The War of Thrones: Biblical Parallels With America’s ‘Culture War’
In his New York Times bestseller, The Paradigm, Jonathan Cahn reveals an ancient blueprint from the time of Ahab and Jezebel that amazingly foreshadows the events of our time. The following excerpt reveals biblical insights behind America’s “culture war” and the forces that battled in the campaign that led to the election of Donald Trump. Those forces are still battling on the nation’s stage to this day. As in ancient times, the fight involves nothing less than worldviews, biblical values and the lives of babies:
A showdown was coming. There were two nations in one. The first was represented by Joram, Jezebel, the house of Ahab, the worshippers of Baal and the majority who simply went along with the apostasy. The second was represented by the prophets and those who had remained true to God and His Word. They were the minority, committed to following the ways of righteousness despite every pressure to the contrary. They were praying for a national return to God, a revival. But the longer the house of Ahab was allowed to remain in power, the greater its ability to wipe away biblical faith and the greater its chance of doing so. Commentaries describe the gravity of the situation this way:
“Baal-worship would have been riveted upon the northern, perhaps even upon the southern, kingdom.”
The influence of the house of Ahab had now spanned decades. By virtue of time and inertia its ways were becoming more and more ingrained in government, custom, culture and faith. Its impact was even spreading to the southern kingdom of Judah, where it would at one point threaten the very survival of King David’s dynasty. For the people of God the situation seemed hopeless. The house of Ahab was entrenched on the throne. There was no way out.
But a prophecy had been given, Elijah’s word to Ahab in the vineyard of Naboth. Jezebel had to have known of it. Whether she ever told Joram we don’t know. The word foretold the overturning and vanquishing of Ahab’s dynasty. It would involve the son of Ahab, the house of Ahab and his wife, Jezebel.
When would it happen? According to Elijah’s word, it would take place after Ahab’s death, in the reign of his son. That son could only be Joram. The prophecy mentions Jezebel specifically by name. Thus, Jezebel would still be present and a prominent force on the national stage at the time of the prophecy’s fulfillment. So the overturning of thrones was appointed to take place at the end of Joram’s reign.
Two forces, two worldviews, two courses, two futures and two civilizations were about to come head-to-head and clash. A showdown was coming.
During the Obama years American culture became especially polarized. There were two Americas—one largely committed to or accepting of an anti-biblical morality and the overturning of biblical values, and the other largely resolved to hold true to God and resist the apostasy. Over time the polarization grew increasingly pronounced.
We have already witnessed the Obama administration’s extensive record of hostility to biblical values and those who held true to them. During the Obama years it became increasingly common for Christians and those who upheld biblical values to be marginalized, stigmatized, vilified, boycotted, fired from their jobs, prosecuted in court, judged guilty and punished by the state.
By the end of the Obama years those who held to God’s ways saw the state of American culture as increasingly hopeless. They had witnessed what appeared to be a never-ending war against biblical values and an unrelenting encroachment against religious freedom. And now it seemed to be heading past the point of no return.
If in the coming election another came to the presidency committed to following in the path of Barack Obama, the apostasy would be sealed into permanency. The appointment of Supreme Court judges by such a president would further consign the nation to a course of apostasy far beyond the presidential election. And it looked as if everything in the nation’s political realm, cultural realm and spiritual realm was leading up to the same outcome.
In the case of Joram the end of his reign would witness a showdown of forces and worldviews. The resulting conflict would bring disaster upon the royal house. In the modern case a president’s term in office always concludes with a conflict of agendas inherent in a presidential election.
At the same time, elections do not always bring about a dramatic showdown of cultures and values. But the presidential election that took place at the end of the Obama years most certainly did. It would see a dramatic clashing of worldviews, and it would turn out to be one of the most dramatic and unprecedented elections in American history. So it was at the close of the Obama years that the conflict of cultures, worldviews and values that had increasingly polarized the nation erupted onto the national stage.
At the end of Joram’s reign, both the king and queen mother would become focal points in the upheaval and showdown that would take place in their nation—Joram as king and Jezebel as the one who had in the first place initiated the change that would now be challenged. In many ways Jezebel would be even more prominent, as it was her name rather than Joram’s that was given in the prophecies that foretold what was about to take place.
So both antitypes, that of Joram and that of Jezebel, Obama and Hillary Clinton, became focal points in the conflict of cultures, values and parties that saturated the election of 2016. The former first lady would launch her second run for the presidency in April 2015.
Jezebel’s conviction and agenda concerning the nation of Israel had always been that its deep-seated religious beliefs had to be changed. Why? So that the worship of Baal could expand. She had tried to change those deep-seated religious beliefs through edicts, cultural importation and persecution. We have no evidence that her convictions and agenda ever changed concerning this objective.
The launching of Clinton’s run for the presidency was made through a video commercial. The first major speech of her campaign came later that month. It happened at the 2015 Women in the World Summit in New York City. It was more than the first major speech of her campaign. It was perhaps the most revealing speech she had ever given as it contained perhaps the most revealing statement she had ever uttered in public. She said this:
“Deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed.”
Never in American history had any major candidate for president ever uttered such radical words. Never had any president or major governmental leader uttered such radical words. There was no way around its ramifications. She was not only publicly declaring her conflict with religious belief; she was actually calling for its overthrow. Such a statement presumes an authority over that of God’s Word. For a major candidate to publicly issue such a declaration at the very start of a presidential campaign was an omen of just how high the stakes would be in that election and in the war of values that would lie at its heart.
