UPDATE 05/21/15
(some of this info is a duplication of my original blog, plus some responses made to readers)
For our readers, let me get one thing straight – I’m not trying to stir up a hornet’s nest by critiquing Rabbi Jonathan Cahn. I love the Jewish people, and I believe they are the apple of God’s eye. God says in His Word, “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.”
I have no problem with Rabbi Cahn warning the United Nations, the United States, and the U.S. Supreme Court (for example concerning the gay “marriage” agenda). I appreciate Rabbi Cahn confronting wicked, ungodly sinners with the need to repent. I believe we are approaching the End Times (and/or are in the End Times), and we need to stand up for the Truth and confront wickedness wherever possible. Like Rabbi Cahn I would love to confront and expose the wicked. In that regards, Rabbi Cahn and I are on the same page I think.
Some have asked why I am “attacking” Rabbi Cahn, whom they feel is a wonderful man of God. I believe there is a difference between attacking and correcting. Attacking to me means name calling, being anti-Semitic, etc. Correcting to me means speaking the truth in love (as lovingly as possible that is).
Others have wondered whether I have discussed my concerns with Rabbi Cahn privately first, confronting him face to face before posting this critical blog. As far as first confronting face to face (or by correspondence or by phone), it’s true I have not done that. But I know for a fact that others have confronted, corrected, and warned Rabbi Cahn – apparently to no avail. I do admire the discernment ministries that try to confront straying individuals privately first. But note that when the individuals refuse correction, the discernment ministries “go public”. You could say I’m repeating what larger discernment ministries have already gone public with. For me the issue has gone beyond correcting Rabbi Cahn directly. My focus now is on warning others to stay away from his ministry and not follow his teachings.
My problem with Rabbi Cahn is how he apparently puts himself on the level of a modern day prophet, like the prophets of Bible times. On this I take issue with Rabbi Cahn, as well as the so-called “prophets, priests and kings” of the New Apostolic Reformation.
Rabbi Cahn gives many so-called “mysteries” and “new revelations”, teaching things that are extrabiblical, that I find nowhere in my Bible. Check out this list of over 1,960 messages available from Rabbi Cahn. Even as of today’s writing, there are odd sounding message titles (see for example messages dated 05/01/15 and 05/03/15). Judging from the message titles, many of these messages are chalk full of strange terminology and teachings. I cannot find any such teachings by born again, biblically knowledgable, doctrinally sound Bible teachers. To me, these supposed revelations largely cancel out any meaningful warnings Rabbi Cahn might be giving to the United Nations, the United States, the U.S. Supreme Court, etc.
Our readers may wonder, why am I focusing so much on Rabbi Cahn? Because he is so influential in Christian circles. He is head of the largest Messianic congregation in America. He is a bestselling author. And, his writings are influencing the theology and eschatology of so many Christians. I am critiquing Rabbi Cahn for what I believe are heresies – just as I would critique pastors of the largest Protestant churches in America, pastors whom I also feel are heretical. Namely, Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, T.D. Jakes, etc.
I would say, Rabbi Cahn does seem to be born again. He does come across as a very nice fellow, sociable, personable, and passionate about what he believes. He is in my prayers. But again I have serious problems with his methodology. Read on…
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(blog originally published 02/05/13)
To me it’s obvious that Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn’s novel The Harbinger is heretical. Yet I’m finding a number of discernment ministries with good reputations that are sympathizing with The Harbinger if not endorsing it. So… rather than analyzing why so many born again, biblically sound men and women of God are falling for this, I’m trying another approach to hopefully wake up deceived Christians and nonchristians.
Namely, researching Jonathan Cahn himself – his life, his beliefs, etc.:
… Does he have a doctrinal statement, and what does it say? And does he really believe his own doctrinal statement, or is he just mouthing what he thinks born again Christians want to hear?
… What other books and articles has he written, and are they biblically sound?
… What sermons has he preached, and what seminars has he taught? Exactly what does he teach in his radio and television broadcasts?
… Where did he get his training, and what was he taught?
… Who were his mentors?
… What authors and books does he recommend?
… What pastors, speakers and movements does he recommend?
You get the idea.
If Cahn is a heretic (which I believe he is), his heresies should be able to be easily documented by looking at his life.
Regarding The Harbinger: I believe it is impossible for heretics to write biblically sound books. Can Richard Foster write a biblically sound book – or Eugene Peterson, Bill Johnson, Todd Bentley, Patricia King, etc. etc.? Of course not – it’s impossible! If Cahn is indeed a heretic, then The Harbinger is heretical.
Note: in this blog I am emphasizing certain points by bolding in orange, and inserting comments [in bolded orange in brackets].
First off, let’s look at a favorable biography of Cahn, found here:
Jonathan Cahn, also fondly known as “The nice Jewish boy” became involved in full-time ministry soon after his college years. From an early age Jonathan questioned his Jewish upbringing rejecting most of its teachings. Consequently he decided not to partake in the usual Bar Mitzvah ceremonies, a traditional rite of passage for young Jewish teenage boys. In seventh grade he became friends with a boy who spoke to him about Jesus, which prompted him to investigate more, searching for answers to his many questions about life and God. He came across Hal Lindsey’s popular book, The Last Great Planet Earth wherein he found evidence of his Jewish Messiah through the prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures. This seemed to be a turning point for him, but Jonathan still continued to live his life as he always did, including participating in a rock band. But one thing that did change at that time is his insistence on telling others about Jesus the Messiah─although he himself had not yet made a commitment to the Lord.
After two close calls that could easily have resulted in his death (2 accidents) Jonathan miraculously escaped without any injury and came to realize that if he was to take the Scriptures seriously he would need to make a full-commitment to the Lord, not just a mental acceptance without any lifestyle changes. At the age of 20, grateful that God had spared his life─he drove to a tranquil spot at the top of a mountain, knelt down in prayer and dedicated his life to the Lord. [Is “dedicated” the term Cahn himself uses? Is this his euphemism for repenting of sin and accepting the Messiah as his Saviour? Or did Cahn in fact not have a “crisis conversion experience”?] This marked a major turning point for him. It wasn’t long after that Jonathan was asked to teach a Bible study which led to his first ministry that mainly focused on assisting the needy, the homeless and disabled. [Helping people is okay, but it should always be secondary to evangelism/preaching the gospel/saving lost souls. Has Cahn ever had a truly soulwinning ministry?] Several years later in 1988, he was asked to lead Beth Israel, which with his leadership has grown to be the largest Messianic congregation in the U.S., consisting of both Jews and Gentiles worshiping the Messiah Jesus.
Jonathan Cahn is currently President of Hope of the World – “an end time ministry for an end time world,” and continues to act as senior pastor and Messianic rabbi for Beth Israel/ the Jerusalem Center in Wayne, New Jersey. He has an extensive radio ministry and his teachings are broadcast every day over hundreds of radio stations, some TV stations and by way of shortwave radio broadcasts that reach all around the world. [I’d like to find out when and on what channels/stations he teaches, to hear what exactly what doctrines he is teaching. This list of YouTube videos is a good start.] Jonathan and his ministry team are dedicated to sharing the gospel message. He has ministered to large groups not only here in the U.S., but also to massive audiences in India, Nigeria, Cuba, Mizoram, Honduras, Haiti and continues to reach out to other nations as well. Rabbi Cahn is married and has two children.
In January 2012 his book, The Harbinger: The Ancient Mystery That Holds the Secret of America’s Future was published and quickly became a bestseller, debuting at number 10 and number 28 respectively on the New York Times bestseller list in the print paperback category. The book is also available with an accompanying DVD set. The Harbinger published by FrontLine, an imprint of Charisma House [formerly known as the charismatic/New Apostolic Reformation “Strang Communications” – read more here] outlines a series of detailed parallels between what has happened in the United States since the 2001 terrorist attacks—including the economic collapse—and similarities in Israel’s history after it turned away from God. The author depicts his personal impressions in a fictional narrative how nine signs he identifies within recent events may signal God’s progressive judgment.
Tessie DeVore, book group executive vice president at Charisma House has stated, “It is a timely message for our nation and a rallying cry for Christians to pray for America.” No doubt she is right and the messages in The Harbinger have ignited a passion for believers who are serious about their faith─to share the Word of God and pray fervently for God’s mercy─to bring repentance and healing to a nation where so many have self-righteously dishonored and abandoned Him. [I disagree with this paragraph – I believe The Harbinger is spreading heresies more than it is bringing repentance. The book is doing far more harm than good.]
Now let’s look at another short bio, found here on Cahn’s own website. Note especially the wording of the last sentence:
Jonathan Cahn is President of Hope of the World ministries, Senior Pastor and Messianic Rabbi of the the Jerusalem Center/ Beth Israel in Wayne, New Jersey. He is also the author of the best selling book ‘The Harbinger‘. His teachings are broadcast daily over hundreds of radio stations throughout the United States and the world and on television. He ministers, as did the first Jewish messengers of the Gospel, sharing the message of Messiah to Jew and Gentile, Israel, and the nations. He has ministered before mass gatherings in India, Nigeria, Cuba, Mizoram, Honduras, Haiti, & throughout the world. His teachings are widely known for revealing the deep mysteries of God’s word and for the restoring of the new covenant message to its original biblically Jewish richness and power. [I’ve commented on a similar statement in the next paragraph below.]
And another revealing bio, found here:
Jonathan Cahn is President of Hope of the World ministries, Senior Pastor, and Rabbi of the Beth Israel Worship Center in Garfield, New Jersey. His teachings are broadcast daily over hundreds of radio stations throughout the United States and the world. He can also be seen weekly on television (“Something Different”). Descended of the line of Aaron, he has been asked to sound the Jubilee trumpet [who “asked” him to do this, and what exactly does “sounding the Jubilee trumpet” mean?] and minister among the nations, a prophetic ministry [but true prophetic ministries do not exist today – only in the ungodly, heretical minds of New Apostolic Reformation “prophets” such as Bill Johnson, Mick Bickle, John and Carol Arnott, Todd Bentley, Patricia King, etc. etc.] of and to the Jew and the Gentile in the last days. His teachings include the revealing of ancient mysteries , the depth and wonders of God’s Word, and the restoration of the Gospel message in its original Biblically Jewish context, richness, and power. [What exactly are the “ancient mysteries” Cahn is revealing? And what exactly does he mean by the “restoration” of the Gospel message? The Bible is sufficient in and of itself to tell us all we need, without having to be interpreted for us in new and revealing ways by a so-called “prophet” like Cahn.]
Some info on Cahn’s Messianic congregation, found here:
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. Helping this vision become a reality was Reverend Charlie Rizzo of the Church of the Nazarene who gave early support to the new work. [The Nazarene denomination is deeply involved in heretical Spiritual Formation/ Contemplative Spirituality and Emerging/Emergent teachings. And the Nazarenes are increasing ties with various New Apostolic Reformation groups including IHOP. Have the Nazarenes influenced Beth Israel and Jonathan Cahn with any of these beliefs?]
Beth Israel became an independent work in 1988 under the leadership, pastorship, and rabbinate of Jonathan Cahn. In this first year it grew from a congregation of about 35 people to three times that size. It soon outgrew its first home in the Paramus Church of the Nazarene, but there was no money for a building….
Beth Israel continues to grow, becoming what is believed to be the largest Messianic Congregation in the United States.
Stand Up for the Truth posted comments by Cahn on the Zohar (Kaballah) here. I’m providing his comments on the Zohar below. Note: the Stand Up for the Truth post also includes Cahn’s brief responses concerning extra-biblical revelation, Gnosticism, etc. Personally, I do not find Cahn’s answers very satisfying – it seems to me he’s just making excuses for his heretical teachings.
I’ve encountered similar excuses when I’ve questioned supposedly born again Evangelical Friends about the heretical Quaker teachings they’re reverting to – such as:
… immediate revelation
… “the Inner Light”/”that of Christ in every man”
… people of various religions going to Heaven because, in faithfully adhering to their own religion, they’re following “the Inner Light” that’s in every person (even though they’ve never heard the name of Christ)
But I digress – back to Cahn’s response regarding his quoting the Zohar, again, posted by Stand Up for the Truth here.:
Question: It is stated that Jonathan Cahn “says that Zohar, an extrabiblical, mystical source from which the occultic and mystical Kabbalah is derived, greatly influenced his writing.”
Answer: Unfortunately this kind of statements represents some of the extreme and bizarre opposition to The Harbinger – It is an extreme false accusation.
No. I have never in my life said that the Zohar has greatly influenced my writing – nor has it ever. What this accusation is taken from and twisted out of recognition from – Is that I have in some special teachings shared quotes found in the rabbinic writings which unwittingly bear witness of the truth of the Gospel – things that most Jewish people have no idea of – such as Isaiah 53 being about the Messiah, or God being Three in One, Messiah dying for our sins [Isaiah 53 in our Bible clearly describes the suffering of Jesus Christ. Why does Cahn need to appeal to occult, mystic Jewish documents like the Zohar/Kaballah to get Jewish people to listen? Isn’t reading the Bible itself sufficient for Cahn?], or a connection made between the mercy of God and the word “Golgotha.” These things can be used to share the Gospel. This has been a standard method of apologetics and evangelism for ages. Rabbinical writings, mystical or otherwise, have been quoted for ages, in Bible commentaries, apologetics, works such as The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, etc. To take this and then present it as if I or any Christian pastor or scholar is a secret follower of such things because they used a quote to bear witness of the Gospel is, as, one minister friend of mine would say – shameful at best. It should not have even appeared in print.
The apostle Paul actually quoted from a pagan hymn to Zeus in order to share the truth of the Gospel at Mars Hill. [This argument has used by many heretics to justify their quoting Catholics, Buddhists, etc.] If we were to then to accuse him of being into Zeus worship, or that pagan writings were behind the epistles, or accuse of him of being secretly pagan – I would think we would need to repent. It’s called bearing false witness.
Sorry, for me the logic does not follow. If Cahn is the born again Christian that he claims, he should condemn the ungodly, occult Zohar/Kaballah. He should not quote it, except in condemnation of its passages. Let’s look at it another way – would a born again, biblically sound Christian:
… quote from a Catholic document to evangelize Catholics because it seemed to contain some Christian thoughts?
… quote from a Mormon document to evangelize Mormons because it seemed to contain some Christian thoughts?
… quote from a Jehovah’s Witnesses document to evangelize Jehovah’s Witnesses because it seemed to contain some Christian thoughts?
… quote from a New Age document to evangelize New Agers because it seemed to contain some Christian thoughts?
… quote from a Wiccan document to evangelize Wiccans because it seemed to contain some Christian thoughts?
… quote from a Satanic document to evangelize Satanists because it seemed to contain some Christian thoughts?
I realize born again, biblically sound (in my opinion) Christians such as A.W. Tozer and even H. Orton Wiley have commended the writings of Catholic mystics. But they should not have. These and many other born again Christians set a dangerous precedent, helping pave the way for today’s contemplative Emerging/Emergents to quote Catholic mystics, etc.
And as I mentioned above, aside from his quoting the Zohar/Kaballah, why does Cahn need to “reveal ancient mysteries” to “Jews and Gentiles?” Why can’t he just preach the Bible as it is, without having to reveal various mysteries that have supposedly been hidden for centuries in its pages? I believe this is going way beyond what God’s Word says. Cahn is treading on dangerous, heretical ground here, twisting God’s Holy Word, reinterpreting passages to say things God never intended.
It would be very insightful to also locate detailed info about Cahn’s true positions on the following questions. To me it seems Cahn was quite flippant, evasive and unrepentant in responding to the questions below, in this interview:
Question: Why infer that God is giving extra-biblical revelation, when the Bible was given once and for all to the saints?
Concern: Israel is not America, and God did not make a covenant with us, nor are we the apple of His eye.
Question: Is the publisher pronouncing Rabbi Cahn a foretelling prophet?
Question: What else has the publisher put out there?
Question: Does Rabbi Cahn draw from extra-biblical, mystical writings as his sources?
Question: One critic said that since The Harbinger speaks of mysteries being revealed – does this have to do with Gnostic beliefs?
Question: It is stated that Jonathan Cahn “says that Zohar, an extrabiblical, mystical source from which the occultic and mystical Kabbalah is derived, greatly influenced his writing.” [I have attempted to expose Cahn’s true position on the Zohar/Kaballah in the paragraphs above. I’ve also reposted Berit Kjos’ much more detailed expose here – God bless you Berit!]
Question: Does The Harbinger say that Isaiah is prophesying of America?
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(Note – my blog was previously entitled Heretical “Harbinger” author Jonathan Cahn: who is he and what does he really believe?)
FOR FURTHER READING
Audio sermons by Rabbi Jonathan Cahn (full of heresies)
Christine Pack, A Commentary on The Harbinger: A Warning About The Harbinger
Ken Silva, David James’ Book “The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction?” Available
Ken Silva, Jim Bakker’s Homage to Jonathan Cahn Who Says He’s Blessed by Bakker’s Mentoring
Ken Silva, Patriotic Idolatry: “America for Jesus,” the NAR and Jonathan Cain
Ken Silva, Prophet Rabbi Jonathan Cain?
Christians United Against Apostasy 
lol!
That is the most ridiculous assessment of a person who may be inspired by God to open up a view on His scriptures, or at the very least, a person who simply loves the Lord God with his heart and might, in his own way. Has the Lord appeared to you and made you His mouthpiece? If the Lord Himself has not appeared to you, then who on earth are you to condemn Jonathan Cahn or anyone else?!
That is the problem with Christianity today- far too much merit given to the things of Babylon- God could care less where a man studied or his credentials amongst men. Those things are NOT of the spirit, regardless of what the coffers in the pews may idolise.
I am NOT a born-again christian as you may define, and of course, I could care less what anyone thinks. It is between a person and our Lord, our Saviour Jesus. I believe the Bible wholeheartedly and more- I believe the Book of Mormon (and I am not even a member of the LDS church), and plenty of other holy scriptures from various cultures that have truth in them without doubt…the list is long. Your understanding of God is confined to the 66 books that the lost folks settled on after much arguing, once Jesus’ apostles left the earth, and you have accepted that, jumping on the conveyor belt without even questioning what might have been lost along the way, and why.
Amazing that so call christians box God into a tiny little frame with man-made boundaries. Judging someone who loves the Lord in their own way as a ‘heretic’?! Who gave YOU that authority?! An angel?? Jesus Himself face to face with you??! Jesus was the greatest ‘heretic’ of all time, according to those that adhered to your ‘categories’ for criticism I have pasted below which read like something the Pharisees would have concocted in their appraisal of Jesus and His disciples:
‘… Does he have a doctrinal statement, and what does it say? And does he really believe his own doctrinal statement, or is he just mouthing what he thinks born again Christians want to hear?
… What other books and articles has he written, and are they biblically sound?
… What sermons has he preached, and what seminars has he taught? Exactly what does he teach in his radio and television broadcasts?
… Where did he get his training, and what was he taught?
… Who were his mentors?
… What authors and books does he recommend?
… What pastors, speakers and movements does he recommend?’
My goodness! The Lord looketh upon a man’s heart…what is with us fellow beings so obsessed with the mote in each other’s eye?!
Flesh cannot comprehend spirit. Only spirit can comprehend spirit. And truth is spirit. Therefore, truth can only be comprehended by spirit. Not flesh, nor fleshly things.
Get off that high horse. I’ve been knocked off mine many times by the Lord, and it will continue to happen…to all of us.
Go ahead, publish this
Fusion
Fusion, I’m posting your comments primarily to give others a chance to reply.
I, too, want to respond to several of your points:
1) You wrote “I am NOT a born-again christian as you may define”. In that case, I hope and pray that you become a born again Christian, having a “crisis conversion experience” (repenting of sin/believing on Christ/ getting saved/accepting Christ).
This may sound narrow minded, but the fact is those who are not born again cannot totally, truly understand the Truths of God’s Word (the 66 books of the Canon). This is logical from the world’s point of view as well – only born again Christians can truly understand born again Christian writings, just as only Buddhists can truly understand Buddhist writings, only Hindus can truly understand Hindu writings, etc.
Also, only those who are born again can truly discern biblical Truth from false teachings. (And even then, in these End Times, many born again Christians are becoming increasingly unable to discern Truth from error.)
2) You wrote, “I believe the Bible wholeheartedly and more- I believe the Book of Mormon (and I am not even a member of the LDS church), and plenty of other holy scriptures from various cultures that have truth in them without doubt…the list is long.” Sorry, unlike other “holy scriptures” the Bible (the 66 books of the Canon) is absolute Truth, from cover to cover. And – it is incompatible with the writings of “other holy scriptures from various cultures”.
To me, believing the Bible “wholeheartedly” as you put it means believing every single thing in the Bible, which means you would have to not believe a number of teachings in the “holy scriptures” of other religions. Tell me where I’m wrong.
Regarding the “holy scriptures” of various religions, only the Bible has a central figure (our Lord Jesus Christ) who has risen from the dead. The leaders of all other religions (Mohammed, the Buddha, etc.) are dead, their bodies in the grave, damned to Hell/eternal torment for rejecting the gospel message of salvation through Christ.
There are a number of books written on born again Christian apologetics, that hopefully will convince you of my Christian views above. Here are several:
1) Resources by Lee Strobel (formerly an atheist): http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=lee%20strobel&sprefix=lee+s%2Caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Alee%20strobel
2) Resources by Josh McDowell: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=josh+mcdowell&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Ajosh+mcdowell
A caveat: I don’t agree with all of the doctrines held by Strobel or McDowell. But as far as Christian apologetics, they are pretty good.
I am NOT a born-again christian as you may define, and of course, I could care less what anyone thinks. It is between a person and our Lord, our Saviour Jesus. I believe the Book of Mormon (and I am not even a member of the LDS church), and plenty of other holy scriptures from various cultures that have truth in them”
36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. 37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
Matthew 12 King James Bible
Thanks for the comment, BrotherF. I hope you don’t mind my asking: for the sake of an ongoing good discussion, I am curious exactly what your view of salvation is, i.e. how a person becomes “saved”. I see some clues so to speak in this statement of yours: “I am NOT a born-again christian as you may define, and of course, I could care less what anyone thinks. It is between a person and our Lord, our Saviour Jesus.”
It sounds to me like you believe in some type of “Christian universalism”. Namely, since the Bible says “Christ died for ALL men”, every human being will make it to Heaven no matter what their religion or worldview. Am I close? I am familiar with this worldview in my own heritage, the Quakers. Most branches of the Quakers (excluding my branch the Gurneyite Quakers) taught that the Inner Light of Christ already dwells in every man. “Quaker universalism” is a form of Christian universalism; I’ve posted a few blogs about Quaker universalism.
Regarding your quote at the end about judging, I know the passage is often quoted to born again Christians. I’m not sure how to respond. Inherent in the born again Christian worldview are quotes from Jesus like the following:
“18) He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19) And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:18-19)
According to the above passage, all humankind will not go to Heaven because of Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary. On the contrary, all individuals who reject Jesus Christ specifically will be condemned (to the Lake of Fire for eternity according to Rev. 20:15). In fact, only a small portion of humankind will make it to Heaven (see Matt. 7:14).
For born again Christian pastors, missionaries, etc. there is no way around passages which “condemn” unbelievers. To present the message of born again Christianity, we have to present a message which says that only “born again” Christianity leads to Heaven. I don’t believe Matt. 12:36-37, which you quoted above, can be used to contradict the “condemning” passages, since all the quotes are from Jesus Himself. (The only way around this would be to say that the “condemning” passages were added later – that Jesus did not really say these. But I believe every word in my Bible is the true, accurate Word of God.)
See also this article, which summarizes my view of Jesus as “the narrow way”: http://www.gotquestions.org/narrow-gate.html
BTW, I must say I like your blogs – many good articles about our current fragile, unstable financial situation. To me, our world’s financial situation is what I consider another sign of the End Times.
God bless you – Dave
A number of things said in the Harbinger are true. The politicians did use the verses from Isaiah and I’m sure most of the hearers were unaware those things were said in defiance of God.
I believe the features he speaks of like the sycamore tree etc are warnings that God is going to take away military and economic world leadership from the US.
Jonathan is not prophesying – he’s simply pointing to signs (the sycamore tree and the representative of the US quoting the Isaiah scripture that was said in defiance of God, the Pine tree and the stone replacements) that I believe is from God.
With a prophet you don’t have to read between the lines.
Where I see him err is talking about national repentance. There’s nothing national to turn to. The “leaders” of this country are clearly misleaders. My conclusion is this country is finished as a world leader. All the many psychotics are not going to be heard for their many words. The Church in this country has nothing to turn back to as most of it has been a harlot from the start and that includes in my opinion Jonathan’s little social club tht wants to give people all the good feelings of salvation without the commitment Christ and the disciples had to God and one another.
Thanks for the comments Douglas – I agree with a lot of what you’ve said. God bless you.
I have never read how a born again Christian Evangelical can parse words as you have here to destroy their meanings as though you had the ability to see into their hearts as God does, when you trash Jonathan Cahn’s personal testimony about how he came to faith in the Messiah, and then the rest of your article degenerates from there.
You begin with the false premise that Jonathan Cahn is a heretic. Do you know what the meaning of this word is? And if you do, why do you use against another Christian with whom you disagree with to impute upon that person the stigma of being some type of “false prophet” or “false teacher” without either having met that person, spoken to them, read their material, or heard them preach.
I have, and I know this man personally, and have known him for over ten years, and serve as biblical instructor at the Arise and Shine Academy at Beth Israel’s Jerusalem Center. I have written a book titled, The Truth About The Harbinger. I recommend you read it.
I would also exhort stronly in Christ to seek the Lord about what you have written here, and examine your heart in this. It is slander, it is libelous, and it is unbiblical, because you have not adressed the matter as the Scriptures instruct us to.
Glad to meet you, Jose. BTW, I’m not attacking Jonathan Cain personally – I assume he’s a very friendly, sociable fellow, likeable by many. What I’m opposed to, is his doctrinal teachings. For one, I believe he takes way too many liberties in “revealing mysteries.” I believe God tells us clearly in His word what we are to believe, without us needing to have further “mysteries” revealed to us. This strikes me as being dangerously close to the “revealing of mysteries” vibe of the Kabbalah.
