The Return of the Gods

"The Return of the Gods" by Jonathan Cahn explores the idea that ancient pagan gods, which were once worshipped in various civilizations, have returned in a metaphorical sense to modern Western culture.

Cahn argues that these "gods" manifest through various ideologies, movements, and cultural shifts that have turned away from biblical values. Cahn connects historical and biblical references to the current state of society, suggesting that the decline of faith in God and the rise of secularism have opened the door for these ancient spiritual forces to influence modern life. He examines how these forces may be seen in the erosion of morality, the breakdown of family structures, and the increasing hostility toward Christianity.

The book aims to show how these ancient influences are shaping contemporary culture and challenges readers to recognize and resist these forces by returning to biblical principles.

Jonathan Cahn has some pretty incredible information that he shares on TV and although I’ve never heard him talk about this book, the title intrigued me because I’ve always had a belief that the gods of ancient times were more than complete fables and devoid of any supernatural power. And reading this book has really made the idea of the gods make more sense and fit in to what I believed even though I had no background knowledge to support it. The most incredible thing about reading this book is how the statement “the gods are behind the transformation of America” is actually the most reasonable explanation. When you think about how much America has changed in such a short period of time it begs the question, “How?” And I know Christian and Nonchristians who can acknowledge the change as being “unbelievable” and “not making sense”, and while the argument from a Christian perspective could say merely that America moving away from God will naturally bring about evil, but while that may be true, I emphasize that I know “nonchristians” who acknowledge the current trend of American society as evil and unnatural and “crazy how far we’ve fallen so quickly”, so again “how?” This is not merely something that happened because of a departure from God, this is a culmination of turning from God and a supernatural power of evil, a god or the gods, coming in and possessing a nation. In the modern world my statement earlier “the gods are behind the transformation of America” sounds absurd, the world and even the church views spirits/gods/etc as fictional or at the very least a thing of the past, but as someone watching the decline of society and how specific people who once opposed gay marriage, who once had no hesitation saying transsexual things were wrong, who once believed in line with Christian values could suddenly support all those things just doesn’t seem explainable. There’s no way it could just happen, but it did, so “how?” “the gods are behind the transformation of America” That is the only way, it makes the most sense and that’s even before reading the book and seeing how much factual information there is to back up that statement. This book in comparison to some of his other books is preferable to me since I don’t care for the fictional story that makes up the backbone of some of his books. He does kinda beat the dead horse and repeat himself a lot that can be laborsome, but overall I had no issues getting through this book with all of the incredible information it had to offer. One thing that is my observance that he didn’t mention is about the rainbow. He shared a lot of cool stuff connected to the rainbow but a couple things I think may be related that he didn’t mention are the connections to end times. Most of us know about Jesus and saying basically “as in the days of Noah” when talking about the end times, well the most prominent sign from the days of Noah was a rainbow, so this rainbow flag that is saturating our culture I believe is a sign that we are in/approaching the days of Noah of the end times. And think about the gods as they parade their servants around with their rainbow flag. God said of the rainbow that when He saw the rainbow it would be a reminder of his covenant with Noah that he would never destroy mankind through a flood again, and so the gods are defiantly flaunting the rainbow so that it’s literally everywhere as they are consuming the world and saying to God, again with defiance “look there’s Your rainbow, remember your covenant, you can’t destroy us through a flood like you did” because if you believe as I do the flood is rooted in the nephilim which I believe are rooted in the gods which are rooted in fallen angels. The other thing this book does is give a more tangible understanding of the Jewish people and their “serving of other gods”. While reading the Bible I find myself literally think “how can they keep turning to these other gods”, but that’s because the gods are traditionally viewed as lifeless statues of wood or stone with no supernatural powers behind them, but just like America today “how could we turn to such evil ways”(or to mirror my sentiment to the Jews) “how could we turn to these other gods”, it’s not as baffling and hard to believe now that I realize we are living in a time where just like the Israelites turned from God and served other gods despite it not making any sense, America has turned from God and started serving other gods despite it not making any sense. The gods have certainly returned and I know first hand that they don’t need but a tiny opening and they can possess a person and make them do things they knew at one time was wrong and justify things they never thought they would do. We live in a time where it’s a 24/7 battle for our hearts, minds, and spirit and letting your guard down for just a short period of time can be enough for the gods to come in.

This book is well written in plain English and suitable for both young and older Christian and liberal readers. It is well researched and reveals the underlying cause of the change in our civilization in the last five decades. I strongly recommend this book to all who care about the future of the human race. It is the most relevant book in Christian literature pitching Yahweh against the other gods who want to take credit for Yahweh’s creation and to utterly destroy it finally.

In his book, The Return of the Gods, author Jonathan Cahn acknowledges the reality of the existence of unseen supernatural dark powers that in the past have been worshipped as gods. The three god’s Cahn focuses on might sound familiar if you have read the Old Testament of the Bible: Baal, Molech, and Ishtar.

Cahn’s thesis is that once Jesus came and accomplished His initial work on this earth the first time He was here, that these gods and those like them, were forced to retreat and go into hiding. Then, as our world has come to reject the God of the Christians over the past few decades, it left open the door for these unholy powers of darkness to come back in and take control of the culture. Cahn attempts to illustrate how this has proven to be true in regard to our modern culture: how the same gods of the ancient world are now manifesting themselves again in our world today.

Cahn bases much of his theory on a parable Jesus once used regarding demonic spirits found in Matthew 12:43-45:

"When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation."

