It's not complicated, according to "Harbinger" author Jonathan Cahn, America once knew God, but is turning away and the Almighty is trying to get the nation's attention.
That's the substance of a message from the author who now also has released a new teaching series.
Cahn was on the Christian Broadcast Network with Rev. Pat Robertson recently to discuss the message that is catching fire across the nation – with more than a million of the books already sold.
"The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment," a two-hour DVD documentary released last March that contains the message in the "Harbinger," and illustrates the striking parallels between ancient Israel's fall and the decline of America since 9/11, has been the No. 1 faith movie in the country for an unprecedented 40 weeks.
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It has also been ranked near the top 10 of all documentaries in that time period.
Producer Joseph Farah said he is immensely pleased with the performance of the movie, which is a documentary treatment of the message found in the best-selling book "The Harbinger," which has been on the top-10 New York Times list every week since last year when it was released.
Robertson cited the stock market crash of 2008 and the horrors of 9/11, and Cahn also said he's had inquiries recently from members of Congress with questions about his interpretation of events and the Bible.
Cahn said the message is that Israel was a nation that knew God, then turned away. The verse in Isaiah 9:10 talks about its attitude when God allowed a limited judgment to fall, and that was that they would not return to God, they did not want Him and they would rebuild their nation themselves.
"We are now the nation that has known God, and is turning from God, and God is warning," Cahn said.
He said disgraced Sen. Tom Daschle, who was the Senate Majority leader at 9/11, read those words in promising that America would rebuild – apparently without God. And Cahn said Sen. John Edwards read the same passage a few years later, and President Obama paraphrased the words.
See the teaching series:
Cahn's teaching series includes:
- "The Masada Mystery": For 2,000 years, God kept a scroll hidden on top of Masada in the Israeli wilderness waiting for the Jewish people to come back to the land and uncover it. Discover this awesome prophecy of God and what it has to do with you.
- "The Sanhedrin Secret": Did Jesus (Yeshua) really rise from the dead? Or was his body stolen from the sealed tomb guarded by Roman soldiers as the Jewish Sanhedrin charged? The gospel record is clear on the risen Christ. But what about the charges of the Sanhedrin? Did they even believe their own cover story for the empty tomb? Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn looks at the evidence and finds historical confirmation for the Resurrection of Yeshua in an unlikely source – the rabbinical writings of the Sanhedrin itself.
- "The Hanukkah Endtime Mystery": Hanukkah contains one of the most amazingly detailed revelations of the end times – Jonathan Cahn opens up the endtime mysteries of Hanukkah, with stunning detail on what is yet to come, and what is already happening right now before our eyes! Most people are somewhat familiar with the Hanukkah story as related in the Book of Maccabees, an extrabiblical history of Israeli rebellion against a Greek tyrant who desecrated the Temple. They know the story of the lighting of the menorah and the miracle of the oil that burned beyond any reasonable expectation. But even Bible scholars and Christians knowledgeable about the Hebrew Roots of their faith don't know about the ancient endtime mystery revealed in the story of Hanukkah.
It was a year ago that "The Harbinger," by Cahn, a messianic rabbi from New Jersey, exploded onto the publishing scene, immediately becoming a surprise New York Times bestseller, already read by hundreds of thousands nationwide.
"A number of years ago, as I was standing at the edge of Ground Zero in New York City, I came across the first puzzle piece of an ancient biblical mystery and a prophetic message known as 'The Harbinger' that concerns the future of America," explains Cahn, who helped write the two-hour documentary "The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment" and narrates it.
Cahn says he has found nine harbingers that tie the problems America has experienced beginning Sept. 11, 2001, together, with parallels to events that led to the destruction of ancient Israel.
"Before God judges a nation, He sends warning," explains Cahn. "He sent warnings to ancient Israel. He even allowed its enemies to breach its borders in a devastating strike that would traumatize the nation. It was a wake-up call, the call to return to God. But the nation responded with defiance. God then gave nine harbingers of judgment, nine prophetic signs, alarms and foreshadows of what was to come. Now America is the nation in rapid departure from God's will. And God likewise allowed an enemy to breach its borders in a devastating strike – the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It was, likewise, a wake-up call. But America, like Israel, has not responded with repentance, but with defiance. And now the nine harbingers of judgment have reappeared and have done so on American soil."
Isaiah 9:10 is a verse in which Israel's national leaders utter a vow of defiance following an attack by Assyria. It declared that the nation would not repent before God, but would defy Him instead. Cahn reveals in "The Harbinger" – and in even more dramatic fashion in the movie – that beginning the day after Sept. 11, 2001, American leaders began repeating that 2,500-year-old vow, word for word.
Cahn, the pastor of the Jerusalem Center-Beth Israel Congregation in Wayne, N.J., says America simply is uncannily re-enacting ancient Israel's behavior prior to its judgment and eventual fall.
Cahn has found some eerie parallels to the recorded fate of Israel.
"In the aftermath of the attack, the nation was stunned," said Cahn. "Everyone was trying to make sense of what had happened – this unprecedented attack on America. The very next day, Sept. 12, then Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle presented America's response to the world. And what did he say?"
Daschle said: "America will emerge from this tragedy as we have emerged from all adversity – united and strong. Nothing … nothing can replace the losses of those who have suffered. I know there is only the smallest measure of inspiration that can be taken from this devastation. But there is a passage in the Bible from Isaiah that speaks to all of us at times like this."
He then went on to read Isaiah 9:10.
"Daschle has no idea what he is doing here," explains Cahn. "He thinks he's offering comforting words to a grief-stricken people, but he is actually embracing the spiritually defiant and arrogant words of the children of Israel, proclaiming the ancient and ominous vow of the leaders of that nation. He doesn't realize it, but he is actually inviting more judgment on the nation."
It might be of some significance that Daschle, one of the most powerful men in the nation when he spoke those words, later fell into disgrace – to the point where he couldn't even serve in Barack Obama's Cabinet.
That might have been the end of the story – if no other top leader in the nation uttered those strange and obscure words after 9/11. But that's not the case.
On the third anniversary of the attack, Sept. 11, 2004, another powerful U.S. senator running for vice president that year and who would famously run for the presidency four years later, gave a speech to the Congressional Black Caucus.
This time, John Edwards' entire speech was built on a foundation of Isaiah 9:10:
"Today, on this day of remembrance and mourning, we have the Lord's Word to get us through," he said. He then read Isaiah 9:10. He went on to talk about how America was doing just that – rebuilding with hewn stone and planting cedars.
"Like Daschle, Edwards thinks he's invoking inspirational and comforting words from the Bible, but he's actually inviting judgment on America," says Cahn. "He's repeating the vow that provoked God to bring calamity on ancient Israel."
Even more astonishing, Daschle and Edwards were not alone among U.S. leaders in making similar statements, as "The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment" shows.
The book and video document a long list of other eerie parallels.
See the trailer to "The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment: