Open Door Church of God will host the video presentation of 'The Isaiah 9:10 Judgement,' based on the N.Y. Times Best Selling Book of 2012, "The Harbinger" by Best Selling author Jonathan Cahn on Tuesday May 7th.
The two hour video will begin at 7 pm at 19 El Cerro Rd. in Los Lunas, NM and will moderated by Pastor Mark Tross
For further information, please call Pastor Jim Montoya at 505/440-9770 or [email protected]
LIGHT TO THE NATIONS
The massive scale of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center made for startling images and a new frightening, sober reality for America. But through this devastation Rabbi Cahn was given an understanding of what this meant to America through Isaiah 9:10, and the uncanny parallel this attack has to events in 8th century Israel.
Jonathan says before God judges a nation, He sends warning. He sent warning to ancient Israel. The attacks of 9/11 were a warning, and like ancient Israel, if the nation ignores God’s warning there will be dire consequences, Jonathan says. Harbinger means “warning.” In his book, The Harbinger, a prophetic mystery and message conveyed in the form of a novel, Jonathan tells of the supernatural connection between ancient Israel and America. An unnamed Prophet speaks. However, the events are real, filled with insights the Lord revealed to Jonathan in the years after 9/11.
There are nine harbingers of what happens after the first attack if the nation refuses to return to God. The judgments are progressive, with periods of normalcy in-between, but continue if there is no national repentance. The economic implosion and other national ills spring from this event. Israel and America are the only two nations that God sovereignly planted as a light to the nations. “Those who laid America’s foundations saw it as a new Israel, an Israel of the New World. And as with ancient Israel, they saw it as a covenant with God,” the Prophet says. To whom much is given, much is required.
THE HARBINGERS
Based on Isaiah 9:10, - “The bricks have fallen, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will plant cedars in their place,” the northern 10 Tribes of Israel refused to repent after they were struck by the Assyrians - which was a warning from the Lord. Instead of listening to the alarm, of turning back, and humbling themselves in repentance, they boasted of their resolve, that they would rebuild stronger and better than before. They ignored the warning and rejected the call to return. They defied it. Sadly, their defiance led to the nation’s total destruction years later. The ancient prophecy forms the key to the nine harbingers of judgment, which are given to a nation in danger of judgment – each of which have reappeared on American soil – marking America as the nation in danger of judgment.
Jim Montoya, Pastor
Open Door Church of God
P.O. Box 2695
Los Lunas, NM 87031
The following will give you more insight<a href="http://www.fggam.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/shofar.jpg"><img src="http://www.fggam.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/shofar-300x215.jpg" alt="shofar" width="300" height="215" /></a><a href="http://www.fggam.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Jonathan-Cahn.jpg"><img src="http://www.fggam.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Jonathan-Cahn-300x159.jpg" alt="Jonathan Cahn" width="300" height="159" /></a> and information:
The Lamplighter
May - June 2013
The Lamplighter
is published bi-monthly
by Lamb & Lion Ministries
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 919
McKinney, TX 75070
Telephone: 972/736-3567
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Dr. James Hugg
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Dr. David R. Reagan
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Trey Collich
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Rachel Houck
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George Collich, Jr.
Director of Operations:
Leo E. Houck
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Jack Smith
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Heather Jones
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Kay Bien
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Cathie Grubb
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Jana Olivieri
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Jennifer Burgess
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The Lamplighter
can be viewed free of
charge on the ministry’s website at www.
lamblion.com. It can also be received free of
charge via email. The printed version is
available by subscription. Contact us for
information on rates and the publication
schedule by calling 972-736-3567.
Observations by the Editor
The Trigger Point
In 2003 a book of mine was published
that was titled
America the Beautiful?
The United States in Bible Prophecy
. It
has since been re-published in two subse-
quent editions, one in 2006 and the latest
in 2009.
I began the book by writing about
how God deals with nations. I showed
from Scripture a series of 7 principles that
govern how God relates to a nation. I
pointed out that when a nation begins to
rebel against God, He will send prophets
to call the people to repentance, and if
they ignore the prophets, He will then
send remedial judgments. If the people
persist in their rebellion there will come a
“trigger point” when God will deliver the
nation from judgment to destruction.
The trigger point is revealed in the
book of Nahum.
The prophet Nahum came on the
scene 150 years after Jonah. Like Jonah,
he was called of God to preach to
Nineveh. But, unlike Jonah, he was not
sent to call the people to repentance.
Rather, he was told to inform them that
the time had arrived for their destruction.
This warning was in accordance with
God’s character, for He never pours out
His wrath without warning.
In Nahum 1:11 God reveals the rea-
son for His unalterable decision to de-
stroy the city and its empire: “From you
has gone forth one who plotted evil
against the Lord, a wicked counselor.”
Thus, the trigger point of God’s wrath is
when neglect or rejection of Him turns to
war against Him. In response, God de-
clared, “Your wound is incurable” (Na-
hum 3:19). In short, their fate was sealed.
A contemporary of Nahum’s, the pro-
phet Jeremiah, spoke of the same princi-
ple regarding God’s relationship to Judah.
He proclaimed that the nation’s wound
was “incurable” (Jeremiah 30:12). He
added, “There is no one to plead your
cause, no healing for your sore, no recov-
ery for you” (Jeremiah 30:13).
The Point of No Return
One chilling point is that the Bible
teaches that when a nation reaches this
point of no return — this point where “the
wound becomes incurable” — prayer is
no longer of any avail. Thus, Jeremiah
was told by God that he was not to pray
for the deliverance of Judah! “Do not
pray for this people, and do not lift up a
cry or prayer for them, and do not inter-
cede with Me; for I do not hear you”
(Jeremiah 7:16). Later, God made this
same point again in even stronger terms:
“Even though Moses and Samuel were
to stand before Me, My heart would not
be with this people; send them away
from My presence and let them go!”
(Jeremiah 15:1).
Ezekiel was told the same thing
when he tried to pray for Judah, but in
even stronger terms. God named three of
the most righteous men who had ever
lived — Job, Noah, and Daniel — and
He told Ezekiel that even their prayers
could not deliver the nation from His
wrath (Ezekiel 14:12-21). “I have set My
face against them,” the Lord concluded
(Ezekiel 15:7).
God is patient and longsuffering.
But He cannot be mocked. “Whatever
you devise against the Lord, He will
make a complete end of it” (Nahum 1:9).
God will ultimately deal with the sin of
every nation. “The Lord is slow to anger
and great in power, and the Lord will by
no means leave the guilty unpunished”
(Nahum 1:3). Some nations will be
destroyed before the Great Tribulation
begins, but all nations will taste God’s
wrath during that terrible period of inter-
national judgment.
I believe the trigger point for our
nation occurred in November 2012 when
President Obama was re-elected. We
have ignored the prophets and the reme-
dial judgments. God has responded by
giving us the kind of leader we deserve.
We are now positioned to be delivered
from judgment to destruction.
Dr. David R. Reagan
May - June 2013
The Lamplighter
An End Time Prophetic
Message to America
Jonathan Cahn
[Editor’s note: Jonathan Cahn is the author of the best selling
book,
The Harbinger.
This article contains a speech he made at
the Presidential Inaugural Prayer Breakfast on January 21, 2013.
This presentation placed him on the cutting edge of prophetic
voices that are warning America of its impending doom if it does
not repent of its grievous sins. Jonathan Cahn is the spiritual
leader of the Beth Israel Worship Center in Wayne, New Jersey.
This article contains only a portion of Rabbi Cahn’s presentation
and is reprinted here in edited form by his permission.]
Members of the Presidential Inaugural Prayer Breakfast
Committee, Senators, Members of Congress, Governors
and government representatives, Ambassadors and delegates
from other nations, ministers and people of God, friends, and media.
We are gathered here in Washington, D.C., America’s capital city, on
January 21, 2013, the morning of the
Presidential Inauguration, with one
agenda and one purpose, to come before the Lord and in His presence to
seek His face and pray for His blessing,
His will, and His purposes to be accomplished for this nation, for its government, for its leaders, for its president,
and for its people. And it is fitting that
we do this on this day which more than
any other represents the future of our
nation. We are here to inaugurate God’s
own purposes.
We’ve come here from every part
of this land and from every background
and persuasion to stand before the Almighty, who transcends politics, movements, and men, and before whom
kings and kingdoms rise and fall. Presidents change, political parties come,
from ages past, and go, and nations
ascend and descend, but we come before Him who changes not but who
remains the same yesterday, today and forever. We come before
Him, before whom men and women, kings and prophets, peoples
and nations have come to seek His face in troubled times. We
come to pray for America.
