WASHINGTON – An important component of 2012’s No. 1 Christian book and the No. 1 Christian video is the way two former Democratic U.S. senators both cited an obscure Bible verse in their efforts to comfort and embolden Americans after the 9/11 attacks – both apparently misunderstanding the context of Isaiah 9:10, which represents a repudiation of the role of God in the affairs of men.
The speeches by former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle in a joint session of Congress the day after 9/11 and one by Sen. John Edwards, a vice presidential candidate on the third anniversary of the attack in 2004, represent two of the more dramatic elements of “The Harbinger,” the explosive bestselling book by Jonathan Cahn, and “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment,” the bestselling faith film in America since March.
Both Daschle and Edwards later fell into disgrace and no longer hold any public office. Daschle was nominated to become secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services by Barack Obama, but was forced to withdraw his nomination after revelations he failed to accurately report and pay his income taxes. Edwards ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 and 2008, but he was later indicted by a North Carolina grand jury on six felony charges of violating multiple federal campaign contribution laws to cover up an extramarital affair he admitted to following his 2008 campaign. Ultimately Edwards was found not guilty on one count, and the judge declared a mistrial on the remaining five charges, as the jury was unable to come to an agreement. The Obama Justice Department dropped the charges and would not attempt to retry him.
Since March of this year, WND has attempted to interview both Daschle and Edwards about those speeches and their references to Isaiah 9:10 – in an effort to determine what influenced or inspired them to cite the unusual verse that represented a curse on the ancient land of Israel when the words of defiance were used by its leaders.
Daschle’s law firm and think-tank associates were contacted by WND seeking a 15-minute interview about the historic speech he delivered Sept. 12, 2001, to the entire nation via television. All of those inquiries over four months were ignored without explanation.
Edwards was consumed with his trial for most of that period, but his attorney did respond to WND’s request and agreed to extend personally the invitation for a 15-minute interview after his trial was concluded. After waiting for 45 days, WND concluded Edwards had no interest in discussing the matter.
“I’d still hold out an open invitation to both of them to answer the basic question of why they independently, years apart from one another, chose to cite Isaiah 9:10 in their speeches about 9/11,” said Joseph Farah, producer of “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment.” “By now they have surely heard about the key roles they play in the bestselling book and movie. It should be a matter of great historical interest to know what was behind their recitations of that verse. I think the public would like to know if this verse was chosen by the senators themselves or by speechwriters and whether they had any concept of the meaning of the verse when they used it.”
“‘The Harbinger,’ written by Cahn, has been shocking audiences by revealing the astonishing parallels between the fall of ancient Israel and currents unfolding in the U.S., what he calls “an ancient mystery that holds the secret of America’s future and the collapse of the global economy.
The book and movie revolve around an until now relatively obscure verse in the Bible – Isaiah 9:10, which reads, in the King James Verson: “The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.”
Cahn says he has found nine harbingers that tie the problems America has experienced beginning Sept. 11, 2001, to parallels that led to the destruction of ancient Israel.
“Before God judges a nation, He sends warning,” explains Cahn. “He sent warning 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 video – that beginning the day after Sept. 11, 2001, American leaders began repeating that 2,500-year-old vow, word for word.
“Having no idea what he was doing, the majority leader of the U.S. Senate (Tom Daschle) was declaring America as under the judgment of God,” Cahn says. “It was the reenactment of an ancient mystery – and bore the most grave of consequences.”
Later, Edwards gives an entire speech to the Congressional Black Caucus based almost exclusively on Isaiah 9:10 – extolling America for following the same course as ancient Israel. Both of those speeches are featured in “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” so viewers can see for themselves the eerie parallels.
Cahn continues: “According to the ancient mystery revealed in the Book of Isaiah, if after that first calamity and warning, the nation doesn’t return to God but responds in defiance, it will end up triggering a second calamity. It was because of this ancient key, that, seven years after 9/11, the American economy collapsed.
“In the days after 9/11, the Federal Reserve slashed the base interest rate in an attempt to defy the consequences of the attacks,” Cahn continues. “That action put us on the path leading to the collapse of the American economy seven years later. In 2008, the government made a second fatal mistake, another ill-fated financial decision, that would trigger the collapse of the American economy. Amazingly, it took place on the seventh anniversary of the uttering of the ancient vow on Capitol Hill.”
Cahn also reveals in “The Harbinger” and “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” something that readers and viewers universally find astonishing – that New York’s Ground Zero actually represents more than the former financial center of the country. It represents the exact place at which America was first consecrated to God in prayer by the country’s new leaders.
“When judgment came to Israel, the calamity returned the people’s attention to the place where the nation had been consecrated to God – the Temple Mount,” says Cahn. “God was calling the nation back to Himself. What about 9/11? Could there be, in the American calamity, as well, a mystery of return? Could there be a prophetic message hidden in the place where it happened? There is a place where America was consecrated to God in prayer. It is also a place linked to a prophetic warning given on that same day – uttered by the nation’s first president – now coming to pass.”
All of this is covered in “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment,” using, whenever available, actual archival footage along with narration by Cahn.
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