What Jonathan Cahn claims about himself as taken from his Editorial Reviews :
Yet many naive Christian leaders have praised Cahn’s books as a prophetic message from God, even to the extent of declaring that he is a true prophet for our time, and that The Harbinger is “the word of God.” He was named, along with Billy Graham and Keith Greene, one of the top forty spiritual leaders of the last forty years to have radically impacted the world. His books on end-times have all been best sellers.
The Harbinger, Jonathan Cahn’s first book, published in 2011, claimed that Isaiah 9:10-11 contains a hidden prophecy directed not to ancient Israel but to modern America. Cain assumed, “Somehow Isaiah 9:10 has to be connected to Washington DC. . . . Solomon was the king of Israel. Washington was the first president of the United States. There was something in the linking of ancient Israel and America, as with all the other mysteries.” This is actually the basis of Freemasonry.
According to Isaiah 9:10, “The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.” According to Cahn, the dressed stones and sycamore trees are really cryptic ways of referring to the building of the new monument in place of the twin towers, and that the “enemies of Rezin” — listed as the Syrians and Philistines in verse 12, are really the forces of al-Qaeda who come against the United States. Unfortunately Cahn did not unlocked this secret until ten years after it happened.
In 2014 The Mystery of the Shemitah which went to its second printing the day it was released, builds on the concepts and theories first presented in The Harbinger. The Shemitah or Sabbath year is the concept of giving the land a rest every seven years. If that doesn’t happen, then God will cause calamity. God now follows this Sabbath year principle in his plans for America and Cahn attempted to prove this by using the rise and fall of the stock market. However, no one knows when one of these seven-year cycles starts or finishes. Cahn hinted that America was on the brink of a great financial catastrophe. He associated the 2008 housing collapse with this principle, which he unfortunately did not unlock until 2014. It is also ironic that Cahn is part of a movement that emphasizes personal prosperity.
Cahn also suggested there may well be a connection between the blood moon tetrad, solar eclipses, and the supposed Shemitah of 2014-2015. A lunar eclipse is sometimes referred to as a “blood moon” or “blood-red moon” because of the red or orange color of the moon during that phenomenon. There were four lunar eclipses in 2014 and 2015. For Cahn, “blood moons” are a harbinger for a catastrophic “seventh shemitah” in America. For other prophecy “experts,” the series of blood-red moons in 2014 and 2015 would be a portent of Jesus’ second coming and a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Some teachers of prophecy predicted that this tetrad of blood moons would fulfill end-times prophecies in Joel and Revelation.
Although The Harbinger was classified as a work of fiction, Cahn stated in an interview with Brannon Howse in 2012 that his book was 90 percent fact and 10 percent fiction. In the lead-in to the book, Cahn wrote: “What you are about to read is presented in the form of a story, but what is contained within the story is real.” Left Behind does the same thing to hedge their bets. The Left Behind series teaches eschatology as fiction. If it doesn’t work out, they can say it was fiction. But they really believe that “the main features are not fiction.” Left Behind is “based on a true story that has not happened — yet.”
By this time Cahn’s books and ancillary products have collectively reached three million units in sales. Cahn’s Book of Mysteries, published in 2016 consists of 365 one-page devotionals. However, this is an introduction to Kabbalah and trains the reader to look for hidden messages in the Bible.
In 2017 The Paradigm continues his tradition of declaring in great detail the prophetic significance of past events with only vague details about the future. He also continues to draw unrealistic and far-fetched parallels between past biblical events and present-day history. His use of historical parallels reminds me of a song Buddy Starcher wrote called “History Repeats Itself.” It was a comparison of the assassinations of Lincoln and Kennedy and became a hit song in the spring of 1966. However, Starcher edited history, using only those facts which supported his premise. Cahn does much the same thing. Yet he is attempting to extrapolate current American history from ancient Jewish history.
Cahn starts with Ahab, whom he compares with Bill Clinton. Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, whom he compares to Hillary. Ahab’s son, Ahaziah, succeeds him and he is compared to Barach Obama. Then Jehu comes along to destroy Israel’s apostasy. He is linked to Donald Trump. According to Cahn, however, Trump only managed to slow down, but not reverse the apostasy. Now we are in the days of Elijah and must stand our ground. Cahn himself has taken on the role of the prophet Elijah. I share Cahn’s concerns over America’s apostasy. However, he is selective in his use of history.
