READ: Airplane Attack on Messianic Rabbi and Author Jonathan Cahn Takes a Demonic Turn
Messianic rabbi and author Jonathan Cahn says a disturbing confrontation aboard a commercial flight took on a supernatural significance for him after an apparently friendly conversation with another passenger suddenly turned violent.
Screengrab from YouTube / @NBCNews
Cahn, leader of Beth Israel Worship Center in New Jersey, had been speaking with 67-year-old Layne Arthur Lundeen about religion during the flight. According to Cahn, the two had talked normally for roughly two hours before Lundeen’s demeanor changed almost instantly. Cahn described the shift as involving a different voice, attitude and personality, saying it seemed as though “something had taken him over.”
Johnathan Cahn from booksbyjonathancahn.com.
The confrontation reportedly escalated after Cahn showed Lundeen the cover of his newly released book, The Altar of Pergamon: The Mystery of the Dark Angel and the Future of the World. Cahn said Lundeen became violent and directed an antisemitic threat toward him. Cahn later characterized the episode as “demonic” and said he believed the man was being influenced by a dark spiritual force.
What made the incident especially unsettling to Cahn was its similarity to the story he had just written. He says his book features a protagonist who begins a friendly conversation with a stranger before the encounter abruptly turns sinister. The fictional character is later placed in a chokehold and attempts to protect his laptop, details Cahn says closely resembled what happened to him on the plane.
Cahn also connected the encounter to a message he had delivered only days earlier on Ephesians 6:12, the biblical passage describing a struggle not merely against “flesh and blood” but against spiritual “principalities.” After the flight, he remarked on the eerie literalness of finding himself physically struggling with another person thousands of feet in the air while believing a deeper spiritual conflict was taking place.
The supernatural interpretation is Cahn’s own. The known facts are that Lundeen was ultimately restrained and duct-taped to his seat and was later charged with second-degree assault and disorderly conduct. In court, Lundeen said he had consumed two alcoholic drinks on the plane and claimed he had no memory of the incident.
For Cahn, however, the timing, the sudden personality change and the strange similarities to his newly released book made the encounter more than an ordinary episode of airline violence. He has publicly framed it as a real-life example of the spiritual warfare he had been writing and preaching about.