But how do we do that? How do we pray for America? Do
we pray for riches, for power, for the success of our national
agendas? The Scripture tells us that God hears the prayers of His
people, but that we must pray according to His will. If a man has
a terminal disease, we don’t pray for an increase in wealth, we
pray for healing. And if a city lies in danger of destruction, we
don’t speak flowery words, we sound the alarm. We pray for
blessing. But true blessing only comes in the will of God. So we
must pray according to that will.
And we must not be afraid to speak the truth. We must give
voice what must be spoken. We must sound the alarm that must
be sounded. We must address what must be addressed. And so
this message will not be politically correct, nor will it be political. It will be biblical. It will be true. And wherever it falls, so be
it. I will not hold back. And if I offend you, I apologize but I
cannot apologize for offending you. Without truth, there is no
love. On a day that so embodies the future course of our nation,
it is critical that we must both
pray and speak what is true.
The Tragedy of Ancient Israel
In ancient times, there was a nation
known as the kingdom of Israel. It had
been founded on God’s word, dedicated
to His will, and consecrated to His
purposes. And God blessed it with
prosperity, power, security, peace and a
place at the head of nations. But the
people of Israel made a fatal mistake. In
the midst of their blessings, they turned
away from God. They began to remove
Him from their lives. Step by step they
ruled Him out of their culture, out of
their government, out of their economy,
out of their public square, out of the
instruction and lives of their children.
They ruled Him out of the kingdom.
They would still at
times invoke His
name, but it was increasingly hollow
and meaningless. They had made themselves strangers to the God of their
fathers and their foundation.
And as God was driven from their
lives, they brought in foreign gods and
idols to replace Him, gods of sensuality, materialism, violence, idols of
wealth, carnality, and sexual promiscuity. They abandoned the ways of
God, the laws of God, the standards of God for immorality. As
the prophets cried out, they
now called evil,
“good,” and good,
“evil.” What they once knew to be immoral, they now celebrated, and what they once knew to be right, they now warred
against. It was a culture turned in upon itself, a civilization at war
against the very foundation on which it had been established.
And the righteous, who simply remained true to what they
had once all known to be true, were now vilified, marginalized,
God never pours out His wrath without warning. He
sends prophets and remedial judgments before He
delivers a nation to destruction.
The Lamplighter
May - June 2013
mocked, labeled “intolerant,” increasingly banned from the public
square, and, ultimately, persecuted.
The nation’s culture grew increasingly vulgar, godless, and darkened.
They now defiled, ridiculed, and
blasphemed the name of God.
It was as if a spiritual amnesia
had overtaken the kingdom, as if
they had never known God or His
ways. And they descended into the
darkest sins of the nations which surrounded them. They offered
up their children as sacrifices to the gods, on the altars and fires
of Baal and Molech. And they now stood under the shadow of
judgment and in danger of destruction.
And God called out to them, to return, to come back, to be
saved from destruction. He sent to them seers and prophets to
wake them up, to call them back. But they wouldn’t listen. They
mocked the prophets and persecuted them. And they hardened
their hearts. And finally something happened that brought them
into the first stage of judgment.
The Tragedy of Modern America
But there was another civilization that was likewise founded
on God’s Word, dedicated to His will, and consecrated to His
purposes, from its very inception — America. Those who came
to these shores four centuries ago to found a new civilization did
so by dedicating it to God, committing it for His purposes and
glory. America was to be a “city on a hill,” a civilization to
which others would look. It was to be a holy commonwealth.
And so they modeled it after Israel of the Bible.
They brought forth its first governments in the name of Jesus
and for the glory of God. They established its first school system
for the purpose of teaching the Word of God. And they foretold
that inasmuch as America would follow in the ways of God, that
God would bless it, that it would become the most powerful, the
most prosperous, the most blessed nation on earth, the head of
nations. And it would all come true.
America would become the most blessed nation on earth, a
refuge for the world’s exiles, a light for the world’s oppressed,
a beacon against the dark forces of tyranny which threatened to
engulf the world. America was blessed with prosperity, power,
security, peace, and a place at the head of nations. America was
blessed as no nation in history had ever been blessed.
But something happened to the city on the hill. As the people of ancient Israel, in the midst of their blessings, committed a
fatal error, so have we. We too have, as a nation, turned from
God. We, too, have removed Him from our lives. Step by step,
we, too, have ruled Him out of our culture, out of our government, out of our economy, out of our public square, out of the
instruction and lives of our children. We, too have made God a
stranger. And though we still at times invoke His name, it rings
increasingly hollow and meaningless. We have made ourselves
strangers to the God of our fathers.
And as we have driven God from our national life, we have
brought in other gods and idols to replace Him, gods of sensuality, materialism, violence, idols of wealth, carnality, and sexual
promiscuity. And as did Israel, so, we too have abandoned the
ways of God, the laws of God, and
the standards of God, for immorality. The nation that was established
to bring the Word and Light of God
to the world, now fills the earth with
pornography. We too now call evil
“good,” and good, “evil.” And what
we once knew to be immoral, we
now celebrate, and what we once
knew to be right, we now war
against.
American culture has become turned in upon itself, a civilization at war against the very foundation on which it has been
established. And those, who simply remain true to what had
always been known as true, are now vilified, marginalized,
mocked, labeled “intolerant,” and increasingly banned from the
public square, and, ultimately, persecuted.
We have now reached the point, this day, that a minister was
driven out of the public square, barred from praying at the inaugural service for the simple reason that years ago he preached a
sermon simply saying what the Bible has always clearly said
regarding sin. It is a new America in which one can be banned
from the public square simply for believing the Bible, where
profanity is treated as holy and the Holy as profane, a new
America where the Bible is treated as contraband and nativity
scenes are seen as dangerous.
Our culture has grown increasingly vulgar, godless, and
darkened. We too now defile, ridicule, and blaspheme the name
of God. It wasn’t that long ago that American television closed
its broadcasting days with sermons. Now our televisions and
computers screens are filled with words and images once
unimaginable, and God and Jesus have now become objects of
comedy and mockery. It’s as if a spiritual amnesia has overtaken
the land. The Lord asked Israel, “Can a nation forget its God?”
And yet Israel forgot. And now we too have forgotten. America
too has forgotten her God.
A Tragic Milestone
And we too, as a nation, have partaken in the darkest of sins.
Tomorrow is also a milestone of history. Tomorrow marks the
fortieth anniversary of the day that America legalized the killing
of its unborn children. Israel offered up thousands of its children.
America has offered up millions. Fifty million souls are not here
today. Fifty million people will not be here, watching or cheering
at the inauguration. They’re silent, for their lives were legislated
out of existence, even from this city.
And in order to hide the magnitude of our moral descent, we
redefine words and change their meanings on this and other sins.
And yet a thousand apostate ministers swearing on a thousand
Bibles will not change a jot or tittle of God’s word. Though
silent, they cry out in bearing witness to the darkest of our sins.
And God hears them. And as
He spoke through the ancient
prophets to Israel, so His words now echo down to us, “When
you lift up your hands to be in prayer I will not listen. For your
hands are covered with blood.”
The “city on a hill” has grown dark. Its lamp has grown dim.
Its glory is fading. For God is not mocked. No nation can war
against the very source of its blessings and expect those blessings
to remain. And as it was with ancient Israel, the city on the hill
“The ‘city on the hill’ has grown dark.
Its lamp has grown dim. Its glory is
fading. For God is not mocked. No
nation can war against the very source
of its blessings and expect those blessings to remain.”
May - June 2013
The Lamplighter
now stands under the shadow of judgment.
The Initial Lifting of the Hedge of Protection
How does judgment come to a nation? After defying all of
God’s calls and warnings, the nation of Israel would experience
something unprecedented. It was the opening stage of judgment.
God removed one of Israel’s blessings. Years before the nation’s
destruction, He allowed its hedge
of protection to be lifted. He
allowed an enemy to make a strike into the land. It was a
wake-up call to avert national destruction. Nothing else would
reach them. The strike was limited and temporary. The nation
was now given a period of time to turn back to God or enter into
judgment.
This first opening biblical sign of national warning and
judgment is this initial removal of the nation’s hedge of protection. So it came to pass in America on September 11, 2001. It
was on that day that we witnessed the nation’s hedge of protection removed. An enemy was allowed to make a strike on the
land. As with Israel, the strike was limited and temporary. It was
a wake-up call.
And for a short-time it looked as if America would wake up.
It looked as if we were on the verge of a national revival. People
flocked to churches and spoke of God. And then, a few weeks
later, it was all over. There was no revival. There was no change
of course. America continued down its course of spiritual departure from God, but did so now with even more fervor. Eleven
years after 9/11, the nation stands not closer to God, but much
farther away.
A Revelation
As I saw the smoke rising out of New York City that day,
and then as I stood at the corner of Ground Zero, a revelation
began coming to me. The revelation would take the form of a
book called
The Harbinger
. . .
