Considerable speculation arose several weeks ago over expectations that there would be a major crash in the US stock markets before the close of September. Such conjecture was not based on sound financial estimates, but rather, on sensational revelations contained in a 2014 New York Times bestseller.

The author of that study in turn insisted his revelations were in no way new, but solidly founded on the Jewish scriptures. He even claimed that the biblical ‘secret’ he had uncovered was not only applicable to modern economies, but that they also determine “the future of every nation on earth” and “the lives of most inhabitants of this planet … controlling the future of the financial realm, the business realm and the economic realm” (p.2).

The Shemitah ‘mystery’

That book was of course ‘The Mystery of the Shemitah’, and the author American Messianic Jew, Jonathan Cahn. His are certainly staggering claims, unfolding ‘mysteries’ which “have never up to this point been revealed” (p.5). Certainly, they have been bought almost wholesale by the Christian public, both in America and worldwide, selling millions of copies, and appearing on the New York Times best-seller list for weeks on end.

‘The Mystery of the Shemitah’ followed closely on the heels of Cahn’s inaugural release, The Harbinger, which took the Christian world by storm, and charted on the best-seller list for over two years. It led Cahn to being viewed as a leading authority on the Old Testament and all things Hebrew and Jewish. This in turn may have led many to accept his Shemitah claims without bothering to check them out.

In fact, a host of problems arise with Cahn’s novel theory, particularly in regard to ancient Israel, modern America, US stock crashes and presentation & style. Let us consider them one by one:

Ancient Israel

According to the Old Testament, the Shemitah was a year of rest for the land, as instructed by God to Moses at Mount Sinai, which was to be observed every seven years. During this Sabbath rest, the land was not to be sown, cultivated or harvested (Lev 25:1–5). Failure to celebrate the Shemitah was a sin that was to bring judgment upon the land and the people (Lev 26:33). However:

1. There is no ‘mystery’ regarding the biblical Shemitah. The exact requirements for keeping the Sabbath year were explicitly revealed by God through Moses. It was all straightforward and clear, with no underlying ‘mystery’ or principle in operation.
2. The pattern of seven-yearly punishments that Cahn observes in recent history does not correspond to the biblical pattern. Repeatedly, Israel did not observe the Shemitah seven-yearly rest, yet God did not impose judgement upon them until the Babylonian captivity.
3. To fit in with his theory, Cahn claims that even when Israel did observe the Shemitah, the nation’s economy experienced sharp economic downturns for a period. In the Bible, on the other hand, no indication of economic downside is mentioned. Rather, the opposite was true, because in the sixth year God actually tripled the harvest (Lev 25:21).
4. If the Shemitah law was still applicable today – and indeed over past centuries – it would surely have been most evident in Israel itself, the only land where it was instated. But Cahn makes no mention of Shemitah being in operation in the Holy land or among the Jewish people, either in the recent past or in the present-day.
5. The Shemitah was fulfilled in Christ and is no longer in force. When Jesus opened His ministry in Nazareth by reading from Isaiah 61, he was claiming that he was bringing “the year of the Lord's favour”, and that he would cancel all debts, free the captives, and release prisoners from darkness. Jesus is the Year of Jubilee.

Modern-day America

1. The idea that God has imposed a Shemitah upon any nation other than Israel has no scriptural basis. There has never been any obligation on America to observe the Sabbath year.
2. Cahn appears to view America as a sort of ‘second Israel’. He writes: “America was consciously, intentionally, and specifically founded and formed after the pattern of ancient Israel. Its founders saw it as a new Israel, the Israel of the New World”. He sees the Shemitah as automatically transferrable to the United States (“There is no platform on earth so well suited for manifesting the Shemitah as America”), which appears to invoke some form of replacement theology.
3. America’s economy differs vastly from that of ancient Israel, being based, like most modern economies, on deficit spending and huge debts. In America, most citizens have debt of some sort. The wiping-out of all bank loans, mortgages, etc every seven years would lead to utter chaos and national collapse.

