Answer: The book The Harbinger: the Ancient Mystery that holds the secret of America's Future by Messianic Jewish Rabbi Jonathan Cahn has been a best-seller and has sparked controversy and much discussion. There is no question as to Cahn’s passion about alerting his fellow countrymen to the spiritual, economic, and moral dangers that the United States faces. But is Cahn’s interpretation of the book of Isaiah correct, and are those Old Testament prophecies applicable to modern-day America?
THE PEPSTER’S CLARIFICATION: This article begins as do many of the others critical of The Harbinger, with a gratuitous bone of graciousness thrown at its author, followed by a rhetorical question meant to prepare the reader for much harder and more hitting questions posited which are meant to solicit and instill in the mind of the reader the critic is objective. No he is not.
From Got Questions.org The back cover of the book clearly labels the book as “FICTION / Suspense,” and the line following the copyright page says, “What you are about to read is presented in the form of a story…” The rest of that sentence is ambiguous: “… but what is contained within the story is real.” If the author is saying that the book’s content is a real message from God to the USA, then it is important to examine his view of the meaning of biblical prophecy.
THE PEPSTER’S CLARIFICATION: The Harbinger is written in the form of a novel that describes a biblical pattern of judgment that has repeated itself in just about every great civilization in history, but the book focuses on how this specific pattern of judgment befell the northern kingdom of Israel, headquartered in Samaria, in 732 B.C. when the prophet Isaiah rebuked and pronounced judgment on the nation for vowing – as he describes it – “in pride and in arrogance of heart” (Isaiah 9:9) ) to undertake a rebuilding and recovery program after a limited first strike on the land was made by Assyria. This rebuilding, replanting, and recovery effort was done without accounting to God in repentance, or giving Him any mind, much as our leaders today have done today.
The full strike occurred ten years later in 722 B.C., when the Assyrian Empire invaded Damascus, overran the northern kingdoms’ defenses, and exiled almost the entire population to the east, to the cities of Halah and Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. (1Kings 17:6) The Assyrians then resettled the land with Gentiles from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sephar-vaim; who then mingled with what was left of the Israelites to produce what became known as the Samaritans. (2Kings 17:29)
The Harbinger breaks the various parts of this judgment down to its elements – nine specific warnings – harbingers – that manifested themselves in the land, and describes according to the summary parts contained within the biblical text as they are described in the vow made by the ancient leaders of Israel and how historically these played out, and their subsequent results. This vow was pivotal to their fate, because in pronouncing it, they unwittingly pronounced their own judgment, which Isaiah uses to prophesy God’s judgment on them and the land.
The Harbinger then takes the reader to the present and describes in exact detail and precision how the same pattern of judgment has befallen the United States. It documents thoroughly the biblical history contained in Isaiah’s prophecy and the prophetic events that are now a matter of public record available regarding the same patterns of warning and judgment that are now repeating in our land today, in the same recurring pattern of warning and judgment as they occurred in ancient Israel.
This exact vow that ancient Israel’s leaders pronounced has been repeated by three of America’s leaders, who while taking part in commemorations of the tragic events of 9/11, tied it directly to those events, and used it primarily as both a consolation to the nation, but also a vow of defiance against its enemies, and pledge to make it the nation’s rebuilding, replanting, and recovery efforts. Like Other leaders have repeated the vow in public ceremonies, all connected to the rebuilding efforts at Ground Zero. And like the ancient Israelites who made this vow unwittingly pronouncing God’s judgment on the land, so have our national leaders. The Harbinger describes this and presents also the public records of them for the reader. It presents the historical backdrop to the prophecy made by Isaiah, and describes how it biblically fits the recurring pattern of warning and chastisements that have befallen America since 9/11, including the Second Shaking, what Rabbi Cahn calls, the Isaiah 9:10 Effect; the economic implosion of America’s economy and the explosion of its debt, which are being felt right down to our day. This Isaiah 9:10 Effect has been made into a two-part DvD titled The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment, which describes all of the components that comprise it, and how it has come about. America is most assuredly under judgment, and The Harbinger describes how it is being played out.
It is not hopeless however, because The Harbinger presents the hope that since these are warnings – harbingers from God – they all indicate that He is trying to get our attention so that God’s people may call upon Him in repentance for themselves and their nation, seek His face, and avert the same fate that befell 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.
The Lord is patient and ever ready to forgive our transgressions. He awaits to pardon US if we only seek His forgiveness fully realizing our guilt, confessing it to Him, recognizing how hopeless we are without His mercy, and calling upon His name – the name He has given under heaven to all men by which we must be saved, because as Peter spoke in the Holy Spirit to the Great Sanhedrin (Israel’s Supreme Court in his day where civil and religious matters were adjudicated), “He” – meaning the Person of the Messiah, and His name; the name of Jesus – “is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief corner stone. And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:11-12) This we all must do to avert personal judgment and the corporate judgment of our nation which we and it rightfully deserve.
