In my novel, Hungry Nation, I reveal a God that is helping man, giving him strategic insights, and breaks, and a small boost when most needed; an actual Father not intent on judging, but loving and saving and delivering. Does this sound like a God that would bring down the towers causing 3000 to die and sending many of them to Hell who had not received Christ? On 9/11, there are many testimonies of God keeping people out of the path of destruction.
This book, the "Harbinger", and "Isaiah 9:10" and corresponding DVDs that are floating around the Body of Christ are quite popular. I am sure it is good reading, and is full of God, for the Old Testament is full of God. The book was written by a rabbi, and basically goes into great depth about God judging America as He judged Israel. The book goes on to say that God was very offended or grieved at the response of men after 9/11 who uttered similar words that certain Jews spoke in Isaiah 9:10. The book seems to indicate that God will keep the judgements coming against America, which are called, "harbingers" until America repents and turns to God.
The rabbi's name is Jonathan Cahn. I do not wish to offend anyone who truly enjoyed this book and saw a real application to America, but I must point out truth that I see as a teacher in the Body of Christ. God has called off the war with man, even sinful man, which includes America. That is why the angels sang at the birth of Jesus, "peace on earth good will toward man." If this war is still on, then God wasted a perfectly good veil in the temple the day Jesus died on the Cross. But He tore that veil, and invited the whole planet into Heaven, and not just when we die, but after we become sons and daughters of God, we can enter to be with Him daily, and to intercede for the world. And there lies the truth of the matter. Israel and its people were not sons. They were servants. Son-ship was not available until the Cross of Jesus. God did not live in those people, but He does now live in the Church. We are one with Him. There are more righteous in America now because of Jesus than there were proportionately righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah. If God would spare those cities for His friend, but not a son, Abraham, for just ten righteous, then He would spare America, and not judge it, for His true sons and daughters who are in the millions in America, as they are praying and interceding. Jesus said, "And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world." John 12:47
Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and forever. If you think He abandoned us here and went back to Heaven, you are wrong. He is Lord over Heaven, Earth and Hell and He is in the earth, through His Body, the Church, and He is not here to judge. The truth that He is not judging the world is a current thus saith the Lord for this time which trumps and cancelled Harbingers and any Old Covenant judgements and doctrines.
Paul said God has given us the ministry of reconciliation. "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;" 2 Corinthians 5:18 Those of us with this ministry of reconciliation will not get far by embracing doctrines of judgement, and God would not either. For it is His goodness that causes men to repent. "Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? ?" Romans 2:4 Make your decision here what you will believe. Do Harbingers of doom lead men to repentance, or does God's goodness lead men to repentance? But make a good choice, for the wrong one will lead you down a road of error. Hint: Read the last verse quoted again.
If God uses goodness to bring repentance, and judgement also, or threats of judgement, He would be a house divided which could not stand by His own principle. God so loved the world......God has no hammer raised over America. There is no impending judgement and Hurricane Sandy was of the devil, for it is the devil who came to kill, steal and destroy. (John 10) The collapse of the towers in New York was not of God and not His judgement, even though it was like a tower of Babel, for that is not God's M.O. now in this age of grace and the Holy Spirit.
So let me say what I believe these things are. The devil is at the root of these calamities, either directly, by inspiring terrorists or school shooters, or indirectly, by seeding his ways in the people of America, over the last few centuries, and as America has embraced satan's ways, then she must reap what she has sowed, for God has declared, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Galatians 6:7 But God can reverse reaping by His grace, and has at times. Here is where confusion comes in: Sowing and reaping and repentance afterward looks very much like judgement and repentance, but they are very different. The difference is God's role in the matter. We must not slander Him, for He is trying to help us not reap what we have sowed, and as He is doing that, people who are well meaning are accusing Him of stepping out of character and judging. So, when in doubt as to what is going on, let's go with the Word and believe it, that He is about reconciliation, and goodness, and love, and Jesus is not angry, and Jesus did not come to judge, but to destroy the works of the devil and save mankind. (1 John)
"Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, And be filled to the full with their own fancies." Proverbs 1:31 God need send no judgement, for as people walk in sin, they attract evil, and that evil can destroy them. God is the rescuer, God is the one to help. In the Old Covenant, they were punished by God by being taken into captivity. But we as sons are not stiff necked Jews, who were not born again, but we are God's own and He does not work with us the same way as He did them.
