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Religions Of The World
The Judeo-Christian religion has many more elements in common with other religions than one might think. The origin of the common elements in beliefs can be explained.

- Common Source. The global flood legends can be explained by the experience of one common ancestor of all nations. The Bible says that this is Noah and his three sons. All would have a similar story about the flood, but they may have their own opinions about the reasons behind sin and the problems at creation. So flood stories should be more consistent than creation stories.
- Jewish Origin. As a sect of Judaism, the text of Christians was the Torah. The only basic difference between the two religions was the identification of Christ as the Messiah.
- Middle Age Paganism. During the middle ages, as the Roman government made Christianity the state religion, the Catholic church incorporated pagan legends, feasts, customs and practices into the religion so that they could lure pagans into the church. So easter is a corruption of Passover. Christmas, Christmas tree, yule log, purgatory, indulgences, icons, Sunday worship and many other practices changed the religion. We will not discuss these legends.
- Jewish Slaves. The claim is also made that the Jews borrowed their religion from the Egyptians, Babylonians and Persians. According to the Bible, the power of God was so great among all these nations, that their leaders told them to honor the Jewish God! So, it is more likely that their religions were affected by the Jews.

Scholars and critics promote the following false assertions when they compare Christianity to the stories of other religions.

- Plagiarism. If the stories are similar and they believe one source is older, they automatically claim that this proves that one was stolen from the other. They never use the word converted or adopted or inherited, rather they use a disparaging word like "stole" or "plagarized". But, Moses did not plagiarize the story from the Epic of Gilgamesh. Noah was the common ancestor of all races and Abraham, the ancestor of the Hebrews came from that region where the Gilgamesh stories emerged.
  So the difference in the stories that Moses wrote is probably because God corrected the stories as He gave Moses the task of writing down the history in the Torah.
  Later, after the fourth century when Christianity tried to convert the Pagans, they corrupted the religion. But that did not affect the Torah.
- Ancient Documents. They propose that an older document means the more original story. When it simply means the oldest document that they have found so far. So they assert that the Epic of Gilgamesh preceded Moses and Moses stole this story. They do not account for the oral tradition, the technological advances of the ancient culture that might have preserved their artifacts or the existence of other buried documents, or the shared common history at the flood.
- Document Dating. Scholars use at least two methods to date artifacts.
  1. Science. Carbon 14 dating. While I have some issues with this method, my argument does not depend on its accuracy. I have already stated that an older document does not imply an older source or older story.
     Science also analyzes the ink and paper and the letters or type face to determine age. While they can exclude a document that is constructed with modern paper or inks, a good forgery will not include such obvious signs.
  2. Content. Documents are dated by their contents. If a document mentions an event, it is assumed that the document came after the event. So scholars tend to ignore the bible claims of prophecy and date books after the events about which they have prophesied, not what the author claims. Therefore, they assert that all claims of prophecy before the Greek period was simply a fraud. And they dated prophetic books after the historical event occurred.

Noah: The Original Source.

Religion Chronology
Year | Elapsed | Event
--- | --- | ---
4004 | 0 | Creation
2348 | 1656 | Flood
2247 | 1852 | Babel
Nations and Stories Separated
1921 | 2083 | Abraham called
1491 | 2728 | Exodus, Torah
1491 | Sin. 40 years in the desert
1489 | 2726 | Hinduism
605 BC | Jewish apostasy and captivity
618 BC | 3648 | Zoroastrianism
535 BC | 3695 | Buddhism
500 BC | 3722 | Shinto
440 BC | 3808 | Taoism
420 BC | 3788 | Janism
31 A.D. | 4036 | Christianity
538 | Christian apostasy and captivity
610 | 4839 | Islam
1530 | 5759 | Sikh
The emergence of other religions corresponded to the exile of the church for apostasy

In examining these stories, I am proposing that the stories originated with the history that Noah and his family held. So now, there are up to eight minor or major variations of the same story. It is possible that while they had the same memory of the flood, that any of the three sons and the daughters-in-law could have held many personal opinions about the origins of the problems between God and Satan. They did emerge from a decadent society.
The time line in the Bible shows that from the call of Abraham, Judaism existed long before any of the surviving religions. And while the Jews were exiting Egypt, other religions were just being formally organized. Therefore, the Judeo-Christian version given in the Torah is the oldest, complete account of the history of the human race. And the differences in stories is a fascinating account of how stories develop and change as the oral tradition is passed down from one generation to another and as one culture interacts with another to modify their legends.
The Superiority Of The Hebrew God.
I am also proposing that there is no evidence that the Jews stole the theology of the Persians and Egyptians. The most complete writings on the subject are the Jewish writings which scholars choose to reject. Accepting speculation instead. The Jews were conquered by the Assyrians, Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and Romans. It is just as valid a concept that they influenced the religion of their captors, than that they were influenced by it. This is the testimony of the bible. YHWH, the God of the Jews became famous for His ability to predict the future and demonstrate extraordinary miracles and power over the earth.

- Mesopotamia. Abraham, the father of Judaism came from the region of Babylon in Ur of the Chaldees. He was familiar with the beliefs of his people and he rejected it to follow YHWH. Their beliefs were probably Mithraism which is probably close to Zoroastrianism. He probably knew the flood stories in the Gilgamesh epic. It may be the version he held before God corrected it some time between his calling and Moses. It was part of His beliefs. He did not steal it.
- Egyptians. Joseph advanced from a slave in Egypt to marry the daughter of the high priest and to be second in command. So part of the Jewish line was half Egyptian. Joseph proved that his God was superior to the Egyptian god and gained respect for YHWH when the whole region was saved from famine through the power of God.
  ... Since God has informed you of all this, there is no one so discerning and wise as you are. You will be over my house, and according to your command all my people will do homage, only in the throne I will be greater than you. ... See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt. (Genesis 41: 39-41)
  At the time of the Exodus, the Egyptians were afraid of the power of YHWH.
  The Egyptians urged the people, to send them out of the land in haste, for they said, "We will all be dead". (Exodus 12: 33)
- Babylonians. Around the time that the religion of Zoroaster was beginning in this region, Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the image of the four ages. The king acknowledged the superiority of the Hebrew God.
  ... Surely your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, since you have been able to reveal this mystery. (Daniel 2: 47)
  » Zoroaster And The Messiah. Bible haters also claim that the Jews and Christians stole from Zoroaster including the concept of the Messiah. I address these issues and lies in another article, reaching the stunning conclusion that Daniel influenced these legends while He was captive during the Babylonian and Persian occupation and head of the magicians, astrologers and soothsayers.
- Persians. King Darius made the following decree after Daniel was saved from the lions.
  ... in all the dominion of my kingdom men are to fear and tremble before the God of Daniel. (Daniel 6: 26)
  Esther was the beloved Jewish wife of a Persian king and the king gave her uncle a high office. This also means that the royal Persian line became Jewish! When the plot to destroy the Jews was thwarted, the whole region was afraid of the Jews. The Persians even paid to rebuild the temple. Why? Was their royal line part Jewish?
  For Mordecai the Jew was second only to king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews and in favor with his many kinsmen, one who sought the good of his people and one who spoke for the welfare of the whole nation. (Esther 10: 3 also 9: 1)

The Development Of The Myths, Legends And Stories

God | Abyss | Creation | Sin | Flood | Dispersion | Hebrews | The End
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Light | Darkness | World | Garden of Eden | Snake |  | Noah | Ark | Rainbow | Tower of Babel | Abraham | Last battle
Heaven | Sea | Adam, Eve | Tree of Life | Fruit | 8 people | Animal pairs | Covenant | Languages | Exodus
Creation Myths | World Tree Myths | Flood Myths | Dispersion | Moses and The Torah, Covenant | End Time Myths
Cosmogony Myths | Sacrifice | Common Ancestors | Tribes Separated
Common Memories and Legends | National Histories (Divergence Begins)

Many errors crept into the oral tradition as time and recitation of the stories continued. That is the innocent way in which errors and changes emerged. As distance and isolation continued and memories faded, regional changes evolved. And, as families rejected God their ancestors probably learned to fear nature as they sought to understand the world. Over the generations as people sought to make sense of their primitive world, more changes were introduced. As tribes and families separated, the opinion of the dominant male or the spiritual leader influenced the elements of the stories.
Satan also existed to assist in distorting the original knowledge. But God intervened on Mount Sinai to restore the truth to Moses. But these are the myths and legends that should share some common information.

- Cosmogony Myths. These stories tell how the world was formed and how it is being sustained.
- Creation Myths. These stories tell how God, people and the world were formed.
- Savior and Sacrifice Myths. These myths and ceremonies were established long before the flood when God promised Eve that her son would save her. In fact, it is the only set of myths that were enshrined in a ceremony. This guaranteed a better chance of surviving intact over the centuries. This is why God used the feasts and festivals of the sanctuary system to enshrine the plan of salvation. The symbols in the ceremonies kept the meaning, even if the people changed their understanding. We list some of these saviors in the lesson on The Mystery of God.
- World Tree Myths. Most creation myths include a tree that is central to the structure of the world.
- Flood Myths. Stories about a great flood that wiped out mankind, leaving only a few to repopulate the earth.
- Dispersion of the Nations. Associated with the flood story is the subsequent dispersion of the next generations and the formation of new languages as they formed new tribes and migrated to other parts of the earth.
- Common Ancestors. All stories have a common ancestor at the point of the flood. Therefore, local legends should diverge after this point among each culture. And similarities should be expected in the shared knowledge of this common ancestor and the nations that emerged from him.
- End Time Myths. Since God promised Eve a resolution to the problem, all legends should contain information about how it should all end.

Hebrew | Title | Greek | Roman
--- | --- | --- | ---
El Elyon | Chief God | Zeus | Jupiter
YHWH | Love | Eros | Cupid
YHWH-Tzevaot | War | Ares | Mars
YHWH-Rapha | Healing | Asclepius | Aesculapius

Common Themes
It is not a coincidence that the common legends appear to explain life before the flood and the resolution at the end of time. They explain how it began and how it will end. The rest of their legends involve history that is unique to the culture.
God.

- Multiple Names of God. The monotheistic God may have evolved a polytheistic nature because of the custom of giving God many names and titles for all of His works. So the one God with many names that describe His power becomes many gods with their own name who have power over one system. Therefore, the God who judges and wages war or the LORD of hosts (YHWH-Tzevaot), becomes a separate entity known as the god of war. With the possibility of multiple gods established, Satan was able to insert himself into the exclusive fraternity of the gods. So it was easy for him to spread the lie that he was a god or equal to God. But the names of YHWH show His concern over the welfare of people, while the names of the Pagan Gods show an interest in subduing things. Even this shows their inferiority because God gave Adam the right to subdue and rule his environment.
  ... Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth. (Genesis 1: 28)
  Myths are all distorted by Satan's desire to be like God or to ruin His reputation. There is no distinction between the one who caused evil and the good God who fights evil. All the superior beings are seen as both good and evil. Warlike, treacherous, petty and incompetent. Each one has equal power and equal rights. Each uses humans as their pawns. Since God withdrew direct communication with humans, knowledge of Him was also distorted by our need to make sense of our situation. This concept of the world of the superior beings was a prime target of speculation to the descendants of Adam and Noah who must live in this imperfect world.
  Some concepts of God are worth noting because they do capture some of the truth.
  » Egyptian. Toth created everything from sound. When God spoke and things were created, He was using electromagnetic sound waves. The basis of all atoms is electromagnetic waves, like sound waves.
  » Norse. Balder, the god who died and had to be freed from Hel. He was murdered by the instigation of Loki. After the last battle at Ragnarok, he will rule. Christ was the God, who died and had to be rescued from Sheol. He was murdered by Satan who instigated the crowd. He will rule in the new earth after Armageddon, the last battle.
- Trinity. Many religions have the concept of a manifestation of one god in separate entities. They conceive of this concept as either linear or simultaneous. The manifestations occur singly, in order, at separate times in any place. Or they coexist at the same time in different places.
  » Christianity. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The three who are one named YHWH.
  » Romans (Archaic Triad). Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus. Jupiter was the supreme God and would be the equivalent of God the Father. Mars was the god of war who would be equivalent to Jesus who was Michael, the captain of the army and they one who conquered sin. Quirinus was the god of the Roman people and would be equivalent to the Holy Spirit was was sent as the constant companion of the people.
  » Greeks (Capitoline Triad). After 500 BC, the Romans adopted the Greek gods. The Archaic triads were replaced with Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. Juno is the god of love. Minerva is the god of wisdom.
  » Hindu (Vedas). Agni (god of fire), Vayu (god of air), Surya (god of energy or life).
  » Hindu (Puranas). Vishnu exists in three forms at separate times in this order. Brahma (creator), Vishnu (preserver of life and savior who incarnates ten times), Shiva-Rudra (destroyer of evil).
  » Aztec. The four Tezcatlipoca. Quetzalcoatl, Xipe-Totec, Tonatiuh and Mictlantecuhtli.
  » Norse. Odin, Vili, Ve.
  » Japan. The three creating deities. Ame-no-Minaka-Nushi-no-Mikoto, Takami-Musubi-no-Mikoto and Kammi-Musubi-no-Mikoto
  » Fon (Bantu tribe in Africa). Nzame, Mbere and Nkwa. Three gods who are one.
  » Cherokee. One supreme being named YOWA who was a unity of three beings called "The Elder Fires Above".

Similarities of Sacred Objects
Cherokee | Hebrew | Comment
--- | --- | ---
One Great Spirit | One God | Monotheistic
YOWA | YHWH | The name sounds alike
Quartz crystals | Urim, Thummin | Sacred gemstones
The Ark | The Ark | A sacred ark in a holy place
Council House | Sanctuary | The Ark and sacred objects were kept there
Seven | Seven (Sabbath) | The number seven is sacred
Chief (Uku) Dance | Land Sabbath | Festival every seven years
Smoke | Incense | Prayer, the messenger
Eagle | Eagle | One of the four faces of the cherubim
Rattlesnake | Serpent | Satan is important
Corn | Grain | Used in sacrifices

The Cherokee Religion.
The Cherokee consisted of seven nations whose territory covered the western half and central United States. Let us compare this religion to the Hebrews to find some very surprising similarities.
» Name of God. They believe in one supreme being name YOWA whose name was so sacred that only certain priests were allowed to say it. The Jews also would not say or write the name of God named YHWH (YAHWEH).
Although they are monotheistic, the Cherokee believe that YOWA was a unity of three beings called "The Elder Fires Above" (CHO TA AUH NE LE EH). The Jews have no trace of this plurality except in the plural words used for God, such as Elohim.
» Fire God. God is always pictured in vision as being on fire from His feet to His waist. His throne sits above the stones of fire.
» Sanctuary. Inside the Council house was the Ark which contained a large quartz crystal. Inside the Most Holy Place was the Ark of the covenant which contained the ten commandments written on a blue sapphire stone called lapis lazuli.
» Sacred Objects. Eagle, eagle feathers, rattlesnake, fire, smoke, sun, moon, corn, seven, quartz cyrstal and the ark.
» Symbols. Some of the symbolic objects in the sanctuary were given human qualities.

- Sun and Moon. They were left to govern the earth after the creation. In Judaism they rule day and night. The symbol means that while there is darkness on the earth such as sin a secondary source of light will govern. The moon represents the church, the stars are the prophets and the sun represents Christ.
- Fire and Smoke. Fire was appointed to take care of man and smoke was the messenger. The Holy Spirit, symbolized by fire, was given as our companion and prayer, symbolized by smoke and incense, is the way we communicate with God.

Feasts
Month | Cherokee | Hebrew | Comment
--- | --- | --- | ---
March | ? | Passover | First new moon of Spring
September | Donagohuni | New wine, oil | Ripe corn ceremony
September | Elawatalegi | Yom Kippur | Bouncing Bush feast
October | Nuwatiegwa | Trumpets | Great new moon ceremony
October | Atohuna | Tabernacles | Friendship ceremony
7 Years | Uku Dance | Land Sabbath | Jubilee and land Sabbath

Feast Days. Although most cultures appear to celebrate important feasts in spring and autumn, the Cherokee festivals have some other similarities. Tabernacles is a friendship ceremony with God.
The similarities in these cultures can be explained by one common ancestor. Although God formally introduced these ceremonies to the Jews 4000 years ago, it is obvious that they were given to Adam and Noah. The fact that the Cherokee have so much less corruption in their ancient religion points to the fact that they may have separated and migrated very early after the flood and their ancestor was loyal to YHWH. The other remote possibility is that they are descendants of the Jews or Gentiles who met Moses or faithful Jews.

The Navaho Hogan.
The Navaho traditionally build their living space with certain key features placed in designated directions. The placement is similar to the sanctuary.

- East (Door). All doors were in the east in the sanctuary complex.
- North (Kitchen). The table of shewbread with the bread and wine was kitchen with the food.
- South (Sleeping). The menorah is in the south, representing the church that is the light of the world. One prophetic symbol at the end is of a church waiting for God in the south to be rescued. It is the place of rest while they are being persecuted on the earth.
- West (Sleeping). The Most Holy Place where we rest in safety and live with God in heaven.
- Center (Fireplace). The altar of incense with the coals and clouds of smoke was in the center.

Sin And Death.
Besides the concept of the nature of God, Satan has concentrated the bulk of his distortions on the mystery of sin and death. These are unwanted common experiences in our current reality. But the fear and mystery surrounding them has created many myths.

