“O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?
He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the LORD; who swears to his own hurt and does not change; who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.”
I have been writing in response to critics of The Harbinger since late last year. There are a myriad of articles also that I’ve addressed, some others I have yet to address, much of these I have already addressed and my articles can be accessed at my website, The Pepster’s Post: A Voice in Cyberspace.
I have had the privilege to have what is a front row seat to the teachings and messages that Pastor Cahn has given over a ten year period which comprise the message of The Harbinger, and I know these messages very well. What’s more, I also have read The Harbinger for myself several times, and I know Pastor Cahn personally. None of The Harbinger’s critics can make this claim, and those who wrote their polemic against the book, cannot make any of these claims. It is my close and intimate knowledge of the topic, the one who has taught it for ten years in various messages which eventually became what the book contains, and know personally firsthand all of the aspects of this topic that needs to be known in order to examine it in the most thorough and biblical manner possible that has enabled me to write The Truth about The Harbinger: Addressing the Controversy and Discovering the Facts About This Prophetic Message and get it published October 1st of this year.
I was planning and had desired to end my discussions addressing the criticisms against The Harbinger and move on to other projects, and had prepared to do so after the publication of my book The Truth about The Harbinger: Addressing the Controversy and Discovering the Facts About This Prophetic Message on October 1st of 2013; but it had become increasingly evident from certain objections raised by one of them to my article about Pastor Gary Gilley’s brief but highly charged broadside that it was not enough for me and others to warn these brethren that their approach and methods, and their treatment of a brother in the faith – Jonathan Cahn – a fellow minister in service to Jesus Christ no less; the language they used against him, and their behavior towards those – like myself – who brought these things to their attention; was not enough to tell them of this, the evidence for it had to be presented to them, because they had become convinced in their minds that they had done no wrong and had not sinned in what they did to Jonathan Cahn for two years – 2012 and 2013.
Having made this clear, we now go on, and again express our appreciation to these critics for allowing me to fully examine everything possible according to the Scriptures, to verify both the efficacy of the message of The Harbinger and its particulars to the light of God’s Word, while we address man’s contentions with it. In doing this, we understand the purpose of such divisions these arguments pose to the body, and while we lament them, we also so God’s purpose in this, as Paul does when he writes in the Holy Spirit the following. I quote:
But if one is inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice, nor have the churches of God. But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you.
(1Corinthians 11:16-19)
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28) I believe that God more than amply supplies what is necessary to validate something that is His by allowing critics of it to have their say, and then raising His servants to defend it biblically. In the case of The Harbinger, He has used the critics to compel His people to get their noses back in their Bibles to verify the content of this incredible New York Times bestseller. The critics of The Harbinger have allowed all of us to closely examine the Scriptural, historical, and public records available to us, and the arguments they present, so that we may biblically arrive at a definitive conclusion about this topic and address its clarion call to all of God’s people and the leaders of this nation, and its citizens to know the degenerate state we are in, seek God, and call upon the name of Jesus Christ in full personal repentance individually and then collectively as a nation. This is something all Jews, Christians – Jewish Messianics, Evangelicals, and all people of faith can agree with and do, and we must do it sincerely and fervently to avert disaster.
Another few get it right and realize that the message of The Harbinger is a call to repentance and to seek redemption in the salvation Christ offers. Contrast this with articles by critics who’ve been influenced by the critics of The Harbinger, and whose questions mirror the objections by those critics.
JB
Systems Analyst
As a man thinks within himself, so he is.
Proverbs 23:7a
The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the Lord.
Proverbs 16:33
"Do not petition G-d to go where you are going; rather find where G-d is going and travel with Him."-- Unknown Jewish Wise Man
"I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer not neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.".--- Author Unknown
"It’s not failure, but the fear of failure that stops most people.”-- Philip Anschutz
"THERE IS NOTHING MORE FRIGHTENING THAN ACTIVE IGNORANCE." -- Goethe
"To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth." - Unknown Author
“I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position one has reached in life, as by the obstacles that he has overcome while trying to succeed.” – Booker Taliaferro Washington, 1856 – 1915
“ A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us. ”— Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Truth is in history, but history is not the truth." - Nicolás Gómez Dávila
---------O-O-O
|_//___l__,\___\,___|_l_---\___l---[]IIIIII[]
__(o)_)--(o)_)--O-)_)
|_//___l__,\___\,___|_l_---\___l---[]IIIIII[]
__(o)_)--(o)_)--O-)_)
PEOPLE WHO GET IT, WHO UNDERSTAND THE MESSAGE, AND WHO BEAR WITNESS:
8:00AM EST 12/29/2011 Andy Butcher
Jonathan Cahn’s new book, The Harbinger, isn’t just an exciting read; it’s a bold prophetic message and biblical mystery wrapped in one powerful story. But there’s far more to this timely revelation—and the person delivering it—than what’s on the page
As he looked across the waters of the Hudson River from the Statue of Liberty, the twin towers of the World Trade center spiking the New York City skyline, Jonathan Cahn had a deep sense of foreboding.
The Messianic rabbi had joined with other prayer and prophetic leaders at the nation’s symbolic gate—Lady Liberty greeting the many immigrants arriving at nearby Ellis Island, where they would take their first steps in their new land—to seek God. They had gathered with a shared burden to pray for the city and a sense of concern about a possible terrorist attack on the United States.
Two years later, the suicide flights that stunned the world would touch Cahn’s, too. His future wife, Renata, was to have been at the World Trade Center for an appointment but changed her plans at the last minute, as did other members of his congregation who worked there. Two who were in the Twin Towers were among those who escaped before the collapse.
But in addition to feeling personal relief, Cahn was pitched into a journey of discovery. It would take him to ground zero, historical sites and research libraries, collecting hundreds of pages of notes in a mission to uncover the deeper story behind the shocking news footage.
From disparate fragments of present-day events, key moments in America’s past and somewhat obscure biblical passages, he has pieced together a jaw-dropping jigsaw puzzle that presents a disturbing picture of a nation on the brink.
Cahn shares what he has uncovered in his new book, The Harbinger, revealing that the 2001 terrorist attacks, the war on terror, the economic collapse, the actions of the U.S. government and even the words of its leaders all are part of a modern-day replaying of an ancient drama. Laying out current happenings over an Old Testament template, Cahn presents an uncanny match.
The message: Israel’s fall to judgment for failing to return to God, as described in Isaiah 9, is being reenacted step by step in the U.S. today with the appearance of nine prophetic harbingers, or warning signs, from ancient times manifesting to America. The Assyrian invasion, Israel’s ruin and ultimate exile are remarkably being mirrored in a sequence of events that started unfolding on 9/11.
Cahn reveals how Scriptures recording Israel’s defiance of God have actually been quoted by America’s leaders in the wake of the terrorist attacks and that contemporary events have often unfolded on dates with specific significance in the Jewish calendar. He traces the ways in which occurrences at ground zero have inexplicable links to Bible texts and connects the dots of the economic collapse to God’s progressive judgment.
“We are at a crossroads,” says Messianic movement leader and broadcaster Sid Roth simply of Cahn’s book. “Either the church will act like the church in the New Testament or it will collapse and the U.S. will become a Third World country and we will not fulfill our destiny.”
Though Cahn describes The Harbinger; as a trumpet call, it may ring bells for some who recall messages from David Wilkerson in the wake of 9/11. The famed New York City pastor and author told how he believed that the strikes at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were a sign of God’s judgment—referencing Isaiah 9. The Harbinger expands on Wilkerson’s early broad-brush alarm, with Cahn inheriting the now-deceased pastor’s prophetic mantle and “building on the shoulders of his revelation,” Roth says.
He became aware of the first stirrings of Cahn’s message several years ago. Cahn had spoken about what he believed God was showing him at the Messianic congregation he leads in New Jersey and some conferences. But Cahn turned down an invitation to talk more widely about the message on Roth’s TV and radio broadcasts, sensing that the time was not right.
After the economic collapse of 2008, Cahn realized that what was revealed and foreshadowed in the nine harbingers was affecting the entire American and global economies. Cahn says: “A lot of believers have a sense regarding America—this sense that America is rapidly departing from God and that if it doesn’t return, its future is bleak. The book is a revelation that behind this sense is a deep and uncanny biblical reality.”
An Atheist Finds Yeshua
While the book releases in print only this month, its message has already created waves through early interest in an e-book edition, made available in September, and Cahn’s two appearances on Sid Roth’s It’s Supernatural TV show in the fall. The broadcasts—“the most important prophetic show you will ever see,” Roth says—produced “a phenomenal response.”
Though the bearded 52-year-old, who might be mistaken for an amiable college professor, may be unfamiliar to many, Cahn is well known and respected within the Messianic movement. Since 1988 he has led Beth Israel Worship Center, one of the country’s largest Messianic congregations. Members travel from four states to a former furniture department store in Wayne, N.J., where Jerusalem’s Western Wall and the old city gates are being recreated as part of the fellowship’s celebration of the Jewish roots of their faith.
Located 20 minutes outside New York, the center is also home to Cahn’s Hope of the World, an outreach ministry with radio broadcasts—including Cahn’s weekday The Nice Jewish Boy—and compassion programs providing clean water and supporting orphanages overseas. Cahn has traveled to Cuba, Nigeria and India on ministry and spoken at the United Nations. He often symbolically blows the shofar at gatherings, echoing its Old Testament call to worship.
Cahn is known for unlocking Bible mysteries through the understanding born from his Jewish background, and his heritage and personal history have prepared him to sound the trumpet in The Harbinger. Descended from the line of Aaron, whose priestly role included calling the people to worship and leading Israel into battle through the sounding of the shofar, he grew up in a reformed Jewish home, the youngest of three children to scientist parents.
Though he attended synagogue services, he became an atheist at age 8. “In the synagogue, people would say the prayers by rote,” he recalls. “There was no sense that God was real in their lives. It made me question the whole thing.”
Cahn was dubbed “The Atheist” at school for his vigorous unbelief, but things started to change when he became a teenager. He began to question his atheism and then to embark on a quest for the truth through science, philosophy, the occult, even UFOs. He was surprised to find Jesus mentioned in many of the books.
“God got me through the back door,” he says with a smile, recounting how in a store one day he stumbled across a book that seemed by its cover to be like some of the others he had read. It was The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey, a best-selling exploration of end-times prophecy that brought many to Christ.
Eventually Cahn came to accept that the Bible was true and that Jesus, Yeshua, was the Jews’ long-promised Messiah. He even witnessed to others about Him and led them to faith—but he wasn’t ready to take the step himself.
Cahn told God he would surrender His life when he reached old age. Two car accidents within a few months—one of which saw him escape unscathed when his vehicle was crushed “like aluminum foil” by a train on a railroad crossing—caused him to reevaluate. As a 20-year-old college student, Cahn climbed to the top of a mountain overlooking the Hudson River and told Yeshua he was ready.
Cahn’s first job as a new believer was as a night watchman, at one stage guarding property that included the headquarters of an outreach to Jews. Keeping night watchman hours to this day—he typically studies and works until the early hours, rising later in the day—Cahn observes of his past: “I think that the Lord prepares us in our life, and He gives us signs and indications of His will.”
The Start of ‘Something Big’
There was also a prophetic element to The Harbinger’s acquisition by Charisma Media. Having finished the manuscript, Cahn had someone in mind to speak with about finding a publisher. “I wanted it to get out God’s way,” he says. “There’s conventional wisdom in publishing that you have to promote yourself, but I didn’t want to do that.”
Mulling things during an early morning layover at a North Carolina airport on his way to speak at a Promise Keepers conference, Cahn bowed his head and prayed that the Lord would get the message of The Harbinger out His way. When he looked up from praying and reading his Bible, he noticed a man sitting to his left.
“He was looking at me,” Cahn says, “and he said, ‘What’s the good word?’ I figured he was a businessman who didn’t know the Lord, so I started witnessing to him.”
Cahn was half right. The man was Hubie Synn, a New York accountant—a believer with a prophetic gifting. Synn had once told client David Tyree, a devout Christian and wide receiver for the New York Giants, that God was going to highlight his skills.
Synn’s word to the athlete was delivered several months before the 2008 Super Bowl, during which Tyree dramatically snagged an Eli Manning pass with his right hand, pressing the ball against his helmet. Footage of the stunning play became an Internet sensation, and ESPN SportsCenter dubbed Tyree’s catch “the greatest play in Super Bowl history.”
