There are occasions when one runs across something they have read which is nothing short of brilliant, that one must share with another, and this is one of those occasions where I must step back and present to my readership such an example of a brilliant piece that was written by Mary Danielsen. Mary is affiliated with Calvary Chapel, the church that Pastor Dwight Dooville shepherds. I have obtained her permission to post this and share it as a witness of God.
For Messiah’s service,
To Search Out a Matter
Mary Danielsen
“It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.” Proverbs 25:2.
A critique of Jonathan Cahn’s bestselling The Harbinger by Dave James of the Alliance for Biblical Integrity opens with a Proverb he feels is suited for his take on the currently best selling book of 2012. It is, “The first to plead his cause seems right, until his neighbor comes and examines him,” (Proverbs18:17), somehow suggesting, I guess, that the second person to chime in on an issue or as witness to a legal case probably has a better claim on truth, which of course is nonsense and has no relation to justice. In fact, I could apply it myself for my own purposes today. But for those who know what they believe and are lovers of truth, thoughtful analysis and critical thinking need not be subject to which direction the wind is blowing at any given time. I am barely into the review and already I sense a tone or mind set.
Well, I too have a Proverb for just such an occasion as this and as different as our chosen Proverbs are, so are the differences in our perspectives on Rabbi Cahn’s book. Out of the chute, even though Mr. James claims to have done a thorough “search of the matter”, I suggest he has not and that there is a reason for this.
Not only are our perspectives miles apart, so are our “credentials”. Mr. James, via his ministry site, puts considerable emphasis and value on his accomplishments of a scholarly and seminarian nature, evidenced by those who make up and endorse his ministry, his own statement of purpose, and the tone of his critique and recent audio interview among himself, Jimmy DeYoung, and Rabbi Cahn. However, I would hope I am stating the obvious by saying that the Bible clearly teaches that the Spirit-led, biblically literate believer with discernable gifts that the Lord gives as He wills is all the qualification needed to reason, persuade, and exhort the believer on any number of doctrinal issues. (2Timothy 3). Studying to show one’s self approved is not the sole property of those who choose to have an extensive education. While there is nothing wrong in the least with a theological education, it has the tendency to puff up, whereas the more excellent gift of love edifies the body (1Cor 8:1). Proof is in being doers, not merely hearers or thinkers.
The church is gift-based, not “degree” based, and as such, any biblically literate child of God is capable of discerning truth from lies and testing the Spirits, and nowhere will we read that multiple theological degrees are the making of a man or woman of God. Likewise I also believe that the average believer is able to read and process Rabbi Cahn’s book and decide for themselves if his research has both merit and a message. Mr. James states in his review that, “many of the author’s views and ideas as presented in The Harbinger are misguided, having both significant exegetical and theological problems. Additionally, the book could well leave its readers with serious misunderstandings about how to appropriately interpret and apply the Word of God.” I would like to suggest here that not only are we being set up intentionally to take Mr. James’ word for that, but he greatly underestimates the readership of The Harbinger, because I am pretty sure there are a couple books out there already directionally aimed to educate on theology if that is what a person is seeking. This speculation on what might happen if people read the book is contrived. Not only is this just the first example of Mr. James missing the forest for the trees, but his warning strikes me as not so thinly veiled condescension. It almost seems as if he is actually fearful of the book and its impact. Shields up. Red alert.
Getting back to Proverbs 25:2 - and I am going somewhere with this - there are 2 schools of thought on what it means, and I like both of them. The first one teaches that it is the glory of God to cover, or conceal, the sin of mankind. It is His nature, His reputation, and it represents grace. Alternately, it is the glory of a King, or earthly ruler, to thoroughly search out a matter in order to render justice and protect the innocent, and this represents the Law. The words “glory” and “honor” in the verse are the exact same words, and both represent a holy God correctly; there is one glory that is God’s alone, another glory that we, being made in the image of God, can represent the moral code and both enforce and obey His ordinances to our own benefit and that of society.
The 2nd school of thought involves the nature of our God to conceal things - in parables, metaphors, typologies, examples, and prophecy, and concerning the latter, for example, Daniel tells us that in the time of the end things will become clearer and “unveiled” or “revealed” as a certain generation moves closer to His return; our understanding of prophecy will deepen and we will see His plan more clearly. As Spurgeon so eloquently put it, “when history becomes the commentary upon the prophecy, we shall wonder that we did not see it.” Spurgeon was not devoted to preaching last days things, and his understanding of them was naturally limited, and yet this is so insightful for his time. This is the foundation I wish to build up on to respond to Dave James.