- Blood Sacrifices. From the story of Cain and Abel we know that a blood sacrifice was known from the beginning of sin. With the first generation and with the Hebrews this sacrifice was supposed to be a clean animal. However, this ritual became distorted to include the awful practice of human sacrifice.
  This is probably because Adam and his children knew that one day one human would be sacrificed for the sins of the whole world. God would provide the sacrifice and Satan would initiate the murder. Until that day, an animal sacrifice was supposed to be used as a reminder of that future day. This became transformed into legends of a dying God, human sacrifices and one god murdering another.
  » Abraham and Isaac. When God asked Abraham to sacrifice His son, He was trying to show him the hard decision that He would have to make in 2000 years when He had to sacrifice His own son, Jesus Christ. Some scholars use this story to prove that the Hebrews practiced human sacrifice and this was the point at which they repudiated the practice. That is an outrageous statement.
  First, the Hebrew nation did not exist at that time. God called Abraham to be the father of that nation through his son Isaac. Second, the decision was hard for Abraham to make because he never practiced human sacrifice. He hid his plans from his wife, his son and his servants because they would try to prevent him from killing his son. To carry out the task, the New Testament informed us that since Isaac was the child who would be the father of the promised nation, Abraham reasoned that God must be able to raise the dead because Isaac did not have any chilren yet through whom the promise could be kept.
- Savior. Since the knowledge of the concept of a divine savior who would be sacrificed was promised to Eve and was known by her descendants, it has appeared in many religions.
  This is another concept that was distorted and was even kept a mystery to the powers in heaven. We discuss this more in another lesson.
- Death. The final disposition of the dead has created the most elaborate beliefs in all religions. This is regrettable, because it is a topic that God warns us to avoid because of the potential for deception.
  Since Satan works through the mysteries of death to deceive humans about the invisible world, God warns us not to speak to anyone who claims to be dead or who claims to have the ability to speak to the dead. We discuss this more in another lesson.

Satan.
In many myths, Satan tries to give himself an equal status with God. In doing this he not only raises his stature, he also lowers the nature of God so that God is vulnerable and is also capable of evil. One universal image of Satan is the serpent. He is the serpent in the sea that surrounds the earth and he is the serpent in the world tree who is an integral part of the structure of the world. This symbolism is supported by the Bible. But is the symbolism also based in reality as many of the other biblical symbols are?
The Bible says that Satan was responsible for luring the first humans into sin. As a consequence, he was restricted to the earth. Many people have tried to speculate about his nature. Is he invisible, occupying the same coordinates as the human race as an unseen peeping Tom. Or does he also have a visible form? Does he also have an assigned physical place on the earth? If it is visible and concrete, where could this place be?
Many beliefs consistently assign him to living in the sea and controlling hell somewhere under the ground. The fact that the dead must be buried under the earth even links these concepts symbolically.
The surface of the earth is over two thirds ocean and mostly unexplored. Does Satan physically live in the depths of the unexplored ocean, under the sea and under the earth? If that is so, is that the source of the beliefs that hell is now underground and the legends about the dragon who is restricted to the sea?
The City Of Atlantis. Is this the source of the legends of Atlantis, the city under the sea and the reports of unidentified flying objects entering and leaving the sea? If so, then we cannot go there because God has set boundaries and Satan is the source of UFO reports. Satan lives under the sea and launches plots and schemes to confuse and terrorize humans.
The Legends of Atlantis and Lamuria (Mu) could also be the result of stories told by the children of Noah. If they described the incredible civilization and technology that existed before the flood that is now lost under the sea it would be the truth behind this legend. So Atlantis is not a city that was built under the sea, it is a city that was submerged under the sea at the time of the flood.

The bible is very clear about the stages of the exile of Satan.

Time | Before Sin | After Sin | Millennium
--- | --- | --- | ---
Location | Heaven | Sea | Earth
Physical | Heaven | Thrown from Heaven. Dragon lives in the sea | Sea | Sea Dries Up. Dragon in the abyss | Earth Destroyed. Sea gone
Symbolic | Good Angels | Wicked People | The wicked are all dead
Status | No evil in Heaven | Satan is restricted to the earth (ocean) | Satan is restricted to the surface of the earth

The sea is symbolic of the wicked and the persecuting dragon of Revelation 12-13 is restricted to the sea. He controls the wicked. So, when symbolism and reality merges, Satan is the serpent who lives in the sea, who also controls the sea of wicked people. Satan is the architect of death who lives under the surface of the earth and greets all the unconscious dead bodies who go back to the earth.

- Before Sin. Satan and his angels are not restricted. All regions are at peace.
- After Sin. Satan lost access to heaven and is physically restricted to the oceans of the earth. He also controls the wicked who live on the surface of the land.
  There has also been speculation about a race of giants that are the children of humans and angels who still live in underground caverns. This is not supported by the Bible or the symbolism or the plan of salvation or nature. Everyone was destroyed at the flood, except eight people. However, the symbolism supports the concept that perhaps Satan occupies the regions under the earth and sea. And, perhaps by treaty or threat or some other restrictions, he is mostly limited to an invisible existence on the surface of the earth or when he is with humans.
- Millennium. The Second Coming kills all the wicked and destroys the earth. The earth is in perpetual darkness and it is broken in two. The seas are displaced. Satan is now restricted to the surface of the earth. He no longer has access to either the sea of wicked or the oceans.

So the vast majority of the distortions about our concepts of God are related to the nature of God and death. Changes to common stories are related to these distortions and the gradual loss of detail after years of the oral tradition.
So we can assume from the common remaining elements that there is a God, there was a flood, a serpent and there was darkness and a great sea at the beginning of creation.

Creation.

Group | Primeval Water | Abyss
--- | --- | ---
Roman | Pontos | Chaos
Egyptian | Nun | Chaos
Caananite | Yamm | Chaos
Norse | Hvergelmir | Ginnungagap

- Primordial Waters. Many legends describe creation out of the sea and the darkness of a great formless abyss or void of nothingness. The waters surround the earth. It is amazing that even though some myths have a concept of destruction by fire in the end, they all agree that in the beginning there was darkness and a vast sea of water.
- The Two Trees of Eden. A tree became central to life and it eventually merged into the myths as part of the universal Cosmogony. So that somehow, the structure of life and access to God involved a tree. This is because sin came into the world when Satan tempted Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge. The sin then caused loss of access to another tree, the tree of life.
  Tree of Knowledge. The LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." (Genesis 2: 16-17)
  Tree of Life. Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever". (Genesis 3: 22)
  In the Qur'an there is only one tree not two, the tree of eternity (shajarat al-khuld).
- Guardians of the Tree of Life. The guardians are angels or serpents. This seemingly opposite view is understandable if you consider the point of reference. God placed the cherubim at the entrance to the garden to prevent humans from having access to the tree of life.
  So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3: 24)
  However, because the serpent was the initial cause of the loss of access to Eden, it is seen as the one who prevents us from eating from this tree.

  > Hindu. Mount Meru, is the dwelling place of God. It was guarded by serpents, which watched the entrance to the realm of Secret Knowledge.

  > Sumerian. Ningizzida, the god of the serpent, is the lord of the Tree of Life.

  This tree and its gifts of immortality are not easy to discover. It is historically difficult to find, and almost invariably guarded. The tree of Life in the Jewish bible is guarded by a Seraph (an angel in the form of a fiery serpent) bearing a flaming sword. To steal the apples of knowledge, the Greek hero Hercules had to slay a many-headed dragon Ladon. In Mayan legends, it is a serpent in the roots that must be contended with. Similarly, the Naga, or divine serpent guards the Hindu Tree. In Norse stories, the Serpent Nidhogg lives under Ygdrassil (the tree of life), and gnaws at the roots.
- Serpent. Within this sea lived the great serpent Leviathan. Both became symbols of evil and destruction. In many myths a serpent became the guardian of the waters surrounding the earth. This probably reflects the fact that when Adam sinned, the world legally became the domain of Satan to rule until the Messiah came. Therefore, there is a serpent guarding the waters of the earth and guarding the access to the tree of life. The serpent is the guardian of people and controls life and death.

  Group | Serpent (Dragon) | Comment
  --- | --- | ---
  Hebrew | Leviathan | The evil destroyer who lives in the sea. (Isaiah 27: 1) He tempted Eve.
  Babylon | Tiamat | The salt water god. Her dead body was used to create the sky and the earth
  Mesopotamia | Tiamat | The dragon in the primeval waters of chaos who was killed by Marduk and broken in two to create the sky and earth
  Arabic | Falak | A snake under the sea and underneath a layer of fire with six hells in his mouth
  Caananite | Yamm the Sea | The dragon in the primeval waters of chaos who was conquered by Baal-Haddad
  Greek | Ladon | A hundred headed dragon who guards the golden apples in the Garden of Hesperides
  Typhon | A hundred headed dragon of the underworld who fought the Olympian gods
  Aztec | Cipactli | All creation is contained in his body
  Coatlicue | The dragon in the primeval waters of chaos who was killed by Quetzalcoatl and broken in two to create the sky and earth
  Quetzalcoatl | The feathered serpent who created man
  Norse | Jormungand | He lives in the ocean surrounding Midgard, with his tail in his mouth
  Nidhogg | The serpent who eats the world tree and will destroy it at Ragnarok
  Hindu | Adi Shesha | Vishnu, the supreme being, sits on the many-hooded serpent in the primeval waters
  Vritra | Held back rain
  Vasuki | Tries to pollute the world ocean
  China | Gong Gong | Has nine heads and the body of a snake. He caused the flood
  Yoruba | Oshumare | The rainbow serpent. It circles the egg of the world
  Fon (Dahomey) | Oshumare | The rainbow serpent. It circles the egg of the world and binds it with 3500 coils above and 3500 below
  Africa | Danh (Ayido Hwedo) | The rainbow snake who encircles the world with his tail in his mouth
  Samoa | Fe'e and Na Kika | The waters produced a primeval octopus. Fe'e is the war god who is a huge octopus with a compass whose tentacles reach the far corners of the world. Na Kika is the octopus who used his arms to separate the heavens from the underworld.

- Forbidden Fruit. Many legends have two kinds of fruit. One that causes problems and one that gives immortality. Again, the source is from the two trees in Eden. The forbidden fruit was from the tree of knowledge.

  > Apple of Discord. Eris, the goddess of discord, tossed a golden apple into the assembly of the gods at the marriage of Peleus and Thetis. On it was inscribed, "For the Fairest". It was claimed by three goddess, Aphrodite, Athena and Hera. Paris, the prince of Troy was asked to make a choice. He awarded it to Aphrodite and the jealousy of Hera led to the Trojan war.

  Although the next story does not involve a snake or a tree, it is about the first woman who was created. She unleashes evil into the world because of her curiosity. Eve was the first woman who wandered from the side of her husband and was tempted by the snake. Her curiosity caused evil to come into the world.

  > Roman: Pandora's Box. The earth was perfect in the days of the Golden age. Jupiter was angry at the perfect conditions which he believed was caused by the gift of fire that Prometheus had stolen and given to the man. And he tried to find a way to punish humans for accepting this gift. So he called a meeting of the gods on Mount Olympus, and they decided to create woman. As soon as she had been fashioned, each one gave her some special charm, to make her more attractive. They created Pandora as a gift for Prometheus. But when he refused, his brother Epimetheus took her. Life was happy for a while. Pandora was always with Epimetheus. Later, a weary Mercury brought a box and asked for permission to leave it there. Jupiter had malignantly crammed into this box all the diseases, sorrows, vices, and crimes that afflict poor humanity. Curious, she decided to make an excuse to stay by herself that day. Later, Pandora opened the box and she let loose all the evils in the world. But the gods had pity and had also put Hope in the box.

  > Garden of Hesperides. The Hesperides are nymphs who tend a blissful garden in a far west corner of the world. The Garden of the Hesperides is Hera's orchard in the west, where either a single tree or a grove of immortality giving golden apples grew. The apples were planted from the fruited branches that Gaia gave to her as a wedding gift when Hera accepted Zeus. The Hesperides were given the task of tending to the grove, but occasionally plucked from it themselves. Not trusting them, Hera also placed in the garden an unsleeping, hundred-headed dragon named Ladon as an additional safeguard.

Flood.
The flood story is the most common and persistent legend around all cultures. Many of them only have a few things in common. There was a flood that destroyed the world, a human and some animals were saved by going up a high mountain in a sealed vessel and life restarted afterwards. The inclusion of a rainbow and the dispersion of races by language appears in a few legends.

Destruction.
All major religions include a final destruction, a final battle and a new creation after a steady decline in morals and nature. This has resulted in two views of time. One is linear and the other cyclic. Linear time has only one final new creation, while cyclic time has an infinite number. Reincarnation is a feature of cyclic time.

Creation And Cosmogony Legends
Sound: From The Voice Of God.

The Structure of the Universe
3 | Heaven God exists
--- | ---
Sea of Glass
2 | Heaven | Outer space
1 | The sky above
1 | Earth | Land | sea
2 | Sheol (the grave)
Water
Day | Creation
--- | ---
1 | Brought light. Made day and night.
2 | Separated sea and sky
3 | Separated sea and earth. Made trees
4 | Sun, moon and stars
5 | Fish and birds
6 | Land animals and humans
7 | The Sabbath rest and the week

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said "Let there be light"; and there was light. (Genesis 1: 1-3)
Most creation legends begin with a dark void of nothingness. YHWH also created time and the physical world from nothing, or from "things that cannot be seen". He spoke and the physical objects, including time, were created in seven days.
By faith we understand that the ages were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. (Hebrews 11: 3)
» Earth. In Genesis 1, the Judeo-Christian story also begins with a void in the part of space that would become our universe. The world emerged from the will of God by the sound of the voice of God. So the thing that cannot be seen is the electromagnetic waves of the sound of the voice of God. God created with sound waves, by using His voice and speaking the physical world into existence. This is absolutely scientific. All atoms are a bundle of electromagnetic waves. However, God already existed and the story does not attempt to explain how He came to be. So the Bible only describes the creation of our universe.
» Sea. The creation continued when the earth and heavens were carved out of water. The story supports the idea that while the earth sits in water, there may be a ceiling of water that exists outside the heavens that we see. Beyond outer space.
Symbolically, the salty sea that is part of the earth is where the snake Leviathan lives. The symbols of God always have a basis in reality. Perhaps when Satan and his angels were banished to earth, they were confined to living their physical existence under the ocean. And there must be a law in place that prevents our physical worlds from colliding. And perhaps the myths about hell being located under the earth is based on the fact that Satan lives there.
» Underworld. The underworld is simply the earth where the dead are buried beneath the surface of the earth. They are unconscious and unaware in Sheol. The breath of God which also gave them life goes back to God. But it is not a conscious entity living in a particular place. It probably contains information about our memories and personalities so that God can recreate us with new bodies.
» Heaven. The New Testament adds one other detail about this cosmology. There are three levels of heaven. The first is the sky and atmosphere that we can see. The second is outer space. The third is the highest heavens where God lives.
I know a man ... such a man was caught up to the third heaven. (2 Corinthians 12: 2)
» The Sea of Glass. This could be the layer of waters above the earth, between outer space and the earth that we cannot see. Revelation states that God will come from the east and that we will stand on "the Sea of Glass" as we go back to heaven (Revelation 15). Adventists also think that God will come through the constellation of Orion. The schedule of the actions of God seem to indicate that the Second Coming will happen during the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. This is between September to October. A meteor shower which is caused by Halley's comet appears in the Orion constellation in late October.

The Dark Abyss Of Water
I chose a few examples of the creation from a dark void. Either an egg or a person was produced from this void. In these myths, water was a part of the beginning. It is interesting that science concludes that water was needed to start life and that the planets were once covered in water.
These stories also shared some other common features. The order of creation was the abyss, darkness, fire or light, sea, sky and earth, sun, moon and stars, then plants and animals and man.

From The Mind Of God.
Hindu legends vary. Brahma is sometimes said to be self-created, or born from a lotus out of Vishnu's navel, or hatched from the cosmic egg. In another myth, creation came from the tears of Prajapati.

> Hindu. In the beginning there was a single soul who looked around and saw nothing but itself. Since it was lonely it wanted a companion so it split into two, a man and a woman. They had intercourse and other human beings were born. Then the woman thought that it was wrong to have intercourse since they came from the same soul. So she tried to hide herself and became a cow. He became a bull and had intercourse and all cattle were born. Then she changed herself into a mare and he became a stallion and horses were born. This continued until all creatures down to the smallest insect were created.
> After this, the man realized that he is creation. This created world will last 4,320,000,000 years.

> Mixtec. When all was chaos and confusion, the earth was covered with water, there was only mud and slime on the surface of the earth. At that time there became visible, the god One-Deer, who had the surname Snake of the Lion. There was also a goddess, very genteel and beautiful, whose name was also One-Deer, and whose surname was Snake of the Tiger. They are the beginning of all other gods. As soon as these two gods became visible on earth in human form, with their power and wisdom they made a large stone on which they built a very sumptuous mansion. The stone was called "the place where the heavens were", which was their seat and residence on earth. This large stone and the mansion was on a very high hill. A garden was planted on the mountaintop.

The Cosmic Egg.
Theory of Natural Selection and the Survival of the Fittest.
The world emerged from an egg that holds the seeds of life. The shell became the structure that held the sky and the earth. After drawing the representation of the cosmos that I think is correct, I realize that it looks like an egg. The yolk is represented by the earth. And it is surrounded by air and water. So it makes me wonder if the ancients used an egg to explain how the cosmos is structured and it was morphed into the cosmic egg. It would also explain the belief that we are the center of the universe. Even the connection to the heavens by a bridge over the sea of glass reminds me that the yoke is connected to the shell with a string.

> PanGu
> Like Ymir, the earth was created with the body of PanGu. But he also supported the egg before he died.

