Review: ‘The Paradigm’ By Jonathan Cahn

The Paradigm by Jonathan Cahn (fair use)

When Jonathan Cahn speaks, the Christian world takes notice. The messianic Jewish rabbi is most famous for The Harbinger, his 2012 book that detailed the striking parallels between ancient Jewish history detailed in the Bible and modern events that have shaped the world we live in today. The Harbinger and its follow up, The Shemitah, were both runaway best sellers.

Now Mr. Cahn is set to release his fourth book, The Paradigm: The Ancient Blueprint That Holds The Mystery of Our Times. In The Paradigm, due out September 19, Cahn has once again found a pattern in which American history seems to be replaying historical events that took place in the Middle East almost 3,000 years ago.

I have long thought that America seemed to be following the paradigm, or pattern, that the Bible described of ancient Israel. The nation was founded on the basis of God’s commandments and, while it followed and honored those commandments, it thrived. In ancient Israel, the people eventually rebelled against God in spite of the blessings that he had given them. Success became pride and pride led to sin and rebellion. I could see that America seemed to be following the same general pattern.

Rabbi Cahn takes the analogy a step further. Cahn describes how the United States, once a Christian nation, is following the pattern of allowing our success to lead us into apostasy. The parallels between modern culture and that of ancient Israel are eerily similar.

Cahn describes how the proliferation of Baal worship turned Israelite morality on its head. Marriage became separate from sexuality as prostitution became part of the worship of Baal, a Phoenician fertility god. As sex was removed from the marital bedroom, it was increasingly put on public display. As a result, culture became more coarse, crude and harsh. Even gender became subjective as male prostitutes became a part of Baal worship.

What was evil began to be viewed as good and what was good came to be viewed as evil. The remaining worshippers of the Lord came under persecution as a culture war raged for the soul of the country.

The most heinous part of Baal worship was the sacrifice of children to the monstrous deity. At first, child sacrifice was illegal, but eventually it became commonplace and was even endorsed by the government and practiced by the royal family. The obvious parallel here is the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of babies through abortion, which was encouraged by the federal government in the administrations of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.  

This general parallel should be alarming enough to those who are familiar with how Israelite history ends, but Cahn goes even further. He describes specific parallels between the dynasty of the Israelite King Ahab and his wife, the notorious Queen Jezebel, and American political history over the past 30 years. The links are too numerous and specific to list here, but Cahn vividly and in detail shows how the dynasty of Ahab has been replayed in American politics with astounding accuracy.

In ancient Israel, the reign of Ahab and his son Joram represented a defining moment. As the cult of Baal grew, Israel teetered on the brink of irreversible apostasy. In Biblical history, the turning point came when the prophet Elisha anointed Jehu, a soldier in Joram’s army and a political outsider, to become king. Jehu came from nowhere in a meteoric rise to upset the status quo. In a lightning fast campaign, Jehu killed Joram, the sitting king, and his mother, Jezebel, and assumed the throne of Israel.

Cahn says that the warrior Jehu arrived to deliver the country a temporary reprieve from apostasy and ultimate judgment. Jehu’s goal was reform toward worship of the Lord, an ancient version of “draining the swamp.” In that vein, he killed the prophets of Baal as well as the members of the royal lineage of Ahab and Joram.

Cahn points out that while Jehu was used by God to temporarily halt the Israelite slide into apostasy, he was not necessarily a man of God. “Some undoubtedly saw Jehu’s rise as a calamity,” Cahn writes. “Others saw it as the answer. It was neither. It was a window.”

Cahn makes the same case for the election of Donald Trump. The Trump Administration, he believes, represents a reprieve for America from irreversible apostasy. The question is what the president and the country do with the postponement of the ultimate rejection of God and the judgment that would follow. “A political answer cannot solve a spiritual problem,” Cahn says. The only way to avert judgment in the long run is through national repentance and revival. Trump’s election may provide an opportunity for that revival.

As in his other books, Cahn offers little in the way of prophetic claims for the future. His focus is on how God is sending messages to America through the modern echo of ancient Israel’s history. He does note that the Biblical Jehu was only partially successful in “making Israel great again.” The Bible tells us that Jehu “was not careful to keep the law of the Lord” and “did not turn away from the sin of Jereboam,” worshipping the idol of the golden calves. Jehu’s false religion was of a more nationalist nature than the foreign god imported by Ahab and Jezebel, but it was still sinful.

The revival necessary for the redemption of Israel never happened. It was in the years following Jehu’s reign that the signs that Cahn described in The Harbinger began to appear. The warnings and “shakings” were ignored and, ultimately, the kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrians.

In discussing Jonathan Cahn’s books, it is important to note that he never engages in replacement theology which holds that America has become a new Israel. Instead, he presents parallels that he believes God is using as warnings for America. Cahn’s core message is that America is careening toward judgment unless we change course. He urges nonbelievers to repent and believers to follow the models of Elijah and Elisha who stood strong to resist the moral decline of their country.

Some will also say that the replaying of ancient Israelite history in modern America is a series of coincidences. As the series becomes larger and more detailed, the question becomes how many coincidences are necessary to show evidence of an omnipotent God who controls events and history. At some point, the odds against the manifestation of such an improbable series of events repeating itself become astronomical.

Jonathan Cahn makes a compelling case that America is following the same pattern of disobedience and rebellion that ultimately led the kingdom of Israel to destruction. Regardless of whether you accept Cahn’s conclusion that history is repeating itself in a way that seems preordained by a higher power, it seems clear that the country is on an unsustainable path.

If America is to be saved, it must repent. And if America is to repent, it needs people like Jonathan Cahn to sound the warning.

Originally published on The Resurgent

Is Donald Trump an instrument of Bible prophecy?

As Donald Trump transitions from Republican candidate to presumptive nominee, many Republicans are falling into line to support the insurgent candidate. Part of the reason that Trump has been successful is his support from the conservative Christians. Many have questioned whether Trump’s Christian supporters know what they are getting with Mr. Trump.

While critics have pointed out that Trump is a serial philanderer who acts like a bully and has trouble telling the truth – or telling anything consistently – and who owns casinos and strip clubs, many Christians, including such notable pastors as Jerry Falwell and Franklin Graham, seem more than willing to overlook Trump’s sins and board the Trump train. Some liken Trump, who claims to be a Christian but who says he has never asked for forgiveness, to the Biblical king Cyrus who allowed exiled Israelites to return to their homeland and rebuild the Jewish temple.

In contrast to Cyrus, who was a pagan and did not claim to know God, Trump claims to know God, but may be more accurately described as an apostate or heretic. When Trump asks “Why do I have to repent or ask for forgiveness, if I am not making mistakes?” he is in contradiction to the Bible, which says that “all have sinned.” Likewise, the Bible states that repentance and forgiveness is the only way to become a Christian. These are basic Christian beliefs.