When Cahn realized that Synn was a fellow believer, the two began talking. “Then he began to prophesy over me,” Cahn says, “telling me that God was about to do something big.”
When Cahn later mentioned that he had been working on a book, Synn suggested that he contact Charisma Media founder Steve Strang, whom he knew for having published Tyree’s book, More Than Just a Catch.
Synn recalls being at the airport because his flight had been delayed and initially being reluctant to follow the nudging he felt by the Holy Spirit to speak to Cahn, because he was preoccupied with family concerns. “The way my gift works, I don’t really know what I say, it just blows right through me,” Synn says.
But when he bowed to God’s prompting and finished telling Cahn that an important book he had written would be published, Cahn told him he had been praying to know what to do about his book. “God literally answered his prayer right way,” Synn says, “because he opened his eyes and I was there.”
Cahn originally documented his revelatory findings as nonfiction but decided to rewrite and present them in story form to reach a wider, general audience intrigued by past-and-present mysteries such as The Da Vinci Code and National Treasure. “In the Bible, God uses images, symbols, stories and parables to convey prophetic messages or spiritual truths,” he explains.
But why would God choose Cahn to deliver the message of The Harbinger?
Cahn shrugs, cross-legged in the chair of his basement home office that looks out over a small lake. “He chooses the foolish things of the world,” he says. “At school I was known as ‘The Atheist.’ Perhaps that makes me the least likely person.”
Roth offers other reasons, pointing to Cahn’s prophetic gift, his rich understanding of the Old Testament as a Messianic believer, his proximity to ground zero and that premonition two years before 9/11 that something was going to happen. All of it makes him “a very unique person,” Roth says.
He also wonders whether Cahn’s personality—passionate but restrained, a combination Roth says makes him like “a kind John the Baptist”—fits him well to deliver such a sobering message.
With a thoughtful manner belying the intensity of his message, Cahn says that he is driven by love, not anger.
“If you see people who are in danger of calamity and you don’t warn them, and you say nice things to them and make them feel good, that’s not love,” he says. “If you love them, you will sound the alarm. You will plead with them and you will do everything you can, even if it costs you, to get them saved. That’s what love is.”
More than 2,700 years ago God gave ancient Israel a specific warning accompanied by nine symbolic signs of things to come if it didn’t return to Him. Those same harbingers of destruction are today reappearing—in uncanny detail—in America. Has God issued the same prophetic message for our nation of what is yet to come?
Is it possible that there exists an ancient mystery in which is hidden the secret of America’s future? Is it possible that this mystery lies behind everything from 9/11, to the War on Terror, to the crash of Wall Street and the global economy, to the Great Recession and more—even the words and actions of American leaders, including the president of the United States? And is it possible that this mystery contains a prophetic word—a message to America from God, a warning of national judgment?
It might sound like the plot of a science fiction novel or an Indiana Jones movie, but it’s real. In fact, it’s so real that it has affected and is affecting the course of our nation to this day.
The Nine Harbingers of Judgment
I was standing at the edge of ground zero in New York City when my attention was drawn to an object that would comprise the first puzzle piece of an ancient biblical mystery—a prophetic message known as The Harbinger concerning the future of America. A harbinger is a sign or foreshadow of things to come, an omen of warning. Before God judges a nation, He sends warning. He repeatedly sent warning to ancient Israel through the prophets. In 732 B.C., after years of calling Israel back—to no avail—God removed Israel’s hedge of protection and allowed its enemies to breach its borders in a devastating strike that would traumatize the nation. It was an alarm and a call to return to God.
Instead of heeding the call and responding with repentance, the nation responded with defiance. In Isaiah 9:9-10, the prophet recorded how the Israelites proclaimed a vow, saying “in pride and arrogance of heart: ‘The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with hewn stones; the sycamores are cut down, but we will replace them with cedars.’”
What they were saying, in other words, was this: “We will not be humbled and we will not repent or return to God. We will continue in our course of rebellion. We will defy the hand of God and rebuild stronger than before.”
Israel’s defiance in the face of God’s repeated warnings sealed its fate. There then appeared in Israel nine harbingers of judgment—nine prophetic signs, alarms and foreshadows of what was to come.
Today America is the nation in rapid departure from God’s will. And God has likewise allowed America’s hedge of protection to fail and an enemy to breach its borders in a devastating strike that began on Sept. 11, 2001. It was, as with Israel, a nation’s wake-up call.
Yet America, like Israel, has not responded with repentance but with defiance. Long before the rebuilding began at ground zero, while the dust of the attack still hovered above the ground of devastation, a well-known American senator issued this call: “I believe one of the first things we should commit to ... is to rebuild the towers of the World Trade Center and show the world we are not afraid—we are defiant!” Other key leaders—from the mayor and governor of New York to the president of the United States—offered similarly defiant proclamations, echoing the same sentiment boldly pronounced thousands of years earlier by ancient Israel’s leaders.
And now the same nine harbingers of judgment that appeared in the last of ancient Israel have reappeared on American soil. Four harbingers have manifested in visible detail at ground zero, two have manifested in Washington, D.C., and several involving the highest leaders in the land. Each harbinger contains a prophetic message. To reveal all the mysteries of The Harbinger would not be possible in an article—thus, I was led to put the revelations of the mystery into a book. But I will do my best here to touch on one of the nine harbingers and some of the other mysteries involved.
The Declaration of Defiance
As ancient Israel rose from the ruins of the first attack and calamity, the nation’s leaders uttered a specific series of words—the declaration recorded in Isaiah 9:10. These words would form a vow of defiance against God. This vowing, in the form of a prophecy, was the ninth harbinger—one that would seal Israel’s fate and lead to its destruction.
The morning after 9/11, this ninth harbinger reappeared after more than 2,000 years to America—on Capitol Hill. On that day, the Senate majority leader was to present the nation’s response to the calamity. He closed his speech with a proclamation, declaring the fateful words Israel’s ancient leaders had asserted 2,700 years before in the last days of that nation’s judgment—the exact same vow, word for word.
The Senate majority leader had no idea what he was doing. But in making this proclamation, he was declaring judgment on America. His words were prophetic. They would foretell the nation’s future—that America would follow the course of ancient Israel, a course carrying the gravest of consequences.
The Biblical Secret That Caused America’s Economic Collapse
According to the ancient mystery, if after the first calamity and warning the nation doesn’t return to God but responds in defiance, its response will end up triggering a second calamity. And that’s exactly what happened with America. In the days after the attack, the Federal Reserve sought to defy the effect of 9/11 by a series of actions that would slash the nation’s interest rates to extreme levels. This attempt to defy 9/11 would create an economic house of cards that would come crashing down seven years later.
In 2008, the government and the Federal Reserve would make a second fatal mistake, a decision that would collapse the American economy and lead to the Great Recession. Amazingly, this decision took place exactly on the seventh anniversary of the day when the ancient vow of defiance was uttered on Capitol Hill.
So, too, an ancient biblical mystery exists that actually ordained the day, even the hour, of the greatest collapse in this economic implosion—in fact, the greatest crash in Wall Street history. This mystery centers on the biblical Shemitah.
Every seventh year, the Shemitah, or Sabbath Year, would cause the land to rest. During that year all sowing and reaping, as well as buying and selling of the land’s fruit, would come to a standstill. But on the last day of the Sabbath year, the full force of the Shemitah would be manifested. On that day, the 29th day of the Hebrew month of Elul, all debts and credit would be released. Obviously, the Shemitah affected the nation’s economic and financial realms, wiping away its financial accounts and nullifying both credit and debt.
This Sabbath year of national rest was meant to be a blessing. But if Israel turned from God and drove Him out of its life, then the Shemitah would become a sign of judgment.
And that’s exactly what happened. As Israel departed from God, it was judged based on the Shemitah as the nation’s financial accounts were wiped away, as the land was devastated, and all sowing, reaping and trade came to a standstill.
In September 2008, the American economy collapsed. The peak of that collapse came at the end of September with the greatest stock market point crash in American history. When did it happen? On the ancient biblical calendar, it happened on the 29th day of the month of Elul, the biblical day of the Shemitah—the very day appointed by God to wipe away a nation’s financial accounts!
Seven years before that was the greatest stock market crash in American history up to that date. It was the crash caused by 9/11. When did that crash take place? On the 29th day of the month of Elul—the exact day of the Shemitah!
Thus the crash of 2001 and the crash of 2008, the two greatest financial collapses in Wall Street and American history up to the time of their occurrence, each happened on the exact same Hebrew day—the day specifically appointed in the Bible for the judgment of a nation’s financial realm—and the sign against a people who have departed from God.
America’s Mystery Ground
When judgment came upon ancient Israel, the calamity reached its finality when it touched and destroyed the ground of the Temple Mount. There was a reason for that. This was where Israel had been consecrated to God.
As a principle of judgment, destruction will often return to the very place where a nation was founded—its ground of consecration. This, in itself, is a sign or mystery of return; and for ancient Israel, God was calling the nation back to Himself.
What about 9/11? Could there also be in the American calamity such a mystery of return? Could there be a prophetic message hidden in the place where it happened?
History tells us that America’s first day as a fully formed nation was not in 1776, but actually April 30, 1789, when for the first time the nation and its government was led by a president. And on that first day, embedded in America’s foundation is a prophetic message—a warning spoken by the nation’s newly inaugurated president that is now coming to pass in our day.
After that warning was given, the president led the nation’s first fully formed government in its first act: to pray, to commit and to consecrate America’s future to God. The president and members of Congress proceeded on foot to the place especially chosen for this act. This was America’s consecration ground.
So where did this all take place? It happened at ground zero! In the days of judgment, the destruction returns to the nation’s ground of consecration. Ground zero was America’s ground of consecration. God was calling America, as He had Israel, to return to the foundation upon which it was begun and to return to Him in prayer.
What Does the Future Hold?
Two years before 9/11, I stood overlooking the Hudson River in a gathering of prayer for God’s mercy on New York. We had come together based on a prophetic sense that a terrorist attack would come to the city in future days. As I led the group in prayer, my focus was drawn to the two towers of the World Trade Center across the water. A deep sense came over me of things yet to come for America. It would not be long before it all began.
There is much more concerning the ancient mystery and what the future holds than I could possibly share here, but I do so now as a prophetic call first to God’s people. Our nation is in danger, and God continues to call. In His mercy He has sent warning to wake us up that we might return to Him. His will is that none should perish.
But if our nation is to avoid destruction, we, as God’s people, must be the first to respond. The call is this: “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chr. 7:14, emphasis added).
As the people “called by His name,” we must intercede for our nation, for mercy, for repentance and for revival. And we must be part of that revival; we must be the first to repent. Now is the time to get our own lives right, to put away what must be put away and to rise to the calling God has given us. It’s time to shine the light of salvation and boldly proclaim the word of salvation.
Pray also that God would have His way with the message of The Harbinger for the salvation of the lost. We are the watchmen on the walls. We cannot fail to sound the alarm. We must sound it, that our nation may awaken ... and the lost be saved.
Click here to read more about Cahn and his timely revelation in an in-depth feature by Andy Butcher.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jonathan Cahn leads Hope of the World ministries and Beth Israel Worship Center, a congregation based in Wayne, N.J., that comprises people of all backgrounds, Jew and gentile alike. His teachings can be seen on television and heard on radio across the country and are known for being prophetically significant and for revealing mysteries from God’s Word. To contact him, write to Hope of the World, Box 1111, Lodi, NJ 07644.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An Ancient Puzzle Falling Into Place
Jonathan Cahn’s The Harbinger unveils a multifaceted mystery from ancient Israel being reenacted with chilling, uncanny replication in America today. Here’s a sampling of this gripping page-turner.
“And nobody realized that what they were doing was matching up with the prophecy?” I asked. “There was no one putting it all together?”
“No one,” he answered.
“It’s an exact, precise fulfillment of the ancient vow. It’s exact, and as if they’re highlighting it so you can’t miss it.”
“That’s the nature of a harbinger, Nouriel. It has to be made manifest.”
“They couldn’t have matched it any more precisely than if they had recited Isaiah 9:10 word for word. And nobody was trying to make it happen. They all just happened to do it?”
