Spiritual Deception and The Harbinger --Shouldn't we be trying to learn/show the way out of deception instead of just pointing the finger?

I don't know what Jonathan Cahn thinks of the phenomena associated with people like Rick Joyner and Todd Bentley, signs-and-wonders gurus you could call them, who represent the charismatic NAR (New Apostolic Reformation) that Brannon Howse spends much time exposing (and rightly so). This movement promotes the idea that apostles and prophets on the model of the New Testament church are now in operation again. Because of the Prophet character in The Harbinger this is one of the tangents criticism of the book takes (just one of them, there's also the supposed hermeneutic problem which is really the critics' problem and not Cahn's, and the supposed "mysticism" problem that is somewhat different from the NAR problem). Cahn says he hasn't investigated these things enough to have an opinion and I have no reason to doubt him. He also says he wasn't aware of this whole "discernment" arena of controversy before his book came out, and I believe him about that too. It's hit him like a rock from outer space. Or something like that. Unanticipated anyway.

Sid Roth, who was shown by Howse recently to endorse Todd Bentley's demonic carryings-on, is a friend of Cahn's and a strong Messianic supporter, and the criticism of Roth may put Cahn in the uncomfortable position of now possibly having to think about some of Roth's opinions that he'd not thought about before. Which have nothing to do with The Harbinger and come as an unwelcome intrusion on his efforts to get that message to the public.

They DON'T have anything to do with the message of The Harbinger, they ARE an intrusion, but they do highlight a theological division among Christians, and specifically between Jonathan Cahn and his critics, that could use some investigation from outside both camps.

I did a few blog posts fairly recently with the aim of trying to sort out some of the confusions of the signs-and-wonders phenomena we're seeing so much of these days -- I got three posts done on the subject and then was drawn again to address the criticisms of The Harbinger, but this post may get me back to it.

Because I was in a charismatic church as well as a parachurch group in the early 90s I have some feeling for how hard it can be to discern the source of the phenomena experienced in those groups, even despite much inner alarm about it. I agree completely with Brannon Howse about the NAR -- NOW, but when you are among people who accept such phenomena unquestioningly it is not so easy to sort the true from the false. It's easy enough for those on the outside, however, who take the blanket position that NO "supernatural" phenomena are biblically supportable today, to simply denounce the whole thing -- little discernment is involved in that case. But there are some who are convinced that God MAY work supernaturally today, believe they've seen it in operation, and are more concerned not to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Some of the writings of Watchman Nee and Jessie Penn-Lewis are to my mind a source of standards that may help to discriminate among these things. Both are strongly convinced that they've witnessed God's supernatural workings among Christians (supernatural gifts such as tongues, prophecies, visions, even sometimes miraculous events, and so on), and yet both have written strong warnings against spiritual deception by "signs and wonders."

While I find their writings persuasive I also feel I have to say that it's possible that they are too credulous themselves about the phenomena they attribute to God, but I'm not anywhere near a position to make a judgment about this, it's just a provisional caveat.

I believe their concept of "soul power" helps to identify some "supernatural" phenomena as clearly NOT of the Holy Spirit, such as Rick Joyner's strange "worship services" shown in videos linked in earlier posts, in which emotion is being worked up by drums and physical exertions like jumping up and down, much the way the shamans of many tribal religions work it up. Joyner's congregation just need to decorate themselves with paint and beads and feathers and get their moves more coordinated and the similarity would become apparent.

As I discussed in the earlier posts on this subject, intensified emotion can be a releaser of "soul power," aided and abetted by demonic powers, which is the aim of the tribal religions and all they have to work with, but in Christians it interferes with and easily supplants the working of the Holy Spirit. Repetitive singing of simple choruses, or chanting or "prayer" -- such as the endlessly repeated "Jesus prayer" of the Russian "holy man" or Starets -- is also a releaser of "soul power."

Soul power can be the source of visions, "prophecies," supernatural knowledge, some of it even true, "tongues," clairvoyance, "remote viewing," psychokinetic effects and other phenomena known well to the practitioners of religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism as well as tribal religions. There may also be and usually is demonic influence involved as well.

The critics of The Harbinger are trying to attribute this sort of thing to Jonathan Cahn, and since he has apparently not spent time investigating these things he hasn't been in a position to answer them. Really, the answer is that they have nothing to do with The Harbinger that anyone has demonstrated; the message of the book speaks for itself IF the reader will take the time to think it through. I don't see ANY way the "harbingers" could have been counterfeited by soul power or demonic spirits or ordinary deceptive reasoning, but this is what the critics would have to show if their harping on these themes has any foundation at all.