• The chronology of Israel’s kings
Cahn asserts that Bill Clinton and Ahab both reigned for twenty-two years and presents this as strong evidence of a divine paradigm. However, to make Clinton’s career add up to twenty-two years, Cahn must start the clock at 1979, when Clinton was first elected governor of Arkansas, and then reach twenty-two with the last year Clinton served as president (2001). Cahn fails to mention that Clinton did not serve as governor of Arkansas between 1981 and 1983, which reduces his terms of office as governor to twenty years.
But is their any objective reason for Cahn to start with Ahab? Why not start with Jeroboam?
After Ahab and Ahaziah comes Joram. Cahn does nothing with him. After Joram, Jehu comes. And is it all over after Jehu? There were nine more kings before Israel went into Assyrian captivity. It is true that none of them were good, but we have been under King Jesus for two thousand years now, so we cannot conclude that we are predestined to evil.
Furthermore, the kings were one office and the prophets were a separate office. Elijah was a prophet during the reign of Ahab, Ahaziah, and Joram, but he is succeeded by Elisha during the reign of Joram. Technically, the days of Elisha began with Joram.
• The chronology of America’s presidents
Cahn also is selective in his use of American presidents. After Clinton was George W. Bush, then Obama. Cahn can be very exact at times, when the information serves his purposes. But he can also omit major components when they do not fit his agenda. Furthermore, other charismatic prophets have compared Trump to Cyrus. This comparison was even made by Benjamin Netenyahu. So which is it — is Donald Trump Cyrus or Jehu?
In the chapter “The Paradigm of the Race,” Cahn wrote, “Jehu mounted his chariot and raced to the king’s palace….So Donald Trump would begin a race to the White House, the American throne.” But the only parallel here is a play on the word race.
Parallels do not prove that history is replaying. The circular view of history is pagan. The Christian view of history is linear. We are moving toward God’s ultimate purpose, the establishment of his kingdom on earth, even if there are bumps along the way. The greatest danger of Cahn’s prophetic messages is that future events are predestined because they follow Old Testament paradigms which are heavily edited in order to fit a pessimistic presupposition. Cahn is long on parallels, but surprisingly brief in his advice in what we need to do going forward.
Cahn believes the Jewish calendar is a template by which to predict future events. While it is true that the seven feasts of Israel have symbolic meaning, the significance is primarily Christological, not eschatological. See my article, “Jewish Feasts and the Plan of God” [The Arminian Magazine, Fall 2006], which was extracted from my Revelation commentary [1:338-241].
In 2019 The Oracle Cahn found the birth of Donald Trump in the Bible. Utilizing the concept of a fifty-year Jubilee, Cahn connected the legalization of abortion in 1970 with the outbreak of Covid fifty years later.
The Harbinger II: The Return (2020) claimed an ancient prophetic mystery that accurately predicted the outbreak of COVID-19, down to the year it would hit in America? However, Covid hit before Cahn unlocked the mystery.
In 2022 The Return of the Gods is based on the premise that the gods of mythology were not merely fictional characters, but actual beings who once walked among humans and still have a presence in our world. The ancient gods worshiped by civilizations such as the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians were not mere superstitions, but representations of powerful spiritual entities that still exist and can influence our lives today. Cahn then describes how the United States, in kicking God out of the schools and public life in the 1960s, has replaced the one True God with three ancient deities (Baal, Ishtar, and Molech), each of whom has wreaked havoc upon our culture and morality. His description of the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City being the gateway for Ishtar to enter America and possess her. Ishtar unleashed the sexual revolution — even gender fluidity. The return of Baal is seen in the worship of sex and money. One of Baal’s symbols was the bull and Cahn connects this with the bull statue at Wall Street. Molech’s return is the sacrifice of children. I agree with Cahn’s concerns about our culture, but not with his mishandling of Scripture. Cahn operates under four false assumptions:
1. America has replaced Israel as the New Israel. Cahn wrote in The Harbinger
“Israel was unique among nations in that it was conceived and dedicated at its foundation for the purposes of God. . . . Those who laid America’s foundations saw it as a new Israel, an Israel of the New World. And as with ancient Israel, they saw it in covenant with God.”
Cahn is not exactly embracing replacement theology. I believe that in the divine economy, the church has replaced Israel, but Cahn believes that America has replaced Israel. This seems a bit odd since Cahn markets himself as a Messianic Jewish believer.
Covenant theology, including historic Methodist theology, holds that the church has replaced Israel, but the church is not a political entity. Previously, British Israelism or Anglo-Israelism held that Britain contained the lost tribes of Israel. Whenever a political entity is declared to be God’s covenant people, politics is legitimized by theology.
