The Harbinger (34 page)

“And this was the lower west side, of course. Was there anything significant that he wanted you to see?”

“No. I think he just wanted to take me away from everything else, from any distraction. It was now late afternoon. The water was shimmering with golden light. In view of the setting, his question didn’t seem to fit.”

“And what will you do on the Day of Judgment?” he asked.

“You definitely know how to ruin a moment,” I replied. “What will I do?”

“‘
What will you do on the day of judgment…the day of punishment
?’ The words are from the prophecy. It’s what Isaiah 9:10 leads up to. It’s what the Lord asked the people of Israel before the final calamity.”

“It’s a daunting question, and a scary predicament to be living then…in view of everything that was coming.”

“And what if it
were
you, Nouriel, living there at that time, walking in their sandals? What if it were you who heard the voice of the prophets, and understood the Harbingers, and knew the judgment was coming? Everyone around you was oblivious to it. Everyone just went on with their lives with no idea of what was coming. What would you do?”

“I’d want them to know. I’d want them to be saved. I’d tell them.”

“But who would listen to you? Who would take your warning seriously? And what about your own predicament? A nation’s heading for judgment, but you’re part of it. How do you save yourself? What will
you
do on the Day of Judgment? Where will you go to find safety?”

“Outside the country, I guess.”

“Judgment isn’t a matter of geography. It doesn’t matter where you are. No place is far enough away, and no refuge strong enough.”

“So what would I do?”

“The reason I ask is because you
do
live in such a time and place, and you
have
heard the voice of the prophets, and you
do
understand the Harbingers and know what they portend. So the question isn’t hypothetical. And it’s not even, ‘What
would
you do?’ What
will
you do? What will you do, Nouriel, on the Day of Judgment?”

“On the day of a nation’s judgment?”

“On the day of
your
judgment,” said the prophet. “What if you were one of them, back then, and your life ended before the nation’s judgment came? What then?”

“What then?”

“Would you then have escaped judgment?”

“Yes,” I replied.

“No. You wouldn’t. Judgment isn’t ultimately about nations—but people. As it’s written: ‘
It’s appointed for man once to die and then judgment
.’ After the end comes the Day of Judgment, in light of which all other judgments are only foreshadows. And no one is exempt. Each must stand before Him.”

“Why?”

“Why judgment?”

“Yes.”

“It must be. As long as there’s evil, there has to be judgment. Every sin, every wrong, every evil has to be brought to an end. Without it, there would be no hope.”

“Without judgment there would be no hope?” I asked.

“Without judgment, there would be no end to evil in the universe…or in man’s heart. There would be no heaven.”

“Why would there be no heaven?”

He looked away from me and toward the light of the setting sun before speaking again. “Because heaven would then be filled with locks and prisons, hatred, violence, fear, and destruction. Heaven would cease to be heaven…and would become hell instead. But there
is
a heaven, and there is a time and place of no more sorrow…no more hate…no more weeping or tears…and no more pain. There must be a judgment. Evil must end…beyond which is heaven.”

“So, in other words, if evil entered heaven, heaven would cease to be heaven because it would have evil in it.”

“Yes,” he answered. “And who is evil?”

“Those who kill, who deceive, who steal, those who hurt and abuse others…”

“And that’s it?” he asked.

“I’m sure there are other categories.”

“And what about you, Nouriel? Do you fit into any of those categories?”

“No.”

“No,” he replied, “you wouldn’t. But remember, ‘
All the ways of a man are right in his own eyes
.’ It’s from the Book of Proverbs. That’s human nature. So be careful of the image that appears in your own eyes. Beware of the good Nazi.”

“The good Nazi? And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“The Nazis sent millions to their deaths out of pure hatred and evil. Can you think of a people more evil than that? And yet do you think most of them saw themselves as evil?”

“No.”

“And why not?” he asked. “Because they compared themselves and measured themselves by the standards they themselves created. Each, in his own eyes, was a good Nazi, a moral Nazi, a decent Nazi, a religious Nazi, and a Nazi no worse than the next. For by seeing themselves in their own eyes, they became blind. But their judgment would come in the form of destruction, and their sins would be exposed before the world.”

“But there’s a big difference between the Nazis and most people.”

“The principle is the same. You can never judge yourself by your own standards and your own righteousness, but only in light of
His
righteousness.”

“And how do we hold up in the light of His righteousness?”

“Which do you think is greater,” he asked, “the moral distance that separates us from the most monstrous of Nazis or that which separates us from God?”

“I guess that which separates us from God.”

“That’s correct, because the first separation is finite. But the second is infinite. So what we see as the slightest of sins within ourselves appears, in the eyes of Him who is absolute goodness, even more abhorrently evil than the crimes of the Nazis appear to us. In the light of the absolute Good, our lust becomes as adultery and our hatred as murder.”

“But then who could stand?” I asked. “Who could make it into heaven?”

“No one could stand, and no one could make it into heaven. How far would just one sin take you away from the infinite righteousness of God?”

“An infinite distance?”

“Yes. So how far are we from heaven?”

“An infinite distance.”

“And how great is the judgment?”

“Infinitely great.”

“And how long would it take us to bridge the gap, to be reconciled to God, to enter heaven?”

“An infinity of time.”

“Eternity,” he said.

“So we could never get there, could we?”

“And to be infinitely separated from God and heaven…is what?” he asked.

“Hell?”

“Hell—infinite separation from God and from all things good; total, infinite, eternal judgment.”

