BOOK UNDERSCORES MYSTERIOUS COINCIDENCES THAT ABOUND AROUND 9/11 AND WALL STREET CRASH
When the World Trade Center was attacked in 2001, we had quite a few articles about the potential prophetic import, including the significance of "towers" in the Bible (where they are often described as representing human arrogance).
Look at the very name: "world trade."
Indeed, we had articles leading up to the attack with warnings from Venezuelan mystic Maria Esperanza (who foresaw the event and whose cause for sainthood has been undertaken in the U.S.).
But nowhere did we see the connections now made in a brilliant book by a Christian Jew -- a "messianic" Jew -- named Jonathan Cahn, whose "novel" (it is described as a prophetic investigation based on fact and written in narrative fashion) has been on major bestseller lists, and for good reason.
Called The Harbinger, it is full of facts that are amazing (a narrative based on prophetic investigation).
Chiefly, the book focuses on snippets from the Old Testament that relate uncannily -- eerily -- to what happened that September day. Mainly, the passage is Isaiah 9:10: "The bricks have fallen, but we will rebuild with hewn stone; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will plant cedars in their place."
It is Cahn's contention that the World Trade Center was attacked due to our sinfulness -- including materialism -- and that instead of humbly moving forward, America acted as Israel did in the aforementioned passage -- that once the "bricks had fallen," and the sycamore "cut down," we defiantly vowed to rebuild bigger and stronger and taller and better than ever (precisely what transpired with construction of the Freedom Tower). Remarkably, politicians even quoted the Isaiah passage in the wake of 9/11 -- but out of context and not as a warning; rather, a vow of defiance; such vows in biblical times, says Cahn, led to more disaster).
When there is no other way to get through to us, asserts the author, God lifts His hedge of protection -- as he did in ancient Israel (allowing enemies to enter).
"Most would see the tragedy as a matter of defense, national security, or foreign policy," says a mysterious prophetic stranger in the narrative. "They committed themselves to making sure it would never happen again. They fortified their defenses, strengthened their walls, and formed strategic alliances. Few of them pondered the possibility that there could be any deeper significance behind it. And yet the voices of their prophets, the words in their Scriptures, and an uneasy stirring in their hearts were all warning them that something was wrong. The nation had departed from God. But apart from the prophets, few realized the critical line they had crossed and the new and dangerous era they had entered. No political or military power would be strong enough to ensure their safety; only a return to God. The attack was a warning and a harbinger of judgment."
Just as occurred in ancient times -- centuries B.C. -- with Israel.
We were granted a period of grace after, but have blown it, argues this author (who works in the shadow of New York at Hope of the World Ministries in New Jersey). "Instead of listening to the alarm, instead of turning back, instead of even pausing for a moment to reexamine their ways, they boast of their resolve. It wasn't about rebuilding at all. It was about ignoring the warning and rejecting the call to return." More on that in a moment. Catholic prophets like Esperanza (who urged construction of a church -- not a new building -- at Ground Zero, and who warned that our response to 9/11 should be humility, not revenge) issued similar warnings.
But first, consider: "bricks" did fall. Our modern bricks are steel and glass. In the middle of the ash and debris was found a large tree that had been knocked down.
As in Isaiah, it was a sycamore (and became one of the symbols of 9/11). In its tangle of roots was a brick.
The tree was located on the property of St. Paul Chapel -- an old Episcopalian church that miraculously survived the mayhem though it was right across the street from the Trade Center.
It was at this church that George Washington prayed for the consecration and protection of our nation with members of Congress right after he was inaugurated nearby. It was later replaced -- just as in Isaiah -- by a type of cedar tree (known biblically as an "Erez" tree; known to the media after 9/11 as the "Tree of Hope," even though it was actually the opposite). "When you see the Erez Tree planted in the place of the fallen sycamore, it's an omen, a warning," says the prophet. An exhibit exists today inside the chapel, consisting of a policeman's uniform covered with police and firefighter patches sent from all over the country. "The church survived without even a broken window," notes St. Paul's website. "Church history declares it was spared by a miracle sycamore on the northwest corner of the property that was hit by debris. The tree's root has been preserved in a bronze memorial by sculptor Steve Tobin. The fence around the church grounds became the main spot for visitors to place impromptu memorials to the event." (We went there ourselves right after.)