“Think about it, Nouriel. Who could have put it all together? The tower fell because of the terrorists. It happened to fall exactly as it did to strike down that one particular tree. The tree just happened to be a sycamore, which just happened to be growing at the corner of ground zero. The tree that would replace the fallen sycamore just happened to be given as a gift from outsiders who had nothing to do with anything else, but who just happened to feel led to give it. Their gift just happened to be the fulfillment of the biblical Erez Tree, which just happened to be the same tree spoken of in the ancient vow—the tree that must replace the sycamore. They just happened to lower it into the same soil in that the fallen sycamore had once stood—exactly as in the Hebrew of the ancient vow. And the man who led the ceremony around the tree just happened to bring it all together without knowing that he was bringing anything together. No one knew what they were doing. It wasn’t a matter of intent. It was the manifestation of the Harbingers.”
“It’s mind-boggling,” I said, “and another replaying of the mystery. They were all stepping into the ancient footsteps—and they thought it was their own.”
“It was their own,” he said, “but in the ancient footsteps.”
“Another piece of an ancient puzzle falling into place, another reenactment of an ancient drama ... of judgment. It still seems like a movie. It’s still hard to believe that it’s all real, that it actually happened.”
"The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars." Isaiah 9:10
"The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right Heaven itself ordained." George Washington, Inaugural Address, 1789
"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14
This book could be a red pill/blue pill moment. 90% of people who read this will conclude it's crazy. That's fine, this review is for the remaining ten percent.
What would you say if I told you a 2,700 year old Biblical prophecy could help explain why things in America have gone so badly wrong in the past 11 years?!? In the Harbinger Jonathan Cahn (no idea if we're related) argues that's exactly what happened. At a minimum, events fit Cahn's hypothesis.
America began to turn away from God decades ago, when the Supreme Court issued a radical "separation of church and state" doctrine that was the antithesis of what our founders intended. The results have been predictably disastrous: crime is up, families are in tatters, and we've torn up 55 million babies in the womb. America's spiritual descent over the past 50 years mimics the decline of ancient Israel in the Eighth Century B.C. (The first) 9/11, just like the Assyrian invasion of Ancient Israel in 732 B.C. was intended as a wakeup call.The Harbinger is about America's defiant vow to rebulid (sic), and how that vow perfectly mirrors Ancient Israel's. Isaiah 9:10, quoted above, is that defiant vow; in issuing that vow, Ancient Israel sowed the seeds of its ultimate demise. The frightening thing is how America's actions since (the first) 9/11 are identical to those taken by Ancient Israel.
The Harbinger is based on easily verifiable events; this is just the first time they've been detailed in order. An online review cannot do these events justice (you'll have to read the book for that), but one element warrants specific mention. That's the location. After (the first) 9/11, St. Paul's Chapel became famous as a sanctuary for pilgrims and rescue workers. What few people realize, however, is that in 1789, St. Paul's Chapel is where George Washington dedicated America to God following his inauguration. In other words, God issued His warning to America on the same ground that George Washington offered his dedication; personally.
A note to non-believers and pre-Christians: the purpose of the The Harbingers is to warn America, not condemn it. I've written before about post-9/11 idolatry and how that played out in Hurricane Sandy. How is boastful defiance working out?!? Have things gotten better or much worse?!? I'm just as guilty as anyone of relying on myself instead of trusting God, but when things stopped working, I changed. If this strikes you as plausible, or if something about this just bugs you, I urge you to study deeper. Don't take my word for anything, do your own homework.
America's crisis is spiritual; our economic, military, and political problems are symptoms of deeper spiritual amnesia. Over the past 50 years, we've severed our connection with what made us a great nation in the first place. From our debased culture, to our anemic economy, to our precarious international position, the results speak for themselves. We've got to do something different. The Harbinger, by Jonathan Cahn, might not have all the answers, but it's a damn good place to start.
Update: In the interest of open discussion, check out the take of a biblically-adept Harbinger skeptic.
"The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right Heaven itself ordained." George Washington, Inaugural Address, 1789
"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14
This book could be a red pill/blue pill moment. 90% of people who read this will conclude it's crazy. That's fine, this review is for the remaining ten percent.
What would you say if I told you a 2,700 year old Biblical prophecy could help explain why things in America have gone so badly wrong in the past 11 years?!? In the Harbinger Jonathan Cahn (no idea if we're related) argues that's exactly what happened. At a minimum, events fit Cahn's hypothesis.
America began to turn away from God decades ago, when the Supreme Court issued a radical "separation of church and state" doctrine that was the antithesis of what our founders intended. The results have been predictably disastrous: crime is up, families are in tatters, and we've torn up 55 million babies in the womb. America's spiritual descent over the past 50 years mimics the decline of ancient Israel in the Eighth Century B.C. (The first) 9/11, just like the Assyrian invasion of Ancient Israel in 732 B.C. was intended as a wakeup call.The Harbinger is about America's defiant vow to rebulid (sic), and how that vow perfectly mirrors Ancient Israel's. Isaiah 9:10, quoted above, is that defiant vow; in issuing that vow, Ancient Israel sowed the seeds of its ultimate demise. The frightening thing is how America's actions since (the first) 9/11 are identical to those taken by Ancient Israel.
The Harbinger is based on easily verifiable events; this is just the first time they've been detailed in order. An online review cannot do these events justice (you'll have to read the book for that), but one element warrants specific mention. That's the location. After (the first) 9/11, St. Paul's Chapel became famous as a sanctuary for pilgrims and rescue workers. What few people realize, however, is that in 1789, St. Paul's Chapel is where George Washington dedicated America to God following his inauguration. In other words, God issued His warning to America on the same ground that George Washington offered his dedication; personally.
A note to non-believers and pre-Christians: the purpose of the The Harbingers is to warn America, not condemn it. I've written before about post-9/11 idolatry and how that played out in Hurricane Sandy. How is boastful defiance working out?!? Have things gotten better or much worse?!? I'm just as guilty as anyone of relying on myself instead of trusting God, but when things stopped working, I changed. If this strikes you as plausible, or if something about this just bugs you, I urge you to study deeper. Don't take my word for anything, do your own homework.
America's crisis is spiritual; our economic, military, and political problems are symptoms of deeper spiritual amnesia. Over the past 50 years, we've severed our connection with what made us a great nation in the first place. From our debased culture, to our anemic economy, to our precarious international position, the results speak for themselves. We've got to do something different. The Harbinger, by Jonathan Cahn, might not have all the answers, but it's a damn good place to start.
Update: In the interest of open discussion, check out the take of a biblically-adept Harbinger skeptic.
(PEPSTER’S WARNING: The link is to David James’ website specifically based on his flawed polemic against The Harbinger which he published through the Berean Call in late July, early August, 2012. His contentions are addressed at length on website, The Pepster’s Post: A Voice in Cyberspace, and on Faith’s Corner, both of which addressed these objections over the span of 2012 and well into 2013. Faith’s Corner tackled these in the first three quarters of last year, whereas The Pepster’s Post: A Voice in Cyberspace addressed these objections from the middle of 2012 up until the present, and continues to do so.
by Michael Scapp
Jan 25, 2013 (Updated Jan 25, 2013)
Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Pros:indisputable evidence when studied piece by piece
Cons:Christians are staunchly ready to dismiss this without even reading the book
The Bottom Line: “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."–Jesus Christ (Mark 2:17) “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.”–St Paul (1Timothy 1:15)
.
the plot
Nouriel Kaplan is a New York City journalist who takes a meeting with Ana Goren, a major publishing executive. He tells her his tale of adventure, enlightenment and conversion. The whole story starts with a strange object that he received in the mail. The object was what appeared to be an ancient clay seal, the kind of seal that would have exuded authentication to anyone receiving a scroll or object by messenger. Nouriel had this for some time, and carried it with him from time to time. One day, he sat on a city bench and he took it out to look at it. Nouriel hadn’t noticed the person sitting next to him, but there was a stranger in a long black coat looking curiously at the seal in his hand. In fact Nouriel soon discovered that this stranger had a similar seal on him as well.
The stranger informed Nouriel that the seal is from the 6thor 7thcentury BC, and from the kingdom of Judah. The stranger turns out to be a prophet of God, and the time has come to reveal the mystery of Nouriel’s seal, the prophet’s seal and a few more of these like artifacts. The message has to do with a specific verse in the bible, from the book of Isaiah. It comes from chapter and verse 9:10 which reads: “The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with hewn stone. The sycamore has been cut down, but we will plant cedars in their place.” This verse is the response from ancient Israel at the time when God had removed his hedge of protection from the nation. His people have forgotten and broken the covenant He had made with them and allowed the ancient Assyrians to attack the Israelites. The people’s response was not to turn back to their God, but rather to proudly put their trust in themselves and vow to become stronger and better than before. God’s hand of protection would not be returned, and the nation would therefore receive more calamities in the future as a result.
The prophet shows Nouriel through the different signs and events how America is currently reenacting the same situation with the Almighty Himself. The events that took place on 9/11 is central, however there are more alarming events that have taken place in the United States as well. The prophet proves that these occurrences are more than mere coincidence, as God has placed deliberate signs, considered specific dates and drawn exact reenactments of history in order to mercifully warn us about our own future unless we turn back to God. Nouriel has taken this to a publishing company that could tell his incredible story to many in order to warn them, now it’s up to us.
the breakdown
I have been a subscriber to Jonathan Cahn on Youtube for some time now. I have been watching his sermons on television as well for much longer. He is a Messianic Jewish Rabbi, which basically means that he is a Jew that believes that Jesus Christ is the Jewish Messiah. I’ve always loved the way he delved into the sometimes ‘difficult to digest’ Old Testament and make sense of it with his vast knowledge of Jewish tradition and more importantly the affirmation of the Old Testament via the New Testament. So, this is possibly the reason why when his novel The Harbinger was referred to me by a relative, I jumped at the chance to read it. My wife read it first, and she finished it in three days, the same with my mother-in-law, who “doesn’t read.” It took me about a day shy of a week, but it was still a fast read. The Harbinger is a book of fiction yet with real facts. Cahn had a great idea in a way to wrap his message of truth wrapped inside of a story of fiction in order to much easily digest what he had to say for the everyday non-theologian. The prophet would bring these ancient seals to Nouriel, not without a clue, and then Nouriel would have to decipher the mystery before the next chance meeting with said prophet. Sometimes Nouriel was able to unveil the prophecy, other times he needed some help from the prophet. The book kept me guessing, as I tried to figure out each and every clue before it was finally revealed. It was as much fun as it was enthralling and shocking.
I was reading this book at a desk in one of my recent hotel stays, and I came to a paragraph where the hairs on the back my neck stood on end, and I nearly came to tears. I don’t want to spoil any part of this book for a potential reader, and so I’m not going to give away anything. I would also urge any potential readers not to look up anything on the net about this book until you finish reading the book, as Jonathan Cahn is not afraid to reveal major spoilers during interviews he has given on the topic of The Harbinger.
I have recommended this book to a couple of people, two “evangelical Christians” only to receive rapid backlash on how they’re above such things. The first one, (who is close to earning two doctorates in theology as we speak), dismissed it as “dumb” without knowing the first thing about it. He told me that he is familiar with the verse from Isaiah and there’s no way that this verse can possibly have anything to do with America, period. The second person I referred this book to was anxious to read about it, but is sadly even more anxious to post every thought she has on Facebook first. She had posted a comment that she had ordered the book. Like a wind waiting in the wings, her pious Christian friend quickly rushed to comment about how Jonathan Cahn believes in the heretical Kabala, and littered the comment with some links to reviews online by other Christian websites about how the book should be taken with a grain of salt, and how the coincidences were nothing but that- mere coincidences. The book is being bashed by Christians, which makes me all the more intrigued by it. Anyone who claims that the book is filled with mere coincidences is at the most a dolt, but more likely a lazybrain who refuses to do their homework before posting their ill-informed review on their websites. (That’s what is great about a site like Epinions by the way, your peers would automatically call this said reviewer on his or her inconsistencies and make sure that the review was buried somewhere along the bottom). This is why I listed the two bible verses above in my Bottom Line. There are Christians, the fundamental types, the evangelicals who are supposed to be the congregation who revere and refer to the Bible the most diligently. Yet they treat Christianity as a kind of Mormonism or Hinduism, where they feel that they can reach a higher status and understanding of enlightenment, where in reality the more that they read the Bible, they should realize ever the more of the wretched sinner that they are. Jesus kind of jokingly says, I’ve only come to help the sinner, yet someone even as prophetic as Paul had the clear mind to see that he was amongst the worst. Not today, today we are more spiritual than St Paul didn’t you know?
