The Harbinger II

by Jonathan Cahn

  It was just then that I noticed the beginning of a transformation. The microphones were changing shape, elongating, stretching upward, taking the form of a cluster of arrows, and yet still of stone. The president then gathered the cluster together and placed them across the armrests of his chair. It was then that I realized he was sitting in a wheelchair. He turned himself around so that he was now facing the wall of the great building. He then wheeled himself over to the image of the colossal eagle and placed the arrows in front of its talons. At that, the image began to move and then emerge from the wall, still of stone, but no longer an engraving, now a fully three-dimensional being. It glanced down at the arrows and grasped them with its talons. “Now arise,” said the president to the eagle, “and make war.” At that, the colossal creature flew up into the night sky, which was now filled with storm clouds, and disappeared into the darkness.

  “The president’s declaration,” said the prophet, “would make America’s official entrance into the war and the far-reaching consequences of that entrance inevitable. Three months later, with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, it would become official, but with the president’s declaration that night and the commencement of the new policy, it had already begun. The speech was the manifestation of a critical decision already made: America not only would enter the war but would assume the reins of world leadership.

  “The meaning of the president’s address was made manifest in headlines, commentaries, and editorials appearing throughout the nation in response. The speech was:

  . . . an unofficial DECLARATION OF WAR against Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy . . . The duly elected President of the nation has now committed 132 million Americans to travel a road from which there is no turning. They cannot afford to LOSE THE WAR.3

  . . . the American people recognize that there can be no turning back. . . 4

  “Historians would likewise view that address as the effective declaration of war and America’s unofficial entrance into the war.”

  “The desk,” I said, “and the wall and the eagle and the arrows—they were all of the same color and substance as the stone that I saw in the other dream at the bottom of the house, the foundation stone. Does that mean . . . ?”

  “That what you saw,” said the prophet, “was the revelation of a foundation, the other foundation . . . the foundation of America’s emergence as the world’s greatest military power. What you saw was all part of the day on which it was all sealed—the day on which the American age was sealed.”

  “The day on which the American age was sealed . . . what day was it?”

  “The day was September 11.”

  “September 11!”

  “It all began on 9/11.”

  “So Roosevelt made his speech to the nation . . . ”

  “On the night of September 11.”

  “The same day as America’s other foundation.”

  “It was September 11 that sealed America’s entrance into war. It was September 11 that determined the outcome of that war. It was September 11 that began the rise of America to the pinnacle of world power as the strongest military power on earth.”

  “9/11! It was 9/11 that caused America to become a superpower.”

  “Yes. It was 9/11 that began the American age, the day the American superpower was born. Long before it became something else, 9/11 was the foundation of all these things.”

  “And 9/11 was the day that the Pentagon, the symbol of American military power, was struck.”

  “Yes.”

  “So the symbol that represented America’s military power was struck on the day of its birth.”

  “And it was even more than that.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Hitler had hoped to avoid a war with America until first defeating the Soviet Union. But Roosevelt’s speech of September 11 was seen by the leaders of Nazi Germany as marking the beginning of war. They too saw it as the turning point from which there would be no return.

  “Two days after that speech, the German foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, sent word to the Japanese government warning that Roosevelt’s actions would lead to open war against the Axis powers, of which Japan was one. He then began pressuring Japan to attack America. Hitler had now come to believe that a war between Japan and America would distract and hinder America’s ability to wage war in Europe. Mutual assurances of military alliance between the Axis nations came in early December. Then, on December 7, 1941, Japan attacked America at Pearl Harbor. The undeclared war was now declared.”

  “So then even Pearl Harbor was linked to 9/11.”

  “Yes. But Pearl Harbor concerned America and Japan. Without entering a war in Europe against Nazi Germany, America would never have become the world superpower it became at the end of the war. All that would be sealed four days after Pearl Harbor when Nazi Germany issued its declaration of war against America. The German declaration opened the door for America to enter the war in Europe, which it did that same day. The German declaration also contained and centered on one date above all others as the beginning event that ultimately led to war—the date of 9/11.”

  “So everything goes back to that day.”

  “9/11 brought America into the war and thus propelled it to become the strongest military power on earth and then the world’s greatest superpower, a superpower with soldiers stationed throughout the earth and its navy patrolling the world. 9/11 thus birthed a new era, one in which America would reign as the head of nations, the American age. Everything began on 9/11.”

  “And as it all began on 9/11,” I said, “so on 9/11 it would all return.”

  “Remember the scripture, Nouriel—in the days of judgment, that which has been built up is broken down, and that which has been planted is uprooted. The planting and building are joined to the uprooting and destroying. So 9/11 was the day on which America’s global military power was planted.”