US Stock crashes

1. The US stock markets do not appear to follow the Shemitah pattern anything like as closely as Cahn suggests, as he tends to cherry pick his data. For example, looking at lists of major US stock market crashes over the past century, while it’s true that a striking number do indeed occur in Shemitah years, many do not.
2. Conversely, numerous Shemitah periods reveal no notable stock crash or decline, leading one to ponder whether this implies that God is pleased with the way things are going in that period. Cahn offers no insight on this.
3. The US stock market crashed in 2020 as a result of a recession caused by the Covid-19 lockdowns. This was part of a global recession, which occurred on a more widespread scale than anything seen in the past century. Significantly, it didn’t occur during a Shemitah year.
4. Stock market crashes are certainly not predictable, or economists would certainly have been writing about them long before it was ‘revealed’ it to Cahn, and savvy investors would have made huge fortunes by playing such market cycles.

Presentation & Style

1. Jonathan Cahn’s presentation is invariably sensationalist. And he seems infatuated with revealing ancient biblical ‘mysteries’. Some of his other book titles include: ‘The Oracle: The Jubilean Mysteries Unveiled’ (2019); ‘The Book of Mysteries’ (2016); ‘The Paradigm: The Ancient Blueprint That Holds the Mystery of Our Times’ (2017) and ‘The Harbinger: The Ancient Mystery that Holds the Secret of America's Future‘ (2011).
2. Though stating literally hundreds of statistics and fact-claims throughout ‘The Mystery of the Shemitah’, curiously, Cahn does not back any of them up with reference sources; a basic and necessary aspect of any research-based non-fiction work.
3. 19 graphs are included throughout the book. Each and every one lacks vertical scales with reference points. Graphs with no scale for context can be made to support virtually any theory or conclusion. Indeed, one of Cahn’s graphs gives the impression of an economic crash of profound proportions. However, when viewed in the proportionate context, the downturns are relatively minor.
4. Although regarded as a ‘prophet’, Cahn is careful not to offer predictions on what will happen in the future. He looks to events of the past rather than future. Just seven days before the close of the Shemitah year 2014-15, Cahn could only say that something significant ‘might’ happen in the stock markets before Elul 29th, or it ‘might not’ – in other words, he had no idea. In actual fact, nothing of significance happened.
5. It seems odd that God would send warnings of judgment after the fact. It appears the Lord had been judging America over many decades according to the Shemitah cycle, but with no warning or explanation until the 21st century. To be warned of the 9/11 terrorist attacks – which occurred at the close of the Shemitah 2000-01 – years after they took place is of little value. And it doesn’t fit the biblical pattern at all.

Conclusion

Further complications appear when you realise that the modern Hebrew calendar is out of sync with that of Moses’ day. The Jubilee may also have been an intercalary year (an extra year inserted into the calendar), making the Jubilee cycle of 50 years’ duration. Taken together, this means that it is virtually impossible to know for certain if the Shemitah years are being reckoned according to God’s calendar.

There’s very good reason why Bible scholars and enthusiasts over the centuries have failed to discover the ‘Shemitah mystery’ before now – there was none! The Shemitah law was given exclusively to a specific people, during a limited period of time. There is no biblical indication that there was an underlying mystery affecting Israel – or any other nation. The theory of the ‘Shemitah mystery’ is fallacious.

Sadly, the Christian world has fallen head-over-heels for Cahn’s sensationalist claims. Jesus warned against seeking for signs (Matt 12:39; 16:4). As believers, we ought not to be searching for ‘hidden mysteries’ contained within the Scriptures – as naive believers also did with the supposed ‘Bible codes’ of the 1990s.

The Bible makes it clear that the mysteries of the kingdom of God are revealed to us in Jesus Christ. May He be our consistent and undivided focus, not spurious ‘revelations’ supposedly received by modern-day mystics.