The Harbinger II

by Jonathan Cahn

  Chapter 30

  The Return

  LET’S GO SOMEWHERE,” said Ana.

  “Where?”

  “I don’t know; I just need to get out. I need some fresh air and space.”

  “It’s nighttime,” said Nouriel, “and we’re in the middle of a plague. Virtually nothing is open, even if it wasn’t nighttime. And I don’t know how you feel about continuing this with masks on.”

  “I know a place,” she said, “where it won’t matter. My mother used to take me there when I was little, Brighton Beach. Let’s go there, Nouriel. It’s a nice night, and I doubt we’ll find anybody there at this hour. I can get us a ride.”

  So she called for a driver. He took them down to Battery Park, through the tunnel to Brooklyn, and, from there, to Brighton Beach, where he let them out by the boardwalk. They made their way toward the shore, sitting down on the sand about thirty feet away from the water. In the darkness, they could hear the sound of the ocean more than they could see it. And, as Ana had thought, there was no one else there.

  “So what happened,” she asked, “after your time with the prophet in Times Square?”

  “I took a few days to process what he told me there. Finally, I went back to the drawer, took out the seal and the magnifying glass, and began examining the next clue. It didn’t take long for me to realize what it was.”

  “What was it?”

  “An upright rectangle with something of a crown or spikes on its top.”

  “It sounds familiar.”

  “Yes,” said Nouriel. “I had seen it before. It was on one of the seals the prophet had given me in our first encounters. So I knew what it meant and exactly where I had to go.”

  “Where?”

  “To a place I had been to before—one of the most significant places in the mystery . . . St. Paul’s Chapel.

  “So I took a taxi down to Lower Manhattan. I got out in front of the chapel. I was standing there on the sidewalk when I heard his voice.”

  “You’ve asked me if the future was sealed,” he said, “if there was any hope for America, any way out of judgment. It was the day I first led you here that we spoke of that very thing . . . of hope.”

  “Yes,” I replied, “but that was then. There was more time then. And this is the window in the template that’s given for a nation to turn back. But the nation hasn’t turned back, only further away. And everything you’ve shown me speaks of a nation racing to judgment.”

  “Tell me, Nouriel, of the mystery ground.”

  “It’s in the book,” I replied.

  “I know, but tell me.”

  “Israel’s most holy ground was that of the Temple Mount. It was there that its leaders gathered together with the people to consecrate the Temple to God. And it was there that King Solomon and the people prayed and committed the nation’s future to God. But Israel would fall away from God, and after many warnings, shakings, and calamities, the judgment would come. The enemy would bring destruction to the Temple Mount, the nation’s consecration ground, and leave it in ruins. The destruction of that sacred ground was a sign. The nation’s ground of consecration, where it had been dedicated to God in prayer, had now become the ground of judgment. The nation’s consecration ground became the ground of destruction.”

  “And what does that have to do with America?” he asked.

  “America’s first day as a fully constituted nation was April 30, 1789, the inaugural day of its first president, George Washington. After Washington was sworn into office, he led America’s first government on foot to the place appointed for the new governments to perform its first official act—to pray and dedicate the nation’s future to God. So on April 30, 1789, America’s first government committed and consecrated the nation’s future to God. The place on which they lifted up those prayers is the nation’s ground of consecration.”

  “And it was in the nation’s capital,” said the prophet. “And what was America’s first capital?”

  “New York City.”

  “And where in New York City did they lift up those prayers?”

  “In Lower Manhattan.”

  “And so America’s consecration ground is . . . ”

  “Ground Zero.”

  “And thus,” said the prophet, “on 9/11 the ancient mystery was fulfilled—the destruction returned to the nation’s ground of consecration.”

  “The ground on which America was dedicated to God became the ground of its devastation; the nation’s consecration ground became the ground of destruction—Ground Zero.”

  “And it still stands,” he said, “the little stone chapel in which Washington and the nation’s first government dedicated America to God—St. Paul’s Chapel, in the back of which is Ground Zero. Nouriel, I don’t believe you’ve ever been inside. Why don’t we go in?”

  “It must be closed. Everything in the city is closed because of the crisis.”

  “But we can go inside.”

  He led me to the front door, which, to my surprise, he opened, and led me in.

  “How do you manage to get access to everything?” I asked. “Some sort of occupational perk that comes with being a prophet?”

  “A trade secret,” he replied.

  There was no one there, just the two of us. It didn’t look as I had expected it to. It was hard to say exactly what I expected it to look like, but it was bright and airy, with white columns and glass chandeliers, and full of light streaming in from its windows.

  “It was here on its inaugural day as a nation that America was consecrated to God. It was here that its first president and Congress prayed.”