  “And the day that America’s economic power was planted . . . both powers.”

  “And so,” said the prophet, “the day of the planting, the foundation, must become the day of the breaking down . . . the 9/11 of the foundation must become the 9/11 of the calamity.”

  “And the meaning and message . . . ”

  “If America does not turn back to the God of its foundation, then the powers that were founded on that day will collapse.”

  “And the next mystery?”

  “Would run parallel to this one but would center on an event unknown to most of the world, an event that would take place in a field in between a river and a cemetery, in a convergence so precise it would leave me stunned.”

  Chapter 10

  The House by the River

  IT WAS NIGHT, but unlike the last dream, I knew dawn was near. I was in a boat with four others.”

  “Others?”

  “At the beginning of the dream, I couldn’t tell much more than that.

  Their faces were obscured by the darkness and by the fact that they were all wearing cloaks that covered their heads. And they were looking away from me, to the sides of the boat . . . except for the one who appeared to be the leader. He sat in the front of the boat and gazed forward into the distance. I was right behind him. So I couldn’t see his face either. To the side of each of the four was a large rectangular stone of the same color and appearance as the desk in the last dream and as the foundation stone in the dream before that.”

  “Who are you?” I asked. I was addressing my words to all of them but was facing the leader. “And what are we doing here?”

  “Builders,” said the leader. He said that without turning his gaze to look at me. “Builders, who dwell by the river.”

  “And today is the day of the crossing,” said another of the four.

  “That we might lay the foundation,” said another.

  “Of what?” I asked.

  “Of a great house,” said still another, “a house by the river.”

  “Today,” said the leader, “it all begins.”


  The boat then arrived on the river’s other side. As we prepared to disembark, the leader turned around and removed his hood. I recognized him immediately.

  “Who was it?”

  “It was George Washington. He picked up the stone, rose to his feet, got out of the boat, and stood ashore, waiting for the others. I joined him there. I looked back at the boat. The figure that had been sitting behind me now removed his hood. I recognized him as well. It was Thomas Jefferson. He lifted the stone, rose to his feet, got out of the boat, and joined us ashore. Then the third figure did likewise. It was Abraham Lincoln. And then last, it was Teddy Roosevelt.”

  “I’ve got it,” said Ana.

  “What?”

  “I’ve got the mystery. It’s Mount Rushmore. All four of them are on Mount Rushmore.”

  “That’s right. That’s what I thought as well. But it has nothing to do with the mystery.”

  “All right, so what happened next?”

  “As we stood on the shore, the sun began to rise. We began walking inland until we came to a large open expanse. In the middle of the expanse sat a man in a wheelchair.”

  “Roosevelt,” said Ana, “Franklin Roosevelt.”

  “Yes, with something of a dark cape or shawl draped over his shoulders and a stone at his feet, of the same size, shape, and color as the others.

  “After greeting the others, he wheeled his chair back from the stone.

  The four of them then approached the stone and began laying down their stones beside it, one after the other, in the same order in which they had been sitting in the boat. Then they stepped back until they formed something of a loose circle. The stones now also formed something of a loose circle.

  “Then Roosevelt leaned forward in his chair and began to speak. ‘We will remember this day. It is the day we crossed the river to lay the foundation of a great house and a great power that will mark the turning of history. And though we lay its stones away from the eyes of the world, this day shall be known for generations to come.’

  “And then they all froze in place, everything froze, except for me and one other.”

  “One other?”

  “The prophet. I don’t know when he came, but at that moment, he was there, behind me.”

  “What you just saw,” he said, “what do you think it means?”

  “The stones had the same appearance as that of the desk in the other vision and of the foundation stone in the fallen house. So I would think this is the revelation of a foundation. And since the central figure was Franklin Roosevelt, as in the other vision, I would think it has to do with a foundation that was laid in the days of his presidency. I would think it has to do with the rise of American military power or the rise of the American superpower.”

  “Very good, Nouriel. And what was the critical year, the year of the turning point?”

  “1941.”

  “Yes, as it was the day of Roosevelt’s declaration and America’s undeclared entrance into the war. But 1941 was the turning point for another reason; it was the groundbreaking year of American military power. In 1941, American military spending quadrupled, as did the size of the American military forces. In 1940, American military personnel numbered under five hundred thousand. But by the end of 1941, the number was approaching two million. 1941 was the watershed year.

  “But it wasn’t only the military’s armed forces that mushroomed. In 1941, the number of War Department personnel had reached twenty-four thousand. They were scattered in seventeen buildings across Washington, DC. With war raging across the world and Hitler’s armies now occupying most of the European continent, the need to consolidate the War Department into one central location became critical. But no building inside Washington was large enough for the need.

