The Nazis fell. Hitler was dead. Berlin lay in ruins.
But according to Jonathan Cahn, the mystery of what the Bible calls “Satan’s throne” was far from finished.
In fact, Cahn says it was about to change hands.
In a stunning discussion with L.A. Marzulli surrounding his New York Times bestselling book, The Altar of Pergamon, Cahn traced what he sees as a dark spiritual thread running from ancient Pergamon through Nazi Germany, the Holocaust, Soviet communism, the Cold War and ultimately the terrifying dawn of the nuclear age.
At the center is the ancient Altar of Pergamon, which Cahn connects to Revelation 2 and its reference to Pergamon as the place “where Satan’s throne is.” Although his book unfolds as a fictional story, Cahn insists the mysteries behind it are rooted in real history.
Cahn has previously pointed to the altar’s reconstruction in Berlin and the chilling events that followed. Adolf Hitler was born in 1889, the same year the reconstructed altar appeared again. Hitler’s architect, Albert Speer, later designed the Zeppelin Field grandstand, inspired by the Pergamon Altar.
Then came the Holocaust.
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Cahn sees the attempted extermination of the Jewish people not merely as one of history’s greatest atrocities, but through the lens of spiritual warfare—a satanic assault against the people through whom God brought the Scriptures and the Messiah.
Yet the story didn’t stop when the Third Reich crumbled.
Cahn says the Nazis had hidden the Pergamon Altar in a Berlin bunker. When Soviet forces swept through the shattered German capital, they discovered it.
Suddenly, in Cahn’s telling, “Satan’s throne” had a new owner.
“The altar passes from Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union,” Cahn said.
And what followed?
Communism spread.
Cahn points to Soviet domination across Eastern Europe and communism’s subsequent global expansion as part of a startling spiritual pattern. The empire changed. The ideology changed. But the war against God, biblical faith and His purposes continued.
Then the world divided.
East versus West. Communism versus the free world. Soviet tanks versus American tanks.
Sitting directly in the crosshairs was Berlin.
To order L.A. Marzulli’s book, Rungs of Disclosure Revised and Expanded, visit Amazon.com.
“The Cold War begins at Satan’s throne,” Cahn said.
In 1961, American and Soviet tanks famously faced each other in Berlin while two nuclear superpowers stared down the possibility of war. Cahn sees something far deeper in that moment. The city housing the altar he connects to Satan’s throne had become ground zero for a divided world armed with weapons capable of annihilating civilization.
There is another eerie layer.
Cahn points out that nuclear fission was achieved by German scientists in Berlin in 1938, under Hitler’s regime. He connects the altar’s ancient association with burnt offerings to a phrase that would eventually haunt the modern world: “nuclear holocaust.”
For Cahn, these are not random historical footnotes.
Hitler. The Holocaust. Stalin’s Soviet empire. The Cold War. Nuclear destruction.
Different chapters. Different powers. One ancient spiritual battle.
Perhaps the most unsettling question isn’t whether that battle shaped the last century.
It’s where it is raging now.
Abby Trivett is a writer and editor for Charisma Media and has a passion for sharing the gospel through the written word. She holds two degrees from Regent University, a B.A. in Communication with a concentration in Journalism and a Master of Arts in Journalism. She is the author of the newly released book, The Power of Suddenly: Discover How God Can Change Everything in a Moment. For interviews and media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
