Farah’s ‘Proudest Achievement’ Has A Flaw

For months now, WorldNetDaily has been promoting (and, of course, selling) a book called “The Harbinger” by Jonathan Cahn, which posits that “the seemingly innocuous words of Isaiah 9:10” are actually a prophecy of 9/11. Now, WND has produced a video based on the book, which WND editor Joseph Farah does some serious gushing over in his March 11 column:

Pride is not a great attribute.

The Bible tells us that “pride goeth before destruction.” (Proverbs 16:18) But it’s clear that the Bible is talking about pride, in this context, as a “haughty spirit.”

There’s another kind of “pride” that is perfectly healthy. It’s the feeling you get when, with God’s help, you accomplish something that brings people closer to Him and perhaps more in line with His will for their lives.

As a writer, publisher, editor and journalist, I’ve had a few moments in my life in which I got the feeling of satisfaction that I had done something to further God’s kingdom.

I have that feeling today about a new video documentary I produced called “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment.”

[…]

It’s the story of how what happened to the U.S. Sept. 11, 2001, was a warning – from God. And it provides what I believe to be overwhelming evidence to support that conclusion. 

Just one problem: It may not exactly be the most rigorous piece of Biblical scholarship in the world.

As Richard Bartholomew points out, this appears to be another one of those cases where a Bible verse  is plucked out of context to promote someone’s theory.

The key Isaiah verse — “The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars” — is apparently treated in the book as something that was literally fulfilled at Ground Zero. As stated in another WND article, a sycamore tree that was destroyed in the 9/11 attacks was replaced by a tree in “the same genus as the cedar.” 

As Bartholomew notes: “The new trees at the site are pines are rather cedars, and it’s unclear how they ‘replace’ the famous sycamore that stood near St Paul’s Chapel, but apparently we can dispense with literalism when it suits.” 

So, to sum up: Farah has declared his “proudest achievement” to be selective Bible reading presented as prophecy.