Also, I would mention – there are a number of Christian discernment ministries who are critiquing Rabbi Cain’s teachings as heretical. I.e. I’m not the only one concerned about Rabbi Cain’s teachings. But I’m sure you already know that.
A number of questions in my blog remain unanswered. Perhaps you – or some of my other readers – can shed some light on these.
Thank you again for your feedback. I will gladly recant my statements, if it can be shown to me that Rabbi Cain does not have heretical teachings. So far I am still not convinced – especially since so many questions are going unanswered… God bless you – Dave
Kabbalah, Cahn, and Hebrew Mysticism
BY David James
Apr 1 2013
Excerpted from The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction?
Jonathan Cahn has over 1,700 of his messages available through the Hope of the World website. The descriptions of many of these messages are quite revealing about his approach to handling the Word of God-which appears to be mystical at its core:
1. MESSIAH’S CATACLYSM & THE HIDDEN WRITINGS OF 30 A.D. ( The amazing signs contained in the hidden writings of the rabbis that happened c. 30 A.D. . . . )
2. THE COSMIC TSULAV & THE MYSTERY OF PURIM ( The deep mystery at the center of Purim, and the center of the existence itself, the mystery hidden in the Sistine Chapel, Dante’s Inferno, Josephus, the Septuagint, and in the ancient Biblical account – the mystery of the Tsulav, the Cross, the Xulon. )
3. THE SWORD OF AMALEK & THE MYSTERY OF PURIM ( From the day of the Red Sea, Pharaoh’s chariots and Amalek, to the Third Reich, Joseph Stalin, Saddam Hussein, and the nuclear sabers of Iran, the amazing mystery of Amalek, the hand of God, and what it has to do with your life. )
4. THE PRODIGAL SON REVELATION! ( The most universal and personal of Messiah’s parables also contains a mystery behind the present age, the Jew, the Gentile, Israel, the Church, and the last days. )
5. THE MESSIAH BEARER! ( From the deep and mystery filled Book of Hebrews, the mystery of the Messiah Bearer-what it means for your life. )
6. THE MYSTERY OF THE COSMIC FRINGE ( The Kraspedon Mysteries come to their conclusion-The mystery of Messiah’s sacred garment and the mystery of its fringe and a hint: It has everything to do with you. )
7. THE NISAN GOSPEL MYSTERY ( All the events of our salvation happened in one single time period – the Biblical month of Nisan – Discover the mystery of Nisan, of your salvation, & the powers you have for breakthrough. )
8. THE COSMIC KEYCHAIN ( As real as a keychain has many keys to unlock…a house – there is a supernatural keychain with supernatural power to unlock the closed doors of your life. )
9. THE COSMIC KEYCHAIN II ( Messiah has given you a keychain with specific powers of breakthrough – learn how to use the keys & it will change your life. )
10. ENTERING YOUR PROPHETIC DESTINY! ( One of the most important and very awesome principles operating in your life – and how to walk into your prophetic destiny…! )
In the last chapter of [ The Harbinger ], Kaplan explains to Goren how he figured out the meaning of his personal clay seal…. Between the last sentence in the quote below and what can be seen from the titles above, the real mystery of The Harbinger may be that its foundation is actually Jewish mysticism:
[Kaplan] “The writing on the seal was in a language I had never seen before. But I remembered the words of The Prophet that day we first met on the bench, when he took the seal to examine it. He said it was Hebrew, but a different form of Hebrew-Paleo-Hebrew, an older version.”
[Goren] “And did you know anybody who could read Paleo-Hebrew?”
[Kaplan] “No. But I knew someone who studied Hebrew from biblical and rabbinical writings. I looked up the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, then transcribed each of the letters into its modern Hebrew equivalent. Then I made a trip to Brooklyn. That’s where my friend was, an Orthodox Jewish man who ran a little bookstore, in back of which was a study, a library of all sorts of mystical Hebrew writings. That was his passion-finding meaning in mystical Hebrew literature.”
The introduction of Jewish mystical writings into the storyline of The Harbinger is very problematic, and one has to wonder why Cahn would have done this.
Mysticism and mystical experiences have been a part of Judaism since the earliest days. . . . The mystical school of thought came to be known as Kabbalah, from the Hebrew root Qof-Beit-Lamed, meaning “to receive, to accept.” The word is usually translated as “tradition.”
“Kabbalah” is a doctrine of esoteric knowledge concerning God and the universe, asserted to have 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. It is the traditional mystical understanding of the Torah…. Kabbalah includes the understanding of the spiritual spheres in creation, and the rules and ways by which God administers the existence of the Universe.
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.
That Cahn would include this reference to Jewish mysticism in the book is not necessarily an anomaly. Cahn gave a message at his church that also included detailed references to mystical writings, titled “Gulgatah: The Cosmic Skull: The Rabbinic Mysteries V.”
A segment from near the end of this message was uploaded to YouTube on February 25, 2010, titled “The Zohar Speaks.” The following description accompanies the video: “Something never before revealed , to the glory of Messiah! The Cosmic Skull, the mercy of God, and the hidden and mystical writings of the Rabbis that point to Messiah.” The description coincides exactly with the overall trajectory of Cahn’s messages, and that of The Harbinger , which is to reveal to the world mysteries that have been hidden until he discovers and proclaims them.
The Judaism 101 website notes the following:
In the middle ages, many of these mystical teachings were committed to writing in books like the Zohar. Many of these writings were asserted to be secret ancient writings or compilations of secret ancient writings.
Even though he introduces the Zohar as a “hostile witness,” the way Cahn describes its teachings gives the impression that he views the Zohar as being a credible source of truth:
Incredible thing. Blew me away. I found it in the mystical Jewish writings of the Zohar. Something I never heard mentioned anywhere, ever. . . . The Zohar speaks, the rabbis are writing of the redemption of the world with Messiah’s coming. They speak of life from the dead. They speak of resurrection, the redemption of the world. . . .They say it all will come, the power of all this, the miracle of all this will come from a sacred thing, a sacred place. And this place, this thing, is where all the mercy of God is stored. All the mercy of God pours out from this place, this thing. What is it? Very strange. They call it the “gulgatah.” This holy, mystical thing. . . .The most famous scene in human history, the center of salvation. Messiah dying on that hill which appears as a skull. That’s why they called it “gulgatah”-Golgatha. And which signifies God’s mercy. All His mercy. Why on earth would the rabbis put it there? Makes no sense at all-except that God just puts it in.
“God just puts it in.” In other words, God inspired the rabbis to write about redemption coming from a skull , yet they had no idea what it meant. So, in this message Cahn presents concepts that are reflected in The Harbinger . The first is that Isaiah:9:10 contains a mystery that no one has seen before-Cahn has discovered it for the very first time-just as he has discovered this inspired message in the ancient rabbinic writings. The second is that Tom Daschle was inspired by God to proclaim America’s defiance and thus set up the nation for judgment-even though he didn’t know what he was doing-just as is true of the ancient rabbis.
As Cahn continues his exposition of the Zohar, the mystical nature of his thinking becomes even more clear. And once again he notes that perhaps no one has ever said the words he has just uttered:
In the gulgatah-Golgotha-sit thousands of myriads of worlds. And from the gulgatah-Golgotha-drips dew and fills . . . the dew fills the world and the dead will awaken in the world to come as the dew comes forth. The dew is the light of the ancient one. The light of the ancient one comes from Golgotha and as it touches-the dead ones come to life. From Golgotha is the light of God bringing life from the dead. Golgotha-the radiance of God which brings life. Whoa! That’s amazing stuff. And that may be the first time it’s ever been said. ‘Cause you have to be a believer and you have to be in that stuff.
What stuff? Ancient mystical writings . Even more telling, Cahn confidently elevates the rabbis to the level of Moses and Daniel:
The death of Messiah-all pinpointed in time and space. Moses zeroed in on the day. Passover. He dies on the day that the lamb is killed. The prophets-Daniel zeroes in on the time period, mathematically, before 70 A.D. Daniel-those seventy sevens. The rabbis in the book of Moed, unwittingly, and another thing we shared this [ sic ], zeroed in on the year by saying that the cosmic change all took place in the year 30 A.D. . . . And now the very hill, the very place, here in, of all places, the rabbinical writings, the Zohar. . . . you want mercy, you go there. Listen to the rabbis on this point. . . .
How can a pastor instruct his congregation to “listen to the rabbis” who produced the Zohar and tell them these rabbis were inspired by God? The Zohar is not simply an innocuous source of information-it is an extrabiblical guide to “higher spirituality.” It is mystical. It is occultic.
The Zohar cannot be understood and felt directly, but requires preconception of spirituality, before one approaches the book. The greatest Kabbalist of our time-Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam)-wrote introductions to The Zohar precisely to guide one’s approach to this profound book….
Such articles cultivate one’s spiritual qualities to perceive the Higher reality. Additionally, these texts provide knowledge of how to approach certain terms, phrases, and concepts in The Zohar, to maximize its use as a guide for spiritual attainment, avoiding being lost in materialized depictions that the human mind is prone to form.
Cahn [has since] tried to justify his practice by noting that the Apostle Paul also referred to the teaching of pagan philosophers in his address to the Athenians (Acts:17:22-31
). He went on to suggest that Paul would have been “crucified” by discernment ministries for using a hymn to Zeus, and because of his associations.
That is a red herring…. Paul’s approach is nothing like Cahn’s. Cahn refers to the mystical rabbinical writings positively , saying that because God had inspired them his church should “listen to the rabbis.” He presents the Zohar as something that can be studied and its depths plumbed for hidden mysteries like he has just revealed.
In stark contrast, Paul immediately tells his audience that what they have been taught by their poets about the unknown god…is completely wrong . He does not suggest that their sayings contain hidden mysteries that were inspired by God…. Paul never implies that the Athenians should listen to these men. Rather he refers to a single point of agreement (we all come from God) to denounce their idols. From Romans we understand that the knowledge of that truth is not a hidden mystery, but has rather been made plain to everyone through both the conscience and the Creation (Romans:1:18-2:16).
Unfortunately, this treatment of the rabbinic material is consistent with Cahn’s frequent practice of “discovering and revealing” hidden mysteries-be it in the Bible or in extrabiblical Jewish writings like the Talmud or even in kabbalistic writings like the Zohar.
Have untold numbers of Christians unwittingly accepted mystical Jewish thought? And after having done so, how many pastors, teachers, and other ministry leaders have preached messages connected to the claims of The Harbinger and have publicly endorsed, promoted, and defended the book and Jonathan Cahn? How many have shared this book and the documentary with unbelieving family and friends? How many millions of dollars have gone into keeping The Harbinger on so many best-seller lists?
Something seems to be very wrong….
MY PERSONAL COMMENTS:
Paul in Galatians 1:8 exhorts the Body of Christ as follows: “NOW EVEN IF WE OR AN ANGEL FROM HEAVEN SHOULD DECLARE TO YOU ANOTHER GOSPEL OUTSIDE OF WHAT WE HAVE DECLARED TO YOU, HE WILL BE CURSED”.
If the body of Christ is ready to EMBRACE ANOTHER GOSPEL CORRUPTED WITH JEWISH MYSTICISM, THEY CAN HAVE IT. After spending more than 7 years at Beth Israel, I have no doubt that the MESSIANIC JEWISH MOVEMENT are involved with DOCTRINES & RELIGIOUS PRACTICES that are INCONSISTENT with God’s Word and are CONTRARY to HIS WILL FOR THE BODY OF CHRIST. Any entity that believes in Yeshua(JESUS), that uses the term, `Judaism’ will grow into a Judaism of sorts. And that’s exactly what we have seen in the last 50 years of Messianic Judaism. It’s one part Orthodox Judaism, one part Kabbalah, one part Talmud, one part Church, and four parts corrupted.
Log onto the following link: http://jesus-messiah.com and read the article “DANGERS OF THE FALSE MESSIANIC MOVEMENT by Dr. G. RECKART- PASTOR. Also read: GOODBYE MESSIANIC JUDAISM BY AVRAM YEHOSHUA @ http://www.SEEDOFABRAHAM.NET.
What you need to know about these occultic writings:
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was the author of the Zohar. He was one of the great Talmudic scholars of the ORAL LAW of the second century A.D. The Roman Emperor of that time placed a contract on the head of Rabbi Yochai. Fearing for his life, Rabbi Yochai & his son Rabbi Elazar took refuge in a cage in Pequi’in, Israel. There for 13 years father & son buried themselves everyday in the ground up to their necks in an effort to subjugate the distractions of the human body. It was during this time that they SUPPOSEDLY recieved instructions in the deepest mysteries of the Torah from Prophet Elijah(YEAH RIGHT). These teachings would later become the foundations of the Zohar.
Also be advised, that Rabbi Simeon bar Yochai ENDORSED the practice of PEDERASTY as recorded in The Babylonian Talmud to his followers!
For INDISPUTABLE EVIDENCE to the above statements please go to YOU TUBE and watch the following documentaries:
1) DECODING THE PAST-SECRETS OF THE KABBALAH by the History Channel 2009 45 mins
2) ZIONISM & CHRISTIANITY, AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE by Ted Pike 1hr & 35 min
3)ISRAELI TERRORISM AND THE TALMUD 7 MINS & 15 seconds
4) KABBALAH TALMUD ZIONISM PERVERSE PERPETUATED EVIL IMF NWO PARTS 1-3
Also the teaching “THE ZOHAR SPEAKS” by Jonathan Cahn is based on OCCULTIC DOCTRINE. It’s ORIGINS are from the
KABBALAH/ZOHAR. It is being widely taught by KABBALIST in their KABBALISTIC CENTERS. For INDISPUTABLE EVIDENCE log onto YOU TUBE & on the search bar type: GOLGOTHA & JESUS by BILLY PHILLIPS 23 mins & 48 seconds. Also on You Tube in the search bar type: Zohar-Golgotah by Jonathan Cahn 3mins & 8 seconds to see the correlation with what is being taught in KABBALISTIC CENTERS.
Whether Mr. Bernal or Mr. Cahn choose to admit it or not, any professing christian that is consulting with rabbinical sources as listed above, in search for a so called “PURER” understanding of the Old Testament in the name of apologetics as they previously have claimed, is consulting with the occult! Christians who engage in such religious practices for the purpose of seeking support from rabbinical exegesis, are trafficking in Babylonian Paganism/the occult when they defer to the Rabbis of Orthodox Judaism. THEY ARE IN ESSENCE IMPORTING JEWISH GNOSTICISM INTO THE BODY OF CHRIST.
Thank you for the excerpt, Rafael. David James has done a great job of discussing Rabbi Cahn, IMHO. God bless you – Dave
There are mysteries in the NT but they can be understood with the Bible alone. Once in awhile I hear interesting stuff from Rabbis expounding on the Bible. When I read Kabbalah I find it to have pretty strong error and mostly error and out of a whole book only found about 3 pages that were interesting because they took apart certain words in the Bible and explained them. I teach Torah to the Rabbis and rarely the other way around. I do find that many of the things Jesus/Yeshua said to the Pharisees was in their form of debate and not OT. He used King parables and rabbinical phrases like “think not that I come to destroy the law” …
Good points, Douglas. God bless you – Dave
Dave,
I have a good example of a Bible mystery. It’s been in the Bible, the most read book in the world for almost 2,000 years, and no one writes about it or notices it. It’s implications are far reaching. It only takes a couple of minutes to read and I made a website for it – http://www.backwardwalk.com/
Ignore the Home page cause I never completed that. Everything is in the About and Backward Walk page if you care to see it.
I also discovered many other things but the backward walk is very powerful.
Interesting, Douglas – I never noticed the backward walk before. I do know there are many types or foreshadowings of Christ’s life in the OT. One that always strikes me is when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. Note that Isaac carried the wood to the altar, where he was going to be sacrificed. This strikes me as a type or foreshadowing of Jesus carrying wood (His cross) to Calvary, His place of sacrifice.
Also in the NT, I find it interesting that Joseph was a carpenter, and Jesus worked with wood in his earthly father’s carpenter’s shop. I wonder if they were ever forced by the Romans to build crosses. Just a thought. Surely Jesus knew how He was going to die (on a cross).
God bless you – Dave
Your welcome Dave & God Bless You.
Rafael, I received your comment and am reposting part of it here. I am reading and researching the rest offline, possibly to post or quote later. In this blog, I’m trying not to get too far off the topic of discussing Rabbi Cahn himself. God bless you – Dave
To all our readers, below are excerpts from Rafael’s comment:
Jose Bernal made the following statement with regards to the Jewish Babylonian Talmud and I quote:
“The only thing that I would use the Zohar for and the Talmud would be for the same use that eminent Messianic Jews such as Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Dr. Michael Rygelnik, Dr. Michael Brown, Dr. Mitch Glazer, and many more, such as Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn would use such works for; to affirm from them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is called in Apologetics “the fair use of a hostile witness” to affirm a specific matter”.
I stand by what I wrote. Neither I, or any of the learned men whose name I listed above, would ever use these writings for anything other than strictly Apologetics purposes in support of the Gospel, to show that the ancient rabbis interpreted the Hebrew Bible “Messianically.
THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD CAN BE USED TO AFFIRM THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST???
THE UNDERLYING TRUTH BEHIND THE JEWISH BABYLONIAN TALMUD’S PERVERTED DOCTRINES:
[Rafael then provides documentation of this]
And Jose Bernal claims that these writings can be used strictly for Apologetics purposes in support of the Gospel, to show that the ancient rabbis interpreted the Hebrew Bible “Messianically????
[Rafael then provides links for further research – I am checking these out offline]
This Vitriolic And Biased Attack On Jonathan Cahn Smacks Of Jealousy.
Thank God For Brilliant Jewish People Who Have Come To Know Christ As Messiah, And Who, Because Of Their Deeper Knowledge Of Bible Times, Jewish
History, Language Etc.can Shed Further Light On The Scriptures For Us.
I Know That I Have Been Truly Blessed By The Teachings Of The Gifted Jonathan Cahn. Elisabeth Cotter.
Elisabeth, don’t get me wrong. I don’t harbor hatred towards Rabbi Cahn. I’ve never met the man – perhaps he is indeed born again and striving to be biblically sound. But I do question his extra-biblical teachings (teachings not specifically stated in the 66 books of my Bible). I think all too often he pushes the boundaries of reasonable biblical interpretation, presenting mere speculations as actually being biblically sound. I think numerous examples have already been given in previous comments. If you want specifics, I’ll be glad to post some examples here.
God bless you – Dave
Elisabeth, I just posted your previous comment and responded there.
As far as my referencing Abraham taking a willing Isaac to the altar, and Isaac carrying wood there just as our willing Christ carried wood (His cross) to Calvary: I don’t think this is beyond the bounds of reasonable biblical interpretation. This example is an acceptable biblical concept, namely, as I stated there, a type or foreshadowing.
I would also point out that the above is mere speculation on my part, since I have never heard anyone else express this as a type or foreshadowing. I would not state dogmatically that this expresses the new revealing of some profound biblical mystery, as Rabbi Cahn seems to so often state. Would you admit that he often expresses his teachings in this manner? Sorry, but I believe such a presentation of “mystery” teachings or interpretations is wrong, wrong, wrong. And… they go way beyond types and foreshadowings.
Tell me where I’m wrong, if you wish.
God bless you – Dave
Respectfully, I understand Jonathan’s thrust with some of the writings from the Zohar, as I have approached some apologetics with Jewish arguments against Isaiah 53 being about the Messiah as suffering servant, with some of the same.
But we understand that this is basically to get the attention of those who are using Jewish arguments against this interpretation. And unless you are fully familiar about how we address certain Jewish POV, my suggestion would be to study up on it and consider this as a Jewish argument.
And I don’t know where Jonathan came from so I’m not necessarily speaking in his defense.
Shalom Shalom,
Eli
I can understand that – using the old rabbis to refute modern Jews who just try to oppose Christianity by reinterpreting it however it fits them when the learned rabbis of old did not interpret it that way.
David,
Also note that when Jesus was on the cross he said – “My God… why have you forsaken me” but a Hebrew scholar friend of mine said it can actually be translated with a deeper meaning – “My God,… why have you entangled me” – Christ wearing the crown of thorns being the substitute ram whose horn was tangled in the thorns when Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac.
Interesting, Douglas. Yes, the event of Abraham and Isaac and the ram was a type or foreshadowing of the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary. It seems to me there are several other “foreshadowing” aspects of this event:
Isaac carried his own wood to the altar, as Christ would carry His own cross (at least partway) to Calvary
Isaac willingly went to the altar to be sacrificed when his father asked him to, as Christ willingly went to fulfill the will of the Father (in Gethsemane He prayed, “not My will but Thine be done”)
God bless you – Dave
From the back cover of the Harbinger paragraph 2….”THESE SAME NINE HARBINGERS ARE NOW MANIFESTING IN AMERICA WITH PROFOUND RAMIFICATIONS FOR AMERICA’S FUTURE AND END TIME PROPHECY”(ESCHATOLOGY).
A quotation from The Harbinger page 129 the Prophet to Nouriel:
“It all goes back to the PROPHECY….EVERYTHING-the collapse of Wall St, the rise and fall of the credit market, the war in Iraq, the collapse of the housing market, the foreclosures, the defaults, the bankruptcies, the government takeovers, EVERYTHING- politics, foreign policy world history-EVERYTHING that happened after. It ALL GOES BACK TO THE PROPHECY AND TO THE ANCIENT MYSTERY”.
Jonathan Cahn in his book claims that Isaiah 9:10 FORETOLD PROPHETICALLY ALL THE EVENTS FROM SEPT 11TH 2001-SEPT 2008 INCLUDING GLOBAL EVENTS? REALLY?
A wise man once said “There are 3 sides to a story. There is your side, my side and then there is the right side”. Of all the articles and book reviews I have read surrounding Jonathan Cahn’s book The Harbinger, no one has done it better than Dave James to reveal the right side and the truth contained in his book “The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction. With the expertise of an investigator and a legal counselor, Mr. James cuts through all the smoke screen and mirrors, presenting historical, theological, and surprisingly scientific evidence, to reveal the deception
behind one of the biggest HOAXES unleashed across America since a certain individual from Family Radio Stations predicted the end of the world by May 2011! His shocking evidence demands a verdict.
He reveals the emergence of many RELIGIOUS VISIONARIES who today are writing books, videos, cds etc to mislead the body of Christ with heresies. As he puts it in his book, the Harbinger is a radical departure from sound biblical hermenuetics. He also reveals how the Zohar, the classical jewish mystical text of the Kabbalist and the Jewish Talmud have had a direct influence on several of Jonathan Cahn’s teachings and sermons. Mr. James exposes how both biblical and historical events were manipulated in order to devise all 9 harbingers with the purpose to create an ELABORATE FABRICATION of a so called ancient mystery that holds the secret to America’s future from Isaiah 9:10. As you read and progress from one chapter to the next, you will be left speechless at the mounting evidence presented by Dave James against Jonathan Cahn.
Dave James presents overwhelming evidence to refute Jonathan Cahn’s claims about these 9 Harbingers under the following chapters:
Chapter 10: The Ancient Mystery: the nine harbingers
Chapter 14:The Shemitah
Chapter 17: The Tenth Seal-exposes Jonathan Cahn’s jewish mystical theology
THE HARBINGER’S 10 FATAL FLAWS
1. Hedge of protection removed/breach: pure speculation-we don’t know if there is or ever has been a hedge of protection. 9/11 was not the first attack on U.S. soil, it was not a military breach, and it did not weaken America’s defenses in any way.
2. The terrorist: The Assyrians were hardly the first one to use terror tactics-it is just a way to instill fear. The 9/11 hijackers were not Assyrians (which is still an ethnic group that is mostly Christian). In the Harbinger page 40 Mr. Cahn CLEARLY IMPLIES that the Ancient Assyrians were the BLOODLINE ANCESTORS of the 19 hijackers! What a blunder. THE ORIGINS OF THE 19 HIJACKERS ARE AS FOLLOWS: 15 FROM SAUDI ARABIA, 2 FROM UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, 1 FROM EGYPT, & 1 FROM LEBANON(cf with wikipedia.com).
3. The fallen bricks: in Israel, fallen bricks meant the nation was leveled by the attacks. On 9/11 there were just a few square blocks of one city. In Israel, most buildings were made of bricks, while in America bricks were only incidental with no significance.
4. The tower: Completely manufactured only using the Septuagint translation, not the Hebrew(MASORETIC TEXT). If one uses the Septuagint then both the sycamore and cedar harbingers disappear. HISTORICAL FACTS REVEAL THE SEPTUAGINT VERSION IS NOT A UNIFORM AND CONSISTENT TRANSLATION. It was done by many different hands whose skills, and even philosophy of translating varied considerably. These transmission errors found in the Septuagint include the addition of words to create longer versions of some texts, most notably parts of the book of Jeremiah, and other variants that were the result of misunderstanding or misinterpreting a Hebrew word or phrase.
5. THE GAZIT STONE: Israel rebuilt using gazit (which is just quarried stone), didn’t just lay a gazit cornerstone-they replaced the bricks. In America there was only a single cut cornerstone that ended up not even being used at all.
The buildings in Israel were constructed of bricks and easily destroyed when the Assyrians attacked. Israel would rebuild with much stronger quarried stone (gazit). When the tower was to be rebuilt at Ground Zero, a single quarried stone was to be placed as a cornerstone–but even that was later moved and never became a part of the new structure.
6. The sycamore: The sycamore of Israel (fig-mulberry) and that in America are two completely different kinds of trees. In Israel these fig-mulberry trees were cut down by the Assyrians all across the country. In America a single tree (that was not a fig-mulberry) just fell because of the falling buildings.
This is yet another forced parallel that does not withstand closer examination. First, the sycamore (fig-mulberry) of ancient Israel and the American sycamore are two completely different trees that are unrelated in any way. They are not the same species ( Ficus sycomorus vs. Platanus occidentalis ) . They are not in the same genus ( Ficus vs. Plantanus ), nor even in the same family ( Moraceae vs. Platanaceae ). In spite of this, the author tries to make the connection on a linguistic basis. . . .
