Return of the Gods (my book review)

“Return of the Gods” is a 240-page book from Jonathan Cahn.  He is the author of the two best-seller “Harbinger” books and a well-known speaker about Bible prophecy.  Cahn reminds me of the (fictional) Messianic Rabbi Levi Katz in my “Tribulation Pilgrims’ Progress” novel series.

The Harbinger books used a fictional narrative to present information drawn from the Bible, other texts and from historical research.  “The Return of Gods” presents the non-fictional information without any fictional thread.  If you are wondering why things are so bad and seem to be getting worse in American and the world, this book will provide you some helpful explanations.

This new book cites passages from the Bible about the pagan gods of the Old Testament era.  Though they are depicted as “gods” they are actually demons (fallen angels).  Cahn describes the sins of the ancient Jewish nation as they wandered from the one true God and embraced these evil spirits.  He also has researched and describes how these pagan gods were (and are) worshipped under various names around the world (outside the Holy Land).

The book takes three primary pagan gods and describes their goals and interaction with people.  Evil and destruction were rampant, but almost the whole world was following them in one name or another.  The people pursued wealth and power, sacrificed their children to these gods and engaged in violent and licentious acts.

The central point for this book is the parable told by Jesus in Matthew 12:43-45, about the evil spirit who is forced out of a man.  Later, the spirit returns to the man, bringing seven spirits even worse.  The spirits find the “house” clean and unoccupied and the man ends up even worse than before.

The book applies this parable to our current era-  through the incarnation of Christ and the rise of the Christian church, these pagan gods were largely swept aside (but not eliminated) in the Western world for around 1900 years..  But the Western world has increasingly turned its back on God (especially in the last several decades) and the post-Christian world is like that empty house of the parable.  Fewer and fewer people are Christians, filled with the Holy Spirit.  So the evil spirits have returned and things are increasingly even worse than during the pre-Christian era.  Cahn describes the growing evils of our era and the decline in the Christian church to show the prophecy of that Matthew passage (and other Bible passages) in our time.

I think these evils and trends are self-evident, so I hit the speed-reading turbo-boost to get through these middle chapters.  This is the same situation depicted in the “Supply of Sin and Demand for Salvation” chart from the “Tribulation Pilgrims’ Progress” novels.

The last 20 pages of the Cahn book describe the coming battle between evil and God, described in the Bible’s end times prophecies.  God will that war and will completely vanquish these pagan “gods” and those who follow them.  Unfortunately, most of the people living on earth in that final period choose the wrong side in the war.  They are tempted and coerced by these evil spirits to join the forces of Satan.  In the last pages of his book, Cahn describes the path to enlist in the right side for this war- through a life-giving relationship with Jesus.

The Bible is clear:  (1) Great evil was done by and for these pagan “gods” in the pre-Christian era, (2) God is holy and we are not to worship these false gods or idols (Exodus 20:3-6), (3) our battle is not limited to flesh and blood, but against the devil and spiritual forces  and we cannot do that without God (Ephesians 6:10-12) and (4) the final battles of Revelation pit Satan and his demonic forces against God.  The book is worth reading for more detailed background information about the evil forces described in the Bible and to remind us that the second coming of Jesus is eminent.  God wins this war and all evil will be eradicated.