Meanwhile, IF Jonathan Cahn has been accepting of some charismatic phenomena he shouldn't be accepting, he might find Nee and Penn-Lewis' standards illuminating. So might Rick Joyner for that matter, who seems to simply assume anything supernatural is from God as so many charismatics do. Or Sid Roth who apparently is too easily taken in by supernatural claims and has apparently been dazzled by Todd Bentley's demonic carryings-on.

That is, SOME of these things may simply be naively attributed to God among the signs-and-wonders people. In other words, perhaps SOME who are caught up in charismatic phenomena could be helped to discern what is of God from what isn't by this sort of knowledge.

I'll have to look it up but as I recall, one prominent leader in the Welsh revival (1904-5), Evan Roberts, who was a friend of Jessie Penn-Lewis, discovered that he was being deceived by demon spirits, which brought about a crisis of discernment and spiritual confusion in his life. It's a sad story, but the point is that well-meaning true Christians who preach the true gospel CAN be deceived by these things, and in fact it is often those who are MOST zealous for the things of God who are most susceptible to this sort of deception -- because their emotions are easily engaged and they are likely to be particularly intense in their pursuit of knowledge of God -- such intensity being a possible trigger of counterfeits. It isn't helpful just to throw accusations at them from a position of complete ignorance of such phenomena. The aim should be to learn and inform and try to help them discern if at all possible. Those who reject all supernatural phenomena really aren't in a position to do this but at least they could learn that maybe their total rejection needs to be modified.

But back to basics: As both Nee and Penn-Lewis emphasize -- and for that matter most of the "mystics" of the past too, including some who have gone off the deep end -- even supernatural phenomena that DO come from God are best not clung to, best not made much of. The Christian method is DYING TO SELF, not trying to work up ANYTHING. Working-things-up, trying to make things happen, seeking experiences, whether by special actions, movements, chantings, "prayers," whatever, is probably the first thing Christians should learn to avoid. Instead there is obviously a trend in the opposite direction these days. God MAY come to us with special spiritual experiences or He may not. Forcing it will certainly only bring about counterfeits, either through human soulish powers or demonic spirits. Any tinge of trying to force God ought to be repented of in fear and trembling and fled like the plague it is.

However, AGAIN, The Harbinger, as far as I can see, HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ANY OF THIS.

Another very weary attempt to get it said about The Harbinger

Here's more of the Worldview Weekend radio show I blogged on in my last post.

This makes me SO tired. I'll just have to say it again:

YOU HAVE TO EXPLAIN THE APPEARANCE OF THE HARBINGERS AS COMING FROM ANY SOURCE OTHER THAN GOD. THAT IS THE BOTTOM LINE AS I'VE SAID OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

All Jonathan Cahn's questionable associations are relevant only if the harbingers are not from God or if you can prove that he used mystical or gnostic methods or a wrong hermeneutic in his presentation. He DIDN'T, all that is being wrongly attributed to him.

Brannon Howse says a lot of true things about today's Christian drive to save the nation at the expense of the gospel. He's trying to lump the Harbinger in with this drive and to the extent that some may take it as an important message of judgment that might save the nation and use it as a reason to unite with unbelievers he has a point, but not a point that applies to Jonathan Cahn himself or the motives behind The Harbinger itself. Howse can quote many who actively support the apostate views of the people they are associating with. AS FAR AS I'M AWARE, HE CAN'T DO THAT WITH JONATHAN CAHN WHO REMAINS COMMITTED TO THE TRUE GOSPEL AND THE NEED FOR MORMONS, MUSLIMS, JEWS, NEW AGERS, HINDUS AND SO ON TO COME TO CHRIST FOR SALVATION.

Even if Cahn appears on questionable venues he has never SAID anything that agrees with apostate views.

For myself nothing I've said about The Harbinger is about feeling I have to accept an ecumenical compromise position to ward off the coming disaster, God's judgment on the nation, which Howse has suggested is the motive of those who defend The Harbinger, and I've also given up on any kind of spiritual awakening (except for myself I hope and small pockets of true believers, that could spread in at least a limited way) BECAUSE all the apostates and heretics and antichrists have taken over that hope. AND when it comes to discernment which he wishfully accords to DeYoung, D. James, T. A. McMahon and Christine Pack, I'm afraid this time he's picked the team that lacks it.

I did and do think that if God brought these harbingers about then we have the question what He wants to accomplish with this book. SHOW ME THAT THE HARBINGERS COULD HAVE COME ABOUT FROM ANY OTHER SOURCE THAN GOD HIMSELF. THERE IS NO OTHER REASON FOR THE HARBINGER.

We know without The Harbinger that the nation is coming under judgment, but nevertheless for some reason these harbingers of judgment HAVE APPEARED IN REALITY and NOBODY could have brought this about other than God Himself.

ALL THE CRITICS are addressing everything BUT this one important fact.

