Is it Justifiable to Misapply Scripture in Order to Bring America to Repentance?

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Program Description:

David James and T.A. McMahon discuss: "Is it justifiable to misapply scripture in order to bring America to repentance?"

Transcript:

Gary: Welcome to Search the Scriptures 24?/7, a radio ministry of The Berean Call, featuring T.A. McMahon. I’m Gary Carmichael. Thanks for joining us.

This week, Tom’s special guest is David James, author of the new book The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction?, a critical review of the book The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn. And now, along with his guest, David James, here’s TBC Executive Director, Tom McMahon:
Tom: Thanks, Gary. Welcome to Search the Scriptures 24?/7, a program in which we encourage our listeners to be like the Bereans of Acts 17:11. They listened to the Apostle Paul and were commended for searching the Scriptures daily to see if what he was preaching was true to God’s Word. That’s the only way Christians can truly discern truth from error regarding what they’re being taught, no matter who or what is the source.
As Gary mentioned, our topic for today is a book that is atop the New York Times bestseller list titled The Harbinger, authored by Jonathan Cahn. Our guest is Dave James, the author of The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction?, which in fact takes issue with Jonathan Cahn’s best seller, a book that is obviously growing in its influence among Christians and non-Christians alike.
Welcome, Dave!

Dave James: Hi, Tom! Thanks, it’s great to be with you.
Tom: Yeah, Dave, give us an overview of your book and what motivated you to write it.

Dave: My book is a response and a critique of The Harbinger, and it basically looks at every aspect of The Harbinger, and looks at the claims and examines the details of the things that Jonathan Cahn says are actually factual events that have happened since the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

The Harbinger is a novel, but according to Jonathan Cahn, it’s 90 percent factual, so the fiction is just a vehicle for communicating what he believes are true things. So what I do is I don’t look at it from a literary perspective. I don’t evaluate it as far as whether it’s good or bad fiction, or whatever. I just take it at face value, the things that he says are true, and examine those to see if they really are true.

And his book largely centers around a passage in Isaiah chapter 9, Isaiah 9:10, which was given by God to the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the face of impending judgment that He was going to bring at the hands of the Assyrians. And according to Jonathan Cahn, there are identifiable events, or harbingers, or signs, or omens, in the Isaiah 9:10 passage, which not only did they happen back at the time that the Assyrians attacked Israel, but history is repeating itself on American soil, beginning with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

And so I examine those. I examine the hermeneutics, I examine the way he’s handling the Scriptures, I examine what he says are the replay of the events, and I look at them through a biblical lens and an historical lens. And the reason I did it was because I was concerned that it had become so popular and it was influencing a lot of people. So I just started to check into it to see if a book of this influence was really true and biblical and historically right.
Tom: Dave, in past, when we’ve evaluated…tried to biblically evaluate books that have come out, particularly those that are, as you said, with Jonathan Cahn’s book, when the vehicle is fiction, people think, Oh, therefore fine! It’s just this guy’s opinion. Don’t get too excited about it. And so on—on one hand! On the other hand, when it’s a so-called fictional book but it describes either biblical issues or the character of God, which we’ve seen in a number of so-called fictional books, now you’ve got a problem, because it’s talking about doctrine—doctrine meaning the teachings of Scripture, and it’s either true to the Word of God, or it’s not. And that’s what I appreciate about your book. You’re just trying to evaluate—even though it’s called a fictional book, it’s dealing with doctrinal…Old Testament, the Tanakh, as well as the New Testament scriptures. And once you do that, you need to be a Berean. You need to check these things out and see if they’re true to the Word of God, which is what I appreciate about your book.
Now, what kind of feedback have you gotten so far with your book?

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