prevalent in the last days. (2Timothy 3:5)
v DAVID JAMES: However, the real elephant in the room is the character of The Prophet himself. Of course, his presence in the story is a fictional literary device, but the problem is that Cahn uses him to reveal things about supposed connections between events in ancient Israel and America that no one has ever seen before—and that no one could ever see because the “mystery” is not in the text nor is it supported by the evidence alone (as I show in my book).
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: NOT TRUE. It is not Jonathan Cahn and The Harbinger who make any connections, but the events themselves as three national leaders have used the same Scripture to commemorate the same tragic event and tied it directly to the nation’s rebuilding, replanting, and recovery efforts, having tied all three the domestic policies of the United States to the vow itself, and committing to fulfill it. There is the evidence. There is the connection that these three leaders and other leaders like them make. The Harbinger didn’t make these connections, because The Harbinger had not been written when the connections were made by these national leaders. The Harbinger only is the literary vehicle that God has used at this hour to describe it in vivid detail and pinpoint accuracy. It and Jonathan Can had nothing to do with either the events or those in it, they ALL happened independently of any effort on his part or anyone else’s to influence in any way.
I ADDRESS MYSELF DIRECTLY TO DAVID JAMES: Additionally, the problem you have – David James, as an avowed Cessationist – is that it was not you, or any of your colleagues to whom God chose to reveal this to, and since it was not you or they; you have a problem with anyone outside of your group receiving such information. If you would have received the exact information, you would not have wasted any time in getting it out to God’s people with it, and to the nation, because you would’ve understood its importance, and would’ve realized that the time is short, very short.
What’s more, it is problematic if one is thinking in a linear, singular manner, such as governs Aristotelian Logic, and Greek Philosophy, but we are not discussing Philosophy here, and therefore the laws which govern Greco-Roman (Western) Philosophies do not govern and should not govern our hermeneutics. As one writer put:
But why should we? This is the problem, and therefore the question, which should answer the rhetorical question you pose above; Do you doubt that anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved? Do you doubt that God’s Church, His Bride is comprised of people from among the Jews and among the Gentiles of every nation under heaven, because aren’t there Jews and Gentiles under every nation under heaven? Then if Jews and Gentiles who call upon the name of the Lord for their salvation are God’s people, then who do you think Rabbi Cahn is referring to in The Harbinger?
The problem with The Harbinger’s critics is that they overcomplicate the simple message of the book – repentance, individual and national repentance – a concept that is taught in Judaism called T’Shuvah, which is defined as a returning, in this case to God; which the first Christians called their fellow Jews to do so as many as would come to the faith might escape the coming judgment which befell that generation when the Romans sacked Jerusalem and burned down and destroyed the temple and everyone in it on the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av, in the year 70 A.D. This is not a foreign concept, it is biblical, and it is what The Harbinger is attempting to do in this generation through its warning about each succeeding sign or indication of what was befalling this nation, as each of them took place. What is so hard to understand about this?
v DAVID JAMES: It is The Prophet who reveals the never-before-seen “ancient mystery.” The Prophet makes the connection with America’s founders. The Prophet reveals the proposed Isaiah 9:10 Effect. The Prophet reveals the nine harbingers in Isaiah 9:10 some of which are not at all obvious in the text. The Prophet uses the Septuagint to add an idea that is not found in the Hebrew text of Isaiah 9:10. The Prophet reveals the supposed connection between the Sh’mitah and America.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: David James again employs various other Logical Fallacies to create the myth that what has occurred in America with the Nine Harbingers has not occurred as a pattern of judgment any place else. The first Logical Fallacy, “It is The Prophet who reveals the never-before-seen “ancient mystery.” This is to imply that because it’s called a mystery, there is no record of it occurring before, therefore the pattern of judgment has never been seen before. Here is how he does it. “The Prophet reveals a mystery. Because it is called a mystery, it has never been seen before. Therefore there is no historical record of it as having occurred before anywhere. It can’t be a mystery because Cahn claims it to have happened in ancient Israel, and that it is a repeating pattern of judgment in America witnessed in the Nine Harbingers and the Isaiah 9:10 Judgment.” That is the narrative David James wants you to believe. Yet according to the Scriptures, the Gospel which was pre-existent before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), was itself a mystery until the time of its revealing (John 17:24, 1Peter 1:20). This contradicts what David James is trying to say here. Again, Mr. James’ contention is in direct contradiction to the truth found in Scripture.
The next Logical Fallacy David James employs is to say, “The Prophet makes the connection with America’s founders.” Logical Fallacy: “The Prophet connects ancient Israel with America. Ancient Israel was founded by covenant with God. The Prophet claims America is in covenant with God.” This is a charge that David James and other critics of The Harbinger make repeatedly here and elsewhere, but has no basis in fact. The Harbinger nowhere claims that America was founded as Israel was. What The Harbinger says is that the first act of America’s leaders on the day of its founding (April 30th, 1789) was to consecrate the new republic in prayer to God for His blessings and protection at St. Paul’s Chapel in NYC on the corner of what would become known as Ground Zero on 9/11. That is very different than what The Harbinger’s critics claim it says. The next Logical Fallacy David James makes is to say, “The Prophet reveals the nine harbingers in Isaiah 9:10 some of which are not at all obvious in the text.” This statement contains two fallacies – “The Prophet reveals the Nine Harbingers in Isaiah 9:10” and “some of which are not at all obvious in the text.” These two fallacies Although the next Logical Fallacy concerns the Septuagint and The Harbinger’s use of it in the narrative, we will examine that one last, because the wealth of material on it eclipses anything else in this discussion, and to do a thorough and complete examination of it, we must leave it for last. Here we will examine the Logical Fallacy that precedes it; the one where David James writes, “The Prophet reveals the supposed connection between the Sh’mitah and America.” This statement presupposes and therefore infers that “There is no connection between the Shemitah and America.” And concludes, “Therefore the Shemitah did not occurred in America as it did in ancient Israel.” This opinion is a direct denial of actual historical events that took place in the precise manner described in The Harbinger on the dates mentioned. These events are a matter of public record, and I cite the article below which provides the graphs that illustrate in real numbers precisely what happened on the 29th day of the Hebrew month of Elul, in 2008; seven years to the day of the first Shemitah to hit Wall Street. To deny this is to deny a historical event for which there is a copious trail of documentation available for the serious skeptic as well as the avid believer.
THE PEPSTER’S SIDEBAR: The following topic of the Shemitah is discussed at length in my upcoming book, The topic of the Shemitah is covered amply in my upcoming book The Truth about The Harbinger: Addressing the Controversy and Discovering the Facts About This Prophetic Message, but I offer some information here to supplement what we have covered thus far in Part VI. The following is presented here by another writer as supplemental material to this discussion. My citing it here is not an endorsement of the author’s personal views and theology, but what he has researched and documents below is presented here as additional material, though there is a veritable library of information regarding these events available for those who wish to do their own investigation. I have done mine, as Jonathan Cahn did his, and this gentlemen has done his, which I present here. JB
Here's something really interesting.
In the segments about "The Mystery Of The Shemitah", Cahn points out how the two largest stock market crashes (in terms of Dow points) in 2001 and 2008 occurred on the same day on the Hebrew calendar: Elul 29, which marked the end of the last two "Sabbatical Years" (which occur every seven years). Given my own research findings regarding autumn panics based upon the Hebrew calendar, this really struck a chord.
Indeed, let's start with a simple probability analysis.
The nearly 700 point drop in the DJIA (just over 7%) on 9/17/2001 and 777.7 point drop in the DJIA on 9/29/2008 (just below 7%) were two of the three largest Dow point drops in U.S. history:
These drops occurred on the last day of the Sabbatical Years that occurred between 2000 and 2001 and between 2007 and 2008. This last day of the Sabbatical Year is when debts are to be forgiven per Jewish tradition:
In the segments about "The Mystery Of The Shemitah", Cahn points out how the two largest stock market crashes (in terms of Dow points) in 2001 and 2008 occurred on the same day on the Hebrew calendar: Elul 29, which marked the end of the last two "Sabbatical Years" (which occur every seven years). Given my own research findings regarding autumn panics based upon the Hebrew calendar, this really struck a chord.
Indeed, let's start with a simple probability analysis.
The nearly 700 point drop in the DJIA (just over 7%) on 9/17/2001 and 777.7 point drop in the DJIA on 9/29/2008 (just below 7%) were two of the three largest Dow point drops in U.S. history:
These drops occurred on the last day of the Sabbatical Years that occurred between 2000 and 2001 and between 2007 and 2008. This last day of the Sabbatical Year is when debts are to be forgiven per Jewish tradition:
The sabbath year, in Hebrew shmita (Hebrew: שמיטה, literally "release"), also called the Sabbatical Year, is the seventh year of the seven-year agricultural cycle mandated by the Torah for the Land of Israel, and still observed in contemporary Judaism.
During Shmita, the land is left to lie fallow and all agricultural activity (including plowing, planting, pruning and harvesting) is forbidden by Torah law. Other cultivation techniques (such as watering, fertilizing, weeding, spraying, trimming and mowing) may be performed as a preventative measure only, not to improve the growth of trees or plants. Additionally, any fruits which grow of their own accord are deemed hefker (ownerless) and may be picked by anyone. A variety of laws also apply to the sale, consumption and disposal of Shmita produce. A second aspect of Shmita concerns debts and loans. When the Shmita year ends, personal debts which are due during that year are considered nullified and forgiven. The Book of Leviticus promises bountiful harvests to those who observe the shmita and makes observance a test of religious faith.
During Shmita, the land is left to lie fallow and all agricultural activity (including plowing, planting, pruning and harvesting) is forbidden by Torah law. Other cultivation techniques (such as watering, fertilizing, weeding, spraying, trimming and mowing) may be performed as a preventative measure only, not to improve the growth of trees or plants. Additionally, any fruits which grow of their own accord are deemed hefker (ownerless) and may be picked by anyone. A variety of laws also apply to the sale, consumption and disposal of Shmita produce. A second aspect of Shmita concerns debts and loans. When the Shmita year ends, personal debts which are due during that year are considered nullified and forgiven. The Book of Leviticus promises bountiful harvests to those who observe the shmita and makes observance a test of religious faith.
Thus, in the last 15 years, there's only been two days when the Sabbatical Year ended, i.e., 9/17/2001 and 9/29/2008, and on these days two of the three largest point declines in the DJIA in U.S. history occurred. What are the odds of that?Given 250 trading days per year, seven years entails 3500 possible days in 14 years. As for the last day of the Sabbatical Year, this occurs once every seven years. Since there were two of three days of significance, the odds of Elul 29, 5761 coinciding with one of the three worst point loss days is 1 in 1166. This would be the odds for the second hit as well, i.e., Elul 29, 5769, occurring on one of the three possible days. Thus, the odds for a coincidence of the last day in the Sabbatical Year in 2001 and 2008 both occurring on one of the three largest point declines in stock market history is the multiple of the two probabilities, i.e., one chance in 1361889. (It's actually more significant than this combinatorially since the three largest point declines could be measured against all U.S. stock trading days, but this analysis gives one a good idea of how unlikely such a "coincidence" is.)
So what does this "mean"?
The Sabbatical Year ends on Elul 29, the last day on the Hebrew calendar before the Rosh Hashanah and the Jewish new year. Over the last three decades, Sabbatical Years ended on the following days:
September 23rd, 1987 = Elul 29, 5747
September 5th, 1994 = Elul 29, 5754
September 17, 2001 = Elul 29, 5761
September 29, 2008 = Elul 29, 5769
All years were marked by major reversals in the stock market with acute declines in the autumn period:
1987:
1994:
2001:
2008:
On a long-term historical chart, a 7-year "Sabbatical Cycle" appears:
[One might also note the 1973 Yom Kippur Arab surprise attack on Israel soon after the Sabbatical Cycle Year ended that time around.]
As we have seen previously, and do so now, there is biblical, historical, documentary, statistical, and recorded evidence regarding the Shemitah. It is a matter of public record. To deny its existence and the affects its had is on the level of the irrational. Now ,let’s address the next Logical Fallacy David James produces.
The next Logical Fallacy David James makes is to claim, “The Prophet uses the Septuagint to add an idea that is not found in the Hebrew text of Isaiah 9:10.” This too, contains two Logical Fallacies whose purpose is to create the illusion that the Septuagint (LXX) should not be used and that because the Greek translation contains the word “TOWER” to denote both the rebellion and arrogance of the vow made by Israel’s leaders, and the severity of God’s judgment upon them and upon Israel; the idea itself ought to be discarded and not used. The Logical Fallacy goes something like this: “The Septuagint contains a word not in the Hebrew Text. The word TOWER is not in the Hebrew text but in the Greek Text. The Septuagint (LXX) should not be used because it uses this word not contained in the Hebrew Text.” Not true, because “the Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Old Testament that is derived from a text nearly 1,000 years older than the Masoretic Text. The point here is not that the Masoretic Text always, or even frequently, has an inferior reading. Rather, the point is that the Septuagint and other ancient versions provide ‘a viable alternative witness to the meaning of the text of Scripture, and thus the potential for an alternative biblical theology.’ Furthermore, the New Testament authors’ frequent use of the Septuagint when quoting the Old Testament lends further importance to this version.” .”
(Dr. Michael Rydelnik, The Messianic Hope: Is the Hebrew Bible Really Messianic?, pages 36, 2010, B&H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee)
If David James is referring to the Masoretic Text, the Masoretic Text is a Medieval text developed by the rabbis to counter the Christian Messianic claims that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, whereas the Greek Septuagint (LXX) predates the Masoretic Text by several centuries. The Septuagint (LXX) was the Greek translation of the Pre-Masoretic Hebrew Text predating Christianity that was in use before and during and after the Second Temple/Apostolic Era, and all of the writers of the New Testament found the Greek Septuagint (LXX) inspired and authoritative enough to cite it as Scripture in their Gospel Narrative and Letters. The discovery of the Isaiah Scroll among the Dead Sea Scrolls has provided Hebrew and Greek scholars and interpreters with an ancient scroll that predates the period of the Second Temple Era, or at least dates to about the same period, since we know that the Essenes of the community of Khirbet Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, were destroyed by the Romans around the year A.D. 68. Several things elude David James and the critics of The Harbinger here; When the translators of the ancient Hebrew Texts translated them into the Septuagint (LXX), neither Jonathan Cahn was born, or The Harbinger written. They translated the text from ancient Hebrew into Greek long before Rabbi Cahn was born, discovered the translated passage of Isaiah 9:10 said TOWER, preached it, and wrote his book. He used it because they put it there independent of any input of his. David James would like us to believe that Jonathan Cahn somehow was able to travel back in time, and convince these people to insert the word TOWER into the Greek Text in order for him to write his book. Absurd. The next thing that eludes David James and the critics of The Harbinger is that “…the Masoretic Text is frequently treated as a received text rather than a version of the biblical text. Yet the Masoretic Text, although generally sound and truly the best Old Testament text available, is a somewhat late version of the Hebrew Bible. Therefore, other versions, such as the Samaritan Pentateuch, and the ancient translations, such as the Septuagint, should be consulted to determine the best possible readings of the Old Testament.” (Dr. Michael Rydelnik, The Messianic Hope: Is the Hebrew Bible Really Messianic?, pages 34, 2010, B&H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee) The reason David James questions here the use of the Septuagint (LXX) is because it prophetically reflects the reality of one of the key Harbingers in the book, and underscores the impact the vow made by Israel’s leaders had upon the nation and the land and its people. Additionally, he wishes to deny or simply dismiss wholesale the importance this vow had when three of our nation’s leaders used it on separate occasions in our nation’s capital, in connection to the tragic events of 9/11; and how each of them used it both to comfort and assure the nation that “we will rebuild, we will replant, and we will recover,” while defiantly denying any mention of God or call to national repentance in the face of such tragedy, though they were quoting from the Holy Bible, the foundational Holy Scriptures of Judaism and Christianity.
Semitic scholars noted differences between the Isaiah Scroll and the Book of Isaiah as translated by the Masorah used today as the standard version of the Scriptures in Hebrew by Judaism where Messianic passages are concerned. Dr. Michael Rydelnik, a Messianic Jewish believer and authority in this field, makes an excellent observation of this in his seminal work, The Messianic Hope: Is the Hebrew Bible Messianic? Dr. Rydelnik writes:
“…the Masoretic Text is frequently treated as a received text rather than a version of the biblical text. Yet the Masoretic Text, although generally sound and truly the best Old Testament text available, is a somewhat late version of the Hebrew Bible. Therefore, other versions, such as the Samaritan Pentateuch, and the ancient translations, such as the Septuagint, should be consulted to determine the best possible readings of the Old Testament.
“John H. Sailhamer clarifies the way interpreters should view the Masoretic Text by warning, ‘Evangelicals, in the desire to stress the verbal inspiration of the OT text, should be careful not to identify the ‘original’ Hebrew text with the MT.’ Eminent textual criticism scholar Emmanuel Tov concurs, writing that ‘the Masoretic Text does not reflect the ‘original text’ of the biblical books in many details.’ He further states that ‘it should not be postulated that M reflects the original text of the biblical books better than other texts.’ In light of this, the Masoretic Text should not be accorded a status comparable to a textus receptus. Although the Masoretic Text is generally accurate and the Old Testament exegesis would be near impossible without it, it would be unwise to consider it as fully valid as the autographa. In fact, as Sailhamer says, ‘The history of the Masoretic Text is of vital importance…because is it the starting point of textual criticism, not because it is its final destination.’ How is this so?
“The Masoretic Text reflects a consonantal text that was not clearly consolidated until the second century AD. Furthermore, the pointings and accents were not recorded until the ninth and tenth centuries AD. With so many centuries between the consonantal text and the addition of vowels and accents, Wurthwein wisely cautions: ‘The pointing does not possess the same authority as the consonantal text.’ Therefore, it is best not to view the Masoretic Text as the received text of the Old Testament, regardless of its strengths and importance. Rather, it should be seen as the top layer of a distinct postbiblical exegetical tradition. Although the Masoretic Text seeks to identify the original intent of the biblical autographs in a consistent fashion, and often does, it also has an interpretive tradition embedded in it. As Jewish scribes, the Masoretes faithfully transmitted the textual traditions that they had received them from rabbinic Judaism. Thus, there is significant rabbinic theology in the Masoretic Text’s standardization of the consonantal text and its addition of accents and vowels.
