Beyond My Comfort Zone

Soon, I embarked on a most adventurous journey. With my Bible on the right and a dictionary on the left, I began reading The Unseen Realm. A few pages in, Dr. Heiser’s work began to challenge my beliefs. I wondered what my pastor would say if he discovered I was entertaining such concepts; it almost felt like heresy! Thoughts circulated my mind, “This isn’t what I was taught!”

Yet something compelled me to continue. Over the course of a month, I treated my reading of Heiser’s book as an in-depth Bible study. Whenever he referenced Scripture, I stopped, flipped the pages in my Bible, and read the entire biblical passage for full context. I frequently used Blue Letter Bible (blueletterbible.org) to delve into the original Hebrew and Greek words and their meanings for the cited scriptures. I found that, while Heiser’s points challenged my beliefs, I could not refute his interpretations with the Bible.

Dr. Heiser is thorough and superbly cites his sources. I encourage you to consider reading his work. He is objective and lays out the two or three most common interpretations of any given scripture passage, listing arguments for and against each and concluding with why he believes one is most accurate.

After a month of study, my limited view of the Bible’s depth was left in question.

As life during the lockdown progressed, more questions arose, and it wasn’t long before the Lord introduced me to Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn. Specifically, on September 26, 2020, I stumbled upon a live stream from the National Mall in Washington D.C. The event was titled The National Day of Prayer and Repentance. I soon switched from my phone to the television so I could listen as I completed household chores.

All was well until I heard the words, “And now, a prophetic word from our keynote speaker, Rabbi Jonathan Cahn.” I felt the hairs on my neck stand up. After all, in the church culture I was familiar with, prophecy was considered closed and limited to scriptural times. I paused and gave the live stream my full attention.

As Cahn took the stage, the banner introduced him as the author of The Harbinger. I vaguely remembered hearing about the book and being interested in it, but I had not followed through with reading it. I listened closely. Surprisingly, his message was biblically sound and incredibly relevant to America! Cahn demonstrated a genuine love for Yeshua, and his pleas for America to repent from sin and return to Yeshua were honest and sincere. Nothing he said contradicted my understanding of the Bible.

After conducting some research, I ordered his book, The Harbinger. As I read, the revelations he pieced together shocked me, mainly drawing from America’s history and the Bible, centering around the events of September 11th. Like Heiser’s book, I fact-checked it exhaustively and was not disappointed; history proved his points true!

Shortly after finishing this 2011 work, I ordered the sequel that Cahn had published only a month prior. Little did I know what awaited me.