  “So the army’s chief of staff, General George C. Marshall, commissioned Brigadier General Brehon B. Somervell, head of the army’s Construction Division, to come up with an answer. Somervell set out to construct a single building large enough to house the entire War Department, tens of thousands of personnel, under one roof. To undertake such a monumental task, Somervell had to look outside the city and to the other side of the Potomac River.”

  “Across the river. The Potomac—that was the river we crossed to get here.”

  “Yes.”

  “But with Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt, I thought that was to direct me to a place, to Mount Rushmore.”

  “It was directing you to a place, but not there.”

  “Then where?”

  “When you asked those in the boat who they were, what did they answer you?”

  “Builders, who dwell by the river.”

  “That was your first clue. The one who told you that was Washington. From Washington came this city. The city of Washington dwells by the Potomac River.”

  “And what about Jefferson?”

  “Look over there,” said the prophet, pointing to a domed building on the other side of the river. “That’s his memorial, where he stands on a black granite pedestal. And look over there,” he said, now pointing to what looked like a Greek temple. “That’s Lincoln’s memorial, where he sits in white marble.”

  “And Teddy Roosevelt?”

  “Over there,” he said, “that’s his island, the Theodore Roosevelt Island, in the middle of the river, where he stands in bronze. Even the memorial to Franklin Roosevelt is right there across the river as well. They’re all here by the river. They all point to this land.”

  “And this land is . . . ?”

  “Look, Nouriel, at the stones they laid here for a foundation. What shape do they form?”

  “I took it that they were trying to make a circle.”

  “Not a circle,” he said. “What shape is it?”

  “A pentagon,” I replied. “A pentagon. This is the ground on which was built ‘the great house’ for the War Department—the Pentagon.”

  “And when was it built? It was begun in 1941.”

  “The turning point year,” I said, “of America’s military power. So in the year of the foundation, the foundation of the Pentagon was laid.”

  “Yes. The building that would embody America’s global military power was begun in the very year that would inaugurate that power. And the victory that would cause America to become the world’s greatest military power would be planned and led from this ground, from this house.

  “The Pentagon was intended as a temporary answer to a temporary need. It was assumed that after the war was over, the building would be put to some other use as the American military returned to its prewar state. But that would never happen. The American military would never return to normalcy, and the Pentagon would become the permanent house of a new global power.

  “What began in 1941 was the transformation of a nation into the greatest military power in world history. And the building that began at the beginning of that transformation and rise would become the embodiment of that power. The Pentagon would become the most universally recognized symbol of American global military power.

  “But what began in 1941 was more than that. The rise of America’s military power was an intrinsic part in the rise of the American superpower and the beginning of the American age. And so this same house came to be the symbol not only of the world’s strongest military but of a global power that towered over every nation and surpassed every kingdom and empire in history.

  “And it all began here on this ground with no great display or fanfare. It all began as workers first gathered on this ground to begin the construction.”

  “The groundbreaking.”

  “Yes,” said the prophet, “the groundbreaking. The groundbreaking moment of the groundbreaking building of the groundbreaking year of the American superpower—the groundbreaking of the American age.” Then he looked at me but said nothing.

  “What?” I asked.

  “I don’t think you noticed it.”

  “Noticed what?”

  “The stones,” he said. “Look at the ston
es, Nouriel.”

  So I looked but didn’t notice anything.

  “The first stone, Nouriel. Go over to it and tell me what you see.”

  So I did. That’s when I noticed an engraving.

  “What did it say?”

  “IXXI.”

  “And what did it mean?”

  “That’s what I asked the prophet.”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Roman numerals,” he replied. “XI is ten plus one, and IX is ten minus one.”

  “I still don’t get it.”

  “It stands for a date.”

  “What date?”

  “The date on which the ground was broken, the day of the groundbreaking.”

  “What day?”

  “September 11.”

  “September 11!”

  “The ground was broken on September 11.”

  “September 11 . . . the groundbreaking day!”

  “The groundbreaking day of the groundbreaking year. They gathered to this site to begin the construction on September 11, 1941.”

  “So the Pentagon was born on September 11.

  “The foundation day,” said the prophet.

  “And so everything comes back to that day.”

  “What did the scripture say about the foundation?” he asked.

  “The wall will be broken down so that its foundation will be exposed.”

  “So it had to happen on that same day,” he said, “the breaking down of the Pentagon that the foundation would be exposed. And it wasn’t just the foundation of broken wall that was exposed—it was the day itself that was exposed, the day of the Pentagon’s foundation—9/11.

  “And what was the Pentagon to America? It was the nation’s wall, its defense and protection. So the wall was broken down and its foundation revealed.”