The Harbinger is a strong call to repentance to God’s wayward people in America today as we see the same recurring pattern of warning and judgment – the same harbingers – manifest themselves in our land today. It is a prophetic warning that must be heeded if we are to survive. This is why I have written The Truth about The Harbinger: Addressing the Controversy and Discovering the Facts About This Prophetic Message to answer the critics’ charges as well as to explain how these warnings – these harbingers have recurred in our land today, and what to do about it. It must be heard and acted upon, our nation’s fate hangs in the balance, and we will be held accountable for it.
From Got Questions.org The story’s opening dialogue reads, “An ancient mystery that holds the secret to America’s future.” This attention-getting assertion is made by the story’s narrator and lead character, journalist Nouriel Kaplan. Kaplan is attempting to persuade Ana Goren, a media executive, to publish information that Kaplan believes will affect the economic, political, military, moral, and spiritual future of the United States. Even though Cahn presents this information in a fictional vehicle, he asserts that it is “real.” Is it?
THE PEPSTER’S CLARIFICATION: The Harbinger is based on a group of messages that Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn gave at the Beth Israel Worship Center in Lodi, NJ and later at the Beth Israel Jerusalem Center in Wayne, NJ during a ten year period following the events of 9/11. My wife and I have been privileged to have listened to every message in this series. I have read The Harbinger, and every article for and against it, including David James’ polemic against it, The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? and have written my own work that addresses the inaccuracies, mistakes, mischaracterizations, misinterpretations, argumentative interpolations, and false witness borne by its critics in my book, The Truth about The Harbinger: Addressing the Controversy and Discovering the Facts About This Prophetic Message.
From Got Questions.org In the story, a nameless prophet meets Kaplan on a number of occasions, giving him information about how recent events, including the World Trade Center terrorist attacks of 9/11, the housing boom, the war in Iraq, the 2008 collapse of Wall Street, etc., were predicted specifically by the Old Testament prophet Isaiah. The prophet leads Kaplan to understand that Isaiah not only warned his own nation (Israel) about the danger of abandoning God but, in a mysterious way, also predicted America’s contemporary events.
THE PEPSTER’S CLARIFICATION: Absolutely false. Nowhere in The Harbinger is there any claim, as this critic writes here, that “recent events, including the World Trade Center terrorist attacks of 9/11, the housing boom, the war in Iraq, the 2008 collapse of Wall Street, etc., were predicted specifically by the Old Testament prophet Isaiah.” What The Harbinger does say is that the same pattern of repeated warning followed by repeatedly warning, and judgment has now emerged in the United States, and the events The Harbinger documents are the evidences that such a pattern of repeated warnings – harbingers – followed by repeated warnings have been occurring since 9/11.
From Got Questions.org In drawing parallels between Israel and America, Cahn asserts several things: first, that America was founded on a covenant with God as much as Israel was. Second, that America is being released from God’s protection to suffer the consequences of having marginalized Him. Third, that Isaiah predicted all of this. “America is being released from God’s protection to suffer the consequences of having marginalized Him.”
THE PEPSTER’S CLARIFICATION: Another fallacy on the part of this reviewer. Nowhere does The Harbinger claim that the United States was founded on a covenant with God as much as Israel was. But, he is correct that its hedge of protection has been lifted by God for its continued flagrant transgressions of God’s precepts and standards, or as the writer puts it, “America is being released from God’s protection to suffer the consequences of having marginalized Him.” But again, the reviewer reverts back to error by claiming that The Harbinger says “Isaiah predicted all of this.” The Harbinger nowhere makes this claim. It becomes obvious that whoever wrote this article has not read The Harbinger. This is why I wrote my book, The Truth About The Harbinger. It is a book that can be read by itself without having to read The Harbinger, and for people like this reviewer, who haven’t read The Harbinger, they can pick up a copy of my book, The Truth About The Harbinger and read what it does and does not contain and say, and even know why its critics are wrong biblically, and in every aspect of it.
From Got Questions.org Cahn’s prophet in the book tells Kaplan that each of the key American events since September 11, 2001, is a harbinger of America’s coming fall; each disaster is another warning from God for America to return to Him. Cahn’s point, couched as it is in a fictional narrative, is that, unless the U.S. changes course, it will suffer the same fate as the ancient nations. That is, God will allow America’s enemies, external and internal, to bring it down. Cahn sees evidence for his claim in the words of Isaiah 9.
THE PEPSTER’S CLARIFICATION: There is a definite biblical template of warning followed judgment that is taught in the Scriptures throughout history. Brannon Howse, no fan of The Harbinger, has written:
“I believe God uses the same template to judge nations and I believe that template can be understood by studying what God said would happen to the nation of Israel if they did not obey God and follow His precepts and principles. I believe God always warns nation's before He judges them and in doing so gives them the chance to repent. However, if the nation does not repent, God's judgment will become more severe. In reading what God said He would do to the nation of Israel if they continue in their rebellion against God as found in Deuteronomy 28, Leviticus 26, and Isaiah 5, it is in many ways like reading the newspapers here in America.” *
Further down in his amazing article, Brannon Howse concludes with the following:
“If indeed God is judging America, (I believe He is) and if His judgment is going to greatly increase, (which I believe it will) then we need to use His judgment to preach the Gospel to the unsaved. As I stated in an earlier article, we need to see God's national judgment of our sins as an opportunity to speak in the natural realm and then swing into the spiritual realm. Explain to the unbeliever what sin is, why God must judge sin, and that the judgment that nations experience in this life is nothing compared to the eternal judgment that unrepentant individuals will receive in the next world.”