“In light of this, the theological importance of other ancient versions becomes readily apparent. For example, the Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Old Testament that is derived from a text nearly 1,000 years older than the Masoretic Text. The point here is is not that the Masoretic Text always, or even frequently, has in inferior reading. Rather, the point is that the Septuagint and other ancient versions provide ‘a viable alternative witness to the meaning of the text of Scripture, and thus the potential for an alternative biblical theology.’ Furthermore, the New Testament authors’ frequent use of the Septuagint when quoting the Old Testament lends further importance to this version.”
“…the Masoretic Text is a post-Christian, Jewish version of the Old Testament. As such, it reflects the theological perspective of post-Christian rabbinic Judaism.”
(Dr. Michael Rydelnik, The Messianic Hope: Is the Hebrew Bible Really Messianic?, pages 34-36, 2010, B&H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee)
It is these considerations that comes to mind when addressing David James’ objections to, and contentions against the use of the Septuagint as an authoritative text. He does so in direct contradiction to the writers of the New Testament and countless numbers of conservative scholars. It is possible that in his zeal to contradict the narrative of The Harbinger, Mr. James has overlooked a lot of good scholarship regarding the use of the Septuagint (LXX), which predates the Masoretic Text and better reflects a Judaism that predated Christianity and not one which was in polemical war against it for its own survival.
Only someone like David James, who uses this contention as an ax to grind against The Harbinger for its use of the Septuagint (LXX) would bring this into question. I must commend him in this, he has left no stone unturned when he searched for error in The Harbinger, and we are examining each and every one of those. Rather than disproving The Harbinger, we are discovering with each objection an affirmation of facts about The Harbinger, and not what David James tries to put into it.
Now in order to understand why the authors of the Greek Septuagint wrote their translation of Isaiah 9:10 to include a tower, one has to understand the Hebrew concepts and idioms Mr. James is unfamiliar with, and therefore reaches the wrong conclusions about. I will try to explain the connections here for Mr. James and the readers in the simplest of ways.
The undertaking of the Israelite leaders to rebuild and replant, and recover was seen by these translators of the ancient Hebrew text as synonymous with Genesis 11:1-9, where the whole earth used the same language and the same words, and as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. It is there where they said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” But the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth. Why did they consider the Israelite leaders’ rebuilding efforts synonymous with Babel’s efforts to build a tower that would reach heaven? It was because they saw in the two enterprises a total arrogant disregard for God. They saw this in the Hebrew text, and translated Isaiah 9:10 to Greek in this manner:
The bricks are fallen down, but come, let us hew stones, and cut down sycamores and cedars, and let us build for ourselves a tower. (Isaiah 9:10 LXX)
In Genesis: The leaders of the first recorded civil government decide to build a tower to reach heaven. (Genesis 11:4)
In Isaiah 9:10 the leaders of the Northern Kingdom of Samaria decide to rebuild taller, stronger, and plan tall cedars in place of the uprooted sycamores.
In Genesis: God frustrates their design by scattering them across the earth, and there confused the language of the people He scatters. (Genesis 11:8)
In Isaiah 9:10 the leaders of the Northern Kingdom make a vow which Isaiah calls proud and obstinate in heart, in total disregard of God and without introspection as to why there occurred a strike on the land and why their defenses were breached, but even more importantly; why God’s hedge of protection had been lifted to allow the first Assyrian strike in 732 B.C.
Both occurrences were seen by the translators of the Septuagint (LXX) as parallel to one another, and therefore when they translated this part of Isaiah from Hebrew to Greek, they included “and let us build for ourselves a tower,” because of the connection between one rebellion and the other. To them, Israel’s sin was as great as that of the ancient denizens of Babel, and was the cause of the final destruction of the Northern Kingdom and the exile of its people just ten years later in 722 B.C.
The following observations by Peter Goodgame in an article he wrote titled Isaiah 9:10 and the Tower of Babel, discloses even more amazing information regarding the Freedom Tower, and the parallels it holds to the ancient Tower of Babel. It is not surprising that the new Freedom Tower is called One World Trade Center; for the spirit behind the rebuilding is that of the New World Order envisaged by George H.W. Bush, and Barack Hussein Obama, and other globalists. I don’t wholly endorse everything Mr. Goodgame posits here, but his observations are extremely salient to the serious student of Scripture. I quote in part:
The imagery of Babylon as the great enemy of God and persecutor of God's people runs from Genesis to Revelation. It begins with the building of the Tower of Babel, and continues with the Babylonian captivity of Judah before coming to fruition at the end of Revelation. Jonathan Cahn's research focuses on the modern translation of the Masoretic Hebrew text of Isaiah 9:10, and he shows us that God has been speaking to our nation through the related signs and events since 9-11. However, when I first read Cahn's book I had just written four chapters for my own book focusing on Isaiah 9-14 in which I referred often to the Septuagint (LXX) translation of these texts, which were written several hundred years before the Masoretic translations were compiled. Here is my commentary on the meaning of Isaiah 9:10 from the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament as found at the end of chapter fourteen in my upcoming book:
The Lord has sent death upon Jacob, and it has come upon Israel. And all the people of Ephraim, and they that dwelt in Samaria shall know, who say in their pride and lofty heart, The bricks are fallen down, but come, let us hew stones, and cut down sycamores and cedars, and let us build for ourselves a tower. (Isaiah 9:8–10, LXX)
What the Lord is saying to Israel at this time cannot be missed or misunderstood. Compare the LXX translation of the passage above with the New King James version of Genesis 11:3–4:
Then they said to one another, Come, let us make bricks and…let us build for ourselves…a tower…
With this introduction to God’s judgment against Israel He is saying that the apostasy of Israel is so deep and so complete that it is as if the people of Israel were saying in their proud and rebellious hearts, "The bricks of the Tower of Babel have fallen down, but come, let us hew stones and cut timbers so that we can build it once again!"
The Tower of Babel was the original and ultimate symbol of mankind’s hubris and rebellion against God, and here God is comparing Israel’s apostasy to the original post-Flood apostasy at Babel that had resulted in the creation of the entire pagan system. God’s anger was kindled like never before, and judgment was sure to follow.
In his research Jonathan Cahn shows how the Masoretic translation of Isaiah 9:10 has been fulfilled at Ground Zero in New York City point by point: the rubble of bricks, the replacement with hewn stone, the cutting down of the sycamore, and its replacement with a cedar. When you delve into his research you will become convinced that none of this is contrived and it can only be the hand of God communicating through signs and events using Isaiah 9:10 as the template. I believe in the message that Jonathan Cahn has been sharing, but I also believe that it goes deeper and is much more personal and specific for our nation. The Septuagint translation gets to the heart of the matter, declaring that Israel's sin was total and complete apostasy along the lines of the rebellion that took place at Babel. What if this is the underlying sin of our nation, too? What if our leaders are saying in their hearts, "We don't need God, we're out to make a name for ourselves, we're in the business of empire-building, so come, let us build for ourselves a tower!"
Just as Cahn found symbols and events supporting the Masoretic reading of Isaiah 9:10, there were also several signs in the aftermath of 9-11 that support the Septuagint reading of Isaiah 9:10. I remember when the first plans for rebuilding the World Trade Center complex were introduced to the public. What struck me immediately were two things: First of all, the original plan called for a single massive tower of exactly seventy stories. In my research I have found that seventy is the number of fallen angels who were given authority over the seventy pagan nations of the world after the Tower of Babel event. If there is one number that specifically signifies Babylon, this is it. Secondly, I was struck by the fact that the tower would include, high up in the air, a hanging gardens, reminiscent of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which were one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. After learning of the proposed tower to be built at Ground Zero I distinctly remember thinking in my heart, "My God, it looks like they want to rebuild the Tower of Babel!"
Libeskind wanted to place cultural facilities, such as a museum of September 11, in glass buildings around the footprints that he designed in his characteristic angular manner, like crystalline forms. For the rest of the sixteen-acre site he suggested a mix of office buildings, public plazas, and retail stores, as well as a train station that would unify the various subway and transit lines in the area. And at the northwest corner of the site he proposed what he called, at first, the Gardens of the World, a 1,776-foot spire that would contain hanging gardens and would be tied to a seventy-story office building that would help provide structural support. (Goldberger, p. 9)
A New York Times commentary on Libeskind's proposal for this seventy-story "Freedom Tower" included the following remarks,
Freedom Tower stands at the pinnacle of the ''spiral of skyscrapers,'' a semicircular composition of five towers of gradually increasing heights. Astute historians will inevitably recognize the spiral of skyscrapers as a version of the temple to Marduk, the Babylonian ''bull calf of the sun.''
In the end Libeskind had to modify his proposal, removing the plans for a hanging gardens and changing from a seventy-story structure to the current plan for the re-named "One World Trade Center" (pictured right) to rise 104 stories, with the spire at the top reaching a height of 1,776 feet.
In the meantime Libeskind has re-worked his dream of building a "hanging gardens" into his current proposal for a "New York Tower" that will be built at One Madison Avenue near the Empire State Building.
Come out of her, My people...
If Isaiah 9:10 is indeed a reflection of our nation's heart today, as Jonathan Cahn has shown, then there is another text besides 2 Chronicles 7:14 that we must respond to. I believe it is a message from Jesus Himself to His Bride, the Church, begging us to unhook ourselves from the world and focus solely upon Him:
"And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her." (Revelation 18:4-8)
The King of Babylon is the subject of my new book, The Second Coming of the Antichrist, available soon through www.raidersnewsupdate.com. However, the Queen of Babylon is another subject, one that has been either ignored or misunderstood for far too long. If Heaven is begging us to "Come out of Babylon" then we need to get serious and ask God just exactly what this means, and then ask for the courage to obey.
v DAVID JAMES: This is all new information and suggests that at some level Jonathan Cahn has received this message from God that no one else has ever received.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: Are you saying, David James, that it is impossible for any of God’s born again, Spirit-filled servants to receive and be given an impartation of knowledge by the Holy Spirit to understand these times, and to put it to paper based upon God’s prophetic Word? If this is what you are saying, then you are in direct contradiction to the Scriptures again. The Book of Daniel prophesies that its prophetic contents would be “sealed until the time of the end” where it says the following:
“But as for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time; many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase.”
(Daniel 12:4)
What does that entail? It entails that the information it contains would be understood by some at some later time; what later time? The End. Now this is referring here to Daniel’s prophecy contained within the book which bears his name, but completely overlooked by The Harbinger’s critics is that there places in Scripture where the prophetic is concealed. Peter makes this quite clear, where he writes:
As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things into which angels long to look.
(1Peter 1:10-12)
And the Apostle Paul makes it quite clear that the redemption that would come to the Gentiles through faith in Jesus Christ was a mystery that was concealed until it was given to him to preach to them of it as its ambassador at large to the nations. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, he writes the following amazing disclosure to his gentile brethren:
For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory.
(Ephesians 3:1-13)
And:
that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.
(Colossians 1:26-29)
Such is the Lord with whom He abides and who abide completely in Him (John 15:1-11, see also 10:14-16, 27-30), whose hearts are completely His, for He has said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,” (Matthew 5:8) Just as the Proverb declares that He is intimate with the upright. (Proverbs 3:32) And He answers their prayers (John 14:13), and as they walk blameless before Him, they are His delight. (Proverbs 11:20b)
Why is it strange for some people that God would give understanding through the Holy Spirit to His servants before the Second Coming of Christ, if indeed they believe that we are living in the Last Days?” Either we realize the times we live in or we go on expecting that Christ is coming, but perhaps not in our lifetime. This is the cynicism and disbelief we must struggle against from within our own body of believers, and we are bombarded with unbelief from a fallen world that sees the deep divisions among God’s people, and go elsewhere for their answers because God’s own people are unable to themselves to find the answers for themselves due to this disbelief.
Many Christians hide this disbelief in a mantle of well-defined and well-developed theology of their creation. It is called Cessationism. For them I highly recommend a scholarly treatment of Cessationism by Jon Mark Ruthven, titled, On the Cessation of the Charismata the Protestant Polemic On Post Biblical Miracles. Dr. Ruthven treats thoroughly every contention put forward by Cessationists and shows from Scripture how untenable their position is in light of God’s Word and in light of the advent of God’s Holy Spirit in the wake of Christ’s ascension and before His return for His church.
Another fact that eludes David James and the critics of The Harbinger is that the biblical record is evidence of God’s judgment of the northern kingdom of ancient Israel – a historical fact. The evidence for it is both in the Hebrew Bible and affirmed by archeology. What’s more, a mystery doesn’t mitigate the fact that evidence can be produced to substantiate that mystery once it’s discovered and brought to light by the researcher. Every day there are new discoveries; does this make them additions to God’s creation? Have they all of a sudden come into existence? Of course not. Much in the same manner, the mysteries of God’s Word are being discovered newly every day by serious students of The Bible, and it goes without saying, this is precisely what the Holy Spirit does when we read our Bibles, He imparts revelatory knowledge of God’s Word as He opens our understanding to the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. This does not in any manner or way, add a single jot or tittle to the cannon of Scripture, as some would think. It simply adds to our knowledge of them.
v DAVID JAMES: It is very troubling that Dr. Reagan has come to the conclusion that there is nothing unbiblical about The Harbinger when there are so many substantial problems. Given that he is a respected Bible teacher, it would seem that either he hasn’t carefully analyzed the book himself or he that is not familiar with the reviews of The Harbinger which have pointed out these issues over and over again.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: The only problems are the ones that are in the mind of David James as he contends using one Logical Fallacy after another, which he reads into The Harbinger. These problems, as we have seen here, do not exist, but only in the mind and theology of David James, a self-professed Cessationist and Hyper-Dispensationalist who likes to define and re-write the narrative and replace it with one of his own invention while applying his own created rules and double standards as he goes along. As for Dr. Reagan, he has more understanding than Mr. James, because he read The Harbinger, and he didn’t read things into it that it does not contain, but was able to appreciate and understand its clear message, whereas the only thing that Mr. James can do is criticize it, because he can’t see beyond the disagreements he has about it. And rather than positing them as personal theological differences, he resorts to the personal criticisms listed above and here, as well as in many other places he writes of it. IF DAVID JAMES WISHES TO RAISE THE BAR ON THIS DISCUSSION, DAVID JAMES SHOULD SET THE EXAMPLE AND KEEP IT FROM GETTING PERSONAL BY EXPUNGING ALL THE TERMS WE’VE LISTED ABOVE FROM HIS REVIEWS AND HERE IN THIS RESPONSE TO DR. REAGAN, BOTH IN REFERENCE TO RABBI CAHN AND TO DR. REAGAN.
v DAVID JAMES: It is also troubling that Dr. Reagan is not more familiar with the facts concerning what has been said about The Harbinger being promoted as prophetic in a revelatory sense. Given the intense controversy surrounding the book, it would probably have been helpful for Dr. Reagan to take some time to find out exactly why these things are being said—and it would not have been difficult to do because of the extensive documentation in The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction?
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: Here, as he does above, David James again resorts to the ad ad hominem language so typical of his writing style, where he uses phrases like “very troubling” and “also troubling” in order to create the impression in the reader that Dr. Reagan has done something strange, wrong, and out of character. This is why Mr. James writes, “Given that he is a respected Bible teacher, it would seem that either he hasn’t carefully analyzed the book himself or he that is not familiar with the reviews of The Harbinger which have pointed out these issues over and over again,” and “Given the intense controversy surrounding the book, it would probably have been helpful for Dr. Reagan to take some time to find out exactly why these things are being said—and it would not have been difficult to do because of the extensive documentation in The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction?” This is done in order to create the elusion in the reader’s mind that Dr. Reagan is somehow writing out of character when he supports The Harbinger, or that he is – as David James posits above – “unfamiliar with the facts.” It is a form of lecturing him that he should know better than to do this. This form of argumentation serves no purpose in this discussion other than to distract from the facts of whether or not there is any merit in charges posited, or if The Harbinger contains a valid biblical message to our nation. Again, we are presented by Mr. James with another Logical Fallacy; this one is a direct jab at Dr. Reagan while attacking Jonathan Cahn. It is presented as, “Dr. Reagan is not more familiar with the facts concerning about what has been said about The Harbinger being promoted as prophetic in a revelatory sense. The book has been intensely controversial because of this. David Reagan should read my (David James’) book because it has extensive documentation about this. My book has the facts.” This is absurd. First, David James has no way of knowing the extent that Dr. Reagan has investigated the facts surrounding The Harbinger. Additionally, does David James really believe that Dr. Reagan would write as he did had he not first made a thorough investigation of the facts for himself? But this Logical Fallacy that David James attempts here to impugn on Dr. Reagan is meant to convince others that he has not done his homework, and therefore is unformed; which in David James’ eyes would explain why he supports The Harbinger. One Logical Fallacy placed upon another without having to furnish any evidence to support the contention. The so-called “extensive documentation” that David James claims his book has – as he attempts to promote it against The Harbinger – is completely useless, because the book’s premise – which is based upon a false narrative derived from a false reading and assumption on his part of what he thinks The Harbinger says – is nothing more than a false report presented as one Logical Fallacy after another, and the documentation presented to support that false report is also flawed inasmuch as it is based entirely upon all of the false assumptions David James has created and presented as logical fallacies. I repeat here what I have written elsewhere in this article; 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: False Prophet?
The question of whether or not Jonathan Cahn’s message is biblical continues in this section of Dr. Reagan’s article as he begins with the following question:
The charge that he is a “false prophet” is downright ludicrous. His message is that America is in rebellion against God, that God has placed remedial judgments upon us, and that if we do not repent, God will deliver us from judgment to destruction. I ask you, “What part of that message is unbiblical?”
