The Mystery of the Shemitah (20 page)

Even more specifically, the tower was completed in the middle of 1870, on May 1. Behind the scenes a change was taking place. The change would profoundly alter the course of world history for the next century and beyond. The year that marked this colossal change began seven months after the tower was finished.

In 1871 America overtook the British Empire to become the nation with the largest economy on the earth. One of the meanings of
gadal
, from which the Hebrew word for tower comes, is “to be made large.” And that is exactly what happened. In 1870 the tower was finished. By 1871 America had become the greatest economic power on earth. It had been enlarged, lifted up, and made great.

This changing of world power in 1870–1871 would produce far-reaching repercussions in world history. It would determine the course of the First World War, the Great Depression, the Second World War, the Cold War, and the modern age as we know it.

The Rise of the Towers

The tower of 1870 marked the beginning of a new era. It marked not only America’s emergence as the strongest economic power on the earth but also America’s preeminence with regard to towers. From the moment of its completion onward, America would be the land of the tallest buildings on the earth. It would hold this distinction for over a century, continuously and with no serious challengers. As the tallest towers on the earth continued to rise on American soil, so too America itself would continue to rise in power and preeminence on the world stage.

As the twentieth century progressed, the ancient mystery linking
migdal
, the tower, to
gadal
, greatness, would continue to manifest. The rising of the towers would parallel the rising of American world power. And just as the American towers were reaching heights never before attained in human history, so too America itself was reaching heights of power no nation or empire in world history had ever attained.

The mystery of the towers, which began in the ancient Middle East, was now manifesting in the modern world and on American soil. The mystery stood at the center of the most massive shifting of world power in modern history. It stood behind the emergence of what would be known as “the American century.” And its repercussions would touch every part of the globe.

But as the twentieth century approached its end, there would be a new development in the mystery. And that change would have profound ramifications concerning our day and the future of America and the world.

As we move toward these ramifications and what they reveal concerning the future, we must first answer a question: What does the mystery of the towers have to do with the Shemitah?

Chapter 17
The FOUR TOWERS

The Days of the High Towers

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EGINNING WITH ITS
rise to economic superpower and throughout the twentieth century, America erected the tallest towers on the earth, ever higher and higher. At the dawn of the twentieth century it would build the tallest building of any kind, surpassing the Ulm Cathedral in Germany. And then, at the beginning of the 1930s, it would erect the largest man-made structure, skyscraper or otherwise, on the planet.

Paralleling America’s rise to world power was the rise of New York City. As America became the greatest power on earth, New York City would become the chief of cities. In the twentieth century the city would become the world’s financial center, the world’s cultural center, and, in the eyes of many, the world’s capital—the center point of world power.

According to the mystery, it should not surprise us that in this same period it should also become the city with the highest towers on the earth. A disproportionate amount of the world’s highest buildings would now rise up from its pavement. Through much of the twentieth century it could boast of having eleven of the world’s tallest buildings.

As America’s towers attained greater and greater heights, so did the nation’s powers. America’s rise on the world stage would be dramatically propelled and accelerated by two world wars. Between the wars, in the center of the period, there would be an unprecedented explosion of activity in the construction of the world’s tallest towers. It would take place in the years 1930 and 1931. In that short space of time no less than four different structures held the mantle of the world’s tallest building—all of them in America, all in New York City.

The period of 1930–1931 bore another distinction. It was the time of the Shemitah.

The First Three Towers

The first of the four towers was the Woolworth Building—completed in 1913, just before the start of the First World War, it stood at 791 feet.

In the spring of 1930 it was surpassed by the second tower, the Bank of Manhattan Trust Building, which attained a height of 928 feet. Its reign would be short-lived. Less than thirty days after its completion it was surpassed by the third tower.

Upon its completion in May of 1930, the Chrysler Building became not only the world’s tallest building but also, in surpassing the Eiffel Tower in France, the tallest man-made structure on the planet. It was also the first man-made structure on the earth to exceed a height of 1,000 feet.

In the year 1930, in the timing of the Shemitah’s approach, three different towers bore the crown of the world’s tallest building. But when the Shemitah commenced, it would herald the greatest of the four towers and that which would become one of the most famous buildings were erected by human hands.

The Fourth Tower

The Empire State Building was begun in January of 1930 and completed in the spring of 1931, in the midst of the Shemitah of 1930–1931. It would rise to a height of 1,250 feet at its top floor and 1,454 feet at the top of its spire. The completion of the Empire State Building would mark the end of the most intense period of rising towers in human history. No other building would rival its height for years to come. It would reign as the world’s tallest building for four decades, longer than any other building in the twentieth century.

