I've never heard of anyone ever before having such a notion of something in the present having actually been written in a Bible verse, never seen any examples of such a thing, but somehow the critics see it in The Harbinger. Apparently it is possible to misread the book this way despite the lack of precedent and despite Jonathan Cahn's denials, and perhaps some have done so who are favorable toward the book as well as the critics. This would be a mistake but perhaps it's possible to make this mistake because of the way some statements are worded.
Here are a few examples from a list of statements in ads for the book and by fans and critics of the book, both, that the critics claim say that America is IN the prophecy. As I read the whole list, with the exception of one, and a couple that are questionable, they all say only that Isaiah 9:10 also applies to America. And again, since Jonathan Cahn says that is how he intended it, I would assume that most people read it as he intended it. Perhaps I can conduct a survey of sorts to test this eventually.
Anyway, here is the list, minus context and links, just the words that are in dispute:
...a pattern of American leaders fulfilling an ancient biblical prophecy and a curse of judgment on the U.S., according to the best-selling Christian book of 2012 and the No. 1 faith movie.The "ancient biblical prophecy" is NOW applied to America where it is being fulfilled, there is no need to read this as assuming that America was included in the original prophecy.
There are also physical proofs that Isaiah's prophecy is against America ...Yes, the prophecy AS APPLIED TO AMERICA NOW, IN THE PRESENT, not that the prophecy as written by Isaiah had America in mind. There is no need to read it that way.
[Ad for the book] Is There An Ancient Mystery that Foretells America's Future?Yes, it foretells it once you've applied it TO America. Again, there is no need to read this as America's future being foretold in the original prophecy as written by Isaiah.
...the preciseness with which America has fulfilled the verses in Isaiah ...Again it seems to me obvious that this means "the verses as applied to America."
Read here of a mysterious, coded prophecy hidden in a small passage in the book of Isaiah the prophet.Over and over it's as if words are being taken in a far too literal sense when they were intended in a more poetic or dramatic sense. In this case the meaning is "hidden" in Isaiah only in the poetic sense that once you know how perfectly it fits America, once you've already applied it to America, then you can say, Yes, in a sense this was "hidden" in that passage all this time, but that doesn't mean it was written into the passage or that Isaiah had it in mind. That passage is going to apply to many nations over the centuries, not just America. None of them is written into the verse and yet they are all in a sense "hidden" there.
And here is the main one that does seem to put America literally into the verse:
These two questions are asked all over our land. "Where is America in the bible"? and "Where is America during the end times."?... Isaiah 9:10 provides us swith much of the answer...Yes, a person COULD read some of these statements to suggest that America was IN Isaiah, or that Jonathan Cahn thinks so. He's denied that and again, there is no reason he should deny it if he actually believes it and intended it in the book.
No, it's the critics who are reading it that way and not even imagining that it can and should be read as I'm presenting it. At the very least, not to take Cahn's word for what he intends these expressions to say shows a very ungracious attitude to the person who should know how these phrases should read.
There's more of this I could add here and may later.
No comments:
Post a Comment