(*Brannon Howse, Is America At a Dangerous Tipping Point for Receiving God's Judgment? Worldview Weekend, September 14th, 2009)
This is an amazing admission on the part of Howse, one of the most vociferous critics of The Harbinger, but he wrote this long before it was written, on September 14th, 2009, so no one can claim The Harbinger had any effect on his theology or his opinion. Ironically David James and Jimmy DeYoung did that by poisoning his mind to believe their acute errors regarding this timely message which dovetails the one Brannon wrote years before.
It is ironic also that at the beginning of chapter 18 of his polemical work against The Harbinger, David James begins the ending of his book with this following observations regarding it. It is both ironic and yet commendable what he wrote, perhaps one of very few places where his assessment concurs with mine. I quote:
“JONATHAN CAHN’S intention for The Harbinger to be a powerful wake-up call for America – a call to repent from her rapid descent into the depths of sin and turn to God as her only hope of avoiding His imminent judgment. The author has explicitly warned that failure to do so puts the United States on a direct collision course with the same devastation faced by ancient Israel, who in arrogance and pride refused to heed the warnings of the prophets. Cahn argues that God has already warned America twice with the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001 and the financial collapse of 2008 and beyond. Whatever else may be problematic concerning the rest of the book, he is absolutely correct in his assessment that America is in serous spiritual trouble.
“His message is timely, given everything that is going on in the United States with the upcoming presidential election, the Occupy Wall Street Movement, the astronomical debt, ongoing racial tensions, illegal immigration issues, high unemployment, economic hardships, the gay rights movement, and a virtually endless list of moral and ethical issues. Then there are the international problems of Al Qaeda and terrorism, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, the Israeli/Palestinian issue, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Arab Spring, China, North Korea, Russia, Venezuela, and the list goes on.
“”Cahn has grabbed the attention of millions – and he has struck a nerve. He has also brought it to his readers’ attention that the real danger faced by each of them is ultimately a deeply personal spiritual matter. The Day of the Judgment for a nation has temporal consequences, but for each individual the consequences are eternal. For those who have taken this idea seriously, we can praise and thank the Lord for His gracious loving-kindness.”
From Got Questions.org Cahn identifies Isaiah 9:8–10 as revealing the main harbinger of coming disaster: “The Lord has sent a message against Jacob; it will fall on Israel. All the people will know it—Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria—who say with pride and arrogance of heart, ‘The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with dressed stone; the fig trees have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.’” In the original context, God is expressing His anger at Israel over their refusal to repent from their idolatry. Even after receiving God’s discipline in the form of several disasters, the nation of Israel hurled their defiance at God Himself. To paraphrase Israel’s words, they said, “God, You may have allowed our enemies to damage our city, but we will rebuild it even stronger.” This was conscious and deliberate rebellion against God. The Israel of Isaiah’s day would not bow to God, not even under His rod.
THE PEPSTER’S CLARIFICATION: The Harbinger focuses on how this specific pattern of judgment befell the northern kingdom of Israel, headquartered in Samaria, in 732 B.C. when the prophet Isaiah rebuked and pronounced judgment on the nation for vowing – as he describes it – “in pride and in arrogance of heart” (Isaiah 9:9) ) to undertake a rebuilding and recovery program after a limited first strike on the land was made by Assyria. This rebuilding, replanting, and recovery effort was done without accounting to God in repentance, or giving Him any mind, much as our leaders today have done.
The full strike occurred ten years later in 722 B.C., when the Assyrian Empire invaded Damascus, overran the northern kingdoms’ defenses, and exiled almost the entire population to the east, to the cities of Halah and Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. (1Kings 17:6) The Assyrians then resettled the land with Gentiles from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sephar-vaim; who then mingled with what was left of the Israelites to produce what became known as the Samaritans. (2Kings 17:29)
What is strikingly amazing is that unwittingly three American leaders from the highest levels of our government (and several others during those days) on three separate and unconnected occasions – two of which commemorated the tragic events of Tuesday, September 11th, 2001 – all quoted from this exact same vow from Isaiah 9:10 and used it as the nation’s pledge in our nation’s capital, inside the halls of congress as America’s official policy, and set the course the nation would follow for its foreseeable future.
The first of these occurred on Wednesday, September 12th, 2001 with Senate Majority Leader Thom Daschle’s speech, the second occurred during a prayer gathering of the Congressional Black Caucus on September 11th, 2004 in which Senator John Edwards (who was John Kerry’s running mate for the White House) gave his speech and quoted directly Isaiah 9:10 and making it America’s pledge to rebuild, replant, and recover, and the third time was when newly elected President Barack Obama gave his first official speech as president before a joint session of both houses of congress on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009, when he pledged the nation with this vow. In applying these words directly from this vow quoted by Isaiah, these leaders invoked God’s judgment on this nation.
