The year 2012 was surrounded with an aura of mystery long before the glowing ball dropped to the pavement of Times Square on New Year’s Eve. Much of the speculation has concerned the Mayan calendar, the apparent end of which supposedly speaks of the supposed end of the world.
For me and others, 2012 has been linked to The Harbinger. The two came in together, as The Harbinger released Jan. 3. Within its first week, it became a New York Times Best-Seller and has remained a national best-seller since. The DVD version of this message, The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment, has become the best-selling faith video in America. I have no question that only the Lord could have caused this to happen, for His purposes and for this hour.
America and the Growing Alarm
The year 2012 is significant for another reason: It marks the 50th anniversary of the first major milestone in America’s dramatic departure from God and His ways. On June 25, 1962, America took its first major step in removing prayer and God from its national life when the Supreme Court ruled prayer in public schools illegal. Many see this date as a marker of the decline of America—not only spiritually and morally, but as an entire civilization.
Today there is a growing sense among believers—and even among some nonbelievers—that America is in danger of judgment and that its days as the world’s leading superpower are numbered.
The Harbinger matches this growing sense of danger. It reveals an ancient biblical mystery that lies behind everything from 9/11 to the collapse of the American economy. It’s a mystery of judgment. In the last days of ancient Israel, before its destruction as a nation, nine harbingers—nine prophetic signs, warning of national judgment—appeared in the land. Those same nine harbingers of judgment are now reappearing on American soil in specific detail and progression; some involve the highest leaders of the land.
As for The Harbinger’s impact, we’ve been receiving continual reports from around the country of lives being changed. Nonbelievers have come to faith; believers have come to repentance; churches, Bible studies and Christian fellowships are devoting their services to the book’s message or to showing the video, then praying and interceding for America’s future.
The message of The Harbinger has been reaching government leaders, too. In Oklahoma, every member of the state legislature, along with its governor, has received a copy of the book, and the message is spreading.
In the same period of time, America’s mainstream culture has progressed further away from God. The celebration of homosexuality and the redefining of marriage have progressed beyond what anyone would have imagined a few years ago. For the first time in American history, a president publicly has called for marriage to be redefined and homosexuality to become an institution. America has offered up nearly 55 million of its children to abortion since it was legalized in 1973. Its media and culture continues its descent toward vulgarity, sexual immorality and godlessness.
The Harbingers Continue to Manifest
As 2012 unfolded, the prophetic warnings spoken of in The Harbinger continued to manifest even after the book was published.
In the chapter entitled, “The Third Witness,” a mystery is revealed in which two prominent American leaders each proclaim the same vow of defiance and judgment that was uttered by the leaders of ancient Israel in its last days as a nation—Isaiah 9:10. The first was the Senate majority leader from Capitol Hill the day after 9/11. The second was Sen. John Edwards in Washington, D.C., on the third anniversary of 9/11.
But there was a third: the president of the United States. In his first major address as president, before a joint session of Congress, Barack Obama unwittingly uttered a paraphrase of the ancient vow as the central declaration of his speech. The Harbinger reveals how the president’s words followed the same pattern and paraphrase of the ancient vow as summed up in Bible commentaries: “We will rebuild. We will come back stronger than before.”
Then, on June 14, 2012, something happened at ground zero that stunned people who had read The Harbinger.
Obama journeyed to ground zero to the rising Freedom Tower. The fourth of the nine harbingers is the Tower; it is the one harbinger that’s still in progress.
While at ground zero, Obama was led to a very significant object—the steel beam set to be the final and highest beam of the rising Freedom Tower. On that beam, the president wrote eight words. They formed a paraphrase of Israel’s ancient vow of judgment: “We remember. We rebuild. We come back stronger.”
Thus, the ancient vow, in modern English—the vow that brought judgment to ancient Israel—will soon mark the pinnacle of the tallest building in America, the fourth harbinger.
The Mystery of Ground Zero
One of the final mysteries revealed in The Harbinger concerns the principle of the dedication ground. When judgment came to Israel, the destruction returned to the same place where the nation had been consecrated to God in prayer.
On April 30, 1789, George Washington was sworn into office as America’s first president. After taking the oath of office, he issued a prophetic warning concerning what would happen if America ever turned away from God—a word that is coming true in our day. After the address, the nation’s first government gathered at an appointed place to pray and to commit the nation’s future into God’s hands. This was America’s dedication ground.
Where was it? It was in the nation’s first capital. But America’s first capital was not Washington, D.C. It was New York City. Where exactly? America was dedicated to God at ground zero! America’s dedication ground is ground zero. The calamity returns to the place where the nation, on its first day, was dedicated to God.
