The Oracle

by Jonathan Cahn

  “Who is ‘David their king’?”

  “When the prophecy was given, David had been dead for centuries. But the name David was used by the prophets to speak of the Messiah, the royal descendant of King David.”

  “So then it’s saying that at the end of the age the Jewish people will return not only to the land but to the Messiah . . . But how can they return to their Messiah unless they first . . . ?”

  “Left their Messiah,” said the Oracle, “You can only return to that which you first left.”

  “‘Left,’ I said, “another word for departure.”

  “And that is exactly what the mystery is pointing to . . . a spiritual departure. And when would that spiritual departure have taken place?”

  “Somewhere around the time of the physical departure, when the Jewish people left the land . . . in the first century.”

  “Can you think of any phenomenon that appeared in the first century . . . something spiritual, something major, something history changing and involving the Jewish people in the land of Israel?”

  “Jesus?”

  “Jesus,” said the Oracle, “something major, history changing, spiritual, involving the Jewish people, and taking place in the first century and in the land of Israel. It would fulfill every requirement.”

  “But Christianity,” I said, “is foreign to the Jewish people.”

  “It’s only foreign,” said the Oracle, “because it became foreign. And it only became foreign because it was departed from. But that only fulfills the requirement. It must be that which was departed from and two thousand years ago.”

  “It’s not a different religion?”

  “It was never called Christianity in the beginning,” he said, “And the word simply means the movement of the Messiah. And there’s only one people that are waiting for the Messiah.”

  “Are you saying that Christianity is Jewish?”

  “A faith named after the Messiah and concerning an Israeli Jewish man called Rabbi? It was and will always remain a Jewish faith. His real name wasn’t Jesus but the Hebrew Yeshua. In the Hebrew Scriptures it was prophesied that the Messiah of Israel would be born in the city of Bethlehem; ride a donkey into Jerusalem; be rejected, scourged, beaten, and delivered to death as a lamb to the slaughter; and give his life as a sacrifice for sin. He would overcome death to bring redemption, forgiveness, and salvation to all who would receive it. 2 And all this had to take place before the second Temple was destroyed . . . in other words, before the year AD 70.”

  “Everything you just said describes Jesus . . . There’s no one else.”

  “No,” said the Oracle, “there’s never been another candidate. And his first name, Yeshua, or Jesus, just happens to means salvation, and his second name—Messiah. And he just happens to be the central figure of human history and at the same time the only one who fulfilled the ancient prophecies of the Jewish Messiah.”

  “But then why didn’t they accept him?”

  “It’s the opposite,” he replied. “If they had accepted him, then he couldn’t have been the Messiah. The prophecies required that the Messiah of Israel be rejected by his people . . . until the appointed time.” 3

  “But those who were not of Israel did accept him.”

  “And that too was prophesied—the Jewish Messiah would become the ‘light to the Gentiles.’ 4 But even though Israel as a nation didn’t receive him, many within the nation did. All the first believers were Jewish, all the first disciples. There were thousands upon thousands of Jewish believers. It was Jewish believers who gave to the world this faith and who, by so doing, changed the course of human history.

  “From the beginning Israel was called to be a light to the nations, to give the world the word of God, to teach the world the ways of God, to bring forth the Messiah, and to spread salvation to the ends of the earth. And only once in human history did this ever take place. Only once did the word of God go forth from Jerusalem to all the earth. Only once and only in the name of this one called Messiah. This was Israel’s calling and inheritance . . . the nation’s spiritual possession.”

  “So what happened?”

  “After the first century the Jewish apostles, disciples, and believers began disappearing. And their disappearance would seal the separation between the Jewish people and their Messiah. And it would all happen at the time of the other separation, the separation of the Jewish people from their land.

  And in the ages to come the children of Israel would become estranged from the land of Israel. It became foreign to them and the possession of strangers. Yet it was their homeland. In the same way, in the days of separation they became estranged from their Messiah. He became as foreign to them and as the possession of strangers. And yet he was in reality their Messiah . . . their ancestral possession.”

  “But the Jubilee,” I said, “is about ending the separation. And if the separation from the land is already ending, then what about the spiritual separation? Shouldn’t it likewise be coming to an end? And if so, when?”

  “At the time of the return,” he said, “at the time of the end.”

  “There’s a missing piece . . . ”

  “Yes,” said the Oracle, “actually more than one . . . Find them . . . and you’ll complete the puzzle.”

  “The puzzle, as in the entire mystery?”

  “Yes. Find them . . . and the mystery will be finished.”

  “So what was the next revelation?”

  “One of the missing pieces of the puzzle . . . And it was all there from the beginning.”

  “From the beginning?”

  “In the prophecy of Moses. I just didn’t see it until then. It was the other side of the mystery.”

  “And how was it revealed?”