The revelation of
The Harbinger
is this: There exists an
ancient mystery that lies behind everything from 9/11 to the
collapse of the American economy — a mystery so precise that
it actually reveals the actions of American leaders before they
take them, the exact words of American leaders, before they
speak them, a mystery so exact that it gives the dates, even the
hours of some of the most dramatic days in recent history.
In the last days of ancient Israel, before its destruction, nine
harbingers, nine prophetic signs of national judgment, appeared
in the land. Those same nine harbingers are now reappearing on
American soil. Some have appeared in New York City. Some
have appeared in Washington, D.C. Some have involved the
highest leaders of the land, even the president of the United
States and they touch every realm, the political, the economic,
the cultural, the spiritual, and affect every American and every
American’s future.
The harbingers are revealed through an ancient Scripture,
the vow that Israel made after that first strike of warning. It
appears as Isaiah 9:10. Instead of repentance, they responded to
the warning with defiance. They said this: “The bricks have
fallen. BUT we will rebuild with hewn stone. The sycamores
have been cut down, BUT we will plant cedars in their place.”
What they were saying was this: “God, you won’t humble us,
you won’t cause us to return. We will continue on our course.
We will continue to abandon your ways. We will defy you and
even more than before. By our own efforts, we will rebuild and
come back stronger than before.”
This vow of defiance would seal their fate and usher in their
destruction. And it’s the key to nine harbingers of judgment. We
don’t have the time to even begin to open up the mysteries of the
harbingers except to say that they are all manifesting now to
America . . .
“The Mystery Ground”
One of the mysteries in
The Harbinger
, something called
The Mystery Ground, actually involves this day, the inauguration, or rather the first inauguration of which this day is a
continuation.
It was the day that America as we know it came into
existence, April 30, 1789. It was the day the nation's first president was sworn into office, the inauguration of George Washington. Washington placed his hand on the Bible and then gave the
first ever presidential address. And in that speech, on America’s
first day as a fully-formed nation, is embedded a prophetic warning. He said this:
The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be
expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven
itself has ordained.
The destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.
The destruction of the Twin Towers in New York City.
The Lamplighter
May - June 2013
What was he saying? He was saying this: America’s blessings are based on its relationship with God. If America ever
disregards or forgets or turns away from the eternal rules of order
and right, the laws, the precepts, the standards, and the ways of
God, if America ever departs from these, then the blessings of
God will be withdrawn from the land.
This is the prophetic warning embedded in our national
foundation. And it is coming true in our day. We are now witnessing America disregarding the eternal rules of order and right
which God has ordained. And the warning is, that if we do so,
then the smiles of Heaven, the blessings of God will be with-
drawn.
When judgment came to Israel, the destruction returned to
the same ground where the nation had been dedicated to God, the
Temple Mount. The calamity returned to the nation’s ground of
consecration.
After Washington gave that prophetic warning, he and the
nation’s first Senate and House of Representatives, all proceeded
on foot from Federal Hall, the place of the inauguration, to a site
especially chosen for the nation’s first government to pray and
dedicate America’s future to God.
And that’s what they did on that first inauguration on
America’s first day as a formed nation — they prayed and
committed the nation’s future to God. That was the nation’s
consecration ground.
If we can find out where that ground is, we will have a
mystery. Where did it take place? It happened in the nation’s
capital. But the capital then was not Washington, D.C. It was
New York City. Where? The place where they dedicated America to God on its first day as a nation, America’s consecration
ground is Ground Zero. America was dedicated to God at
Ground Zero . . .
The time is late. The hour is critical. A great nation proceeds
in rapid spiritual descent. And the signs of warning and judgment
are manifesting in the land. The shadow of judgment is upon us.
The Only Hope
And for those who would ask “How, in light of judgment,
can one be saved, or safe?” We give this answer — the word in
Hebrew for safety and salvation is
Yeshua
. Yeshua is the name
which we know in English as “Jesus.” Outside of Him there is no
safety. But inside of Him there is no fear. It was for Him and in
His name that this nation, this civilization, this “city on a hill,”
named America, came into existence. And it is only to Him and
in His name that its problems can ultimately be answered. He
remains the answer, the light in the darkness, and the hope when
all other hopes are faded and gone. And to all who come, He will
receive. And He calls out “Come.”
For all you who dwell in darkness, it’s time to come. And
you will not be turned away.
And for all you who know Him, for you His people, it is
time to put away any shade of darkness and compromise — and
take up the mantle of your calling.
It’s time to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world
you were called to be, in truth, in power, and love. It is time to
light up the darkness. It’s time to be strong. It’s time to be bold.
It’s time to be radical.
The watchmen are crying out, and the trumpets are sound-
ing. And the voice of the Lord is calling to this nation, and
saying “Return,” and calling to His people and saying, “Return.”
Let the word go forth. Let the power of God be seen in this
land. And let revival burst forth like a mighty river . . .
Kindred Voices
With The Same Message
1974 — David Wilkerson
,
The Vision
, (Utica, NY: Pyramid
Publishing, 1974).
2003 — David Reagan
,
America the Beautiful? The United
States in Bible Prophecy
(McKinney, TX: Lamb & Lion
Ministries, 2003. Revised editions in 2006 and 2009).
2009 — Terry James
,
The American Apocalypse: Is the United
States in Bible Prophecy?
(Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2009).
2011 — David Jeremiah,
I Never Thought I’d See The Day!
Culture at the Crossroads
(Brentwood, TN: FaithWords, 2011).
2012 — Robert Jeffress
,
Twilight’s Last Gleaming: How Ameri-
ca’s Last Days Can Be Your Best Days
(Brentwood, TN: Worthy
Publishing, 2012).
2012 — Joel Rosenberg
,
Implosion: Can America Recover from
Its Economic and Spiritual Challenges in Time?
(Tyndale House
Publishers: Carol Stream, IL, 2012).
2012 — David Reagan
,
A Prophetic Manifesto
(McKinney, TX:
Lamb & Lion Ministries, 2012).
May - June 2013
The Lamplighter
In Defense
of a Prophetic Voice
Dr. David R. Reagan
People love pillow prophets. They hate true prophets. Pillow
prophets tell people what they want to hear. They cry, “Peace
and safety!” when danger is imminent. True prophets warn of
danger and cry for repentance.
When Jeremiah told the people of Judah that it was God’s
will for them to surrender to the Babylonians and go into captivity, he was demonized as a false prophet and a traitor, and the
people tried to kill him.
In like manner, Jonathan Cahn has been the victim of irresponsible and vicious attacks. He has been accused of “parading
as a prophet.” Others have branded him a “false prophet.” These
charges are reckless, unwarranted
and un-Christ-like.
Jonathan Cahn’s message is
thoroughly biblical. It is not based
on any new revelation from God.
Rather, it is based on the biblical
principles that govern God’s relationship with nations. These are
principles that I outlined in detail in
my 2003 book entitled
America the
Beautiful? The United States in
Bible Prophecy
(revised editions in
2006 and 2009).
False Prophet?
The charge that he is a “false prophet” is downright ludicrous. His message is that America is in rebellion against God,
that God has placed remedial judgments upon us, and that if we
do not repent, God will deliver us from judgment to destruction.
I ask you, “What part of that message is unbiblical?”
Furthermore, the Bible defines a false prophet as one who
prophesies events that do not come to pass. If Rabbi Cahn
prophesied that a specific event would take place on a specific
date and that date were to come and go without the event
happening, then he could legitimately be labeled as a “false
prophet.” But he has done no such thing.
He is simply declaring biblical principles. He is reminding
us of the following truths:
That when a richly blessed nation like ours sets its face
against God, the judgment of God will fall upon it.
That the only way for a rebellious nation to avoid the
ultimate judgment of God — namely, destruction — is
for it to repent.
Misuse of Scripture?
Others have attacked Rabbi Cahn because they argue that he
has taken a scripture directed to ancient Israel (Isaiah 9:10) and
has applied it to the United States. Again, I ask, “What is wrong
with that?” If the scripture is applicable, why not apply it to our
nation?
Actually, we do that all the time. The Psalms and Proverbs
were written to the Jewish people, yet we apply them to our-
selves. Should we reject the 23rd Psalm because
it was not
specifically addressed to the Church?
Incredibly, Rabbi Cahn has been criticized for applying 2
Chronicles 7:14 to the United States. It reads as follows:
[If] My people who are called by My name
humble themselves and pray and seek My face
and turn from their wicked ways, then I will
hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and
will heal their land.
Are we actually going to contend that this scripture applies
only to Israel? Are we really going to argue that if the professing
Christians of this nation were to sincerely repent of their sins and
the sins of our nation, that God would ignore it?
