I took out the seal and gazed at it. It was then that I finally understood.
“The curved lines around the letters,” I said, “they represent water.”
“Yes.”
“It’s an island. The Tophet of the seal is an island.”
“Yes.”
“Tophet . . . is New York City.”
He didn’t say a word. He didn’t disagree but appeared to change the subject.
“The meaning of towers,” he said, “what did we say it was?”
“A tower stands as a symbol or embodiment of the nation or kingdom that erects it, a monument to its power and glory.”
“Yes,” he replied, “and often to its pride and arrogance . . . to its sin. So the World Trade Center stood as the embodiment of America and a monument to its glory and power. But it also stood as the embodiment of its sin and a monument to its darkness.”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you know when the rising of the first tower was completed?”
“No.”
“In 1970 . . . the same year that abortion on demand as a universal right was voted into law. And in what state did those towers rise?”
“New York State.”
“The same state that passed that law. And in what city?”
“In New York City.”
“In the abortion capital of America. The towers crowned that capital. And the same hand that signed the paper to begin the rise of those towers—the same hand signed the paper that began the killing of children on demand.
“And do you know what year it was when both towers were completed?”
“No.”
“1973, the same year that the darkness reached its completion—when the killing of the unborn became the law of the land. So it all came together—the towers and the darkness; the two were joined together from the beginning, the one marking the other.
“The prophet Jeremiah spoke of ‘the high places of Tophet.’4 So it was in Tophet that they built the high places. And if New York City is the Tophet of America, then it must also be where the high places are built.”
“The Twin Towers,” I said, “the World Trade Center, the high places of America—the high places of Tophet.”
“And as the high places of Tophet marked the place where the nation killed its children, so the Twin Towers marked the place where America killed its children, and the time when the killing began.”
“I just thought of something,” I said. “On the high places of Tophet, they would have had images of the gods that they sacrificed to.”
“Yes.”
“So it was on the high places of New York City that the image of a god appeared, the image, Kali, the goddess of death, dripping blood . . . over America’s city of death.”
“Come,” he said as he resumed guiding me through the building.
“Do you know, Nouriel, the place where the Twin Towers began?”
“No.”
“Here,” he said, “in this house, in the house of faces. It began in the same house that began the killing of the children. The two began not only at the same time but in the same place, the same house.”
“So this house was linked to the harbingers from the beginning.”
“Yes,” said the prophet, “and to the end.”
“What do you mean?”
“Nearly half a century after New York led America into the ancient sin, it led the nation again . . . into a still deeper darkness.”
“How?”
“The governor of New York demanded that the state legislature pass a law to exceed the law that had been passed in 1970, a law that would expand the practice of abortion in every direction. Despite the denials that were issued in response to the resulting controversy, the law legalized the killing of children up to the point of birth. The line between the two ancient acts, abortion and infanticide, began to disappear.”
It was then that he led me into one of the building’s legislative chambers.
“It was here,” said the prophet. “It was here in this chamber where they passed that law. And do you know what they did here when that law was passed?”
“No.”
“They cheered,” he said. “They stood up and cheered . . . just as they did in ancient times. And do you know what day it was that they passed it?”
“No.”
“It was January 22, the same day on which the Supreme Court made it legal to kill unborn children across the land half a century earlier. So New York passed a still more bloody and gruesome law on the same day in celebration. And immediately after the law was passed, other states began attempting to do likewise, to expand the amount of blood to be shed. Once again, New York had led the nation into the darkness.”
“It’s a sign,” I said.
“What do you mean?”
“A sign of deepening. It hasn’t turned around. It hasn’t stayed the same. It’s all deepening. America’s fall is deepening and darkening.”
“Yes,” said the prophet, “and it’s all following the template.”
“How?”
“When Jeremiah prophesied against his nation for the blood of the children it had shed, the hour was late. The prophecy was given on the eve of the nation’s destruction. One of the signs that precedes a nation’s judgment is not only that it partakes in the murder of its children but that it does so brazenly, even with joy—even to the point of celebration. It’s a harbinger of calamity. It means the hour is late.”
“And it’s all replaying itself . . . in America.”
“Yes,” said the prophet, “and speaking of signs . . . we saw the connection between the high places of Tophet and the killing of Israel’s children . . . and the high place of New York, the Twin Towers, and the beginning of abortion.”
“Yes.”
“So it was on the day that New York passed its gruesome law that the mystery continued—and was once again joined to the tower.”
“What do you mean?”
“On that day, the governor of New York ordered the tower at Ground Zero to be set ablaze with light in celebration of the act.”
