WHAT FOLLOWS IS A PUBLIC REBUTTAL OF THE FALSE WITNESS LEVELLED AGAINST THE AUTHOR OF THE HARBINGER: JONATHAN CAHN. I SERVE AT BETH ISRAEL IN THE CAPACITY OF TEACHER OF GOD'S WORD AND DO SO BY THE GRACE AND CALLING OF GOD ACCORDING TO THE MEASURE OF GRACE GIVEN TO ME BY ALMIGHTY GOD FOR HIS SERVICE. I KNOW PASTOR AND MESSIANIC RABBI JONATHAN CAHN PERSONALLY, AND HAVE KNOWN HIM FOR ALMOST THIRTEEN YEARS. WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO REDAD IS MY RESPONSE TO THE BITTERNESS OF ONE MAN AGAINST ANOTHER.
SCARPATI: Dear Berean Call,
http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/scarpatiletter.html
I wanted to let you know that I had appreciation for your June, 2012 newsletter that discussed The Harbinger. As one who attended the congregation of Jonathan Cahn for over 13 years, serving in a pastoral position there for several years, I heard a good number of sermons that were not based on a sound use of God’s Word. If one attended there for an extensive time, he may have noticed an unhealthy focus on "mystery busting" and Jonathan drawing attention to himself as a "special end-time vessel of The Lord" in a manner that gave him and the congregation where he taught an air of superiority over other leaders and churches. This involved an unsound usage of GOD's eternal WORD with a focus on connecting various events to other events and/or Scripture.
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REBUTTAL: How quickly you have turned on your fellow servant in Christ, as Judas turned on the Lord; to betray his name, to betray his trust, to betray everything you and he labored for in order to ingratiate yourself with these people. Did you really hear a good number of sermons, as you say above, that were not based on a sound use of God’s Word? Really did you? Can you cite these sermons? Can you explain concisely where it was that you thought these erred?
And your assessment of Jonathan Cahn as “drawing attention to himself as a ‘special end time’ vessel of the Lord’ is so full of cynical contempt and unbelief it is amazing; because we are all according to God’s Word ambassadors for Christ (2Corinthians 5:20) and as such, we are also a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a people for God’s own possession (1Peter 2:9), or have you forgotten this? How then can you out another servant of Christ and claim as you do that he is calling attention to himself?
Your accusation drips of envy and an air of one who believed that such attention should have been given to him instead; because even to make this statement in itself is nothing short of an ego trip and betrays your own displaced feelings of wrong being done to you and your entitlement mentality that has made you break the commandment against covetousness by envying your brother’s calling in Christ, and allow deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness manifests themselves in the way you write about him (Mark 7:22), and disregard the Word of Our Lord Jesus Christ against speaking evil of your brother and judging him “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:1-5), the commandment against bearing false witness (Exodus 20:16, Exodus 23:1, Deuteronomy 5:20, Matthew 19:18), and many more. Your own contemptible writing speaks for itself. By your own words you have brought judgment upon yourself. I ASK YOU SIR, WOULD CHRIST TREAT YOU IN THIS MANNER? HAS HE EVER?
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SCARPATI: It actually struck me how T.A., having not attended the congregation of Jonathan Cahn, seemed to have picked up on the same type of thing that others, who have known Mr. Cahn for years, have also been concerned with. So let me testify to the gift of discernment that it seems GOD has given to you. I'm not sure that replacement theology is at the heart of Mr. Cahn's error, but rather an overall focus on mystery and making connections in a manner that is negligent of sound doctrine and a clear gospel message. His error can be very subtle, which would explain why so many would be taken in by it.
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REBUTTAL: You attended 13 years in this congregation, was a pastor in this congregation, heard all of Jonathan Cahn’s messages during that 13 year period, and you write that you are not certain that Jonathan Cahn teaches Supersessionism (Replacement Theology)!? You know that he does not, how then can you write without certainty about this!? If you cannot write with certainty about this, and you were there for thirteen years, how then can anyone take your word on anything else you write here? Again, let the Lord give discernment, because as you have written here, so you have betrayed the poison of your own soul, and the harbored and festering bitterness you have harbored and now express, having seen the opportunity to unleash in writing the true feelings of your heart. Of course you’re going to ingratiate yourself with this man; of course you’re going to side with him and claim as a false witness that what Jonathan Cahn taught while you were there was error. Isn’t it funny, you waited so long for you to come out and say it!? Let those who can discern do so in Jesus’ name. Your own words indict you. Your own words contradict what you are trying to say here. I ASK YOU AGAIN SIR, HAS CHRIST EVER TREATED YOU WITH SUCH CONTEMPT AS YOU TREAT YOUR BROTHER HERE? HAS HE EVER?
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SCARPATI: The Harbinger deals with a topic that in itself is a valid one - the need for America to repent. But in these perilous times of our nation, where so many believers are grieved because of the increase in godlessness and lawlessness, there is the temptation for us to compromise, and to be willing to overlook unsound usages of GOD's WORD when the cause seems right. The error of compromising doctrine and accepting a wrong use of Scripture for the sake of morality is what leads to such unsound practices as Christians uniting with Mormons and Catholics over issues such as abortion, pornography, and homosexuality in ecumenical events. As great of a concern as these things may be, may we resist the temptation to put a correct use of Scripture on the back burner, even in such times when emotions are flying high because of the perilous times in our nation.
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REBUTTAL: These points have nothing to do with The Harbinger. Jonathan Cahn has not united with Mormons, has not united with heretics, and to claim that he has because he was on Glenn Beck’s show, and was on other shows that some like Mr. McMahon might consider in their estimation (like yours) aberrant, does not in itself indicate that Jonathan Cahn endorses their teachings or what they do. He is simply doing the work of Christ’s kingdom by delivering the good news that our Merciful Father, the God whom we serve; has given US as a people – His people – and this nation which we inhabit, a specific warning in which there is the hope of the Gospel – salvation, and restoration for our nation, if we (His people) turn from our wickedness – such that which you have done here; a most grievous wickedness and thing to do to a fellow servant in Christ and one with whom you worked side by side with for so many years – only to betray him in this manner. It is a disgrace! A DISGRACE! IT IS BETRAYAL OF THIS SORT THAT OUR LORD HAS WARNED WILL BE ONE OF MANY SIGNS THAT WILL PRECEDE HIS RETURN.
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SCARPATI: In his response to you, where Jonathan appeals to the good reviews and popularity of the book, he overlooks the fact that the way to life is narrow, and the way to destruction broad (Matthew 7:13-14), and that the deception in the end times would be so great that even "the very elect" would be deceived if possible (Matthew 24:24). The popularity of the book is something which should make us concerned, not more confident regarding its accuracy.
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REBUTTAL: You use the same type of logic the religious opposition used against Jesus. They were worried that the multitudes were following everywhere, and were worried that the Romans would see this and take it as a revolution against Caesar’s government, and they would lose their elevated status with the government and their influence over the people. They considered the people ignorant and themselves the learned. They were the doctors of divinity, the religious experts and intellectuals, the learned authorities on God’s Word in their day, and they opposed everything Jesus Christ stood for.
As it was then, and as it has been throughout human history, so it is to this very day. We are seeing here. We are also witnessing the betrayal by men such as yourself of others. Have you read The Harbinger? If not then, do not pass judgment on it. And stop bearing false witness against your neighbor, against your brother in Christ. And repent, and seek God’s forgiveness, and then go to your brother and apologize for what you have done. It is a disgrace, and YOU WILL BE BROUGHT TO ACCOUNT FOR IT.
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SCARPATI: Mr. Cahn says that the book "never says that Isaiah was prophesying of America" but that the pattern of judgment in Israel is now recurring in America. So, if it was not prophesying, why has Mr. Cahn referred to its message as being prophetic (I have evidence that he's done so if you haven’t heard or seen it). Having known Jonathan, I'm aware of his tactic to give half-truths and to lead someone to come to a certain conclusion (like his being a prophet) without directly saying it. He would say certain things that would lead you to one conclusion, and others that could lead to the very opposite one. He operates in a lawyer-like fashion. Is he a prophet or not? Is the book prophetic or not? Putting together clues is not prophesying, is it? Prophets got direct revelation from GOD. We must be very careful to not use the word "prophet" or the concept of something being prophetic in a loose, sloppy, undefined, or unclear manner.
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REBUTTAL: Have you never read in the Book of Revelation where it declares most emphatically that “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy?” Or have you not read in God’s Word where it says “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me. Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.” (John 6:43-48) What is it about this that you have overlooked? They shall all be taught of God, that is to say, that the Holy Spirit of God will teach and direct us to God’s truth, to Christ, and this is a work of God; the Father of whom James in the Holy Spirit writes very clearly there is no shifting shadow and variation. (James 1:17) Do you have any idea what this means? Then, how can you write as you do?
How can you claim that he says he’s a prophet, and that his book is this or that, when you don’t even understand the distinction between the prophetic and the non-prophetic yourself, as these men also don’t? There are prophetic utterances that are not prophecy, because they are not holy writ and are outside of the cannon of Scripture; such as prophetic utterances mentioned throughout the Old and New Testaments which are never recorded, but alluded to, as when King Saul prophesied among the prophets.(1Samuel 10:1-16) We have also have the example of Agabus, who prophesied that there would be a famine in the days of Claudius and it came to pass, but we are not given the prophetic word verbatim, we are just told that he prophesied this. (Acts 11:28)
I have known Jonathan Cahn personally for twelve years, and I serve according to God’s election and calling at Beth Israel. I bear witness before Jesus Christ that not one word that you have written above has any truth to it whatsoever. HOW DARE YOU BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST YOUR BROTHER IN CHRIST IN THIS MANNER AND LIE TO THE LORD BEFORE WHOM YOU HAVE MADE THESE FALSE CHARGES, AND THINK THAT YOU WILL ESCAPE YOUR OWN DEMISE BY YOUR OWN MOUTH!?
AND HOW DARE YOU LECTURE ANYONE ABOUT BEING CAREFUL, WHEN YOU HAVE RECKLESSLY SHOWN SUCH DISREGARD IN THIS AND MANY OTHER MANNERS!? Your own words here indict you as a lawbreaker, because you judge the law by judging your brother in Christ. I don’t say this, the Word of Almighty God makes it quite clear. Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor? (James 4:11-12) , and also, But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. (Romans 14:10) WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS SCRIPTURE THAT ESCAPES YOUR NOTICE, OR THAT YOU OR YOUR ASSOCIATES FAIL TO UNDERSTAND!? The Word of God warns that “by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:37)
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SCARPATI: It seems like what Mr. Cahn is doing is, in essence, saying he’s a prophet. It’s like he’s giving a different variation of prophecy, and because of that variation (implying he’s gotten revelation regarding the future of America, appealing to “connection signs” rather than being in the more typical style of modern-day professed prophecy) he’s flying under the radar with some who are generally discerning. But for years in his congregational teachings there were such connections being set forth - up to your ears. I testify to the things I am writing here regarding Mr. Cahn's modus operandi, as a witness who knows him. And believe me, there are others who have also been witnesses to such things. And I'm hardly even scratching the surface here in terms of sharing all the reasons why I have concern over Jonathan Cahn.
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REBUTTAL: Pastor and Messianic Rabbi, NOT MR. CAHN, as you deride his station and his calling; Pastor Cahn has never claimed to be a prophet, but the message of The Harbinger is prophetic, as is any message of God’s Gospel and all matters pertaining to it, inasmuch as anything that is related to repentance cannot be divorced from the cross, and the message of The Harbinger is a message of repentance, and repentance must be followed by a confession of faith in Jesus Christ and His death, burial, bodily resurrection, and ascension to the right hand of God, where He makes intercession for the saints – US – and by common confession, thus it is prophetic because of its very nature. It you charge Jonathan Cahn with manifesting some of the sign-gifts as outlined properly in the Apostle Paul in his Second Letter to the Corinthians, then it bears witness against YOU, because the use of such gifts of the Holy Spirit, Paul makes clear are necessary components and offices that exists for the purpose of serving Christ effectively.
You are trying to disgrace him, and defame him, because you know that Mr. McMahon and the others of his colleagues do not believe in these gifts, but are Cessationists; and in so doing, you CONDEMN YOURSELF AS ONE WHO DISBELIEVES IN THE PRACTICE OF SUCH GIFTS, OR WORSE (AS THESE MEN DO) YOU PROSCRIBE THEM, and Paul has warned us to keep from those who hold to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. (2Timothy 3:5) This is a denial of Jesus Christ which John the Holy Spirit has warned us about as a sign of Antichrist, because to deny His works in His servants is to deny Him; remember it was in vain did Jesus warn that we do to another, we do unto the Lord!? (Matthew10:40-42, 25:31-46, Luke 10:16, 18:5, John 13:20) BE VERY CAREFUL, DON’T BE FOOLED AND THINK THAT YOU ARE EXONERATED BECAUSE YOU SAY, “Lord, Lord to God,” and YET DO NOT DO HIS WILL, BY SLADERING YOUR BROTHER IN PUBLIC, AND BY BREAKING THE COMMANDMENT TO LOVE HIM AS CHRIST LOVES HIM AND YOU, AND ME. BE VERY CAREFUL. YOU ARE WALKING A TIGHTROPE IF YOU BELIEVE YOU WILL GET AWAY WITH THIS, AND MANY OTHER THINGS THAT CANNOT BE WRITTEN HERE, BUT THE LORD KNOWS YOU INTIMATELY OF WHICH YOU THINK NO ONE SEES, BUT GOD SEES, RIGHT INTO YOUR HEART AND JUDGES YOUR INTENTIONS.
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SCARPATI: As far as similarities, sure, there are parallels between what happened between ancient prideful Israel and modern prideful America. But there have been recurring patterns that span all nations and individuals from the time of the fall. Since the fall, man has always been prideful, and so there has always been the recurring theme of man's pride followed by God's judgment. (Please note the truth of Proverbs 16:18.) This has happened in nations aside from Israel and America. For example, in the very chapter that follows Isaiah 9, in 10:5-16, we see judgment on prideful Assyria, the very tool used to humble Israel and Judah. And what about the same pattern seen with Edom as recorded in Malachi 1:4: "Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever."
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REBUTTAL: Your writing betrays you. You write: “As far as similarities, sure, there are parallels between what happened between ancient prideful Israel and modern prideful America. But there have been recurring patterns that span all nations and individuals from the time of the fall. Since the fall, man has always been prideful, and so there has always been the recurring theme of man's pride followed by God's judgment.” But the Apostle Peter writing in the Holy Spirit, prophesies of men such as yourself, when he writes the following, and TAKE NOTE, IT IS ALMOST VERBATIM WHAT YOU WRITE ABOVE IN YOUR CURRENT STATE OF BITTERNESS AND DISBELIEF, I quote: Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” (2Peter 3:3-4)
The impulses that drive you to write what you did here, are the same lusts that wage war in your members, which become evident when discerned properly by God’s Word and His Holy Spirit who brings to light all things by imparting understanding into them. Your bitter spirit has driven you to write against your neighbor; against your brother in Christ as you have and to make it public for all to know. You have tried to shame him, to belittle him, to destroy his ministry and his good name before others, and you have only served to do it to yourself and your own credibility.
What? Because history is repetitive, we’re supposed to deny what is occurring in our own day? Because God has judge these nations, do you think He will not judge US if we – the people of God in this nation – do not pray for our leaders, repent ourselves of the type of behavior we see here characteristic in your screed against your neighbor – and the incessant attacks by the people whom you address your letter to – Mr. McMahon, Mr. James, Mr. Howse, Mr. Ice, et al – do you believe that if these do not likewise repent from their witch hunt and inquisition, there will not come judgment on this land and on their ministries for what they have done from a Holy and Just God!?
BE VERY CAREFUL SIR. Even what you write above again, bears witness against you, because the pronouncements upon these godless nations bear witness against you, inasmuch as you are trying to write against the message in The Harbinger, which is a warning of impending judgment upon this nation, but also one of hope of we turn, as Nineveh turned, and was spared by God, even though He gave no hope to them that they would be spared. Read the Book of Jonah for yourself. This was a people who didn’t even have a covenant relationship with God. But because the cross reaches back into history and forward into the future; and it was established long before the foundation of the world that Christ would die for our sins and be raised for our justification; the people of Nineveh served as a type. Let those who have eyes to see, see and understand in Jesus’ name.
________________________________________ SCARPATI: What has Jonathan Cahn revealed in The Harbinger that any Christian who knows their Bible couldn't know anyway? Again, just from the above referenced verses of Isaiah 10 and Malachi 1, we could know that any nation (including present day, rebellious, proud America) that is sinful is in danger of potential judgment. If The Harbinger were never written, a believer could see in Scripture the pattern of pride followed by God’s judgment. But Mr. Cahn has had a history of taking such things and putting a spin on them that "wows" you, when in reality he hasn't really taught anything that a Bible-knowledgeable believer could not have already known from the truths already revealed in God's Word. If anything, there may be a subtle, yet very dangerous undermining - a subtle drawing attention away from The Word of God towards Jonathan Cahn's so-called prophetic message and connections (and really Jonathan Cahn himself). ________________________________________
REBUTTAL: By one stroke of your pen, you condemn Jonathan Cahn for having written The Harbinger and join with T.A. McMahon in trashing him and his book by claiming that it is full of errors, and by the other hand you contradict yourself by writing “What has Jonathan Cahn revealed in The Harbinger that any Christian who knows their Bible couldn't know anyway? Again, just from the above referenced verses of Isaiah 10 and Malachi 1, we could know that any nation (including present day, rebellious, proud America) that is sinful is in danger of potential judgment. If The Harbinger were never written, a believer could see in Scripture the pattern of pride followed by God’s judgment.” What will it be Mr. Scarpati? You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Either you believe as these gentlemen do, that The Harbinger is wrong, or you believe that it is a warning to this nation and God’s people, as a reading of God’s Word would reveal, that we are in serious danger. It can’t be both. But, your own words bear witness against you, for you contradict your own words in that you wrote in the manner expressed above.
