Pyramidbooklet_04

CHAPTER 4

Past, Present and Future

Sir Robert Menzies was the first to discover that the passage system of the Great Pyramid is a diagram of Biblical history. He first theorized what has now been very well established, i.e., Biblical history was charted out in the Great Pyramid's passage system before most of the events ever occurred. From the development of Menzie's theory we also find that the beginnings, intersections and endings of the passages distinguish the order of the dispensations and ages of Bible history. Thus, the passage system not only symbolizes important events of Biblical history, it likewise organizes them in sequence as they occurred.

The sequence of Bible events displayed by the Great Pyramid is truly remarkable, for it agrees with the Bible's historical record. This agreement is perfectly logical because the Bible claims that the Great Pyramid is its stone-witness. However, before one can see and appreciate the sequence of Bible history shown forth in the Great Pyramid, Bible history must first be understood from the source, the Bible. The next part of this chapter will condense and outline the sequence of Bible history.

The Bible's Historical Record

The past, present and future of Biblical history is divided into three major epochs, or dispensations.

The first dispensation lasted from the fall of Adam to the flood. {2Pe 3:6}

The second dispensation started with the flood and ends with the world-wide replacement of human society by the Kingdom of Christ at the time of Christ's second advent. {Mt 13:30,36-40 2Pe 3:7 Ga 1:4}

The third dispensation begins with Christ's Kingdom. The scriptures indicate that the third dispensation continues forever. {2Pe 3:13}

The second of these dispensations is divided into minor time periods called ages which characterize the method with which God dealt with man during that particular time period.

The Patriarchal Age

The first age is the Patriarchal Age. During this age, God dealt with the patriarchs of the Old Testament as individuals. God covenanted with Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob based on their trust in Him. {Ge 9:9-17 22:16-18 26:24 35:9-15} He gave them the status of 'Friend of God' based upon their works of faith. {Jas 2:21-26 Heb 11:8-9} This age started at the flood and ended at the death of Jacob when the nation of Israel was born. {De 26:5}

The Jewish Age

The second age is the Jewish Age. This age began with the birth of the nation of Israel at he death of Jacob. During this age God dealt with the Jewish people as a group and called them the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel was God's chosen people, chosen because of the faith of their fathers: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. {1Ch 16:13 Isa 44:1} God told Israel that if they kept the Law they would receive eternal life, but if they disobeyed they would die. {Ro 10:5,Le 18:5 Ne 9:29} The nation of Israel soon found that they could not receive life because they were unable to keep the Law. The Apostle Paul recognized this and wrote, '...by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified....' {Ro 3:20} None of the children of Israel was able to obtain life through the Law because it represented God's perfect standard.

After some eighteen centuries, there was a perfect man, (God's son) who was able to obey God's perfect standard. Jesus Christ was born a Jew, under the Law. He obeyed every requirement of that Law. Therefore, He was entitled to the eternal life promised for such obedience. Rather than keep the eternal life to which He was entitled, He sacrificed it. By His sacrificial death, He broughtan end to the Law and opened up a new and living way. {Col 2:14 15Heb 10:19-20} By Jesus' fulfillment of the Law, He brought an end to it's requirements. {Mt 5:17-18} The Jewish Age ended shortly after Jesus' death when God ended dealing exclusively with Israel.

The Gospel Age

The third age is the Gospel Age. This age began when God started dealing with all mankind based on their faith in Jesus as God's means of salvation from sin, rather than on obedience to the Jewish Law. The special privilege of this age of the Good News, the Gospel, is the invitation offered to each believer to be one of Jesus' disciples, to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. {Mt 16:24} Each disciple, if faithful to the commitment of discipleship, will receive a heavenly reward of eternal life and will reign with Christ as part of His Church in Christ's Kingdom. {Ro 8:17 Re 20:4 11Ti 2:12 Joh 10:27-28 Ro 2:7}

The Gospel Age with its special privilege of discipleship, and its reward of heavenly life with Christ, is the last age of the second dispensation. Both the Gospel Age and the second dispensation end with the violent termination of mans' centuries-old social structure. Brought about and ruled over by Satan, mans' corrupt social system must fall apart when Satan is bound during the 1,000 years of Christ's righteous government. {Joh 14:30 12:31 Eph 2:2} This termination is required in order for the world to receive the blessings God has promised for the next dispensation and its ages.

The Third Dispensation

The third dispensation begins with Christ's second advent. The Bible does not suggest an end to this dispensation. {Isa 45:17Lu 1:33} We can infer that it is the dispensation of eternal life and therefore has no end.