.
Jonathan Cahn has seven pages worth of notes at the end of the book documenting the events listed in this book. Now, I know that book notes backing up your story don’t mean much today. Everyone has a different opinion on facts, yet these are indisputable, as they mainly are events that have happened recently. Don’t believe it? Look it up he gives websites and more for his notes, where you can watch videos or just read about them. How do you dispute a recent event? I guess you can lie and say that it didn’t happen. So when the Christians couldn’t lie and call his notes lies, they instead call them meaningless coincidences. They reviews I read either called in empty coincidences or they argued different points completely. They talk about how God has never made a covenant with America, it’s not biblical. Are they pretending to have conviction when they say this nonsense? Do they want the word “America” to be found in the Bible as proof? Do these “Christians” not view the Bible as the living word, something they preach every Sunday, yet when it comes down to living it, it’s just an ancient irrelevant document. Maybe all of the hostility comes from the fact that Cahn is Jewish? If only Christians could awaken long enough and attack the actual evil ideals in the world.
As I was reading this book, I was thinking all along about how divided America is today. How the name of Jesus is reviled in most secular sections even as an appellative with the word hate. Yet, I believe that what is required by God is not a mass conversion of those who hate religion, but a reawakening of those who already consider themselves saved. Let’s face it, as a so-called Judeo-Christian nation, we are asleep. Is this reawakening possible? Sure. Despite how hopeless and depressing The Harbinger seems to be, I actually see it as good news. It tells me that although for years now it seemed like I was living in a place where God had abandoned us, I have a renewed feeling that God is still in control.
One thing that I was unsure of here is how Jonathan Cahn seems to refer to Bible commentary (for those of you who are unaware, there are things called ‘study bibles’ out there, where theologians attempt to explain most bible verses to the reader in foot notes at the bottom of the page), as God-breathed. In other words, equal with the bible verse itself. He had made some good points about this in the book, but I’m not sure I agree. I had never viewed the bible commentary as “inspired.” I know that when I had read some of the notes in the Oxford Study Bible, I found myself disagreeing with what they said.
I find myself going off on a tangent speaking of the blatant hypocrisy when it comes to today’s Christian. But this is something that I had also learned from this book. I found this book truthful, merely because it contains a lot of truth. If you can look past truths, just because it doesn’t fit your ideology then the problem is with you, not the book. This book is kind of political, and this can turn off some, but God is into politics. Just look at Romans 13:1-3. I know that many can’t stand politics, but even if you admit or not, politics are within every facet of our lives. It’s better to be informed than “blissfully ignorant”.
The Harbinger had changed my life, and I hope more and more people discover it. I hear stories about how some people are going out and buying copies for people, and then these people go out and buy copies for others. In the end, you have a choice to wake up or remain sleeping…spiritually of course.
ISBN:9781616386108
Front Line
Author: Jonathan Cahn
Soft cover
262 Pages
October 23rd, 2012
Rating: 5 stars
That there exists an ancient mystery that holds the secret of America s future?
That this mystery lies behind everything from 9/11 to the collapse of the global economy?
That ancient harbingers of judgment are now manifesting in America?
That God is sending America a prophetic message of what is yet to come?
Before its destruction as a nation, ancient Israel received nine harbingers, prophetic omens of warning. The same nine harbingers are now manifesting in America with immediate ramifications for end-time prophecy.
Hidden in an ancient biblical prophecy from Isaiah, the mysteries revealed in The Harbinger are so precise that they foretold recent American events down to the exact days. The revelations are so specific that even the most hardened skeptics will find it hard to dismiss or put down. It sounds like the plot of a Hollywood thriller with one exception… IT S REAL.
The prophetic mysteries are revealed through an intriguing and engaging narrative the reader will find hard to put down. The Harbinger opens with the appearance of a man burdened with a message he has received from a mysterious figure called The Prophet. The Prophet has given him nine seals, each containing a message about America s future. As he tells of his encounters with The Prophet, from a skyscraper in New York City, to a rural mountaintop, to Capitol Hill, to Ground Zero, the mystery behind each seal is revealed. As the story unfolds, each revelation becomes a piece in a greater puzzle the ramifications of which will even alter the course of world history.”
My thoughts:
I saw The Harbinger on the NYT bestseller’s lists and several others again and again and became curious. Finally, while at an Indie Bookstore in Charlotte (at a signing of my own), I finally picked up a copy. So glad I did.
The Harbinger is told in the form of fiction. Not a lot of scene setting, pretty prose or character development, but for this story, it works just fine. The point of this book isn’t to knock the reader’s socks off with the literary value, but with the truth–Cahn does this very effectively.
There aren’t many books that have the ability to really change me but this one did. Cahn draws parallels from Israel being cursed by God for its falling away and America’s warnings that it is headed for the same. I don’t know how much of it is a stretch, and for me, it doesn’t really matter. The point is indisputable, follow God and be blessed, turn away from God and be cursed.
I can’t do much about my nation as a whole, kicking God out of the country, but I can do something about myself and my family. I was convicted of where I fall short in areas, and the reminder that it all matters. Nothing gets past God. We reap what we sow–the end.
This book is a mega bestseller and for good reason. It’s a powerful reminder to return to God before its too late.
I can’t recommend it enough!
Dear Gina,
I have written a book that addresses the criticisms that have been leveled against The Harbinger, answering each one biblically. This is why I write you today to tell you about it. Its name is The Truth about The Harbinger: Addressing the Controversy and Discovering the Facts About This Prophetic Message. My wife and I have listened to all of the original the original messages given by Rabbi Cahn on which he based his book, and I have read both The Harbinger and Mr. James’ book, and in my book I biblically address all of the pertinent theological questions Mr. James and other critics of The Harbinger have made. I also have addressed many of these point by point on my website, The Pepster’s Post: A Voice in Cyberspace.
WHY IS IT THAT THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA – A WORLD POWER – IS NOT MENTIONED IN BIBLE PROPHECY? READ THE HARBINGER AND THE TRUTH ABOUT THE HARBINGER AND DISCOVER WHY.
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 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. It is the same warning that Paul in the Holy Spirit warned about when he used what had happened to Israel as an illustration of what would befall his people – the Jewish people, and all others who reject God’s warnings – His harbingers; where he writes:
But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either. Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?
For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written,
“The Deliverer will come from Zion,
He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.”
“This is My covenant with them,
When I take away their sins.”
From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, so these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy. For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.
(Romans 11:17-36)
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. 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.
Categories:
America, Harbinger
by admin
May 22, 2013
I have just started to again read through the book called The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn. It is a pattern in Bible prophecy that is based on Isaiah 9:10. It is specific to the nation of Israel but holds significance for America in the pattern of judgment that came to Israel. Since we in America have been founded on Judeo-Christian principles and we have been blessed by the Lord abundantly and also have been used by Him to spread the Word around the world we fit this pattern. Israel was given the same blessings and the same charge to spread the Word.
The Harbinger is not a book about doom and gloom. While that will most certainly be the case for America if we do not turn back to the Lord and repent, it is actually a call to repentance or an alarm being raised about our kingdom or the condition of our nation spiritually.
The two key verses besides Isaiah 9:10 is Jeremiah 33:3 which talks about God wanting us to call on Him and that He will answer us if we do. The second passage is in Isaiah 55:6-11 in which God tells us to seek Him while He can still be found. He wants us to return to Him! He will have compassion and mercy on us!
America needs to heed these words closely given our lack of faith and trust in Him. While God is indeed love , He is also holy and His holiness requires that sin be dealt with.
The reason this is important is backed up Scripturally in Luke 13 where Jesus says of those who much have been given, much will be required. America fits this to the letter!
The Lord has been slow to totally remove His hedge of protection from America, as there are alot of pure at heart, Bible loving, die for your faith Christians still here!
We are headed quickly towards the decline and disappearance of the American kingdom and towards the Tribulation quickly unless we repent!
Our hope is blessed! Titus tells us that event is the Rapture! But before our hope comes we need to be about reaching the lost while there is still time!
A harbinger is the revealing of a mystery. An alarm for a nation. It is so precise and clear that we can not hope to miss the message the Lord is trying to tell us!
The message of all watchmen, like the Old Testament prophets will not be meant to make you feel good, it is meant to warn you and turn you back to the one who loves you! As a watchman I am required by the book of Ezekiel to speak truth so I have.
In the coming weeks as I continue on this journey in The Harbinger I will be posting new and exciting things that I have learned and feel burdened by the Lord to share.
Keep looking up!
Posted by Lisa Lewis Koster 26- Aug- 2013
Our society today is all about being "politically correct." Don't call me short, I prefer "vertically challenged;" it's not my fault when I get lost, I'm just "directionally impaired." Those things can be corrected easily enough with a step stool and a GPS, but it seems as though today politically correct labels are used to avoid taking personal responsibility or calling sin a sin. (Could it be I get lost because I'm not good at paying attention when someone is giving me directions?)
Obesity is becoming an epidemic and there are many able-bodied people content to sit back and allow others to provide for them, but when was the last time you heard someone mention the sins of gluttony or sloth? Killing unborn children is not called murder but "a choice," and acting on homosexual desires is not called sodomy but an "alternative lifestyle." (And I have even been corrected on that; being questioned as to why homosexuality is called a "lifestyle" when everyone else just has a life.)
Live and let live seems to be the motto of the day. I do what I want and you do what you want. I have my truth and you have yours. It's all fine and dandy except for the fact that it flies in the face of everything our holy God says. I have long believed that our country is headed for God's judgment if we don't turn to Him and repent, which begins with recognizing our disobedience and calling it what it truly is: sin. The idea that our actions don't affect anyone but ourselves is a lie straight from satan. Over and over Scripture records the entire nation of Israel punished for the sin of an individual such as with Achan and the battle against Ai (Joshua 7) or David counting his fighting men (2 Samuel 24).
I was looking for a novel to read at the cottage last week, so I brought "The Harbinger" because it came highly recommended. Little did I know this book is far more fact than fiction. "The Harbinger," subtitled "The Ancient Mystery that holds the Secret of America's Future" is a fictional story wrapped around the prophecy God gave the nation of Israel through the prophet of Isaiah. The prophecy warned Israel of coming judgment and records the nation's defiant response. What's really eye-opening are the parallels between ancient Israel and modern-day America. Both nations were dedicated to God at their inception. At both dedications it was said that as long as the nation followed God it would be blessed, but that blessing would be lifted if God ceased to be revered.
September 11, 2001 was the warning of our coming judgment; a glimpse of what it's like when the hedge of God's protection has been breached. Unfortunately America's response to the attack was eerily similar to that of the nation of Israel. Rather than turning back to God in humility, both nations were defiant. Author Jonathan Cahn artfully unfolds the events of 9/11 and the stock market crash of 2008 and seamlessly weaves them together with their ancient counterparts. It's eerie how even the little known details of these events line up with the ancient prophecy. This fascinating book is riveting and definitely a must-read for every American, especially Christians.
Lord, forgive us for our arrogance, defiance and ambivalence. Open our eyes to your truth and give us a spirit of repentance, that this great nation would once again submit to you.
THE SECOND COMING
Exclusive: Jim Fitzgerald reveals 'purposeful prophetic judgment on America'
Published: 6 days ago
By James F. Fitzgerald
In his runaway best-seller, “The Harbinger,” Jonathan Cahn makes amazing application of the Isaiah 9:10 prophecy to the pattern of events in America that have followed the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. In writing about its companion documentary, Joseph Farah describes “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” as presenting “the phenomenal teaching of messianic rabbi Jonathan Cahn about America following ancient Israel in the footsteps of judgment.” Now WND has published my book, seven years in writing, “The 9/11 Prophecy: Startling Evidence the Endtimes Have Begun.” In the introduction, I explain its remarkable connections to “The Harbinger” that further confirms Cahn’s message about Isaiah 9:10. Here, I want to say more about them both.
