DR. JOHN MACARTHUR'S STRANGE FIRE

In my Hyper-Pentecostal days as a new believer, I never believed that speaking in tongues was the exclusive manifestation of the filling of the Holy Spirit, what some call the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.  I didn’t believe it then, nor do I believe it now.  Why?  Because the Scriptures makes it clear, very clear in fact, for it says:

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware.  You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols, however you were led.  Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is accursed”; and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

(1Corinthians 12:1-3)

Here Paul establishes that unless you are born again and have God’s Spirit abiding in you, the reality and confession that goes with it that Jesus is absolute Lord and God in your life will not be evident, but if you are born again, and you confess Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one can go to the Father except through Him (John 14:6) – these are the evidences, the fruits borne of the genuineness of your born again experience – your new life in Christ, and the evidence that the Holy Spirit of God has bonded with your spirit for the two of you to become one in Him (1Corinthians 6:17), because the evidence of it the fruit of the Holy Spirit in your behavior, in your fervency, in your reverence and zeal for what is true. These are evidences of this because God has promised that this would happen when those walk by faith in Him give their all for Him and put their trust in Him by releasing themselves to Him in complete trust.  This is part of what it means to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and making no provision for the flesh and its lusts. (Romans 13:14)

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.  And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord.  There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.

(1Corinthians 12:4-6)

Make no mistake about it; you have the Holy Spirit, you will most assuredly manifest His gifts.  There are many, and they vary, but they are given by God to bring about the service needed to meet the need of the moment when it is needed.  There are many gifts, and result in many ministries within the body of Christ.  Don’t think that the gift you have – unique to you in how God uses it for His purposes and glory in Christ – is any less than that of any other servant.  The importance of your ministry function within the body of Christ is not diminished by the big names with big followings.  You are as important as they, and even more so, because you are not famous in man’s eyes, and you needn’t be, because you are already famous in God’s kingdom.  Demons hear your name and they cringe because they are subject to you (Luke 10:20), because they know you serve the Living God and are a bondservant of Jesus Christ.  You have a unique role and function in the body of Christ, and the reason you have it is because the same Holy Spirit who lives in Jonathan Cahn, and lives in me, lives in you.

But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.  For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues.  But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.

(1Corinthians 12:7-11)

You’ll note that the Word is clear on this.  The same Holy Spirit imparts to different believers different functions and offices for service in the body, but not all possess the same gifts, but the Holy Spirit imparts such gifts to all of God’s servants.  Yes, even Cessationists overlook this, that their teaching abilities and the different functions of ministry that they possess are evidences that the Holy Spirit of God is at work in their lives to use them as vessels of honor in God’s house.  Each function serves a purpose and meets a specific need when it arises.  It if for this purpose that they are given, because it is the exercise of this power that allows men and women to serve and provides the power to fulfill the specific function within the church.  Cessationists may not understand this fully, and some may even go so far as to deny it for today based upon a flawed reading of God’s Word and a false tradition, but also we cannot overlook, Cessationists have one thing in common – an experience of theirs when they “got burned” or saw or heard something somewhere that did not line up with God’s Word.  The most common dilemma for them is that they equate in generalities their “bad experience” with all miraculous or supernatural experiences.  But most assuredly the evidence of the Holy Spirit is the fruit that is produced in the heart and mind of the believer.  You can’t fake the real thing.  And the Lord Jesus Himself has said,

For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.  For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

(1Corinthians 12:12-13)

Therefore, regardless of the gift imparted, we are all a part of Him, and members of one another.  We have been baptized into One Spirit at conversion, and are made to drink from the same Spirit the waters of life.  It is this life – or rather – new life in the Messiah that enables us to know the power of His resurrection in a very real way.  We are many members with many different functions and talents.  The young lady you wrote about who claims to speak in tongues, and is haughty about it, probably doesn’t but thinks she does.  People who are truly baptized in the Holy Spirit – or rather, filled with the Holy Spirit do not go about strutting their stuff, and boasting about the spiritual gift God has given them.  And it is unfortunate that those who already are filled with the Holy Spirit to preach and teach with knowledge and authority, but who have not been given tongues or prophecy or miracles as a gift, cannot accept those who have – as Dr. John MacArthur exhibits no understanding about.  This is why as often as I disagree with the Cessationist, I never deny them their part in the body, because I recognize the gift of God within them which God has put to good use for Christ’s glory.  Unlike the Cessationist, I do not deny the gift of Christ – the Holy Spirit’s indwelling and work – in the believer on the basis of what he or she does for Christ, or whether or not he or she speaks in tongues, prophesies, or works miracles and healing. 

John MacArthur and other Cessationists like him may consign Pentecostals and Charismatics to hell, because he claims they blaspheme the Holy Spirit by offering “strange worship, unacceptable worship,” and therefore “strange fire” before the Lord, but he has no authority to be speak for God what He chooses to accept or not accept by way of worship.  John MacArthur can only speak for himself, and here he has crossed the line; just as equally any Charismatic or Pentecostal, or even a Continuationist such as I would cross the line, were we to declare that every born against believer ought to prophesy, speak in tongues, work miraculously, or heal the sick with prayer or a word.  This is so because Paul in the Holy Spirit has made it evident above.  Chapter 12 of Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians is a testament to the various functions, offices, manifestations, and works of the Holy Spirit and a warning for us not to equate everybody else’s ministry with our own, and everybody else’s calling with our own, or everybody else’s walk with our own.  That’s idolatry – we either idolize them, or idolize ourselves – and that’s strange fire.  You want to see strange fire before the God of heaven?  John MacArthur’s Strange Fire Conference is that strange fire – it presumes to speak of things that only God can determine, and it misuses and misapplies God’s Word precisely in a manner that Paul warns here we should not ever do – by denying anyone in the body of Christ their legitimate function and calling by the same Holy Spirit who makes some Charismatics and Pentecostals, while He makes others into Non-Charismatics and Pentecostals.

This is why I disagree equally with those Pentecostals and Charismatics who preach and teach the same gifts or specific gifts as signs or evidences for every member of God’ body, because the Scriptures do not teach that.  Everyone gets a specific gift, or more than one to serve the Lord as God wills it.  We have just read it.  We have just also read that no one, be he/she Pentecostal/Charismatic or Non-Pentecostal/Charismatic, should ever deny the gift of God in another believer because the gift God has given them is different than theirs.  This is what both those who preach that everyone must speak in tongues when they receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit, as well those who preach that those who do not practice certain gifts but practice others are not filled with the Holy Spirit.  Both are equally wrong. 

What’s more, those who base their opinion on experience without the Word of God to substantiate that experience – be they Continuationist, or Pentecostal/Charismatic – are in error when they apply their experience theologically to everyone else theologically.  For example, no Continuationist, or Pentecostal/Charismatic should ever say, “Everyone must speak in tongues as a sign they have the fullness of the Holy Spirit” or, “Everyone ought to prophesy,” or, “Everyone must have this gift or that,” as evidence they have the Holy Spirit’s fullness. 