  “Through the church of the rabbi.”

  Chapter 57

  THE OLIVE TREE RESURRECTION

  WHEN I RETURNED to the Oracle’s tent, it was midday. The curtains of its entrance were ajar. I looked inside. He was sleeping. I was determined not to make a sound. But it was as if he sensed my presence. He opened his eyes, sat up, and motioned for me to come in. I sat down on one of the embroidered pillows by his feet. He handed me a small wicker basket of figs. I took one and asked my question.”

  “What I witnessed in the cathedral, the bones, the resurrection, and the man who looked like an ancient rabbi . . . what did it mean?”

  “Do you remember what I shared with you in our last meeting, what was ordained in the law of Israel concerning the connection of the physical realm to the spiritual realm?”

  “Yes,” I replied, “that if the nation of Israel departs from its land, it would have to be connected to some kind of spiritual departure.”

  “Yes, then if they return to the land . . . ”

  “It would have to be connected to some kind of spiritual return.”

  “Yes.”

  “So which comes first,” I asked, “the physical return or the spiritual?”

  “The Scriptures speak of both,” he replied. “On the one hand, it is prophesied that there would have to be a spiritual return among the Jewish people before a physical return to the land could begin. On the other hand, it is also prophesied that after they return to the land, there will come a spiritual return, Israel’s complete, national, and final return to God at the end of the age. So then it would come in stages: first an initial spiritual return involving a remnant, or portion, of the nation. This would then set in motion the physical return to the land. And after that physical return would come Israel’s final and national return to God. It was all there at the beginning of your visions, in Moses’ last words to Israel.”

  “In the Book of Deuteronomy?”

  “Yes, it was there, right after the prophecy of the stranger’s visit to the land.”

  “Which was fulfilled in the Jubilee of 1867.”

  “Just one chapter later comes the first prophecy ever given of the regathering of the Jewish people to their land. But listen carefully to what it says:r />
  Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you . . . and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God drives you, and you return to the Lord your God. . . that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the LORD your God has scattered you. . . . Then the LORD your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. 1

  “According to the prophecy, a spiritual return of some form must first take place among the Jewish people before the physical return to the land can begin. It will trigger that return. But to return, one must go back to that which one has left. So there would have to be a spiritual return to that which was departed from in the beginning.”

  “The prophecy of Hosea,” I said. “It foretold that in the last days the Jewish people would have to return to David their king, the Messiah . . . thus a return to the Messiah they had once left. And it would have to be one that they left from in the first century when they left the land. And there’s only one who fits the requirement—Jesus . . . or Yeshua.”

  “In two thousand years there has been no other.”

  “What about the olive tree that I saw and the branches that were broken off and reattached?”

  “In the Book of Romans the apostle Paul writes of the faith as an olive tree, an olive tree linked to the Jewish people but to which the Gentiles were now being grafted in. But he adds that the Jewish people, the natural branches, though separated from the tree, will, in the end, be grafted back in, reattached.”

  “So then there would have to be some sort of spiritual return among the Jewish people, a return to the Messiah. There would have to be an initial spiritual return before the return to the land could begin. Did such a thing ever take place?”

  “It did,” said the Oracle. “In the nineteenth century a spiritual revival took place among the Jewish people. And it was exactly that, a return to that from which they had departed two thousand years earlier.”

  “A return to Jesus?”

  “To their Messiah, Yeshua. And it was only after the spiritual return began that the physical return to the land was set in motion. The two returns were joined together, just as had been the two departures. Each return represented the reclaiming of a lost possession, the physical return to Israel’s physical possession, and the spiritual return to the nation’s spiritual possession.”

  “Where did the spiritual return take place?”

  “According to the prophecy, it would take place among the nations where the Lord had driven them. It would begin in Europe, in the British Empire. The same empire that would later play a central role in the Jewish people’s physical return would first play a central role in their spiritual return. And both returns would center on the same city.”

  “London?”

  “Yes, and it would center on one specific event.”

  “A specific event?”

  “In the first century, in the days of the Book of Acts, a gathering took place of Messianic Jewish believers, disciples, apostles, and leaders in Jerusalem. It was from that gathering that the door of faith would be opened to the nations. The gospel would go forth beyond the land of Israel to the nations. And the Gentiles would now come in. That gathering would change the course of world history.

  “But as the first century neared its end and the days of the Book of Acts drew to a close, such gatherings of Jewish believers disappeared from the world. But in the days of return that which disappeared . . . ”

  “Must reappear,” I said. “So was there another gathering?”

