The Oracle

by Jonathan Cahn

  “World ruler.”

  Chapter 52

  THE STREAMS

  THE ORACLE ROSE from his seat and began walking away from the ancient house. I followed him. He led me over to the other side of the mountain’s summit, to a ledge overlooking a landscape even more vast than that which I had seen from the ruins.”

  “Over there,” he said, pointing to a distant mountain, “that’s where we first met. And there,” he said, pointing to an expanse to the mountain’s right, “beyond that valley is the garden. And there, along the ridge of that mountain, is the cave. To its right is a vast plain. On the far side of the plain is the ravine that leads to the oasis. And over there, that’s where the tent was.” He paused to let me take it all in. “Before we move forward, a question: What did you expect to find when you came here?”

  “Nothing even remotely similar to what I found . . . to what I was shown.”

  “How so?” he asked.

  “An ancient mystery that determines the course of world history . . . I never would have thought that anything like that could be possible . . . but it’s real . . . and it touches everything from kings, to presidents, empires, superpowers, down to the most minute details . . . And everything happens to happen in the exact way, at the exact place, and at the exact time. And no one’s orchestrating it, no one on earth. And those who play a part in one Jubilee are gone in the next . . . but the mystery keeps moving forward . . . ”

  “Yes,” said the Oracle. “One Jubilee prepares the way, sets the stage, and leads to the next. Take just one of its streams, the return of Jerusalem. In the Jubilee of 1867 Charles Warren begins the mapping out of the parameters of biblical Jerusalem and in the process accidentally uncovers the ancient city. In the next Jubilee Allenby liberates Jerusalem. To wage his campaign, he uses the maps of the land that were drawn up as the result of Warren’s mission in the previous Jubilee. Fifty years later Israeli soldiers enter through the gates of the Old City and Jerusalem is restored to the Jewish people. And fifty years later that return is given legal sanction and Jerusalem is recognized as Israel’s capital for the first time since ancient times.

  “Or take another stream, the return of the land. In the Jubilee of 1867 the Ottoman Empire enacts the law that begins the release of the land. In the next Jubilee the Ottomans themselves are released from the land and the land is released to the Jewish people. Fifty years later, in the Six-Day War, comes the most dramatic release of the land in Jewish history. And do you know when that release was completed?”

  “No.”

  “The day the Six-Day War came to an end—on June 10, 1967. And do you know when the release of the land began, when the Ottoman Land Code was enacted?”

  “No.”

  “On June 10, 1867, two Jubilees, exactly one hundred years, earlier . . . on the same exact day.

  “Or take another stream,” he said, “that of the political realm. At the end of the First Zionist Congress, Theodor Herzl writes that he founded the Jewish state and everyone would know it in fifty years. The United Nations finishes the plan that will bring Israel into existence fifty years later to the exact day. And on that exact day, the Jubilee of Zionism is being celebrated across the world in Basel, Switzerland.”

  “So as one Jubilean event is commemorated, the next is set in motion.”

  “Yes, and it happened more than once. In 1967 Israel planned to celebrate the Jubilee of the Balfour Declaration in 1917. But before the celebration could begin, the next Jubilean event, the Six-Day War, had begun. And in 2017 celebrations were planned to commemorate the Jubilee of Jerusalem’s return in 1967. But again, as the one Jubilean event was being celebrated, the next was being set in motion, in this case by the resolution of the United States Senate. And in that same year another Jubilee was being celebrated, Allenby’s liberation of Jerusalem from the Ottoman Empire. And on the very week of its commemoration, Jerusalem’s one-hundred-year double Jubilee, the next Jubilean event was breaking forth from the White House with the issuing of the Jerusalem Declaration. Every Jubilee is connected to every other Jubilee in ways of which we have spoken . . . and in ways of which we have not.”

  “Of which we have not? What do you mean?”