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SCARPATI: Let me share a true story that illustrates the point of my concern. A woman I know was invited to Beth Israel (the congregation where Jonathan pastors) and began attending regularly, getting a diet of Jonathan Cahn’s style of teaching. I personally had spoken to her about salvation. At one point it seemed like she may have believed the gospel and I spoke to her about water baptism, which the Scriptures clearly command for a new believer. But she was resistant and not giving proper recognition to the Scripture’s authority. But one day she more or less told me that decided to get baptized. But in explaining what brought her to this conclusion, she did not refer to Christ’s command of Matthew 28:19, but rather told me about her having seen a truck with a rainbow on it (I don’t remember all the details now, as it was several years ago, but she may have connected the truck with the rainbow with some other event). So, she decided to do the right thing (if she truly was saved) for the wrong reason. It was not the Scripture she referenced when giving her reason after finally deciding to be baptized, but a sign – a truck with a rainbow that she saw. This is not the thinking of a disciple.
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REBUTTAL: Your own words condemn you again as a false witness against your neighbor, against your brother in Christ; for you write here about a woman who made a decision based upon something that she saw rather than by Scripture, and then attempt to impute guilt upon Jonathan Cahn for this woman’s independent choice of which he had, even by your own account, nothing to do with; but in your twisted thinking, you have imputed guilt upon your brother in Christ for something that God has not declared him guilty of. YOUR WORDS HAVE AGAIN BETRAYED YOU AS ONE WHO IS QUICK TO SPEAK, QUICK TO JUDGE. DO YOU THINK THAT THIS IS WHAT CHRIST WOULD IMPUTE UPON YOU? CHRIST, WHO HAS IMPUTED UPON US HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, HAVING REMOVED OUR GUILT AND OUR SIN; AND NOW YOU STAND AS AN AMBASSADOR OF POOR TIDINGS AGAINST YOUR NEIGHBOR BY ATTEMPTING TO IMPUTE UPON HIM A GUILT THAT HE DOES NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO! Let those who truly discern, discern here the spiritual and mental state of this man, and pray that he would be convicted for having borne false witness with such a ludicrous example of twisting reasoning as that displayed here.
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SCARPATI: I am not saying that there aren’t some valid “connections” that exist. For example, Scripture links the Hebrew holy day of Passover to Christ. But there is a sound Scriptural basis for making this connection. There are types within Scripture that point to future things. God does amazing things and His Word and works are amazing. But we need to have a sound Scriptural basis for any such connection we are making.
The type of teaching that is being set forth in The Harbinger can really be destructive in subtly drawing people’s attention away from The Scriptures. It promotes the kind of thinking of the woman who was led by the truck with the rainbow on it rather than The Scriptures. The serpent in the garden, in subtle manner, got Eve away from God’s Word rightly divided – the command to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I have observed the same type of shallowness seen in the above-mentioned woman in other regular attendees of Jonathan Cahn’s teaching. I share this to help people to understand in case they are wondering, “What type of danger can come from a book like The Harbinger, which calls people to repentance?”
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REBUTTAL: The shallowness is in you, Mr. Scarpati. Your own writing bears witness to that. What you are seeing is many young Christians in need of discipling – a challenge that even these gentlemen will agree every congregation across this great nation faces. If you read the Scriptures, you will discover also that these types of challenges were faced by the early church. Again, why do you find fault with the need for discipling? If you had not betrayed your ministry and would have pursued selflessly to disciple the young lambs among the congregation at Beth Israel, instead of imputing guilt upon Jonathan Cahn for their state of being, you would have gone a long way to contribute in God’s kingdom by filling that need.
I bear witness to this myself, inasmuch as I have had the honor and the pleasure of sharing the teachings from God’s Word that the Lord has given me in almost thirty-seven years of careful study of His Word. Don’t complain, do something about it; teach and nurse God’s lambs; those young ones in the Lord, and help them grow and mature. This is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit of which these gentlemen have issues with because it doesn’t fit their theology of Cessationism. “What type of danger can come from a book like The Harbinger, which calls people to repentance?” None, if repentance and a turning to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord is the result. Then what is the problem, but in disagreeing with how it is being done – semantics and policy – all secondary aspects of an argument as to what is the better method to reach people for Christ. A wrangling about words which really profits no one, and only serves to create unnecessary division.
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SCARPATI: At times, Scripture is used, but not in context, but rather as a sign. I can take an isolated word or sentence of Scripture out of context and think, “God is speaking to me through this”. One can read and use the actual individual words of Scripture as signs in the same way people use tea leaves or other divining objects. I can read, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors” (Psalm 24:7) and think, “God is telling me to remodel my home and to get rid of the old gates and doors that I have and to replace them with new ones”. The point is that it’s a correct usage of Scripture that is important, and not merely a usage of Scripture. In 2 Timothy 4:3 it doesn’t say that they will not endure doctrine, but that they will not endure “sound doctrine”. Scripture can be misused and twisted (2 Peter 3:16). I’ve seen people in Beth Israel who seemed “connection crazy” at times. But there was an apparent wall – a disconnect when trying to simply discuss and apply Scripture in context with those same people. There certainly was a form of godliness in being interested in what “the hand of God” was doing, but a lack of submission to His Word, rightly divided. Such is a danger of not using Scripture – The Holy, inspired Words of GOD, properly.
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REBUTTAL: Every congregation has their share of eccentricities. That fact is borne out by you, and by your writing. That you can write this way about other people, rather than try to mollify and rectify the situation, by providing them with sound biblical teaching, rather than running away in bitterness and now seeking to speak all manner of evil against a place and a people (those among them who were there when you were part of the ministry) and against a ministry so openly, so brazenly, is not in accordance to Christ. It is not in character with someone who claims to serve Christ. We have already gone into details above about this, but you keep dripping away the bilge that fills you.
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SCARPATI: I don’t think that I can rightly say that Jonathan Cahn is responsible for all of the unsound usage of Scripture that I witnessed at Beth Israel. There is so much Scripture-twisting among the professing church. But I do think that Jonathan’s manner of making connections contributes to the problem and accords with such unsoundness. I did discuss this sort of issue with Jonathan personally, and he didn’t seem to be very concerned about it. I hope that people will draw conclusions about this matter if The Harbinger based a sound use of God’s Word, seeking The Word (rightly divided of course) as their authority by which to discern. Using Scripture is a sloppy, careless way can be dangerous, and make one open to superficial connections.
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REBUTTAL: This is the reason that there are teachers of God’s Word, that the Holy Spirit give gifts for service in the church to meet these needs. I am honored and humbled at once that the Holy Spirit of God has called me in Christ to teach His Word, and I do by the measure of God’s grace given to me, to exhort, to encourage, to correct, to admonish, to reprove, to instruct, and to acknowledge the Lordship of the One True God and Savior of us all, Jesus Christ the Righteous.
I would encourage you then to repent of this that you have done; retract this screed you have written against a brother; return to Beth Israel and seek Jonathan Cahn out, and ask forgiveness for what you have done, then humble yourself by writing a public apology and explanation of what you have done here, for it is grievous and it is a disgrace. It does not bear witness against Jonathan Cahn and against Beth Israel, but it bears witness against you, Mr. Scarpati.
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SCARPATI: Connecting the dots may seem intriguing, interesting, and entertaining; but it's a proper understanding and application of Scripture that is the great need in America, and everywhere (2 Timothy 4:1-4). Are we so desperate for entertainment that simply studying a portion of Scripture (such as Isaiah chapter 9), explaining it in context, teaching about general truth that can be learned through it (such as truth pertaining to the sin of pride and refusal to repent), and then giving application to modern-day circumstances, is not enough for us? Even when discussing Frontline, Charisma being the publisher, Jonathan speaks of "an extremely dramatic, far more than natural, and “out of the box” way" in which things (supposedly) happened. If one spent enough time and research trying to do so, I suspect he could make many such connections between various events of Scripture and history that would have an appearance of being "beyond coincidence", which were only found because of the great number of possibilities of connections that existed (like connections made with the supposed Bible-code revelation. There are so many possibilities to work with in seeking connections when working with the letters of Scripture).
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REBUTTAL: Mr. Scarpati, in case it has escaped your notice and the notice of Mr. McMahon to whom you write your screed; the events depicted and spoken of in The Harbinger all took place. The only crime against this book is that it was written in the form of a fictitious novel, which these quick critics appear not to be able to stomach, and neither do you. Everything that is connected happened without Jonathan Cahn trying to make connections of these things; they happened as they did, and he wrote about it as it happened. He didn’t try to make the connections, nor did he write to sensationalize the story, but wrote them as they happened. This by itself is more than enough evidence for the authenticity of the story. In a court of law it would be what is known as empirical evidence.
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SCARPATI: But regardless of the validity, or lack thereof, of the connections made in The Harbinger, let's not miss the most critical issue. If The Harbinger is supposed to be prophetic, then let's remember that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Rev. 19:10) and that Moses and the Prophets (The Old Testament) are about Jesus (Luke 24:25-27, John 5:39, 1 Peter 1:10-11). Does The Harbinger bring about a clear enough understanding of the person and work of Jesus The Messiah? In his response, Jonathan said that his job is to sound the warning. And in answering the questions he asks towards the close of his response, "What if God were to sound warning to America of judgment? What might such a warning sound like?" he says, "Believers, pastors, ministers, Bible expositors, and Christian leaders across this land believe it would sound identical to The Harbinger". Identical? Do you realize what’s being implied here? Has anyone actually used the word “identical” in expressing their judgment of how much The Harbinger reflects what God would say? Does Mr. Cahn believe it’s identical? Who else represents God’s communication in an identical manner to God’s except a true prophet or Messiah, the incarnate Word Himself. Regardless of what people may say, consider the following.
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REBUTTAL: Your own twisted reasoning, now having after so long a period being nurtured by nothing more than your own bitterness against this man, has resulted in a type of dissonance expressed here in your letter, that is devoid of God’s truth. It contradicts itself and then seeks to appeal to reason with your readership, who by now realize that there is something very wrong with what you are saying here. Discerning Christians will read this understand as the Lord Himself gives them the ability to, and from their own understanding of the Scriptures; that they cannot bear witness with what you write, but discern that there is much confusion and turmoil in you. It expresses itself in your writing.
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SCARPATI: Is the manner in which The Harbinger speaks identical to God’s manner of communicating? Let's ask, "Is The Harbinger's presentation of the gospel in accordance with the gospel presentations recorded in the book of Acts?" "Is the gospel message clear enough in it to clarify who the true Jesus is and what the true gospel is as opposed to the false gospels and false Jesus'?" Does it properly confront the multitudes of nominal, lake of fire bound "Christians". Even many unsaved, non-gospel believing "conservatives" who don't regard the Scriptures don't like the way that America is going now and might agree that it needs to "repent" (according to their unscriptural understanding of repentance). But remember, many will say, Lord, Lord, to whom The Lord will say, "I never knew you" (Matthew 7:21-23).
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REBUTTAL: All of the people whom you cite are coming to the Lord in droves. It is being reported that across our land, countless of number of people are coming to faith in Jesus Christ and true repentance as a result of having read this book. And why do you judge and criticize another servant of Christ in the way he serves? WHO DO YOU THINK THAT YOU ARE TO SPEAK EVIL OF ANOTHER AND STAND IN JUDGMENT OF HIM, AND CONDEMN HIM BECAUSE HE IS DIFFERENT THAN YOU, OR DOES THINGS SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT THAN YOU WOULD DO THEM? What do the Scripture say about this? I will tell you and again, it is an indictment of your writing and your behavior:
For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
(1Corinthians 12:14-26)
So then, why do you write this to destroy your brother in Christ, and cause him suffering by your hand, by your word, by your testimony; all false as they are, and think that by doing this you are serving Christ? Who do you think you’re fooling but yourself!? This reminds of the following Scripture where the Lord’s disciples saw others preaching and baptizing people not of their group, and they tried to prevent them. I quote:
John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. For he who is not against us is for us. For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward.
“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, [where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.] If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than, having your two feet, to be cast into hell, [where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.] If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.
“For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
(Mark 9:38-50)
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SCARPATI: Our nation abounds with nominal Christianity. We are to "repent and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15). If the gospel is not crystal clear (and what a need for it to be clear with all the false Jesus', false gospels, and with all the nominal Christianity out there) then all the warning and calling to repentance in the world will avail nothing. Muslims, Catholics, and other lost people have the concept of the need to repent in their systems which don't save. If Mr. Cahn were called by GOD to bring the revelation of the harbingers to America in a prophetic, or in any sense, would the true gospel message and a clarification of who the true Jesus is not be more central and highlighted in the book? In the past I, and not I alone, have discussed concerns with Jonathan about an unclear gospel presentation and related matters (and other issues as well) on multiple occasions. He gave a not-so-clear presentation of "the gospel" to many on numerous occasions.
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REBUTTAL: I have served at Beth Israel for years and I have yet to see for myself any sign of an unclear Gospel message in the preachings and teachings at Beth Israel. In fact, with every service there is a call to repentance and acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord in prayer, EVERY SERVICE. So I do not agree with Mr. Scarpati here. He is again bearing false witness and attempting to ingratiate himself with Mr. McMahon to whom he directs his letter, because Mr. McMahon and his colleagues have argued this point against The Harbinger.
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SCARPATI: Repentance is important, and necessary (Luke 13:5); but apart from the true gospel, there is no salvation. Yes, there certainly is a need for America to repent. And part of the repentance that is needed is to turn from preaching an unclear gospel and using the Bible in ways that don't clearly center on Christ and the gospel of grace. We need to repent for chasing after every wind of doctrine and get back to Christ and The Scriptures rightly divided (not just referenced, and used how anyone wants to use them). Repentance should be demonstrated by taking into account the multitudes of nominal Christians in this nation and not preaching in a vague way. If one supports the idea that they are giving a message in a manner that is "identical" to the one God would present it in, and they are wrong - if it is not perfectly and completely identical in any manner, then everything he does, says, and writes, as well as his motives, comes into question, as he has implied that he is an gave an identical (exact) representation of GOD and was wrong. This is no small matter.
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REBUTTAL: THIS IS NO SMALL MATTER INDEED. YOU DO NOT REALIZE THAT YOUR OWN WORDS SPEAK AGAINST YOU AND WHAT YOU HAVE ATTEMPTED HERE IS A DEFAMATION, A MISCHARACTERIZATION, AND PERSONAL VITUPERATION OF ONE WHO AS PASTOR OF BETH ISRAEL, ACCORDED YOU THE COURTESY TO SERVE WITH HIM THE CHRIST YOU NOW ASSAIL BY ASSAILING HIM. DON’T THINK THAT YOU ARE NOT GUILTLESS IN THIS MR. SCARPATI. YOU MUST REPENT OF THIS, SEEK GOD ABOUT THIS, AND TURN FROM IT. I’VE ALREADY TOLD YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO DO, I NEED NOT REPEAT IT HERE.
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SCARPATI: A word to those who have posted Jonathan Cahn’s response to T.A. McMahon. I realize that for some of you, behind the reason for posting it was a sincere desire to be fair. Fairness is good. But if judgment is made that someone is using Scripture in an unsound manner, or doing anything else that is contrary to the Scriptures, which could be damaging to God’s sheep whom he purchased with His own blood, then don’t fall for any appeal for fairness that Mr. Cahn may have given. I do want to be fair. But I must make a judgment as to whether or not something is sound; and if it truly is not, then I don’t want to give it a platform, and a potential to affect the minds of others. It’s not fair for people to be exposed to things that can subtly, perhaps very subtly, lead them away from a sound use of Scripture in context. Yes, there is Scripture’s meaning, and its application which can apply to events of today. But isn’t The Harbinger going beyond that? It’s one thing to apply the truth of sin, pride and God’s judgment to circumstances of today, but another to make connections of the events of then with the events of today, drawing attention to what may seem like connections and not towards proper, sound use of Scripture. Again, I’ve seen real spiritual shallowness (and/or deadness) at Beth Israel, which apparently accords with Mr. Cahn’s manner of using Scripture.
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REBUTTAL: I recently wrote another critic of The Harbinger in the following manner, and I quote it here because it is most appropriate to what you have written above. I quote:
I cannot blame many of The Harbinger’s critics for objecting to the book, and I understand that their main objection is as to it being a work of fiction dealing with Biblical End Time Eschatology in the framework of indisputable connections to recent headlines of events which occurred beginning with the tragic events of September 11th, 2001. I cannot even blame them for not liking a work of fiction, when many of these critics, like myself; prefer non-fiction literature.
I understand them, but I also am aware of one very important fact which they and I know you have overlooked; The Harbinger is primarily a work of fiction based upon a series of topical messages given by Pastor Cahn through a ten year period that were primarily commentaries of events and trends our nation has undergone since that tragic Tuesday morning.
Therefore, the work in question cannot be treated as one treats an encyclopedic thesis on eschatology, but for what it is; a novel that contains the elements of various commentaries contained in a series of topical messages given by Pastor Cahn over a period of ten years pertaining to several events that, when examined properly and in context, form an undeniable link and with it a clear message that Someone whom I believe is the Lord God, is trying to get our attention to veer away from the trajectory our nation has followed for a generation.