In the paradigm of Jezebel, at its very center, is the queen’s attempt to change the deep-seated religious beliefs of her adopted land in order to expand the cult of Baal. Intrinsic to that cult was the offering up of children. So in order to expand this practice, she not only had to overturn the biblical prohibition against false gods and idols; she had to overturn the biblical precept concerning the sanctity of human life.
So when Hillary Clinton called for the changing of deep-seated religious beliefs, what was the purpose of her call? The context was very clear. Religious beliefs had to be changed so that abortion could expand, thus meaning the death of more unborn children. For Clinton, as for Jezebel, belief in the sanctity of human life from the moment of its conception, as upheld in Scripture, was a hindrance that had to be eradicated. Thus the call to sweep away such religious belief so that the practice of sacrificing children could expand unabated had to be the most Jezebellian statement ever made in American presidential history. And the fact that it just happened to have been uttered by Jezebel’s modern antitype was as stunning as the statement itself.
Jezebel’s antipathy to religious faith and the consequences of that antipathy are described in this commentary: “From the course of her proceedings, it would appear that she grew to hate the Jewish system of law and religion on account of what must have seemed to her its intolerance and its anti-social tendencies. She hence sought to put it down by all the means she could command…”
It was this same deep-seated antipathy to biblical faith and values that was evidenced in Clinton’s run for the presidency. It would constitute the most brazenly anti-life campaign ever waged by a major candidate in American presidential history.
Jezebel’s strongest support would come from the priests of Baal and Ashtoreth, the practitioners and advocates of child sacrifice. So who were the greatest, strongest, staunchest advocates and supporters of Hillary Clinton’s campaign? They were those who advocated abortion on demand. In fact, the largest abortion organization in America, Planned Parenthood, pumped massive amounts of money into the Clinton campaign in the attempt to put her into the White House.
The intensity of its support caused the nation’s largest abortion organization to break all historic precedent and for the first time in its history endorse a presidential candidate while she was still in the primary stage. That’s how crucial it saw her to its cause. They all shared the common belief that if Hillary Clinton became president, she would wipe away virtually every restriction and safeguard put in place concerning abortion.
The Democratic National Convention of 2016, which nominated Clinton for the presidency, became the most brazenly anti-biblical convention in the history of the Democratic Party. No longer was the killing of the unborn cloaked in such euphemistic and indirect terminology as “reproductive health” or a “woman’s choice.” Now it was brazenly displayed in the open. Now it was celebrated.
The convention even featured as guest speaker the president of Planned Parenthood, who was also given the honor of being seated next to former President Bill Clinton, a gesture that showed just how highly esteemed and sacred the practice of child killing had now become. But she wasn’t alone. To further celebrate the cause, the president of the National Abortion Rights Action League also addressed the convention. As she spoke of her own abortion, the crowd erupted into cheers. One writer called the convention “a celebration of the destruction of unborn life.”
In Jezebel’s paradigm the worship of the Phoenician god and his child offerings were not only encouraged but compelled.
The convention that nominated Hillary Clinton for president put forth a platform that crossed a line that had never before been breached. It called for the repeal of every governmental protection against abortion so that abortion could now be performed in virtually every circumstance and on demand.
It called for the striking down of the Helms Amendment, in place since 1973 to guard against the financing of abortions through foreign assistance funds. Further it called for the striking down of the Hyde Amendment, in place since 1976 to guard against the financing of abortions through federal Medicaid funding. It has been estimated that this one amendment alone saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
The striking down of those protections would have meant that every taxpaying American, and thus every Christian and individual who saw the killing of an unborn child as a gravely immoral act, would now be forced to fund and take part in the act. Had Clinton won and that agenda been enacted, those who enabled that victory by their voting would have had a part in the blood of the innocent.
For the remainder of the campaign Clinton would brazenly champion the most extreme positions concerning abortion, including the advocacy of late-term and partial-birth abortion. She would even compare pro-life positions to the stands of “terrorist groups.” Her campaign would declare that there was “no more important issue” than defending abortion.
There was no way around it; the practice of killing unborn children was to her the cause above all causes. As the election approached its final stretch, poll after poll after poll foretold that Clinton would win a decisive and substantial victory. Many of God’s people began preparing for a future in which they would live as a persecuted minority within their nation. It all appeared hopeless.
And then something happened. It would shock the White House. It would shock the media. It would shock the Democrats. It would even shock the Republicans. It would shock the world. And yet it was all there, from ancient times, contained in the mystery of the paradigm. {eoa}
This excerpt has been adapted from the New York Times bestselling book, The Paradigm, by Jonathan Cahn. Get your copy today to find out more about the ancient blueprint that holds the mystery of our times.
Jonathan Cahn caused a worldwide stir with the release of his explosive first book, The Harbinger, which became an instant New York Times’ bestseller and brought him to national and international prominence. His next three books were also New York Times’ bestsellers: The Mystery of the Shemitah, The Book of Mysteries, The Paradigm and his highest-debuting book, The Oracle. Long before writing these books, he was known for opening the deep mysteries of Scripture and bringing forth messages of prophetic import. He leads Hope of the World, an international outreach of the Word, teachings and compassion projects for the needy around the world. He also leads the Jerusalem Center/Beth Israel, made up of people of all backgrounds, just outside New York City in Wayne, New Jersey. Called the prophetic voice of this generation, Cahn is a much-sought-after speaker and has been highlighted in the New York Times as well as in many national and international media. He has spoken at the United Nations, on Capitol Hill and to millions of people around the world.