There is no denying that The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn has made an impact on the church. Initial reaction from where I am sitting is overwhelmingly positive among both pastors and laymen, and it is no mystery as to why. Rabbi Cahn, a Messianic believer, has done considerable research into the events of the last decade, a ten year span that Time Magazine has called, “The Worst Decade Ever’
(http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1942749_2005112,00.html),
calling the events of 9/11 “The defining moment of the decade...(which)redefined global politics for at least a generation and caused Americans to collectively question the continental security they had, until then, rarely worried about.” Ch-ch-ch-changes, to quote a 70s tune. We frogs in the wee pot don’t even realize how profound the changes are anymore, but Time actually called the ‘00s “The Decade from Hell”.
Is Time magazine, the leftist rag of the century, over-stating? Redefined global politics? Questioning continental security? Of course not, anyone can see that this is accurate. And Rabbi Cahn is overstating his case, as James suggests?
Even the average man on the street not only knows that because of that moment, our lives have forever changed in multiple ways, and so he or she has to honestly question how the new global thug - the uneducated and unsophisticated fury-driven dime store terrorist - could take such a shot at the ruler of the free world with no warning or protection. Is it because we put our trust in horses? Well God surely dismantled that ideology because that ship has sailed and we are vulnerable. Breached, baby. The genie is not going back in the bottle. You can’t unring that bell.
Believing as we do in a sovereign God then, and noting the nature of the event(s) of the last decade in hindsight, is claiming that there was a breach in our national protection that we have formerly taken for granted such a stretch? Is this really about semantics, petty criticism for it’s own sake, or trying to read God’s mind as James suggests, or is there a supernatural mystery at work? God works supernaturally, naturally.
The day of 9/11, a day that every single coherent American can relate to anyone who asks them what they were doing when they heard and saw the news, (which was not possible when Pearl Harbor was attacked as news was slow to circle the globe), was no ordinary day, nor was God caught off guard even if we were. Could it be that the day was just what it appears to be: an instantaneous warning that all is not well in the Western Hemisphere in His eyes? It’s not rocket science unless someone wants to make it such, for whatever reason. And if God is speaking, we had better be listening. I don’t want to be on the wrong end of a supernatural event, the scoffing end, that is.
But being as we have free will and all, we are free to ignore that event or countless others going on behind the scenes that the media does not report, lulling us further into slumber; we can whistle hopefully in the dark until the Lord reminds us again with feeling that we are not listening; there is that shaking sound again. Is it all the earthquakes around the world, the severity of the weather, that periodic call for a global economy from the very people orchestrating it right under our noses?
That which can be shaken, is being shaken, not stirred. And not listening to His warnings is rebellion, period. We are without excuse. The bible itself is full of warnings, we are full of excuses; but more specifically, Mr. James would have us believe that our desire to rebuild at that moment was an honest one, simply a shout out to our enemies, a nose-thumbing if you will, to let them know any further breaches are off the table. But what followed in the first couple weeks afterward was just more status quo: meeting whatever God we serve in our own private way on the path of least resistance. Well, until football season starts up and we have other things to do. And the rotten fruit of ignoring Him - rebellion - just continues to ramp up 11 years after the fact. Want proof that rebellion is at the heart of the matter? This will be easy:
Tell me, is there any fear of God in our government, in the current administration? Are our churches so full of godly souls we can barely contain them all? Are so-called ministers teaching hard truth, or tickling ears with seeker sensitive feel - good platitudes that have a form of godliness but deny the power?
By sheer inference, the lack of any spiritual fruit on the fruited plain and the continued downward spiral in our moral state is really ample proof that rebellion against God is indeed hiding in plain sight and growing ever stronger by the year in the fertile soil of the human heart.
Since 9/11, has our quality of life improved, or even maintained, economically or morally? When God judges, will there ever be any doubt that it is warranted and that iniquity is full?
Is it at all possible that 9/11 could be a symbolic judgment on our wicked financial system in which we appear to lack for no good thing but steal from our citizens to build a government state to enslave and impoverish, benefitting the arrogant ruling class and devaluing human life to little higher than the grass of the field?
Are we being pushed, pulled and dragged into a global socialist state in preparation for a brutal dictatorship that the bible says must take place?
Have we not gotten the administration we deserve and requested?
Has the church not gotten it’s hearts desire, ie, Rob Bell’s deceitful universalism, The Shack, Joel Osteen’s best-life-now-blab-and-grab heresy, emergents and red letter heretics Brian McLaren, Tony Campolo, and a host of others leading the next generation down the all-roads-lead-to God Oprah-zation of both men and women? Shane Claiborne’s elevation of mass murderer Che Guevara and Bono’s devil worship deserve a serious look, but hey, Rabbi Cahn is out on a limb with his warnings that we are on the wrong side of wrong.