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: Dr. Reagan is familiar with the facts, which is why he has written what he has. Dr. Reagan’s question is correct.
v DAVID JAMES: Of course, as Dr. Reagan knows, there’s nothing particularly unbiblical about this part of the message (except that we don’t know for certain that God has already placed remedial judgments upon us—perhaps He has, perhaps He hasn’t). But none of The Harbinger’s critics have suggested that this is what is unbiblical. I find it very unfortunate that Dr. Reagan would try to set us up to look bad in this way. If he really has listened to what we have all consistently said, then he would know that we generally agree with Jonathan Cahn on this point—at least with the fact that America as a nation is deserving of judgment and that broad repentance is in order.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: Nobody is “setting you up to look bad in this way,” as you accuse Dr. Reagan of doing, but you have continually, as you do here over and over again, doing all you can to make Jonathan Cahn and The Harbinger “look bad.” In fact, you’ve gone out of your way to do this. You haven’t even tried to find a single common ground with him, and perhaps the most blatant example of this is how you criticize him for the method he shared the Gospel in The Harbinger. We’ve seen that these points of view and harsh opinions are nothing but a sham, and most unfortunate. The continued use of logical fallacies to support these contentions and objections without any clear-cut evidence makes it obvious even to the most casual observer, that when properly examined, each argument David James presents does not stand up to scrutiny. This is why we’ve taken each one individually and have examined it here thoroughly to the facts and God’s Word.
Another of The Harbinger’s critics who doesn’t get it, has posed the following question:
“No one would deny that Christians in America sin. However, has God decided to hold in contempt Christians He claims to have forgiven and sanctified by His grace? Is He going to Judge America because the Christians sin? Is he going to withhold Judgment on unregenerated Americans if Christians stop sinning?”
It is amazing that a Christian Evangelical could write this! God is holding no one in contempt, but is sending US chastening as warnings to His people as the Scriptures teach us He does to children whom He loves and for whom He cares (Deuteronomy 8:5), as a caring and loving father would do with his own child/children when he/they go astray or run in front of running vehicle. Just as the Proverb says:
For whom the LORD loves He reproves, Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.
(Proverbs 3:12)
And the Letter to the Hebrews repeats this truth about our Loving Eternal Father, where it says:
FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.”
(Hebrews 12:6)
America has been running in front of cars, vans, buses, and now tractor trailers, trains, and large sixteen wheelers with the rate of abortions, empowerment and outright promotion of deviant behavior and lifestyles in our institutions of higher learning and in our politics and in our popular culture, and now even in our churches and synagogues.
We now have a national leader who has redefined marriage – an institution founded by God – the first time not only in the history of this republic, but the first time in human history that this has been done, while a quarter of America’s Evangelical Christians and a third of its Roman Catholics, and most of its Jews voted for his reelection; and you ask “Is He going to judge America because the Christians sin!?”
Sir, do you realize what you’ve inferred by even asking this question? When the people of God who are to be both a light unto the nations (Matthew 5:14-16) and the salt of the earth lose their flavor (Matthew 5:13), and hide their light and follow like lemmings the pied piper down a cliff out of their own free will, they deserve nothing short of what’s coming to them. The Scriptural mandate is clear on this, for its says:
Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a disgrace to any people.
(Proverbs 14:34)
Do you see any nationality put to this Scripture? Righteousness is righteousness here and all the way around the planet, and throughout the universe. It is the respecter of no person, nor does it recognize anyone above its standards, but God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all, (Romans 11:32) What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin … for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:9, 23) But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. (Galatians 3:22)
Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins. (Ecclesiastes 7:20) If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. (1John 1:8-10) Nations are populated by people and people are sinners, having inherited every characteristic of fallen man since the dawn of time. It is sin that keeps US from God, but the Scripture affirms of all nations the following, and I repeat it here: Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a disgrace to any people. (Proverbs 14:34) Does not God deal with differing weights and differing measures when it comes to nations, or does He deal in just weights and just measures?
v DAVID JAMES: I have no doubt that Dr. Reagan does not wish to mislead his readers. Unfortunately, he seems to be relying on hearsay and secondary sources who are being somewhat misleading. Based on what is said later in citing Jonathan Cahn, it would seem that it may well be Cahn himself who is the source of some of these misleading notions. This would be consistent other times Jonathan Cahn has elsewhere misrepresented his detractors and then mocked the misrepresentation with classic straw man argumentation.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: Again, David James mounts a personal attack on Jonathan Cahn, which he claims is not personal. Here he accuses Rabbi Cahn of “it would seem that it may well be Cahn himself who is the source of some of these misleading notions. This would be consistent other times Jonathan Cahn has elsewhere misrepresented his detractors and then mocked the misrepresentation with classic straw man argumentation.” Jonathan Cahn has never said anything to misrepresent his detractors or mock their misrepresentation of him with classic straw man argumentation,” as he puts it. In fact, in this statement, you’ve made a Freudian Slip in calling your criticisms of Jonathan Cahn “misrepresentation” where you write above, “Jonathan Cahn has elsewhere misrepresented his detractors and then mocked the misrepresentation with classic straw man argumentation.” And you’ve done this under the same breath. AGAIN DAVID JAMES INCRIMINATES HIMSELF UNWITTINGLY, BY ADMITTING THAT HE IS ONE OF JONATHAN CAHN’S “DETRACTORS” – AN INTERESTING CHOICE OF WORDS FOR SOMEONE WHO CLAIMS NOT BE PERSONALLY ATTACKING ANOTHER, AND MAKES A BROAD ASSUMPTION COMPOUNDING IT WITH AN OVERT ACCUSATION THAT DR. REAGAN “IS LISTENING TO HEARSAY AND SECONDARY SOURCES” - AS HE CALLS THEM, AND THEN IMPUGNING RABBI CAHN’S CHARACTER BY CLAIMING AS HE DOES HERE – THAT “CAHN HIMSELF … IS THE SOURCE OF OF SOME OF THESE MISLEADING NOTIONS. THEN HE CONCEPTUALIZES IT HERE BY ADDING “THIS WOULD BE CONSISTENT OTHER TIMES JONATHAN CAHN HAS ELSEWHERE MISREPRESENTED HIS DETRACTORS” INCRIMINATING THE HARBINGER’S CRITICS (WHICH INCLUDES HIMSELF) AS WE HAVE POINTED OUT, AS HE CONFESSES TAKING PART IN WITH OTHERS. NOW I ADDRESS MYSELF ONCE AGAIN TO DAVID JAMES: If you meant to say that he misrepresented his detractors, that’s not how it came out, but it came out much as what it is from your very heart – your own unwitting and confession that what you present is a misrepresentation of Jonathan Cahn and his book, The Harbinger. Fact is, Jonathan Cahn has never spoken about his detractors in any disparaging manner, and I challenge you to present where he has done this and how often, as you claim here. It is you who have done this over and over again. Not only do you twist what others say, but then you accuse them of statements never made and behavior they’ve never displayed. THIS IS BENEATH A SERVANT OF GOD. THIS IS BEARING FALSE WITNESS AGAINST ANOTHER. AND YOU’RE DOING IT HERE AGAINST DR. DAVID REAGAN AND AGAINST JONATHAN CAHN. YOUR STATEMENTS ABOVE ARE VERY PERSONAL AND ADD NO SUBSTANTIVE VALUE TO THIS DISCUSSION.
v DAVID JAMES: Dr. Reagan goes on to define a false prophet:
Furthermore, the Bible defines a false prophet as one who prophesies events that do not come to pass. If Rabbi Cahn prophesied that a specific event would take place on a specific date and that date were to come and go without the event happening, then he could legitimately be labeled as a “false prophet.” But he has done no such thing.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: CORRECT. Nowhere does The Harbinger prophesy of any event. In fact nowhere does The Harbinger make any predictions about America. The Harbinger is not prophecy as its detractors claim.
v DAVID JAMES: Unfortunately, this is a case of Dr. Reagan himself using a straw man argument because no one has suggested that Cahn is a false prophet on these grounds.
On the other hand, as a prophecy expert himself, Dr. Reagan is certainly aware that this is an incomplete definition of a false prophet. Prior to the test to which Dr. Reagan refers in Deuteronomy 18:22, we read the following:
And the LORD said to me: “What they have spoken is good. I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.” (Deuteronomy 18:17–20, NKJV)
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: David James’ first charge is that Dr. Reagan is picking at straws because – according to David James – he is suggesting that The Harbinger’s critics (David James in this case) is calling Jonathan Cahn a “false prophet” when, according to how David James carefully phrases it here, he (David James) is not calling Rabbi Cahn “a false prophet on these grounds.” Well, the way that this is phrased is a self-admission on David James’ part that while he denies calling Jonathan Cahn “a false prophet ON THESE GROUNDS,” he is calling him “a false prophet” on others, which he then continues to explain. So in the end, he is – whether admittedly or not – calling Jonathan Cahn “a false prophet.” This is the type of circular thinking David James uses as he tries to find criticisms to use against The Harbinger and its author. ONCE AGAIN, DAVID JAMES APPEARS TO BE SPEAKING OUT OF BOTH SIDES OF HIS MOUTH. WHILE CLAIMING TO BE IMPERSONAL, ONE CANNOT GET MORE PERSONAL THAN DAVID JAMES DOES HERE AND THROUGHOUT HIS CRITICISMS OF THE HARBINGER, ITS AUTHOR, AND ALL WHO BIBLICALLY SUPPORT IT. NOTHING PERSONAL, THIS IS JUST AN OBSERVATION OF A PERSONAL OBSERVATION DAVID JAMES IS MAKING IN WHICH HE USES DISPARAGING REMARKS ABOUT ANOTHER AUTHOR AND BIBLE TEACHER FOR THE PURPOSES OF DISCREDITATION WITH ABSOLUTELY NO BASIS TO SUPPORT IT. THIS AGAIN IS ANOTHER LOGICAL FALLACY OF HIS, AND THIS IS SIMPLY WHAT DAVID JAMES RESORTS OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. I ADDRESS MYSELF TO DAVID JAMES: If then Jonathan Cahn has said time and again that he is not a prophet, and time and again, I and others have written that The Harbinger, just as he would confirm, is not prophecy; then what is your problem David James? You’re contending to be contentious, just to have something else to argue about against the book in order to “pad up” your list of criticisms against it and build your argument up to appear more than what it is; a lot of hot air. Let me explain. Let’s take your next line which you write, verbatim, word for word and examine it. Let’s pick it apart and “peel the layers” so to speak.
v DAVID JAMES: The Lord’s warning involves more than just prophesying things that don’t come to pass (or encouraging people to follow other gods). He also says to mark the man who claims to speak out what God did not say. The way Jonathan Cahn has handled Isaiah 9:10, 2 Chronicles 7:14 and other passages of Scripture, as well as the issues of the Sh’mitah, the Isaiah 9:10 Effect, the harbingers and even the gospel all make it clear that 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.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: You make yourself very clear in what you have written. I will now address our readers as we address what you’ve written above.
If one makes the observation, as David James writes, “no one has suggested that Cahn is a false prophet on these grounds,” then he is implying that Jonathan Cahn may not be a false prophet by one criteria, but he falls into the category of a false prophet by another. And this is precisely what David James does here, by misapplying Deuteronomy 18:17-20 above, claiming that Dr. Reagan’s definition is incomplete, because according to him, Rabbi Cahn can – in David James’ opinion – be called a false prophet for, by writing, He also says to mark the man (meaning Jonathan Cahn) who claims to speak out what God did not say. The way Jonathan Cahn has handled Isaiah 9:10, 2 Chronicles 7:14 and other passages of Scripture, as well as the issues of the Sh’mitah, the Isaiah 9:10 Effect, the harbingers and even the gospel all make it clear that 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. which by direct implication made by David James, Jonathan Cahn is a false prophet, and a lying and false prophet, because Jonathan Cahn, according to how David James phrases his argument here; is both saying something God did not say, and claiming that God said, when (according to him He did not).
But this is not at all applicable to Jonathan Cahn, because none of the charges David James uses are valid, and because the accusation against Jonathan Cahn is a false one on the basis that never has Jonathan Cahn claimed to be a prophet, or promoted his book as prophecy. This is a personal mischaracterization of both the man and what the book says. This is why I maintain that anyone who’s read The Harbinger for themselves and has read David James’ charges against it, come to the realization that he is not writing about the same book, because the charges he presents are neither biblical or applicable to The Harbinger’s narrative and its author. This charge is nothing but a personal theological observation made by David James. It is not a matter of fact, nor is it theologically correct, and to keep it from being personal he could’ve rephrased in the following manner.
Dr. Reagan has made a correct observation, and expressed a correct opinion based upon that observation. David James’ point here is to confuse the matter with a quote from Deuteronomy in order to manipulate the argument away from the fact that The Harbinger nowhere makes any predictions or prophesies. This is what Dr. Reagan is saying, David James wants to redirect the reader’s attention from this fact in order to manipulate and control the reader to accept the following contention.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: Again, David James’ charge that “The way Jonathan Cahn has handled Isaiah 9:10, 2 Chronicles 7:14 and other passages of Scripture, as well as the issues of the Sh’mitah, the Isaiah 9:10 Effect, the harbingers and even the gospel all make it clear that 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.” is a direct personal attack against Jonathan Cahn, and his exposition of God’s Word, in order to call him a false prophet without looking as though he is directly calling him a false prophet. This is disingenuous of David James to do this. It is a form of Hegelian Dialectics and logical fallacies in order to manipulate the reader away from a fact and redirect them to something else; something that has nothing to do with that fact. And what is that fact? That nowhere does Jonathan Cahn or The Harbinger make any predictions, prophesy, or claim to do either. To accuse him of this in any way is to bear false witness. And if David James is not doing this here, then what is he doing exactly? For what purpose would one make such incredible personal statements as those Mr. James posits here, and not expect to be roundly criticized for them.
v DAVID JAMES: So, while it may be unnecessarily harsh to assign to him the label “false prophet,” it has been clearly demonstrated over and over that Jonathan Cahn does engage in teaching many false things by mishandling Scripture and misrepresenting historical events and facts. This then raises the question of just how much significant mishandling of Scripture is necessary for someone to be considered a false teacher—and what is the difference between a false prophet and a false teacher?
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: The implication here is a direct one – that Jonathan Cahn has been involved in mishandling Scripture, misrepresenting historical events and facts, which David James uses to imply that he is either something between a false prophet or a false teacher by posing the last question rhetorically and leaving it there to make its full effect on the reader to convince him – without appearing to directly say it (but he is directly implying it) – that Jonathan Cahn is either a false prophet or a false teacher. One cannot get any more personal than that against a minister of God’s Word, and David James does it here in spades. All of these accusations are based upon David James’ own personal assumptions as he seeks to apply them to Jonathan Cahn over a disagreement of what he reads into the narrative of Rabbi Cahn’s book versus what it actually says.
This is a personal affront to bring into question whether or not Jonathan Cahn is a genuine legitimate servant of God. You can’t get any more personal than this. It is a general attack David James uses without citing any example of a false teaching on Rabbi Cahn’s part. It is an opinion based upon a theology that pits David James with anyone who contradicts it, yet the theology, as we are seeing point by point, is at variance and often contradicts the clear text of Scripture. David James uses ad hominem attacks such as the one above, full of generalities without presenting any evidence to support his contention.
v DAVID JAMES: Even if one is reticent to say that he is a false prophet, it can be said with a high degree of confidence that Jonathan Cahn is most assuredly not God’s “End Times Prophet to America.”
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN:: This is another personal affront that David James uses to bring into question whether Jonathan Cahn is or is not a servant of God. One does not get more personal and more direct than that. David James just disrobed himself and all his claims that he has taken pains not to get personal just went out the window with this statement. But there are many more like that and worse. It must be asked that if David James claims he does not get personal, but as one can see from the statement he makes above, and many others like it here and elsewhere in his writings; that indeed he does, is he a liar? Or a lunatic? He can’t be both. And if a person is either a false teacher or a false prophet, while David James claims that he is not implying this of Jonathan Cahn, then how can that person be either of these and still be God’s servant? What David James writes here, without any substantive proof to prove it, is that he believes Jonathan Cahn is somewhere in between a false teacher and a false prophet or both, and therefore by extension, not a servant of God. One cannot get more personal than this about a minister of God’s Word.
v DAVID JAMES: Misuse of Scripture
Dr. Reagan further clouds the issue and engages in straw man argumentation when he refers to Psalms, Proverbs and the churches of Revelation along with Isaiah 9:10. Does he really think that The Harbinger’s critics would suggest there is nothing applicable to the church in these parts of Scripture?
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: Here, in the face of not being able to present a substantive objection to The Harbinger, and finding himself increasingly without ammunition, David James uses the ad hominem attack against Dr. Reagan by accusing him of “clouding the issue” and using “straw man argumentation” – two very common charges David James uses over and over again as logical fallacies in the face of no evidence to support further contentions against The Harbinger. I ADDRESS MYSELF DIRECTLY TO DAVID JAMES IN ANSWER TO WHAT HE WRITES HERE: You do above and you do below. What’s your point? Again, you contradict yourself. First you make one claim and then contradict the claim you’ve just made with another. Are you aware of this? You are so fixated on arguing the point and get so wrapped up in the details that you often shoot yourself unknowingly in the foot with your own arguments. The only person grabbing at straws here is David James.
v DAVID JAMES: Whether it is Isaiah 9:10 or Psalm 23 or any other passage, the question is never “Is this relevant and applicable?” but rather “How is this relevant and applicable?” This is the task of the Bible interpreter—to determine how a passage is to be understood and applied correctly to those who were not the original recipients. In the case of Proverbs, much of what is said is general truth and so a given passage and the timeless principle are often equivalent.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: The argument David James uses here adds nothing to the discussion, and only serves to pad out his presentation against Dr. Reagan. Nothing else. The Harbinger’s critics are a collection of individuals belonging to a tightly knit group of theologians whose work is to use their positions within a framework of ministries called “Discernment Ministries” to publicly criticize other Christians with whom they disagree with doctrinally and theologically.
Years ago, they correctly focused their attention to cults and deviant movements masquerading as Evangelical, but in recent months, they have been active in attacking fellow believers with whom they have doctrinal differences all under the guise of Biblical Integrity and Fighting Error. They interview one another and present these interviews where they speak against other Christians, as Dr. Jimmy DeYoung did in a notorious interview Brannon Howse gave him earlier in 2012, where they mischaracterized Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn as a false prophet and his book, The Harbinger, as full of errors WIHOUT HAVING READ ONE PAGE FROM THE BOOK, but going completely on hearsay from David James, who wrote his own book – The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? – targeting Rabbi Cahn’s book.
