End Times author Jonathan Cahn delivered the closing speech at Saturday’s “Let the Church ROAR” rally, one of several events that brought thousands of right-wing activists to the nation’s capital to support President Donald Trump’s desperate efforts to remain in power despite losing the election. Cahn’s speech was an example of a primary strategy used by religious-right leaders to drive conservative Christian turnout for Trump: fostering fear of anti-Christian persecution.
“Let the Church ROAR” was sponsored by Jericho March and Phyllis Schlafly Eagles and promoted on conservative Christian media. It was in competition with a "March for Trump" being held nearby. The weekend rallies were sandwiched between the Supreme Court’s rejection of a bid by Texas to overturn swing state results and Monday’s official Electoral College vote. But many of Trump’s religious-right supporters continue to believe and declare that God will yet intervene to give the “anointed” Trump a victory. The weekend featured calls for violence from Trump supporters on stage and actual violence from Trump supporters in the streets.
Cahn has sold a lot of books for his publisher Charisma by purportedly decoding and explaining a biblical “paradigm” he says God revealed to him, in which stories and prophecies in the Bible foretell specific events in modern history, from Mark Twain’s visit to Israel to the elections of U.S. presidents up to and including Trump. Cahn was one of the primary organizers of “The Return,” a Sept. 26 gathering on the National Mall that was meant to seal Trump’s reelection victory and spark a national religious revival.
Cahn teaches that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were God’s way of letting us know that we were due to experience his wrath, but that there would be a window of time during which judgment could be forestalled if the nation would “turn back to God.”
At “The Return” in September, Cahn smashed a clay jar to the ground as a sign of what will happen to the U.S. if it fails to repent and return to God. On Saturday, Cahn didn’t explicitly say that by rejecting Trump, U.S. voters have invited divine wrath, but that was the implication.
Cahn’s remarks at Saturday’s rally, delivered by video, were filled with a litany of woes facing America according to what Cahn called the “biblical template for national judgment.” Cahn painted a dire picture of what the future will look like in an America that has “forgotten her God” and allowed a “spirit of radicalism” to sweep universities, the media, and the Democratic Party.
He warned that those preparing to assume power in Washington “will seek to end the culture war with a total vanquishing of the opposition.” He warned of an America in which believers are forced to perform abortions and their children are indoctrinated into “the ways which war against the ways of God.”
Cahn called attention to the upcoming Jan. 5 runoff elections for the two U.S. Senate seats from Georgia, the outcome of which will determine whether Republicans or Democrats control the U.S. Senate. “Right now, we are standing only two votes, two Senate seats away from a government that is ready to enact the most radical anti-biblical agenda in the history of this nation, without any restraint,” he claimed.
Noting that the rally was taking place during Hanukkah, Cahn drew a long analogy between the events the holiday commemorates and the position of Christians in the U.S. today. He described a time when Israelites were being forced to bow to a wicked government until “the deplorables of that nation” rose up in revolt, and despite being “out-financed” and “out-weaponed,” won the battle with God’s help.
Shifting to a more encouraging tone, Cahn said the message of Hanukkah was never to give up hope, even when the chances of victory appear slim. “God doesn’t look at the odds,” Cahn said. “He doesn’t look at the numbers or the weapons. With God, the odds mean nothing. Just a few people with God who are all out and on fire, whose heart is completely his, are mightier than the many, even mightier than the world.”
Cahn reminded people of the teaching that it is God “who raises up kings and sets them down” and said that God will reign no matter who is sitting in the White House or in control on Capitol Hill. He vowed and encouraged defiance:
We will not surrender to the darkness. We will not give in to the night. No matter what happens in this world, no matter what man may do, no matter what princes may say, no matter what thrones may decree, we will not bow down to Baal. We will not bow down to the gods and idols of man. We will not bow down to princes or kings. We will not bow down to the sacred cows of this age. We will not bow down to the edicts of immorality and the decrees of darkness. We will not bow down to a radical agenda and the totalitarianism of a political correctness. We will not bow down darkness, and we will not bend our knees to evil.
Cahn called Jesus Christ “the foundation stone upon which this nation came into existence and the only answer, the only chance, and the only hope America has that it might once again shine with the light of the fire of the presence of the glory of the living God.”
Cahn asked God to bring spiritual revival to the U.S. and to “have your way” with the government.
After Cahn’s video, rally emcee Eric Metaxas said that God has allowed the U.S. to go through this “weird time” because he is “preparing the church.”
“Don’t lose sight of the fact that this is a spiritual battle,” Metaxas said. “God is in this. God will do this.”
“You know the path to victory? We do not know the path to victory,” Metaxas added. “He knows the path to victory, and he will make a path to victory as he made a path through the Red Sea. Only the God of Israel, the Lord of Hosts, can do what is needed.”
