THE HERE I STAND THEOLOGY PODCAST "Crazy Train Edition" of False Teaching of Johnathan Cahn

I'm serious. I mean, this is what's wrong with the Christian church today. We don't know who God is, and we don't know who we are.

The Podcast’s Aim: Refuting Open Theism, Christology, and Salvation Errors

Welcome to the Here I Stand Theology podcast, where we are a podcast dedicated to a pointed and spirited debate of biblical doctrine, aka theology. Welcome again. We are glad that you are with us today for our second installment of the Jonathan Cahn Crazy Train edition of False Teaching.

Before we get any further today, I do want to say just a word. Now, in the last episode, I did not do a good job of laying out the facts about the focus being on open theism. There were more than a couple of folks who said how they didn't understand how I was connecting what Jonathan Cahn was teaching with open theism.

So let me begin today by giving an apology. I apologize. I didn't do a good job of laying out the facts of setting the episode up with the focus being on open theism. I do aim to rectify that right here.

So again, folks, I apologize on that. I'm going to try to do a better job as we move along going forward on these issues here. So let's jump right into this here, though, today. And I do want to say a couple of things here to kind of set the stage as we move along here.

Now, Jonathan Cahn is obviously he is obviously teaching doctrine in his book, this book called the Book of Mysteries. He each story what each story seems to focus on a different doctrine. And so now he isn't the issue here is that he isn't naming these doctrines that he's teaching.

He's just using them as some kind of an analogous connection, making some kind of analogous connection between the teacher and the disciple. However, it is very, very important that as Christians, as Berean listeners, as Berean hearers, that we are always comparing what we're hearing to the word of God.

So in the last episode, our focus was on open theism because Cahn continually tries to communicate an open view of God and an open view of understanding God that goes beyond the scripture itself. And therein lies the issue.

Therein lies the problem. Therein lies the concern. In this episode, what we're going to be looking at, two doctrines are going to be light concerning what Jonathan Cahn is teaching, concerning what he's saying, two doctrines, the doctrine of Christ and the doctrine of salvation itself.

These are clearly communicated in what he's going to teach us, quote unquote, teach us in this short little clip. So in this episode, we're going to look at the doctrine of Christ, the doctrine of salvation.

Our aim today is to biblically refute Jonathan Cahn's unbiblical view of the doctrine of Christ and of the doctrine, his unbiblical view of the doctrine of salvation concerning the person of Christ. The issue is that he is really teaching, he's teaching an ancient heresy known as Arianism.

And you'll hear this, you'll hear this as we go throughout the video here. But we're going to be looking at the eternal nature and work of Christ and the doctrine of salvation. And specifically on salvation, we're going to be looking at the Ordo Salutis.

That's the that's Latin for the order of salvation. So it's important that as believers, we understand that we know that the biblical view of Christ. We'll shape a biblical view of salvation, and if we do not have a biblical view of Christ, if we do not have a correct view of Christ, we cannot have a correct view of salvation.

Most certainly, we must have a correct view of Christ. Now, in our time together today, I have put in some some kind of fun clips for us. Maybe so just for me more so than anyone else listening, simply because it keeps me from throwing a fit.

It keeps me from pulling a Yosemite sound.

I'm dirty, perky, sharky, flaky, flaky, flaky, flaky, flaky, flaky, flaky, flaky, flaky, flaky, flaky, flaky, flaky, flaky, flaky, flaky.

So if if you were able to be behind the scenes yesterday when I really began to focus on this, that's that's maybe a microcosm of what happened here in the in the study, in the studio. So that being said, let's very quickly.

Tell you what, we'll just go ahead and get right into it. So let's bring in.

Jonathan Cahn’s Claim That Jesus Was “Born Again”

In Bethlehem, he was literally born a second time.

What we're going to do, you got a cheated peek at that. Let me pause that for a minute. So if you heard that, you're already fuming mad. If you didn't hear it, just wait. You'll get to hear it again here in just a moment.

Let's get right into this.