Thus, this makes this compelling novel a very different piece of literature than its critics pretend it to be, and therefore at least it is hoped; mollifies their shouts against it, because they’re based upon entire misconceptions and allusions to things that are not within the text, subtext, or context of the book. The only ones who put it there are its critics. I will try to make this point below as I have on several other blog sites and e-mail messages to other critics of this book.
Another area where I disagree with The Harbinger’s critics is in the area of the methods they have employed in criticizing the book. It is not Biblical. It is not Biblical for many reasons, because in every instance where we are called as Christians to “out” someone, it is in the case of apostates from the faith, and those who have fallen into a life of sin and ill repute while claiming to be followers of Christ, and those others who have caused and continue to cause mistrust and division within out congregations.
Clearly, Jonathan Cahn does not fall into any of these categories, regardless of what the critics will say. He is not an apostate from the faith – he is a genuine born again believer in Christ and selfless and dedicated servant of the Most High God (I bear witness to that fact personally); he is not one who leads an unruly selfish sinful life, but is a consummate and dedicated husband and father of two wonderful children; nor is he one who causes mistrust among God’s servants, for he never speaks of anyone in any way, nor is he quick to speak, quick to judge, but is prudent in his manners and extremely unassuming in his demeanor, very conservative and extremely selective in his associations and private life, a dedicated servant of the Most High God who never utters a word against anyone outside of his ministry or within it, and has not spoken anything against even those who’ve assailed him savagely for writing his book. He never brings them up. And you will note that he never speaks of them in any interview unless they’re brought up in conversation; and then he keeps his words few, never speaks in any disparaging way about any of them, though we cannot claim the same for his critics.
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SCARPATI: May GOD strengthen you and your staff, Mr. McMahon, in any opposition you may be having because of your search to defend the truth; and may true believers who are taken in by the drama of The Harbinger, neglecting proper attention to the more central issue of the gospel, come to their senses and think soberly, rightly dividing The Word of truth, by HIS grace. Be fair in your reviews, but also be faithful to truth.
Once again, as a former Associate Pastor who was with Jonathan Cahn for years, I testify that you really seem to be on to something. Among others of us who know Jonathan Cahn better from first-hand experience (years of it), there also has been concern. 1 Timothy 5:24-25.
In Messiah,
Robert Scarpati
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REBUTTAL: YOU DO NOT REALIZE THAT YOUR OWN WORDS SPEAK AGAINST YOU AND WHAT YOU HAVE ATTEMPTED HERE IS A DEFAMATION, A MISCHARACTERIZATION, AND PERSONAL VITUPERATION OF ONE WHO AS PASTOR OF BETH ISRAEL, ACCORDED YOU THE COURTESY TO SERVE WITH HIM THE CHRIST YOU NOW ASSAIL BY ASSAILING HIM. DON’T THINK THAT YOU ARE NOT GUILTLESS IN THIS MR. SCARPATI. YOU MUST REPENT OF THIS, SEEK GOD ABOUT THIS, AND TURN FROM IT. I’VE ALREADY TOLD YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO DO, I NEED NOT REPEAT IT HERE.
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Thursday, February 14, 2013
Friday, February 8, 2013
The Harbinger's Critics Toss Filthy Rags for Public Sympathy
I am very glad that the Berean Call under the leadership Thomas A. McMahon and the Alliance for Biblical Integrity whose president and founder, author David James, who wrote the book that began the entire controversy; have come out in public with this – as they’ve done with a good many other things – because it has accorded me the opportunity to write about it myself and address once again some glaring inconsistencies and whole inaccuracies in both McMahon’s and James’ contentious statements.
Obviously these two gentlemen love to tussle and get into all sorts of controversies and it appears that while hiding behind the Scriptures, they often misuse the Scriptures to foment all sorts of arguments between different Christians as they “contend (against other Christians) for the faith” which they have appointed themselves defenders of. The Berean Call in its day used to contend with the cults, but it has since appeared to refocus its energies against other Christians with whom they hold doctrinal differences.
They have never been challenged by anyone, and now that they are, they’re seeking sympathy and running towards the arms of the public in order to garner support for their side of this entire imbroglio they were the first to foment. They’re like the proverbial trouble maker in school who shoots a spit ball at another kid, then ducks to make it look like he’s completely innocent, and when confronted and asked if he did it in the first place, he responds, “Who? Me? I don’t know what you’re talking about. I was just standing here.” Yes, you were standing there, but there is much more to what you’ve done than what you would like others to realize, and now that you’ve been discovered and confronted about it, you claim innocence because you’re a “good Berean telling other Christians to be discerning and good Bereans themselves.”
Well, there is a VERY BIG DIFFERENCE between the first century Bereans and what the Berean Call and the Alliance for Biblical Integrity are doing. Bereans sought to know the truth and looked into Scriptural matters to verify for themselves if things were so; they did not go about spending most of their time seeking heresy in other Christian ministries as McMahon and James are doing. BIG DIFFERENCE. To apply this to what these people and a number of other so-called self-appointed “discernment ministries” are doing is nothing short than a scandal itself, and unbiblical in itself.
Now, let’s look at what these people have done, and how now they’re crying foul for getting hit back. If you’re a phony, you let it go, it doesn’t matter because you ride the cash cow while the going is good; but if you’re fighting for the truth and your good name, you hit back against a bully who seeks to destroy both. You hit back very hard so that your opponent never victimizes anyone again, because if you don’t, that bully will destroy you and your good name, and spread his own lies to an unsuspecting public, as well as continue victimizing others whom it will target.
You do this through the courts, through litigation, when you’ve exhausted every other means to bring the controversy to an amicable end where all parties have reached a consensus that is agreeable to all. Unfortunately, because there are no Apostles and true church authority in existence today to arbitrate matters between Christians, there is no other recourse but through the civil court system to litigate matters and seek their resolution.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE:
Lawsuit Threatened by Attorney Representing Author and Publisher of 'The Harbinger'
Contact: Sally Oppliger, The Berean Call, 541-382-6210 ext 119
BEND, Ore., Feb. 6, 2013 /Christian Newswire/ -- The attorney for Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn and his publisher, Charisma Media, has threatened to sue a Christian missionary and his publisher, whose research questions the historic and biblical veracity of Cahn's New York Times bestseller, "The Harbinger."
In a letter addressed to David James, author of "The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction?" and his publisher, the attorney for Cahn and Charisma Media (formerly Strang Communications) have alleged that the biblical critique authored by James not only infringes upon copyright but has damaged sales of Cahn's book, which in spite of controversy has recently surpassed one million copies.
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MY CLARIFICATION: Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn’s New York Times best-selling book, The Harbinger has now reached a million copies printed. This does not automatically indicate that it has sold a million copies, but that a million copies have now been printed. But even if a million copies of it have been printed and sold, why even mention this? It appears that the reason it is mentioned is because the book repeatedly cited by this article – The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? – has not the resounding success and brought in the revenue that was expected when the project against The Harbinger was launched by the Berean Call and the Alliance for Biblical Integrity. The actions of McMahon and James with this article and their disclosing the threat against them indicates that they’re trying to make the most out of a bad situation and turn into a revenue-generating vehicle to recoup the losses they stand to face.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: Many Christian leaders have praised Cahn's work as a prophetic message from God, even to the extent of declaring that Jonathan Cahn is a true prophet for our time, and that "The Harbinger" is "the word of God."
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MY CLARIFICATION: Jonathan Cahn has never, nor do he now, claim to be a prophet. He has never claimed that his New York Times best-selling book The Harbinger to be “the word of God,” as this article appears to claim. This is just another attempt by the writer of this article, McMahon, and David James at bearing false witness of Pastor Cahn’s claims.
My first exposure to the critics of The Harbinger was an infamous interview that Brannon Howse had with Dr. Jimmy DeYoung on his radio program Worldview Weekend, some months back, of which I have written. I call it “infamous” because at the time, without having read the book for themselves, Dr. DeYoung made statements that were unjustified and undignified without so much as substantiating these claims and accusations against Pastor Cahn by reading his book for himself; something that is intellectually dishonest and wrong if any one of us were to do it.
He called him (Pastor Cahn) a false prophet, and false teacher, and made many other statements that should have been withheld before reading the book for himself. And he mentioned David James and his book (unpublished at the time) as the source for his opinions. Well, he didn’t check things out for himself, which is what he should’ve done, before opining about a work of fiction that he had not read.
Because of this interview and subsequent Internet articles about The Harbinger which followed, I felt that these needed to be answered by someone who has had the benefit of listening and viewing the presentations and topical sermons upon which The Harbinger is based. I also felt then, as I do now, that much of what has been written and said against the book and against Pastor Cahn has been due to misunderstanding. I am currently at work on a study of my own where I bear this out both from the writings of Mr. James and from a number of Internet articles by others critical of The Harbinger.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: David James, founder of The Alliance for Biblical Integrity, explains why he has taken issue with this claim in his published refutation of Cahn's "prophetic" bestseller: "Many of the author's views and ideas as presented in 'The Harbinger' are misguided, having both significant exegetical and theological problems. Cahn appears to...see prophetic fulfillment where arguably none exists."
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MY CLARIFICATION: Mr. James is completely wrong. I wrote to him about his. I will cite only one example here of evidence of just how wrong this man’s claims are, and how dangerous what he claims is the most fundamental teachings of our faith. I quote:
But, you are so inclined to debunk The Harbinger with this Dispensational statement that you forget one fundamental fact which God’s inerrant Word teaches as fact; both the Abrahamic Covenant and the New Covenant were established and initiated by God, not man; and both covenants converge in Christ, where it says that God would bless all of the nations of earth through Abraham’s seed, that is Christ. Just as the Apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit writes (I and cite) in correction of what you’ve written above, and in correction of the entire premise of your book:
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
(Romans 5:6-21)
And how can anyone forget what Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself said in regards to this?
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
(John 3:16)
In your race to condemn this man (Jonathan Cahn) and what he has written (The Harbinger), and wishing to appear superior in your ideas above his; you have forgotten the most fundamental universality of the Gospel of peace to the nations. You have forgotten the most fundamental teachings of Christianity which you claim to profess for which you credit for your own salvation as a Gentile believer. Without realizing the ramifications of what you’ve written in your book (The Harbinger: Fact of Fiction?), you have closed the door of grace upon our nation and upon any possibility of approaching God on the basis of your Hyper-Dispensational Theology.
The only thing that you’ve accomplished has been to confuse a lot of people who really do not understand the grace of God, and unsettle others, with your erroneous theological contentions.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: James, a former missionary with Word of Life Fellowship for 21 years, elaborates: "Not only does 'The Harbinger' fail to reveal a 'mystery' in Isaiah 9:10, but in spite of the much-needed call to repentance, the book presents a danger to believers and unbelievers alike."
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MY CLARIFICATION: Mr. James can make any claim that he wishes, but making a claim such as his, and reality are poles apart. I have confirmed this in my review of his book and consummate number of articles written by camp followers of his on the Internet and responding to these accordingly. Mr. James was quick to judge, quick to speak, and quick to write and publish a book that should never have been published in the first place. It is an nothing short than a religiously egotistical effort in nothing. I have been discovering this in a private study of my own on both books.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: James's publisher, The Berean Call (TBC), revealed details of the threatened litigation in the ministry's February newsletter. TBC Executive Director, T.A. McMahon, announced:
"The complaint is that [David James] used too many quotes from the New York Times best-selling book, 'The Harbinger,' without permission from author "rabbi" Jonathan Cahn and publisher Charisma Media Publications (Charisma). The complaint further states that our use of the quotes has inhibited the sales of 'The Harbinger' and has thus financially damaged Cahn and Charisma in an amount yet to be determined."
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MY CLARIFICATION: David James made generous use WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM EITHER THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER of The Harbinger in his book. He could’ve cited what the book said, but instead, WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION FROM EITHER THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER Mr. James, whose book – The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? – makes copious use of long quotes and entire conversations from The Harbinger, without compensating either Pastor Cahn or the publisher of The Harbinger, Charisma Media/Charisma House Book Group for his use of the material without their consent. REGARDLESS OF WHERE THE READER MAY BE IN THIS CONTROVERSY, THIS IS ENTIRELY WRONG BY MR. JAMES AND BY THE BEREAN CALL UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF THOMAS A. MCMAHON WHO SANCTIONED IT, AND PUBLISHED JAMES’ BOOK.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: Concerning the threat of legal action against his book, David James adds, "This has actually happened twice. The first was concerning the cover of my book, which, though similar, was legally substantially different from 'The Harbinger's' cover -- and we had no intention of people confusing the two -- and I don't think they possibly could have. But as an act of good faith and to keep this from getting my book tied up in the courts rather than into the hands of people who need to read it, we simply redesigned the cover."
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MY CLARIFICATION: Unmistakably, the publishers behind the first edition of David James’ book, The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? sought to capitalize from The Harbinger’s success by confusing the reading public into thinking that James’ book was The Harbinger, so that when they pulled a copy from the shelf on their way to or from work, they believed they had bought a copy of The Harbinger, when in fact they were taking home David James’ book.
They did this by originally publishing a book that looked almost entirely like The Harbinger. No doubt that even the choice of its title, The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? was a vile attempt to confuse potential buyers to purchase Mr. James’ book thinking they were purchasing the New York Times best-seller, The Harbinger. The evidence speaks for itself. Below are both books when the first edition of David James’ book was published. If this were not the case, the publishers of The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? could’ve legally fought off any threatened lawsuit, but they did not. They reissued the book with a new cover, and they did this because they knew that they had no legal recourse to fight a lawsuit under the circumstances. Their actions and the way they went about this speaks volumes for itself. Their disingenuous answer when questioned whether it was intentional on their part to do this, reminds me of the Scripture that says: Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, But the Lord weighs the hearts. (Proverbs 21:2) Let the truly discerning discern the truth from this.
There was even an article written about this entitled The Cover Is a Blatant Attempt at Fooling the Public, and written by former Associated Press and current WND journalist Bob Unruh. One who probably has the pulse of these people and what motivates them to rush a book to public on the heels a successful best-seller, is Joseph Farrah. He makes the following observation: Joseph Farah, producer of “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” and founder of WND, chalks up the relentless criticisms to two factors.
“Cahn is a new-found celebrity in Christian circles, and I detect a certain degree of envy from others,” he said. “In addition, I strongly believe some of the critics believe they will get noticed by going after a high-profile Christian book and movie and the man behind it. Both of those motives are sinful by definition. They are trying to hold Jonathan Cahn to a standard no one in history – Christian or secular – has ever been held to since Jesus Himself was accused by the Pharisees of supping with sinners and tax collectors.”
It is said that a picture speaks a thousand words. I’d say these pictures speak volumes. Any disingenuous claims made by either the publisher – the Berean Call, or the author of The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? – that they were not out to either capitalize on The Harbinger’s success with a religious his piece of their own by publishing its first edition with a cover that was almost identical Pastor Cahn’s best-seller; are shown for precisely for what these claims are – untruths. The pictures speak for themselves. And the actions on the part of both of using large portions of The Harbinger in their hit published piece without the prior consent by its author, Jonathan Cahn, or its publisher, Charisma Media/Charisma House Book Group in itself is less than desirable character flaw on the part of the Berean Call and of David James who feign otherwise in this article.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: But after publication of James's book with a new cover, the attorneys for Jonathan Cahn and Charisma sent yet another letter to The Berean Call. As James recounts,
"They threatened us again, claiming that we were causing them financial harm of as-yet-undetermined amount, because of the amount of 'The Harbinger' that I quoted in my book. A very experienced copyright lawyer has responded to them on our behalf, concluding that I was well within 'fair use' -- and that I had only quoted enough to establish context for my critique in every instance. We have not heard back from them in about a month since they received this, so we don't know what their plans are at this moment."
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MY CLARIFICATION: They’re absolutely correct. The undisclosed amount bespeaks of a damage that is so great to the ministry and person of Jonathan Cahn, to his good name, to the legitimacy of his calling, which can be proven that several articles which have followed Mr. James’ publication, have done. At the very least, if Mr. James had been thinking at all and had displayed the due consideration of a brother in Christ to another, he could’ve asked for permission to cite the large parts of The Harbinger he misquotes in religious his hit piece. He did not.
These people were so filled with zeal and bias in rushing their book to market that they did not go about the proper manner in which a Christian brother ought to conduct himself with another with whom he/she has a disagreement. Instead of exhausting all possible venues to present their questions to Pastor Cahn before quoting his book at length in hit piece after hit piece based upon David James’ quickly written book; they instead obviously wasted no time in getting the hit piece of a book published in order to capitalize on The Harbinger’s rising success. Now that someone has hit them back, they’re seeking the public’s sympathy, crying foul when in fact they were the first to draw first blood.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: The Bible proscribes the now-common practice of Christians suing other believers, but McMahon explains his shock and dismay -- not for this breach of protocol but for another reason:
"This is the first time in my 35 years of [ministry] addressing nearly every major religion, religious cult, aberrational Christian sect, unbiblical trend, religious publication, book, media production, etc., that any organization or individual has even hinted at suing us."
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MY CLARIFICATION: Mr. McMahon is entirely wrong. First he and David James did not seek Jonathan Cahn out to understand precisely what The Harbinger was saying. Moreover, they did not accord Jonathan Cahn the opportunity to express himself. When they interviewed him, it was not for the purposes of attempting to resolve either their objections to his book, or the differences between them, but to gain material for David James’ book which he made good use of from these encounters. (I believe were two) Afterwards, when Jonathan Cahn made attempts at contacting them to resolve these objections, they ignored and rebuffed him. This is not Christian.