They are making up meanings of their own that are not in the book. Jimmy DeYoung criticizes the book from a position I consider to be at least a borderline heresy itself but Brannon Howse takes HIS word for all of it and hasn't read the book. Christine Pack carried on about the definition of gnosticism that has nothing whatever to do with The Harbinger just because of some words like mystery and secret that are also part of gnosticism, but in a context where they have nothing to do with gnosticism or mysticism. As I wrote about in the previous post.

They are PROJECTING the ideas of the apostates onto the book. SO FAR I HAVE NOT SEEN ANY JUSTIFICATION FOR THIS. IT'S THEIR OWN PRECONCEPTIONS THAT THEY ARE IMPOSING ON THE BOOK.

Cahn may lose me, however, on his willingness to appear on Glenn Beck's show and any other nonChristian shows in such a way that makes it appear he endorses false religions.* I'm sure his idea is just that he wants to get this message out to as many as he possibly can, as the watchman would who feels an obligation to warn everyone, and I'll have to take that into account. Since he's never said anything accepting of apostate positions, which the people Howse and others keep trying to stick on him, I may decide this puts him in a different category whether his message gets misused or not. This is going to take prayer and thought. A precedent might be the prophet Jonah's call to warn Nineveh of coming judgment. Who lived in Nineveh but idolators who didn't believe in the true God? And yet they repented when the judgment warning was preached to them.

But of course in our day the Mormons are not likely to hear anything that opposes their Mormonism unless the gospel is preached, and it won't be preached by Jonathan Cahn to the Mormons or he will not be a guest on Beck again. But if he doesn't then they are free to take the Harbinger as from THEIR God. Same with the Muslims, Hindus, whoever. Unless the gospel presentation in the book is used by God to save them, and of course that could happen. But again, this is going to take prayer and thought. I can't link Cahn with the ecumenicists, his motives are entirely different. I could be shown to be wrong, I suppose, but it hasn't happened yet.

All those apostates are probably not going to repent of what the nation NEEDS to repent of, which is the rampant apostasy itself. THIS is why Cahn's appearance on Glenn Beck is a problem, but again HIS motives are different from the ecumenicists so I'm waiting to see.

I NEVERTHELESS STILL CHALLENGE THE CRITICS TO SHOW A SOURCE OF THE HARBINGERS THAT IS NOT GOD. And don't give me that fuzzy stuff about how they don't REALLY fit Isaiah 9:10. Be honest -- they do.

One more remark: Brannon Howse played a clip of Cahn referring to the Zohar, the Jewish mystical book. As I heard it, what Cahn is doing is not teaching that anyone should follow the Zohar but only that it's remarkable that even this Jewish mystical sect RECOGNIZED THE TERM "GOLGOTHA" AS CONNECTED WITH THE MESSIAH, with the redemption of the world. I found something similar some years ago in a book about pre-Christian Jewish beliefs in the Messiah, that showed that the Jews anticipated two Messiahs (because of scripture's portraits of both the Suffering Servant and the Conquering King which they were unable to reconcile in one Messiah), even three in some writings, which without their being aware of it showed an anticipation of what turned out to be two advents of the Messiah first as suffering servant, then finally as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Showing that the Jews had some beliefs that can be reconciled with the New Testament reality of the Messiah is not the same thing as telling Christians to believe what the Jews believed in the Zohar or anywhere else. It shows only that before Jesus came, Jewish commentary was a lot more in line with the reality of the Messiah to come than they were willing to admit after He HAD come. When Jesus came and they rejected Him, it appears that they forgot all their former prophetic wisdom that DID far more closely anticipate the true appearance of the Lord.

===================================
* July 10: I changed my mind about this, soon after I wrote this post as a matter of fact. I think it's going way overboard to worry about how people are going to misconstrue an appearance by a Christian on a nonChristian program as supporting the nonChristian point of view. I'll say more about this eventually.

More irresponsible criticism of The Harbinger by Brannon Howse and Christine Pack

I would really love to get off The Harbinger and back to my new project on Catholicism but the stupidities continue to multiply.

Brannon Howse is coming up with new ways every day to find fault with The Harbinger that apparently didn't bother him before. I've got to suspect that the only reason he is carrying on this way is due to his friendship with Jimmy DeYoung who started the crazy attacks on The Harbinger. Yes, they are crazy.

So much for integrity, Brannon.

OF COURSE HE STILL HASN'T READ IT, on the false excuse that it's "fiction."

THIS IS IRRESPONSIBLE.

Today he's calling it "mysticism" and "gnosticism." WHY? It's like he just discovered the words on the COVER OF THE BOOK, about an "ancient mystery." It's the same thing he did yesterday with Jan Markell's calling it a "code" and likening Cahn to the prophets John and Jeremiah. That is, Brannon doesn't care whether they mean by those terms what he wants them to mean by them or not, it's enough for him that they can be used as flag words against The Harbinger. Wasn't the false accusation that the book replaces Israel with America enough? Gotta keep diggin up stuff to throw at it?