The Millennial Age

The first age of the third dispensation is the last age described in the Bible. It is the Millennial Age. {Re 20:6} The Millennial Age begins with the second advent of Christ. The work of the Millennial Age is the restoration of the human family to the life, privileges and responsibilities once enjoyed by Adam and Eve before they sinned. {Ac 3:21} Jesus and His faithful disciples will do this work. They will restore all people who wish to obey God's commands to perfect human life and reconciliation to God.

The Millennial Age ends 1000 years after it begins. At its end, Christ and His Church will return the perfected human family to God. {50 15:25,28???} Following the end of the Millennial Age the scriptures tell of a little season during which all people will be tested by God one last time before He awards each person everlasting perfect human life. {Re 20:3,7-9} After the little season the scriptures indicate mankind will live in a utopia-type condition for eternity. {Isa 11:6-9 65:25}

Corroboration in the Great Pyramid

The corroboration of Bible history is seen in an overview of the entire passage system. The passage system symbology begins with the fall of Adam and ends in any one of the three destinations: death, life or immortality. The passage system, when segmented into its different parts, neatly arranges the dispensations and ages of Bible history.

First Dispensation

The first dispensation lasts from the fall of Adam to the flood. Symbolically, this dispensation begins at the foot of the Great Pyramid's outer casing and ends at the original entrance.

Second Dispensation

The second dispensation begins at the flood and ends at the second advent of Jesus Christ. Symbolically, this dispensation begins at the entrance of the passage system and ends at both the Great Step and the entrance to the Subterranean Chamber.

Patriarchal Age

The Patriarchal Age lasted from the flood to the death of Jacob. At the death of Jacob, God began dealing with the nation of Israel rather than with the individual patriarchs. Symbolically it is fitting that the beginning of this age be marked by the entrance of the passage system, (the Noachian flood), and its end by the Granite Plug, (God's Law with Israel).

Jewish Age

The Jewish Age is when God dealt exclusively with the nation of Israel. Symbolically, this age began with their Law Covenant with God, (the Granite Plug), and ended at the death of Jesus Christ, (Grand Gallery).

Gospel Age

The Gospel Age begins with the death of Christ and ends at His Second Advent. This age is exclusively represented by the Grand Gallery. The Grand Gallery represents Jesus' call for discipleship which is held open only in the Gospel Age.

Third Dispensation

The Third Dispensation is shown in each one of the chambers. The Third Dispensation is everlasting, the three chambers picture everlasting conditions:

King's Chamber - immortality,

Queen's Chamber - eternal human life,

Subterranean Chamber - eternal death.

The Millennial Age

The Millennial Age is the first age of the Third Dispensation. This 1000 year period will witness the restitution of mankind. Symbolically, the Millennial Age is represented as part of the Horizontal Passage. The Horizontal Passage is found to be a separate picture; apart from the passage system as a whole. This does not take away from the Bible-Pyramid corroboration. In fact, the Horizontal Passage sums-up the entire plan of God.

The Horizontal Passage, divided into its two parts, pictures the two parts of God's plan of the ages. The last part of the passage pictures the 1000 year recovery program of the Millennial Age. The length of the last part agrees proportionately with the length of the first part which pictures the six thousand years from the fall of Adam to the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.

In the last part of this passage the average man can stand up straight, while the same man must stoop over for the first part of the passage. This feature contrasts man's freedom in the Millennial Age under Christ's righteous government with man's bondage in the first six thousand years under the curse of death.

Thus we see the past, present and future, as detailed in the Holy Bible, is symbolically outlined in the passages and chambers of this colossal edifice. If one were to stop here in his study of the passage system's witness of Bible history, he would surely have drawn closer to its full intended meaning. However, just as a well written play comes alive when we see ourselves portrayed in one of the actors, God's plan of the ages takes on greater significance when we consider our individual standing before our Creator.

[A man must bend over in the first 6/7ths of the Horizontal Passage.

The same man may stand up in the last 7th.]

Man's Standing Before God

Mankind's standing before God as a group and as individuals has played an important role in the shaping of Biblical events and is integral in the Bible-Pyramid relationship. Our understanding of this feature of Bible history will help us see where we stand before God as individuals, and what opportunities He has provided for us.