The tree in Israel is a fruit-bearing tree, with the English translation ultimately coming from the Greek for “fig-mulberry” which is sycomoros . However, this tree is shaqam in Hebrew. So it is not legitimate to claim that this tree was a “sycamore” to the ancient Israelites, who lived long before the influence of the Greek Empire. It was a fig-mulberry–it was a shaqam to them.
In contrast, the American sycamore, as stated before, is not botanically related in any way to the fig-mulberry. There is no semantic connection. Of course, both trees carry the same name–but this is true only for English-speakers , not for Hebrew-speakers.
7. The erez: The cedar of Lebanon in Israel, but a Norway spruce in America-two completely different kinds of trees. In Israel, cedars were much stronger and much more valuable trees to be used in many different ways. But in America a single symbolic tree, that is not necessarily stronger than the tree it replaced.
Cahn’s reasoning reveals that he is depending on the taxonomic classification system to make his case. The taxonomic system is based on a hierarchy of seven ranks for classifying all living things on earth.
The first problem with appealing to this classification system is that it is based exclusively on evolutionary theory. In addition, as evolutionary theory evolves, so does the classification system itself, and it can change significantly over time. . . .
The Norway spruce planted at Ground Zero is biblically a different kind of tree than the cedars of Lebanon in Isaiah:9:10. Although the Bible is not a scientific textbook, it is accurate in those matters of science about which it speaks. Consequently, based on the authority of the Word of God there is no amazing coincidence. There is no match. There is no parallel. And there is no harbinger.
8. The utterance: In Israel there was a defiant spirit directed toward the Assyrians and God, ignoring God’s direct warnings by the prophets he had sent over and over to his chosen people. In America there was no intentional, prideful, arrogant defiance of God.
9. The vow: In neither case was the statement “we will rebuild” a biblical vow, it was just a statement. Beyond that, how many ways can someone say “we will rebuild?” And how many Bible verses talk about rebuilding? It is no big coincidence that Isaiah 9:10 was used (although wrongly) because what other verses could be used if someone wanted to give hope from the Bible concerning an attack that destroyed buildings? It is not like they just picked one out of 30,000 verses as Cahn says-it is basically one out of one. There is no mystery in that.
10. The Shemitah: This was only for Israel and God wiped out the country after they failed to observe the Sabbath year for almost 500 years. America is not obligated to this and what has happened in America is not the tiniest fraction of what happened to Israel. It is not even remotely close, this is most half of the book, but it is elaborately manufactured out of nothing. The Shemitah/Sabbatical Years was STRICTLY GIVEN TO THE NATION OF ISRAEL UNDER THE MOSAIC COVENANT AND TO NO OTHER NATION IN HUMAN HISTORY. In the Harbinger page 159 Jonathan Cahn claims that the Shemitah was given to America as a sign. NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH! There is absolutely no SCRIPTURAL BASIS from Genesis to Revelation which he fails to provide to validate his claims.
Cahn determines that this text in Isaiah contains a mysterious prophecy directed not to ancient Israel but to modern America. At this point the author massages /MANIPULATES Scripture, American history and current events in an attempt to prove that God’s judgment on the United States has been hiding in these verses from the day they were given by Isaiah, but have now been unlocked by the careful investigation of Cahn. (IN OTHER WORDS MR. CAHN HAD TO PERFORM THEOLOGICAL GYMNASTICS BEYOND OLYMPIC PROPORTIONS IN ORDER TO ACCOMPLISH THIS FEAT). Nothing could be further from the truth and, even more importantly, once someone decides they can cherry-pick verses at will, change the meaning of these texts to fit his theories and use random hermeneutical methods, anything can be “proven.” However, very few people will recognize what Cahn has done, and fewer still will do the hard work of investigating his interpretations.
Here is where David James has greatly benefited the body of Christ. He has carefully, graciously and thoroughly analyzed the claims found in The Harbinger and found many of them lacking biblical support and historical accuracy. James has written this book not merely to expose error but to keep God’s people from being led astray by false teachings and improper hermeneutical approaches to Scripture. I believe he has accomplished these goals in The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction?.
How Serious is False Speculation About Prophecy?
Evangelical Christians agree that the biblical canon has been established. Anyone who claims to have a prophetic word must demonstrate its validity from Scripture. According to 1 Corinthians 14, any supposedly prophetic statement must pass two tests. First, verse 29 states that after two or three speak a prophetic message, the others are to “judge.” In other words, the prophetic message must not disagree with the knowledge of God’s Word and of truth held by other members of the assembly. Second, verses 37 and 38 demonstrate that just as the apostle Paul submitted his words to the examination of the Corinthians upon the basis of their knowledge of the Word of God, any prophecy that is given must be judged by the standard of the truth already known to the church of Christ. In other words, no completely new truth will be revealed, but rather the prophet will expound and explain truths already accepted and recognized by God’s people. Any “prophecy” that conflicts with Scripture is assumed to be false.
Evangelicals also know how seriously the Old Testament viewed false prophecy. It provided two tests to determine whether prophets were true or false. Deuteronomy 13:1-3 states the first. If a prophet calls upon the people to “go after other gods,” he is to be considered false, even if his prophecy is fulfilled.
If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, “Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,” you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul (nasb).
The second test has to do with the prophet’s accuracy:
When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him (18:22).
Deuteronomy 13:5 and Deuteronomy 18:20 explicitly state the punishment for false prophets: They shall be put to death.
Yet although many evangelicals are wary of anyone claiming to be a prophet, some are dangerously naive about prophetic speculation. Many of those who would never claim to be a “prophet” (See the ATQ article, Do the Same Kinds of Prophets Exist Today as in Biblical Times?) don’t hesitate to claim authoritative insight into the meaning of prophecy. While they would never say, “Thus saith the Lord,” they seem to imply that they know what God was saying through the prophet.
The purpose of all prophecy-including prophecy about future events-is to encourage us to examine ourselves, repent, and turn from our evil ways. Sometimes prophecy describes a future event to give hope, sometimes it warns of judgment, but in every case the goal of prophecy is spiritual renewal. Prophetic speculation, on the other hand, is mostly concerned with linking contemporary events to biblical prophecy.
To say this contemporary event is a fulfillment of that prophecy is to claim a kind of prophetic authority. It is a form of “speaking in the name of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 18:22), and just as in the case of false prophecy, it has serious consequences. Scripture and history show that prophecy pertaining to future events is ambiguous before the events occur. (See the ATQ article Can We Know if Current Events are Fulfillment of Prophecy?) Previous historical attempts to predict future events on the basis of biblical prophecy have been disastrous. (See the ATQ article How often in the History of the Church have People Mistakenly Believed They Were Acting in Fulfillment, or Observing the Fulfillment of Prophecy?)
Believing we belong to a small group that understands how prophetic events are unfolding can lead to unintended results, including pride, isolation, and diminishing concern with truth and reality. It can transform one’s interpretation of prophecy into an idol, a false god. If enough people are influenced, false speculation can lead to its own “fulfillment”-the satanic opposite of legitimate prophecy-accompanied by self-righteousness, fanaticism, and violence.
This is what happened in Israel in 70 and 135 AD. False prophecy and false prophetic speculation about Messiah led to the destruction of Jerusalem by Roman armies. The fact that many Jews were convinced that Messiah would free Israel from the Roman yoke made them vulnerable to the influence of fanatics. (See the ATQ article How often in the History of the Church have People Mistakenly Believed They Were Acting in Fulfillment, or Observing the Fulfillment of Prophecy?) The same tendency can be seen in those today whose interpretation of prophecy allows them to ignore basic issues of justice and morality while calling for unqualified support for Israel in the modern Middle East, military action, the initiation of new wars, and even the use of nuclear weapons.
It is no wonder that the New Testament discourages speculation about when Jesus Christ will return and specifically states that He will return at a time no one expects (Matthew 24:36-50; 25:13; Acts 1:7; 1 Thessalonians 5:2; 2 Peter 3:10).
Jesus Christ and other inspired writers not only warn us against speculation concerning the hour of His return, but they imply such speculation prevents serious preparation for His return (Matthew 24:43-44; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6; Revelation 3:3).
Whether it manifests itself in apathy or fanatic violence, false prophecy and false speculation about prophecy is dangerous. Those of us who get caught up in the destructive practice of prophetic speculation not only lend support to the principalities and powers of evil, but also sow seeds of disillusionment and rebellion against the gospel and biblical revelation. Mark 9:42 declares: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea” (nkjv).
JOSE J. BERNAL A MINISTER UNDER THE PASTORAL LEADERSHIP OF JONATHAN CAHN BELIEVES IT’S OKAY FOR CHRISTIAN BIBLE SCHOLARS(INCLUDING HIMSELF & JONATHAN CAHN) TO USE THE ZOHAR, A JEWISH MYSTICAL SATANIC BIBLE TO SUPPLEMENT THEIR APOLOGETICS.
Jose J. Bernal said:
“Isn’t it amazing how God uses Paul in Acts 17 to teach the pagans from their own writings on Mar’s Hill and how in Apologetics even the Book of Zohar unwittingly supports the Gospel because it has been used by faithful witness Apologists as a “hostile witness” of the Gospel? Only God can do such things; turn something like the Book of Zohar into a tool that bears witness that Jesus is the Messiah! Thank you.”
“The only thing that I would use the Zohar for and the Baybylonian Talmud would be for the same use that eminent Messianic Jews such as Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Dr. Michael Rygelnik, Dr. Michael Brown, Dr. Mitch Glazer, and many more, such as Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn would use such works for; to affirm from them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is called in Apologetics “the fair use of a hostile witness” to affirm a specific matter”.
In Dave James newly released book “The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction”, in chapter 17 “The Tenth Seal”, Mr. James discusses very profoundly the mystical qualities of Mr. Cahn’s kabbalistic theology. I make the following quote from page 198 of the same chapter:
” In the July 3, 2012 interview when Brannon Howse expressed his deep concern about Cahn using mystical sources for his messages, Cahn tried to justify his practice by noting that the Apostle Paul also referred to the teaching of pagan philosophers in his address to the Athenians(Acts 17:22-31). He went on to suggest that Paul would have been”crucified” by discernment ministries for using a hymn to Zeus and because of his associations.(WHAT ASSOCIATIONS? THAT PAUL BELIEVED THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST AND GREEK MYTHOLOGY HAVE A COMMON GROUND FOR SHARING THE WORD OF GOD?)
That is a red herring. The two situations are completely different. Paul’s approach is nothing like Cahn’s. Cahn refers to the mystical rabbinical writings POSITIVELY, saying that because God had inspired them his church should “listen to the rabbis”. He presents the Zohar as something that can be studied and it’s depths plumbed for hidden mysteries like he had just revealed for the first time.
In stark contrast, Paul immediately tells his audience that what they have been taught by their poets about the unknown god they worship is completely wrong. He does not suggest that their sayings contain hidden mysteries that were inspired by God and that he had just discovered for the first time. Paul never implies that the Athenians should listen to these men. Rather he refers to a single point of agreement(we all come from God) to denounce their idols. From Romans we understand that the knowledge of that truth is not a hidden mystery but has rather been made plain to everyone through both the conscience and the creation(Romans 1:18-2:16).
The above theological statement is further substantiated from the Apostle Paul’s letters to his Greek converts in the following biblical passages:
1 Corinthians 1:17- 31, 1 Corinthians 2:1-16 & Colossians 2:8 NKJV.
FOR A MORE IN DEPTH STUDY OF ACTS 17:22-31 READ THE ARTICLE WRITTEN BY
R.K. McGREGOR WRIGHT, TH.M.,PH.D. “PAUL’S PURPOSE AT ATHENS AND THE PROBLEM OF COMMON GROUND” PARTS 1,2,& 3.
The Link is as follows: http://www.dtl.org/apologetics/wright/athens.
Anyone who believes that the Harbinger is based solely on the inerrant word of God will be subjected to a great delusion. Mr. Cahn introduces the concept of JEWISH MYSTICAL THOUGHT WITHIN THE HARBINGER to his readers vaguely under the following pages: 11, 40,97,240,& 242. THIS CONCEPT HAS A DIRECT BEARING ON MR. CAHN’S EXTRA-BIBLICAL THEOLOGY. I am in a position to know. I was once a member of Beth Israel for many years. My statements are not about ministry bashing. I am here to expose the fact that Jonathan Cahn for many years has been utilizing mystical hebrew writings such as the Zohar and the Jewish Talmud to supplement and substantiate some of his teachings and sermons. THE ZOHAR MEANS “RADIANCE or SPLENDOR”. IT IS THE PREMIER TEXT OF OCCULT KNOWLEDGE WITHIN THE KABBALAH and a basis for laws instituted by NEW AGE RABBINICAL SAGES. The Zohar is a synthesis of the OCCULT GNOSIS of PHARAONIC EGYPT & ANCIENT BABYLON. And he claims that there is absolutely nothing wrong with quoting from the Zohar. That many apologists, bible commentators etc do this(see standupforthetruth.com on his most recent interview question #6 June 2012).
Ofcourse they do. ONLY professing christian kabbalists and christian gnostics WHO ARE SHAKING HANDS WITH THE DEVIL use the Zohar as a reference manual in their QUEST FOR ESOTERIC KNOWLEDGE by decoding the past like Mr. Cahn does; in search of so called biblical mysteries which just don’t exist within the sacred text.
The Zohar is the MYSTICAL CLASSICAL TEXT USED BY THE KABBALISTS. This practice by Jonathan Cahn is the equivalent of many christians who today attempt to interpret bible prophecies by using the Quatrains of Nostradamus. I was there one night at Beth Israel several years ago, when he preached that sermon “the Zohar Speaks”. I heard and saw him say 2 times to the congregation, that he believed these new age rabbinical sages who wrote the Zohar(Rabbi Simeon bar Yochai and Rabbi Moses De Leon etc) and writings were put there by the Holy Spirit . BUT THE INERRANT WORD OF GOD THROUGH HIS SPIRIT PLAINLY STATES THAT SUCH MEN WILL ARISE IN THE LAST DAYS SEE 1 TIMOTHY 4:1 & GALATIANS 1:8-9.
In standupforthetruth.com, Mr. Cahn in question#5 was aked: “One critic said that since The Harbinger speaks of MYSTERIES being revealed-does this have to do with GNOSTIC beliefs?
ANSWERE: A very confused view. Unless we want to call the Apostle Paul a gnostic, SINCE HE ALSO SPOKE OF MYSTERIES. It’s precisely the opposite. The Gnostics believed in knowledge that was to be kept secret, to stay a mystery. God is the one who reveals mysteries. THE HARBINGER DOES LIKEWISE-IT REVEALS MYSTERIES. If there are no mysteries, then we know everything there is to know. But we don’t. And God, by his Spirit, is to lead us to continual insight, and show us things we don’t know.
REBUTTAL: I make the following quotation from the book “CORRECTING THE CULTS”
from pages 108-109(authors Norman L. Geisler & Ron Rhodes apologist)
Mathew 13:10-11: DID JESUS TEACH THAT WE NEED TO SEEK A HIDDEN, SECONDARY(esoteric) MEANING IN SCRIPTURE, AS NEW AGERS SAY?
Misinterpretation: Some New Agers appeal to Mathew 13:10-11 in an attempt to show that we should seek secret and hidden(esoteric) meaning in scripture. Jesus is portrayed being in front of a multitude composed of both believers and unbelievers. He did not attempt to separate the believers from the unbelievers and then instruct only the believers. Rather, he constructed his teaching in such a way that believers would understand what he said but unbelievers would not-by using parables. Then, after teaching one such parable, a disciple asked Jesus: “Why do you speak to the people in parables”? (see Mathew 13:10). Jesus answered: “THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SECRETS(OR MYSTERIES) OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN HAS BEEN GIVEN TO YOU(believers) BUT NOT TO THEM(unbelievers)
Mathew 13:11.
IN OTHER WORDS, JESUS IS CLEARLY STATING THE MYSTERIES OF GOD’S KINGDOM AND OF HUMAN HISTORY PAST, PRESENT, & FUTURE HAVE ALREADY BEEN REVEALED BY GOD’S INERRANT WORD! NOT BY SEEKING HIDDEN, SECONDARY OR ESOTERIC MEANING IN SCRIPTURE LIKE MR. JONATHAN CAHN DOES IN THE HARBINGER AND THROUGH HIS EXTRA-BIBLICAL THEOLOGY.
The Zohar falls under the category of pseudepigrapha (see JEWISHENCYCLOPEDIA.com). The Zohar is a pseudepigraphic work which PRETENDS to be a REVELATION FROM GOD communicated through Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai to the latter’s select disciples in the form of a COMMENTARY on the first 5 books of Moses/Torah. I qoute the following definition from Dr. Randall Price’s book ” Searching for the Original Bible” page 136 the following: “the term pseudepigrapha literally means falsely entitled. It refers to a collection of some 63 documents written between 250BC-200AD by hellenistic jews. Each book was written under a psuedonym whose work was not part of the canonical hebrew bible. No psuedepigrapha texts are CITED or EXPLICITLY referred to by any biblical authors of the New Testament(and I will add neither by Jesus himself)”.
I also make the following quote from Bob Larson’s book “WORLD RELIGIONS & ALTERNATIVE SPIRITUALITY” pages 291-292 in regards to the Zohar & the Kabbalah:
“At the core of jewish myticism is the practice of ESOTERIC DISCIPLINES that tap into the secret wisdom that can involve ascent to and unitive experiences with the divine realm. Contemporary teachers of the ZOHAR/KABBALAH say the emphasis of Kabbalah should be on putting it’s principles into action rather than worrying about theology and the nature of GOD. And as is often the case with New Age religions, the emphasis is on what is in it for us. In the case of the Zohar/Kabbalah, it’s promoters claim it will bring people peace,joy and fulfillment without any worries about moral codes like the 10 Commandments” end of quote.
ANOTHER INDIVIDUAL WHO GOES BY THE NAME OF JP COLLADO WHO HAS BEEN RECENTLY ACTIVE ON THIS DISCUSSION BOARD, IS A STRONG ADVOCATE OF THIS SATANIC BIBLE THE ZOHAR. ON AUGUST 26, 2012 HE MADE THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT AND I QUOTE:
….THE ZOHAR, A HEBREW SOURCE THAT ACKNOWLEDGES THE ONE TRUE GOD OF THE BIBLE AND NO OTHER”. REALLY JP?
With regards to Mr. Cahn’s use of the Jewish Talmud, what exactly is so HERETICAL about it which is never disclosed? It is considered HOLY WRIT for the Jews. The Talmud SUPERCEDES the OLD TESTAMENT in authority for the Jews. And the Talmud is the MOST RACIST, HATE MONGERING, BLASPHEMOUS BOOK the world has ever known! The Satanic verses of the Talmud can be classified into 3 categories: 1) JEWISH SUPREMACY 2)HATRED TOWARDS THE GOYS(GENTILES) &
3) BLASPHEMIES AGAINST JESUS CHRIST, THE VIRGIN MARY & ALL CHRISTIANS.
But the Messiah Yeshua(Jesus) censored the ORAL LAW(TALMUD) when he said
“BY THE TRADITIONS OF YOUR ELDERS(PHARISEES) YOU MAKE VOID THE WORD OF GOD MATHEW 15.
For a more indepth study of the Jewish Talmud go to the following link:
http://www.realjewnews.com and look up the article “SATANIC VERSES OF THE JEWISH TALMUD” by Brother Nathanael Kapner.
1 Thes: 5:21 & Acts 17:11 commands us to test all things. This is not an option. Blind acceptance of any theological view, simply because it was set forth by a respected brother or minister is very dangerous and detrimental to the Body of Christ to say the least.
Paul in Galatians 1:8 exhorts the Body of Christ as follows: NOW EVEN IF WE OR AN ANGEL FROM HEAVEN SHOULD DECLARE TO YOU ANOTHER GOSPEL OUTSIDE OF WHAT WE HAVE DECLARED TO YOU, HE WILL BE CURSED.
If the body of Christ is ready to EMBRACE ANOTHER GOSPEL CORRUPTED WITH JEWISH MYSTICISM, THEY CAN HAVE IT. After spending more than 7 years at Beth Israel, I have no doubt that the MESSIANIC JEWISH MOVEMENT are involved with DOCTRINES & RELIGIOUS PRACTICES that are INCONSISTENT with God’s Word and are CONTRARY to HIS WILL FOR THE BODY OF CHRIST. Any entity that believes in Yeshua(JESUS), that uses the term, `Judaism’ will grow into a Judaism of sorts. And that’s exactly what we have seen in the last 50 years of Messianic Judaism. It’s one part Orthodox Judaism, one part Kabbalah, one part Talmud, one part Church, and four parts corrupted.
Log onto the following link: http://jesus-messiah.com and read the article “DANGERS OF THE FALSE MESSIANIC MOVEMENT by Dr. G. RECKART- PASTOR. Also read: GOODBYE MESSIANIC JUDAISM BY AVRAM YEHOSHUA @ http://www.SEEDOFABRAHAM.NET.
Everything that is being shared with you ultimately led to my resignation as a member from Beth Israel. If you want to ignore my warnings, feel free to do so at your own peril.
It is advisable for Mr. Jonathan Cahn and any other staff member within his ministry who are in possesion of these OCCULTIC WORKS OF LITERATURE( i.e. Mr. JOSE J. BERNAL THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOK: THE TRUTH ABOUT THE HARBINGER- RELEASE DATE OCT 1, 2013) to follow the example of the EPHESIANS in ACTS 19:19 and burn your occultic books in a BONFIRE instead of trying to justify your heretical doctrines in the name of APOLOGETICS. Galatians 5: 19 “FOR THE WORKS OF THE FLESH ARE WELL KNOWN…..VERSE 20….HERESIES…..VERSE 21…..AS I HAVE TOLD YOU BEFORE AND I SAY TO YOU NOW, THOSE WHO PRACTICE SUCH THINGS WILL NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
“It is not for nothing that the authoritative edition of the Talmud is known as the Babylonian Talmud. As Christians misled by their Judaizing preachers & popes are increasingly consulting Jewish rabbinical sources for a “PURER” understanding of the Old Testament, they are unknowningly consulting the OCCULT.
Judaism is the religion of the Pharisees and the patrimony of Babylon from where the Talmudic & Kabbalistic traditions of Judaism ultimately derive. Orthodox Judaism’s other sacred book, the Kabbalah( THE ZOHAR BEING IT’S PREMIER TEXT OF OCCULT KNOWLEDGE) is filled with astrological teachings, fortune telling, gematria, necromancy & DEMONOLOGY.
Orthodox Rabbis place curses, cast spells & imagine they have powers greater than God, derived from their study of the Sefer Yezriah(a book of Kabbalistic Magic). Christians are TRAFFICKING in Babylonian Paganism when they DEFER to the Rabbis of Judaism “MICHAEL HOFFMAN”.
Every christian across America who have read Mr. Cahn’s book and concluded that it is a PROPHETIC WORD from God to this nation, need to seriously re-examine your beliefs. Jewish Gnosticism is being IMPORTED very SUBTLELY into mainstream Christianity. YOUR ETERNAL DESTINY MAY BE IN JEOPARDY!
Two great posts, Rafael. (This, and your previous post.) I appreciate the detailed info, as well as your insights as a former member. God bless you – Dave
All the details aside the thing I see revealed by the Harbinger is that Satanists in leading positions representing the US Political leaders are quoting Isaiah 9:10 which was clearly said in defiance of God.
To me it really doesn’t matter the exact details. It just shows me what Satan is trying to accomplish.
Thanks for the comment, Douglas. I’ll give others a chance to respond first. God bless you – Dave
mr mosher u probably dont speak and pray in tongues and havent experienced the infilling of the holy spirit to know how real god is . as paul said he won souls not by mans wisdom imparted to unbelievers , but by power and miracles manifested by god . and i would bet u probably dismiss sid roth also
whos won more souls to the lord than you ever will . anyway cant take u seriously , but may jesus baptize you with holy ghost fire and give you revelation and use you to reach unbelievers instead of attacking gods seers , for jesus said if hes not against us then hes with us . with all respect and love , god bless
Thanks for your comments, Steve. Believe it or not, I do agree with most of your points. Being of a Wesleyan Holiness background (the same historical background as Pentecostals), I believe the Holy Spirit can provide many of the supernatural manifestation gifts today. I do believe in the gift of tongues (although I don’t believe it is required for all believers, as the Initial Physical Evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit). And I do believe I have been filled/indwelt with the Holy Spirit. Having committed myself 100% to the Lord, I have experienced the fulness of the Holy Spirit. Several of the results are power in resisting temptation, boldness in witnessing for the Lord, and discernment of false teachings.
A true test of whether born again Christians are Spirit filled is whether they show the fruit of the Spirit. Many people seeming to be speaking in tongues, I consider to be fakes – many of these individuals are Roman Catholics and mainline/liberal Protestants who do not even believe in being born again.
Also, many of the people seeming to be speaking in tongues are very much into the Word of Faith movement, which includes the materialistic Prosperity Gospel teaching. Yet materialism is obviously not one of the fruits of the Spirit. Jesus said we cannot love both God and mammon, and that we are to deny ourselves. Note also Jesus’ words of reproof to the rich young ruler who asked how to follow Him.
I understand you are in favor of Jonathan Cahn. Question: are there any Pentecostals that you do believe are false teachers? What about IHOP? Todd Bentley? Paula White? Toronto? Bethel? The Elijah List? All of these are bizarre, Third Wave Pentecostal false teachers. And these are just the tip of the heretical Pentecostal iceberg. Today’s Pentecostal movement has been infiltrated by many heretics who are deceiving and destroying the true, born again Body of Christ. We simply cannot ignore this travesty hoping it will go away.
There are many Pentecostals (such as the late David Wilkerson) who have called out these false teachers for what they really are. Another discerning Pentecostal like Bro. Wilkerson is Rick Walston, who wrote this article on the Three Waves of Pentecostalism: http://www.columbiaseminary.org/coffeetalk/077.html I would consider David Wilkerson and those like him as true, born again, biblically sound Pentecostals. These are First Wave Pentecostals (Classic Pentecostals).