THIS IS IRRESPONSIBLE.

Actually, it turns out he got his new stones to throw from a new source, which he has published at his site, A Warning About the Harbinger by Christine Pack:

Posted: 06/27/12
A Commentary on The Harbinger: A Warning About The Harbinger
by Christine Pack

A book called The Harbinger is fast becoming a lightning rod issue among evangelical Christians, with many Christians saying it is exactly what America needs right now to "wake up" and repent, and come back to biblical truth, but other Christians documenting that Cahn quotes liberally from extra-biblical and mystical sources for his book.

Who? DOCUMENTING??? "LIBERALLY" yet??? WHAT extrabiblical and mystical sources???? If you are going to accuse him of that, you have to give the quotes you are referring to and the supposed extrabiblical or mystical source of them. *

THIS IS IRRESPONSIBLE.

The cover of Cahn's book (right) boldly claims that The Harbinger is an "Ancient Mystery that Holds the Secret of America's Future."

Yeah, right, this is how Brannon Howse just discovered what's been on the cover of the book all along. NOW somebody is making an issue of it.

I've mentioned myself that I wish the book weren't attended by so much hype. But that IS all it is, hype -- and the way you KNOW it is hype is by READING THE BOOK or listening to one of Cahn's talks on it. The facts are real, they really don't need all the hype and yes I wish Cahn wasn't so enamored of the hype words because I think they detract from the message. I suppose he sees it as a mystery being unveiled, and that's not wrong since certain connections between certain realities did have to be discovered -- as long as you don't make too much of the concept.

Now all of a sudden people have decided to make too much of it.

It wasn't enough to accuse Cahn of "replacement theology" and misapplying the Old Testament to our times (which is false theology right there), oh how gleeful they must have been to discover that Sid Roth who endorses the book also endorsed Todd Bentley's false revival, or that Cahn had decided to appear on Glenn Beck's show. Hey, that is all stuff to make one question the book, and I admit it gives me pause too. I still don't know how to put all these things together but I know the way Howse and company are putting them together is false.

I GO BACK TO THE FACTS AS PRESENTED IN THE BOOK AND THEY SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES. But this writer doesn't care about the facts either. She's into flag words too, it doesn't matter what they MEAN if they sort of remind you of or SOUND LIKE "gnosticism" or whatnot.

Could this be true? Could it be that there are hidden truths that need to be decoded and unveiled to Christians today? And if so, for what purpose? Cahn seems to think so, and has written a book which proclaims just that. The Harbinger is a fiction book, and features a character known as The Prophet who is slowly giving seals to one of the main characters. These seals contain messages (nine in all) which are meant to be put together as clues in a mystery, so that a final, distinct message will emerge and be revealed. This message, once decoded, is intimated to hold the secret to bringing America back to its moral center and becoming once again a Godly nation.

I have many concerns about this book, and so I will address them one at a time.

Gnosticism

There is an exchange between two of the characters in The Harbinger who are discussing a secret message from a mysterious character ("The Prophet") in the book:

"It's the appointed time, but not for an ancient nation. It's time for the word to be given.....for the mystery to be revealed.....for the message to go forth. It's the appointed time⎯but not for an ancient nation." (The Harbinger, p 13)
Friends, anytime you see language like this, and like the language below (also from The Harbinger).....

¡ "ancient mystery hidden for thousands of years......but now revealed"
¡ a "mystery" that holds a "secret" to our future
¡ "clues" needed to "unlock" a mystery
¡ "messages" that need to be "unveiled"
......what you are dealing with is an ancient heresy called Gnosticism.

Gnosticism is a very old heresy that teaches that the truth has to be decoded, uncovered, unlocked, unveiled, discovered.

Oh for crying out loud. Flag words. Word magic.

This is all to be put down to Jonathan Cahn's no doubt unfortunate love of drama and words like "mystery." But in simple FACT the mystery in this book is out there for anyone to discover, it's not a mystery in the gnostic sense at all. The book puts you through the paces of a fictional plot to discover each of the harbingers, for the sake of DRAMA, but the clues are not to anything hidden, it's all in plain sight for anyone to discover. To discover them you have to be aware of Isaiah 9:10. This verse from the Book of Isaiah IS the "ancient mystery," folks, it's not a gnostic mystery, it's just a Bible verse, but because what it describes has literally shown up in America it's become a message for America as well as Israel. Originally the connections between the harbingers and Isaiah 9:10 did have to be brought to Cahn's attention, by what means other than God I can't imagine, and he has come up with a fictional device to bring these connections to the attention of the reader. But once we are introduced to Isaiah 9:10 -- hey, it's in every Bible, you can go read it for yourself, there's nothing hidden about it -- once you become familiar with the verse in Isaiah, then you see the actual harbingers themselves are actually there in the world, the actual realities that reflect the elements referred to in that verse.