Equally so, those who base their opinion on their lack of their experience without the Word of God to substantiate the lack of experience – be they Cessationist, Non-Pentecostal/Charismatic – are in error when they apply their lack of experience to everyone else theologically.  Therefore no Non-Charismatic/Pentecostal, or Cessationist; should ever say, “The office of prophet no longer exists, therefore no one should prophesy,” or “The sign gifts of the Holy Spirit ended with the Apostolic Age; so tongues and prophecy, miracles, and healing are not for this day.”  This is because, as Paul has written, the body of Christ is like a human body, with many diverse parts and functions and offices, and effects, and not any one is alike from the other, but all come from One Holy Spirit, One God, and One Lord, as Paul writes elsewhere:

For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.  For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.  Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

(Romans 12:4-7)

And this is how we ought to behave towards one another.  Yet John MacArthur has declared, “We are not dividing the body of Christ” (pause for effect) “in this conference.” (Pause again)  “We are trying to identify the body of Christ” (pause again for effect) “and show that these people” (Charismatics, Pentecostals, Continuationists, and Non-Cessationists) “aren’t part of it.”  WOW!!!!!!!

When I heard Dr. MacArthur utter those words, I was shocked and gripped with astonishment that a man of his caliber would make such a sweeping statement over the destinies of countless brethren over a doctrinal dispute!  Contrast what Dr. MacArthur has said above about  countless brethren with the following admonition the Holy Spirit of God has set in Scripture in light of Romans 12:4-7, and 1Corinthians 12, which we have examined.

Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.  But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

(Ephesians 4:1-7)

I cannot and will not deny the gift of God in John MacArthur’s life, as he has with a generalized blanket statement mine and those of countless other Continuationists who are not Charismatic/Pentecostals (religious semantical labels men attach to one another for identification), but who practice the gifts of the Holy Spirit that God has imparted to them for service in the body – unrecognized and unaccepted by men like Dr. MacArthur – but equally as legitimate as his.  I recognize accept and affirm and bear witness Christ’s calling on Dr. MacArthur, but I do not affirm, acknowledge, or accept as biblical his Cessationist Theology.  The Scriptures teach acceptance of God’s unique gifts and calling, while Cessationism denies some of these because they do not fit the religious hermeneutical paradigm they represent to the Cessationist.

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.  As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

(Ephesians 4:11-16)

Cessationists like Dr. MacArthur teach that the Scripture above defines the order of church hierarchy and service in the history of the primitive church and no longer applies to today.  But this is not what it is saying at all, because Paul describes these being in use by the church, as it has been used right down to this day; for the members of the body of Christ to attain maturity in their walk, and unity of the faith, and grow in the knowledge of God, maturing into adulthood in their spiritual growth and development which belongs to the fullness of Christ.  Once achieved, the person who grows in this manner is not persuaded by anyone with clever arguments and sophistry of men, but in forthrightness we speak the truth in the love of Jesus Christ, as mature teachers supply what is necessary to the body for its growth and nurturing, so that all grow up in every aspect into Him who is the head, even the Messiah from whom the entire body is growing, maturing, developing, and held together; it various parts is individually being built and its pieces fitted together in their proper place, function, and role within the great edifice of the church of God.  There is no mention in this passage of any cessation of the gifts ever taking place.  On the contrary, we see the furtherance of this magnificent work of grace in the impartation of those gifts for the common good of all the body as we mature in Him.

Here, as he does in his First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul in the Holy Spirit makes it evident that these gifts were and continue to be given by God for the “common good,” and uses the metaphor of the human body to illustrate that everyone has a specific gift according to their calling in God, and each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift (Ephesians 4:7).  As diverse as we are, so are God’s gifts and calling, and the effects they have, but they are given by One and the same Spirit, as Paul writes above.  No one – that is no man can or should ever proscribe any of the gifts and calling of God on the basis of their own experience, nor should they ever promote the fallacy that the calling and effect of the gift God has imparted to them must apply to all, because Scripture is clear about this in Paul’s writings.

When Paul writes in the 13^th chapter of his First Letter to the Corinthians the following:

Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.  When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.  For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

(1Corinthians 13:8-12)

Paul in the Holy Spirit is making it evident that the person had not come in his day, and has not come on ours, because the perfect is the return of Jesus the Messiah to His people, and not the closing of the cannon of Scripture; otherwise, we would now know fully and not in part, we would now see fully, and not part as Paul writes, and there would not be so many denominations and theologies within what has come to be known as normative orthodox Protestant Evangelical Christianity.  No, the perfect has not come, but love prevails, and so do the gifts which the love of God bestows on mortal and infallible men for His service and purposes. 

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are diverse, with diverse ministries, diverse callings, diverse functions, and diverse effects, but all for the glory of God, and for the furtherance of the Gospel.  The Charismatics and the Cessationists are equally wrong if one denies the other’s legitimate role in the body of Christ, and those who do this – as Dr. MacArthur and all those who attended his Strange Fire Conference – is like the brain telling the heart that he has no function in the body because he does not think.  But if the heart does the same to the brain, he then repeats the brain’s error.  The heart has its function as does the brain, and both are important to the body and its function – what’s more they need each other.

Therefore, the Scripture says:

‘

Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.  And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.  All are not apostles, are they?  All are not prophets, are they?  All are not teachers, are they?  All are not workers of miracles, are they?  All do not have gifts of healings, do they?  All do not speak with tongues, do they?  All do not interpret, do they?  But earnestly desire the greater gifts.

(1Corinthians 12:27-31)

The Scripture makes it clear that not everyone is a missionary (called out one – apostolo – English, apostle, small a), not everyone is a prophet, not everyone is a teacher, or not everyone works miracles, or heal, or speak in tongues.  This is obvious and clear here.  But we are to desire the greater gifts for greater service.  God will impart the gift directly proportional to the service He calls us to do in His name.  The greater the need, the greater the service, the greater the service, the greater the gift.  This is how things are.  This is not understood by some, and much of what I write here will fall on deaf ears.

Another place where Dr. MacArthur has cross the line and broken with Scripture is in saying that all Charismatics/Pentecostals and Continuationists blaspheme the Holy Spirit because, according to him; they attribute Satanic works to the Holy Spirit.  This charge is worse than all of the others, because this charge in no uncertain terms declares that Pentecostals/Charismatics and Continuationists knowingly blaspheme the Holy Spirit!  That they knowingly equate Satanic works to the Holy Spirit! 

I remembered the words of the Lord when He addressed the Scribes and the Pharisees, “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in,” and “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.”

(Matthew 23:13, 15)

With one breath, Dr. MacArthur has barred the kingdom of God to over 500 million of God’s people because he has trouble recognizing their part and role, calling and office given to them by the Holy Spirit of God the day they gave their lives to Christ in repentance and received His salvation and was sealed with the Holy Spirit, given to them as a pledge by God.(2Corinthians 1:22, 5:5)

But in order for Dr. MacArthur’s reverse exegesis of Matthew 12:22-37, Mark 3:22-30, Luke 12:10, and John 7:20, 8:48-49 to work, the people he imputes such guilt must knowingly commit such acts – that is, knowing that something is Satanic and willfully and knowingly saying that it is of the Holy Spirit.  It does not apply exegetically, and it does not apply hermeneutically, because Jesus’ detractors knowingly attributed to Him works of Satan when they knowingly understood that such works were real, genuine and legitimate miracles, not sorcery (John 11:45-47), just as they realized that Jesus’ disciples had done the same in His name (Acts 4:16)  It is a fallacious charge, one for which Dr. MacArthur will be made to personally account for.  Those who also knowingly teach this canard will equally be held accountable.