Additionally, if there were an Apostolic Council to which Christians could bring their differences and litigate them to their resolution as there were in Paul’s day, to which he alludes to where he writes of lawsuits between Christians (1Corinthians 6:1-7) I would agree with their contention; but in the absence of such an Apostolic Council, there is no recourse but to litigate in a civil court matters of enumeration where the actions of one or more parties result in great and inestimable loses to the injured party.
There is no estimation to the kind of damage that these people have done to Pastor Cahn and his ministry, and how it has affected his personal life and ministry. Such matters are difficult to estimate, but the damage has been done, because their actions by publishing this book – The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? and their statements about Pastor Cahn and his ministry have been nothing short of slanderous. I have heard and have in my possession a horrendous interview hosted by Brannon Howse where Jimmy DeYoung, basing his opinions on what David James had told him at the time, used all manner of epithets against Jonathan Cahn; calling him everything from “false prophet” to “false teacher” and trashing his book, his ministry and bringing into question his calling in Christ. Mr. DeYoung had not read Pastor Cahn’s New York Times best-seller The Harbinger when he made these statements on Brannon Howse’s Worldview Weekend Radio program.
You cannot put a dollar figure to the damage these people have done to Pastor Cahn and his ministry in their continual attacks upon him, upon his book and what they claim it says, and upon his ministry. It is not our place as Christians to work towards delegitimize other Christians and seek their total and complete marginalization and their destruction of their service for God. It is one thing to write of cults and cult leaders, but to write to marginalize other Christians in the name of discernment and apologetics is nothing short of unchristian slander and fomenting controversies, thereby furnishing the enemies of Christianity fodder to their attacks upon the Christian faith. There is no place in one Christian who displays such a log obscuring their own judgment in forcing themselves upon another Christian to remove a speck they claim is in his. (Matthew 7:4, Luke 6:42)
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: Charisma Media is operated by publishing magnate Steve Strang, whose holdings include Charisma and Ministry Today magazines. Named as one of "The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America" by TIME in 2005, Strang's empire includes multiple book divisions which crank out hundreds of titles by dozens of authors popular among charismatic denominations, and specifically, the Latter Rain movement (deemed heretical by the Assemblies of God more than 60 years ago).
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MY CLARIFICATION: What does this have to do with either Jonathan Cahn’s book and its content or Charisma Media, but as a ploy by the writer of this article/his piece to associate other authors with Jonathan Cahn in order to marginalize and discredit him and his best-seling(sic) book, The Harbinger, and in so doing, to continue to damage him. This is what one Christian does not do to another in private or public, but it is what these people have done to a fellow brother in Christ; to Jonathan Cahn and to his good name, and his service to Christ.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: Coincidentally, it is this segment of the church that has long been under doctrinal scrutiny by the ministry of The Berean Call. Founded by bestselling author and noted cult researcher Dave Hunt, the mission of TBC (through print and broadcast media) has consistently encouraged Christians with the biblical exhortation to "try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1).
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MY CLARIFICATION: This too is what Jonathan Cahn has long taught and has in fact practiced. But what he nor any other Christian should sanction is the deliberate slander of another Christian in the name of discernment. The approach that is being taken by The Berean Call and by similar so-called self-appointed “discernment ministries” is not biblical at all. One Christian does not drag another Christian before the bar of public opinion to shame them and slander their good name on the basis that they’re doing a service for God. There is a great difference between exposing a cult and its leader to dragging a fellow brother in Christ to do damage to that brother in the name of the Savior whom both call upon for their salvation. This is contemptible.
This is what these people have done and without remorse and without repentance. In fact they have stiffened their necks and have crystalized their attacks after being brought to task by other ministries for their practice and behavior. One article called it “bloodsport,” but the Berean Call, the Alliance for Biblical Integrity, and their satellites on the Internet with whom they join in writing hit piece after hit piece against other Christians such as James Dobson, Billy Graham, Pat Robertson, Pat Boone, and others; have reacted in typically defiant unchristian behavior. At the very least, they could’ve presented a public apology to the people and ministries they have damage, but they have not. There is no humility grace, or love in these people.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: This was the spirit and intent behind the publication of David James's critique, "The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction?" Playing off of the premise set forth by Jonathan Cahn, James encourages readers to exercise biblical discernment in order to answer the question: Does Isaiah 9:10 really contain, as Cahn asserts, an "ancient mystery that holds the secret of America's future?"
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MY CLARIFICATION: The common denominator of Isaiah 9:10 with September 11th, 2001 and the nine harbingers mentioned, outlined, and explained in the best-selling book, The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn is the fact that not only was this Scripture which the prophet quotes to pronounce judgment on Israel 2500 years ago, it is quoted and cited by two of America’s leaders in our nation’s capital on two separate occasions commemorating the tragic events of September 11th. David James fails to see this in order to posit his own contention and write the hit piece he has written and rushed to publish on the heels of the highly successful New York Times best-seller authored by Pastor Cahn.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: In a pre-broadcast discussion with an investigative journalist from Christian radio, James explained the reason for his delay in announcing the threats of litigation, "I only mention this because Tom McMahon, with the full approval of the TBC board, has just made this public in an article that is now on their website and which will be in the February issue of their newsletter.
"We believe it is necessary for it to be known within the Body about this unfortunate (and unbiblical) course of action. I do not know to what extent Jonathan Cahn is involved with this personally -- so I am still not impugning motives, but it seems reasonable to think he would have the power to have prevented this from happening."
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MY CLARIFICATION: Let us look at the Scripture to which Mr. James alludes. I quote it here from the New American Standard Bible:
Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church? I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren, but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?
Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?
(1Corinthians 6:1-7)
First, the Apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God writes to berate his Corinthian brethren for not having competent leaders among themselves to whom they could approach and litigate their grievances against one another – believers like themselves who could take up the matter of their differences and resolve it biblically.
It was to their shame that there were none among their community who could be trusted as competent and impartial arbiters of who could be appointed by their leaders to take up legal matters among themselves, and instead they had no recourse but to resort to courts of judges who were men unlike themselves would take up matters that they more than likely had little or no competence to litigate in the first place. Paul says that this was to their shame – not the act in itself, since they would have to take it if there were men among them who could decide such matters, but that they had no one among them who take up these matters – this was their shame.
We find the same holds true today. Because there is not a body of Christians who could arbitrate the differences that Christian denominations have with one another, even individual Christians belonging to various ministries who also have serious differences with one another over doctrinal issues and issues of policies and procedures; Christians of all denominations much seek civil courts to decide matters where others who should know better, but cannot restrain their tongue, have slandered, and borne false witness against their fellow brethren. Otherwise such men would continue their assaults against other Christian ministries unabated and unchallenged. They must be made to account in some way and in some manner and stopped before they destroy any more lives.
Paul too makes mention that the redeemed of the Lord will no doubt serve in some legal capacity in the Highest Court of God’s justice some day in which angels and men will be brought to justice for their rebellion; no doubt the Great White Throne Judgment following the second resurrection of the dead (Mark 13:27, Romans 8:1-4, 1Corinthians 15, 1Thessalonians 4:15-17, 2Thessalonians 2:1-12, Hebrews 9:27-28, Revelations 2:11, 20:6), or the Second Death mentioned in Scripture (Revelations 20:14, 21:8).
We must be competent, knowledgeable in the Scriptures, temperate in our dealings, and with insight and impartiality serve now so that we will be competent and impartial then and have insight to judge then. For this reason I write as I do, because the self-deception of these men is great and they have carried many away with their words and unsettled others. Their actions, their behavior towards those Christians whom they’ve targeted, and their words speak for themselves and are made self-evident by the light of God’s Word when properly applied and understood, because everything is exposed by the light. Just as the Apostle Paul in the Holy Spirit has written: But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. (Ephesians 5:13)
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: McMahon, who heads the ministry under legal threat from Cahn and Charisma's attorney, elaborates, "For decades we at TBC have been exhorting and encouraging believers to be Bereans (i.e., to check out everything they are being taught) by searching the Scriptures every day" (Acts 17:11).
"More critical than the unbiblical action of a brother threatening to take another brother to court (1 Corinthians 6) is the issue of preventing the biblical evaluation of a work that is influencing hundreds of thousands.... In effect, we are being told that we must limit our documentation in warning the body of Christ of the biblical errors in 'The Harbinger.' In other words, we cannot be Bereans or like the watchman of Ezekiel 3:17-19."
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MY CLARIFICATION: I would then suggest to Mr. McMahon to do the same with himself and with his ministry. He was not called by Christ to train the resources with which he was entrusted with to train those resources on other Christians, but on the cults and the false New Age religious order working to overrun our society.
What you and your associates have done to Pastor Jonathan Cahn; to his ministry; to his calling; to his good name; has been nothing short than reprehensible. Your behavior and public statements against this man based upon a misreading and misunderstanding of his book, and the false doctrine of Cessationist Theology is nothing short than a scandal in itself. It is contemptible.
Even after having been reproved by some for having “thrown a brother under the bus” you could’ve at least made a serious self-examination of what you have done. No. You didn’t. Instead you trained every available resource to continue this campaign of defamation against The Harbinger and against its author, Jonathan Cahn, and have now brought even the shame of your having been legally warned not to continue in this to the Christian public’s eye in order to win them over and enflame them against your brother in Christ whom you have treated with the utmost contempt. My God man, unbelievers treat their own better than you have.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: Dave Hunt and T.A. McMahon have stirred controversy before. In 1985, they co-authored "The Seduction of Christianity," a groundbreaking book that exposed unbiblical teachings and practices of dozens of Christian leaders -- most of whom were popular in the Word of Faith and Charismatic movements.
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MY CLARIFICATION: This speaks for itself. You should have used the proper Christian method; the biblical method used by Priscilla and Aquila with Apollos. I cite it here, because this is the Scriptural manner in which doctrinal differences and corrections are made among and between Christian brethren. It is found in the Scriptures, in Luke’s Book of Acts:
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. And 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 18:34-38)
Please take note here, that when Priscilla and Aquila had heard Apollos, they did not berate him in public, nor did they reprove and correct him there in the synagogue in front of the others with whom Apollos had been sharing his incomplete version of the Gospel; but, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. (Acts 18:26) And rather than quench the man’s spirit by bringing into question what he had said, perhaps even by way of personal testimony before the congregation, they instead after “explaining to him the way of God more accurately,” (Acts 18:26) they and the Christians with whom Priscilla and Aquila gathered – the brethren, they are called - encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. (Acts 18:27)
This is the Scriptural manner in which doctrinal differences, or differences as in the sharing of understanding and aspects of God’s Word one party may be unaware of and another party privy to. Here is an example how things are done right, and the fruit of what they produce when it’s done right. What does the Scriptural testimony say it ended? In the following manner, 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 18:28) Such is the result of when something is done right and the fruit it produces in others.
This is the work of the Holy Spirit. First, it does what the Holy Spirit always does; bears witness of Christ (John 16:14), second; convicts the world of sin (John 16:8), third; brings people to faith in Christ for redemption (John 6:44, 65), and unlocks the teachings of the Bible (John 14:26, 16:13-15) which are a mystery to the unsaved because to them the Bible is nothing but a closed book that cannot be understood by the unregenerate mind, because its truths are spiritually discerned. (1Corinthians 2)
One Christian blogger had made the following observation about the behavior, actions, and public statements put out by the Berean Call, the Alliance for Biblical Integrity, and Worldview Weekend and others in their attacks:
“Discernment ministries usually work to identify serious failures of Christian doctrine, such as a denial of the Deity of Christ, which is the essential problem with denial of the Trinity; or advocacy of extrabiblical revelation (anything that is taken as authoritative outside the Bible, such as the traditions of Catholicism or the Book of Mormon), prophecies that contradict scripture, imputation of works of the flesh or the devil to the Holy Spirit and vice versa.
So it's rather strange to see these ministries going after Jonathan Cahn's Harbinger with such zeal, considering that they can't identify any such violations of the orthodox faith without indulging in tortuous reasoning.”
(Faith’s Corner, How the deck is stacked against The Harbinger --updated Tuesday, August 21, 2012)
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: "Seduction" was a controversial bestseller, and was blamed for creating "division" in the body of Christ. But many readers believed it to have been biblical division, in accordance with the Apostle Paul's exhortation to keep close watch on "those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them" (Romans 16:17).
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MY CLARIFICATION: Romans 16:17 reads as follows: Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. This is a favorite Scripture that is misapplied by these so-called self-appointed arbiters of discernment. But more telling is the verse that follows, because the combination of the two when properly understood and quoted in their correct context, exposes these people and their entire operation as cranks who war against the Christian church from within and cause divisions and dissensions of all types. I quote: For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. (Romans 16:18)
Clearly this Scripture in its entirety then is not referring to servants of Christ – to Christians, but to slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; who by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. It is clear that these people when targeting other Christians – and not the false teachers of the cults, the false religious orders, and false prophets of the New Age Ecumenicism that will usher in the universal church of the ant-Christ – are completely misapplying this admonition of Paul’s and misusing it to destroy other Christians with whom they have doctrinal and policy differences with. They use this Scripture to delegitimize those whom they target and to legitimize themselves among unsuspecting Christians. It’s a great act, and they’ve fooled a lot of people, yes even the very elect until now.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: An industry observer remarked, "Ironically, the tables have turned in the past 25 years. Today, books warning of heretical doctrine and false prophets are no longer profitable for mainstream Christian publishers, and would never, ever make the New York Times bestseller list. Instead, false claims and questionable teaching are their stock and trade."
Some believe that God's Word prophesied of this very trend in Christian publishing: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables" (2 Timothy 4:4-5).
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MY CLARIFICATION: First, why doesn’t the writer of this article not name this “industry observer” whom cites. Second, because, as this article citing this unnamed source it calls “an industry observer” the tables have turned in the past 25 years, seeks to infer here that Pasto Jonathan Cahn’s book, The Harbinger can be numbered among these. Yes, the subtle and not so subtle bias of the article’s writer appears to indicate that it is by inference here. 2Timothy 4:4-5 is a favorite among these so-called discernment apologists. They misuse it as they do the rest of the Scriptures to legitimize and justify their attacks, and delegitimize and marginalize those whom they target as heretics among Christ’s body.
Let’s examine this Scripture which is one of their favorites, and read it in its proper context:
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
(2Timothy 4:1-5)
First, we see the Apostle Paul in the Holy Spirit of God charging Timothy to: 1.) preach the word: 2.) be ready in season and out of season – in other words at all times and in every situation and circumstance; 3.) reprove – that is, correct with humility and in the love of Christ; 4.) rebuke – that is strongly correct when necessary and when the situation requires it; 5.) exhort – that is plead with and entreat the person, just as Jude has written in this regard the following - But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh. (Jude 20-23) Dovetailed by the following Scripture from the Holy Spirit inspired and breathed pen of John the Beloved Elder, who writes:
If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.
(1John 5:16-17)
And what of James, the Lord’s brother, who writes the following about helping our fellow brethren from straying from the Christian faith?
My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
(James 5:19-20)
Does it say in any of these Scriptures that we ought to take a brother we fear is straying from the truth and drag him/her before the public and launch a campaign of defamation, slander, and innuendo to marginalize, shame, and discredit them? And this is how it teaches us to be towards those who are straying from the truth. Nowhere is Jonathan Cahn straying from God’s truth, only these men are claiming and have been doing this for months, that he has strayed from the truth, and that he is causing others to do the same. And they’re accusing him of this publicly – that is before believers and non-believers in print, and on radio, and in Cyberspace. This is not what Paul means at all here, for he ends his charge to Timothy to do the above , with great patience and instruction. (2Timothy 4:5)
There is no patience, there is no instruction, and there is no love, or grace in what these men have done and continue to do unabated, even when they are charged to do the opposite by Scripture, and some who know and have insight into such matters – the kind of understanding they themselves lack even with their learning.
An example that we can all emulate is Job, who after having suffered and endured; the Lord restored his fortunes when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord increased all that Job had twofold. (Job 42:10)
Why do you think that the Scriptures time and again, proscribe outing someone in public, but first speaking with that person or with those people privately, seeking with as much patience and love as possible to resolve one’s differences with them, because to do otherwise is not to conceal the matter, but to needlessly bring that other person to open shame, because the Proverb is clear on this:
He who conceals a transgression seeks love,
But he who repeats a matter separates intimate friends.
(Proverbs 17:9)
How can a brother be won over and “snatched from the fires” if we mistreat him and slander his good name, and bear false witness against that brother; all over a difference of interpretation? This is according to God’s Word a form of perversion, and therein lies the deception, because these people are deceiving others and are self-deceived themselves; believing in their zeal that they are rendering God a service, when they are slandering their brother’s good name. The Proverb indicts them:
A perverse man spreads strife,
And a slanderer separates intimate friends.
(Proverbs 16:28)
It has been reported that these men have separated long-lasting friendships among Christian ministries.
And what the Apostle Peter writes, quoting a well beloved verse from the Book of the Proverbs in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament):
Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.
(1Peter 4:8)
The Proverbs themselves declare that hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions. (Proverbs 10:12)
These people are self-deceived and because they have built through the years a legitimate reputation as defenders of the faith from their previous work when they expended their energies and considerable resources to exposing the teachings and aberrant beliefs of the cults, but in recent years have begun targeting legitimate Christians ministries whom they mix with illegitimate ones on the flimsiest and unbiblical belief that because they appear to them to be Pentecostal or Charismatic, they with total disregard lump both together as the same and as heretical. This is based on their Cessationist Theology, because they do not believe that Christians can exercise the gifts of the Holy Spirit today.
