Troublesome Topic: ADVANCED TECH DISAPPEARED FROM ANCIENT TIMES

The impressive workmanship of the ancients did not continue.

I believe that, for all the major tribes that were dispersed after Babel, there were already people that possessed what they considered pure bloodlines and those whose blood was considered mixed. Those with pure blood, according to their own definitions, considered themselves the nobility, and oppressed the poor.

EGYPT

Let’s start with Egypt. 

Were the ones who came to Egypt after the wild Nile descendants of Mitsraim returning to their homes, or were they totally different people? To answer this question we must recognize that the name Mitsraim in the Bible, means Mitsraim’s place (we call it Egypt) and it also means Mitsraim’s descendants (the Egyptian people). Yet there are records of ancient Egyptians saying they did not build the pyramids, rather it was demigods that did it. In some cases, the rich people convinced the poor people that they were demigods and that is why there were able to do so many great things. 

Today, some people think those who built the pyramids had access to Tesla style electric energy that was unlimited and free to all.  The part of that statement which I disagree with the most is that it was free to all. I think that they probably did have some form of power that was as useful to them as electricity is to us, or close. But I think the elites made it available only to those they chose.  Even if a workman used such power in his work, I think he was not allowed to have it in his home.

In my opinion, the nobility of Egypt did not develop their capabilities on their own, rather the various types of expertise they possessed were carried on the ark by Noah and his sons and taught to their descendants.

The common people did not consider themselves direct descendants of those who built the pyramids, for they were never allowed to make that claim, even though their blood-lines were partially the same. Thus, when God punished the nobility for their arrogance, godlessness and mistreatment of others, the knowledge needed to build amazing things  was lost, but the peasant class was spared.

After the Nile calmed down, those descendants of Mitsraim whose blood was mixed,  returned to Egypt and inherited the pyramids, statues and obelisks we see there today.

The most ruthless among the survivors became their rulers and put their names on the things they inherited. When you hear someone say that everything with the Rameses Cartouche on it was made by Rameses the great, don’t believe it, for we know he put his name on everything he could find, and we have found pieces that were in the process of having one set of carvings rubbed off so they could be replaced by other carvings.

What’s more, those who returned may have wanted to separate themselves and not claim a close association with the ones whom God punished for their arrogance.

The Pharaohs returned to building things with bricks because they no longer had the option of building with large stones.  In contrast, when Nimrod led the effort to build the tower of Babel, he had many people who knew how to build using large stones, but he chose the inferior option of bricks instead. Thus Nimrod reduced everyone, even the great builders among them, to the level of slaves.  After those talented builders were dispersed by God and freed from Nimrod’s control,  they went crazy building megalithic sites all over the world.

What is the evidence for this theory? First of all, we have eons of human history in which the rich and powerful have always exploited the poor and the weak. Are there any hints in the Bible that this was the case in Egypt before the Wild Nile? The only answer I can give is that the situation was ripe for such exploitation.

Let’s back up a moment. After the world-wide flood there would, of necessity, have been the marrying of people with close blood lines. From then until the tower of Babel, about 531 years after the flood, the human population stayed together and moved around in one big group. This physical proximity, along with a common language, would have encouraged intermarrying between people with very different blood lines.

However, as more time and generations separated them from Noah himself, some of them would have cared about a pure lineage, and wherever possible, would have used the pureness of their bloodline (as conveniently defined by themselves) to gain advantage over others and rule over them.

This would explain why some of Mitsraim’s descendants were spared and yet they do not claim full and direct connection to him, yet they bear his name (Egypt).

I am not saying that all human intelligence disappeared completely but rather that the specific technological advancement we can see hints of in ancient times disappeared.

When that disappearance took place, the impressive, megalithic construction style of the ancients did not continue, rather it was followed by an inferior, unimpressive type of stonework. This is true all over the world!

It appears that  something happened to halt the transfer of knowledge from one generation to the next along with the use of the tools required to do the work. Everyone who knew how to build in this way, seems to have disappeared. Their work was inherited by others who simply built on top of it with inferior methods and materials.

BAALBEK LEBANON

Consider the temple complex at Baalbek, Lebanon.

