I’ve been working on a very long rebuttal to David James’ broadside against The Harbinger that he posted and still keeps on his website, and eventually will post that as well. Some of you have received advanced parts of this rebuttal, and I thank you for your responses and encouragements in the Lord. I’ve planned for some time now to move on with these things, but the more that I read Mr. James’ writings, the more error I find not only in his reasoning, but in his theology and approach to the prophetic. Lord willing, I will outline point by point each one of these in my upcoming article.
I have a few other articles I am also working parallel to these, including transcripts of programs these people have appeared on, as I plan to present what they have said in their own words, so that they will not be able to deny what they had said and done for which they have not repented, have not presented a public apology to Jonathan Cahn, and many others for, including to Jan Markell, to Eric Barger, to Dr. David Reagan, and several to many other servants of God who suffered great personal attacks by these people.
There has been no repentance, no remorse, no public apology, no retraction and correction of the record, nothing forthcoming from any of these people or any evidence that their hearts are right before God and sought His grace and forgiveness for what they have done, even in the face of much reproof and exhortation, and corrections they have received for their behavior and public statements.
The saddest example of a parallel that we can draw upon to what’s happening today from God’s Word is how the leaders and people treated God’s prophets when they warned them of impending judgment if they would not turn from their wickedness and turn to Him. Dr. David Reagan in his great book, America the Beautiful? The United States in Bible Prophecy, describes this state of being very well, where he writes in the section titled Warnings from God. I quote:
“The blessing and sins of Judah are not the only parallels with the United States. A third thing both nations share in common is warnings from God.
“When Judah drifted from God, the Lord sent prophet after prophet to call the nation to repentance and to warn that, if the people refused to repent, God would deliver the nation to destruction. God also warned through remedial judgments like natural disasters and military invasions. His ultimate warning came when He poured out His wrath upon the northern nation of Israel, allowing the nation to be destroyed and its people to be carried into captivity. He instructed the prophets to use Israel’s fate as a warning to Judah.
“But it was all to no avail. The people of Judah mocked the prophets and refused to recognize any connection between their sins and the calamities that beset them. Jeremiah reported that they scoffed at him, saying that he was full of wind (Jeremiah 5:13). He accused them of being closed minded. “To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ears are closed, and they cannot listen” (Jeremiah 6:10). They were also arrogant, crying out repeatedly, “This is the temple of the Lord!” (Jeremiah 7:4). What they meant by that statement is that they refused to believe the prophet’s warnings of impending national destruction because they did not believe God would allow anyone to destroy His temple.”
(David R. Reagan, America the Beautiful? The United States in Bible Prophecy, page 86-87, Lion and Lamb Ministries, McKinney, Texas, 2009
Continuing further on, Dr. Reagan describes the prevailing attitudes in America today among its Christian Evangelicals. In the next section titled, The American Attitude, he writes, and I quote:
“The attitude of many Americans is very similar today, even among those who claim to be Christians. God has sent many prophetic voices to call this nation to repentance – men like Dave Wilkerson and Don Wildmon – but just as in the days of Judah, these men’s messages have been greeted with scoffing and ridicule. Dave Wilkerson’s books have been banned from many church bookstores because they do not contain a ‘positive message.’ Don Wildmon reports that many of the most critical letters he receives are from pastors who are annoyed by his campaign against pornography.
“I have personally found that when I preach a message of warning about God’s impending judgment on this nation, I am often met with incredulity…”
(Ibid, page 87)
The most stark manifestation of a defiant, unbelieving, faithless, and arrogant attitude towards God has come surprisingly from the last segment of our society we would have anticipated for it to come from – a small, but extremely vocal segment of conservative Evangelicals within the body of Christ. But especially even more astonishing and troubling is that the opposition has been from, of all places, the last place anyone would have anticipated it to come from – the new apologists who have appeared in recent years on the Internet and radio – from within some of the self-styled “discernment community.”
But indeed, had the opposition come from any other quarter, it would have readily been recognized and summarily dismissed, but coming from a few well-respected ministries; the disbelieving and skeptical voices that have arisen have proven that the best tactic an enemy can use are those voices within and not outside of the body of Christ. The spiritual and supernatural aspects of this have been made manifest by the prevailing attitudes and reactions this small but influential group of men and women had when biblically confronted, called out, and criticized by fellow Evangelical leaders and ministries regarding their methods, tactics, behavior, and public statements and articles. When given incontrovertible evidences of their erroneous positions and methods; they have reacted to this with a visceral disregard to all that has been brought to their attention, and rather than repent in prayer, publicly apologize to the offended parties, retract and correct what they have said and written, they have justified themselves and stiffened their necks, and hardened their hearts, and increased these attacks against their fellow Evangelicals without the slightest restraint or remorse.
Every example of how Christians should behave towards one another is given to us in Scripture. There is for example the method used by the Bereans whom Paul the Apostle visited. This method can be applied to situations where knowledgeable brethren disagree on certain particulars regarding theology, but wish to discuss these differences as good “Bereans” who search thoroughly the Scriptures to obtain the facts about what they differ. Now in the case of the Bereans in Paul’s day, they searched to Scriptures to verify that what Paul preached to them about the Messiah supports what the Scriptures say about Him. We read:
The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, along with a number of prominent Greek women and men.