It stands to reason that even someone of Dr. MacArthur’s caliber would with time, continue to evolve down this road.  He’s already taught that those who receive the mark of the beast during the Great Tribulation will be able to repent and receive Christ and be saved.  This of course is at variance with God’s Word.  Revelation is clear.  This is what it says:

Then another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.  And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.”  Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.

(Revelations 14:9-12)

But the Scripture knowing beforehand that God uses imperfect men, has made it clear that the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets, (1Corinthians 14:32) therefore fallible men will err on occasion in what they teach, but this does not make them a false teacher or a false prophet; because they do not err intentionally.  I believe that Dr. MacArthur’s error is not intentional, but sincere.  It is a sincere error of theology and a sincere error of judgment; otherwise, as Dr. Michael Brown has observed in one of his recent broadcasts, “Dr. MacArthur would not be preaching the Gospel and winnings souls for Christ.”  The false prophet and false teacher have one thing in common; they do not preach the Gospel, but preach a false gospel to make money.

Cessationist John MacArthur’s Strange Fire Conference, where he has publicly declared open war on Charismatics and Pentecostals, and all other Evangelical Christians who teach and practice the sign gifts of the Holy Spirit, and now calls every born again believer to do the same – a controversy that may eclipse that of The Harbinger in the immediate future.  One man now teaches all Christians to despise prophetic utterances, and wage war on those who practice them by the Holy Spirit, while the Word of God teaches all Christians not to despise prophetic utterances, (1Thessalonians 5:20) but to earnestly desire the greater sign gifts (1Corinthians 12:31) the Holy Spirit bestows to all Christians (1Corinthians 7:7) for service (Romans 12:1-8, 1Corinthians 12:8-10, 1Peter 4:10-11), using the analogy of the different parts of human anatomy to describe the variety of gifts and their function within the body of the Messiah (1Corinthians 12:4-26, Ephesians 4:4, 16), then continues to describe the various offices within the church (1Corinthians 12:27-30).  Again, all Christians are admonished by the Apostle Paul who writes in the Holy Spirit to earnestly desire the greater gifts. (1Corinthians 12:31)  Without equivocation; all Christians are to pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. (1Corinthians 14:1), concluding, Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak in tongues. (1Corinthians 14:39).  And of course, all Christians are admonished by the Apostle Paul, With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, (Ephesians 6:18a) but how can one pray in the Spirit if they do not  walk in Him, or practice His gifts which He bestows in Christ?   Contrast this to Cessationists who teach the opposite of what God’s Word clearly says, and preach against it.  As the Messiah is about to return, we are seeing in our day the contrast of ten virgins, who taking out their lamps and are about to meet the bridegroom.  Five of them are foolish, and five were prudent.  For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps.  It is the prudent who will be ready for the Bridegroom when He makes His appearance to take them away.  One is filling their lamps with oil, while the other is not, and even preaches against it within the church itself, even within the court of God’s people. (Matthew 25:1-13)  We are seeing it come to pass in our day. Another sign of our times, another “harbinger” that Christ’s return is eminent.

How I Came to Write THE TRUTH ABOUT THE HARBINGER: Addressing the Controversy and Discovering the Facts About This Prophetic Message

It is with great pleasure that I share with you here how I came to write by God’s grace, and calling, The Truth about The Harbinger: Addressing the Controversy and Discovering the Facts About This Prophetic Message.  I have to thank the Lord for this, for He was the One who put me right on the spot to do it, and to Rabbi Jonathan Cahn for his trust and confidence in me to do it, and to Debbie Marie and the staff at Charisma House Book Group for their inestimable help in making it possible.  I can say that I learned from the process that every successful enterprise that God uses for His glory is a collaborate effort of dedicated servants of the Lord.  This one no less.  The process of how I became involved in this great program for the Lord is one that I will share with you here.  I hope you don’t mind its length.

I had been blogging since April 12^th, 2010, mostly about social-political issues of the day.  My articles were as diverse as GLOBALISM: BEYOND THE RIGHT-LEFT PARADIGM, to Rabbinical Judaism’s Chokehold on Jewishness.  I even included my seven-part series of teachings on the resurrection titled, THE RESURRECTION – A REEXAMINATION OF THE EVIDENCE – PART ONE and the others in successive order.

My first article addressing the critics of The Harbinger was Critiquing the Critics of The Harbinger.  Believe or not, I wrote and posted it on as late a date as October 1^st, 2012; a year to the date prior to the release of my book, The Truth about The Harbinger: Addressing the Controversy and Discovering the Facts About This Prophetic Message!  The Harbinger  had already been out for ten months and had taken the nation by storm.  Someone at the Beth Israel Jerusalem Center had approached me regarding a group of Evangelicals who had come together to criticize The Harbinger.  This person provided me with the link to Cessationist Brannon Howse’s Worldview Weekend radio broadcast in which the host interviewed another Evangelical Cessationist named Jimmy DeYoung on The Harbinger – this was the infamous Brannon Howse/Jimmy DeYoung broadcast, held on March 9^th,  2012 in an e-mail she had sent to Brannon Howse, the host of the show containing the link to the interview.  This was one of several interviews on The Harbinger its critics throughout the year.  I had already been acquainted with Brannon Howse’s Worldview Weekend broadcasts and had enjoyed many of them, and had found many of them informative and balanced up until then, but I was about to get shocked with what I was about to hear on this broadcast of Mr. Howse’s program.  

When I first heard the Howse/DeYoung interview of March 9^th, 2012, I was both shocked and dismayed.  I could not believe what I heard.  It was because I was familiar with the teaching series of The Harbinger, and was just beginning to read the book myself, and had known Rabbi Jonathan and sat under his other teachings for almost twelve years that I immediately realized that the statements I was hearing about Rabbi Cahn and his book were entirely incorrect.  I could not believe that these men were discussing the same person I had personally known, and the book and teachings my wife and I were so familiar with.  It was as though what I heard in this interview were two people discussing a completely different person who had written a completely different book.  That is how far off the narrative and the person these people were, and this had been broadcasted as fact to a very large audience.  Of course, neither these two gentlemen or any of the others in their group which comprised The Harbinger’s main critics –– had ever met Rabbi Jonathan, sat under his teachings, or ever read his book.  The only person who had read The Harbinger  up until this time had been David James from whom Jimmy DeYoung in this interview based his opinions.  According to the Preface on page 13 of his book, David James says there were two other “trusted men” who had also read the book and reached similar conclusions to his about it.  These people had the appearance of knowing what they were talking about to the outsiders; those who hadn’t met Rabbi Jonathan or ever sat under his teachings, or read The Harbinger, but had absolutely no idea what they were discussing, but at the time of this interview and review about the book, neither of the two men had read The Harbinger.  I had read most of it, and this was my advantage, because I could write as an insider; from someone who knew better and knew the truth about what these people were writing about and discussing without knowing the slightest thing of what they were saying.