By way of background about Isaiah 9:10 and its context in the Old Testament, the descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had long divided themselves into two different kingdoms. The larger Northern Kingdom of Israel had slipped into idolatry, rejecting the God who delivered them from bondage in Egypt some 700 years earlier. The people of Judah in the Southern Kingdom were more faithful, though far from being what they were called to be. This kingdom is where the religious capital city of Jerusalem was located. It was also where the Messiah would come humbly “riding on a donkey” more than 750 years later. Eventually, Jesus would die in this city. He would also be resurrected there and upon His ascension promise to return there in the same way He left.
What if 9/11 was not a senseless act of terror, but a deliberate divine judgment of immense prophetic significance? Get “The 9/11 Prophecy” and “The WatchWord Bible: The Book of Revelation” and one low price.
I give this background about Isaiah 9:10 because it is supremely relevant to our situation and to the end times, as I will show. In the case of Northern Israel, Isaiah had given prior warning of God’s impending judgment (Isaiah 9:8). They didn’t listen, but responded with pride and arrogance that they would rebuild bigger and better than ever (Isaiah 9:10). The consequence of their lack of repentance before God was that the Northern Kingdom was soon conquered and entirely broken by the Assyrian army. It ended the Northern Kingdom in history. As Cahn has pointed out, America has been following their pattern to the letter
The more faithful southern kingdom of Judah, however, managed to hang on, despite various depredations by the kings of Assyria. Finally, some 34-39 years after Isaiah’s initial prophecy of warning to the Northern Kingdom, it looked like even Judah in the south would succumb to the Assyrians. In 701 B.C., King Sennacherib came knocking on the doors of Jerusalem with threats and a huge army. But King Hezekiah of Judah prayed and Isaiah prophesied and the Assyrians were utterly wiped out in one of the Bible’s most significant miracles. In a single night, the destroying angel of God wiped out 185,000 of their finest warriors in a stroke!
The point of all this background is that this incredible deliverance of Jerusalem in 701 from King Sennacherib is also meant to foreshadow the deliverance of the Jews in Jerusalem at the glorious Second Coming of Christ. Scripture teaches that Jesus will deliver the Jews from the threat of the antichrist and his vast armies during the battle of Armageddon in the same miraculous way that the angel delivered Jerusalem from the Assyrians. For this reason, the Isaiah 9:10 passage in its larger context has a deliberate, implicit connection to the end times that is totally relevant to us, and especially when you consider that all the events there – from the Assyrians’ first incursion into the Northern Kingdom to the future destruction of the Assyrian army – took place within the span of a single generation, from start to finish. As the Bible says, this was written for our instruction.
Before its destruction as a nation, ancient Israel received nine harbingers, prophetic omens of warning. The same nine harbingers are now manifesting in America with immediate ramifications for end-time prophecy. Learn more in “The Harbinger” and “Isaiah 9:10 Judgment.”
In strikingly similar fashion, when Jesus answered the disciples’ question on Mt. Olivet about the end times, He taught that the generation living when the end-time events first began would not pass away until all that was to happen did happen in the span of one generation (Matthew 24:34). Typically, a biblical generation is considered to be 40 years. This was the length of time the Israelites wandered in the wilderness after fleeing Egypt. During that time, the old generation died out and a new generation rose to conquer the Promised Land. Likewise, from the time that Jesus taught on Olivet until the prophesied destruction of Jerusalem occurred, it was also just less than 40 years, the time of a single generation.
In my book, “The 9/11 Prophecy,” I give evidence that the attack on 9/11 was the literal beginning of the final generation that Jesus foretold would come before His return. This is not mere idle speculation. Jesus specifically taught that his followers would be able to recognize this period once it began. I also believe that is why the Lord has drawn such extraordinary attention at this time to the Isaiah 9:10 passage through the teaching of Jonathan Cahn. In its broad context (Chapters 6-39), Isaiah 9:10 has an undoubted connection to the end times. God would have us heed this fact and deeply consider its implications.
If 9/11 was a purposeful prophetic judgment on America, as both Cahn and I write, and if the attack reflected the pattern of Isaiah 9:10 and the events of Revelation 18 (as “The 9/11 Prophecy” shows it did), which are both prophetically connected to the end times, and 9/11 also set in motion two of the Bible’s most critical end-time prophecies (as I give evidence in my book), then the prophetic implications of this historic attack call for far more study by the church than it has seriously given. In “The 9/11 Prophecy,” I make the case that we have seen the beginning of the final generation foretold in Matthew 24:34. It began 12 years ago with the shattering attack on Sept. 11, 2001. This is not a prediction; it is a simple recognition. And if true, it also means America’s days are numbered, just as they were for the Northern Kingdom that refused to repent. As I teach in my book, however, this is exactly what Scripture says must take place in terms of the United States to pave the way for an Islamic antichrist to arise in this generation. I give mountains of evidence from scripture, history and current events.
Yet, despite these sober things, there is “good news” meant to be seen even in the providential symbolism of the attack at Ground Zero on 9/11. As Cahn so brilliantly explains in his book and documentary, when the great towers fell that day, little St. Paul’s Chapel remained standing because it had been protected from destruction by one sycamore tree that intercepted a massive flying girder that would have wrecked the small chapel. While the two towers standing proud sentinel on our coast both fell, along with their architect’s intentional symbol of America’s economic power, that lowly little church was saved by a sycamore that took the blow. This picture paints a great reality. While the United States that I love so much has begun to pass away before our eyes under judgment, along with the whole world in the end times, the only thing left standing in the end will be the Church – saved from certain destruction by a tree that stood in the way (Galatians 3:13). Jesus died on a tree to save His Church, and what we saw on 9/11 was a perfect picture of this truth portrayed in the terrible events of the attack at Ground Zero in New York City, America’s first capital. The United States will fall, an Islamic antichrist will rise, but Jesus is coming back to save His bride! That is why we must work and pray for a great awakening to sweep many into His Kingdom in the time before us. It is our blessed hope!
Posted: Wednesday, August 21, 2013 1:15 am
LETTER: ‘The Harbinger’ Gary K. Halbrook, Lufkin The Lufkin News
“An Ancient Mystery that Holds the Secret of America’s Future” is the subtitle of a book I just finished. The title of the book, “The Harbinger,” was authored by Jonathan Cahn. He relates events in our nation’s life to an ancient biblical prophecy.
He describes America as the most blessed nation in history. Our founding fathers recognized the oversight and providence of the almighty hand of God that guides our people in all of their affairs. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and other leaders testified to our indebtedness to him. He has blessed us by building a hedge, a wall around us.
October 29, 2013
Written by Christopher Mantei
Filed under: Country, God — Leave a comment October 29, 2013Readers and listeners of mine have known for the better part of a year about Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn’s “The Harbinger” and its urgent message for America. The bestselling book has spread like wildfire throughout the nation, even to our very Capitol. Rabbi Cahn has brought the message before leaders and thrones, the most explosive example of which was at the Inaugural prayer breakfast on January 21 of this year. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZA9zrzAB8w) This new movie I have been honored with reviewing reveals many things, including the fact that the speech that day was on 1 hour sleep and Jonathan was very sick. So many Americans including myself felt such a spiritual SHAKING on 9/11 but could not quite put a finger on WHY and where in the Bible would this possibly be mentioned? A Jewish disciple of Jesus Christ was chosen to tell us. Everything about the Harbinger and its going forth to the nation has been directly orchestrated by God. The Lord’s Spirit is Moving, do you have ears to hear?
“I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel.” Isa. 5:5-7
“So will I break down the wall that ye have daubed with untempered morter, and bring it down to the ground, so that the foundation thereof shall be discovered, and it shall fall, and ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof: and ye shall know that I am the LORD”. Ezek. 13:14
The brand new official DVD “The Harbinger Decoded” begins in highly dramatic fashion – appropriately so – recounting the attack of 9/11 and juxtaposing it with the Assyrian attack on ancient Israel in the 8th century BC. My only real criticism of the one-hour film is immediately apparent; the music soundtrack is outstanding, but it is too high in the audio mix; it is difficult at times to clearly hear the words spoken by the narrator or Jonathan Cahn. Cahn is present throughout, explaining in detail the 9 Harbingers in the book presented in the narrative as clay seals given by “The Prophet” to protagonist “Nouriel”. If you are unfamiliar with them, the 9 Harbingers of Judgment on House of Israel and America detailed in Isa. 9:10 are as follows:
1. The Breach (hedge of protection removed, the attack of the Assyrians and 9/11 itself)
2. The Terrorist (the perpetrators) – 9/11 led us to war in Iraq. Iraq is the land of ancient Assyria.
3. The Fallen Bricks (collapsed walls in Israel, collapsed World Trade Center)
4. The Tower (rebuilding in defiance – “freedom tower”. Septuagint renders Isa. 9:10 “let us build ourselves a Tower”)
5. The Gazit Stone (rebuilding in defiance “stronger than before” with giant stone quarried from a mountain – laid as the foundation of “freedom tower” on July 4, 2004)
6. The Sycamore (Tree uprooted at ground zero protected St. Paul’s Chapel)
7. The Erez Tree (Tree of defiance planted to replace Sycamore – “tree of hope”)
8. The Utterance (public defiance by leaders, made Sept. 11, 2004 by Senator John Edwards, quoted Isa. 9:10)
9. The Prophecy (public defiance by leaders, future tense, asking for Judgment, made Sept. 12, 2001 by Senator Tom Daschle, quoted Isa. 9:10)
As in the book, the revelations don’t end there. Among other things, the Sabbatical year (“Shemita”) is detailed. Just as in ancient Israel, the Shemita is Economic judgment to an unrepentant nation. On the Biblical day of Elul 29: Sept. 17, 2001, because of 9/11, the dow jones was down 7%; exactly 7 Biblical years later on Sept. 29, 2008, the bell of Wall Street refused to ring and again it crashed down 7%, specifically 777 points. (I would advise that you take heed that the next Elul 29 in the cycle is Sept. 13, 2015)
The account of the miracle catch by David Tyree in the Super Bowl of 2008, and a prophet named Hubie Synn is well worth your time to research as it was the catalyst for The Harbinger’s release to the public. The way God sees to the smallest detail in His Plan is enough to fill us with Faith for a lifetime.
As if all this weren’t enough, there is one final mystery that brought me and many others to tears. It is the “Consecration Ground”. Our first President George Washington was inaugurated at Federal Hall in New York City in 1789. In his first address, he stood in the hall (across the street from the NY Stock Exchange today) and prophesied that the blessings of heaven will be removed if America ever left God. Then he walked down the street with the entire government to a church called St. Paul’s chapel and they prayed – they dedicated this new nation to God and Jesus Christ that day; we were consecrated on April 30th. That little old church was the only building saved at Ground Zero on 9/11. Yes friends, just as with ancient Israel, the Judgment of God returned to the VERY SAME GROUND of its foundation. Not only is that church a living witness, but the literal foundation of Federal Hall was CRACKED as the Towers came down that day. God is real, and He is not happy.
The film concludes with an admonition that the Harbingers are continuing. For example, President Obama has visited Ground Zero and signed the crowing Beam with…Isa. 9:10. Our tower of babel is complete. Interesting to note the photo of that moment shows a “One World” banner: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/imagecache/embedded_img_full/image/image_file/p061412ck-0581.jpg?itok=yGqkaP7j
Indeed, the Tower of old was meant to unite the world against God. The time is soon coming when one world government will rise. Will you resist? Also of note, the Erez “tree of hope” planted to replace the Sycamore is now dying. Where do you place your hope? Rabbi Cahn addresses what the future holds if we continue to defy God and His Word. More judgment: to our infrastructure, economy, military; natural and manmade disasters etc. But he reminds us that there is one solitary Hope. This is the Call of the Church. Our only salvation is “Yeshua” – Jesus. Cahn says, “The Time is late, growing darker. We have to shine brighter – MORE RADICAL. Live ALL OUT for God. The call is on YOU. You are the Watchman, Blow the Trumpet.”
Also included in this DVD are 8 sections of fantastic Bonus content. From the most often asked questions about The Harbinger, to the testimony of Cahn’s individual salvation “Atheists and Trains”, to the role of America in the End Times, they are not to be missed. You need to own this documentary and SHARE IT with all in your circle of influence. Those who won’t read books or don’t care about the Bible etc. will watch it and learn. I wanted to end this review with the words of Jonathan Cahn from one of the Bonus sections, “The call for God’s people living in the end times is you have to BE STRONG. Don’t get distracted. Stay strong in the Word and His presence every day. Whatever God asks you to do, DO IT. When the dark is there, it’s a time for God’s people to be the greatest they ever have been. It’s a call to Greatness.”