“He lit up the harbinger?”
“The harbinger of a nation’s pride and rebellion against God was now bathed in the light of its sin. The tower whose top touched heaven and was crowned with the words of defiance was now lit up; the harbinger was illuminated. And this, in and of itself, was yet another sign and prophetic warning.”
“In what kind of light did they light it up?”
“Pink light.”
“Pink?”
“The color they associated with women—but a color also linked to babies.”
“They should have lit it up in blood red.”
“So on the anniversary of the day that America began killing its children, and the day that its sin grew even darker, the harbinger was illuminated, the high place of Tophet lit up for the world to see.”
“It’s all so . . . ”
“What?”
“Demonic . . . I can’t think of another word to describe . . . Offering up your children as sacrifices? Killing millions and then celebrating it. It’s all demonic.”
“It is demonic,” he said, “just as what drove Israel to do such things could only be described as demonic. So too with regard to America.”
He led me down a dark corridor, came to a stop, and pointed upward.
“Tell me, Nouriel, what do you see?”
I had to use the light of my cell phone to make it out.
“It looks . . . ”
“What?” he asked.
“Like . . . a demon. What is it?”
It was the face of a creature lurking in the shadows of an opening in the stone. It would have been more at home in a horror movie than in a house of legislation.
“Do you know what it’s called?”
“No.”
“The demon. It’s also known as the devil. It’s the hidden face of the house of faces.”
“Let’s get out of here,” I
said. I didn’t want to stay in that place another minute. We left through the same door through which we had entered. When we were a good distance away, I stopped and turned around. The prophet did as well.
“I have a question.”
“Ask.”
“Jeremiah was not only condemning the nation’s murder of its children; he was prophesying judgment. He was foretelling the calamity and death that would come to Tophet and the nation. . . . So does this all mean that calamity and death will come to Tophet, to New York City . . . and America?”
“If,” said the prophet, “by the cries of thousands, judgment came to Tophet . . . then what will come by the cries of millions?”
Ana looked shaken as she sat on the bench and gazed blankly into the trees on the other side of the walking path.
“It’s getting dark,” said Nouriel. “Do you want to go back?”
“No,” she answered without turning her gaze. “Go on.”
I was expecting the prophet to ask me for the seal and to give me another, but he didn’t.
“We’re coming to the end. Tomorrow,” he said, “we’ll meet at the place where it began, where we first met. I’ll see you there midafternoon.”
“When it came to advance knowledge of our encounters, that was about as specific as it ever got. It was enough for me to know where I had to go.”
“Where?”
“At the bench, by the river, where it all began. There was one more thing he had to show me.”
Chapter 26
The Convergence
I ARRIVED AT THE bench just before three o’clock. That’s what I took midafternoon to mean. I sat down and waited. And it wasn’t long before he came and joined me on the bench.
“The little girl who told you I would come—what was it that she said you were to be shown?”
“That which came after.”
“And what did you think she meant?”
“The continued manifestations of signs and harbingers, that which came after our first encounters.”
“And so you’ve been shown. And what do you think?”
“It’s a lot to take in. And I find these even more ominous and scary than what I was shown in our first encounters, years ago.”
“And she said you would be shown that which manifested up until when?”
“Up to the present.”
“And what you’ve been shown has taken up to this last year. So it would appear that we’ve come to an end.”
He was quiet. But I didn’t believe he was finished. So I kept silent as well, waiting for him to break the silence.
“But I do have something to share with you,” he said. “A secret from the beginning, as we bring things full circle. I told you of the scrolls that are opened up each week by the children of Israel and the words appointed to be read on each Sabbath day, the parashas. But what if there were a series of appointed words with regard to America?”
“What do you mean?”
“A calendar of ordained readings appointed for specific days.”
“Parashas for America?”
“In a sense. Not that the words were appointed to be read only in America, but rather that they were released in America and would be read by more people in this land than in any other.”
“What if . . . ”
“It exists,” he said.
“How so?”
“In the form of what is known as The One Year Bible, a Bible that originated in America and is made up of appointed scriptures, each one ordained to be read on a specific day of the year. So for every date of the year is an appointed passage or passages of Scripture.”
“Like the scrolls of the synagogue.”
That’s when he reached into his coat pocket and took out the book.
“The One Year Bible,” he said, “another form of the parashas.”
He opened it up, flipped through its pages, found what he was looking for, and handed it to me.
“Read it out loud, Nouriel,” he said, pointing to the passage he wanted me to recite.