> Chinese. In the beginning there was nothing in the universe except a formless chaos. However this chaos began to coalesce into a cosmic egg for eighteen thousand years.
> » PanGu, The Giant. When the opposing principles of yin and yang became balanced within the egg, PanGu emerged from the egg. He is usually depicted as a primitive hairy giant dressed in furs. PanGu began the task of creating the world. He separated Yin from Yang with a swing of his giant axe, creating the Earth (murky Yin) and the Sky (clear Yang). To keep them separated, PanGu stood between them and took up the Sky. This task took eighteen thousand years, with each day the sky grew ten feet higher, the Earth ten feet wider, and PanGu ten feet taller. In some versions of the story, PanGu is aided in this task by the four beasts; the Turtle, Qilin, Phoenix and the Dragon
> » The World. After the eighteen thousand years had elapsed, PanGu was laid to rest. His breath became the wind his voice the thunder, his left eye the sun and right eye the moon. His body became the mountains and his blood formed rivers. His muscles formed the fertile lands and his facial hair made the stars and milky way; His fur became the bushes and forests, his bones were the valuable minerals, his bone marrow is sacred diamonds and his sweat fell as rain.
> » Humans. The fleas on his body carried by the wind became human beings all over the world.

> Hindu. This universe existed in the shape of darkness, unperceived as if it were in deep sleep. Then the Divine Self-existent appeared with power and dispelled the darkness. He is eternal and he contains all created beings and shone forth of his own will. He first created the waters with a thought and placed his seed in them. That seed became a golden egg, as bright as the sun. In that egg he himself was born as Brahma. The Divine One resided in that egg during a whole year, then by his thought he divided it into two halves. And out of those two halves he formed heaven and earth, between them the middle sphere, the eight points of the horizon, and the eternal abode of the waters. From himself he also drew forth the mind and self-consciousness. He created the five organs which perceive the objects of sensation and all beings.
> » The Time Cycle. They believe that the world is created and destroyed in cycles of 4,320,000,000 years.

> Mithraism . Mithra was born from a cosmic egg on December 25.

> Greco-Roman Chaos. Chaos was the primordial void that existed before order became imposed on the universe and from which all created things originated, including the gods. Proceeding from time, Chaos eventually formed a huge egg from which was issued his children Nyx (darknos), Eros (gravity) and Ge or Gaia (Earth).
> » The World. Gaia created Ouranos, the starry sky. Ouranos, Gaia and Eros created the mountains, sea, rivers, lakes and the Titans.

> The Covenant Curse
> Notice how the elements of the curses in the covenant are in the struggle between Ouranos and Kronos. » Circumcision. Cutting off the foreskin of the penis was almost like castration. » Cannibalism. The people will be forced to cannibalize their children and even eat their afterbirth (Deuteronomy 28: 54-58) In the curse, Satan forced Christ to be cut off and childless, while the people symbolically chewed Him up like cannibals.

> » Titans, The Giants. Ouranos entombed the Titans in the earth, so Gaia conspired with the Titan, Kronos to hurt Ouranos. Kronos removed the testicles of Ouranos with a sickle. The blood flowed to the earth and created the Erinyes who were the punishers of crime against nature and God. When Ouranos threw the testicles into the primeval sea, Pontos, it foamed and produced Aphrodite, the goddess of love. So Kronos and the Titans ruled the world. The cycle of sun and moon, day and night and death were established during their rule. Helios, Selene, Promethus were also born.
> Kronos married his sister Rhea and she gave birth to five children, Hestia, Hers, Demeter, Poseidon and Hades. Kronos ate them in his jealousy. Gaia and Ouranos helped their daughter Rhea to hide the sixth child, Zeus. They tricked him into swallowing a stone instead. Zeus would later revolt against his father and the Titans. Kronos was forced to give birth to the five children he swallowed. They also fought their father. The Olympian gods succeeded and the Titans were banished to Tartarus. Chronos escaped to Italy and ruled as Saturn during the golden age.
> Jesus is Ouranos and the Titans are Satan and his angels. God banished Satan and his angels to the earth. With the help of humans and the Romans, they circumcised Christ at the crucifixion.
> » Humans. Life on the earth and humans evolved as the gods and the Titans fought. Zeus gave birth to Athena, Apollon, Artemis, Hermes, Ares, Hephaestos and Persephone and Dionysos. These shared their gifts and knowledge with humans.

> Roman Version: Prometheus Creates Man. At the time of the creation, the new Earth was covered with vegetation, and creatures of all kinds. Eros thought that he should give them instincts to help them to preserve and enjoy the life they had received. So he called two titans, the youngest sons of Iapetus (Prometheus and Epimetheus) to help him. He told them to make gifts to all living creatures and create a superior being, called Man, to rule over all the others. They used clay to mold an image similar in form to the gods. Then they asked Eros to breathe into its nostrils the spirit of life, and Minerva to give it a soul. Then man lived.
> Prometheus observed man and longed to bestow upon him some great power, unshared by any other creature of earth, which would raise him far above all other living beings, and bring him nearer to the perfection of the immortal gods. So he stole fire from Olympus and gave it to man. When Jupiter discovered the theft he sentenced Prometheus to eternal suffering. He was chained to a rock on the Caucasian Mountains where a vulture fed on his liver each day. The liver grew back at night causing him a cycle of eternal punishment. After many centuries of woe, Hercules, son of Jupiter and Alcmene, found Prometheus, killed the vulture, broke the adamantine chains, and liberated the long-suffering god.

From The Body Of A Giant.
Monster Mutation Theory.
The world was created from the parts of a god or a giant dead body. Our ancestors were giants over ten feet tall, so they appear in every myth. The dimensions of the ark supports the occupation of people twelve to fifteen feet tall. For an emergency vehicle, there is no reason why each floor was so high unless the adult humans were extremely tall.

> Giants
> We believe that Adam and his children were very tall and the average age was over 700 years. After the flood, the population grew much smaller and lived an average age of 70 years.

> Norse Ginnungagap. Before creation there was a vast, empty chasm named Ginnungagap. It was between Niflheim in the north and Muspelheim in the south. Muspelheim was the land of fire. Niflheim was the land of darkness, cold and ice and it is the source of all rivers. In Niflheim was a frozen spring called Hvergelmir from which the Elivagar flowed. This was eleven rivers named Svol, Gunnthra, Fiorm, Fimbulthul, Slidr, Hrid, Sylg, Ylg, Vid, Leiptr, and Gioll.
> » Ymir, The Giant. Life began in the middle of the abyss. Here water from Niflheim met fire from Muspelheim and melted the Hvergelmir and formed the primeval giant named Ymir and the cow named Audhumbla. Ymir drank her milk for food. Ymir became the father of a race of frost giants. As he slept, his sweat produced a male and female giant and his legs formed a male giant. The cow licked a block of ice into the shape of a man named Buri, who was the first God. He was the grandfather of Odin, Vili and Ve. Ymir eventually became evil and was killed by Odin, Vili and Ve. His body was used to create Yggdrasil, the tree of life that supports the cosmos.
> » The World. With Ymir's dead body Odin and his brothers created the world in the middle of Ginnungagap. Of Ymir's blood the sea, of his flesh the fertile land, of his bones the mountains, of teeth and shattered bones came cliffs, boulders and loose rocks. From his skull the heavens were created, from his hair came trees and plants, from his brain the clouds. Midgard was created between his eyebrows. The sun, moon and stars were created from sparks in Muspelheim.
> » Humans. The first man and woman (Askr and Embla) were created from trees lying on the beach.

> Babylon. Tiamat is a huge female dragon that personifies the saltwater ocean, the water of chaos. She is also the primordial mother of all that exists, including the gods themselves. Her consort is Apsu, the freshwater God. From their union, saltwater with freshwater, the first pair of gods were born. Their descendants started to irritate Tiamat and Apsu so they decided to kill them. The offspring discovered their plans and one managed to kill Apsu while he was asleep. Tiamat flew into a rage when she learned about Apsu's death and wanted to avenge her husband. She created an army of monstrous creatures, which was to be led by her new consort Kingu, who is also her son. Eventually, Tiamat was defeated by the young god Marduk, who was born in the deep freshwater apsu.
> » The World. Marduk cleaved her body in half. He created the sky from the upper half and he made the earth from the lower half. The clouds came from her water and her tears became the source of the Tigris and the Euphrates.
> » Humans. Kingu also died, and from his blood Marduk created the first humans.

Giant Task

On The Backs Of Giants.
Capture Theory.
While the following do not tell how the world was created, they explain how the world is being supported. Previous examples show how the universe has been supported internally while it was being formed. Now we see how the current world is being supported externally.

- Greco-Roman. Atlas is the Titan who carries the world on his shoulders. This was his punishment from Zeus for leading the Titans in battle against the Olympian gods.
- India. The world rests on three elephants, which rests on a huge turtle swimming in a vast ocean.
- Hindu. The head of the giant Purusha formed the heavens and the deities Indra, Agni and Vayu, his navel formed the atmosphere and his feet formed the earth.
- China. PanGu is the giant who emerged from an egg and supported the sky for eighteen thousand years.
- Batak (Oceania). The earth rested on the back of a giant snake named Naga-Padoha. Naga-Padoha grew tired of its burden and shook it off into the sea. But the God Batara-Guru caused a mountain to fall into the water to preserve his daughter. The human race is descended from her. Later, the earth was replaced onto the head of the snake.
- Bali.

  Bahamut

  In the beginning there was nothing, all was emptiness; there was only space. Before there were the heavens, there was no earth, and when there was no earth, there was no sky. Through meditation, the world serpent Antaboga created the turtle Bedawang, on whom lie coiled two snakes as the foundation of the World. On the world turtle rests a lid, the Black Stone. There is no sun, or moon, or night in the cave below (the underside of the stone). This is the underworld, whose gods are the male Batara Kala and the female Setesuyara. There lives also the great serpent Basuki.
- Arabic. Bahamut is the enormous fish which floats in a vast sea under which was darkness. On the fish stands Kujara (Kujuta), the giant bull with four thousand eyes, ears, nostrils, mouths, tongues, and feet. On his back was a mountain of ruby, on the top of which stands an angel. On the shoulders of the angel are six hells, then the Earth, and then seven heavens. The word Behemoth is of the same origin.
- Arabic. Another version of the legend of Bahamut has this structure. The earth has its foundation on the water. The water, on a rock of ruby which sits on the forehead of a bull. The bull stands on a bed of sand which is on Bahamut. Bahamut stands on a stifling wind. The wind is on a mist. What lies under the mist is unknown. The tale goes on that beneath the measureless fish is a sea; and beneath the sea, a chasm of air; and beneath the air, fire. Beneath the fire is a serpent named Falak in whose mouth are the six hells.
- Maya (South America). The Itzam are four giant reptiles whose outstretched bodies define the top, bottom, and the four corners of the cosmos.
- Fon (West Africa) . The world was created by the genderless god Nana-Buluku. He made the rainbow serpent Aido-Hwedo as a companion. The dung from the serpent created the mountains and nourished the earth so that plants grew. His writhing created the rivers and valleys. Eventually the world was so overladen with plants and animals that the gods feared that it would collapse. Aido-Hwedo supported the earth by forming an Ouroboros, a great circular loop made with his tail in his mouth.
  Nana-Buluku made a great ocean for the serpent to swim in because it could not tolerate the heat. He is fed with iron bars by red monkeys who live under the sea. When the iron supply runs out, the serpent will be so hungry that it will begin to eat its own tail. Then the world will collapse into the sea.

The Four Corners Of The World.

The Flat Earth

Until the nineteenth century everyone believed that the earth was flat. And, if you sailed far enough you could fall off the edge of the earth or be gobbled up by sea monsters waiting there for hapless sailors.
Geologic Column Theory.
If you conceive the world as a flat disc, then one way to support it is by lifting the four corners with strong creatures or with columns. The sky is also supported by pillars so that it remains separated from the earth and does not crush us.

- China. After the flood, Nuwa cut off the legs of a giant turtle to hold up the sky.
- Maya (South America). Bacabs were gods who held up the heavens in the four quarters of the sky. They were Kan, Muluc, Ix, and Cauac, representing the east, north, west, and south.
- Aborigines (Australia). The earth is circular and flat and covered by the sky dome. The sky is held up by giant props at the corners of the earth. The underworld was under this and in some legends it is inhabited by people and in other legends it is dark and uninhabited. The underworld contains two mountain ranges with a valley between. The sky plane is inhabited by supernatural beings and it was where the soul went after death. Certain people had access to the sky world by means of trees between heaven and earth.
- Samoa. At the command of Nareau, Riiki the Eel raised the heavens above and the earth sank under the sea. At first, his body separated the earth and the sky. Then Nareau, the first of things, called four women and said to them, "These are your names: Make-north, Make-south, Make-east, Make-west. Go hold the four corners of heaven, for you are its supports." They went, and their feet became roots of mighty trees, so that they might not be moved again.

The Bible also describes the earth as being set on pillars. So this theory dates back to the beginning of time. We will explore this below.

String Theory.

The World on a String

Another way to support the earth is to suspend it on strings.

> Cherokee. The earth is a great island floating in a sea of water, and suspended at each of the four cardinal points by a cord hanging down from the sky vault, which is of solid rock. When the world grows old and worn out, the people will die and the cords will break and let the earth sink down into the ocean, and all will be water again.
> » Humans. Men came after the animals and plants. At first there were only a brother and sister until he struck her with a fish and told her to multiply, and so it was. In seven days a child was born to her, and thereafter every seven days another, and they increased very fast until there was danger that the world could not keep them. Then it was made that a woman should have only one child in a year, and it has been so ever since.

The Axis Mundi (The Pole Star).
So the world has been created and it is being supported, so why is it spinning?
Since they could discern a pattern of revolution in the heavens, the ancients theorized that the universe revolved around a pole, or a cosmic axis. This pole came through the center of the earth at the navel or the world axis. This does not destroy the other theories, it just places everything on a spin cycle. The shape of this pole is either a pole, a cone or an hour glass.
Omphalos (The Navels of the World).
There were many places that were considered the navels of the world, the center of access to God.

- Mount Parnassus. This is the mountain at Delphi and home of the great oracle.
- Baghdad. Muslims believe that Iraq is the belly, and Baghdad is the navel of the universe.
- Jerusalem. According to the book of Jubilees, Jerusalem is the navel of the earth and Mount Sinai is the center of the desert.
- Nippur.The center of the earth in 2000 BC.
- Mount Meru. Hindu home of the gods.
- Tenochtitlan (Mexico City). At El Templo Mayor according to the Aztecs.

Aztec Cosmogony: Cipactli, The Serpent In The Void.
This legend places the entire heavens and earth inside of a creature, spinning around a central world axis in Mexico.

Section | World | Occupant | Serpent | Cipactli
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
13 | Heaven | Omeyocán | Ometeotl | Head |
9-12 | All other gods
8 | Rain
7 | Blue heaven
6 | Night sky
1-5 | Sun, moon, stars, comets, planets
1 | Earth | West | Quetzalcoatl | Tlaticpac (Body)
East | Xipe-Totec
South | Tonatiuh
North | Mictlantecuhtli
Paradise (for the Dead) | Chalmecacivati | Babies, children
Tamoanchan | Pregnant Women
Tlalocan | Drowned
Tonatiuhichan | Warriors
1 | Mictlan (Under World) | Baator | Treacherous river | Tail
2 | Acheron | Mountains shake
3 | Avalas | Huitzilopachtli
4 | Ocanthus | Xiuhtecuhtli
5 | Mechanus | -
6 | Arcadia | -
7 | Mt. Celestia | Quetzalcoatl
8 | Arborea | Tlalocan
9 | Mictlan | Nine rivers, rest | South is traditionally to the left
Note: The names of the first eight levels of hell may be incorrect

> Aztec Creation. In the beginning there was nothing but a void. Then Ometeotl, the first god who was both masculine and feminine created himself. Ometeotl spawned four children who created our visible world. These children are separate, yet the same, and they are referred to as the four manifestations of one god, Tezcatlipoca. After 600 years they began creation. They created water, the god Tlaloc and his goddess. and then they created Cipactli, the serpent that floats in the void. They created the whole universe within the body of Cipactli by dividing his body into two parts. One part made the heavens and the other part made the earth and the underworld. The central region where the humans lived was called Tlaticpac.
> » Pole Star. The earth was divided into four regions with the world axis (Axis Mundi) at the center navel. Four sacred trees were used to support the heaven and earth. The pole star is the pivot point of the Aztec universe with thirteen domed regions revolving around it and nine underworlds below.
> » Heaven. Thirteen heavens exist in Cipactli's head. Ometeotl lives by himself in the thirteenth heaven.
> » Earth. The earth is a great, flat disc located in the middle of Cipactli's body and is surrounded by the Celestial Waters. So it is called Cem-á-nahuac, which means "that which is surrounded by water". The world is divided into four quadrants with the navel at the center.
> - West. Ruled by the white Tezcatlipoca named Quetzalcoatl. He is the creator of humans.
> - East. Ruled by the red Tezcatlipoca named Xipe Totec, the god of spring time and rebirth.
> - South. Ruled by the blue Tezcatlipoca named Tonatiuh, god of the sun.
> - North. The cold land of the dead ruled by the black Tezcatlipoca named Mictlantecuhtli, the Lord of the Night Sky and the dead. All the dead go here and proceed to one of four paradises or to the nine hells of Mictlan.
>   - North (Chalmecacivati). Babies and young children.
>   - West (Tamoanchan). Women who died in childbirth.
>   - South (Tlalocan). Those who die by water, weather or lightning. This is a place of butterflies, rainbow, flowers where souls spend four years before returning. Souls usually have an endless cycle of life and paradise in this place unless they have higher aspirations.
>   - East (Tonatiuhichan). Warriors, sacrifices and tradesmen who died in far lands. After four years they lived forever in the bodies of humming birds.
>   - Lillan-Tlapallan. The land of the fleshless. A paradise for followers of Quetzalcoatl. It is the highest achievement for a soul.
>   These four quadrants of the earth also correspond to the symbols of the four directions around the sanctuary. West is the dwelling place of God and the righteous. East is the direction of the Coming of Christ when He will resurrect the dead. North is the direction where Christ was crucified and buried. South is the direction of His tribulation where He suffered as the burnt offering. All these are discussed in our original lesson on the twelve tribes of Israel.
> » Underworld. Nine underworlds go down the length of Cipactli's tail. Souls of those whose manner of death failed to call them to various paradises in the north were sent on a four year journey of trials through the nine hells of Mictlan. At the first level they cross a treacherous river with the help of the dog headed god, Xolotl. Then they must pass through the shaking and crashing mountains and other trials. These tests are a gigantic snake, a large lizard, eight deserts, eight hills, and a wind with obsidian knives. In the lowest level the last obstacle is crossing the extension of the Nine Waters of the great river Chicunanhuapan on the back of a red dog. Then they reach the region of rest. Mictlan is a vast cave filled with skeletons.
> » Humans. Humanity was created by Quetzalcóatl in an act of self sacrifice. With the help of his twin, Xólotl, the dog-headed god, he succeeded in reviving the dried bones of the old dead in Mictlan by sprinkling them with his own blood. The sun and moon were also created by an act of self sacrifice. When the gods, assembled in the darkness at Teotihuacán they built a huge fire. Then two of them, Nanahuatzin a small deity covered with ulcers, and Tecciztécatl, a richly bejeweled god, threw themselves into the flames. Nanahuatzin became the sun and Tecciztécatl became the moon. Then the sun refused to move unless the other gods gave him their blood. They were compelled to sacrifice themselves to feed the sun.