I felt I had to take action, and I did.  I began writing about this to correct the disinformation being spread by these critics.  It began with e-mails that I wrote in response to the specific objections and charges made by these critics which originally I sent out to everyone in my mailing list that I could reach during the next several months.  These were primarily private correspondences between myself and them, including some of the critics of The Harbinger.  By October 1^st, from these private responses to the critics, I began to post the articles that have been on my website, The Pepster’s Post: A Voice in Cyberspace since. 

I was a latecomer to the discussion/debate, but everything I read was a complete fabrication of the facts, almost all entirely based on the fulminations of David James’ polemic.  During the summer months, I had also privately engaged David James in a back and forth regarding what he had written, cordial and friendly at first, even offered to try to set a discussion between supporters and critics of The Harbinger with equal representation from both sides, but this fell through, and our conversation deteriorated from then on.  Mr. James was extremely distrusting of me and my intentions, and not interested in holding these discussions any further.  Perhaps I was a bit naïve, but I had trouble reconciling Mr. James’ distrusting manner with the fact that we were both fundamentally of the same faith – both born again Evangelicals.  I was soon to discover that his distrust was not just towards me, but towards everyone who questioned what he had written and challenged him about as I began to do.  We stopped corresponding.  At about this time, he had become increasingly bellicose in his personal correspondence with me, because I warned him that after being given so much correct information by me and others about The Harbinger, he chose to ignore entirely, he would eventually have much to answer for, because he had been given The Truth about The Harbinger.  But he dismissed everything I wrote to him from then on.  He appeared neither prepared or inclined to find a resolution to reconcile the rift that his published polemic had caused.  He wasn’t going to retract it now.  I also discovered by this time that there had been others who had also privately corresponded with Mr. James with the same concerns as mine, and the same results.

These others had already engaged the critics, two of whom were Connie/Faith of Faith’s Corner, and Ladybug on Amazon.com’s discussion boards; both of whom were there right from the start of the year when The Harbinger became a national bestseller and fell into the radar of The Berean Call (whose founder, David Hunt had been in declining health, and the organization was now lead by T.A. McMahon), Prophecy Today (an oxymoron because its host is an avowed Cessationist), Worldview Weekend (another Cessationist host), the Alliance for Biblical Integrity (a presumptuously high sounding but extremely misleading name, considering the irony of its host’s mishandling of The Harbinger, also hosted by another Cessationist).

 

During the second week of January of this year – from the 7^th to the 11^th – I was in great distress about whether to continue writing about The Harbinger; engaging the critics and addressing/rebutting their misguided disinformation about the book and its author – Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, or to drop it, and move on to other projects and pursuits for God’s glory.  I was extremely serious about being in God’s will and doing what the Lord would have me do.  There were rumblings coming from people whom I have great respect and love in the Lord for, who were admonishing me to do just that – to move on to other projects, because they felt that I was being sidetracked by this controversy and God could use me elsewhere on other things. 

One of them even wrote to tell me that the “enemy had benched me” with this, and it was time for me to continue to finish writing a Concise History of Messianic Judaism from the Second Temple Era to the Modern Era – a work I had been researching and writing for almost thirty years, and that person felt that it was this work that would truly be used of the Lord if I finished it, and got it published.  At this time, there is no complete history of this topic available anywhere, and the only complete work is the dated classic The History of Jewish Christianity from the First to The Twentieth Century, written by the apostate Messianic Jew, Hugh J. Schonfield.  That work was written in 1935, and much has transpired since that time in the world of Jewish Evangelism.  Considering the incredible interest there is in Messianic Judaism, there is a need for such a work to be written and published, and one can see how it would take the Evangelical Christian and Messianic Jewish World by storm, just as The Harbinger has. 

That is why I have written it, and why one of these two people – a Rabbi’s daughter who has reviewed it – has been literally on my case to get this work published, because it will according to her, be used greatly by God to reach His people and to testify of the amazing contributions Jews have made to the church since its beginning to this day.  I’ve taught from part of this work at Beth Israel’s Arise and Shine Academy, and have had incredible response to it.  I’ve even developed an entirely different series of teachings on the resurrection – perhaps the most popular teaching series I’ve ever taught at the Jerusalem Center’s Arise and Shine Academy – taken straight from parts of this mammoth work on the history of Messianic Judaism.  But I digress.

Well, I had been in prayer for seven days and nights, in great agony of heart and spirit, fervently seeking the Lord, asking Him in no uncertain terms to lead me as to where I was to go with The Harbinger, because I did not want to be outside of His will on this or any other matter, and I wanted to be completely in His will in all that I did and said from here on in at this point in my life.  I had too often in my thirty-seven years done “my own thing” and made many mistakes that hampered and delayed both God’s call on my life, and the role that I was about to play in His End Time plan.  I had always had a sense of destiny about these things, but had no direction or idea where to start.  I only knew that in the past, whenever I wasn’t certain about something, I had gone to God in private prayer about the mater, and He always provided an answer to my dilemma that worked to His glory and the resolution to the matter. 

So I sought the Lord, and let me tell you, when you are emotionally drained as I was, it was hard to stay focused and pray.  It was exhausting, but whenever I did it, I sensed a renewal and a strengthening; as God’s Holy Spirit comforted me with His presence.  I’ve noticed that it is always during a personal crisis that this happens, during a great testing.  This is part of trusting and waiting upon the Lord for His word on a matter, and anyone who has gone through it can attest that it takes a lot out of you, because everything inside you is screaming to action, but you know that you must not until you have first brought to matter to God in prayer, and sought His counsel during this period as you await His will.  Our society does not function in that manner, and it takes a lot of deprogramming not to fall into the trap of “taking the cart before the proverbial horse.”

Just when it appeared that I was at the end of my rope, and could not proceed further, I received an e-mail on the seventh evening, Monday, October 14^th, from Rabbi Jonathan asking me if I were interested in being considered to a book about The Harbinger, because its publishers were looking for a writer who could write such a book, and had approached him; asking if he personally knew of such a writer.  Mind you, I was probably among several people Rabbi Jonathan was prayerfully considering for this, so there was no assurance that I’d be writing it, but this was all I needed to confirm God’s will for me.  I was ecstatic!!!  My prayer was answered just in time.  You understand, I was praying for God’s answer either way – to proceed or to drop and go on to something else, and the Lord came in just in time.  One of these possible candidates to write this book told me that he had wanted to write it, but when He approached the Lord in prayer about it, the Lord told him that He had someone else for the work; a further confirmation that this was God’s will for me to be involved in it for the next several months.  I was beside myself in joy.

Just before midnight that same night of Monday the 14^th of January, 2013, I replied to Jonathan Cahn in the following manner:

Dear Rabbi Jonathan,

This is the confirmation I needed to proceed with what was in my heart.  I’ve been thinking about writing an answer to The Harbinger’s critics but as a conversation between two people, where one supplies the questions the critics pose and the other the answers and corrections.

Rabbi Jonathan liked my idea and provided some guidance as to how I should approach writing it the next morning!  He gave me additional feedback, and I was off.  I was ecstatic; I had been chosen to write the book!!!  He followed up by telling me who to get in touch with over at the publishers, and that’s what I did. 