This particular scripture contains a timeless principle about
repentance that even applies to pagan nations. Thus, when God sent
the prophet Jonah to the pagan city
of Nineveh with a message of
“Turn or Burn!” the Lord changed
His mind when the king put on sack
cloth and ashes, repented, and
called for the whole city to do like-
wise.
Or consider the seven letters
contained in the second and third
chapters of Revelation. Each one
was addressed to a specific church
located in the area of Asia Minor
(modern day Turkey). Do the letters
apply only to those specific churches? Of course not! They are
just as relevant to the Church at large today as they were when
they were written to the seven specific churches in the First
Century.
Jumping to Conclusions
Many of the criticisms of Rabbi Cahn’s message are based
on unwarranted conclusions that people have jumped to in an
effort to find something to criticize. For example, he has been
accused of teaching that America
is in a covenant relationship
with God. The fact of the matter is that he has never said that.
He simply notes that America’s founding fathers believed that,
and therefore they consecrated the nation to God.
Another unwarranted conclusion is that he teaches Isaiah
9:10 was a prophecy about the United States rather than Israel.
Again, Rabbi Cahn has never made such an assertion. What he
teaches instead is that the ancient pattern of judgment that
occurred in Israel is now recurring in America, and in “a
stunningly precise way.”
A Book and a Sermon
As I reported in a recent issue of this magazine, I was not
particularly impacted with Rabbi Cahn’s book,
The Harbinger.
Its writing style was not my cup of tea. But so what? It greatly
impacted tens of thousands of others, and I was immensely
impressed with the overall message of the book. It contained a
biblical message that I believe the American people desperately
need to hear, and I was delighted over the book’s success as it
Rabbi Jonathan Cahn
The Lamplighter
May - June 2013
rose to the top of the best seller list.
What impressed me even more was Rabbi Cahn’s sermon
which he presented at the recent Presidential Inaugural Breakfast
in Washington, D.C. As I watched it on YouTube, I was trans-
fixed by the frank, biblical content of the message and by Rabbi
Cahn’s powerful, anointed delivery of it.
The message presented a stark, bone-chilling indictment
against this nation for thumbing its nose at God. It was a hard-
hitting prophetic message that took great courage to deliver. I
urge you to watch the 35 minute message on YouTube. (You can
find it easily by googling Cahn’s name.)
Christians should be giving Rabbi Cahn a standing ovation,
and many have. But some leaders of discernment ministries have
tried, instead, to crucify him.
I know a genuine prophetic voice when I hear one, and as I
watched Rabbi Cahn deliver his powerful message, I realized he
was a prophetic voice raised up by God to warn this nation of its
impending doom and to call us to repentance.
He is the successor to David
Wilkerson who began delivering
the same message in the 1970’s. At
that time Wilkerson was the darling
of the Pentecostal and Charismatic
Movements. But the moment he
began to call this nation to repentance and warn of God’s impending
judgment, he was mercilessly attacked as a “false prophet” and was
accused of misusing scriptures.
Many churches stopped handling
his books and speaking invitations
were canceled. He was condemned
for preaching a “negative message.”
Christian McCarthyism
The current unbridled, petty and vicious attacks on Rabbi
Cahn smack of what I would call “Christian McCarthyism.” For
those of you who might not be familiar with what I’m referring
to, let me explain.
In the 1950s a wave of anti-Communism swept this nation
and a Senator from Wisconsin named Joseph McCarthy decided
to ride the wave. He started holding Congressional hearings
during which he made wild allegations against many people,
accusing them of being either Communists or Communist sympathizers. In the process, he ruined the lives of many people.
Senator McCarthy met his Waterloo when he decided to
attack the U.S. Army, claiming many of its top officers were
tainted by Communism. This action hurt him in two ways. First,
it turned President Eisenhower against him. Second, the Army
hired a defense counsel who would surprisingly prove to be very
formidable. I say surprisingly because the attorney, Joseph
Welch, seemed to be someone who would be eaten alive by
McCarthy. That’s because Mr. Welch had a high, squeaky voice
and an elf-like appearance.
As Mr. Welch began to demand that Senator McCarthy
present evidence of his allegations, the Senator decided to go on
the attack. He started accusing a young lawyer on Welch’s staff
of being a Communist sympathizer. Welch interrupted the
Senator and cried out in a wailing voice, “Until this moment,
Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your
recklessness . . .” When McCarthy resumed his attack, Welch
interrupted him: “Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator.
You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long
last? Have you left no sense of decency?”
This was one of the first Congressional hearings ever to be
televised, and it exposed the Senator for what he was — a
shallow, irresponsible, arrogant power-seeker who was willing
to destroy other people in order to gain the limelight.
In like manner there are hyper-critics within Christianity
today who are yelling “Apostate! Apostate!” over matters that
really amount to nothing. If a person speaks to a group they
disapprove of, they label him an “Apostate.” If he has a different
viewpoint from theirs about a non-essential doctrine, he is
branded an “Apostate.” If he compliments someone they don’t
like, he is relegated to Hell as an “Apostate.”
An Appeal for Sanity
Grant Phillips, a Bible teacher in Kentucky who has pastored six churches in his lifetime, recently responded to the hysterical critics of Jonathan Cahn with these words:
Look folks, many of us need to . . . stop nit-
picking everything the Lord is trying to tell us
and just listen to what He is saying in what-
ever manner He chooses to say it. Even in my
own experience of writing articles, every now
and then, someone emails me who just wants
to nit-pick at something I wrote while missing
the message of the article. The phrase comes
to mind, “They’re so heavenly minded, they’re
no earthly good.” We need to humble our
David Wilkerson
Senator Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Welch
May - June 2013
The Lamplighter
hearts and stop being so self-righteous.
In my personal correspondence with Jonathan Cahn, I have
discovered that he has a very Christ-like spirit and a great sense
of humor. In responding to his critics, he has killed them with
kindness, refusing to respond with the same invective they have
used in attacking him. He has dealt with issues and not personalities.
And his sense of humor has helped him to put the criticism
in perspective. Let me give you some examples:
In response to crazy allegations that he is somehow
involved in advocating the prosperity message of the
Word of Faith Movement, he wrote: “I not only speak
against those doctrines regularly, but my author’s photo
[shown on the cover of this magazine] was taken at Sears
Budget Photo!”
In response to an assertion that he is advocating Replacement Theology, he wrote: “I’m Jewish and a believer. In
order to subscribe to Replacement Theology, I’d have to
replace myself with myself. I’m open to trying, but it just
strikes me as a lot of work to end up no better off than
when I started!”
In response to the nutty charge that he is espousing
principles of Mormonism, he wrote: “Okay, I was once
into Donny and Marie Osmond, but when they started
singing ‘I’m A Little Bit Country, And I’m A Little Bit
Rock and Roll,’ I drew the line. You see, I don’t believe
in mixing doctrines.”
In response to the absurd allegation that he is involved in
some way in Masonry, he replied: “It’s true. I once had
involvement with Masonry. It happened when I appeared
as a guest on the Jackie Mason Show. But he’s the only
Mason I’ve been involved with. And I renounced his
comedy soon after the show.”
My Personal Stance
The nit-picking, Pharisaical hyper-critics of Christianity
need to be reminded of the wisdom of Gamaliel which he shared
with the Sanhedrin Council when they arrested Peter and the
apostles and desired to kill them (Acts 5:29-33). Gamaliel stated
that if what the followers of Jesus were teaching was false,
nothing would come of it. “But if it is of God, you will not be
able to overthrow them.” He then added, “You may even be
found fighting against God” (Acts 5:38-39).
The pit bulls of Christianity can growl and yap and snarl all
they please, but anointed messengers of God like Wilkerson and
Cahn will prevail
because they are speaking the truth. I stand
with them, and I am proud to do so.
Together with them, I cry from the depths of my heart,
“Wake up America! You are blaspheming the very God who
blessed you. He has sent prophetic voices and remedial judgments to warn you and call you to repentance. What will be your
choice? Repentance or Destruction?”
The Last Pope?
Dr. David R. Reagan
Pope Benedict XVI shocked the world on February 11 when
he suddenly announced that he would retire on February 28
due to deteriorating health. There had not been a papal resignation since 1415 when Gregory XII stepped aside as part of a
controversial arrangement to end the Great Western Schism
among competing papal claimants. Benedict became the first
Pope in history to resign due to health reasons.
The Pope’s resignation created a sensation among Bible
prophecy buffs because of a widespread belief that he would be
the next-to-the-last Pope. This belief is grounded in what is
called “The Prophecy of the Popes,” a document consisting of
112 short, cryptic phrases in Latin, which claims to predict all
the Popes that would succeed Pope Celestine II who died in
1144.
