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The Great Pyramid is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing. It is one of the oldest structures on the face of the earth and arguably the best built. Its mortar joints are consistently 1/50 of an inch, which is incredible craftsmanship, considering that of the over two million stones that make up the Pyramid, there is no stone weighing less than a ton, most weighing about two and a half, and some as much as 20 tons! The Pyramid covers over 13 acres and is solid masonry, not hollow or earth-filled like the Central American pyramids.
The Great Pyramid here demonstrates the remarkable character of its placement on the face of the Earth. Joseph Seiss and others have demonstrated that the Pyramid lies in the center of gravity of the continents. It also lies in the exact center of all the land area of the world, dividing the earth's land mass into approximately equal quarters. The north-south axis (31 degrees east of Greenwich) is the longest land meridian, and the east-west axis (30 degrees north) is the longest land parallel on the globe. There is obviously only one place that these longest land-lines of the terrestrial earth can cross, and it is at the Great Pyramid! This is incredible, one of the scores of features of this mighty structure which begs for a better explanation.
The
Pyramid is at the earth's center
While being the oldest structure on the face of the earth, the Great Pyramid is the most accurately oriented, being laid out almost exactly due north, south, east, and west. Modern man's best effort, the Paris Observatory, is six minutes of a degree off true north. The Great Pyramid is only three minutes deviant and E. Raymond Capt1 claims that is due mainly to subsidence. Many architects and engineers who have studied the Pyramid's structure contend that, with all our vaunted technological prowess, we could not build the structure today. Does the theory of evolution run in reverse?
There has been a running controversy between two groups of serious students of the Great Pyramid since Herodotus, the "father of ancient history" revived its study two thousand years after it was built. The first group believes that the Pyramid is a divine revelation, and the second group doesn't. While this latter group might be willing to conjecture that the apparent geometric marvels of the Pyramid are the result of knowledge lost with Atlantis2 or other highly advanced but now destroyed civilization, they will not accept the possibility that God used prophets to direct the building of the Great Pyramid in the way that God directed Noah to build the ark.
Proponents of the divine inspiration school have included John Greaves3 , apparently Sir Isaac Newton4 , John Taylor5 , Scotland's Astronomer Royal C. Piazzi Smyth6 , Joseph Seiss7 , J. Ralston Skinner8 , David Davidson9 , and James and Adam Rutherford10 , Those who have been skeptical of this perspective, but avid students of some form of Great Pyramidology include William Flinders Petrie11 , Sir J. Norman Lockyer12 , the "pyramid power" people including Antoine Bovis, Karl Drbal, G. Patrick Flanagan, and most modern tabloid and/or high glossy treatments of the mystery of the Pyramid including Time-Life's Mystic Places, the work of Erich von Daniken, and Humphrey Evans13 , William Fix14 , Kurt Mendelssohn15 , Max Toth16 and Peter Tompkins17 . The present work is confident that the Great Pyramid's Architect was the Creator and that its builder was the Egyptian pharaoh Cheops, also called Khufu. Cheops was directed by shepherd-prophets who, like the biblical prophets, were men who received a special calling and anointing from God.
Consider these facts. The Pyramid was built in Egypt, notorious for its idolatry and polytheism. Yet Pharaoh Cheops became "arrogant towards the gods" during his reign and shut up the temples, cast out the images, and compelled even the priests to labor in the quarries. Herodotus says that the Pyramid was thirty years in building, the first ten years building prepatory works, with crews of 100,000 working on three-month shifts, and that after this thirty year period Cheops reverted to worship of the Egyptian gods. What strange power could cause such a radical thirty year break in the polytheistic habits of the Egyptians?