The Empire State Building would become an American and global icon. It would be called “the eighth wonder of the world.” It would stand as a symbol not only of human achievement, but, specifically, of American achievement. It would embody the soaring heights, the unprecedented power, and the unparalleled magnitude that American civilization had now attained.

It was a fitting symbol for what was about to take place. With the advent of the Second World War America would be lifted up to heights of power no nation had ever known. And the tower that stood in the midst of its greatest city would become the most visible and potent symbol of that rising and of those heights.

With the end of the Second World War, New York City was exploding with celebrations of victory. It was a new era in which America would be the head of nations. In the midst of the celebrations stood the nation’s soaring tower, dominating the city’s skyline and bearing witness of the ancient connect linking a civilization’s tower to its greatness.

The Tower and the Shemitah

The connection of the Empire State Building to the biblical Shemitah was not just one of timing but of circumstance. At the time of its rising, America was in a state of financial and economic collapse. The tower was built in the depths of the Great Depression.

The contrast could not have been more jarring—a nation sinking into the abyss of economic collapse and a colossal tower rising from its midst. It was because of the Great Depression that, a year after its completion, the Empire State Building remained overwhelmingly empty. The tower boasted of America’s glory, the greatness of its powers, the vastness of its resources, and the heights of its rising. The Depression, on the other hand, spoke a different message. It testified of a nation’s weakness, its poverty, its inabilities, and the collapse of its prosperity. America would ultimately recover from the Depression and continue its long rise to the heights of world power. But the connection binding together the rising of the nation’s towers and the Shemitah would continue.

There would, in future days, arise another building that would, likewise, boast of the nation’s greatness. But, as we will see, the mystery of the Shemitah would frame its rising. While towers, by nature, speak of power and glory, the Shemitah speaks of something very different. It reminds a nation that its blessings and powers come only from God. And, without God, they must fall.

The Towers and the Day of Warning

The Harbinger
reveals a prophetic warning given to America at its first full day as a fully formed nation. The warning parallels the message of the Shemitah. It was, in effect, this: America’s blessings come from God. If the nation should ever turn away from God and reject His ways, then the blessings of God would be removed from the land.

The Harbinger
reveals the date on which the warning was given, April 30, 1789.
¹
The date will reappear in the mystery of the towers, particularly in the key years of 1930 and 1931. The reign of the first of the four towers came to its end on April 30, 1931, the anniversary of the prophetic warning. The second tower was not only completed on the anniversary of the warning but was also erected on the same ground on which that warning was given. The reign of the second tower ended soon after with the completion of the third tower that same spring. The third tower would stand as the tallest building on the earth for one year. Its reign would, in turn, come to an end on the same date, April 30, the date of the prophetic warning. For it was on April 30 that the Empire State Building became the tallest building on earth.

The Last Tower

Years later, after the World Trade Center was destroyed on 9/11, the Empire State Building would again stand preeminent as the tallest building in the New York skyline. In 2012 the rising tower of Ground Zero finally surpassed the Empire State Building to become the tallest building on the New York skyline. On what day did that happen? It took place on the date given in
The Harbinger
, April 30, which had been released four months earlier. The Empire State Building was surpassed on the exact same date on which it had surpassed the Chrysler Building as the tallest building on the earth. The Chrysler Building had, in turn, become the world’s tallest building after surpassing the previous title holder, which had been completed as well on that same date—the date on which the prophetic warning had been given to America.

So each of the four towers had either begun its reign or ended its reign on the date of the prophetic message, when America was warned against turning away from God. Now the fifth tower had ascended past the Empire State Building on the same date as well.

The mystery of the towers is linked to a national warning—and to the Shemitah. The towers boasted of the soaring heights to which American civilization had risen. But the Shemitah reminds a nation that all of its blessings come from God, and without Him they cannot remain. The prophetic message warned similarly that if America ever turned away from God, those blessings would come to an end.

With the completion of the Empire State Building in 1931, the days of the high towers would come to a close—until the rise of the World Trade Center. So too the Shemitah, in which the final and tallest of America’s high towers rose, would also come to an end. Its end came, of course, on Elul 29. But on the Western calendar—the Shemitah that ended the time of the high towers was September 11.

As America assumed the mantle of “head of nations,” the mystery of the towers would carry even more critical and prophetic consequence. There would arise another building, made up of two towers. It would take the crown away from the Empire State Building. In its rising, the mystery of the Shemitah and the mystery of the towers would converge. And its fall would signal the beginning of the harbingers and the warning days of national judgment.