The Congressional Record for the 107th Congress records that on Wednesday, September 12th, 2001, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D, South Dakota) spoke in the following manner during his Floor Statement on a 'Joint Resolution of Condemnation for the September 11, 2001. I quote:
"Mr. President, it is with pain, sorrow, anger, and resolve that I stand before this Senate, a symbol for 212 years of the strength of our democracy, and say that America will emerge from this tragedy, as we have emerged from all adversity, united and strong. ... The world should know that the Members of both parties in both Houses stand united.
“The full resources of our Government will be brought to bear in aiding the search and rescue and in hunting down those responsible and those who may have aided or harbored them. Nothing, nothing can replace the losses that have been suffered. I know there is only the smallest measure of inspiration that can be taken from this devastation.
“But there is a passage in the Bible from Isaiah that I think speaks to all of us at times such as this:
'The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with dressed stone; the fig trees have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.'
“That is what we will do. We will rebuild and we will recover.
“The people of America will stand strong together because the people of America have always stood together. And those of us privileged to serve this great Nation will stand with you.”
Three years later during a prayer breakfast held by the Congressional Black Caucus on September 11, 2004, Democratic Candidate for Vice President John Edwards (D, North Carolina) also uttered the same vow and unwittingly pronounced the same curse upon America by citing the same verse. I quote:
"Good morning. Today, on this day of remembrance and mourning, we have the Lord’s word to get us through. 'The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.' ... And let me show you how we are building and putting cedars in those three hallowed places - the footprints of the Towers, the Pentagon, and the field in Pennsylvania. ... Walk with me through this day.
“And you will see that while those bricks fell and the sycamores cut down, our people are making those cedars rise. ... Each time that bell tolls, it calls us to a greater purpose. It calls us to never forget.
“It calls us to do the Lord’s work here on earth. And it calls on us to always remember that when we walk through this day together - the cedars will rise, the stones will go up, and this season of hope will endure."
The defiance? The leaders were unanimous, the nations was unanimous, and they all spoke this vow and pledged themselves to do it without giving honor to God or even acknowledging Him in any way. It is ironic that despite the religious nature of this vow from the Bible, not one of the leaders who repeated this vow and pledged the nation to it, thought to invoke the name of God or to seek His guidance in prayer for His blessings, solace, and protection during this very special period. Perhaps it was President Obama who best summarized the nation’s attitude with these words from this same speech:
“The weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation. The answers to our problems don’t lie beyond our reach. They exist in our laboratories and universities; in our fields and our factories; in the imaginations of our entrepreneurs and the pride of the hardest-working people on Earth. Those qualities that have made America the greatest force of progress and prosperity in human history we still possess in ample measure. What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more.”
As one Internet blogger observed correctly:
“What the two senators spoke were not words humbling a nation. They spoke a rally cry on behalf of a nation.”
After the Union army was defeated at the First Battle of Bull Run, President Abraham Lincoln declared a National Day of Prayer and Fasting:
It is fit and becoming in all people, at all times, to acknowledge and revere the Supreme Government of God; to bow in humble submission to His chastisement; to confess and deplore their sins and transgressions in the full conviction that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and to pray, with all fervency and contrition, for the pardon of their past offenses, and for a blessing upon their present and prospective action.
And whereas when our own beloved country, once, by the blessings of God, united, prosperous and happy, is now afflicted with faction and civil war, it is peculiarly fit for us to recognize the hand of God in this terrible visitation, and in sorrowful remembrance of our own faults and crimes as a nation and as individuals, to humble ourselves before Him and to pray for His mercy...that the inestimable boon of civil and religious liberty, earned under His guidance and blessing by the labors and sufferings of our fathers, may be restored.
The type of humility, sensitivity, and spiritual temperance evident in President Abraham Lincoln is sadly missing in the speeches given by Daschle, Edwards, and Obama; for in Lincoln’s call for a National Day of Prayer and Fasting, he confessed to the nation its great sin and guilt which had brought upon its citizenry the bloodiest war its sons were ever called to fight. Herein lies the defiance of a nation, that its national leaders could not in the face of judgment recognize it, and call upon this nation to this day, a national day of prayer and humiliation as one of its greatest statesmen and presidents did. It is unfortunate that some of our brethren, conservative Bible-believing born again Christian Evangelicals like ourselves cannot understand this, but in fact argue against it.
From Got Questions.org Cahn’s prophet in The Harbinger quotes government leaders using similarly defiant words following the collapse of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Since U.S. leaders used the words, “We will rebuild” and expressed a “spirit of defiance,” Cahn applies God’s angry words in Isaiah 9 to America. The problem with this interpretation is that when America’s leaders vowed to rebuild the World Trade Center, they were not defying God but the terrorists who demolished it. Israel was defying both their human enemies and God. Cahn’s linking of the two nations with the same prophecy is unfair. The principle behind Isaiah’s prophecy—that judgment may befall any nation that forsakes God—could be applied to America. It may be a fascinating coincidence that Isaiah mentions fallen bricks. The book may be exciting to read. But it is faulty Bible interpretation to take a prophecy clearly meant for Israel and make the details pertain to modern-day America.