Everything here is often said to belong to the Roman era because all the temples in the temple complex are temples of Roman gods – The names of the temples may be hard to read in this image, so I will use an arrow to point to their names, they are the temple of Jupiter here, Venus on the far right, and Bacchus here. We will focus our attention on this end of the structure where there is something called the Trilithon.

The term Trilithon refers to these three huge stones in the foundation of the temple to Jupiter which was built on top of them. The three large stones are the highest level of large stones in this platform; They stop and start here, here and here. They are approximately 750-800 metric tonnes each. They are not sitting on the ground level; they had to be raised several meters above the ground.

Yet most people talking about Baalbek hasten to say something like, “How the Romans moved such large stones remains a mystery.” At 750 tons, these could not have been moved by human power or animal power alone, There is no way. 

Therefore, there is a growing number of people who think the Romans did not cut and move the trilithon, rather they inherited the foundation platform which includes these three massive stones, and others about half their weight, and built their temples to Roman gods on top of them. The Romans never claimed the capability in megalithic construction because they had learned how to use concrete. The Colosseum in Rome is an example of their concrete construction work.

Notice that the foundation platform is of a different cutting style than the temple they put on top of it. It also looks more weathered.  Thus, the temple was Roman, but the foundation platform was NOT ROMAN.

KING HEROD THE GREAT IN JERUSALEM

Now let’s consider the work of King Herod the Great.

You are familiar with the retaining wall of Herod’s expanded temple complex, known as the Western wall, or the wailing wall. The largest stone in its foundation is 46 feet long, 10 feet hi and 10 feet wide. It weighs approximately 415 short tons. Other stones that can be seen from the tunnel are estimated at 350 short tons and 325 short tons.

By comparison, the largest stones at Stonehenge are 40 short tons, only one tenth the size of the largest one in the Western wall. 400 plus tons is enough weight to crush logs or any other wooden structure used while attempting to move these stones.

THE STORY OF THOSE HUGE STONES

Before I go on, allow me to describe what I consider to be the Biblically accurate history of those huge stones.  First of all, I need to make it very clear that nothing survived the world-wide flood unless it was on the ark. Every inch of land was scrubbed clean and then covered in sedimentary deposits that turned to stone. I selected several places for which I added up the totals from the Iso patch maps for each mega sequences of the flood and the places I chose came to totals between 3000 and 4,500 meters of sedimentary rock left by the flood. So ignore all claims of Pre-flood this, or Antediluvian that. All such claims are impossible.

I am convinced that the largest stones in the foundation of the Western Wall, the ones weighing 325 to 415 short tons each, were cut and moved shortly after the Tower of Babel. I think they filled in around them with dirt, leaving only the tops exposed. But these stones were abandoned  before the project was completed, just like other huge stones all around the world were abandoned.

King David conquered Jerusalem, the city of the Jebusites, and made it his capital. It was a medium size city, with a city wall.  Mount Moriah was outside of the city to the North and those large stones were still there, down a little ways from the top of the hill. Those stones were not for a high place because they were not at the top of the hill, so they may have been intended for a city wall to go around the hill.

Solomon expanded the city to include Mount Moriah, the site David had chosen for the temple, and he built city walls around the new section of the city. His three palaces are usually assumed to have been just down hill from the temple, and toward the city of David. During Solomon’s day, those big stones remained partially buried outside of the city, unused because they were too big to move.

I Kings 7:10 tells us that the larger stones Solomon used for the foundation of the temple and his three palaces were 10 cubits and 8 cubits. He used the old cubit for these projects, meaning that his foundation stones were 17 feet and 13 and a half feet in length. I will not try to guess at a weight for those stones because we do not know the width and height, but we can assume their width and height was a good match for their length. The text tells us that they were cut to size – i.e. cut to fit one specific place, as is usually the case in true megalithic construction.

It seems safe to assume that above those foundation stones, and in other projects, Solomon used some smaller stones which were still heavy and impressive, but more manageable.

So, where are the stones Solomon used?

We read in the Bible that the Babylonians tore down the temple, stone by stone, and I believe they dismantled Solomon’s palaces as well, one stone at a time, leaving much rubble which was hard to move or do anything with.