Cahn understands this scripture passage to be documentation of some of the mechanics of how the spirit world works: That if a dark power is cast out of someone or something, and having nothing taken the dark power’s place, that which it was cast out of is left empty. That then leaves the vacated space, be it a person, place, or thing, open for the dark spirit to return. However, when it returns it will bring others with it, making it more difficult, if not next to impossible in the future for those dark spirits to be cast out of what they have established themselves in. Although I am not sure Jesus was relaying a historically factual account of what occurred to an actual demon possessed man or woman, I do know Jesus never based His illustrative stories on fantasies. Rather, he based His instructional stories on things people commonly believed to be true. Things that were consistent with reality. In this way I agree with Cahn that although it may not have been the primary purpose of why Jesus relayed this story, it did document a principle of how the forces of evil work.

Having myself studied the Bible purposefully trying to understand the unseen realm according to the Bible, I am completely convinced that there are literal forces of darkness in play in this world. Further, that there are “princes” that are in charge of regions of planet earth, and that they all rule under their king, Satan, the Devil, the Great Deceiver. Satan is in fact the current prince or “god” of this world. So again, I have no disagreement with Cahn in this regard. I believe a unquestionable case is made in the Bible that these dark forces influenced entire cultures in history, and they do so today. I also completely agree that evidence of their influence is seen increasingly every day here in the West.

I also completely agree with Cahn regarding the influence that the first advent of the Messiah had on our world. With the coming of Jesus, came the coming of light to a spiritually utterly dark world. This spiritual light did in fact have the effect of sending the dark powers scampering for cover. Wherever the good news of Jesus was taken, the spiritual powers of darkness were exposed. The Western world was transformed.

But this is where I must take a moment and make the observation that it was not the power of the institutional Church that made this difference. Oh, yes the Church was used to spread the gospel, but it is not the Church that made the difference. It was the gospel itself as revealed by the Holy Spirit to individuals. The manmade institutional Church is made up of traditions, religious practices, cultures, and doctrines, that are often times off base. For every positive thing you may credit to it, there are two evil things that you will try to forget about or at least justify. No, it was not the will and efforts of man that sent the dark powers running, it was the will of God and the efforts of His Holy Spirit.

So, is it the failure of the Church now that has allowed the evil forces of yesteryear to again become successful, or is it the will of God? Whereas I think Cahn implies that it is the first, I argue for the latter. God is either setting the ground work for allowing another great civilization in world history to collapse as has happened many times before, or He is raising the curtain on the final act of this age. Either way, the powers of darkness are always willing to step in and play their part.

I also differ with Cahn regarding his definition of what constitutes a “god.” He says, “One’s god is that which is one’s ultimate reality.” And, “The very act of creating an idol or a god is to forge out of nothing a new absolute.” Cahn appears to overcome his own statements by making the case in the rest of the book for three different gods which exist whether or not they are believed in or even recognized. They are real beings. Independent agents which have their own agendas and can affect the physical world. One can choose to believe in one or all of them. One can have a favorite god and still worship and believe in many others. You can ask a favor of the gods, and they may bring about that favor independent of anyone else’s actions. This is different than a god that only exists in one’s imagination. And it is also different than what many modern pastors say constitutes a god; anything we seem to value more than the authentic God of the Bible. Like money, or our family, or a really nice car. I can pray to a stack of cash, and it will just sit there. It has no will or agenda or even the ability to multiply itself on its own.

This is difficult to illustrate, but it is this point that causes me difficulty with what Cahn is saying. He is implying that our American culture has come to worship these gods without even really realizing it or recognizing them as gods. In ancient times, to borrow a term from the law, people “knowingly and intentionally” worshipped Baal, Molech, and Ishtar by name. Today, according to Cahn, our Western Culture is unknowingly worshipping Baal, Molech, and Ishtar through the actions we are taking. As though we have been deceived into worshipping what we don’t even realize exists. In other words, Cahn says that although people may not ever admit to worshipping an ancient god of Mesopotamia, they unknowingly will worship them by supporting abortion or marching in a pride parade.

Maybe Cahn’s point isn’t so much that our society has knowingly and intentionally surrendered to the ancient gods and embraced them, as much as those gods are in control of what is going on in the world without most being aware of it. If that is what Cahn is saying, I again agree with Him. I will however add that it is God whose will is temporarily allowing the gods to be in control to tell the story of redemption He has written.

Towards the end of the book Cahn makes a powerful case illustrating the possibility that the ancient god known as Ishtar has taken control of much of our American culture today. Cahn provides specific events and dates that come together to make a compelling case. However, you can use the type of case he puts together to prove almost anything, by cherry picking details from history and making connections between those details while ignoring others which don’t agree with the case you are trying to make. At the very least, Cahn’s narrative is interesting and causes one to think.

In the end, I believe the specific points Cahn is trying to make are possible but unprovable short of Jesus returning and telling us Cahn was right: that Ishtar, Molech, and Baal are again actively at work in our world. However, what I believe is completely true is that despite not knowing their particular names, real, dark, unseen, spiritual forces are at work in our world today, perhaps more than ever in this generation. They are playing out their parts in God’s Divine Drama. Whereas Cahn associates particular societal behaviors in our culture with particular deities, I would attribute what we are seeing today to common themes of evil which can be observed across the world and throughout time. In other words, what ever spirits may be doing their damage in America today, they at least have a lot in common with Baal, Molech, and Ishtar.

If reading The Return of the Gods does nothing more than raise one’s awareness as to the reality of the unseen spirit world and the affect it can have on the physical world, it is a worthy read.

This book is incredibly fascinating and, for the most part, very well written and informative. My only issue is the redundancy of phrasing used throughout. While I believe the intention was to drive a point home, it often created a loop of overstated thought. One sentence or paragraph would bring up a topic and then paraphrase it multiple times over in the following sentences or paragraphs. I would have preferred the omission of these duplicate statements, even if it meant a shorter book. The information and history he provides is more than enough to support his claims.