The nine harbingers Cahn identifies are the following:
The First Harbinger: The Breach
The Second Harbinger: The Terrorist
The Third Harbinger: The Bricks
The Fourth Harbinger: The Tower
The Fifth Harbinger: The Gazit Stone
The Sixth Harbinger: The Sycamore
The Seventh Harbinger: The Erez Tree
The Eighth Harbinger: The Utterance
The Ninth Harbinger: The Prophecy
( http://www.truthinmydays.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Harbinger-July-2013.pdf )
Only four of these items are explicitly mentioned in Isaiah 9:10, viz. bricks, hewn (gazit)
stones, sycamores, and cedar (erez) trees. The verse itself can be taken as ―the utterance.‖
That leaves four that are not mentioned, but Cahn makes a case for each of them. Let us now
look at Cahn‘s explanation of each of these ―harbingers.‖
The First Harbinger: THE BREACH
According to Cahn, the first harbinger is the ―breach of a nation‘s hedge of protection.‖ God
had put a hedge of protection around ancient Israel and around America much later, and until
that hedge is removed, the nation is ―almost impenetrable.‖ But because of the nation‘s sin,
God removes this hedge of protection and allows the enemy in, leading to an “initial
strike on the land.” This initial strike is limited in scope and temporary in duration, but it
is a warning: final destruction will follow if the nation does not repent: “That first strike
is only temporary, but it‟s a warning of the, of the final destruction that will come if that
nation does not turn back.” In the case of America, that ―initial strike‖ was the 9/11
terrorist attack on the World Trade Center that killed brought down the twin towers and killed
almost 3,000 people.
THE HARBINGER AND “THE ISAIAH 9:10 EFFECT”: An
Examination of the Claims of Jonathan Cahn
©2013, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved.
THE BACKGROUND
A sensational book has taken the evangelical community by storm. First published in January, 2012, it reached The New York Times bestseller list in its second week of release(1), and has remained there ever since. Within the first year it had sold a million copies, and as of this writing, it is currently #12 on the ―Trade Fiction‖ Best Seller list of The New York Times, having been on the list for an astonishing 73 weeks.(2) The book is The Harbinger, (3) written by Messianic rabbi Jonathan Cahn.
The Harbinger uses the same format as Dan Brown‘s monster best seller, The Da Vinci Code, that is, it tells a fictional story as a framing device to convey facts and truth; as Cahn writes on the very first page of his book, ―What you are about to read is presented in the form of a story, but what is contained within the story is real.‖4 Cahn‘s orientation, however, is diametrically opposed to Brown‘s. While the latter seeks to discredit the Bible, Cahn wants people to believe the Bible, and, specifically, warnings of judgment that is to come upon the United States of America.
The plot of The Harbinger is simple. The framing device consists of a lengthy
conversation between the protagonist, one Baruch Nouriel Kaplan, and a media personage,
Ana Goren. Kaplan tells of receiving a strange seal in the mail and then encountering a mysterious person he takes to be a prophet. This prophet gives Kaplan another seal, which will lead him to the first of a series of ancient mysteries. One by one, Kaplan is given the secret of each seal. With the third one, he discovers that the seals indicate nine harbingers of
judgment, and the key to unlocking these is Isaiah 9:10. These nine harbingers had been
manifested to ancient Israel, but they had ignored them and so had suffered destruction at the
hands of the Assyrians. Now, in some detail, it is explained that the same nine harbingers are
currently being manifested to America, who faces the same choice Israel had: repent or
ignore the harbingers and suffer God‘s wrath. Finally, Kaplan is anointed to be a latter day
watchman, parallel to Baruch son of Neriah, Jeremiah‘s scribe.