On Wednesday, January 16^th, I got in touch with them by submitting a sample of what my idea for the book would take.  At first, it was in the form of an objective answer and question type dialogue, where the reader would be given the critic’s specific objection followed by a direct and concise biblical rebuttal of the charge.  An example is given below:

CRITIC/QUESTION: Rabbi Cahn claims that the vow given by America’s leaders are in defiance to God.  They were defying the terrorists, weren’t they?  How is that defying God?

ANSWER/CLARIFICATION: When the Twin Towers collapsed, what was the first thought on almost everyone’s mind at the time?  The first thought was to rebuild them, and to do it in order to defy the enemy by showing them that whatever they destroy, we can rebuild.  The first thought was, “We will build the towers again.  We will build them taller, we will build them stronger and better than before, and defy the enemy with this act.  We will defy them by showing them that America can do this.”

Historically God has used Israel’s enemies to warn them of impending judgment, as in Isaiah 9:10, or as instruments of His judgment.  When the Northern Kingdom of Israel defied God, He sent the Assyrians to invade and take the people into captivity from their land.  God is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8), we see the same Biblical pattern at work here, where He has used America’s enemies to warn our nation of impending judgment – one of the nine harbingers.  In The Harbinger, when Nouriel Kaplan asks, “So how did America’s response to 9/11 compare with Israel’s response in Isaiah 9:10?”  The prophet’s answer is short and concise.  He replies, “It was the same.”  (Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, The Harbinger, page 54, Charisma House Book Group, Lake Mary, Fla. 2012)

“With all the talk of God blessing America in the wake of 9/11, the great missing factor was repentance.  Without that, everything else is null and void.  America must face the magnitude of its moral and spiritual descent, the degrading of its culture…to the multitude of its idols…to its fall into even deeper immoralities.”

“The idols of…

“Carnality, impurity, greed, materialism, vanity, self-obsession…and the altars covered with the blood of its innocent.  Without a change of course, there can be no change of destination.  Only in repentance can judgment be averted, and only in a true turning away from darkness into light”. (Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, The Harbinger, page 223, Charisma Book Group, Lake Mary, Fla. 2012)

The repeated reaction of defiance against the instruments of God’s judgment and warning to our nation by our national leaders have been nothing short than to react in defiance against the One who sent them to warn us.  In defying God’s warning rather than soul searching and self-examination to see if and where we have failed as a people and to repent of such things; through their public pronouncements our leaders instead have echoed the vow of defiance first heard in ancient Israel, and have set the course our nation directly into God’s the very judgment God is trying to warn it to avert.  And this has been the trajectory of our nation since September 11th, 2001.

________________________________________

CRITIC/QUESTION: My next question dovetails the end of the conversation you quoted where the prophet’s reply to Nouriel Kaplan about America’s reaction to 9/11 was “the same” as ancient Israel’s was, where the prophet continues by quoting from one commentary on the Bible, and the two have the following exchange:

(Nouriel Kaplan) “Commentary?”

(The prophet) “The commentaries are writings on the Bible explaining the meaning, verse by verse.”

(Nouriel Kaplan) “But not the Bible.”

(The prophet) “Not the Word of God, but commentary on the Word of God.”

(Nouriel Kaplan) “So you study the commentaries?” I asked, surprised at the idea of it.

(The prophet) “I have.”

(Nouriel Kaplan) “I just didn’t picture a prophet studying the …”

(The prophet) “And why not?  He replied, “Is God not able to speak through such things?”

(Nouriel Kaplan) “I guess he is…”

(Jonathan Cahn, The Harbinger, page 54, Charisma House Book Group, Lake Mary, Fla. 2012)

Now wait a minute!  Are you saying that we ought to take the commentaries on the Bible as inspired as the Bible itself?  Isn’t Rabbi Cahn implying by this that the commentaries are as inspired and authoritative as Scripture?

ANSWER/CLARIFICATION: Not at all.  God is able to use anything or anyone He chooses to convey what He want to say to His people, or to any nation, as in the case of Nineveh in the Bible.  He can inspire someone through the indwelling Holy Spirit to write a study, or a commentary, or even a book, even as a work of fiction; to communicate whatever He wishes pertaining to judgment, redemption, and the Gospel.  The Spirit of God who discloses the meanings of Scripture works in God’s servant teachers and instructors.  Bible expositors and scholars have spent their lives in study of God’s Word to write opinions and notes which later have been published as commentaries of the Scriptures.  The commentaries written by these are useful in the study of God’s Word, but nowhere does the prophet in The Harbinger claim that they are inspired as Scripture.  They are not Scripture, but commentaries on the Scriptures, on the inspired Word of God.  The Word of God is the final authority in the life of the believer.

This was just a sample of an idea that I had been working on, but it was a beginning, and the publisher liked it, but the book would take a completely different approach while still addressing directly the various objections the critics had presented up until that time, and additional ones they would present thereafter, all of which what came to be The Truth about The Harbinger: Addressing the Controversy and Discovering the Facts About This Prophetic Message all answered biblically and accurately without naming the critics.  The people reading my blogs and those of the others like Connie/Faith and Ladybug, knew who the critics were by now.  All people needed were correct answers to their objections, accusations, and mishandling of the material.  But I digress again.

It was enough for the publishers to verify that I could write, but I had to be engaging and thorough in what I said, and most importantly biblically accurate and concise my rebuttals.  I had to know what the Word of God taught on this topic, be informed of what The Harbinger said – its narrative, and what the critics had written against it, and finally, write a biblically accurate and concise answer that corrected the false narrative and false witness of what the critics had written about the book.  By the grace of Almighty God through the Holy Spirit as He imparted knowledge for the task, so I did in the name of Yeshua/Jesus the Messiah and for His glory.

By March 11^th, 2013 the publisher had reviewed my proposal for my book, discussed it, and were prepared to make an offer for it.  They next sent me the offer letter which I signed and sent back.  Much as what happened with the release of The Harbinger, so happened when after I signed and sent back the offer letter and contract; the devil attacked in a very big and direct way.  God was about to do something big, very big, and bless many with it, and the devil was going to do everything he can to put a stop to it; to end it as quickly and as abruptly as he believed he can.  But let me not get ahead of myself here. 

There is a biblical pattern that recurs, and serves as one of many ways that discerning Christians can use to know how God works and how the devil reacts to His work.  It is right from the pages of our Bibles.  Whenever God is about to do something big, at its beginning stages, the devil comes in and attacks in a vain attempt to snuff it out and destroy the work before it is launched.

We see it when a great famine that struck Egypt and the surrounding region; in the life of Joseph whom God used in preserving the lives of countless people, including his own family who had sold him to a band of Midianites years before (Genesis 37:25-28).  How this great life was almost snuffed out by betrayal, would later be used by God to save “the world,” providing for us a type of the Greater Son of Joseph who was to come; the Messiah, Yeshua of Nazareth, who to this day, like Joseph the son of Jacob, remains unrecognized and unknown to His own family of people, the Jewish people, but who is slowly being revealed by God as more and more Jews here and throughout the world have already begun to recognize Him, and received Him back into themselves as personal Savior and Lord over their lives, as must be the case; because before He can be hailed by Israel as Melech Moschiach (King Messiah), He must first be received by each Jew personally as Lord and Savior – as Adonai Tsidkeinu – Ha Shem Tsidkeinu – that is to say, the Lord Is Our Righteousness.

