A political prayer rally called for by End Times author Jonathan Cahn and backed by an array of religious-right figures will be held online and on the National Mall in Washington D.C., this Saturday, Sept. 26 in an effort to boost President Donald Trump’s reelection prospects and help bring about a Great Awakening.
Organizers claimed in a Monday press release that it will be the “the largest ever global gathering in this history of Christendom,” with live broadcast on Christian television networks and a livestreamfeatured in “tens of thousands” of churches and other locations. The event is scheduled to go from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday following a Friday evening session dubbed “The Return Eve: Next Generation.”
Organizers of the “The Return: National and Global Day of Prayer and Repentance” are optimistic that the rally will shape the future. “We are on the verge of the greatest move of God in all the ages,” said Kevin Jessip, who has been working with Cahn to organize the event. Jessip previously described the event as a “sovereign move of God” and said that he believes a “wave of salvation” will sweep across the United States, “mixed with the fire of God.”
Not coincidentally, Cahn’s latest bestselling book, released this month and relentlessly promoted by the pro-Trump media operation Charisma, is called “The Harbinger II: The Return.” Last week,Charisma promised that Cahn would “deliver a prophetic word to America” at ”The Return.”
“Our nation has increasingly deafened its ears to the voice of God. I believe that in the shakings that have come upon the nation, God is shouting and warning and calling us back. That is the purpose of ‘The Return’ and of the word that will be given,” Cahn told Charisma.
While Monday’s press release said the event’s purpose is “to pray for God’s End-Time revival,” previous releases and comments by event organizers have explicitly connected the event to the Nov. 3 elections in the U.S. and to organizers’ desire to reelect Trump.
POTUS Shield’s Frank Amedia hosted an online event promoting “The Return” on April 29, at which he prophesied that “The Return” would be “a pivot point for this election.” Mark Gonzales, a Republican political operative and fellow POTUS Shield member, tied spiritual revival to the outcome of the Nov. 3 election: “Revival is not coming through the prayer closet; revival’s coming through the ballot box.” Amedia and Gonzales claim that Trump was anointed by God and say he will be reelected because he still has more divine assignments to complete.
“The Return” organizers have argued that the U.S. cannot experience revival and a return to God unless there is genuine national repentance for things like legal abortion and public support for LGBTQ equality. Cahn has called the need for repentance and revival a “life and death” issue for the country, saying that God has given us a short window of time to do so before even greater divine judgment.
Harry Jackson, an anti-LGBTQ activist and POTUS Shield member, is also promoting “The Return” with a similar message, saying, “We either make this turn all the way fully into the purposes of God or the whirlwind takes us out.”
Event organizers often cite 2 Chronicles 7:14, a Bible verse that has been ubiquitous at religious-right events in recent years: “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 heal their land.”
Public statements by “The Return” organizers have repeatedly and inaccurately described the event as taking place 400 years after the launch of the Mayflower and 40 days before the election, the kind of numerology that Cahn uses to argue that events in modern U.S. and global history are following a “paradigm” set forth in the Bible, which Cahn says predicts current events down to the exact date.
On the same day that “The Return” will be gathering on the National Mall, Trump-supporting evangelist Franklin Graham has called for a “prayer march” from the Lincoln Memorial to the U.S. Capitol. The Christian Broadcasting Network said on Saturday that “believers” gathering at these “two huge events” will be “praying America be given more time.”
Momentum for “The Return” has been building in recent months, with many religious-right leaders and organizations signing up to take part. Godspeed Magazine devoted an issue to “The Return,” including a story featuring HUD Secretary Ben Carson—who called “The Return” a “very timely” event at a time when the nation is facing a choice between returning to “Judeo-Christian principles or continuing down a ‘secularist road’”— and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who predicted that the event “is going to mark the beginning of the greatest revival anywhere.”
Among the “partners” of “The Return” listed in Monday’s press release are:Museum of the Bible, National Christian Foundation, National Day of Prayer, Assemblies of God, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Bless Every Home, Calvary Chapel, Capitol Hill Prayer Partners, CBN, Charisma Magazine, Church of God, Collide, CTN, Daystar Television Network, Engage Media Partners, EpicPay, Every Home for Christ, Family Research Council, Family Talk, Gateway Church, Hispanic Prayer Network, House of David Ministries, Inciite Events, Intercessors for America, Jensine Bard Ministries, John Kilpatrick Ministries, and MyPillow.
Others supporting “The Return” include Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, televangelists Pat and Gordon Robertson, Charisma publisher Steve Strang, Daystar Television President Marcus Lamb, the Family Research Council’s Pierre Bynum, former member of Congress and current FRC board chair Michele Bachmann, conservative Hollywood couple Kevin and Sam Sorbo, and preachers and activists Anne Graham Lotz, Mark Gonzales, Harry Jackson, Alveda King, Robert Morris, Carter Conlon, and John Kilpatrick. Gonzales, Jackson, and King are all members of POTUS Shield, a network of Pentecostal leaders devoted to helping Trump bring about the reign of God in America and the world.