A Strange Document of Unknown Origin
The document became public in 1595 when a Catholic priest
by the name of Arnold de Wyon published a history of the
Benedictine Order. He attributed the prophecies to an Irish priest,
Saint Malachy, who served as an Archbishop in the 12th Century.
According to the traditional account, Malachy was summoned to Rome in 1139 by Pope Innocent II, and while he was
there, he supposedly received a vision of future Popes. The
manuscript was deposited in the Vatican Archives and forgotten
about until its rediscovery in 1590, just in time for a papal
The two hour video will begin at 7 pm at 19 El Cerro Rd. in Los Lunas, NM and will moderated by Pastor Mark Tross
For further information, please call Pastor Jim Montoya at 505/440-9770 or [email protected]
LIGHT TO THE NATIONS
The massive scale of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center made for startling images and a new frightening, sober reality for America. But through this devastation Rabbi Cahn was given an understanding of what this meant to America through Isaiah 9:10, and the uncanny parallel this attack has to events in 8th century Israel.
Jonathan says before God judges a nation, He sends warning. He sent warning to ancient Israel. The attacks of 9/11 were a warning, and like ancient Israel, if the nation ignores God’s warning there will be dire consequences, Jonathan says. Harbinger means “warning.” In his book, The Harbinger, a prophetic mystery and message conveyed in the form of a novel, Jonathan tells of the supernatural connection between ancient Israel and America. An unnamed Prophet speaks. However, the events are real, filled with insights the Lord revealed to Jonathan in the years after 9/11.
There are nine harbingers of what happens after the first attack if the nation refuses to return to God. The judgments are progressive, with periods of normalcy in-between, but continue if there is no national repentance. The economic implosion and other national ills spring from this event. Israel and America are the only two nations that God sovereignly planted as a light to the nations. “Those who laid America’s foundations saw it as a new Israel, an Israel of the New World. And as with ancient Israel, they saw it as a covenant with God,” the Prophet says. To whom much is given, much is required.
THE HARBINGERS
Based on Isaiah 9:10, - “The bricks have fallen, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will plant cedars in their place,” the northern 10 Tribes of Israel refused to repent after they were struck by the Assyrians - which was a warning from the Lord. Instead of listening to the alarm, of turning back, and humbling themselves in repentance, they boasted of their resolve, that they would rebuild stronger and better than before. They ignored the warning and rejected the call to return. They defied it. Sadly, their defiance led to the nation’s total destruction years later. The ancient prophecy forms the key to the nine harbingers of judgment, which are given to a nation in danger of judgment – each of which have reappeared on American soil – marking America as the nation in danger of judgment.
Jim Montoya, Pastor
Open Door Church of God
P.O. Box 2695
Los Lunas, NM 87031
The following will give you more insight<a href="http://www.fggam.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/shofar.jpg"><img src="http://www.fggam.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/shofar-300x215.jpg" alt="shofar" width="300" height="215" /></a><a href="http://www.fggam.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Jonathan-Cahn.jpg"><img src="http://www.fggam.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Jonathan-Cahn-300x159.jpg" alt="Jonathan Cahn" width="300" height="159" /></a> and information:
The Lamplighter
May - June 2013
The Lamplighter
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Observations by the Editor
The Trigger Point
In 2003 a book of mine was published
that was titled
America the Beautiful?
The United States in Bible Prophecy
. It
has since been re-published in two subse-
quent editions, one in 2006 and the latest
in 2009.
I began the book by writing about
how God deals with nations. I showed
from Scripture a series of 7 principles that
govern how God relates to a nation. I
pointed out that when a nation begins to
rebel against God, He will send prophets
to call the people to repentance, and if
they ignore the prophets, He will then
send remedial judgments. If the people
persist in their rebellion there will come a
“trigger point” when God will deliver the
nation from judgment to destruction.
The trigger point is revealed in the
book of Nahum.
The prophet Nahum came on the
scene 150 years after Jonah. Like Jonah,
he was called of God to preach to
Nineveh. But, unlike Jonah, he was not
sent to call the people to repentance.
Rather, he was told to inform them that
the time had arrived for their destruction.
This warning was in accordance with
God’s character, for He never pours out
His wrath without warning.
In Nahum 1:11 God reveals the rea-
son for His unalterable decision to de-
stroy the city and its empire: “From you
has gone forth one who plotted evil
against the Lord, a wicked counselor.”
Thus, the trigger point of God’s wrath is
when neglect or rejection of Him turns to
war against Him. In response, God de-
clared, “Your wound is incurable” (Na-
hum 3:19). In short, their fate was sealed.
A contemporary of Nahum’s, the pro-
phet Jeremiah, spoke of the same princi-
ple regarding God’s relationship to Judah.
He proclaimed that the nation’s wound
was “incurable” (Jeremiah 30:12). He
added, “There is no one to plead your
cause, no healing for your sore, no recov-
ery for you” (Jeremiah 30:13).
The Point of No Return
One chilling point is that the Bible
teaches that when a nation reaches this
point of no return — this point where “the
wound becomes incurable” — prayer is
no longer of any avail. Thus, Jeremiah
was told by God that he was not to pray
for the deliverance of Judah! “Do not
pray for this people, and do not lift up a
cry or prayer for them, and do not inter-
cede with Me; for I do not hear you”
(Jeremiah 7:16). Later, God made this
same point again in even stronger terms:
“Even though Moses and Samuel were
to stand before Me, My heart would not
be with this people; send them away
from My presence and let them go!”
(Jeremiah 15:1).
Ezekiel was told the same thing
when he tried to pray for Judah, but in
even stronger terms. God named three of
the most righteous men who had ever
lived — Job, Noah, and Daniel — and
He told Ezekiel that even their prayers
could not deliver the nation from His
wrath (Ezekiel 14:12-21). “I have set My
face against them,” the Lord concluded
(Ezekiel 15:7).
God is patient and longsuffering.
But He cannot be mocked. “Whatever
you devise against the Lord, He will
make a complete end of it” (Nahum 1:9).
God will ultimately deal with the sin of
every nation. “The Lord is slow to anger
and great in power, and the Lord will by
no means leave the guilty unpunished”
(Nahum 1:3). Some nations will be
destroyed before the Great Tribulation
begins, but all nations will taste God’s
wrath during that terrible period of inter-
national judgment.
I believe the trigger point for our
nation occurred in November 2012 when
President Obama was re-elected. We
have ignored the prophets and the reme-
dial judgments. God has responded by
giving us the kind of leader we deserve.
We are now positioned to be delivered
from judgment to destruction.
Dr. David R. Reagan
May - June 2013
The Lamplighter
An End Time Prophetic
Message to America
Jonathan Cahn
[Editor’s note: Jonathan Cahn is the author of the best selling
book,
The Harbinger.
This article contains a speech he made at
the Presidential Inaugural Prayer Breakfast on January 21, 2013.
This presentation placed him on the cutting edge of prophetic
voices that are warning America of its impending doom if it does
not repent of its grievous sins. Jonathan Cahn is the spiritual
leader of the Beth Israel Worship Center in Wayne, New Jersey.
This article contains only a portion of Rabbi Cahn’s presentation
and is reprinted here in edited form by his permission.]
Members of the Presidential Inaugural Prayer Breakfast
Committee, Senators, Members of Congress, Governors
and government representatives, Ambassadors and delegates
from other nations, ministers and people of God, friends, and media.
We are gathered here in Washington, D.C., America’s capital city, on
January 21, 2013, the morning of the
Presidential Inauguration, with one
agenda and one purpose, to come before the Lord and in His presence to
seek His face and pray for His blessing,
His will, and His purposes to be accomplished for this nation, for its government, for its leaders, for its president,
and for its people. And it is fitting that
we do this on this day which more than
any other represents the future of our
nation. We are here to inaugurate God’s
own purposes.
We’ve come here from every part
of this land and from every background
and persuasion to stand before the Almighty, who transcends politics, movements, and men, and before whom
kings and kingdoms rise and fall. Presidents change, political parties come,
from ages past, and go, and nations
ascend and descend, but we come before Him who changes not but who
remains the same yesterday, today and forever. We come before
Him, before whom men and women, kings and prophets, peoples
and nations have come to seek His face in troubled times. We
come to pray for America.
But how do we do that? How do we pray for America? Do
we pray for riches, for power, for the success of our national
agendas? The Scripture tells us that God hears the prayers of His
people, but that we must pray according to His will. If a man has
a terminal disease, we don’t pray for an increase in wealth, we
pray for healing. And if a city lies in danger of destruction, we
don’t speak flowery words, we sound the alarm. We pray for
blessing. But true blessing only comes in the will of God. So we
must pray according to that will.