2. The New Apostolic Reformation or Independent Network Charismatic movement.
Charismatic Christianity emphasizes the “gifts of the Holy Spirit,” which include healing, exorcism, speaking in spiritual languages, and prophecy — defined as hearing direct words from God that reveal his plans for the future and directions for his people to follow. The NAR, made popular through the teaching of C. Peter Wagner, also promotes a fivefold ministry of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. They believe that the offices of apostle and prophet must be recovered. While this is purported to be taught in Ephesians 4:11, they also advocate for new revelation. John Wimber emphasized that God is bigger than his Word. “All that is in the Bible is true, but not all truth is in the Bible. We integrate all truth, both biblical and other, into our experience of living.”
While the NAR advocates a victorious eschatology, according to them the victory will come through apostles and prophets who make prayer declarations and loose the tribulation on their enemies. This theology is smuggled into churches through popular NAR music.
Their Seven Mountains Mandate is based on Isaiah 2:2 and Revelation 17:9. The seven mountains are: family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business, and government. “If Christians permeate each mountain and rise to the top of all seven mountains … society would have biblical morality, people would live in harmony, there would be peace and not war, there would be no poverty.” They see Trump as fulfilling God’s plan to place “kingdom-minded” leaders in top government positions, including Cabinet members and Supreme Court appointments.
While I agree that the kingdom of Christ should rule in every sphere, this will be accomplished through scholarship and suffering, prayer and perseverance, not through declarations and Jericho Marches. Prayer walks, Jericho Marches, and prophetic declarations may be more show than substance. Faith is obedience to God’s Word, not telling God what to do.
Before the 2016 election a group of “prophets” proclaimed Trump to be God’s chosen candidate, similar to King Cyrus in the Bible, whom God used to restore the nation of Israel. Prayer coins were even sold which had both Donald Trump and King Cyrus engraved. After their prophesies of Trump’s winning the election came true, these “prophets” became enormously popular.
Many of those “prophets” predicted another Trump victory in 2020. After November 3, many believed that the demonic forces that have stolen the election can still be defeated through prayer. Apparently the January 6, 2021 protest was, at least in part, an attempt to declare Trump the election winner. One of those who breached the Senate floor describes holding a prayer to “consecrate it to Jesus” soon after entering — since it had become the temple of Baal. In the days and hours leading up to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 the group Jericho March organized marches around the Capitol and Supreme Court building praying for God to defeat the “dark and corrupt” forces that they claimed had stolen the election from God’s anointed president, Donald Trump.
There is no evidence that anyone affiliated with the Jericho March organization took part in the Capitol breach. However, their leaders are motivated, in part, by Jonathan Cahn’s teaching. What really happened on January 6 is very much open to debate. However, when Jehu sent his men into the temple of Baal in 2 Kings 10, they were successful in eradicating Baal worship from Israel (see v 28). At this point I do not see any parallel between 2 Kings 10 and January 6, 2021. Cahn has declared that the window of opportunity to destroy the temple of Baal, which is the US Capital, ended on January 6. We are now living in the days of Baal. Yet Cahn still claims that Donald Trump plays a role in the end times.
3. Cahn claims to be a rabbi in the Hebrew Roots Movement. He is the rabbi at Beth Israel Worship Center in Wayne, NJ. When the Apostle Paul and the Jerusalem Council demonstrated the sufficiency of salvation by grace through faith, they — under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit — removed the necessity of maintaining the traditions of Jewish ceremonial practice. Gentiles need not worship in a synagogue, blow a shofar, wear a prayer shawl, call Jesus Yeshua or Yeshu, keep the Old Testament feasts and dietary laws. These props, along with a few Hebrew words thrown in, give Cahn an aura of mystery and deep knowledge, but the New Testament also rejects gnosticism.
4. Cahn utilizes a method of biblical interpretation called Kabbalah. This is ancient Jewish mysticism or occult knowledge. The word is usually translated as “tradition.” Kabbalah is a doctrine of esoteric knowledge concerning God and the universe, having come down as a revelation to the Sages from a remote past, and preserved only by a privileged few. Kabbalah is considered part of the Jewish Oral Law. Most forms of Kabbalah teach that every letter, word, number, and accent of scripture contains a hidden sense; and it teaches the methods of interpretation for ascertaining these occult meanings. These ancient mysteries are classic new age expressions which have been used for centuries by freemasonry, theosophy, and new age rabbis.