The plot, then, is very thin, but the book is not about the plot. It is about presenting the
nine harbingers of Isaiah 9:10 and showing that these are now being manifested to America,
who needs to repent while there is still time. Cahn‘s purpose in writing this book was not to
entertain, but to wake America up to the danger it faces: ―I wrote The Harbinger as a book of hope – a call to salvation, repentance and revival.‖5 Accordingly, later in the year Cahn brought out a two-disk DVD set called ―The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment: Is there an Ancient Mystery that Foretells America‘s Future?‖
The First Harbinger: The Breach
The Second Harbinger: The Terrorist
The Third Harbinger: The Bricks
The Fourth Harbinger: The Tower
The Fifth Harbinger: The Gazit Stone
The Sixth Harbinger: The Sycamore
The Seventh Harbinger: The Erez Tree
The Eighth Harbinger: The Utterance
The Ninth Harbinger: The Prophecy
( http://www.truthinmydays.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Harbinger-July-2013.pdf )
Only four of these items are explicitly mentioned in Isaiah 9:10, viz. bricks, hewn (gazit)
stones, sycamores, and cedar (erez) trees. The verse itself can be taken as ―the utterance.‖
That leaves four that are not mentioned, but Cahn makes a case for each of them. Let us now
look at Cahn‘s explanation of each of these ―harbingers.‖
The First Harbinger: THE BREACH
According to Cahn, the first harbinger is the ―breach of a nation‘s hedge of protection.‖ God
had put a hedge of protection around ancient Israel and around America much later, and until
that hedge is removed, the nation is ―almost impenetrable.‖ But because of the nation‘s sin,
God removes this hedge of protection and allows the enemy in, leading to an “initial
strike on the land.” This initial strike is limited in scope and temporary in duration, but it
is a warning: final destruction will follow if the nation does not repent: “That first strike
is only temporary, but it‟s a warning of the, of the final destruction that will come if that
nation does not turn back.” In the case of America, that ―initial strike‖ was the 9/11
terrorist attack on the World Trade Center that killed brought down the twin towers and killed
almost 3,000 people.
THE HARBINGER AND “THE ISAIAH 9:10 EFFECT”: An
Examination of the Claims of Jonathan Cahn
©2013, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved.
THE BACKGROUND
A sensational book has taken the evangelical community by storm. First published in January, 2012, it reached The New York Times bestseller list in its second week of release(1), and has remained there ever since. Within the first year it had sold a million copies, and as of this writing, it is currently #12 on the ―Trade Fiction‖ Best Seller list of The New York Times, having been on the list for an astonishing 73 weeks.(2) The book is The Harbinger, (3) written by Messianic rabbi Jonathan Cahn.
The Harbinger uses the same format as Dan Brown‘s monster best seller, The Da Vinci Code, that is, it tells a fictional story as a framing device to convey facts and truth; as Cahn writes on the very first page of his book, ―What you are about to read is presented in the form of a story, but what is contained within the story is real.‖4 Cahn‘s orientation, however, is diametrically opposed to Brown‘s. While the latter seeks to discredit the Bible, Cahn wants people to believe the Bible, and, specifically, warnings of judgment that is to come upon the United States of America.
The plot of The Harbinger is simple. The framing device consists of a lengthy
conversation between the protagonist, one Baruch Nouriel Kaplan, and a media personage,
Ana Goren. Kaplan tells of receiving a strange seal in the mail and then encountering a mysterious person he takes to be a prophet. This prophet gives Kaplan another seal, which will lead him to the first of a series of ancient mysteries. One by one, Kaplan is given the secret of each seal. With the third one, he discovers that the seals indicate nine harbingers of
judgment, and the key to unlocking these is Isaiah 9:10. These nine harbingers had been
manifested to ancient Israel, but they had ignored them and so had suffered destruction at the
hands of the Assyrians. Now, in some detail, it is explained that the same nine harbingers are
currently being manifested to America, who faces the same choice Israel had: repent or
ignore the harbingers and suffer God‘s wrath. Finally, Kaplan is anointed to be a latter day
watchman, parallel to Baruch son of Neriah, Jeremiah‘s scribe.
The plot, then, is very thin, but the book is not about the plot. It is about presenting the
nine harbingers of Isaiah 9:10 and showing that these are now being manifested to America,
who needs to repent while there is still time. Cahn‘s purpose in writing this book was not to
entertain, but to wake America up to the danger it faces: ―I wrote The Harbinger as a book of hope – a call to salvation, repentance and revival.‖5 Accordingly, later in the year Cahn brought out a two-disk DVD set called ―The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment: Is there an Ancient Mystery that Foretells America‘s Future?‖
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