The Tree Of Life Myths
Instead of a pole that unites heaven to earth, many cultures have a myth about a world tree which sustains the Universe and unites Heaven and Earth. God lives in the top where the tree meets the heavens. The roots are the underworld where the dead exist. The source of this myth is from a combination of the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. These trees caused the separation of the worlds when sin began.

Mayan Cosmogony: Yaxche, The Great, Green, Ceiba Tree Of Abundance.
The tree of life was set up as a pillar of the sky and the axis of the earth was set up when the world was created. The roots lie in the nine levels of the underworld, Xibalba. The trunk is in mid earth and the leaves are in the thirteen levels of heaven.
There are also four trees in the earth that are planted in the four directions. A white tree in the north, red in the east, yellow in the south and black in the west.
Whac Chan (Wakah Chan). This is another name for the tree of life that is also the Milky Way.

Norse Cosmogony: Yggdrasil, The World Tree.
The Norse myth about the tree named Yggdrasil is the most complete and elaborate of these myths. It is not only a simple tree of life as in Christianity, it is the structure by which the whole cosmos is maintained. We will use this to demonstrate the equivalent realities in Christianity.

Norse Mythology | Christian Equivalent |
--- | --- | ---
Yggdrasil | World Tree | Tree of Life
1 | Asgard | Warrior gods | Heaven | God
2 | Vanaheim | Nature gods | God
3 | Alfheim | Light elves | Good angels
4 | Midgard | Humans | Earth | Humans
5 | Svartalheim | Dark elves | Evil angels
6 | Jotunheim | Giants | Giants (Nephilim)
7 | Niflheim | Ice, cold, dark | Hell (Hades) | Darkness of the abyss
8 | Muspelheim | Flame land | Flames of Hell
9 | Helheim | Dead | Dead (Sheol)
Mountain | Mountain | Mount Zion
Ginnungagap | The Gap | The Abyss at creation
Bifrost | Rainbow Bridge | Sea of Glass
Ragnarok | Last battle | Armageddon
Nidhogg | Eats yggdrasil | Satan, the snake who destroys
Jormungand | Snake in the sea | Satan, the snake Leviathan

The Nine Worlds of Yggdrasil.
These are interesting because they are the representation of where certain people and events occur in the past, present and future of Christian beliefs.

- Bifrost. A rainbow bridge that connects Midgard and Asgard. It was the only entrance to Asgard. It is equivalent to the Sea of Glass over which the righteous go from Earth to Heaven at the Second Coming. In heaven there is a rainbow over the throne of God.
  In Zoroastrianism, the Kinvad bridge is the road between earth and heaven for the dead. It was also called "Chinvato Peretu" or the sword bridge because it became a broad road for the righteous or a thin razor blade for the wicked so that they fall into Hell.
- Elves and Angels. Elves are tiny creatures and at one point up to the last century, people used to believe that angels were so small that hundreds could fit on the end of a pin. The relationship is even more convincing when you see that the good elves and bad elves live in separate lands in heaven and earth. The good elves or good angels live in heaven just as the Christian story says. The bad angels were exiled to live on the earth. They occupy the planet in an alternate reality where they are invisible. In Norse myth, this reality becomes a real land.
- Giants. The Bible describes the existence of giants about nine to eleven feet tall (274-335 cm). They are now extinct. But their existence and current location survive in the Norse myth as Jotunheim.
  Giants Before the Flood (The Nephilim). The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterwards, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men of old, men of renown. (Genesis 6: 4)
  Giants After the Flood. There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim). and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we are in their sight. (Numbers 13: 33)
  (The Anakim, descendants of The Nephilim). There were no Anakim left in the land of the sons of Israel; only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod some remained. (Joshua 11: 22)
  Rephaim. For only Og, king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold his bedstead was an iron bedstead; ... its length is nine cubits [162 inches] and its width four cubits [72 inches]. (Deuteronomy 3: 11)
  David conquered the giant Goliath and other giants from Gath. One of them had twelve fingers and twelve toes. (2 Samuel 21: 15-22).
- The Underworld. The three underworlds are also supported in Christianity as different stages in time. Niflheim, the dark and cold place, is the primeveal abyss when no human exists. During the time after Midgard was created, Helheim is the same as sheol or the grave, where all the unconscious dead exist until their resurrection. During the period of Muspelheim, the land of flames will exist on the surface of the whole earth in the future when the wicked dead will be resurrected and face the judgment and then destroyed in the lake of fire. Then Midgard will be part of Asgard.

  Abyss | Sin, Death | Resurrection (Good) | Millennium | Resurrection (Evil) | Armageddon | Hell | New Creation
  Niflheim | Helheim | Muspelheim (Flame Land) | Asgard

Persian Cosmogony: The Seven Karshvars And The Saena Tree.

Seven Karshvars | Location | Comment |
1 | Vourubaresti | North West | Details are not known
2 | Vourugaresti | North East
3 | Arezahi | West
4 | Savahi | East
5 | Fradadhafshu | South West
6 | Vidadhafshu | South East
7 | Hvaniratha | Center | Land of Humans
• | Mount Hara (Alburz) | Source of light and water
• | Chinvat Bridge | Bridge of Judgment
• | Gaokerena tree | Gives immortality to the resurrected
• | Veh Daiti (Veh Rod) | East river
• | Raha? | West river
• | Vourukasha Sea | Gathering point of all water
• | Harahvaiti (Arax) | River that feeds the Vourukasha sea
• | White Bull | First animal. Source of all animals
• | Saena Bird | Head of a dog and body of a fowl
• | Gayomartan | He was the first man
• | Rivas plant | Source of a mortal man and woman
• | Saena Tree | Tree of all remedies, tree of all seeds
After 6000 years, the evil Ahriman dug a hole in the ground and created hell and purgatory.

Many stories are about a tree that supports the entire world. But in one myth, humans came from a plant. An abyss existed for 3000 years then Ahuramazda created the universe in seven steps.

Origin of the Myth of Seven Worlds
How did these ideas develop? These seven worlds are separated by a salty ocean and that gives us a clue. From their position in the ark or on top of the mountain, Noah and his sons probably saw seven distinct, inaccessible islands or mountain peaks separated by water. The flood caused salty water to come to the surface of the earth that had previously been fresh water. The great salty sea became prevalent in their myths because this was a new experience for them. They probably witnessed the breakup of the continents. In all these myths humans only lived on one of the worlds because Noah and his family lived on only one of these islands.
From his view above mount Ararat, 17000 feet (5137 m) above sea level, which mountain peaks could he have seen rising above the water? In the area were Caucasus, Elburz, Zagros, Panrus, Taurus and Kurdistan mountains. Further away were Everest (8848 m), Himalayas, Pamirs, Karakoram, Carpathian and the Alps.

1. The great crystalline sky which was a round empty shell made of rock crystal, passing beneath as well as above the earth. It contained the sun, moon, stars and twelve constellations of the zodiac.
2. The bright waters
3. The earth with its rivers and oceans and continents
4. Sweet vegetation which nourishes
5. The beneficent animals
6. Humans
7. Fire

The cosmos is composed of seven disconnected karshvars or keshvar (zones, regions, earths or worlds). They are separated by an ocean. The Hindus also have a concept of seven dvipas (islands).

1. Vourubaresti in the northwest.
2. Vourugaresti in the northeast.
3. Arezahi in the west.
4. Savahi in the east.
5. Fradadhafshu in the southwest.
6. Vidadhafshu in the southeast.
7. Khvaniras or Khvanirath or Hvaniratha in the center is the only karshvar that is inhabited by men. It is larger than all the other six regions combined.
   » Mountain. For 800 years Mount Hara (Alburz) grew in Khvaniras like a tree its roots, sinking deep underground to invisibly connect and nourish all of its chain. It took 200 years to reach the stars, another 200 years to reach the moon, then the sun and then the endless light. At the peak of this mountain is attached the Chinvat Bridge of Judgment over which pass souls freed from their bodies of earth to continue their unending progression through regions of bliss, or to purgation and hell. Alburz was the source of light and water. As it grew it sprouted 2244 other mountains. The stars, moon and sun revolved around this peak of Hara.
   » Water. The Vourukasha Sea was the gathering point of water. This sea occupied "one third of the earth, to the south. It was fed by a huge river, the Harahvaiti. Two great rivers flowed out from the sea to the east and the west, to form the boundaries of the inhabited world. The River Veh Daiti (Veh Rod) flowed to the east. The rivers were cleansed as they passed around the earth and, when they returned to the Vourukasha, their clean water was taken back up to the Peak of Hara.
   » Trees of Life.
   - Saena. The Saena Tree grew in the middle of the Vourukasha. It was the mother of all trees, the source of all plants. It was the Tree of All Remedies or Tree of All Seeds. This tree held the nest of the legendary bird Saena (Senmurv or Simurgh). It had the head of a dog and body of a fowl. Seeds fell from the tree when it flapped its wings. In one version of the legend The bird Chanmrosh forever sits in that vicinity, and collects the seed which drops from the tree and conveys it where Tishtar seizes the water, so that it may rain on the world. This may be the same as the Camros birs.
   - Gaokerena. Another important plant growing nearby was the Gaokerena, the seeds have healing properties when eaten and gave immortality to the living and can resurrect the dead. The camros is a bird-like creature that collects the seeds of Gao-kerena, the Tree of Life. It brings those seeds to the god Tistrya who mixes them with water. The mixture provides the peoples of Iran with life, but nothing is left for those who strive for their destruction.
   » Animals. The first animal in the world is a uniquely created white bull as bright as the moon. It lived on the bank of the River Veh Daiti. It was killed by Angra Mainyu, the Evil Spirit, and its seed was carried up to the moon. This purified seed produced many species of animals and It sprouted into plants when part of it fell to the ground.
   » People. On the opposite bank lived Gayomartan (Gayomard). He was the first man, who was as wide as he was tall and as bright as the sun. He was slain by Angra Mainyu (Ahriman), but the sun purified his seed and, after forty years, a rhubarb plant sprang from it. The Rivas or rhubarb plant which was born from Gayomard grows up and contains the bodies of the first mortal man and woman (Mashya and Mashyanag). They receive the breath of life. They were beguiled by Angra Mainyu and turned to him as the creator and committed the first sin.
   » Sin Begins. After 3000 years of good reigned under Ahuramazda, in the year 6000 of time, the 3000 year reign of evil Ahirman began. At the head of millions of fiends, he rushed into the material world, mixed smoke with fire, corrupted the waters, sowed thorns in the earth, covered the trees with bark, destroyed the vegetation, killed the Primeval Ox and distressed Gayomard, and created billions of noxious creatures such as ants, lice, locusts, and destructive beasts. He also dug a great hole in the earth and established there the infernal regions of hell and purgatory. He debased all mankind by filling them with evil thoughts and wicked desires; he made them vicious and corrupt. He filled the world with misery. Nature itself served his evil purpose, and generated storms, drought, earthquakes, and devastating cold. The human race seemed destined only for suffering, extinction, and the everlasting fires of hell. After 300 years he sent a devastating frost for seven years. It almost wiped out the world.
   Instead of peace and harmony, their world was filled with corruption and evil. Only after fifty years were they able to produce offspring, but the first twins were eaten by their parents. After a long period of childlessness another set of twins was finally born, and from these sprang the Persians race.

The Divine Comedy And Dante's Inferno: The Nine Levels Of Hell.
Here we see the Pagan structure of hell as a part of a Christian belief. It is the medieval world view of the afterlife. Around 1300AD, Dante claimed to have a vision of the structure of heaven, purgatory and hell and the journey of the dead.

The Nine Circles of Hell
Sin | Occupant | Terrain
--- | --- | ---
1 | Limbo | The unbaptized and virtuous pagans | Green fields, castle
2 | Lust | Blown by a violent storm, no rest | Violent storms
3 | Glutton | Consume their excrement | Muddy, cold rain, hail
4 | Greedy | Hoarded goods | Push great weight against each other
Prodigals | Squandered goods
5 | Wrathful | They fight | Swamp waters of the river Styx
Sullen | Lie beneath the river
6 | Heretics | Trapped in flaming tombs | Flaming tombs
7 | Violent to others and property | Homicide, vandalism | Phlegethon, River of boiling blood
Violent to self | Suicide | Thorn bushes and trees chased by ferocious dogs
Violent to God and nature | Blasphemers, sodomite, userer | Desert of flaming sand and rain of fiery flakes
8 | Those who perpetrate fraud | Ten ditches connected by bridges
Panderer, seducer | Scourged by horned demons
Flatter | Immersed in Excrement
Simony | Put head first in holes in a rock, with flames burning the soles of their feet
Astrologer, false prophet, sorcerer | Head twisted back. They walk backwards
Corrupt politicians | Lake of boiling pitch
Hypocrites | Wear lead cloaks
Thieves | Pursued and bitten by snakes
False Advisors | Encased in flames
Sew discord and schism | Hacked by demons with swords
Perjury, alchemy, counterfeit | Diseases
9 | Betray family | Caina | Sunk in ice head down
Political traitors | Antenora | Gnawed on their heads
Betray guests | Ptolomaea | Heads up in ice
Betray benefactor | Judecca | Completely immersed in ice. Home of Satan
Seven Terraces of the Mountain of Purgatory
1 | Proud | Carry giant stones on their back
2 | Envious | Their eyes are sewn shut
3 | Wrathful | They walk around in acrid smoke
4 | Slothful | They must run continually
5 | Greedy | Lay face down on the ground
6 | Gluttonous | Abstain from food and drink. Passing cascades of cool water and forbidden fruit
7 | Lustful | Burn in an immense wall of flame
Garden of Eden | Located on the summit of mount purgatory
Nine Spheres of Paradise (Heaven)
1 | Moon | Those who abandoned vows
2 | Mercury | Did good for fame
3 | Venus | Did good because of love
4 | Sun | Wise
5 | Mars | Those who fought for Christianity
6 | Jupiter | Justice
7 | Saturn | The contemplative, e.g. monks
8 | Stars | All the blessed
9 | Primium Mobile | Angels

- Hell. It is located under Jerusalem to the center of the earth and is shaped like a funnel with nine circles. Satan lives in the ice of the lowest level of the ninth circle. Lucifer is trapped up to his waist in ice. He has six weeping eyes, six flapping wings which keep the area cold, three faces (red, black and pale yellow) and three mouths which chew a sinner. Judas is head first in the center mouth while Satan claws his back. Brutus and Cassius are in the left and right mouth with their heads hanging out.
- Purgatory. It is a mountain that is located on an island in the southern hemisphere with the Garden of Eden at its summit. It has seven terraces which correspond to the seven deadly sins.
  Garden of Eden. Here, one is returned to a state of innocence by drinking water from the river Lethe which causes the soul to forget past sins. Then they drink from the river Eunoe which causes the soul to remember good deeds.
- Paradise. The nine spheres of Heaven are in outer space.

Fairy Tales And Nursery Rhymes
Let us take a look at an ancient and modern fairy tale. It appears that they might have been used to tell biblical truths. If so they are based on common beliefs about sin and the plan of salvation, not simply on the imagination of the author. With that understanding, the basic teaching of the story is their truth because it is based on the author's belief that it is true.

Nursery Rhyme
Ring around the rosie A pocket full of posies Ashes, ashes We all fall down! This nursery rhyme became famous during "black death" or the plagues in Europe. A sign of the plague was the circular swelling on the body. People believed that posies or a bag filled with crushed flowers and herbs might protect them. "Ashes, ashes" is the sound they made when they sneezed. Sneezing was a symptom of the plague. But eventually they "all fell down" or died.

Snow White. The names have changed but it is the same story. A woman disobeys a warning and eats a fruit that causes her eternal sleep. A prince on a white horse who comes from a far country will awaken her and they live happily ever after.