Thanks again for your kindly worded comment (I have received much worse criticisms – not very pleasant). God bless you – Dave
Steve, I am one of those Christians who steer clear of Sid and I have now added Cahn to my list. I am filled with the Holy Spirit and I don’t speak in tongues but I have found that most Charismatic Christians love telling me I am not saved as I don’t speak in tongues. I am not worried about it as its God approval I seek not mans. You say that Sid won more souls than Dave would ever. Thats nasty and mean and I am reminding you to think about repenting before going to the Lords table. You disgust me with your wordily attitude. Finally when you speak about God use the capital G as God is not a small God AND this applies to Jesus. We don’t have seers today as the Holy Spirit and the Bible are all we need when God wishes to speak to us. Thank you Steve.
I think I see where Cahn is leading. I wonder how many Christians that do not believe Jonathan Cahn has insight where the world’s economic situation is heading will be wise to store food and water for 2 to 12 months anyway? I think what Cahn is concluding will result in something very big happening, a world wide debt cancelling Jubilee. Read Karen Hudes of the World Bank and what she says regarding dishonesty of King Juan Carlos of Spain and Prince Bernhard of Holland, and money manipulation of the WB and IMF. Read Webster Tarpley, a colleague of Lyndon La Rouche, regarding the evil British Royal family. Observe what is going on elsewhere in Europe. Potential indictment of Vatican higher ups and European Royal family members for child sacrifice in the Ninth Circle Satanic organization. The British-American Empire, the Old World Order is about to fall, and you did not know it even existed. Why is that, were you not paying attention to world events?
Thanks for your comments, Dennis. I agree with you 100% that there are many events, many things in the news that are signaling the End Times. My problem with Jonathan Cahn is not that he is warning people, but that he claims to be a prophet revealing hidden Bible mysteries. This is the same problem I have with the Bible Code and similar teachings. God’s Word is already very clear in my opinion – we don’t need to start (literally) reading between the lines or teaching newly revealed mysteries. God bless you – Dave
John Robison’s book 1798 “Proofs of Conspiracy…”, Samuel Morse’s book 1835 “Foreign Conspiracy…”, Martin Walbert’s book 1898 “The Coming Battle..”, Eli Stanley Jones’s book 1935 “Christ’s Alternative…”, Henry Hyack’s book 1944 “The Road to…”, Wm Guy Carr’s book 1952 “Pawns in the …”, Eustace Mullins’s book 1981 “Secrets of…”, David Barker’s books 1987, 2009 “An Optimistic Look…Stock market crash”, Larry Burkett’s books in 1990’s “The Coming Economic …”, Dr John Coleman’s (MI6 agent) books in the 1980’s of the British American Empire coming down because it is being exposed. I am NOT talking about the future New World Order of the last days but the Old World Order right now trying to bring about world government while the church is still on planet Earth. Christ prophesied Isaiah 61 into Luke 4 a world wide debt cancelling Jubilee at the end of the Age of Pisces, the Fish. A teacher of mine from 1969 did explain what Christ did. Jesus had conversations with Hillel in the Sanhedrin as a child. Hillel created the prosbul, (pruzbul) a legal document to negate Torah debt protections for debtors from the Shemitah. Jesus had HIS conversations with Hillel in mind when made HIS promises and prophecies in the synagogue in Nazareth.
“The Age of Pisces the Fish is in concert with “The Gospel in the Stars”, a concept that you likely reject, despite D. James Kennedy’s promotion of it, because most clergy and laity do. (The book of Job.) I believe in this concept.
Will you store food and water for six months while a new US Congress creates the new Treasury bills to replace the Federal Reserve notes to restart the economy. The IMF and World Bank will fall, debts will be cancelled, the Bank of England and most US banks in New York City will FALL. The existence of BRICS is proof that the IMF and World Bank are dying. BRICS is going to be joined by Germany soon. Unprepared people are going to starve to death in less than two months (no food stored) that are NOT ready for this Jubilee. “My people perish for lack of Knowledge” Hosea 4: 6. Porter Stansberry advertizes on World Net Daily his ability to determine what is happening in the world of finance. He promotes the Global Currency Reset of the IMF as something to be involved with and participate in. This will be one the last things the IMF does. Christians be wise and prudent — participate, invest in the GCR.
Webster Tarpley, a colleague of Lyndon LaRouche, discusses on the Internet the history of environmentalism from over two hundred years ago by the British East India company, a consequence of London banking lies. He discusses the Guelfs political organization aligned with the Venice bankers of 1000 years ago that left Venice for England 500 years ago, to form world government. All these people were and are Satan worshipers. (Tarpley read John Coleman.)
World government is about to fall to its death and many did not see world government was developing in America. Too much focus on the prophesied New World Order and not enough on the present day bad guys the Old World Order in the Vatican, European Kings and the Rothschilds. Listen to Karen Hudes of the World Bank, she is a whistle blower for honest banking sake. Bad things are going to happen soon and most prophecy teachers did not see THIS coming.
Jonathan Cahn’s newest book of the Shemitah proves he is paying attention to what must be observed in God’s word. Lindsey, La Hay, Reagan, Hitchcock, and Baxter and their ‘ministry envy’ of others are full of themselves more than God’s word. They make a living, they right too many books, upon speculation that is motivated to serve themselves as their lively hood and NOT for the body of Christ. Church pastors frequently and almost always, do a better job preparing their congregations for the bad times that are coming than do most of these so called prophecy preachers. Mine does.
Needless to say your criticism of Jonathan Cahn does not fly with me. He is on top of things and most clergy are not. A Jubilee will occur before the Rapture and / or the Great Tribulation, because Christ did not quote the word “Vengeance” from Isaiah 61 into Luke 4, he left it out.
Thanks for all the great, detailed info, Dennis. I would tend to agree with much of the info you cited. A fellow I like that warned America is the late David Wilkerson – although many criticized him. Note – unlike Jonathan Cahn, Bro. Wilkerson stated specifically that he was not a prophet – although he did say in essence the Lord laid messages on his heart to prophecy… I just think Bro. Wilkerson was more biblically sound (and frankly more humble) than Cahn… Note – in many cases I think we should be careful to teach that such and such “may have happened”, rather than such and such “did happen”. Specifically, in reference to Hillel, is there a written, authoritative primary historical source somewhere saying Christ had conversations with Hillel? If so, I’d be interested in reading it (or even a link to a discussion about this would be helpful)… I’ll have to research your comments re: Pisces and Dr. Kennedy’s gospel in the stars – I’ve read some statements both for and against… Thanks again for your great comments, and God bless you – Dave
Ah well, time will tell.
I agree, Susan – time will tell. Actually, Jonathan Cahn is still at it, sharing the “mysteries of the Bible” that he has discovered. I’m wondering if readers have heard of his latest bestseller – which in my mind is just as far out and unbiblical as The Harbinger. Check out the following quote in Charisma magazine, found here: http://www.charismanews.com/culture/45296-jonathan-cahn-s-mystery-of-the-shemitah-tops-christian-prophecy-category-at-debut:
“The Harbinger introduced readers to the Shemitah (pronounced SHMEE-tah), or Sabbath year, and how it relates to the attacks and collapses that America experienced in 2001 and 2008. But, Cahn says, that isn’t where it ends. In his research, the author has found patterns throughout the history of America that line up with the Shemitah, which he explains in the new nonfiction book.
The Shemitah is the seventh year of the seven-year agricultural cycle mandated by the Torah for the land of Israel. Cahn says understanding this seven-year pattern is essential for understanding the prophecies and mysteries of the Bible that are still applicable today.”
God bless you Susan – Dave
P.S.: I would suggest that – rather than going out and buying the book – readers read a summary like this: http://www.wnd.com/2014/09/holy-shemitah-u-s-history-repeating-itself/ Note – although this is a favorable summary, I am NOT endorsing the book.
David,
Here are 2 articles explaining one Jewish believer’s view on Talmud and tradition –
http://nazarenespace.com/profiles/blogs/the-messian-is-jewish-tradition
The Messiah is Jewish Tradition By James Scott Trimm
One of the most important evidences of the importance of the Oral Law for believers in Yeshua as Messiah, is that the Messiah concept is in itself Oral Law. Let me explain what I mean. Using the Tanak alone, one cannot demonstrate that there is a single eschatological figure to come called “The Messiah”. If you presented a group of people who never heard of the concept of “The Messiah” with copies of the Tanak and left them alone for years, you would not come back to hear them talking about a figure known as “The Messiah”. Yes there are references to a figure called “the servant” in Isaiah. And there is a prophecy of “a prophet” like Moses in Deut 18 (some take this to refer generally to each of the prophets after Moses). And there are also prophecies in the Tanak concerning a figure called “the branch” using a variety of different Hebrew words for “branch”. And there are a number of other passages referring to figures sometimes with no appellation at all. How do we know that these and other prophecies speak of a single figure called “The Messiah” and not to a number of different figures altogether? The answer is “tradition”. Do a word search on “The Messiah” in the Tanak and you will get zero results. If one rejects tradition, then one rejects the very basis for the concept of “The Messiah”, Yeshua or otherwise. I have found in seeking to debate an anti-missionary that they want to limit the material to be cited in the debate to be the Tanak only. This is odd because the anti-missionaries I am speaking of are Rabbinic Jews. Why should they want to eliminate the Targums, Talmuds, Midrashim, Zohar and other Rabbinic literature from the debate? Neither of us are Kaaraites, so why take a Kaarite position in the debate? The reason friends, is that the concept of the Messiah is essentially an Oral Law concept! And the anti-missionaries KNOW THIS WELL. The Messiah is almost never mentioned in the Tanak by that title (The possible exceptions being “YHWH has anointed me” (Is. 61:1); “His anointed” (Ps. 2:2) “an anointed shall be cut off” (Dan. 9:26). Even these passages are unclear in the Tanak alone, as they could simply refer to a “an anointed one” rather than “The Messiah.” The only way to demonstrate clearly that any given passage is in fact a reference to Messiah is to rely upon the Oral Law (thru such sources as the Targums, the Talmuds, the Midrashim and the Zohar). It is the Oral Law that ties all of these passages together into a single figure known as “The Messiah.” For example the word “Messiah” never appears in Isaiah 53, yet we know form the Targum, the Talmud, the Midrash Rabbah and the Zohar that Isaiah 53 speaks of the Messiah. This is why, while some Rabbinic Jews and even Orthodox Rabbis have accepted Yeshua as the Messiah, I know of no case where a Kaarite (Karaites reject the Oral Law) has come to Messiah. There is virtually no way to make the case to a Kaarite that Yeshua is the Messiah. By contrast I can show any open minded Rabbinic Jew that Yeshua is the Messiah of Judaism, and I have done just that in my free book Mashiach: The Messiah from a True Jewish Perspective. In fact it is for this very reason that Yeshua’s original followers came from the Pharisees and Essenes and few if any came from the Sadducees. That is because the Sadducees rejected the Oral Law and thus had no framework for the very concept of the Messiah and they could not accept Yeshua as a Messiah when they did not even accept the concept of Messiah at all. The idea of Yeshua as the Messiah makes perfect sense in terms of Jewish tradition, but without Jewish tradition, there is no concept of a Messiah at all.
http://nazarenespace.com/profiles/blogs/statement-from-james-trimm-regarding-talmud
Statement from James Trimm Regarding Talmud
Posted by James Trimm on August 25, 2014 at 9:38am
You know it occurs to me that my position on the Talmud may not have been clear.
The Talmud has four elements within it and my view of each element is not the same.
One element burred within it is Oral Law from Sinai. These are things like how far a sabbath day’s journey is, or the water libation ceremony. These things tend to be incidentally embedded in the Talmud.
The second element is the case law from the Pharisee Sanhedrin at Jerusalem (disband in 70 CE).
The third element is the case law of the restored Pharisee Sanhedrin at Yavneh (90 CE to 4th century)
And the fourth element is commentary on this material by various Rabbis.
I accept the Oral Torah from Sinai as always having been an organic companion to the written law.
However I believe that around 30 CE Yeshua transferred the halachic authority to his talmidim (Matt. 18:18; Acts 15) that means the final 40 years of the Pharisee Sanhedrin at Jerusalem it was not legitimately in authority. And that the Restored Pharisee Sanhederin at Yavneh was never legitimately in authority.
However the case law from these two Sanhedrins still present us with valuable case law to review on its own merits.
And this is what I mean by saying the Talmud is not accepted or obeyed, it is studied.
In my writings I often quote from The Dead Sea Scrolls, Joesphus, Philo, the Targums, Mishna, Talmuds, Midrashim, Zohar and other Rabbinic writings. Be it known that I do not quote from these writings as canonical.
In fact the Talmud itself denies that any of these writings are inspired:
Our Rabbis taught: Since the death of the last prophets,
Haggai, Zechariah and Malachai, the Holy Spirit [of prophetic inspiration]
departed from Israel.
(b.San. 11a)
I generally use these quotes to demonstrate that the way the NT understands a passage is the same way historic Judaism has understood that passage.
For example in regards to Isaiah 53 the Zohar says:
“In the Garden of Eden there is a hall that is called the “hall of the afflicted.” Now it is into this hall that the Messiah goes and summons all the afflictions and pains and sufferings of Israel to come upon him. And so they all come upon him. And had he not eased the children of Israel of their sorrows, and taken their burden upon himself, there would be none who could endure the suffering of Israel in the penalty of neglecting the Torah. Thus it is written: “Surely our diseases he did bear and our pains he carried.” (Is. 53:5) As long as the children of Israel dwelt in the Holy Land, they averted all afflictions and sufferings from the world by the service of the sanctuary and by sacrifice. But now it is the Messiah who is averting them from the habitants of the world,”
(Zohar 2:212a)
This is not inspired, but it is a profound agreement from historic Judaism with the teaching of the NT concerning Isaiah 53.
For the record, I came out of Rabbinic Judaism when I accepted Messiah in the first place. I do not believe Yeshua created a new religion (Christianity) but that he came to be the Messiah of Judaism. I did not leave Judaism to embrace the Jewish Messiah of Judaism.
Thanks for the comments, do8ug – I learned a great deal. I am intrigued by your testimony: “For the record, I came out of Rabbinic Judaism when I accepted Messiah in the first place. I do not believe Yeshua created a new religion (Christianity) but that he came to be the Messiah of Judaism. I did not leave Judaism to embrace the Jewish Messiah of Judaism.” Sounds good to me!
I believe that born again Protestants and born again Messianic Jews are all believers, all part of the same Body of Christ (with the Gentile branches grafted into the Jewish root – see Rom. 11:1-24).
I believe the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is “His Story” – the accurate, historical account of the Messiah. Even though Christianity technically did not exist before Christ, I believe there are many “born again Christians” from Old Testament times in Heaven today. Adam, Eve, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Daniel, Isaiah, etc. etc. (Or perhaps we could call all these “born again Messianic Jews”!) Consider this passage:
“1) What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? 2) For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. 3) For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. 4) Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. 5) But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” (Rom. 4:1-5)
This is how I interpret the above: “to him [Abraham and the other OT believers] that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” Abraham [and the other OT believers] became born again in God’s eyes because of Jesus Christ’s future Atonement which was to come at Calvary. God knew that – if Christ had come to Earth during OT times – Adam, Eve, Abraham, etc. etc. would have accepted Christ as Saviour. So in some mysterious way God granted them salvation “ahead of time”.
God bless you – Dave
Jose Bernal A MINSISTER UNDER JONATHAN CAHN claims that these writings can be used strictly for Apologetics purposes in support of the Gospel, to show that the ancient rabbis interpreted the Hebrew Bible “Messianically????”
JOSE’S ANSWER: Let me make this perfectly clear so as not be misunderstood again and mischaracterized by Satanic false witnesses; when I refer to the Talmud, the Book of Zohar, and the writings of the Rabbis, including among them the Midrashim about the Messiah; I refer to those portions of such writings and oral traditions which were later included in the Babylonian Talmud which were used by Jews prior to and during the Second Temple Era, which speak of the coming Messiah, which have been used by Christian Apologists long before the modern era as hostile witnesses which corroborate many parts of Christ’s life contained in the Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John.
MY Rebuttal:
“THE DANGERS BEHIND JOSE J. BERNAL’S EXTRABIBLICAL SOURCES AND THE MESSIANIC JEWISH MOVEMENT”
The Talmud
The Babylonian Talmud is a commentary on the Mishnah composed by Babylonian Jewish sages (Ravs) from the early third to the sixth century. A Jewish sage who was from Babylonia would have been addressed by the title, ‘Rav,’ while one who lived in Israel would have been called ‘Rabbi.’ One portion of the Talmud dealt with folklore, especially magical and medical recipes. The following statement, from TORAH TO KABBALAH by R.C. Musaph-Andriesse, on the primacy of the Babylonian Talmud (T.B.) is representative of Jewish scholarship:
“There are two editions of the Talmud, the Jerusalem Talmud and the Babylonian Talmud. Of these two, the Babylonian Talmud is authoritative for Orthodox Judaism, which regards it as divinely inspired… The superiority of the Babylonian Talmud is so great, that when people now talk about the Talmud, they always mean the Babylonian Talmud. The authority of the Babylonian Talmud is also greater than that of the Jerusalem Talmud. In cases of doubt the former is decisive.” (pg. 40, New York, Oxford University, Press, 1982)
According to Secret Societies and Subversive Movements, the Talmud and the Kabbalah were derived from Jewish oral traditions which were accorded the same authority of the Mosaic Law:
“According to Fabre d’Olivet, Moses, who ‘was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians’ drew from the Egyptian mysteries a part of the oral tradition which was handed down through the leaders of the Israelites…That such an oral tradition, distinct from the written word embodied in the Pentateuch, did descend from Moses and that it was later committed to writing in the Talmud and the Cabala is the opinion of many Jewish writers. [According to the Jewish view God had given Moses on Mt. Sinai alike the oral and the written Law, that is, the Law with all its interpretations and applications –Alfred Edersheim]” (Omni Publications, 1964, p.6.)
From the Talmud the Rabbis developed the Zohar, the preeminent book of the Cabala, as documented extensively in Webster’s Secret Societies and also in the Jewish Encyclopedia:
“… Monsieur Paul Vulliaud, in his exhaustive work on the Cabala recently published,1. says that its date has been placed as early as the sixth century before Christ and as late as the tenth century A.D., but that it is at any rate older than the Talmud is shown by the fact that in the Talmud the Rabbis are described as studying it for magical purposes.2. The Sepher Yetzirah is also said to be the work referred to in the Koran under the name of the “Book of Abraham”. 3.
“The immense compilation known as the Sepher-Ha- Zohar, Book of Light, is … of greater importance to the study of Cabalistic philosophy. According to the Zohar itself, the “Mysteries of Wisdom” were imparted to Adam by God whilst he was still in the Garden of Eden, in the form of a book delivered by the angel Razael. From Adam the book passed on to Seth … Enoch… Noah … Abraham, and later to Moses, one of its principal exponents.4. Other Jewish writers declare… that Moses received it for the first time on Mt. Sinai. . . to the Seventy Elders…to David and Solomon …Ezra …Nehemiah and finally to the Rabbis of the early Christian era 5.
“…Until this date the Zohar had remained a purely oral tradition … written down by the disciples of Simon ben Jochai. The Talmud relates that for 12 years the Rabbi Simon and his son Eliezer concealed themselves in a cavern, where sitting in the sand up to their necks, they meditated on the sacred law and were frequently visited by the prophet Elias.6. In this way, Jewish legend adds, the great book of the Zohar was composed and committed to writing by the Rabbis’ son Eliezer and his secretary Rabbi Abba. 7.
The fact is that the main ideas of the Zohar find confirmation in the Talmud. As the Jewish Encyclopedia observes, ‘the Cabala, is not really in opposition to the Talmud,’ and ‘many Talmudic Jews have supported and contributed to it.’ Adolphe Franch does not hesitate to describe it as “the heart and life of Judaism.” (Webster, p. 9)
“The greater number of the most eminent rabbis of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries believed firmly in the sacredness of the Zohar and of the infallibility of it’s teaching.” (Jewish Encyclopedia, article on Cabala)
The Mishnah
The Mishnah is the early Talmud or the forerunner of the Talmud. To the Mishnah the rabbis later added the Gemara (Rabbinical commentaries). Together these comprise the Talmud. Scholars will claim that the Talmud is partly a collection of oral traditions given by Moses which had not yet been written down in Jesus’ time. However, Christ condemned the traditions of the Mishnah (early Talmud) and the Scribes and Pharisees who taught it, because their oral traditions contradicted the teachings of Scripture. The severe warnings of Jesus Christ regarding the traditions of men which make null and void the Word of God is found in Matt. 15:1-20 and Mark 7:1-13 and are a reference to the Mishnah.
Was Jesus Christ in agreement with the Jewish rabbis? Does not Scripture devote the entirety of Matthew 23 to Jesus’ scathing denunciation of those very rabbis and their religious system based on traditions which contradicted the Word of God?
Nesta Webster’s Secret Societies and Subversive Movements adds:
“… the Jewish Encyclopedia admits that Jewish legends concerning Jesus are found in the Talmud and Midrash and in the life of Jesus (Toledot Yeshu) that originated in the Middle Ages. It is the tendency of all these sources to belittle the person of Jesus by ascribing to Him illegitimate birth, magic, and a shameful death.” [Jewish Encyclopedia, article on Jesus]
The Midrash and midrashic interpretation tend to devalue the literal, historical interpretation of Scripture in favor of private, hidden and even mystical interpretations. For example, Rabbi Scheinerman’s Magical Midrash page states:
“Midrash is subversive as it winds its way between and around stern, stark, seemingly stagnant texts. As Judith Plaskow has stated, ‘Jews have traditionally used midrash to broaden or alter the meaning of texts’ (in Davidman/Tenenbaum, 80). Midrash assumes that the black letters of scripture as well as the white spaces between them are holy; that the explicitly stated as well as that which can be inferred from the Bible can be manifestations of God’s word. Midrash is a kind of scriptural archaeology, bidding us not to stop at surface appearances but to dig down deeply into the text to uncover hidden riches…”
Midrashic interpretations permit students of Scripture to explore far beyond the safe boundaries of the sacred canon. Apostates such as Unity minister Rev. J. Ronald Jones, are permitted nearly unlimited license using midrashim to support their false teachings.
Some of the errors in the Messianic Jews today are:
1. They call for Christians to recognize extra-biblical Jewish books, which are supposed to give fuller understanding of the Greek New Testament. In fact some go so far as to proclaim the Hebrew Scriptures are the authentic scriptures, not the Greek text of the KJV Bible.
The New Testament was given in its original, inspired from the Hand of God, in GREEK, not Hebrew. Most of the extra-biblical Hebrew “scriptures” that the MESSIANIC JEWISH MOVEMENT is seeking to foist onto the Christian Church are ancient writings, often with occult and mystical sources, (LIKE THE ZOHAR which Jose Bernal mentioned above)is traditional material which are NOT Scripture at all. They are extra-biblical sources of knowledge.
The Bible was written in 3 languages:
1. Hebrew was the Language of the Old Testament.
2. Aramaic was the language of the far east until the time of Alexander the Great.
3. Greek was the New Testament language and the International language at the time of Christ.
The Canon of Scripture is closed and preserved by the Lord in the Greek language. Whether Christians are from Jewish backgrounds or not, we must all recognize the authority of God’s Word, as given to us in the Canon of Holy Scripture. No other books can or should be added to this Canon.
While Catholics also add to the Canon of Scripture extra-biblical books and teach much apostasy, the same pattern is seen in the Messianic Jewish Movement as seen in Catholicism. Both add works to divine grace making the grace of Christ of no effect. The Bible is divinely inspired by God from Genesis to Revelation, no other writings are necessary for understanding the Bible. The Holy Spirit reveals the Word to us and we do not need that any man teach us. No other authority can be accepted. Jewish extra-biblical writings do NOT enlighten Christians as to the “hidden meanings” of Scripture. The deep things of God are shown to surrendered Christians by the Holy Spirit opening Scripture and making the Bible plain!
Thanks for both of your posts, “Kris”. I have placed just your first post online for now. This first post is excellent; the second post was not as pertinent to Jonathan Cahn’s quoting of extrabiblical sources. Discussions/debates about Zionism, Jewish views towards Gentiles, etc, are important, but I’d rather deal with them in a separate blog or discussion thread or perhaps even on Facebook. Well that’s it for now. God bless you- Dave
“Kris Kringle”
(I don’t call anyone rabbi)
KJV is more an interpretation than a translation translating one Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek word as up to 100 different often unrelated English words and visa versa. For a true translation I would follow the work of The Chronicle Project in Canada.
I find the extra biblical books like the talmud good for debating those who read them. Otherwise the Bible has everything we need to know for eternal life.
Thanks for the comment, do8ug. I found this link for the Chronicle Project: http://thechronicleproject.org/index.html For someone like me who holds to the KJV as God’s authoritative Word: how much does the Chronicle project differ in wording and doctrine?
davemosher
“Thanks for the comment, do8ug. I found this link for the Chronicle Project: http://thechronicleproject.org/index.html For someone like me who holds to the KJV as God’s authoritative Word: how much does the Chronicle project differ in wording and doctrine?”
Like I said Dave
KJV is more an interpretation than a translation, translating one Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek word as up to 100 different often unrelated English words and visa versa. Of course a word for word translation will be very different but usually carry the same or similar meaning sometimes harder to understand and sometimes more revealing of the true meaning. To compare it to KJV is to compare an interpretation to a translation — they are different.
Also Chronicle Project is only restoring the Hebrew.
The problem I have with the KJV is it is a interpretation and hard to find the meaning and roots of the original words. I’ve always wanted a translation that would translate 1 Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek word for the same English word every time. While it may be difficult to understand at times it would make Bible study so much easier cause I’d always know what was what.
Another very interesting thing about following their work is they show why the “translators” of the KJV used certain words and sometimes they were dead wrong. I get a much clearer meaning of the scripture.