And we must not be afraid to speak the truth. We must give
voice what must be spoken. We must sound the alarm that must
be sounded. We must address what must be addressed. And so
this message will not be politically correct, nor will it be political. It will be biblical. It will be true. And wherever it falls, so be
it. I will not hold back. And if I offend you, I apologize but I
cannot apologize for offending you. Without truth, there is no
love. On a day that so embodies the future course of our nation,
it is critical that we must both
pray and speak what is true.
The Tragedy of Ancient Israel
In ancient times, there was a nation
known as the kingdom of Israel. It had
been founded on God’s word, dedicated
to His will, and consecrated to His
purposes. And God blessed it with
prosperity, power, security, peace and a
place at the head of nations. But the
people of Israel made a fatal mistake. In
the midst of their blessings, they turned
away from God. They began to remove
Him from their lives. Step by step they
ruled Him out of their culture, out of
their government, out of their economy,
out of their public square, out of the
instruction and lives of their children.
They ruled Him out of the kingdom.
They would still at
times invoke His
name, but it was increasingly hollow
and meaningless. They had made themselves strangers to the God of their
fathers and their foundation.
And as God was driven from their
lives, they brought in foreign gods and
idols to replace Him, gods of sensuality, materialism, violence, idols of
wealth, carnality, and sexual promiscuity. They abandoned the ways of
God, the laws of God, the standards of God for immorality. As
the prophets cried out, they
now called evil,
“good,” and good,
“evil.” What they once knew to be immoral, they now celebrated, and what they once knew to be right, they now warred
against. It was a culture turned in upon itself, a civilization at war
against the very foundation on which it had been established.
And the righteous, who simply remained true to what they
had once all known to be true, were now vilified, marginalized,
God never pours out His wrath without warning. He
sends prophets and remedial judgments before He
delivers a nation to destruction.
The Lamplighter
May - June 2013
mocked, labeled “intolerant,” increasingly banned from the public
square, and, ultimately, persecuted.
The nation’s culture grew increasingly vulgar, godless, and darkened.
They now defiled, ridiculed, and
blasphemed the name of God.
It was as if a spiritual amnesia
had overtaken the kingdom, as if
they had never known God or His
ways. And they descended into the
darkest sins of the nations which surrounded them. They offered
up their children as sacrifices to the gods, on the altars and fires
of Baal and Molech. And they now stood under the shadow of
judgment and in danger of destruction.
And God called out to them, to return, to come back, to be
saved from destruction. He sent to them seers and prophets to
wake them up, to call them back. But they wouldn’t listen. They
mocked the prophets and persecuted them. And they hardened
their hearts. And finally something happened that brought them
into the first stage of judgment.
The Tragedy of Modern America
But there was another civilization that was likewise founded
on God’s Word, dedicated to His will, and consecrated to His
purposes, from its very inception — America. Those who came
to these shores four centuries ago to found a new civilization did
so by dedicating it to God, committing it for His purposes and
glory. America was to be a “city on a hill,” a civilization to
which others would look. It was to be a holy commonwealth.
And so they modeled it after Israel of the Bible.
They brought forth its first governments in the name of Jesus
and for the glory of God. They established its first school system
for the purpose of teaching the Word of God. And they foretold
that inasmuch as America would follow in the ways of God, that
God would bless it, that it would become the most powerful, the
most prosperous, the most blessed nation on earth, the head of
nations. And it would all come true.
America would become the most blessed nation on earth, a
refuge for the world’s exiles, a light for the world’s oppressed,
a beacon against the dark forces of tyranny which threatened to
engulf the world. America was blessed with prosperity, power,
security, peace, and a place at the head of nations. America was
blessed as no nation in history had ever been blessed.
But something happened to the city on the hill. As the people of ancient Israel, in the midst of their blessings, committed a
fatal error, so have we. We too have, as a nation, turned from
God. We, too, have removed Him from our lives. Step by step,
we, too, have ruled Him out of our culture, out of our government, out of our economy, out of our public square, out of the
instruction and lives of our children. We, too have made God a
stranger. And though we still at times invoke His name, it rings
increasingly hollow and meaningless. We have made ourselves
strangers to the God of our fathers.
And as we have driven God from our national life, we have
brought in other gods and idols to replace Him, gods of sensuality, materialism, violence, idols of wealth, carnality, and sexual
promiscuity. And as did Israel, so, we too have abandoned the
ways of God, the laws of God, and
the standards of God, for immorality. The nation that was established
to bring the Word and Light of God
to the world, now fills the earth with
pornography. We too now call evil
“good,” and good, “evil.” And what
we once knew to be immoral, we
now celebrate, and what we once
knew to be right, we now war
against.
American culture has become turned in upon itself, a civilization at war against the very foundation on which it has been
established. And those, who simply remain true to what had
always been known as true, are now vilified, marginalized,
mocked, labeled “intolerant,” and increasingly banned from the
public square, and, ultimately, persecuted.
We have now reached the point, this day, that a minister was
driven out of the public square, barred from praying at the inaugural service for the simple reason that years ago he preached a
sermon simply saying what the Bible has always clearly said
regarding sin. It is a new America in which one can be banned
from the public square simply for believing the Bible, where
profanity is treated as holy and the Holy as profane, a new
America where the Bible is treated as contraband and nativity
scenes are seen as dangerous.
Our culture has grown increasingly vulgar, godless, and
darkened. We too now defile, ridicule, and blaspheme the name
of God. It wasn’t that long ago that American television closed
its broadcasting days with sermons. Now our televisions and
computers screens are filled with words and images once
unimaginable, and God and Jesus have now become objects of
comedy and mockery. It’s as if a spiritual amnesia has overtaken
the land. The Lord asked Israel, “Can a nation forget its God?”
And yet Israel forgot. And now we too have forgotten. America
too has forgotten her God.
A Tragic Milestone
And we too, as a nation, have partaken in the darkest of sins.
Tomorrow is also a milestone of history. Tomorrow marks the
fortieth anniversary of the day that America legalized the killing
of its unborn children. Israel offered up thousands of its children.
America has offered up millions. Fifty million souls are not here
today. Fifty million people will not be here, watching or cheering
at the inauguration. They’re silent, for their lives were legislated
out of existence, even from this city.
And in order to hide the magnitude of our moral descent, we
redefine words and change their meanings on this and other sins.
And yet a thousand apostate ministers swearing on a thousand
Bibles will not change a jot or tittle of God’s word. Though
silent, they cry out in bearing witness to the darkest of our sins.
And God hears them. And as
He spoke through the ancient
prophets to Israel, so His words now echo down to us, “When
you lift up your hands to be in prayer I will not listen. For your
hands are covered with blood.”
The “city on a hill” has grown dark. Its lamp has grown dim.
Its glory is fading. For God is not mocked. No nation can war
against the very source of its blessings and expect those blessings
to remain. And as it was with ancient Israel, the city on the hill
“The ‘city on the hill’ has grown dark.
Its lamp has grown dim. Its glory is
fading. For God is not mocked. No
nation can war against the very source
of its blessings and expect those blessings to remain.”
May - June 2013
The Lamplighter
now stands under the shadow of judgment.
The Initial Lifting of the Hedge of Protection
How does judgment come to a nation? After defying all of
God’s calls and warnings, the nation of Israel would experience
something unprecedented. It was the opening stage of judgment.
God removed one of Israel’s blessings. Years before the nation’s
destruction, He allowed its hedge
of protection to be lifted. He
allowed an enemy to make a strike into the land. It was a
wake-up call to avert national destruction. Nothing else would
reach them. The strike was limited and temporary. The nation
was now given a period of time to turn back to God or enter into
judgment.
This first opening biblical sign of national warning and
judgment is this initial removal of the nation’s hedge of protection. So it came to pass in America on September 11, 2001. It
was on that day that we witnessed the nation’s hedge of protection removed. An enemy was allowed to make a strike on the
land. As with Israel, the strike was limited and temporary. It was
a wake-up call.
And for a short-time it looked as if America would wake up.
It looked as if we were on the verge of a national revival. People
flocked to churches and spoke of God. And then, a few weeks
later, it was all over. There was no revival. There was no change
of course. America continued down its course of spiritual departure from God, but did so now with even more fervor. Eleven
years after 9/11, the nation stands not closer to God, but much
farther away.
A Revelation
As I saw the smoke rising out of New York City that day,
and then as I stood at the corner of Ground Zero, a revelation
began coming to me. The revelation would take the form of a
book called
The Harbinger
. . .
The revelation of
The Harbinger
is this: There exists an
ancient mystery that lies behind everything from 9/11 to the
collapse of the American economy — a mystery so precise that
it actually reveals the actions of American leaders before they
take them, the exact words of American leaders, before they
speak them, a mystery so exact that it gives the dates, even the
hours of some of the most dramatic days in recent history.