So I read it.
“The Lord sent a word against Jacob, and it has fallen on Israel. All the people will know—Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria—who say in pride and arrogance of heart: ‘The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with hewn stones; the sycamores are cut down, but we will replace them with cedars.’1
“It’s the vow,” I said, “Isaiah 9:10.”
“The words that identify the beginning of a nation’s judgment,” he said, “which speak of a calamity that strikes a nation in the form of an attack.
“Now, look on the top of the page. You’ll find a date. It’s the date for which this word was appointed. Tell me what it says. Tell me the date.”
“September 11!”
“9/11.”
“This was the word appointed for 9/11! The Bible itself marked the exact date when America’s progression of judgment was to begin?”
“The exact date,” said the prophet. “It was to fall on September 11. Thus the day when the enemy strikes the land is identified as 9/11. It was all there. America would be struck by its enemy on September 11.”
“That’s beyond real!”
“And yet it is real. It was all there.”
“And The One Year Bible is read all over America.”
“Yes. Do you realize what this means? It means that all over America believers have been opening up their Bibles to this scripture, which speaks of the enemy striking the land—every year on September 11.”
“The people who put this Bible together—how could they have known? Did they know the mystery? . . . Did they know about the harbingers?”
“They had no idea. They simply appointed the beginning of the Hebrew scriptures for the beginning of the year, Genesis 1:1, the first verse of the Bible, for the first day of the year, January 1. And the end of the Hebrew scriptures was appointed for the end of the year, Malachi 4 for the last day of the year, December 31. Going by that basic and fundamental algorithm, it ended up that Isaiah 9:10 was the appointed scripture for September 11 . . . another manifestation of the dynamic working through the mystery, the convergence of all things to the exact time and place.”
“So for that to happen, the Bible had to be the length it was and had to contain the number of words that it did so it would all end up converging on that particular day.”
“He weaves all things, all events and realities together.”
“When did The One Year Bible come out?”
“Before 9/11.”
“So then it revealed the date of when it would happen before it happened.”
“Yes. In fact, it revealed the date as far back as 1985 when it first came out. And every September 11 since then, believers were opening up their Bibles to that scripture, of the enemy coming to the land to bring destruction. Not only did it reveal the attack but that which would take place on that day—the bricks would fall, buildings would collapse—and it would be connected to and appointed for the date of September 11.”
“And the tree,” I said. “It spoke of the sycamore tree being struck down and connected it to September 11, the day the sycamore was struck down.”
“Yes, all those things were marked for September 11. And then it happened. On the morning of September 11, believers all over America opened up their Bibles to the scripture that spoke of the enemy who would strike on the land.
“Before the nation’s government, Defense Department, and intelligence agencies had any idea, believers across America were being shown that morning of the coming of the enemy to bring destruction.
“And before the first brick had fallen and the first building had collapsed, before the first building had even been struck, they were reading of buildings collapsing, as the bricks would fall.
“And before the metal beam would shoot forth from the North Tower to strike down the sycamore tree, they had already read of the sycamore having been struck down.”
“And the scripture went further than
that,” I said. “It revealed to them what the nation’s response to the calamity would be . . . defiance.”
“Yes,” he replied, “and the context of the appointed word was also significant—that of a nation that had once known God but had turned away from Him. September 11 would be the day of the first calamity to inaugurate a nation’s progression to judgment.”
“And the beginning of the harbingers.”
“Yes, and their continuing. Everything you’ve just been shown in our encounters has concerned the continuation of the harbingers, the signs, the warnings, the advancing of the progression, the template of judgment—the withering of the tree, the ninth of Tammuz, the image of the god, the inscription on the tower, the broken vessel, the fall of the erez tree, and the warning of Tophet—the signs of a nation falling from God, the same signs given concerning the last days of ancient Israel. You see, Nouriel, the progression has never stopped.”
“And the template leads to judgment,” I replied. “So where are we now in that progression?”
“Do you have the seal?” he asked.
So I gave it to him. He then handed me another. But it wasn’t exactly another. It was the same seal that the little girl had given me and the one I had given the prophet when I first saw him again on the island—the seal with the image of the city on the hill.
“Why are you giving it back to me?” I asked.
“Because you gave it to me, and now we’ve come to the end.”
“But you didn’t answer my question. Where are we now?”
“Is that what you were told would be revealed to you?”
“No, but . . . ”
“If that’s what you’re supposed to know, then I imagine you will.” And with that, he got up from the bench and began walking away.
The Harbinger II Page 20