"For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life." Galatians 6:8 If we have corruption, or America does, it is only reaping it, and the enemies, the attacks, the death, the illness, the floods, the tornadoes, the earthquakes, the droughts, the economy, the leftists, the socialism, the lies, the hate, the jihad, none of that is of God. None. The Harbinger and the rabbi indicate that some politicians angered God with their statements of arrogance, including George W. Bush. But the God I know chooses not to see my sins and my errors through the blood of Christ. But apparently, the God of the rabbi is still counting sins and ready to hurl lightning bolts at those who sin. My question is, what is so evil about a few Congressmen and a President trying to exhort and encourage a nation that has just suffered a serious attack and is in fear? "We will rebuild, we will come back." As those men made those claims, they were showing Godly courage and hope, in a New Covenant of God, and Jesus would never dash the smallest hope. "A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench; He will bring forth justice for truth." Isaiah 42:3 God would never be outraged at people speaking words of hope and faith and that would not offend the God I know, my intimate friend, nor would he quench those life giving words. God is a God of hope, and Jesus will never dash a hope. If Bush said, "let's bring down some more buildings," I might think that as not right. But when he said, "we will rebuild, and we will get those responsible," he was doing his God-given duty as a leader. Come on people, lets think and have some common sense. Religion makes fools out of smart men and women.
Use your common sense here. Kahn says that Tom Daschal, George W. Bush and Jonathan Edwards and others offended God. No matter how Godly or ungodly these men are, they were trying to give confidence and hope. Maybe you did that right after 9/11. Did you try to still someone's fears right after by saying a positive thing, that we will move forward as a country? Oh, wait, maybe you forgot to say God when you were positive, and say, "we will do this in Him." Did He burn with fire against you at that moment for the words that you chose and start plotting His revenge on you for you trying to help and comfort some people? He didn't do that to these men either, so give them the same grace here that you give yourself, for God has enough to go around.
The men of Isaiah 9:10 were of their father the devil, as Jesus said of all men not yet regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and they boasted, and they had no covering for the sin. We have a new and better Covenant. Anyone who recently said we would rebuild did so in a world where God is at peace with man. It was not so in the Old Covenant.
An author can make any book fit by twisting truth, and by inserting half truths, and lies. The rabbi at best has a fiction here that has been stuffed down the throats of gullible Christians. Anyone remember "88 Reasons Why Christ is Coming back in 1988?" How about Harold Camping? These men of God with brilliant minds never seem to factor in God's character and love, always selling you the God they know themselves, no matter how skewed their own perception of Him is. Here is a line from Jurassic Park. "Just because they knew they could, does that means that they should?" Just because the rabbi has hewned stones and buildings falling and sycamore trees, and he skillfully matches the two experiences of Isaiah 9 and 9/11 together in what seems like a "to good to be true coincidence," that means nothing. For those of you that know the Bible Code, the Bible can be made to say or show anything, true or false, but what does the revelation-al thread of truth in the Bible say about God and His character and how He deals with man? You cannot pick out isolated phrases and create truth. You have Old Covenant truth, and New Covenant truth, and although those truths tie together, one must be cautious to not fully interpret them together, without first considering what truth has replaced other truth. American Christians have been "rabbied" by this man.... but I stay with Jesus and Paul, and the Holy Spirit, not anyone else.