THE PEPSTER’S CLARIFICATION: The Harbinger does not, as this reviewer writes here, “take a prophecy clearly meant for Israel and make the details pertain to modern-day America,” but clearly gives the historical context of this part of Isaiah’s prophecy. It is America’s leaders who have taken this vow quoted by Isaiah the prophet when he pronounced God’s judgment on the northern kingdom to apply it to America by connecting it to 9/11 and use it as official policy to pledge the nation to do as it says, effectively subjecting it to a curse the ancient Israelites unwittingly pronounced on themselves – they didn’t know they were pronouncing a curse upon themselves, but spoke in defiance and arrogance of heart. Much in the same spirit of defiance, these leaders have now committed our nation to the same fate in the same unwitting manner. Connie/Faith on her website, Faith’s Corner makes a compelling case why this vow repeatedly uttered by America’s leaders during the days and years following September 11th, was indeed vow of defiance and a pronunciation of an ancient curse upon this land. I quote:
“I was particularly struck by David James' arguing that Cahn misunderstood Daschle and Edwards' quotation of Isaiah 9:10. He wants to insist that Cahn missed ‘the intent of the heart’ in those instances, and that if you listen to the whole context you see that they are intending to be in tune with God and not defiant of God. David James even said that you ‘would need a prophetic word from God to show that they were doing the opposite of what they said they were doing.’ [this is around 50:00]
“This so utterly misses the point it makes it painfully clear why the majority of pastors and Christians in this nation not only failed to see 9/11 as judgment from God but were angry with those who did recognize it as judgment. David James is a seminary-trained man. What are they teaching people in those seminaries?
“As Cahn goes on to make clear, the words themselves from isaiah 9:10 are the statement of defiance of God; the mere statement of intent to rebuild and replant is the statement of defiance of God. That both Edwards and Daschle quoted it without recognizing this, even thinking they were giving reassurance from God himself, even wanting to say something in tune with God, does not keep it from being a statement of defiance, merely underscores that their defiance was unwitting. Adding ‘God bless America’ to the message only compounds the defiance.
“Consciously, by vowing to rebuild and replant they are in defiance of America's enemies, not realizing that this is the same thing as defiance of God. When Governor Pataki affirmed the spirit of defiance against our enemies at the dedication of the cornerstone for the Freedom Tower, he too no doubt had no conscious intention of being in defiance of God, merely defiant of the enemies of America.
“Surely the leaders of ancient Israel who originally said the same words had no idea they were in defiance of God either.
“I also want to add that although Jonathan Cahn said it wasn't about Daschle and Edwards personally, not a judgment of what was in their hearts personally, this really isn't true. They quoted that passage because that same sentiment WAS in their hearts and recognition of God's hand and the call to repentance WASN'T. This attitude was shared by the majority of Americans at the time.
“A vow to rebuild and replant is the opposite of an attitude of humility and repentance. That ought to be obvious.
“The popular refrain in response to 9/11, "God Bless America" was itself defiance of God in that context. You don't ask God to bless a nation when He's just brought judgment against the nation. The only right response is repentance.”
“This so utterly misses the point it makes it painfully clear why the majority of pastors and Christians in this nation not only failed to see 9/11 as judgment from God but were angry with those who did recognize it as judgment. David James is a seminary-trained man. What are they teaching people in those seminaries?
“As Cahn goes on to make clear, the words themselves from isaiah 9:10 are the statement of defiance of God; the mere statement of intent to rebuild and replant is the statement of defiance of God. That both Edwards and Daschle quoted it without recognizing this, even thinking they were giving reassurance from God himself, even wanting to say something in tune with God, does not keep it from being a statement of defiance, merely underscores that their defiance was unwitting. Adding ‘God bless America’ to the message only compounds the defiance.
“Consciously, by vowing to rebuild and replant they are in defiance of America's enemies, not realizing that this is the same thing as defiance of God. When Governor Pataki affirmed the spirit of defiance against our enemies at the dedication of the cornerstone for the Freedom Tower, he too no doubt had no conscious intention of being in defiance of God, merely defiant of the enemies of America.
“Surely the leaders of ancient Israel who originally said the same words had no idea they were in defiance of God either.
“I also want to add that although Jonathan Cahn said it wasn't about Daschle and Edwards personally, not a judgment of what was in their hearts personally, this really isn't true. They quoted that passage because that same sentiment WAS in their hearts and recognition of God's hand and the call to repentance WASN'T. This attitude was shared by the majority of Americans at the time.
“A vow to rebuild and replant is the opposite of an attitude of humility and repentance. That ought to be obvious.
“The popular refrain in response to 9/11, "God Bless America" was itself defiance of God in that context. You don't ask God to bless a nation when He's just brought judgment against the nation. The only right response is repentance.”