  “I’ll give you an example in just one life. The phenomenon of Jewish soldiers fighting in the land of Israel had been gone from the world since ancient times, since the days of the Roman Empire. But if what was lost is to be restored, then part of the mystery must be the return of Jewish soldiers to the land. At the beginning of the age the armies of Rome warred against the last of the Jewish soldiers, killing them or driving them out of the land and thus beginning two thousand years of foreign occupation. So what would the reverse of that be?”

  “The return of Jewish soldiers to the land and the driving out of the occupying power . . . which in modern times would be the Ottoman Empire.”

  “John Henry Patterson was born in Ireland to a Protestant father and a Catholic mother. He grew up with the Bible, reading of Israel’s ancient heroes and warriors. When he was seventeen, he joined the British Army. Before retiring from the military, he would attain the rank of lieutenant colonel. But it was the role he played in the First World War that would bring him into the mystery.

  “While stationed in Alexandria, Egypt, he met two Jewish men from Russia, Joseph Trumpeldor and Ze’ev Jabotinsky. They envisioned the creation of a Jewish fighting force. Patterson became the needed champion of that vision. Through his efforts the Zion Mule Corps, a band of Jewish fighters, was formed in 1915. The corps was disbanded shortly after fighting Ottoman forces in Gallipoli, Turkey. But Patterson’s ultimate dream was to lead Jewish soldiers back into the land of Israel, to fight for its liberation. At the swearing in of new Jewish volunteers to the corps, he implored them: ‘Pray with me that I should . . . be divinely permitted to lead you into the Promised Land.’ 1

  “His dream would come true when the British Army approved the formation of the Jewish Legion. The Jewish Legion would constitute the first Jewish band of soldiers to fight on the soil of the Promised Land since the days of the Roman Empire. And they would fight not only in the land but for the land, for its return.”

  “So when did the Jewish Legion come into existence?”

  “1917.”

  “The year of Jubilee!”

  “The Jewish Legion came into existence in the summer of 1917, the same summer in which Allenby was preparing to take the land. In the Jubilee the heir comes back to the land and the one occupying it has to depart. And if the one occupying the land refuses to leave, then the transfer must happen by force. And so it did. After nearly two thousand years, the heir, in the form of the Jewish soldier returned to the land to drive out the one occupying it, the Ottoman Empire. So in the year of Jubilee the Jewish soldier returned to his own possession.”

  “Did the Jewish Legion actually fight with Allenby’s army?”

  “By the end of the campaign, it is estimated that one out of every six soldiers in his army belonged to the Jewish Legion.”

  “And what was John Patterson’s part?”

  “He was its commander. So the first Jewish legion to enter the land of Israel since ancient times was led by an Irish Christian.

  “But Patterson would play a part in yet another central event of that Jubilee. He would bring Jabotinsky to London for a critical meeting with a member of parliament, Leo Amery. Amery would become a critical voice in the British government not only for the creation of the Jewish Legion but for the most important document in Jewish history since ancient times, the Balfour Declaration. He would be central in its passage and the penning of its words.

  “But Patterson’s role in Israel’s resurrection would go still further. Without a military force Israel would never have become a nation or remained in existence for more than a moment. His Jewish Legion would serve as the prototype and forerunner of the Israeli army. In fact Patterson would be called ‘the godfather of the Israeli army.’ 2

  “And yet his role
would extend still further. By bringing the Jewish Legion into existence, Patterson created the training ground for Israel’s founders and its first generation of leaders. Members of the Jewish Legion included Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, Israel’s second president; Yaakov Dori, first chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces; Eliyahu Golomb, architect of the Haganah, Israel’s underground defense force; and David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister and the nation’s founding father.

  “Patterson would continue to labor on behalf of Israel’s restoration for the rest of his life, which would come to its end in another critical year, 1947, on the eve of the nation’s birth, the year Israel was voted back into existence. And yet his impact would extend beyond his life. In the Jubilee of 1967 Israel’s prime minister was Levi Eshkol. Eshkol was the ultimate overseer of the Six-Day War, by which Jerusalem was regained. But Eshkol’s preparation for that war began fifty years and one Jubilee earlier, when he served as a young man as a member of Patterson’s Jewish Legion.