  He led me over to an oil painting hanging on one of the walls.

  “What does it look like?”

  It was of a bird with branches and arrows in its talons and a shield of stars and stripes over its breast.

  “What does it remind you of?” he asked.

  “The Great Seal of the United States. Only it looks more like a turkey than an eagle.”

  “That tells you how old it is. It was there from the beginning, before the bald eagle, one of the earliest of symbols to represent the United States, and it’s been housed here on the corner of Ground Zero. Come,” he said, now leading me to the front of the chapel, where a strange-looking sculpted piece rested against the chapel’s central window. It was almost as if the entire building centered on that one object.

  “It’s called the Glory Altarpiece,” he said. “It was created by the same man who designed Washington, DC.”

  At the bottom of the piece were the two tablets of the Ten Commandments. Above the tablets were rays, as if coming down from the sky, a sky of clouds, in the middle of which was what looked like a sun or radiant light . . . in the middle of which were four Hebrew letters.

  “Do you know what it says, Nouriel?”

  “Something significant?”

  “I would say so. It’s the tetragrammaton, the four letters that make up the Name of God. It’s not only a depiction of the Ten Commandments but of the day the tablets were given and all that surrounded its giving . . . the glory, the clouds, the rays, and the Name of God. It’s all the more striking in light of what happened here.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Do you know how many people perished on September 11?”

  “About three thousand.”

  “As the Ten Commandments were being given on Sinai, the people of Israel turned away from God and worshipped a golden calf . . . the first instance of the nation falling away from God. It is recorded that the number of people who perished because of that was about three thousand1—the same that perished on 9/11. The perishing of the three thousand is linked to this object.”

  “And it was here in this building at the corner of Ground Zero . . . ”

  “As its centerpiece,” he said, “for centuries. Come, Nouriel, let’s go outside.” He led me through the chapel’s back door.

  Once outside, I immediately recognized my surroundings. We were standing inside t
he chapel’s courtyard, or graveyard. Enclosing it was the wrought iron fence through which I had looked in search of the Tree of Hope.

  “The ground of the harbingers,” he said. “Over there is where the Sycamore of Ground Zero was struck down and the Tree of Hope planted in its place . . . and where it withered away and was destroyed. And there, just beyond the fence, is the tower of Ground Zero . . . America’s ground of consecration. Do you know what happened to Israel’s ground of consecration?”

  “The Temple Mount, after its destruction? Tell me.”

  “When the people came back to God, they returned to that ground. There they rededicated themselves to His purposes and were restored. The calamity of 9/11 turned the nation back to the ground on which it had been consecrated to God in prayer. God was calling America back to its ground of consecration and prayer. He was calling the nation to return. And people came here from around the nation and posted messages and prayers all over the gate of this ground. They were drawn here without fully knowing why.”

  “But even as the nation’s eyes were turned back to this place,” I said, “there was no turning back to God. And yet it was on the same day that America was dedicated to God on this ground that it was given a prophetic warning.”

  “Yes,” said the prophet, “in Washington’s inaugural address—that the blessings of God could never remain ‘on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained.’”2

  “Yes. And from the time you first charged me to give warning until now, America has not only disregarded God’s eternal rules of order and right but mocked them, broken them, and celebrated their breaking. It’s not only disregarded them; it’s warred against them.”

  “Yes, all those things are true. But do you not believe that His mercy is greater still, greater than all those things? Never forget, Nouriel, that the ending of darkness and the judgment of evil are what is required of the good, but compassion, forgiveness, mercy, salvation, healing, and restoration are the heart of good, the heart of God.”

  “But if, in the window of time given to America to return, America has turned all the more away, then . . . ”

  “Then perhaps it is all the more urgent now. You know that such things as repentance and revival often come only through shaking. And what has now come upon America . . . but a shaking? His voice still calls.”

  “Then perhaps His voice has to become louder.”

  “Do you remember the parasha, the ancient word appointed to be read just before the events of 9/11 began?”

  “The calamities that come on the nation that turns away from God, the striking of the land, the invasion of the nation’s enemies, the attack of its gates, the swooping eagle . . . ”

  “That was the scripture appointed to usher in the week of 9/11. But there was another scripture appointed to close the week of 9/11. Do you know what it was? It was a word to the nation on which calamity had fallen, a word appointed for the aftermath. It was this:

  Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse . . . and you return to the LORD your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul. . . .The LORD your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand . . . and in the produce of your land for good. . . . if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.3

  “So as the week in which America was traumatized by the calamity of 9/11 came to its end, the word appointed for that moment was God’s message to a nation traumatized by calamity. And what was that message? It was God calling that nation to return . . . and the promise that if they did return, He would restore them.” that had turned away from His ways, that had fallen, that had suffered catastrophe . . . and now God was calling it to return. And if the people returned, He would restore them.”