Who was the first person to be born again? The surprising answer can change the way you live. In the Book of Mysteries, the teacher asks a question to the disciple.

Here's one for you. Who's the first person to be born again?

Can you guess who he's going to say? Can you guess? If you are familiar with the heretical teachings of the NAR and you are familiar with the heresy of charismatic doctrine, you have likely heard this.

If you are a listener or a watcher of TBN and have been for years, if you're a follower of Frederick Cayce Price, he's gone. He's left this world. If you're a follower of Joyce Meyer, if you're a follower of Creflo Dollar, if you're a follower of any of these big name it and claim it teachers, they teach this little God doctrine that stems from Arianism.

And by the way, Arianism, just to give you a quick definition here in Christianity, it is concerning the Christological position that Jesus as the Son of God was created by God. It was proposed early in the fourth century by a presbyter named Arius and was popular throughout much of the Eastern and Western Roman empires, even after it was denounced as heresy.

It was denounced as heresy by the council of Nicaea in the year 325. This is full blown heresy.

Now, before we get to the answer, I have to set the foundation here. Because you're watching, you may not be born again. Jesus said you must be born again.

Yes, Jesus did say that. This might be the only correct thing that he says in this whole video. Jesus said you must be born again.

You cannot be saved unless you're born again. You cannot be a true believer or Christian unless you're born again. It doesn't matter if you're Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, whatever you are, you have to be born again to enter heaven.

That's what he said. To be born again is to receive the Lord.

The New Birth, Regeneration, and the Ordo Salutis

Now, here's where we get into the doctrine of salvation. Very, very important here. Let's consider something here for just a moment. In John chapter three, and we can look at the biblical text here. So let's go to John chapter three.

And let's share the screen. It may take me just a moment here. There we are. And so concerning what he begins to say here, let's look at what the scripture says. The scripture says in John chapter three, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God for no one can do these signs that you do unless you are a teacher. Unless God is with him. Jesus answered and said to him, most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus says to him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of the water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but you cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.

So is everyone who is born of the spirit. Now, what he said here, again, let's go back to this and let's let's just listen at what he says, because he makes it sound as though just anybody to be born again to.

Enter heaven. That's what he said. To be born again is to receive the Lord into your life. It's to follow him with all your heart, to truly be a believer in everything you do, a disciple. It's to say, come into my life, forgive me of my sins.

And then a new.

See, that is that is incorrect as well. He's he's conflating categories here. He's importing ideas in that aren't aren't biblical, particularly concerning the Ordo Salutis or the order of salvation.

New life begins and old life is over. You live in the presence of God.

So with with what he just said, he said he speaks about an Armenian view of the order of salvation, that faith precedes regeneration. But. The reformed view, the reformed doctrine of the order of our idea of the order of salvation, the Ordo Salutis really is a is a pretty it's a pretty big deal when we really get get down to brass tacks on it, because we're not looking at we as human humanity, we tend to think of things kind of in a linear view.

Right. We can see one, two, three, four. We can see all these things and they happen one right after the other. God is infinite. God is eternal. And the salvation that he has worked is not something that the natural man can understand, nor is it something that the natural man can just run out and grab like he's going to Walmart and picking something up that he wants.

The order of salvation in the reformed view really begins in eternity past with God's predestination and election. And it it goes it moves to eternity future in glorification. But here in this little this little graphic wanted us to take a moment to look at because we really want to grasp this and for our hearers and our listeners to understand and to know that that that salvation itself is of the Lord.

Now, in this graphic, you see all of everything concerning salvation points to being in union with Christ. Right. Our election, our election, our calling, the predestinating work of God determining from eternity past the salvation of his elect, his calling.

So our election begins in eternity past the atoning work of Christ, again, determined in eternity past the gospel call, the gospel call, when the gospel call comes, when the when the word of God is proclaimed and when the word of God is preached, unless unless that inward call, unless regeneration takes place, no one can respond to the outward to the gospel call itself.