Someone said to me the other day that God makes us sick to teach us. No, He does not. He capitalizes on the fact that we got sick and uses the time to teach and train, but He did not cause it. But you can see how confusion can come here, that God speaking to us and dealing with us during sickness looks suspicious, but again we must go with the Word, and the thread of truth, of God's love and that Jesus came to give abundant life. (John 10) The "judgement of America" theorists make the same error as this person did about sickness. We must go with the Word to get the Christ doctrine, for the harsh judgement doctrine is not of Christ. The Jonathan Cahn Harbinger book classifies him as one of the sons of thunder, those disciples that Jesus told, "you do not know what spirit you are of." It may be Biblical, Old Covenant wise, but not all that is Bible is the current truth, for we are called to the most current truth, which is Christ. This is called Progressive revelation. This is why the least in the Kingdom (us) is greater than John the Baptist, and John was light years past Moses and Abraham. And yet, you and I are greater than John, for we are sons and daughters who are one with God with Jesus living in us. John the Baptist would have gobbled up this Harbinger book, and it would have fit in his day. But Paul would have rejected it and asked the book's fans, "who has bewitched you," as he asked the Galatians, for they had slipped back to Old Covenant thinking from the New that he had taught them. (Galatians 3:1-2) We must beware of rabbi's bearing gifts, and judge their input to Christianity with the sound doctrine of Christ. Has a saved Jew been able to put behind doctrine that was replaced by the New Covenant, or has he created a hybrid gospel, mixing doctrines that should not be mixed?
Would you judge or save America now? Would you rule by fear or love? OK, then give God some credit here, for you and He are one in Christ. He would save it too! He is thinking just like you. "God has not given us a spirit of fear." But a harbinger is a threat to give fear to repent. God does not give us fear. It's an eternal truth. What happens when a born again, New Covenant believer embraces, believes and re-shares the judgment doctrine? They step out of their Ambassador-ship for God as one who was given the ministry of reconciliation to God through Jesus Christ! Their testimony in Christ becomes null, canceled out.
When you learn new truth, you must ask yourself, "does this line up with everything else I have learned about God?" That is because some doctrines and views are quite seductive and un-scriptural, at least when compared to to current truth we have been given.
Think about this. Does getting more righteous please God, or does faith please God? Warning people of coming harbingers tends to spread fear and attempts to get them more righteous, which is impossible. For to share and preach a God of judgment, fear is being shared, which is not faith, and without faith, it is impossible to please Him. (Hebrews) The Harbinger has been out now for years and has been a best seller most of that time, and in my mind, it has not brought repentance to America, in fact, we as a nation grow more evil. But people morbidly are attracted to messages like this, which bears no fruit whatsoever, except to excite people a little and stir them up for a short time. Jesus said we would know a work by its fruit. I see no additional fruit for this nation from this book. But show love and touch people with God's love, and you will see fruit. Read a book like the Harbinger and you will find yourself stirred up a little but still in your sins next time you are tempted, for God knew in His Divine wisdom that the law has no way to deliver us from our sins. This is a point that Jonathan Kahn has missed, but it is the point of the whole New Testament. But Kahn has now found one more entertaining way to hit modern people over the head with the law, which failed. The Old Covenant was not a success in redeeming people, even God admits that.
Whether I am right or the rabbi is right, the answer is the same. We must pray for America, and we must evangelize America. But following the doctrine of Christ is a more sure way to success than following a doctrine of judgement and fear. We already know now in advance that America is not buying hell fire and damnation teaching. But healing, signs, wonders, love, hope, joy, praise, honor, goodness, - that they will buy! So let's be her-alders of the gospel. Impending judgement is not the gospel, for the word gospel means, "good news."
I have written this with His love, so I say, I am sorry, but I am not sorry. Bless Him forever!
To read more on this doctrine of the "Harbinger" go to this blog link: http://ourhungrynation.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-harbingers-are-from-god-oh-really.html
To see more about my novel, Hungry Nation, go to this website:
http://www.hungrynation.net
Greg Nichols
mfnnetwork@gmail.com
