are beyond any plan or effort of man,” said the Oracle. “All history moves to bring them to fruition, every event, every life, and every path, all woven together. So it was for the stranger.”
“More than what you’ve already told me?”
“In the latter part of his life his path would be woven together with that of a European journalist and playwright. It was unlikely that two people so diverse and from such diverse backgrounds would become friends, but they did. And as there was a mystery to Mark Twain’s life, so there was a mystery to the life of his European friend, who likewise would play a part in an ancient prophecy. He would undergo a transformation that would alter the course of his life and lead him on a mission that would alter the course of the modern world.”
“Who was he?”
“His name was Theodor Herzl. He would become the founder of political Zionism.”
“Zionism . . . ”
“From the word Zion, the ancient name for Jerusalem and its land. Zionism was the movement for the return of the Jewish people to the land and restoration of the nation. Herzl would be called the father of the Jewish state. So of all the people on earth, the paths of the two people so joined to the mystery would intersect. Remember what was written in the Book of Deuteronomy, the prophecy of the stranger leads into the prophecy of the nation’s regathering. Twain would be linked to the first prophecy, and Herzl to the second. So as the two prophecies were joined together, so also were the two lives.”
“When did Herzl’s transformation take place?”
“Herzl himself would identify the time and place. It happened in the city of Paris in 1894. It was then and there that his transformation into the visionary and ‘father of the Jewish state’ began. It was a significant convergence of time and space.”
“A convergence?”
“Because the paths of Twain and Herzl converged in that same city and that same year. The two were brought together in the very place and at the very moment that Zionism was born.”
“I wonder what Twain would think if he could come back and see what happened to the land he called desolate. I don’t think he would use that word anymore.”
“There is a prophecy,” said the Oracle, “that foretells the restoration of Zion and says that very thing, that no more will the land be called desolate. I told you of the Scripture appointed to be read on the very day the stranger completed his journey in the land, the prophecy of the stranger journeying to the land. There was another prophecy also appointed to be read on that same day and that would have been chanted in Jerusalem on the day that Twain walked through the city.”
“What was it?
“It was that same prophecy, a prophecy of Israel’s restoration. It said this:
It will no longer be said to you, ‘Forsaken,’ nor to your land will it any longer be said, ‘Desolate’; but you will be called, ‘My delight is in her.’” 3
The Oracle got up from the rock and approached me.
“The first stream of mysteries is now completed. The next one lies beyond the second door.”
“And you’re sure I’ll find them?”
“I don’t believe you came this far not to. But you will also find me in another place.”
“Another place?”
“There’s more than one place. And in this way it will help you to remember.”
“And what will I find behind the second door?”
“The shaking of nations,” he said, “the wings of God . . . a land of wells . . . a mystery coin . . . the fall of a kingdom . . . a day of lights . . . a book of hidden prophecies . . . and more.”
“And all these are part of the same mystery that I’ve been shown so far?”
“Yes, they are its next manifestation. What you’ve seen thus far will now increase until it touches the entire earth . . . until it shakes the world.”
THE SECOND DOOR
Chapter 16
THE SECOND DOOR
THE SUN WAS setting. I was sitting on a rock at the base of the mountain by which my tent was pitched. And the vision began.
“I was back in the Hall of the Seven Doors. In front of me was the second door. At my side was the Oracle. He handed me the second key. I put it inside the lock, the door opened, and I stepped inside. I was now standing on the pinnacle of the