In the last days of ancient Israel, before its destruction, nine
harbingers, nine prophetic signs of national judgment, appeared
in the land. Those same nine harbingers are now reappearing on
American soil. Some have appeared in New York City. Some
have appeared in Washington, D.C. Some have involved the
highest leaders of the land, even the president of the United
States and they touch every realm, the political, the economic,
the cultural, the spiritual, and affect every American and every
American’s future.
The harbingers are revealed through an ancient Scripture,
the vow that Israel made after that first strike of warning. It
appears as Isaiah 9:10. Instead of repentance, they responded to
the warning with defiance. They said this: “The bricks have
fallen. BUT we will rebuild with hewn stone. The sycamores
have been cut down, BUT we will plant cedars in their place.”
What they were saying was this: “God, you won’t humble us,
you won’t cause us to return. We will continue on our course.
We will continue to abandon your ways. We will defy you and
even more than before. By our own efforts, we will rebuild and
come back stronger than before.”
This vow of defiance would seal their fate and usher in their
destruction. And it’s the key to nine harbingers of judgment. We
don’t have the time to even begin to open up the mysteries of the
harbingers except to say that they are all manifesting now to
America . . .
“The Mystery Ground”
One of the mysteries in
The Harbinger
, something called
The Mystery Ground, actually involves this day, the inauguration, or rather the first inauguration of which this day is a
continuation.
It was the day that America as we know it came into
existence, April 30, 1789. It was the day the nation's first president was sworn into office, the inauguration of George Washington. Washington placed his hand on the Bible and then gave the
first ever presidential address. And in that speech, on America’s
first day as a fully-formed nation, is embedded a prophetic warning. He said this:
The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be
expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven
itself has ordained.
The destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.
The destruction of the Twin Towers in New York City.
The Lamplighter
May - June 2013
What was he saying? He was saying this: America’s blessings are based on its relationship with God. If America ever
disregards or forgets or turns away from the eternal rules of order
and right, the laws, the precepts, the standards, and the ways of
God, if America ever departs from these, then the blessings of
God will be withdrawn from the land.
This is the prophetic warning embedded in our national
foundation. And it is coming true in our day. We are now witnessing America disregarding the eternal rules of order and right
which God has ordained. And the warning is, that if we do so,
then the smiles of Heaven, the blessings of God will be with-
drawn.
When judgment came to Israel, the destruction returned to
the same ground where the nation had been dedicated to God, the
Temple Mount. The calamity returned to the nation’s ground of
consecration.
After Washington gave that prophetic warning, he and the
nation’s first Senate and House of Representatives, all proceeded
on foot from Federal Hall, the place of the inauguration, to a site
especially chosen for the nation’s first government to pray and
dedicate America’s future to God.
And that’s what they did on that first inauguration on
America’s first day as a formed nation — they prayed and
committed the nation’s future to God. That was the nation’s
consecration ground.
If we can find out where that ground is, we will have a
mystery. Where did it take place? It happened in the nation’s
capital. But the capital then was not Washington, D.C. It was
New York City. Where? The place where they dedicated America to God on its first day as a nation, America’s consecration
ground is Ground Zero. America was dedicated to God at
Ground Zero . . .
The time is late. The hour is critical. A great nation proceeds
in rapid spiritual descent. And the signs of warning and judgment
are manifesting in the land. The shadow of judgment is upon us.
The Only Hope
And for those who would ask “How, in light of judgment,
can one be saved, or safe?” We give this answer — the word in
Hebrew for safety and salvation is
Yeshua
. Yeshua is the name
which we know in English as “Jesus.” Outside of Him there is no
safety. But inside of Him there is no fear. It was for Him and in
His name that this nation, this civilization, this “city on a hill,”
named America, came into existence. And it is only to Him and
in His name that its problems can ultimately be answered. He
remains the answer, the light in the darkness, and the hope when
all other hopes are faded and gone. And to all who come, He will
receive. And He calls out “Come.”
For all you who dwell in darkness, it’s time to come. And
you will not be turned away.
And for all you who know Him, for you His people, it is
time to put away any shade of darkness and compromise — and
take up the mantle of your calling.
It’s time to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world
you were called to be, in truth, in power, and love. It is time to
light up the darkness. It’s time to be strong. It’s time to be bold.
It’s time to be radical.
The watchmen are crying out, and the trumpets are sound-
ing. And the voice of the Lord is calling to this nation, and
saying “Return,” and calling to His people and saying, “Return.”
Let the word go forth. Let the power of God be seen in this
land. And let revival burst forth like a mighty river . . .
Kindred Voices
With The Same Message
1974 — David Wilkerson
,
The Vision
, (Utica, NY: Pyramid
Publishing, 1974).
2003 — David Reagan
,
America the Beautiful? The United
States in Bible Prophecy
(McKinney, TX: Lamb & Lion
Ministries, 2003. Revised editions in 2006 and 2009).
2009 — Terry James
,
The American Apocalypse: Is the United
States in Bible Prophecy?
(Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2009).
2011 — David Jeremiah,
I Never Thought I’d See The Day!
Culture at the Crossroads
(Brentwood, TN: FaithWords, 2011).
2012 — Robert Jeffress
,
Twilight’s Last Gleaming: How Ameri-
ca’s Last Days Can Be Your Best Days
(Brentwood, TN: Worthy
Publishing, 2012).
2012 — Joel Rosenberg
,
Implosion: Can America Recover from
Its Economic and Spiritual Challenges in Time?
(Tyndale House
Publishers: Carol Stream, IL, 2012).
2012 — David Reagan
,
A Prophetic Manifesto
(McKinney, TX:
Lamb & Lion Ministries, 2012).
May - June 2013
The Lamplighter
In Defense
of a Prophetic Voice
Dr. David R. Reagan
People love pillow prophets. They hate true prophets. Pillow
prophets tell people what they want to hear. They cry, “Peace
and safety!” when danger is imminent. True prophets warn of
danger and cry for repentance.
When Jeremiah told the people of Judah that it was God’s
will for them to surrender to the Babylonians and go into captivity, he was demonized as a false prophet and a traitor, and the
people tried to kill him.
In like manner, Jonathan Cahn has been the victim of irresponsible and vicious attacks. He has been accused of “parading
as a prophet.” Others have branded him a “false prophet.” These
charges are reckless, unwarranted
and un-Christ-like.
Jonathan Cahn’s message is
thoroughly biblical. It is not based
on any new revelation from God.
Rather, it is based on the biblical
principles that govern God’s relationship with nations. These are
principles that I outlined in detail in
my 2003 book entitled
America the
Beautiful? The United States in
Bible Prophecy
(revised editions in
2006 and 2009).
False Prophet?
The charge that he is a “false prophet” is downright ludicrous. His message is that America is in rebellion against God,
that God has placed remedial judgments upon us, and that if we
do not repent, God will deliver us from judgment to destruction.
I ask you, “What part of that message is unbiblical?”
Furthermore, the Bible defines a false prophet as one who
prophesies events that do not come to pass. If Rabbi Cahn
prophesied that a specific event would take place on a specific
date and that date were to come and go without the event
happening, then he could legitimately be labeled as a “false
prophet.” But he has done no such thing.
He is simply declaring biblical principles. He is reminding
us of the following truths:
That when a richly blessed nation like ours sets its face
against God, the judgment of God will fall upon it.
That the only way for a rebellious nation to avoid the
ultimate judgment of God — namely, destruction — is
for it to repent.
Misuse of Scripture?
Others have attacked Rabbi Cahn because they argue that he
has taken a scripture directed to ancient Israel (Isaiah 9:10) and
has applied it to the United States. Again, I ask, “What is wrong
with that?” If the scripture is applicable, why not apply it to our
nation?
Actually, we do that all the time. The Psalms and Proverbs
were written to the Jewish people, yet we apply them to our-
selves. Should we reject the 23rd Psalm because
it was not
specifically addressed to the Church?
Incredibly, Rabbi Cahn has been criticized for applying 2
Chronicles 7:14 to the United States. It reads as follows:
[If] My people who are called by My name
humble themselves and pray and seek My face
and turn from their wicked ways, then I will
hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and
will heal their land.
Are we actually going to contend that this scripture applies
only to Israel? Are we really going to argue that if the professing
Christians of this nation were to sincerely repent of their sins and
the sins of our nation, that God would ignore it?
This particular scripture contains a timeless principle about
repentance that even applies to pagan nations. Thus, when God sent
the prophet Jonah to the pagan city
of Nineveh with a message of
“Turn or Burn!” the Lord changed
His mind when the king put on sack
cloth and ashes, repented, and
called for the whole city to do like-
wise.
Or consider the seven letters
contained in the second and third
chapters of Revelation. Each one
was addressed to a specific church
located in the area of Asia Minor
(modern day Turkey). Do the letters
apply only to those specific churches? Of course not! They are
just as relevant to the Church at large today as they were when
they were written to the seven specific churches in the First
Century.
