“I decided to pull over to the side of the road, get out, and make my way to the shore. I sat down on the sand and just stared out into the ocean, discouraged. At that point, I wasn’t looking to find anything, and I was lost in a barrage of thoughts. That’s probably why it took several minutes to see it.”
“See what?”
“An island . . . an island on which stood two towers.”
“An island,” said Ana, “around which flow the waters of the pure. An island. Of course.”
“It was called Thacher Island. Its history went back to the time of the Puritans.”
“And what were the two towers?”
“Lighthouses, two old stone lighthouses.”
“So what did you do?”
“Somehow I had to go there. I booked a room for the night in a nearby hotel, and the next day, rented a kayak.”
“A kayak?”
“Yes, that’s how you go there, three miles of kayaking. By the time I reached the island, I was exhausted.”
“And what did you find?”
“Walking trails . . . one of which I took. When I came to its end, I saw a lighthouse. And just beyond the lighthouse, over a ridge of rocks toward the ocean, stood a man. I couldn’t see his face because he was turned away, facing the water. He had on a long dark coat. I slowly approached him. I was about fifteen feet away from him when he turned around.”
“Don’t tell me it was the . . . ”
“If I don’t tell you the story, I can’t give you the revelation.”
“Don’t tell me it was him.”
“It was him.”
“The prophet!”
“Yes.”
“It wasn’t a dream?”
“It was as real as my sitting here with you right now.”
“But the little girl,” said Ana, “she told you he would come as he did before. He came to you before in a dream.”
“She told me he would come as he did before, which was to be in a way I didn’t expect. The first time she said that, I didn’t expect him to come in a dream. So that’s how he came. But this time, I expected he would come in a dream. But instead he came in flesh-and-blood reality. And so he came to me as before, in a way I didn’t expect.”
“But at the end of your first encounters, didn’t he say you would never see him again.”
“He told me I wouldn’t see him again unless the Lord should deem it otherwise.”
“Then . . . ”
“The Lord deemed it otherwise.”
“So what happened?”
“He looked much the same as I remembered him and as I saw him in my dreams.”
“Nouriel!” he said, “how good to see you again!”
I didn’t know what to say. It was jarring. I hadn’t seen him for years, and yet now I was getting used to seeing him in my dreams. But there he was, standing in front of me, in flesh-and-blood reality. It was disorienting. For a moment I wondered if it was a dream.
“Well,” I replied, “I happened to be in the neighborhood.”
“There’s no neighborhood,” he replied. “And, of course, you didn’t happen to be here. This is where you had to be.”
“You knew I was coming,” I said, “and so you were here in the exact place at the exact time—just like old times. You were here because I was coming.”
“No,” said the prophet. “You were coming because I was here.”
“I never understood how he did it, how he was always there in the exact place at the exact time. Our encounters were always like that.”
“He’s a prophet,” said Ana. “What do you expect?”
“So you’ve fulfilled the charge given you?”
“Through a book.”
“And they haven’t returned?”
“No,” I replied. “You asked me the same thing in my dream. Was it you? Were you actually there in my dream?”
“Does it make a difference?” he replied.
“And that’s what you said in the dream.”
“There was a little girl,” he said. “She told you I would return. What did she say?”
“That there would be another revelation.”
“And so it begins.”
“And you’ve returned because . . . ”
“The mystery hasn’t stopped . . . and the harbingers haven’t stopped manifesting.”
“That’s what she told me. But why here? Why on this island?”
“It is here,” he said, “that you’ll find the mystery behind the things you’ve seen and what is yet to be shown you. It’s not the island, Nouriel. It’s where the island is.
“Come,” he said, motioning me to follow him. He led me over to the lighthouse. We walked through its entranceway and ascended its spiral staircase. We then stepped outside onto a lookout porch that encircled the tower just under the lantern room. Before us was a vast panorama in every direction. The prophet directed me to one specific direction—south.
“Do you know what you’re looking at?” he asked.
“The Massachusetts Bay.”
“You’re looking at the beginning. It was here that much of American civilization began. It was into these waters that the Mayflower sailed.”
“To Plymouth.”
“Yes. And it was on these shores that they laid the foundation stone.”
When he said that, it triggered my remembrance of the dream.
“The foundation stone . . . that’s what I saw in my dream, a man carrying a foundation stone up a mountain.”
“Tell me your dream,” he said. So I did.
“So what does it mean?” I asked.
“The man in your dream was John Winthrop.”
“The name is familiar.”