(Connie/Faith, A few answers to DeYoung and David James. Harbinger is God's own message to America Faith’s Corner)
There are two compelling reasons why David James and others within his entourage absolutely miss the mark as to the significance of this vow, and it has to do with their disbelief that these leaders committed the same sin that the leaders of ancient Israel committed because they do not believe that their (America’s leaders) citing this same vow and using it to console a nation, to unite it and commit and pledge to it; in any way is equivalent to what the ancient Israelite leaders did when they unwittingly pronounced a curse upon themselves and their nation and consigned their fate and their nation’s fate to God’s judgment by vowing “in defiance and arrogance of heart” against Israel’s enemies that they would rebuild, replant, and recover.
Their defiance was that they did not recognize God in this strike, just as our own leaders didn’t, and the defiance they expressed against their enemies – the Assyrians, they expressed against God, because they were His tool of judgment against the wayward, sinful, and idolatrous northern kingdom. We see God declaring:
“Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger
And the staff in whose hands is My indignation,
I send it against a godless nation
And commission it against the people of My fury
To capture booty and to seize plunder,
And to trample them down like mud in the streets.
Yet it does not so intend,
Nor does it plan so in its heart,
But rather it is its purpose to destroy
And to cut off many nations.
For it says, ‘“Are not my princes all kings?
‘“Is not Calno like Carchemish,
Or Hamath like Arpad,
Or Samaria like Damascus?
‘“As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols,
Whose graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
Shall I not do to Jerusalem and her images
Just as I have done to Samaria and her idols?”’
“So it will be that when the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the pomp of his haughtiness.” For he has said,
‘“By the power of my hand and by my wisdom I did this,
For I have understanding;
And I removed the boundaries of the peoples
And plundered their treasures,
And like a mighty man I brought down their inhabitants,
And my hand reached to the riches of the peoples like a nest,
And as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth;
And there was not one that flapped its wing or opened its beak or chirped.”’
“Is the axe to boast itself over the one who chops with it?
Is the saw to exalt itself over the one who wields it?
That would be like a club wielding those who lift it,
Or like a rod lifting him who is not wood.
Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, will send a wasting disease among his stout warriors;
And under his glory a fire will be kindled like a burning flame.
And the light of Israel will become a fire and his Holy One a flame,
And it will burn and devour his thorns and his briars in a single day.
And He will destroy the glory of his forest and of his fruitful garden, both soul and body,
And it will be as when a sick man wastes away.
And the rest of the trees of his forest will be so small in number
That a child could write them down.”
(Isaiah 10:1-19)
This failure to understand these most fundamental elements of how judgment works by these people has blinded them from understanding the biblical ramification of these exact utterances by our leaders and the prophetic significance of what it entails. It is amazing that people whose claim to biblical fidelity is the hallmark of their claim to their office should overlook so fundamental and very real aspect of this vow’s application by a nation’s leaders; be it ancient Israel, ancient Assyria, or any modern nation, including this one!
From Got Questions.org Cahn does not claim in his book to be a prophet. Neither does he claim to have received the message of his story directly from God. He writes as a teacher, putting into the mouth of Kaplan what he understands to be both the original and the contemporary meanings of Isaiah’s prophecy. Cahn does not claim that Isaiah uses the name America or the United States in his prophecies. He does not even claim that Isaiah had a dual fulfillment of his prophecies in mind. Cahn’s apparent purpose in his book is to spin a convincing yarn and persuade readers of a real danger America faces in light of Cahn’s understanding of how Israel’s situation in 600–500 BC applies to America’s current situation.
THE PEPSTER’S CLARIFICATION: The reviewer in this article on The Harbinger is correct when he writes as he does above, except to where he writes, “Cahn’s apparent purpose in his book is to spin a convincing yarn and persuade readers of a real danger America faces in light of Cahn’s understanding of how Israel’s situation in 600–500 BC applies to America’s current situation” which is nothing but a snide and cynical way of denying that America is in real trouble. It is disrespectful and unnecessary in light of the facts, but the facts are not what this reviewer really considers, as we have seen thus far. So why would we be surprised if he summarizes what he has written – which here in this part of his article is refreshingly true – with these remarks?
I don’t know how often this has to be said for The Harbinger’s critics to realize this, and retract this charge. The Harbinger only reports what public officials, three of whom were the highest elected officials in the land said at our nation’s capital regarding this Scripture, how they applied it to 9/11, and how other public officials have done the same. This is a far cry from claiming Isaiah 9:10 prophesies of America.
Now, let us return to our examination of the historical backdrop to Isaiah’s prophecy and Israel’s vow of defiance and arrogance made in the throes of national pride following a national calamity such as the one it suffered on 735 B.C.
In the previous verse, Isaiah the prophet describes this vow as an “assertion in pride and arrogance of heart,” (v. 9), and then quotes the vow spoken in pride and used it as evidence to pronounce the judgment which followed in the rest of the chapter. It is a vow of defiance made in pride and arrogance of heart, as Isaiah describes it in the Holy Spirit, and it is used not as David James calls it; “an occult spell or incantation rather than a biblical principle,” but as evidence of Israel’s guilt and sin, resulting in God’s judgment and its exile by the Assyrians ten years later. We will specifically examine Isaiah’s 10th chapter below, and address David James’ contention regarding it which is completely groundless. Scripture itself and history bear witness that this precise vow Isaiah denounced prophetically in the following way:
“The Lord sends a message against Jacob,
And it falls on Israel.