Michael Brown of the Christian Post points out that God used the Persian king Cyrus to free the Israelites, not to rule over them. Brown notes that “rais[ing] up an idol-worshiping king to rule the nation of Israel… would have been a curse rather than a blessing.”

Trump may fit into the spiritual picture as an instrument of the Shemitah, an ancient Jewish sabbatical year that many believe figures into a pattern of judgment. Rabbi Jonathan Cahn first wrote about the Shemitah pattern in his book, “The Harbinger.” Cahn linked the seven year Shemitah cycle to financial crashes and recessions going back at least 50 years. The two largest financial crashes in U.S. history, the crashes of 2001 and 2008, were both on the last day of Shemitah years. Likewise, the oil bust of 2015 was part of a worldwide commodities crash that was linked to the Shemitah year.

In this book, “The Mystery of the Shemitah,” Cahn describes his belief that the Jubilee year, the “seventh Shemitah” would run from September 14, 2015 through October 2, 2016 and might bring dramatic change. Cahn writes that previous Jubilee years have brought momentous world changes such as the signing of the Balfour Declaration, which gave birth to the modern nation of Israel in 1918, and the capture of Jerusalem by Israeli forces in the Six Day War of 1967.

Cahn has not addressed Donald Trump, but it is possible that Trump’s rise to power in a Jubilee year signals a drastic change in direction for the United States. If Cahn is correct, God’s judgments on the rebellious United States began with the September 11 attacks. Cahn described in “The Harbinger” what he calls the “Isaiah 9:10 effect.” This is the principle that the “attempt of a nation to defy the course of its judgment, apart from repentance, will instead set in motion a chain of events to bring about the very calamity it sought to avert.”

It should be obvious to even the casual observer that America has not repented. During the Shemitah year of 2015, the nation rejected centuries of precedent and Biblical teachings to enact nationwide same-sex marriage. It is currently rejecting millennia of biology to claim that gender is changeable attitude. The federal government under Barack Obama is compelling hospitals to perform abortions and federal funds are being used to support groups like Planned Parenthood that perform abortions. Into this mix steps Donald Trump, a candidate who purports to fight lies with more lies.

Rejection of truth and mass delusions where people follow false prophets are foretold in the Bible. The Bible contains numerous warnings against lies as well as wicked rulers. Should we then believe that a confirmed liar like Donald Trump is sent by God to “make America great again?” If God punished Israel for its evil kings then how much more will America be punished if we choose our own evil leader?

It seems likely that the continual American rejection of God and failure to repent has brought us to a point where we must choose between two evils, Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. America is literally in the position of being damned if we do and damned if we don’t.

So why do so many Christians support Trump? The answer may found in the Bible itself. Jesus himself foretold the day when “false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” Perhaps that day is here.

Read it on Conservative Firing Line

America "racing toward judgment" as Shemitah draws to close

Jonathan Cahn / Hope of the World

As the 2014-2015 Shemitah year draws to a close, the world is once again falling into financial turmoil. The US stock market moved into correction territory last week and, in early trading this week, the Dow crashed more than 1,000 points before recovering to a mere 588 point loss. The current volatility in the market is not the only bad news of the current Shemitah, however. The Shemitah, which began last September, was ushered in with several ”shakings,” in the words of Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, who discovered the Shemitah pattern and wrote the book, “The Mystery of the Shemitah.”

"America is racing toward judgment," says Rabbi Jonathan Cahn in a video posted on You Tube. "Not one but multiple factors are converging."

The Shemitah began on September 24, 2014 with another stock market correction. CNN Money noted that the “September slump” did not last for the entire month of September. Instead, “starting on Monday, September 22, investors hit the pause button and kept hitting it for much of the rest of the month.” This coincided almost perfectly with the onset of the Shemitah.

Following on the heels of the stock market crash was a shaking of a different sort. On September 30, 2014, the CDC confirmed the first case of Ebola in the United States. Over the next few weeks, several other cases were identified around the country, prompting a state of near panic in many urban areas. The panic lasted throughout the month of October as more cases were diagnosed and the first patient, a Liberian immigrant, died. Spurring more fears, a number of medical professionals who had treated patients in the original outbreak in Africa flouted quarantines and traveled around New York and the country.

The stock market experienced a rough October as well. Both the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average experienced sharp downturns in mid-October. Although both indexes regained their losses over the next few weeks, Shemitahs have historically been marked by volatility in the markets and the current Shemitah is no exception.

 In early July, the Chinese stock market crashed after reaching a record high on June 12. On July 4, the Chinese government suspended the sale of stocks in an attempt to stave off losses. In spite of the Chinese government’s attempts to manipulate the market, the International Business Times reports that Chinese stocks lost more than eight percent of their value on what has come to be known as “China’s Black Monday.” Quartz notes that stock markets around Asia closed with sharp declines. Further, Zero Hedge listed 23 countries around the world where stock markets are currently crashing. Thomas DeMark, founder and CEO of DeMark Analytics, told CNBC that the Chinese stock market crash closely resembles the US crash of 1929 in which the stock market lost 50 percent of its value and the contagion spread around the world.

Other factors that may be contributing to the world’s economic woes are the collapse in oil prices, the Greek debt crisis and the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy. Holman Jenkins wrote in the Wall St. Journal that the Greek crisis has largely been resolved without Greece having to address its core problem of deficit spending. Reform of Europe’s welfare state has been kicked down the road and Europe’s debts will continue to mount.

Martin Feldstein, President Reagan’s chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, wrote in the Wall St. Journal that some of the US market’s difficulty can be attributed to the Fed’s policy of low interest rates that dates back two seven-year Shemitah cycles to the September 11 attacks and the resulting stock market crash in 2001 on the last day of the Shemitah. The Fed kept interest rates low throughout the remainder of the Bush Administration which fed the real estate bubble that burst in 2008 on the last day of that Shemitah year. Feldstein notes that after the failure of President Obama’s 2009 stimulus, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke promised to hold rates near zero for the long term. Low interest rates have also pushed investors into the stock market due to low yields on other investments. Recent articles have pointed out that with interest rates hovering near zero, the Fed has little room left to combat a new economic crisis and may even take rates into negative territory.

The confluence of bad economic news into a perfect storm scenario is compounded by the rejection of Judeo-Christian values and morals. The 2015 Shemitah has been hallmarked by a turning away from God. The most notable example of this is the Supreme Court decision to overturn the will of the people and thousands of years of tradition to redefine marriage. By the time the Supreme Court ruled on the Obergefell case, same sex marriage had become the law in a majority of the United States. In almost every state, the redefinition of marriage was imposed by a small clique of judges and not the voters of the state.