In the book of Colossians, Paul confronts a philosophy that was identified with the teachings of the Essenes. The apocalyptic tendencies of the Essenes distracted from the all-sufficiency of Christ. T. K Abbott wrote,
The teaching of the Colossian false teachers was essentially traditional and esoteric. The Essenes, their spiritual predecessors, as well as the Gnostics, subsequently claimed to possess such a source of knowledge.
According to Josephus, the Essenes required a secret oath before passing on their doctrines. So did the gnostics. The heresy which Paul addressed was a blend of Jewish and Greek elements. Yet there was one heresy, which syncretized various elements. According to N. T. Wright, since the Christians in Colosse had Christ they had all they needed. “Judaism had nothing more to offer them.” Paul declares that the church has had its own “exodus” (1:12) and is the heir to the true promised land. Paul stresses in chapters 2–3 that the church already lives in the “age to come” and therefore is under no obligation to submit to regulations which were preparation for that age. Paul opposes the worship of angels and ascetic practices. Wright argued that Paul’s attack on angel worship, asceticism, and philosophy also have a close connection with Judaism.
Therefore, Paul wrote, Do not let anyone judge you with respect to a religious festival, a new moon celebration, or a Sabbath day. This refers to the annual, monthly, and weekly days of the Jewish calendar (Gal 4:9–11; 5:1).
It is not wrong to observe special days or seasons, such as Lent or Advent, in the Christian calendar. What is wrong is when such observances are tied to the recognition of elemental spirits who supposedly direct the course of the stars and regulate the order of the calendar. It is possible that the observance of days Paul rejected was connected to astrology. Movements wanting to reinstate Jewish practices are suspect. Life in Christ does not depend on the observance of Jewish practices despite the emphasis of the Hebrew Roots Movement. In the second century Ignatius warned against such Jewish teachings.
Especially popular amongst the Essenes was the pesher method of scriptural interpretation in which “everything from the past was transformed and given a contemporary value and meaning,” especially texts taken from the prophetic books. Isaiah 9:10 and its context may contain appropriate applications for modern life at both the personal and national levels, but nine harbingers of divine judgment upon America are not embedded in Isaiah 9:10.
While Cahn uses the Kabbalist method to find hidden meaning in the numerical arrangements of the Bible, this method may be applied to almost any piece of literature and draw almost any interpretation from it. The irony is that just a few verses after Isaiah 9:10 is a warning against the prophet who teaches lies; “for those who guide this people have been leading them astray, and those who are guided by them are swallowed up.”
"Long before writing these books, he was known for opening the deep mysteries of Scripture and bringing forth messages of prophetic import".
Dear viewer: Before you decide to purchase any of Jonathan Cahn's products, be aware of the following red flags:
1) Mr. Cahn has been successful in persuading people around the world that he is a modern day O.T. prophet, while giving them a secret, hidden knowledge that others do not have which draws his followers in like flies feeding off honey. This encourages them to have an awe of his so called ANCIENT MYSTERIES which is largely influenced by MYSTICAL HERMENUETICS. Once people are duped Cahn has this anointing, then he can begin to claim or establish himself as a prophet of God. This works well for people who are too STUPID, but would rather hear from a self proclaimed prophet than to hear from God through studying His word. This self proclaimed prophet (Cahn) will keep his followers from discovering that he has appointed himself as America's so called prophet with the help of Sid Roth from It's Supernatural. By the way, Sid Roth has a long history of occasionally promoting charlatans on his show spanning approximately 40 years. This also includes Steven Strang who is Jonathan Cahn's Frontline publisher & CEO & Founder of Charisma Magazine. In August 2015 Steven Strang's Charisma Magazine published an article written by Troy Anderson claiming that Jonathan Cahn founded the church Beth Israel (page 58). That is a false narrative. Beth Israel Worship Center's founder was none other than the late MR. GARY SELMAN. The vision for Beth Israel began with Gary Selman, a Messianic Jewish businessman with a heart for sharing the Gospel to Jew and Gentile alike and Pastor Charlie Rizzo of the Church of the Nazarene who gave early support to the new work. It was later in 1988 that Gary asked Jonathan Cahn to become the spiritual leader of Beth Israel.
The majority of the stories you see on Charisma Magazine these days (whose founder is Steven Strang who interviewed Mr. Cahn in video above) are defending the most indefensible or propping up the most absurd false teachers and prophets of our day like Jonathan Cahn, Heidi Baker, Bill Johnson, T.D. Jakes who denies the Trinity (Oneness Pentecostal) and countless others. This is vital. If Cahn's followers suspect that he started out as the only one who said he was self appointed as America's prophet, he will never get a flock following him and Cahn will miss out on all the fun and profit there is when fleecing his flocks.