If this is Gnosticism Ms. Pack is a Six Pack, or a Pack of Lies or a packrat or a suitcase. Well, hey, the WORDS are there, she MUST be that.

Secret Knowledge = Gnosticism

Turning this kind of language into gnosticism is STUPID! It's some kind of logical fallacy or cognitive disorder, not sure which.

I used to read Nancy Drew mysteries when I was about ten. They use similar language. The Secret of the Old Clock, the Mystery of the Blah Blah. In fact, let's emphasize this: the sense in which The Harbinger is a mystery is much more along the lines of a mystery to be solved than a spiritual mystery, the Prophet is more like a sleuth than a prophet -- except he already knows all the answers -- and so on. Gnosticism has nothing to do with it.

Gnosticism is a heresy because, according to God, we are given all that we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3) in God's word. We don't need to decode secret mysteries, unravel sealed up messages, decipher clues, or pull back the veil on hidden things. All that we need, all that God wants us to know, is contained in the Bible.

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. If this had anything to do with The Harbinger I'd agree, but it has NOTHING to do with it. But the fact is that THE HARBINGERS ARE REAL, Cahn did not invent them. God did. You have to account for THAT.

Now, I will grant that in the New Testament, Paul does talk about the mystery of Gentiles and Jews being united together in a common church and common faith (something that could have scarcely been imagined in Old Testament times). There is also the mystery of Jesus Christ, who was dimly glimpsed through types and shadows in the Old Testament, but Who was gloriously revealed in his fullness as our Savior in the New Testament. But these are mysteries which are laid open for all to see and know and understand and respond to, and not clues on a Mysterious Journey to Somewhere (which is really the more western understanding of the word "mystery").

Well, golly gee, she knows there are other meanings to the word "mystery." Now if only she also had the good sense to know that The Harbinger does not use the word in the sense of gnosticism.

I'm courting an ulcer dealing with this sort of stupidity, and I'm not even happy myself with some decisions Jonathan Cahn has made for getting his message out, but the false accusations against it are still coming at it and still need to be answered.

I'll say it again: I'm still waiting for someone to explain those harbingers in any other way. UNTIL THEN EVERYTHING ELSE IN CRITICISM OF THE BOOK IS IRRELEVANT.

Somewhere in the rest of the article she says something like how we don't NEED the Harbinger to know the nation is under judgment, and I would agree but YOU STILL HAVE TO EXPLAIN THE APPEARANCE OF THOSE HARBINGERS THAT SO UNCANNILY REFLECT 9/11. THEY suggest that God wanted to impress the fact on us beyond what a few of us already know. Yes, God. Cahn didn't put the harbingers there. Howse, Pack, DeYoung, all the rest of them, are trying to make a case against the book without grappling with this central FACT that is the ONLY thing that needs to be thought about. THE ONLY THING.

===============================
*And I see below that she says Cahn referred to finding something in a mystical Jewish work, the Zohar, that reflects something he had been discovering, and implies he's explaining EVERYTHING in the book by this reference. Is he Ms. Pack?

"An incredible thing, it blew me away, I found it in the mystical writings, Jewish writings, of the Zohar*...." Jonathan Cahn, discussing extra-biblical, mystical writings as his sources.

Why don't you make it clear exactly WHAT he found reflected in the Zohar? In fact why don't you give us the reference where he said that so we can track it down?
===============================

She just goes on and on with the same irrelevancies. I'm not up to answering them at the moment, may come back later.

"I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness; I have not said to Jacob's descendants, 'Seek me in vain.' I, the LORD, speak the truth; I declare what is right."(Isaiah 45:19) As a former Gnostic, I found great comfort as a born again Christian in understanding that all that God truly wants me to know He has plainly revealed in his Word. I spent more than a decade of my life as a New Ager/Gnostic going from teaching to teaching to teaching. I lost track of how many conferences I went to, books I purchased, teachers and gurus that I sought out, all in an effort to find truth. My quest for truth was sincere, but truth proved to be surprisingly elusive to attain. By the time God saved me, I was weary. I was worn out. I didn't have it in me to go after One More Thing. All I could think of at the end was that I wanted rest, just a little bit of rest, from all my fruitless searching. The Lord, in his infinite mercy, gave me rest by rescuing me out of the mire of man-made wisdom and giving me the elegant simplicity of his Word. There is such a lovely purity and clarity in knowing that I can rest securely in the knowledge that all that God wants me to know I can find in the Bible.