An example is the word “Name”. The the writers of the Bible with a verbal language “name” is understood as “To draw attention to” or “to locate” and not just a label as we in English read it.
Imagine translating “Whatever you ask the Father in my name He will do for you” as “Whatever you ask the Father to draw attention to me He will do for you” or “Whatever you ask the Father to locate me He will do for you”.
Then you wouldn’t have a bunch of Christians saying “We ask this in Jesus name” and it never happens cause it wasn’t to locate or draw attention to Jesus and the people look psychotic because in truth they are out of touch with the meaning and misrepresenting Jesus/Yeshua.
What you will find is consistency that does not exist in any other “translation”/interpretation. If you idolize an interpretation of the Bible it is not for you but if you are looking for a better understanding than the KJV alone can provide than I strongly recommend it. I’ll cut and paste a few lines but you can just as easily go the their website to see for yourself —
This is the KJV for Numbers 6 —
24 The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:
25 The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
26 The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
27 And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.
This is the Chronicle Project’s paraphrased English for Numbers 6 —
v24 So Creator shall bless your and shall warn your.
v25 So Creator shall endure his face to come to your and so bestow to your.
v26 So Creator shall set forth his face to come to your, and will hold it up to see toward your, those to be going to.
v27 And to locate being to join his name to appear over the sons of Israel and then afterwards, to populate your.
The Chronicle Project is a work in progress and when they find a better word to use they change it for all that word.
“The restoration work done on this site is without bias to any translation. Our research shows ancient Hebrew to have a Self Defining/Self Correcting embedded system. Therefore the corrected texts on this site, are free from doctrinal pressure. We apply the system, and print what is found, even though it does not fit with many of our personal beliefs. With that, these texts, are not translated, but rather restored to their original content. Read our research notes to understand how ancient Hebrew operates
The Chronicle Project.org is a research site only. All material may be freely copied and distributed without charge. Although the thought is kind, we do not accept donations so that we may remain neutral in this research.”
Exodus 3:14
KJV
14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
SDH Restored Hebrew
v14 And so to declare Originators to begin toward Mashaha (Moses),”To begin to be, to establish to begin to be. And so to declare to emphasize to proceed to declare toward sons Israel, to begin to be! To put forth, to come after, to begin toward to manifest you.
Paraphrased English
v14 And so the Originators declared to Mashaha (Moses),” we began to be, to establish what begins to be. And so declare with emphasize to proceed to declare toward the sons of Israel, begin to be! Put forth to come after, to begin toward so you.
Modern
And so the Originators declared to Moses, we were brought into being to establish what is brought into being. And so declare this with emphasis, proceed to declare this toward the sons of Israel that they shall begin to be! To put forth (from Egypt) is coming to begin toward manifesting you.
The rest you can go to their website for.
Doug
Thanks Doug for the clarification. Regarding one of the examples you gave: personally I believe the KJV is indeed referring to Jesus, when it says “in my name”. Well, before commenting too much more on the Project, I’ll have to study the resources you mentioned… BTW, I don’t idolize the KJV or commit bibliolatry as KJV followers of Peter Ruckman seem to do. But I do believe the KJV contains sound doctrine. So if any passages deviate from the meaning of the KJV, I would want to research them very thoroughly. That’s my position in a nutshell 🙂 Thank again for your detailed response. God bless you – Dave
Dave.
I believe it is referring to Him but I don’t believe it matters if we call him Yahshua or Yeshua or Jesus or pronounce it as the Spanish or English do as long as we are talking about Him and not some other Jesus/Yeshua…
Hello Davemosher, I cannot say how or why but I need to say, keep up your good work about this con artist. I am not living in the States but heard of Cahn via my often daily research I do on bible end times. I have an amazing gift which I treasure (discernment) and my gift has never let me down. You are one of the few people who have made a stand against this heretical man and its a lonely world for you as so many Christians hang onto his every word (makes me sick) but know that you are doing the right thing. You have made enemies and it will get worse. Christians hate been told they are wrong and they will not seek out the truth for themselves as they like this ears tickled. When Cahn puts the shawl over his shoulders then sings in Hebrew I have this strong aversion to shout (liar, fraud) as its contrived and I see right through his wonderfully planned act. Thank you. I came across your site by googling Cahn heretic which I felt in my spirit he was and you have now confirmed it. Thank you.
Thank you for the kind words, watchingandwaiting. You’re right, false teachers seem to hate being corrected. As far as discernment ministries, I too count it a privilege and a blessing to be counted among these “watchmen on the wall”, in spite of any opposition. I haven’t thought about it much, but I think you’re right: as the world gets darker (more evil), the “lights” (born again, discerning Christians) will receive increasing opposition and oppression. Interestingly, when persecution increases, the true Body of Christ always increases in numbers and becomes stronger. Look for example at born again Christians in China and other persecuted countries today. Well that’s it for now. God bless you – Dave P.S.: Just as your feelings were confirmed by my writings, my uneasy “vibes” about Rabbi Cahn were confirmed by the writings of some discernment ministries which are much more well known than mine. One excellent one is Berit Kjos. To our readers: I located these articles by Googling the search string [“Jonathan Cahn” “heretical”].
Watchingandwaiting, I did a bit of Googling on Sid Roth. The very first hit I clicked on was this Elijah List advertisement for Sid Roth in connection with Third Wave Pentecostal “seers”: http://www.elijahlist.com/words/display_word.html?ID=10357. Any mention of the Elijah List and seers is a huge red flag for me. If Roth associates so closely with these bizarre Third Wave heretics, he has little to no discernment, in my opinion.
And, since Sid Roth puts as much stock in Rabbi Cahn as he does in the Elijah List heretics, in my mind Cahn is part and parcel of this huge heretical crowd. Birds of a feather, as they say. BTW, in this article a defender of Cahn’s “The Harbinger” details Cahn’s associations with Third Wavers, and expresses his deep concern about this: http://watchpraystand.blogspot.com/2013/05/jonathan-cahns-problematic-charismatic.html Thanks again for your kind words. God bless you – Dave
I was gloriously saved in 2003. I was always taught there is no more prophets and that God does not speak in dreams anymore or give us mystical knowledge outside of His Word. I have read scriptures in NT that seem to say contrary so I ask God for wisdom because He said He is not the author of confusion. My answer has yet to come but I am still searching scriptures and praying God help me to rightly divide. In 2008 I felt a strong desire to learn to live off the land so I asked God to help me as I always do. A couple years later I felt a desire to start watching the news where I learned we were recovering from a economic recession that I never knew about. Soon after I started studying Economics and read everything I could get my hands on. The last couple years I started having dreams and in them I seen starving people that would come to my home and I would provide soup and share the Word of God to them. There were no cars driving on my road and people were coming on foot. Now, I don’t know if this is from God or from my love for economics which opened my eyes to a economic collapse that will soon come but A few months ago someone asked me to read the Harbinger and I was astonished because some of this was in my dreams. Its not the first time dreams seemed so real. A year ago I was sleeping in the passenger seat of our truck and dreamed a vehicle struck another vehicle on its side going really fast. My eyes shot opened and I looked to my right and screamed to my husband to stop which he did and we were barely missed by a vehicle running a red light that about tboned us going very fast. A few weeks later I dreamed my neighbors gfriend purposely hit him with her car. A couple days later it happened as I was outside sweeping my walk. I am Baptist and we don’t believe in mystical dreams from God in this day and age so I try to tell myself it’s all coinsidence..or could we all be wrong and God still speaks to people in different ways and reveal things to us outside his Word? All I know for sure is that both arguments backed by scripture have great points so as for me I wouldnt dare call Cahn a heretic. If Cahn believes in salvation by faith by grace and the turning away from sin then I am not going to try to eat him alive and hang on every word he states just for the purpose of shredding his testimony. I don’t believe speaking in tongues either as it was a universal language God gave the apostles so that people from different cultures and tongues could understand what the apostles were preaching. However, I have family that are Pentecostal and since they believe in salvation I wouldnt dare say they are heretics. … Sorry for errors I’m typing on a small phone.
Thanks for sharing your experiences, ItIsWell. Being brought up in a Wesleyan Holiness background, I believe the Holy Spirit can move today. I too have had some minor “supernatural” experiences – none on the scale of what you have gone through. I hold to a teaching called “soft cessationism” rather than “cessationism” or non-cessationism”. I am still looking for a detailed description of soft cessationism. Here is my summary of “soft cessationism”: the Holy Spirit can work today, manifesting any supernatural gifts in any way He sees fit. However, authentic supernatural manifestations are seldom seen today (particularly in the U.S.) due to sin or unbelief in the lives of those who profess to be Christians. When such manifestations do seem to appear, they are often (but not always) false signs and wonders. A true manifestation of the Holy Spirit will seldom appear among false teachers.
I don’t have a problem criticizing Rabbi Cahn, whom I believe is a false teacher and a heretic. The Bible says “by their fruit ye shall know them.” In spite of what appear to be some true revelations, Cahn seems to me to show more bad fruit than good:
1) He claims to be a modern day prophet on par with the Old Testament prophets, yet he is not 100% accurate in his so-called prophecies.
2) He associates with heretical Pentecostal Third Wavers.
3) I get the impression he views various extrabiblical written sources as being on par with the 66 books of the Bible.
4) I get the impression he puts greater emphasis on personal revelation than on the 66 books of the Bible.
5) He claims to be revealing new revelations, mysteries hidden in God’s Word up until now. (I would ask: out of billions of people, why is Cahn the first to see these so-called truths?)
… and so on.
Here are several blogs on the subject of personal revelation:
http://worthen.wordpress.com/2006/01/13/cessationism-v-continuationism/
http://sharperiron.org/article/cessationism-revelation-prophecy
The articles make some good points, although I don’t necessarily agree with all the conclusions of the writers. I hope to read the articles more closely and perhaps write a blog responding to each article. I am very interested in the area of “personal revelation”/”special revelation”, since the teaching was so abused among my ancestors the Quakers (they believed in the Inner Light i.e. “that of Christ in every man”). Also, I am fighting the similar Eastern Religion-influenced teachings of Richard Foster, who became a bestseller while in my Quaker denomination (the Evangelical Friends aka EFCI, which I would say was the most biblically sound between approx. 1892-1965). Foster’s bestseller “Celebration of Discipline” was published in 1978.
Well that’s it for now. Thanks again for your comments, and God bless you – Dave
If I understand you correctly, you believe that YHVH does not reveal (give revelations) to His people as He sees fit. Is this correct? The Bible is replete with examples of where and how God speaks to His people. I have served forty plus years in the missionary field and YHVH has done *amazing* things in my life and in the lives of others both close to me and unfamiliar.
It is *impossible* to describe in human language the things that YHVH chooses to do in The Spirit, so I don’t try to anymore. I have been given revelations, visions, and dreams over the years. That YHVH whispers to us when we’re sleeping is stated plainly in the Psalms. The Bible is the Word of GOD, yes, but GOD doesn’t stop there.
The proper course of action, according to Yeshua, is to GO to the person with whom you have a problem. Given this instruction, when was the time and date of your meeting with Rabbi Jonathan Cahn?
It is easy to find fault, brother, which is why there are so many critics, but remember , ‘As you judge, so will you also be judged.’
May GOD have mercy on us and fill us all with his Spirit of Truth.
‘For now we know in part; THEN we shall know fully.’
Shalom Aleichem,
Jesse Leigh Brackstone.
Jesse, thanks for the comments. Regarding revelation from YHWH, yes, I do believe He can reveal things to us through His Holy Spirit. But I do not believe He gives new, authoritative revelations to us today on par with the 66 inspired books of the Canon. It seems to me these inerrant “canonical” type revelations are the kind of revelations Rabbi Cahn is claiming to receive.
As far as the procedure for confronting those individuals I believe are false teachers, here is a pertinent answer I posted elsewhere: Myth: it is unbiblical to name names. Fact: throughout the Bible, heretics were named – particularly those who taught what I call “damnnable heresies”. This is particularly true for wolves in sheeps’ clothing trying to enter the fold from outside. For most of the heretics named, there is no record of their being confronted privately before being named publicly…. An exception would be if the false teaching or other problem starts with a person within the local church (rather than coming from outside the local church). Then I would say every effort should be made to confront the offender first, using the pattern of Matt. 18:15-17.”
I Hope the above clarifies my position. Again, regarding Rabbi Cahn, my negative “vibes” about his teachings are not just my own. A number of other discernment ministries also feel uneasy about various aspects of his teachings. God bless you – Dave
Cahn is simply referring to circumstances like this, where even those Jews who didn’t believe on Him were still able to prophecy about Him. John 11:49-52 “49 One of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! 50 You’re not considering that it is to your[f] advantage that one man should die for the people rather than the whole nation perish.” 51 He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to unite the scattered children of God” Anything that brings people to the real Jesus Christ is a good thing. I also noticed how people like you who attack his character never touch upon the actual topic in which he teaches! If the Harbinger is false then so is the information Cahn used to write it… Which is the 7 year Shemittah / 49 year Jubilee cycles that eriely match up with everything he says! Disprove scripture then you can disprove the Shemittah. Disprove the Shemittah and you can then disprove Cahn. Good luck with that.
Thanks for the feedback, Chris. I hear what you’re saying, but my beef is with more than just “The Harbinger” book and “The Shemittah” book, so I’ll hold off on a response to those two books here. (Besides, other discernment ministries have already posted critiques of these two books.)… I’ve provided this link before in another comment – a list of Rabbi Cahn’s sermons: http://www.bethisraelworshipcenter.org/tapearchiveList.php Browsing through the titles on the list, I see reference to a number of puzzling “revelations” and teachings that I’ve never heard of before. Do you not see a pattern here, of non-biblical, extra-biblical teachings? Or do you believe that all of Rabbi Cahn’s “revelations” are truly from God and spot on? In my opinion, many discerning, born again Christians would say that a number of Rabbi Cahn’s 1,901 sermons listed to date are off track. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to peruse the sermon list more closely, listing and categorizing the sermons that most trouble me. BTW, I wish Rabbi Cahn would post his sermons on YouTube. I really don’t want to pay $8.00 per CD, to a ministry I disagree with, in order to analyze his messages and theology. God bless you – Dave
It makes perfect sense why you would so viciously single out and verbally assault Jonathan Cahn. Because you work for the enemy of God. I just watched Jonathan’s message to the United Nations from Friday April 17, 2015. Everything Jonathan brings to light angers the enemies of God. Only those who walk with Satan would be offended by what Jonathan shares with the world. God is watching and yes, he will pass final judgement on those who harm his children.
Umberto, I have no problem with Rabbi Cahn warning the United Nations, the United States, and wicked, ungodly sinners. I believe we are approaching the End Times (if not in the End Times), and we need to stand up for the Truth and confront the wicked wherever possible.
My problem with Rabbi Cahn is how he gives so-called “new revelations”, teaching things that are extrabiblical, that I find nowhere in my Bible. To me, these supposed revelations cancel out any meaningful warnings he might be giving to the United Nations, the United States, etc.
Umberto, you stated, “Only those who walk with Satan would be offended by what Jonathan shares with the world.” I disagree with you here. Yes, sinners are always offended by warnings of God’s coming judgment against sin. But, also, those in born again, biblically sound discernment ministries are offended by how Rabbi Cahn seems to be sharing extrabiblical teachings, “new revelations”, “revealing mysteries”.
As I’ve asked others, I’ll ask you: can you say that everything Rabbi Cahn teaches lines up perfectly with God’s Word? Is all that Cahn teaches authentic and accurate and true? I’ll provide this list of sermons again (now up to 1,909 messages): http://www.bethisraelworshipcenter.org/tapearchiveList.php. Going through the list, I see many sermon subjects that sound odd to me. Can you see that a number of sermon titles sound like strange “new revelations”?
BTW, I do not believe God gives “new revelations” today (i.e. revelations that are inspired and authoritative like the books of the Bible). But theoretically let’s say, as many Pentecostals do, that authoritative revelations DO come from God today. That is, again, revelations on par with the Scriptures in our 66 books of the Bible. And theoretically let’s say, as many Pentecostals do, that there exist prophets today as equally authoritative as the prophets of Bible times. I would think we should then hold to the biblical standard for true and false prophets. Namely, a true prophet from God would never be wrong, would never give a false word from God or a false prophecy. If Cahn does indeed claim to be a prophet equal to those in Bible times, does he pass this test? Can Cahn say his “words from God” and his prophecies have never been wrong?
I am not singling out Rabbi Cahn alone. I would write about any preacher, teacher, pastor, author, etc. presenting “new revelations” which I don’t find in my Bible. And I don’t consider myself working for the enemy of God. I would love to expose the wicked (such as cultists, globalists, New Agers, Satanists, the Illuminati, those preparing the way for the Antichrist, and so on). In that regards, Rabbi Cahn and I are on the same page I think.
I’m saving the “harshest” part of my response for last. Below is a link to a very detailed letter from a former attender of Cahn’s congregation. From what I’ve read elsewhere, I don’t believe the writer is on a personal vendetta to tear down Cahn with false accusations. Rather, I believe he is presenting the facts about Cahn as they truly exist. In this letter, the writer describes Cahn as a self-proclaimed “prophet”, sharing what he believes are “new revelations” with the world, supposedly “revealing mysteries”. Don’t shoot the messenger – I’m just passing on the link to the letter, to show what others have written about Rabbi Cahn in this regards: http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/2012/excerpts/harbinger-letter.htm
Thank you Umberto for your thoughts on Rabbi Cahn. I hope this helps clarify my position on Rabbi Cahn, even if you disagree with my position. God bless you – Dave
P.S.: For our readers, there are articles from many other discernment ministries that express concerns about Rabbi Cahn’s teachings. Like myself, I believe these discernment ministries desire to confront sin, expose evil, etc. – but they are concerned about Rabbi Cahn’s methodology in doing this. Here is one such article – I hope to add more links like this to my original blog on Rabbi Cahn.
http://www.solasisters.com/2012/06/commentary-on-harbinger.html (this link describes Gnosticism)
P.P.S. 04/24/15: I just watched Rabbi Cahn’s speech to the United Nations: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gJM-NSMjyKg (I must admit, Rabbi Cahn came across as a very nice, sociable speaker, sincere and passionate about his message.) Plus I read an article about Rabbi Cahn and others on the panel at the UN addressing persecution of Christians. Here’s the link to the article: http://counterjihadreport.com/tag/united-nations-summit-on-christian-persecution/ Good messages, it would seem. BUT – I have a question. I am puzzled why these professing Christians think the UN is the answer to the persecution of Christians. For decades, the UN has helped implement programs which are taking away the RIGHTS of Christians worldwide. All sorts of globalistic, one world programs are being put in place, which will ultimately lead to the reign of the Antichrist and the slaughter of resistant Christians… This mentality of Christians working with the UN reminds me of Rick Warren’s collaboration with the UN – a big red flag in my opinion – see this article re: Warren: http://www.crossroad.to/charts/millennium-goals-peace.htm Warren, like Cahn, should be condemning the UN for taking away the rights of Christians worldwide – not collaborating with the UN. (I think Warren has also spoken at the UN.)
BTW, Rabbi Cahn’s participation in a UN INTERFAITH panel concerns me. It seems to me that interfaith participation requires a Christian to “keep his mouth shut” on certain issues – such as preaching that our Lord Jesus Christ is the only way to Heaven.
Hi Umberto,
When you talk about working for “the enemy of God” it is written Peter told Jesus it should not be that He should suffer and be killed… Jesus replied Get behind me satan, you savor the things of man, not God
(Matthew 16: 21 From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
22 Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.
23 But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.)
That’s how I see Jonathan’s speech to the UN.
If he leaves the comfort of his book and sermon writing risking his life fighting with with the UN troops he’s calling on I won’t think of him as a hypocrite.
My grandfather was Benjamin Siegel’s driver. After my grandfather died my grandmother sacrificed to save some of her people from the Nazis. I respect her. I’m not saying Jonathan Cahn doesn’t have love but I’ve never seen it and his interesting 1/2 truths while about 3% of them intellectually impressed me Jonathan’s other stuff doesn’t turn me on.
His Shemitah doesn’t impress me. Descent scholarship would give sources for statistics and admit that the Wall Street cycles are every 7 to 10 years — not a reliable pattern
Response from Johnathan on similar questions
Rabbi Jonathan Cahn:
When any book or message, which appears outside the box, as does The Harbinger becomes as popular a bestseller as it has becomes – it invites criticism. The Harbinger has been spreading across the nation – and, of course, criticism has come That doesn’t make the criticism valid – and in this case, such criticism has gotten more and more bizarre as time goes on. I will be glad to answer it:
Question: Why infer that God is giving extra-biblical revelation, when the Bible was given once and for all to the saints?
Answer: The Harbinger doesn’t state that God is giving extra-biblical revelation – unless one believes that God is unable to lead us, correct us, or warn us – The Harbinger does say that God is able to do all that, individually, and nationally. If God can judge a nation, He can also warn a nation. To say otherwise, I would say is unbiblical.
Concern: Israel is not America, and God did not make a covenant with us, nor are we the apple of His eye.
Answer: The Harbinger never says Israel is America or that God made a covenant with us. It does say that the Puritans, America’s founders established America after the pattern of ancient Israel and saw themselves in covenant with God – But it is never said that God made a covenant with America. Whether He has honored their prayers and consecration is left an open question.
Question: Is the publisher pronouncing Rabbi Cahn a foretelling prophet?
Answer: I don’t know what the publisher is pronouncing with regard to that, but the issue is not what the publisher says, but what The Harbinger reveals.
Question: What else has the publisher put out there?
Answer: Not very relevant. A book is not written by a publisher, but by its author.
Question: Does Rabbi Cahn draw from extra-biblical, mystical writings as his sources?
Answer: No. I only draw on one source for spiritual truth – the Bible. I only believe the Bible is the Word of God. One may use quotes in writing from a variety of sources – but this is not to be confused with relying on any source for spiritual truth – apart from the Bible.
Question: One critic said that since The Harbinger speaks of mysteries being revealed – does this have to do with Gnostic beliefs?
Answer: A very confused view. Unless we want to call the apostle Paul a Gnostic, since he also spoke of mysteries. It’s precisely the opposite. The Gnostics believed in knowledge that was to be kept secret, to stay a mystery. God is the One who reveals mysteries. The Harbinger does likewise – it reveals mysteries.
If there are no mysteries, then we know everything there is to know. But we don’t. And God, by His Spirit, is to lead us to continual insight, and show us things we don’t yet know. That’s the opposite of Gnosticism.
Question: It is stated that Jonathan Cahn “says that Zohar, an extrabiblical, mystical source from which the occultic and mystical Kabbalah is derived, greatly influenced his writing.
Answer: Unfortunately this kind of statements represents some of the extreme and bizarre opposition to The Harbinger – It is an extreme false accusation.
No. I have never in my life said that the Zohar has greatly influenced my writing – nor has it ever. What this accusation is taken from and twisted out of recognition from – Is that I have in some special teachings shared quotes found in the rabbinic writings which unwittingly bear witness of the truth of the Gospel – things that most Jewish people have no idea of – such as Isaiah 53 being about the Messiah, or God being Three in One, Messiah dying for our sins, or a connection made between the mercy of God and the word “Golgotha.” These things can be used to share the Gospel. This has been a standard method of apologetics and evangelism for ages. Rabbinical writings, mystical or otherwise, have been quoted for ages, in Bible commentaries, apologetics, works such as The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, etc. To take this and then present it as if I or any Christian pastor or scholar is a secret follower of such things because they used a quote to bear witness of the Gospel is, as, one minister friend of mine would say – shameful at best. It should not have even appeared in print.
The apostle Paul actually quoted from a pagan hymn to Zeus in order to share the truth of the Gospel at Mars Hill. If we were to then to accuse him of being into Zeus worship, or that pagan writings were behind the epistles, or accuse of him of being secretly pagan – I would think we would need to repent. It’s called bearing false witness.
Question: Does The Harbinger say that Isaiah is prophesying of America
Answer: No. It says Isaiah is prophesying of Israel – But that the same biblical template, pattern, and progression of judgment that took place in the last days of Israel, is now again manifesting in America.
Question: Why were the revelations of The Harbinger presented in the form of a narrative?
Answer: The Harbinger contains many and deep revelations – By putting it into a narrative, it makes it very easy to read and understand – That the word would go out to as many people as possible.
Question: What is The Harbinger actually saying?
Answer: Very simple. God judges nations. God warns of judgment. God is able to warn a nation of judgment in a way that is consistent with that which is found in the Bible. And that now the same biblical pattern, progression, and signs of national judgment that appeared in the last days of ancient Israel, are now manifesting to America. And that these signs are appearing in uncanny, eerily precise manifestations.
The Harbinger is not only the revealing of these biblical mysteries or connections, but is a call to repentance, salvation, and revival.
Question: What has the overall response been?
Answer: The Harbinger has overwhelmingly been endorsed, praised, recommended, and heralded throughout the evangelical world, and across the denominational spectrum, from Baptist to Charismatic, from Pat Boone to Pat Robertson, from pastors, to ministry leaders, to Bible teachers and deans of theological seminaries, people who obviously know the Bible and proper biblical hermeneutics. People are getting saved, coming to repentance, starting prayer groups and movements, being convicted of holiness.
Question: What do you think the opposition comes from?
Answer: There are ministries that set themselves look for error. This can provide a useful and important service for the body. But the problem is the downside – that the propensity to raise the sword, to quickly reject, to seek to find error (even when it’s not there) and to attack almost reflexively can become as much an error, a problem, and a danger as those who too readily accept teachings without questioning. The Harbinger is unique and doesn’t have much of a precedent – It appears as something very much out of the box. And then there’s the spiritual realm. If something is being used to affect many for revival, and repentance, and breakthrough, we have to expect that there will be opposition and misunderstanding, even by those meaning well.
The claims as even seen here, have grown increasingly bizarre and removed from the reality of The Harbinger. It’s a good sign. For that reason alone it would argue that something powerful is happening here
Question: Why do you think The Harbinger has become so phenomenally successful?
