The Harbinger: The Ancient Mystery that Holds the Secret of America's Future

Goren asks what the figures on the second seal looked like, and Kaplan replies that the figures were men in robes with squared beards, and they appeared to be firing arrows into the sky. Kaplan needs to find the ruins of an ancient civilization to decode the seal, so he goes to the Metropolitan Museum, where he finds similar figures to those on the seal on the former walls of an Assyrian palace. The prophet arrives at the museum, and he explains the second harbinger to Kaplan.

First, the prophet gives a brief overview of his perspective on the Assyrian Empire, which he considers to be a violent and terrifying people. He describes how the Assyrians grew in power from the first millennium BCE, becoming the largest military force of their time. The prophet claims that the Assyrians were cruel, and he says their main weapon was terror, using new technology and torture to frighten surrounding countries and those captured in war. The prophet goes on to claim that the Assyrians were terrorists, specifically bringing in a definition of terrorism to support his claim, and he notes that the attack in 732 BCE, then, was an act of terrorism. Kaplan wonders what the relation is to America, and the prophet links Sennacherib, the king of Assyria during the later invasion of Israel, to Osama bin Laden, the leader of the terrorist organization al Qaeda, which took credit for the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The prophet explains that the terrorist, Osama bin Laden, is the second harbinger, and that the terrorism America faces is another warning meant to turn the American people back to God.

The prophet further claims that Arabic, the language spoken by al Qaeda, is descended from Akkadian, the language of the Assyrian Empire, and that Iraq lays physically on the same land that Assyria once occupied. He claims that Osama bin Laden and many Iraqi people are direct descendants of Assyrians, and he and Kaplan agree that America is now at war with Iraq, just as Israel was at war with Assyria. The prophet hands Kaplan the third seal, and he tells Kaplan that Kaplan will need a word to decipher the seal, though he does not tell Kaplan what that word is.

Kaplan goes to the New York Public Library to find the “word” he needs to decipher the third seal. He struggles to find anything matching the symbol on the seal, but, one day, he looks up from his research to see the prophet sitting at the table with him. The prophet says that this is not their next meeting, as he has come to intervene and help Kaplan on the path to finding out what all nine harbingers are. The prophet takes out a scroll containing the verse Isaiah 9:10 in Hebrew, and he translates it for Kaplan. The message seems to say that the Israelites plan to rebuild after the invasion, and they intend to rebuild better than their original constructions. Kaplan interprets this as the logical response to an invasion, planning to fortify defenses and improve on structures to make an attack less successful. However, the prophet tells him that the message is a sign of Israel’s arrogance, confirming that they will not turn back to God but continue the path away from God that led to the invasion in the first place.

Kaplan does not understand how this verse relates to America, and the prophet notes that the verse is a key to understanding the harbingers, and that Kaplan needs to look for the actual harbingers using the verse as a guide. The prophet says that the verse itself is about ancient Israel, as are all the harbingers, and that what Kaplan is looking for is recurrences of the harbingers in modern America. The prophet confirms that all nine harbingers have already happened, and so Kaplan is searching for what they are, not if they have happened yet.

As Kaplan and the prophet leave the library, Kaplan realizes that the third harbinger is the fallen bricks of Israel following the Assyrian invasion. The image on the seal of rectangles represents bricks, and the prophet confirms Kaplan’s realization. Beyond confirming the third harbinger, the prophet explains how the third harbinger warned of Israel’s fate, noting how, in Isaiah 9:10, the Israelites resolved to build back stronger materials after the destruction. This resolution is also a warning to the Israelites, in the prophet’s view, that more destruction will come if they do not turn back to God. The prophet compares the bricks, as with other harbingers, to an alarm clock, noting that ignoring the alarm clock does not stop the event that it is calling attention to.

The bricks in the modern day, the prophet claims, are the bricks mixed with the steel and wires of the World Trade Center following the attacks on 9/11. He notes how people saw the rubble and the missing buildings, resolving, like the Israelites, to build back stronger following the attack. The prophet also notes that people flocked to churches in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, but, like the Israelites, this spiritual revival was illegitimate and short-lived. The prophet cites from modern journals on Bible studies, informing Kaplan that modern scholars seem to agree with the prophet’s interpretation of these events as they pertain to Israel. He then asserts that the events, as harbingers, are all happening again in modern America, and he takes the third seal, giving Kaplan the fourth. The prophet gives Kaplan a hint, saying that the fourth harbinger was made or performed by American leaders.