The Solomon Key (29 page)

“And you’re opposed to it being built because...”

“My Christian theology of grace, the finished work of Christ on the cross, and the writings of Paul make it impossible for me to recognize a rejuvenated system of Judaism as honoring God. As Jesus said, ‘If you reject me, you reject the Father.’ A religion that does not acknowledge the Messiah’s work is one that is not compatible with my own.”

After a while of ensuing silence, Scott shook his head again. “But what does this have to do with the ring, with the Copper Scroll?”

Isaiah stopped. “Didn’t you hear what I said? There is going to be a Temple during the last seven years. Put in place by the Antichrist, the leader of the New World Order.” And then he trailed off in a whisper. “I can’t believe they found it.” He headed back toward the house, calling out over his shoulder as his guests tried to keep up, “The Copper Scroll contains sixty-four clearly distinct sections. Each one begins with the description of a hiding place and ends with a description of what can be found there. Most of the treasure is described as silver, gold, or some other precious material. Except for the last one. In that case, the treasure described seems to be of a different nature
and
seems to include the key needed to decipher the Scroll. I can’t remember exactly what the sixty-fourth section says, but I know that Father Baer had it written down in one of his books.”

Mayhew hadn’t been in the room when Isaiah mentioned additional books, so Scott was looking for some kind of reaction from him. But the reference must’ve passed over his head, because he didn’t bat an eye.

“The list seems to be written in some kind of code, but in order to decipher it, one needs the key. And the key was hidden along with the copy of the Scroll in the last described hiding place. There are also mysterious Greek letters in the margin of the first columns in the Scroll. No one knows what they are, but it’s believed that they can be explained with the key.”

Scott’s brow furrowed, and he slowed down. “You said
was
hidden.”

“That’s because it
was
hidden. A long time ago.”

“Did they find it?”

Neither Scott nor Mayhew could see Isaiah smile, only that he began walking faster.

Isaiah continued, “It’s possible that the treasures listed are comprised of sacred objects reserved for the priesthood. In the text describing the last treasure, there are seven letters followed by a gap that was caused by deterioration on the far edge of the Scroll. There’s a lot of speculation around those seven letters, whether they’re two words or one. Father Baer, through his studies, came to believe that it was one word, a Greek loanword meaning ‘the first sheet of a papyrus roll.’ The Copper Scroll’s first sheet was blank, but Father Baer believed that the description at the end of the Scroll referred back to the ‘first sheet’ of the corresponding duplicate since the duplicate is associated with the interpretive key and is part of the last treasure. In other words, Father Baer came to the conclusion that what was omitted at the beginning of the Copper Scroll was, in fact, included in its duplicate version. He believed the duplicate scroll would have a blank spot that could be filled in by the Copper Scroll, meaning that only a person with both scrolls would be able to find the treasures. He thought the last treasure would comprise of a duplicate scroll, a key that could explain or decipher it, and that together they would lead to the items dedicated to the priesthood.”

The more Scott’s mind tried to make sense of everything Isaiah was saying, the more he just wanted to close his eyes and let sleep carry him to a faraway world. “So the Copper Scroll, if it does lead to the Temple treasures, is somehow essential to the rebuilding of the Temple.”

“If it reveals the location of the hidden instruments dedicated to the priesthood, then yes.”

“And if this is all about finding the incentive for rebuilding the Temple, then the ring would have to be extremely important, or why else would they be after it?”

They found the concrete path that lead to the back door, and quickly walked its length, fighting the cold wind the whole way.

As Isaiah reached for the handle, he told them, “The secret societies found the duplicate scroll a long time ago.”

Scott’s mind blanked for a moment. “What?”

Mayhew seemed shocked too. “What about the key?”

“Only a ring.” And then he walked into the house, leaving Scott and Mayhew standing there slack-jawed.

There
were
two rings, Scott thought.

“How do you know that?” Mayhew asked.

“Because, one of the Templars who found it recorded the finding in a journal. Father Baer read the Knight’s account with his own eyes.”

