Jonathan Cahn

Last updated
Jonathan Cahn
Jonathan Cahn 2015 (121218077).jpg
Cahn in 2015
Born
Jonathan David Cahn

1959
New York State
Occupation(s)Pastor, author
Years active1985–present
Movement Messianic Judaism
Evangelical Christianity
SpouseRenata
ChildrenThree

Jonathan David Cahn (born 1959) is an American Messianic Jewish pastor, author, and novelist known for his debut novel The Harbinger. He is the founder and leader of the Beth Israel Worship Center in Wayne, New Jersey.

Contents

Personal life

Born in New York State, Cahn was raised in a Jewish family, the son of a Holocaust refugee, and attended the synagogue frequently. Aged 20, after a near-death experience, he converted to Messianic Judaism. [1] He graduated from the State University of New York at Purchase. [2] Cahn started "Hope of the World Ministries", an international outreach of evangelism and compassion projects for the needy and currently is the president of the organization. [3] He is married to Brazilian Renata and they have three children. [1]

Ministry

Cahn is the head of the Beth Israel Worship Center congregation whose "liturgy focuses on Jesus as savior." The group had been located in Garfield, New Jersey throughout the 1990s but moved to Wayne, New Jersey in 2008. Their arrival in Wayne was viewed with suspicion by local leaders of Judaism as "Messianism has been condemned by Jewish clergy and leaders as a cloak for Christian missionizing." With the arrival of Cahn's group, the YM-YWHA of North Jersey held a counter-missionary event with a member of Jews for Judaism. Cahn told reporters that "the congregation has no intention of 'targeting' the Jewish community. However, anybody is welcome at the center." [4]

Focused on end times prophecy, Cahn has said that the United States is "on the wrong path" due to the prevalence of abortion, the pursuit of gay rights, and the perceived decline in the public role of religion. [1] He has cast President Donald Trump as a heroic and biblical figure, and has attended Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort with other activists. [1] Later, he has claimed that President Joe Biden has put the United States under "demonic possession" for lighting up the White House in LGBTQ Pride rainbow colors. [5] He also claims that the Stonewall riots opened a portal to another realm, allowing ancient deities to come back to earth, and that these include Ishtar, a Mesopotamian fertility goddess, who is resentful at Christianity for marginalizing her. [6]

Books

Cahn signing The Josiah Manifesto at Beth Israel Worship Center in Wayne, New Jersey Josiah Manifesto Prerelease.jpg
Cahn signing The Josiah Manifesto at Beth Israel Worship Center in Wayne, New Jersey

Cahn's 2011 debut novel, The Harbinger, compares the United States and the September 11 attacks to ancient Israel and the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel. [1] Cahn has followed The Harbinger with seven other books: The Mystery of the Shemitah, The Book of Mysteries, The Paradigm, The Oracle, The Harbinger II: The Return, The Return of the Gods, and The Josiah Manifesto. The Paradigm debuted at #5 on The New York Times Best Seller list. [1] In 2019, The Oracle: Jubilean Mysteries Unveiled, was published, [7] which became #1 on Publishers Weekly and Amazon, and made The New York Times Best Seller list in two categories. [3]

Films

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

The Book of Isaiah is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century BCE prophet Isaiah ben Amoz, but there is evidence that much of it was composed during the Babylonian captivity and later. Johann Christoph Döderlein suggested in 1775 that the book contained the works of two prophets separated by more than a century, and Bernhard Duhm originated the view, held as a consensus through most of the 20th century, that the book comprises three separate collections of oracles: Proto-Isaiah, containing the words of the 8th-century BC prophet Isaiah; Deutero-Isaiah, or "the Book of Consolation",, the work of an anonymous 6th-century BCE author writing during the Exile; and Trito-Isaiah, composed after the return from Exile. Isaiah 1–33 promises judgment and restoration for Judah, Jerusalem and the nations, and chapters 34–66 presume that judgment has been pronounced and restoration follows soon. While few scholars today attribute the entire book, or even most of it, to one person, the book's essential unity has become a focus in more recent research.

The Book of Ezekiel is the third of the Latter Prophets in the Tanakh and one of the major prophetic books in the Christian Bible, where it follows Isaiah and Jeremiah. According to the book itself, it records six visions of the prophet Ezekiel, exiled in Babylon, during the 22 years from 593 to 571 BC, although it is the product of a long and complex history and does not necessarily preserve the very words of the prophet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judaism</span> Ethnic religion of the Jewish people

Judaism is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jewish people. Judaism evolved from Yahwism, an ancient Semitic religion of the late Bronze Age to early Iron Age, likely around the 6th/5th century BCE. Along with Samaritanism, to which it is closely related, Judaism is one of the two oldest Abrahamic religions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish eschatology</span> Area of Jewish theology

Jewish eschatology is the area of Jewish theology concerned with events that will happen in the end of days and related concepts. This includes the ingathering of the exiled diaspora, the coming of the Jewish Messiah, the afterlife, and the resurrection of the dead. In Judaism, the end times are usually called the "end of days", a phrase that appears several times in the Tanakh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Messiah</span> Saviour or liberator of a group of people

In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of mashiach, messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a mashiach is a king or High Priest traditionally anointed with holy anointing oil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Messianic Judaism</span> Sect

Messianic Judaism is a syncretic Abrahamist new religious movement or sect that considers itself Jewish. Many Jews and Jewish authority figures, both in the United States and Israel, consider it a part of Evangelical Christianity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeremiah</span> Biblical prophet

Jeremiah, also called Jeremias or the "weeping prophet", was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah authored the book that bears his name, the Books of Kings and the Book of Lamentations, with the assistance and under the editorship of Baruch ben Neriah, his scribe and disciple.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Messiah in Judaism</span> Savior and liberator of the Jewish people

The Messiah in Judaism is a savior and liberator figure in Jewish eschatology who is believed to be the future redeemer of the Jews. The concept of messianism originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible a messiah is a king or High Priest of Israel traditionally anointed with holy anointing oil.