Also in the summer of 2015, a series of undercover Planned Parenthood videos unveiled the dark world of the abortion provider. The videos revealed the callous disregard for life among Planned Parenthood employees and the stark truth that the sale of body parts from aborted babies is a vital part of the organization’s business model. In one video, a former employee of a stem cell harvesting company accused Planned Parenthood, which receives federal government funding, of harvesting the brain of a baby whose heart was still beating. Contrary to the public face of abortion in which proponents deny the humanity of unborn babies by using the euphemism “fetus,” Planned Parenthood’s employees freely refer to “babies” on the videos as they joke about the killings. Even during the murder trial of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell the horror of abortion has never been so clearly exhibited.

Symbolic of America’s rejection of God, a statue of Baphomet, a satanic deity, was unveiled in Detroit in July. The nine-foot tall statue was unveiled at what is purported to the “largest public satanic ceremony in history” according to Time.

A landmark event of the Shemitah that touches on both morality and policy is President Obama’s tentative nuclear deal with Iran. The deal marks not only a danger for the United States, since it fails to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, but is a historic break between Israel and the United States. Since its birth in 1948, Israel and the United States have maintained close relations. The US was among the first countries to recognize the nation of Israel and the US provided valuable support to Israel during many of its wars for survival. Most notably, in the Yom Kippur War of 1973, it was resupply by the United States that helped Israel to survive a coordinated attack by its Arab neighbors.

The Iran deal changes the relationship between the two countries. Barack Obama has been more hostile to Israel than any other president. From the beginning of his administration, Obama pushed for a return to Israel’s almost indefensible pre-1967 borders. The deal with Iran will place the United States at odds with Israel as it provides financial support to the Iranians. The removal of sanctions and lack of inspections will make it easier for Iran to build nuclear weapons with which to threaten both Israel and the United States.

The 2015 Shemitah has been a momentous period. With three weeks left in the current Shemitah, which ends on September 13, there is the possibility of even more volatility and chaos. Secular analysts are predicting that the current financial unrest will continue for several months until markets find an equilibrium.

Rabbi Cahn believes that it is not too late to avert judgement. “I am led to call for a period of prayer, repentance and intercession for America, to end on Sept. 23, Yom Kippur," he says. "It is crucial the people of God come before Him now on the foundation of 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 evil ways, I will hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land.”

The Myster of the Shemitah by Jonathan Cahn

What would you do if you knew that divine judgment on your country and the world was imminent? If you are Jonathan Cahn, you write two best-selling books that detail the revelations that you have received about how the United States is already undergoing judgment and has been for more than a decade. Like a latter day prophet of the Bible, Cahn is issuing his warning that September 13, 2015 might be the next key date in the ongoing series of judgments using a variety of mediums, from television to the internet, that were not available to the prophets of old.

  Cahn’s first book, “The Harbinger,” dealt with clues that linked the September 11 attacks and the 2008 financial crisis to the prophetic judgments found in the Book of Isaiah as well as to an ancient Jewish custom of forgiving all debts and letting fields lie fallow every seventh year. It is the story of this Sabbath year that Cahn expounds upon in his newest book, “The Mystery of the Shemitah,” the Jewish term for the Sabbath year.

Cahn’s analysis of the relationship between the terrorist attacks of September 11 and the 2008 economic collapse turned up the astounding fact that stock market collapses in both years, which currently rank as the two largest stock market point crashes in U.S. history, occurred on the same day of the Jewish calendar. Even more remarkable is the fact that the Jewish date on which the markets collapsed was the last day of the Shemitah year, the day in which all debts were wiped away. This action would result in a situation much like a modern recession as the accumulated wealth of seven years was blotted out and agricultural production plummeted.

When Cahn looked back at previous Shemitah years, he found that the pattern extended even farther back into U.S. history. The Shemitah of September 1993 through September 1994 (the Jewish New Year starts in September on the Gregorian calendar used by the U.S.) saw a selloff in the bond market that swept around the world. In 1987, a stock market crash occurred that held the record for largest point drop in a single day until the post-9/11 crash of 2001. In 1980, the U.S. suffered a severe recession that lasted until 1982. In 1973, an oil shock brought on by the Arab oil embargo sparked another recession. In 1966, the U.S. experienced a credit crisis. In 1958, the Eisenhower Recession was a sharp, worldwide downturn. For more than 50 years, every Shemitah year has seen the U.S. experience financial upheaval.

In addition, the Shemitah was linked to the Great Depression as well. Although the initial stock market crash of 1929 was not in a Shemitah year, the decade of the 1930s contained two Shemitahs, 1930-31 and 1937-38. As a chart of the Dow Jones Industrial Average of the 1930s shows, 1932 was the darkest year of the Great Depression. By 1937, the recovery had begun, but country experienced a second recession within the Depression.

As Cahn points out, the law of averages would dictate that there is only a one-in-seven chance, less than a 15 percent, of a recession or crash occurring within a Shemitah. When the statistics are examined, the relationship between financial upheaval and the Shemitah is far stronger than can be explained by random chance.

The Wall St. Journal’s list of the 20 largest one day stock market crashes includes 10 that are in a Shemitah year. Nine of these crashes were in Elul, the last month of the Shemitah, or Tishri, the first month of the year that follows the Shemitah (late September or October on our calendar). A further three crashes were in months that followed (November and December). The total of 13 crashes, more than half of the crashes, is far more than the 15 percent expected.

The same list also shows that many of the largest stock market gains come in the wake of the Shemitah. If the Shemitah culminates in a recession, the recovery would be expected to begin in the first months of the new Jewish year. In all, five of the largest 20 gains occurred during a Shemitah year, which is close to the random distribution. Seven of the largest gains occurred in the wake of the Shemitah. This may reflect the extreme volatility of the markets in the Shemitah. Many economists note that sudden, sharp crashes are often followed by equally quick recoveries.
Many stock market analysts have noted the tendency of the stock market to falter in the fall of the year. This correlation may be explained by the end of Shemitah, which occurs in September, and the recovery that follows.

Additionally, the National Bureau of Economic Analysis lists 33 business cycles that have impacted the U.S. economy. A comparison of the list of business cycles to Shemitah years shows that in four cases the cycle was entirely contained within a Shemitah. In 14 cases, the cycle was partly contained within the Shemitah including three cycles which completed before the culmination of the Shemitah. The 18 cycles which were linked to the Shemitah is more than half of the U.S. business cycles.
Cahn goes further. In “The Harbinger” Cahn discussed the link between the towers of the World Trade Center and an obscure Bible verse quoted by Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) on the Senate floor on September 12, 2001. The same verse, defiantly vowing to rebuild the towers, symbols of pride, was echoed repeatedly in the following years by other government officials.

Cahn relates that the World Trade Center was conceived in the Shemitah year of 1945 when it was proposed by developer David Scholz. Groundbreaking for the World Trade Center was in the Shemitah year of 1966. In the Shemitah year of 1973, the twin towers opened as the world’s tallest buildings. In the Shemitah year of 1993, terrorists exploded a car bomb in the basement garage of the north tower, killing six people and injuring more than a thousand. Seven years later, in the Shemitah year of 2001, another group of terrorists succeeded in destroying the World Trade Center. The new tower on the World Trade Center site, One World Trade Center, also called the Freedom Tower, opened six weeks into the current Shemitah on Nov. 3, 2014.