But when God does his regenerating work of salvation in the heart of man, man can respond unto the Lord. Man can move toward the Lord. And it's when we are regenerated, when the work of the new birth takes place inside of the heart and the mind of the man, woman, boy and the girl.

It's when that takes place that simultaneously that God gives faith and repentance. The scripture says in Ephesians 2, 8, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

For we are his workmanship created unto good works in Christ Jesus. Right. So faith is a gift of God. Repentance, the ability to repent, is a gift of God. And then we move to that forward in the Ordo Salutis to the justification, which again, justification, sanctification point to being in union with Christ Jesus, our Lord.

So justification, it's a once and done deal, so to speak. For lack of for me using lack of a better term, it's a once and done deal. The work of Christ, the work of Christ, the finished work of Christ Jesus on the cross is how we are justified and we are justified by faith.

Right. So that's a once and done deal. Our sanctification is a progressive act that God continually works out in and through his saints, making us holy. And then it winds up in eternity past when we are glorified, when we are glorified with the Lord.

So now some people may say, well, I don't know if I believe all that. I would have to have the word of God really show me and tell me something on that. Well, I'm glad that you're willing at least to hear, to look at what the word of God says.

Let's do that for just a moment here. Let's go to the Romans chapter 8 and share the screen. So let's look here at Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, just looking at 28, 29 and 30 here. And we know that all things work together for good.

Right. Paul's writing to the to the Roman church there. We know that all things work together for the good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he foreknew.

Foreknew doesn't just mean he was able to see, but it means those whom he foreloved. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the first born among many brethren.

Moreover, and here we have the golden chain of redemption, moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called, whom he called, these he also glorified and whom he justified. I'm sorry, these he also justified, in whom he justified, he also glorified.

So there we have the the golden chain of redemption. So what Jonathan Cahn is doing, again, he's making salvation an easy believism. He's he's not. He's not communicating a biblical view. Of salvation, so it's very, very important, again, as Berean listeners, that we weigh everything we hear according to the word of God itself.

So that being said, let's move forward.

The Claim That Jesus Was the First Person Born Again

So now back to that, if you're not born again, you need to get in. But the question, who was the first person to be born again? I think, well, the disciples or people in the book of Acts. The answer is no.

The first person to be born again.

Get ready for it.

Get ready, it's going to surprise you, it's going to shock you,. Was Messiah.

Jesus, why?

You would say, wait, wait, that's crazy. That's that's heresy. No, not at all.

Let that sink in for a minute. The first person to be born again was Jesus. If I had something to throw, I'd throw it.

Oh, think about it. What was Messiah Jesus before the incarnation? He was the son of God. How could he be the son of God if he wasn't born?

So straight from the horse's mouth.

What did God give to the world? His only begotten son, begotten means born. He was born of the father. That's absolute doctrine.

So you see, he's he he really he he really forces this idea in here. So he says this is absolute doctrine that Jesus was born again.

So when he was born in Bethlehem, was that his first birth? No, it was his second birth. Of course, you can't deny that he's the begotten of the father and you can't deny that he was born in Bethlehem.

So he had to be born a second time. He was already begotten and born before Bethlehem.

What you talking about?

Arianism is the Christological heresy that states Jesus, the son of God, was created by God. It was proposed by a fourth century presbyter named Darius. This doctrine was denounced at the Council of Nicaea in three twenty five.

And the incarnation was. His second birth.

Boom. So you're you're hearing him teach this, that Jesus was born and he's confusing his terms here. He's saying that the incarnation was the first birth of Jesus and his birth in Bethlehem was his second birth.

Oh, maybe I'm jumping ahead here, but that's what he's that's what he's getting ready to say to us.

Nativity was his new birth in.

So in orthodox. Christian teaching. That's a non heretical Christian teaching teaches that Jesus. Eternally exists in the Godhead. No beginning. And no end without mixture. As a matter of fact, the incarnation is one of the central doctrines of the Christian faith that God became flesh, that God assumed a human nature and became a man in the person of Jesus Christ, the son of God and the second person of the Trinity.