They may have planned their demolition in a way that would facilitate pushing those stones partway down the hill figuring that, if moving a large stone a short distance is hard, moving it up hill is several times harder.

When Zerubbabel returned from Babylon to rebuild the temple, he could do nothing more than move rubble away from essential areas and build using normal techniques. That is one of the reasons that the old-timers that could remember Solomon’s temple wept aloud when they saw the foundations of its replacement being laid (Ezra 3:12) – they could tell from the foundations alone that this one would be nothing like the one that Solomon had built with large stones, each cut to fit only in its place.

BACK TO KING HEROD

King Herod the Great wanted to make himself look good, and (hopefully) give the hot-headed Jews a reason to like him (at least a little bit) so he decided to rebuild the temple with an expanded courtyard. To expand the courtyard, he needed to extend the flat top of the hill the temple sat upon. For that he had to build a huge retaining wall to hold the rocks and dirt serving as fill.

I think King Herod’s engineers could not move the huge stones resting there since shortly after Babel, but he realized he could extend the temple mount in such a way as to use those old stones as foundation stones for his retaining wall on that side. So that is why we see stones in the foundation of the Western Wall ranging from 325 to 415 short tons.

I don’t think Herod had access to the best Roman engineers because it appears he could not adequately move and position the largest stones Solomon used as foundation stones. The right Roman engineers could have moved them, but I don’t think Herod’s men could. So he left them in place to serve as “fill” under the expanded courtyard of the temple – meaning – he covered them up!

But he could move the smaller stones which Solomon had used on top of the foundation stones and for other projects. I believe the part of the Western Wall that is still exposed today was made of those “smaller” stones. In the “the Wailing Wall” we see lots of stones I estimate to be about three-and-a-half foot square, and quite a few that are twice that long and some three times that long. A very small number of stones in that wall are closer to 20 feet long. But all of them are the same height (and width), even the 20 footers. Thus I consider all of these to be among the “smaller” stones left from Solomon’s time; the 20 footers being just barely manageable by Herod’s engineers.

Why do I think that King Herod the Great could not build with megalithic construction methods?

Most other people say that Herod built everything associated with the Western wall, so why do I disagree? Thanks for asking.

If Herod could build using stones of 300 or 400 tons, we would probably see examples of it in the lower section of the Herodian, and in other places such as his palace. If you can do something that impressive, you don’t keep it a secret! But we don’t see any such stones anywhere else in Israel.

And If he could pull off massive level megalithic construction, Caesar would have called him to Rome to build for him there. But no such invitation was given.

Instead Caesar had to be happy with attempts at bringing Obelisks and statues across the Mediterranean sea from Egypt knowing their record was a 50% success rate.

Also, If Herod could build with stones weighing 415 tons, and make the foundation look clean, straight and impressive, why are the stones above them characterized by a poor fit and a crude, unfinished appearance?

Some even have mortar between them – Oh NO! That’s terrible!  Actually, I’m serious – megalithic builders never used mortar. This may have been a repair done much later, but if megalithic construction was done right the first time, the need for repairs would have been much less likely as is seen in the “small” stones of the Western wall which have lasted a long time.

Even if some repairs were needed down through the years, we would expect more consistency than this. The walls in these tunnels show zero consistency – some huge carefully cut stones, and then mostly small, rough stones.

In fact, in all the photos I see of the inside of those tunnels, most of the stones look rough and crude, yes, some stones are over one ton, most  of which are rough, like the ones on the sides of this passage way, but a few are smooth, like the ones on the ceiling.

However, the great big ones stand out for how well they were finished. They show a little bit of wear, but not as much as others around the world, that is what makes me think they spent most of their time buried in dirt until Herod uncovered them and cleaned them up to make his walls look more impressive. When the Western wall was constructed, theses were the rock faces that were visible to the public.

I assure you that the same man was not in charge of the cutting and placement of the large stones, and also the cutting and placement of the smaller ones.

King Herod seems to fit the pattern we have seen elsewhere – he inherited the 300 and 400 ton stones and simply built on top of them; He inherited the foundation stones mentioned in I Kings 7, but he could not use them, so he buried them; he also inherited Solomon’s “smaller” stones and used these to make the Western wall.