Herodotus extensively interviewed an Egyptian priest about the building of the pyramid and he attested that a noted stranger abode in Egypt at the time of Cheops, a shepherd, to whom rather than to Cheops the Egyptians attribute this edifice. The Egyptians call him "Philition" or "Philitis." Josephus also quotes Manetho, an Egyptian priest and scribe, who says there was a period in the Egyptian past when, by peaceable means, some "shepherd kings" had the Egyptian rulers "in their hands." Manetho said that some say they were Arabs. Seiss, with characteristically sound scholarship and reasoning, makes a case that the biblical Job was the Arabian who directed the Pharaoh in the building of the Great Pyramid. Seiss points out that the image of a pyramid is "unquestionably" the subject when God addresses Job out of the whirlwind in Job 38:
"Then the LORD answered Job from the storm. He said: 2 "Who is this that makes my purpose unclear by saying things that are not true? 3 Be strong like a man! I will ask you questions, and you must answer me. 4 Where were you when I made the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand. 5 Who marked off how big it should be? Surely you know! Who stretched a ruler across it? 6 What were the earth's foundations set on, or who put its cornerstone in place 7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted with joy?"
Seiss says that since YHWH's object is to convince Job of his incompetency to judge of and understand Him, it is as if the Almighty is saying: You laid the foundations of the great structure in Egypt, but where were you when I laid the foundations of the far greater pyramid of the earth? You laid the measures of the pyramid in Egypt, but who laid the measures of the earth, and stretched the line upon it? You fastened down in sockets the foundations of the pyramid in Egypt, {the Great Pyramid is built on four sockets} but whereupon are the foundations of the earth fastened? You laid the pyramid's completing capstone amid songs and jubilations, but who laid the capstone of the earth when the celestial morning angels sand together, and all the heavenly sons of God shouted for joy?
In our day the idea of shepherds being special agents of God in the building of a monumental structure would be ludicrous in the extreme. Such is our age. The fault line of commentators referred to above is sharp, because the difference between faith and unbelief is the difference between light and darkness. The Bible says that God revealed to shepherds some of the most important information ever given to humankind:
Luke 2:8-15: That night, some shepherds were in the fields nearby watching their sheep. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them. The glory of the Lord was shining around them, and they became very frightened. 10 The angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I am bringing you good news that will be a great joy to all the people. 11 Today your Savior was born in the town of David. He is Christ, the Lord. 12 This is how you will know him: You will find a baby wrapped in pieces of cloth and lying in a feeding box." 13 Then a very large group of angels from heaven joined the first angel, praising God and saying: 14 "Give glory to God in heaven, and on earth let there be peace among the people who please God." 15 When the angels left them and went back to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, "Let's go to Bethlehem. Let's see this thing that has happened which the Lord has told us about."
Abraham was also a shepherd, like Job, wealthy with flocks and herds. How is it that he was brought to the attention of the pharaoh of Egypt and the King of Gerar in his travels?18 Was it simply that Sarah, his wife, was so pretty? The Jewish records say that Abraham was learned in the science of astrology and with his elaborate knowledge of the heavens and their meanings he attracted the attention of these kings. We know from the biblical record that God communicated with the shepherd Abraham many times, several times using the "stars" as a teaching vehicle. YHWH Himself directed Abraham's eyes toward the heavens, indirectly corroborating the Jewish oral tradition that says Abraham was a gifted astrologer:19
Gen 15:5 "And he brought him forth abroad, and said, 'Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them': and he said unto him, 'So shall thy seed be.'"
The eye of faith sees it as a real and distinct, not vain and imagined, possibility that the Pyramid was directed by shepherds guided by Divine wisdom. Such faith offers a sufficient explanation of what would otherwise be the dilemma posed by the advanced knowledge and technology exhibited by the Pyramid. It is with those who do not accept the Divine authorship of the Pyramid with whom the burden rests for a better explanation.
There is a biblical reference to the Great Pyramid which is instructive:
Isa 19:19-20 "At that time there will be an altar for the LORD in the middle of Egypt and a monument to the LORD at the border of Egypt. 20 This will be a sign and a witness to the LORD All-Powerful in the land of Egypt. When the people cry to the LORD for help, he will send someone to save and defend them. He will rescue them from those who hurt them."