Seriously? Talk about shooting the messenger, James’ misplaced criticism seems to have a motive I don’t quite comprehend. Again, I see an attitude in his review that is completely unwarranted. Waking up and smelling the coffee is, however. How much more evidence is needed on the most basic level that we deserve what we get when God raises up an enemy like Islam, swarming the globe like a humming, furious cloud of killer bees. The Philistines have landed! Wicked Assyrians all of them. And God is just and righteous through it all.
Believers in the West who worship a sovereign God and have their eyes on the kingdom should seek to hear God’s heartbeat underlying such momentous events as 9/11. I believe that is what Rabbi Cahn has sought to do and as a fellow-dot connector who has spent hundreds - no, thousands - of hours researching the times, and “watching the skies” as Jesus commands, I believe the result of his research is nothing less than stunning, yet the reviewer seems oddly unfazed by any of it, as though it isn’t even significant to the narrative.
Even if he had not written the book with it’s fictional format, and simply delivered his amazing message in a church service, I would have been left in stunned silence at the tapestry he wove, being forced to consider his claims. I suggest that the book is not the critical piece here, but rather the heart and soul of the message is the amazing series of events regarding the bricks, the Sycamore trees, the beginnings of Wall Street, the cedar tree, the hewn stone and the Ground Zero location of the swearing in of our first president at the launch of a formerly great nation. You can’t make this stuff up, you simply cannot. I have found that to be true in all my research, at the times I have most seen His hand.
The reviewer goes in the ditch over the strangest things like the clay seals, worried that people will not understand if they really exist or not. Believe me, no one I know has stumbled over that, but the average reader really does get the big picture. Another “forest for the trees moment” for the reviewer. Mr. James does not address at all what we all feel when we read the book - the phenomenal “coincidences” documented in the book that leave one searching for words. I keep asking myself why that is, and again, all I can come up with is that the review is for the benefit of the reviewer, not the reader, for some reason I just can’t pin down.
In addition, in addressing one of Mr. James’ main criticisms about the book, that Isaiah 9:10 has nothing to do with anything or anyone beyond the events of the captivity of the Northern Kingdom, let me quote 1Corinthians 10:11 - “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”; and Romans 15:4 - “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”
Tell me, Mr. James, what pastor worth their salt doesn’t teach week in and week out that everything in the Old Testament has eternal value in the discipling and instruction of God’s people, both in guiding and in warning them? It must do both. In light of the above verses, is the entire Old Testament not a template, or pattern then, for our learning, from Genesis to Malachi? And what exactly are we learning, only things that fit our preconceived notion of what “for our learning” means? Are we an exegetical people or an eisegetical people? We see through a glass darkly, to be sure, but seeing through denominational lenses, reform lenses, amillennial lenses, ad nauseam, serves no one, yet these lenses often overrule our senses and only God can remove the blinders in His perfect timing and by His Spirit, renewing our minds if we remain teachable. But reading into the Scriptures what we want it to say is a slippery slope indeed, and our hearts are deceitfully wicked.
If we do not keep in mind the above verses, we are in danger of reducing the Old Testament to a mere history lesson with no real value to successive generations, a thorough waste of time and study. A helpful platitude here might be, “the old in the new contained, the new in the old explained.” I truly believe Mr. Cahn has this correct, and there is no replacement theology or worship of America in sight in his book. That America has had a special place in God’s economy, I really can’t dispute. I believe she is a picture of every tribe, tongue and nation in the kingdom, and the light she has been given has been glorious in retrospect as the time of the Gentiles and the age draws to a dramatic close. God will use whomever He wills, and if America was to be a late comer to world history that once mirrored back His grace to the nations, I would be more than comfortable with that. America was founded according to His will. We may never, until the kingdom comes, realize all we were called to, but I believe more than ever that the sun is setting on her shores. America is not specifically in prophecy, and The Harbinger is just one voice that lends itself to serve as a reminder to work while we still can.
Another point of contention for the reviewer is the connections made by the Rabbi to the Shemitah, which originates in the heart and nature of God to benefit the people, and yet it also carries with it an element of obedience and this is very important to God, as we will see. For the sake of the reader here, hundreds of years before Daniel was even born, God had commanded Israel to set aside the seventh year of each agricultural cycle in order for the land to receive a Sabbath rest (Lev. 25). The same way man was to receive the seventh day as a day off, known as the Sabbath, the land was to receive the seventh year off, known as a Sabbath Year or a Sabbath to the Lord. God warns Israel in general about the punishments that will follow if this commandment is not obeyed (Leviticus 26). Israel's lack of the proper spiritual response was disobediece and as a result for 490 consecutive years Israel never let the land have a Sabbath Year's rest. This came to a total of 70 missed Sabbath Years of rest for the land, and God allowed Israel to be taken captive for a period of 70 years (2 Chronicles 36) - one year of captivity for each of the Sabbath Year's rest the land missed out on.