"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28)
If you are unfamiliar with the heresy of Gnosticism, please listen to Phil Johnson in this in-depth discussion of what Gnosticism is, and see if you don't come away from that talk thinking of The Harbinger.

Fiction? or Fiction Masquerading Itself as Fact?

Much like William P. Young's troublesome book The Shack, The Harbinger also has a fictional character who is teaching things that are contrary to Scripture, but which the author wants to claim as truth. Of course, when pressed on the biblical problems with the teachings, both Young and Cahn have resorted to saying, But it's only a fictional character! The problem with this is that Young and Cahn both personally believe what they have written, and are seeking to teach a wide audience of readers what they believe to be true, while hiding behind the label "Fiction."

The Truth About America's Future

The truth about America's future (and the future of all nations, for that matter), is that God holds the future in His hands. Yes, we should pray, we are commanded and exhorted to pray, but ultimately, we know that our sovereign Lord will work all things together for the good of those who love him and for HIS own purposes (Romans 8:28). And sometimes, in God's sovereign wisdom, this means that He will allow countries to fall, and nations to topple. Even, that is, nations that He has used in a mighty way to proclaim his truth to the world. I certainly do not desire to see America fall, and I pray for the leaders of this country, but at the same time, we know from the Bible that God has often used times of distress and difficulty as a means of chastening and disciplining his people.

"The kingfs heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will." (Proverbs 21:1)
When I was a fairly new Christian, I came across a resource called James Ussher's Chronological Chart of History that helped steady my thinking in this regard. James Ussher was a 17th century Anglican bishop who painstakingly charted out the bloodline from Adam and Eve to Jesus. His chart features the Biblical timeline going across the top and the corresponding world history underneath it. It's so amazing to look at this chart, and see God's hand sovereignly guiding all of human history. Below the scarlet thread of Jesus's bloodline, you see nations and kings rise and fall, rise and fall, but above it all, God's bloodline marches steadily onward toward the fulfillment of his purposes.

As Americans, we tend to think that we are so mighty, the greatest nation on earth. Well, when you look at Ussher's timeline, you realize that ALL these kingdoms once had their day in the sun, but where are they now? Egypt was once the mightiest nation in the world, known for the architectural magnificence of their awe-inspiring pyramids, and for taming the Nile River. Babylon, known for their acclaimed Hanging Gardens, and brilliant military campaigns led by Nebuchadnezzar. Rome, their amazing Roman roads and contributions to education and government. Where are they now? Some of them are still around, but do they rule the world? Looking at this chart is truly humbling, and it brings the deeper realization that all that is here will be one day be burned up and destroyed, when God himself creates a new heavens and a new earth. No government that exists here on earth - not even America - will be reigning in that Kingdom to come. But this is not bad news, this is glorious, good news, that should gladden the heart of all who truly love God and bend the knee to his sovereign will and purposes.

As far as America goes, all people everywhere are commanded to repent and believe on Christ for the forgiveness of sins, but that is not the basic message of this book. This book teaches that there is a secret message encoded in the Bible that needs to be decoded to be understood, and if we will only buy this book and decode this message, then we can bring America back. But as I wrote above, this is the heresy of Gnosticism. Our country does not need a "special" Gnostic teaching to tell us what we already know about repentance, salvation and the forgiveness of sins. In fact, I tend to agree with John MacArthur (When God Abandons A Nation), that when we look around us, we don't need to wonder, will we be judged? because we are already under judgment. First came the sexual revolution of the 60s/70s/80s (Romans 1:24), then came the homosexual revolution (Romans 1:26-27), and next comes the debased mind (Romans 1:28). We are following the trajectory laid out in Romans 1, and where we are indicates not a country that is basically good and can come back to its moral center, but a country that has been given over to its depravity. So we can churn out book after book about "taking back America" and "reclaiming America" (including Jonathan Cahn's The Harbinger), but in my opinion, America is past the tipping point. True Bible-believing Christians are in the minority in this country, and a minority is never going to reclaim a culture. We need to proclaim the gospel and snatch the few that we can from the flames.

Jonathan Cahn's Extrabiblical, Mystical Sources

"An incredible thing, it blew me away, I found it in the mystical writings, Jewish writings, of the Zohar*...." Jonathan Cahn, discussing extra-biblical, mystical writings as his sources.
* Please note that Zohar is an extrabiblical, mystical source from which the occultic and mystical Kabbalah is derived.