“It’s been said that if George Washington could be called the father of his country, John Winthrop could be called the grandfather. Winthrop was a Puritan who led the first massive wave of immigrants from England to America. He sailed through these waters on a ship called the Arbella. Soon after arriving here, he was made governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He would be central in building the colony into a major settlement. And what he built would become central in the establishment of what we now know as America.”
“So in my dream, he was laying the foundation stone of America.”
“Yes, but it was more than what he did on these shores. It was what he began before he ever set foot here.”
“Which was what?”
“He wrote down a message and shared it with the passengers of the Arbella, those who would pioneer the new commonwealth. It was his vision of what that commonwealth was to be and become. It was the vision for what would become America.”
“Did he realize what it would become?”
“Not that it would become the United States, but what it was to become as a civilization. Do you have the seal that was given to you by the little girl?”
“Yes.” I reached into my pocket and gave it to him.
“Winthrop’s vision spoke of a new commonwealth coming into the world for the will and purposes of God . . . a unique civilization, to which all the nations of the world would look. It was from this vision that the most enduring symbol of American civilization was given. He said this:
For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us.1
“The new civilization was to be a city on a hill.”
“That was my dream—it was a city on a hill.”
“And on the seal,” he said, “the city was America. The foundation stone was its planting, the vision. From that foundation stone rose the city. From that vision, from Winthrop’s planting, came America.”
“Why a city on a hill?”
“The image comes from the Bible.2 It speaks of that which is lifted up as an example. So America was to be lifted up among the nations and was to become an exemplary civilization, a model, a nation that others would seek to emulate, a civilization called to give light to the world.”
“The city
in my dream was filled with light, radiant.”
“There was another civilization called to give light to the world: Israel. And so Winthrop’s vision overflowed with references to the Scriptures and to ancient Israel. American civilization was founded and patterned after ancient Israel. One would be hard-pressed to find any other civilization so strongly bound to ancient Israel from its foundation.”
“The writing on the stone that I couldn’t decipher . . . it had to be Hebrew.”
“Yes,” said the prophet, “as the foundation stone of American civilization . . . is Hebrew. And the connection goes further. Israel had entered into a covenant with God. Thus it is the covenant nation. So at the founding of America, Winthrop would write,
Thus stands the cause between God and us. We are entered into covenant with Him for this work.”3
“What does that mean?”
“The Bible records that God made a covenant with Israel. The case of America is different. But we do know that America’s founders made a covenant with God, based on Israel’s covenant with God.”
“Which means . . . ?”
“That inasmuch as they followed in the paths of righteousness and kept the ways of God, the blessings of heaven would fill their land. So Winthrop’s vision prophesied what would happen to the new civilization if it followed in those paths:
The Lord will be our God, and delight to dwell among us, as His own people, and will command a blessing upon us in all our ways, so that we shall see much more of His wisdom, power, goodness and truth.4
“His vision followed the promises and prophecies of blessing given to ancient Israel. And it would become even more specific:
We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies.”5
“It sounds like the words of Moses.”
“Yes. In fact, it comes from the words that Moses gave just before Israel entered the Promised Land. So now Winthrop gave the same prophecies to the pioneers of the new commonwealth just before they entered the New World.”
“So embedded in America’s foundation was a prophecy of its future . . . and its course was joined to ancient Israel from the beginning.”
“Yes, and the prophecy given to America at its beginning would come true. It would be lifted up among the nations. It would be blessed in all its ways until it became the most prosperous, powerful, exalted, and emulated nation on earth.”
“But that wasn’t the end of my dream.”
“No,” said the prophet. “Nor was it the end of Winthrop’s prophecy. There are many who have spoken of his vision of America as a city on a hill . . . but almost no one mentions that which came after.”
“Which was what?”
“A warning... a prophetic warning . . . beginning with the words
If we shall deal falsely with our God . . . ”6
“What does that mean, to deal falsely with God?”
“The prophecy goes on to explain it:
But if our hearts shall turn away . . . 7
“The warning is for an America that turns its heart away from God and rejects His ways:
. . . so that we will not obey . . . 8
“The prophecy goes on:
. . . but shall be seduced, and worship other Gods . . . and serve them.”9
“What other gods?” I asked.
“Gods of its own making,” said the prophet. “American gods and American idols. The prophecy identifies them as
. . . our pleasure . . . 10
“It warns an America that turns away from God to the gods of pleasure, sensualities, carnalities, self-gratifications, lusts . . . and to another kind of god:
. . . and profits . . . 11
“An America that has turned from God to serve the gods of profit, increase, gain, and material possessions.”
“It sounds as if that part of the prophecy has also come true.”
