the faith going forth from Israel to the nations, from Jew to Gentile. So the council that now convened in the nations, in London, would represent the reverse, the beginning of the return of the faith to the Jewish people and the Jewish people to their Messiah.”
“The city by the river that I saw in my vision with the cathedral—was it London?”
“It was.”
“And the man who was resurrected from the bones, who looked like an ancient rabbi, was he a Jewish believer . . . an apostle?”
“Yes, the Jewish apostle after whom the cathedral was named.”
“But would the spiritual return of just a remnant of Jewish people be enough,” I asked, “to usher in a physical return to the land?”
“With the purposes of God,” said the Oracle, “the issue isn’t numbers. It only takes a remnant. It was only a remnant of Jewish believers in the first century that changed the course of world history. And remember, the spiritual return comes at first only in part but triggers the beginning of the physical return, the return to the land. And the return to the land would begin in the exact same way, with just a remnant of people.”
“So if the spiritual return triggers the physical return, was the return of the Jewish people to the land spoken of at that gathering?”
“At the time of the gathering it hadn’t happened yet,” he said. “So it could only have been spoken of prophetically.”
“So was it spoken of prophetically at that gathering?”
“It was. One of those who addressed the assembly said this:
Israel shall abide many days without a temple, and without a sacrifice, but that afterwards they shall return to their own land ... 3
“The original prophecy simply says, ‘They shall return.’ 4 But the speaker added, ‘They shall return to their own land.’ As far as when the return of the Jewish people to the land would take place, he added,
. . . of Israel’s restoration . . . the time appears to be drawing near. 5
“His words were prophetic. The return of the Jewish people to the land and the restoration of Israel would soon begin. Another leader at that gathering would likewise speak prophetically of what was yet to come:
Our nation will be restored to its own land.” 6
“Was the timing of the gathering significant?” I asked.
“You never asked me when it took place.”
“When did it take place?”
“In the year . . . 1867.”
“1867! The year it all began!”
“It had to be that way. First must come the spiritual return, a return to the Messiah. Then the return to the land can begin.”
“So that’s the reason why the mystery began in 1867.”
“It’s the reason why everything began in 1867. It was that gathering in London that constitutes the first Jubilean event, the first return.”
“When in 1867 did that gathering convene?”
“It happened in the spring, in the month of May.”
“May? Wasn’t that the same month in which the destruction of Israel began, when the Roman armies invaded the land?”
“It was.”
“So in the same month that the destruction began, so did the restoration. And how long was it after that event that everything else began . . . all the other Jubilean events?”
“Less than thirty days after that gathering a ship set sail from the harbors of New York, bound for the Promised Land, and the journey of the stranger began. Two days later, after two thousand years, the release of the Promised Land began as the Ottoman Land Code became law. Less than five months later, after being hidden for fifteen hundred years, the ancient city of Jerusalem was uncovered. And then would come the first school to teach Jewish people to farm the land . . . and then the first settlement . . . and then the return of the exiles.
“So when the land was liberated in 1917 and the promise of a Jewish homeland given, it took place on the fifty-year Jubilee of that gathering and that spiritual return. And when Jerusalem was restored to the Jewish people in the Six-Day War, it took place on the hundred-year Jubilee of that gathering.”
“You told me the month of the gathering,” I said, “but not the day.”
“The day,” he replied, “held another mystery.”
“What day did the gathering take place?”
“May 14.”
“May 14! The same date on which Israel would be reborn!”
“Yes,” said the Oracle, “the spiritual return foreshadowed the physical return.” He paused for a moment before continuing. “I will tell you of two more mysteries concerning these things.
“When Jerusalem was