The Zohar Speaks

Jonathan Cahn Myspace Video

Jonathan Cahn Goes on Glenn Beck's Show To Discuss How To "Save A Nation"

Harbinger author Jonathan Cahn joined Mormon Glenn Beck for two segments of Beck's June 26/June 27 programs, and said the following things about The Harbinger:

"The Harbinger is a two and a half thousand year mystery that lies behind everything."
"The message of The Harbinger is not to condemn, it's to wake up and it's to call back. This is I believe coming out now for a reason, it's to save a nation, and to turn back."
"We can't maintain our blessings without God.....America is blessed as much as America follows God. If America does not follow God, you cannot expect the smiles of heaven."
Once again, a Gnostic teaching about a "mystery" that has to be decoded, and a call for America to turn back to God. But, why is Jonathan Cahn, who is a Christian pastor, linking with a Mormon (Glenn Beck) in order to proclaim his message? Christians and Mormons do not worship the same God, and for Cahn to appear with Mormon Glenn Beck and for the two to discuss God and America turning back to God can only serve to send a very confusing message to the world about who "God" is.

Conclusion

Does The Harbinger hold clues to helping America find her way back God? In my view, Jonathan Cahn's book is "hooking" those Christians in America who are burdened over the rising tide of immorality in our country, and who desire for America to repent and come back to the Lord. This is not a wrong or wicked desire.....it's just that, it might not play out that way, in God's sovereign plan. And this desire can become problematic, especially when Christians begin linking with non-Christians (as Jonathan Cahn did with Mormon Glenn Beck) in an effort to force those desires to come to fruition.

"Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?" (2 Corinthians 6:14)

Spiritual Deception: Soul Power 3

Probably the most common way going off track into signs-and-wonders "Christianity" doesn't get recognized:

These are phenomena that just come over a person. They are involuntary, they come out of nowhere, it seems supernatural. You were praying to God (you thought), you were worshipping God (you thought), you have dedicated your life to God, all you want to do is serve God, therefore it must be from God. Speaking in tongues comes this way, visions and dreams come this way, jerking and flailing and falling down "under the power" come this way, the "holy laughter" comes this way. Out of the blue, out of nowhere, unbidden.

Since scripture isn't crystal clear about these things a person can just go on assuming it's from God. You can argue all you like that the supernatural gifts stopped when the canon was closed, but you won't be persuasive with people who have experienced these things. You can't tell them there is no more prophecy because they've experienced prophecy -- and healings, and tongues and so on. And where could such things come from except God? Can't be Satan "because we're Christians." Can't have human origin because, well, because we don't think of human powers as ever reaching a level we'd call miraculous or supernatural -- Nee's teaching on the latent Adamic powers is not well known or accepted.

Calling it all "mysticism" may help categorize it at least but the way that term is used as a blanket pejorative has always bothered me. On this point maybe I'm the one who needs to change my mind, that's not clear yet, but the reason I've not wanted to think of mysticism as always a bad thing is that some very good Christians have both experienced something they call mysticism and defended it. A W Tozer defended it and even put out a book of quotes from various "mystics." This is because some of those called "mystics" seem to have a much more powerful appreciation of the character of God than the average Christian does, love of God, fear of God, an all-around deeper sold-out Christian life of genuine dying to self and service to others.

I remember reading of a striking vision Jonathan Edwards had, and a description of his wife's actually levitating. That struck me as very odd and as often happens I don't remember where I saw it, but would we accuse THEM of practicing mysticism? While the Catholic mystics are to be shunned, for good doctrinal reasons, nevertheless Teresa of Avila seemed when I first read her to be describing unusual phenomena that simply happened to her as a result of normal if protracted periods of prayer -- to God, not Mary -- not something she was seeking but something that just happened, and most of it seemed to come through passionate love of God and it had the effect of inspiring love of God in me the reader.

Also, those mystics were always advising their students not to take supernatural or unusual spiritual phenomena seriously, that most of it did not come from God, and that even if some of it was from God you shouldn't focus on God's gifts but on God Himself. Sounds like words of wisdom to me. John of the Cross wrote quite sternly against one nun who got carried away about how God had "spoken" to her. Yet John of the Cross's methods reminded me of what I'd read of Buddhist methods -- despite the fact that his famous poem about the Dark Night of the Soul* was all about yearning in love after God, panting after God as the psalm says, while Buddhists aren't seeking God and love would seem to be an emotion foreign to their practice. I read the Catholic mystics on my way to becoming a Christian and I did put them aside at that point with no intention of returning to them, but some of the phenomena they described I also found described among some good Protestants and it always seemed to be something that just came to a person, wasn't sought, but was given by God to those seeking Him for Himself and not for His gifts.

HOWEVER, Watchman Nee's Latent Power of the Soul does suggest another way of thinking about these things. It's not at all a familiar idea that the human soul possesses any powers that could reach expressions describable as supernatural or miraculous, so at first it's hard to entertain what Nee is saying even as a possibility, but it's coming to make more sense to me. Jessie Penn-Lewis also writes about the phenomena of the soul as opposed to the spirit and specifically attributes the powers of the coming Antichrist to soul power. The Biblical term in the Greek is "psyche," so these can be called "psychic" powers, though "soulish" is often the preferred English rendering. Both Nee and Penn Lewis wrote in the early part of the 20th century when it had become fashionable for "scientists" to study paranormal and psychic phenomena, so some of their descriptions sound out of date, but the same phenomena persist now of course, sometimes with terms from Eastern religions attached. Much of it is what now gets called "mysticism."