“And that too was based on ancient Israel. As America was founded after the pattern of ancient Israel and blessed after the pattern of Israel’s blessings, so too if it fell away from God, it would do so after the pattern of Israel’s fall . . . and so it did. As Israel fell away from God, it embraced a culture of carnality and sexual immorality.”
“And so too did America.”
“And as Israel, in its fall, it began to offer up its own children as sacrifices.”
“So too America has offered up the lives of its unborn children.”
“And as Israel then began to war against the ways of God and those who remained faithful to them . . . ”
“So too has America.”
“And it was all foretold in Winthrop’s warning and prophecy.”
“And the city in my dream was darkened and lost its radiance, and its walls were covered with graffiti, vulgarities, profanities, and obscenities. And then when the man returned, he grieved over what the city had become. And they removed the foundation stone.”
“So too,” said the prophet, “America, the city on the hill, has removed the stone on which it was founded.”
“At the end of my dream, the man asked, ‘What will become of them?’ Did Winthrop speak of what would happen?”
“He did. He wrote this:
So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world.12
“And again,
We shall surely perish.13
“The words came, again, from the prophecy given to Israel of the judgments that would come with the nation’s departure from God. Do you understand what this means, Nouriel?”
“Tell me.”
“To the civilization that was founded after the pattern of ancient Israel, blessed after the pattern of Israel’s blessings, and fallen after the pattern of Israel’s fall . . . will come judgment after the pattern of the judgment that came to ancient Israel. That’s the mystery behind it.”
“Behind what?”
“What happened to America, the lifting up of the hedge, the shaking, the coming of the enemy to the gate, the striking of the towers, and the breaching of the wall. All those things were the judgments of Israel. That’s why everything came together the way it did, so that the day of the breaking down would be the day of the building up. That’s why the word appointed for the days of America’s calamity was the same word that prophesied the days of Israel’s calamity. That’s why the enemy came in like an eagle swooping down . . . and that’s why the trumpets of Israel were sounding. It all came as it had come in ancient times.”
He gave me time to stand there on the porch of the lighthouse to take in what he had told me. Then he led me back inside, down the spiral staircase, out the door, and over to the rocks where he was standing when I first saw him. And there, overlooking the ocean, we sat down.
“It was all there,” he said, “from the very beginning, in the prophecy given at the birth of American civilization, the mystery that joined it to ancient Israel, in its blessings, in its falling, and in that which would come upon it. It lies behind everything you’ve been shown . . . ”
“Even the harbingers,” I said.
“Yes,” said the prophet, “especially the harbingers. And it is to that that we must now go in order to open up the mystery.”
“The mystery of what?”
“Of that which came after 9/11,” he replied, “that which has manifested up to this moment . . . the mystery of that which came after.”
Chapter 17
The Harbingers
THAT’S THE SAME thing the little girl used when she told me I would be given another revelation.”
“What?” he asked.
“That which came after.”
“What else did she tell you?”
“That the mystery never stopped . . . that it’s continued.”
“Yes,” he replied. “It has continued to manifest.”
“How?”
“In
order for that to be revealed,” he replied, “we must first lay the foundation. We must return to the mystery of the harbingers. Do you remember what they were?”
“I should,” I replied, “since I wrote about them.”
“Then you’ll be the one to lay the foundation,” he said. “So tell me, Nouriel, the mystery of the harbingers.”
“Tell you what you revealed to me?”
“Yes.”
“All of it?”
“In the time we have,” he replied, “that wouldn’t be possible. But in a nutshell, lay the foundation. Tell me of the nine harbingers.”
So I began telling him the revelation he had, years earlier, given to me.
“In the last days of ancient Israel, nine harbingers appeared in the land, warning of national calamity and coming destruction. . . . The same harbingers of warning, the same nine signs of a nation under judgment, have now manifested on American soil. Some have appeared in New York City and Washington, DC, and some have involved American leaders. They’ve all reappeared, all nine of them, and in precise and eerie detail. And those involved in their reappearing had no idea of the mystery or their part in fulfilling it. And yet it all replayed on American soil, warning of national calamity and judgment.”
“And what was the first harbinger of the nine harbingers to manifest in ancient Israel?”
“The breach,” I replied. “It happened in the year 732 BC, when Israel’s hedge of protection was lifted. An enemy was allowed to strike the land. The strike brought destruction, a destruction that was limited in its scope and duration. But it was enough to shake the nation. It was the wake-up call to a civilization that had grown so hardened and deafened to the call of God that nothing else would get through to it. It was a warning and a call to return.”
The Harbinger II Page 11