We see it when the children of Israel left Egypt on their way to the promised land, when the armies of Pharaoh pursued them into the Red Sea, and how God delivered them there. (Exodus 14:21-31) God had prepared to bless His people by delivering them by Moses, but Pharaoh of Egypt did all that he could to keep them as slaves, and afterwards to destroy them in the Red Sea.  At this time, God provided for them a great deliverance, and blessed them in the wilderness though they repeatedly sinned against Him, for which that generation perished except for two – Joshua and Caleb – never saw or entered the land promised to their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (Numbers 14:1-24, 26-38, Hebrews 3:16-19)

We see it in the life of the prophets and how they were persecuted and put to death, but not before they gave their testimony of the One who would come, the restoration of the Jewish people and their return from long exile to the land of their fathers – these prophets exhorted them strongly, and gave their ancestors many warnings – harbingers of things to come, which the children of Israel repeatedly ignored, and murdered them for, who then suffered the consequences for the blood of the prophets they had shed and the arrogant vow their leaders had made against the Most High God, and the fate that befell them – ancient Israel (the northern kingdom) at the hands of the Assyrians in 732 B.C. and 722 B.C., and ancient Judah (the southern kingdom) at the hands of the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar in 605 B.C., during the first deportation and in 586 B.C., during the final deportation to Babylon.  A people whom God would preserve right down to this day, though the devil has sought to annihilate. 

We see this with the birth of the Messiah, during which time, the devil uses his servants to bring His tender and fragile life to an end with the genocidal slaughter of the innocents of Bethlehem. (Matthew 2:1-18)  We see it again when Jesus went out into the wilderness for forty days, at the end of which the successfully thwarted the devil’s repeated attempts to tempt the half-starved Messiah to use His power to make stone into bread,  to try to make Him sin and bypass the cross with an offer to give Jesus fame, wealth and power of all thrones of the kingdoms of the world which Adam had ceded to the devil in the garden (See The Unfolding of the Evidentiary Matter in Satan’s Appeal Trial An Usurpation of Dominion Over the Earth & the Establishment of Satan’s

Counterfeit System of Governance), as the Lord was about to embark on His ministry in its opening days. (Luke 4:1-13)  We see his pattern of trying to rob, kill, and destroy over and over again in Scripture (John 10:10), as God’s Word provides biblical example of how God and how Satan work; so that we are not unwise to his schemes, and how he and his servants operate. (2Corinthians 2:11)

Before and shortly after The Harbinger was released, there proceeded two forms of attack against it.  The first was from nature in the monster Hurricane Irene on August 20^th, 2011.  Below is a description of Hurricane Irene’s path as it plowed up the east coast, causing what some call it “biblical.”   

“Early on August 27, Irene further weakened to a Category 1 hurricane as it approached the Outer Banks of North Carolina.^[26] At 7:30 am EDT (11:30 UTC) the same day, Irene made landfall near Cape Lookout, on North Carolina's Outer Banks, with winds of 85 mph (140 km/h), but exhibited an unusually low pressure of 951 mbar, which is typically found in a category 3 hurricane.^[27] After having tracked over land for about 10 hours, the eye of Irene became cloud-filled, although the center remained well-defined on radar images.^[28] Early in the evening of August 27, Irene re-emerged into the Atlantic near the southern end of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia as a marginal Category 1 hurricane, slowly weakening as it continued northward and weakening to a tropical storm early on August 28.^[29] Shortly before sunrise, at 5:35 am EDT (0935 UTC) on August 28, Irene made a second landfall in the Little Egg Inlet in southeastern New Jersey with winds of 75 mph (110 km/h),^[30] and soon after moved over water again, hugging the New Jersey coastline. About 3 1/2 hours later, Tropical Storm Irene made landfall with 65 mph (100 km/h) winds in the Coney Island neighborhood of New York City.

Following its final New York landfall, Irene moved northeast over New England while maintaining its strength, becoming a post-tropical storm that evening over northern New England.^[31] The extratropical cyclone continued northward into eastern Quebec, Canada,^[32] then crossed the St. Lawrence River into Labrador before emerging into the Labrador Sea late on August 29. During the next several hours, Irene's remnant quickly crossed Southern Greenland and began to move northeastward, towards Iceland. On August 30, Irene's extratropical low was absorbed by another extratropical cyclone, between Greenland and Iceland.^[1]”

Because of the ferocity and extent of Hurricane Sandy, preceding and leading up to the disastrous November presidential elections that year; almost everyone has forgotten the widespread damage, flooding, and casualties inflicted by Hurricane Irene.  But Hurricane Irene’s destruction should not be overlooked.  It has been described in the following manner:

Gales from Irene affected nearly all of the Eastern Seaboard, extending from Florida to New England and as far inland as central New York and central Pennsylvania, affecting all or large parts of 15 states and the District of Columbia. The winds, combined with soil saturation due to the extreme amounts of precipitation in many of the impacted areas both from Irene and from previous thunderstorms, uprooted countless trees and power lines along the storm's path. Roughly 7.4 million homes and businesses lost electrical power, with approximately 3.3 million still without power as of August 30, three days after landfall.^[158] Coastal areas suffered extensive flood damage followings its potent storm surge, with additional freshwater flooding reported in many areas. The storm spawned scattered tornadoes, causing significant property damage as evidenced by destroyed homes. In the northeastern region, more than ten rivers measured record flood heights at their hydrographs.^[159] Rivers in at least six Northeastern states reached hundred-year flood levels, while the Christian Science Monitor described flooding in Greene County, New York, as five-hundred-year-flood conditions.^[160] Flooding in Schoharie County, New York was also reported by the National Weather Service in Albany, New York as five-hundred-year-flood conditions. Throughout its path in the contiguous United States, Irene caused approximately $15.6 billion (2011 USD) in damage and 47 deaths.^[161][162]

(Hurricane Irene, Wikipedia, the Online Encyclopedia)

Hurricane Irene flooded large areas of New Jersey and part of New York.  The area of Wayne, where Beth Israel’s Jerusalem Center is located was flooded.  The flood waters reached three feet into the Jerusalem Center and it destroyed everything.  Furniture, computers, important documents, years of Rabbi Jonathan’s finest sermons on tape were destroyed.  It was a great blow to the heart of the ministry, an inestimable loss, but God would help the ministry recover.  And though our congregation was not able to use the Jerusalem Center at this time for worship due to the flooding and extensive damage, the Lord provided a temporary location for our congregation to gather and worship about half a mile up from Beth Israel at Wayne’s Grand Chalet Restaurant on Route 23 South, while repairs were being made to the Beth Israel Jerusalem Center.

Hurricane Irene was followed by the first full attack of The Harbinger’s critics shortly after its release on January 3^rd, 2012; when it shot up to become the New York Times bestseller list, and it caught the eye of Jimmy DeYoung, who e-mailed David James on January 6^Th, 2012, three days after Rabbi Jonathan had appeared on the 700 Club and was interviewed about the book by Pat Robertson (David James, The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction?, from the Preface on page 13, The Berean Call, 2012, Bend, Oregon)  This began the process of what would become the worst polemical attack by a group of Evangelical Christians upon another Evangelical Christian ministry in recent years, perhaps ever.  These attacks blew up during the summer months of 2012 into the most controversial issue dividing Evangelical Christians in the last 100 years, and it continues to this day. 

