"The Harbinger" by Jonathan Cahn

"The Harbinger" by Jonathan Cahn is supposedly this shocking book revealing how America fits into Bible prophecy. At least, that's what most people who like the book will make you think. I will tell you up front that I did not enjoy the book, nor did I agree with the premise.

Let me begin with my literary criticisms, then I will move on to the Biblical and doctrinal criticisms.

To begin with, I believe Cahn's choice to write this book about his interpretations of Bible prophecy as a fiction narrative was a disaster waiting to happen. The book had no action in it at all (despite the back cover making a comparative reference to the plot being like "a Hollywood thriller"). It was entirely made up of dialogue. And of this dialogue, easily 40% of the sentences were questions.... not GOOD questions, but questions like: "What does that mean?"  "How?"  "They didn't know?"  This made the reading very boring.  The unnamed "prophet" character had an annoying habit of dropping uninformative sentences, to which the main character (a journalist named Nouriel) would ask a clarifying question. It was painfully boring writing.
Here's a made-up example of a conversation between the two, which will serve to illustrate:

Prophet: "They should have known..."
Nouriel: "Who?"
Prophet: "The Israelites. They should have known, but they forgot."
Nouriel: "Forgot what?"
Prophet: "The prophecy."
Nouriel: "What prophecy?"
Prophet: "The prophecy about the tree."
Nouriel: "What tree?"
Prophet: "The tree that fell."
Nouriel: "Fell where?"

This is only the slightest of exaggerations. Much of the book felt like that conversation to me. So it was boring. The characters weren't well developed, and there was very little emotion - really very few "human" elements to the book at all. The author should have either written a better novel, or written this as a non-fiction book on prophecy. This book is repetitive, shallow, anti-climactic, and boring. And that's just my LITERARY opinion!

The story basically revolves around the conversations between Nouriel and the Prophet. The Prophet gives Nouriel nine ancient clay seals with images on them, and he uses the seals and images, along with Isaiah 9:10, to explain how America is supposedly following the same pattern as the ancient Jews. This pattern includes vows, warnings, signs, and judgments.

When you take away the seals and images (which do not actually exist - they are a plot device in the book to introduce the author's points), and the repetition, and the pointless dialogue, the author could have easily made his claims in a 40-page booklet.

I won't take the time to go through all of the book's contents, nor will I dismantle the Biblical errors one-by-one. But I will say that the author goes beyond the bounds of any reasonable hermeneutical principles on several points. The first one being taking that which was prophesied for ISRAEL and applying it to the USA. There is simply no biblical reason to do that. The author says that the founders of America thought they were creating a nation dedicated to God's purpose. But this is in no way comparable to God's actual chosen people, the Jews - nor does it compare to the actual covenant relationship God has with them. (God has no covenant with America, or any other nation for that matter).

The book just did not ring true. The author kept speaking of "ancient mysteries" more than actual prophecies (maybe because he knows in his heart that the PROPHECY was for Israel, not the US?). He also kept speaking of the "vow" of Isaiah 9:10, and how America's political leaders repeated this "vow" - and therefore defied God and invited judgment. I do not believe in magic words. If God is going to judge America (and I think He is already doing that), then it will be because of their rejection of Him and His Christ and His Word - not because they said the magic words of a made-up "vow."

Furthermore, the author made some REALLY HUGE stretches of imagination in order to make his parallel between Isaiah 9:10-11, and America's 9/11 attacks and Wall Street collapse, fit the frame of what he was saying. When you have to twist and contort things in order to make them fit, then you are doing damage to the Word of God.

For example, the Isaiah 9:10 prophecy mentions that a sycamore tree has fallen. Then the author claims that a sycamore tree was destroyed near Ground Zero on 9/11. The problem is, we English speakers just CALL both of these trees sycamores. They are totally different trees! It is equivalent to saying that the ancient prophecy talked about a barracuda, and applying it to a goldfish - because they are both "fish". The author makes these kinds of creative contortions with semantics all throughout the book.

When you strip all of this away, you are left with.....not much, really. There are much better critiques of "The Harbinger" available on the internet. But, please, read things like this with discernment - don't accept everything just because they sell it in the Christian bookstore.

I would NOT recommend this book - either for entertainment reading, or for Bible prophecy study.