Cahn also discusses the seventh Shemitah, the Jubilee. The 50^th year, the year following the seventh Shemitah, was a “super Shemitah” that restored lands to their previous owners and set captives free. According to Cahn, no one today is sure when the Jubilee occurs, but there is another startling pattern. On November 2, 1917, British Foreign Secretary James Balfour signed the Balfour Declaration, which began the process of restoring a Jewish homeland in Palestine. This followed the 1916-17 Shemitah. Fast forward 50 years to June 7, 1967. This was the day that Israeli forces recaptured the city of Jerusalem in the Six Day War. This momentous event followed the Shemitah of 1965-66. This pattern suggests the possibility that these restorations both took place in Jubilee years.

If Cahn’s assumption is correct, the next Jubilee would follow the current Shemitah. The current Shemitah runs from September 25, 2014 through September 13, 2015 and the possible Jubilee would begin on September 14, 2015 through October 2, 2016.

Cahn points out the confluence of astronomical signs in the current Shemitah as well. The current Shemitah is associated with four blood moons, partial lunar eclipses, all of which fall on Jewish holidays. Additionally, there will be two solar eclipses. The first occurs exactly halfway through the Shemitah and the other on September 13, the last day of the Shemitah. Eclipses are often associated with judgment in the Bible.

Cahn makes no predictions about what to expect during the Shemitah and the possible Jubilee. As financial forecasts note, past performance is not indicative of future results. Nevertheless, the statistical correlation between the Shemitah and financial upheaval is a strong one. It may be worthy to note that shortly after the current Shemitah rang in, the stock market suffered a sharp downturn. At the same time, the US experienced a small panic over Ebola. What surprises does the rest of the Shemitah hold in store?


Read the full article on Examiner.com

Will next economic collapse start one year from today?

What if there is a pattern going back more than a decade in American history that shows that the last two economic crises occurred on a predictable seven year cycle? What if this pattern occurred at the same time as many other indications became evident, giving reason to believe that the pattern itself was not a coincidence? Would it be possible to predict when the next economic crisis would occur and prepare for it?

Rabbi Jonathan Cahn believes that he has discovered just such a pattern within recent American history that stretches back before the September 11 attacks of 2001. Cahn, the author of the best-selling book, “The Harbinger,” discovered the astounding fact that the financial crashes of 2001 and 2008 both occurred on the same day of Jewish calendar. What’s more, that date was the very day and year of the Jewish calendar on which ancient Biblical law called for debts to be erased.

“The Harbinger” gained immediate popularity, but was also the subject of fierce criticism from some theologians. Cahn had answered much of this criticism is interviews. Additionally, Jose Bernal has written a valuable book answering the critics of “The Harbinger.” Bernal’s book is “The Truth About the Harbinger.”

Cahn’s discovery centers around the Shemitah years on the Jewish calendar. The Shemitah (Sabbath or sabbatical) year was established in Deuteronomy 15:1-2 when the ancient Israelites were instructed, “At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release of debts. And this is the form of the release: Every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbor shall release it; he shall not require it of his neighbor or his brother, because it is called the Lord’s release.”

The traditional day to forgive debts was Elul 29, the last day of the Jewish year. In 2001, this date occurred on September 17, the largest single day crash of the stock market in U.S. history according to rankings by the Wall St. Journal. The crash occurred as financial markets reopened in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Seven years later, the Elul 29 of 2008 was on September 29. This date superseded September 17, 2001 as the largest stock market crash as prices collapsed after the House of Representatives voted down a bipartisan plan to bail out banks with tainted “toxic” mortgage securities.

Now Cahn has released a new book, “The Mystery of the Shemitah.” Charisma News says the new book details Cahn’s new discoveries about the Shemitah cycle that extend farther back in American history more than 100 years. World Net Daily notes that the book debuted at number five on Amazon’s Top 100 list. This is in spite of the fact that Cahn fell ill as the book was published and could not go on a promotional tour.

Cahn’s theory does not merely hinge on the fact that dates on the Jewish calendar match up to catastrophic events in American history. In “The Harbinger,” Cahn points out many other parallels between recent events in the United States to events thousands of years ago just prior to the destruction of ancient Israel at the hands of the Assyrians, the ancestors of today’s radical Islamists. Cahn asserts that these specific parallels, including specific words, dates and actions, mean that God is shaking Americans in attempt to warn them about impending judgment if the country remains on its current course. The specific details of the parallels are too numerous to discuss here, but were addressed in a previous Examiner review of “The Harbinger.”

In “The Harbinger,” Cahn makes the point that the September 11 attacks were similar to an early attack by the Assyrians on ancient Israel. Rather than accepting the attack as a warning and a call to repentance, the Israelites made a vow of defiance, echoed in Isaiah 9:10. Interestingly, two prominent American elected officials referenced this obscure verse in the wake of the September 11 attacks and President Obama paraphrased it in reference to the 2008 financial collapse.

Cahn goes on to describe how the September 11 attacks led to both record-breaking stock market crashes which occurred exactly seven years apart on the Jewish calendar. One of the main tools used to stave off a recession in the wake of the attacks was a cut in interest rates. With interest rates at abnormally low levels, saving was discouraged and people were motivated to take advantage of cheap loans to buy houses. The increased demand for real estate inflated a bubble that eventually burst in 2008, causing the financial crisis.

The process by which a nation attempts to defy God’s plans for judgment and call for repentance by using its own devices to resolve the crisis is referred to as the Isaiah 9:10 effect by Rabbi Cahn. The irony is that the action of the nation under judgment instead “sets about a chain of events that brings about the very calamity that it sought to avert,” as Cahn wrote in “Harbinger.”

On September 13, 2015, one year from today, will come the next Elul 29 of a Shemitah year. The Shemitah year begins on the evening of September 24, 2014 according to American calendars. September 25 is Rosh Hashanah, Tishrei 1 of the Jewish year 5775. The entire year is Shemitah, but Cahn writes in “The Mystery of the Shemitah” that “it is at the Shemitah’s end (September 13, 2015) and its wake that the most dramatic repercussions are felt.”

In a 2013 interview, Examiner asked Rabbi Cahn whether he believed that September 13, 2015 would be the date of another “shaking” or judgment. “I haven’t been led to be dogmatic concerning what may or may not happen,” he answered, “but I think it’s wise to keep our eyes open.”

In “The Mystery of the Shemitah” he goes further. Cahn points out that since September 13, 2015 is on Sunday, American financial markets will not be open that day, but “there is the possibility of a trigger event that takes place outside the time of the markets’ openings that could bring about a market collapse – as in the case of 9/11.” He also notes that the last day that markets will be open prior to Elul 29 will be Friday, September 11, 2015.