(Acts 17:10-12)
The result of their thorough search of the Scriptures resulted in many of them embracing faith in Jesus as the Messiah. Note, neither the Bereans or Paul berated one another as “false teachers” or “false messengers” but Paul shared the Gospel, they listened, and they searched and examined the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. Even these Bereans were not yet Christians, neither they or Paul acted in an unworthy manner towards one another, but the Scriptures teach us that they were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, and examined the Scriptures for themselves without arguing with Paul about them as the Thessalonians had.
We also have some very good examples of how believers should properly handle a brother who is fervent in the faith, but who may have an incomplete or faulty knowledge of God’s Word, or how disagreements are handles properly and consideration of the other while respecting and defending the truth of God’s Word in the process. We go to the Book of Acts, and read the following:
Now a Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John; and he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.
(Acts 18:24-26)
When Apollos preached an incomplete Gospel, having been acquainted only with the baptism of John, (Acts 18:25) Aquila and Priscilla took him aside and explained to him the complete work of God. (Acts 18:26) What’s more, after explaining the way of God more accurately to him, when he wanted to go across to Achaia, the brethren encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him; and when he had arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah. (Acts 18:27-28)
They did not bring him into public ridicule and accuse him of being a false servant of the Messiah, nor did they claim that the reason they would degenerate to commit such act as bringing a brother in Christ to open repudiation (as the critics of The Harbinger have done to Pastor and Rabbi Jonathan Cahn and to many other Christians, and continue to do in the name of “discernment,” as what they believe is their calling and service to God.)
Another example of the proper manner in which correction is given to those who believe, but whose theology is unclear or incomplete is in the manner which the Apostle Paul, while traveling through Ephesus handled a group of Jews whom Luke calls “disciples” who had heard the message of John the Baptist, but had not received the Holy Spirit. We go to the biblical record Luke’s Acts:
It happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus, and found some disciples. He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said to him, “No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” And they said, “Into John’s baptism.” Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying. There were in all about twelve men.
(Acts 19:1-7)
The examples cited above present to us are the biblical manner in which to resolve issues that arise from either incomplete or defective theological points of view among one or more parties within the body of Christ; not the manner employed by the critics of The Harbinger, of some within the so-called “discernment ministries” – primarily those who target a person and then rip them to shreds in public. I explain this more in depth in my book, The Truth About The Harbinger. For those who may prefer to read their books in Kindle, my book, The Truth About The Harbinger comes in three affordable formats. These methods can be used by Christians to resolve doctrinal and theological differences by private discussions, not public slander and reproach. How can we claim to have the love of Christ for a brother while in public forums declare that they teach dangerous heresies? (2Peter 2:1)
Therein lies the mystery in this, and great parallels to Isaiah’s and Jeremiah’s day, and the reactions of the ancients to their prophets whom God sent to them in order to avert disaster. It is precisely the same prevailing attitudes with as much self-justification and vituperations directed at those servants whom God has sent to warn of his judgments in this day and age. It is this same disbelieving skepticism that marked the ancients questioned whether God had sent these prophets, and who afterwards openly declared that God had not sent them in open defiance, attempting to drown their voices out by telling God’s people not to believe them and to disregard their warnings, because according to them, God was not speaking through them. The echoes of such defiance ring in our ears today in America, and just as it was with the ancients, so it is with God’s people today.
We hear the mocking and the skeptical disbelievers within the body couched in well-developed and clever argumentations that defy anything that may appear or sound remotely prophetic a coming from God. Don’t be fooled by this. We must recall that the mocking disbelievers were not from the nations, but were from among God’s people, and we must guard ourselves from falling into the same traps and repeat the same mistakes they made.
Make no mistake about it; we are seeing a repeat performance of the same defiance in our day, and it is coming from within the church itself. Just as the same remedial judgments in these harbingers have appeared in our land today, we also are witnessing the same religious intellectuals mock and deride both the messages of warnings and those who make them – those whom God has raised up to warn His people to repent or face eminent judgment upon our land if they do not.
I have never in my life ever witnessed such a thing as this. I have never in thirty-seven years as an Evangelical born again believer, follower and fellow bondservant of the Lord Jesus Christ by God’s grace ever witnessed the energies, resources, and intellectual abilities of some within the “discernment community” coalesce to openly and defiantly question and disregard a message that so clearly is a clarion call of God to His people to turn from sin to Him and pray for this land and meet their responsibilities as servants of God’s grace and ambassadors to bring this message of reconciliation to a dying nation, and troubled world, as I have seen and witnessed these past two years with their treatment of The Harbinger and its author, Jonathan Cahn.
I’ve seen people criticized for a good many things, but never have I witnessed anything that remotely approaches or resembles the kind and level of persecution and open reproach these ministries have brought to bear upon one of our own within the body of Christ. This is simply not prescribed in any way by the Scriptures. This is evidence that what we are witnessing is a precise replay of what happened to the prophets of ancient Israel now in our day, in our land, and among God’s people. We should be astonished by this, and expose it every time it rears its ugly head, because this is not discernment, this is deceptively derisive division masquerading as apologetics, and claiming to contend for the faith. There is no place in God’s Word where Christians are called to contend with one another for a faith we hold common and dear. This is pure deception and a lying trick of the enemy to destroy the body of Christ from within by setting it on each other’s throats. WAKE UP MY BELOVED BRETHREN!!! WAKE UP!!!!