Of course the Apostle Paul writing in the Holy Spirit, prophetically warned about these people when he wrote the following to Timothy that in the last days difficult times will come, because there would be men who would be holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and he charges him to, Avoid such men as these. (2Timothy 3:1a, 5-6a)
Today’s Cessationists deny the very power of God and work of God in the Holy Spirit by denying the gifts that according to Scripture the Holy Spirit imparts to believers for service in the church, and to do this is to deny not only the Holy Spirit’s legitimate role in the body of Christ, but to deny Christ and His work, for it is through the Holy Spirit indwelling the born again servant of God in Christ who wills and works for God’s glory, according God’s Word. (1Corinthians 12, Ephesian 4:11-16, Philippians 2:13)
They readily forget Paul’s admonition where he writes to desire the greater gifts. (1Corinthians 12:31) And with this, they’ve forgotten Paul’s admonition to do the following:
For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
(Romans 12:3)
Yet in targeting other Christians, not cultists and cults, but other Christians; these people have set aside the admonitions and commandments given to them clearly in the Scriptures, and have become self-deluded into believing that their contention for the faith has to be against other Christians, when the Scripture that admonishes this, does not cite other Christians as its target, but those outside of the Christian faith. This is why these people are so self-deceived and believe themselves ‘ a cut above” those whom they’ve targeted, even a cut above all others in the body of Christ, for they view themselves and have appointed themselves as overseers – no longer against non-Christians and cultists, but now against legitimate born again Evangelicals like Pastor Jonathan Cahn, Jim Daly, Billy Graham, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, James MacDonald, and Pat Boone; recklessly lumping them with false prophets and teachers into a single group.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: In light of the threatened legal action against the ministry that Dave Hunt founded, T.A. McMahon wrote, "We have hired a copyright attorney to address the legal issues and have responded to the attorney for Cahn and CMP. Even so, we covet your prayers that the Lord will be glorified throughout the process."
McMahon's entire remarks may be read in his February article, "The Demise of Biblical Discernment," now posted on the ministry's website at http://www.thebereancall.org. David James's report is posted at http://www.biblicalintegrity.org.
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MY CLARIFICATION: T.A. McMahon has taken Dave Hunt’s beloved the Berean Call and made it into something it never was. It has since Mr. McMahon taken the reins of power, become a bitter attack dog against other Christians. There have been several articles warning of this trend, for example When Discernment Turns Ugly: Discerning Discerners, When Christians engage in blood sport – by Jan Markell of Olive Tree Ministries, and Eric Barger of Take a Stand Ministries – When Christians Engage in Bloodsport, and the Pepster’s Post own article on discernment ministries entitled, THE HARBINGER'S CRITIC: WHEN DISCERNMENT IS DECEPTION.
Jonathan Cahn does not speak of any of these people when interviewed on radio. He doesn’t bring them up. He has not pursued them as they have him, but he has acted very appropriately with them. It speaks volumes. It is time for the people of God to be truly discerning and see these people for what they are according to the Scriptures, because we are living at a time when things are not as they appear, and these people are in the epicenter of deception, being self-deceived themselves (though well-intentioned) and deceiving a good many others with clever dialogue and rhetoric, but primarily because of the name they have built around themselves. They are now capitalizing on it, and it is unfortunate that they are now fulfilling the role of the religious opposition to what the Lord is doing in our day.
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Obviously these two gentlemen love to tussle and get into all sorts of controversies and it appears that while hiding behind the Scriptures, they often misuse the Scriptures to foment all sorts of arguments between different Christians as they “contend (against other Christians) for the faith” which they have appointed themselves defenders of. The Berean Call in its day used to contend with the cults, but it has since appeared to refocus its energies against other Christians with whom they hold doctrinal differences.
They have never been challenged by anyone, and now that they are, they’re seeking sympathy and running towards the arms of the public in order to garner support for their side of this entire imbroglio they were the first to foment. They’re like the proverbial trouble maker in school who shoots a spit ball at another kid, then ducks to make it look like he’s completely innocent, and when confronted and asked if he did it in the first place, he responds, “Who? Me? I don’t know what you’re talking about. I was just standing here.” Yes, you were standing there, but there is much more to what you’ve done than what you would like others to realize, and now that you’ve been discovered and confronted about it, you claim innocence because you’re a “good Berean telling other Christians to be discerning and good Bereans themselves.”
Well, there is a VERY BIG DIFFERENCE between the first century Bereans and what the Berean Call and the Alliance for Biblical Integrity are doing. Bereans sought to know the truth and looked into Scriptural matters to verify for themselves if things were so; they did not go about spending most of their time seeking heresy in other Christian ministries as McMahon and James are doing. BIG DIFFERENCE. To apply this to what these people and a number of other so-called self-appointed “discernment ministries” are doing is nothing short than a scandal itself, and unbiblical in itself.
Now, let’s look at what these people have done, and how now they’re crying foul for getting hit back. If you’re a phony, you let it go, it doesn’t matter because you ride the cash cow while the going is good; but if you’re fighting for the truth and your good name, you hit back against a bully who seeks to destroy both. You hit back very hard so that your opponent never victimizes anyone again, because if you don’t, that bully will destroy you and your good name, and spread his own lies to an unsuspecting public, as well as continue victimizing others whom it will target.
You do this through the courts, through litigation, when you’ve exhausted every other means to bring the controversy to an amicable end where all parties have reached a consensus that is agreeable to all. Unfortunately, because there are no Apostles and true church authority in existence today to arbitrate matters between Christians, there is no other recourse but through the civil court system to litigate matters and seek their resolution.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE:
Lawsuit Threatened by Attorney Representing Author and Publisher of 'The Harbinger'
Contact: Sally Oppliger, The Berean Call, 541-382-6210 ext 119
BEND, Ore., Feb. 6, 2013 /Christian Newswire/ -- The attorney for Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn and his publisher, Charisma Media, has threatened to sue a Christian missionary and his publisher, whose research questions the historic and biblical veracity of Cahn's New York Times bestseller, "The Harbinger."
In a letter addressed to David James, author of "The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction?" and his publisher, the attorney for Cahn and Charisma Media (formerly Strang Communications) have alleged that the biblical critique authored by James not only infringes upon copyright but has damaged sales of Cahn's book, which in spite of controversy has recently surpassed one million copies.
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MY CLARIFICATION: Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn’s New York Times best-selling book, The Harbinger has now reached a million copies printed. This does not automatically indicate that it has sold a million copies, but that a million copies have now been printed. But even if a million copies of it have been printed and sold, why even mention this? It appears that the reason it is mentioned is because the book repeatedly cited by this article – The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? – has not the resounding success and brought in the revenue that was expected when the project against The Harbinger was launched by the Berean Call and the Alliance for Biblical Integrity. The actions of McMahon and James with this article and their disclosing the threat against them indicates that they’re trying to make the most out of a bad situation and turn into a revenue-generating vehicle to recoup the losses they stand to face.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: Many Christian leaders have praised Cahn's work as a prophetic message from God, even to the extent of declaring that Jonathan Cahn is a true prophet for our time, and that "The Harbinger" is "the word of God."
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MY CLARIFICATION: Jonathan Cahn has never, nor do he now, claim to be a prophet. He has never claimed that his New York Times best-selling book The Harbinger to be “the word of God,” as this article appears to claim. This is just another attempt by the writer of this article, McMahon, and David James at bearing false witness of Pastor Cahn’s claims.
My first exposure to the critics of The Harbinger was an infamous interview that Brannon Howse had with Dr. Jimmy DeYoung on his radio program Worldview Weekend, some months back, of which I have written. I call it “infamous” because at the time, without having read the book for themselves, Dr. DeYoung made statements that were unjustified and undignified without so much as substantiating these claims and accusations against Pastor Cahn by reading his book for himself; something that is intellectually dishonest and wrong if any one of us were to do it.
He called him (Pastor Cahn) a false prophet, and false teacher, and made many other statements that should have been withheld before reading the book for himself. And he mentioned David James and his book (unpublished at the time) as the source for his opinions. Well, he didn’t check things out for himself, which is what he should’ve done, before opining about a work of fiction that he had not read.
Because of this interview and subsequent Internet articles about The Harbinger which followed, I felt that these needed to be answered by someone who has had the benefit of listening and viewing the presentations and topical sermons upon which The Harbinger is based. I also felt then, as I do now, that much of what has been written and said against the book and against Pastor Cahn has been due to misunderstanding. I am currently at work on a study of my own where I bear this out both from the writings of Mr. James and from a number of Internet articles by others critical of The Harbinger.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: David James, founder of The Alliance for Biblical Integrity, explains why he has taken issue with this claim in his published refutation of Cahn's "prophetic" bestseller: "Many of the author's views and ideas as presented in 'The Harbinger' are misguided, having both significant exegetical and theological problems. Cahn appears to...see prophetic fulfillment where arguably none exists."
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MY CLARIFICATION: Mr. James is completely wrong. I wrote to him about his. I will cite only one example here of evidence of just how wrong this man’s claims are, and how dangerous what he claims is the most fundamental teachings of our faith. I quote:
But, you are so inclined to debunk The Harbinger with this Dispensational statement that you forget one fundamental fact which God’s inerrant Word teaches as fact; both the Abrahamic Covenant and the New Covenant were established and initiated by God, not man; and both covenants converge in Christ, where it says that God would bless all of the nations of earth through Abraham’s seed, that is Christ. Just as the Apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit writes (I and cite) in correction of what you’ve written above, and in correction of the entire premise of your book:
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
(Romans 5:6-21)
And how can anyone forget what Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself said in regards to this?
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
(John 3:16)
In your race to condemn this man (Jonathan Cahn) and what he has written (The Harbinger), and wishing to appear superior in your ideas above his; you have forgotten the most fundamental universality of the Gospel of peace to the nations. You have forgotten the most fundamental teachings of Christianity which you claim to profess for which you credit for your own salvation as a Gentile believer. Without realizing the ramifications of what you’ve written in your book (The Harbinger: Fact of Fiction?), you have closed the door of grace upon our nation and upon any possibility of approaching God on the basis of your Hyper-Dispensational Theology.
The only thing that you’ve accomplished has been to confuse a lot of people who really do not understand the grace of God, and unsettle others, with your erroneous theological contentions.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: James, a former missionary with Word of Life Fellowship for 21 years, elaborates: "Not only does 'The Harbinger' fail to reveal a 'mystery' in Isaiah 9:10, but in spite of the much-needed call to repentance, the book presents a danger to believers and unbelievers alike."
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MY CLARIFICATION: Mr. James can make any claim that he wishes, but making a claim such as his, and reality are poles apart. I have confirmed this in my review of his book and consummate number of articles written by camp followers of his on the Internet and responding to these accordingly. Mr. James was quick to judge, quick to speak, and quick to write and publish a book that should never have been published in the first place. It is an nothing short than a religiously egotistical effort in nothing. I have been discovering this in a private study of my own on both books.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: James's publisher, The Berean Call (TBC), revealed details of the threatened litigation in the ministry's February newsletter. TBC Executive Director, T.A. McMahon, announced:
"The complaint is that [David James] used too many quotes from the New York Times best-selling book, 'The Harbinger,' without permission from author "rabbi" Jonathan Cahn and publisher Charisma Media Publications (Charisma). The complaint further states that our use of the quotes has inhibited the sales of 'The Harbinger' and has thus financially damaged Cahn and Charisma in an amount yet to be determined."
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MY CLARIFICATION: David James made generous use WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM EITHER THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER of The Harbinger in his book. He could’ve cited what the book said, but instead, WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION FROM EITHER THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER Mr. James, whose book – The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? – makes copious use of long quotes and entire conversations from The Harbinger, without compensating either Pastor Cahn or the publisher of The Harbinger, Charisma Media/Charisma House Book Group for his use of the material without their consent. REGARDLESS OF WHERE THE READER MAY BE IN THIS CONTROVERSY, THIS IS ENTIRELY WRONG BY MR. JAMES AND BY THE BEREAN CALL UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF THOMAS A. MCMAHON WHO SANCTIONED IT, AND PUBLISHED JAMES’ BOOK.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: Concerning the threat of legal action against his book, David James adds, "This has actually happened twice. The first was concerning the cover of my book, which, though similar, was legally substantially different from 'The Harbinger's' cover -- and we had no intention of people confusing the two -- and I don't think they possibly could have. But as an act of good faith and to keep this from getting my book tied up in the courts rather than into the hands of people who need to read it, we simply redesigned the cover."
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MY CLARIFICATION: Unmistakably, the publishers behind the first edition of David James’ book, The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? sought to capitalize from The Harbinger’s success by confusing the reading public into thinking that James’ book was The Harbinger, so that when they pulled a copy from the shelf on their way to or from work, they believed they had bought a copy of The Harbinger, when in fact they were taking home David James’ book.
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| On the left is the New York Times best-seller, The Harbinger by Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, and on the right is The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? (first edition) by David James before the cover was changed. The pictures speak for themselves. Regardless of Mr. James' claims to the contrary, anyone can surmise why Mr. James decided to publish his book with a cover that was almost identicle to Jonathan Cahn's work.. Why would somebody publish a book about another book and make it look as much as possible like the other? |
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| This is The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? (second edition). Note the cover has been changed and the book no longer resembles the first edition, which was strikingly like Rabbi Cahn's The Harbinger. Again, it must be asked; "Why would someone write a book about another book and publish it with a cover that is almost identicle to the other? |
They did this by originally publishing a book that looked almost entirely like The Harbinger. No doubt that even the choice of its title, The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? was a vile attempt to confuse potential buyers to purchase Mr. James’ book thinking they were purchasing the New York Times best-seller, The Harbinger. The evidence speaks for itself. Below are both books when the first edition of David James’ book was published. If this were not the case, the publishers of The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? could’ve legally fought off any threatened lawsuit, but they did not. They reissued the book with a new cover, and they did this because they knew that they had no legal recourse to fight a lawsuit under the circumstances. Their actions and the way they went about this speaks volumes for itself. Their disingenuous answer when questioned whether it was intentional on their part to do this, reminds me of the Scripture that says: Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, But the Lord weighs the hearts. (Proverbs 21:2) Let the truly discerning discern the truth from this.
There was even an article written about this entitled The Cover Is a Blatant Attempt at Fooling the Public, and written by former Associated Press and current WND journalist Bob Unruh. One who probably has the pulse of these people and what motivates them to rush a book to public on the heels a successful best-seller, is Joseph Farrah. He makes the following observation: Joseph Farah, producer of “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” and founder of WND, chalks up the relentless criticisms to two factors.
“Cahn is a new-found celebrity in Christian circles, and I detect a certain degree of envy from others,” he said. “In addition, I strongly believe some of the critics believe they will get noticed by going after a high-profile Christian book and movie and the man behind it. Both of those motives are sinful by definition. They are trying to hold Jonathan Cahn to a standard no one in history – Christian or secular – has ever been held to since Jesus Himself was accused by the Pharisees of supping with sinners and tax collectors.”
It is said that a picture speaks a thousand words. I’d say these pictures speak volumes. Any disingenuous claims made by either the publisher – the Berean Call, or the author of The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? – that they were not out to either capitalize on The Harbinger’s success with a religious his piece of their own by publishing its first edition with a cover that was almost identical Pastor Cahn’s best-seller; are shown for precisely for what these claims are – untruths. The pictures speak for themselves. And the actions on the part of both of using large portions of The Harbinger in their hit published piece without the prior consent by its author, Jonathan Cahn, or its publisher, Charisma Media/Charisma House Book Group in itself is less than desirable character flaw on the part of the Berean Call and of David James who feign otherwise in this article.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: But after publication of James's book with a new cover, the attorneys for Jonathan Cahn and Charisma sent yet another letter to The Berean Call. As James recounts,
"They threatened us again, claiming that we were causing them financial harm of as-yet-undetermined amount, because of the amount of 'The Harbinger' that I quoted in my book. A very experienced copyright lawyer has responded to them on our behalf, concluding that I was well within 'fair use' -- and that I had only quoted enough to establish context for my critique in every instance. We have not heard back from them in about a month since they received this, so we don't know what their plans are at this moment."
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MY CLARIFICATION: They’re absolutely correct. The undisclosed amount bespeaks of a damage that is so great to the ministry and person of Jonathan Cahn, to his good name, to the legitimacy of his calling, which can be proven that several articles which have followed Mr. James’ publication, have done. At the very least, if Mr. James had been thinking at all and had displayed the due consideration of a brother in Christ to another, he could’ve asked for permission to cite the large parts of The Harbinger he misquotes in religious his hit piece. He did not.
These people were so filled with zeal and bias in rushing their book to market that they did not go about the proper manner in which a Christian brother ought to conduct himself with another with whom he/she has a disagreement. Instead of exhausting all possible venues to present their questions to Pastor Cahn before quoting his book at length in hit piece after hit piece based upon David James’ quickly written book; they instead obviously wasted no time in getting the hit piece of a book published in order to capitalize on The Harbinger’s rising success. Now that someone has hit them back, they’re seeking the public’s sympathy, crying foul when in fact they were the first to draw first blood.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: The Bible proscribes the now-common practice of Christians suing other believers, but McMahon explains his shock and dismay -- not for this breach of protocol but for another reason:
"This is the first time in my 35 years of [ministry] addressing nearly every major religion, religious cult, aberrational Christian sect, unbiblical trend, religious publication, book, media production, etc., that any organization or individual has even hinted at suing us."
