In September, Sid Roth had Jonathan Cahn as his guest for a 2-part appearance on his “It’s Supernatural!” show. If you know Sid Roth, you know that he has a certain, shall we say, “style”…and it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but he does have a good knack for getting some good guests on his show. The bottom line being that regardless of how interesting or engaging the guest is, the “signal to noise ratio” is pretty low It’s Supernatural! (which also has a lot of peddling of offers to clutter up the time) So, I took it upon myself to edit these two shows and strip out as much of the “noise” as I could so that Cahn’s message, which is quite intriguing, might have a better chance of being heard. There’s still some Sid in there, God bless him, but only as much as is necessary.
The original parts 1 and 2 can be found here for those who are interested:
https://www.sidroth.org/site/News2?abbr=tv_&page=NewsArticle&id=10457
https://www.sidroth.org/site/News2?abbr=tv_&page=NewsArticle&id=10494
Harbinger?
I called this “Harbinger Remix” because Cahn titles his message, drawn from Isaiah 9:10, “The Harbinger” and if you search for Jonathan Cahn or The Harbinger, you’ll find plenty of references, sites, videos, etc. I think this particular 30-minute mix does pretty good justice to the message that he’s trying to get across, which is that America’s crises from 9/11 to the current economic woes parallel a series of increasingly severe judgments that a defiant ancient Israel faced. The Harbingers are 9 warnings or omens that Israel faced that, according to Cahn, America is also facing.
I certainly find the parallels compelling and, I too, believe that there are things that the Lord is not pleased with regarding America. In this particular instance, I would say that I’m in general agreement with Cahn, but do I have two concerns.
First, this sort of prophetic perspective usually adds weight to the “gloom, doom and judgment” perspective of prophecy that flies in the face of the emphasis on the goodness of God, which I believe is probably more crucial in this hour (all hours?) than dire warnings. Judgment has its proper place in the character of God and redemptive history, past, present and future. However, focusing on it and/or not understanding God’s heart/motivation behind it (as Mike Bickle likes to say, “God judges to remove everything that hinders love.”) can, I think, end up twisting our image of who God is, for us, for others, for His Creation. Unfortunately, while I’m sure Sid means well, his “style” does more, in my opinion, to stir up this unbalanced perspective of God and of prophecy.
Second, while I think what Cahn has received is from God and his conclusions about the need to repent, in general are correct, I still see the same glaringly myopic perspective of what to repent of that comes out of the mouths of most American Christians: abortion, homosexuality, pornography, etc. Granted these things need repentance, and, in my opinion they have received a notable quantity in the last 30 years or so. Consequently, I find it curious that the two specific judgments that are mentioned in Cahn’s message, 9/11 and the financial crisis, don’t directly point the finger at this traditional triple whammy of sexual sins. Rather, in my view, they point the finger at the two things that most (right-leaning Christian) Americans don’t notice as sin and yet they are the two things that the entire rest of the world sees as America’s most glaring offenses:
- Unrelenting empire building/maintaining
- Capitalism in its most predatory guises
The two are quite linked, of course, and the spirit of empire and the spirit of mammon and the predator/victim spirit all swirl together in evil glee to work with one another to steal, kill and destroy as much as possible. Part of the reason that Americans don’t “get this” is that America is a land where individualism and independence is highly valued but these two sins are at their most destructive (and yet most elusive) in their institutional and corporate forms. The sins become systemic and one can’t easily point the finger at an individual and say, “Repent!” Americans don’t yet know how to see American governmental and corporate impact on the world stage and rightly point the finger at themselves and say, “Repent!” Nowhere is this more evident than in the hyper-polarized political scene in America where pointing the finger elsewhere sinks to new amazing lows with every passing day. I would wager that the one place where Americans are comfortable grouping people together and focusing on a “corporate entity” is when we label someone “Republican” or “Democrat”.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) the Lord looks at both individuals and corporate entities and they both have roles and responsibilities in God’s Kingdom.
So, to me, 9/11 is a wake up call about our imperialistic/neo-colonial swagger in the world and the economic meltdown is about our predatory capitalistic appetite in the world…and in those two areas is perhaps where we need to focus most of our repentance energies at the moment.
So, with that rambling preamble, on with the show!