  “Return,” I said. “In our first encounters, you focused on that word.”

  “And it was all there,” he replied, “in the appointed scripture that followed 9/11. Behind the word return or turn is the Hebrew word shuv. It also means to repent.”

  “Repentance, the one thing missing after 9/11. America never returned because America never repented.”

  “Yes, and without repentance, there can be no return. And without return, there can be no revival and no restoration.”

  We walked slowly along the courtyard path, through the grass and the aged gravestones and under the trees that had not yet blossomed.

  “Do you remember the scripture,” he said, “that was joined to the ground of consecration, the word God gave Solomon to answer the prayers he had prayed at the dedication of the Temple?”

  “Yes, the word appointed for the nation that had turned from God and suffered calamity, the calling to a fallen and wounded nation:

  If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”4

  “It’s the scripture of return,” he said. “And it is now all the more critical. If there is to be national revival, healing, and restoration, then it must come this way, through humbling, through prayer, through the seeking of God’s presence, through the turning away from sin, from all that wars against the will of God, through repentance and return. And the promise is that if this is done, God will hear that nation’s prayers, forgive its sins, and heal its land.”

  “It hasn’t yet come.”

  “Do you know what leads up to that specific verse and promise?”

  “No.”

  “The verse before it. And do you know what that verse says?”

  “No.”

  “It says this:

  When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves . . . 5

  “The last thing, the last event specified before that promise is the coming of a pestilence on the land, a plague, a pandemic.”

  “The virus . . . ”

  “What leads up to the humbling, the praying, the seeking, the repentance, and the healing of the land . . . is a plague.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Because shaking is often the only thing that wakes us up and causes us to turn back to God . . . not only for individuals but for nations and civilizations, especially those who have deafened their ears to His voice.”

  “The scripture also talks about locusts. I understand about the plague, the pandemic . . . but locusts? How would that apply to the modern world?”

  “Do you know what year it is, Nouriel?”

  “Aside from its number?”

  “It’s the year of the locusts.”

  “What?”

  “A plague of locusts, hundreds of billions of locusts descending on the world, so massive that the United Nations called it a plague ‘of biblical proportions.’”6

  “Which plague came first?”

  “First came the locusts and then the pestilence, two plagues of biblical proportions striking the world . . . the two plagues specifically mentioned in that verse leading up to ‘If My people . . .’

  “And the shutting up of the heavens?”

  “That would be a drought or famine.”

  “Any sign of that?”

  “In the year of the two plagues came reports of another, a mega drought, the most prolonged in centuries. At the same time, the United Nations sounded the alarm of a looming global famine, again of ‘biblical proportions.’7 And along with the scarcity of food, a drought or famine is marked by the withering of a nation’s economy. The year of the plagues saw that as well. And yet that verse, 2 Chronicles 7:13, requires only one of the three. Thus we have more than enough.”

  “I had no idea . . . ”

  “But it was there in your book. First you wrote of the shaking that would come to America. Then you wrote of the temp
late of years, nineteen years and thus to the year 2020. And then, after those things, you wrote of the promise in 2 Chronicles 7, ‘if my people. . . ’—the promise that follows the time of plague and locusts. And all these things have now converged at the same moment.”

  “But it was you who said all those things.”

  “But you wrote them down for others to see.”

  “So what does it all point to?”

  “The harbingers warn of coming judgment. They cry out that now is the time . . . and there may not be another. If there’s going to be a return, a turning to God in prayer and humbling and seeking and repentance, now is the time.”

  “And He would still hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land, even now?”

  “Even with all that’s been done against Him, even now . . . even to a nation and all who have warred against Him . . . His arms are open, and His heart longs to have mercy . . . to all who will come.”

  “And judgment?”

  “The necessity remains. And without a return, it must come. And, thus again, the time is critical . . . and the hour, late.”

  “So then, what is it that lies ahead? Calamity and judgment or revival and restoration?”

  “If America does not return, it will pass the point of no return. And America’s light will be removed. But if it will return, then calamity may be averted, and revival may come. And yet, again, remember as well that it is through calamity, crises, and hard times that often come repentance, return, and revival. And so if these things must come, it is because they must and He must, in mercy, allow them that salvation might also come, that those who would, might return.”

  “How?” I asked. “How would America return? How would it happen if it could happen?”

  “It already has,” he replied.

  “What do you mean?”

  “The next time you see me, Nouriel, you will be shown the secret things, without which America as you know it would have ceased to exist.”

  Chapter 31

  The Winds of April

  AS SOON AS I got home, I took out the magnifying glass and began to study the next image on the seal.”