Jonathan Cahn

"The Harbinger opens with the appearance of a man burdened with a message he has received from a mysterious figure called The Prophet. The Prophet has given him nine seals, each containing a message about America's future ... As the story unfolds, each revelation becomes a piece in a greater puzzle -- the ramifications of which will even alter the course of world history."--Publisher's website.

The Harbinger

Dan Denney

** spoiler alert **
           This has some spoilers!

If this was a non-fiction book sharing the similarities between the fall of Ancient Israel and the major events affecting the U.S., I'd probably give it a 4. Spoiler alert: there were many and they were really interesting.

It's a 2 only because of how interesting the information was. The actual story was so hard to read. It was an afterthought, something to wrap all of the information in. This guy gets handed a series of clues, wanders around for weeks or months with each one until the guy that gave him the clue (aka the myserious prophet) shows back up to tell him the answer. This happens over and over. Luckily there's a slight bit of progress in that with the last few he actually reads some things and gets help from others (and still gets them wrong.) Books like The Da Vinci Code have stories that could stand on their own but also shove in a bunch of art and religious history. I'm not a book snob and I'm not an academic and even I felt insulted by using the story as a mask. The author even tells you he's done it near the end.

That said, I didn't stop reading it for 2 reasons: first, the information about the two was very interesting. Second, my dad had recommended it (on top of it being on my wish list) and I wanted to be able to talk with him about it. 

The only way to read this book is to completely remove the characters as you go and focus on the long shares from the prophet.

Aaron Bach

First off, know this about me: I am simultaneously a man of intense faith and rigorous scientific/analytical background. I believe in God. I am also an computer engineer/scientist. My life is a constant journey toward understanding the harmony between spirituality and science.

Before deciding to read this book, I prayed. I asked God to give me guidance. If this was a deceptive work whose purpose was to entangle my mind in crazy, supernatural delusions (and their accompanying flights of fantasy), I asked that He turn me away. If, on the other hand, there was a message within worth hearing, I asked Him to give me the proverbial "eyes to see and ears to hear".

The result? It's currently been 5 hours since I purchased the book. Between then and now, I stopped only to eat dinner; in every other second, I devoured this text. And now, having completed it, here I am, carrying a heart that simultaneously feels immense hope and incredible heaviness.

Without spoiling the particulars, this book details (in narrative form) the author's encounter with a man who makes statements befitting a slightly modernized Old Testament prophet. As his base of discussion, this man uses scripture found in Isaiah 9:10 (which details Israel's defiant response to the siege laid against it by Assyria); what follows is an amazing, heart-wrenching account of how those same events -- and their consequences -- have come to unfold in the United States.

10 pages in, I was interested. 50 pages in, I was slightly skeptical. 125 pages in, I began to consider the validity of what was being said. 150 pages in...and my eyes began to open. This is a grand story that teeters on the edge of impossible, but which, when considered carefully, strikes a chord that often accompanies the deepest truth.

Once I'd completed this, I went to my Bible. With apologies for how "do-this-for-me" my request seemed, I asked God to once more show me if what I'd read had any measure of truth. I asked Him to show me through Scripture (which doesn't conform to -- and isn't bound by -- fantasy or supernatural leaps of nonsense) whether this meant anything.

Somehow, I opened directly to Isaiah 9:10. I'm not one to believe in chance or happenstance; you be the judge as to whether this was coincidence.

For the reader who is brave enough to read this book, put its contents under the microscope of whatever world view he subscribes to, and merely listen, there is much to examine here. At its core, it is simultaneously a message of hope and ominousness, disobedience and repentance, rebellion and the call to return. Try, for a moment, to suspend the box into which you fit the world; allow yourself the opportunity to consider something outside of your everyday experience.

You won't regret it.

The Harbinger

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