Editor’s Note: Although “The Return” has ended, the spirit of the event has not. Watch the replay of the livestream at this link.
Rabbi Jonathan Cahn gave a powerful prophetic message to trumpet “The Return: National and Global Day of Prayer and Repentance” today on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Making significant correlations between the ancient words of Scripture and present-day circumstances, the bestselling author used the words of the Old Testament prophets to highlight the grievous sins of our nation and the world and how we—individually and collectively—have turned away from Him.
Not only did the trumpets blow as “The Return” began at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 26 before a gathered crowd of thousands, but shofars sounded at various points in Cahn’s message, accentuating the gravity of the biblical solemn assembly as described in Joel 2:15 (NKJV): “Blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly.”
Just as the people of ancient Israel drove God out and turned their hearts away from Him and toward other gods, Cahn said, we have likewise fallen. “We too have turned away from the God of our foundation, have estranged ourselves from Him,” he said. “We drove God out of our hearts, out of our government, out of our ways … out of our lives. And as we drove Him out, we opened up a vacuum into which came a flood of other gods: prosperity, comfort, sexual immorality and obsession. We too have become our own god.”
Cahn included in his message a clear call to repent for the sins of abortion. “To shed the blood of a human baby is to murder a life,” he said, noting that “our collective hands are covered with blood. Sixty million Americans have been murdered. But instead of weeping over that fact, we go further,” he said, pointing to the state of New York and the passing of what Cahn called the “bloody law” that removed abortion from the state’s penal code. Not ignoring the racial tensions that have shaken our nation, Cahn told the assembly that one day, every tribe, tongue and nation will gather at the throne of God. But he also asked a profound question: “How do you say, ‘Black lives matter’ and say nothing of all the Black lives killed here in this land before they could even take their first breath?”
Smashing a clay vessel on the platform and evoking the scene of the prophet Jeremiah doing the same in the Valley of Ben Hinnom (Jer. 19), Cahn told his listeners, “A house that wars against its own foundation cannot remain standing. That is why we have come on this ground and have gathered all over America and the world, because the hour is late, and the moment is critical. … We must seek His mercy as never before. We have come here because God has given His promise, yet still, ‘If my people who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.'”
As Cahn continued his message, he presented the Lord’s clarion call to “Return, return,” kneeling on the stage at one point as he asked those who were able to join him in a physical and spiritual posture of repentance. Cahn said the voice of God is calling to America and to the nations of the world, “Return to Me, and I will not reject you, and I will be your healing.
“What lies ahead? Judgment and calamity or return and revival? It can’t be both,” Cahn added.
He included an appeal salvation for those who do not yet know Christ, telling them, “One heartbeat is the only thing that stands between you and eternity. … The time for salvation is now.”
