Jonathan Cahn: Is America Possessed by Ancient Gods?

Read Time: 7 Minutes 2 Seconds

Is it possible that ancient entities known as the “gods” have returned to our world?

If so, who are these gods? And could they be the hidden agents transforming modern culture and even your life?

Is it possible that in the mythologies of the ancient world are the clues that reveal what is actually happening at the present hour?

The answers to these chilling questions and more are revealed in Jonathan Cahn’s most explosive book ever, “The Return of the Gods,” published by Charisma Media and released September 2022.

The Mystery
Cahn takes his readers on a journey through time, beginning with the ancient entities known as the shedim. The word shedim stands for the gods and idols of the nations that the people of Israel turned to when they turned away from God. (See Deuteronomy 32:17 and Psalm 106:36–37.) Cahn goes from uncovering the mystery of these gods and how they changed world history to explaining how these same gods of the ancient mystery have come into our world.

In a shocking look at how these gods have changed our culture, Cahn reveals how they are working and moving in all that is taking place around us, how they are initiating social upheavals and cultural revolutions, indwelling our politics and transforming our world—and even our lives.

Cahn issues a warning: “The mystery revealed in this book will touch the sacred cows of our culture and age,” he says. “It will broach that which is deemed unbroachable, speak that which is judged as unspeakable, question the unquestionable and reveal that which has not yet been revealed. It will address the most radical and controversial issues of our time, the front lines of cultural upheaval, the catalytic forces that are now transforming society, civilization, history and life as these have been known.”

He continues, “As it progresses, the mystery will become more intense and more explosive. Thus the latter part of the revelation will be even more so than the first. At the same time, it will touch these sacred cows and issues in a way in which they are not normally touched, illuminated by the light of a mystery that goes back ages, to ancient times. What one does with the revelations is in one’s own court. The purpose of this book is to reveal them.”

Exile of the Gods

According to Cahn, the gods had been away for ages. The ancients had exiled them. They wandered the barren and desolate places, the deserts and wildernesses, the alleyways and ruins, the graves and sepulchers.

In their days of glory these gods had reigned over tribes and nations, kingdoms and empires. They had subjugated cultures and mastered civilizations, infusing them with their spirits, saturating them with their images, possessing them.

Their statues and carved images looked down at their worshippers who approached their altars with offerings and tributes, sacrifices and blood, even human victims.

But, Cahn writes, the days of their dominion came to an end when Jesus came. They were expelled from the high places, banished from the palaces of kings, driven out of the public squares, cast out of their temples and removed from the lives of their subjects.

The gods were sent into exile by the entrance of the gospel. In time the gods became memories, echoes and phantoms. And then they were forgotten.

The Open Door

In the days of the gods’ absence, Cahn says, kingdoms had risen and fallen, nations had disappeared, an empire had collapsed and a new civilization had been born.

In the absence of those ancient gods, he writes, man had charted the earth, vanquished nature, dissected the fabric of life and codified the universe. The forests were no longer enchanted, the shrines were no longer sacred and nature was no longer magical. The scientist now wore the mantle of the prophet, and the garments of the priests were replaced by lab coats. The world had been disenchanted.

It was then that the ancient door was set ajar. The long-locked portal of the gods was reopened, and thus was their conjuring, their invocation and their return.

Cahn illustrates that this was the beginning. The gods came back from the desolate places and from the dark and forbidden realms. They came up from the underground and from the dwelling places of the dead. They stepped out from the shadows.

The gods came slowly at first, as the door was only slightly opened, Cahn says. Had their entrance been too rapid, it would have been repelled and the door would have closed. But they entered slowly, with measured steps, so they were able to keep the door ajar and then open it wider as time went by. And as the shock that followed each of their steps dissipated, the resistance to their return would be overcome.

“The world they now entered was unlike the one they had left,” says Cahn. “In the former world, cities glowed with the light of oil lamps and walls were adorned with carved images. But in the world they entered, cities were illuminated with electrical currents and images of light moved across billboards and movie screens, television sets and computer monitors.”

He continues, “The gods could not rule over the modern world as they had over the ancient, not in the same way. But they would rule over it. They would not return to the high places and groves or to their ancient shrines and temples. They would inhabit the new seats of power by which the modern world was led and make of them their thrones. They would come upon the movers and influencers of modern culture and make of them their instruments.”

Things had changed in the modern world. To the modern mind the gods did not exist, and few would serve them if they believed they did.

So, says Cahn, the gods came back in disguise. “They altered their appearances. They took on new identities and gave themselves new names. They came as spirits of enlightenment, freedom and power; they came as secular gods, new gods, alternate gods, gods that granted godhood, gods that denied that they were gods and gods that declared that there were no gods—they came as gods of the modern world.”

Dwelling Among Us
And so, the gods returned. Cahn chronicles how they began working their dark magic, uprooting what was planted and planting what was not, overturning, transforming, moving the ancient markers, breaking down the ancient hedges and forcing open the ancient gates. And as the seeds of their planting came to fruition and their spirits infused more and more of the modern world, they grew more powerful.

“And so the gods now dwell among us,” Cahn writes. “They inhabit our institutions, walk the halls of our governments, cast votes in our legislatures, guide our corporations, gaze out from our skyscrapers, perform on our stages and teach in our universities. They saturate our media, direct our news cycles, inspire our entertainments and give voices to our songs.”

He continues, “They perform on our stages, in our theaters and stadiums; they light up our television sets and computer screens. They incite new movements and ideologies and convert others to their ends. They instruct our children and initiate them into their ways. They incite the multitudes. They drive otherwise rational people into irrationality and some into frenzies, just as they had done in ancient times. They demand our worship, our veneration, our submission and our sacrifices.”

The gods are everywhere. They have permeated our culture. They have mastered our civilization. They came because we turned away from God.

Does this mean that America is now possessed by the gods, under the influence of ancient spirits? “The Return of the Gods” answers “Yes.”

Is There Hope?

Although the gods have returned and seek to make every knee bow down before them, Cahn assures us that their days are numbered.

“Their kingdom is false, their authority illegitimate and their kingdom will end,” he says. “And those who have stood for the light, who have lived their lives by the light and who have believed in, hoped for and waited for the light, for them the Light will come, and in that Light they will arise and shine. To them will come the kingdom in which there is no more darkness, no more tears, no more sorrow and no more death.”

So Cahn ends his book with hope—with the return of Jesus. The gods have returned, but their days will come to an end. He concludes, “Evil will give way to good, falsehood to truth and the darkness to the breaking of dawn. The gods will fade into the brightness of His coming, the coming of Him who is the only Light—and who alone is God.”

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The preceding was excerpted from Jonathan Cahn’s New York Times best-selling book, “The Return of the Gods” (Frontline, 2022). For more information, or to order the book, visit BooksByJonathanCahn.com.