A review by mnkeemagick
The Return of the Gods by Jonathan Cahn
sad
slow-paced
0.25
What a truly abhorrent excuse for a book. It's a genuine travesty that trees had to die only to have their remains made into paper for this to be published. At best it is wildly misinformed, at worst it's wholly dangerous in conception and messaging.
From the very beginning it's misuse and abuse of biblical text references range from being miscontextualized to pure fabrication. Largely ignoring sections of the Bible and referencing them as acts of evil ancient gods that are portrayed as literally overtaking our world. There's nothing of substance here, just poorly cited (if cited at all) bad takes on history, hate, and Christian fear mongering. I don't even know how to grasp the concept of a seemingly Christo-Fascist Rabbi wanting to return America to its pristine "Christian Nation" of the 1950s because ancient gods are overthrowing the Christian God without the active knowledg of the people to promote homosexuality, feminism, and abortion.
Judgements on the "loss of Christian America" beginning with Civil Rights movements in the 60s, branching into the evils of women's empowerment, gay Rights, and general social progress. Framing the issues in Christian "equality" and stating there is no us versus them while casually railing against the lack of women's subjugation in the modern age and the legalization of not only gay marriage, but the legality of homosexuality itself. All ending with a warning of impending Christian extermination and a call to arms against the other.
The book touches on bad numerology, a fundamental misunderstanding of ancient calendars, the fragility of a God being overthrown with no active effort, astrology, and raw conspiracy nonsense, this book has left me with a headache and a set of crossed eyes. A poor mishmash of various mythologies presented as a single conspiracy to destroy the world, damning women, gay people, non-believers, ancient and modern Israelites, and generally anything left of the most extremely Orthodox Christian movement while also completely ignoring valid sections and laws of the Bible itself.
From the disregard of God's creation of the rainbow (favoring instead that one of the old gods made it and wields it as a weapon) to the laws and rites of the old testament, this book is full of holes filled with random dates and events coalescing in a conspiracy board Alex Jones wouldn't even dream up.
Even the technical aspects of the book were bad. It comes across as a teenager trying to meet a minimum word count for class, as the book would be less than a quarter of its already short length had he not spent so much of it writing in circles. I counted how many instances this happened on a single section of a single page to find he had repeated himself as many as 7 times. Though if he sold it as the essay length it actually is he couldn't charg $30/piece for them regardless of his talk about the evils of seeking prosperity.
His (poorly) cited sources are done in the format of footnotes that are completely absent save for the small bibliography at the end, which itself is full of religious websites, old Christian doctrine, single sources stretched for effect (of 8 sources for abortion "sanctity" advocated, 7 of them were from the same single person) and generally nothing academic or scientific in the least to support his claims that literal gods have returned to enslave humanity.
Even his page numbering isn't consistent with some being in the middle and others to the side. Just the saddest excuse for an essay turned book that I've seen in a very long time.
I'd be leary of anyone who finds this to be their favorite book. Hell, I'd be leary of anyone who enjoyed it, even for the trashiness of it, for I couldn't even enjoy how bad it was when considering how dangerous it is that real people genuinely believe this.
From the very beginning it's misuse and abuse of biblical text references range from being miscontextualized to pure fabrication. Largely ignoring sections of the Bible and referencing them as acts of evil ancient gods that are portrayed as literally overtaking our world. There's nothing of substance here, just poorly cited (if cited at all) bad takes on history, hate, and Christian fear mongering. I don't even know how to grasp the concept of a seemingly Christo-Fascist Rabbi wanting to return America to its pristine "Christian Nation" of the 1950s because ancient gods are overthrowing the Christian God without the active knowledg of the people to promote homosexuality, feminism, and abortion.
Judgements on the "loss of Christian America" beginning with Civil Rights movements in the 60s, branching into the evils of women's empowerment, gay Rights, and general social progress. Framing the issues in Christian "equality" and stating there is no us versus them while casually railing against the lack of women's subjugation in the modern age and the legalization of not only gay marriage, but the legality of homosexuality itself. All ending with a warning of impending Christian extermination and a call to arms against the other.
The book touches on bad numerology, a fundamental misunderstanding of ancient calendars, the fragility of a God being overthrown with no active effort, astrology, and raw conspiracy nonsense, this book has left me with a headache and a set of crossed eyes. A poor mishmash of various mythologies presented as a single conspiracy to destroy the world, damning women, gay people, non-believers, ancient and modern Israelites, and generally anything left of the most extremely Orthodox Christian movement while also completely ignoring valid sections and laws of the Bible itself.
From the disregard of God's creation of the rainbow (favoring instead that one of the old gods made it and wields it as a weapon) to the laws and rites of the old testament, this book is full of holes filled with random dates and events coalescing in a conspiracy board Alex Jones wouldn't even dream up.
Even the technical aspects of the book were bad. It comes across as a teenager trying to meet a minimum word count for class, as the book would be less than a quarter of its already short length had he not spent so much of it writing in circles. I counted how many instances this happened on a single section of a single page to find he had repeated himself as many as 7 times. Though if he sold it as the essay length it actually is he couldn't charg $30/piece for them regardless of his talk about the evils of seeking prosperity.
His (poorly) cited sources are done in the format of footnotes that are completely absent save for the small bibliography at the end, which itself is full of religious websites, old Christian doctrine, single sources stretched for effect (of 8 sources for abortion "sanctity" advocated, 7 of them were from the same single person) and generally nothing academic or scientific in the least to support his claims that literal gods have returned to enslave humanity.
Even his page numbering isn't consistent with some being in the middle and others to the side. Just the saddest excuse for an essay turned book that I've seen in a very long time.
I'd be leary of anyone who finds this to be their favorite book. Hell, I'd be leary of anyone who enjoyed it, even for the trashiness of it, for I couldn't even enjoy how bad it was when considering how dangerous it is that real people genuinely believe this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Biphobia, Misogyny, Racism, Religious bigotry, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Antisemitism, Abortion, Sexual assault, Gaslighting, Genocide, Lesbophobia, Transphobia, Violence, War, Deadnaming, Death, Cultural appropriation, Child death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Pregnancy