Nee's descriptions reminded me of the Russian Startsy or holy men who were (are?) known for their various "supernatural" powers. Seems to be rather a striking example of just what Nee is talking about, practicing methods that release not the spirit but the soul powers.

Many of them have a reputation amidst believers of being able to know the secrets of a person's heart without having ever previously met the visitor, and having the ability to discern God's plan for a person's life. This, as all of the elder's gifts, is believed to come from the Holy Spirit acting through the elder.

Nee himself said he had experienced knowing "the secrets of a person's heart" but had to learn that this was soul power that did NOT come from the Holy Spirit, that he must put this power under the cross or deny it so that the spirit, that is the dwelling place of God's own life, could operate in him instead. It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh profits nothing. A popular book about the life of a Starets is Way of a Pilgrim in which the method prescribed for the holy life is the practice of the Jesus Prayer, which is used the way a mantra is, simply endlessly repeated, the very sort of thing that releases soul power according to Nee, and in the case of the "pilgrim" of the book that's exactly what happened, as he came to have heightened powers of various kinds.

Just another way of missing God completely. Spectacularly.

It is very likely that many or all of the "charismatic" gifts including speaking in tongues, are based on soul power. Also the phenomena of "revival" such as the "holy laughter" and the spasmodic bodily movements and the like. There is nothing of God in those environments but the odd manifestations are what deceive people into thinking God is present. Those of us who have experienced these things know they are real, know we aren't bringing them about intentionally, know that they aren't an illusion produced by the mind, and yet sometimes they don't feel like they have anything to do with God at all. My own "gift of tongues" has always felt wrong and I haven't had any way of epxlaining it. It also doesn't go away when I pray God will take it away. I try to suppress it but sometimes it's just "there" anyway. It came just as I describe above, out of the blue, not as something I produced myself in any way at all, just all these "words" came tumbling out of my mouth as I was praying out loud in my room one day. Sure does seem supernatural or miraculous. But it has NEVER felt like worship, always felt wrong, though I never knew how to deal with it. Now it seems to me that I should probably regard it as a soul power that I inadvertently facilitated by my participation in charismatic groups, so then I can practice denying it as Nee denied his ability to know what was in people's minds.

In this way Nee's book is very helpful, and it seems to me it could be more helpful in getting a handle on this sort of phenomena than the usual arguments are, even possibly persuading some people out of them who have been caught up in them.

Here's an example of a typical charismatic type "prophecy" or "word from the Lord" given by Jill Austin, who used to be well known among the Kansas City Prophets -- she died a few years ago. She says to a woman that she "saw" her apparently dead husband "dancing on the sapphire sea" with the Lord. You'd think this sort of thing would be so patently obviously nuts it couldn't be entertained at all just because it's so obviously unbiblical -- dead people don't return to talk to people in this life -- but again, it just "comes out of the blue" and is taken to come from God because supposedly where ELSE could it come from? This could be either soul power or just garden-variety witchcraft or mediumship in which demons impart enough knowledge about other people to seduce them.

It's not just the usual charismatic phenomena we have to account for these days either. There is now a growing movement of people who have become dangerously enamored of what is called "contemplative prayer" which makes of prayer a "practice" or a "meditation" or a sort of repetitive mantra along the lines of some Hindu practices. Just another way of releasing soul power or even inviting demonic power.

Another hindrance to recognizing and being able to deal effectively with the "supernatural" counterfeits of the Christian life may be the belief in much of the Church that there is no distinction between soul and spirit as Nee and Penn-Lewis teach there is, even saying that to teach such a distinction is heretical. Maybe I need to try to get more into this concept here.

============================================
*Dark Night of the Soul: In John of the Cross's poem, the "dark night" is a state of the soul in prayer, in which all the faculities and powers of the soul and body, the senses for instance, mind and emotions as well, have become "quieted" or "dark" so that the spirit can go forth unimpeded, in love and yearning and adoration to God. It's not meant to describe just any kind of suffering, as most people misinterpret it who don't know anything about the poem but its title, but the suffering of being deprived of the usual faculties we depend on, dealing with impediments to the spiritual life and learning to deny self. I'm not advocating anything about his methods. Clearly they are a minefield of dangers and potential delusions, especially to anyone today who casually and naively decides to try "contemplative prayer." But of course the main problem with ANYTHING Catholic is that they preach a false gospel of salvation by works.