It is interesting that in past years, Brannon Howse and other critics of The Harbinger from those circles have broadcasted and written articles very much like The Harbinger. For example, on September 14th, 2009, Howse penned the following article, which I quote in its entirety below. Note the similarities with The Harbinger. I was going to quote only sections from it, but because of the lateness of the hour and the dire circumstances this nation finds itself in at the present time, I have decided to quote it here in its entirety. The article was brilliant. In fact, I personally consider it one of the best-written descriptions of America’s decline I have read in recent years. It is with a sense of awe, and great respect for the man who wrote it, that I quote it here.
"In the New England Confederation of 1643, the Pilgrims stated: '[W]e all came to these parts of America, with one and the same end and aim, namely, to advance the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.'”[10]
I believe America is at a dangerous tipping point for receiving God's judgment for two reasons. The first reason is America's withering support for the nation of Israel. This began under the Bush Administration but has rapidly advanced under the Obama Administration. In early June of 2009, President Obama traveled to Egypt to deliver an address to the Muslim world. In his speech President Obama cited what he called the holy Koran numerous times. This is the very book that calls for Muslim to murder the Jews as well as Christians.
Days before his trip to the region President Obama declared that Iran has the right to a nuclear facility for energy. Why do they need a nuclear facility for energy when they have all that oil? We all know they want a nuclear bomb. Obama has clearly thrown Israel under the bus; by weakening Israel's national security and making them vulnerable to a nuclear strike by Iran. In addition he has increased Iran's threat to America's national security. Since 1998, Iran has been practicing shooting a missile off a cargo ship. If one missile, with a nuclear war head, was launched from international waters over the United States and detonated only a few miles above the center of our nation, an electronic magnetic pulse could very easily put America back in the mid 1800s technology wise by damaging vital electrical devices such as America's power-grid and our military defenses. Military experts and scientists have testified before the U.S. Congress and declared that the only way our enemies could bring us down militarily is through an EMP bomb.
In Genesis 12:3 God says that He will curse those that curse Israel and bless those that bless Israel. I believe one of the only reasons God's wrath has been delayed for America is because of our support for Israel and now America has almost completely withdrawn this support and I believe it puts us at great risk for being cursed by God.
The second dangerous national tipping point that is inviting God's wrath is found in the book of Nahum. The prophet Nahum shows up in Nineveh about 150 years after Jonah to tell the nation that God is not going to give them the chance to repent this time but His wrath is going to come upon them. Why? Because in Nahum 1:11 we read that the people had begun to "plot evil against the Lord." Rejecting God is one thing; plotting evil against him is the tipping point for national judgment. In fact in Nahum 3:19 we read, that their national "injury has no healing, your wound is severe." One translation says, "Your wound is incurable."
In fact, when God finally chooses to bring His judgment on America, it would be a waste of time to even pray for mercy. No need for a national day of prayer. In Jeremiah 7:16 God Himself declares to Jeremiah not to pray for Judah. "Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or a prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me: for I will not hear you." In Jeremiah 15:1 God tells Jeremiah, "Even if Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My mind would not be favorable toward this people." Then in Ezekiel 14 God says that when a nation sins against God in persistent unfaithfulness He will stretch out His hand against it. In verse 14 God says, "Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves."
On June 1, Obama signed a proclamation that declared June as "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, And Transgender Pride Month, 2009." Combine America throwing Israel under the bus and our nation plotting evil against the Lord, and I think we may be at, or near, that tipping point. The next few months will reveal whether this is true or not. But it has become very clear that America is not on the side of God when our nation has murdered nearly 50 million unborn children, states are rushing toward homosexual marriage, God is outlawed in our nation's public schools, the criminalization of Christianity is greatly increasing, only 1% of adults have a Christian worldview and false-teaching and pagan spirituality has become mainstream.
Abraham Lincoln said, "I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side."
In 2 Corinthians 3:17 the Apostle Paul writes: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom". The question for America is have we rejected the things of the Lord and thus His Divine providence and protection? In other words, is God judging America? I think the answer is yes.
Founding Father Dr. Jedidiah Morse wrote:
"Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all the blessings which flow from them, must fall with them."
Engraved on the Jefferson Memorial in Washington D.C. are these words of Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and our third president:
"God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever."
George Washington wrote: "We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself have ordained."
George mason, The father of the Bill of Rights, speaking at the Constitutional Convention declared: "As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world, so they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes and effects, Providence punishes national sins by national calamities."
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.
Deuteronomy 28
For disobeying God, Israel would not be blessed with prosperity and abundance both in regards to their economics as well as in their agriculture.
V. 24 describes drought: |
Many states in America are dealing with severe drought.
Many states in America are dealing with severe drought.
V. 28 describes confusion of heart:
Americans are spiritually confused and are mixing Christianity with pagan spirituality.
Americans are spiritually confused and are mixing Christianity with pagan spirituality.
V. 29 the nation shall not prosper in her ways:
Look at the state of America's economy, educational system and legal system.
Look at the state of America's economy, educational system and legal system.
V. 30 Lose of Homes:
America is experiencing historic home-foreclosures.
America is experiencing historic home-foreclosures.
V. 38 You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in:
Recently I watched a Fox News Channel reporter standing on the side of a tractor as the farmer tilled his perfect crop of tomatoes back into the grown because it would cost him more to bring the crop to market than what he could sell it for and thus he was saving money to plow the crop under. Watch and see if America's famers experience poor yields or crops being damaged through drought or storms.
Recently I watched a Fox News Channel reporter standing on the side of a tractor as the farmer tilled his perfect crop of tomatoes back into the grown because it would cost him more to bring the crop to market than what he could sell it for and thus he was saving money to plow the crop under. Watch and see if America's famers experience poor yields or crops being damaged through drought or storms.
V. 43 speaks of an invasion of illegal aliens:
One study reveals that illegal aliens cost Americans $346 billion per year.
One study reveals that illegal aliens cost Americans $346 billion per year.
Leviticus 26:
V. 16 I will even appoint terror over you:
America continues to live under the threat and fear of terrorism.
America continues to live under the threat and fear of terrorism.
V. 19 I will break the pride of your power:
America is no longer a super-power as our military is stretched thin around the world and massive national debt impacts our financial stability and dependability which is causing nations to call for a new reserve currency to replace the American dollar.
America is no longer a super-power as our military is stretched thin around the world and massive national debt impacts our financial stability and dependability which is causing nations to call for a new reserve currency to replace the American dollar.
V. 20. Speaks of famine:
V. 26 Speaks of famine:
Let us pray this does not happen.
V. 26 Speaks of famine:
Let us pray this does not happen.
V. 22 Speaks of extreme economic distress:
America is bankrupt. When you combine all our off record debt and unfunded liabilities like Medicare and Social Security we are over 99 trillion dollars in debt. The federal government could tax Americans 100% of their total incomes and not cover 2009 federal deficit.
America is bankrupt. When you combine all our off record debt and unfunded liabilities like Medicare and Social Security we are over 99 trillion dollars in debt. The federal government could tax Americans 100% of their total incomes and not cover 2009 federal deficit.
V. 31 Speaks of invasion by enemies and destruction of their cities:
Intelligence officials and experts admit that terrorist sleeper cells are here in America and they are simply waiting for orders to carry out acts of terrorism upon our cities as did those that carried out the attacks on 9-11, 2001.
Intelligence officials and experts admit that terrorist sleeper cells are here in America and they are simply waiting for orders to carry out acts of terrorism upon our cities as did those that carried out the attacks on 9-11, 2001.
Romans 1 clearly states that a nation that rejects God over and over will suffer five specific consequences and America is experiencing all of these now.
Romans 1:21-32
1. A Nation of Fools: V. 21-22
This verse declares that a nation that rejects God over and over will become vain, useless, futile or foolish in their thinking. Despite claiming to be so wise and so smart, the nation will become so foolish in their thinking that they will succumb to spiritual deception and accept spiritual lies and false teaching.
This verse declares that a nation that rejects God over and over will become vain, useless, futile or foolish in their thinking. Despite claiming to be so wise and so smart, the nation will become so foolish in their thinking that they will succumb to spiritual deception and accept spiritual lies and false teaching.
2. The Nation Accepts Pagan Spirituality V. 25
The Denver Post in June of 2008, reported that pagan spirituality is doubling in America every eighteen months. Pagan spirituality is the worship of nature, the belief in pantheism which proclaims that god is all and all is god. Whether you call it Cosmic Humanism, the New Age Movement, the New Spirituality or pagan spirituality, this worldview is becoming the dominate worldview in America with the help of people like Oprah Winfrey as well as the leaders of the Emergent Church.
The Denver Post in June of 2008, reported that pagan spirituality is doubling in America every eighteen months. Pagan spirituality is the worship of nature, the belief in pantheism which proclaims that god is all and all is god. Whether you call it Cosmic Humanism, the New Age Movement, the New Spirituality or pagan spirituality, this worldview is becoming the dominate worldview in America with the help of people like Oprah Winfrey as well as the leaders of the Emergent Church.
3. The Nation Accepts Homosexuality V. 26-27
Whether it is states that have approved homosexual marriage, the curriculum in many of America's public schools that teach the homosexual agenda, or the non-judgmentalism of a postmodern generation. Laws are seeking to give special rights to homosexuals and homosexuality continues to become an acceptable life-style to an ever increasing percentage of Americans.
Whether it is states that have approved homosexual marriage, the curriculum in many of America's public schools that teach the homosexual agenda, or the non-judgmentalism of a postmodern generation. Laws are seeking to give special rights to homosexuals and homosexuality continues to become an acceptable life-style to an ever increasing percentage of Americans.
4. The Nation becomes violent and debased V. 28
A study by David Barton of Wallbuilders reveals that since the 1962, and 1963, U.S. Supreme Court rulings that outlawed prayer and Bible reading in America's public schools, our nation has seen a spike in the rates of murder, rape, child abuse, unwed pregnancies, and violent crimes.
A study by David Barton of Wallbuilders reveals that since the 1962, and 1963, U.S. Supreme Court rulings that outlawed prayer and Bible reading in America's public schools, our nation has seen a spike in the rates of murder, rape, child abuse, unwed pregnancies, and violent crimes.
5. The Nation's leaders are corrupt and immoral V. 32
This verse declares that when a nation continually rejects God, they will have leaders that are not only immoral and corrupt in their personal lives but they will also approve of and encourage immoral behavior in the people. Whether at the state or federal level, the leaders in our legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government are continually passing laws, handing down legal rulings, and signing executive orders and sponsoring legislation that is against the righteous judgments of God.
This verse declares that when a nation continually rejects God, they will have leaders that are not only immoral and corrupt in their personal lives but they will also approve of and encourage immoral behavior in the people. Whether at the state or federal level, the leaders in our legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government are continually passing laws, handing down legal rulings, and signing executive orders and sponsoring legislation that is against the righteous judgments of God.
A quick look at Isaiah chapter five further reveals a few of the unrepentant and continual sins for which God will bring judgment to a nation. God warned Israel for these sins and America should also consider itself warned.
Isaiah 5
V. 8-10: Materialism:
Money is not the root of all evil but the love of money is the root of all evil and at the heart of materialism is the love of money. Materialism is a form of idolatry, it is the worship or love of money that also includes knowingly disobeying God's principles and standards in order to obtain money.
Money is not the root of all evil but the love of money is the root of all evil and at the heart of materialism is the love of money. Materialism is a form of idolatry, it is the worship or love of money that also includes knowingly disobeying God's principles and standards in order to obtain money.
V. 11-12: Hedonism:
Hedonism says that the purpose of life is not to seek God but to seek pleasure. Hedonism rejects the absolute truth of right and wrong based on the character and nature of God and instead proclaims that if it feels good do it, you only live once, or eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.
Hedonism says that the purpose of life is not to seek God but to seek pleasure. Hedonism rejects the absolute truth of right and wrong based on the character and nature of God and instead proclaims that if it feels good do it, you only live once, or eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.
V. 12: Apathy and Foolishness:
Ideas have consequences. Bad ideas have bad consequences. Apathy has led Americans to take their freedoms for granted, to become intellectually lazy, to reject reason, logic, and context. The Bible speaks over and over about the need to acquire knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, yet Americans have done the exact opposite and have rejected knowledge. Wisdom is the acquisition of truth and knowledge is the application of truth. The Bible says that Jesus Christ is truth, that His Word is truth, yet Americans have developed an apathy toward God that has now turned into disdain toward His character and nature and this has made us a nation of fools.
Ideas have consequences. Bad ideas have bad consequences. Apathy has led Americans to take their freedoms for granted, to become intellectually lazy, to reject reason, logic, and context. The Bible speaks over and over about the need to acquire knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, yet Americans have done the exact opposite and have rejected knowledge. Wisdom is the acquisition of truth and knowledge is the application of truth. The Bible says that Jesus Christ is truth, that His Word is truth, yet Americans have developed an apathy toward God that has now turned into disdain toward His character and nature and this has made us a nation of fools.
V. 20: Moral Relativism:
Since the late sixties, millions of American public school children have been educated with values clarification courses that proclaimed moral relativism which is the belief that all values and beliefs are equal because there is no absolute truth or standard of right and wrong.
Since the late sixties, millions of American public school children have been educated with values clarification courses that proclaimed moral relativism which is the belief that all values and beliefs are equal because there is no absolute truth or standard of right and wrong.
V. 21: Arrogance leading to spiritual deception:
This fits right in with Romans 1:21-25 where the nation becomes so arrogant and foolish in their thinking that they accept spiritual lies such as pagan spirituality.
This fits right in with Romans 1:21-25 where the nation becomes so arrogant and foolish in their thinking that they accept spiritual lies such as pagan spirituality.
V. 21-23: Corrupt leadership and rulers drunk with power and enriching themselves with brides and ill-gotten gains:
The examples of this are everywhere. Americans are beginning to realize that the majority of our local, state, and federal leaders are only interested in power, using their position to enrich themselves and their special interest groups so they receive kick backs, under the table payments, and political contributions for their re-election. A judge recently made national news because he had taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to sentence minors to a private, juvenile detention center. The judge was thus sentencing minors to this juvenile facility for the smallest of offenses.
The examples of this are everywhere. Americans are beginning to realize that the majority of our local, state, and federal leaders are only interested in power, using their position to enrich themselves and their special interest groups so they receive kick backs, under the table payments, and political contributions for their re-election. A judge recently made national news because he had taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to sentence minors to a private, juvenile detention center. The judge was thus sentencing minors to this juvenile facility for the smallest of offenses.
A Christian response:
Christians must occupy till the Lord returns. Sadly, as America goes under, Christians that were only committed to the reconstruction of America or building a Christian America, will retreat from the culture and become defeated. This is not how Christians should respond. Duty is our and the results belong to God. If indeed God is judging America, (I believe He is) and if His judgment is going to greatly increase, (which I believe it will) then we need to use His judgment to preach the Gospel to the unsaved. As I stated in an earlier article, we need to see God's national judgment of our sins as an opportunity to speak in the natural realm and then swing into the spiritual realm. Explain to the unbeliever what sin is, why God must judge sin, and that the judgment that nations experience in this life is nothing compared to the eternal judgment that unrepentant individuals will receive in the next world. Share with them that grace and mercy is only extended to those that repent and that Jesus Christ has provided the way for us to pass from judgment into life.
American Christians cannot rate our success on how Christian we make our culture because we may very well see a drastic increase in the persecution of Christians in America. American Christians are not exempt from even the kind of persecution that our brothers and sisters in Christ have experienced in China, Cuba, and many other parts of the world. Our faithful fulfilling of the Great Commission must be our standard for success as Christians, not our popularity in the culture, the balance of our bank accounts, the house we live in or the car we drive.
Peter Marshall put it this way: "It is better to fail in a cause that will ultimately succeed, than to succeed in a cause that will ultimately fail."Dr. Erwin Lutzer added to this by saying: "Better to fail within the church than to be successful outside of it…God wins even when the church appears to lose."
To God be the glory.”
(Brannon Howse, Is America At a Dangerous Tipping Point for Receiving God's Judgment?, September 14, 2009)
If one had not known the author of the article, nor read The Harbinger, they would have believed that it was taken out of one of its pages, because of the striking similarities Howse draws in it to those in The Harbinger. Only one thing, this article was written almost three years BEFORE Jonathan Cahn wrote his New York Times bestseller, The Harbinger. Brannon Howse wrote this article, and it flies in the face of everything David James says in his polemical piece the Berean Call has published, and everything he writes here in reply to Dr. David Reagan. Except for the Nine Harbingers, it is in every respect The Harbinger, minus the prophet, Nouriel Kaplan, and Anna Goren, and the ubiquitous seals representing these Harbingers. Now, I have not searched past articles written by the other critics of The Harbinger for their content, but I am almost certain that some of these gentlemen in this group had at some point in their past written much as Howse does here. Of course, no one in their group has taken the other to task for having written this way. They’d be shooting themselves in the foot! But when others Christians do the same independent of them, they are attacked by these people! Of disbelieving academics like these, Christ has warned:
“How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?”
(John 5:44)
But The Amplified Bible presents Our Lord’s words in John 5:44 in the following manner:
“How is it possible for you to believe [how can you learn to believe], you who [are content to seek and] receive praise and honor and glory from one another, and yet do not seek the praise and honor and glory which come from Him Who alone is God?”
