WASHINGTON – Jonathan Cahn, the No. 1 bestselling Christian author in America
in 2012, is under attack.
But the attacks aren’t coming from secularists who decry his warnings that
America is in danger of judgment like ancient Israel when it defied God’s
commandments.
Ironically, the same critics don’t have any problems with his appearances on
non-Christian programs to offer the same message.
In
a column in WND today, Cahn answers those sometimes harsh criticisms that
suggest endorsement of the interviewers beliefs are implicit in such
appearances.
“With the success of ‘The
Harbinger’ and ‘The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment’ movie, I’ve appeared on many
interviews programs, well over a hundred in a short time,” Cahn wrote. “I’ve
been asked what I think about some in the body, specifically some ‘discernment’
ministers who preach that many such interview programs should be off limits for
believers.”
Cahn’s response: “It comes down to this: If a believer appears on an
interview program, whether Christian or secular, whether with a controversial or
‘questionable’ host or not, does this mean that the one being interviewed is
necessarily in agreement with the person, the program or the station conducting
the interview? And does it mean that one is necessarily in agreement with other
guests who have appeared or may appear on the host’s program?”
Read
Cahn’s response to critics who condemn him for making appearances on various
Christian radio and TV programs.
“The answer is, in a nutshell is very simple: Absolutely not,” he continues.
“When Billy Graham appeared on ‘The Tonight Show,’ did it mean that he was
endorsing the views or lifestyle or the divorces of Johnny Carson? Or did it
mean that Johnny Carson was endorsing the views or Christian lifestyle of Billy
Graham? When Jerry Falwell appeared on ’60 Minutes,’ did that mean he was
endorsing the views of Mike Wallace or CBS News – or that they were endorsing
him? Of course not. No such understanding exists that a person being interviewed
is in any way in agreement with the person or platform or program or
organization responsible for doing the interviewing, whether Christian or
secular – much less in agreement with the other guests who may have appeared or
who may appear on that person’s broadcast.”
It might seem obvious. Yet the attacks continue – day after day, week after
week.
Joseph Farah, producer of “The
Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” and founder of WND, chalks up the relentless
criticisms to two factors.
Check
out the new WND Forum on “The Harbinger” and “The Isaiah 9:10
Judgment.”
“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.”
Cahn said he is even
more baffled by the critics who say it’s OK to be interviewed on secular
programs but not on Christian programs with different theological
convictions.
“Even more confusing, the same ones who preach that a believer can’t be
interviewed on a Christian or religious program with which they disagree argue
that it’s fine to be interviewed on a secular program,” Cahn writes.
“In other words, we can’t be interviewed by a Christian brother who loves the
Lord but believes God speaks to him in dreams, but to be interviewed by a
secular host who is living in gross immorality, who hates God, and whose show or
station is devoted to mocking God, endorsing every kind of perversity, and
committing blasphemy – is fine.
“Don’t get me wrong – I’m for bringing the light into every dark place we can
bring it into – but these standards are arbitrarily conceived and enforced. And
even by such standards, if that Christian brother is off and his audience is not
grounded, than all the more important that I be able to help bring a word to
them which is grounded and is of repentance.”
In any case, Cahn is not changing his approach.
“In the meantime, inasmuch as I am given a platform on the walls on which to
sound the trumpet, I will do my best to do so, in every place and to every soul
I can,” he writes.
And meantime, the book and movie continue to reach more and more people.
Since its release in March of this year, the film treatment of Cahn’s message
in the No. 1 bestselling Christian book of 2012, “The
Harbinger,” has been the bestselling faith movie or TV show in the country. It
has held the No. 1 position on the Amazon charts for 20 straight weeks, as well
as remaining among the top five or six documentaries of any kind during that
same period.
“It’s a remarkable story you won’t read in the Hollywood Reporter or Variety,
or, I’m afraid, in any Christian publications, either, for that matter,” said
Farah. “For whatever reason, the success of ‘The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment’ is still
a well-guarded secret surrounded by multimillion-dollar productions and film
distribution deals. And it’s getting bigger every day.”
What’s the compelling subject matter that has driven the sales?
The movie, like the book, suggests America is being chastened by God for
turning away from His ways with striking and eerie parallels to the way ancient
Israel was judged.
Both the book and the movie show the uncanny parallels between events prior
to the dispersion of Israel and events taking place in the U.S. today. In fact,
the events continue to unfold even after the release of the book and movie. But
the book and the movie tell the story in very different ways.
“The
Harbinger” is listed officially as a work of fiction, because of the narrative
format, including fictional characters. “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” is a
documentary chronicle of real events – most of which Americans have no idea ever
took place, even though they witnessed some of them.
The events have all taken place since Sept. 11, 2001, and they all connect to
one obscure verse in the Bible – Isaiah 9:10.
“The ancient vow begins with these words: ‘The bricks have fallen, but we
will rebuild with hewn stone,’” explains Cahn. “The vow declares Israel’s
defiance of God, in the face of a devastating strike on the land. The hewn
stone, which begins the rebuilding, symbolizes the nation’s intention to come
back stronger than before. The book then reveals the parallel to proclamations
by Barack Obama in his first State of the Union message, then Senate Majority
Leader Tom Daschle the day after 9/11 to a joint session of Congress and former
senator and vice presidential candidate John Edwards on the third anniversary of
9/11.”
Cahn also reveals in “The
Harbinger” and “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” something that readers and viewers
universally find astonishing – that New York’s Ground Zero actually represents
more than the former financial center of the country. It represents the exact
place at which America was first consecrated to God in prayer by the country’s
new leaders.