  “Yes,” he replied. “It would be the first such gathering in two thousand years, the first such council of Messianic Jewish believers since the days of the disciples. They came from the nations, teachers, leaders, and emissaries, to the city of London. There they worshipped, prayed, shared, declared their identity, agreed on their purpose and mission, and arrived at a resolution. The gathering established the first known alliance of Messianic Jewish believers since the first disciples gathered in Jerusalem two thousand years earlier. One of the speakers at the event reminded the assembly of its ancient origins. He said this:

  There was a meeting a long time ago, when Jews from every nation were gathered together, and the Lord poured out His Spirit upon them: that was the first Hebrew-Christian Alliance ... 2

  “The council that convened in Jerusalem at the beginning of the age resulted in the faith going forth from Israel to the nations, from Jew to Gentile. So the council that now convened in the nations, in London, would represent the reverse, the beginning of the return of the faith to the Jewish people and the Jewish people to their Messiah.”

  “The city by the river that I saw in my vision with the cathedral—was it London?”

  “It was.”

  “And the man who was resurrected from the bones, who looked like an ancient rabbi, was he a Jewish believer . . . an apostle?”

  “Yes, the Jewish apostle after whom the cathedral was named.”

  “But would the spiritual return of just a remnant of Jewish people be enough,” I asked, “to usher in a physical return to the land?”

  “With the purposes of God,” said the Oracle, “the issue isn’t numbers. It only takes a remnant. It was only a remnant of Jewish believers in the first century that changed the course of world history. And remember, the spiritual return comes at first only in part but triggers the beginning of the physical return, the return to the land. And the return to the land would begin in the exact same way, with just a remnant of people.”

  “So if the spiritual return triggers the physical return, was the return of the Jewish people to the land spoken of at that gathering?”

  “At the time of the gathering it hadn’t happened yet,” he said. “So it could only have been spoken of prophetically.”

  “So was it spoken of prophetically at that gathering?”

  “It was. One of those who addressed the assembly said this:

  Israel shall abide many days without a temple, and without a sacrifice, but that afterwards they shall return to their own land ... 3

  “The original prophecy simply says, ‘They shall return.’ 4 But the speaker added, ‘They shall return to their own land.’ As far as when the return of the Jewish people to the land would take place, he added,

  . . . of Israel’s restoration . . . the time appears to be drawing near. 5

  “His words were prophetic. The return of the Jewish people to the land and the restoration of Israel would soon begin. Another leader at that gathering would likewise speak prophetically of what was yet to come:

  Our nation will be restored to its own land.” 6

  “Was the timing of the gathering significant?” I asked.

  “You never asked me when it took place.”

  “When did it take place?”

  “In the year . . . 1867.”

  “1867! The year it all began!”

  “It had to be that way. First must come the spiritual return, a return to the Messiah. Then the return to the land can begin.”

  “So that’s the reason why the mystery began in 1867.”

  “It’s the reason why everything began in 1867. It was that gathering in London that constitutes the first Jubilean event, the first return.”

  “When in 1867 did that gathering convene?”

  “It happened in the spring, in the month of May.”

  “May? Wasn’t that the same month in which the destruction of Israel began, when the Roman armies invaded the land?”

  “It was.”

  “So in the same month that the destruction began, so did the restoration. And how long was it after that event that everything else began . . . all the other Jubilean events?”

  “Less than thirty days after that gathering a ship set sail from the harbors of New York, bound for the Promised Land, and the journey of the stranger began. Two days later, after two thousand years, the release of the Promised Land b
egan as the Ottoman Land Code became law. Less than five months later, after being hidden for fifteen hundred years, the ancient city of Jerusalem was uncovered. And then would come the first school to teach Jewish people to farm the land . . . and then the first settlement . . . and then the return of the exiles.

  “So when the land was liberated in 1917 and the promise of a Jewish homeland given, it took place on the fifty-year Jubilee of that gathering and that spiritual return. And when Jerusalem was restored to the Jewish people in the Six-Day War, it took place on the hundred-year Jubilee of that gathering.”

  “You told me the month of the gathering,” I said, “but not the day.”

  “The day,” he replied, “held another mystery.”

  “What day did the gathering take place?”

  “May 14.”

  “May 14! The same date on which Israel would be reborn!”

  “Yes,” said the Oracle, “the spiritual return foreshadowed the physical return.” He paused for a moment before continuing. “I will tell you of two more mysteries concerning these things.

  “When Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70, it altered not only the course of Jewish history but the history of Christianity. Up to that time everything had been centered in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the home of its leadership, the ‘mother church.’ But when Jerusalem was destroyed, the faith was cut off from its Jewish leadership, its spiritual fathers. So the end of Jerusalem would usher in the ending of the age of Jewish disciples.

  “But in the Jubilee of 1967 everything was reversed. Jerusalem was restored to the Jewish people. So what would happen?”

  “If the disappearance of Jerusalem ushered in the disappearance of Jewish believers” I said, “then the restoration of Jerusalem would mean . . . the reappearance of Jewish believers.”