Additionally the Lord Jesus admonishes us, which is really a commandment for us to follow:
Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”
(John 7:24)
v DAVID JAMES: However, this is not always the situation. For example, in the case of Psalm 23; the timeless principles must be extracted from the shepherding imagery (i.e., the Lord isn’t literally comforting us with His physical staff). Concerning the churches of Revelation, not many modern-day churches eat food offered to idols as in Thyatira. We understand from basic Bible study methods and hermeneutics that not every detail is equally and as directly applicable to us as it was to the original recipients. We just have to keep these principles in mind—which leads to the next point.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: I ADDRESS DAVID JAMES: But this is not what you say in your book. In several places you place literal restrictions upon the interpretation and application of Scripture in order to make your point. YOU DO THE SAME WITH REGARDS TO 2CHRONICLES 7:14 BELOW. You can’t change the rules as you go along, David, for your own convenience. You’re applying a double standard. They either apply universally or they don’t apply at all. You apply them in some cases and in others you do the opposite. You contradict yourself; you contradict the clear text of Scripture; you contradict the teachings of Christianity by marginalizing and restricting elements of God’s plan of salvation in some cases, while in others you apply them because it suits the argument you make at that moment. It is becoming apparent by what you’ve written in your book that you like to resort to this, and you do it here, as we are seeing.
There are truths that are embedded in Scripture that only the Holy Spirit can devulge to the human mind and understanding. The Literalists do not understand this aspect of God’s living Word, so they take issue with anyone whom they claim is putting into Scripture a meaning that they claim the Scripture does not have. There is a legitimate concern about this, because the cults do it, but when it is used properly in the study of God’s Word, it is nothing short of revelatory when the Holy Spirit unlocks the meaning and truth behind a certain reality or condition such as sin, a certain Commandment, or a Scripture, as in the current case, the prophecy of Isaiah 9:10. I cite the following examples from God’s Word:
Example One – Experiential : Peter Affirms That Jesus Is the Messiah Revealed to Him by the Holy Spirit
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Messiah.
(Matthew 16:13-20)
We see Our Lord ask His Apostles privately about who people were saying that He was, and each one of them gave Him their report of who people with whom they had contact with said He was. Then Jesus looked at each one of them and asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” to which Simon Kepha answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” Jesus’ reply to Simon Peter was revelatory. He pronounced what is known in Judaism as a Barucha – a blessing in saying to Peter, “Blessed are you Simon Bar Yonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” Peter could not have made this declaration had the Holy Spirit of God given him the revelation and made it real to his understanding. He spoke from his heart, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”
Nobody told him this, as the Lord Jesus observes, and he didn’t read it anywhere in the Hebrew Bible, because there is no place within the Hebrew Scriptures where a name is given to identify the Messiah other than titles and name symbols that illustrate and describe His unique role in Israel’s and mankind’s destiny. Here we see of our first example of a truth that the Scriptures teach about Jesus, but which Peter did not read or hear from anyone, but God.
Example Two : Truth Embedded Within a Commandment Not Directly Stated But Revealed by the Holy Spirit
Our next example is the teaching of Our Lord pertaining to the Commandments themselves where He has said:
“You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent.
“You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.
“It was said, ‘Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce’; but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
“Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.’ But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
(Matthew 5:21-48)
First, Our Lord Jesus takes the literal commandment and transcends its meaning to its core; the reason for which it was written. Our Lord goes to the heart of the emotion that precipitates the act that violates each one of the Commandments within God’s Law. Read literally, the commandment does not contain what Our Lord says, but the Holy Spirit allows us to see the meaning within that commandment through the Lord Jesus Christ who teaches it to us in His Written Word. The Holy Spirit is our tutor, just as Paul has said. Thus, we see examples where a Scripture does not literally say something that it figuratively mean. This is called in Hermeneutics Sensus Plenior – or fuller sense, and if used properly, it is most helpful in the study of God’s Word.
Elsewhere, now in John’s Gospel, Our Lord gives us the key to the One who provides us with unlocking the written and inspired Word of God and its meaning, where He made the following promise:
“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.”
(John 14:16-17, 25-27)
Only through the Holy Spirit of God’s grace in Christ can anyone, Jew, Gentile, Catholic, Protestant, or anything else, declare Jesus truly as God, and mean it from the heart with full conviction of faith, regardless of what society they belong to, national origin, organization, or any other man-made construct of man’s invention – these will all pass, but only Christ as Lord will prevail, for it says:
“But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.”
(John 16:13-15)
Without the Holy Spirit, our understanding is darkened, because unless we are born again, we cannot see or enter God’s kingdom (John 3:3)
v DAVID JAMES: Dr. Reagan then discusses the frequently misapplied passage of 2 Chronicles 7:14
Incredibly, Rabbi Cahn has been criticized for applying 2 Chronicles 7:14 to the United States. It reads as follows: [If] My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
Are we actually going to contend that this scripture applies only to Israel? Are we really going to argue that if the professing Christians of this nation were to sincerely repent of their sins and the sins of our nation, that God would ignore it? This particular scripture contains a timeless principle about repentance that even applies to pagan nations.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: The question applies, because the call of repentance and salvation is, because of the Gospel, to all people, not just Israel. It began with Israel, and then it extended via the Great Commission to all people, indeed to all creation, because it is creation itself that one day will be restored to God through Jesus the Messiah. Indeed, we find that even Gentiles through the new birth, through their grafting in, become part of the Olive Tree of God. (Romans 11) Elsewhere Paul under the Holy Spirit declares born again grafted in Gentiles (and regrafted Jews) to be Israel, that is to say part of the Commonwealth of Israel, the people of God and not all Israel are true Israel – for only the children of the promise are the legitimate children of God – be they Jew or Gentile, because it is faith in Christ and the new birth and the washing and regeneration and sealing of the Holy Spirit that determines this. (Romans 9:6-9) Therefore the theological limitation you place on the Scriptural promise does not apply, because God has not set this limitation, otherwise there would be no grace and no cross, and no salvation proclaimed to the nations. God does not change His standards from one nation to the next. Men do.
v DAVID JAMES: Of course, Dr. Reagan certainly understands that for any passage there is the technical interpretation and then there is the general application. While it is true that evangelicals have long used this passage as a call to America to turn to God, this is neither the proper interpretation nor application.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: WRONG, because America’s first leaders consecrated the new nation to the Lord through prayer, petitioning God in the name of Jesus Christ that He would protect and bless this nation, its people, and its land. God has AND ABUNDANTLY. The evidence, both historical and biblical, speaks for itself, regardless of any claims by David James or anyone else to the contrary. Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a disgrace to any people. (Proverbs 14:24) What’s more, God’s standards do not contradict with themselves from one nation to the next. His standards are universal, and the call to repentance is a universal one, what’s more under grace, under the cross of Christ, even if it could be said as you imply that this Scripture can only apply to historical Israel, (an unbiblical argument when it is applied only to Israel as you argue here) under the New Covenant these universal truths of repentance – indeed this call to repent is applied universally to all people – because as Paul declared in the Holy Spirit, Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30) Your contention is blown away by this simple declaration of the Gospel of Peace. Once again, you contention contradicts the clear text of Scripture. You know your theology, but you do not know God’s Word, nor do you teach His Scriptures correctly. You have knowledge, but you lack understanding and insight into the clear teachings of the Bible without adulteration.
v DAVID JAMES: One would think that as a dispensational Bible teacher, Dr. Reagan would not make this mistake of failing to distinguish between the way God deals with national Israel and the way He deals with individual believers. The promise of 2 Chronicles was given specifically and exclusively to Israel. They were God’s people as a nation. America is not God’s people as a nation. God’s people, Israel, had a geographical piece of land to restore that had been ravaged by His judgments through human agency. Christians living in America do not have a land that is God-given in the way the Promised Land was given to Israel.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: This distinction for the purposes David James tries to use it here against The Harbinger, and against the application of 2Chronicles 7:14 outside of national Israel, contradicts the standards God has established for all nations and peoples and tongues, who will be judged and summed up in Christ (Acts 17:31, Ephesians 1:10) – this is the biblical standard, not the theological one created by David James’ Hyper-Dispensational misapplication of God’s dealings with nations. This is not an attack of Dispensational Theology, but its misuse by David James here. And as we have seen above, David James contradicts the clear text of what Paul declared to the pagans of Greece when he declared the Gospel to them that; God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent.. (Acts 17:30) another grabbing at straws, even contradicting the mandate of the Great Commission that preaches repentance for redemption, in order to bring it against The Harbinger’s call to repentance to God’s people, regardless of whether they are Jews or Gentiles – because they are a new man in Christ – and God is calling everyone everywhere to repent, as Paul has indicated above. EVERYONE. Again David James contradicts the clear text of God’s Word.
v DAVID JAMES: The “land” in the promise would, of course, mean the nation as a whole and not just the physical land itself. However, in context, “my people” refers exclusively to national Israel and the promise is to heal the nation—which was made up of both believers and unbelievers. Therefore, God’s people were called to turn back to Him collectively so that the nation as a whole would experience His blessings. As a theocratic kingdom, everyone (believer and unbeliever alike) was obligated to obey and observe the externals of the Law (even though no one could be saved spiritually by observing the Law). If such obedience to the law given through Moses were to characterize the nation as a whole, the nation would be saved from destruction and the Lord would heal their land. This was God’s promise to “my people.”
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: The nations whom God dispossessed from the land of Canaan, which He promised and gave to Israel all practiced sorts and manner of abominations, and these abominations are described in God’s Word and throughout His Law. Indeed, God makes it clear to Israel that they were not being disposed and the land given to the children of Israel because there was anything that the children of Israel had that merit their possession of the land, but because those nations transgressed the laws of God. (Deuteronomy 9)
What’s more, the land given to Israel was not given as part of the Law, but part of God’s promise he made with the fathers 450 years earlier (the Abrahamic Covenant), and it is for this reason that the land was being given to Israel, not because they were any better than the nations that inhabited the land before them. (Deuteronomy 4:37, 7:7-8, 10:15) The only reasons these nations were dispossessed of the land was because of the abominable transgressions of God’s standards they practiced as a way of life, (Deuteronomy 9) and so as to not mingle Israel with them, and keep it from emulating such practices, God had them driven from the land – exterminated; and because God promised the land to the people of Israel. (Genesis 12:7) Had these nations lived righteously, and worshipped God as some of their ancestors did at one time long before (it appears in the time of Abraham), I am of the opinion that God would have allowed the land to be co-inhabited by both them and the children of Israel, with the land having been promised to the children of Israel, and the peoples of those lands living in the specific places the Law allocated for foreigners to dwell in while in the land.
If then there is a different standard between how God characterizes sin in one land and how He characterizes sin in another, then how is God’s standards just? But this is not what God’s Word teaches. This is what David James and he colleagues teach. This is the type of cookie-cutter theology that David James attempts to use in order to confuse and obscure the facts and his own contradictions of God’s Word, as we are clearly seeing here in his writings when comparing what he argues to Scripture.
v DAVID JAMES: Such a promise has not been made to America as a nation—and any attempts to make such an application of 2 Chronicles 7:14 to any nation except Israel is arguably a form of Restorationism or Dominionism or Kingdom Now theology.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: No it is not. Again, David James resorts to another Logical Fallacy, because he cannot bring any evidence to support what he has to say against Jonathan Cahn or Dr. David Reagan. This is the Logical Fallacy: We go to the Gospel of Matthew, to the twelfth chapter, and the forty-sixth verse, where we read:
While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him. Someone said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You.” But Jesus answered the one who was telling Him and said, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.” (Matthew 12:46-50)
So if Christ considered those who do God’s will His family, why is David James putting limits to God’s Word that God Himself does not put? The biblical record states that Jesus immediate blood relatives were outside and wanted to see Him, and to according to the letter, one could say that they were His family, because they were His kinfolk. But, because God looks at things not as man sees them, and His ways are above those of men, Jesus motioned to those around Him and said of them, “Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.” (Matthew 12:50)
Christ is saying here that anyone who does His will He Himself considers His family, even above His own blood relatives. The family unit is the nucleus of society, because according to Scripture marriage is a symbol of Christ and His church. (Ephesians 5:22-33) And if the intimacy and love of a husband and his wife symbolizes Jesus the Bridegroom and His Church, the Bride – the most intimate of relationships – David James again contradicts God’s Word when he writes Again, David James’ statement that to apply 2Chronicles 7:14 to any nation except Israel is arguably a form of Restorationism or Dominion Theology, or Kingdom Now Theology is a direct contradiction of Scripture, because it flies in the face of the biblical narrative we’ve just examined. We are joint heirs with Christ of the manifold blessings of God’s kingdom, how then can anyone – David James and his colleagues – bar the application of God’s Word to those who are of His kingdom, His children, by cherry picking whatever part of God’s Word applies to them and does not apply to them?
I am not a supporter of Dominionism or Kingdom Now Theology, but if David James and his colleagues consider the clear teaching of God’s Word to be Kingdom Now and Dominion Theology, then I am in full support of God’s Word, while not supporting Kingdom Now or Dominion Theology. It is God’s Word that I support. David James can keep his Hyper-Dispensational Theology to himself, and not try to pass it off as God’s Word. It is in clear contradiction of God’s Word, as we see here, and as we will see further on.
v DAVID JAMES: Of course, if individuals in America would begin to turn to the Lord in large numbers (and they would need to be very large numbers), there would be ripple effects throughout society. However, none of The Harbinger’s critics would deny this either. But God’s people in the sense of believers in the church are not the “my people” of 2 Chronicles 7:14 and there is no Scriptural promise that God will heal any nation other than Israel in this sense.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: WRONG. COMPLETELY WRONG. SERIOUSLY WRONG. ON MANY LEVELS. Again David James’ theology betrays him as contradicting the clear text of God’s Word. Obviously David James has not read the Book of Revelations, where it says of the Tree of Life: On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. (Revelations 22:2, see also Ezekiel 47:12) And of course David James’ theology here denies the clear application of God’s Word, when Solomon dedicated the temple he had built in Jerusalem, where he prayed on behalf of the nations who would travel to worship God, when he prayed:
“Also concerning the foreigner who is not from Your people Israel, when he comes from a far country for Your great name’s sake and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm, when they come and pray toward this house, then hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name, and fear You as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by Your name.”
(2Chronicles 6:32-33)
The prayer of repentance, regardless of who offers it, or where it is offered (John 4:21-24), God accepts, because it is universal, as are God’s standards. Again, David James contradicts the clear reading of God’s Word when he writes, “there is no Scriptural promise that God will heal any nation other than Israel in this sense.”
v DAVID JAMES: Dr. Reagan contends that the 2 Chronicles 7:14 principal works for pagan nations as well—and some might argue that what happened in Nineveh is a clear example of this. However, careful examination of the book of Jonah shows that this is not the case. And there are several important differences that must be observed:
1.Nineveh initially had no one in it who could be called “my people” by God.
2.Jonah was called to preach against Nineveh, only warning them of the coming destruction.
3.Jonah was not called to preach a message similar to 2 Chronicles 7:14, with a call to repentance accompanied by a promise of restoration.
4.The repentance rate in Nineveh was 100%.
5.In His mercy, God relented and did not destroy them, but because there was no promise, there was no obligation to do so.
6.There is no record of the withholding of judgment being accompanied by restoration and blessing.
It must be noted that America is a Gentile nation like Nineveh, not God’s nation of “my people” like Israel. So, if the principle of 2 Chronicles 7:14 did not apply to Nineveh, then there is no Scriptural basis for attempting to apply it to America. Conversely, any attempt to apply it to America is to suggest that this country is more like Israel rather than Nineveh, which takes us back to the problem of some sort of covenant between America and God—the very thing Cahn is now denying.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: Because David James here uses logical fallacies and applies them to God’s Word to jettison God’s grace from the nations prior to the cross in his attempt to debunk The Harbinger, and applies these to the Book of Jonah, specifically to Nineveh, we too will take each point he tries to make and examine it closely here to separate fact from the contrived fiction of the Logical Fallacy Mr. James applies to it. LOGICAL FALLACY: When David James writes: “Dr. Reagan contends that the 2 Chronicles 7:14 principal works for pagan nations as well—and some might argue that what happened in Nineveh is a clear example of this. However, careful examination of the book of Jonah shows that this is not the case. And there are several important differences that must be observed,” the reader is told that there exists “several important differences that must be observed” and then continues to present what in his estimation are the differences that in his rule book preclude any consideration of applying Jonah’s Book to any other context other than the one in which the book contains. In other words, the Logical Fallacy is this; “There exists several important differences between the people of Nineveh and other nations. Those differences renders it impossible to apply the lessons from Jonah’s book to any other nation. Jonah’s story cannot be applied to America or any other nation.” FACT: This Logical Fallacy is so far from the mark that it either forgets that Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire, a Gentile nation, or it completely and intentionally ignores it altogether, and hopes the reader will too. David James actually here uses Logical Fallacies presenting them as something called Deductive Fallacies to make each of his point. He does this here, because he believes that in doing this, it will make his argument water tight and therefore valid. This is because a Deductive Fallacy is supposed to be water-tight and therefore valid. If he can convince his readers that his arguments are valid, he believes he has made a valid point, and this point (each of the points here) are therefore established in his eyes. This is a clever method to control the argument while distracting your opponent. It is ingenious because it gives the person presenting it the appearance of actually having a valid point to make, when this is not necessarily the case, as we shall see. It must be remembered that what David James is seeking to establish here is the belief that 2Chronicles 7:14 cannot be applied outside of the ancient nation of Israel.
1. LOGICAL FALLACY: Nineveh initially had no one in it who could be called “my people” by God. Presupposition: They were not God’s people. Therefore God isn’t interested in saving America.
2. LOGICAL FALLACY: Jonah was called to preach against Nineveh, only warning them of the coming destruction. God called Jonah to preach against the men of Nineveh. Therefore God isn’t interested in saving America.
3. LOGICAL FALLACY: Jonah was not called to preach a message similar to 2 Chronicles 7:14, with a call to repentance accompanied by a promise of restoration. God didn’t send Jonah to preach salvation. Therefore God isn’t interested in saving America.
4. LOGICAL FALLACY: The repentance rate in Nineveh was 100%. Therefore God isn’t interested in saving America.
5. LOGICAL FALLACY: In His mercy, God relented and did not destroy them, but because there was no promise, there was no obligation to do so. Therefore God isn’t interested in saving America.
6. LOGICAL FALLACY: There is no record of the withholding of judgment being accompanied by restoration and blessing. Therefore God isn’t interested in saving America.