> » Snow White. The perfect condition of Eve before she sinned.
> » Warning. Seven dwarves warned Snow White not to open the door to strangers. God warned Eve not to eat the fruit.
> » The Wicked Step Mother. Anger, jealousy and pride caused her to murder Snow White by giving her a poisoned apple. Just like Satan. He was full of pride and jealous of God. He tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit.
> » Wicked Witch. This is Satan who tempts Eve.
> » Eats an Apple. Eve eats a fruit which kills her and Snow White eats an apple which causes her to sleep forever.
> » Falls Asleep. Eve also falls asleep and sleeps the sleep of death. Jesus refers to death as a sleep. It is possible that the act of sleeping came to the planet the moment she sinned, just like rain came to the planet after the flood. Sleep is a sign of the death that would come to her. If this is what happened then God is correct because she died the day that she sinned and began the process of physical deteoriation and her body began the process of repair which is a function of sleep.
> » Washing. The dwarves washed her with water and wine. This is baptism and the blood of Jesus which gives new life.
> » Resurrection. A prince saves her by removing the offensive apple. The story of Sleeping Beauty also uses this theme. A beautiful princess who was condemned to death because of a malicious fairy. But a good fairy changed the curse. The princess falls asleep instead and the entire castle falls asleep for a long time until a prince from a far away land awakens her with His love. The entire castle is also rescued.
> When Eve sinned, the entire world fell asleep in death with her until Jesus comes from a far country to rescue them.
> » The Prince. Jesus, the Prince of the Covenant, comes as a king on a white horse to rescue His bride.
> » Punishment. The wicked queen was forced to dance in red hot shoes until she died. Satan will dance in the red hot fires of hell until he is dead.
> » They Lived Happily Ever After. Heaven will last forever. The church is the bride of Christ and God lives with us.

The Whizard Of Oz. This is a modern story of the ancient struggle between God and Satan in which humans have gotten involved. But heaven has the remedy which will take us back home.

> » Dorothy. The lost girl who wanted to go home to Kansas. Eve is the lost woman who wanted her previous life.
> » Cowardly Lion. He needed courage. We need courage.
> » Silly Scarecrow. He needed a brain. We need wisdom.
> » Emotionless Tin Man. He needed a heart. We need love.
> » The Wicked Witch of the West. She was killed by melting her with water. The power of evil is broken by the power of the Holy Spirit. Water is used to represent the Spirit and our cleansing.
> » The Good Witch of the East. She gave Dorothy the ruby shoes and told her to follow the yellow brick road to the emerald city. Jesus comes from the East to rescue His people.
> » Field of Dreams. They encounter a poppy field where the evil witch tries to make them fall asleep. This is the sleep of death that Satan lured us into when Eve sinned. This field of dreams is death.
> » Ruby Red Shoes. This will get her home, like the red blood of Christ.
> » Yellow Brick Road. Heaven has streets of gold.
> »The Emerald City. In heaven, God sits with an emerald rainbow surrounding His throne.
> »The Whizard of Oz. A kindly old gentleman who controls everything. He disguises himself to strike terror in the hearts of evil. He helps Dorothy and her three friends to achieve their dreams.

While one might not immediately think of fairy tales and plays as reservoirs of religious teachings, there are many modern tales that do. The Pilgrim's Progress and the Chronicles of Narnia are two of the best known modern fairy tales on Christianity. From these we can agree that the story was not simply made up from random ideas, it was made to preserve a religious truth in symbols.

Flood Legends
The flood is recorded in Genesis 6-9. Noah preached for 120 years while he made the ark. But only his wife and three sons and their wives were saved.
It had never rained on the earth because of the geological structure. The earth was floating on an aquifer like a controlled swamp. There were no vast oceans to generate rain clouds. So underground water watered the earth at night in a mist. Therefore nobody believed and obeyed Noah when he described rain.

Region | Civilization | People | Boat | Animals | Birds | Mountain
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Middle East (Shem) | Hebrew | Noah, wife, 3 sons | Ark | Pairs of Animals | Raven, dove, dove | Ararat
Mesopotamian, Sumerian | Utnapishtim, family, friends | Boat | Seed of all living things | Dove, swallow, raven | Nisur
Babylonian | Atrahasis and family | Boat | Cattle, wild animals, birds | - | -
Chaldean | Xisuthrus, wife, daughter, pilot | Boat | Pairs of animals | Birds sent 3 times | Corcyraean
Zoroastrian | Yima | Vara | Pairs | - | -
Europe (Japheth) | Norse | Bergelmer, wife | Chest | Blood Legends. Blood from the wounds of the giant Ymir caused the flood. For the Celts, the blood spilled when heaven was cut up. Icy water flowed from the wounds in Scandanivia | Jotunheim
Scandinavian | Bergelmer, family | Boat | -
Celtic | Man, woman | Boat | -
Welsh | Dwyfan, Dwyfach | Boat | Animal pairs | - | Pyrdain
Lithuanian | People on a mountain | Nutshell | Animals on the mountain | Rainbow | -
Greco-Roman | Deucalion, Pyrra | Boat | - | - | Parnassus
Asia | Hindu (India) | Manu | Boat | Every species | - | Manu's Descent
Miao (South China) | Nuah and Gaw Bo-Lu-En, 3 sons, wives | Boat | Male and Female | Dove | -
Asia (Ham) | Miao and Yao (South China) | Fu Xi, Nu Gua | Gourd | Gourd Legends. The Asian legends involve the marriage of a brother and sister who were saved by being sealed in a hollowed out log (a drum). They all explain the beginning of the different races as humans who came from a gourd. In the Burmese legend only one man and a cow were saved. There was a gourd inside the cow and the humans emerged from it. Other gourds held animals, plants and rivers.
Jino (China) | Mahei, Maniu | Sealed hollow Log
Kammu (Thai) | Brother, sister
Lisu (China) | Brother, sister | Gourd
Shan (Burma) | Lip-Long and a cow | Raft
Oceania | Hawaii | Nuu, family | Ark | Reef forming legends. Most legends tend to explain their physical environment | Mauna Kea
Mangaia (Cook Islands) | Rangi and people | Walked | Rangimotia
Palau Isles | Milathk | Raft | -
Africa | Komililo Nandi | Ilet | - | Hospitality legends. | Tinderet
Mandingo | Brave people | Canoe | Jefferson
Masai (East Africa) | Tumbainot, 2 wives, 6 sons | Ark | Pairs of Animals | Dove, vulture and 4 rainbows | The Steppes
North America | Pima | Suhu, good people | Walked | Animal Helper legends. Animals play a major role. | Crooked Top Mountain
Squamish | Man, woman, all babies | Canoe | Baker
Cowichan | Wise People | Raft | Cowichan
Algonquin | Michabo, muskrat | Walked | - | Raven, otter, muskrat | -
Ottowa | Giant, maiden | Canoe | Pairs | Beaver, muskrat, raven | -
Central America | Aztec | Tapi, wife | Boat | Pairs | Dove | Mountain
Aztec | Cocox, Xochiquetzal | A hollow tree | - | Dove | Colhuacan
Toltec | 7 friends and wives | A closed chest | - | - | -
Huicol | Man, dog | Box | Animal Transformation Legends. Man marries dog who is transformed into a human wife. Others are transformed into different animals because of disobedience.
Tlapanac | Man, dog, chicken | Box
Cora (Mexico) | Man, dog, sandpiper, woodpecker, parrot | Boat
Totonac (Mexico) | Man, dog, dove | Ark
South America | Jivaro (Ecuador) | 2 men, two parrots | Walked | Man marries parrot
Inca (Peru) | Man, woman | Box | People lived in caves after the flood | Tiahuanacu
Inca (Peru) | Giants | - | Giants

Names of the Patriachs
Bible Names | Miao Legend | Chinese Sovereigns
--- | --- | ---
Adam | Dirt | -
The word Adam means dirt
Seth | Se-Teh | -
Enos | Lusu Gehlo | -
Cainan | -
Mahalaleel | -
Jared | -
Enoch | -
Methuselah | -
Lamech | Lama | -
Noah | Nuah | Nüwa
Shem | Lo Shen | Shennong
» Elam | Elan | -
» Asshur | Ngashur | -
Japheth | Jah-Hu | -
» Gomer | Gomen | -
Ham | Lo Han | Huang, Han
» Cush | Cu-Sah | -
» Mizraim | Mesay | -
» Sinite | - | Shi

> Chinese. Some Chinese legends about their ancestors (three sovereigns and five emperors) are similar to the flood legends in terms of timeline, the sound of names and the possible behavior of the ancestors.
> - Nüwa and Fuxi. Nüwa was the wife of Fuxi and they both are the ancestors of humans after a devastating flood and are the first two sovereigns. Although the legend lists this person as a female, yet the similarity of the sound of the names Nüwa and Noah and the fact that both were the ancestors of humans after a flood and the dates fit within the time frame are evidences of the veracity of the story. They also taught the people to hunt and fish. These are skills that were needed when the trees and plants had not recovered yet and they were transitioning from a vegetarian to a meat diet.
> - Shennong (The Third Sovereign). He was the father of agriculture and taught the people what was edible. The trees probably matured during the life of one of Noah's sons. The name Shennong sounds like Shem.
> - Huang Di (The Yellow Emperor). He was the first of five important emperors after the three sovereigns. He was the ancestor of the Han Chinese people. Sinite was a grandson of Ham who is believed to be the ancestor of the Chinese people. The names Han and Huang sounds like Ham.
> - Emperor Zhuanxu. Led the Shi clan to migrate east to Shandong around 2491 BC. The name Shi sounds like it could have come from Sinite who led them east from the tower of Babel towards the land of China. The year of this migration corresponds to the global migration imposed at the Tower of Babel around 2474 BC.
> - The Chinese Calendar. It began in 2637 BC. This was the time frame of Noah and the flood.

> The Miao People of South China. The legend of the Miao people says there was a man named NuWah (Nuah) with his wife (Gawboluen) three sons (Lo Han, Lo Shen and Jah-Hu) and three daughters who escaped the flood in a ship. The flood happened around 2300 B.C. After the flood they built a tower and their speech were broken up into six languages.
> The sons of Noah had sons who had similar sounding names as the sons of the Miao legend. The sons of Lo-Shen were Elan and Ngashur. The sons of Lo-Han were Cu-Sah and Mesay. The son of Jah-Hu was Gomen.

> Chinese. There was a quarrel between two of the more powerful gods, they decided to settle it with a fight. When the water god Gong Gong saw that he was losing, he smashed his head against Mount Buzhou, a pillar holding up the sky. The pillar collapsed and caused the sky to tilt towards the northwest and the earth to shift to the southeast. This caused great floods and suffering to the people. Nüwa cut off the legs of a giant tortoise and used them to replace the fallen pillar and alleviate the situation. She seals the broken sky using stones of seven different colors, but she was unable to fully correct the tilted sky. Now the sun, moon, and stars move towards the northwest, and rivers in China flow southeast into the Pacific Ocean.

> Masai. Tumbainot, a righteous man, had a wife named Naipande and three sons, Oshomo, Bartimaro, and Barmao. When his brother Lengerni died, Tumbainot, according to custom, married the widow Nahaba-logunja, who bore him three more sons, but they argued about her refusal to give him a drink of milk in the evening, and she set up her own homestead.
> The world was heavily populated in those days, but the people were sinful and not mindful of God. However, they refrained from murder, until at last a man named Nambija hit another named Suage on the head. At this, God resolved to destroy mankind, except Tumbainot found grace in His eyes. God commanded Tumbainot to build an ark of wood and enter it with his two wives, six sons and their wives, and some of animals of every sort. When they were all aboard and provisioned, God caused a great long rain which caused a flood, and all other men and beasts drowned. The ark drifted for a long time, and provisions began to run low. The rain finally stopped, and Tumbainot let loose a dove to ascertain the state of the flood. The dove returned tired, so Tumbainot knew it had found no place to rest. Several days later, he loosed a vulture, but first he attached an arrow to one of its tail feathers so that, if the bird landed, the arrow would hook on something and be lost. The vulture returned that evening without the arrow, so Tumbainot reasoned that it must have landed on carrion, and that the flood was receding. When the water ran away, the ark grounded on the steppe, and its occupants disembarked. Tumbainot saw four rainbows, one in each quarter of the sky, signifying that God's wrath was over.

> Greek. Deucalion was warned by his father Prometheus of a great flood with which Zeus planned to destroy humanity. He built an ark and survived it. Afterwards, he and his wife Pyrrha successfully begged Zeus to recreate humanity, which he did by having them toss stones behind them.

> Roman. As the world got worse, the immortals agreed to wash mankind off the face of the earth by a mighty deluge. The winds were instructed to gather together the rain clouds over the earth. Neptune let loose the waves of the sea,and told them to rise, overflow, and deluge the land. Then the elements obeyed. The winds blew, the rain fell in torrents, lakes, seas, rivers, and oceans broke their bonds. So the terrified mortals forgot their petty quarrels in a common impulse to flee from the death which threatened them, climbed the highest mountains, clung to uprooted trees, and even took refuge in the light skiffs they had constructed in happier days. Their efforts were all in vain, however, for the waters rose higher and higher, overtook them one after another in their ineffectual efforts to escape, closed over the homes where they might have been so happy, and drowned their last despairing cries in their seething depths.

> Zoroastrian. Six thousand years after the creation the thousand year rule of Aharman began. He destroyed the creation, created dangerous animals and created the regions of hell and purgatory. He filled man with evil thoughts and sent misery, earthquakes, drought and storms. Then, three hundred years later, in 3300 BC, he sent seven continuous years of cold and frost that almost exterminated mankind. But the god Ahuramazda saved the good man Yima and a remnant in a cave filled with supplies.

> Norse. The three brothers Odin, Ve and Vili killed Ymir. As Ymir fell, his blood caused a giant flood, drowning all the creatures of darkness except the frost giants Bergelmer and his wife. They escaped in a small boat and arrived on the mountain of (Jotunheim), which became the home of the giants.

> Cowichan. The world was over populated and people began quarreling over territory. Some wise old men all had the same dream about a coming flood. They decided to build a raft by tying many canoes together. Some people listened but others laughed at them. One day the rains came and they took some food and tied the raft to a rock on Mount Cowichan. After the flood they rebuilt their homes and after a long time the land was full of people again. This time they separated into tribes and clans and spread out over the earth.

> Aztec (Mexico). A pious man named Tapi lived in a valley in Mexico. The creator told Tapi to build a boat to hold his wife and a pair of every animal. Everyone thought that he was crazy. When the boat was finished, it rained and flooded the valley. The people fled to the mountains but they were drowned. After the rain ended, Tapi sent a dove. When the dove did not return he knew that the waters had receeded.
> Aztec. In Atonatiuh, the epoch of water, a large flood covered the earth and all people were changed into fish. Only Coxcox and his wife Xochiquetzal survived by hiding themselves in a hollow Ahahuete, cypress tree. When this landed on the summit of Colhuacan, they reproduced themselves. But these children were all born dumb. A dove imparted tongues to their children, thus enabling them to speak languages (Toltec, Aztec, and Acolhuas). But these languages were so different that they could not understand one another.
> Variation. The men who survived the deluge were transformed into apes, but recovered speech and reason by degrees.

> Nahui-Atl. The people perished in the flood or were turned into fish and in a single day everything perished. However, a man named Nata and his wife Nena had been warned, and advised to build a ship from a cypress tree. Titlacahuan closed the door behind them and so they were saved. They prepared a fire inside and grilled fish. Citlallinicué and Citlallatonac were surprised to see this fire and it angered Titlacahuan Tezcatlipoca.

> Cora Indians. The survivors of the flood escaped in a canoe. When the waters abated, God sent the vulture out of the canoe to see whether the earth was dry enough. But the vulture did not return, because he devoured the corpses of the drowned. God then turned the vulture black instead of white. Then the ring dove was commanded to go out and the earth was dry. The beasts drank the rivers dry.

> Hopi Indians. On the bottom of the seas lie all the proud cities, the flying patuwvotas [shields] and the worldly treasures corrupted with evil. To escape the disaster, some people hid inside the earth while others escaped by crossing the ocean on reed rafts, by going from island to island.

> Toltec Indians. In this legend the first world lasted 1,716 years and was destroyed by a great flood that covered the highest mountains. A few men escaped the destruction in a "toptlipetlocali," (a closed chest). After the great flood, they began to multiply and built a very high "zacuali," or great tower, to provide a safe place if the world were destroyed again. However, the languages became confused, so different language groups wandered to other parts of the world. The Toltecs claim they started as a family of seven friends and their wives who spoke the same language. 520 years after the great flood they crossed great waters, lived in caves, and wandered 104 years till they came to Hue Hue Tlapalan (southern Mexico).

> Mesopotamian. The Epic of Gilgamesh. Once upon a time, the gods destroyed the ancient city of Shuruppah in a great flood. But Utnapishtim, forewarned by Ea that Enlil was sending a flood, managed to survive by building a great ship. It was a cube that was 120 cubits on each side. It had six decks, so that there were seven compartments. Each floor was divided into nine sections. He caulked it with tar and asphalt. The frame was built on the fifth day and the ship was finished in seven days. On the ship he was told to take the seed of every living thing. He filled it with the best animals, gold, silver, his family and the craftsmen. Then the rain lasted for seven days and rested on Mount Nisir. He waited seven days and sent a dove, then a swallow and a raven which did not return. Then everyone exited and he made a sacrifice. His immortality was a gift given by the repentant god Enlil.