WHY DID THOSE TALENTED BUILDERS DISAPPEARED?   

Did God punish them for being intelligent? No! He punished them for being self-absorbed, self-sufficient, power hungry, arrogant, godless, and brutal toward the weak. It appears that God eliminated these people in order to give the world a third chance.

THE EVOLUTIONIST ANSWER

Evolutionists attribute such losses around the world to what is called  the Younger Dryas Period, which they say was a cold interruption during the melting stage after the last Ice Age. They say that intense meteor activity during the Younger Dryas Period killed so many humans that it is worthy of being called a “near extinction event.” This lethal period is thought to have lasted about 1,200 years and to left behind only a few feeble-minded people leaving mankind much further back in the evolutionary process. Therefore, they say we have had to evolve back to the level of capabilities that we now have.

According to what I see in the Bible, I believe that the “near extinction event” was the world-wide flood itself, (some think there was meteoric activity during and after the flood)

Another theory says that aliens came and built that stuff. If you are interested in knowing why I disagree, I will point you to the presentations of Gary Bates, the best Christian voice I know on the topic of Aliens. You can find a number of his videos on You Tube. Don’t be surprised that he is maligned by many people; that is exactly what we should expect.

Any destructive force or combination of forces, used to eliminate the arrogant and ruthless people, had to be capable of destroying:  the tools used to make amazing things; all the people who knew how to build in that manner, and the cities where those people lived and worked.

THE MOST BIBLICALLY VIALBE ANSWERS FOR HOW GOD ELIMINATED THE ARROGANT

The first is Flooding caused by Melting Snow and ice

As soon as the volcanic activity that blocked the sun’s rays and kept the summers cool diminished, the snow and ice began to melt, and less snow fell. Secular and Christian scientists agree that the melt-off would have caused dramatic flooding because it was unrelenting. Christian scholars think the melt-off from the flood-induced ice age lasted for about 100 years without any let-up, although in Egypt it would not have taken as long as in places that are further North.  

There are ancient records that speak of “the wild Nile.” So it appears that the strong, steady flow during the rainy years was replaced by a flooding like none they had known before. This was a surprise to them because the rains subsided and then the flooding started. They were caught off guard by this and many in the delta region of Egypt lost their buildings, equipment and their lives. Today the Nile delta includes the cities of Cairo and Alexandria, a number of smaller cities, and many small towns. If the wild Nile caused the Nile Delta to flood severely, the delta may have been mostly submerged, destroying whatever towns were there at that time. This is one way in which some of the people and machinery involved in making the pyramids were lost – but probably not the only way.

Earthquakes are likely the cause of the destruction of many of the statues and obelisks in Egypt. Christian scholars and scientists think that earthquakes would have been more frequent right after the flood than they are today. They think it took about 800 years for the earth to calm down a bit after the flood – not calm down entirely, just a bit.

Volcanoes –  We can be confident that there was greater volcanic activity in the first 1000 years after the flood, which would have covered or destroyed many things from that era.

God could have targeted groups or individuals for punishment. We see in history how God selectively chose to destroy specific groups of people, such as the Canaanites, or punish a group of people, such as the Israelites. We also know that He sometimes caused specific individuals to suffer an untimely and painful death due to their arrogance and godlessness. Antiochus Epiphanes Ho Theos Victor (meaning Antiochus, the revealer of the gods, god himself, the victorious god), as well as Herod the Great and Herod Agrippa were each eaten by worms from the inside out when they exhibited extraordinary arrogance. Nebuchadnezzar’s arrogance temporarily cost him his kingdom and his sanity. Thus God has sometimes judged the entire world for extreme arrogance; at other times He has judged specific nations for extreme arrogance, and at other times He has judged specific people for extreme arrogance. How He did it does not matter as much as the fact that He did judge them.

