Posted by Tantalus [Tantalus] on November 25, 1999 at 20:01:14 {yaNwUlwC5c5mhrmu9.YkAJToxO4pJo}:
I found this interesting. It is from a 56 WT found on the CD under Pyramids, Giza, I believe it was. It starts out acting as though using the Pyramid, (great as it was and is) as a way to get information about the Bible is ludicrous, that doggoned old bunch of quacks from the UK, John Taylor of London, Professor Smyth and Dr. Edgar of Scotland were so goofy to ever think the Great Pyramid was "full of Scriptural meaning." So then they spend A LOT of time proving that it really wasn't the Stone Bible. After fighting the fine fight of reason and showing that to even think such a thing was "an Insult to God" and acting as though all of us needed to have it proved that it wasn't a Stone Bible or we might just jump to the conclusion that it was, then at the bottom they put the little footnote saying THEY believed all the things they argued against up until 1928. As this was written in 1956, that may not have seemed so long ago. I mean we still talk about 75 as a pretty recent event in many of our minds. Do you think they put all of this stuff in there to make people think it was a reasonable thing to get the wrong read on the Pyramid as Russell did? I can't help but wonder about the reality of or credentials of the men from the UK who also supposedly believed this stuff. Here is a small part of it:
The Great Pyramid of Giza
Product of the true worship or the false?
THE Great Pyramid of Giza is one of "the seven wonders of the ancient world." It is the largest of nine pyramids found in Giza, in the valley of the Nile. The Great Pyramid is 486 feet high, or about the height of a modern 40-story building, and each of its four sides is 764 feet long; its base covers thirteen acres. The ratio of its height to the perimeter of its base is the same as that of the radius of a circle to its circumference, a most remarkable feature according to some mathematicians and astronomers. Its four sides line up perfectly with the four directions of the compass...............
....There has been much speculation as to the reason why these pyramids of Giza were built, and in particular why the Great Pyramid was built. Some have disposed of the problem by claiming that it was built solely as a tomb for Cheops, but is it reasonable that a ruler would direct all the resources of a land such as Egypt toward the building of a tomb, and that for thirty years? Others have concluded that it was built to house royal treasure, but the cost involved in building such a structure far exceeded all the value of whatever treasure a king might want to place in it! Others have ventured the opinion that it was built to serve as a temple, but that likewise does not seem to be the right explanation, as its smooth and slanting sides made access to its entrances very difficult.
Because none of these theories fully and satisfactorily explain the purpose of building the Great Pyramid, others have developed the hypothesis that it was built under divine inspiration; that perhaps Melchizedek was its builder and that God provided it as a witness in stone to corroborate the Bible. Such men as John Taylor of London, Professor Smyth and Dr. Edgar of Scotland advocated the theory that the measurements of the Great Pyramid and particularly the measurements of its internal passageways and chambers, were full of Scriptural meaning.
This went on for a long time until at the bottom we find:
And further, when we consider that "the Chaldeans from the earliest times pursued the study of alchemy in connection with astrology," by which they hoped to discover the ‘philosopher’s stone,’ and by which in turn they believed they would be able to transmute base metals to gold and silver and at the same time discover the secret of life, then we can find a justification for the building of the Great Pyramid, as a monument erected to astrology with the hope of discovering the fundamental secrets of life and all matter.—The Great Pyramid, R. A. Proctor.
Thus, this most logical explanation of all as to the reasons underlying the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza would indicate that it certainly was not built by those engaging in the true worship of Jehovah God but by those devoted to astrology, a manifestation of Devil religion, and was built in furtherance of such religion.
[Footnotes]
Bible Students also held to this thought prior to 1928