There are three basic planes (levels) of being described in the scriptures. These three planes are as follows:

a) Plane of Human Depravity
b) Plane of Human Perfection
c) Plane of Spirit Birth

Plane of Human Depravity

Adam, created perfect, was banished from the perfect conditions of the Garden of Eden and assigned to this plane because of his disobedience {Ge 3:17-19 2:17} The entire human race is born onto this plane through their inheritance of the curse put on father Adam. {Ro 5:12} However, all was not lost for the human race. God promised Adam He would send a savior. {Ge 4:15} That Savior was revealed to be Jesus Christ. {Lu 2:10-11}

Plane of Human Perfection

Adam and Jesus are the only two men who were perfect human beings. Adam was created perfect, Jesus was born perfect. {Ge 1:26 Heb 3:7,9,10 5:9}

Jesus enjoyed the same close relationship with God that Adam had and lost in the Garden of Eden. {Mt 3:17} Through Jesus' perfect capacities, He was capable of perfect obedience to God under the Jewish Law. Jesus did keep the Law and proved to be worthy of everlasting life, but He willingly gave His life at His crucifixion.

Adam lost perfect human life for himself and the entire human race by his disobedience to God. Jesus earned perfect human life for himself and the entire human race by His obedience to God. By Jesus' ransom sacrifice, mankind's standing with God will be changed from Human Depravity to Human Perfection. This is how Jesus is the Savior of the world.

Jesus had the ability to redeem all humanity from the depraved plane after His resurrection. However, He is waiting (the length of the Gospel Age) so He can develop a special class and award them a special reward.

During the Gospel Age, Jesus has extended a special invitation to all who appreciate Him as the Savior. This invitation is given to His followers to do much the same with their lives that He did with His, to lay down their lives just as He did, (including their justified human lives purchased for them by Jesus). Jesus promises immortality to those who are '...faithful unto death.' {Re 2:10 1Co 15:53-54}

Plane of Spirit Birth

This Plane is reserved for Jesus and His followers. {2Pe 1:4} Spirit birth is given to those who look to Jesus and follow Him in the 'narrow way' of sacrifice. {Mt 7:14 Ro 12:1} Christians are given this reward because of their obedience to Jesus' call during the Gospel Age. This level of being is not bound by restrictions of the human environment. The plane of spirit birth is a spiritual existence much higher than eternal human life. {1Co 15:40,43,44,49,}

Corroboration in the Great Pyramid

The Great Pyramid pictures the three basic planes of being described in the Bible. It portrays these planes in the same symbolic manner as it portrays the dispensations and ages of Bible history. While the beginnings, intersections and endings of the passages distinguish the order of the dispensations and ages of Bible history, the three levels of the passage system picture the three planes of being described in the Bible.

The Plane of Human Depravity is the level of the low end of the Descending Passage where it meets the Subterranean Chamber. All mankind has arrived here after their long descent in sin, sickness, pain and death, brought upon them by father Adam's disobedience.

The Plane of Human Perfection is the level of the Horizontal Passage where it meets the Queen's Chamber. All mankind will be raised up from the Plane of Human Depravity to the Plane of Human Perfection by virtue of Jesus' ransom sacrifice, the Well Shaft.

The Plane of Spirit Birth is portrayed by the level of the King's Chamber floor. The Plane of Spirit Birth has been offered throughout the Gospel Age. This level-of being is awarded to those who see Jesus as their Savior and follow Him during the Gospel Age. These followers, Christians, are delivered through the way of escape (Well Shaft) early, through their faith in Jesus as their Savior. Through faith, Christians recognize the opportunity to follow Jesus up the Grand Gallery to the Great Step and into the King's Chamber to a spirit birth.

Summary

The wisdom, justice and love of God's plan of the ages is powerful enough to inspire the most depraved among us. We see that the dispensations and ages of history were far from just a random ordering of events. We see there was a designed purpose behind every event, each contributing to the meaning of God's final purpose for man.

We see His wisdom in letting naive man get a taste of the results of disobedience to Divine Law—while at the same time providing for ultimate salvation. We see God's justice in providing Jesus as the Savior—a perfect human life given for a perfect human life. We see God's love by opening the Plane of Spirit Birth to those willing to put off their depraved tendencies and follow Jesus. We see His love not limited to a fortunate few but extended to all humanity, all of whom have been blinded by the Great Deceiver. Finally, the Bible-Great Pyramid correlation enlightens us to our own standing before God. Whether we are now alienated from God, or drawn to Him through Jesus the Savior, we see the opportunity to follow Jesus' footsteps and draw closer to our Creator.

We take comfort in knowing that God is in control of our turbulent society; He does have a plan which will ultimately display His wisdom, justice and love for all peoples.

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