By Melissa Martin

Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, born in 1959, is an American Messianic Jewish minister, speaker, author, and novelist. He is the leader of Hope of the World ministries and the Jerusalem Center/Beth Israel, a place of worship for Jew and Gentile in New Jersey.  

Cahn is known for opening the mysteries of Scripture and explaining prophetic messages with entertaining prose. He wraps factual information in fictional form (semi fictional novels) as he tells stories based on his interpretation of biblical prophecy and analysis.  

“The Harbinger: The Ancient Mystery that Holds the Secret of America’s Future” is Cahn’s 2012 book and a New York Time’s bestseller. The story is framed by an ongoing conversation between journalist Nouriel Kaplan and Ana Goren, a publishing executive. The narrative goes back and forth as Kaplan explains an ancient mystery that parallels Israel and the United States of America. He compares the September 11 attacks in the U.S. to the past destruction of the Kingdom of Israel. The word “harbinger” means omen or warning. The nine harbingers appeared in ancient Israel before the fall of the great nation according to Cahn and have appeared to the U.S. because God has lifted the hedge of protection due the rebelliousness of humankind.  

The following excerpts are from The Harbinger:  

“The same nation that was formed after the pattern of Israel now follows after the pattern of its moral descent, its spiritual departure from God. As it was with Israel’s descent, so too America’s. It began with a complacency toward God, then spiritual confusion, then the merging of God with idols, and then, ultimately, the rejection of his ways…In the middle of the twentieth century America began officially removing God from its national life. It abolished prayer and Scripture in its public schools…removed the Ten Commandments from its national consciousness…As God was expunged from American life, idols came in to fill the void – idols of sensuality, idols of greed, of money, success, comfort, materialism, pleasure, sexual immorality, self-worship, self-obsession.”  

“And America has done much good. And there’s no shortage of nations far exceeding any of its faults or sins. But no nation in the modern world has ever been given so much. None has been so blessed. To whom much is given, much is required. If a nation so blessed by God should turn away from Him, what then? It’s blessing will be replaced with curses? Yes. And has America turned away from God? I asked. It has turned and is turning.” 

“You can’t solve a spiritual problem with a military or political solution.” 

“God’s will is that none should perish. Judgement isn’t His desire…but His necessity. The good must bring evil to an end, or else it would cease to be good. And yet His mercy is still greater than His judgement. His heart always wills for redemption. And therein lies the hope.”  

“One heartbeat,” he replied, “one heartbeat. That’s it. That’s all. You’re only one heartbeat away from eternity. Everything you have—your life, your breath, this moment, it’s all borrowed, it’s all a gift. And at any moment it all ends with a heartbeat…just one heartbeat, and there’s no more time. One heartbeat and the chance to be saved is gone. One heartbeat and there’s no more choosing—it’s all sealed for eternal life or eternal death.” 

Cahn penned and published “The Harbinger Companion With Study Guide: Decode the Mysteries and Respond to the Call that Can Change America’s Future and Yours” in 2013. 

His ensuing books were also New York Times bestsellers: The Book of Mysteries (2016), The Paradigm (2017), The Mystery of the Shemitah (2018), The Oracle (2019), The Harbinger II (2020), The Return of the Gods (2022).  

I recommend Cahn’s books for both people of faith and people seeking faith in these harrowing and confusing times we are experiencing.

Author:  

Melissa Martin, Ph.D., is a syndicated opinion-editorial columnist. She lives in U.S.