  “And there was yet another connection. In the days of the Second World War Patterson would befriend and partner with a young Jewish man to advocate for the creation of a Jewish army. The friendship was so deep that the man would name his firstborn son after Patterson. A year before his death Patterson would bless the new family as godfather at the child’s circumcision. The child would later become one of Israel’s revered heroes, giving his life to save Israeli hostages. His death would in turn lead his younger brother to go into public life—and later become the prime minister of Israel. The family name was Netanyahu, and the younger brother was named Benjamin. Benjamin Netanyahu would be Israel’s prime minister in the Jubilee of 2017, the year that saw the first recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel since ancient times and that marked the one-hundred-year anniversary of Patterson’s leading of the first Jewish army into the land of Israel since ancient times.”

  “I see another connection.”

  “Tell me,” said the Oracle.

  “The Jubilee of 1917 was the year that the Jewish soldier first returned to the land of Israel. Fifty years later, the Jubilee of 1967, was the year that the Jewish soldier returned to Jerusalem.”

  “Yes. Every Jubilee is connected to all the others, each fulfilling another part of the same mystery. So all these events had their origins in the Jubilee of 1917 with the unlikely soldier from Ireland. But what about his origins? When was he born?”

  I was silent, having no idea of the answer.

  “He was born,” said the Oracle, “in the year of Jubilee.”

  “In 1867?”

  “Yes, in the first Jubilee of Israel’s restoration, in the Jubilee of the stranger and the man with the measuring line and the releasing of the land. So the man who birthed all these things was himself birthed in the year of Jubilee.”

  “That would mean that 1917 was his fiftieth year.”

  “Yes. He was born in the Jubilee of 1867 to play a central role fifty years later in the Jubilee of 1917 . . . when another child would be born, Shlomo Goren, to play a central role fifty years later in the Jubilee of 1967.

  “And do you remember Eliezer Sukenik?”

  “The man who discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls on the day Israel was voted into existence.”

  “Yes. He too was a soldier in Patterson’s Jewish Legion. Sukenik had a son.”

  “Yigael Yadin, the man who unearthed Masada.”

  “Yes, and the head of operations in the war of Israel’s rebirth. Yadin was also born in the Jubilee of 1917. And when he turned fifty years old, he would likewise play a central part in the next year of Jubilee, 1967 . . . in the Six-Day War.”

  “In the meeting with the prime minister when the decision to go to war was made.”

  “Yes, and in his serving as the prime minister’s counsel throughout the war. So in each case the child of the one Jubilee ushers in the next. Everything is joined together in the mystery. Everything and everyone, even their words.”

  “Even their words . . . What does that mean?”

  “At the central moment of the Jubilee of 1967, the moment of Jerusalem’s liberation, Rabbi Goren stood with the soldiers in the Holy City and spoke the word of an ancient prophecy. It was from Isaiah: ‘“Comfort my people. Comfort them,” says the Lord your God.’ 3 The prophecy goes on, ‘Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, that her warfare is ended. . . ’ 4

  “The rabbi had no idea that fifty years earlier, at the central moment of the Jubilee of 1917, in Allenby’s liberation of Jerusalem, the word from The Book of Common Prayer appointed for that moment was the prophecy: ‘“Comfort, yes, comfort My people!” says your God. Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, that her warfare is ended. . . ’ 5

  “The morning after Rabbi Goren uttered those words would mark the first time the sun had risen on a Jerusalem under Jewish sovereignty in two thousand years. It was June 8, 1967. If you remember,” he said, “the mystery began as the steamship Quaker City set out from the harbors of New York with a young American journalist on board.”

  “Mark Twain,” I said, “the stranger.”

  “Yes, the stranger’s journey. And when did it all begin? It all began on June 8, 1867. Thus it was all set in motion one hundred years earlier on the exact same day.”

  The Oracle was silent for a few moments. Then he spoke.

  “Now,” he said, “I believe we’re ready for the sixth door.”

