Destiny

TWENTY-FOUR

On Monday morning, Paul Marcus entered the university library and paused at the stained glass mural in the lobby. He looked at the symbols in the three panes of glass, his eyes coming back to the center panel. He thought about the view of the wall around the Old City he’d seen from his hotel room. The lower portion of the painting depicting what appeared to him to be the wall around Jerusalem.

A librarian walked by carrying books in her arms.

“Excuse me.” Marcus pointed. “The painting in the center, is the lower portion the walls of Jerusalem?”

The woman smiled. “Some people believe that. The artist, Ardon, I don’t think he ever made that clear. Others believe the images are of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Isaiah specifically, second chapter, second verse.”

“What does it say? Do you know?”

She shifted the weight in her arms. “Yes, because I’ve been asked that question dozens of times. The passage reads: “And it shall come to pass, in the last days, the Lord’s house shall be established on top of the mountain. It shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.”

“The last days?”

“Yes.”

Marcus continued to study the stained glass, the rising sun giving the colors a subtle feel of movement causing the images to change slightly in the morning light.

The librarian smiled. “Another part of the text on the window mentioned another prophesy in Isaiah. You can see it painted on the panel to the right. The shovels and things, Ardon visualized how weapons, like spears, will be turned into gardening tools when nations stop the wars.” She paused, watching Marcus stare at the colors and illustrations on the glass. “Is there anything else, sir?”

“No, no thank you.”

She stepped around Marcus and walked across the large room, the soles of her hard heels the only sound in the lobby.

Marcus had been at the computer in the university library for five hours cross-referencing Newton’s handwritten notes when he stopped and re-read a page.

‘The ancient solar years of the eastern nations consisted of 12 months, and every month of 30 days: and hence came the division of a circle into 360 degrees. This year seems to be used by Moses in his history of the flood, and by John in the Apocalypse, where time, times and half a time, 42 months and 1260 days, are balanced. Matthew 24:36 says about that final day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, only the Father. The number, 603,550, from Numbers 1:46 — represents the sum of all the children of Israel…every person. To follow is to read Daniel and Revelation as one.’

Jacob Kogen entered. “I’m not sure you look rested.”

“Didn’t sleep very long. I may have found something.”

“Oh, what is it?”

“I think Newton believed, as do many people, the symbols used, especially in the Book of Daniel, represented nations. For example: the bear for Russia. The lion for what is possibly today’s Iran, Iraq and Syria, the leopard representing Turkey, Palestine, Libya and Egypt. The ten-horned beast is possibly China. He calls these nations beasts and uses the wording from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Corinthians, and Daniel to produce an accurate timeline of the shift of powers in Europe and the Middle East through much of the last three thousand years.”

“Understood.”

“Newton is trying to bridge a hidden link between at least a dozen books in the Bible, but seven in particular — Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Matthew, Numbers, John and Revelation. Maybe even a lesser-known series of writing from Enoch, Noah’s great grandfather. There’s a reference to Enoch, apparently walking with God without dying. Enoch was believed to have been 335 years old then. Was it some kind of elixir, a fountain of youth, or was it divine intervention? The book of Ezra gives the year of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem as being the seventh year of Artaxerxes, found in Ezra 7:7. Newton’s broad knowledge of ancient history meant he’d be familiar with the name, Artaxerxes Longimanus, the Persian king, and to place the decree in the year 458 BC. Newton’s deep understating of gravity allowed him to compute it.”

Jacob leaned closer in his chair, his eyebrows arched. “How?”

“To Newton, Daniel in a vision with the angel Gabriel, referenced seventy weeks from a certain point in time, to the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the crucifixion of Christ. Newton thought the prophecy meant seventy weeks of years, or rather 490 years. He used his own theory of gravity to calculate the position of the moon in ancient times to reconstruct the Judean calendar to find the year in which the day of the preparation for Passover fell on Friday. Then Newton computed the crucifixion date as either AD 33 or 34. When the Enoch calendar is used, then the separation of the two dates completes exactly seventy weeks of years to the very day.”

“Amazing, the riddles are slowly being revealed. This timing provides a strong witness of God’s prior awareness of both dates, and of the accuracy of the Book of Daniel. It is one thing, Paul, to prove the precognition of God that may be a given for many people, but how does the Bible reveal the future? Are the codes there?”

“I don’t know. Newton seemed to struggle with those things that could be some kind of divine providence and those things which man might know. The conflict found in the interpretations.”

“Some kind of divine providence — of course, you still doubt.”

“I’ve been a scientist for a long time.”

Jacob nodded. “So was Newton. What do you mean by conflict in interpretations?”

“Maybe even Newton couldn’t reach beyond a certain point, a human point, to grasp the depth of a timeline that contains both the history and the future of mankind.”

Marcus pointed to the papers scanned and displayed on the plasma screen in Newton’s handwriting. “But one approach is taken from Newton’s interpretation of the Emerald Tablet.”

“What approach is that?”

“Newton writes that one of the canons in the tablet says ‘that which is below is like that which is above.’”

“How do we construe that?”

“Gravity. Newton knew it is an invisible force that exists between all objects. We don’t really know what gravity is — we know only how it behaves. It’s a universal power, above and below. We can’t feel the sun’s gravitational force on us, yet Newton knew it’s the power that keeps the earth from flinging off into a black hole. In context of the areas Newton concentrated in the Bible, let’s look at the power, the force, of that which is above is like that which is below.”

“Paul, my old head is spinning. What do you mean?”

“Why develop skip codes to troll for words when you can be more specific with the subjects? It’s like looking for diamonds. Using satellite imagery and topography testing, the geologist knows the surface ore and the strata beneath it. If he or she mined far enough, there could be diamonds. You find areas in the Bible, such as passages that Newton focused on, the Books of Daniel, Ezekiel, John, Isaiah, Matthew and Revelation, and you examine the surface text, find specific parallels. What’s beneath the surface? If you can drill far enough, maybe you’d find buried messages that correlate with the exterior text.”

“Using what methodology?”

“The code, whatever it is, must share the setting, the subtext, in which it is written. If not, it’s tossed out as hit-and-miss junk, like computer spam. The spacing must be narrow so when the words intersect, they must relate to the encoded word. Look at it as if you’re standing on a riverbank on a bright summer day. The reflection of the clouds may float on the surface one minute. The next second, you may see butterflies hovering over the water, their colors reflecting from the river. Then you might see the reflection of trees off the waters. With Newton’s knowledge of history, he was trying to associate biblical and historical events into definite pools, in both the historical and futurist context with the foundations — the cornerstones floating at the surface, the prophecies somewhere below those images on top.”

“So how do we peer below the surface?”

Marcus smiled. “At one time, the Greeks used glass bottom buckets to look for sponges beneath the water in shallow areas. We have to find that bucket. I think I know how.”

“I’ll order food to be delivered.” Jacob left the room.

Marcus nodded and keyed in words, his fingers popping the keyboard like a fighter throwing fast punches.

Marcus held his breath for a long moment. He watched the words paginate across the screen like letters in a hybrid crossword and Sudoku puzzle locking into place. He let out a low whistle, glanced up from the screen at the empty room and continued. Reading the words, the adrenaline flowed into his system. “Okay, Isaac Newton, let’s see what you saw.”