We also know that He sometimes caused specific individuals to suffer an untimely and painful death due to their arrogance and godlessness. Antiochus Epiphanes Ho Theos Victor (meaning Antiochus, the revealer of the gods, god himself, the victorious god), as well as Herod the Great and Herod Agrippa were each eaten by worms from the inside out when they exhibited extraordinary arrogance. Nebuchadnezzar’s arrogance temporarily cost him his kingdom and his sanity. Thus God has sometimes judged the entire world for extreme arrogance; at other times He has judged specific nations for extreme arrogance, and at other times He has judged specific people for extreme arrogance. How He did it does not matter as much as the fact that He did judge them.

These next two could not have stood alone:

Wars: Although wars would not destroy a city leaving no trace of it, we can assume that wars were a contributing factor in the disappearance of many capable people around the world. Sometimes invading armies were known to take the rich and educated as captives, leaving behind the poor and uneducated.

Disease   While diseases would not destroy cities and machinery, there are many times in human history when disease has nearly wiped-out entire segments of the population. If God wanted to eliminate certain groups of people, disease could have been one of His tools. It is possible that a number of advanced societies have inadvertently brought about their own demise through disease or other means.

One more option: They could have destroyed themselves by thinking they were so advanced and trusting their own wisdom which led them to do self-destructive things. The only ones to survive were the little people, the outcasts, or the rebellious ones who refused to go along with the stupidity. One could argue that, after the elite died off, the poor people destroyed everything related to that advanced society out of fear that leaving those things in tact would bring judgment on them as well. Thus they did not include any part of them in their art or writings.

However, I favor options that have God taking action against them. He did a thorough job of eliminating their tools and their cities, much better than the little people could do. If the little people were afraid of being judged as well, they would have wanted to stay away and not even touch the things the elite had done. They would have abandoned them, rather than destroyed them.

GOD PROBABLY USED DIFFERENT MEANS IN DIFFERENT PLACES   

The Bible says nothing about this, but the physical evidence is quite clear that a level of technological advancement once existed but then its use ceased. If those people became too arrogant and godless, it would fit the Biblical pattern to conclude that God used various means to judge them by eliminating them from the scene.

This does not mean that all the smart people died. There were some intelligent people among the lower classes, but they kept their mouths shut to not be killed by their brutal leaders. They were not targeted by God for judgment and lived to pass their intelligence on to their offspring. Actually, I believe that all people have greater intelligence than others realize.

HERE ARE TWO OTHER IMPORTANT PATTERNS

It is the patterns that are important, not the historical facts themselves: One – When God hides something, we aren’t going to find it. Here I am referring to the tools and equipment used by the ancients to build the amazing things we have discovered. It appears that God wanted to completely hide the means they used to accomplish their feats. Therefore, to ask “how did they do it?” is the wrong question. We should be asking, “What does their disappearance teach us?” Two-  God prefers mercy over judgement, (see James 2:13) but He must punish evil when His offers of forgiveness have been spurned, rejected. He cannot violate His own character, His nature, therefore He must punish, and He will. Evil people do their evil deeds for a while, longer than we would like, but eventually God does take action and they are no more. The fact that He takes longer to punish the extremely evil people than we would like means He is showing them mercy and giving them more opportunities to repent.

HAS GOD’S PATTERN BEEN CONSISTENT?    WHAT ABOUT MAJOR KILLERS OF MORE RECENT TIMES?

Mao is thought to have killed between 45 and 80 million people, Genghis Khan and his son possibly 40 million, which was 11% of the world’s population at that time, Stalin between 20 and 50 million, and Hitler between 11 and 17 million. Why did God not stop these atrocities? Where was God’s mercy to the little people? 

THE PATTERN HAS CONTINUED DESPITE THE ATROCITIES WE HAVE OBSERVED

The reigns of those evil despots have not survived long-term,

God sees the heart of each person and judges each one accordingly,

God still prefers mercy over judgment

But He will judge us if we reject his offer of forgiveness and reconciliation.

SPIRITUAL CONCLUSION:

DON’T BE SELF-ABSORBED, SELF-SUFFICIENT, ARROGANT, GODLESS, UNCARING OR BRUTAL.

DON’T BRING GOD’S JUDGMENT ON YOUR HEAD. 

The next lesson in this study on Advanced Technology in Ancient times is ADVANCED TECH’S DISAPPEARANCE TEACHES SPIRITUAL LESSONS FOR TODAY