By Tim Challies - Posted at @challies:
Every now and again, I decide that I will visit the ECPA list of bestselling Christian books and read the number one bestseller, no matter what it is. It is a decision I often regret. I wish the books that rose to the top were the best of the best, but, sadly, they are often the worst of the worst.When I looked a few days ago, the top book was The Avatar by Jonathan Cahn. I had run into Cahn once before when I read his first megaseller, The Harbinger, which has now sold more than two million copies. I knew roughly what to expect then, especially when I noticed that the two subtitles are quite similar: The Return of the Ancients and the Future of America and The Ancient Mystery that Holds the Secret to America’s Future. Though fourteen years have elapsed between the two books, the theme has remained consistent.
Yet one big thing has changed between The Harbinger and The Avatar, and it’s the rise of Donald Trump. More specifically, it’s his victory, his loss, and his second victory. And just as The Harbinger is framed around the events of 9/11, The Avatar is framed around the events of Trump’s time in the national spotlight. Cahn draws a very tight connection between the historic Northern Kingdom of Israel and the contemporary United States of America. He believes that just as Israel was created by God and dedicated to him, so was America. America is, in a sense, the new Israel and therefore has a similar covenantal relationship with God. If America stays true to God, it will enjoy his blessings, but if America drifts from God, it will suffer his disfavor.
So what’s The Avatar all about? Cahn believes that the ancient gods who were so often worshipped in Israel in place of the one true God have now manifested in America. Just as the avatars, or manifestations of these deities, may have once been Baal or Molech, today they manifest as Clintons, Obamas, Bidens, and Harrises—mostly Kamala Harris, for whom he has an especially deep antipathy.