Answer: I have no doubt that it’s because the message is from the Lord. Before it even came out, I knew it would go forth to touch many lives because of it. It reveals things that believers have felt in their hearts but without the evidence to back it up. It reveals a biblical mystery of specific template of judgment that is now playing out in America, before our eyes, lying behind everything from 9/11 to the crash of Wall Street, biblical harbingers of judgment appearing in New York City, Washington, D.C., involving some of the highest of American leaders, the replaying of an ancient drama of judgment, even giving exact dates. People have described it in such terms as “stunning,” “mind blowing,” and “life changing.” And it is not only that, but that it is a call for repentance, revival, and salvation.
For all that, and even for the kind of opposition it’s gotten alone, the reader owes it to himself or herself to read it and see if this is, what most who have read it, believe it is, an urgent word that is given for such a time as this
Tim, thanks for supplying a response from Rabbi Cahn himself. I found the link to this response from Rabbi Cahn here: http://standupforthetruth.com/2012/06/harbinger-author-johnathan-cahn-answers-questions/
BTW, the above item was posted by our good friends at Stand Up for the Truth in 2012 – at that time, SUFTT seemed sympathetic to Rabbi Cahn’s position. However, in their 2014 and 2015 articles, SUFTT seems to have shifted their view, being very critical of Rabbi Cahn’s methodology. See also the additional discernment links at the bottom of these two SUFTT critiques:
http://standupforthetruth.com/2014/09/book-review-mystery-shemitah/
http://standupforthetruth.com/2014/09/will-christians-snookered-shemitah/
But I digress. Tim, I have various questions regarding Rabbi Cahn’s response which you posted. On some of his points, I agree. But on other points I don’t think Rabbi Cahn is being transparent. (I’m working on some other projects currently; hopefully I’ll get a chance to clarify/expand on my specific objections soon.) Sorry, but some of his answers to me see to be damage control. And, nowhere do I see him addressing the issue of the other 1900+ sermons he has for sale, where he supposedly reveals numerous other “deep mysteries”. I wish someone would analyze these sermons and do a study of Rabbi Cahn’s overall theology. Here’s the link again to his 1900+ sermons: http://www.bethisraelworshipcenter.org/tapearchiveList.php
To name just a few of the heresies I see in Rabbi Cahn: he seems to have a propensity for associating with New Apostolic Reformation heretics, even though he is a Messianic Jew. Also, various sermons seem to present teachings resembling the false Prosperity Gospel. And so on.
Again, as I mentioned in a previous comment, I wish Rabbi Cahn had his messages posted for free on YouTube as many other preachers do. Who can afford to pay for 1900+ CD’s – especially from a ministry they don’t agree with? (1900 x $8.00 = $15,200).
Well that’s it for now. Thanks again Tim for providing Rabbi Cahn’s response. God bless you.
Tim,
Harold Camping became popular when he was talking about the tribulation. People are scared because it is obvious judgment is coming. I believe Satan could be enhancing what Jonathan wrote in the Shemitah to do something similar to what was done by Harold Camping — desensitize people to the real message. I read Harold’s books. While I hoped they were true I could not endorse them because they did not account for a huge amount of possibility of other meanings to his calculations.
I don’t want to support Jonathan’s ministry but I listen to his interviews. While the harbinger had some interesting points that speak for themselves (as many things Harold camping said did) what references does he give for his statistics in the Shemitah? In the interview he said Wall Street people had contacted him and said they had been aware of the pattern but didn’t know it connected with the Shemitah. He’s implying 1/2 truths. He said in the interview how precise everything was but the only precise dates he gave were one or two but no reference how they are as he said – to the hour and minute.
Wall Street analysts thoroughly research patterns using computer analysis’s all the time. What Wall Street sees is 7 to 10 year patterns no where near precisely to the hour or minute of the Shemitah. I think the Shemitah is a delusion from a few coincidences that are not near as sensational or important as Jonathan says. People would buy it just to see if they should buy or sell stocks and they’b be much better off checking Wall Street analysts data that has references.
The pattern of Jonathan’s life in my limited observation is similar to what God wants Americans to repent from. I believe he ignores biblical protocol at his church. I also believe he ignored the brethren in his quest to become a big super church. When his congregation was in crowded quarters he chose to get a very expensive large building instead of meeting the needs of his congregation — at least one of whom was sleeping in a van in the winter while Gary Selman bragged to me that he was under grace and had empty rooms in his house. I also question why it was more important for Jonathan to write a sermon than take an elderly member of his congregation convalescing from an operation to the doctor.
Gary then asked if I thought he was on the foundation. I quoted 1 John 3:17 “But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?” Gary said “You can leave” I asked “Are you kicking me out?” He said “Yes”. After that a friend of my wife told us Gary said I had a demon.
If Jonathan is willing to leave the comfort of his sermon writing to risk his life fighting with the UN troops he is appealing to in his UN address I won’t think of him as hypocritical.
I apply Isaiah 57:1 -2
“The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness.”
to the Christians who are being killed by IS. If I could I would bring some of them here but what is there is not as bad as what will happen here to many.
A woman came up to my wife before we married. She was going to have an abortion and asked my wife for help. We were both living in our parents homes at the time and had no place to help her. Being a speaker had spoken against abortion there my wife asked Beth Israel to offer this woman to help her to have the baby but no one helped.
Isaiah 57:
3 But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore.
4 Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood.
5 Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks?
Many churches offer all the good feelings of salvation without the commitment Christ and the disciples had to one another. A famous person said ‘I can have about any girl I want. I don’t pay a prostitute for sex. I pay her to leave after’. I told Jonathan his Church was a religious social club on par with a harlot.
do8ug, thanks for your comments and especially for sharing your first hand experiences with Rabbi Cahn and his congregation. For our readers, let me get one thing straight – I’m not trying to stir up a hornet’s nest by posting the personal experiences of readers. I love the Jewish people. I believe they are the apple of God’s eye. God says in His Word, “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.”
However, as a third party who has never met Rabbi Cahn or his congregation, I am concerned about the things I’m hearing. Things from former congregation members, as well as other discernment ministries. If these “accusations” are true (as I believe they are), then I think people need to be warned.
Our readers may wonder, why am I focusing so much on Rabbi Cahn? Because he is so influential in Christian circles. Specifically, he is head of the largest Messianic congregation in America. He is a bestselling author. And, his writings are influencing the theology and eschatology of so many Christians. I am critiquing Rabbi Cahn for what I believe are heresies – just as I would critique pastors of the largest Protestant churches in America, pastors whom I also feel are heretical. Namely, Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, T.D. Jakes, etc.
God bless you, do8ug, and thanks again for your comments – Dave
P.S.: A general note to all our readers – I believe the sharing of personal experiences attenders have had with Rabbi Cahn and his congregation help verify the authenticity and authority of readers’ comments. Still, I am hesitant to post personal experiences. Although these are important, I am more interested in warning people about doctrinal errors rather than personal issues. But for now, readers may use this forum to share personal issues, within reason of course. All comments should be made in good taste, i.e. no vulgarities, no anti-Semitic remarks, etc. Please continue using common sense and being polite. Thank you and God bless you.
The Bible says to touch not God’s anointed. I think you have to be careful before you label someone a heretic. If you believe Cahn is not truly born again and is preaching falsely, then instead of attacking him you should confront him face to face not through a blog. While the scripture in Isaiah speaks not about America, it does serve to show a a similarity between both nations who trust in their own strength, their own wisdom, and their pride. It is a good comparison, even if you cannot rightly say that it was addressed to America. I agree that it was not addressed to America, but it serves as a lesson to America about how a nation can stray from God and trust in itself.
Louis, I recently added an update at the top of my blog, opining that there is a difference between attacking and correcting. Attacking to me means name calling, being anti-Semitic, etc. Correcting to me means speaking the truth in love (as lovingly as possible that is). As far as confronting face to face (or by correspondence or by phone), you are right – I have not done that. But I’m sure other discernment ministries have confronted, corrected, warned, etc. – apparently to no avail. I do admire the discernment ministries that try to confront individuals privately first. But note that when the individuals refuse correction, the discernment ministries “go public”. You could say I’m repeating what larger discernment ministries have already gone public with… As far as the Isaiah passage I agree with you 110%. Namely, such Bible passages can be applied to America (as well as other ungodly nations), but they are not prophecies about America specifically… I hope this helps clarify my position – even if you still feel I’m being too harsh on Rabbi Cahn. I would say, he seems to be born again and a very nice fellow. He is in my prayers. Thanks again for your comments. God bless you – Dave
“By their FRUITS you shall know them.” The Book of Enoch is not in the biblical canon, and yet it is quoted in the book of Jude. I see a mosquito trying to attack an elephant. I see an accuser of the brethren, chaff, and “a chasing after the wind”. Did not the Pharisees think they were better than Jesus? I think you are guilty of “leprosy”, and as Neville Johnson was told, “God is not going to tolerate it anymore. Men will die standing in the pulpit”. Consider yourself warned! Certainly there is a civil war coming to the church, but fight for the right cause! Repent of any besetting sin before it is too late! Many will say ” LORD,LORD…” but he will reply, “I never knew you”. By not “taking the plank out of your own eye” you are disobeying scripture. Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft 1 Samuel 15:23. Many preachers and evangelists are tortured in Hell, don’t become one of them, GOD loves you very much, but he will sent you there if you insist on having your own “gospel” ( read Mary K. Baxter, “Visions of Hell” online). Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Martin, thanks for the comments. I’ll hopefully develop my response further, when I have more time (my other half is calling to me to get some stuff done for her around the house 🙂 ).
Not to be rude, but personally I’m not sure why you’re so upset with those correcting Rabbi Cahn (I’m correcting not attacking – Rabbi Cahn does seem to be born again). I would hope you would much more upset with the many false teachings Rabbi Cahn seems to be promulgating. (Would you agree that he has at least some false teachings?) As I’ve stated a number of times previously, it seems to me that Rabbi Cahn has a number of false teachings. See again his list of over 1,900 messages here. Many of the titles of these messages sound extrabiblical to me.
As far as the Book of Enoch: if Jude quoted from this non-canonical book, I don’t think this authenticates the Book of Enoch. It is still very unsound for Rabbi Cahn and others to quote such noncanonical books. Check out this discernment article critiquing the Book of Enoch. Hope this helps clarifies my position on Rabbi Cahn. Thanks again for your comments Martin. God bless you – Dave
Martin Semrok,
Being merciful is warning someone when we see something wrong. If Jonathan Cahn made you aware of something, good for you. I learned a few things from Harold camping too. I believe Jonathan Cahn has weaknesses Satan capitalized on. In not respecting persons I respect the warnings from Dave and others of some of what Jonathan teaches.
You compare Jonathan to Jesus (with a few scathing warnings). How did Yahway approved Jonathan? Moses and Jesus and the apostles were all approved by miracles. Jonathan put 1 plus 1 together for America being judged, observed interesting things related to ground zero and added theories and speculation to it. I’m suspicious of the sensationalization of it.
Doug R
It might help if you removed all “heretic ” references which are so prominently displayed on the Internet.
Martin, as I’m sure you’re aware, there are various meanings to the term “heretical”. Some use the term only for the most egregious of false teachings – such as a denial of Christ’s virgin birth, or a denial of Christ’s resurrection. I’m using the term “heretical” in a broader sense, namely, describing anyone who is presenting any false teaching. Yes, perhaps the term is overused. But I find that Googling a person’s name, along with the term “heretical”, is bound to bring up any articles by discernment ministries discussing the person’s questionable teachings.
I have nothing against Rabbi Cahn personally. As I’ve stated in other posts, he seems like a born again Christian, a very personable fellow, passionate about what he teaches. I hope that helps clarify why I’ve used the term “heretical”. I’m curious what term you think I should use instead. Perhaps erroneous? Or do you not think Rabbi Cahn has been erroneous in any of his teachings? Again, just curious. Later – God bless you – Dave
Martin Semrok
You compare Jonathan to Jesus (with a few scathing warnings). How did Yahway approve Jonathan?
Martin, just to let you know, I slightly changed the title of my blog. It now has the phrase “is he heretical”? I’m also trying to further research Rabbi Cahn’s teachings, to present a more complete picture of what he teaches in his 1,900+ tapes. Bottom line, I can’t honestly say at this point that Rabbi Cahn is error-free. But I am willing to soften my blog as I have time, replacing the term “heretical” where possible with a term more precise. Again I would concede that the term “heretical” is overused, for everyone from born again Christians with slight errors to nonchristians with damnable heresies. I haven’t determined where Rabbi Cahn is on this spectrum – I do believe he is born again. Thank you for all your feedback – you’ve helped me think through Rabbi Cahn’s teachings and hopefully become more objective in my reporting on Rabbi Cahn. Again, it does seem to me Rabbi Cahn is born again, a very nice personable fellow, and passionate about what he teaches. And again, he is in my prayers. Feel free to continue commenting any time. God bless you Martin – Dave
If you were “correcting” you would do so to his face, one on one. If he doesn’t listen, then 2 or 3 witnesses, and you know the rest. Slandering him from the safety of your computer is not “correcting”.
Martin, I’ll repost a comment here that I made to Louis Elias. The comment applies to the issue of correcting, and when and how to correct. Here’s the comment:
Louis, I recently added an update at the top of my blog, opining that there is a difference between attacking and correcting. Attacking to me means name calling, being anti-Semitic, etc. Correcting to me means speaking the truth in love (as lovingly as possible that is). As far as confronting face to face (or by correspondence or by phone), you are right – I have not done that. But I’m sure other discernment ministries have confronted, corrected, warned, etc. – apparently to no avail. I do admire the discernment ministries that try to confront individuals privately first. But note that when the individuals refuse correction, the discernment ministries “go public”. You could say I’m repeating what larger discernment ministries have already gone public with…
Martin, the Bible passage you referred to (regarding 2 or 3 witnesses) is the procedure for confronting an errant individual in a local church. I’m not sure how that would work on the Internet, in this global age. Are you saying if we read a bestseller or see a YouTube video that we believe is a false teaching, we can’t critique it (and its teacher) until we first physically go to the teacher, along with 2 or 3 witnesses? Could you clarify how you personally would proceed in this situation, with someone far, far away that you personally thought was heretical, if you read his or her book or viewed his or her YouTube video? Any thoughts on the mechanics of how you would do this in a proper, biblical way over a long distance would be appreciated. (I realize one could call or write, but how would one include 2 or 3 witnesses?) God bless you – Dave
“The Mysteries, are they true (Biblical)”? would be my title. You must remember that the enemy plan is to divide and conquer; to distract us from the real foe. Read “Voice of the Martyrs”. As we converse, Christians are being slaughtered and persecuted around the world.(Jonathan addressed the UN about this recently). His main goal is to warn America of the cataclysmic destruction that is coming, repentance is vital.To me, you are beating the air,like the Pharisees confronting Jesus (the LORD of the Sabbath) about HIM breaking the Sabbath. We all fail in many ways,that is why none of us has the ” moral high ground”. “Speaking the truth in love” is essential.I would (if I were you) focus on shining a light on the wickedness around us, and praying against it ( if you bind the strongman you can rob his whole household). Pray for Muslim Obama, the Islamists wish to assassinate him and start a race war (in the US). The present pope is probably the beast who helps the Anti-Christ. According to messages given to Terry Bennett and Neville Johnson, by 2021 we will see 666 and find it difficult to buy or sell. The US dollar will soon collapse ( possibly coinciding with the last “Blood Moon” ) and famine is coming to the US (tripping over bodies that died of starvation-David Wilkerson). So, you see, we have entered the time of the four horsemen (of the Apocalypse in Revelation) and here you are smiting a fellow soldier ( when there is a battle to fight, with the real enemy). Focus on important matters! Hasn’t the US allowed the murder of 55 million children? Listen to Alex Jones, and you will be overwhelmed by the wicked things being done by .”law enforcement and the government” .Although it is too late to stop GOD’s chastening of America, it can be lessened through prayer and repentance, which brings us back to why Jonathan is so passionate in getting out the message of the” Harbinger”. Build up others! Tearing down and destroying (though easier), is the work of the enemy (who hates us because we were created in GOD’s own image). Pick a good battle, and fight with all the strength GOD gives you!
Martin, I agree with a number of your thoughts and facts regarding these End Times. Perhaps we can take a break from our differences re: Rabbi Cahn for a bit and explore some of these End Times subjects. Any thoughts on Berit Kjos? I like many of her articles on the End Times: http://www.crossroad.to/ She disapproves of Rabbi Cahn, but I think you’ll like many of her other articles 🙂 Later- God bless you. P.S.: Would you consider yourself a Post-Tribber? At this point I would say I am a Post-Tribber. Corrie ten Boom and Jim Bakker are also Post-Tribbers. Rabbi Cahn may be also – I’m not sure.
Yes, if you truly think that there are false teachings that need to be corrected, you should fly to wherever he happens to be (eg. frequently at Jim Bakker’s Morningside or take part in one of his trips to Israel ). Then you would have lots of time to talk .If it’s that important, its much better than sniping from the sidelines.
Last trumpet = 7th trumpet = time of the Rapture. There are many doctrines of demons in the Church , Prosperity Gospel, Hyper-Grace, Once Saved always Saved, Pre-trib rapture to name a few .Of 10 virgins, only 5 were prepared. The house built on the sand is a Christian who listens only. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gwa7m2ORbww is a very sobering message by Terry Bennet (Latest Headlines). Sadly many Christians will find themselves in Hell where it is too late to repent. Restoring people to the LORD in humility and love should be our goal.
Great comments, Martin. I had a feeling you felt that way (Post-Trib). Hopefully I’ll get to write a longer response later (lots of household chores to do at the moment). God bless you – Dave
He knows when the sky will fall and how we can stop it but what about Matthew 23:8? “But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.” Either he is IN CHRIST or he isn’t. Gods spirit will not lead you to do what Jesus hated. Furthermore, how come none of these so called “Jesus is about to be here” people ever tell us about the coming NOAHIDE LAWS? Surely with his Jewish background he is familiar with them. That’s what he needs to be warning people of – and also that Gods anger at America has nothing to do with gays but more to do with people who blindly follow any Tom Dick or Harry that comes along with “revelations”. People need to into the Word of God daily then you will see BS coming half way around the globe.
Thanks for the comments, Janis. I was not familiar with the Noahide laws, so I Googled the term. Here’s an informative link I found – scary: http://bewareofthenoahidelaws.followersofyah.com/ Now I’m trying to find links where Rabbi Cahn specifically teaches the Noahide laws.
In totality, we should look at the entire prophetic message that is being given, and not try to knit-pick at details, to find flaws. The message is that the shaking is coming, and it cannot be stopped. So the only escape is to be solid in The One who is unshakable. Test the spirit with the Holy Spirit to see if what is being spoken is coming from the Lord. Ask yourself if it confirms in your spirit. But if you’re testing the man (or woman, in this case), with the spirit, then you will always find flaws, because mankind is flawed.
More importantly, if your spirit does not confirm that what is being spoken is from the Lord, then it is your duty to seek the truth for yourself. Don’t waste your time trying to argue with what you know is not from God. Remember: don’t follow the person, and don’t follow the prophecy; neither will get you into heaven. Follow Jesus.
Mena Lee Grebin
This is a partial quote from Mena’a Facebook page. She had prophesied famine and yet Texas is underwater. People were giving her a rough time about it and this was part of her answer, which makes sense to me.
Good to hear from you Martin. Thanks for the comments you reposted – I agree with the comments for the most part. I haven’t heard of Mena Lee Grebin before – I’ll have to check her out. I must admit, there are some individuals that teach/preach like Mena Lee Grebin and Rabbi Cahn that I like, that are/were not 100% accurate. One of my favorites is the late David Wilkerson – he gave many good words of warning to American Christians and America in general.
Personally, I would not preach specifically that “this or that prophecy in the Bible refers to such and such in America today”. Nor would I say that “such and such” specific event is going to happen. For prophecies that the Bible does not explain clearly, I would make general statements such as, “In some way, someday soon, God’s judgment is going to fall.” Those who thus speak generally would avoid the mistake of Mena Lee Grebin, David Wilkerson, Harold Camping, etc. Namely, predicting a specific event that never comes to pass, then being mocked by the unbelieving world and (hopefully) apologizing for one’s wrong prediction. Well that’s my two cents for today 🙂 Thanks again for your comments, Martin. God bless you – Dave
It seems to me you are straining @ gnats and luxuriating in this exercise.
Calling Cahn a heretic just becauase he says things you disagree with is simply wrong.
You, Mr. Mosher, are not the keeper of the light and the truth and the way.
Mr. Canh is bringing more Christian to repentance and rebirth than anyone else on the national scene and YES he may be a prophet whether you like it or not.
Max, thanks for your comments. I don’t think I’m straining at gnats here – I think Rabbi Cahn really does have a number of heretical teachings (I provided a link to his bizarre-sounding sermons in my blog). As far as being keeper of the light, etc., I agree, I am not the final authority. But there are a number of additional discernment ministries that take the same position as mine, that Rabbi Cahn has heretical teachings. (I am compiling a list of the discernment ministries, to hopefully append the list to the end of my blog.) BTW, I have said some kind things about Rabbi Cahn at the start of my blog; many discernment ministries on the other hand have said nothing good about him… Regarding the number of people Rabbi Cahn has reached, yes, he has reached many, but the number of people reached is not necessarily an indicator of how biblically sound a person is. As far as being a prophet, it depends on how you are defining “prophet”. If you are using the definition of an Old Testament prophet of God, then a sign of such a prophet is that he is never wrong – every prophecy comes true. I doubt that this can be said of Rabbi Cahn. At this point in my thinking, I do not believe there will ever again be prophets the equivalent of the Old Testament prophets and New Testament prophets – except the Two Witnesses predicted in the book of Revelation. Rabbi Cahn does preach a lot of Truth – but he also has presented a number of erroneous teachings (mostly in his sermons for sale) that he needs to recant. Hope that helps clarify my position. God bless you – Dave
Max Saxon,
I believe Jonathan always wanted to become famous and now he is. Show me the Wall Street studies that coincide with the Shemitah year. Jonathan says Wall Street people called him and said they saw the same pattern but didn’t know it was the Shemitah. The only studies I see are 7- 10 year cycles. That is far from the exact to the day claims Jonathan makes. There have been people researching patterns every which way for a long time and I see no documented statistically significant shemitah patterns. Show me Jonathan’s documentation if you can.
All who made money of the FREE WORD of Yeshua Ha Massiach, is a herritic.
And I don’t care who they are or where they came from,, The Word of Jesus is for Free. !! Save your money for the poor, homeless and sick people. Pray for them. Give away what you don’t need,, I said read the bible.. Jesus told you.
Angel,
That’s ridiculous. Every Bible Publisher makes money. You probably would not have the opportunity to have your own Bible so cheap if that was not so.
do8ug, I could be wrong, but I think Angel is referring to Rabbi Cahn’s sermon sales, not the Bible itself. Assuming this is the case, I think if Rabbi Cahn sincerely wanted to reveal the Bible’s so-called “mysteries” to the world, he would make all his sermons available for free on YouTube (then we could see the totality of what he teaches). I don’t think Rabbi Cahn needs the money from sermon sales – I would think he’s been recompensed generously for his bestseller books. IMHO.
Eric,
I don’t know about heresy regarding his books either but certainly grandfalloon regarding The Shemitah. His book The Harbinger was a fiction around some interesting facts surrounding 9/11. His The Mystery of the Shemitah was a non fiction with no documentation, cherry picking statistics… The only mystery I could see was where are the facts? He said the cycles are to the EXACY DAY… He says Wall ST people contacted him and said they were aware of the cycle but didn’t know it was the Shemitah. The only Wall St cycles I ever heard of (and a lot of research and computer analysis goes into Wall St) are 7-10 year cycles — -A far cry from exact 7 year. I see 2 coincidences and the statistics for biggest are based on numbers that are common. There’s often an insignificant biggest crash because inflation is always increasing the number but not the percent etc.
To be honest — I’m jealous of all the money he made but not the dubiousness of his 2nd book.
I have no problem with using rabbinic writing in context. Rabbis don’t consider the rabbinic writings to be of equal authority as the scripture.
My friend, I’ve investigated Cahn, though you call him a heretic, you have no hard evidence, some innuendos but nothing real. Does bearing false witness ring a bell? I’d like to take you seriously, but you’ve got to do better than this. Cahn leaves room for disagreement, but presents a credible case. That’s ok. He hasn’t in any way twisted or misrepresented basic doctrines of the Christian faith.Regarding using rabbinic writing to appeal to Jews. I was a missionary for 17 years (evangelical Christian). As a missionary, to reach people you quote their writers as well to bring them to the word of God, an example set by Paul when preaching in Athens in Acts 17 when he quoted 2 Greek poets. C’mon, brother please sharpen your understanding of scripture before “correcting” a brother by calling him a heretic.
Eric Villanueva
Dr. Zenz (lecturer in empirical research methods at a Christian university) did this report — https://www.dropbox.com/s/tl40tsanm6i5aaf/Cahn%20shemitah%20research%20report.pdf?dl=0 on the alleged Shemitah cycles.
“Results:
– Basically no statistically significant correlations between Shemitah time periods and GDP downturns. Most Shemitah years or Elul-Tishri quarters had actually positive GDP growth.
– In particular, no chance to correlate Shemitah year GDP figures to spiritual or moral developments. Most GDP depressions during Shemitah years or times were before WW II.
– Even though Shemitah years or time periods showed on average slightly more negative stock market changes, the explanatory power (or coefficient of determination) of Shemitah versus non-Shemitah time periods was one percent or less! Meaning, there is a lot of random variation in the data that cannot be explained by a month or quarter being in the Shemitah or not. 99 percent of stock market variation must be attributed to other explanatory factors. That is way too much.
Also, it makes you see how deceptive Cahn’s book is: selectively pushing confirming facts, and deliberately omitting a whole host of disconfirming facts. I give several specific examples for this.”
“no serious conservative Christian academic or economist is subscribing to Cahn’s theory. No, Cahn is not about to win a nobel prize for developing an amazing new economic or financial cycle theory with even remotely predictive capabilities. His success is based on a mix of populist theology and populist, US-centered reading of economic history, targeted at people who are either unable or unwilling to truly verify his fact claims in-depth.