LOGICAL FALLACY: It must be noted that America is a Gentile nation like Nineveh, not God’s nation of “my people” like Israel. So, if the principle of 2 Chronicles 7:14 did not apply to Nineveh, then there is no Scriptural basis for attempting to apply it to America. Conversely, any attempt to apply it to America is to suggest that this country is more like Israel rather than Nineveh, which takes us back to the problem of some sort of covenant between America and God—the very thing Cahn is now denying.
Rabbi Cahn, as he should properly be called, has clearly written that the first act of a joint session of its first congress, led by its first president, George Washington, was to consecrate the new nation to God through prayer, invoking the name of Jesus Christ as Lord, for His blessing upon it and His divine protection. Biblically speaking, while this was not a unilateral covenant as one which God established with Abraham – a covenant only God establishes; what President Washington and congress did on April 30th, 1789 was to establish a bilateral covenant through the convocation of prayer at St. Paul’s Chapel, at the corner of what would centuries later become Ground Zero. Biblically, this is no different than the various bilateral covenants we witness throughout the Hebrew Bible between men and men and men and God. And biblically, since these men prayed invoking the name of the Son of God, Christ Himself has promised that anyone who would approach the Father in His name would be granted their petition in accordance to God’s Sovereign plan. (John 16:23)
Additionally, every reason David James cites above to jettison God from America, and vice a versa, falls flat on its face, because these are precisely the reasons why America must seek God and be can be accepted and restored by Him. We see this biblical grace in God’s sparing and deliverance of Lot and his family from Sodom. (Genesis 19) It must remembered that thought Lot was Abraham’s nephew, he was not part of God’s covenant with Abraham, yet because of God’s grace and compassion, the Scripture says that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived. (Genesis 19:29) Were David James’ argument valid, God would have had to abandon Lot because he was not a member of the Abrahamic Covenant. But this is not how God works, and this is the biblical evidence of how He does work, and it flies in the face of Mr. James’ contentions against Jonathan Cahn, and against The Harbinger, and against Mr. James’ entire argument against the dual application of Scripture with regards to God’s grace in Christ. Here then is another example of how David James contradicts the Bible while claiming to uphold it.
v DAVID JAMES: So, to specifically reply to Dr. Reagan’s questions and statement:
Dr. Reagan: “Are we actually going to contend that this scripture applies only to Israel?”
v DAVID JAMES: Reply: Yes, because in context it does apply only to Israel which is exclusively “my people” as a nation.
Dr. Reagan: “Are we really going to argue that if the professing Christians of this nation were to sincerely repent of their sins and the sins of our nation, that God would ignore it?”
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: WRONG. As we shall see, the historical context of the verse being quoted is Israel, but the theological application of this verse applies to God’s people; past, present, future, because God’s Word is eternal, and His principles are the same whether one is a Jew or a Gentile. How do we know this? Because Scripture teaches it. I quote from the Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Romans:
There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.
For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law; for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus. (Romans 2:9-16)
He continues further on, and makes it clear that there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile with regards to sin and repentance and God’s standards as He has established them in His Word.
What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written,
“There is none righteous, not even one;
There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave,
With their tongues they keep deceiving,”
“The poison of asps is under their lips”;
“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”;
“Their feet are swift to shed blood,
Destruction and misery are in their paths,
And the path of peace they have not known.”
THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.”
(Romans 3:9-18)
It can almost be said that Paul in the following verse, challenges men like David James, who question God, by placing theological restrictions upon His Word that do not exist, but only in their theology. But pertaining to God’s sovereignty and His will and our salvation, we read about both Jews and Gentiles being the called of God – together forever, one in Christ – one in Messiah, as the Scripture declares boldly:
You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.
(Romans 9:19-24)
Compare all of this to what David James has written, and determine for yourselves who is right – David James? Or God’s Eternal Word? Of course, you know the answer. David James not only has made a serious error in creating a dichotomy between God’s people – Jew and Gentile – but he has attempted to use this error to debunk the application of God’s Word to America in order to discredit The Harbinger’s call to repentance by denying that it should be applied to this nation and these people, AND TO CHRISTIANS NO LESS!!!! KEEP READING.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: Dr. Reagan is CORRECT. NOWHERE IN SCRIPTURE IS IT TAUGHT THAT GOD IGNORES REPENTANCE FROM ANY NATION. SUCH A CONCEPT – IF IT EVER EXISTED – IS FOREIGN TO THE SCRIPTURES, AS THE HEBREW BIBLE AND THE NEW TESTAMENT ATTESTS. TO MAKE SUCH A CLAIM BASED ON THE LITERAL APPLICATION OF THE LETTER OF 2CHRONICLES BREAKS ITS TRANSCENDANT APPLICATION TO THE VERY CONCEPT OF REPENTANCE AND FORGIVENESS AS IT IS TAUGHT BY CHRIST AND THE WRITERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT!
David James is steeped in Dispensational Theology and is a self-professed Cessationist. His credentials indicate that he is proficient in these disciplines, and he shows himself adept at arguing their finer points to the letter as he was trained in seminary to do. But while he has a command of theology, as is evidenced by his argumentations against the use of 2Chronicles 7:14, and the application of Jonah’s story – which Christ Himself calls a sign and applies it as a sign to the cross – therefore making it universal – Mr. James does not know Scripture, or at least what the Scriptures teach. He knows theology, and is well versed in it, and can argue it expertly, I’ll give him that much; but he is not well versed in the Scriptures themselves, as is evidenced by his arguments and how they contradict, as we have seen, the clear text of God’s Word, and his use of logical fallacies indicate that the points he’s trying to make do not in themselves have much to offer as evidence to the serious student of God’s Word.
Because he is approaches God’s Word as a strict literalist, and minimalist, he claims that the text itself cannot be used to support what it does not appear to say on its surface. Well, then he’d have a very hard time accepting much of the writings of the Evangelists in their Gospels, who use a Sensus Plenior – fuller meaning to the prophetic application of Messianic Prophecies pertaining to actual events in their time as they witnessed them. Jesus Himself used this method when He taught the Law of Moses to show its fuller application beyond the literal and legal application of it.
Again, the Scriptures contradiction the theological contentions that David James presents.
v DAVID JAMES: Reply: Unfortunately, Dr. Reagan has made at least a couple of serious mistakes in this question. The first mistake is that he has introduced a straw man argument, because no one is suggesting God would ignore believers in the church who would repent of their sins.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: WRONG. You make that suggestion below, where you write, and I quote: the entire verse (2 Chronicles 7:14) as it stands is not a timeless principle because it refers to the restoration of the nation that is “my people.” No pagan (i.e., Gentile) nation fits that description. You can’t have it both ways, David, either the entire Scripture refers to God’s people – past, present, future – Israel and those among the nations God calls to be His, - or it does not. You cannot choose for God whom He is referring to or set standards for His promises His Word has not set, as you do here, and many other places, as we shall see.
v DAVID JAMES: The second mistake is that although Christians may repent for the sins of the nation in one sense, since the nation as a whole is not going to actually repent (i.e., turn from sin), then we can’t expect that God is going to relent and exchange judgment for blessing. He could do that, but that is not the nature of the promise in 2 Chronicles. Even if everyone in the church were to begin to live perfectly godly lives, as long as the major sins of the nation continue among unbelievers, God is not going to ultimately withhold judgment and restore this nation.
Dr. Reagan: “This particular scripture contains a timeless principle about repentance that even applies to pagan nations.”
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: Dr. Reagan is CORRECT in what he write above, and you’re….
WRONG. This is a pure cynical approach towards repentance and it unworthy of a person who claims to defend God’s truth. WHO HAS SET YOU UP TO DETERMINE THE EXTENT OF GOD’S GRACE!!!!???? YOU FLIP FLOP BY SAYING, since the nation as a whole is not going to actually repent (i.e., turn from sin), then we can’t expect that God is going to relent and exchange judgment for blessing, THEN CONTRADICT YOURSELF BY SAYING, He could do that, but that is not the nature of the promise in 2 Chronicles. Even if everyone in the church were to begin to live perfectly godly lives, as long as the major sins of the nation continue among unbelievers, God is not going to ultimately withhold judgment and restore this nation. AND WRITE AS ONE WHO UNSURE AS TO WHAT HE IS WRITING ABOUT. You really do not know what you are writing, do you? Listen to yourself. Step back, and listen. You make one claim, then you contradict that claim with another. Then you contradict Scripture outright. This is not the proper exposition of God’s Word, as you claim you’re engaged in, but a serious and flawed redaction and contradiction of it, and in some places outright denial of what it says. Compare what you write below to what the Scripture says about the subject. In order to contradict Dr. Reagan, you contradict Scripture without even realizing it. Let’s compare.
v DAVID JAMES: Reply: Dr. Reagan is correct, but only to the degree that the “timeless principle” is understood and applied correctly. As has already been shown, the entire verse as it stands is not a timeless principle because it refers to the restoration of the nation that is “my people.” No pagan (i.e., Gentile) nation fits that description.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: WRONG. You’ve read what David James says above regarding repentance and those whom he claims God calls “His people.” Now read what the Scriptures say about this. I quote:
For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 3:1-10)
IN CHRIST ALL PAGANS WHO COME TO HIM, AND ALL NATIONS WHOSE LEADERS HAVE COME BEFORE HIM TO CONSECRATE THEIR NATION AND THEIR LAND TO HIS PROTECTION AND BLESSING, FALLS UNDER THE CATEGORY OF BEING “HIS NATION” – “HIS PEOPLE.” HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? IT IS POSSIBLE THROUGH THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST WHEREBY ALL NATIONS AND PEOPLES AND TONGUES HAVE BEEN INCLUDED INTO THE NEW COVENANT WHICH EXTENDS THE BLESSINGS OF THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT TO ALL NATIONS. THE APOSTLE PAUL DESCRIBES IT AS THE MYSTERY OF THE GOSPEL – IT IS THE MYSTERY OF INCLUSION WHICH DESTROYS THE DICHOTOMY YOU ARE TRYING TO CREATE IN ORDER TO DENY THAT AMERICA IS ONE NATION UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY, AND JUSTICE FOR ALL. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WAS CONSECRATED BY ITS FIRST LEADERS IN THEIR FIRST OFFICIAL ACT TO GOD INVOKING THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST FOR HIS DIVINE PROTECTION AND BLESSING. EITHER GOD HONORS PRAYERS MADE IN THE NAME OF CHRIST HIS SON, OR HE DOES NOT, AS YOU WOULD CLAIM BY DENYING THIS FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AMERICA AND THE REST OF THE GENTILE NATIONS.
v DAVID JAMES: The only way it could be applied directly to America is if it is assumed that this country is also in some way understood to be “my people,” which is precisely the mistake that Jonathan Cahn makes (at least the way he has stated it in The Harbinger). In other words, the timeless principle is contained within the verse, but is not the entire verse itself.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: WRONG. According to Paul, when he wrote in the Holy Spirit, this is what he said about the Abrahamic Covenant and the Gentiles. Compare this to what David James writes above. First what David James says about God’s timeless principle, followed by what the Word of God speaks about this. Either grace has come in Christ to the nations or it has not and we are living under the Old Covenant. The dichotomy that David James sets up here existed only at a specific period of time, and has been abrogated by the cross. The wall of separation erected under the Sinai Covenant/Mosaic Covenant has been removed by Christ, and superseded by the New Covenant established in His blood at Calvary. The Scriptures are clear on this, for they say: Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands—remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. (Ephesians 2:11-16)
v DAVID JAMES: To illustrate, let’s consider the Abrahamic Covenant, which also contains a timeless principle. We understand that the timeless principle is the idea that “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.” However, the entire Abrahamic Covenant as a whole can only be applied to the descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob, i.e., the nation of Israel.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN:: I quote again the Scriptures and what they say according to the Holy Spirit under the penmanship of the Apostle Paul:
Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands—remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. (Ephesians 2:11-12)
Here, as he does in the previous ten verses of Ephesians chapter 2, Paul describes the unregenerate state of being of Non-Jews; Gentiles, and their relationship to God, His people, and His covenants with His people as NONE EXISTENT. But under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul writes the following describing the difference state of being in born again regenerated believers who are followers and servant of Jesus Christ, having accepted His free offer of salvation, and now live under the wings of His grace:
But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
(Ephesians 2:13-22)
v DAVID JAMES: To attempt to apply the whole covenant directly to anyone who believes God would mean that every believer could expect that they would also be the progenitors of “many nations” and that through each one “all nations would be blessed.”
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: This ludicrous contention and reason for his objection is rendered moot by Scripture, where Paul writes under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the following regarding the sons and children of Abraham:
Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. (Galatians 3:6-9)
What David James wrote above is completely at variance with Scripture. To contradict Jonathan Cahn, David James contradicts the Gospel in Scripture! Being justified by faith and therefore included as sons of Abraham among the nations does not make the Gentiles whom God would justify “progenitors of many nations,” but allows them in. This was the Gospel preached beforehand to Abraham and which is preached now. What Gospel is David James preaching? He continues compounding what he’s written with more man-made conditions that he lays upon everyone without any Scripture to support it. In fact, as we are seeing, Scripture says one thing, and he says another. Let’s continue.
v DAVID JAMES: Obviously, these conditions are not part of the timeless principle. This goes to the heart of how to correctly interpret and apply the Bible and in this case, with all due respect, Dr. Reagan gets this wrong—and in the case of The Harbinger, Jonathan Cahn gets it wrong.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: No Mr. James, you are wrong, and Dr. Reagan who gets it right. You have forgotten what the Scriptures teach about God’s promise to Abraham, his unilateral covenant with him, and how He would bless all the nations of the earth through him (Genesis 12:3). When God reiterates this promise, He specifically said the following:
In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” (Genesis 22:18)
Now, this is how Paul the Apostle under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God interprets and explains what God said and did here, I quote:
Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ. What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.
(Galatians 3:16-18)
In your argument, you argue as though the unilateral Abrahamic Covenant were like the bilateral Mosaic Covenant, which came four hundred thirty years later; (which came specifically for the Jewish people and separated them from all other nations) which Paul, here writes, does not invalidate the previous covenant. The two are separate and the first one – the Abrahamic Covenant – trumps the second, in fact while the second one – the Mosaic Covenant – has been replaced by the New Covenant, which extends the blessing of the first covenant – the Abrahamic Covenant – to the human race.
You have denied the most basic principle of the Christian faith - the Gospel, and that is that God has made out of two people – Jews and Non-Jews – His One People of God though the cross of Jesus Christ. This, by the way, like the unilateral covenant established with Abraham, is also unconditional. It is called the New Covenant in case you have forgotten, and this covenant, like the Abrahamic Covenant, is unilateral, because it is based on timeless principles that neither you, I, or anybody else can set conditions upon. Mr. Reagan did not make the serious mistake, you did.
Jumping to Conclusions
Dr. Reagan writes:
Many of the criticisms of Rabbi Cahn’s message are based on unwarranted conclusions that people have jumped to in an effort to find something to criticize. For example, he has been accused of teaching that America is in a covenant relationship with God. The fact of the matter is that he has never said that. He simply notes that America’s founding fathers believed that, and therefore they consecrated the nation to God.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: Dr. Reagan is CORRECT.
v DAVID JAMES: The first problem with this statement is the apparent underlying assumption that The Harbinger’s critics have some sort of agenda and are just looking for something to criticize. However, this overlooks the obvious fact that Jonathan Cahn was largely unknown at the national level prior to writing The Harbinger. It’s not as if we were just waiting for him to produce something so we could pounce on it. He started with a blank piece of paper as far as we were concerned—and we would have welcomed a biblical book with the message he is bringing. Therefore, if anyone is guilty of drawing unwarranted conclusions, in this case it would have to be Dr. Reagan.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: WRONG. Anyone can make an unwarranted conclusion of another when their facts about them are wrong, because they’re based on one Logical Fallacy after another. Anyone who’s read The Harbinger, heard and seen the teachings as I have, and has viewed the video the Isaiah 9:10 Judgment, and then read your book, will know what I mean when I charge you with misrepresentation of the facts, and reading another narrative into The Harbinger it DOES NOT contain. It is clear and all one has to do is follow the pattern of reading The Harbinger, watching the video, listening to the teaching CDs, and then reading your book and articles against it. They will come away with the same conclusions I and Connie/Faith, and Ladybug/Laura, and several others have.
Additionally, to accuse anyone of making unwarranted conclusions, because Jonathan Cahn was, as David James writes, “Jonathan Cahn was largely unknown at the national level prior to writing The Harbinger. It’s not as if we were just waiting for him to produce something so we could pounce on it. He started with a blank piece of paper as far as we were concerned—and we would have welcomed a biblical book with the message he is bringing. Therefore, if anyone is guilty of drawing unwarranted conclusions, in this case it would have to be Dr. Reagan,” and that by reason of this anyone who claims that he and his colleagues had an agenda when The Harbinger hit the scenes is disingenuous. No one is making that claim. This is another Logical Fallacy that David James wants us to believe because he knows that he doesn’t have a leg to stand on.
The Logical Fallacy: Jonathan Cahn was an unknown before The Harbinger. The Harbinger made him a household name. We didn’t have an agenda against him. This Logical Fallacy completely overlooks the fact that for eighteen months, this group of people launched a polemical public relations campaign against the book and against the author and his ministry and teachings, and have held them up to open reproach before the eyes of the public for more than a year and a half.
This is a grievous sin, and Mr. James and his colleagues and other critics of The Harbinger need to come to term with this, own it, and face it. Obviously, they have not, as this response to Dr. Reagan shows.
It’s time that it should end. It’s time to fold up the tents of bitter contentions so to speak, and instead for these gentlemen to train their time and resources on better pursuits than to continue to harass Jonathan Cahn over a theological disagreement over a book.
David James has a difference of opinion over what the book says, and that’s that, but don’t call Jonathan Cahn a person who mishandles God’s Word or a false prophet, or a false teacher over that disagreement and write a polemical work against it, and mount a polemical public relations campaign against it and its author, and perpetuate this campaign over the span of a year and a half.
This is not right. This is not how biblical scholars differ, and it is not how brethren resolve their doctrinal and theological differences. It does not serve the purpose of God, especially when The Harbinger is calling men everywhere to repentance and His people to return to God, and the people of the nation being called to turn to Jesus Christ for their individual salvation. You don’t short-circuit the preaching of the Gospel when it is being preached.