"Had we been there on that day of inauguration, everything over there, everything beyond that point, would have been water," says the prophet, speaking in the book from the chapel's back door. "But between here and the water was a field... now known as Ground Zero... a field owned by a church. Ground Zero was originally church land."
"Owned by what church?" asks the narrator.
"The same that operated out of St. Paul's Chapel."
"So then it was, in essence, one property... as one ground?"
"As one ground," replied the stranger. "As one ground on the day America was consecrated there. Thus, it's not only that America's ground of consecration is at Ground Zero; America's ground of consecration is Ground Zero"!
The Founding Fathers had gathered to pray at what would become the site of a great disaster.
Who knew this! There may be some stretches in this book, but the coincidences are astounding: The biblical passage says the rebuilding would be with hewn stone, meaning from a quarry, known as a "gazit stone," and when rebuilding at Ground Zero progressed, the cornerstone ended up being a twenty-ton "gazit" stone from an Adirondack quarry! An ancient drama, argues Cahn, was reenacted at Ground Zero (for our discernment). Notes a commentary on the Isaiah passage: "That which God designs, in smiting us, is to turn us to himself and to set us seeking Him; and if this point be not gained by lesser judgments, greater may be expected..."
In fact, notes Cahn, 9/11 was followed seven years to the week by the beginnings of the collapse of the financial markets. In Scripture, the seventh year is given a name. It is called the Shemitah. Credit is cancelled and debt is wiped away -- as so many debts had to be cancelled in 2008, when the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression occurred -- right there near the World Trader Center site and at another spot that figured into Washington's inauguration.
As in ancient times, the ground of consecration become the ground of judgment.
Indeed, the greatest single-day stock market crash point-wise was to take place on September 29, the twenty-ninth day of Elul, as it was known in ancient times -- the critical and crowning day of the Hebrew Shemitah.
It was at Federal Hall -- at Wall Street -- that George Washington took his oath of office (New York was the nation's first capital).
The question -- as we continue our defiance -- is what will occur next. (We hear the current president too speak of rebuilding, and quoting the Isaiah passage again!)
A generally accepted version is that the name Wall Street was derived from an earthen wall on the northern boundary of the New Amsterdam settlement, perhaps to protect against English colonial encroachment or incursions by native Americans. Again: the idea of a breach.
"Here on Wall Street, George Washington took the oath of office as our first President, and this site was home to the first Congress, Supreme Court, and Executive Branch offices," says a government website about Federal Hall. "The current structure, a Customs House, later served as part of the U.S. Sub-Treasury. Now, the building serves as a museum and memorial to our first President and the beginnings of the United States of America."
Now, is there an idol -- a golden calf -- on Wall Street?
Many of the most important legislative actions in the United States occurred with the First Congress at Federal Hall. Foremost was adoption of the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution; twelve amendments to the Constitution were initially drafted, ten were agreed upon, and on September 25, 1789, the United States Bill of Rights was adopted in Federal Hall. This we get by our own little brief Googling. The question now: Have we reckoned with the Wall Street fiasco? Do we really know why 9/11 was allowed to occur? Is it a coincidence that when its hedge was lifted, ancient Israel was attacked by Assyrians, in ancient times -- in Cahn's words (not ours) the masters of terror -- and that Assyrian blood may flow in the veins of Al Qaeda (Assyrians spread across the Mideast but were centered in the nation we would go to war with: Iraq; another coincidence).
Have we returned to Jesus?
Or are we bullheaded?
"As time passed, it appeared as if life was gradually returning to normal," said the prophet. "There was a respite, peace. With each passing year, it seemed as if the danger was farther behind them. But it was an illusion. The problem and the danger only increased. It was a period of grace, given to them in mercy, that they might change their course and avert the judgment. But if not, then a greater judgment would come, and that final breaching of their walls would be remembered as the harbinger that was the beginning of their fall. These were their most critical days.
"The nation that had long know blessing and security witnesses the failure of its defenses. Its walls of protection are broken through, its national security is breached, and its illusion of invincibility shattered. The day of the harbingers begin. America was the most blessed nation on earth, its blessings shielded by a powerful hedge of national protection. As its founders had foretold, if the nation followed the ways of God, it would be blessed not only with prosperity and power but also with peace and security."
And if it didn't?
"Its hedge of protection was removed, and its walls were breached."