His theory meets a deep emotional need within dissatisfied conservative circles who are fed up with the spiritual state of the US and hope for quick judgment (BTW I have nothing against God’s judgment, quick or slow). Due to this deeply held emotional need, those who deeply subscribe to his teachings will not be dissuaded even by a wealth of disconfirming evidence, both exegetical and empirical.
That is the situation we are looking at.”
“The problem is: if one plays enough with numbers, one will always find „something“. A guy somewhere online invented a 9 year cycle and „proved“ it with world disasters and major events happening every 9 years for the past 100 years. He did this just for fun, to show the problem with Cahn’s approach. This is why some interesting means differences are not enough to prove such a major point.”
“So, the average stock market change for Shemitah time periods was lower. However, there were many highs and lows. Some very low lows, some intermediate, some high. Which also relates to the complete impossibility to connect this to moral judgment. Please don’t diminish Cahn’s argument about the Shemitah being about blessing or judgment, because that is the central theme of his book, his videos, his messages and sermons, everything. The inability to establish a coherent and systematic connection between a morality index (which Cahn does not provide apart from the 1973 abortion argument) and the Shemitah-related changes is a key problem for his entire hypothesis.”
“You can play around with 5-8 year cycles for a long weekend and „find“ a theory of 5, 6, 7 or 8 year cycles, depending where and how you start them. But do the cycles have a meaningful pattern behind them that relates to anything moral or spiritual? If not, then they prove nothing of significance for us believers do be concerned about.”
You may also want to check this out —
http://www.macrotrends.net/1319/dow-jones-100-year-historical-chart
There was a crash in 1929 from 5200 to 779, the largest drop I can see
It was in Aug
the next big drop Dec ’37, 8 years later
the next Oct 39 2 years later
then April 46 then May 56, April 59 and so on
Track it yourselves — where are the 7 year cycles?
In the end your opinion of Johnathan Cahn doesn’t much matter, nor mine, nor anybody else. No matter what you may think of his book or his teachings one thing you cannot dispute is the facts. The facts speak for themselves and the facts all clearly show that 9/11, just as everyday life are under God’s direction and God’s control. There is much we do not understand but facts are facts. I personally am appalled by your article and your narrow minded view. You put God in a box and you contribute to why so many are turned off and discouraged by the Christian community. ‘Do not be afraid, just believe’
Thanks for your comments, W.F. Sorry you are appalled by my article. I thought I made myself clear, that I don’t have a problem with Rabbi Cahn warning America of God’s judgment. Americans definitely need warned that they will fall under God’s wrath if they continue down their path of immorality.
Again, what I have a problem with is a number of Rabbi Cahn’s other messages. Do you see any erroneous/false teachings in other messages Rabbi Cahn has given? I won’t repeat here the problems I see in these other messages – many other discernment ministries have covered these. Plus I have covered some of these in other blogs and comments I’ve posted.
In short, it can’t be denied that Rabbi Cahn is controversial – people either love his teachings or hate them. Personally, I don’t hate all of Rabbi Cahn’s teachings. On the other hand, I am concerned about people who believe all of Rabbi Cahn’s teachings are totally on track and contain no errors.
Someone once said the most dangerous teachings are those that contain just a bit of error (because acceptance of these small errors can lead to acceptance of larger errors taught by an individual later on). I believe many of Rabbi Cahn’s teachings contain more than just a bit of error. I realize Rabbi Cahn is not the only person teaching some of these errors. However, he is one of the most prominent of these teachers today and seems to have many followers. Hope that makes sense.
Again, I do like the fact that Rabbi Cahn (and his friend Jim Bakker) are trying to warn America of God’s judgment, as the late David Wilkerson and others have done. God bless you – Dave
W.F. Rhoads,
The facts don’t back up his contentions in the book about the Shemitah.
I’m not afraid. I believe. The high priest in Messiah’s day prophesied about Messiah — So?
Read most of your commentary. I appreciate Johnathan Cahn’s voiced perspectives, and I’m watching for fulfillment evidence, believing if/when fulfilment arises, your negative and uninformed voice will form an evidence of its own. Criticism is valuable when based upon fact, but not when based upon rhetorical tradition. “Peace, be still, and ….” Let’s learn together that Revelation does not just stem from prophets, it comes from the Holy Ghost. Be quiet and wait upon the Lord, …
Thanks for your constructive criticism, Geri. You’re right, the true test of prophetic messages is whether or not they are fulfilled. Note – I believe in “Partial Cessationism”, which does teach that the Holy Spirit can give supernatural gifts today, although in a different way than Bible times. I don’t believe Rabbi Cahn (or any other Christian today) has the same degree of authority as prophets of Bible times… As far as my commentary being negative and uninformed, and being based on rhetorical tradition, I’d welcome your clarifying what points specifically you’re referring to… As I’ve asked others I’ll ask you – do you agree 100% with everything Rabbi Cahn has taught? Could you concede that he has taught “minor” errors here and there? I believe these “minor” errors can turn into larger errors if they haven’t already. As stated to others I do appreciate Rabbi Cahn’s desire to warn America of immorality and God’s resulting judgment. God bless you and thanks again for your comments – Dave
I believe Jonathan Cahn is doing a wonderful job witnessing to Christians and Jews alike. You state above, “Why does Cahn need to reveal ancient mysteries to the Jews and Gentiles? I see it like this, have you ever heard the saying “people are set in their ways”? I believe this is true in all religions. People understand and believe what has been taught to them for thousands of years and Cahn is using the Kabbalah to give them something to relate to. People are more likely to listen if they can relate. This true with any religion.
Lindsay, thanks for your comments. See my reply to Eric V., dated 08/15/2015. There I stated my belief that we should never quote favorably from occult documents in our attempts to reach unbelievers. And the Kabbalah is definitely occult. (I provided at least one link in that 08/15 reply, to an article by Berit Kjos giving occult quotes from the Kabbalah.) In fact I would say the writings from all other religions contain occult teachings. The fact that those of other religions have grown up with these occult documents, does not mean Christians should use those documents in their witnessing efforts. It is our Bible, the true Word of God, that is the Sword of the Spirit, dividing asunder. I believe only the Bible itself (along with conviction of sin from the Holy Spirit) will get through to those of other religions and bring them to true salvation. Yes, in witnessing we may mention occult documents of other religions, but only to point out their ungodly, demonic, occult false teachings. I hope you see my point. God bless you – Dave
Dave, you are dividing the body of the Messiah. And in doing so, you are practising the very errors that you criticize Cahn of, heresy. If you are unable to see the HS working in Cahn’s ministry, I am forced to question your understanding of salvation.
The Messiah was and is Jewish, and we are all (as Gentiles) added to the vine that springs from Abraham and every OT believer who died in expectation of God’s future promise of a perfect sacrifice yet to come. God sits outside time and His calculations are still based on the Jewish calendar, the one that He gave to Moses and the Jews. Furthermore, the covenant that He made with Abraham is still in existence since it was an unconditional and everlasting promise. It hasn’t been changed or altered by any NT teaching.
Your misunderstanding of the Old and New Covenants is based on teachings introduced by the Roman Catholic Church and Protestants who in some instances overreacted to those false teachings. I suggest that you forget everything you have learnt up until now and start rereading the Bible from beginning to end. Salvation comes from the Jews!
Thanks for the feedback. Question: are most attenders at Rabbi Cahn’s Messianic synagogue Jewish by blood, or Gentiles? Paul in the NT would oppose the latter I think – in various NT passages Paul seems to condemn continuing in certain Jewish traditions. Second, I have no problem with Reformation theology – specifically the Five Solas. These doctrines were put forth in very forceful opposition to Catholic teachings. Are you saying there is a third doctrinal stream – the Messianic – that differs from both Catholicism and the Five Solas?
Dave, I don’t care about “doctrinal streams”, in fact, I think that thinking along those lines is a giant negative. What happens to most folks that I’ve known is that they start to put their doctrinal viewpoint ahead of the Bible. They read the Bible through a lens, and consequently the doctrine obscures their ability to plainly read and understand what the words say.
Isn’t it possible, and even beneficial, to just read what the Bible says and listen to the HS, following the instructions? I agree that certain doctrinal concepts are useful, even important. But attempting to fit them into an overall scheme will lead one to error. For example, amillennialism leads it’s adherents to look at verses that are quite specific and meant to be taken literally and interpret them symbolically.
There are symbolic sections of the Bible and literal parts, but attempting to class them all into an overall doctrine isn’t necessary and is often harmful.
Who cares whether or not the people attending Jonathan Cahn’s church are Jewish or Gentile? And Paul didn’t have any opinion about a set percentage in a congregation. That’s like thinking that it’s harmful to have a church in Italy where everyone attending is Italian! People are either in the body of Christ or they aren’t – that’s the only distinction that’s important.
Cahn may or may not be correct about the continuing significance of the Shemitah, but neither you or I know whether he’s right, yet. We’ll probably know once we pass Sept 13, 2015. He doesn’t say that anything has to happen on that date, which is absolutely the correct way to look at it.
Salvation and the entire Bible are built upon a basis of what happened to the Jewish nation. To be a born again believer without knwoing the Old Testament is possible, but not beneficial. 98% of the born again folks that I’ve known are clueless about the OT consequently they are walking blind in their faith. Salvation comes from the Jews, nowhere else. Jesus is and was Jewish, so therefore it very important to understand Judaism.
Apologies if I’m coming on too strong here Dave. I don’t mean to castigate you, but your criticism of Cahn is wrong, Biblically and factually. He’s a member of the body of Christ, as I hope you are too. The word Christ means Messiah – when you read the Bible substitute the word Messiah for Christ whenever you read it and I think that you’ll start to understand the Jewishness of the NT.
God bless you …. Dave
Thanks for the kind words and constructive comments, Dave. Judging from your blogs, you seem to be a very insightful, well educated, thoughtful, born again Christian. I still have some questions regarding where you’re coming from doctrinally. I’ll plan to peruse more of your blogs, to learn more about your views. Question: do you have a Doctrinal Statement online? Here’s mine – sorry for the length: https://davemosher.wordpress.com/about/ Well that’s it for now. God bless you – Dave
Dave, you can read my testimony of how I came to know the Lord Jesus. It’s on my blog at http://www.prophecy102.com. Pleased to answer any questions that you may have …. Dave
Doctor Dave
Here are some quotes attacking the information in the Shemitah
Adrian Zenz wrote 7:03 am on September 2, 2015 http://www.biblicalintegrity.org/2014/09/19/mystery-of-the-shemitah/#comment-1479 —
“you may also want to seriously consider the implications of my research report on Cahn’s Shemitah, which uses GDP and stock market data in order to verify his claims. The report can be downloaded at http://bit.ly/1LNdeKE.
Results:
– Basically no statistically significant correlations between Shemitah time periods and GDP downturns. Most Shemitah years or Elul-Tishri quarters had actually positive GDP growth.
– In particular, no chance to correlate Shemitah year GDP figures to spiritual or moral developments. Most GDP depressions during Shemitah years or times were before WW II.
– Even though Shemitah years or time periods showed on average slightly more negative stock market changes, the explanatory power (or coefficient of determination) of Shemitah versus non-Shemitah time periods was one percent or less! Meaning, there is a lot of random variation in the data that cannot be explained by a month or quarter being in the Shemitah or not. 99 percent of stock market variation must be attributed to other explanatory factors. That is way too much.
Also, it makes you see how deceptive Cahn’s book is: selectively pushing confirming facts, and deliberately omitting a whole host of disconfirming facts. I give several specific examples for this.
Blessings,
Adrian”
John Cope wrote 4:17 am on September 5, 2015
“I have a law degree and was a Vice President of a major Wall Street firm until I retired 17 years ago to preach the gospel. I bought my first stock in the sixties. Cahn’s stuff is factually inaccurate. These books are almost science fiction and people are not taking the time to analyse what is being said. Scriptures are taken out of context and some of the things being promoted remind one of the Gnostics who had a “deeper knowledge”.
I am also a charasmatic . Believe it or not there are many in my stream that reject all of this nonsense but are not surprised to see people peddling fear. I am confident markets will go up and down. It won’t be because of some secret mystery discover by salesmen. I am confident regardlessof what happens the predictors will find a way to find an event somewhere in the world during September or October to justify another book or television appearance. I doubt there will be any accountability.
Be encouraged that I am an eye witness that people around the world are seeing Jesus Christ lifted up and are not giving the slightest thoughts to moons or the economic situation in the U.S. May our eyes be open to the glorious gospel again in this country Thank you David for your willingness to be a Berean on this subject.”
It’s not as simple as you like to simplify it. Whether or not something happens this Rosh Hashanah doesn’t change the premise being based on wrong information.
If something happens it will bring more attention to Jonathan Cahn and he’ll be seen as something he’s not. At least his fiction “The Harbinger” had more truth and real significant documentation in it than his non fiction “Shemitah”. Satan can build up high profile people setting them up to knock them down as he did to Harold Camping. That’s where the cliche “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing” came from.
The problem I have is when people have real truth no one will listen because of all the frauds. We shouldn’t feel sorry for or make up excuses for deception of deceivers.
– Elul 29 in 2001 was Sept. 17th, and the Dow fell a record 684 points.
– Elul 29 in 2008 was Sept 29th, and the Dow fell a new record, 777 points.
Since both of those are FACTS, I don’t know what you are complaining about? These are the major points that he’s making, and that we should be aware of the upcoming Sunday, Sept 13th, 2015, because that is the next Elul 29th.
Dave
Most of what you write here is either irrelevant or just plain wrong. Cahn is nothing like the false prophets to which you compare him. All I know is that many many people are repenting, witnessing to the Truth of Jesus as the Only Way to be saved.
I don’t like writing this but I sense alot if jealousy.
BTW, there are real prophets walking around today. It’s a gift from the Holy Spirit. The most important. You may need to get in your knees and ask Him to show you the clesr cut truth, not murky, empty complaining. Not good.
Thanks for the comments, Chuck. As I wrote in response to someone else’s comment, there is no doubt Rabbi Cahn is controversial. People either love his teachings or hate them. Here’s the rub – many born again, biblically sound discernment ministries (not just mine) have expressed concerns about various teachings of Rabbi Cahn. Question – are there any false or heretical teachers today that you can think of? A simple yes or no answer will suffice, if you don’t wish to mention names. I believe the number of heretical teachers and preachers has increased greatly in the past fifty years or so. Many “Christian” publishers are publishing authors which are way off track doctrinally – some more off track than others. Personally I think Christians need to be warned about these authors – including various aspects of Rabbi Cahn’s teachings. Yes, it may sound like I’m jealous of – or picking on – Rabbi Cahn. But, again, many born again Christians are expressing concerns about various teachings of Rabbi Cahn. They have also expressed serious concerns about other Messianic leaders and groups, particularly those in the Hebrew Roots movement. I love the Jewish people, and believe they are the apple of God’s eye. But I don’t believe Gentile Christians should be adopting various Jewish customs. It seems to me the New Testament churches were meant to belong to a religion (Christianity) separate from Judaism, and that this is the standard Christians around the world should follow. For example, honoring the Lord’s Day on Sunday rather than the Sabbath on Saturday… I don’t have as much of a problem with Jewish customs being practiced by Christians who are Jewish by blood. I would guess the Christian services in Israel during New Testament times were similar in many (but not all) ways to Messianic services today. Well that’s it for now. Thanks again for your feedback – Dave
2 coincidences do not by any stretch of the imagination make a statistically significant pattern. We all know there is a stock market bubble. What does Jonathan have to call people to repent to? I believe the same weakness that drove him to become a popular minister is what is causing him to grandstand inaccuracies in the Shemitah about the markets.
There are true evils to be dealt with that a child could see. If the stock market crashed on the 13th I’d still believe Jonathan cares more about his image than the brethren. Not only his books but nothing about his person impresses me that he loves the truth more than himself.
Perhaps if he gets extremely broken he’ll repent. I don’t know if he’s reprobate but I don’t see him headed in the right direction. I liked some of what Harold Camping said but his calculations were too vague and his method too shaky. I like the 4 or 5 pages of fact that Jonathan popularized in his fiction The Harbinger however the Shemitah is more of a fiction than his fiction was.
Harold Camping’s ministry was suspect to me from the beginning, and then made more so by his prophecy that the Rapture would occur on such and such a date. Jonathan Cahn isn’t saying that anything has to happen on Sept 13th, just that it would be wise to prepare for it. And that’s what I’m doing.
It’s a good exercise to go through in terms of figuring out exactly what are the barebones of a 20-30 day survival supply kit. Especially when you buy only items that you will still eat subsequently – that’s the really tricky part.
Dave
Dave, sorry I didn’t get your comment posted earlier – I haven’t checked my blog for a couple days… BTW, I don’t know much about the Shemitah or the Cahn Shemitah debate. Today is Sept. 13 – has anything unusual and tragic happened today? I’m not being sarcastic here – I’m seriously wondering…God bless you – Dave
P.S.: If something unusual and tragic did happen, how would we know it was connected with the Shemitah? Would it be accompanied by some supernatural, prophetic sign mentioned in the Bible? (Such as the Sun not shining, or the Moon turning to blood?) Personally, from what I have read of Rabbi Cahn’s view of the Shemitah, it seems too close to date-setting (albeit not as extreme as Camping).
Dave, everything is fine here in KC, and although the regular death and destruction continues in various places around the globe, nothing has occurred in the USA that would qualify as God’s judgement on the USA. There is a giant fire in California that has aparently destroyed hundreds of homes, but that’s a localized tragedy.
I’ve prepared (prepped) to be ready in case today turns out to be catastrophic. All along, I personally reckoned it was a 50/50 event, maybe it would, maybe it wouldn’t. Consequently, should a national disaster occur tomorrow, or on any other day, I’d have enough water and essential food to last for about 20-30 days.
In this area, it’s around 6.30pm, so we have another 5 hours or so before we can say that nothing has or will happen. I hope that you and yours are well in your area of the country.
In answer to your question about “how would we know?”, I imagine that we would be looking for a national disaster of some sort. We both can imagine what a national disaster would look like, there would be no mistaking it. I sincerely hope that it doesn’t happen, even though I’m somewhat prepped. Even if nothing greater than the Cal. fire occurs, our nation remains on the tipping point of God’s judgement. Other empires similar to ours have fallen in a day, such as the Assyrians and the Medo-Persians.
The KC Royals game begins at 7pm tonight, so I’m hoping to be able to watch the whole event. It would be typical that since we finally have a team that could win the World Series after all these years of waiting, we might not make it through September!
God bless you and yours … Dave
Dave, sorry I didn’t get your comment posted earlier – I haven’t checked my blog for a couple days… BTW, I don’t know much about the Shemitah or the Cahn Shemitah debate. Today is Sept. 13 – has anything unusual and tragic happened today? I’m not being sarcastic here – I’m seriously wondering…God bless you – Dave
P.S.: If something unusual and tragic did happen, how would we know it was connected with the Shemitah? Would it be connected with some supernatural, prophetic sign mentioned in the Bible? (Such as the Sun not shining, or the Moon turning to blood?)
doctordave777
A top notch water filter can give you a long time of good water. I hear the Hopi keep a 3 yr supply of corn for when the cities in the US collapse. I hear the 7th day adventists keep a 1 year supply of everything they need. A Native American prophet (Chief?) predicted the trees would start dying from the top down. I believe that was before we had nukes. At any rate he may have read the Bible about the sun scorching people. The ones I heard more recently believe the US cities will be nuked. Iran announced its discovery of uranium — was that on the 13th?
What kind of Doctor are you?
I live on the East Coast in N.W.N.J. Do you live near me?
The occult seems to have a lot of stuff set for Sept 23rd this year. Perhaps they’ll put in place some overbearing laws about climate change. I’m thinking the US will still have a naval fleet in Cyprus to protect the Egyptians when Iran attacks them if the prophecies in Daniel 11 & 12 are what I suspect.
When Shiite Iran gets nukes (if it doesn’t already have them) I believe Israel will be an afterthought. Their priority in my opinion will be to get the Caliphate and wipe out the Sunnis. Once it appears they are the ones who will fulfill Muhammad’s prophecy that divided the house of Islam then they will be puffed up with pride and boldly turn upon Israel, if.
Dave, I don’t believe that you should take a name like “The Hebrew Roots” movement, whatever that is, and then associate a particular pastor with it, unless you know for sure that he ascribes to all of the group’s teachings. I know nothing about the Hebrew Roots movement. The name itself sounds good, but what is it that you perceive as errors within that group’s teachings?
Interested in hearing your response, Dave …God bless you
Dave, here’s an informative critique of the Hebrew Roots movement, along with links for further research: http://www.apologeticsindex.org/3633-hebrew-roots-movement I can’t say Rabbi Cahn lines up 100% with the Hebrew Roots movement. In fact no one person lines up with the movement – the movement is so diverse that there is no single, simple definition of what Hebrew Roots means. My concern is summarized by a statement near the beginning of the article. Namely, I have no problem with born again Christians who are Jewish by blood using the terms Messiah, Yeshua, etc. and retaining some of the Jewish customs. But for Gentiles to adopt Jewish terminology, practices, etc. is a serious issue I believe. I know you stated that it doesn’t matter whether Jews or Gentiles attend a Messianic congregation. But read the various critiques of the Hebrew Roots movement, and you’ll see why others also are concerned about Gentiles attending. Hope this clarifies where I’m coming from. BTW, I still have a lot to learn about the Hebrew Roots movement myself, but again, what I have heard about it alarms me. Also, it appears the term Hebrew Roots is used by observers, not those in the movement itself. Not to be rude or step on too many of your toes, but it appears you may be following various aspects of the Hebrew Roots movement. I’d love to hear your comments (positive and negative) on the link(s) provided. God bless you – Dave
I’ve had a look at the Hebrew Roots info, thanks for the links Dave. In many respects, I think that they are correct. We have lost, or deliberately buried, the fact that Chriitianity is an off-shoot of Judaism. But where I disagree with them is over the idea that the Mosiac Law still applies to believers in the Messiah. He came to set us free from an external obedience to the Law, and replace it by putting it within our hearts.
The Law that God gave to Moses contains 613 commandments, not just the Ten that we are familiar with from the movie of the same name. James states in chapter 2, verse 10, that to break any one part of the Law is to break it all. So anyone who thinks that by resting on Saturday they are obeying the Law is missing out on the remaining 612 parts.
When we look at the 10 Commandments, 9 of them are restated in the NT as being rules we should wholeheartedly attempt to obey. The only 1 missing from the NT is the observance of Saturday as a day of rest. Hebrews 3 goes into some detail and specifies that the Sabbath does still exist for believers in the Messiah, but it is far more extensive in terms of rest. It requires us to rest from our own works on every day and at every moment. That is a true understanding of the Sabbath – God has prepared our works for us beforehand, and all that remains is for us to walk in them. When we meet with other believers is irrelevant, it can be on any day of the week, and has no bearing on the meaning of the Sabbath which is solely to do with resting from our works, just as God did from His.
Effectively, this explains why God regards our own works as filthy rags. We must follow the internal leading of the Holy Spirit in determining exactly what we should and shouldn’t do in any given situation. Now, we aren’t expected to get this absolutely correct on the first go, but that is why we have a Saviour to whom we may go boldly and receive grace and forgiveness, plus the Bible which gives us guidelines for our behaviour.
I’ve never heard Jonathan Cahn state that we should be practicing the Mosiac Law, in any shape or form. However, I don’t attend his church, so I can’t be sure on that. But I would be cautious of grouping him with others who teach obedience to the Law.
In Jesus’ precious name …. Dave
Thanks for the feedback, Dave. I agree for the most part with your statements. And here is the doctrinal statement of Beth Israel, headed by Rabbi Cahn: http://beth-messiah.org/what-we-believe.html The doctrinal statement sounds good to me at first reading, but there are still things about Rabbi Cahn and Messianic congregations that bother me, as I mentioned. And it seems to me that the doctrinal statement alludes to the Hebrew Roots movement – the doctrinal statement contains the phrase “Jewish roots”.
I’ll give you a glimpse of my born again Christian “worldview”. To me Christ is the center of history; history could be called “His Story”. From Genesis to Revelation, we can see Christ (and allusions, foreshadowings, prophecies, etc. re: Christ) in every book of the Bible. And I don’t view the Bible through the lenses of Judaism – I view it through the lenses of Christianity. I would never say that “Christianity is an off-shoot of Judaism” as you put it – although technically it’s true; many date Christianity as starting in Jerusalem on Pentecost. I would view the whole Bible as a history of Christianity – not a book of Judaism. For me, the core of my Christian faith can be found in great New Testament passages such as John Chapter 1, John Chapter 3, and the book of Romans, to name a few. I believe wholeheartedly that all 66 books of the Bible are God’s inspired, inerrant, preserved Word (and contain Christian teachings). And because the New Testament explains our Christian doctrine in detail, I would spend, say, 70-80% of my time studying the New Testament and 20-30% of my time studying the Old Testament. I must admit, I am awed by great Messianic prophecies in the OT, such as in the books of Psalms, Isaiah, etc., that point to the New Testament. And in the Passover, blood sacrifices, etc. God was teaching His people what the coming Messiah Jesus Christ would be like… To summarize, I wouldn’t say “Christianity is an off-shoot of Judaism” – I would say the 39 books of the OT are a precursor to Christianity.
I hesitate to say “Judaism” is a precursor to Christianity. I must say, the term “Judaism” does not sit well with me. Can we even say that “Judaism” lines up with Christianity? Are you defining Judaism as including the 39 books of the OT PLUS the extrabiblical rabbinical writings? From what I read here, Judaism (with its various rabbinical writings) added many teachings over the centuries long after Moses: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaism#Origins Most of these writings are unfamiliar to me – and I’m sure there are many teachings in these documents that deviate from the teachings in my Bible.
A statement you made in a previous comment struck me as varying from my belief. You quoted the phrase “salvation is of the Jews” or something like that. I do not believe that means “salvation is through the Jewish faith (or Judaism)”. I believe it means that God chose the Jewish people to be the lineage of Jesus Christ, and thus through this Jewish lineage salvation (through Christ) came. I don’t believe Judaism itself is to be followed – Christianity and Christianity alone is to be followed. I would say, though, Christians should always view the Jewish people as God’s chosen people, the apple of God’s eye. Perhaps because Jesus Christ was Jewish, and His lineage was of the Jewish people.