And all the people know it,
That is, Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria,
Asserting in pride and in arrogance of heart:
‘The bricks have fallen down,
But we will rebuild with smooth stones;
The sycamores have been cut down,
But we will replace them with cedars.
(Isaiah 9:8-10)
But, we will examine this contention below biblically and see the historical context that preceded it, and how it played out in the history of what became the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah. But how did this come about? The Scriptures give us the prophetic backdrop to what brought this about, first with God’s prophecy pertaining to what would befall Solomon’s kingdom after his death, when his son, Rehoboam was to ascend his throne. We read:
Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, “You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods.” Solomon held fast to these in love. He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon. Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
Now the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not observe what the Lord had commanded. So the Lord said to Solomon, “Because you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant. Nevertheless I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.”
(1Kings 11:1-13)
I cannot but well up with tears when I read this passage, for even in judgment, God’s graciousness provided that Solomon’s son would have one tribe to lead for the sake of David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which the Lord would deliver from the hand of King Sennacherib of Assyria (2Kings 18, 19, 2Chronicles 32:1-23, Isaiah 36, 37) after the fall of Damascus, but would later deliver into the hands of King Nebuchadnezzar of the Babylonians (Jeremiah 39), as prophesied by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 27). Solomon’s unfaithfulness to God brought judgment on his kingdom.
This manifested itself as various adversaries arising towards the end of his reign. These were; Hadad the Edomite (1Kings 11:14-22), Rezon the son of Eliada, who reigned over Aram from Damascus and was an adversary to Israel all of the days of Solomon. (1Kings 11:23-25) Also Jeroboam, an Ephraimite of Zeredah, Solomon’s servant; who was a valiant warrior (1Kings 11:27) rebelled against Rehoboam, and when Rehoboam disregarded the sage advice of the elders who had served his father, and instead went by the foolish counsel of the young men who grew up with him, and misspoke to Israel; all Israel – ten tribes – went with Jeroboam and made him king. (1Kings 12:1-20) This is how the people of Israel became two kingdoms; one in the north led by the tribe of Ephraim in, and other in the south led by Judah in Jerusalem.
By Isaiah’s time, Solomon’s kingdom had been divided into northern and southern kingdoms for many years. The southern kingdom of Judah and Benjamin (ca. 740 B.C.) faced attack by Israel (northern kingdom) and Syria. (Isaiah 7) Assyria overcame Syria and threatened Israel. Samaria fell and looked toward Egypt for help. Isaiah wrote historically and prophetically.”
Judah would fall because of Hezekiah’s pride, but when he humbled himself before the Lord in prayer and supplication, in tears and humiliation, God granted him an additional fifteen years to his life and spared Jerusalem. Jerusalem would fall, but not in the days of Hezekiah but later. But before that would occur, the northern kingdom would be struck by the Assyrians. The first strike was a limited strike on the land, and it foreshadowed a greater one that would follow. This is where Isaiah’s prophecy falls into place. In the year 735 B.C. Isaiah prophesied in the following verses what was to occur and did occur ten years later in 725B.C., when the Assyrian Empire invaded the land, despoiled it, and took most of its inhabitants away – Samaria fell, and Israel was taken captive. We read:
Therefore the Lord raises against them adversaries from Rezin
And spurs their enemies on,
The Arameans on the east and the Philistines on the west;
And they devour Israel with gaping jaws.
In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away
And His hand is still stretched out.
Yet the people do not turn back to Him who struck them,
Nor do they seek the Lord of hosts.
So the Lord cuts off head and tail from Israel,
Both palm branch and bulrush in a single day.
The head is the elder and honorable man,
And the prophet who teaches falsehood is the tail.
For those who guide this people are leading them astray;
And those who are guided by them are brought to confusion.
Therefore the Lord does not take pleasure in their young men,
Nor does He have pity on their orphans or their widows;
For every one of them is godless and an evildoer,
And every mouth is speaking foolishness.
In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away
And His hand is still stretched out.
For wickedness burns like a fire;
It consumes briars and thorns;
It even sets the thickets of the forest aflame
And they roll upward in a column of smoke.
By the fury of the Lord of hosts the land is burned up,
And the people are like fuel for the fire;
No man spares his brother.
They slice off what is on the right hand but still are hungry,
And they eat what is on the left hand but they are not satisfied;
Each of them eats the flesh of his own arm.
Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh,
And together they are against Judah.
In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away
And His hand is still stretched out.
(Isaiah 9:11-21)
This vow which Israel made, Isaiah called an expression of pride and arrogance of heart, and the preponderance of evidence bear witness that it brought national judgment on the people and land of northern kingdom of Israel, led by its largest and most powerful tribe, Ephraim along with the inhabitants of Samaria.