Cahn also points out that there will be two solar eclipses in 2015. The first will be on the exact center point of the Shemitah, March 20. The other will occur on the last day of the Shemitah: Elul 29 or September 13.

Nevertheless, he writes, “Nothing significant has to happen…. The phenomenon may manifest itself in one cycle, not in another, and then again in the next. And the focus of the message is not date-setting but the call of God to repentance and return. At the same time, something of significance could take place, and it is wise to note the times.”

Whether a shaking and judgment occurs in this Shemitah or not, Cahn leaves no doubt that, without repentance, it will occur. “No nation,” he writes, “can defy the ways and will of Him who is its source of blessings and expect those blessings to continue.”

Although he has no specific message on what lies ahead, Cahn does have advice for believers. He speculates that the timing of the completion of the new tower on the World Trade Center site may be of note. One World Trade Center, often called the Freedom Tower, is expected to open in 2014 after numerous construction delays. The first tower in the complex, 4 World Trade Center, officially opened on November 13, 2013.

Cahn also suggests that “it would be wise to take note of America’s crossing of key thresholds in its spiritual and moral descent.” This could possibly suggest a link to a ruling on same-sex marriage, support for Israel, persecution of Christian believers, or a variety of other issues that deal with Christianity that are being discussed in the public square today. Cahn cites “the offering of their sons and daughters in the fires of Baal and Molech” as the “sin that would bring about the nation [of Israel]’s destruction.” The parallel in the United States might be sacrifice of more than one million Americans annually through abortion.

In the end, although Cahn is uncertain about the nature of judgment as well as its timing, he writes, “I believe a great shaking is coming to this nation and to the world. I believe that this shaking will involve economic and financial collapse, though it will not necessarily be confined or limited to those realms.”

Given the current state of the American economy and the world, Americans, regardless of their spiritual beliefs, would do well to prepare for hard times.

Read the full article on Atlanta Conservative Examiner

My prophetic evolution

My understanding of Bible end-time prophecy has undergone an evolution over the years. I’ve always been interested in the Revelation and what might happen at the end of time. I suppose that this can be traced to a comic book.

When I was young, we had a number of issues of Spire Christian comics. Some of these comic books were adaptations of Christian classics that I read later in life. We had a comic version of “God’s Smuggler” by Brother Andrew, “the Hiding Place” by Corrie Ten Boom, “the Cross and the Switchblade” by David Wilkerson, and “Born Again” by Chuck Colson. There were stories of people like Dallas Cowboy coach Tom Landry, the appropriately named Nate Saint, a missionary bush pilot killed by South American natives, Mitsuo Fuchida, a pilot in the Japanese navy who led the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Johnny Cash. There were also adaptations of Bible stories set in modern (1970s) day. I would love to find some of these for my kids to read today.

The one that is most memorable was an adaptation of Hal Lindsey’s “There’s a New World Coming” (you can read the whole thing online here). For a child, this was an intriguing comic. It was also more than a little scary. Fortunately, I was certain that the end of the world was many years into the future.

I also remember reading a short book based on the Revelation at a young age. I think that it was called “Out of Time” or something similar. A brief Google search didn’t turn up this book, but it was a short prototype of “Tribulation Force.” Again, it was a bit scary for me at the time.

Fast forward about 20 years. Pat Robertson’s “the End of the Age” (1995) was more intriguing than scary. So were the “Left Behind” (1995-2007) novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. It was these books that probably really inspired me to start reading commentaries and guides to Revelation. It was around this time that I remember praying for enlightenment and understanding for these Bible prophecies.

It was slow in coming, but I think that God did lead me to more understanding. Years later, after watching the September 11 attacks and the Iraq War unfold, I began to realize that there were many similarities between radical Muslims and the forces of the Antichrist in the Revelation. I wrote my first blog, “Islam and Revelation,” and created captainkudzu.com on October 26, 2007.

About the same time, my brother told me about a book called “Epicenter” by Joel Rosenberg. Rosenberg made me realize that to understand what is to come, you have to look at other prophecies throughout the Bible. Rosenberg’s book, which centers on Ezekiel 38-39, was the subject of my second blog post.

As I looked through the Bible, I found many more passages that described the end of the world as we know it outside of Revelation. There were passages in Daniel, Joel, Thessalonians, Timothy, and Peter that also addressed eschatology, as the study of the end-times is formally known. Jesus himself talked about the end of the age in the Mount Olivet discourse that is described in three of the four Gospels. I took much of this information and put it into another early blog post, “Signs of the Times.”

Rosenberg’s book made me think about America. America is the best friend that Israel has in the world. Sometimes America seems to be Israel’s only friend. Ezekiel 38-39 describes a multinational coalition that is assembled against Israel and that is subsequently destroyed by divine intervention. The coalition is led by Gog of Magog, a figure that many speculate is Vladimir Putin.

I wondered how a coalition could be assembled against Israel under America’s watch. The U.S. typically vetoes anti-Israel resolutions in the United Nations and aids Israel in its wars. If a coalition were assembled against Israel, wouldn’t the U.S. intervene? There is no indication in the Bible that it does. That leaves two possibilities for the U.S. Either America becomes anti-Israel at some point or it ceases to be a player on the world stage.

About the same time, the authors of “Left Behind” released the nonfiction, “Are We Living in the End-times?” I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in prophecy. It is very readable and has good explanations and descriptions of figures and events in Biblical end-time prophecy. It does focus primarily on the events in The Revelation however.

As the Great Recession deepened and Barack Obama came into office, I began to wonder if the two events were not related to prophecy. Barack Obama is the most anti-Israel president that the U.S. has had since Israel was reborn as a country. Obama may have inherited the recession, but his policies prevented a recovery and, with his reelection, will lead to an economic lost decade. While he is in office, he is rolling back American power abroad. The Obama Administration seems to fit perfectly with the theory that America will cease to be Israel’s ally or will cease to a military and diplomatic power. A blog, “Why is this Happening?” on Feb. 28, 2009, describes this in more detail.

Along with the decline of America, the construction of a new Jewish temple in Israel is also required before the events of Revelation can be fulfilled. The aftermath of the War of Gog of Magog might pave the way for the rebuilding of the temple. The Temple Mount is now occupied by the Islamic Dome of the Rock mosque. The Israeli government protects the mosque from Jews who would like to clear the mountain and rebuild the temple. For the Jews to destroy the mosque would undoubtedly spark a major war. However, if the mosque were destroyed in the Magog war, it would be easy for the Jewish temple to be built on its site.

A chance meeting led to more understanding about the Jewish temple. In 2010, while traveling home from work on an airline, I met a Jewish woman in the Newark airport. We were eating lunch and I had been at a table by myself. There were no other open tables so she asked to sit at mine. I rarely strike up conversations in airports, but we started talking.