Notice that there is a reference to an "altar" and a "monument" that will be in Egypt. The location of this "altar" and "monument" is sketched in terms which seem to be contradictory; it will be at the "border" of Egypt at the same time it will be in the "middle" of Egypt. The apparent contradiction offers a chance to pinpoint the identity of this "monument" since few candidates would be able to be both the "border" of something, and also its "middle."
Note the horizontal line below the bottom of the delta quadrant.
The
Pyramid is at the center AND the border of EgyptThis represents the border between the two countries making up ancient Egypt: Lower Egypt (the delta) and Upper Egypt (the South). The Great Pyramid is at the border of Upper and Lower Egypt. Yet this is also the center of the land of Egypt if the two ancient countries be viewed as one, a single Egypt. Note also that the Pyramid is at the center of the natural quadrant formed by the regular curvature of the delta. It is also at the center of present Egypt in that Cairo is the capital of the country and at the center of its business and cultural life. It is also at the border of ancient Egypt in still another way.
The Great Pyramid is sometimes called the "Great Pyramid of Gizeh". "Gizeh" means "border', thus indicating in still another way that the Pyramid is associated with a "border". The name "Gizeh" is probably drawn from the fact that anciently the borders of Egypt were considered to extend as far as the watered, green areas all along the Nile. The desert outside this fertile strip was not really part of the country. Thus the division line between fertile strip and desert is the natural "border" of Egypt. It is along this "border" that the Pyramid is situated. Thus by two separate sets of triple confirmation, the Great Pyramid answers the apparent riddle of being at both the border and center of Egypt. To find any other object or concept fulfilling this prophecy's specifications would be extremely unlikely. The Biblical standard of proof, given at Deuteronomy 19:15 and affirmed in the New Testament (at Matt. 18:16 and 2 Corin. 13:1) has been met:
"One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established." (Deut. 19:15)
The Pyramid is certainly a "pillar" as the text calls for, and also an "altar" in the sense of being a witness to the Lord. This sense for "altar," as a structure of witness and not for offering sacrifices, is used several times in Scripture, such as this reference in Joshua 22:
26 Therefore we said, Let us now prepare to build us an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice: 27 But that it may be a witness between us, and you, and our generations after us,
An interesting occurrence of gematria also helps pinpoint the Great Pyramid as God's special revelation. Here is the Hebrew of the Pyramid text, Isaiah 19:19, 20:
The Hebrew of Isaiah 19:19,20Gematria is the science of finding meaning in the numerical value of words. In the Hebrew language each individual letter has a numerical value. Thus every word has the numerical value of the sum of the value of its letters. If one adds up the numerical value of all the Hebrew characters in the Great Pyramid text the value is 5449. This is the height in inches of the Great Pyramid!
The Great Pyramid has been called "the Bible in stone" because its passage systems reveal geometrically, in line and symbol, the same profound spiritual truths and plan of salvation specific to the Bible, as will be seen as this study unfolds. And just as there are time prophecies of significance in the Bible, the Pyramid's silent geometry reveals a remarkable chronography, prophetic time in stone.
The challenge to deciphering the prophetic scale is deciphering what measure of length equals what measure of time. The key to this scale is given in the Pyramid, in the upper horizontal passage system's first ante-chamber, in what is known as "Enoch's circle." Enoch was translated when he was 365 years old. A circle is a symbol of eternity and Enoch thus "entered eternity" at 365. The circle formed in that first antechamber, defined by the floor and the two hanging walls measures 365.25 inches.