The 490 years, also known as 70 weeks of 7 years, would be used to accomplish certain objectives ordained by God found in Daniel 9:24. (Isaac Newton calls the amazing 70 week prophecy foundational to Christianity.) At the end of the 69th week, on a precise day, Jesus was declared King for the first time and shortly thereafter cut off, or executed, for the sins of the people. The church age began after the resurrection until such time as God would resume dealing with an unbelieving Israel, and for the dispensationalist, the prophetic time clock was put on pause for 2 millennia while the believer awaits the commencement of Daniel’s 70th week, or the time of Jacob’s Trouble, or the Tribulation period which is expanded upon in great detail in the book of Revelation. What is my point, you say? The antichrist will initiate the final Shemitta cycle of 7 years with a peace covenant between Israel and her enemies. Yes, it is a Shemitta for the Jew; yet the whole world will be drawn in as God’s judgment is poured out on unbelievers during that time. Is it not reasonable to conclude, then, that the Shemitta cycle is there for our learning, and since we are aware of the timing of them at this juncture, what can we learn already? Will this last cycle not encompass the whole world and be evident to all how God uses such cycles and patterns?
The 7 feasts of Israel are also critical for our learning, a picture of Messianic fulfillment. Were they given to Israel? Of course. Do they provide light and truth to all? Yes indeed. The first 4, Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and the Feast of Weeks, were all fulfilled in Jesus at His first coming and this can be clearly taught to the church so that Gentiles can learn His order and the symbolic significance of such things. They are a pattern or template, for us to be mindful of the work of Jesus Christ.
The final 3, Trumpets, Tabernacles, and Atonement, are not written about in the New Testament as having been fulfilled. Why are they left out? Do they not have dual fulfillments as well?
Many bible students believe that His 2nd coming will take care of that detail, and their fulfillment will reverberate throughout the world and touch every human, Jew and Gentile. We have no reason not to believe that the same pattern will hold at the end of the age. There is much to learn here, and the precedence of the Shemittah and the feasts being binding on the world is coming soon to a planet near you. The Feasts of God are divine appointments for all mankind!
The final Shemitta will touch every man, woman and child, they that “dwell upon the earth.” What the Rabbi has done for me through his placing of the most recent Shemitta cycles within our current era is remind me of the supernatural aspect of these cycles, and the feasts - that He is a God of order who keeps his Word down to the dotting of the “i” and the crossing of the “t”; and that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is still on the throne. I found much comfort in all this.
There are some contradictions in James’s review, but I do not wish to stoop to the nit-picking level that he does over and over. I have no problem seeing and comprehending with my own eyes a judgement beginning on our money system. I found the book’s chapter on salvation to be excellent, but again, more nit-picking that is unwarranted is offered by the reviewer. He chooses to forget the style of the book at this point, instead criticizing the wording of the salvation chapter and contending that it is missing critical and clearly communicated elements, as if there is only a finite combination of wording to express the atonement. He complains that because of this, the complete message then will be unclear and difficult to comprehend for those who have no exposure to Christianity.
Well, in America, with all the denominations and our history of church-going right up until this generation at least, I think it is a very small minority of people who have had “no exposure to Christianity” in America. The gospel of salvation, in the hands of centuries of missionary outreaches, dozens of bible translations in our nation alone, countless books and media outlets, churches on every corner, and the work of the Holy Spirit to point the world to the cross ensures that the truth will never be obscure or obliterated. One heart at a time has always been His modus operandi and there is nothing is too difficult for Him. When I read the book, I was at first holding my breath in his call to “return to God”, thinking, which god will he point people to? The unnamed pluralistic god of this Laodicean age, or Jesus, the One and only Way, our Redeemer and Savior? I was very pleased with the lovely way he drew the reader in, in keeping with the style of the book.
At this point as I wind this down, I would like to ask the reviewer what he thinks of Pilgrims’ Progress, the style and language it is written in, with the potential therein to make people actually think about what is being presented. Granted, today the literacy of the average person has sunk way below the era of this work, but it too is a novel, is it not? Yet it is true to God’s nature; a faithful account of a testimony if there ever was one. A classic for all generations. How would he review that bit of fiction? Not presented clearly enough?