It was on that same dedication ground that some of the harbingers noted in the book appeared. It was from this ground on 9/11 that a shock wave went forth and struck a very significant object, Federal Hall. It was where the American nation-state began and where Washington spoke his prophetic warning as to what would happen if America ever departed from God. The shock wave of 9/11 put a large crack in the foundation of Federal Hall, the foundation of America.
All around ground zero, every building was either destroyed or ruined—except one. Only one building was virtually untouched: St. Paul’s Chapel, where America was dedicated to God.
How? It was said there was an object that absorbed the force of 9/11. What object? It was the sixth harbinger of the book, the sycamore tree.
The harbinger saved the church.
This brings up a key point. The purpose of the harbingers is not to condemn a nation to judgment, but to warn it to the aim of salvation, redemption and revival. The purpose of The Harbinger, the book, is not to condemn America but to bring salvation. The point of The Harbinger is neither to scare nor to amaze, but to sound the alarm, to wake up, to save and to call back. It is ultimately a book of hope.
The Call To Return
This is what the mystery of ground zero is—a call to return. Beyond the growing sense among American believers that our nation is in danger, God is calling His people to return in prayer, humility, intercession and repentance.
One of these gatherings, America for Jesus, is set for Sept. 28-29 in Philadelphia on the mall by the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, where America’s forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence. The event is yet another manifestation of this growing call to return.
There is a Scripture to which 9/11, ground zero and the mysteries of The Harbinger all point. It was the Scripture given to Solomon to answer his prayers on the Temple Mount, Israel’s dedication ground:
“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chron. 7:14).
If My People …
It was the late 1970s. America was failing. Its economy was paralyzed by simultaneous inflation and stagnation. Inflation was skyrocketing, as was unemployment. Gas lines filled the land as a result of a Middle East oil embargo. American embassies around the world were under attack. Americans were being held hostage in Iran. Every night, Americans watched in horrified paralysis as multitudes of Iranians shouted, “Death to America!”
The debacle of a disastrous military attempt to rescue the hostages caused a palpable despair to settle over the nation. The American age appeared to be coming to a close rapidly.
In late April 1980, believers gathered from all around the nation to pray in the nation’s capital at the Washington Mall. It was called Washington for Jesus, and its theme was 2 Chronicles 7:14. The Scripture was repeated over and over again. People came to humble themselves, repent, pray and seek the face of God. They prayed that God would intervene. Near the end, the multitudes lifted their hands to the steps of the capitol building and prayed that God would bring men and women into the government who would do His will.
I remember. I was there.
Months later came the presidential election and a revolution at the polls. Ronald Reagan and those supported by Christian voters were swept into office. In January, the president-elect readied to take the presidential oath when he made an unprecedented change. For more than a century, the presidential inauguration had been held on the eastern steps of the Capitol Building. Yet this president-elect changed the location to the western steps.
As he was sworn into office that day, he faced the same ground on which the believers prayed, according to 2 Chronicles 7:14, nearly nine months earlier to send leaders who would do God’s will. Those who had prayed in April had their arms literally pointing to the place where the new president was standing.
They also had prayed for the release of the American hostages in Iran. At the very hour the new president was sworn in, news came from Iran that the hostages were being released. Both prayers were answered in the same hour and manifested on the same ground on which those believers had prayed months before.
That day and hour marked a turning point in American history, which would become increasingly significant in the days and years ahead. Some called it “Morning in America.” The economy experienced a dramatic change, leading to some of the most prosperous years in the country’s history. Unemployment faded, along with inflation. American military power was revived and reverenced throughout the world. Soon after, America won the Cold War and became the world’s only superpower. It all began that winter’s day as the new president took the oath of office.
The Hidden Hand, the Future and the Great ‘If’
However, the change began with something else. The world saw Reagan’s right hand raised as he repeated the presidential oath. But it noticed his left hand, too. Sometimes it is the left hand of history—the unseen story—that’s more important.
At that pivotal history-changing moment, Reagan’s left hand was placed on a Bible opened to a particular verse: “If My people, who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
It was as if God was answering the prayers of His people who gathered on that same ground months before. His people humbled themselves and prayed, and God heard their prayers and was about to heal their land.
Could it happen again? It could. In the wake of The Harbinger, people ask me if I see revival or judgment for America’s future. My response is, the answer is sometimes both. Sometimes revival comes only through judgment. But the call remains: “If My people …” Revival begins with the people of God. The fate of a nation rests on the people of God. The key word is If.
Jonathan Cahn leads Hope of the World ministries and Beth Israel Worship Center, a congregation based in Wayne, N.J. His teachings can be seen on television and heard on the radio across the country and are known for their prophetic insight into the mysteries of God’s Word. His latest major best-selling book, The Dragon’s Prophecy, is available now on amazon.com.