2)Self proclaimed prophets establish themselves as prophets from God by making a few predictions. Mr. Cahn has a track record of making false predictions i.e. THE MYSTERY OF THE SHEMTAH which was to happen on Elul 29, 2015 AND CULMINATE IN A GLOBAL ECONOMIC COLLAPSE. AND THE FOUR BLOOD MOONS which according to Mr. Cahn's other side kick convicted felon Jim Bakker was to lead to the start of the Great Tribulation in Sept 2015. None of these predictions materialized! Cahn's predictions of the Mystery of the Shemitah was also based on a 3000 year Jewish calendar which Cahn claimed was infallible(see link refuting his claims( http://lamblion.com/articles/articles_jewishlife3.php]).
It does not matter if these bogus mysteries don’t come to pass because false prophets can always claim it was their lack of faith as to why it did not happen. The secret of being successful is always to shift the blame back to the people when the so called prophet is in a tight spot. Whatever they do, the so called prophet never accepts responsibility for the lack of failed prophesies as this will taint their image and hinder the pursuit of fleecing the flock for fun and profit. They must also keep their flock from any passages in the Bible that say that a prophet must have 100% accuracy such as Deuteronomy 18. It will be necessary for them to steer them clear from such passages and remind them that all people are fallible. If the so called prophet keeps the focus on the fallible people, their flocks will not notice that prophecies are supposed to come from God who is infallible.
3) If someone tells you they’ve discovered something in the Scriptures that no one else in 2 thousand years has discovered, they’re wrong and trying to sell you something – each and every last and lousy time. And you can BANK on it because it's all a GIMMICK and it's a big business/enterprise. And don't believe in the 5 star reviews this book is getting on Amazon.com. Amazon functions as an advertising agency and critical reviews like mine are placed at the bottom and out of sight so that customers will not be exposed to the truth with regards to these bogus mysteries. It's all a head game of false advertisement.
Jonathan Cahn: Another False Prophet and what you need to know.
by Vic Reasoner October 2, 2023
Jonathan Cahn has positioned himself as a modern-day prophet. He believes he is sounding the Jubilee trumpet. He claims to have discovered the ancient mysteries of God’s Word. However, Scripture reveals the mysteries of God. The canon of Scripture is closed.
Yet many naive Christian leaders have praised Cahn’s books as a prophetic message from God, even to the extent of declaring that he is a true prophet for our time, and that The Harbinger is “the word of God.” He was named, along with Billy Graham and Keith Greene, one of the top forty spiritual leaders of the last forty years to have radically impacted the world. His books on end-times have all been best sellers.
The Harbinger, Jonathan Cahn’s first book, published in 2011, claimed that Isaiah 9:10-11 contains a hidden prophecy directed not to ancient Israel but to modern America. Cain assumed, “Somehow Isaiah 9:10 has to be connected to Washington DC. . . . Solomon was the king of Israel. Washington was the first president of the United States. There was something in the linking of ancient Israel and America, as with all the other mysteries.” This is actually the basis of Freemasonry.
According to Isaiah 9:10, “The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.” According to Cahn, the dressed stones and sycamore trees are really cryptic ways of referring to the building of the new monument in place of the twin towers, and that the “enemies of Rezin” — listed as the Syrians and Philistines in verse 12, are really the forces of al-Qaeda who come against the United States. Unfortunately Cahn did not unlocked this secret until ten years after it happened.
In 2014 The Mystery of the Shemitah which went to its second printing the day it was released, builds on the concepts and theories first presented in The Harbinger. The Shemitah or Sabbath year is the concept of giving the land a rest every seven years. If that doesn’t happen, then God will cause calamity. God now follows this Sabbath year principle in his plans for America and Cahn attempted to prove this by using the rise and fall of the stock market. However, no one knows when one of these seven-year cycles starts or finishes. Cahn hinted that America was on the brink of a great financial catastrophe. He associated the 2008 housing collapse with this principle, which he unfortunately did not unlock until 2014. It is also ironic that Cahn is part of a movement that emphasizes personal prosperity.
Cahn also suggested there may well be a connection between the blood moon tetrad, solar eclipses, and the supposed Shemitah of 2014-2015. A lunar eclipse is sometimes referred to as a “blood moon” or “blood-red moon” because of the red or orange color of the moon during that phenomenon. There were four lunar eclipses in 2014 and 2015. For Cahn, “blood moons” are a harbinger for a catastrophic “seventh shemitah” in America. For other prophecy “experts,” the series of blood-red moons in 2014 and 2015 would be a portent of Jesus’ second coming and a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Some teachers of prophecy predicted that this tetrad of blood moons would fulfill end-times prophecies in Joel and Revelation.