“When judgment came to Israel, the calamity returned the people’s attention
to the place where the nation had been consecrated to God – the Temple Mount,”
says Cahn. “God was calling the nation back to Himself. What about 9/11? Could
there be, in the American calamity, as well, a mystery of return? Could there be
a prophetic message hidden in the place where it happened? There is a place
where America was consecrated to God in prayer. It is also a place linked to a
prophetic warning given on that same day – uttered by the nation’s first
president – now coming to pass.”
In 1789, newly inaugurated President George Washington gave a prophetic
warning at Federal Hall in New York City. He declared that America’s prosperity
and protection were dependent upon its adherence to God. Later, the political
leaders of the young nation gathered at St. Paul’s Chapel to commit the nation’s
future to God’s purposes. That chapel is located at Ground Zero and miraculously
survived 9/11 virtually unscathed.
Cahn, the pastor of the Jerusalem Center-Beth Israel Congregation in Wayne,
N.J., says America is uncannily re-enacting ancient Israel’s behavior prior to
its judgment and eventual fall. He found a sympathetic ear for his message in
WND founder Farah, who produced “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment,” as a follow-up to
“The Harbinger.”
The key to decoding the harbingers, Cahn says, is found in understanding the
seemingly innocuous words of Isaiah 9:10 (King James Version) what it meant to
Israel and how the history seems to be repeating itself in America today: “The
bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: The sycamores are
cut down, but we will change them into cedars.”
These words were first uttered by leaders in Israel and in response to a
limited strike by Assyria on the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali – an attack the
prophet makes clear is actually part of a limited judgment by God against
apostasy. It wasn’t meant to destroy the nation, but to awaken it, according to
most commentaries.
But, says Cahn, Israel didn’t take the cue. Instead, the response from the
people in Isaiah 9:10 is one of defiance. The brick buildings were toppled, but
they vowed to build bigger and better. The little sycamore trees may have been
uprooted, but they vowed to plant bigger and better cedars in their place.
God, speaking through Isaiah, explains what will happen as a result of their
pride and arrogance and failure to heed the harbinger: Bigger and more potent
attacks will follow. Because neither the northern kingdom of Israel nor the
southern kingdom of Judah truly repents, the first is eventually swept away by
Assyrian invaders and the latter is carried off into captivity by the
Babylonians for 70 years.
But what does this have to do with the United States of America –
particularly what the U.S. experienced on 9/11 and since? Cahn has found some
eerie parallels.
“In the aftermath of the attack, the nation was stunned,” said Cahn.
“Everyone was trying to make sense of what had happened – this unprecedented
attack on America. The very next day, Sept. 12, then Senate Majority Leader Tom
Daschle presented America’s response to the world. And what did he say?”
Daschle said: “America will emerge from this tragedy as we have emerged from
all adversity – united and strong. Nothing … nothing can replace the losses of
those who have suffered. I know there is only the smallest measure of
inspiration that can be taken from this devastation. But there is a passage in
the Bible from Isaiah that speaks to all of us at times like this.”
Incredibly, he then went on to read Isaiah 9:10.
“Daschle has no idea what he is doing here,” explains Cahn. “He thinks he’s
offering comforting words to a grief-stricken people, but he is actually
embracing the spiritually defiant and arrogant words of the children of Israel,
proclaiming the ancient and ominous vow of the leaders of that nation. He
doesn’t realize it, but he is actually inviting more judgment on the
nation.”
It might be of some significance that Daschle, one of the most powerful men
in the nation when he spoke those words, later fell into disgrace – to the point
where he couldn’t even serve in Barack Obama’s Cabinet.
That might have been the end of the story – if no other top leader in the
nation uttered those strange and obscure words after 9/11. But that’s not the
case.
On the third anniversary of the attack, Sept. 11, 2004, another powerful U.S.
senator running for vice president that year and who would famously run for the
presidency four years later, gave a speech to the Congressional Black
Caucus.
This time, John Edwards’ entire speech was built on a foundation of Isaiah
9:10:
“Today, on this day of remembrance and mourning, we have the Lord’s Word to
get us through,” he said. He then read Isaiah 9:10. He went on to talk about how
America was doing just that – rebuilding with hewn stone and planting
cedars.
“Like Daschle, Edwards thinks he’s invoking inspirational and comforting
words from the Bible, but he’s actually inviting judgment on America,” says
Cahn. “He’s repeating the vow that provoked God to bring calamity on ancient
Israel.”
Even more astonishing, Daschle and Edwards were not alone among U.S. leaders
in making similar statements, as “The
Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” shows.
But aside from such statements, which could be chalked up to political talk
and coincidences, is there anything else linking Isaiah 9:10 to 9/11?
The video documentary, like the book, is full of shocking parallels. There
was actually a very famous sycamore tree felled in the attack on the World Trade
Center. It was replaced by trees in the same genus as the cedar. There have been
many plans made to rebuild the twin towers bigger and better and a large “hewn
stone” was actually quarried out of the Adirondack Mountains in New York and
brought to Ground Zero as a cornerstone.
“The parallels are truly stunning,” says Farah, founder of WND. “In fact,
they are overwhelming in their number and their exactitude. I am persuaded God
is trying to tell America something and Rabbi Cahn has found the key to
unlocking the message.”
by cr: Sadly the people of America are continuing in their rebellion just like Israel. Even many in the church are following after this rebellious attitude. God has a message for His Church just like He had for Israel, IF we will hear it. 2 CHRONICLES 7:14
IF MY PEOPLE, WHO ARE CALLED BY MY NAME, WILL HUMBLE THEMSELVES, AND PRAY, AND SEEK MY FACE, AND TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS, THEN I WILL HEAR FROM HEAVEN, AND FORGIVE THEIR SIN, AND HEAL THEIR LAND.
We, the Church, are being called to repentance before the rest of America. We, the Church, have failed to keep our covenant with GOD and must face up to our failure.
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