A tree that was placed at the site of the 9/11 Muslim terror attack in New York City has died, has been removed, and destroyed.
“Harbinger” author Jonathan Cahn says it’s because of his book that the tree will not be replaced.
His work examines the nine harbingers, or warnings, recorded in the Bible that were delivered to Israel before the nation disintegrated. He contends God is giving the same nine warnings now to America to urge the nation to repent.
One of the harbingers was a sycamore tree at Ground Zero, which after the destruction of the Twin Towers was replaced by an evergreen, a move Cahn believes follows the Isaiah prophecy.
Now the replacement tree is gone, he said.
“The ancient sign of nearing national judgment has been manifested. The erez tree has fallen. The seventh harbinger now speaks of impending judgment. The Tree of Hope, the symbol of America’s resurgence … is dead,” he explained.
“The keepers of the Tree of Hope did everything they could to save the withering tree. They even changed the soil in which it grew. But no matter what they did, the tree continued to wither away and die,” said Cahn.
“Finally, in the spring of this year, the tree planted in the place of the fallen sycamore of Ground Zero, the symbol of a rising America, was uprooted. … The seventh harbinger is no more.”
He had written in his book a prophetic word concerning America’s Erez Tree, the Tree of Hope, saying, “…but when a nation such as this places its hope in its own powers to save itself, then its hope is false. Its true hope is found only in returning to God. Without that, the Tree of Hope is a harbinger of the day when its strong cedars come crashing down to the earth.”
Only recently did Cahn discover that “The Harbinger’s” prophecy has come true. The news came to him from those who had recently walked the grounds of St. Paul’s Chapel in New York City at the corner of Ground Zero where the erez tree had been planted in place of the fallen sycamore.
Unlike the planting of the Tree of Hope, which was done publicly and followed by a publicized ceremony, the tree was uprooted with little notice given, out of the public eye. In fact it was only after several inquiries were made as to the trees disappearance, that WND found out what happened. The Tree of Hope, the symbol of a resurgent America, was uprooted in the spring of this year. The day after its uprooting, it was entirely destroyed.
“In the Bible,” said Cahn, “the felling of the cedar, or the destruction of the erez tree, is a particularly stark sign given to a nation nearing the day of its judgment. It is one of several continuing manifestations of what appears in ‘The Harbinger’ – coming true after the book’s release. What these continuing signs signify is that America’s progression to judgment is continuing – if not accelerating. Combine this with the fact that America in indeed continuing on a rapidly accelerating course of apostasy from God and moral collapse – and it comprises an ominous warning: America is approaching a day of judgment.”
He said his source regarding the destruction of the tree also told him there would not be another tree planted because of “The Harbinger.” He said that because of the book, people have been coming from all over the United States to see the tree.
WND reported earlier on the Old Testament prophecy, the tree that was struck down and the replacement tree in New York. The roots of the sycamore tree were preserved as a memorial.
“The Harbinger,” which is described as a wake-up call for Americans, deciphers the stunning connections between the cryptic biblical prophecy and current events.
Isaiah 9:10 states, “The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.” (King James Version)
The words were first uttered by leaders in ancient Israel in response to a limited strike by Assyria on the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali. The prophet makes clear it was a limited judgment by God against apostasy. The purpose was not to destroy the nation, but to awaken it, according to most commentaries.
The northern kingdom of Israel did not repent of its rebellion against God’s commandments and was eventually conquered and removed from its land by the ancient Assyrians. Eventually, the southern kingdom of Judah also was overcome by the Babylonians after the Jews refused to repent as well.
Cahn, the pastor of the Jerusalem Center-Beth Israel Congregation in Wayne, New Jersey, claims the prophecy’s statement the “bricks are fallen down” refers to the crumbling of the World Trade Center. The verse, he says, connotes an attitude of defiance, a desire to rebuild with stronger materials instead of acknowledging the hand of God and moving toward national repentance.
The verse mentions sycamore and cedar trees, and it’s here that things start to get eerie.
“After the cloud of dust began to clear, police officers, rescue workers and onlookers gazed at the little plot of land at the edge of Ground Zero,” Cahn writes in “The Harbinger.”
“There in the middle of the ash and debris that covered the ground was a fallen tree. It would soon become a symbol of 9/11 and of Ground Zero. And it was a symbol … but one much more ancient than anyone there could have realized and one carrying a message no one could have fathomed.”
“The tree at Ground Zero that was struck down on September 11 was a sycamore tree.”
Not only was a sycamore tree struck on 9/11, but it was replaced in the exact same location by another tree of the type mentioned in the original Hebrew, an “erez” tree, which is the same genus as the cedar.
“The most natural thing to have done would have been to replace one sycamore with another,” Cahn writes. “But the prophecy required that the fallen sycamore be replaced with a tree of an entirely different nature. So the tree that replaced the sycamore of Ground Zero was likewise not a sycamore. According to the prophecy, the sycamore must be replaced by the biblical erez. So it must be replaced by a conifer tree.”
And that’s what took place in 2003, as a conifer tree, the “Tree of Hope” as it was called, was planted in the spot where the sycamore was slammed on 9/11.
But Cahn now is warning that America is advancing down the path that Israel followed to destruction.
“One of the signs given in the Bible of national judgment is that of a tree withering away,” he explained, quoting Ezekiel 17:10, “Behold, being planted, shall it prosper? Shall it not utterly wither away.”
And he said Jeremiah 11:16 also talks about it: “He has kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken.”
Cahn said the “breaking off of branches speaks of a nation whose glory and powers are to be removed.”
“If one went down to Ground Zero in the past few years, one would find the Tree of Hope withering away and its branches cut off,” he said. “But perhaps the strongest warning of judgment involving a tree is that of the destruction of the cedar tree.”
Isaiah 2:12-13 states: “For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every thing that is high and lifted up … upon all the cedars of Lebanon.” And Zechariah 11:2 states, “For the cedar (erez tree) is fallen, as the mighty are spoiled.”
The loss of the tree “is another ominous sign concerning America,” said Cahn, because it appears to be following a known path.
“Before God judges a nation, He sends warning,” explain Cahn. “He sent warning to ancient Israel. He even allowed its enemies to breach its borders in a devastating strike that would traumatize the nation. It was a wake-up call, the call to return to God. But the nation responded with defiance. God then gave nine harbingers of judgment, nine prophetic signs, alarms and foreshadows of what was to come. Now America is the nation in rapid departure from God’s will. And God likewise allowed an enemy to breach its borders in a devastating strike – the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It was, likewise, a wake-up call. But America, like Israel, has not responded with repentance, but with defiance. And now the nine harbingers of judgment have reappeared and have done so on American soil.”
Cahn says America is uncannily re-enacting ancient Israel’s behavior prior to its judgment and eventual fall.