“Where?” asked Scott.

“The Vatican. Where else?”

32

I
saiah went into the kitchen and
took off his jacket, hanging it over a chair. “Have a seat, I’ll make you some lunch.” He moved to the refrigerator.

Scott and Mayhew didn’t object, and they pulled off their own jackets before sitting at the table.

“Grilled cheese, okay? GMO free.”

“How’d you manage that?” Scott asked.

Isaiah just smiled, going to work.

After a few moments Scott leaned back and folded his arms. “The ring is the key the Copper Scroll speaks of?”

“It would appear so,” Isaiah answered.

Mayhew frowned. “I don’t understand. You said the secret societies found it a long time ago. But this ring was just found.”

“The ring that my brother and Father Baer were searching for wasn’t the one the Templars found.”

A moment of silence passed before Mayhew responded. “So the Templar Knights found the duplicate scroll and the ring beneath the Temple Mount.”

Isaiah nodded, and Scott found it odd that Mayhew would have no reaction to the revelation of a second ring.

“And the Secret Orders have been passing them down through the centuries. But they wouldn’t be able to do anything without the Copper Scroll. That wasn’t discovered until 1952. But now they do have all three things.”

“And yet they’re still trying to get this other ring,” stated Scott.

Isaiah had the illegally organic sandwiches in the frying pan. “I’m assuming the explanation was written down in one of Father Baer’s books. As for myself, I don’t know. Benjamin called me once, excited that they’d found another piece of the puzzle. He said he wanted to stop by and show me, but then they decided to drop it. I never found out what it was that they discovered. Maybe it was this other ring.”

“But what
is
the sixty-fourth treasure? Why is it so important?” asked Scott.

“Whatever it is,” he answered, “it would undoubtedly provide justification for the building of the next Temple in Jerusalem. And so they decided that whatever the treasure is, it should be left in the hands of God. Actually finding it would only lead to the very thing they opposed. If the Temple was going to be built, they didn’t want it on their hands.”

Scott couldn’t believe how strange a turn his life had taken in just a couple of days. Just because he happened to catch the tail end of a news program before going to bed. “Do you have any idea what it could be?”

But Mayhew answered instead, his lips barely parting, a whisper fluttering through the air, “The Ark of the Covenant.”

Isaiah flipped the grilled cheese. “Yes.”

****

Scott and Mayhew ate in relative silence, each contemplating the information they just learned — the Templars finding a copy of the Copper Scroll and a ring, the Copper Scroll discovered in 1952, and now this second ring of Solomon that everyone was after. Presumably, all four pieces would somehow fit together to reveal the location of the lost Ark of the Covenant. And that discovery would lead to the building of the Temple, to the Antichrist, to the final fulfillment of a New World Order.

Scott was thinking about what Mr. Smith —
Benjamin
— had said concerning the globalist plan for the Middle East, that certain Jews wanted to establish Israel as the major world power by bringing God’s presence back to the Land while other Jews and Christians wished to keep the Ark hidden in order to keep the Temple from being built. A Temple those Jews believed would be void of God’s presence. And though Benjamin hadn’t mentioned the Ark, Scott was now able to return to that conversation and fill in the blanks. According to Isaiah’s prophetic views however, the Temple being built was already a foregone conclusion.

“Can the Temple be built without the Ark?” he asked, breaking the silence.

Isaiah, sitting in a folding chair taken from some other place in the house, swallowed. “The last Temple was without it, so I suppose so. Something extraordinary needs to push the world into allowing it, though.”

“Benjamin told me that if it is found, it’ll propel the Jews into a war with the Muslims, that they’ll destroy Mecca and reclaim the Temple Mount by force.”

Isaiah shook his head solemnly. “I know. It grieves me as both a Jew and a Christian. It’s exactly what the globalists want, a war between Jews and Muslims. Albert Pike, the head of Scottish Rite Freemasonry, wrote about a final war which he thought would be necessary to usher in the New World Order. He said that igniting a crisis between Islam and Judaism would create the conflict between two superpowers, the Order rising in the aftermath. The globalists are simply using Zionism and Islamic terrorism as a means to destroy them both.” He got up from the table.