Somehow, the conversation turned to a blog that I had written a few weeks earlier, “the Khazar conspiracy.” This post was inspired by some Ron Paul supporters who espoused the theory that modern Israelis were not Jews. Instead, they claimed that they were Khazars, descendents of an ancient Eastern European nation that had converted to Judaism over a thousand years ago. This theory was easily disproved by modern genetic studies which verified that Jews who migrated to Europe remained genetically distinct from their host populations and that they had originated in the Middle East. Written two years ago, the Khazar article remains one of the most read articles on my blog.

The woman mentioned the Cohen gene, something that I had never of. Upon investigation, I learned that the Cohen gene was a genetic marker that identified the priestly line of Aaron. Not only had God kept his chosen people separate from the gentiles after a Diaspora lasting 2,500 years, he had kept the family of priests separate from Jewish laity. When the Jewish temple is rebuilt, it will be simple for the new priests to be identified from the Aaronic line.

In the years of the first Obama Administration, I saw many signs that my worldview was correct. There began a movement among the Russians and Chinese to replace the dollar with a new world currency. I became more aware of the apocalyptic nature of the Iranian government. In 2011, the Iranians even released a film that said that the arrival of the Mahdi, a Shia Islam version of the Messiah, was imminent. The Arab Spring uprisings swept radical Islamists into power in many Arab countries and destabilized others, a development that prominent Israeli rabbis said may signal the coming of the Messiah. In America, there was apostasy in the church and unprecedented attacks on freedom of religion and the freedom of speech of religious believers. For the first time, voters approved same-sex marriage laws and President Obama publicly pushed “marriage equality.”

As the 2012 election approached, I felt that President Obama would surely be turned out of office. Reelecting him would be like reelecting Jimmy Carter or Herbert Hoover (although Americans did elect Franklin Roosevelt, a similarly disastrous president, to an unprecedented three terms). I felt that if Obama won the election that it would almost have to represent God moving his plan for America’s judgment forward. In September 2012, I wrote “the Biblical prophecy case for Obama’s second term,” which described how Obama might have to remain in office in order for prophecies regarding Israel to be fulfilled.

In the weeks leading up to the election, I felt certain that Mitt Romney would win after his strong performance in the debates and President Obama’s obfuscations in the wake of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. In the end, less than a week before the election, Hurricane Sandy ravaged the east coast from Washington, D.C. to New York City. Obama’s performance in the wake of the storm, particularly his bipartisan appearances with New Jersey governor Chris Christie, shifted the polls enough to allow Obama to eke out a victory. In any case, the reelection of Obama represented a rejection of Christian principles and teachings by a majority of Americans.

It seemed that the path of the storm may have represented divine intervention. In Parade magazine, Marilyn Vos Savant explained the unusual confluence of factors that steered Sandy toward New York: “On Sandy’s way north, it ran into a vast high-pressure system over Canada, which prevented it from continuing in that direction, as hurricanes normally do, and forced it to turn west. Then, because it traveled about 300 miles over open water before making landfall, it piled up an unusually large storm surge. An infrequent jet-stream reversal helped maintain and fuel the storm. As if all that weren’t bad enough, a full moon was occurring, so the moon, the earth, and the sun were in a straight line, increasing the moon’s and sun’s gravitational effects on the tides, thus lifting the high tide even higher. Add to this that the wind and water, though not quite at hurricane levels, struck an area rarely hit by storms of this magnitude so the structures were more vulnerable and a disaster occurred.”

While researching my article on Hurricane Sandy, “’Divine wind’ swept Obama to second term,” I was led to my most recent revelation. I discovered “the Harbinger” by Jonathan Cahn. I was honored to have Cahn respond to several questions that I had emailed him while working on a review of his book.

While I had suspected that America was on the verge of divine judgment, Cahn’s book pointed to specifics. Cahn found hidden but precise parallels between the fall of ancient Israel and the calamities that have befallen America since 2001. In addition to the removal of divine protection that led to the September 11 attacks, the U.S. underwent two financial crashes that occurred on the same day of the Hebrew calendar, a day that called for the cancellation of debts according to Jewish law. American politicians had uttered exactly the same words of defiance to God’s judgment that the ancient Israelites had proclaimed. The American response to the 9/11 attacks led directly to the financial crash, a relationship that even secular observers have noted.

I have come to realize that the Bible is more than life’s instruction book. It is the story of Israel, God’s chosen people. It contains their history and their future. The Bible is, among other things, the story of Israel’s rejection of God and ultimate restoration. It was not until Israel rejected the Messiah that God extended the offer of repentance and salvation to the gentile world.

For that story to be complete, the U.S. must undergo radical changes. It is likely that these changes will happen soon or are already occurring. The process began when Israel was reconstituted as a nation in 1948. In his Mount Olivet discourse, Jesus spoke of a blooming fig tree that is widely believed to refer to a reborn Israel. Jesus says that the generation that sees “these things” will “not pass away” until the end-time events he describes have happened. Obviously this means that the America must cease to be a powerful ally of Israel first.

America may cease to be an ally of Israel as pro-Muslim politicians like Barack Obama become increasingly powerful. It might cease to be powerful. The growth of government and the federal debt might strangle the economy to the point where the U.S. cannot support a standing army of sufficient size to protect its interests and allies around the world. This is already happening to many European nations.

A more catastrophic scenario, and one that I fear may come to pass, is that the U.S. might suffer a military defeat. A “nuclear 9/11” could destroy the American economy. A nuclear attack with an electromagnetic pulse weapon could wipe out the entire American electrical grid and cause mass starvation. Such an attack might be a prelude to a second wave of nuclear strikes or conventional attacks.

Interpretation of prophecy is not a certain thing. Often the realization that a prophecy has been fulfilled can only take place in hindsight. The prudent thing to do is to be prepared. Even if there is no large scale disaster from an EMP attack, we are still subject to local disasters from hurricanes, tornados, floods, riots or even a small scale terrorist attack. The experience of the L.A. riots, Hurricane Katrina, and Hurricane Sandy underscore the importance of preparedness and being able to fend for yourself for at least a little while.

No one can say exactly what lies ahead for America. What can be said with certainty is that if America continues down its current path it will not only face economic stagnation, but it is increasingly likely that there will be more examples of divine “shakings” and judgment. We should all be prepared for disasters and be ready to protect ourselves in an emergency. We should also be spiritually prepared. As Jonathan Cahn told me, “The time to repent, to be saved, and to get right with God . . . is now.”

Interview with Harbinger author, Jonathan Cahn

Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, the best-selling author of “the Harbinger: the Ancient Mystery that Holds the Secret of America’s Future,” recently took time from his busy schedule to answer a series of questions from Examiner.com. Rabbi Cahn, who will be the keynote speaker at today’s Presidential Inaugural Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C.