Although The Harbinger was classified as a work of fiction, Cahn stated in an interview with Brannon Howse in 2012 that his book was 90 percent fact and 10 percent fiction. In the lead-in to the book, Cahn wrote: “What you are about to read is presented in the form of a story, but what is contained within the story is real.” Left Behind does the same thing to hedge their bets. The Left Behind series teaches eschatology as fiction. If it doesn’t work out, they can say it was fiction. But they really believe that “the main features are not fiction.” Left Behind is “based on a true story that has not happened — yet.”
By this time Cahn’s books and ancillary products have collectively reached three million units in sales. Cahn’s Book of Mysteries, published in 2016 consists of 365 one-page devotionals. However, this is an introduction to Kabbalah and trains the reader to look for hidden messages in the Bible.
In 2017 The Paradigm continues his tradition of declaring in great detail the prophetic significance of past events with only vague details about the future. He also continues to draw unrealistic and far-fetched parallels between past biblical events and present-day history. His use of historical parallels reminds me of a song Buddy Starcher wrote called “History Repeats Itself.” It was a comparison of the assassinations of Lincoln and Kennedy and became a hit song in the spring of 1966. However, Starcher edited history, using only those facts which supported his premise. Cahn does much the same thing. Yet he is attempting to extrapolate current American history from ancient Jewish history.
Cahn starts with Ahab, whom he compares with Bill Clinton. Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, whom he compares to Hillary. Ahab’s son, Ahaziah, succeeds him and he is compared to Barach Obama. Then Jehu comes along to destroy Israel’s apostasy. He is linked to Donald Trump. According to Cahn, however, Trump only managed to slow down, but not reverse the apostasy. Now we are in the days of Elijah and must stand our ground. Cahn himself has taken on the role of the prophet Elijah. I share Cahn’s concerns over America’s apostasy. However, he is selective in his use of history.
• The chronology of Israel’s kings
Cahn asserts that Bill Clinton and Ahab both reigned for twenty-two years and presents this as strong evidence of a divine paradigm. However, to make Clinton’s career add up to twenty-two years, Cahn must start the clock at 1979, when Clinton was first elected governor of Arkansas, and then reach twenty-two with the last year Clinton served as president (2001). Cahn fails to mention that Clinton did not serve as governor of Arkansas between 1981 and 1983, which reduces his terms of office as governor to twenty years.
But is their any objective reason for Cahn to start with Ahab? Why not start with Jeroboam?
After Ahab and Ahaziah comes Joram. Cahn does nothing with him. After Joram, Jehu comes. And is it all over after Jehu? There were nine more kings before Israel went into Assyrian captivity. It is true that none of them were good, but we have been under King Jesus for two thousand years now, so we cannot conclude that we are predestined to evil.
Furthermore, the kings were one office and the prophets were a separate office. Elijah was a prophet during the reign of Ahab, Ahaziah, and Joram, but he is succeeded by Elisha during the reign of Joram. Technically, the days of Elisha began with Joram.
• The chronology of America’s presidents
Cahn also is selective in his use of American presidents. After Clinton was George W. Bush, then Obama. Cahn can be very exact at times, when the information serves his purposes. But he can also omit major components when they do not fit his agenda. Furthermore, other charismatic prophets have compared Trump to Cyrus. This comparison was even made by Benjamin Netenyahu. So which is it — is Donald Trump Cyrus or Jehu?
In the chapter “The Paradigm of the Race,” Cahn wrote, “Jehu mounted his chariot and raced to the king’s palace….So Donald Trump would begin a race to the White House, the American throne.” But the only parallel here is a play on the word race.
Parallels do not prove that history is replaying. The circular view of history is pagan. The Christian view of history is linear. We are moving toward God’s ultimate purpose, the establishment of his kingdom on earth, even if there are bumps along the way. The greatest danger of Cahn’s prophetic messages is that future events are predestined because they follow Old Testament paradigms which are heavily edited in order to fit a pessimistic presupposition. Cahn is long on parallels, but surprisingly brief in his advice in what we need to do going forward.
Cahn believes the Jewish calendar is a template by which to predict future events. While it is true that the seven feasts of Israel have symbolic meaning, the significance is primarily Christological, not eschatological. See my article, “Jewish Feasts and the Plan of God” [The Arminian Magazine, Fall 2006], which was extracted from my Revelation commentary [1:338-241].