Now, “Christian” fiction today is often nothing more than an exercise in remaking God in our own image, containing hidden heresy and blatant misrepresentation, such as found in The Shack by many alert believers who are true contenders for the faith and not mere critics. There is a vast difference. Jonathan Cahn is no heretic and this book is faithful to His nature in my opinion. If the god therein was a false god, a different Jesus, I know of many that would perceive this and respond accordingly. Jonathan’s love for this nation and the church sends a clarion call to repent while there is still time - what side of that sentiment do you want to be found on? He gave his reason for writing as he did. Mr James did not even give the core of the message any time or meaningful acknowledgement. Again, if you heard the message in a church, sans fictional style, would it have touched you supernaturally? Or is the book just target practice? Style must not be the issue here, but substance. Another forest-for-the-trees moment of silence, please.
I have been around a long time. I have listened, studied, taught, analyzed and contended with all my heart. I have gotten a lot of mileage out of just a Catholic High School diploma, which I tossed away the minute I picked up a bible. That way God gets the glory for it all because I have feet of clay from time to time. I have seen with my own eyes what were once merely words on the pages of prophecy become, as Spurgeon indicated, a historical commentary on God’s sovereignty and pudding-proof that we serve a God who knows the end from the beginning, unlike any god the world has to offer. The Word tells us that he tells his servants the prophets what will take place (Amos 3). He conceals, and He reveals, we search out the matter faithfully and keep our own agendas out of it.
Fully believing that the Lord directed his steps in his research, Mr Cahn sought to get the obvious warning of that series of events out to as many as would listen, and I am convinced it is one of the loudest wake-up calls I have ever heard. And yet, the multitudes who have snooze alarms on their smoke detectors live as though there is nothing unique about our time. But God is active in the lives of men and bringing about His purposes for both Jew and Gentile beginning in 1948 with the regathering of the nation of Israel and the formation of the current EU, barely within weeks of each other; the stage is being set right now for Ezekiel’s coming war between Israel and her enemies; the building of a global technological, digital infrastructure will soon enable the monitoring of all buying and selling as prophesied in Revelation 13; and the rampant apostasy in the church, dovetailing with a global spirituality of social justice and earth worship, all define a season that will soon be upon the earth in which one man will claim to be god and have the answers to all mankind’s problems but in reality will be the son of perdition.
And we have been warning of these things for decades, beginning with Hal Lindsey’s (a Dallas Theo graduate) classic work, “The Late Great Planet Earth.” So if we see a global government come into being, or a global economic order, (nearly upon us as America’s money system comes online with the rest of the world), and warn people of the lateness of the hour based on our observations, are we adding to what God hath said? Of course not, it is already said. If a godly man writes a message clearly showing what he has SEEN take place, such as the depth of apostasy (and its attendant imposters) or undeniable events like 9/11that are clearly related and researchable, and if a watchman does not warn the people, isn’t he not really a watchman at all? Again, is America in prophecy then specifically? No. Something must happen that is quite apocalyptic for America. Perhaps we who have eyes to see and ears to hear will see it coming - ARE seeing it coming. Some will consider it with soberness of mind, and others will scoff and condescend. But the freight train will not be stopped, and it will engulf the entire world as we move from the kingdom of man to the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. Expect turbulence.
As for my opening Proverb, I don’t think Dave James really searched out the matter of the 9 harbingers. I think he got so hung up on the style he completely missed the point of the book. He spun his wheels at the fact that Daschle added another line to his speech that Cahn left out. But Dave, did you catch the fact that out of tens of thousands of potential “comforting” verses that an American politician could have spoken in relation to 9/11, he chose Isaiah 9:10? As did Edwards? Didn’t that strike you the least bit odd? I have to ask what thought process took you to the critics corner yet again to focus on that missing verse and - have I said this yet - miss the forest for the giant redwood staring down at you? And I suspect you did not do a historical search to see if these events really took place as documented, at least you do not say you did or did not. I did, and they did. That is the least effort you could have gone to out of respect for the author of this amazing book. How do you manage to dance around the obvious applications?
Ray Stedman says this about Proverbs 25:2 - “If you want to have a royal experience I suggest you start searching out things that God has concealed in his Word. That is the glory of kings---to find what God has hidden.”
And a final word to those who do not search this out for themselves but will simply take Dave James’ review on face value, I have only this to say: “He who answers a matter before he hears it, It is folly and shame to him.” Proverbs 18:13. Translation: read the book for yourself, and then decide for yourself if this work is for such a time as this - and live your life accordingly.
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