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MY CLARIFICATION: Mr. McMahon is entirely wrong. First he and David James did not seek Jonathan Cahn out to understand precisely what The Harbinger was saying. Moreover, they did not accord Jonathan Cahn the opportunity to express himself. When they interviewed him, it was not for the purposes of attempting to resolve either their objections to his book, or the differences between them, but to gain material for David James’ book which he made good use of from these encounters. (I believe were two) Afterwards, when Jonathan Cahn made attempts at contacting them to resolve these objections, they ignored and rebuffed him. This is not Christian.
Additionally, if there were an Apostolic Council to which Christians could bring their differences and litigate them to their resolution as there were in Paul’s day, to which he alludes to where he writes of lawsuits between Christians (1Corinthians 6:1-7) I would agree with their contention; but in the absence of such an Apostolic Council, there is no recourse but to litigate in a civil court matters of enumeration where the actions of one or more parties result in great and inestimable loses to the injured party.
There is no estimation to the kind of damage that these people have done to Pastor Cahn and his ministry, and how it has affected his personal life and ministry. Such matters are difficult to estimate, but the damage has been done, because their actions by publishing this book – The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? and their statements about Pastor Cahn and his ministry have been nothing short of slanderous. I have heard and have in my possession a horrendous interview hosted by Brannon Howse where Jimmy DeYoung, basing his opinions on what David James had told him at the time, used all manner of epithets against Jonathan Cahn; calling him everything from “false prophet” to “false teacher” and trashing his book, his ministry and bringing into question his calling in Christ. Mr. DeYoung had not read Pastor Cahn’s New York Times best-seller The Harbinger when he made these statements on Brannon Howse’s Worldview Weekend Radio program.
You cannot put a dollar figure to the damage these people have done to Pastor Cahn and his ministry in their continual attacks upon him, upon his book and what they claim it says, and upon his ministry. It is not our place as Christians to work towards delegitimize other Christians and seek their total and complete marginalization and their destruction of their service for God. It is one thing to write of cults and cult leaders, but to write to marginalize other Christians in the name of discernment and apologetics is nothing short of unchristian slander and fomenting controversies, thereby furnishing the enemies of Christianity fodder to their attacks upon the Christian faith. There is no place in one Christian who displays such a log obscuring their own judgment in forcing themselves upon another Christian to remove a speck they claim is in his. (Matthew 7:4, Luke 6:42)
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: Charisma Media is operated by publishing magnate Steve Strang, whose holdings include Charisma and Ministry Today magazines. Named as one of "The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America" by TIME in 2005, Strang's empire includes multiple book divisions which crank out hundreds of titles by dozens of authors popular among charismatic denominations, and specifically, the Latter Rain movement (deemed heretical by the Assemblies of God more than 60 years ago).
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MY CLARIFICATION: What does this have to do with either Jonathan Cahn’s book and its content or Charisma Media, but as a ploy by the writer of this article/his piece to associate other authors with Jonathan Cahn in order to marginalize and discredit him and his best-seling(sic) book, The Harbinger, and in so doing, to continue to damage him. This is what one Christian does not do to another in private or public, but it is what these people have done to a fellow brother in Christ; to Jonathan Cahn and to his good name, and his service to Christ.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: Coincidentally, it is this segment of the church that has long been under doctrinal scrutiny by the ministry of The Berean Call. Founded by bestselling author and noted cult researcher Dave Hunt, the mission of TBC (through print and broadcast media) has consistently encouraged Christians with the biblical exhortation to "try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1).
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MY CLARIFICATION: This too is what Jonathan Cahn has long taught and has in fact practiced. But what he nor any other Christian should sanction is the deliberate slander of another Christian in the name of discernment. The approach that is being taken by The Berean Call and by similar so-called self-appointed “discernment ministries” is not biblical at all. One Christian does not drag another Christian before the bar of public opinion to shame them and slander their good name on the basis that they’re doing a service for God. There is a great difference between exposing a cult and its leader to dragging a fellow brother in Christ to do damage to that brother in the name of the Savior whom both call upon for their salvation. This is contemptible.
This is what these people have done and without remorse and without repentance. In fact they have stiffened their necks and have crystalized their attacks after being brought to task by other ministries for their practice and behavior. One article called it “bloodsport,” but the Berean Call, the Alliance for Biblical Integrity, and their satellites on the Internet with whom they join in writing hit piece after hit piece against other Christians such as James Dobson, Billy Graham, Pat Robertson, Pat Boone, and others; have reacted in typically defiant unchristian behavior. At the very least, they could’ve presented a public apology to the people and ministries they have damage, but they have not. There is no humility grace, or love in these people.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: This was the spirit and intent behind the publication of David James's critique, "The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction?" Playing off of the premise set forth by Jonathan Cahn, James encourages readers to exercise biblical discernment in order to answer the question: Does Isaiah 9:10 really contain, as Cahn asserts, an "ancient mystery that holds the secret of America's future?"
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MY CLARIFICATION: The common denominator of Isaiah 9:10 with September 11th, 2001 and the nine harbingers mentioned, outlined, and explained in the best-selling book, The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn is the fact that not only was this Scripture which the prophet quotes to pronounce judgment on Israel 2500 years ago, it is quoted and cited by two of America’s leaders in our nation’s capital on two separate occasions commemorating the tragic events of September 11th. David James fails to see this in order to posit his own contention and write the hit piece he has written and rushed to publish on the heels of the highly successful New York Times best-seller authored by Pastor Cahn.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: In a pre-broadcast discussion with an investigative journalist from Christian radio, James explained the reason for his delay in announcing the threats of litigation, "I only mention this because Tom McMahon, with the full approval of the TBC board, has just made this public in an article that is now on their website and which will be in the February issue of their newsletter.
"We believe it is necessary for it to be known within the Body about this unfortunate (and unbiblical) course of action. I do not know to what extent Jonathan Cahn is involved with this personally -- so I am still not impugning motives, but it seems reasonable to think he would have the power to have prevented this from happening."
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MY CLARIFICATION: Let us look at the Scripture to which Mr. James alludes. I quote it here from the New American Standard Bible:
Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church? I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren, but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?
Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?
(1Corinthians 6:1-7)
First, the Apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God writes to berate his Corinthian brethren for not having competent leaders among themselves to whom they could approach and litigate their grievances against one another – believers like themselves who could take up the matter of their differences and resolve it biblically.
It was to their shame that there were none among their community who could be trusted as competent and impartial arbiters of who could be appointed by their leaders to take up legal matters among themselves, and instead they had no recourse but to resort to courts of judges who were men unlike themselves would take up matters that they more than likely had little or no competence to litigate in the first place. Paul says that this was to their shame – not the act in itself, since they would have to take it if there were men among them who could decide such matters, but that they had no one among them who take up these matters – this was their shame.
We find the same holds true today. Because there is not a body of Christians who could arbitrate the differences that Christian denominations have with one another, even individual Christians belonging to various ministries who also have serious differences with one another over doctrinal issues and issues of policies and procedures; Christians of all denominations much seek civil courts to decide matters where others who should know better, but cannot restrain their tongue, have slandered, and borne false witness against their fellow brethren. Otherwise such men would continue their assaults against other Christian ministries unabated and unchallenged. They must be made to account in some way and in some manner and stopped before they destroy any more lives.
Paul too makes mention that the redeemed of the Lord will no doubt serve in some legal capacity in the Highest Court of God’s justice some day in which angels and men will be brought to justice for their rebellion; no doubt the Great White Throne Judgment following the second resurrection of the dead (Mark 13:27, Romans 8:1-4, 1Corinthians 15, 1Thessalonians 4:15-17, 2Thessalonians 2:1-12, Hebrews 9:27-28, Revelations 2:11, 20:6), or the Second Death mentioned in Scripture (Revelations 20:14, 21:8).
We must be competent, knowledgeable in the Scriptures, temperate in our dealings, and with insight and impartiality serve now so that we will be competent and impartial then and have insight to judge then. For this reason I write as I do, because the self-deception of these men is great and they have carried many away with their words and unsettled others. Their actions, their behavior towards those Christians whom they’ve targeted, and their words speak for themselves and are made self-evident by the light of God’s Word when properly applied and understood, because everything is exposed by the light. Just as the Apostle Paul in the Holy Spirit has written: But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. (Ephesians 5:13)
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: McMahon, who heads the ministry under legal threat from Cahn and Charisma's attorney, elaborates, "For decades we at TBC have been exhorting and encouraging believers to be Bereans (i.e., to check out everything they are being taught) by searching the Scriptures every day" (Acts 17:11).
"More critical than the unbiblical action of a brother threatening to take another brother to court (1 Corinthians 6) is the issue of preventing the biblical evaluation of a work that is influencing hundreds of thousands.... In effect, we are being told that we must limit our documentation in warning the body of Christ of the biblical errors in 'The Harbinger.' In other words, we cannot be Bereans or like the watchman of Ezekiel 3:17-19."
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MY CLARIFICATION: I would then suggest to Mr. McMahon to do the same with himself and with his ministry. He was not called by Christ to train the resources with which he was entrusted with to train those resources on other Christians, but on the cults and the false New Age religious order working to overrun our society.
What you and your associates have done to Pastor Jonathan Cahn; to his ministry; to his calling; to his good name; has been nothing short than reprehensible. Your behavior and public statements against this man based upon a misreading and misunderstanding of his book, and the false doctrine of Cessationist Theology is nothing short than a scandal in itself. It is contemptible.
Even after having been reproved by some for having “thrown a brother under the bus” you could’ve at least made a serious self-examination of what you have done. No. You didn’t. Instead you trained every available resource to continue this campaign of defamation against The Harbinger and against its author, Jonathan Cahn, and have now brought even the shame of your having been legally warned not to continue in this to the Christian public’s eye in order to win them over and enflame them against your brother in Christ whom you have treated with the utmost contempt. My God man, unbelievers treat their own better than you have.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: Dave Hunt and T.A. McMahon have stirred controversy before. In 1985, they co-authored "The Seduction of Christianity," a groundbreaking book that exposed unbiblical teachings and practices of dozens of Christian leaders -- most of whom were popular in the Word of Faith and Charismatic movements.
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MY CLARIFICATION: This speaks for itself. You should have used the proper Christian method; the biblical method used by Priscilla and Aquila with Apollos. I cite it here, because this is the Scriptural manner in which doctrinal differences and corrections are made among and between Christian brethren. It is found in the Scriptures, in Luke’s Book of Acts:
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. And 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 18:34-38)
Please take note here, that when Priscilla and Aquila had heard Apollos, they did not berate him in public, nor did they reprove and correct him there in the synagogue in front of the others with whom Apollos had been sharing his incomplete version of the Gospel; but, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. (Acts 18:26) And rather than quench the man’s spirit by bringing into question what he had said, perhaps even by way of personal testimony before the congregation, they instead after “explaining to him the way of God more accurately,” (Acts 18:26) they and the Christians with whom Priscilla and Aquila gathered – the brethren, they are called - encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. (Acts 18:27)
This is the Scriptural manner in which doctrinal differences, or differences as in the sharing of understanding and aspects of God’s Word one party may be unaware of and another party privy to. Here is an example how things are done right, and the fruit of what they produce when it’s done right. What does the Scriptural testimony say it ended? In the following manner, 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 18:28) Such is the result of when something is done right and the fruit it produces in others.
This is the work of the Holy Spirit. First, it does what the Holy Spirit always does; bears witness of Christ (John 16:14), second; convicts the world of sin (John 16:8), third; brings people to faith in Christ for redemption (John 6:44, 65), and unlocks the teachings of the Bible (John 14:26, 16:13-15) which are a mystery to the unsaved because to them the Bible is nothing but a closed book that cannot be understood by the unregenerate mind, because its truths are spiritually discerned. (1Corinthians 2)
One Christian blogger had made the following observation about the behavior, actions, and public statements put out by the Berean Call, the Alliance for Biblical Integrity, and Worldview Weekend and others in their attacks:
“Discernment ministries usually work to identify serious failures of Christian doctrine, such as a denial of the Deity of Christ, which is the essential problem with denial of the Trinity; or advocacy of extrabiblical revelation (anything that is taken as authoritative outside the Bible, such as the traditions of Catholicism or the Book of Mormon), prophecies that contradict scripture, imputation of works of the flesh or the devil to the Holy Spirit and vice versa.
So it's rather strange to see these ministries going after Jonathan Cahn's Harbinger with such zeal, considering that they can't identify any such violations of the orthodox faith without indulging in tortuous reasoning.”
(Faith’s Corner, How the deck is stacked against The Harbinger --updated Tuesday, August 21, 2012)
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: "Seduction" was a controversial bestseller, and was blamed for creating "division" in the body of Christ. But many readers believed it to have been biblical division, in accordance with the Apostle Paul's exhortation to keep close watch on "those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them" (Romans 16:17).
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MY CLARIFICATION: Romans 16:17 reads as follows: Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. This is a favorite Scripture that is misapplied by these so-called self-appointed arbiters of discernment. But more telling is the verse that follows, because the combination of the two when properly understood and quoted in their correct context, exposes these people and their entire operation as cranks who war against the Christian church from within and cause divisions and dissensions of all types. I quote: For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. (Romans 16:18)
Clearly this Scripture in its entirety then is not referring to servants of Christ – to Christians, but to slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; who by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. It is clear that these people when targeting other Christians – and not the false teachers of the cults, the false religious orders, and false prophets of the New Age Ecumenicism that will usher in the universal church of the ant-Christ – are completely misapplying this admonition of Paul’s and misusing it to destroy other Christians with whom they have doctrinal and policy differences with. They use this Scripture to delegitimize those whom they target and to legitimize themselves among unsuspecting Christians. It’s a great act, and they’ve fooled a lot of people, yes even the very elect until now.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: An industry observer remarked, "Ironically, the tables have turned in the past 25 years. Today, books warning of heretical doctrine and false prophets are no longer profitable for mainstream Christian publishers, and would never, ever make the New York Times bestseller list. Instead, false claims and questionable teaching are their stock and trade."
Some believe that God's Word prophesied of this very trend in Christian publishing: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables" (2 Timothy 4:4-5).
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MY CLARIFICATION: First, why doesn’t the writer of this article not name this “industry observer” whom cites. Second, because, as this article citing this unnamed source it calls “an industry observer” the tables have turned in the past 25 years, seeks to infer here that Pasto Jonathan Cahn’s book, The Harbinger can be numbered among these. Yes, the subtle and not so subtle bias of the article’s writer appears to indicate that it is by inference here. 2Timothy 4:4-5 is a favorite among these so-called discernment apologists. They misuse it as they do the rest of the Scriptures to legitimize and justify their attacks, and delegitimize and marginalize those whom they target as heretics among Christ’s body.
Let’s examine this Scripture which is one of their favorites, and read it in its proper context:
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
(2Timothy 4:1-5)
First, we see the Apostle Paul in the Holy Spirit of God charging Timothy to: 1.) preach the word: 2.) be ready in season and out of season – in other words at all times and in every situation and circumstance; 3.) reprove – that is, correct with humility and in the love of Christ; 4.) rebuke – that is strongly correct when necessary and when the situation requires it; 5.) exhort – that is plead with and entreat the person, just as Jude has written in this regard the following - But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh. (Jude 20-23) Dovetailed by the following Scripture from the Holy Spirit inspired and breathed pen of John the Beloved Elder, who writes:
If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.
(1John 5:16-17)
And what of James, the Lord’s brother, who writes the following about helping our fellow brethren from straying from the Christian faith?
My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
(James 5:19-20)
Does it say in any of these Scriptures that we ought to take a brother we fear is straying from the truth and drag him/her before the public and launch a campaign of defamation, slander, and innuendo to marginalize, shame, and discredit them? And this is how it teaches us to be towards those who are straying from the truth. Nowhere is Jonathan Cahn straying from God’s truth, only these men are claiming and have been doing this for months, that he has strayed from the truth, and that he is causing others to do the same. And they’re accusing him of this publicly – that is before believers and non-believers in print, and on radio, and in Cyberspace. This is not what Paul means at all here, for he ends his charge to Timothy to do the above , with great patience and instruction. (2Timothy 4:5)
There is no patience, there is no instruction, and there is no love, or grace in what these men have done and continue to do unabated, even when they are charged to do the opposite by Scripture, and some who know and have insight into such matters – the kind of understanding they themselves lack even with their learning.
An example that we can all emulate is Job, who after having suffered and endured; the Lord restored his fortunes when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord increased all that Job had twofold. (Job 42:10)
Why do you think that the Scriptures time and again, proscribe outing someone in public, but first speaking with that person or with those people privately, seeking with as much patience and love as possible to resolve one’s differences with them, because to do otherwise is not to conceal the matter, but to needlessly bring that other person to open shame, because the Proverb is clear on this:
He who conceals a transgression seeks love,
But he who repeats a matter separates intimate friends.
(Proverbs 17:9)
How can a brother be won over and “snatched from the fires” if we mistreat him and slander his good name, and bear false witness against that brother; all over a difference of interpretation? This is according to God’s Word a form of perversion, and therein lies the deception, because these people are deceiving others and are self-deceived themselves; believing in their zeal that they are rendering God a service, when they are slandering their brother’s good name. The Proverb indicts them:
A perverse man spreads strife,
And a slanderer separates intimate friends.
(Proverbs 16:28)
It has been reported that these men have separated long-lasting friendships among Christian ministries.
And what the Apostle Peter writes, quoting a well beloved verse from the Book of the Proverbs in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament):
Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.