“Fulfilling H.G. Well’s vision put forth in
The Shape of Things to Come
?” Mayhew wondered aloud.

“Ah,” Isaiah smiled, “his 1933 story describing a future world government persecuting and destroying Christianity and all other religions, passing it off as a good and vitally necessary act.” He took a drink of water. “That’s their ultimate agenda, an anti-religious world order, though in reality it’ll be very religious. The Theosophical Society of which most of these people are members is a spiritual and religious society that is waiting for their
Masonic
Christ, the perfected man. What my brand of eschatology would rather call the Antichrist.” He paused. “You want some coffee?”

“That would be wonderful,” replied Mayhew.

As Isaiah went about making the pot of coffee, Scott gathered the dishes and took them to the sink. Rinsing them off, he asked about Isaiah’s story, about how he ended up here. He figured that Isaiah could probably use a mental break from their current inquiries.

“My father and mother came over from Israel just two years after they married. Benjamin and I were both born here. By the time I was five years old, my mother was desperate to see the family she’d left behind in Israel. There was no way my parents could afford four roundtrip tickets, so they decided my mother should go with Benjamin, who was one at the time. My father and I stayed behind. A few days after she arrived, my mother was killed by a suicide bomber while out shopping with my aunt. Benjamin was left in Israel to be raised by my mother’s family. It wasn’t until after college that I saw him again. He’d come back over to the States working for the Mossad. At that point, I was into the whole Kabbalah thing, and his Orthodoxy tended to resent my mystic training. But that we were brothers was enough to ensure our friendship. A few years later I became a Messianic Jew, and Benjamin couldn’t understand it. At first he wouldn’t speak to me, but love covers a multitude of sins, and he got over it.” A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Not that we didn’t try converting each other every chance we got.”

Scott began drying the plates while Mayhew sat listening from the table. Scott hadn’t intended the conversation to focus on Isaiah’s relationship with his recently deceased brother. In fact, that was the very topic he had attempted to avoid.

Once the machine started filling the glass pitcher with dark liquid, Isaiah turned and leaned his back against the counter so that he was facing them. “He would give me reports on the happenings in Israel, the clashing ideologies of the religious and the secular. His heart had always been for the Jewish people to return to God, and by then it had become my heart as well, though obviously in a very different way. So we shared our love for the Land, for her people, our burden for God’s chosen. Only he saw a need for them to return to the Law, and I saw only a need for them to acknowledge the Messiah who had already fulfilled the Law. His orthodoxy insisted that the Messiah would come and set everything in order in His time, seeing as sin any human interference. He was strongly against the Temple Movement.” He smiled and then switched gears a little. “It was always a dream of his to find the Ark. The research was his hobby… and then one day in Jerusalem, he met Father Baer. Despite their theological differences, they quickly discovered a mutual obsession that overlooked all else — finding the Ark.”

“What finally made them give it up?” asked Mayhew.

“The world. How crazy it had become. They had an insider’s perspective into what was happening in both the Vatican and in Israel, and they saw what was coming. They knew they weren’t the only ones looking for the Ark, that there were other forces after it. And, after much soul-searching, they determined that they wouldn’t aide them in the search, that the Ark should remain hidden until the Messiah came back and settled everything on His own terms and in His own time.” He pulled at an itch on his earlobe. “Why they decided to get involved again… I can only imagine they caught wind of the second ring having been discovered and then tried to prevent it from falling into the Illuminati’s hands.”

“The Illuminati?” A wash of skepticism lingered briefly on Mayhew’s face.

But Isaiah didn’t elaborate. He just poured three cups of coffee and walked them into the living room.

The room contained a bookshelf and a few tables serving as platforms for lamps. Some pictures hung on the wall beside a window, and three armchairs sat resting in the corners.

As he sat, Mayhew watched the snow fall past the window. “What made you decide to move out here in the middle of nowhere?”