The Lord has sent a message against Jacob;
it will fall on Israel.
All the people will know it—
Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria—
who say with pride
and arrogance of heart,
“The bricks have fallen down,
but we will rebuild with dressed stone;
the fig trees have been felled,
but we will replace them with cedars.
But the Lord has strengthened Rezin’s foes against them
and has spurred their enemies on.
Arameans from the east and Philistines from the est
have devoured Israel with open mouth.
Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,
his hand is still upraised.”1
Rabbi Jonathan Cahn’s “The Harbinger” (2012) follows a stream of other prophetic words by the self-anointed; although the book, being in fictionalized form; allows Cahn is claim deniability about his interpretation of the 9/11 Twin Tower Disaster as God’s Judgment. However, the Good Rabbi has preached on these ‘signs’ with no such pretense in July 2005.2 It is a different take on the even than Jerry Falwell’s in the immediate aftermath.
The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say ‘you helped this happen.‘3
This careless remark was something for which Jerry Falwell apologized. 4 And this pattern continues apace after every natural and man-made disaster and tragedy.
“Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it,” he said on Christian Broadcasting Network’s “The 700 Club.” “They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, we will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French. True story. And so, the devil said, okay it’s a deal.”
Robertson said that “ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other” and he contrasted Haiti with its neighbor, the Dominican Republic.
“That island of Hispaniola is one island. It is cut down the middle; on the one side is Haiti on the other is the Dominican Republic,” he said. “Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island. They need to have and we need to pray for them a great turning to god and out of this tragedy I’m optimistic something good may come. But right now we are helping the suffering people and the suffering is unimaginable.“5
Or…
“All hurricanes are acts of God, because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they are — were recipients of the judgment of God for that. The newspaper carried the story in our local area that was not carried nationally that there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came. And the promise of that parade was that it was going to reach a level of sexuality never demonstrated before in any of the other Gay Pride parades. So I believe that the judgment of God is a very real thing. I know that there are people who demur from that, but I believe that the Bible teaches that when you violate the law of God, that God brings punishment sometimes before the day of judgment. And I believe that the Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.” 6
And lest anyone think that this hoof-in-mouth disease is only the domain of the Christian and religious; consider that after every significant hurricane or season of extraordinary intemperate weather, the Climate Warmer dogmatists are out in force, making similar extrapolations from their AGW models.7 8 Some have even deigned to claim that even a spate earthquakes and volcanoes have relation to Climate Change.9 It is equal opportunity racket for all in an age of gullibility.
It is not that the times would not call for such harbingers and there is possibility that a Divine message and warning is being delivered. However, such messages only become necessary when the natural consequences of evils committed are being ignored. And the prophetic word ought to precede the events predicted. The self-anointed prophet ought to put his neck on the line, without hiding behind cover of pulp fiction. It ought to be based on truth.
The 2001 Twin Tower disaster was natural consequence and blowback of folly of foreign policy. For instance, whose bright ideas was it to station American troops in Saudi Arabia; when the Qur’an specifically condemned the armies of ‘infidels’ on such holy soil. Could the Islamists have fashioned a better recruiting tool?
Were these post facto prophets forthcoming with their analysis prior to the events? Is there even any truth in the analysis?
There are only two nations in history, in world history founded and dedicated from their inception upon God. They are Israel and America…America, like ancient Israel was called to be a light to the nations. It was founded as a new Israel. And like ancient Israel, we would be blessed if we follow God. If we did not, we would be removed.2
When was America called to be a light to the nations? Puritan Governor John Winthrop on board the Arbella (1630), spoke of virtuous consequences if his fellow colonials constructed and abode by principles of Scriptures; of disastrous consequences if they did not.
“We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies; when He shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations, “may the Lord make it like that of New England.” For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world…
…But if our hearts shall turn away, so that we will not obey, but shall be seduced, and worship other Gods, our pleasure and profits, and serve them; it is propounded unto us this day, we shall surely perish out of the good land whither we pass over this vast sea to possess it.”10
However, this thesis is more consistent with a general Scriptural principle that “Righteousness exalts a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people”11. Even Winthrop did not propose that America was called. His sights were only on New England as compared to Virginia in the south. Nor would have the Founding Fathers, who predominantly Deists, they would have found the idea of continuing Divine interference in the affairs of men, contrary to their beliefs. Jonathan Cahn plays fast and loose with Scriptures and conflates it with elements of the American civic religion.
Even though Christ had pronounced future calamities to the Jewish homeland as consequence of not recognizing their day of visitation…
“And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If you had known, even you, at least in this your day, the things which belong to your peace! but now they are hid from your eyes. For the days shall come on you, that your enemies shall cast a trench about you, and compass you round, and keep you in on every side, .And shall lay you even with the ground, and your children within you; and they shall not leave in you one stone on another; because you knew not the time of your visitation.”12
…when disasters did before those within the nation…
Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”13
…Christ refrained from retrofitting some Divine motivation behind the event, I would wish more of those who speak in His name would take the hint, before having to retract and apologize…
“As a believing Christian, I see the hand of God in everything that happens here on earth, both the blessings and the curses,” Hagee said in a statement issued through his public relations firm. “But ultimately neither I nor any other person can know the mind of God concerning Hurricane Katrina. I should not have suggested otherwise. No matter what the cause of the storm, my heart goes out to all who suffered in this terrible tragedy. There but for the grace of God go any one of us.“14
…which, good as it is; the original foot-in-mouth pontifications discredit both prophecy and Christianity.
Endnotes:
- Isaiah 9:8-12
- Jonathan Cahn, “The End of America – The Harbinger – part 1 of 5”, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-1Next79yY
- Jerry Falwell with Pat Robertson, The 700 Club, September 13, 2001, Transcript: http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Christianity/2001/09/You-Helped-This-Happen.aspx
- CNN, “Falwell apologizes to gays, feminists, lesbians”, September 14, 2001, http://articles.cnn.com/2001-09-14/us/Falwell.apology_1_thomas-road-baptist-church-jerry-falwell-feminists?_s=PM:US
- Pat Robertson, The 700 Club, January 13, 2010 http://www.cbn.com/media/player/index.aspx?s=/Archive/Club/700Club011310_WS Transcript: http://articles.cnn.com/2010-01-13/us/haiti.pat.robertson_1_pat-robertson-disasters-and-terrorist-attacks-devil?_s=PM:US
- John Hagee, (NPR “Fresh Air” – Interview with Terry Gross), September 18, 2006 http://mediamatters.org/research/2008/03/14/abc-repeatedly-noted-controversial-comments-by/142899
- Art Horn, “Was Hurricane Sandy A Sign Of The “New Normal”?, Energy Tribune, November 02, 2012 http://www.energytribune.com/64549/hurricane-sandy#sthash.Va4K3gzQ.fUqrgyiF.dpuf
- EarthShare, “ Hurricane Sandy & Climate Change”, October 31, 2012, http://www.earthshare.org/2012/10/hurricanesandy.html
- Bill McQuire, “Climate change will shake the Earth”, February 26, 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/feb/26/why-climate-change-shake-earth
- John Winthrop, Sermon: “A Model of Christian Charity”, 1630
- Proverbs 14:34
- Luke 19:41-44
- Luke 13:1-5
- Foon Rhee, “Hagee retracts Katrina comment”, Boston.com, April 25, 2008, http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/04/hagee_retracts.html
An Iconoclastic Orthodoxy 