Comparison Of The Flood Stories By Region

All the flood stories have two or more of the following elements in common in this order of appearance. The Cause A flood kills most creatures A family is saved The boat The pairs of animals The birds Mountain Rainbow Creation of languages Dispersion of the races Before the flood the earth was one continuous land. The races dispersed 100 years after the flood, then the "land was divided" (Genesis 10:25) | The Dispersion of the People and Animals of Pangea After the Flood

Pangea.
The land was not divided before the flood. This division was probably tribal and geographical so that at the time the land was breaking up, the nations were being separated by language. It took that long for the deep layers to dry and begin to crack. It began to break apart into our current continents after the flood. Pangea is the scientists name for the unified land before the continents broke apart and floated on the tectonic plates. It had mountain ranges in the north and south. The description is remarkably like the New Jerusalem. This is the new earth that is supposed to be a recreation of the perfect old earth. So we used the model of Pangea to theorize about the dispersion which occurred 100 years after the flood. All migration must start at the region of Mount Ararat and there must be a route for land and marine animals. All these routes followed water so marine animals could swim and people could use canoes.
» America. Land animals traveled west across North Africa. Marine animals, like the penguin, swam through the Mediterranean and down the Atlantic river. Small canoes could even be used by people as the separation between the continents increased.

| One Group, One Land |  | Pangaea Separates | Abraham
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Ararat | 100 Years (Animals Migrate) | Babel | 400 Years (Humans Migrate) | Covenant

Genetic and Environmental Changes
We do not currrently see genetic changes that cause immediate structural changes. In fact we can only speculate by population studies that certain genetic differences are due to certain persistent, local and environmental factors. But we cannot find a testable and repeatable mechanism by which this happens. Several huge changes occurred after sin that points to sudden changes. These are the withdrawal of the light of God that existed on the first day, rain, change in diet and the speed of light. • The sun and moon became the prominent source of light. • After the flood, and probably after the sin they began to eat animal flesh. Their life span immediately dropped from 1000 years to 100 years. • The size of the creatures decreased to about 33-50% of the original. The forces required to support giant animals require a smaller force of gravity. So gravity might have increased after sin. Given the law of gravity, this could only occur if the mass of the earth grew larger. The mysterious layer of water from the heavens could be this source. • Death and probably sleep occurred. • The final change that occurred is that the speed of light probably dropped quickly. So how does a sudden introduction of new genes, and a drastic change in radiation and increase in gravity permanently effect the body? Our genes are probably too contaminated and altered to have a controlled experiment. We have no perfect specimens remaining.

» Australia. We also show that Australia fits next to East Africa. So marine animal migration could have come to that continent from the Red Sea or the Persian Gulf. Land animals came from the horn of Africa and Arabia instead of the long trek through Africa and Antarctica.
» Europe, Asia and Africa. These continents could be reached at any time.
» Antarctica. This continent probably broke away early, because it is only populated with birds and penguins. Penguins are called "the birds of the ocean" because they travel very fast under water. No creature who walked seemed to have reached here, or they died because of the climate.
» Under the Sea. Most of the land under the sea was above water before the flood. The mountain ranges in the north and south probably formed a barrier. This land could have been mostly occupied by dinosaurs or very large creatures. The existence of pools of oil point to a rapid burial of organic material, not a slow erosion. This is why we find oil deposits from the vegetation and large creatures buried under the sea. However, the availability of tar (pitch) before the flood points to its possible existence at creation (Genesis 6: 14), but pitch can be made from wood.
Continental Drift: Separating Pangea.
According to our 6,000 year time line for the age of the earth, the flood occurred at year 1656 and the separation of the continents began as late as 100 years later. Abraham was called 400 years after the division. I am assuming that the "division of the earth" was not only by language, but by continent.
Two sons were born to Eber; the name of the one was Peleg, for in his day the earth was divided ... (Genesis 10: 25).
The theory of evolution says that the continents drifted apart over a period of 100-250 million years at the rate of 2.5 cm (1 inch) per year. The widest separation is the four thousand miles (6664 km) between America and Africa. We need the earth to move this distance in 400 to 500 years. So is it possible for the continents to separate by so many miles in such a short time?
4000 miles in 400 years is an average movement of ten miles (17 km) each year. This is six feet per hour (183 cm per hour) or (1.2 inches (3 cm) per minute).
Of course these values assume that only the continent of America moved the 4000 miles. Although I suspect that the American continent had the most movement, the Asian continent must have moved also. If both continents moved at the same speed then each would move only 2000 miles (3332 km) in opposite directions. This is three feet per hour (92 cm). So our requirements are a speed of 3 to 6 feet per hour (0.05 to 0.1 feet per minute). Can the earth move at such a speed? What do we know?
The Ring of Fire. The land was soaked with water from deep within its core and this should have made the land slide easier with much smaller earthquakes. The foundations of the earth were broken along the ring of fire on the outer edges of Pangea, and America moved west while Asia and Africa moved East. The ring of fire still exhibits the stress of the continents pushing together.
San Francisco Earthquakes. So I used the San Francisco geology as a model, because the earth after the flood was soft and San Francisco is built on soft earth and it is located in an active region. Even though the earth after the flood was much softer and unstable, and located on an incline into the Pacific, San Francisco should give us a model of the minimum types of displacements that were possible.

> The 1906 San Francisco earthquake of magnitude 7.9 was centered 25 miles (40 km) below the surface and 150 miles (240) out in the ocean. In one minute it moved the soft earth 21 feet (640 cm) and broke apart for three hundred miles (500 km)! This is a speed of 21 feet (640 cm) per minute or 210 to 420 times faster than our requirements of a minimum of 0.05 to a maximum of 0.1 feet per minute. It is possible.

The Marianas and Puerto Rico Trenches. It would take a great rupture in the ocean to cause the continents to have the freedom to move. The deepest point in the Pacific is the Marianas Trench at 35827 feet (6.79 miles or 10.9 km).
The deepest point in the Atlantic is the Puerto Rico Trench at 30246 feet (5.73 miles or 9.2 km).
Could the earth be ruptured to this depth? The radius of the earth is 6370 km. Most earthquakes occur at a depth of 20-25 km, but 30% of earthquakes occur at depths below 70 km with some as far as 700 km. Since earthquakes can occur far below this point, it should be possible that an earthquake in very soft mud would rip the earth open like butter and the soft earth would crumble and slide in the sea.

The Pillars of the Earth.

Collapse of the Internal Pillars
1 | Eden | 2 | Flood
--- | --- | --- | ---
3 | Continental Drift | 4 | Today

We will continue to use legends to examine the nature of the planet. So we smiled at the idea of strings, turtles, elephants and the columns under the earth, but suppose the pillars were within the earth supporting it like a frame.
... for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's and He set the world on them. (1 Samuel 2: 8).
If God had a structural component in the earth that kept the land stable, then breaking one or more could set the continents adrift and submerge that part of the land into the ocean. These could simply be massive areas of pure rock that are the foundations of the plates and the same material as the core. They are probably curved walls. The African pillar seems to be very stable because that continent rarely gets earthquakes. The one that is west of the American continent broke, submerging most of the land into the Pacific, allowing the remaining to shift west.
The stability of the African plate was the will of the merciful God who kept the region where civilization was emerging stable. So that the ancients were oblivious to the earthquakes and large scale movements of the continents around them during the centuries after the flood. If fact, it was during the time of Moses that they experienced an earthquake as a "new thing".
If these men die the death of all men or if they suffer the fate of all men, then the LORD has not sent me. "But if the LORD brings about an entirely new thing and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that is theirs, and they descend alive into Sheol, then you will understand that these men have spurned the LORD." As he finished speaking all these words, the ground that was under them split open; and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men who belonged to Korah with their possessions. So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. (Numbers 16: 29-33)
If the region was subject to the same forces that were ripping apart the other continents then we might have some indication of how long the continental drift occurred. Instead, we have a region that is still stable 4000 years later.

1. Eden. After the creation everything was stable. Most of the surface of the earth was land floating on water with low hills, rivers and lakes.
2. Flood. An object broke the earth and tilted it, causing the waters below the earth to cover the earth. The most significant breaks occurred in the Pacific Ocean. The southern pillar and the land in the north collapsed under the weight. The land would be permanently submerged in the Pacific ocean and the northern hemisphere has a dent.
3. The Shifting Continents. With the supports removed, the American continents were probably sliding west over the mantle of the earth. The stability of the earth under the African continent probably restricted its shift. Its resistance to the force probably makes its eastern edge at the ring of fire more unstable as the more flexible American continent pushes against it.
   Is there a force in the Atlantic ocean that makes the continent continue to move west? If the American plates are tilted west and the Asian plate tilted east then gravity is the force. The force caused by the direction of the spinning earth also helps to move the American continent west. So the continents are sliding down a shelf into a trench made by the impact in the Pacific when their structural supports collapsed under the plates.
   Submerged Continents. The only visual clue that the continents were once together is the fit between South America and Africa. Land was submerged under the Pacific, then Pangea started the continental drift when it was free to move. However, the continents could be in their present position not because they shifted to these locations but because the land between them collapsed into the ocean. In this case, our pillar theory still holds.
   The Lost Continent Under the Sea. These legends could have emerged from local catastrophes. But they could be remnants of stories about the land before the flood.
   - Keftiu. ("The land of the pillars which held the sky"). This is the name of the lost continent in the Egyptian legend. Even the name "the land of the pillars" supports our theory that the disaster affected the pillars of the earth. The title "which held the sky" must be a reference to the unusual rain that fell when the disaster began because the pillars no longer supported the sky.
   - Atlantis. It is believed to be under the Atlantic ocean. It is the land between America and Africa that was submerged. Around 355 BC Plato introduced the idea of the lost continent of Atlantis. Some claim that he put a Greek spin on the Egyptian legend. 10,000 years ago the gods decided to destroy the land when the people became corrupt and greedy. A giant earthquake shook the land and giant waves sunk the land. Except for the length of time, this does not contradict the events of the flood.
   - Lemuria (Pacifica, Mu). It was a land sunk by a cataclysm of earthquakes and volcanoes under the Pacific ocean. The idea of Lemuria surfaced between 1826 and 1908 by a writer who claimed to have translated Mayan writings. Others claim that this is nonsense. The late origin suggests a fictional place that may be based on ancient legends. But it cannot be used to decide what happened in the past.
4. Today. Water covers most of the surface of the earth. The drift created huge mountains and cracked the plates.

Continental Roots.
There is seismic evidence that the continent is as deep as 400-650 km not 200 km as originally proposed. This means that they extend all the way to the lower mantle. These are probably the pillars described by the Bible.

Active Faults and Tectonic Plates.
A visual examination of our map explains the reasons why certain areas are more active.

- San Andreas Fault (California to Central America). To get to the current configuration, South America would have to travel at a faster speed and swing north west to line up with North America. This would squeeze the continents together near central America at the San Andreas Fault. The Cocos, Nazca and Scotia plates in western South America are evidence that this great movement of the continent westward and northward either caused these fractures or were facilitated by them.
- Denali Fault (Alaska). The continents of America and Asia would be squeezed together as they moved apart and collide at Alaska.
- India, Pakistan and Nepal. As India crashed into Asia the stress pushed up the mountains and created an unstable region. However, if a great meteor struck the earth at Chicxulub to crack the earth at the beginning of the flood it could cause shock waves that pushed up the earth at the opposite end in this region if India was always attached to Asia.
- Indonesia. This region was also the leading edge of the eastern continental drift. But they never developed huge mountains and their land was fractured more than the continents that drifted west. This could probably be explained by the effect of erosion by the ocean currents. The land moving east moved against the tide and the rotation of the earth. So it was constantly reshaped and washed away by the ocean currents. According to the geology of Pangea, they did not have high mountains along their edges to protect them. But the American continents did have mountains along their western edge.
- Ring of Fire. The friction caused by the rapid movement of the earth along these faults and in opposite directions melted the rocks below and created lava and volcanoes and unstable faults.
- Tectonic Plates. An object that smashed in the earth was powerful enough to tilt it off its axis. The best evidence would be that it happened at the point that is opposite our highest mountain. Several impacts could have fractured the foundations into plates to begin the continental drift. The drift itself would have created more stress fractures.
- Oil and Tar. Noah used tar to make the ark water proof. It must have been easily found in the area just as it still exists in the Middle East today. But this was before the flood and massive burial of animal and plant life. Therefore, the great pools of oil are from another source. If they existed at creation then they are the hydraulic system of the earth. So what happens if we remove it all? Probably heat from underground, more volcanic activity and earthquakes will occur.

The Dispersion Of Animals.

Giant Creatures | Height
--- | ---
Animal | Region | Meters | Feet
Human | America | 3 | 10
Human | Turkey | 4.2-4.8 | 14-16
Giant Sloth | America | 6 | 20
Giant Beaver | America | 2.5 | 8
Giant Turtle | - | 3.6 | 12
Wooly Mammoth | Siberia | 4.5 | 15
Mastadon | Africa | 3 | 10
Bear | England | 3 | 10
Cockroach | World | 0.6 | 2
Dinosaur (Lizard) | Argentina | 45 | 146
Alligator | Amazon | 12x2.4 | 40x8
Giant Penguin | New Zealand | 1.5-1.8 | 5-6
Kangaroo | Australia | 3 | 10
Giant squid | Ocean | 17.4 | 57

A 47.24 inch (120 cm) human femur was found in the Euphrates valley in Turkey. This belongs to a human 14-16 feet tall with 20-22 inch long feet.
I believe the continental drift and land bridges explains the evidence better than submerged continents because it explains the migration of animals. The truth probably involves both phenomena.
Driven by an internal force to leave the area, the animals began migrating years earlier and migratory tribes later brought animals with them. Notice that larger and slower creatures are concentrated in Africa and Asia. They did not reach the American continent before the separation of the land began 100 years after the flood.
America. The fast, predatory animals and the ones who swung in trees made it to South America, probably over the African continent. If the lions claimed the territory around the Middle East, it probably pushed the other predatory felines further out. So leopards and panthers are found on the American continent. Animals that could live in the cooler climate stayed in the north. Bears and Buffalo herds walked across northern Europe and Greenland.
Sloth. Here we have an anomaly. In South America we find the slowest creature on the face of the earth. The sloth is a nocturnal mammal that lives in the trees of South America. Extinct species have been found in North America as far as Alaska and Antarctica. If we assume that they reached these places unaided, then we must get them to the eastern shores of the American continent within 100 years. They probably never met the leopard as they headed towards America because there were not enough animals to create a predator problem.
On the ground they move at the lightning speed of 90-180 meters per hour (30-60 feet). In the trees where it is safer they move at 180-299 meters per hour (60-100 feet). Trees would have covered the earth within five years.
If we assume that they are small, lazy and only travel eight hours each day, then they can travel an astounding 53-88 km (33-55 miles) in one year. So they can travel west 5100 km (3200 miles) to the American continent in 19-96 years.
To reach the Antarctic, they could travel south down the Arabian peninsula to Australia then to Antarctica.

| 100 Years (Possible Sloth Migration Routes) | Destination |
--- | --- | --- | ---
Ararat | Time | 10 Years | 20 Years | 50 Years | 75 Years | 100 Years | Babel
Route | 1 | West | Israel | Egypt | Libya | Algeria |  | America
2 | South | Iraq | Arabia | Yemen | Australia | Antarctica
Distance | 500 miles (800 km) | 1000 miles (1600 km) | 2500 miles (4000 km) | 3750 miles (6000 km) | 4200 miles (6720 km)

From the American continent they had unlimited time to migrate north to Alaska or to South America.
And perhaps their ancestor, the giant sloth, was a good runner or covered more territory with each step.
The point is that even when using the worst case scenario, we can place the sloth on the American continent before the drift began.
Evolution. The theory of evolution claims that the animals made it 4000 miles from Africa to a separated America on floating rafts. In their defense, these rafts are randomly created tangled masses of vegetation, not basket weaving monkeys and sloths.
This is still a less sound explanation because each specie would have to experience this same lucky raft trip and survived starvation. And many creatures were giants! Even if we assume that they can live on salt water and lucky encounters with hapless fish, the raft would have to travel 100 miles per day to arrive in 40 days. This insults the intelligence in terms of the lucky formation of such a sturdy raft, for every lucky pair of species setting out on an adventure. In addition, survivability parameters state that we cannot go for more than 5-10 days without water and 21-42 days without food. Exposure under the hot sun would have pushed those parameters to the lower end.
Africa and Asia. Anything that could walk made it to Africa and Asia because the continents were never separated from the Middle East. Those that preferred the warmer climates survived in Africa.
Australia and Madagascar. They have some of the most unique animals. This can be explained by the fact that the original pairs probably migrated to the land before they multiplied in large numbers and before the land separated. This means that Australia and Madagascar probably separated first and stranded these animals.
The lemur was stranded on Madagascar. The kangaroo and koala were stranded on Australia.
Australia fits in the pocket below Arabia and east of Africa. So the creatures had access by land and through the Persian Gulf. Although the entire region was once a thick forest, Australia now has the same underlying geography as Arabia possibly pointing to similar structure. It is mostly desert.
South Pole. Penguins are only found in the south. They probably swam south to the Antarctic region along the coast of East Africa or the Mediterranean route to the emerging Atlantic Ocean on the coast of West Africa. They could not walk to the North Pole or Greenland. So they went in the cool waters and swam in the only possible direction, south. They populated the three places that met at that point in Pangea - South Africa, Antarctica and South America
Domesticated Animals. They stayed in the region until they were brought with migrating people or by ships to America.

The Dispersion Of People.
Communication problems began 100 years after the flood. God scrambled their language after they built the tower of Babel. This led to the dispersion. It is possible to walk 2,000 miles (3200 km) over very steep and rugged terrain in six months. This is an average of 11 miles or 18 km each day. The distance from the Middle East to America across northern Africa is 5100 km (3200 miles). This can be reached by walking in ten months. This is the first year of the separation, so they could still reach America. They would have been walking by a supply of water, so this is a logical route. Or, they could have traveled in boats on a route along the area of the current Mediterranean and down to Central America. That could have been fresh water, until the American continent split and allowed the salty Tethys sea to flood the area.
In 2008 a young man rowed 3000 miles across the Atlantic by himself in seven weeks, travelling about 50 miles per day.