Adherents of Judaism do not believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah nor do they believe he was the Son of God. In the Jewish perspective, it is believed that the way Christians see Jesus goes against monotheism, a belief in the absolute unity and singularity of God, which is central to Judaism; Judaism sees the worship of a person as a form of idolatry, which is forbidden. Therefore, considering Jesus divine, as “God the Son”, is forbidden. Judaism's rejection of Jesus as the Messiah is based on Jewish eschatology, which holds that the coming of the true Messiah will be associated with events that have not yet occurred, such as the rebuilding of The Temple, a Messianic Age of peace, and the ingathering of Jews to their homeland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apocalyptic literature</span> Genre of prophetical writing

Apocalyptic literature is a genre of prophetical writing that developed in post-Exilic Jewish culture and was popular among millennialist early Christians. Apocalypse is a Greek word meaning "revelation", "an unveiling or unfolding of things not previously known and which could not be known apart from the unveiling".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Huldah</span> Biblical character

Huldah is a prophetess mentioned in the Hebrew Bible in 2 Kings 22:14–20 and 2 Chronicles 34:22–28. After the discovery of a book of the Law during renovations at Solomon's Temple, on the order of King Josiah, Hilkiah together with Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan and Asaiah approach her to seek the Lord's opinion.

David Harold Stern was an American-born Messianic Jewish theologian who lived in Israel. He was the third son of Harold Stern and Marion Levi Stern.

Two House theology primarily focuses on the division of the ancient United Monarchy of Israel into two kingdoms, Israel and Judah. Two House theology raises questions when applied to modern peoples who are thought to be descendants of the two ancient kingdoms, both Jews and the ten lost tribes of the Kingdom of Israel. The phrase "the two houses of Israel" is found in the Book of Isaiah.

The books of the New Testament frequently cite Jewish scripture to support the claim of the Early Christians that Jesus was the promised Jewish Messiah. Scholars have observed that few of these citations are actual predictions in context; the majority of these quotations and references are taken from the prophetic Book of Isaiah, but they range over the entire corpus of Jewish writings.

The servant songs are four songs in the Book of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible, which include Isaiah 42:1–4; Isaiah 49:1–6; Isaiah 50:4–11; and Isaiah 52:1353:12. The songs are four poems written about a certain "servant of YHWH". Yahweh calls the servant to lead the nations, but the servant is horribly abused by them. In the end, he is rewarded.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hebrew Christian movement</span> 1800s–1900s UK and US religious movement

The Hebrew Christian movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries consisted of Jews who converted to Christianity, but worshiped in congregations separate from denominational churches. In many cases, they retained some Jewish practices and liturgy, with the addition of readings from the Christian New Testament. The movement was incorporated into the parallel Messianic Jewish movement in the late 1960s.

Mark Tross is an American Christian pastor, radio and television personality, columnist, and former disk jockey residing in New Mexico. The current pastor at Victory Church of God in Grants, New Mexico, Tross is also host of Ask The Pastor, New Mexico's longest-running radio call-in program.

<i>The Harbinger</i> (novel) Book by Jonathan Cahn

The Harbinger is a 2011 Christian novel by Jonathan Cahn, a Messianic Jew, in which the 9/11 terrorism attack is presented as "divine warning" to the United States.

Arnold Genekowitsch Fruchtenbaum is a Russian-born American theologian. He is a leading expert in Messianic Judaic theology and the founder and director of Ariel Ministries, an organization which prioritizes the evangelization of Jews in an effort to bring them to the view that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. He lectures and travels widely.

Charisma House is a Christian publishing firm based in Lake Mary, Florida. The CEO is Stephen Strang.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Kestenbaum, Sam (March 15, 2019). "#MAGA Church: The Doomsday Prophet Who Says the Bible Predicted Trump". The New York Times.
  2. "Jonathan Cahn and the Present Shemitah". The 700 Club. Archived from the original on 2015-09-11. Retrieved August 7, 2023.
  3. 1 2 Gill, Benjamin (September 20, 2019). "The Oracle Hits #1: Jonathan Cahn Explains Prophetic Mysteries, How Jubilee Is Tied to Trump and Jerusalem". CBN.
  4. Josh Lipowsky (May 9, 2008). "Messianic 'shul' opens". New Jersey Jewish Standard.
  5. Armstrong, Payton (July 14, 2023). "On Charlie Kirk's podcast, "doomsday prophet" Jonathan Cahn fearmongers that an ancient goddess "possesses an entire generation" during Pride Month". Media Matters for America.
  6. Panetta, Alexander (1 November 2023). "This U.S. town is considering a ban on all public art". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation .
  7. Green, Lauren (September 16, 2019). "Jonathan Cahn's new book draws on ancient biblical prophecies". Fox News.
  8. "The Harbinger Decoded". imdb.com. Retrieved May 7, 2020.
  9. "The Harbinger Decoded". christiancinema.com. Retrieved May 7, 2020.
  10. "-The Harbingers of Things to Come". imdb.com. 2022. Retrieved May 7, 2022.
  11. "The Harbingers of Things to Come". movieguide.org. 29 April 2022. Retrieved May 7, 2022.