  “There’s something I don’t understand. 2017 was the last of the Jubilean years. It hasn’t been fifty years since then. And yet there are more doors.”

  “To each vision,” he said, “was a mystery. Each mystery in turn was the puzzle piece in a larger mystery, represented by each door. But the mystery represented by each door is part of a yet larger mystery. What lies behind the sixth door concerns that larger mystery.”

  “How could it be larger than what you’ve already shown me?”

  “The sixth door will take you behind everything you’ve seen thus far, and then beyond it . . . to where it all leads . . . to the end.”

  “So the sixth door would be different from the others.”

  “Yes, it would reveal the other Jubilees . . . Jubilees of other natures and realms . . . and where it was all heading.”

  “Where?”

  “To the end.”

  “And what exactly would you see behind the sixth door?”

  “That which is and is yet to come . . . the dark jubilee, a stained-glass woman, a Jubilee of spirit, the awakening dragon, and ultimately the return of all returns . . . the missing and final piece of the mystery.”

  THE SIXTH DOOR

  Chapter 53

  THE SIXTH DOOR

  I OPENED THE sixth door. There on the mountain was a ram of gold.”

  “Gold, as in the color or as in the metal?”

  “Both. It was as a statue of pure gold come to life. Around its neck was a golden chain with a golden pendant, on which was a symbol that matched that on the sixth door. It made its way down the mountain and through the wilderness. I followed behind. The path it took was different from that of the other rams. There was no familiar landmark. We were walking through a desert plain surrounded by hills. The ram stopped and looked to the left. I did likewise, and the visions began.”

  THE STANDARDS

  “I saw two men riding on horseback in Roman military dress and armor, a middle-aged man and a younger man. Behind them was a massive army. Behind the army was a desolate landscape of scattered fires and smoldering ruins. The two dismounted their horses and began planting a series of golden poles topped with golden eagles, Roman standards, into the ground. I didn’t realize it at first, but they were arranging the poles to form Roman numerals, an X, a V, an L, and more than one I. When they finished, they remounted their horses and led their army onward. The standards then began to sink into the earth. The land then lay desolate for what seemed to be ages. Then I noticed a change, the beginning of a slight greening. And then from out of the gr
ound where the standards had sunk came sprouts. The sprouts then became small trees, then larger trees. The trees were growing in the same formation as that of the standards and the Roman letters. And then they began to put forth leaves, fruits, and flowers.”

  THE SANDAL

  “In the next vision I found myself standing in a harbor where countless people were departing the shore in ships. I made my way inland against the flow of the multitudes fleeing the land until I came to a mountain. Multitudes more were coming down from the top of the mountain. I began ascending it against the downward flow until I reached the top. I couldn’t at first make sense of what I was seeing. Towering over a giant expanse was a structure of colossal arches, but not quite arches, giant looping structures made up of ancient stones. I walked back and forth, trying to make sense of it. And then it hit me. The stone structure I was trying to make sense of was built to resemble a colossal sandal. Standing at my side was a man in white. ‘What is it?’ I asked.

  “‘The sandal of departure,’ he said. ‘If the one departs, so must they all.’”

  THE CHURCH OF THE RABBI

  “In the next vision an angel led me to a city by a river and into a massive domed cathedral, through its ornate interior, and over to a stone table. On top of the table were bones, each one aglow with white radiance. ‘Can these bones live?’ he asked. Just then a wind blew open the cathedral’s massive doors, and the bones began moving together, connecting one to the other until a skeleton was formed. Then came muscles and skin and then garments, just as in the earlier vision. Lying on the platform was now a bearded man, who by his overall appearance could have passed for an ancient rabbi. He opened his eyes, left the table, and walked over to an olive tree that was growing in the center of the sanctuary. Several of its branches had been broken off and were lying on the floor. The man picked them up and reattached them, at which point they came alive and began putting forth leaves and olives. At that the cathedral began to transform, its interior taking on the simple and ancient appearance of hewn stone, oil lamps, and scrolls. ‘For God,’ said the bearded man, ‘is able to graft them back into their own olive tree.’”