Ziggurat

» Africa, Asia and Europe. Genesis 11: 2 says they first journeyed east. They walked to these continents. The distribution of the nations shows an easterly path away from the central point in the Middle East. The Indo-Iranians who were descended from Japheth lived in the north near the Russian steppes. They separated into the Persians and Indians hundreds of years later. The Persians went west and the Indians went east. By that time the region of India had joined the Asian mainland.
We can see that the only other migration was south and west as the children of Ham who lived in the region of Egypt journeyed south in later years. Pyramids were found among the descendants of Ham in Egypt, Central America and in China. Mounds and other conical hills are found in many places but the greatest architecture is found among these groups. The earliest design probably resembled a ziggurat, or a step tower. It was their relatives who designed and supervised the building of the tower of Babel. So the basic design should be known to all people. Their ability to successfully copy the structure may have been dependent on the role their ancestors played in building the tower.
Sinite, the son of Ham went east and settled in China and eventually became the first two Chinese dynasties. So construction technology appears to have been kept among a certain group of the sons of Ham as a competitive advantage.
» America. Before the wide separation of the continents of Pangea, Native Americans could have made it across the Northern African land route to central and eastern America carrying the knowledge of building pyramids with them.
» Australia. Since this continent fits next to North East Africa and the Middle East they could have walked to it and traveled easily by boat or a raft before the separation was complete.

Skin Color
Middle Brown Genes | Eve
--- | ---
MaMb | Mamb | maMb | mamb
Adam | MaMb | MaMb MaMb | Mamb MaMb | maMb MaMb | mamb MaMb
Mamb | MaMb Mamb | Mamb Mamb | maMb Mamb | mamb Mamb
maMb | MaMb maMb | Mamb maMb | maMb maMb | mamb maMb
mamb | MaMb mamb | Mamb mamb | maMb mamb | mamb mamb
One set of brown parents can produce all colors

Later Migrations.
We showed how the dispersion to each continent could have happened from Pangea. But there could have been a later migration from Asia to Alaska and then down through the American continent centuries later. By island hopping in the fifth century A.D., Polynesians could have traveled east by canoe to the Easter Islands and then to South America. The early Australians could have traveled by boat from East Africa or Southern China to Indonesia then to Australia and New Zealand.
The Origin of the Nations (The Theory of Relativity).
The human race started with Adam and Eve who were created from the clay. The name Adam means "red". And this may be a clue to his original color. All skin is the same color, the difference is the amount of melanin beneath the surface of the skin. It takes six genes to determine skin color. If both Adam and Eve were a middle brown color, they could produce all colors in one generation. We illustrate this using the dominant and recessive pair of genes of both parents. A similar distribution of other traits that create distinctive variations can just as easily produce other racial features.

Physical Features
Feature | Color | Texture | Size
--- | --- | --- | ---
Skin | Black - White | Smooth - Hairy | -
- | - | - | - | - | -
Hair | Black - Blonde | Curly - Straight | Short - Long
- | - | - | - | - | -
Eyes | Brown - Blue | Clear - Spotted | Round - Almond
- | - | - | - | - | -
Lips | Brown - Pink | Smooth - Lined | Full - Thin
- | - | - | - | - | -

Physical Features. Every trait that people have tried to designate as belonging to a particular race can be seen among every other group. The Australian Aborigines are black people with blonde hair.
The major groups are Negroes, Caucasians and Mongoloids. The physical traits people generally identify are color of skin, hair and eyes, the shape of the eyes, the texture and length of hair, structure of facial bones and sometimes height. But there are also chemical and biological features that are more common among some groups, such as blood group, ear wax and a compound in urine.
Many of these traits that are common to a particular group can be explained by the fact that groups split off and were isolated. This could have been by choice or because they were rejected for some unwanted features. When they began intermarrying in isolation, certain features started to dominate.
The Amish are a isolated group that have a high percentage of some of the rarest disease and in some cases they have the only incidence of these diseases. This can be attributed to this phenomenon of isolation and a shallow gene pool.
After the flood, the nations emerged from the three sons of Noah and their wives. They had seventy descendants before the dispersion. The three brothers could have given similar traits to their descendants. While their wives could have added much variation. Centuries later, the effects of war, slavery, shipping, migration and imperialism brought the nations back from their isolation and produced many new mixtures. God mixed up the races as much as He mixed up the languages.

Table of Nations
Japheth | Indo-European | West Asia | Africa, East Asia, America and Oceania
--- | --- | --- | ---
Sons | Gomer, Magog, Madai, Tubal, Meshech, Tiras, Javan | Sons of Ham | Cush, Mizraim, Put, Canaan
Nordic |  | Alpine | Syrian Iranian |  | Vietnamese Indonesian | Thai Kyrgyz | Chinese Korean | Mongolian Lapp, Finns
Iberian |  | Afghan Kurd | South West Asia |  | Polynesian Malayan | Ainu Japanese
Kootenai Pueblo | Greek Roman |  | North African | Australoid |  | Native American
Lebanese | Turk | Babylonian | Indian Vedda | West Africa | Negrito Bushmen | Inuit Aleut
Hebrew Semite |  | Assyrian | Berber | Ethiopian | Negro | Mbuti | Adamanese | Cherokee
| Arab | Cushite | Egyptian | Bantu |  | New Guinea | Eskimo
Moroccan | Yemeni |  | Saudi |  | Barrineans |
Libyan | North African | Egyptian | Ethiopian | South Africa | East Africa
Shem | Elam, Asshur, Lud, Arpachshad, Aram | Middle East | Ham | Negro and Mongoloid

The Dispersion Of The Language.
Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. It came about as they journeyed east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
... Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they do not understand one another's speech. (Genesis 11: 1-2, 7)
Before the flood the people spoke one language. By the time of the dispersion 100 years after the flood, the three sons of Noah had become seventy nations. We do not know how many languages were created then. But there could have been from three to seventy languages. But now there are about 6,912 living languages that are the branches of over 100 language families.

Descendants of Noah | Language Tree
--- | ---
Sons | Grandsons | Family | Branch | Languages
Shem | Arphaxad, Elam, Aram | Afro-Asiatic | Semitic | Arabic, Hebrew, Maltese, Aramaic, Amharic, Tigrinya, Tigre, Gurage, Harari, Geez. Syriac, Akkadian, Phonoecian, Punic, Ugaritic, Nabatean
Ham | Mizraim | Egyptian | Coptic
Phut | Berber | Shluh, Tamazight, Riffian, Kabyle, Shawia, Tuareg, Guanch
Cush | Cushitic | Somali, Galla, Sidamo, Beja, Afar, Saho
Chadic | Hausa
Nilo-Saharan | Ethiopia | Nubian, Dinka, Masai, Songhai
Niger-Congo | West African Languages
Kwa | Yoruba, Ibo, Ewe, Twi, Fanti, Ga, Adangme, Fon, Edo, Urhobo, Idoma, Nupe, Agni, Baule, Kru, Grebo, Bassa
Mande | Mende, Malinke, Bambara, Dyula, Soninke, Susu, Kpelle, Vai, Loma
West Atlantic | Fulani, Wolof, Serer, Dyola, Temne, Kissi, Gola, Balante
Voltaic | Mossi, Gurma, Dagomba, Kabre, Senufo, Bariba
Eastern | Zande, Sango, Gbaya, Banda)
Other | Ijo (Ijo). Adamawan (Mbum). Efik (Efik, Ibibio, Tiv)
East and South African Languages
Bantu | Swahili, Luba, Kongo, Lingala, Mongo, Ruanda, Rundi, Kikuyu, Kamba, Sukuma, Nyamwezi, Hehe, Chagga, Makonde, Yao, Ganda, Nkole, Chiga, Gisu, Toro, Nyoro, Nyanja, Tumbuka, Bemba, Tonga, Lozi, Lwena, Lunda, Shona, Fang, Bulu, Yaundé, Duala, Bubi, Mbundu, Chokwe, Ambo, Herero, Makua, Thonga, Sotho, Tswana, Pedi, Swazi, Zulu, Matebele, Xhosa, Venda
Khoisan | South Africa | Hottentot, Bushmen
Malayo-Polynesian Austronesian | Polynesian | Maori, Uvea, Samoan, Tongan, Niuean, Rarotongan, Tahitian, Tuamotu, Marquesan, Hawaiian, Rapa, Nui
Western | Indonesian, Tagalog, Malay, Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese, Visayan, Malagasy, Achinese, Batak, Buginese, Balinese, Ilocano, Bikol, Igorot, Maranao, Pampangan, Pangasinan, Jarai, Rhade, Cham
Canaan | Austro-Asiatic | Mon-Khmer | Khmer, Mon, Palaung, Wa, Bahnar, Sedang, Khasi, Nicobarese, So, Nancowry, Sengoi, Temiar
Viet-Muong | Vietnamese, Muong
Iroquoian | - | Cherokee, Mohawk
Algonquian | - | Ojibwa, Cree, Blackfoot, Micmac, Cheyenne, and Delaware
Athapascan | - | Navajo, Apache
Uto-Aztecan | - | Hopi, Comanche, Tamahumara, Nahuatl, Kwakiutl
Oto-Manguean | Mexico | Otomi, Mixtec, Zapotec, Chiquihuitlan Mazatec
Sinite, Heth | Sino-Tibetan | Southern | Miao, Yao, She
Tibeto-Burman | Burmese, Tibetan, Yi, Lisu, Moso, Lahu, Karen, Kachin, Chin, Bodo, Garo, Meithei, Lushei, Newari, Murmi, Jonkha, Lepcha, Mizo, Manipuri
Tai | Thai, Lao, Chuang, Puyi, Tung, Nung, Shan, Kam-Sui, Zhuang, Li, Be
Sinitic | Mandarin, Wu, Gan, Min, Hakka, Xiang, Cantonese, Yue
Altic | Japonic | Japanese
Korean | Korean
Mongolian | Mongolian, Buryat, Kalmyk
Tungusic | Evenki, Lamut, Manchu, Nanai, Sibo
Japheth | Madai (Medes ) | Turkic | Turkish, Azeri, Turkmen, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Tatar, Bashkir, Uzbek, Uigur, Chuvash, Balkar, Nogai, Salar
Dravidian | Southern | Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Tulu
Central | Brahui, Gondhi, Kurukh, Kui. Elamite
Indo-European | Indic | Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, Punjabi, Konkani, Nepali, Assamese, Oriya, kashmiri, Sindhi, Gujerati, Sinhalese, Maldavian, Romany
Iranian | Farsi, Kurdish, Pashto, Baluchi, Ossetian, Tadzhik, Persian, Avestan, Scythian
Javan | Latin | Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian, Moldavian. Latin
Hellenic | Greek. Koine, Byzantine, Mycenaean, (Attic, Doric, Aeolic, Ionic)
Gomer, Tiras | Celtic | Gaelic, Irish, British, Breton, Welsh. Manx, Cornish, Gaulish, Cumbrian
Germanic | German, English, Dutch, Frisian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Faerose. Visigoth, Vandal, Lombardo, Gothic, Frankish
Magog, Tubal, Meshech | Slavic | Russian, Bulgarian, Polish, Ukrainian, Czech/Slovak, Slovene, Serbo-Croat, Kashubian, Macedonian, Romany
Baltic | Latvian, Lithuanian. Prussian
Uralic | Finnic | Finnish, Estonian, Mordvin, Udmurt, Mari, Votyak, Komi, Sami
Ugric | Hungarian, Ostyak, Vogul
Caucasian | Kartvelian | Georgian, Laz, Svan, Chan, Mingrelian
Daghestanian | Tsez, Hunzib, Beshta, Avar, Andi, Chamali, Lak, Dargwa, Lezgian, Tabasaran, Tsakhur

Because of conquests and trade and globalization, languages crossed the barrier from families to regions. Arabic, Latin, Greek, Spanish, French and English are some of the conquering languages. If we could eliminate the effect of conquest and subjugation, we could trace the original distribution of language.
Just as many different races and mixtures emerged from the eight original pairs, many languages emerged from the few original tongues. Noah had three sons, sixteen grandsons and seventy male descendants by the time of the separation. So the one hundred language families might represent the original languages of the original tribes.
Generating New Languages. It has been 4000 years since the flood. We had one language for 1750 years. Is it possible for over 6912 languages to develop from three to seventy languages over 4000 years? How fast is this process?

Germanic | West | Old Low German | • Low German (Old Saxon) (Old, Middle, New) | Low Saxon | • Middle Low German • New Low German
Frankish | Low Franconian | Middle Dutch | • Afrikaans, • Dutch-Flemish
• Anglo-saxon | • English (Old, Middle, New)
• Frisian (Old, Middle, New) | • West, • East, • North, • Saterfriesisch
High German | • High German (Old, Middle, New) | • Alemannic, • Franconian, • Swabian, • Yiddish
North | East | •Old Norse | • Danish (Old, New), • Swedish (Old, New), • Gutnish
West | • Faroese, • Icelandic, • Jamtska, • Norn |
Years | Number of Languages
--- | ---
1 | 3 | 16 | 36 | 50 | 70 | 70
2000 | 150 | 336 | 504 | 600 | 700 | 840
4000 | 7500 | 7056 | 6860 | 7200 | 7000 | 10080
Growth per language every 2000 years
Rate | 50 | 21 | 14 | 12 | 10 | 12
• Norwegian | • Nynorsk, • Bukmal
East | East | •Burgundian,•Lombardic,•Vandalic, •Bastarnae, •Herulian, •Rugian, •Scirian
Gothic | • Gepid, • West, • East

The island of Papua New Guinea has over 700, virtually a different one in each valley and some are not related. Mexico has 52 languages. India has over 800 languages and Nigeria has over 400. The Indo-European family has about 449 living languages. If we take the example of the Germanic branch, it became over fifty languages in about 1500 years. The Old English branch, which was spoken in the late seventh century, developed into about eleven languages in one thousand years. So if one language can become fifty languages in 2000 years, then those fifty would become 2500 in the next 2000 years. Therefore, three original languages could become 7500 languages in four thousand years! It is possible.
Since there were probably about seventy original languages, the low number of languages now may be due to the fact that the families were small and they did not split apart for centuries. Separation and isolation develops new languages and isolates distinctive features that we would describe as a new race. As the races interacted again, the languages changed quickly.
The growth table demonstrates that if one language becomes ten every 2000 years, then seventy will become 7000 in 4000 years. Similarly, if one language becomes fifty every 2000 years then three would become 7500 in 4000 years.
The Dispersion Of The Legend.
The successive conquest of Europe and Asia by the Persians, Greeks and Romans probably affected the legends of both the conquerors and the conquered. The Romans adopted the Greek culture. Earlier, the Middle East was also conquered by Assyrians. The Jews were slaves of the Egyptians, and God tried to replace knowledge of the Egyptian culture with knowledge of Himself. The conquest of Central and South America by the Spanish in the sixteenth century affected these legends also. Nevertheless, the distortion of the story shows a pattern among the sons of Noah.

- Shem (Middle East). The legend remained closer to the Hebrew version among his descendants. Animals are not given the magical powers that they have in other legends.
- Japheth (Aryan). The legends changed, but they maintained many of the essential elements. One can see an attempt to find an explanation for cosmic realities. The focus is still on the spiritual. The Indo-Iranian clan remained intact for a while until they split. Some Indian and Celtic concepts are similar. We even find a sacred cow among these groups.
  - Norse. In all these legends the flood is the blood of a giant. Audhumbla was a cow that was one of the original creatures who created life.
  - Indian. The legends in India are closer to the original than those in China. The cow is also sacred in Hinduism.
  Holy Cow! The bull was one of three animals that could be used as a sacrifice in Judaism. The others were the lamb and the goat. But the bull was the only one of these three animals that was also represented as one of the faces of the cherubim. Therefore, the bull is the most holy of these animals. It appears in many legends as one who gives life.
- Ham (African and Asian). The worst corruption of the legend occurred among his descendants. One can see an attempt to find an explanation for every day realities. The focus is on themselves and their environment. This might reflect their struggles to survive since they migrated the furthest. Since the animals also had to migrate, Ham's descendants might have been responsible for taking smaller creatures with them. The strong influence of animals in their legends could be a result of this legacy.
  - Africa. These are hospitality legends that show what happens when you are unkind.
    The Masai legend begins with a hospitality problem and proceeds to a story that is very similar to the original. It mentions Middle East customs and are so close to the original story that there was either Judeo-Christian influence or their location in central east Africa puts them close to the region of Shem. A missionary who worked with the Masai once described them as the "French people of Africa". He meant that they were jealous of their culture. This isolationist mind set may have preserved their legends.
  - Eastern Asia (China). These are the gourd legends. Most of them end with the emergence of life from a gourd. The theme of brothers and sisters marrying is also common.
  - America. Here we have animal transformation legends. The way to a man's heart is apparently through his stomach. The men marry animals after they discover that they were secretly preparing meals for them. It was also obvious that some of these legends were mixed with information from Catholicism since they mentioned Saint Michael and Saint Gabriel. Their creation myths have a constant theme of a color assigned to each direction of the compass. This may be a memory of the dispersion by nations.
    In south America we have very strange reasons for the cause of the flood. The stories are very magical and seem to be combined with the creation. Their legends are similar to those from Oceania.
    The Inca legends appear to describe accurate features of life after the flood. There were giants, people lived in caves and the permanent geological features caused by the flood were explained. If we look at Pangea we see that lower South America was close to Australia, where similar legends occurred.
  - Oceania (Australia). These legends try to explain how their current environment shows signs of the flood, and why certain animals have certain features.
  Pyramids and Ziggurats. It was the descendants of Ham, like Nimrod, who were great builders and hunters. They started the ill-fated Babel project. The knowledge of superior building technology before the dispersion explains the fact that both the Egyptians and native Americans and early Chinese had the knowledge to build such vast structures. They have traditionally been defined as descendants of Ham. The fact that these three groups retained this knowledge may show that they were more directly related to Nimrod and may have been given more knowledge of the construction techniques as supervisors of the Babel project and the knowledge was kept as a family secret.
  The Curse of Ham. The descendants of Ham were cursed because of his sin of exposing his naked father. They also led the revolt at the tower of Babel. But this group is the largest and seemed to be the most technically proficient of all the groups. So what was the curse? It is most likely related to the prescribed curses for sin. Biblical curses have a specific characteristic and sequence. Plague, famine, disease, war, exile, dispersion, loss of children, abandonment by God and destruction. Their legacy seems to be decreased knowledge of God as seen in their legends and greater fragmentation of their language as compared to Shem and wider dispersion of their family in terms of physical features and location. Their language and people were more scattered.
  So dispersion and loss of family through greater fragmentation of their language and people, and loss of the pure knowledge about God are the curses that seemed to affect them. The other curses would have wiped out such a small initial group.