Christ was truly God and Christ was truly man. This man is teaching. Her hair, heretical doctrine. He's selling books by the droves. He's stacking up cash. With this false teaching. Now. A person can do what they want, when they want, how they want.

Don't get me wrong on that, please. Don't get me wrong on that. But listen, if Christians, if people who profess to know Jesus Christ, these are the people he's marketing this book to. These are the people that he's selling these books to primarily.

It's not lost people. It's people who profess the name of Christ. Who do not see this. They hear it. They read it. They likely use it to communicate to their friends. And I think we probably lost the audio on that portion there.

That's OK. Let's go back to this view. They are selling this garbage, promoting this garbage to their families. It is Christians who are buying this stuff. It is Christians who are putting out their putting out their hard earned dollars so that they can say, I've got these I've got Jonathan Cahn's entire series of books on my bookshelf.

There are churches who have this in their church libraries, this garbage, this false teachers books in their libraries. And friend, this ought not to be so. It ought not to be so at all.

Christ’s Eternal Nature and the Meaning of the Incarnation

Bethlehem, he was literally born a second time. So then the new birth is connected to the incarnation.

So let's look at some more scripture here. Very quickly, let's actually. Go to let's go to Genesis one just to start. So we have a proper foundation. Now, what does Genesis one teach us? Genesis one, we read of the creation account of God, making the heavens and the earth of God, making man.

Let's notice here in Genesis chapter one, verse 26, what the scripture say. Then God said, let us make man in our image. After our likeness, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God. He created. He created him male and female. He created them. So we we we see the the triune nature of God at work in the beginning. Let us make man.

Jesus did not begin to exist. Jesus was there. As a matter of fact, let's take a look at a at a another text, actually, let's go to John chapter one. And after one, we see it here in the beginning was the word, the logos.

That's the word that's used there, the logos. It's Jesus speaking of Christ. And the word was with God. And the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him and without him, nothing was made that was made.

In him was life and the life was the light of men and the light shines in darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. We go to Matthew, get my fingers to work, right? So we hear and we read in Matthew two, one after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod of Herod, the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, where is he who has been born king of the Jews?

For we have seen his star in the east. This is what the incarnation is referencing. This is what that statement or that term, the incarnation is pointing to. It's the physical birth of Jesus Christ into this world.

And the scriptures teach us that, I mean, even the message communicated by the angels to Mary and to Joseph, that his name will be Jesus. He will save his people from their sins. He will also be called, according to Isaiah, he'll be called Emmanuel, which is interpreted God with us.

He is separating or he's conflating, he's running together all these ideas and all these doctrines just so that they sound good for his book, but they are just out and out bad theology, completely bad theology, completely wrong theology, completely heretical teaching.

And again, Christians are the ones that are buying this junk.

Think he who was born of the spirit, born of spirit, was born again of the flesh so that we, so that you who are born of the flesh could be born again of the spirit. Or in other words, he was born of heaven, was born again a second time of earth.

In case he hasn't said it enough, he just said it again.

So that we, me, you who are born of earth could now be born again of heaven. Or think of it this way. He was born of God, was born again of man, so that we, all of us who are born of man, could now be born again of God.

So if you want heresy stated, restated, and stated again, and you want all of those statements and restatements to be incorrect, this is your guy.

A Comic Illustration of Nonsense

Clear the board, Q.

So I've included this here. I was just going to let this run, but I want to just explain this clip just in case. So Steve Harvey, and he was hosting Family Feud. He is a pretty hilarious guy. This is completely unspiritual, but again, it's something that I've included just because it will lighten the mood and it kind of sets a, kind of gives us a physical illustration of how mindless and how silly this teaching of Jonathan Cahn is.

So this is actual footage from Family Feud that was taken.

Clear the board, Q. Some politicians belong in the White House. Others belong in the blank house. Well, Steve, if they're good, they belong in the White House. Yeah, just like that, the question. Some politicians belong in the White House.

Others belong in the White House. Oh, they trying to trick me.

I'm going to answer the question with the question.

