Appearing on The 700 Club, Rabbi and “prophet” Jonathan Cahn says:
We’re approaching the end of the Shemitah. This is the climactic time here. Again, I’m not dogmatic, but here we are at this time. The template of the Harbinger is the nation that’s warned and does not turn back heads toward apostasy and judgment. We’re watching this happen now. So we are now heading to this time. What’s going to come? I believe a great shaking is coming to America. And the world, but America. I believe a shaking is coming that will strike the financial realm, the economic realm, and even be a shaking that’s greater than that.
Today is September 13, 2015, also known as Elul 29 or the last day of the Shemitah year. Rabbi Jonathan Cahn says that sundown on Elul 29 is the apex when “the trumpets begin.” I’ve been asked by friends and readers of the blog for my opinion on the Shemitah. I thought it fitting to post my thoughts on the day of the Shemitah, so I’m writing this at 12:59 AM on Elul 29. We shall see what the day has in store, but I see no biblical basis to forecast any sort of “shaking” based upon “The Shemitah as a prophetic sign” as bestselling author Jonathan Cahn has outlined in his book The Mystery of the Shemitah.
What is the Shemitah? Jonathan Cahn explains on The 700 Club interview with Pat Roberston. Cahn says:
This [Shemitah] started in September of 2014 and is coming to a head next week or this coming weekend actually. … And the Shemitah, for those who don’t know, God says every seventh year, you’ll have a Sabbath year and this is the Shemitah. There’s rest and economic cessation. On the last day of the Shemitah is an extraordinary thing. It’s called Elul 29. All debts are wiped out, credits wiped out, the financial accounts of the nation are wiped clean. And this is to be a blessing. But when Israel turns away from God, the blessing turns into a sign of judgment.
On Sid Roth’s program Its Supernatural, Cahn says that Elul 29 is “the day of wipe out … all financial accounts wiped clean.” Cahn asks, “Could this pattern that God wove actually be in effect now? Could it manifest at times?” The premise of Cahn’s book as that this “3,000-year-old mystery” reveals the dates and hours of the greatest crashes in Wall Street history, determined the timing of 9/11, and lies behind the rise of America to global superpower . . . and its fall.
Cahn is referring to the cancelation of debts every seven years as prescribed in the Mosaic Law (see Exodus 23:10-11; Deuteronomy 15:1-6; Leviticus 25:1-4). Deuteronomy 15:1-6 states:
At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release of debts. And this is the form of the release: Every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbor shall release it; he shall not require it of his neighbor or his brother, because it is called the Lord’s release. Of a foreigner you may require it; but you shall give up your claim to what is owed by your brother, except when there may be no poor among you; for the Lord will greatly bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance— only if you carefully obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe with care all these commandments which I command you today. For the Lord your God will bless you just as He promised you; you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you. (Deuteronomy 15:1-6)
First of all, notice that the Shemitah did not apply to “a foreigner.” In other words, the Shemitah does not apply to Gentile nations like the United States. On the Sid Roth program, the question was asked, “Doesn’t the Shemitah only apply to Israel?” Cahn answered, “The Shemitah was just like the Sabbath. It was given to Israel, but there’s an application to everybody.” This is false. Neither the Sabbath nor the Shemitah applies to everybody. Cahn is seeking to bind the Sabbath day and the Sabbath year upon all people when it only applies to the nation of Israel under the Old Covenant. We read in Exodus 31:12-18 that the Sabbath day was a sign of the Old Covenant between God and the children of Israel:
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’”
And when He had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God. (Exodus 31:12-18)
For a more in-depth study, see my article The Sabbath. The Sabbath day and the Sabbath year (the Shemitah) were part of the Old Covenant which God made with the children of Israel. A Christian under the New Covenant is not required to keep the Sabbath day or the Sabbath year. Certainly the Shemitah of the Mosaic Law is not imposed upon America, a Gentile nation (Deuteronomy 15:3).
Furthermore, Jesus and the Apostles referred to the Old Covenant Law of Moses in the following terms: “until John [the Baptist]” (Luke 16:16); “obsolete, . . . growing old, . . . ready to vanish away” (Hebrews 8:13); “is passing away, . . . abolished” (2 Corinthians 3:7,11,13). Therefore, it would be utterly ridiculous to expect the United States of America on every seventh year to let the land “rest and lie fallow” according to the Shemitah of the Mosaic Law.
Perhaps anticipating this sort of objection to his argument, Cahn says,
we must distinguish between the observance of the Shemitah and the Shemitah as a prophetic sign. Only Israel was compelled to keep the Shemitah as an observance. As an observance, the Shemitah applies to one nation. But as a prophetic sign, it may apply to any nation. As an observance, the Shemitah comes regularly, every seventh year. But as a sign, it is not bound to any schedule or regularity. But when it does appear, it will manifest the essence of the Shemitah, its effect and mystery, in the form of a sign (pp. 76-77).
But on page 30 of his book The Mystery of the Shemitah, Cahn says:
- The Shemitah bears consequences that specifically affect the financial and economic realm.
- The effects of the Shemitah bear key similarities to the effects of an economic and financial collapse.
Where does the Bible say this? How could the Shemitah possibly affect any nation’s other than the theocracy of Israel? Where does the Bible tell us that the Shemitah has anything to do with economic collapses of Gentile nations?