The
Pyramid speaks with geometry, not wordsThe term "inch" is probably ultimately derived from Enoch's name, for he was bestowed with many secrets of knowledge and filled with the spirit of prophecy. Being a student of mensuration, and probably the pre-eminent "father" of that discipline, it is fitting for the "inch", the basis of the English system of measures, to be a memorial of the prophet Enoch. This is rather like Lincoln finding his place on every American penny. Enoch stands as a symbol for the character and faith which must be obtained by those who would pass through earth's final ordeals and be translated at last when the Messiah returns at the end of this present wicked age. With the scale of an inch for a year, the Pyramid yields its chronography.
That a linear measure could represent a time period is alluded to by Jesus Himself in the Sermon on the Mount. The Savior asks at Matthew 6:27, "Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?"
The Greek for "stature" indicates "age-length," not linear length. Jesus is not giving a formula for how to grow a basketball star, of seven-foot-plus stature, but rather is asking, "Which of you by worrying can add one 'cubit' of time to his life-span?" One authority claims that Jesus' association here of a time measure and a linear measure is the only such usage in all of ancient Greek literature. While the point Jesus is making is that worry is fruitless, he is secondarily mixing a metaphor which yields the interesting equation that length can equal age. This simple idea will be plugged into part two of our study of the Pyramid.
So many fanciful theories abound about the Great Pyramid and its meaning, one could despair of ever reaching sane conclusions about it. It is comforting to reduce speculations to the actual medium the Pyramid undeniably bequeaths: Its silent, unerring geometry and measures. I have just finished reading Richard W. Noone's book 5/5/2000 Ice: The Ultimate Disaster. I felt obligated to read this book before writing the present chapter because, like a tour guide to new visitors, I am claiming to know something about the chronology of the Pyramid, and I want to learn all I can.
I had heard that the premise of the book was that the Pyramid reveals the date May 5, 2000, as some epochal tragedy for the human race, like others that have been experienced in historical times. I am glad to be able to report to other seekers that reading the book is not worth the effort, if sound chronology be the object of search. While there are many interesting interviews with Pyramidologists like Valentine and Tompkins, Egyptologists, and esoteric metaphysicians, and while there are many interesting nuggets spread along the way, the book offers no sound reason to look to May 5, 2000 as any kind of Pyramid-based date. I am led to believe that some people like the power and pride that comes with authorship, like babbling on and on with dazzling erudition, but do not have a commitment to bless their readers with helpful and true facts and reasoned conjectures that will aid in the struggles of this life.
Being told that the Pyramid reveals a major tragedy caused by the growing weight of ice in Antarctica which will tip the earth's axis, causing a major disruption of the planet--on a specific date!--is certainly titillating--isn't it?--but it is not based on any sound exposition of the Pyramid's structure. I should say that I found much the same dynamic in Robert Bauval's The Orion Mystery which carries the subtitle Unlocking the Secrets of the Pyramids and has the single phrase front-jacket blurb "A Revolutionary New Interpretation of the Ancient Enigma." Much ado about very little.
Bauval is ruffled that his theories on the pyramids are not welcome among the Egyptologists. They hold that the pyramid builders had a solar religion, he thinks it was stellar. They will not admit of a link with the pyramid locations and the order of stars in the heavens while he insists on such linkage. They have no explanation for why the Dynasty of Cheops built such exquisite pyramids when the dynasties before and after simply show no ability for such craftsmanship, and yet when Bauval offers a possible explanation they are sure it cannot be right. And so on. There is a desire to want acceptance from "experts" who he knows are not really experts.
