The Mystery of the Shemitah (2 page)

My initial reaction was caution because I didn’t want the message or warning contained in
The Harbinger
to get lost in date-setting.
The Harbinger
’s ultimate call is that of repentance, not speculation or the setting of dates. The mysteries contained in
The Harbinger
all point to a coming national calamity concerning America and the world. But that calamity doesn’t have to take place when we think it must or according to schedule. The judgment and calamity revealed and warned about in
The Harbinger
do not depend on any set date or time parameter. But barring a national change of course, it will come. The most important thing, no matter when it comes, is to be ready and to be right with God.

There was much more to the mystery of the Shemitah than what I was able to reveal in
The Harbinger
’s one chapter concerning it—so much more that it would take an entire book to reveal it. That is the reason for this book. What could not be revealed before will be revealed now. In fact, as it was with
The Harbinger
, most of the mysteries to be revealed in the following pages have never up to this point been revealed.

We now embark on an expedition to find the pieces of an ancient mystery. We will then begin placing the pieces together until the mystery is revealed. In the process we will answer these questions:

•
  Could there be an ancient phenomenon lying beneath some of the most critical events of modern times?

•
  Could this phenomenon be operating behind some of the most dramatic and monumental collapses of Wall Street and the global economy?

•
  Could this phenomenon underlie some of the most colossal events of modern times?

•
  Could this phenomenon from ancient times be so precise that it has not only determined events in the modern world but also ordained their timing, down to exact dates, hours, even minutes?

•
  Could this phenomenon already be affecting, shaping, and altering our lives and the lives of virtually everyone we know?

•
  Does this ancient mystery hold the key to what the future holds, what is yet to come?

•
  Are there signs and harbingers warning us of what lies ahead?

•
  Will the American age as we know it continue for many more years, or will we witness its end?

•
  Is America in danger of a coming calamity, a collapse, even judgment?

•
  What does the future hold for the world?

Let us now begin the search.

Chapter 2
The ISAIAH KEY

The Warnings

C
OULD
G
OD SEND
a warning as He did to people and nations in ancient times, but now to people and nations of the modern world?

The Bible reveals a clear pattern: before judgment, God warns. In the days of ancient Israel God sent warning of impending national judgment through varied means, through visions, through dreams, through audible voices, through prophetic utterances, through signs, through the written word, through prophetic acts, through supernatural occurrences, and through the outworking of natural events.

The Bible states that God does not change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We must therefore conclude that not only
can
God send a prophetic warning into the modern world but also, where judgment is concerned, He
will
send warning. So in the case of a nation standing in danger of impending calamity or destruction, we can expect that such warning will be given, and in a way consistent with those given in biblical times.

The Day of the Towers

The Harbinger
is a book that reveals an ancient biblical mystery manifesting in modern times. It is a message of warning concerning coming calamity. How and when did it come forth?

It began on the morning of September 11, 2001. Ten years earlier I had been led to give a message in which I spoke of a national judgment beginning in New York City. I shared that message not far from the city, as the two ministries I lead, Hope of the World and the Jerusalem Center/Beth Israel, are both located in northern New Jersey, across the river from Manhattan.

On the evening of September 11 I was staring across the Hudson River at the massive cloud of smoke that covered the ground of destruction and much of lower Manhattan. Later on, in prayer concerning the national calamity, I was led to turn to the ninth and tenth chapters of the Book of Isaiah.

These chapters contained the verse from which the revelations of
The Harbinger
would come. At the time I didn’t zero in on that specific verse. I was more focused on the overall context, which was that of a nation undergoing the first warning stroke of national judgment, a warning in the form of a strike of terror on the land.

The Isaiah Key

The event that proved to be the turning point would take place sometime later at the corner of Ground Zero. I was standing on a plot of soil near where the towers had fallen. My attention became transfixed on an object. The object was a tree that had been struck down by the force of the calamity. I heard an inner voice say, “There’s a mystery here. You must seek and find it.” So I began to search into the mystery that had so drawn my attention.

I was immediately led to the same section of Isaiah to which I opened in the wake of 9/11. But this time my attention was drawn to one specific verse in Isaiah’s prophecy, the verse that would open the door to the revelations that would be known as
The Harbinger
. The revelation concerned nine prophetic signs of warning and judgment. The fallen tree was the first puzzle piece of an ancient mystery that kept growing bigger and bigger.

The Puzzle Pieces

One by one, each of the nine signs were revealed. Whenever the mystery seemed to come to a standstill, the next leading would be given. It would come in the form of someone saying a word that proved to be the next key in the puzzle. At other times it would come by an inner sense, which, upon investigation, would prove true. Still, at other times it would come in the form of “accidents”—something appearing out of the blue on my computer screen that contained the key I had been searching for, or, at other times, what I had
not
been searching for.

The Genesis of
The Harbinger

I first shared the revelations of
The Harbinger
at a Friday night service of my congregation. The people who heard it were stunned. There was an immediate feeling that it was a message that had to go forth to the nation. But I didn’t take any action in that direction until two years later when I was led to commit the revelations to writing.

In 2005, while sharing the initial revelations, I alluded to a coming collapse of Wall Street. In September 2008, in the midst of writing the book, Wall Street did collapse. The collapse triggered the Great Recession. It would also trigger the opening of a new stream of ancient mysteries and revelations. It was in this stream that the mystery of the Shemitah began to unfold.

In the process of writing
The Harbinger
, I was led to present the mysteries and revelations in a way that would be easy for anyone to grasp. The Bible uses parables, allegories, stories, symbols, and imagery to communicate spiritual and prophetic truth. I was led to do likewise. So
The Harbinger
presents a story that serves as a vessel through which the mysteries and revelations unfold.

The Prophet and the Nine Seals

The narrative involves a mysterious figure simply known as “the prophet,” and another named Nouriel, a writer and journalist. Nouriel receives a mysterious gift. It appears to be an ancient clay seal. Across the face of the seal is an inscription in a foreign script. The seal remains a mystery to Nouriel until its meaning is revealed to him by the prophet.

Their first encounter takes place in what appears to be a chance meeting on a park bench overlooking the Hudson River. In the course of their subsequent encounters the prophet gives Nouriel nine clay seals. Each of the seals contains a mystery that Nouriel must seek to unlock. Each mystery is connected to a harbinger of warning and judgment now manifesting on American soil.

The entire story came to me in a matter of hours. As soon as I began committing it to writing, with the voice of the prophet bringing forth each of the revelations, the words came out in rapid-fire succession. With no struggle and little effort the text flowed onto the pages.
The Harbinger
seemed to write itself. And in a relatively short time it was finished.

The Going Forth

From that moment onward the message of
The Harbinger
has taken on a life of its own. From the story of how it became a book to the way it went forth to the nation, it has proceeded apart from anyone’s planning and has involved several uncanny events in defiance of any natural explanation. It has now been read, seen, or heard by millions and has reached the highest echelons of government—to the point of being spoken of on Capitol Hill by members of Congress and presidential candidates. From the moment of its inception until now, it has borne the marks of another’s fingerprints.

In order to open up the mystery of the Shemitah, we must first open up, even briefly, the mystery from which it comes—that of the mystery of
The Harbinger.
What exactly is the mystery of
The Harbinger
? What are the nine harbingers that have manifested in our lifetime? And what secret do they hold concerning our future?

To this we now turn.

Chapter 3
The MYSTERY of the NINE HARBINGERS