With regards to what you write above, “Jonathan Cahn was largely unknown at the national level prior to writing The Harbinger. It’s not as if we were just waiting for him to produce something so we could pounce on it. He started with a blank piece of paper as far as we were concerned—and we would have welcomed a biblical book with the message he is bringing,” I am reminded of the time when someone asked Moses, when he tried to arbitrate between his countrymen and the Egyptians, “Who made you a prince or a judge over us?” (Exodus 2:14) Of this, Stephen speaking in the Holy Spirit made the following observation and commentary:
“This Moses whom they disowned, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush.”
(Acts 7:35)
Very much in like manner, Pastor Cahn and the message of a call to repentance to God’s people and the nation, has been disowned by these critics, and treated with greater contempt than had he been a publican in Jesus’ day. So what if the Lord chose him and put this message in his heart for this nation and this hour, and He did not chose these gentlemen. Why should they feel slighted? Why should they question God and how He chooses to act through His servants. Shall the clay say to the potter, “Why did you choose him over me?” Who do these people really think they are!?
I know, I’ve read the various article written by people who are misguided and zealous Christians against him and against The Harbinger. We hear them ask rhetorically, “A new revelation from God? Who gave this man this interpretation?” It’s not a new revelation, as they mistakenly claim, it is what the prophet Daniel said would occur in the last days. He is told in no uncertain terms by the one who is explaining the visions to him that insight into the prophetic would unseal the prophecies in THE LAST DAYS, or END TIME. It is clear and unmistakable:
As for me, I heard but could not understand; so I said, “My lord, what will be the outcome of these events?” He said, “Go your way, Daniel, for these words are concealed and sealed up until the end time. Many will be purged, purified and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly; and none of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand.
(Daniel 12:8-10)
The Scripture makes this clear. So why should some be surprised if God should by His Holy Spirit impart an understanding to one of His servants as He has often done throughout history, as we read in the Scriptures? Many of us have forgotten obviously, or this would be understood by a good many more people who should know better, but do not. History repeats itself.
v DAVID JAMES: Concerning the matter of America being in a covenant relationship with God: In spite of Jonathan Cahn’s denials concerning this, there are statements made throughout The Harbinger that reinforce the idea that the Founding Fathers were successful in actually entering into a covenant with God. The following exchange between the two main characters in the book is just one of many specific examples that indicate this:
[The Prophet] “Those who laid America’s foundations saw it as a new Israel, an Israel of the New World. And as with ancient Israel, they saw it as in covenant with God.”
[Kaplan] “Meaning?”
[The Prophet] “Meaning its rise or fall would be dependent on its relationship with God. If it followed His ways, America would become the most blessed, prosperous, and powerful nation on earth. From the very beginning they foretold it. And what they foretold would come true. America would rise to heights no other nation had ever known. Not that it was ever without fault or sin, but it would aspire to fulfill its calling.”
[Kaplan] “What calling?”
[The Prophet] “To be a vessel of redemption, an instrument of God’s purposes, a light to the world. It would give refuge to the world’s poor and needy, and hope to its oppressed… And, as much as it fulfilled its calling or aspired to, it would become the most blessed, the most prosperous, the most powerful, and the most revered nation on the earth—just as its founders had prophesied.”
[Kaplan] “But there’s a but coming, isn’t there?”
[The Prophet] “Yes,” he replied. “There was always another side to the covenant. If ancient Israel fell away from God and turned against His ways, its blessings would be removed and replaced with curses.”6
v The point of this exchange is obvious—the entire premise of The Harbinger is that America is facing imminent judgment for precisely the same reason God judged ancient Israel, namely that they broke their covenant with God. This is not a matter of unfairly jumping to conclusions. We’re simply observing and commenting on what Cahn has repeated throughout his book.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: David James is reading this into the narrative, and using another Logical Fallacy because his point is extremely weak. This is the Logical Fallacy he poses; “America is facing imminent judgment for precisely the same reason God judged ancient Israel.” Ancient Israel “broke their covenant with God.” The Harbinger says that America is in covenant relationship with God like ancient Israel was. The Harbinger nowhere says that it broke any unilateral covenant with God, because it doesn’t make that claim anywhere. David James again is reading into the narrative, and using a Logical Fallacy to replace it with one of his own invention. Additionally, The Harbinger here outlines the sin the of America and how God judges nations, and David James is reading into it something else; that America has a covenant with God like the unilateral Abrahamic Covenant. The Harbinger – even with just a cursory glance at the narrative above without Mr. James’ interjection and reinterpretation of it – makes clearly evident that it the prophet in the narrative IS NOT referring to any unilateral covenant equal to or similar to God’s unilateral Abrahamic Covenant with His people. David James is attempting to inject that into the narrative when it IS NOT there.
Let’s read it again, [The Prophet] “Those who laid America’s foundations saw it as a new Israel, an Israel of the New World. And as with ancient Israel, they saw it as in covenant with God.”
[Kaplan] “Meaning?”
[The Prophet] “Meaning its rise or fall would be dependent on its relationship with God. If it followed His ways, America would become the most blessed, prosperous, and powerful nation on earth. From the very beginning they foretold it. And what they foretold would come true. America would rise to heights no other nation had ever known. Not that it was ever without fault or sin, but it would aspire to fulfill its calling.”
[Kaplan] “What calling?”
[The Prophet] “To be a vessel of redemption, an instrument of God’s purposes, a light to the world. It would give refuge to the world’s poor and needy, and hope to its oppressed… And, as much as it fulfilled its calling or aspired to, it would become the most blessed, the most prosperous, the most powerful, and the most revered nation on the earth—just as its founders had prophesied.”
THERE IS A UNIVERSE OF A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STATING “Those who laid America’s foundations saw it as a new Israel, an Israel of the New World. And as with ancient Israel, they saw it as in covenant with God.” AND WHAT DAVID JAMES CLAIMS IT SAYS, WHICH WOULD ALTER THE PROPHET’S STATEMENT AND RENDER IT THIS WAY: “Those who laid America’s foundations declared it a new Israel, an Israel of the New World. And as with ancient Israel, they pronounced its establishment to be in covenant with God.”
Additionally, America’s Founders were not referring to the unilateral Abrahamic Covenant, as David James assumes here, but the bilateral Sinai Covenant where Israel’s laws as a constituted nation were established under the Mosaic Law. Israel’s national constitution was the Law of Moses established bilaterally between God through Moses and the people in a theocratic nation-state; whereas America’s bilateral covenant was the prayer of consecration offered in the name of Jesus Christ for God’s blessing and protection at St. Paul’s Chapel on April 30th, 1789 on the corner of what would centuries later be known as Ground Zero; which followed Washington’s swearing in ceremony where he declared prophetically that God’s good blessings would be removed from America if it ever abandoned His ways. America was not founded as a theocracy but as a Constitutional Representative Republic.
What’s more, Israel’s national constitution was the Law of Moses, and this law was both civil and religious. America’s national law was and is the Constitution of the United States, not the Law of Moses. The Constitution of the United States is a civil document and not a religious one, and America is not a theocracy, as Israel was. The Harbinger does not make the connections that Mr. James tries to impose on it through logical fallacies of his creation.
This is what The Harbinger makes clear here. Unilateral Covenants – like the Abrahamic Covenant and New Covenant – are established by God, bilateral covenants can and are established between men and God, though as in the case of the Sinai Covenant – between God and His nation. With bilateral covenants, it is incumbent upon the one party to keep the conditions of that covenant if they wish for God to honor His. It is the Mosaic Covenant that ancient Israel broke, and it brought judgment and exile; in America, it is this agreement that our Founders made in consecrating prayer that our leaders have all but abandoned as a nation, and therefore Washington’s prescient words have prophetically come to pass.
v DAVID JAMES: Again, it makes one wonder whether Dr. Reagan has seriously interacted with either The Harbinger itself or with any of the critical reviews.
In the next paragraph Dr. Reagan writes:
Another unwarranted conclusion is that he teaches Isaiah 9:10 was a prophecy about the United States rather than Israel. Again, Rabbi Cahn has never made such an assertion. What he teaches instead is that the ancient pattern of judgment that occurred in Israel is now recurring in America, and in “a stunningly precise way.”
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: Dr. Reagan is CORRECT; at least partially. The Harbinger does not claim that Isaiah 9:10 prophesies of America, what it does it compiles from the public records the occurrences which were tied to 9/11 by three national leaders – Senate Majority Leader (at the time) Harry Reid, Senator John Edwards’ a vice presidential candidate on the Kerry/Edwards Democrat ticket for the White House, and President Barack Hussein Obama. Two of these men – the two senators – quoted directly from this Scripture, while the third, President Obama, paraphrased the same verse and wrote it on the surface of the antenna tower affixed to the top of the Freedom Tower, 1776 feet in the air. It is now the highest man-made object in the western hemisphere, and on it is the Obama’s quoting of this strange vow. Each one of these speeches tied the tragedy of 9/11 to the prophecy of Isaiah, making the correlation to it at three separate times, all at the nation’s capital, all by the nation’s highest elected officials. Jonathan Cahn didn’t make the connection, they did long before he wrote The Harbinger. The Harbinger just tells us about it by reporting precisely all of the details pertaining to it in a fictional narrative. For someone who often accuses others of using “straw man arguments,” David James is not one not to use them himself as he does above, where he says, The statement is meant to infer that Dr. Reagan and anyone else who disagrees with Mr. James’ contentions about The Harbinger do not know what they are talking about. Again, David James employs another Logical Fallacy in order to blunt the need for him to defend his point. The Logical Fallacy here is: I wonder and everyone else should wonder whether Dr. Reagan has seriously interacted with either The Harbinger itself or with any of the critical reviews. Dr. Reagan didn’t seriously interact with The Harbinger or one of the critical reviews about it. Dr. Reagan doesn’t know what he is talking about. There is absolutely no evidence that David James can bring to support this charge other than to fall back on his tried and true method of polemics; the repeated use of logical fallacies in the face of no empirical evidence that he can present as proof to support his charges.
v DAVID JAMES: Unfortunately, in the first sentence above, Dr. Reagan has mischaracterized what we are saying and his statement is simply not true. No one has ever said (to my knowledge) that Cahn is teaching that Isaiah 9:10 is “about the United States rather than Israel.” We all understand that the author believes the passage was specifically to Israel. However, our concern is that he has consistently made it sound as if it was not exclusively to Israel—and there is a big difference between the two.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: Here, as he does elsewhere, and is so typical of what he writes in his book and article against The Harbinger, David James resorts to the use of unfortunate ways of expressing himself. For one who claims to avoid getting personal, he has just directly accuses, writing, “Dr. Reagan mischaracterized what we are saying and his statement is simply not true.” First he accuses Dr. Reagan of mischaracterization – something that all of the critics of The Harbinger do regarding its author, Jonathan Cahn; and then he implies that Dr. Reagan is stating a falsehood, by saying that “his statement is simply not true.” Well, something that is not true is a lie. Is David James implying that Dr. Reagan is lying? How personal can one get, while claiming to avoid getting personal? Then he denies that either he, or anyone else has ever accused Jonathan “Cahn” – as he writes above “No one has ever said (to my knowledge) that Cahn is teaching that Isaiah 9:10 is “about the United States rather than Israel.” And even volunteers with the following statement, an incredible admission no one expected, where he writes, “We all understand that the author believes the passage was specifically to Israel.” Under one breath David James here absolved Jonathan Cahn of any guilt of ever having said that Isaiah 9:10 is about the United States, and that the passage refers specifically to Israel.
v But, don’t hold your breath; no sooner has he absolved Rabbi Cahn of all guilt in connecting Isaiah 9:10 to the United States, David James reverts to the usual mantra he uses in his writings on The Harbinger and in his book, that indeed what he has just said Jonathan Cahn does not do, and that they do not accuse him of doing; he in fact does. He follows this in what follows. Let us examine it point by point, because again David James has contradicted a claim his made almost immediately after having made it. First he claims that he is not aware of anyone, including himself, who’s ever accused Jonathan Cahn and The Harbinger of connecting Isaiah 9:10 to the United States, and under the same breath, contradicts himself by doing just that, where he follows, “However, our concern is that he has consistently made it sound as if it was not exclusively to Israel—and there is a big difference between the two.”
Well, one cannot have it both ways – either David James has never accused Jonathan Cahn and The Harbinger of connecting Isaiah’s prophecy to America, and by admission, correctly observes that Jonathan Cahn does not make this connection; or he does accuse him of making the connection and therefore is incorrect in his previous claim that he never made it. It is dizzying. It is two-minded. One has to ask why he would contradict himself so clearly here, as he does elsewhere?
Next, he underscores the accusation he has just denied above by making the accusation where he follows up with a quote from The Harbinger to prove that it connects the two. He follows by doing precisely what he claims he and his colleagues doesn’t do above, and other critics of The Harbinger do not do – and that is to accuse Jonathan Cahn of connecting America to Isaiah 9:10, citing a passage from the book where Nouriel and the prophet are discussing 9/11 and Israel’s ancient rebuilding effort, and how America has established the same in the wake of the 9/11 tragedy. The connections are not made by Jonathan Cahn, but they’re made by America’s leaders, and are determined by the events themselves as they have occurred. The Harbinger presents the leaders in their venue and quotes directly from them on the occasion in which they spoke – three separate ones, where they quoted from this prophecy, and applied it to 9/11. The Harbinger only describes the events and those involved in them.
And it warns against impending judgment if we do not turn from our wicked ways, repent, call upon His name – if we do not heed His repeated warnings to our land and its leaders, who appear to be as oblivious as the ancient Israelites to the prophetic warning.
FACT: In several places – both in articles he’s written – as he does here, and in his book – David James accuses Rabbi Cahn of doing just that; of claiming that Isaiah 9:10 prophesies of America and that it connects to America. In fact, on page 82 of his book, David James accuses The Harbinger of making this connection. I quote:
“In order to bolster the idea of a connection between ancient Israel and America, Cahn goes out of his way to demonstrate that the Assyrians of the eighth century B.C. were terrorists and were linked to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.”
(David James, The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? page 82 bottom, the Berean Call, Bend, Oregon, 2012)
The statement is so preposterous that we scarce believe that David James could have included it in his book, but there it is, and we know that here, as in his book, he repeats the mistake of misreading what the narrative says, and replaces its meaning with what he’s read into it.
How convenient of him to forget here that he’s done this over and over again by first claiming that he and his colleagues have never made this accusation, and then contradict himself both in his book, as we have just seen, and here, where he follows by doing the opposite.
v DAVID JAMES: The following exchange from The Harbinger once again seems to make it clear that the author is saying exactly what we have reported and why we are concerned:
[The Prophet] “In the wake of their calamity, the leaders of ancient Israel proclaimed, ‘We will rebuild’—the first sign of defiance. If the mystery holds and has now applied to America, we would expect to hear the same vow, the same three words, in the wake of 9/11, now proclaimed by American leaders.”
[Kaplan] “And did it happen? Did they say it?”
[The Prophet] “Yes. They said it.”7
[Goren] “How could an ancient mystery possibly have anything to do with September 11?”
[Kaplan] “An ancient mystery behind everything from 9/11 to the economy . . . to the housing boom . . . to the war in Iraq . . . to the collapse of Wall Street. Everything in precise detail.”8
In an interview on The 700 Club with Pat Robertson, Cahn put it this way:
[The mystery] even has determined the actions and the actual words of American leaders. A mystery that goes back two and a half thousand years and is a warning of judgment and a call of God—a prophetic call of God.9
v DAVID JAMES: “A prophetic call of God.” But to whom? Not just to Israel, but also to America. This is Cahn’s entire point and one he has made over and over again.
Again, even if The Harbinger’s critics are wrong, it is not because we are jumping to conclusions without warrant, making this a very unfair statement by Dr. Reagan.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: David James writes, The following exchange from the The Harbinger (sic) once again seems to make it clear that the author is saying exactly what we have reported and why we are concerned “ – well what is that David James writes here that he and his colleagues accuses The Harbinger is saying? ANSWER: That The Harbinger connects Isaiah’s prophecy towards modern America and specifically to the events of 9/11. The events of the Nine Harbingers did take place when, where, and how The Harbinger describes them. They happened long before Jonathan Cahn wrote his New York Times bestseller, and long before David James made it into the greatest controversy in Evangelical history. The events happened. America’s leaders quoted specifically from Isaiah 9:10 and while commemorating the tragic events of September 11th, and used this vow of defiance as a pledge without naming God that this would be the recovery efforts and policies the nation would follow in the wake of this national tragedy. What’s more, additional leaders have also made the vow during the various ceremonies commemorating 9/11. And many other things that have transpired that together are biblical prophetic evidences of a repeating pattern of warnings followed by judgment first seen in ancient Israel, and now being repeated here in America. The Harbinger doesn’t connect them, it describes how these are but a pattern that has emerged in our land, and how its leaders at the highest levels of our government have connected both the prophecy and the events of 9/11, while using the vow they quote from Isaiah in crafting the rebuilding, replanting, and recovery efforts of the nation. Trying to ignore this fact is what has led David James and others like him, to draw the wrong conclusions about the book.
v DAVID JAMES: Concerning the recurring of parallel events in a “stunningly precise way.” I have to wonder if this is another case of Dr. Reagan only being familiar with one side of the story. In The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? I demonstrate that few, if any, of the supposed harbingers even rise to the level of being interesting coincidences let alone exact matches. And as a significant number of other conservative Bible teachers (with no agenda) have examined my work, they have also agreed.
In reality, who has jumped to conclusions?