“The Harbinger” is a work of fiction, but Cahn uses the fictional story of a writer’s meetings with a mysterious prophet to tell the real story of nine harbingers that preceded the destruction of ancient Israel. Cahn believes that the same harbingers are warning modern America of God’s impending judgment. “The Harbinger” has recently passed a major publishing milestone with a 1 million copies sold.

David W. Thornton: How was The Harbinger prophecy revealed to you?  Was it similar to the fictional account in the novel or was it purely through prayer and study?

Jonathan Cahn: After 9/11, I was praying and was led to a particular section of Scripture in Isaiah concerning the first warning of judgment given to Israel.  I found out later that David Wilkerson in Time Square Church told his congregation that the Lord was giving a word to America and it was the same section of Scripture. In fact, he even spoke the specific “decoder” verse of “The Harbinger” [Isaiah 9:10].  And he did say it because he saw the harbingers manifest.  Most would only come later.  But it was simply from the Lord.

Later I was standing at the corner of Ground Zero and my attention was drawn to an object.  Something said “seek it out.”  I began searching the Scriptures and the mystery began to unfold.  It was the first puzzle piece of the ancient mystery which kept getting bigger and bigger, deeper and deeper until I was completely blown away.  It was an ancient mystery that lay behind everything from 9/11 to everything that happened after.  It was [so] specific that it even foretold the precise actions and words of American leaders.  It was mind boggling.

When I shared it at my congregation, the Jerusalem Center/Beth Israel, the people were likewise blown away.  Everyone felt it was a word from the Lord that had to go forth to the nation.  As I began to write the book, an entire second stream of mysteries began to unfold, ancient mysteries which lay behind the collapse of the American [nation], mysteries so specific that they pinpointed events down to the days and hours.

When I began to write the book in the form in which it now exists, of a prophet revealing the mystery through a series of seals, the words just flowed out as it the book were already written before I wrote it.

DWT: Since major cataclysmic events occurred in the financial world on Elul 29 in the last two Shimitah years, do you believe that some act of judgment will occur on the next Shimitah Elul 29 which is September 13, 2015?  If so, do you have any idea what? 

JC: The next Shimitah will take place from September 2014 to September 2015, culminating on the 29^th day of Elul, September 13, 2015, that’s correct.  I haven’t been led to be dogmatic concerning what may or may not happen, but I think it’s wise to keep our eyes open.

DWT: Much has been written about the reinstatement of Israel as a prophetic super sign.  Is there a relationship between modern-day Israel and American judgment that leads to Biblical end-time events such as the War of Magog and the tribulation of the Revelation?

JC: There is a connection between the macro pictures of end-time prophecy and the specificity of The Harbinger.  We know that there is no clear reference to America in end-time prophecy and yet America is now still the head of nations.  Thus, to go from where we are now to the scenario of end-time prophecy, somehow America must fall as the world’s leading superpower; it must lose its crown as head of nations.  “The Harbinger” fills in the gap with specific detail as to how it would proceed to that end.

DWT: Do you believe that recent cataclysmic events such as Hurricane Sandy and the Newton massacre are related to the removal of God’s protective hedge?

JC: We must be careful in our discerning what every calamity means.  “The Harbinger” rests on a precise, unique, eerie, and exact outworking of an ancient template of judgment in all its specificity and detail.  Thus there is a clear Biblical frame of reference.  With most other calamities, this is not the case.  Nevertheless there are general principles of Scripture concerning national judgment.

In the case of Hurricane Sandy, it was striking for such a storm to develop when and where it did – and then to specifically strike New York City.  It was also of note that the storm struck Ground Zero, flooding it over.  The governor of New York then went down to Ground Zero and from there made declarations that the city would rebuild and come back better than ever. Anyone who read “The Harbinger” would know the significance of such words.

DWT: Have you had any other revelations since writing the book?

JC: Yes. The mystery of “The Harbinger” has not stopped.  It’s continuing.  Since the book was released, the harbingers are continuing to manifest.  And what was foreshadowed in the book is coming true.  Some of it has been so amazing that it has left those who read the book literally gasping.  When my wife informed me of one of them I didn’t even believe her.  It was too far out (and I wrote the book)!  It involved the president of the United States and a[n] ancient Hebrew mystery.

DWT: Do you have any idea how much time is left for America to repent or what the result of the final judgment will be?

JC: We all live in the face of judgment.  And the time to repent, to be saved, and to get right with God . . . is now.

For more information on “The Harbinger” and to receive a CD and other gifts from Rabbi Cahn, visit Jonathan Cahn’s website: http://www.theharbinger-jonathancahn.com/

This interview was conducted via email. Rabbi Cahn’s responses are presented in their entirety except for minor editing.

Originally published on Examiner.com:
http://www.examiner.com/article/interview-with-jonathan-cahn-author-of-the-harbinger?cid=db_articles

Rabbi’s book warns of God’s judgment on America

Messianic rabbi Jonathan Cahn believes that a 3,000 year old prophecy holds the key to understanding many of the cataclysmic events that have shaken the United States in the past decade. In his book, “The Harbinger,” a narrative that intertwines fiction with historical fact and Biblical teaching to point out striking parallels between God’s judgment of ancient Israel and recent American history. In the book, Cahn uses discussions between a mysterious prophet and journalist to point out these parallels.

Cahn’s message centers around Isaiah 9:10, a verse in which the ancient Israelites vowed to rebuild stronger than before in the aftermath of the first Assyrian invasion. According to Cahn, the process of divine judgment begins with the removal of God’s protective “hedge” to open the nation to attack. In the case of both nations, the removal of God’s protection led to an attack by terrorists. In Israel’s case, the attack was by the Assyrians in 732 B.C. In America’s case, it was by al Qaeda on 9/11. (Warning: The following review contains spoilers.)

In both cases, the attack was followed by defiance. The Israelites made the vow found in Isaiah: “The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with dressed stone; the fig trees have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.” Put simply, they would take what was destroyed and replace it with something even better rather than repenting of their sins.

Ironically, this obscure Old Testament verse with its vow of defiance was used not once, but twice by American leaders in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. On Sept. 12, 2001, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle quoted the verse in a speech to congress where he specifically linked the verse to America. Three years later, on Sept. 11, 2004, Sen. John Edwards, then a vice presidential candidate, again invoked the verse in a speech to the Congressional Black Caucus. On February 24, 2009, President Obama echoed the defiant tone of the verse, saying in his address to Congress, “I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.” Although George W. Bush also promised to rebuild after the attacks, he did not make the defiant vow that the U.S. would become stronger.

The prophecy literally came true in the case of the United States after 9/11. After the attacks, a giant sycamore tree was uprooted at Ground Zero. Two years later, the sycamore was replaced by a Norway spruce, scientifically the same type of tree that the ancient Israelites would have called a cedar according to Cahn. Likewise, bricks from the World Trade Center were replaced with a dressed cornerstone for the new Freedom Tower in 2004.

