“Do you remember the first time we walked from here across the National Mall?”
“Of course.”
“We’re going to do it again. Have you studied the seal to see what’s next?”
“Not in detail but enough to know that the next image is the Capitol Building. So that’s where we’re going?”
“Yes.”
The National, like the Lincoln Memorial, was mostly devoid of people.
“So the Civil War ended, and America survived. It was in the next century that it would attain heights of power and prosperity no nation or kingdom in world history had ever known. It would emerge from the Second World War as the head of nations. But then, in its turning away from God, it would experience years of civil unrest, social upheaval, the assassination of its leaders, political scandal, military defeat, and a multitude of other phenomena and indicators that mark a civilization in decline and decay.
“By the late 1970s, many were speaking of the end of the American age. The nation was in the midst of an economic recession. And at the same time, inflation had exploded into double digits. And because of an oil crisis, Americans had to wait in long lines to find gas for their cars. And at the end of 1979, America’s archenemy, the Soviet Union, invaded Afghanistan.
“At the same time, the United States embassy in Iran was taken over by radical Muslims, and fifty-two American citizens and diplomats were held hostage. Every night, Americans turned on their television sets to watch multitudes fill the streets of Tehran chanting, ‘Death to America!’ The crisis dragged on for days, weeks, and months. The world witnessed a new phenomenon, an America that appeared to be helpless. By the spring of 1980, the president had decided to free the hostages by military power. But mechanical failure, a dust storm, and the crashing of American helicopters would result in disaster and the death of eight American servicemen. Their bodies were taken by the Iranians and put on display in the square surrounding the American embassy. As news of the debacle and images of the dead Americans filled American television sets, a deep gloom came upon the nation.
“Four days after that disaster, something happened in Washington, DC. Believers came from all over the nation to the capital city for a sacred assembly. The event was based on a single scripture—2 Chronicles 7:14, ‘If My people . . . ’ They came to humble themselves and pray, to seek His face, and to turn from their sinful ways.”
“Again, that scripture,” I said. “Did they come because of what had happened?”
“No, the sacred assembly was planned long before the catastrophe, even before the Americans were taken hostage. But everything converged on that spring day in 1980.”
“Where in Washington?”
“Right here, Nouriel. They held the assembly on the National Mall, right here where we’re standing. And they proclaimed that scripture, ‘If My people . . . ,’ throughout that day over and over again. They even read Lincoln’s call for prayer and repentance.”
“And what did they pray for?”
“For the forgiveness of their sins and the sins of the nation, for God’s mercy on the nation, and for His healing of the land. But there were two prayers lifted up during that gathering that stood out above the others. In the middle of the day, they joined their hands together and prayed that whereas the American military had been helpless to rescue the hostages, God Himself, by His own hand, would release them. That was the one prayer. The other took place near the end of the day and the gathering. It was then that they lifted up their hands . . . like this.”
At that, the prophet lifted up his right hand and stretched it forward toward the Capitol Building at the end of the mall.
“Go ahead, Nouriel, join me. Stretch out your hand.”
So I did.
“What do you see?”
“The Capitol Building.”
“The western side of the Capitol Building. That’s the West Terrace. That’s what they saw that day. And as they stretched out their hands toward it, they prayed that God would bring to the nation’s capital and into government those of His will.”
“And what happened?”
“Less than a month after that gathering, the Republican nomination was, for all intents and purposes, won by the former governor of California, Ronald Reagan. The following November came the presidential election. On the eve of that election, Reagan gave a speech outlining his vision for America. He said this:
. . . for the first time in our memory many Americans are asking: does history still have a place for America, for her people, for her great ideals? There are some who answer no; that our energy is spent, our days of greatness at an end . . . 1
“Then he spoke of what he saw as America’s true strength:
It is not bombs and rockets but belief and resolve, it is humility before God that is ultimately the source of America’s strength as a nation. Our people always have held fast to this belief, this vision, since our first days as a nation. I know I have told before of the moment in 1630 when the tiny ship Arabella bearing settlers to the New World lay off the Massachusetts coast. To the little bank of settlers gathered on the deck John Winthrop said: we shall be a city upon a hill.”2
“He spoke of Winthrop and the city on the hill!”
“Yes.”
“A candidate for president speaking of the spiritual vision given centuries before . . . ”
“As if to remind the nation of a sacred calling long forgotten. The night before that election, he repeated the admonition that Winthrop had also given, the warning against turning away from God:
The eyes of all people are upon us, 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 byword through the world.”3
“The warning of judgment . . . amazing that he said that.”