In 2019 The Oracle Cahn found the birth of Donald Trump in the Bible. Utilizing the concept of a fifty-year Jubilee, Cahn connected the legalization of abortion in 1970 with the outbreak of Covid fifty years later.
The Harbinger II: The Return (2020) claimed an ancient prophetic mystery that accurately predicted the outbreak of COVID-19, down to the year it would hit in America? However, Covid hit before Cahn unlocked the mystery.
In 2022 The Return of the Gods is based on the premise that the gods of mythology were not merely fictional characters, but actual beings who once walked among humans and still have a presence in our world. The ancient gods worshiped by civilizations such as the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians were not mere superstitions, but representations of powerful spiritual entities that still exist and can influence our lives today. Cahn then describes how the United States, in kicking God out of the schools and public life in the 1960s, has replaced the one True God with three ancient deities (Baal, Ishtar, and Molech), each of whom has wreaked havoc upon our culture and morality. His description of the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City being the gateway for Ishtar to enter America and possess her. Ishtar unleashed the sexual revolution — even gender fluidity. The return of Baal is seen in the worship of sex and money. One of Baal’s symbols was the bull and Cahn connects this with the bull statue at Wall Street. Molech’s return is the sacrifice of children. I agree with Cahn’s concerns about our culture, but not with his mishandling of Scripture. Cahn operates under four false assumptions:
1. America has replaced Israel as the New Israel. Cahn wrote in The Harbinger
“Israel was unique among nations in that it was conceived and dedicated at its foundation for the purposes of God. . . . Those who laid America’s foundations saw it as a new Israel, an Israel of the New World. And as with ancient Israel, they saw it in covenant with God.”
Cahn is not exactly embracing replacement theology. I believe that in the divine economy, the church has replaced Israel, but Cahn believes that America has replaced Israel. This seems a bit odd since Cahn markets himself as a Messianic Jewish believer.
Covenant theology, including historic Methodist theology, holds that the church has replaced Israel, but the church is not a political entity. Previously, British Israelism or Anglo-Israelism held that Britain contained the lost tribes of Israel. Whenever a political entity is declared to be God’s covenant people, politics is legitimized by theology.
2. The New Apostolic Reformation or Independent Network Charismatic movement.
Charismatic Christianity emphasizes the “gifts of the Holy Spirit,” which include healing, exorcism, speaking in spiritual languages, and prophecy — defined as hearing direct words from God that reveal his plans for the future and directions for his people to follow. The NAR, made popular through the teaching of C. Peter Wagner, also promotes a fivefold ministry of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. They believe that the offices of apostle and prophet must be recovered. While this is purported to be taught in Ephesians 4:11, they also advocate for new revelation. John Wimber emphasized that God is bigger than his Word. “All that is in the Bible is true, but not all truth is in the Bible. We integrate all truth, both biblical and other, into our experience of living.”
While the NAR advocates a victorious eschatology, according to them the victory will come through apostles and prophets who make prayer declarations and loose the tribulation on their enemies. This theology is smuggled into churches through popular NAR music.
Their Seven Mountains Mandate is based on Isaiah 2:2 and Revelation 17:9. The seven mountains are: family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business, and government. “If Christians permeate each mountain and rise to the top of all seven mountains … society would have biblical morality, people would live in harmony, there would be peace and not war, there would be no poverty.” They see Trump as fulfilling God’s plan to place “kingdom-minded” leaders in top government positions, including Cabinet members and Supreme Court appointments.
While I agree that the kingdom of Christ should rule in every sphere, this will be accomplished through scholarship and suffering, prayer and perseverance, not through declarations and Jericho Marches. Prayer walks, Jericho Marches, and prophetic declarations may be more show than substance. Faith is obedience to God’s Word, not telling God what to do.
Before the 2016 election a group of “prophets” proclaimed Trump to be God’s chosen candidate, similar to King Cyrus in the Bible, whom God used to restore the nation of Israel. Prayer coins were even sold which had both Donald Trump and King Cyrus engraved. After their prophesies of Trump’s winning the election came true, these “prophets” became enormously popular.
Many of those “prophets” predicted another Trump victory in 2020. After November 3, many believed that the demonic forces that have stolen the election can still be defeated through prayer. Apparently the January 6, 2021 protest was, at least in part, an attempt to declare Trump the election winner. One of those who breached the Senate floor describes holding a prayer to “consecrate it to Jesus” soon after entering — since it had become the temple of Baal. In the days and hours leading up to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 the group Jericho March organized marches around the Capitol and Supreme Court building praying for God to defeat the “dark and corrupt” forces that they claimed had stolen the election from God’s anointed president, Donald Trump.