David James is the author of The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction and The Biblical Guide to the Shemitah and the Blood Moons. In the second book, he critiques Cahn:
Interestingly, rather than attempting to test his case to determine whether this is actually a universal principle that operates throughout history and around the world, he specifically focuses on a single country, the United States of America — and then, over only a portion of history. If Cahn’s theories are correct about the Shemitah being a universal principle in God’s dealings with nations, it should be readily observable and easily demonstrable throughout history. (pp.14-15)
On page 96 of his book The Mystery of the Shemitah, Cahn notes that the “greatest peaks and key turning points of modern stock market history take place in…” 1973, 1980, 1987, 2000, and 2007, all cycles of seven years. He says, “The mystery of the Shemitah ordains that an economic and financial transformation takes place in the seventh year.” In interviews and in his book (pp. 100-108), Cahn notes the economic “collapses” of the stock market in 1966, 1973, 1980, 1987, 1994, 2001, and 2008, all Shemitah years.
He concludes that, “In the Bible the economic and financial realms are timed to a seven-year cycle. This cycle concerns an economic cessation and a financial remission centering on the seventh year in the cycle,” and:
- “The greatest financial turning points of the past forty years have been connected to the Shemitah or its wake 100 percent of the time!
- “The greatest financial turning points, peaks, or long-term collapses of the past forty years that have taken place within the biblical Year of the Shemitah or its autumn wake is 100 percent!
- “Where there has been both a financial collapse and an economic recession, the period connecting their starting points has fallen within the biblical Shemitah 100 percent of the time!
- “Thus, from the forty-year period beginning in 1973, every single one of the greatest collapses have converged, clustered, and taken place according to the set time of the Shemitah.” (pp.108-109)
Compare Cahn’s analysis to the charts below which depict the U.S. Economy from 1948-present and American recessions timeline:
In his article The Mystery of the Shemitah: Is It Real, David James makes the following important argument:
If Jonathan Cahn were right about the mystery of the Shemitah, then economists almost certainly would have noticed and been writing about this precise seven-year cycle long before God “revealed” it to the author. Tremendous fortunes could have been made by savvy investors who know how to play just such market cycles. However, preliminary research indicates that while some economists have suggested that economies may naturally follow a cycle of a bit less than seven years to as much as ten years, there is no universal agreement on this point. This stands in sharp contrast to the precise seven-year Sabbath cycles in ancient Israel.
Consider this chart below which displays a timeline of American Recessions. This is especially helpful to our study of Cahn’s seven-year Shemitah cycle.
The graph and quotation below are found in the article Shemitah Years and Blood Moons as Market Timing Tools by Jerry Bowyer, Jay Ryan and Charles Bowyer:
On average, the Dow Jones price declined by 4.1% in Shemitah years, and rose by 9.4% in non Shemitah years. However, if you exclude 2008, the average decline in Shemitah years is only 2.9%.
In terms of the top 20 largest daily percentage declines in the Dow Jones in history, 9 out of 20 took place on Shemitah years. If you exclude 2008 (which is an outlier year which contains several top 20 market declines), only 5 out of 20 take place in Shemitah years. As for the 20 largest gains, 7 are Shemitah years, and 2 of those 7 were from 2008. In the last century, when you exclude 2008, the probability for there being a major market correction in a Shemitah year in the 20th century and early 21st century is slightly above 1/7.
Statistically, it’s hard to find justification for the claims that alleged Shemitah years constitute high probabilities for major market corrections.
It is evident that the data was being manipulated by Cahn to fit his Shemita schema. And the data that did not fit the mystery of the Shemita was excluded. Yet Cahn is being heralded as a prophet.
Sid Roth says, “Just before judgment comes to any country, historically, biblically in the Old Testament, God would raise up a Jewish prophet. And just before the Messiah returns to Israel, God is raising up Jewish prophets. . . . I believe Rabbi Jonathan Cahn has been raised up by God.” For a prophet raised up by God, Jonathan Cahn’s remarks are not definitive. For example, in interviews Cahn says the following speaking of Elul 29:
- “God can do whatever He wants.”
- “God doesn’t have to do anything.”
- “I give two caveats … God doesn’t have to do anything according to our schedule … However, He could do it according to His schedule as it has happened the last times.”
- “Elul 29 is coming up. It’s coming on a Sunday. The Stock Market is not even open. But if there is something that will happen, it doesn’t have to, it could be indicating a greater shaking beyond these realms.”
- “While nothing has to happen, we have to be ready either way … If it doesn’t happen in this period, I believe a great shaking is still coming.”
- “I’m not dogmatic. I’m not a date-setter.”
- “Nothing has to happen.”
- “It could be very uneventful, but I don’t think so.”
Cahn has even pushed back the doomsday deadline beyond Elul 29 to September of 2016. Cahn says: “Then you have Yom Kippur. That is the beginning of the prophetic Jubilee period for one year. Then you have Tabernacles, but you also have the blood moons.” See my article debunking the blood moon tetrad.
Pat Robertson asks Jonathan, “You’re saying this Sunday might be the apex? The crucial moment?” To which Jonathan responded, “It could be. Nothing could happen. Or it could happen.” Not even Cahn is fully persuaded of his mystery of the Shemitah. While I would not be surprised if we soon see cataclysmic judgment from God, I do not find The Mystery of the Shemitah biblically compelling.
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