“And then he closed that speech with this:
And let us resolve they will say of our day and our generation that we did keep faith with our God, that we did act worthy of ourselves; that we did protect and pass on lovingly that shining city on a hill.4
“He was calling America back to God, to the vision of its founding. The very last words were ‘city on a hill.’”
We continued walking toward Capitol Hill.
“The day after he gave that speech, there was a revolution in the polls, a landslide that swept Reagan into office, along with others who had pledged to uphold biblical values.”
“The prayer they prayed that day at the gathering.”
“And then another change took place. Since the time of Andrew Jackson, the presidential inaugurations had always taken place on the east side of the Capitol Building, facing the Supreme Court. But in 1981 the inauguration was changed to the western side, to the West Terrace, to face the National Mall. So the new president would now be facing the ground on which the sacred assembly had taken place and where those prayers had been lifted up. And he would be standing on the site to which they stretched out their hands as they prayed for God to place in power those of His choosing.”
“Was it because Reagan knew what had happened on the mall?”
“No,” said the prophet. “Reagan had nothing to do with it. It just so happened that the Joint Committee on the Inauguration was led to break the 150-year tradition and hold the inauguration that year where it had never been held before. So in January of 1981, Reagan gave his inaugural address facing the same ground on which the believers had stood as they prayed that prayer . . . and on the West Terrace, to where they had stretched out their hands. It was as if God was placing His fingerprints on that moment, moving the inauguration to that site and letting those who had prayed on the mall know that He had heard their prayer.”
“If My people . . . ,” I said, “ . . . then I will hear from heaven.”
We came to a stop. Before us was the West Terrace.
“And what about the other prayer,” I said, “that God would release the hostages?”
“The fir
st prayer was answered on January 20, 1981, on Inauguration Day at the National Mall. As to the other prayer, the hostages had been kept in captivity for 444 days. It all came to an end on January 20, 1981—the same day. The two prayers were answered on the exact same day—within one hour of each other . . . and joined to the same ground on which they were lifted up to God.”
“The secret things that lie behind history . . . amazing.”
“What happened on that inaugural day wasn’t about a ceremony, a political agenda, an administration, or a man, all of which are imperfect. It was about an ancient promise. When the believers gathered on the National Mall and prayed for America, they were standing on the promise God had given King Solomon. It ends with the words ‘I will . . . heal their land.’5
“The inauguration,” he said, “was the beginning of a massive change and a restoration. The soaring rates of inflation that had crippled the American economy would soon disappear and a deteriorating economy would soon rebound and expand by trillions of dollars in an era that would be known as ‘the seven fat years.’ The inauguration day of 1981 would usher in an era of economic expansion and prosperity that would be among the greatest and longest in American history, and the effects of which would continue long after Reagan’s presidency had come to an end. And the transformation would go far beyond the nation’s borders. American military power would likewise experience a resurgence, as would American influence around the world.
“And then, what few people could have imagined happening, would happen. After nearly seventy years of existence, the stronghold of Communism over eastern Europe began to collapse, and then the Soviet Union, itself. America was left in the unprecedented position of being the world’s only superpower. Had Reagan not been sworn into office that day, had things continued as they were going, with a declining America, it is questionable that all those things would have happened as they did.
“So it was not only American history that changed, but world history. And it all turned on that inaugural day and, specifically, on the moment Reagan raised his right hand and took the oath of the presidency. In that moment, it all began changing. When he took that oath, the world saw his right hand, which was lifted up, but not his left.”
“Why is that significant?”
“Because the Lord works through the left hand of history as much as the right. And it is the unseen realm of human events that is often even more critical than the seen.”
“I still don’t understand.”
“His left hand was resting on the Bible, on a specific page, and on a specific verse of Scripture that he had chosen beforehand. It was on that scripture that the history of America would be changed.”
“And what was the Scripture?”
“The Scripture was this:
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.”6
“No! . . . That’s . . . ”
“Yes,” said the prophet, “that was the verse on which everything changed . . . the ancient promise of national healing that God gave to Israel through King Solomon. Three thousand years later, that same verse changed the course of American and world history.”
“Why did he choose that verse of all verses?”
“One of the quirks of history. The Bible on which he swore the oath belonged to his mother. And in the margin, next to that verse, his mother had written the words ‘A most wonderful verse for the healing of the nations.’”7
“So it all just happened to come together at that moment,” I said, “to match the verse prayed on the National Mall months before, the fingerprint of God, the sign that He had heard their prayers and would heal their land.”
“And so everything that would come from that moment began with that single scripture, and that ancient promise, ‘I will. . . heal their land.’ Everything that happened was the fulfillment of that verse—the healing of America, the fall of the Soviet Union, the collapse of Communism, the liberation of nations. The course of world history pivoted on that ancient promise beneath the president’s hand.”