“We don’t just die?”

“The soul is eternal,” he said. “One way or another, at the end of a thousand ages, you’ll still exist. The question is
where
. And if the joy and glory of being in God’s presence in heaven is beyond our imagining, so then too is the darkness and horror of being in His absence…without Him forever…hell.”

“So then our predicament is even more grave than that of a nation in its hour of judgment.”

“The prospect of entering eternity without God, on the wrong side of an infinite judgment, is far graver than the judgment of any nation—infinitely more so. Nations are temporary; the soul is eternal. So, Nouriel, I’m asking you again, what will you do on the Day of Judgment?”

“Tell me.”

“If you have an infinite gap and an infinite problem, what do you need?”

“An infinite answer?”

“Which means that the answer could not come from yourself or from this world. It could only come from the infinite, from heaven…from God, which means that any given answer, any given ideology, and any given system based on the efforts of man is ruled out.”

“Which rules out most answers,” I said.

“Which rules out
every
answer,” he replied, “every answer based on man trying to reach God, a hand reaching upward to heaven. The answer can only come the other way, from the infinite to the finite, from heaven to earth…from God to man.”

“A hand reaching down from heaven?”

“Exactly. And what alone could answer an infinite judgment?”

“An infinite mercy?”

“Yes, the infinite mercy of an infinite love. And what alone could fill an infinite absence?”

“An infinite presence.”

“The infinite presence of the infinite love.”

He paused after saying that and turned away from the sun and the water so that he was looking directly into my eyes when he spoke again.

“Nouriel, did you know that there’s a part of the World Trade Center that still stands?”

“No, I never heard that.”

“A part of the World Trade Center stands to this day, in this city.”

“It stands in what way?” I asked.

“As a sign,” he replied, “literally.”

“I don’t understand.”

“On the third day after the calamity, a construction worker was standing in the ruins of one of the shattered buildings. When he looked up, he saw it.”

“The sign…”

“The sign…unmistakable…glaring…forged not by human hands but by the force of the calamity…a cross…a perfectly formed cross…twenty feet high…of cast iron beams from the fallen towers standing in the midst of a landscape of devastation…as if rising up from the ruins. When he saw it, he couldn’t hold back from weeping. In the days and weeks that followed, it would become known as
the Cross of Ground Zero
, a sign of faith and hope in the midst of the calamity, a sign again calling to a nation to return. But not only to a nation…a sign calling each to return.”

“Is that the answer you spoke of?”

“The answer to judgment. For what alone is it that can answer an infinite judgment and bridge an infinite chasm?

“An infinite love,” I said. “The infinite presence of an infinite love.”

“Of the infinite One,” he said.

“You mean God.”

“God.”

“But you haven’t mentioned the word
religion
even once.”

“Because it’s not about religion; it’s about love. That’s the meaning of the sign, the overcoming of the infinite judgment by the infinite love.”

“The love of God.”

“The love of God. For God is love, and the nature of love is what?”

“To give?” I replied.

“Yes, to give of itself, to put itself in the place of the other even if it means that by so doing it must sacrifice itself. So if God is love, then what would the ultimate manifestation of love be?”

“I don’t know.”

“The giving of Himself…God giving Himself to bear the judgment of those under judgment if, by so doing, it would save them. Love puts itself in the place of the other. So then the ultimate manifestation of love would be…”

“God putting Himself in our place.”

“In our life, in our death, in our judgment…the sacrifice.”

“As in Jesus…”

“The infinite sacrifice,” said the prophet, “to bear an infinite judgment, in which all sins are nullified and all who partake are set free…forgiven…saved. An infinite redemption in which judgment and death are overcome and a new life given…a new beginning…a new birth. The love of God is greater than judgment…. Remember…there is no sin so deep that His love isn’t deeper…and no life so hopeless…no soul so far away…and no darkness so dark that His love isn’t greater still.”

“But this is all…I wasn’t born with it, or raised in it, and I’m not religious.”

“Being religious has nothing to do with it,” he said. “There’s no religion in heaven, only love. It’s the heart, Nouriel. And you couldn’t have been born into it to begin with, only born
again
into it. And it can’t happen without you choosing it.”

“To be born again?”

“Yes. Do you know His real name?”

“Jesus?”

“Yes.”

“I thought that
was
His real name.”

“His real name is
Yeshua
. It’s Hebrew. He was Jewish, as were all His disciples, and the message they proclaimed was all about the Jewish Messiah, the fulfillment of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Hope of Israel.
Yeshua
is Hebrew for
God is Salvation
, or
God is Deliverance…Protection…Rescue…Freedom…Refuge
…and
Safety
. In the Day of Judgment, there’s no safe ground…no salvation, except in Him who
is
salvation.”

“So how does one become saved?”

“‘
You cannot see the kingdom of God unless you are born again
.‘ Those are
His
words.”

“And how does one become born again?”

“By receiving…by letting go…by letting the old life end and a new one begin. By choosing…by opening your heart to receive that which is beyond containing—the presence…the mercy…the forgiveness…the cleansing…the unending love of God.”

“By receiving what exactly?”

“The gift, freely given and freely received, and yet so great a gift that you treasure it above life itself…so great a gift that it changes everything else.”

“And the gift is…”

“If God is love, and love is a gift, then the Giver and the Gift are one.”

“Then the gift is God?”

“Salvation comes in the
giving
of His life and is complete in the
receiving
of His life. Think of a bride and a bridegroom.”

“A bride and bridegroom?”