The Harbinger (32 page)

“It meant that the message was hidden in the foundation, America’s foundation, on the
day
of the nation’s foundation…

“April 30, 1789. And the one who hid it was…”

“Washington…as in my dream.”

“There’s a prophetic message hidden in America’s foundation, and it was placed there by George Washington?” she asked.

“Yes,” he replied.

“And the message was revealed at the end of your dream. So then the message is meant to be revealed?”

“Yes.”

“When?” she asked.

“In the dream, it was revealed after a calamity that touched the nation’s ground of consecration. The destruction revealed it.”

“September 11 was the calamity that touched the nation’s ground of consecration.”

“Yes.”

“So 9/11 somehow is linked to a prophetic message hidden in America’s foundation?”

“September 11 struck the ground where America was consecrated to God. It pointed back to day of the consecration, April 30, 1789. But April 30, 1789, was also a day of prophecy, the day a prophetic message was given to the newly formed nation.”

“What prophetic message?” she asked.

“It was the prophet, in my dream, who handed me the paper that Washington had hidden. So it would be the prophet who would reveal to me the contents of that message, but not before revealing something else that happened on 9/11.”

“America,” said the prophet, “was dedicated as a nation on this ground to God. But it was in Federal Hall that America, as a nation, was founded. On April 30, 1789, the two places were joined together, and once more on September 11, 2001.”

“How so?” I asked.

“When the towers fell, a shock wave was sent forth from Ground Zero to Federal Hall. The impact was so great that it opened up cracks in the foundation.”

“Cracks in the foundation? In the foundation of the nation’s foundation?”

“As if 9/11 was pointing everything back to that first day, to that first foundational day…to what happened at St. Paul’s Chapel and what happened there in Federal Hall. And what was Federal Hall?”

“The place of Washington’s inauguration and the nation’s foundation.”

“And where was that message hidden in your dream?”

“In the foundation.”

“And so it was there, at Federal Hall, that the prophetic word was spoken.”

“By Washington?” I asked.

“Yes, in the first words a president would ever speak to the nation, in the first-ever presidential address.”

“Just as King Solomon, on the day of dedication, gave a prophetic message concerning his nation’s future.”

“So Washington also gave a prophetic message concerning America’s future, waiting for a future generation and appointed for the day of calamity, waiting to be revealed—a message less than thirty words long, and yet one of the most important messages ever given to the nation.”

“And the message…”

“The message is this:

“
The propitious smiles of Heaven
. What do you think that would mean, Nouriel?”

“Heaven,” I replied, “would be a way of referring to God.”

“Yes. And
the propitious smiles of Heaven
?”

“…would mean God’s blessing and favor.”

“Correct. And
the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained
?”

“Would mean God’s unchanging standards of morality…what’s right and wrong.”

“Good, Nouriel. Now put it together. What is it saying?”

“If America upholds God’s eternal standards and follows His unchanging ways, then it will be blessed with His favor…His protection…His prosperity…. But if America should depart from the ways of God, if it should disregard His eternal standards, then the smiles of heaven, the blessings of God, will be withdrawn—its prosperity, its protection, and its powers would be taken away. He’s giving a warning to the nation: The day America turns away from God will be the day that begins the removing of its blessings.”

“Correct,” he said. “And his words would be prophetic on several counts. America would be blessed with God’s favor as no other nation had ever been blessed. But the day would come when the nation would do exactly as it was warned never to do.”

“It would
disregard the eternal rules of order and right that heaven itself has ordained
.”

“Yes,” said the prophet. “It would declare those eternal rules to be an offense and would strike them down. And the words of the warning would come true. The smiles of heaven would begin to fade…the blessings of God would be withdrawn.”

“September 11—the removal of America’s protection, the economic collapse, the failing of American prosperity.”

“And each blessing would be removed on a site connected to that first inaugural day, the day of the warning, Ground Zero at St. Paul’s—the nation’s ground of consecration—and the crash of the New York Stock Exchange at Federal Hall—the site of America’s foundation—where the warning was given.”

“That statue of Washington,” I said, “standing right in front of the New York Stock Exchange, it’s a memorial, a witness of the day the warning was given, right in front of the New York Stock Exchange, the symbol of America’s prosperity…as it collapsed.”

“A silent witness that the
smiles of Heaven
were being withdrawn.”

We walked out the courtyard and stood by the gate.

“Look around, Nouriel,” said the prophet as he pointed toward Ground Zero. “When the calamity struck, all of these buildings, all the buildings surrounding Ground Zero, were either destroyed or badly damaged, all the buildings except for one. There was only one building that escaped the calamity virtually untouched. It was called
the miracle of 9/11
.”

“And that building…”

“Was the stone sanctuary where America had been committed to God, St. Paul’s Chapel. It was another silent witness pointing the nation back to its foundation.”