Jumping to Conclusions
Many of the criticisms of Rabbi Cahn’s message are based
on unwarranted conclusions that people have jumped to in an
effort to find something to criticize. For example, he has been
accused of teaching that America
is in a covenant relationship
with God. The fact of the matter is that he has never said that.
He simply notes that America’s founding fathers believed that,
and therefore they consecrated the nation to God.
Another unwarranted conclusion is that he teaches Isaiah
9:10 was a prophecy about the United States rather than Israel.
Again, Rabbi Cahn has never made such an assertion. What he
teaches instead is that the ancient pattern of judgment that
occurred in Israel is now recurring in America, and in “a
stunningly precise way.”
A Book and a Sermon
As I reported in a recent issue of this magazine, I was not
particularly impacted with Rabbi Cahn’s book,
The Harbinger.
Its writing style was not my cup of tea. But so what? It greatly
impacted tens of thousands of others, and I was immensely
impressed with the overall message of the book. It contained a
biblical message that I believe the American people desperately
need to hear, and I was delighted over the book’s success as it
Rabbi Jonathan Cahn
The Lamplighter
May - June 2013
rose to the top of the best seller list.
What impressed me even more was Rabbi Cahn’s sermon
which he presented at the recent Presidential Inaugural Breakfast
in Washington, D.C. As I watched it on YouTube, I was trans-
fixed by the frank, biblical content of the message and by Rabbi
Cahn’s powerful, anointed delivery of it.
The message presented a stark, bone-chilling indictment
against this nation for thumbing its nose at God. It was a hard-
hitting prophetic message that took great courage to deliver. I
urge you to watch the 35 minute message on YouTube. (You can
find it easily by googling Cahn’s name.)
Christians should be giving Rabbi Cahn a standing ovation,
and many have. But some leaders of discernment ministries have
tried, instead, to crucify him.
I know a genuine prophetic voice when I hear one, and as I
watched Rabbi Cahn deliver his powerful message, I realized he
was a prophetic voice raised up by God to warn this nation of its
impending doom and to call us to repentance.
He is the successor to David
Wilkerson who began delivering
the same message in the 1970’s. At
that time Wilkerson was the darling
of the Pentecostal and Charismatic
Movements. But the moment he
began to call this nation to repentance and warn of God’s impending
judgment, he was mercilessly attacked as a “false prophet” and was
accused of misusing scriptures.
Many churches stopped handling
his books and speaking invitations
were canceled. He was condemned
for preaching a “negative message.”
Christian McCarthyism
The current unbridled, petty and vicious attacks on Rabbi
Cahn smack of what I would call “Christian McCarthyism.” For
those of you who might not be familiar with what I’m referring
to, let me explain.
In the 1950s a wave of anti-Communism swept this nation
and a Senator from Wisconsin named Joseph McCarthy decided
to ride the wave. He started holding Congressional hearings
during which he made wild allegations against many people,
accusing them of being either Communists or Communist sympathizers. In the process, he ruined the lives of many people.
Senator McCarthy met his Waterloo when he decided to
attack the U.S. Army, claiming many of its top officers were
tainted by Communism. This action hurt him in two ways. First,
it turned President Eisenhower against him. Second, the Army
hired a defense counsel who would surprisingly prove to be very
formidable. I say surprisingly because the attorney, Joseph
Welch, seemed to be someone who would be eaten alive by
McCarthy. That’s because Mr. Welch had a high, squeaky voice
and an elf-like appearance.
As Mr. Welch began to demand that Senator McCarthy
present evidence of his allegations, the Senator decided to go on
the attack. He started accusing a young lawyer on Welch’s staff
of being a Communist sympathizer. Welch interrupted the
Senator and cried out in a wailing voice, “Until this moment,
Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your
recklessness . . .” When McCarthy resumed his attack, Welch
interrupted him: “Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator.
You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long
last? Have you left no sense of decency?”
This was one of the first Congressional hearings ever to be
televised, and it exposed the Senator for what he was — a
shallow, irresponsible, arrogant power-seeker who was willing
to destroy other people in order to gain the limelight.
In like manner there are hyper-critics within Christianity
today who are yelling “Apostate! Apostate!” over matters that
really amount to nothing. If a person speaks to a group they
disapprove of, they label him an “Apostate.” If he has a different
viewpoint from theirs about a non-essential doctrine, he is
branded an “Apostate.” If he compliments someone they don’t
like, he is relegated to Hell as an “Apostate.”
An Appeal for Sanity
Grant Phillips, a Bible teacher in Kentucky who has pastored six churches in his lifetime, recently responded to the hysterical critics of Jonathan Cahn with these words:
Look folks, many of us need to . . . stop nit-
picking everything the Lord is trying to tell us
and just listen to what He is saying in what-
ever manner He chooses to say it. Even in my
own experience of writing articles, every now
and then, someone emails me who just wants
to nit-pick at something I wrote while missing
the message of the article. The phrase comes
to mind, “They’re so heavenly minded, they’re
no earthly good.” We need to humble our
David Wilkerson
Senator Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Welch
May - June 2013
The Lamplighter
hearts and stop being so self-righteous.
In my personal correspondence with Jonathan Cahn, I have
discovered that he has a very Christ-like spirit and a great sense
of humor. In responding to his critics, he has killed them with
kindness, refusing to respond with the same invective they have
used in attacking him. He has dealt with issues and not personalities.
And his sense of humor has helped him to put the criticism
in perspective. Let me give you some examples:
In response to crazy allegations that he is somehow
involved in advocating the prosperity message of the
Word of Faith Movement, he wrote: “I not only speak
against those doctrines regularly, but my author’s photo
[shown on the cover of this magazine] was taken at Sears
Budget Photo!”
In response to an assertion that he is advocating Replacement Theology, he wrote: “I’m Jewish and a believer. In
order to subscribe to Replacement Theology, I’d have to
replace myself with myself. I’m open to trying, but it just
strikes me as a lot of work to end up no better off than
when I started!”
In response to the nutty charge that he is espousing
principles of Mormonism, he wrote: “Okay, I was once
into Donny and Marie Osmond, but when they started
singing ‘I’m A Little Bit Country, And I’m A Little Bit
Rock and Roll,’ I drew the line. You see, I don’t believe
in mixing doctrines.”
In response to the absurd allegation that he is involved in
some way in Masonry, he replied: “It’s true. I once had
involvement with Masonry. It happened when I appeared
as a guest on the Jackie Mason Show. But he’s the only
Mason I’ve been involved with. And I renounced his
comedy soon after the show.”
My Personal Stance
The nit-picking, Pharisaical hyper-critics of Christianity
need to be reminded of the wisdom of Gamaliel which he shared
with the Sanhedrin Council when they arrested Peter and the
apostles and desired to kill them (Acts 5:29-33). Gamaliel stated
that if what the followers of Jesus were teaching was false,
nothing would come of it. “But if it is of God, you will not be
able to overthrow them.” He then added, “You may even be
found fighting against God” (Acts 5:38-39).
The pit bulls of Christianity can growl and yap and snarl all
they please, but anointed messengers of God like Wilkerson and
Cahn will prevail
because they are speaking the truth. I stand
with them, and I am proud to do so.
Together with them, I cry from the depths of my heart,
“Wake up America! You are blaspheming the very God who
blessed you. He has sent prophetic voices and remedial judgments to warn you and call you to repentance. What will be your
choice? Repentance or Destruction?”
The Last Pope?
Dr. David R. Reagan
Pope Benedict XVI shocked the world on February 11 when
he suddenly announced that he would retire on February 28
due to deteriorating health. There had not been a papal resignation since 1415 when Gregory XII stepped aside as part of a
controversial arrangement to end the Great Western Schism
among competing papal claimants. Benedict became the first
Pope in history to resign due to health reasons.
The Pope’s resignation created a sensation among Bible
prophecy buffs because of a widespread belief that he would be
the next-to-the-last Pope. This belief is grounded in what is
called “The Prophecy of the Popes,” a document consisting of
112 short, cryptic phrases in Latin, which claims to predict all
the Popes that would succeed Pope Celestine II who died in
1144.
A Strange Document of Unknown Origin
The document became public in 1595 when a Catholic priest
by the name of Arnold de Wyon published a history of the
Benedictine Order. He attributed the prophecies to an Irish priest,
Saint Malachy, who served as an Archbishop in the 12th Century.
According to the traditional account, Malachy was summoned to Rome in 1139 by Pope Innocent II, and while he was
there, he supposedly received a vision of future Popes. The
manuscript was deposited in the Vatican Archives and forgotten
about until its rediscovery in 1590, just in time for a papal