I'm going to tell you the same thing you asked me. White, white, yeah, I'm fitting the point.

Hold your breath.

I was dragging a minute ago. God saw me having a rough day. God decided to lift me up. He said, you need an answer that ain't really an answer. You need an answer that's really a question. I'm going to answer the question with a question.

Yeah, some politicians belong in the White House. Others belong in the White House. That is a man. Is this your brother in law?

That's my brother in law.

Your brother in law about to be on YouTube.

He was born again to partake of our life. That we could be born again to partake of his life.

Now, that sounds that sounds semi OK. That sounds semi all right. Let's run that back just a moment.

That's my brother in law.

He was born again to partake of our life. That we could be born again to partake of his life.

So concerning the doctrine of salvation, the active and the passive obedience of Christ are very important. Right. He was actively obedient to the will of God, fulfilling the law completely and totally.

As a matter of fact, the Book of Galatians teaches us that he was born of a woman born under the law. Right. And the scripture says that he perfectly obeyed God in every way, perfectly obeyed the father in every way.

Thus, in his active obedience, perfectly fulfilled the law of God. And then we have his passive obedience, the passive obedience of Christ being that being God in the flesh. He hung on the cross, taking the wrath of God upon himself, being able at any time to stop this, to come down from the cross.

Yet passively obeying God, thereby taking the wrath of God on him, thereby being the propitiation for our sins. So this is so very important. That's the biblical doctrine. But listen as he winds this out.

He who was re-begotten in Bethlehem had to learn how to live in his new birth on earth, his new life, his new nature, that of flesh and blood. He had to learn how to walk on the earth, how to see with physical eyes, how to touch with physical hands.

For the re-begotten are born into a life that they didn't know before and in which they now have to learn how to live.

So he is equating, he says the re-begotten have to do this. Basically, he called Jesus the re-begotten. Now he's saying that the re-begotten, which I'm assuming he's speaking about lost people, need to learn how to do that in here.

So you who are re-begotten of God, you now have to learn how to live in your new birth.

We are not re-begotten. We are born again. We are begotten by the word.

To live in your new life, to live your new nature, that of the spirit. Learn how to see in the spirit, live in the spirit and walk in heavenly places. That is the journey and that is the mystery of the re-begotten.

You now have the incredible opening from God, the power to live in the life of the Son of God and to walk in the spirit of God and to walk as if you were living his own life. He lived your life.

Why?

So now you can know the miracle of actually living the life of the Son of God.

Nowhere in scripture is it even remotely communicated that we are to be like Christ or little Christ, right? Now, I know folks are going to mention that you may first think of that passage in Acts. They were first called Christians at Antioch.

But know this, that that word Christ, as used in the text of scripture, is the word anointed one, right? We are not anointed ones. There is one Christ, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, one father of all, right?

We've quoted that before. So this man is teaching an unbiblical view of salvation, an unbiblical view of salvation that he says, basically, you can just pick up whenever you want, and an unbiblical view of Jesus Christ.

He is not teaching the eternal nature of Christ. He outright said Christ was born the first time, and he said it incorrectly, at his incarnation, and the second time at the nativity. Christ was never born.

Just so that you know that in closing, let's bring this to a close here. In case you are watching, and you have unwittingly fell into the trap and the lies of these false teachers, men like Jonathan Cahn, you have unwittingly falling into that, I encourage you today, simply turn from them.

Repent of believing them. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and the scripture says, you will be saved, and you will be saved only because the Spirit of God has done his regenerating work in your heart.

Salvation cannot be earned. Salvation cannot be achieved. Salvation cannot be won. Salvation is of the Lord. And if the Lord is calling you today, I encourage you, look up. Look up unto the Savior. Trust in Christ with all your heart, and as the scriptures teach us, do not lean on your own understanding, but in all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will direct your path.

Thanks for spending this time with us. Be on the lookout for the next episode. Matt and I will be back in the studio together. We'll be looking at, in depth, the doctrine of the Trinity. God bless you.

We hope to see you then.