Bauval must make up his mind as to whether he wants the accolade of blind academics or if he is content to let his research lead him where it will, the experts notwithstanding. One must remember the heavy entrance requirement one pays to be an "Egyptologist:"
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go all the way through graduate school in some field related to Egyptology (an intellectual and pecuniary hurdle beyond most common people) and (now for the big one...) |
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accept the prevailing theories and assumptions that characterize the coursework along the way. |
Paying such a price carries an impossible toll on any free-thinker, or anyone who believes in a sovereign God. If Bauval will not pay the price--and why should he?--then he had best lay his conclusions before readers who can judge the merits of his investigations. It is incredible Bauval lists not one footnote to Velikovsky in his entire treatise. Immanuel Velikovsky rocked the astronomical and Egyptological establishments in the 1950's with the publication of his works Ages in Chaos and Earth in Upheaval. His vast and intricate scholarship undercut the foundations of the astronomical and Egyptological establishments. Harvard astronomer Harlow Shapely put pressure on Velikovsky's New York publisher to stop publication of the book. His pressure--representing the combined pride of these establishments--was able to scare away the publisher, but another publisher--Doubleday--had the courage to go with Velikovsky and his radical but erudite and profound ideas became public.
The reason it is incredible that Bauval does not mention Velikovsky--who, for the record, was an agnostic Jew, not a Bible thumping creationist, for instance--is that Velikovsky shows the entire edifice of Egyptology as it exists as a discipline today is false. The accepted chronology of Egypt--and its crosslinks with Israel in such events as the Exodus--is shown by Velikovsky to be off by centuries, and in hopeless contradiction to itself in many places. Velikosky's evidence is primary historical research. As a rational human being with no ax to grind, I accept almost all of Velikovsky's scholarship. In saying this, I am in rebellion against the prevailing orthodoxoy and would be blacklisted and shunned by the Egyptologists that Bauval and others are hoping to get noticed by. It would be a suicide note if any Egyptologist today attempted to embrace Velikovsky in public scholarship.
So I choose to go with the clear-seeing rebel--Velikovsky--and don't give it a second thought that I am totally outside the blessing of the Egyptological establishment. I am not with Bauval in seeking for their notice or recognition. I hope they see the light and shed their skin but I'm not holding my breath. I am used to being outside the flow of the establishment as one who believes in an all-loving sovereign God who is the creator of the Universe and not an unknown, impersonal, chance-bound force that somehow allows the accident of evolution to occur. With renewed personal resolve, let me venture forth to unfold some of the Pyramid's chronological treasures, revealed, let it be reminded, in unerring stone geometry which is as ancient as any writing available to the human race. Moses' penning of Genesis came a thousand years after the Pyramid's message had been tooled in stone.
In an appendix to Peter Tompkin's popular book, The Secrets of the Great Pyramid, is an appendix about ancient Egyptian measures. People can marvel at how "advanced" this system of measures is. But the very concept of "advancement" implies that the roots of the Egyptian science were gleaned from former "lower" civilizations which were before the Egyptian. But that is simply not the case. The Bible makes it abundantly plain that Noah's son Ham was the father of Egypt.1 Noah was the recipient of the advanced knowledge that had come into the world through revelation to the patriarchs before him, especially through Enoch and Adam. Noah used much of this advanced knowledge in construction of the ark, which he built according to the divinely ordained cubit, the basis of the ark's design.2 The cubit is mentioned also in the book of Revelation:
(Rev 21:17) And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.
It is mentioned as the unit used by angels. The cubit is a measurement standard from out of this world, used by angels in Heaven. How interesting that the cubit shows itself to be a more rational and scientifically accurate standard than the metric system! When the French savants who invented the metric system chose a standard for that system, they took the one ten millionth part of a meridian from the North Pole to the equator through--where else?--Paris. Ta da! The meter is born...
The problem with this is not only that the meridian through Paris3 is different than all other meridians, but is also subject to change as the topography changes. On the other hand, the sacred cubit is the one ten millionth part of the earth's semi-polar axis, a radius from the center of the earth to the North Pole. This semi-axis does not vary as would a meridian, whether through Greenwich or Paris. If the ancient Egyptians designed the cubit based on the earth's semi-polar axis, and the French scientists--cream of the crop of the Age of Enlightenment, the flower of modernity--did so based on a Parisienne meridian, one has to wonder if evolution is running in reverse. Of course it is more likely that the Creator is the One who designed the cubit to be in direct relation to the planet for which it was meant to be a standard.