Satan’s Altar

There is a lot of news coverage of the man who attacked Christian Messianic Jewish fiction writer, Jonathan Cahn on an airplane this week. There are some things that need to be said, lest we take this incident as proof of what Cahn’s fictional books propose. Those things do not line up with the biblical testimony, to which all of our faith convictions must align. – Donna Diorio

“I am the LORD/YHVH, and there is no other; there is no God but Me.
I will equip you for battle, though you have not known Me,
so that all may know, from where the sun rises to where it sets,
that there is none but Me; I am the LORD, and there is no other.”
Isaiah 45:5-6

Sept 9, 2026: Satan sits on the throne of idolatry in the hearts of mankind and it is the demonic spirit of idolatry we are really dealing with both in America and throughout the world. Forget about the physical altar of Pergamos – it has no magical demonic powers attached to it. It is the demonic spirits controlling the hearts of human beings that is the spiritual warfare we fight.

It is the spirit of idolatry that expressed itself in ancient times as worship of mythological gods and goddesses that now expresses itself in a myriad of modern expressions from entertainment and sports stars to good old-fashioned greed for wealth.

It is the spirit of idolatry that the Revelation letter to Pergamus was addressing, not a geographical location.
The geographical location of the church in Pergamus was important only because it was the epicenter of Greek mythology. Even the name Pergamus is from Greek mythology because it was the name of a mythological son of a couple of mythological parents Neoptolemus and Andromache.

Satan’s Altar continues

The city was prominent in the Greek/Hellenistic period (Attalid Kingdom) and it remained important under Roman rule. Under Roman rule Pergamus was the official regional headquarters of the Roman Imperial Cult where citizens were legally required to proclaim “Ceasar is Lord” – idolatry.

Picking on Jonathan Cahn’s ability to write Christian fiction is the last thing I want to do, but who can keep quiet when those books identify wrongly with the spiritual warfare we are actually to be warring against in our nations? Does it make a difference if we acknowledge the principality over America is the Jezebel spirit versus the spirit of Ishatar? It does. The Jezebel spirit is written of in the Bible repeatedly, the goddess of Ishtar is a fictional character of ancient myths. We go with the Bible not Greek mythology!

I get it, I really do. This is pretty dry stuff compared to the thriller writing style about fictional spirits of gods and goddess. That is a major problem in the American Christian ranks today – a shallowness that does not have time to addict ourselves to the Word of God which when to seek it with all your heart becomes far more thrilling than any work of fiction can be.

 I used to have trouble remembering the definitions of “fiction” and “non-fiction” until I made a memory prompt renaming the words “lies” and “non-lies”. This is the difference between Cahn’s fictional Christian thrillers and the Bible, the Word of God.

Every Christian should understand that Cahn’s fictional works are only good for entertainment, NOT for doctrinal-consumption! Even though Jonathan Cahn has doubled down in his claims about “the return of the gods” and the circumstantial case he makes for his identification of the throne of satan, he is in serious breach of fidelity to the Word of God. As invested as he is in these books, he should repent for pushing them as spiritually authoritative.

Every devoted follower of Yeshua/Jesus should wake up and stop believing these are the real demonic entities we must spiritually battle. Tear down the real altars of idolatry in your personal lives. That is where you have to begin before you can be effective anywhere else.  Every high profile defender of Cahn’s unbiblical theories on gods, goddesses and magical power of ancient pagan altars should wake up to. You are part of the problem of the sheep believing this junk.

This reality truly vexed me in 2024 when I watched the next day replay of Lou Engle’s Million Women gathering.

First I was appalled to hear in the beginning of the gathering that Engle had not been able to raise the funds to put the event on, until someone who he used to know came to him and persuaded him that he should take the funding that was being offered by the International Fellowship of Christian and Jews! My head exploded.

Lou Engle opened a huge door for IFCJ – a Christian donations gobbling organization that is opposed to Jews coming to faith in Jesus.

That was nothing short of a major betrayal especially of the Israeli Messianic Jewish community. 

Lou Engle has long supported Messianic Jews, but he put his needs above the 20,000 Israeli Messianic Jews carrying the Gospel witness to Israelis. Nobody else is doing that and the Israeli Messianic community is barely supported by Christians who rather love to team up with Jewish organizations that are anti-Messianic.

That is who Lou Engle threw the door open to: an organization that opposes  Jews coming to faith in Jesus and who already command the lion’s share of Christian donations to Israel.  