(1Peter 4:8)
The Proverbs themselves declare that hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions. (Proverbs 10:12)
These people are self-deceived and because they have built through the years a legitimate reputation as defenders of the faith from their previous work when they expended their energies and considerable resources to exposing the teachings and aberrant beliefs of the cults, but in recent years have begun targeting legitimate Christians ministries whom they mix with illegitimate ones on the flimsiest and unbiblical belief that because they appear to them to be Pentecostal or Charismatic, they with total disregard lump both together as the same and as heretical. This is based on their Cessationist Theology, because they do not believe that Christians can exercise the gifts of the Holy Spirit today.
Of course the Apostle Paul writing in the Holy Spirit, prophetically warned about these people when he wrote the following to Timothy that in the last days difficult times will come, because there would be men who would be holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and he charges him to, Avoid such men as these. (2Timothy 3:1a, 5-6a)
Today’s Cessationists deny the very power of God and work of God in the Holy Spirit by denying the gifts that according to Scripture the Holy Spirit imparts to believers for service in the church, and to do this is to deny not only the Holy Spirit’s legitimate role in the body of Christ, but to deny Christ and His work, for it is through the Holy Spirit indwelling the born again servant of God in Christ who wills and works for God’s glory, according God’s Word. (1Corinthians 12, Ephesian 4:11-16, Philippians 2:13)
They readily forget Paul’s admonition where he writes to desire the greater gifts. (1Corinthians 12:31) And with this, they’ve forgotten Paul’s admonition to do the following:
For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
(Romans 12:3)
Yet in targeting other Christians, not cultists and cults, but other Christians; these people have set aside the admonitions and commandments given to them clearly in the Scriptures, and have become self-deluded into believing that their contention for the faith has to be against other Christians, when the Scripture that admonishes this, does not cite other Christians as its target, but those outside of the Christian faith. This is why these people are so self-deceived and believe themselves ‘ a cut above” those whom they’ve targeted, even a cut above all others in the body of Christ, for they view themselves and have appointed themselves as overseers – no longer against non-Christians and cultists, but now against legitimate born again Evangelicals like Pastor Jonathan Cahn, Jim Daly, Billy Graham, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, James MacDonald, and Pat Boone; recklessly lumping them with false prophets and teachers into a single group.
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CHRISTIAN NEWSWIRE ARTICLE: In light of the threatened legal action against the ministry that Dave Hunt founded, T.A. McMahon wrote, "We have hired a copyright attorney to address the legal issues and have responded to the attorney for Cahn and CMP. Even so, we covet your prayers that the Lord will be glorified throughout the process."
McMahon's entire remarks may be read in his February article, "The Demise of Biblical Discernment," now posted on the ministry's website at http://www.thebereancall.org. David James's report is posted at http://www.biblicalintegrity.org.
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MY CLARIFICATION: T.A. McMahon has taken Dave Hunt’s beloved the Berean Call and made it into something it never was. It has since Mr. McMahon taken the reins of power, become a bitter attack dog against other Christians. There have been several articles warning of this trend, for example When Discernment Turns Ugly: Discerning Discerners, When Christians engage in blood sport – by Jan Markell of Olive Tree Ministries, and Eric Barger of Take a Stand Ministries – When Christians Engage in Bloodsport, and the Pepster’s Post own article on discernment ministries entitled, THE HARBINGER'S CRITIC: WHEN DISCERNMENT IS DECEPTION.
Jonathan Cahn does not speak of any of these people when interviewed on radio. He doesn’t bring them up. He has not pursued them as they have him, but he has acted very appropriately with them. It speaks volumes. It is time for the people of God to be truly discerning and see these people for what they are according to the Scriptures, because we are living at a time when things are not as they appear, and these people are in the epicenter of deception, being self-deceived themselves (though well-intentioned) and deceiving a good many others with clever dialogue and rhetoric, but primarily because of the name they have built around themselves. They are now capitalizing on it, and it is unfortunate that they are now fulfilling the role of the religious opposition to what the Lord is doing in our day.
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Monday, February 4, 2013
Another Letter to a Critic of The Harbinger
Interesting short post you've placed on the Internet, but your claim that David James has written a book that has refuted The Harbinger is not true.
David James has written a book - The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? But it does not refute The Harbinger. It makes an attempt using clever verbal gymnastics and Cessationist Theology to attribute meanings to words Rabbi Cahn uses in his novel that the book never claimed.
What's more, he tries to split hairs over elements within the book that are not there; for example, Rabbi Cahn's use of the word "sign" Mr. James attaches some other-worldly connotation that the author never intended. A sign is nothing more than a signpost or guidepost presented to give a traveler or visitor a means by which to navigate, hot some supernatural paranormal activity, as Mr. James claims in his book.
The book dismisses the dual meaning and use of sensus plenior that is often employed in prophetic exegesis, and largely employed by the Evangalists in their Gospel Narratives.
There are many others fallacies in Mr. James' claims throughout his book that cannot be cited here, but I am working on a single volume work that will as the Lord wills it, explode the entire controversy wide open for what it is.
Discernment Ministries such as the ones now attacking The Harbinger and its author, Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn once had a noble role and responsibility in the Body of Christ - that of defenders of the Christian faith against the error of the cults and their fulminations against correct Christian Dogma and the doctrines of the faith.
But in recent years, we have been seeing a moving away from this, and these same well-trusted ministries that earned the Christian public's trust, respect, admiration, approval, and support; have now begun to veer away from their noble work, and have targeted other Mainline Evangelicals; their incessant attacks against a Mainline Evangelicals such as Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn is the most famous of these and its most horrendous.
There is a method in which to employ in Christian Apologetics between Evangelicals and Cults; there is another between believers and non-believers; and there is still another between believers and other believers with whom there are differences of opinion on doctrinal matters or with regards to hermeneutics - none have been or are being used by any of these critics of The Harbinger.
They are known to these critics, but they have decided for their own reasons to disregard the proper Biblical mandate to instead employ methods of their own while citing various misapplied Scripture to justify their actions and their claims against those Christians whom they've targeted.
These are not the acts and works that Christian Apologetics once was used for to glorify God by affirming His sacred time honored truths as preserved for us in His Word.
When some Christian Apologists trumpet their fellow Christians out into the public to speak of him as a false prophet, denigrate his preaching of Christ because of certain eschatological differences they have in regards to interpretation of these; and hurl on attack after another in the name of Jesus Christ, it is most evident that we are witnessing what history has repeatedly seen happen in every age - the religious opposition to a servant and messenger that Christ has sent to that generation to call it to repentance, renewal, and revival.
It began with Cain and Abel, it continued in the days of Noah, the era of Job, with the prophets of Israel, in the Second Temple Era of Christ and His apostles, during the period of the Church Fathers, during the rise of the Catholic Church, the Protestant Reformation right down to this age. We are witnessing it today, right now, and very clear to those who have eyes to see it clearly as the Holy Spirit of God gives them the understanding the current critics lack.
In every age, the religious opposition comprised of religious men of letters and learned doctors of theology opposed either a movement of God, or a prophet or messenger of God sent to warn the nation of impending judgment, or the preachers of righteousness like Martin Luther, and many others too numerous to cite here; sent to bring the Gospel of God’s salvation in Christ by faith. As it was then, and has been throughout history, so it is at this very hour. We are witnesses to that reality.
It was not Jonathan Cahn who initiated the attacks that drove a wedge through modern Evangelical America, but these modern avatars who’ve laid claim to Christian Orthodoxy. It was not Jonathan Cahn who wrote against them in public, but they through numerous articles, have subjected this brother in Christ and servant of the Most High God to the most contemptible treatment of one brother in Christ by those who claim to be servants of Christ themselves while an incredulous world watches and sees no reason to join its ranks if this is what they perceive Christianity to be. We have all been very poor ambassadors of Christ to a fallen world as we have now turned our sights to blow one another out of the waters of theological pursuits in God’s service.
Yes, there is no end to the knowledge that the current critics of this age - the skeptics among God's people - not the unbelievers, but the disbelievers among us in the Body of Christ who are here to sow discord and doubt, confusion, and destructive heresies such as Cessationism - to test and forge the faith of those who have not placed their faith in idols (men and their intellect, books and the tyranny of the letter versus the meaning, etc.), but in God.
Thank you for according me the opportunity to express my acute displeasure.
David James has written a book - The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? But it does not refute The Harbinger. It makes an attempt using clever verbal gymnastics and Cessationist Theology to attribute meanings to words Rabbi Cahn uses in his novel that the book never claimed.
What's more, he tries to split hairs over elements within the book that are not there; for example, Rabbi Cahn's use of the word "sign" Mr. James attaches some other-worldly connotation that the author never intended. A sign is nothing more than a signpost or guidepost presented to give a traveler or visitor a means by which to navigate, hot some supernatural paranormal activity, as Mr. James claims in his book.
The book dismisses the dual meaning and use of sensus plenior that is often employed in prophetic exegesis, and largely employed by the Evangalists in their Gospel Narratives.
There are many others fallacies in Mr. James' claims throughout his book that cannot be cited here, but I am working on a single volume work that will as the Lord wills it, explode the entire controversy wide open for what it is.
Discernment Ministries such as the ones now attacking The Harbinger and its author, Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn once had a noble role and responsibility in the Body of Christ - that of defenders of the Christian faith against the error of the cults and their fulminations against correct Christian Dogma and the doctrines of the faith.
But in recent years, we have been seeing a moving away from this, and these same well-trusted ministries that earned the Christian public's trust, respect, admiration, approval, and support; have now begun to veer away from their noble work, and have targeted other Mainline Evangelicals; their incessant attacks against a Mainline Evangelicals such as Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn is the most famous of these and its most horrendous.
There is a method in which to employ in Christian Apologetics between Evangelicals and Cults; there is another between believers and non-believers; and there is still another between believers and other believers with whom there are differences of opinion on doctrinal matters or with regards to hermeneutics - none have been or are being used by any of these critics of The Harbinger.
They are known to these critics, but they have decided for their own reasons to disregard the proper Biblical mandate to instead employ methods of their own while citing various misapplied Scripture to justify their actions and their claims against those Christians whom they've targeted.
These are not the acts and works that Christian Apologetics once was used for to glorify God by affirming His sacred time honored truths as preserved for us in His Word.
When some Christian Apologists trumpet their fellow Christians out into the public to speak of him as a false prophet, denigrate his preaching of Christ because of certain eschatological differences they have in regards to interpretation of these; and hurl on attack after another in the name of Jesus Christ, it is most evident that we are witnessing what history has repeatedly seen happen in every age - the religious opposition to a servant and messenger that Christ has sent to that generation to call it to repentance, renewal, and revival.
It began with Cain and Abel, it continued in the days of Noah, the era of Job, with the prophets of Israel, in the Second Temple Era of Christ and His apostles, during the period of the Church Fathers, during the rise of the Catholic Church, the Protestant Reformation right down to this age. We are witnessing it today, right now, and very clear to those who have eyes to see it clearly as the Holy Spirit of God gives them the understanding the current critics lack.
In every age, the religious opposition comprised of religious men of letters and learned doctors of theology opposed either a movement of God, or a prophet or messenger of God sent to warn the nation of impending judgment, or the preachers of righteousness like Martin Luther, and many others too numerous to cite here; sent to bring the Gospel of God’s salvation in Christ by faith. As it was then, and has been throughout history, so it is at this very hour. We are witnesses to that reality.
It was not Jonathan Cahn who initiated the attacks that drove a wedge through modern Evangelical America, but these modern avatars who’ve laid claim to Christian Orthodoxy. It was not Jonathan Cahn who wrote against them in public, but they through numerous articles, have subjected this brother in Christ and servant of the Most High God to the most contemptible treatment of one brother in Christ by those who claim to be servants of Christ themselves while an incredulous world watches and sees no reason to join its ranks if this is what they perceive Christianity to be. We have all been very poor ambassadors of Christ to a fallen world as we have now turned our sights to blow one another out of the waters of theological pursuits in God’s service.
Yes, there is no end to the knowledge that the current critics of this age - the skeptics among God's people - not the unbelievers, but the disbelievers among us in the Body of Christ who are here to sow discord and doubt, confusion, and destructive heresies such as Cessationism - to test and forge the faith of those who have not placed their faith in idols (men and their intellect, books and the tyranny of the letter versus the meaning, etc.), but in God.
Thank you for according me the opportunity to express my acute displeasure.
CRITIC'S BOOK COVER MIMICS THE HARBINGER
I recently wrote a writer of World Net Daily, the conservative news outlet that has written many articles of great interest to informed American on many topics. One topic of great interest to me is the one written by Bob Unruh, titled Critics Book Cover Mimics Best-selling 'Harbinger.' Below I include the letter that I wrote to him on the growing battles within Evangelical Christianity that are being enjoined between many so-called "discernment ministries" who are now targeting other Christian ministries with whom they have doctrinal disagreements.
A very big target of theirs is the New York Times Best-selling novel by Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn titled The Harbinger. But now in recent months, it's not just the book they have attacked, but also the man, his mnistry, and even the legitimacy of his calling by G-d. Their use of the disparaging impersonal "Cahn" rather than using the proper titled Rabbi or Pastor is one example, but there are others. They have also employed the " " when using his proper title of Rabbi and the use of the lower case r, all in efforts to de-legitimize him by subtle marginalization. There is much more, much, much more from these people, and I have been tracking as much of it as is possible, because it has been almost a barrage of incessant attacks that are not characteristic behavior between Christian ministries.
Beloww I cite others with my letter to Mr. Unruh. The spiritual warfare is among US, and the battle lines have been drawn. I said that the outcome of this spiritual war will be determined by the behavior of those enjoined in it. You will know them by their fruits, and at first the wheat and the tares may look and sound the same, but with time, it will become evident to everyone where the wheet is and where the tares are, as time and many other factors will make it evident.
And now, my letter to Mr. Unruh:
Dear Bob, Joseph, and staff @ World Net Daily,
Greetings. You hit the nail the proverbial head with your article on how deceptive these people who published a polemic against The Harbinger only to make it look as much as they legally can make it look like The Harbinger. Their disingenuous answer to your question whether it was intentional on their part to do this, reminds me of the Scripture that says: Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, But the Lord weighs the hearts. (Proverbs 21:2)
These people can claim one thing all they want, but their actions speak louder than their words. Like James has written in the inspiration of the Spirit of God, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” (James 2:18b) This is another way, the Scriptural way of the old cliché’, “Actions speak louder than words.” This is precisely why the Apostle John in the Holy Spirit writes in his Gospel the following:
Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.
(John 2:23-25)
These people may claim that it was not their intention to deceive anyone by almost copying The Harbinger’s cover, but the fact that they had to make certain changes to the cover of the first edition of their book, and then publish a second edition of it, speaks for itself much louder than any claims against it. When pressed by WND on this, David James’ claim that, “They chose different elements,” and other claim that, “There is some similarity, but there are some significant differences,” rings very hollow indeed.
Moreover, The Harbinger’s main detractor – David James – who has written this book which is published by the Berean Call under T.A. McMahon’s leadership; claim that his book, The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? clearly demonstrated that ‘The Harbinger ‘falls far short of meeting the biblical requirements for such a message from God, being based on the mishandling of Scripture, faulty theology, misleading statements, the selective use of historical facts and unsupported speculation.” Itself does not hold up to scrutiny. The claims he makes in his book point by point do not in fact “clearly demonstrate, as he claims, that The Harbinger falls far short of meeting biblical use of historical facts and unsupported speculation.”
Mr. James attaches meanings to words used in The Harbinger which its author Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn never intended, and works hard at splitting hairs regarding Mr. James’ own doctrinal disagreements as a Cessationist over words such as “mystery,” “sign,” “revelation,” and other terms used throughout the book denoting specific facts about each harbinger that Mr. James disagrees doctrinally because of his Cessationist/Hyper-Dispensationalist views with its rigid and dead scholastic approach to theology. The Holy Bible is not a textbook that we should treat it as such and God is not a concept but our Maker and Judge, the Supreme Being to whom we all must account to for our statements and behavior in this life.
There were some other changes made to the second edition of David James’ book, due to an Internet blogger’s Faith’s Corner website’s pointing out certain inaccuracies in it. But this is the problem with James’ treatment of The Harbinger. He splits hairs over semantical questions about certain phrases and his personal interpretation of them, and attempts to project those meanings on to the narrative of Rabbi Cahn’s book by using clever arguments to press his points which lead nowhere but where David James believes in his own mind.
David James belongs to a tightly knit group of various so-called “discernment ministries” that in recent months have taken upon themselves to attack The Harbinger. When they began, they first attacked the book, then as time progressed, they expanded their attacks to include some of Jonathan Cahn’s teachings on posted on You Tube. Now about a year later, they’ve included attacks against his ministry, Hope of the World, and the Arise and Shine Academy, making all sorts of outrageous claims.
One of them, the host of the DiscernIt website, has written the following complete fabrication, I quote:
“Not having thought about this book (The Harbinger) for some time, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the Arise and Shine Academy. There was not much information on the Beth Israel website about the source or content of the teachings, but I did notice a series on marriage. There is a book being used by Gary Thomas who wrote “Sacred Pathway.”
“ZIP – Up goes the red flag. Read the list of people promoted by ”Sacred Pathway”. Richard Foster, Thomas Merton, Brother Lawrence, Basil Pennington, Henri Nouwen, Bonhoeffer, St. Francis of Assisi, and Mother Teresa.
Source HERE
“Why is Beth Israel, led by Jonathon(sic) Cahn, allowing a course on marriage using a book with catholic contemplatives? It is because it is deeply steeped in mysticism and esoteric teachings which is more gnostic in nature than biblical.”