Do you have eyes to see and ears to hear?
“Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day. The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail. For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed. Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.” Isa. 9:14-17
Posted: Thursday, October 24, 2013 11:00 am
Last May, the 1953 graduating class from Iola High School held its 60th reunion. Many of the class are gone and the town in which we all grew up has changed over the last 60 years. Sad to say, so has America. It was then the most blessed nation on earth, but much has happened over these last 60 years to change all that. We are a nation in decline
SIDEBAR: Michael Scapp, whose review we have just read above on The Harbinger, has also read my book, The Truth About The Harbinger, on Amazon.com, and has written the review which follows on it. Thank you, Michael, for being a good and faithful witness of the truth. JB
Apologetics for The Harbinger, December 18, 2013
I usually do not post reviews on Amazon, I post on epinions.
I just finished reading Jose Bernal's book, The Truth About the Harbinger..etc. I think it goes to show just how important a book like The Harbinger actually is that no less than two years later there is not only this apologetics book, providing an iron-clad case for Jonathan Cahn's revelation, but there is a book trying to disprove this book by David James, also released in this time-frame. On the surface you have Jonathan Cahn who says that it is important for America to turn back to God, while people like David James tells you not to, which sounds like a better idea to you?
Jose Bernal exhaustively counters every half-witted comment made against The Harbinger and then some. For me, I don't need a book like this as I feel The Harbinger itself gives proof enough within its pages, yet there are some stubborn Christians out there who feel repentance is a waste of time. I think we owe Jose Bernal many thanks for fighting tirelessly against the "Christian" opposition. It is a great service that he put up with sometimes(sic) non-sensical(sic) claims that The Harbinger could not be biblical.
My favorite section is towards the last few pages where Jose summarizes all of his points in a well-thought out scenario dealing with a man facing the tempataion(sic) of adultery. In a perfect world Jose's book should quelch(sic) any opposition left about The Harbinger, but as you can see from the one 1-star review he gets here, people don't want to be told to behave and trust in God no matter what happens.
PEOPLE WHO DON’T GET IT, DON’T UNDERSTAND IT, AND WHO OPPOSE THE MESSAGE WITH REBUTTALS FROM JONATHAN CAHN AND MYSELF:
One of the most popular and controversial books to hit the Christian market these past few months is The Harbinger, The Ancient Mystery that Holds The Secret Of America’s Future by Jonathan Cahn, a Messianic Jewish Rabbi who we interviewed on this program twice. This perspective is my own, and doesn’t necessarily reflect our ministry as a whole:
On February 7th we were among the first to interview Cahn about his new best-seller. As I sat down to prepare that day’s podcast post, I picked up the book and examined its contents. I hadn’t read it, but within a few seconds a red flag popped up for me on the front of the book:
“What you are about to read is presented in the form of a story, but what is contained within the story is real.”
On the back of the book, I read this:
Is it possible…
That there exists an ancient mystery that holds the secret of America’s future?
That this mystery lies behind everything from 9/11 to the collapse of the global economy?
That ancient harbingers of judgment are now manifesting in America?
That God is sending America a prophetic message of what is yet to come?
Before its destruction as a nation, ancient Israel received nine harbingers, prophetic omens of warning. The same nine harbingers are now manifesting in America with immediate ramifications for end-time prophecy.
Hidden in an ancient biblical prophecy from Isaiah, the mysteries revealed in The Harbinger are so precise that they foretold recent American events down to the exact days. The revelations are so specific that even the most hardened skeptics will find it hard to dismiss or put down. It sounds like the plot of a Hollywood thriller with one exception… IT’S REAL.
Secrets? Hidden truths? If the book is fiction being promoted as truth, how are we to read this story?
As we were going live in 20 minutes, I decided to ask Jonathan about this directly. First we spoke off air as the introduction music was playing. I immediately found him to be kind, humble and gracious. I told him that I would like to ask him about the red flags on this secret mystery, and he said it was not Gnosticism and that he would be happy to dispel and address any concerns. The program began, and I introduced him.
Amy: Jonathan, the full title of the book is The Harbinger, The Ancient Mystery that Holds The Secret Of America’s Future. I know we probably have some listeners who might have a red flag of discernment or two, saying, “wait a minute, mystery secret, what’s that all about in he (sic) Bible?”
Jonathan Cahn: There can be mysteries that are not biblical and mysteries that are biblical. Paul talks about the mystery of the Gospel, so mystery is something that was not seen and is now revealed. So this one is totally biblical.
Though I didn’t care for the Gnostic-style language on the cover and the accompanying promotional material, I felt a little more at ease, and we began to dissect the story. It was a fascinating interview. The book features a character known as The Prophet who mysteriously reveals nine seals with secret messages meant to hold the secret that God wants America to repent from its sin and become a Godly nation once again. I agree with that warning, at least in the sense that we can repent and have a revival on an individual basis. I think it is unrealistic to expect an entire nation to repent (or a state or village, for that matter), for obvious reasons.
I have now read the book and watched the entire accompanying video titled, The Isaiah 9:10 Judgement. Even after a second interview, other questions continue to nag at me and at others. Concerns like:
•Why infer that God is giving extra-biblical revelation, when the Bible was given once and for all to the saints?
•Israel is not America, and God did not make a covenant with us, nor are we the apple of His eye.
•Is the publisher pronouncing Rabbi Cahn a foretelling prophet?
•What else has the publisher put out there?
Others have done research on these and more that is excellent. I want to share the concerns of several other discernment ministries and writers so that you can get their perspective and make up your own mind. Some are Bible scholars, others are pastors, and others have been born again from Gnostic or New Age backgrounds and can hear some familiar themes. I appreciate the input and the different giftings and styles of these watchmen:
Radio host Brannon Howse asked Jonathan directly about several concerns he had such as whether the book promoted Replacement Theology. Brannon thought Cahn explained these concerns well, but still had some lingering concerns about some discrepancies between what the book is reporting about prophets verses what the Bible says. Additionally, he asks questions about whether it is a good idea to be interviewed on Glenn Beck’s show about how America needs to get back to God (but not the same god Glenn Beck follows).
Brannon explains why he believes that The Harbinger is exposing evangelicals to what they normally would not accept and questions why evangelicals and “discernment ministry” leaders that claim to be watchmen on the wall would not see the problem with The Harbinger or Cahn’s associations.
Brannon also expresses his concern that Jan Markell at WorldNetDaily has Cahn on her ministry website as speaking at her fall conference. Jan has also written that Cahn “…got stuck with unraveling a code given to him by God.” God is not giving extra-biblical revelation.
THE PEPSTER’S REPLY: If “God is not giving extra-biblical revelation” – as Howse states here, then He is not communicating with people, and if He is not communicating with people, then an important element and function of the advent and office of the Holy Spirit has been inactive since Apostolic Times.
If “God is not giving extra-biblical revelation” how then is God communicating today? Because the Lord is the Spirit, (2Corinthians 3:17) and the Holy Spirit bears witness to the truth (John 16:13), as Christ bore witness to the truth, and does so now through the indwelling Holy Spirit (John 14:18), convicts the world of sins (John 16:8-11), glorifies Christ (John 16:14), and proclaims Him as Lord (1Corinthians 12:3b), brings all things into remembrance and teaches all things (John 14:26). But if He still bears witness to this day (John 16:14), then how can some claim that “God is not giving extra-biblical revelation,” if He indeed still bears witness and must bear witness until Christ returns, while He indwells every born again believer? (John 14:18, 21-23, 26) And if “God is not giving extra-biblical revelation,” then how is it that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with unpronounceable groanings? (Romans 8:26-27). He is literally our lifeline through Christ to God Our Father, and empowers us for this new life, and grants us that we may have power from on high to live to please God in newness of life. (Romans 8:1-8)
If “God is not giving extra-biblical revelation,” how then can the Spirit not be at work in us as the Scriptures describe, when the Scriptures themselves bear witness that He lives in us, and that because He lives in us, our mortal bodies will someday be resurrected from the dead? (Romans 8:10-11) Indeed, some place else, Paul calls the Holy Spirit indwelling us, Christ in you the hope of glory, and even more amazing; that He would make His abode in Gentiles as well as in Israelites, if “God is not giving extra-biblical revelation,” – as some allege! (Colossians 1:27)
If “God is not giving extra-biblical revelation,” then who is drawing us to repentance and to Christ? For the Lord Himself declares, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:44) But if “God is not giving extra-biblical revelation,” then how is God reaching us? How is He communicating through His Word? And who is granting that we come to Christ? For the Lord Himself has said, “no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.” (John 6:65) If “God is not giving extra-biblical revelation,” then how is that John in the Holy Spirit, writing to his disciples in the faith, makes it clear that it is the Person of the Holy Spirit – “the anointing which you received from Him abides in you” – who is providing the “extra-biblical revelation” that allows them to understand the Scriptures when they read it? (1John 2:20, 27) And if we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God (1Corinthians 2:12), how then is it that anyone can claim that “God is not giving extra-biblical revelation”? The Cannon of Scripture may be closed, but God still speaks through that Cannon of Scripture today as He has throughout history, and it is the Person of the Holy Spirit – who discloses these things which we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. (1Corinthians 2:13) Because if we teach from God’s Word apart from the Holy Spirit, and using human wisdom, then we will most assuredly fall into human error, because a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. (1Corinthians 2:14)
If “God is not giving extra-biblical revelation,” then everyone must question their salvation, because no one can be certain that God has spoken to their hearts, convicted them of sin, revealed to them their desperate need for a Savior, and comes to indwell them at conversion, for without this new birth, it is impossible to see or enter the kingdom of God. (John 3:3, 5) This advent of the Holy Spirit would usher in an era where God would not limit the anointing presence of the Holy Spirit to just kings, prophets, and seers, but He would give His Spirit without measure to all flesh (Joel 2:28-32, Acts 2:1-47) until the Second Coming of Christ. (John 3:34)
If “God is not giving extra-biblical revelation,” then the important work and functions of the Holy Spirit – to convict the world of sin, to bear witness of Christ, and to lead people to repentance in Christ. As well as this; to indwell and becoming one in spirit with each believer (1Corinthians 6:17). To provide the anointing power and functions that are of paramount importance in the church today for Christian service (1Corinthians 12:7, Ephesians 4:7, 11-13), etc.., then all of these come into question; if “God is not giving extra-biblical revelation” today. And if all of these come into question, then how it is that we can belong to Christ if we do not have His Spirit in us? Because if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. (Romans 8:9)
If “God is not giving extra-biblical revelation,” then how does anyone know if they’re truly saved and have the Spirit of God, in indeed “God is not giving extra-biblical revelation,” because if He “is not giving extra-biblical revelation,” then He is not speaking, and if He is not speaking, He has not spoken, and if He has not spoken, then who has spoken, and in what spirit have they spoken when they’ve born witness of Christ? And how are we given to know of these things from God’s Word if “God is not giving extra-biblical revelation,”? Then who is giving the extra-biblical revelation? Because by its very nature, there must be an extra-biblical revelation – an imparting of understanding of what it already written in God’s Word by God’s Spirit, according to the Scriptures (1Corinthians 2:10, 1Peter 1:12) – in order for one to know with certainty that God is speaking through His Word and communicating to the unregenerate the truth that 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 4:12)
If “God is not giving extra-biblical revelation,” then no one can be certain that they have the Holy Spirit, and that they belong to God, because nothing is certain, because no one knows whether God is still giving His Holy Spirit; and if we cannot be certain that He is still giving His Holy Spirit, how can anyone be saved? How can we be sealed for God until the day of redemption? (Ephesians 1:13-14, 4:30) How can we belong to Him, when the Scripture makes it clear that if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him? (Romans 8:9) And how can we claim to have Christ in us as our hope of glory (Colossians 1:27) if we’re not sure we have the Holy Spirit?