“The history of the world . . . changed by the word and the prayers of His people . . . the secret story of history.”
“The ultimate story,” said the prophet. “The power of the word and the prayers of His people are stronger than those of kings and kingdoms.
And by such things the history of the world is determined. So it was in the days of the Civil War, and so it was again in our own days. And not just the history of the world but of our lives.”
“So it changed everything,” I said. “But what about now?”
“With the president’s hand resting on that scripture, it was as if the nation had been given another chance. At the end of his presidency, in his farewell address, he would again speak of the city upon a hill, reminding the nation of its first calling.8 But the nation, in its resurgence, continued its departure from God. And then came 9/11, and then the window of time, during which the departure deepened.
“You asked me if there was still hope for America, if it could return and be restored, and if so, how it would happen. You’ve now seen both—the darkness and the light, the fall of the nation from God and the harbingers of its judgment on one hand, and the promise of mercy and hope of redemption on the other. The promise is just as real now as it was in past and ancient times. But so is the warning. And the time now is later, and the danger, greater, and the need for return, now all the more critical.”
He turned around and began walking away from the Capitol Building. I did likewise.
“It is time now to bring it home . . . and to show you one more mystery. To do that, we must make one more journey.”
“Where?” I asked.
“To the city on the hill.”
Chapter 33
The Island
THE CITY ON the hill?” said Ana. “But the city on the hill is America. How could you go there if you’re already there?”
“That’s what I didn’t understand.”
“But you had the seal. So what was the next image?”
“The outline of an irregular shape. It looked something like a horn and something like a bouquet of flowers. Within the shape was a pair of glasses.”
“What did you think it meant?”
“I had no idea until I took note of the markings surrounding the outline. They were made up of curved lines. I took them to be a representation of water. So it made me think that the outline represented an island.”
“And the glasses?”
“I searched the web for island and glasses, glass island, island of glass, but I couldn’t find anything that made any sense. Then I tried the word spectacles, and then island of spectacles. And that’s when I found it.”
“There’s an island of spectacles?”
“No,” said Nouriel. “But there is a place called Spectacle Island.”
“Spectacle Island?”
“It had the exact same shape as the image on the seal.”
“Where was it located?”
“In Massachusetts Bay, in the waters of the Puritans. It all fit together. So I set out once more for New England. I spent the night in a hotel on the outskirts of Boston and, the next morning, set out to find a way to get to the island. It was about four miles offshore. I found someone to take me there for a fee, an old man, heavyset, with a short-cropped white beard and a reddened weather-beaten face. We arrived at the island’s marina, where he docked and agreed to wait for me until I was ready to leave. I went ashore in hope of finding the prophet or of being found by him. The island was largely deserted. Along its perimeter was a walking trail, which I decided to take. At the end of the island was something of a hill or mound. I ascended it. And there, standing on the summit, as if waiting for me, which, of course, he was, was the prophet.”
“We’ve come back, Nouriel,” said the prophet. “We’ve returned.”
&nb
sp; “We’ve returned to the place we were reunited, Massachusetts Bay.”
“No, we’ve returned to the beginning, to the foundation. Look over there,” he said, pointing to the right. “If you journeyed in that direction, you would come to the shore where the Mayflower landed four hundred years ago.”
“And John Winthrop—did he land there as well?”
“No,” he said, pointing to his left. “Winthrop landed over there, to the north.”
“After he had given his vision of the new civilization.”
“The city on the hill.”
“And that’s where you said we would go.”
“And that’s why we’re here . . . in search of the city on the hill.”
“But the city on the hill is America.”
“The city on the hill became America,” he said. “But you didn’t come here so you could find America. So what is the city on the hill? What was it in its beginning?”
“This?” I said. “All this? New England?”
“It was Massachusetts Bay, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the civilization that was planted in the new world and governed by Winthrop himself. But it goes beyond that. Though the city on the hill is a metaphor of a people and a society lifted up and to which the world would look, there actually was a city. Winthrop and those who joined him in the journey across the Atlantic and in his vision of the city on the hill set out to lay the foundation of a city.”
“Of an actual city?”
“Of an actual city intended to become the embodiment of the vision. And so they did; they founded a city.”
“And what happened to it?” I asked. “Does it still exist?”
“I would say so. And I would think you’ve heard of it. Come.”
At that, he led me around to the left side of the mound.
“Look, Nouriel.”
So I looked.
“There,” said the prophet, “there it is . . . the city on the hill.”
Across the water stood a modern city, office buildings, skyscrapers, a skyline of steel and glass resting on the other side of the water.
The Harbinger II Page 26