The links between the Bible and the news don’t end there. Cahn points out that the 9/11 attacks set in motion not one, but two record crashes of the stock market. The first occurred on the first day of trading after the attacks, Sept. 17, 2001. The second occurred seven years later on Sept. 29, 2008 at the onset of the Great Recession. The second crash was set in motion by the low interest rates put in place after 9/11 to stimulate the economy. The low interest rates fueled the credit bubble that eventually led to the real estate collapse.

There is significance to the dates of the two crashes. According to the Hebrew calendar, both occurred on Elul 29 of the years 5761 and 5768 respectively. Both of these years were Shemitah years according to Jewish tradition. In the Shemitah year, the ancient Israelites were to cancel debts and let their fields lie dormant. In 2008, billions of dollars in debts were canceled in terms of lost value, bailouts and bankruptcies. Many storefronts have factories have lain empty and unused since 2008. Further, the first collapse of the looming fiscal crisis was Northern Rock, a British bank that was nationalized on Sept. 13, 2007. In the Hebrew calendar, that would be Tishri 1, the New Year’s Day of the Shemitah year.

Cahn establishes the connection between America and Israel all the way back to 1789, the year of George Washington’s inauguration. Sen. Daschle alluded to this year in the same speech in which he cited Isaiah 9:10.

In 1789, New York City was the capitol of the United States. Washington was inaugurated at Federal Hall where he gave a speech acknowledging God’s help in gaining independence: “No People can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the Affairs of men more than the People of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.”

Washington also called on the American people to remain faithful to God, saying “We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven, can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained.…”

After being sworn in at Federal Hall, Washington led a procession of dignitaries to St. Paul’s Chapel in Manhattan for a prayer service. The same St. Paul’s Chapel is located at Ground Zero and was the original site of the Ground Zero sycamore. The shock wave when the World Trade Center collapsed literally cracked the foundation of Federal Hall, the birthplace of the United States government.

After the initial Assyrian invasion, Israel continued to resist both God and the Assyrians. Ten years after the first invasion in 722 B.C., the Assyrians conquered totally conquered Israel and took her people into captivity. The stakes for America are high.

“The Harbinger” lays out a convincing case that there is more to these connections than mere chance. The book contains many more links than can be presented here and their sheer volume makes it difficult to explain them away as coincidences. The majority of the instances that Cahn cites can be verified through independent sources online, such as the articles that have been linked here.

According to Lucille Gabel, an assistant at Cahn’s Hope of the World Ministry, the “Harbinger” is “reality” that is “framed and delivered through a narrative.” She continues, “The characters are fiction, but what they say through the mouth of the prophet is real.” The storyline makes the message easier to understand and receive.

Cahn has not revealed what he believes the next acts of judgment against the United States to be or when they will occur. On the “Jim Bakker Show” on Nov. 9, 2012, Cahn did say that the pattern of judgment includes repeated “shakings” that can include natural disasters such as Hurricane Sandy and the Newtown massacre. He also noted that in the wake of the storm, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo again made the vow to rebuild Ground Zero better than before.

An obvious question is whether there is any significance to the next Shemitah Elul 29. The Gregorian date for this day on the Hebrew calendar is Sunday, Sept. 13, 2015. According to Gabel, “Jonathan [Cahn] was not led to dogmatically commit to that or deal with it in the present book.  He did allude [to] the fact that the pattern may extend – but he hasn’t yet been led to be dogmatic concerning it – just that we must stay vigilant and aware regarding this and many things.”

A recurrent theme in the book is that the “attempt of a nation to defy the course of its judgment, apart from repentance, will instead set in motion a chain of events to bring about the very calamity it sought to avert.” Cahn refers to this as the Isaiah 9:10 effect. The low interest rates after 9/11 leading to the real estate bubble and financial collapse is a prime example.

In the end it is up to each reader to decide for himself if the evidence that Cahn presents is sufficient to prove that the U.S. is indeed coming under divine judgment and, if so, what to do with that information. In any case, Sept. 13, 2015 might be a good day to watch the stock market.

 

If you are a social conservative or a believer in Christ and are concerned about the direction of the country, join the Christian Tea Party on Facebook.

 

Originally published on Examiner.com:

http://www.examiner.com/article/rabbi-s-book-warns-america-is-under-divine-judgment?cid=db_articles

“Harbinger” author to headline inaugural prayer breakfast

Jonathan Cahn, a controversial messianic rabbi, announced on his Facebook page today that he has been asked to be the keynote speaker at the Presidential Inaugural Prayer Breakfast on Jan. 21. Cahn is the rabbi of the Beth Israel Worship Center in Wayne, N.J. and president of the Hope of the World ministry. He is also the author of “The Harbinger,” a prophetic novel that details Cahn’s belief that the United States is receiving divine warnings as a prelude to judgment.

“The Harbinger” centers around Isaiah 9:10, a verse in which the ancient Israelites vowed to rebuild stronger than before in the aftermath of an Assyrian attack. Cahn finds many parallels between modern America and ancient Israel.

According to Cahn, the process of divine judgment begins with the removal of God’s protective “hedge” to open the nation to attack. In the case of both nations, the removal of God’s protection led to an attack by terrorists. In Israel’s case, the attack was by the Assyrians in 732 B.C. In America’s case, it was by al Qaeda on 9/11.

In both cases, the attack was followed by defiance. The Israelites made the vow found in Isaiah: “The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with dressed stone; the fig trees have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.” Put simply, they would take what was destroyed and replace it with something even better rather than repenting of their sins.

Ironically, this obscure Old Testament verse with its vow of defiance was used not once, but twice by American leaders in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. On Sept. 12, 2001, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle quoted the verse in a speech to congress where he specifically linked the verse to America. Three years later, on Sept. 11, 2004, Sen. John Edwards, then a vice presidential candidate, again invoked the verse in a speech to the Congressional Black Caucus. On February 24, 2009, President Obama echoed the defiant tone of the verse, saying in his address to Congress, “I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.” The book cites many other striking similarities between ancient history and modern news.

Other confirmed guests at the Presidential Inaugural Prayer Breakfast include Chaplain of the U.S. House Father Patrick Conroy, Rep. Michele Bachmann, Rep. Eric Cantor, and Sen. Roy Blunt. Worship music will be provided by Jeremiah and Wendy Ginsberg and the Philadelphia Tabernacle of David. It is not known whether President Obama will attend.

Tickets to the event are available to the public. They can be purchased online at http://pipb2013.eventbrite.com/ or by calling (804) 971—0414. Limited tickets will be available at the door.

Originally published on Examiner.com:

http://www.examiner.com/article/author-of-book-on-judgment-of-u-s-will-headline-inaugural-prayer-breakfast?cid=db_articles&no_cache=1357424951