If indeed “God is not giving extra-biblical revelation,” then everything is suspect. EVERYTHING. Where does it say in Scripture that He has stopped speaking? Where does it say in Scripture that He has ceased all function but evangelism, teaching, preaching, and has selectively and conveniently ceased all others that His Word clearly states His followers ought to put to good use as the Holy Spirit imparts them to serve for Christ’s glory? (1Corinthians 12)
If “God is not giving extra-biblical revelation,” then how can we witness of Christ and declare Him as Lord in our hearts? Because the Scripture is implicit when it says 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 12:2) and that every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. (1John 4:3) How then if “God is not giving extra-biblical revelation” into His written Word is Christ being proclaimed?
If “God is not giving extra-biblical revelation,” then how can God’s people speak at it were the utterances of God, (1Peter 4:11) if indeed “God is not giving extra-biblical revelation,”? And if He is being proclaimed as Lord and as Savior with full conviction and faith and power, then He still speaks, then He still is imparting extra-biblical revelation to people as He has done in ever age. God does not change, (Hebrews 13:8) and is not fickle like man and given to change (Numbers 23:19). And there is only one place where He defers His judgment and wrath, and it is where there is genuine repentance, even when pronouncing eminent judgment on a nation. (See the Book of Jonah) Because He is not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (2Peter 3:9) He who does not recognize that this is ordained by commandment from God is themselves not recognized. (1Corinthian 14:37-38) Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak in tongues. But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner. (1Corinthians 14:39-40)
Brannon Howse’s Cessationist statement is not only unbiblical, it is heresy, because it denies that Christ through the Holy Spirit is as alive and involved today as He was in the pages of our Bibles. A denial of the works of the Holy Spirit is a denial of Christ, inasmuch as these works are being done in His name and for God’s glory by Him through His people – His born again servants who are sealed by God for the day of His redemption, who have joined themselves to the Lord and have become one spirit with Him (1Corinthians 16:7). As the Lord Himself said, “For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” (John 5:22-23)
Additionally, it flies in the face of prophecy that makes it clear that the Holy Spirit will be active and at work in the Last Days. (Joel 2:28-32, Luke 11:13, 12:12, Acts 2:1-27, 1Corinthians 12) Evidence of this is the prophecy in Revelation regarding the two witnesses. (Revelations 11:3) If “God is not giving extra-biblical revelation,” then these two witnesses cannot prophesy, because “God is not giving extra-biblical revelation.” And yet, this event is in our future, not our past. Who do you think is right? Brannon Howse and Cessationists like him? Or the Holy Scriptures? I’ll go with the Holy Scriptures. There is no Scripture that says the work of the Holy Spirit has ended in any way. There are well-developed doctrines that teach this, and twist and mangle the clear meaning of God’s Word to promote it, but it is not God’s Word or in it, and these doctrines began after the Apostolic Age of the Second Temple and Post-Second Temple/Rabbinic Era, during the time and rise of Rabbinical Judaism, coinciding with the period of the Pre-Nicene Church Fathers.
(See Jon Mark Ruthven, On the Cessation of the Charismata the Protestant Polemics On Post-Biblical Miracles, Updated and Expanded Edition, pages 13-16, Word and Spirit Press, 1993, 2011. See also Dr. Michael Brown, Authentic Fire: A Response to John MacArthur's Strange Fire, Excel Publishers, 2013, Lake Mary, Fla., for additional reading on the topic of Continuationism versus Cessationism, and my own articles on the topic at the Pepster’s Post: A Voice in Cyberspace, DR. JOHN MACARTHUR'S STRANGE FIRE and STRANGE FIRE, STRANGE TEACHINGS)
Like many Christians who have come out of occultic, mystical or New Age backgrounds, researcher Christine Pack found some revealing statements in the book’s pages that prompted her to investigate:
Gnosticism
There is an exchange between two of the characters in The Harbinger who are discussing a secret message from a mysterious character (“The Prophet”) in the book:
“It’s the appointed time, but not for an ancient nation. It’s time for the word to be given…..for the mystery to be revealed…..for the message to go forth. It’s the appointed time⎯but not for an ancient nation.” (The Harbinger, p 13)
Friends, anytime you see language like this, and like the language below (also from The Harbinger)…..
■ “ancient mystery hidden for thousands of years……but now revealed”
■ a “mystery” that holds a “secret” to our future
■ “clues” needed to “unlock” a mystery
■ “messages” that need to be “unveiled”
……what you are dealing with is an ancient heresy called Gnosticism.
Gnosticism is a very old heresy that teaches that the truth has to be decoded, uncovered, unlocked, unveiled, discovered.
Secret Knowledge = Gnosticism
Gnosticism is a heresy because, according to God, we are given all that we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3) in God’s word. We don’t need to decode secret mysteries, unravel sealed up messages, decipher clues, or pull back the veil on hidden things. All that we need, all that God wants us to know, is contained in the Bible. Now, I will grant that in the New Testament, Paul does talk about the mystery of Gentiles and Jews being united together in a common church and common faith (something that could have scarcely been imagined in Old Testament times). There is also the mystery of Jesus Christ, who was dimly glimpsed through types and shadows in the Old Testament, but Who was gloriously revealed in his fullness as our Savior in the New Testament. But these are mysteries which are laid open for all to see and know and understand and respond to, and not clues on a Mysterious Journey to Somewhere (which is really the more western understanding of the word “mystery”).
“I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness; I have not said to Jacob’s descendants, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, the LORD, speak the truth; I declare what is right.”(Isaiah 45:19)
As a former Gnostic, I found great comfort as a born again Christian in understanding that all that God truly wants me to know He has plainly revealed in his Word. I spent more than a decade of my life as a New Ager/Gnostic going from teaching to teaching to teaching. I lost track of how many conferences I went to, books I purchased, teachers and gurus that I sought out, all in an effort to find truth. My quest for truth was sincere, but truth proved to be surprisingly elusive to attain. By the time God saved me, I was weary. I was worn out. I didn’t have it in me to go after One More Thing. All I could think of at the end was that I wanted rest, just a little bit of rest, from all my fruitless searching. The Lord, in his infinite mercy, gave me rest by rescuing me out of the mire of man-made wisdom and giving me the elegant simplicity of his Word. There is such a lovely purity and clarity in knowing that I can rest securely in the knowledge that all that God wants me to know I can find in the Bible.
THE PEPSTER’S REPLY: Christine Pack should know better than to make associations and connections where they do not exist. Were we to do that with everywhere the words “mystery,” “signs,” “revelation,” “knowledge,” and other phrases these people find objectionable, then we’d have to close our Bibles, because they’re full of them.
My suggestion is that the person who wrote the rubbish above (with the exception for the Scripture misapplied to this current discussion) get a Bible and open it to the Second Chapter of Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians (1Corinthians 2), and she or he read for themselves the following, which speaks about “hidden wisdom,” and “hidden mysteries” – because I do not believe that the Apostle Paul writing here in the Holy Spirit, was in any manner promoting Gnosticism.
I take great exception to what Christine Pack mistakenly wrote above, because it is biblically incorrect and contradicts Scripture. Christine Pack writes, and I quote “But these are mysteries which are laid open for all to see and know and understand and respond to, and not clues on a Mysterious Journey to Somewhere (which is really the more western understanding of the word “mystery”),” and yet this contradicts the following Scripture, but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory, (1Corinthians 2:6-8) and she contradicts where the Scripture directly tells us that a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ. (1Corinthians 2:14-16)
And there is so much more that can be said here in response to this irresponsible diatribe put out by this religious ambulance chaser. Connie/Faith said it so well in responding to Berit Kjos’ unfortunate article connecting The Harbinger to Mysticism, the Kabbalah, and the Zohar – when she wrote the following post, and I quote:
“This is my preliminary remark on Berit Kjos' mistaken response to Cahn's interest in a phrase from the Zohar:
Isa 29:20-21 ...all that watch for iniquity ..:
That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought.
All discernment ministries do in a sense "watch for iniquity" but in the case of the supposed discerning of Jonathan Cahn they've gone over the line into condemning a brother in Christ who isn't perfect but is not guilty as charged. He has his own interests that the discerners can't appreciate.”
I am reminded of what Paul wrote in one of his last letters, describing the characteristics of these religious ambulance chasing heresy hunters and conspiratorialists in our midst; To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. (Titus 1:15) If the Evangelists and Apostles, and Paul were put to the same rigors of so-called biblical criticisms these people put other Christians to, they’d be branded Gnostics, mystics, and every epithet they have flung erroneously at other Evangelicals in general, and Jonathan Cahn and his book in particular.
Ken Silva shares some good points and links to questions and concerns many Christians are voicing, including a review from Dr. Gary Gilley, as well as one from David James about some biblical discrepancies and serious flaws on prophetic matters. Then Ken asks what I think is an important question.
“This brings me to the critical issue I spoke of earlier: Is Jonathan Cahn trying to have his cake and eat it too? In other words, is The Harbinger really prophesy or is it fiction? He cannot have it both ways, which it appears to me he is trying to do. Allowing himself to be portrayed a prophet but leaving an escape hatch open by also claiming fiction.”
While Rabbi Cahn never claims to be a prophet, many others are doing so. Pat Robertson have pronounced the book a “prophetic word.” Does this mean it is a Thus Sayeth The Lord binding word?
THE PEPSTER’S REPLY: There is one great common denominator in all of these “religious ambulance chasing heresy hunters,” and that is that they tend to talk in very general terms, and apply their very specific objections in very broad and overarching contentions against those whom they target. This is typical of people who while believing that they are defending biblical truth, overlook extremely important details about what they are criticizing.
For example, we read above, “Is Jonathan Cahn trying to have his cake and eat it too?” A question that is posed in relation to whether “The Harbinger really prophesy or is it fiction,” in order to control the narrative away from what the book actually is. If they can get the reader away from what The Harbinger is, and redirect their attention to a question meant to solicit in the reader the fiction they’re trying to create – that Rabbi Cahn is claiming The Harbinger to be both prophecy and fiction, then they can proceed with their next objections they use against the book. In other words, by writing “This brings me to the critical issue I spoke of earlier: Is Jonathan Cahn trying to have his cake and eat it too? In other words, is The Harbinger really prophesy or is it fiction?” They can claim that he’s trying to have it both ways, which is precisely what they write, “He cannot have it both ways, which it appears to me he is trying to do. Allowing himself to be portrayed a prophet but leaving an escape hatch open by also claiming fiction.”
This is a complete fabrication. First of all, nowhere does The Harbinger claim for itself the status of prophecy. Second, nowhere does Jonathan Cahn claim for himself the office of prophet. Third, The Harbinger uses the fictional narrative to develop a story in which both ancient and current historical events and personages are described and described by a fictional character named “the prophet” as retold by another fictional character named Nouriel Kaplan, as he relates his story to a fictional journalist named Ana Goren. This is what The Harbinger is. Why are these people making such incredible efforts to re-write its narrative to mean something else, and to describe as something that it is not?
I have read all of the objections of every single player in this group. They have one thing in common. They are all Cessationists. Cessationists believe that “God is not giving extra-biblical revelation,” as Brannon Howse articulated above. They do not believe in the sign gifts of the Holy Spirit are operational today, or that God works miracles in this age, and that all prophets are false prophets. This is the gist of what these people believe and teach. Therefore anything that remotely resembles to them to be “prophetic” they object to and find questionable. This is why Ken Silva rhetorically asks, “While Rabbi Cahn never claims to be a prophet, many others are doing so. Pat Robertson have pronounced the book a “prophetic word.” Does this mean it is a Thus Sayeth The Lord binding word?”
I’ll answer that question Ken. It means precisely what the Apostle Peter writes about the prophets who came before them, who spoke did so as direct utterances of God, and not interpretation of what God had said, and therefore the prophets of which we have in Scripture and what they said are to be understood and listened to as God’s utterances to His people. (2Peter 2:19-21) Am I declaring here that I do not espouse the concept of Sola Scriptura because I believe that the words we speak when quoting Scripture and preach repentance are as it were the utterances of God? Of course not, I affirm it. The Written and infallible Word of Almighty God is what we preach, and teach from. We do not add to these words, we teach from them. If we speak prophetically according to the gift imparted by God’s Spirit, we do so without adding to the cannon of Scripture, just as there are thousands of prophecies that have been uttered by God’s prophets not recorded within the cannon of Scripture, but dealt – as do those uttered today – with specific situations, meeting personal needs of individuals most often spoken in private to them. This is in no say adding to Scripture, just as the prophecies spoken by those prophets not included in the cannon do not add to it, but were uttered just the same.