This woman is attempting to tie Hope of the World Ministries with “Catholic Contemplatives” because it has used the book by well-known author Gary Thomas, Sacred Marriage, What if God Designed Marriage to Make Us Holy More Than to Make Us Happy? If Beth Israel has taught Catholic Contemplatives, no one there certainly knows about it. And if this book has anything resembling what this lady claims, no one who’s used it has knowingly been teaching Catholic Contemplatives from it. In fact, they all say that they cannot find anything of the sort within its pages. But this lady connects this book (and Beth Israel) to the Occult New Age Movement called Sacred Pathways. We are looking into the matter, and I am examining this book to verify if the book has anything that in any way remotely or directly ties it to the Sacred Pathways Occult or to Catholic Contemplatives.
When I personally took the blogger of the DiscernIt web site to task on this - because she wrote against my personal testimony, and has written against Rabbi Cahn and the Arise and Shine Academy; she removed what she had written about me, but kept her lies about the Arise and Shine Academy, and her criticism against it because she claims that Rabbi Cahn and his ministry promote Catholic Contemplatives, when in fact I know that he does not. This lady is so reckless in her attacks against other Christians that she confused a personal testimony of mine on the Holy Spirit gift of the word of knowledge that the with the Occult practice of Remote Reading! Her ad homonym attacks is an extreme example of discernment gone awry, but this is how far off the rails these people are in their constant attacks against Jonathan Cahn, a genuine true servant of Christ.
Because my wife and I have been active members of Beth Israel for years now, and we personally know Rabbi Cahn for ten years, having attended service since 1998, and have heard all of the messages on which The Harbinger is based, we know that all of these so-called “discernment ministries” and self-appointed “watchdog groups” have completely misunderstood the message because they have read into it things that are not there. The blogger to the website Faith’s Corner mirrors what I have often said and blogged on my own site The Pepster’s Post: A Voice in Cyberspace about these people:
“Discernment ministries usually work to identify serious failures of Christian doctrine, such as a denial of the Deity of Christ, which is the essential problem with denial of the Trinity; or advocacy of extrabiblical revelation (anything that is taken as authoritative outside the Bible, such as the traditions of Catholicism or the Book of Mormon), prophecies that contradict scripture, imputation of works of the flesh or the devil to the Holy Spirit and vice versa.
So it's rather strange to see these ministries going after Jonathan Cahn's Harbinger with such zeal, considering that they can't identify any such violations of the orthodox faith without indulging in tortuous reasoning.”
(Faith’s Corner, How the deck is stacked against The Harbinger --updated Tuesday, August 21, 2012)
And this is precisely what I have noticed in David James’ book The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? and in his criticisms of it on the web. It is much to do about nothing. This man and his colleagues at the Berean Call (TA McMahon), Worldview Weekend (Brannon Howse), David James’ own website the Alliance for Biblical Integrity, Pre-Trib Research Center (Thomas Ice), Challies.Dot.Com (Tim Challies), a website I was banned from after writing a lengthy correction and rebuttal of what it had posted against The Harbinger, Fighting for the Faith (Chris Rosebrough of Pirate Christian Radio), and a few others.
These people have one thing in common; they take great pains at splitting hairs over semantical questions, and indulge in all sorts of rhetorical gymnastics as whether this was done correctly according to their standards which they claim are the true biblical standards, or whether something was missing or not said, and indulge in what the Apostle Paul warns against to solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers. (2Timothy 2:14)
There was a time when these ministries served a legitimate function in the body of Christ in calling out the errors of the cults and Occult, and they did a superlative work outlining the differences between the fundamental core teachings of Christianity versus those the Watchtower Society of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons), Herbert W. Armstrong Worldwide Church of God, and his son’s Garner Ted Armstrong’s aberrant teachings, the cult known as The Way International and their informal Twig Fellowships where they taught to deny the deity of Christ, and other fundamental tenets of the Christian faith. Ministries such as the Berean Call when it was directed by Dave Hunt did a fabulous job in this, and they built up a well-deserved reputation around it in their labors.
But in recent years, these so-called “discernment ministries” have turned their focus inward towards and against other Christian ministries with whom they disagree on topical, or doctrinal matters, or in methods of biblical hermeneutics about exegetical questions of various types. We see them now attacking Dr. James Dobson, Billy Graham, Dr. James MacDonald, Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, Pat Robertson, Pat Boone, Joseph Farrah, and many other mainline Evangelicals just for sitting next to someone who they claim is a heretic according to “their” standards. Now I am not claiming that they may be wrong about that other person, but my God man; are Christians now to do what was done against our Lord Jesus Christ when he sat and ate with people who in His day were shunned by the religious community!?
Is it possible for a born again Christian to be a religious bigot? It is possible for anyone to be a religious bigot if they forget who they are, what it took Christ to get them to where they are, and lack the empathy, the understanding, the humility, and the compassion and mercy, to refrain from doing what comes very natural to them – to criticize, to condemn, to speak against another, even before gathering all the facts – and yes, even David James’ many hours of research as he claims only yielded him the grossest inaccuracies largely based upon misunderstandings of fictional book based on facts contained in a topical series of teachings that Rabbi Cahn wrote into a fictitious literary work – a novel called The Harbinger – treating this novel as though it were an encyclopedia of theology; by reading into what Rabbi Cahn has written a good many things he did not write, and redefining them in his book to mean what was never intended. (I will present these, Lord willing, in a book I am working on at this time.)
This is a form of false witness. Very likely unintentional, but it is bearing a false witness against another, and misusing God’s Word to do it, because what is being presented against that person is both inaccurate and untrue. This is a very serious thing for one to do as a teacher of God’s Word, because the Word of God says that teachers will incur a harsher judgment in the manner they handle His Sacred and inspired Word. (James 3:1) Anybody can be a critic, the world is full of critics. We see them all the time, hear them on our radios, and now have their deskbound criticisms hurled at us without cause and without provocation by people whom we do not know, haven’t even met, who know nothing about us.
In closing, with regards to many of the critics of The Harbinger – as is with all religious bigots who split hairs over the letter of God’s Word in their attacks of other people with whom they disagree with. They do all of this, while forgetting the essence, or spirit and intent of what the Word of God teaches, and often do it resulting in the very confusion they claim they are attempting to clarify others to and warn others about. Oftentimes, they create more chaos in such situations than they intended, and the result of what they do is to foment divisions, altercations, and disputations between Christians themselves, while an unbelieving and unregenerate world looks on.
Yours in Christ’s service for God,
A very big target of theirs is the New York Times Best-selling novel by Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn titled The Harbinger. But now in recent months, it's not just the book they have attacked, but also the man, his mnistry, and even the legitimacy of his calling by G-d. Their use of the disparaging impersonal "Cahn" rather than using the proper titled Rabbi or Pastor is one example, but there are others. They have also employed the " " when using his proper title of Rabbi and the use of the lower case r, all in efforts to de-legitimize him by subtle marginalization. There is much more, much, much more from these people, and I have been tracking as much of it as is possible, because it has been almost a barrage of incessant attacks that are not characteristic behavior between Christian ministries.
Beloww I cite others with my letter to Mr. Unruh. The spiritual warfare is among US, and the battle lines have been drawn. I said that the outcome of this spiritual war will be determined by the behavior of those enjoined in it. You will know them by their fruits, and at first the wheat and the tares may look and sound the same, but with time, it will become evident to everyone where the wheet is and where the tares are, as time and many other factors will make it evident.
And now, my letter to Mr. Unruh:
Dear Bob, Joseph, and staff @ World Net Daily,
Greetings. You hit the nail the proverbial head with your article on how deceptive these people who published a polemic against The Harbinger only to make it look as much as they legally can make it look like The Harbinger. Their disingenuous answer to your question whether it was intentional on their part to do this, reminds me of the Scripture that says: Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, But the Lord weighs the hearts. (Proverbs 21:2)
These people can claim one thing all they want, but their actions speak louder than their words. Like James has written in the inspiration of the Spirit of God, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” (James 2:18b) This is another way, the Scriptural way of the old cliché’, “Actions speak louder than words.” This is precisely why the Apostle John in the Holy Spirit writes in his Gospel the following:
Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.
(John 2:23-25)
These people may claim that it was not their intention to deceive anyone by almost copying The Harbinger’s cover, but the fact that they had to make certain changes to the cover of the first edition of their book, and then publish a second edition of it, speaks for itself much louder than any claims against it. When pressed by WND on this, David James’ claim that, “They chose different elements,” and other claim that, “There is some similarity, but there are some significant differences,” rings very hollow indeed.
Moreover, The Harbinger’s main detractor – David James – who has written this book which is published by the Berean Call under T.A. McMahon’s leadership; claim that his book, The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? clearly demonstrated that ‘The Harbinger ‘falls far short of meeting the biblical requirements for such a message from God, being based on the mishandling of Scripture, faulty theology, misleading statements, the selective use of historical facts and unsupported speculation.” Itself does not hold up to scrutiny. The claims he makes in his book point by point do not in fact “clearly demonstrate, as he claims, that The Harbinger falls far short of meeting biblical use of historical facts and unsupported speculation.”
Mr. James attaches meanings to words used in The Harbinger which its author Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn never intended, and works hard at splitting hairs regarding Mr. James’ own doctrinal disagreements as a Cessationist over words such as “mystery,” “sign,” “revelation,” and other terms used throughout the book denoting specific facts about each harbinger that Mr. James disagrees doctrinally because of his Cessationist/Hyper-Dispensationalist views with its rigid and dead scholastic approach to theology. The Holy Bible is not a textbook that we should treat it as such and God is not a concept but our Maker and Judge, the Supreme Being to whom we all must account to for our statements and behavior in this life.
There were some other changes made to the second edition of David James’ book, due to an Internet blogger’s Faith’s Corner website’s pointing out certain inaccuracies in it. But this is the problem with James’ treatment of The Harbinger. He splits hairs over semantical questions about certain phrases and his personal interpretation of them, and attempts to project those meanings on to the narrative of Rabbi Cahn’s book by using clever arguments to press his points which lead nowhere but where David James believes in his own mind.
David James belongs to a tightly knit group of various so-called “discernment ministries” that in recent months have taken upon themselves to attack The Harbinger. When they began, they first attacked the book, then as time progressed, they expanded their attacks to include some of Jonathan Cahn’s teachings on posted on You Tube. Now about a year later, they’ve included attacks against his ministry, Hope of the World, and the Arise and Shine Academy, making all sorts of outrageous claims.
One of them, the host of the DiscernIt website, has written the following complete fabrication, I quote:
“Not having thought about this book (The Harbinger) for some time, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the Arise and Shine Academy. There was not much information on the Beth Israel website about the source or content of the teachings, but I did notice a series on marriage. There is a book being used by Gary Thomas who wrote “Sacred Pathway.”
“ZIP – Up goes the red flag. Read the list of people promoted by ”Sacred Pathway”. Richard Foster, Thomas Merton, Brother Lawrence, Basil Pennington, Henri Nouwen, Bonhoeffer, St. Francis of Assisi, and Mother Teresa.
Source HERE
“Why is Beth Israel, led by Jonathon(sic) Cahn, allowing a course on marriage using a book with catholic contemplatives? It is because it is deeply steeped in mysticism and esoteric teachings which is more gnostic in nature than biblical.”
This woman is attempting to tie Hope of the World Ministries with “Catholic Contemplatives” because it has used the book by well-known author Gary Thomas, Sacred Marriage, What if God Designed Marriage to Make Us Holy More Than to Make Us Happy? If Beth Israel has taught Catholic Contemplatives, no one there certainly knows about it. And if this book has anything resembling what this lady claims, no one who’s used it has knowingly been teaching Catholic Contemplatives from it. In fact, they all say that they cannot find anything of the sort within its pages. But this lady connects this book (and Beth Israel) to the Occult New Age Movement called Sacred Pathways. We are looking into the matter, and I am examining this book to verify if the book has anything that in any way remotely or directly ties it to the Sacred Pathways Occult or to Catholic Contemplatives.
When I personally took the blogger of the DiscernIt web site to task on this - because she wrote against my personal testimony, and has written against Rabbi Cahn and the Arise and Shine Academy; she removed what she had written about me, but kept her lies about the Arise and Shine Academy, and her criticism against it because she claims that Rabbi Cahn and his ministry promote Catholic Contemplatives, when in fact I know that he does not. This lady is so reckless in her attacks against other Christians that she confused a personal testimony of mine on the Holy Spirit gift of the word of knowledge that the with the Occult practice of Remote Reading! Her ad homonym attacks is an extreme example of discernment gone awry, but this is how far off the rails these people are in their constant attacks against Jonathan Cahn, a genuine true servant of Christ.
Because my wife and I have been active members of Beth Israel for years now, and we personally know Rabbi Cahn for ten years, having attended service since 1998, and have heard all of the messages on which The Harbinger is based, we know that all of these so-called “discernment ministries” and self-appointed “watchdog groups” have completely misunderstood the message because they have read into it things that are not there. The blogger to the website Faith’s Corner mirrors what I have often said and blogged on my own site The Pepster’s Post: A Voice in Cyberspace about these people:
“Discernment ministries usually work to identify serious failures of Christian doctrine, such as a denial of the Deity of Christ, which is the essential problem with denial of the Trinity; or advocacy of extrabiblical revelation (anything that is taken as authoritative outside the Bible, such as the traditions of Catholicism or the Book of Mormon), prophecies that contradict scripture, imputation of works of the flesh or the devil to the Holy Spirit and vice versa.
So it's rather strange to see these ministries going after Jonathan Cahn's Harbinger with such zeal, considering that they can't identify any such violations of the orthodox faith without indulging in tortuous reasoning.”
(Faith’s Corner, How the deck is stacked against The Harbinger --updated Tuesday, August 21, 2012)
And this is precisely what I have noticed in David James’ book The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? and in his criticisms of it on the web. It is much to do about nothing. This man and his colleagues at the Berean Call (TA McMahon), Worldview Weekend (Brannon Howse), David James’ own website the Alliance for Biblical Integrity, Pre-Trib Research Center (Thomas Ice), Challies.Dot.Com (Tim Challies), a website I was banned from after writing a lengthy correction and rebuttal of what it had posted against The Harbinger, Fighting for the Faith (Chris Rosebrough of Pirate Christian Radio), and a few others.
These people have one thing in common; they take great pains at splitting hairs over semantical questions, and indulge in all sorts of rhetorical gymnastics as whether this was done correctly according to their standards which they claim are the true biblical standards, or whether something was missing or not said, and indulge in what the Apostle Paul warns against to solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers. (2Timothy 2:14)
There was a time when these ministries served a legitimate function in the body of Christ in calling out the errors of the cults and Occult, and they did a superlative work outlining the differences between the fundamental core teachings of Christianity versus those the Watchtower Society of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons), Herbert W. Armstrong Worldwide Church of God, and his son’s Garner Ted Armstrong’s aberrant teachings, the cult known as The Way International and their informal Twig Fellowships where they taught to deny the deity of Christ, and other fundamental tenets of the Christian faith. Ministries such as the Berean Call when it was directed by Dave Hunt did a fabulous job in this, and they built up a well-deserved reputation around it in their labors.
But in recent years, these so-called “discernment ministries” have turned their focus inward towards and against other Christian ministries with whom they disagree on topical, or doctrinal matters, or in methods of biblical hermeneutics about exegetical questions of various types. We see them now attacking Dr. James Dobson, Billy Graham, Dr. James MacDonald, Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, Pat Robertson, Pat Boone, Joseph Farrah, and many other mainline Evangelicals just for sitting next to someone who they claim is a heretic according to “their” standards. Now I am not claiming that they may be wrong about that other person, but my God man; are Christians now to do what was done against our Lord Jesus Christ when he sat and ate with people who in His day were shunned by the religious community!?
Is it possible for a born again Christian to be a religious bigot? It is possible for anyone to be a religious bigot if they forget who they are, what it took Christ to get them to where they are, and lack the empathy, the understanding, the humility, and the compassion and mercy, to refrain from doing what comes very natural to them – to criticize, to condemn, to speak against another, even before gathering all the facts – and yes, even David James’ many hours of research as he claims only yielded him the grossest inaccuracies largely based upon misunderstandings of fictional book based on facts contained in a topical series of teachings that Rabbi Cahn wrote into a fictitious literary work – a novel called The Harbinger – treating this novel as though it were an encyclopedia of theology; by reading into what Rabbi Cahn has written a good many things he did not write, and redefining them in his book to mean what was never intended. (I will present these, Lord willing, in a book I am working on at this time.)
This is a form of false witness. Very likely unintentional, but it is bearing a false witness against another, and misusing God’s Word to do it, because what is being presented against that person is both inaccurate and untrue. This is a very serious thing for one to do as a teacher of God’s Word, because the Word of God says that teachers will incur a harsher judgment in the manner they handle His Sacred and inspired Word. (James 3:1) Anybody can be a critic, the world is full of critics. We see them all the time, hear them on our radios, and now have their deskbound criticisms hurled at us without cause and without provocation by people whom we do not know, haven’t even met, who know nothing about us.
In closing, with regards to many of the critics of The Harbinger – as is with all religious bigots who split hairs over the letter of God’s Word in their attacks of other people with whom they disagree with. They do all of this, while forgetting the essence, or spirit and intent of what the Word of God teaches, and often do it resulting in the very confusion they claim they are attempting to clarify others to and warn others about. Oftentimes, they create more chaos in such situations than they intended, and the result of what they do is to foment divisions, altercations, and disputations between Christians themselves, while an unbelieving and unregenerate world looks on.
Yours in Christ’s service for God,
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