“How did it happen,” I asked, “that it was spared?”

“It was a single object,” he said, “a tree.”

“Not the…”

“The Sycamore…the Sycamore of Ground Zero.”

“The Harbinger.”

“The Sycamore was credited with having shielded the chapel both from the force of the implosion and the flying wreckage of the falling towers.”

“So the chapel was saved from destruction by the Harbinger?”

“Does that seem strange?” he asked.

“I don’t know.”

“The purpose of the Harbingers is not to condemn America to judgment but to save it, to give it warning, to awaken it, and to turn it back from destruction. The Sixth Harbinger saved the chapel. So too redemption comes not only apart from calamity…but also through it.”

We resumed walking alongside the wrought-iron fence and around the courtyard.

“In the days after 9/11, a strange thing happened. People from all over the city and all over the nation were drawn here. First were the relief workers who used the chapel as a center for emergency operations. But then came the others, the grieving, the hurting, the curious, those seeking an answer. The chapel and the land on which it stood became the spiritual focal point of the calamity. Some wandered through the courtyard seeking consolation; others entered the sanctuary. This iron fence was covered over with pictures, messages, and objects of faith. And it wasn’t that anyone fully knew exactly what it was that drew them there. It had nothing to do with anything taking place within its walls or with those now overseeing or officiating over its functions. It had to do with the place itself. There was something about it. And so they returned, unknowingly to pray on the same ground on which the nation’s first leaders had also prayed on the day of the prophetic warning, which had now come to pass.”

“It’s as if…as if behind everything—behind Ground Zero, behind Federal Hall, behind the Chapel, behind the Harbingers—behind everything is the word
return
!”

“Not
as if
, Nouriel; it
is
the word behind everything. It’s the word of the prophets. Behind every mystery and Harbinger a voice was calling, calling the nation back to God, and crying out, ‘
Return
.’”

Chapter 20

Things to Come

H
E LED ME
across the street to the heart of Ground Zero. It was surrounded by partitions and barriers, but from various positions one could see inside.

“All this, Nouriel,” said the prophet, “was covered in ruins and fallen bricks.”

“The bricks have fallen…
”

“And do you see that?”

“The building?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Is that the Tower?”

“The beginning of the Tower,” he replied. “‘
But we will rebuild with Gazit Stone
.’”

“And where was the Gazit Stone?”

“Over there,” he said. “That’s where they lowered it. That’s where they gathered together, and that where’s they proclaimed their vows.”

“And what happens next?” I asked. “If the first stages followed the ancient pattern, and so precisely, what about the last?”

“As long as Israel continued its descent from God, the progression had to continue, so too with America.”

“The progression of judgment.”

“The progression of warnings and judgment.”

“So that’s what lies ahead,” I asked, “warnings and judgment?”

“And periods of grace and relief.”

“As in the years after 9/11.”

“Yes, and just as in that period, the progression continues, visible or invisible, above the surface or beneath it. And the voice of God continues to call.”

“And if the nation doesn’t listen?” I asked. “Then there comes calamity. From the commentaries on Isaiah 9:

“Calamities,” I said, “taking the form of what?”

“They may take the form of economic disintegration or military defeat, disorder and division, the collapse of infrastructure, man-made calamities, calamities of nature, decline and fall. And, in the case of a nation so greatly blessed by God’s favor, the withdrawal of all such blessings.”

“Prosperity, protection, peace.”

“Yes. And in the case of a nation preeminent among the nations, it means the end of that preeminence…the collapse of empire…the removing of its crown.”

“Was 9/11 a shadow then?” I asked.

“As 9/11 was a day of symbol. The World Trade Center was a symbol of what?”

“America’s financial power, America’s global economic preeminence.”

“And so its fall,” he said. “Of what would that speak?”

“It would foretell the fall of America’s financial economic power.”

“Yes,” said the prophet, “the fall of the American empire, the end of the American age, warned of and foreshadowed by 9/11, and after its pattern…just as the vow of Isaiah 9:10 bears its fruit as in the next verse.”

“Isaiah 9:11.”

“Do you remember what it said?”

“You’ll have to refresh my memory.”

“It said this:

“It’s the beginning of destruction. It goes on:

“So what is it saying?” asked the prophet.

“It’s a prophecy of national destruction,” I replied. “Isaiah 9:10 leads into a prophecy of national destruction.”

“As the words of the vow of Isaiah 9:10 would actually usher in that destruction.”

“How?”

“The same spirit of defiance, first given voice in that vow, would ultimately lead the nation into a fatal mistake. It would rise up in defiance of the Assyrian Empire. That defiance, in turn, would lead the Assyrians to invade the land once more, but this time not as a warning.”