A couple of weeks ago, I was listening to American Family Radio’s Bryan Fischer as he said, “Only two nations in history have ever had a direct covenant relationship with God, Israel and America.” He claimed that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were America’s covenant documents with God. He was making this claim in the context of promoting Jonathan Cahn’s book, The Harbinger. As soon as I heard him say those words, I thought to myself, “That’s the AFA heresy right there. That’s the whole problem with their theology!”

In the list of top-selling Christian books, right along with Todd Burpo and Sarah Young (books I have reviewed and critiqued elsewhere in this blog – here and here), stands The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn. This book takes readers to Isaiah 9:10 as a prophecy of the judgment of God against America on 9/11/2001. Cahn point out that “The One-Year Bible” published in 1985, puts Isaiah 9:10 on Sept. 11th:

“The bricks have fallen,
but we will build with dressed stones;
the sycamores have been cut down,
but we will put cedars in their place.
But the Lord raises the adversaries of Rezin against him,
and stirs up his enemies.” – Isaiah 9:10-11, ESV

First of all, before I go any further, any time an author starts playing “numbers games” or hidden-code tricks with the Bible (“secret prophecies”/ citing page numbers from “The One-Year Bible”), run the other way! This is not a responsible way of handling the Bible.

The basic “prophecy” behind the book rests on Cahn’s ability to string together random events and coincidences and read them into the text of Isaiah 9:10. This is called “eisogesis,” when you read into a text a meaning which is not there.

FACT: No responsible Bible scholar would assert that Isaiah 9:10 anything to do with America whatsoever.

The Harbinger has been heavily promoted on American Family Radio (AFR). I listen to AFR regularly, as they sometimes have some good things to say. However, when they start talking about The Harbinger or the theology of Israel & America which underlies both this book and much of AFR’s message, I get pretty irritated.

I have written a more in-depth blog post (No Distinctions: Lord of All) exposing the flawed theology promoted by AFR, but I will just pick out a few highlights and be more specific. In my other post, I was concerned to be Biblical and not to name names, but sometimes you have to step out and name names.

Here are four key errors that underlie the theology of The Harbinger and American Family Radio:

1. The political nation-state of Israel has a right to the land of Canaan; it is a Promised Land for ethnic Jews.
2. Ethnic Jews are the Chosen People of God forever.
3. America has a covenant with God through our Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
4. America is guilty of breaking covenant faithfulness with God and is suffering covenant judgment.

Each of these four statement above is false and un-Biblical.

The first two are based on a flawed way of interpreting Scripture called dispensationalism. If we are to understand the Bible properly, we cannot read the Old Testament in isolation, as if the New Testament had not been written. We must always read the Old Testament in light of the New, seeing God’s promises to Israel as they are explained in Galatians, Romans 9-11, 1 Peter 1-2, etc.

The second two errors are based on a seriously flawed way of interpreting history and our founding documents. (See this post: “I Love Our Constitution, But I Can’t Call It ‘Inspired’“)

Here are four truths that answer the four key errors above:

1. All of the covenant promises of God made to Abraham were pointing toward Christ and have been fulfilled in Christ:

“For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.” 2 Cor. 1:20

“For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise..” Gal. 3:27-29

“Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.” Galatians 4:25-26

2. Those who believe in Jesus Christ and are members by faith of his body are the chosen people of God.

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” 1 Peter 2:9-10

“But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.” Romans 9:6-8

“What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written,

“God gave them a spirit of stupor,
eyes that would not see
and ears that would not hear,
down to this very day.” Romans 11:7-8

[NOTE: Based on my understanding of Romans 11, I do hold out hope for a future conversion of many Jews to Christ, but “the elect” are those who come to Christ by God’s grace.]

See also the whole use of the term “the elect” in the New Testament. It is not used of ethnic Jews, but of those who are brought to salvation through faith in Christ. We are “the chosen people” of God.

3. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are not divinely inspired documents and they do not, in any sense, form a covenant relationship between America and God.

God has made a covenant with creation not to destroy the whole earth by a Flood. He has also established a new covenant with his people, sealed in the blood of Jesus, which cleanses us from sin and makes us his holy people. This new covenant is really part of the unfolding covenant of grace, which is woven throughout Scripture.

However, at no time does God enter into political alliances with human political nation-states. America is not God’s chosen nation and America does not have a special alliance with God. This is utter nonsense and is an arrogant, America-centered view of reality that is offensive to the Bible!

Thomas Jefferson write the Declaration of Independence, including the famous words that supposedly form the “covenant with God”: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Jefferson’s view of God was not Biblical and Jefferson was not a Christian, despite David Barton’s claims to the contrary. Barton needs Jefferson to be a Christian because he needs America to have a covenant with God.

The Constitution, which forms the framework of our country’s government, does not even mention God. Far from being a covenant with God, it is a non-religious document. It does contain much Biblical wisdom and insight into human nature drawn from the Bible, but it is not a covenant with God.

4. America is suffering from the consequences of foolishness in abandoning wisdom and righteousness. This is probably the unfolding of divine judgment, but not in a covenant sense.

God does not need a special covenant with a particular people in order to judge them. All humanity stands under God’s covenant with Adam, which Adam broke. Thus, all humanity is guilty and sinful before a holy God. (See more about this on my other blog, Calvin & the Confession.)

Here’s where I start to offend the other side in “the culture wars”:

I do believe that 55 million unborn babies killed legally over the past 40 years has consequences in the light of divine justice. I do believe that the embrace of homosexual “marriage” and of sending women into combat to protect men at home has and will continue to have consequences. I believe that running up a $16.8 Trillion debt because we all want government services but we don’t want to pay them is immoral and will have disastrous consequences.

Sin brings death, like storm clouds bring rain. We are all sinners, but America has chosen to run head-long into a maelstrom of folly, sin, rebellion, selfishness and arrogance. We will reap what we have sown. God cannot be mocked.

As T.A. McMahon says in his critique, “The clarion call of The Harbinger , which seems to be quite sincere and is one with which all Christians might agree, is that the American people must repent of their evil ways and turn to God in truth. Amen to that!”

Some people may say that I am agreeing with the main message of The Harbinger: judgment is coming and we must repent as a nation. On one level I agree wholeheartedly, but on another level I must disagree. We cannot repent “as a nation” because “as a nation,” we have no relationship with God and do not know God. The church needs to repent and return to her first love. The nation needs the Gospel proclaimed by a faithful church, a church that loves Christ and his Gospel and his church more than the nations of Israel or America.

Jason A. Van Bemmel is a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church in America and is Pastor of Faith PCA in Cheraw, S.C. This article appeared on his blog Ponderings of a Pilgrim Pastor and is used with permission.