Of course, this is not normal, this is not natural, it is spiritual and supernatural in nature, and it is precisely the characteristics and behavior of those whom Jesus describes as wolves in sheep’s clothing; pouncing upon sheep in the fold.  Sheep do not attack other sheep; wolves attack sheep, and wolves in sheep’s clothing attack sheep within the fold.  This type of attack promotes itself as “discernment ministries” – a new phenomenon in Evangelical Christianity, coming out of the legitimate Apologetic circles, but different from it because, whereas Apologetics has historically focused itself outside of the church; these “discernment” groups focus mainly inside Evangelical Christianity, not to resolve differences they have with other Evangelicals, but primarily to discredit the ministries they target.  They attack from within the fold; from within the camp; from within the Body of Christ.  There are biblical methods that can be employed by Evangelicals to discuss their differences with other Evangelicals, but they are never the same as those used in discussing differences between Evangelicals and the cults.  These people use a broad brush and treat many other Evangelicals as they do the cults and false prophets and teachers.  This is aberrant and unbiblical and damages the testimony of our faith.  But I am convinced that it is another sign of the times we live in, because those involved in it are irreconcilable and hold to a form of godliness, but deny its power.  All Christians are admonished to avoid such people. (2Timothy 3:1-5)

Its parallels are found in Scripture and throughout history where dissension has manifested within the camp of God’s people.  We think of Korah’s rebellion within the camp, of Hananiah’s false prophecies to disregarding Jeremiah’s prophetic warnings regarding Judah’s eminent fall by the Babylonians (Jeremiah 27 and 28), and how well his behavior is now paralleled by these critics, who have used all of their efforts to squelch The Harbinger’s call to repentance.  We can cite many other examples of attacks from within the camp, but perhaps the most telling is the one in which Israel’s religious authorities – those entrusted with safeguarding the Jewish faith – turned on the Messiah and on His followers as our prime example of attacks from within the camp. 

The current crop of critics see themselves as the defenders of the faith, and devote themselves to their practice by publicly targeting Evangelical Christian ministries they disagree with and disapprove of.  We also see it recur in the history of the Counter Reformation, and now see glimmerings of it with Cessationist John MacArthur’s Strange Fire Conference, where he has publicly declared open war on Charismatics and Pentecostals, and all other Evangelical Christians who teach and practice the sign gifts of the Holy Spirit, and now calls every born again believer to do the same – a controversy that may eclipse that of The Harbinger in the immediate future.  One man now teaches all Christians to despise prophetic utterances, and wage war on those who practice them by the Holy Spirit, while the Word of God teaches all Christians not to despise prophetic utterances, (1Thessalonians 5:20) but to earnestly desire the greater sign gifts (1Corinthians 12:31) the Holy Spirit bestows to all Christians (1Corinthians 7:7) for service (Romans 12:1-8, 1Corinthians 12:8-10, 1Peter 4:10-11), using the analogy of the different parts of human anatomy to describe the variety of gifts and their function within the body of the Messiah (1Corinthians 12:4-26, Ephesians 4:4, 16), then continues to describe the various offices within the church (1Corinthians 12:27-30).  Again, all Christians are admonished by the Apostle Paul who writes in the Holy Spirit to earnestly desire the greater gifts. (1Corinthians 12:31)  Without equivocation; all Christians are to pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. (1Corinthians 14:1), concluding, Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak in tongues. (1Corinthians 14:39).  And of course, all Christians are admonished by the Apostle Paul, With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, (Ephesians 6:18a) but how can one pray in the Spirit if they do not  walk in Him, or practice His gifts which He bestows in Christ?   Contrast this to Cessationists who teach the opposite of what God’s Word clearly says, and preach against it.  As the Messiah is about to return, we are seeing in our day the contrast of ten virgins, who taking out their lamps and are about to meet the bridegroom.  Five of them are foolish, and five were prudent.  For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps.  It is the prudent who will be ready for the Bridegroom when He makes His appearance to take them away.  One is filling their lamps with oil, while the other is not, and even preaches against it within the church itself, even within the court of God’s people. (Matthew 25:1-13)  We are seeing it come to pass in our day. Another sign of our times, another “harbinger” that Christ’s return is eminent.  But I digress again.

Like Sanballat and Tobiah, who opposed, mocked, and despised God’s movement among His people whose spirit He stirred to restore the walls of Jerusalem, (Nehemiah 2:19) so we can say of these modern religious critics of God’s current stirrings criticize and mock the watchmen of His people here in America, who call God’s people and this nation to repentance and return (T’shuvah) to the rock from which we were hewn – to them we can rightfully declare, “The God of heaven will give us success; therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no portion, right, or memorial in Jerusalem.” (Nehemiah 2:20)  

So, the coming of The Harbinger was preceded and followed by these two attacks.  Someone did not want this witness and affirmation of God’s call to repentance to the nation to go out and take off.  For those who think otherwise, consider this; God does not oppose a national call to repentance and the spread of the Gospel, because He would be opposing Himself.  In the same pattern and manner in the current case regarding the writing of my book – The Truth about The Harbinger: Addressing the Controversy and Discovering the Facts About This Prophetic Message, God was about to do a great thing with a potential to bless a good many people across this nation and beyond its borders.  The devil was right behind, waiting in the wings, to pounce on God’s plan to try to undo it.  Like the attacks which preceded and followed The Harbinger, the enemy attempted two attacks against the writing of The Truth about The Harbinger: Addressing the Controversy and Discovering the Facts About This Prophetic Message. 

The form that the first attack took was in the shape of major distractions of a matter and nature that I had to address.  This distraction slowed my writing for at least two weeks.  Fortunately, I had pre-written material that I was able to use from some of my previous postings.  God always supplies our needs, and works such things out in the end when we are in His will (Romans 8:28).  God never fails.

It was during the last week of January and the first week of February when I began talks with Debbie Marie, the Executive Director of Product Development, Charisma House Book Group about the book.  We set up our phone interview for Thursday, February 7^th and on that day, we discussed it.  I shared my ideas about the book with her, and she shared with me what they were looking for.  It was a terrific meeting and we came away confident in the Lord that we were about to embark on something really great and special for His cause.  Debbie put me in touch with Ann Mulchen, the Project Manager and Author Liaison for Charisma House – Charisma Media, who would send me the necessary documents to process before I could officially begin to write the book.  For the next couple of days, we went through preliminaries connected with book publishing; the publisher submitted to me the potential author questionnaire for me to fill out, and the offer letter, which I signed and sent back, as well as the contract, which I signed and mailed back.  As I mentioned earlier, by March 11^th, 2013 the publisher had reviewed my proposal for my book, and had prepared to make an offer for it, which they did.  By the 13^th I had received the Publishing Offer which later I signed and sent back.

Much as what happened with the release of The Harbinger, so happened when the publisher and I agreed to proceed with the book; the devil attacked in a very big and direct way.  God was about to do something big, very big, and bless many people with it, and the devil was going to do everything he could to put a stop to it; to end it as quickly and as abruptly as he believed he could.  Since the first attack – problems and distractions associated with them – didn’t work, the enemy would next try his most audacious and deadly attack.  The second attack happened in the early morning hours of Tuesday, March 12^th, the day that followed my agreement with the publisher to proceed with the book, which at this time was named unofficially, The Harbinger Defender.