BTW, when I picture Adam, Eve, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Elisha, Elijah, and all the OT saints in Heaven, I think of them simply as “Christians”. I do not refer to them as “born again Jewish people” or “Messianic Jews” (although technically they are). I prefer to think of them as “saved” or “born again” or “saints” or “Christians”. The Bible says something like “their faith was accounted unto them for righteousness”. I believe God in His sovereignty knew that, if Christ had been on Earth during the lifetimes of these individuals, they would have repented of their sins and accepted Him as Saviour. Does that make sense?
Are there certain Messianic authors or Messianic rabbis you follow, that mirror your beliefs? That would help me better understand where you’re coming from, if I could peruse their articles or books.
Well that’s it for now. God bless you – Dave
Dave, great to hear about your background. My email is djrandmpr@gmail.com, feel free to use it since we’re probably covering ground ouside the context of your post. It explains quite a bit to me.
From my viewpoint, you are missing a lot from being unaware (if you are) of the basis of your belief. Have I asked you to look at my blog at Prophecy102.com? I wrote an entry summarizng my salvation experience. The entry is called “My Son, Jesus, has already done it all”. If you haven’t read it yet, it would help in our communication if you did.
When you’ve read it, would you be so kind as to write to me at my email and tell me about your salvation experience? It would help me in understanding where you are coming from. Thanks …..
In Jesus’ precious name …. Dave
Will do, Dave, I’ll plan to read your blog and email you when I get a chance. I should have taken the step earlier, of posting my testimony (of accepting Christ) online. I summarized the steps of accepting Christ at the end of this blog: https://davemosher.wordpress.com/2015/08/11/how-long-is-eternity-and-where-will-you-spend-eternity/ I do believe that you too are born again – it just seems to me that getting involved in Messianic congregations is, in a sense, taking Christians a step backwards into the “Old Covenant” so to speak. Our focus should be on the cross of Calvary, of the New Covenant Christ made with us in shedding His blood, and nothing should distract from that. My favorite songs at church are, “The Old Rugged Cross”, “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood”, etc. To me, songs and sermons about Calvary make for wonderful church services. Paul said something like “I preach Christ and Him crucified.” Plus, I do not see references in the New Testament to the churches at Corinth, Thessalonica, etc. holding to any “Hebrew Roots” teachings or practices… But I digress. Again, I’ll read your blog and email my testimony when I get a chance. Sleep calls, and a busy day tomorrow. God bless you – Dave
We’ll probably cover some of this, but I think that it’s important to remember that the only scriptures that Jesus used were what we now call the OT, and that counts for Paul and all the others writers of the NT. They wrote what ultimately became the NT out of their knowedge of the OT.
Chuck Hampton,
You wrote
“All I know is that many many people are repenting, witnessing to the Truth of Jesus as the Only Way to be saved.”
This is exactly what people were saying about Harold Camping before he was proven wrong.
Dave, where are you located? In the US? I just took a look at the news online, and it may turn out that I was incorrect in terming the Cal. fire “a local tragedy”.
The report was from CBS, and you know how the media always attempt to make these events seem more dramatic than they are, but if they are correct in their assessment, these fires have now spread across several states. It’s too soon to judge if this could be classed as a national disaster, but we’ll have to see if and how it spreads overnight. Hopefully, they’ll be able to control the fires, but the country out West is in drought condition, without substantial rains in many years.
I hope and pray that they will be able to put them out. .. Dave
Yes Dave, I’m in the U.S. Which brings up a related point: do you believe Christians in the U.S. will be protected from tragedies and plagues that will befall the wicked in the U.S.? Perhaps something like the Passover, in which firstborn boys of the Jewish people in Egypt were spared because they had blood over their doors? I know various Bible passages seem to refer to Christians in the End Times being protected. I’m not sure where Rabbi Cahn stands on this. God bless you – Dave
Yes, Dave, God will protect His people from harm as He always does. The example of the Passover is a good one. How did God protect the Jews? With the blood of an innocent, unblemished, male lamb painted over their doors. Furthermore, to extend the picture, each family actually knew that lamb in a personal way.
The requirement given by God to Moses was that each family was to take that lamb into its house on the 10th day and keep it there until the 14th day (Ex 12). Through that process the family would have grown to ‘know” that lamb. Was it shy or forward? They would have to feed it personally. So by the time that they had to slit its throat and collect its blood, they would’ve known it like we know a pet. They would have seen that there salvation was inexorably bound into the sacrifice of an innocent male lamb, one that they were actually attached to emotionally.
What better picture could there have been to show them that their eternal salvation was also dependent upon a similar sacrifice, only this one would be in the future and it would involve their promised Messiah. Now to bring this OT picture to our current scenario, probably not all the Jews who experienced this event were able to draw the analogy that God was painting for them. Yet He protected them all.
In my opinion, this is a picture of the Church, His whole body of born again believers, OT and NT. He knows His elect, including those who know Him today and commune with Him, but also those who will one day accept Him as their Lord in the future. Since He lives outside the dimension of Time, He sees the beginning and the end simultaneously. Just like when Jesus, the Messiah, prayed that none would be lost, despite the fact that many were yet to be born and would hear His words many centuries later, see John 17:6-26.
Simultaneouly, this doesn’t mean that those of us who are already born again and have a living relationship with Him today, through talking to and listening to His voice, are immune to death and suffering. Why should we be when so many saints (we are all saints) have died torturous deaths before us? But we aren’t called upon to ponder these things in detail, rather to listen to His guidance (through the HS who lives within us), and walk in the works that He has set before us before the foundation of the earth. We haven’t been given a spirit of fear.
I think that Jonathan Cahn would agree with what I have written here. After having listened to him speaking many times on YouTube, I’ve heard nothing that would cause me to think that he is unorthodox in his belliefs.
God bless and protect you … Dave
Dave, I believe God will someday bring judgment on the entire country of America – I just have a problem with setting dates re: when (and how) it will happen. I did hear the media refer to the fire in California as “apocalyptic” – interesting. When Christians say that San Francisco had earthquakes because people there are wicked, or New Orleans had a hurricane because they’re occult and sexually immoral, or that Haiti had a hurricane because they’re occult, or that India has famines, etc. because they have an occult Eastern religion, it seems to me God does bring judgment on localities in this way. God certainly brought judgment on Israel and Judah in the OT, by allowing their enemies to invade them, destroy their cities and take them away into captivity.
Nonetheless, I still have serious problems with Rabbi Cahn. He seems to have a number of teachings which overlap with the Hebrew Roots movement – a movement I believe is filled with heresies. Any thoughts on the Hebrew Roots movement?
Well that’s it for now. God bless you – Dave
PS, I’m sure we could cherry pick a statistic that makes it look like something major happened on the 13th and perhaps it did.
Utter nonsense. Iv’e studied Cahn’s works at length, and find it all to be highly fact based and Biblically accurate. The only “heretic” I see here…. is the self righteous pompous buffoon who scribbled this nonsense.
America is in DEEP trouble with God. And God has, and IS giving his signs of warning for those who have a will to seek the truth.
Shame on you for penning this ridiculous self indulgent tripe. I have confidence that Cahn’s message IS from the Lord….. and you shall be brought into account for your folly.
Thanks for your feedback, Gabe. I agree 100% with you, Rabbi Cahn, Jim Bakker, the late David Wilkerson, etc. that America is in deep trouble. My main beef (as I stated in my blog) with Rabbi Cahn is that he (and some other Christians) at times include quotes from ungodly, extrabiblical sources in an attempt to reveal “new mysteries” in God’s Word. I believe it is possible for a born again Christian to teach Truth mixed with errors. But, in the long run, those hearers with “itching ears” will be drawn like a magnet to the errors of this teacher rather than the nuggets of Truth. Hope that makes sense – Dave
Gabe King
I agree the US is in deep trouble with God.
I object to Cahn’s adding to the fact grandstanding cherry picked misleading statistics.
Dr. Zenz (lecturer in empirical research methods at a Christian university) did this report — https://www.dropbox.com/s/tl40tsanm6i5aaf/Cahn%20shemitah%20research%20report.pdf?dl=0 on the alleged Shemitah cycles.
“Results:
– Basically no statistically significant correlations between Shemitah time periods and GDP downturns. Most Shemitah years or Elul-Tishri quarters had actually positive GDP growth.
– In particular, no chance to correlate Shemitah year GDP figures to spiritual or moral developments. Most GDP depressions during Shemitah years or times were before WW II.
– Even though Shemitah years or time periods showed on average slightly more negative stock market changes, the explanatory power (or coefficient of determination) of Shemitah versus non-Shemitah time periods was one percent or less! Meaning, there is a lot of random variation in the data that cannot be explained by a month or quarter being in the Shemitah or not. 99 percent of stock market variation must be attributed to other explanatory factors. That is way too much.
Also, it makes you see how deceptive Cahn’s book is: selectively pushing confirming facts, and deliberately omitting a whole host of disconfirming facts. I give several specific examples for this.”
“no serious conservative Christian academic or economist is subscribing to Cahn’s theory. No, Cahn is not about to win a nobel prize for developing an amazing new economic or financial cycle theory with even remotely predictive capabilities. His success is based on a mix of populist theology and populist, US-centered reading of economic history, targeted at people who are either unable or unwilling to truly verify his fact claims in-depth.
His theory meets a deep emotional need within dissatisfied conservative circles who are fed up with the spiritual state of the US and hope for quick judgment (BTW I have nothing against God’s judgment, quick or slow). Due to this deeply held emotional need, those who deeply subscribe to his teachings will not be dissuaded even by a wealth of disconfirming evidence, both exegetical and empirical.
That is the situation we are looking at.”
“The problem is: if one plays enough with numbers, one will always find „something“. A guy somewhere online invented a 9 year cycle and „proved“ it with world disasters and major events happening every 9 years for the past 100 years. He did this just for fun, to show the problem with Cahn’s approach. This is why some interesting means differences are not enough to prove such a major point.”
“So, the average stock market change for Shemitah time periods was lower. However, there were many highs and lows. Some very low lows, some intermediate, some high. Which also relates to the complete impossibility to connect this to moral judgment. Please don’t diminish Cahn’s argument about the Shemitah being about blessing or judgment, because that is the central theme of his book, his videos, his messages and sermons, everything. The inability to establish a coherent and systematic connection between a morality index (which Cahn does not provide apart from the 1973 abortion argument) and the Shemitah-related changes is a key problem for his entire hypothesis.”
“You can play around with 5-8 year cycles for a long weekend and „find“ a theory of 5, 6, 7 or 8 year cycles, depending where and how you start them. But do the cycles have a meaningful pattern behind them that relates to anything moral or spiritual? If not, then they prove nothing of significance for us believers do be concerned about.”
You may also want to check this out Gabe —
http://www.macrotrends.net/1319/dow-jones-100-year-historical-chart
There was a crash in 1929 from 5200 to 779, the largest drop I can see
It was in Aug
the next big drop Dec ’37, 8 years later
the next Oct 39 2 years later
then April 46 then May 56, April 59 and so on
Track it yourselves — where are the 7 year cycles?
The clear truth is the harbinger is Kabbalah inspired the name Zohar is right out of the Kabbalah teachings the idea that a pastor claiming to be a prophet is getting personal revelation from God on things written in between the lines of the bible and only he sees and no one else doesn’t the bible say if any man or even a angel preaches a different gospel let them be accursed also I have seen weird things evolve at Beth Israel thier over obession with security and anyone who questions the truthfulness of those in charge are told not to chellenge their authority or if what they say is correct or you will be no longer welcomed when was the last time a pastor. Or anyone on a leadership team was above reproach and not to be corrected if what he teaches is not biblical
Rabbi Cahn, should you ever peruse this page, don’t be discouraged, keep preaching the truly PROPHETIC Word that God has called you to preach. You are no heretic, just a huge and NEEDED man of God for the Church, America, and the world today. God never stopped calling and commissioning apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors, and evangelists. Man of God David Wilkerson, was a true, holy, untainted man of God with a HUGE Prophetic mantle. So is Rabbi Cahn, and many others. I am not talking about those who become polluted by so-called fame and false prosperity teachings, who do a disservice to the true apostles and other five-fold ministry, whom God calls and anoints to do whichever part of His Will that He assigns them. Anyway, God knows all things, knows whom He has called, knows if His people are struggling, failing Him, going down a wrong path, etc., so He will straighten all that out one day. But Rabbi Cahn is not one of those who is going to be in need of severe straightening out in that great and fearsome day.
We are thankful for you, Rabbi Cahn! Keep serving the LORD with the zeal and purity that you do!
Celesta, no man of God is perfect, but I do have a great deal of respect for the late David Wilkerson (although I think he was wrong in accepting charismatic Catholics as born again Christians – but that is another topic). I think Rabbi Cahn is different than David Wilkerson though. Many believe David Wilkerson spoke some prophetic messages. But I get the impression Rabbi Cahn claims more: 1) he seems to paint himself as a prophet in the same sense as the Old Testament prophets, 2) he seems to claim authority equal to the Old Testament prophets, 3) most bizarre of all IMHO, he claims to have NEW messages with the authority of an Old Testament prophet, and proceeds to share these new messages/mysteries with the world. Rabbi Cahn, if you read this, can you answer these three points directly, perhaps on your website? Many Christians are concerned that you are taking these positions – or at least coming across in this manner. Shalom and God bless you – Dave
P.S.: Think Rabbi Cahn has eased up on his extrabiblical teachings, his revealing of new mysteries to the world? Think again. Here is an article on a very recent publication, entitled “Book of Mysteries”: http://www.piratechristian.com/berean-examiner/2016/8/jonathan-cahns-new-book-of-mysteries-promises-keys-to-unlock-divine-secrets. The 365 days of teachings are presented in fictional form, but they line up with the teachings in Rabbi Cahn’s 2,011 teaching tapes (as of 08/21/16) found here: http://www.bethisraelworshipcenter.org/tapearchiveList.php Bottom line, we are free to interpret the 66 books of the Canon. But it seems to me Rabbi Cahn is crossing the line, giving totally new meanings to Scriptures and/or presenting new extrabiblical revelations/revealing of mysteries. The number of extrabiblical teachings and terminologies Rabbi Cahn has “given the world” is staggering – yet Christians who defend Rabbi Cahn often say “stop attacking” him and “stop nit-picking”. What gives?
Rabbi Cahn is now predicting the collapse of the dollar on September 27
Did he get a revelation from God or from the head of the Federal Reserve
Are you sure of that? There’s a Youtube video from 2015 that’s re-titled with a 2016 date.
I tried to watch those videos and Cahn was not on them — it was a scam to get people to listen to their traif but apart from those videos it may be possible he’s saying that — I don’t know.
I read both of johnathan cahn’s books
Now I’m
Afraid that I may not be able to discern
Anything I might read. I am now reading
Robert Henderson book Courts of
Heaven. Is this book biblically corrpect
Please let me know before I follow
His method of praying
Maria, I Googled Robert Henderson and found this bio: http://wagnerleadership.org/instructor/robert-henderson/ No, I would not recommend Robert Henderson or any of his books. Henderson is a big name in the New Apostolic Reformation, and is endorsed by the heretical C. Peter Wagner. I won’t go into detail here – just to say try Googling the terms “New Apostolic Reformation heretical”. Many articles will come up. Here is a great critique of the NAR, along with many links to articles for further research: http://bereanresearch.org/dominionism-nar/ Don’t get me wrong. I believe in being Spirit-filled, and I believe God can answer prayer today supernaturally. But so-called “apostles, prophets and seers” in the New Apostolic Reformation are way off theologically. For starters, many of them barely mention becoming born again. Instead, they tout bizarre supernatural experiences supposedly from God, such as dreams, trances, angelic visitations, Third Heaven visitations, etc. I do not see such phenomena emphasized in the Bible as normative for Christians to experience. I would daresay these manifestations are from Satan and his demons, not from God. Plus Paul said, “Let everything be done decently and in order” – yet I see very little order in the NAR’s supernatural phenomena. Plus the NAR people teach that revelation from God continues today – revelation on par with the books of the Bible. And these are just of a FEW of the false teachings in the NAR. Hope that helps. God bless you – Dave P.S.: I agree it is difficult today to know who to trust. Increasingly, America’s most well known “Christians” are endorsing false teachers and movements. It seems biblical discernment is becoming increasingly rare. I would say this is a sign of the End Times.
I agree wholeheartedly, Dave. The NAR are a group of self appointed “apostles” and “prophets”. I’ve had some personal experience with some of them, particularly Mike Bickle and Bob Jones. I was present at a meeting when Bob Jones stood on the stage and delivered perhaps as many as 25 “prophecies” in a row, in rapid fire. Not one of them was a genuine prophecy.
How do I know that? Well, back in around 1981 the Holy Spirit gave me the gift of prophecy, and on most occasions I am able to tell the difference between prophecies from the HS vs. those that aren’t. Mike Bickle was the pastor in charge of the proceedings at the meeting where Bob Jones gave these false prophecies, and he never said a word of correction. That tells me that Mike Bickle hasn’t been gifted by the HS either since he was supposed to judge what was going on.
Furthermore, in the 1984-1990 era, I was a member of Full Faith Church of Love, led by Pastor Ernie Gruen. Ernie was the leading charismatic pastor in KC at that time, and earlier too, having been involved in ministry for 20+ years. There were many problems occuring at that time in Mike Bickle’s rapidly growing church, KC Metro Fellowship. In a true and honest move of the HS, Ernie attempted to help Mike Bickle with some of these problems, especially the ones he was having with other local churches.Unfortunately, Mike Bickle wasn’t open to that and told Ernie that if he didn’t stop interfering with Mike’s “movement”, that Ernie would develop cancer and die.
Here’s an open letter that Full Faith issued both documenting the known issues, and suggesting solutions to same.
Click to access Abberent%20Practises.pdf
sincerely … Dave Roland
Hi Maria,
What is his method of praying? Not all supernatural experiences are from God but some are.
Some of the worst places and people I’ve been with I’ve learned unforgettable lessons from.
I read Harold campings books. I didn’t repeat his conclusions because there were too many grey areas like not showing all the ways his numbers could be broken down and other possibilities for the meanings he gave the numbers so I waited and watched and only stuck with what I knew and I discovered he was wrong. With Jonathan Cahn Ardien Zenz and a couple of other people expose his cherry picked statistics in The Shemitah but the stuff surrounding 9/11 was pretty impressive. Keep your mind on Christ in you — He is called our eso/inner man. May God be true though all men are false.
Thank you both for your help. I had an unsettling feeling about some of the things I was reading in Robert Henderson’s book. Also I trusted that Sid Roth would only have people who were led by the Holy Spirit on his program. Now it seems everyone there is only there to sell his stuff. Just like a lot of the ministers on TV. I’m basically down to watching just 2. Hal Lindsey and Perry Stone. Thank you again for taking the time to answer my questions. God Bless You
Hal Lindsey is theologically sound nearly always. Perry Stone has a way of mentioning things every now and then in his rapid fire speaking that simply aren’t correct, although I’m sure that he’s a man of God.
Maria, like doctordave777 I look on Hal Lindsay more favorably than Perry Stone. I’m increasingly Post-Trib in my view of prophecy – but many of Lindsey’s Pre-Trib teachings are helpful to all premillenialists – Pre, Mid, Post-Trib, etc. Why should Pre-Tribbers and Mid-Tribbers be prepared for persecution? Because no one knows how bad things will get for Christians even before the Rapture (whenever that is). Regarding Perry Stone, I think some of his teachings are theologically shaky at best. For example, he says in one of his books that Heaven is located at the North Star (I think others before him have taught this also). I don’t have a problem with someone saying “I think this is the case”, or “such and such is one possibility”. But to state something as factual when the Bible does not state specifically – to me this is irresponsible at best and a false teaching at worst. I’m looking for recent critiques of Stone in this regard. God bless you – Dave P.S.: Here’s a critique from 2014 – I agree with most but not all of the criticisms: https://tarrynotministries.wordpress.com/2014/06/11/perry-stone-jr/
My only issue with establishment cessastionist type churches is discouraging everyone away from the Acts gifts(Jesus is the same yesterday today and tomorrow) when not obselete, discouraging oldest commentary but using hermeticism techniques, logos(word curses) and law of attraction behind everyone’s backs to control. Grew up in it and can tell when elders and families pick and choose who gets more truth and succeeds(though hermetics is Egyptian/Greek so satanic counterfeit). God led me to charasmatic way with select ministers. He’ll be leading more. Take time to read proverbs 8 in KJV(NO OTHER) very slow and note every word and savor in depth and some wisdom will be shown for insight.
Thanks for your comments, Sue. Personally I am neither a cessationist nor a continuationist, but a “soft cessationist”. I believe the gift of “apostle” has ceased – I believe this gift was reserved for Paul (who saw Jesus in a vision) and the disciples who walked with Jesus. I believe all the supernatural gifts can be given today by the Holy Spirit to whom He chooses. And the Holy Spirit chooses who gets what gifts, not us. Also, in America at least, I think many of the supposedly supernatural gifts – and signs – are either faked or demonic. I do not believe angel feathers, gold dust, Third Heaven visitations, etc, are from the Lord. Thanks again for your comments Sue. God bless you – Dave
In 1979, my wife was following witchcraft. But she had a dream in which she saw Jesus’ face, along with much other symbolic information. She became extremely interested in drawing or painting His face – it intrigued her. But nothing came close to the face in her dream, not even the many Catholic and other Christian representations.
9 months later, we attended a Marriage Encounter weekend. On the Sat evening, a team member led us on a guided meditation. We were to picture ourselves in the desert, but we could see a man approaching us from a long, long way off. Next he was a little closer, and we could start to see the outline of his face. Next he was around 100 feet away and we could start to see his face more clearly … on and on until eventually we were face to face in front of Him.
My wife knew that this must be Jesus, but couldn’t picture his face in her mind, until the very last second. When she did, she remembered His face from the dream, and the vision exploded into “reality”. Jesus was suddenly standing in front of her, and she was looking Him in the eyes. Suddenly, He started to grow and grow until He was 100 feet high. She was kneeling on the floor in front of Him, and she could clearly see the hemming on the foot of His garment.
As she looked back up at His face, she says that her feelings were indescribable in terms that we know of in this life. She said that His love and compassion for her were beyond measure, and that she felt incredible shame at her prior life and her sinfulness (see Isaiah 6). The thought crossed her mind that she must be have died on the floor of the room we were in, since she knew that no-one could experience this level of compassion and love and still be alive.
She said that there was no normal light (her eyes were closed throughout this), but that light came from within Jesus and lit everything around Him and her (remember how in the Millenium there will be no need for the Sun?). the light shone from within Him. Then, tiny fiery raindrops of water, oil and blood started to pour out of His hands and raining down upon her. She said that she was crying because of the shame she felt for her sin, and also because of the utter inner beauty and perfection of the Son of God standing before her. As she cried her tears, those fiery rain/oil/blood drops fell upon her heart and eyes and she said they washed her clean from the inside out. Towards the end of the vision, she felt as if she had been pushed backwards by an invisible force. She then felt a very strong urge to cry out a long series of unknown words that were filling her mind and her mouth (tongues). She still remembers the words today.
Much happened as a result of that vision. Three years later, I became saved – God spoke to me on a Zen Buddhist retreat. My wife’s life style and manner of being completely changed after her vision. She was a more gentle and kinder version of herself. I saw that remarkable change and it was a major factor in my being saved. Since then, the power of God’s Spirit flowing through us has helped many others seek the Living God too. No-one knows of us – we don’t have a TV or radio show. We don’t lead a church. Yet I know for a fact that literally thousands have been brought to the Lord because of various ministries and individuals we have helped, sometimes in minor but critical ways.
Visions like Paul’s still happen today, Dave. It;s just that you are looking in the wrong places to find them! They don’t happen to Christian stars (usually), instead to regular people like you and me. We mostly don’t see or know the effect that we have on others by simply living our lives by walking in the steps that God has prepared for us beforehand. It’s the Holy Spirit that has the effect and changes them from within.
In Jesus’ name … Dave
Thanks for your comment, Dave. I appreciate your sharing of your experiences and your wife’s experiences. I do believe people can have visions from God today, but I also believe we need to discern whether the visions are from God. Example: suppose someone says he had a vision from God, with a word for me. For starters I would ask, 1) Is this person truly born again? 2) Is this person truly walking with the Lord, living a mature, sanctified Christian life, obeying God’s Word? (God’s Word says “by their fruit ye shall know them”.) 3) Has this person claimed to have had visions, dreams and prophecies from God in the past – and have these been fulfilled accurately? (I especially have a problem with people setting dates which repeatedly turn out to be wrong.) 4) Does this person’s visions, dreams and prophecies line up doctrinally with God’s Word? I think that in these End Times, with so many false teachers, we need to be especially discerning and “test every spirit”. Thanks again Dave for your comments. BTW, I see you have a number of very helpful articles on your prophecy website (I may disagree on a few things, but I agree on a lot). God bless you – Dave.
Yes, I agree, Dave.You would be wise in being cautious about accepting a prophecy from someone else that concerned your life. So would I. I would pray to God and ask Him to specifically confirm the prophecy. There’s a great example where Gideon puts out a fleece on two occasions before He accepts a direct message from God, let alone from someone else.
I have asked God to provide very definite confirmations in the past before making a major decision, even if I thought that the Lord might be behind it. He hasn’t let me down.
There are indeed false or misguided prophets in the world today. As it happens, I now regard Jonathon Cahn in that extreme caution category since his prior teaching about a catastrophic event failed so completely. I see that he is still on TV, selling books, etc. but I very much doubt that I would ever buy one or listen seriously to him again. You were quite correct, Dave, in issuing a note of caution in regard to his teachings.
You and I obviously look at serving the Lord quite differently than the great majority of people who are promoting book sales and TV appearances. Keep up the good work for our Lord Jesus.
God bless you … Dave