In the next chapter, Isaiah calls Assyria “the rod of My anger,” for He would use the Assyrians to humble sinful Israel and Judah. (Isaiah 10:5) However, the proud and mighty Assyrians would themselves eventually be humbled. (Isaiah 10:12) This is the historical backdrop to Isaiah’s prophecy concerning the northern kingdom of Israel and what later would eventually befall Judah when the Babylonians invaded under Nebuchadnezzar. By the time of Jeremiah the prophet (born 627 B.C. commissioned by God to prophesy in 607 B.C.), three great world powers vied for control of the region; Assyria, Babylonia, and Egypt, but Babylon broke Assyria’s power at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 B.C., and crushed Egypt as well. The Harbinger does not in any way take this out of context. In fact, it describes a good part of this in vivid detail on pages 9, 16, 17, 18, 23, 27, 28, Chapter 5 (pages 34 to 42), etc…
From Got Questions.org In the book, Cahn creates a fictional means of revealing prophecy from God—clay seals, such as were used to hold impressed signatures on official documents. In The Harbinger, the prophet gives Kaplan a set of nine such seals. Each seal supposedly represents a national event in Israel’s history—a harbinger that warned of final collapse and dispersion into the surrounding pagan nations—as well as a current event in America, heralding ultimate doom if America does not repent.
THE PEPSTER’S CLARIFICATION: The nine seals used in the narrative of The Harbinger are in fact an archeological reality, as one of them has been found, and this is what is used in the narrative to advance the story and tell about each harbinger. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the use of these to do this. This is called in fictional literature “poetic license,” and it is well within the rights of the author to employ when telling his story.
From Got Questions.org Cahn connects each seal with a serious American event in the decade following September 11, 2001, and with an object or an event in Israel’s history. Since Cahn is writing fiction, he is free to manufacture not only clay seals but coincidences. His creative way of identifying the coincidences is both fascinating and convincing, as far as the story goes. He sees in the coincidences a pattern of God’s warnings to both His chosen nation, Israel, and the U.S. Each seal and its related dire event are harbingers of ultimate doom. America is being warned to turn back to God.
THE PEPSTER’S CLARIFICATION: The Harbinger breaks down the various elements within Isaiah’s prophecy by using the clay seals to explain each harbinger as it occurred historically in ancient Israel, and how the same pattern of judgment has befallen America in precise manner. It is not as this reviewer (taking his cue from David James’ book) “manufactured” or a string of “coincidences.” This type of Post-Modern Relativism is nothing but a modern form of “Christianized” Deism. It believes in God having created the universe, but He has long abandoned it to its own whims and fate. According to this way of thinking, He doesn’t involve Himself with nations anymore, and certainly not the way the Hebrew Bible and New Testament describe Him, or as His harbingers are described in Jonathan Cahn’s book.
From Got Questions.org Persuasive preaching about a real need, yes; accurate interpretation of a Bible text, no. The problem is that Israel is the only nation with whom God has made a covenant, through Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3). America is not Israel.
THE PEPSTER’S CLARIFICATION: The reviewer is absolutely wrong. We have demonstrated, and even cited the specific pages in The Harbinger where the history of Isaiah’s prophecy is explained in its context. The charge of an incorrect hermeneutic is groundless, and the change that the Bible is misinterpreted is also wrong. Nowhere does The Harbinger advance the urban legend created by David James that it promotes a belief that America is under a unilateral covenant with God like Israel’s Abrahamic Covenant. It simply and clearly does not. Acknowledging that its first president and congress gathered at St. Paul’s Chapel to consecrate it to God for His blessing and protection is not equivalent to declaring that God established a unilateral covenant with it as He did with Israel. This is preposterous! No serious student of the Scriptures would ever take such a charge serious. It is amazing that David James and this reviewer make it here.
From Got Questions.org If you read The Harbinger, remember that only time can reveal the validity of what claims to be prophecy from God (Deuteronomy 18:21-22). And, even though the book may use some faulty interpretations, do not close your heart to Cahn’s essential message. He is right that America needs to repent. “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). The United States of America very likely will meet the same fate as ancient Israel if its people do not repent. Americans need to give their hearts to God and exercise faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. To that end we should pray.
THE PEPSTER’S CLARIFICATION: The Harbinger prophetically calling everyone to repentance, but it is NOT prophecy, nor is it a work of Biblical Eschatology, or anything other than a warning and a call to God’s people to repent and return to God, and for all others to repent, call on the name of Jesus the Savior for personal salvation, and pray for the nation and for leaders who will honor God and serve with dignity, honestly, and integrity.
While I disagree with the reviewer’s remarks regarding The Harbinger; about it using “some faulty interpretations” – totally a matter of the reviewer’s opinion (as we have examined here), but a commend his next remarks with which he graciously finishes his review, where he writes, “do not close your heart to Cahn’s essential message. He is right that America needs to repent. “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). The United States of America very likely will meet the same fate as ancient Israel if its people do not repent. Americans need to give their hearts to God and exercise faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. To that end we should pray.
Recommended Resources: Logos Bible Software and The Harbinger: The Ancient Mystery that Holds the Secret of America's Future by Jonathan Cahn. Read more: http://www.gotquestions.org/The-Harbinger.html#ixzz2NDfQtozw
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