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: WRONG. David James writes as a Cessationist. As such, his agenda is to teach, interpret, and present the Word of God as he interprets it through the lends of a Cessationist. Therein is his first bias. His second bias is in seeing more into what people say and write than they intend. He interprets rather than reads, and this misleads him into all sorts of errors, misconceptions, and mishandling of their work, as he misreads into them what they do not say. Here again, David James uses the tried and true Logical Fallacy to support what he cannot prove. He begs the question whether Dr. Reagan knows what he is talking about by writing, “I have to wonder if this is another case of Dr. Reagan only being familiar with one side of the story.” This is a fallacy in which the premise of an argument presupposes the truth of its conclusion; in other words, the argument takes for granted what it's supposed to prove. And David James has proven nothing by asking this question. But he doesn’t end there. He makes another Logical Fallacy without offering proof, by simply stating, “In The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? I demonstrate that few, if any, of the supposed harbingers even rise to the level of being interesting coincidences let alone exact matches.” Which is nothing but a claim to authority on basis of his book without presenting evidence to support what he has to say; in this case, that The Harbingers are nothing but “interesting coincidences,” as he calls them. Elsewhere in this response he tries to deny The Harbingers, but here he admits their existence but brushes them aside as just coincidences without proving his point. Why prove his point, when all he needs to do is present the Logical Fallacy that he believes exempts him from having to furnish the burden of proof for his argument? Finally, he finishes his point with a third Logical Fallacy; an appeal to numbers. The Logical Fallacy is, “And as a significant number of other conservative Bible teachers (with no agenda) have examined my work, they have also agreed.” Because they agree with me (David James), so should you. There is nothing here that David James has presented, or presents in his book, that should compel anyone to agree with his relativistic disbelieving and unbiblical premise, which is to call the successive volume of occurrences tied together – The Harbingers – as coincidences.
And prophetic relativism, like moral relativism, has no place in the study of the Scriptures and is not a biblical point of view. Coincidences do not exist either in Scripture or in the Hebrew way of thinking. It is as foreign a concept to God’s Word as Gnosticism is to the Deity of Christ and His humanity and sinless state.
v DAVID JAMES: A Book and A Sermon
Dr. Reagan then discusses Jonathan Cahn’s message at one of the Presidential Inaugural Prayer Breakfasts. I would readily admit that it was a powerful message and there were a number of important things that were said that he was exactly right about. No one has ever suggested that everything Jonathan Cahn teaches or believes is wrong. We’re only saying that the way he has put everything together in The Harbinger is wrong, even though some specific elements may be right.
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: DAVID JAMES IS SO FIXATED ON FINDING FAULT WITH EVERYTHING JONATHAN CAHN SAYS AND DOES THAT HE HAS FORGOTTEN TO TREAT HIM AS A BROTHER IN CHRIST, AND ACCEPT THE GOOD WORD OF SALVATION AND REPENTANCE THAT HE PREACHES, AND PREACHED AT THE INAUGURAL PRAYER BREAKFAST. He cast this aside to claim – since you writes speaking for himself and his colleagues – “We’re only saying that the way he has put everything together in The Harbinger is wrong, even though some specific elements may be right.” He strains out a gnat and swallows a camel, and in the process, he attempts to undo what God is doing through The Harbinger in bringing many to repentance and Christ. There is something fundamentally wrong with this and evil. One writer puts it. It is pure evil when one attacks another for the way they’re preaching the Gospel. Paul wrote, that regardless how the Gospel is preached, he was satisfied that it was preached. He writes:
Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will; the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel; the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice…
(Philippians 1:15-18)
Paul rejoiced that the Gospel was being preached, and people coming to repentance and getting saved; why aren’t these men doing the same? Why are they trying to squelch the call that God is using to a people – His people – and a nation – this nation – to turn to Him, call on His name, and be delivered as they make Christ their Savior and are saved from eternal damnation? They should stop what they’re doing and join in calling God’s people to repent and this nation to return to its Judeo-Christian foundations. Instead, he and his colleagues and other critics of The Harbinger have spent more than a year; month after month, after month, in full criticism and condemnation of this man and the message God is using him to bring to this nation and to His people. Remember, he too is a servant of Christ, and you and your colleagues are openly in blasphemous contention with the message he is presenting as a servant of Christ to this nation and to God’s people.
I HAVE SAID THAT THE CRITICS OF THE HARBINGER ARE THE HISTORICAL RELIGIOUS OPPOSITION TO GOD THAT HAS MATERIALIZED IN EVERY AGE SINCE CAIN SLEW ABEL, ONLY WITH EACH SUCCESSIVE OPPOSITION, THE PLAYERS HAVE BECOME MORE SCRIPTURALLY SOPHISTICATED AND THEIR ARGUMENTS MORE REFINED AND CLEVER. THIS IS AN OBSERVATION OF MINE, NOTHING PERSONAL, BUT AN OBSERVATION. HISTORICALLY, EVERY OPPOSITION TO A MOVEMENT OF GOD, OR A MESSENGER OF GOD HAS COME FROM THE LEARNED SCHOLASTIC RELIGIOUS INTELLECTUALS. SOME HAVE CLAIMED THAT WERE CHRIST TO APPEAR TODAY AS HE DID TWO THOUSAND YEARS AGO, HE WOULD BE CRUCIFIED. I HAVE ALWAYS BELIEVED THIS, AND I CAN SEE HOW SOME CAN MAKE A THEOLOGICAL CASE AGAINST ANYONE AND MAKE IT LOOK AND SOUND AS THOUGH IT WERE BIBLICAL. IT IS NOT. NO SERVANT OF CHRIST, IF HE IS OPERATING IN THE REALM AND GUIDANCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, WILL PUBLICLY SUBMIT A FELLOW MEMBER OF HIS FAITH TO OPEN AND PUBLIC REPROACH OVER AN EXTENDED PERIOD OF TIME REGARDLESS OF THEIR DIFFERENCES.
v DAVID JAMES: And at the prayer breakfast, he was doing pretty well and was on-target for the most part until he started discussing details from his message in The Harbinger. At that point he simply repeated all of the problems in the book. (For those who are interested, Chris Rosebrough has provided an excellent commentary on this particular message.)
THE PEPSTER FOR DR. REAGAN: Funny that David James mentions this here – because Chris Rosebrough is an honest servant of Christ who has come to grips regarding his own disagreements over The Harbinger. But as to Jonathan Cahn and what The Harbinger says, Chris Rosebrough is in an entirely different camp than David James. In fact, he has recently interviewed Rabbi Cahn on his show, Pirate Christian Radio, and agrees fully that The Harbinger’s critics have unfairly, and without the slightest remorse or repentance, unbiblically slandered and libeled Jonathan Cahn and his ministry. In this interview Chris Rosebrough and Jonathan Cahn tackle the questions of alleged Masonic influence, Kabbalah, Occult Mysticism, Gnosticism, and other completely unfounded and absurd charges and accusations the critics of The Harbinger have hurled at Jonathan Cahn, and their need for repentance and a public apology from the ones who first allowed this disinformation to spread and continue to showcase these with links proudly on their websites. This is a grievous evil and sin that has occurred, and none of these people from this group has retracted any of these horrendous anti-Christian articles, nor have they come forward to publicly give Jonathan Cahn, his family, and his ministry, before God and His people an apology for the things they said about him and his book; all of which were lying disinformation, or what Chris Rosebrough would characterize correctly as Chris Rosebrough is a servant of Jesus Christ by God’s calling and election. He does not compromise, and I have learned by listening to how he handled the Pinto/Kurschner/White incident; is very real and genuine, and one who is a peacemaker. He does not mince words. He calls out error, but where error is incorrectly imputed by some on another brother in Christ, Pastor Rosebrough will rise to that brother’s defense. He has done this in a recent broadcast of his. Yes, months ago, Chris Rosebrough spent the better part of an hour criticizing how Jonathan Cahn preached, as David James does here and in his book, and other critics of The Harbinger do!!!! YES, he spent the better part of an hour criticizing Jonathan Cahn’s presentation of the Gospel at the Presidential Inaugural Prayer Breakfast. Chris Rosebrough’s objection was how Jonathan Cahn and The Harbinger describes the warning and judgment of God through the template of The Harbinger – a biblical template of repeated warning followed by repeated chastisement. This is biblical, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it, except that at the time, Chris Rosebrough criticized how the Gospel was being presented at the Presidential Inaugural Breakfast Jonathan Cahn spoke at. I know, I heard the entire broadcast, and I bear witness to this. Chris Rosebrough first presented what he believed was to him an “approved” call to repentance and the Gospel versus the one he disapproved; the one given by Jonathan Cahn at the Presidential Inaugural Prayer Breakfast. Why does David James bring this up here? Because Jonathan Cahn was the target of that criticism, and because of that Mr. James and his colleagues have another critic of The Harbinger they can cite for support, or so they believe, as David James does here. But to Chris Rosebrough’s credit – and as a sure evidence that this is a genuine servant of God, regardless of what he said then, he now correctly and earnestly warns others against doing it, and even addresses every single criticism these people have used against the New York Times bestseller and its author. He does this in his broadcast for September 4th, 2013, titled The Dark Side of Discernment. For those who wish to download the show, they can do it here. I highly recommend everyone reading this to listen to this show. It speaks precisely what I and other defenders of The Harbinger have been warning our fellow Christians about. Below is the interview that Jonathan Cahn gave his host, Chris Rosebrough on Wednesday, September 4, 2013, but posted on Fighting for the Faith; Pirate Christian Radio on September 9th some days later:
Chris Rosebrough: “…the one thing I truly found to be as a merit, there is a very clear presentation of Christ and Him crucified for our sins, and salvation only in Jesus Christ, and I credited you (Jonathan Cahn) with that; and since that time, you and I have corresponded a few times, and communicated with each others; and although we disagree with each other on a few things, we still have a cordial friendship, and because you preach such, ah, ah, ah, a correct Gospel, I have no choice than to believe that you’re my brother and have no problem with that.
“…Now, there’s another charge that is brought against you; that in The Harbinger there is no call to salvation. Talk about that.”
Jonathan Cahn: “Yeah, yeah, this was said” (inaudible) “that” (inaudible) “there, there’s no altar call, there’s no salvation. Ah, And, and the basis of this; basically, I didn’t say certain words, like ‘Christ,’ didn’t say ‘cross,’ or didn’t say ‘resurrection,’ and didn’t mention the Second Coming’ – was actually said in this thing. ahm…and Now, now, let… to me… Now at, at the same time you had plenty of pastors and people in the discernment ah, community who said this was the strongest calls to salvation they’d ever read.” (Rosebrough affirms in the background, as Pastor Cahn continues) “So,” (inaudible) “The thing is… First of all; a-a lot of… a lot of books – Christian books, even in the discernment co-community, do not even have a chapter fully on salvation. The Harbinger has an entire chapter…” (Rosebrough affirms with an ehem, as Pastor Cahn continues) “And that…the entire chapter is to draw someone who doesn’t believe to give the reasons to believe why they have to have the Savior – a Savior die for them, and to be saved from hell. You know. And, so the point of that… Well, first of all; as a Jewish believer with Gent…We can mention ‘cross’ – the Bible actually says ‘Stauros’ (σταυρός), which means ‘stand,’ you know; but you know that’s…it’s kind of like… O-Once I didn’t use the word ‘Christ’ – well, I used the word ‘Yeshua’ – I said ‘Jesus’ – (Rosebrough heard in the background concurring) “You know, you know; it’s kind of crazy to focus on that,’ (Rosebrough affirms with a “right.”) “but then…” (stutters) “And it does mention … and meaning the overcoming of death… the point of the whole chapter – I mean most people – you know – in America – and most people reading this, know of…that Jesus died, and the Gospel is saying that He rose; but the point of the chapter is to win someone over who doesn’t believe. And that is… that goes to the length of a…you now… argue of… why we are all sinners, why – you know – we are all under judgment, why there is an infinite gap between – between, you know – God’s righteousness and our unholiness; which is, which leads us to hell, and only God Himself can bridge that gap by the sacrifice of His life.” (Rosebrough affirms with an ehem, as Pastor Cahn continues) I mean, so you know, the whole chapter is going through that.”
Rosebrough interrupts here, and says, “Sounds like the Gospel to me. I want to interject here. It makes me wonder if – if these people would be consistent. You know; based on what you’re saying here – I mean when I read the Book of Acts – I mean in fact, this is one of the books I’m working on in my own translation of the Bible right now – one of the things that strikes me is that the Apostle Peter doesn’t give the exact same Gospel presentation in two – twice. Okay?” (Rabbi Cahn is heard replying, “Yes” in the background)
Rosebrough continues, “Paul’s presentation of the Gospel has marked differences in its approach as well. There’s certain things that are in common between them, and a lot of things that are very different. If they” (The Harbinger’s critics) “applied the same standards to the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter, would these men be able to be..ah… charged with not… having a clear call to salvation?”
Jonathan Cahn: “Absolutely, and absolutely. It’s kind of like saying – you’re going up to somebody; you’re witnessing, and you say, ‘Listen, God loves you, you know – Jesus died for your sins,’ and – you know – therefore it wasn’t the Gospel, or some false gospel, because you didn’t – you didn’t go through everything at that moment. Umm, that’s the whole point, and – you know – instead of saying, “Hey, most books don’t have even an entire chapter calling someone to salvation… and umm, if it’s not the exact same way, and it’s exactly right. The fact is if you applied a lot of these ‘standards’ to Paul – if some of these people were around the time of Paul – or many of, I mean, and Matthew –and many things; they would be crucified…Or, or under these kinds of standards. The other thing is that one of these brothers – and I’m calling all of these my brothers – was on the… was on a program and he was saying there’s no – not a salvation call, and as he’s saying it, at the end; the host has a salvation call, and doesn’t specifically say ‘Jesus rose,’ doesn’t specifically say any of the things – doesn’t specifically say anything of the things, and nothing was said at all.”
Chris Rosebrough interjects, laughing, and says the following: “In other words, there’s a – they apply a double standard. A standard that doesn’t apply to them that they hold you to.”
Jonathan Cahn: “There’s a double standard continuously. I mean – you know there is – ah, you know, example – you know – wow; there so much examples, but yes that’s another problem, is a double standard – which is for instance, I was on a radio – on a television program – you know, an entire segment was done condemning me for being on the program; the point of me being on the program – my view is, I am trying to get the Gospel out to and get the call of salvation, repentance out to as many people as possible. Doesn’t mean I endorse everything or anything about the – the host or the interviewer of any show that I’ll be on. But the point is that someone very close to those people” (the critics of The Harbinger) “went on same show, they said nothing. I mean, so…there is a double standard continuously.”
Chris Rosebrough: “Yeah, well-well, let’s talk about that too, because you-you’ve talked a little bit there; you’ve hinted at a concept of guilt by association. Now I want to make something perfectly clear, by coming on today’s episode of Fighting for the Faith did I require you to sign a declaration basically saying that I agree with and subscribe to the doctrines as laid out by the Lutheran Church in the – in the 1570 of the Book of Concord?”
Jonathan Cahn: “Yeah you – yes you did, but you were the only one who required that.” (Chris Rosebrough is heard laughing in the background, as Jonathan Cahn continues) “No. Of course not. Of course not. That’s the whole point. Of course not. I mean, if I’m going to go on any secular show, I’m not going to agree – I certainly don’t’ agree with where they’re at, or what the station does.” (Rosebrough is heard in the background saying, “Right” as Rabbi Cahn continues.)
“And even with Christian – I don’t necessarily agree – you know – I might not agree, I may not agree with anything; I might agree with some things – you know – the point is; what I’m presenting is what I’m presenting, and this goes back to – you know, you know – what would they had done. What if there was ah, ah a television program called Mar’s Hill? And it was run by pagans? And they had all sorts of New Age stuff on it? (Chris Rosebrough is heard laughing in the background, as Jonathan Cahn continues) And I’m appearing? Well, Paul appeared at Mar’s Hill. (Rosebrough is heard in the background saying, “Right” as Rabbi Cahn continues.) “And he certainly preached the Gospel, but-but, know the fact is he would have been crucified for that among some people. That fact that, look by going on there, I don’t care what he says – by going on there he’s giving this legitimacy and condoning all these pagan practices. (Rosebrough is heard in the background saying, “Right” as Rabbi Cahn continues.) “Well, Paul said that’s not the case. ‘I will go everywhere I can to get the Gospel.”
Chris Rosebrough replies, “Yeah, and at Acts seven – stutters – seventeen makes it clear that the whole purpose of that Mar’s Hill meeting – these guys like just to get together and discuss anything ‘new’ – I mean that was their big deal. And, and so – so – you know – by Paul appearing at Mar’s Hill, does that somehow mean he was endorsing, ‘O we have to talk about this new stuff all of the time? You know; NO.”
Jonathan Cahn: And of course not, and yeah, and he – the – the point was, you know, Paul’s thing was to reach the people who needed the Gospel.” (Rosebrough is heard in the background saying, “Right” as Rabbi Cahn continues.) “And so, if we go on forums where everybody agrees with us, we’re not doing it either. And the thing is, you know – when I speak of The Harbinger, I mean the message, the ultimate messages of repentance – I know that’s always there, (Rosebrough is heard in the background saying, “yeah” as Rabbi Cahn continues.) – “the whole context is – I mean – the judgment of sin and the ultimate answer is the cross of Jesus.” Rosebrough is heard in the background saying, “Right” as Rabbi Cahn finishes by saying, “That – that’s the point.”
Rosebrough interrupts: “Let me make one more point and we’ll move on to the next accusation, and that is, and that is the Pharisees actually used the “guilt by association argument against Jesus. What they said about Him, they said, ‘He hangs out with, He eats with sinners and tax collectors.’ That was a guilt by association argument. And you know what? I am so thankful that Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners.” Rabbi Cahn is heard in the background saying,“Yeah” as Chris Rosebrough continues saying, “Because I am one. And Jesus said that He came for the sick ;He came for the lost; He came for sinners. He did not come the righteous; but He came for sinners. So I am really thankful that Jesus took the time to take the hit, to be associated with sinners, because I am one.”
The conversation continues, but this part of it serves to illustrate that there are some who are prominent in the discernment community for many years, who having read Jonathan Cahn’s book, and having understood what it says for themselves, rather than having understood it through the very refracted lens of Mr. James; understand precisely that The Harbinger not only presents the clear undiluted Gospel and need for salvation, but actually affirms it as it devotes an entire chapter to it in order to get the message to the reader. How can anyone can read anything else into this is beyond anyone’s imagination. And here Mr. James attempts what he has in his book; to find something else to criticize – this time, The Harbinger’s presentation of salvation!
(Chris Rosebrough, Pirate Christian Radio, The Dark Side of Discernment, September 9th, 2013)
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