Consider this:
92% of IFCJ donations come from their Christian donor base according to 2024 IRS records. With a total of $318.2 million in donations that year, 92% of that is $292.74 million that Christians gave to an organization that does not want ANY Jews to believe in Jesus. 

Compared to probably the best financially situated Israeli Messianic ministry is Maoz Israel which reported $4.2 million in donations according to IRS records, part of the only community in Israel that can legally witness to Israelis about Israel’s Messiah Yeshua.

Do you understand why my head exploded that Lou Engle would put his event above all of his friends in the ranks of the Israeli Messianic body?

Then not only that but Lou Engle allows an Altar of Ishtar, inspired by the fictional work of Jonathan Cahn, to be torn down on the platform by women thinking they were doing spiritual warfare against an actual goddess spirit holding sway over American women!  

Cahn’s work has the respect of Christian leaders far and wide, which is troubling in that they do not appear to recognize the departure from the actual biblical text concerning doctrines of demons.

Instead of the JEZEBEL spirit, which is specifically addressed in Revelation, many Christian women now believe Jezebel is “only the name of a woman” but the demonic spirit that has influenced our sex-saturated society is really Ishtar.

This is not biblical and it leads Christians astray who do not apply themselves to knowing the Word of God.  Unfortunately, Jonathan Cahn has built a case for his fictional works of imagination to be true demonic spirits. They are not and there is plenty of scripture that denies the gods and goddesses of ancient mythology are anything but man-crafted wares to sell to the punters.

I have nothing against Jonathan Cahn writing Christian thriller fiction, but I do have a lot against him presenting ancient gods and goddesses as the demonic spirits who have conquered so many people of the faith.

Lou Engle is one of America’s foremost prayer leaders. He has lead thousands and thousands of young people over the past 25 years into the houses of prayer ministry. If you see someone bobbing forward and backward as they pray, they have been heavily influenced by Engle’s prayer ministry. There are a lot of them in any house of prayer in the United States, and many churches too.  

There’s no way I would ever try to devalue everything Lou Engle has stood for in his time of ministry. But how can we ignore the enormous harm to American believers for these two great failings of spiritual discernment of what is of God and what is not?

How is it that no Jewish person on the Million Women platform told Lou Engle it was a huge mistake to let IFCJ fund his event? How is it that no Charismatic or Pentecostal ministry in the world has sat Lou Engle down for a serious talk about tearing down the altar of Ishtar that day? How come none of them have had a serious talk with Jonathan Cahn about the error of identifying gods and goddesses as having demonic spirit power in our nations?

I can hear it now: “It’s not my business.”

Yes, it is if you are protecting the flock as shepherds are supposed to it is your business.

I am deeply concerned how many are being led astray because no one of substance in leadership among us – especially of the portion of Christianity and Messianic Judaism who operate in spiritual gifts – are addressing either of these highly valued and appreciated men of God. They need to change course not just for themselves but to spare the sheep influenced by them.

Do not consider this as a condemning spirit because what it is a spiritual wake up call to ALL American Christian ministers and believers. We must repent from our shallow acceptance of things that are not biblically-based and we must consider the WHOLE body of our Lord – including the Israeli Messianic body of Messiah.

 If we refuse, please understand Revelation 2:11-17 written to Pergamus, is written to us too.  Because it is no coincidence that in Revelation 2:15, the doctrine of the Nicolaitans is rebuked among some of the ekklesia (church/congregation) in Pergamam. 

The definition of Nicolaitanism can be summarized as a theology of compromise that blended Christian grace with pagan culture and moral lawlessness.

According to gotquestions.org here, is: “Jesus commends the church of Ephesus for hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans as He does (Revelation 2:6). No doubt the leaders of the Ephesian church protected their flock from these destructive heresies and kept their people from committing the same evil deeds.

“…. For the church at Pergamos, Jesus had not commendation, but censure. Unlike the Ephesians, they actually embraced the teachings of the Nicolaitans (Revelation 2:15). Jesus warns them that unless they repent, they are in danger of the judgment that is sure to fall on those who teach false doctrine, attack His church, and destroy His people. The sword of judgment is poised over their heads, and His patience is not limitless (Revelation 2:16; 19:15).

The lesson for us is that the church of the Lord Jesus throughout the ages has been plagued by those of the Nicolaitan spirit. The only way to recognize false teaching is to be intimately familiar with truth through the diligent study of the Word of God.

Satan sits on the throne of idolatry–and our warfare is against demonic spirits of the Jezebel and the antichrist spirits. Wake up America, and for your own sakes: Read your Bible!