There is no evidence that anyone affiliated with the Jericho March organization took part in the Capitol breach. However, their leaders are motivated, in part, by Jonathan Cahn’s teaching. What really happened on January 6 is very much open to debate. However, when Jehu sent his men into the temple of Baal in 2 Kings 10, they were successful in eradicating Baal worship from Israel (see v 28). At this point I do not see any parallel between 2 Kings 10 and January 6, 2021. Cahn has declared that the window of opportunity to destroy the temple of Baal, which is the US Capital, ended on January 6. We are now living in the days of Baal. Yet Cahn still claims that Donald Trump plays a role in the end times.
3. Cahn claims to be a rabbi in the Hebrew Roots Movement. He is the rabbi at Beth Israel Worship Center in Wayne, NJ. When the Apostle Paul and the Jerusalem Council demonstrated the sufficiency of salvation by grace through faith, they — under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit — removed the necessity of maintaining the traditions of Jewish ceremonial practice. Gentiles need not worship in a synagogue, blow a shofar, wear a prayer shawl, call Jesus Yeshua or Yeshu, keep the Old Testament feasts and dietary laws. These props, along with a few Hebrew words thrown in, give Cahn an aura of mystery and deep knowledge, but the New Testament also rejects gnosticism.
4. Cahn utilizes a method of biblical interpretation called Kabbalah. This is ancient Jewish mysticism or occult knowledge. The word is usually translated as “tradition.” Kabbalah is a doctrine of esoteric knowledge concerning God and the universe, having come down as a revelation to the Sages from a remote past, and preserved only by a privileged few. Kabbalah is considered part of the Jewish Oral Law. Most forms of Kabbalah teach that every letter, word, number, and accent of scripture contains a hidden sense; and it teaches the methods of interpretation for ascertaining these occult meanings. These ancient mysteries are classic new age expressions which have been used for centuries by freemasonry, theosophy, and new age rabbis.
In the book of Colossians, Paul confronts a philosophy that was identified with the teachings of the Essenes. The apocalyptic tendencies of the Essenes distracted from the all-sufficiency of Christ. T. K Abbott wrote,
The teaching of the Colossian false teachers was essentially traditional and esoteric. The Essenes, their spiritual predecessors, as well as the Gnostics, subsequently claimed to possess such a source of knowledge.
According to Josephus, the Essenes required a secret oath before passing on their doctrines. So did the gnostics. The heresy which Paul addressed was a blend of Jewish and Greek elements. Yet there was one heresy, which syncretized various elements. According to N. T. Wright, since the Christians in Colosse had Christ they had all they needed. “Judaism had nothing more to offer them.” Paul declares that the church has had its own “exodus” (1:12) and is the heir to the true promised land. Paul stresses in chapters 2–3 that the church already lives in the “age to come” and therefore is under no obligation to submit to regulations which were preparation for that age. Paul opposes the worship of angels and ascetic practices. Wright argued that Paul’s attack on angel worship, asceticism, and philosophy also have a close connection with Judaism.
Therefore, Paul wrote, Do not let anyone judge you with respect to a religious festival, a new moon celebration, or a Sabbath day. This refers to the annual, monthly, and weekly days of the Jewish calendar (Gal 4:9–11; 5:1).
It is not wrong to observe special days or seasons, such as Lent or Advent, in the Christian calendar. What is wrong is when such observances are tied to the recognition of elemental spirits who supposedly direct the course of the stars and regulate the order of the calendar. It is possible that the observance of days Paul rejected was connected to astrology. Movements wanting to reinstate Jewish practices are suspect. Life in Christ does not depend on the observance of Jewish practices despite the emphasis of the Hebrew Roots Movement. In the second century Ignatius warned against such Jewish teachings.
Especially popular amongst the Essenes was the pesher method of scriptural interpretation in which “everything from the past was transformed and given a contemporary value and meaning,” especially texts taken from the prophetic books. Isaiah 9:10 and its context may contain appropriate applications for modern life at both the personal and national levels, but nine harbingers of divine judgment upon America are not embedded in Isaiah 9:10.
While Cahn uses the Kabbalist method to find hidden meaning in the numerical arrangements of the Bible, this method may be applied to almost any piece of literature and draw almost any interpretation from it. The irony is that just a few verses after Isaiah 9:10 is a warning against the prophet who teaches lies; “for those who guide this people have been leading them astray, and those who are guided by them are swallowed up.”
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