The night before – Monday, March 11^th, I had been working on the book, and on blogging on my website, The Pepster’s Post: A Voice in Cyberspace.  It was late Monday night, and early Tuesday morning,, and my wife had gone to bed hours before, because she had to get up early the next morning to go to work.  At around 12:48AM all of a sudden I both heard two huge bangs, and felt the floor underneath me vibrate, roll and buckle for a moment as the bangs occurred.

At first I thought it was an earthquake.  My wife who awoke, thought that it had thundered, but I told her there had been no lightning that usually accompanies thunder.  Then I heard some commotion downstairs, and went down to see what it was.  When I opened my front door, I saw beheld a sight that I thought I would never see, but there it was before me; a red Mitsubishi Outlander was pinned directly in front of my front door, and it had smashed into my father-in-law’s 2005 Honda Civic, destroying both itself and the Civic in the process.

Almost everybody in our house got up, but my father and mother-in-law, and our two granddaughters, Lexa and Elyse; who were all fast asleep, and slept through the night.  We called 911 to report this, because when we first went out to see it, I noticed some sparks underneath the Mitsubishi Outlander, and some smoke, and knew that if there was a fire and the fire moved to the gas tank, we would have an explosion at our front door.

The first to arrive were the police vehicles, then the fire trucks, and later the PSE&G trucks, who went right to work through the night to fix the damaged light pole.  The police closed the road in front of our property at either side to traffic, and because this vehicle was lodged in front of our front door in our drive way, we could not exit the front of the house or enter therein.  No one could leave that house that day.

Apparently from what I could gather from the police, the vehicle had been moving at great speed on the road our property is located on, heading in the direction of Windsor Road which intersects it at the other end of the block from us.  Somewhere before he reached us, the vehicle hit something on the road or a parked vehicle and then lost control, went into the utility/light pole on the corner of our block, breaking it in half, part of which fell into our property, and damaged it (causing a crack on upper wall of my son’s bedroom), and continued at great speed plowing over our neighbor’s five foot pine hedges in front of her property, pulling them off of their roots.  It appears that it was these that caused the Mitsubishi Outlander to go higher off of the ground when it struck the right side of our parked 2001 Jeep Cherokee Sport, cracking its windshield, and causing damage to its right side, blowing the left hand tires.

The combination of the pine hedges and the heavy metal Jeep (a veritable hedge of protection) and two foot retainer wall to the Jeep’s right, acted as a ramp that caused the fast moving Mitsubishi to become airborne briefly; high enough for our son to see its headlights briefly outside his second story bedroom windows when the out of control vehicle went over the parked Nissan Ultima to the Jeep’s left side, swerved over it in the direction of the house and landed atop one of our pine hedges, crashing into the Honda Civic parked behind the Maxima by the garage door, in front of our property below our son’s bedroom.  This Mitsubishi Outlander had been heading in one direction when it travelled down our road out of control, but it ended facing the opposite direction when it crashed into our driveway and landed.

Amazingly, the young man who was driving the Mitsubishi Outlander emerged from his vehicle without a single scratch, cut or abrasion, or any sign that he had been in an accident.  He was just dazed and apparently in shock by the incident.  I did not smell alcohol on him, so I do not know if he was under any influence.  We were told later that the young man had been given a sobriety test, and tested extremely high in alcohol, so he was extremely inebriated when he lost control of his vehicle and struck our property.

The town’s police and fire department took him away, and we went back into our house.  We all went to bed at around 4:00AM that morning.  The Jeep suffered damage to its right side, and the right side of the windshield sustained heavy damage.  The rear left passenger side window got blown out by the accident, and the visor above it was gone, with the roof of the Jeep having sustained damage.  I did not know at time the full extent of the damage of the Jeep, but later would learn that it too was totaled by the impact.  The front left-hand Firestone All-Terrain Tire was completely missing, and the rear tire was completely flat.  For the time being, we were without transportation - stranded.  The Honda Civic too was totaled.

The other half of the light pole that fell and broke off, and had gone in the air, ended up in our front yard on the other side of the driveway.  Later we would find out from an eye-witness that the trajectory of the vehicle which had struck the utility pole and broke it in half, careened into and struck our Jeep, went airborne diagonally over the parked Nissan Maxima and landed into my father in law’s Honda Civic – that had this vehicle’s trajectory not been broken by the utility pole, slowed by our neighbor’s row of pine hedges, and its speed not broken by our Jeep, it would have gone through the front of our property into our house and killed us all. 

In all two three vehicles had been totaled by the impact, and another slightly damaged, the front of our property had sustained damage to the vinyl siding and a crack to the interior of our son’s room on the second floor where half of a utility pole struck which miraculously bounced off and ended landing on our front lawn, the retainer wall next to the Jeep collapsed, with the out of control vehicle having landed atop one of our pine hedges.  This does not count the damage sustained to our neighbor’s property.

I am happy to report that nothing happened to anyone in our house, for God protected us all from it, and even the young man who was driving the vehicle that struck us.  He emerged miraculously from his smashed car without a scratch or cut, or abrasion on his body.  Thanks be to God for His many deliverances.  Afterwards God provided that every vehicle damaged would be replaced with better and newer ones; Our 2001 Jeep Cherokee Sport (mint condition) was replaced with a 2005 Honda Pilot also in mint condition, the 2005 Honda Civic was replaced with a newer 2010 Honda Accord Coupe in mint condition, and even our daughter bought herself and husband a 2006 Nissan Maxima in excellent condition with the money received from the insurance.  The Nissan Maxima’s damages were all repaired.  Our property was repaired, inside and out, and everything turned out for our good. 

I’d like to add here that our Jeep Cherokee Sport had a full tank of gas, for I had filled the tank at the service station Monday evening.  The enemy of our soul meant to kill us all, but the God of heaven, indeed of all creation, preserved and delivered us of so great a peril.  The devil did not want this work to even get started, much less be finished and published for obvious reasons.  It was destined to blow the charade that began with The Harbinger’s critics wide open and expose it for the farce it’s been the last year and a half. 

I was stranded so I made best use of this time for God’s glory.  For next couple of weeks, I went on to use this time – about five weeks – to continue writing from morning to evening and late into the night the book many people are reading today, The Truth about The Harbinger: Addressing the Controversy and Discovering the Facts About This Prophetic Message.  I had received the publishers contract, signed it, and after some re-writes, and several submissions of additional material, which the editor worked and re-worked on – a daunting task for any writer; the final draft of the book was ready.  It was a labor of much collaboration from a good many dedicated and well-informed parties who helped move the process along to its completion.  I have all of them to thank; too many people to name here, but they and the Lord knows who they are. 

By June 28^th, I submitted the final draft of my work, having edited out about twelve chapters to make the work fit the word count that the publisher was looking for.  By July I received the galley – a final draft for my review of the book before it went on to the printer – which I proof-read, made minor corrections to, and submitted to the publisher by the 19^th of the month.  It went on to be printed and by October 1^st it was released.