Let me elucidate; what are we to make of prophecies that are mentioned in Scripture, but we do not know the content thereof? Ken Silva can pose the same Cessationist question, “Do these mean it is a Thus Sayeth The Lord binding word?” Not necessarily. Prophecy given – like that of Agabus mentioned in Acts – and those mentioned in the Hebrew Bible where we read that Saul prophesied along with the prophets, but are not told what he prophesied – were and continue to be given to address the need of a specific situation and historical moment. Now as to whether or not what Jonathan Cahn has written is prophetic, there is absolutely no doubt about that, and it is in this context that Pat Robertson speak of it. As a Bible teacher, Pastor Silva ought to be able to distinguish between what is prophecy and what is prophetic.
The Cessationist finds solace in claiming that “God is not giving extra-biblical revelation, and does not speak anymore outside of the closed cannon of Scripture,” rather than face the sin of his own disbelief that God – that is – Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever., as the Scripture teaches. (Hebrews 13:8, see also Numbers 23:19, Hebrews 6:17-18) One doesn’t have to be a Pentecostal, or profess to be a Charismatic to understand that that “these signs will accompany those who have believed,” (Mark 16:17-18) and that a key component for God to work in a person’s life is faith. Faith brings acceptance and understanding, and these open the door to God, for it is by faith that we come to God and it is by faith that we are saved, not by any effort of our own, but by an impartation of a gift of faith, just as says, and the righteous man shall live by faith. (Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11) By the word of God we understand that it was because of unbelief that Jesus was accepted in His hometown, and it is by the word of God that we know that He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief. (Matthew 13:58) And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6) It human nature to deny what they cannot fully understand, and it doesn’t take a leap for one to see how easy it is to develop a theological denial of something that they have difficulty believing, rather than going to God about it, and confessing that sin, and asking Him for an impartation of knowledge and understanding according to His Word about the matter.
I am sharing with you an email I received today from Jonathan Cahn, author of The Harbinger, The Ancient Mystery that Holds The Secret Of America’s Future. Rabbi Cahn asked that he be able to answer the questions and concerns I reported yesterday, in an article titled, What To Make of the Harbinger Mystery. I’ve posted his email in its entirety:
Rabbi Jonathan Cahn:
When any book or message, which appears outside the box, as does The Harbinger becomes as popular a bestseller as it has becomes – it invites criticism. The Harbinger has been spreading across the nation – and, of course, criticism has come That doesn’t make the criticism valid – and in this case, such criticism has gotten more and more bizarre as time goes on. I will be glad to answer it:
Question: Why infer that God is giving extra-biblical revelation, when the Bible was given once and for all to the saints?
Answer: The Harbinger doesn’t state that God is giving extra-biblical revelation – unless one believes that God is unable to lead us, correct us, or warn us – The Harbinger does say that God is able to do all that, individually, and nationally. If God can judge a nation, He can also warn a nation. To say otherwise, I would say is unbiblical.
Concern: Israel is not America, and God did not make a covenant with us, nor are we the apple of His eye.
Answer: The Harbinger never says Israel is America or that God made a covenant with us. It does say that the Puritans, America’s founders established America after the pattern of ancient Israel and saw themselves in covenant with God – But it is never said that God made a covenant with America. Whether He has honored their prayers and consecration is left an open question.
THE PEPSTER’S REPLY: All three statements following the caption titled CONCERN above are correct, but they miss several important points. They are:
1.) The Harbinger never claims that America is Israel, nor that God established a covenant with America, nor that America is the apple of His eye.
2.) During his Inaugural Address, following his inauguration as the United States’ first president, Washington made the following biblical and prophetic observation. I quote: "The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right Heaven itself ordained." Washington, First Inaugural Address in the City of New York, April 30th, 1789.
3.) The United States is the only predominantly Gentile nation to have been founded by consecrated prayer to God. On April 30th, 1789, at St. Paul’s Chapel, following his inauguration, America’s first president led a joint session of both houses of congress in a prayer consecrating the new republic to God in the name of Jesus Christ for His blessing and protection.
4.) St. Paul’s Chapel is at the corner of what following the collapse of the Twin Towers became Ground Zero. It is here where America was consecrated by prayer to God on the day of its founding.
There are many other points that can be cited here, but these four points will do. They are a far cry from what The Harbinger’s critics claim it says, and what they call “concerns” are nothing more than misrepresentations of the facts about what it says regarding America’s origins.
Anyone who would disregard these extremely relevant points as merely coincidences, has little regard for prayer to God, and give little or no value to saying it in the name of Jesus Christ the Only Begotten Son of God, nor do they expect God answers such prayers.
Question: Is the publisher pronouncing Rabbi Cahn a foretelling prophet?
Answer: I don’t know what the publisher is pronouncing with regard to that, but the issue is not what the publisher says, but what The Harbinger reveals.
Question: What else has the publisher put out there?
Answer: Not very relevant. A book is not written by a publisher, but by its author.
Question: Does Rabbi Cahn draw from extra-biblical, mystical writings as his sources?
Answer: No. I only draw on one source for spiritual truth – the Bible. I only believe the Bible is the Word of God. One may use quotes in writing from a variety of sources – but this is not to be confused with relying on any source for spiritual truth – apart from the Bible.
Question: One critic said that since The Harbinger speaks of mysteries being revealed – does this have to do with Gnostic beliefs?
Answer: A very confused view. Unless we want to call the apostle Paul a Gnostic, since he also spoke of mysteries. It’s precisely the opposite. The Gnostics believed in knowledge that was to be kept secret, to stay a mystery. God is the One who reveals mysteries. The Harbinger does likewise – it reveals mysteries.
If there are no mysteries, then we know everything there is to know. But we don’t. And God, by His Spirit, is to lead us to continual insight, and show us things we don’t yet know. That’s the opposite of Gnosticism.
Question: It is stated that Jonathan Cahn “says that Zohar, an extrabiblical, mystical source from which the occultic and mystical Kabbalah is derived, greatly influenced his writing.
Answer: Unfortunately this kind of statements represents some of the extreme and bizarre opposition to The Harbinger – It is an extreme false accusation.
No. I have never in my life said that the Zohar has greatly influenced my writing – nor has it ever. What this accusation is taken from and twisted out of recognition from – Is that I have in some special teachings shared quotes found in the rabbinic writings which unwittingly bear witness of the truth of the Gospel – things that most Jewish people have no idea of – such as Isaiah 53 being about the Messiah, or God being Three in One, Messiah dying for our sins, or a connection made between the mercy of God and the word “Golgotha.” These things can be used to share the Gospel. This has been a standard method of apologetics and evangelism for ages. Rabbinical writings, mystical or otherwise, have been quoted for ages, in Bible commentaries, apologetics, works such as The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, etc. To take this and then present it as if I or any Christian pastor or scholar is a secret follower of such things because they used a quote to bear witness of the Gospel is, as, one minister friend of mine would say – shameful at best. It should not have even appeared in print.
The apostle Paul actually quoted from a pagan hymn to Zeus in order to share the truth of the Gospel at Mars Hill. If we were to then to accuse him of being into Zeus worship, or that pagan writings were behind the epistles, or accuse of him of being secretly pagan – I would think we would need to repent. It’s called bearing false witness.
Answer: No. It says Isaiah is prophesying of Israel – But that the same biblical template, pattern, and progression of judgment that took place in the last days of Israel, is now again manifesting in America.
Answer: The Harbinger contains many and deep revelations – By putting it into a narrative, it makes it very easy to read and understand – That the word would go out to as many people as possible.
Answer: Very simple. God judges nations. God warns of judgment. God is able to warn a nation of judgment in a way that is consistent with that which is found in the Bible. And that now the same biblical pattern, progression, and signs of national judgment that appeared in the last days of ancient Israel, are now manifesting to America. And that these signs are appearing in uncanny, eerily precise manifestations.
The Harbinger is not only the revealing of these biblical mysteries or connections, but is a call to repentance, salvation, and revival.
Question: What has the overall response been?
Answer: The Harbinger has overwhelmingly been endorsed, praised, recommended, and heralded throughout the evangelical world, and across the denominational spectrum, from Baptist to Charismatic, from Pat Boone to Pat Robertson, from pastors, to ministry leaders, to Bible teachers and deans of theological seminaries, people who obviously know the Bible and proper biblical hermeneutics. People are getting saved, coming to repentance, starting prayer groups and movements, being convicted of holiness.
Question: What do you think the opposition comes from?
Answer: There are ministries that set themselves look for error. This can provide a useful and important service for the body. But the problem is the downside – that the propensity to raise the sword, to quickly reject, to seek to find error (even when it’s not there) and to attack almost reflexively can become as much an error, a problem, and a danger as those who too readily accept teachings without questioning. The Harbinger is unique and doesn’t have much of a precedent – It appears as something very much out of the box. And then there’s the spiritual realm. If something is being used to affect many for revival, and repentance, and breakthrough, we have to expect that there will be opposition and misunderstanding, even by those meaning well.
The claims as even seen here, have grown increasingly bizarre and removed from the reality of The Harbinger. It’s a good sign. For that reason alone it would argue that something powerful is happening here
Answer: I have no doubt that it’s because the message is from the Lord. Before it even came out, I knew it would go forth to touch many lives because of it. It reveals things that believers have felt in their hearts but without the evidence to back it up. It reveals a biblical mystery of specific template of judgment that is now playing out in America, before our eyes, lying behind everything from 9/11 to the crash of Wall Street, biblical harbingers of judgment appearing in New York City, Washington, D.C., involving some of the highest of American leaders, the replaying of an ancient drama of judgment, even giving exact dates. People have described it in such terms as “stunning,” “mind blowing,” and “life changing.” And it is not only that, but that it is a call for repentance, revival, and salvation.
For all that, and even for the kind of opposition it’s gotten alone, the reader owes it to himself or herself to read it and see if this is, what most who have read it, believe it is, an urgent word that is given for such a time as this.
November 7th, 2012
St. Paul’s Chapel, located in the lower Manhattan district of New York, plays a central roll (sic) in Jonathan Cahn’s book, ‘The Harbinger’. The Chapel is the oldest public building in continuous use. One of its most famous worshipers was George Washington. The Chapel regained acclaim once again in 2001 during the attack of the World Trade Center.
It was widely noted that St. Paul’s Chapel went relatively unscathed following the collapse of the twin towers compared to other structures in the area. It was also a refuge, for it served as a recovery center where rescue workers could receive round-the-clock care.
There is a lesser known part St. Paul’s Chapel played in the 9/11 scenario. However is could be of possible greater significance. That is its alleged role role(sic) in the prophetic fulfillment in Biblical scripture. According to Jonathan Cann (sic), a Messianic Jew and author of ‘The Harbinger’, St Paul’s was a central cast member in forewarning of pending judgement (sic) as found in Isaiah 9:10. “The bricks have fallen down, But we will rebuild with hewn stones; The sycamores are cut down, But we will replace them with cedars.” (NKJV)
Painting At St. Paul’s Chapel
I visited St. Paul’s Chapel on October 27, 2012 to paint it en plein air. I was not able to verify the landmarks that have been erected as a result of the Ground Zero attack, for I was there only long enough to paint this quick watercolor.
However, according to Cahn, a beam was hurled from one of the falling towers and struck a sycamore tree in the Chapel yard. Later, New York City officials decided (apart from the knowledge of scripture) to replace the damaged sycamore with a cedar tree.
Cahn’s book, The Harbinger, goes into much more detail on why he believes the 9/11 attack was a harbinger, a forerunner of judgement (sic) on the United States just as the nation of Israel was warned when the prophet Isaiah foretold of his nation’s judgement (sic) for falling away from God centuries ago.
The Harbinger: A Work of Fiction
I can’t give an endorsement of Cahn’s book, The Harbinger. In his review of The Harbinger, Dr. Gary E. Gilley wisely points out that the book is, after all, a work of fiction, not of Biblical prophecy.
I believe that there is a falling away from Biblical truth among some people who consider themselves to be Christians. This is merely my observation, not a judgement (sic). Whatever your position is on the health and well-being of the Christian community, you might want to investigate ‘The Harbinger’ for yourself. If nothing else, it might lead you, as it did me, to listen more closely for God’s voice and leading as the world increasingly seems to be spinning wildly through space toward destruction.
No comments:
Post a Comment