Destruction Of The World
Our destruction is scheduled. Or there is a limit to the reign of evil that God will allow.
The ancients thought that time was cyclic and advanced through four or five stages. As history unfolded the world progressively became worse until it was destroyed in the last cycle and then reborn.
God used this concept of time in Nebuchadnezzar's dream of a metal image (Daniel 2). But God corrected this view of time by showing him that time is linear. The world would not experience endless cycles of decay, destruction and rebirth. At the end of the decay, God shatters the cyclic kingdom and establishes a linear, golden kingdom that would last forever.

The Ages of the World and the Cycles of Time
# | Hebrew | Zoroaster | Nebuchadnezzar | Hinduism | Persian | Greek | Roman | Aztec
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Curses | Two Visions | The Metal Image | Ages (Yugas) | Metals | Four Ages | Seven Ages | Hesoid | Ovid | The Five Suns
1 | Fear | Gold | Gold | Gold | Satya yuga | Gold | Gold | Gold | Gold | Gold | Jaguar
2 | Famine | Silver | Silver | Silver | Treta yuga | Silver | Silver | Silver | Silver | Silver | Wind
3 | Wild Beast | Brass | Steel | Brass or Bronze | Dvapara yuga | Copper | Steel | Brass | Bronze | Bronze | Rain of fire
4 | War, disease | Copper | Mixed Iron | Iron | Kali yuga | Dark or Iron Age | Mixed Iron | Copper | Heroes | Iron | Water
5 | Sanctuary destroyed | Tin | Mixed Iron and clay | Destruction | Tin | Iron | Earthquake
6 | Steel | Steel
7 | Iron | Iron

Linear Time.
Time is linear in the Bible. However, I found evidence of one possible source of the notion of cyclic time in the covenant made with the Hebrews. God promised that He would give them five series of warnings for their disobedience. On the fifth time, He would cause their sanctuary to be destroyed and their population to be exiled. (Leviticus 26). Then He would rescue them.
This covenant also existed with Adam and Eve and must have been known by our common ancestors after the flood.
So, the Bible supports the concept of cyclic punishments and renewal but not unending cyclic time. This concept of the blessings and curses fits the beliefs of the ancients that as evil got worse God would punish until He destroyed at the end. So God did teach cyclic punishment which occurred in the context of linear time. But he did not teach cyclic time with the reincarnation and a new creation of biological life and the new creation of God.
At the end of His last punishment, He will resurrect life and we would have perfection forever. The bible hints that this process will last 7,000 years.

Linear Time | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Iron | Clay | Gold
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
No Sin | Sin | Flood | Babylon | Persia | Greece | Rome | Now | Destruction | New Creation
Gold | Silver | Bronze | Iron | Clay | ... | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Iron | Clay | Millennium Exile
6000 Years | 1000 Years | Forever

After the period of clay and destruction there is a period of exile before the new creation. Noah was exiled for one year in the ark as the earth dried. Satan is exiled for one thousand years (one day) when the sea of people dries up.

> Judaism: Six Thousand Years. In the tractate Avodah Zarah, page 9A and the Tanna Debey Eliyahu, the Talmud teaches that the world will last six thousand years. It is divided into three ages that last about two thousand years. It will end with the Day of the Lord.

> 2000 Years | 2000 Years | 2000 Years | 1000 Years |  | Eternity
> Void (No Instruction) | Period of the Torah |  | Messianic Age | Day of the Lord | Paradise
> --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---

> In Christianity, this Day of the Lord lasts one thousand years. So the world lasts for one great week which is 3.5 "ages". In which, the Messiah did come at the beginning of the last two thousand years but He is not recognized by the Jews.

> Buddism: 4500 Years. The days of Dharma (Buddhist law) are divided into three periods in which the law is progressively weakened. In the last phase, when Buddhism fades, Buddha will reappear to turn the wheel of the law. Maitreya Bodhisattva is the buddha who saves the world of the future and saves all beings who have lost their way. At that time, the Dragon Blossom flower will bloom, and Maitreya Bodhisattva will convene a gathering three times to preach the teachings and save the world.

> 500 Years | 1000 Years | 3000 Years | End of Time
> --- | --- | --- | ---
> Turn of the Wheel of the Law | Law Deteriorates | Lawlessness | Buddha (Maitreya Bodhisattva) reappears

> This is referred to as the Three Gatherings of the Dragon Blossom. Some sources list 5,670,000,000 years instead of 4,500 years. The difference may be human years versus long ages as seen in Hinduism.

> Zoroastrian: Twelve Thousand Years. This is time with the progressive degeneration described as a series of metals.

> 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
> --- | --- | --- | ---
> Abyss | Ahuramazda | Aharman | Battle for Mastery
> 0-3000 | 3001-6000 | 6001-9000 | 9001-10000 | 10001-11000 | 11001-12000
> 3630-2631 | 2630BC-1629 | 1630-629BC | 630BC-370AD | 371-1370 | 1371-2370
> Nothing | Celestial Light | Darkness | Gold | Silver | Brass | Copper | Tin | Steel | Iron

> » The Four Divisions of Time. Time lasts for 12,000 years before the endless perfection of eternity. But it was divided into four sets of three thousand years which were characterized by the domination of one force. In the first three thousand years there was nothing. Then the kingdom of light ruled and after that the kingdom of darkness. In the fourth division, the years 9000-12000, when the battle of mastery of good and evil is waged between Ahuramazda and Ahirman, the time was divided into ages of a succession of metals. It started with the golden empire and ended with iron.

> The Messiah
> Critics claim that Judaism and Christianity stole the idea of the Messiah from Zoroaster. In this article we conclusively prove that this was not the case.

> » Two Visions. Zoroaster actually had two visions about the final period that began in his time in 630 B.C. In the first vision he saw a great tree with four branches which symbolized the four ages of his millennium. They were gold, silver, iron and mixed iron. In the second vision he saw a tree with seven branches, signifying "the seven periods which will come". They are gold, silver, brass, copper, tin, steel and iron. The golden age occurred in his time in the year 9001, at the end of the Ahriman period when darkness left.
> » Three Saviors. Three saviors, who were direct descendants of Zoroaster, would be born of a virgin in the world at the beginning of each of the last three millennium using a body created for him by the archangels in the year 3000. They would lead the people back to the true religion. They are Hushedar in 371 A.D. Aushedar-Mah in 1371. Soshans (Saoshyant) in 2310. So far, the first two have failed to appear. The Bahais believe that the last savior is Baha'u'llah who returned in 1844 because of this prophecy of Zoroaster.

> > When a thousand two hundred and some years have passed from the inception of the religion of the Arabian and the overthrow of the kingdom of Iran and the degradation of the followers of My religion, a descendant of the Iranian kings will be raised up as a Prophet.

> The sign of the end of the tenth millennium was the coming of "myriads of demons with disheveled hair, the race of wrath". These were identified as the Christians.

> Roman: Four Ages. The Golden Age is the time of bliss and total happiness when Innocence, virtue, and truth prevailed. There was no need for labour, for the earth brought forth spontaneously all that was necessary for man's subsistence. The Golden Age was followed by another, not quite so prosperous, called the Silver Age. It probably started after Pandora opened the box. It was the time when the year was first divided into seasons, and men were obliged to toil for their daily bread. Yet, in spite of these few hardships, the people were happy, far happier than their descendants during the Age of Brass, which speedily followed, when strife became customary, and differences were settled by blows. But by far the worst of all was the Iron Age, when men's passions knew no bounds, and they even dared refuse all homage to the immortal gods. War was waged incessantly. The earth was saturated with blood. The rights of hospitality were openly violated and murder, rape, and theft were committed on all sides.

Prophetic Time.

Experiencing Time
God | 2000 Years
--- | ---
Heaven | One Year
Earth | One Day

One type of linear time in the bible is prophetic time. The prophecies that involve time often gives such time as a formula that has a direct relationship to real human time. According to prophecy, a day of prophetic time is equal to one year or 360 days of real time. In fact, God says that one thousand ages is like one evening. So an entire day must be two thousand years. This is an even longer scale of time. So, since we know that the passage of time in God's realm is long in comparison to ours, then perhaps the prophetic time that is given is actually the eternal time as the people in Heaven now experience it. God Himself experiences time on a much longer cycle. So that 7000 years is three and a half days for Him. In prophecy, evil gets three and a half periods of time to operate.

Cyclic Time.

| Silver |  | New Creation | ... |  | Silver |  | New Creation | ...
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Gold | Cyclic Time | Bronze | Gold | Cyclic Time | Bronze
| Clay |  | Iron |  |  | Clay |  | Iron |

Creation disintegrates and is destroyed and physically recreated on a regular schedule. There is one civilization in which this structure of time is important. It may have influenced others. The Persians may have been influenced by the Hindus. The Greeks and Romans may have been influenced by both as they conquered the region.

> Hindu: 8,640,000,000 Years. This is the best example of both cyclic time and the disintegration through the ages. This process is repeated one thousand times every four million years. The universe exists for one day and night in god's time, or over eight billion years of normal time. Then this cycle is also repeated.
> Some scientists accept this aspect of Hindu belief not because they believe in the gods or the cosmogony, but the Hindu cycle of time agrees with the billions of years needed for evolution.

Time Cycles | God | Age | Events
--- | --- | --- | ---
» « | One Brahma Day and One Brahma Night Cycle | One Day or 1000 Maha Yugas | Brahma | Sristi, the emergence from Brahma begins | He breaks open the egg and creates time, heavens, earth, underworld, gods, demons, plants, animals and man
One Maha Yuga Cycle | Satya Yuga (Gold Age) | 1,728,000 years of perfection
Vishnu | Treta Yuga (Silver Age) | 1,296,000 years of lying and violence come into the world
Dvapara Yuga (Copper) | 864,000 years of wars, disease, passion and hatred
Kali Yuga (Iron Age) | 432,000 years. Lazy, quarrelsome, deceitful and greedy
Kalki destroys the unrighteous and restarts the golden Age 1000 times
One Night or 1000 Maha Yugas | Shiva | 100 Years of Fire and heat destroy the heaven, earth and underworld | Shiva causes the sun to burn hotter. Fire and heat dries the earth and kills all life. The heavens, earth and underworld burn up.
100 Years of Flood cover the universe and creates the dark abyss of water | Shiva exhales storm clouds. The storm hides the sun and the world is darkened. It rains for 100 years and everything is buried in a flood. Only Vishnu and the sea exists. All gods are dead. All three worlds are covered.
Vishnu | The seeds of life are preserved | A large gold egg appears and floats on the sea
100 Years of Wind stops the rain clouds | Vishnu exhales a drying wind to drive away the storm clouds. Then he sleeps.
4,319,999,700 Years of rest | Vishnu sleeps while the egg floats on the sea.
Brahma | Pralaya, the reabsorbtion into Brahma is complete. | A lotus flower emerges from Vishnu's navel in the form of Brahma. The Lotus is the foundation of the three worlds.
In a third cycle, Brahma lives for 36,000 Brahma days. Then all worlds dissolve for another 36,000 days before life starts again

If you ignore the long periods of time you see the same elements of the story of the people before the flood. Creation, sin and gradual disintegration into lawlessness. Then there is a flood caused by an asteroid (fire and heat), wind to dry the earth and a new beginning. The egg is the ark full of life that was floating on the sea.

The End Of The World
The end of the world comes when the pillar of the cosmogony changes. The tree dies, the egg shatters, the pillars that hold the world collapse, the strings that suspend the earth break, god wakes up from his sleep and stops dreaming about us, or god goes to sleep and stops thinking about us.

- Norse. The serpent eats the root of the tree of life which supports the universe.
- Yoruba. The serpent that protects the cosmic egg eats himself.

  > Yoruba. The rainbow serpent Danh lives in the sky and the serpent Aido Hwedo lives in the sea. It supports the weight of the earth by supporting the egg. Red monkeys bring iron for Aido Hwedo to eat. When the iron runs out Aido Hwedo will begin to eat his own tail and the world will collapse.

- Mayan. The Mayans had a "long count" cyclic calendar that counted the number of days since creation, August 12 or 14, 3114 BC. The thirteenth baktun of the Great Cycle occurs on December 21 or 23, 2012 and simply continues another great cycle. A baktun is 400 years and this date is actually 5200 years since their date for creation. The significance of the thirteenth baktun is based on the belief that historical events followed in a particular pattern and the cycle was repeated after every thirteen baktuns. Total collapse, judgment of God, epidemics, plague and famine are the pattern of events for the thirteenth baktun.
  » The Fifth Dimension. Five cycles of thirteen baktuns is 26,000 years. So some see a catostrophic event in this turning over of time. Astrologists compare this to the fifth dimension which they believe starts a new era.
  So at sunrise on December 21, 2012, the earth will cross the equator and align itself with the center of the galaxy for the first time in 26,000 years. They believed that this would create a cosmic cross which the Mayan's considered to be the tree of life. This will open a channel for universal energy to flow through the earth, cleansing it and all who dwell upon it, rising all to a higher level of vibrations.
- Hindu. In one of the many explanations of life, we are just a dream of the god who sleeps. When Brahman wakes up the world will disappear. In another explanation Shiva is the destroyer of evil who will recreate the new world.
  Apocalypse for the Hindu is the natural, periodic ending of the world in the fourth age, the Kali Age. Vishnu will appear as Kalki on a white horse. He destroys the present world and takes humanity to a different, higher plane 1000 times.
  This is the sequence of events of the last cycle.

> »Shiva Destroys.
> »The End. At the end of 1,000 Maha Yugas (one day of the life of the world), the great god Vishnu will adopt the form of Shiva-Rudra and will destroy all life on earth. He will then usher in one night in the life of the world, a period lasting another 1,000 Maha yugas.
> » The Destruction. First Shiva-Rudra will enter the sun's rays and intensify them for 100 years. This will generate great heat which will evaporate all water on the face of the earth. All three worlds will be affected, heaven, earth, and the Underworld. The great drought and scorching fire will create a wasteland. Famine will stalk the universe. By the time the 100 year period ends, no living creature will remain in the three worlds and they will burn up.
> » The Waters of the Abyss are Created. When the fires have consumed all life on the three worlds, Shiva-Rudra will exhale dreadful storm clouds. This will be accompanied by terrifying thunder and lightning. These clouds will move across the face of the earth, obscuring the sun and cloaking the world in darkness. Day and night, for 100 years, a deluge of rain will pour forth until everything in the world has been buried beneath the deep waters of a devastating flood. Besides the desolate sea, only Vishnu will continue to exist, for the fire and flood will have destroyed all of the other gods along with the rest of all life.
> »Vishnu Preserves Life.
> »The Golden Egg. Just as the great flood begins to bury all life, a large golden egg will appear. This egg will contain the seeds of all forms of life that existed in the world before the flood. As the world drowns, the egg will float safety upon the waters of the boundless ocean.
> »The Sleep. When the ocean completely covers all three worlds, Vishnu will exhale a drying wind. For 100 years this wind will blow across the world, dispersing the storm clouds. For the remainder of the night of 1,000 Maha Yugas, Vishnu and the world will sleep.
> »Brahma Creates.
> »The Lotus (God Emerges). At the end of the long night of 1,000 Maha Yugas, Vishnu will awaken. A marvelous lotus flower will emerge from his navel, and Vishnu will emerge from the lotus flower in his creative form of Brahma, creator of life on earth. The lotus will become the foundation of the three worlds.

> The Egg, Lotus and Mind

> » The Creation of the World. Once he has emerged from the blossom, Brahma will rest upon it. Brahma will break open the egg to initiate the process of rebirth. This will usher in the next day in the life of the world, a new period of 1,000 Maha Yugas. Hindus believe that the image of all three worlds, complete with gods, demons, and human beings, exists within Brahma.
> First Brahma, the creator, will bring forth water, fire, air, wind, sky, and earth, with mountains and trees upon the earth. Then he will create the forms of time, as a way of organizing the universe. Then, Brahma will concentrate upon creating gods, demons, and human beings. First he will bring the demons from his buttocks. He will then cast off his body, creating the darkness we call night which belongs to the demons.
> Taking a second body, Brahma will bring forth the gods from his face. He will cast off this body as well, creating the lightness we call day, which belongs to the gods. From successive bodies, Brahma's powers of concentration will bring forth human beings and Rakshasas (demon and man eating ogre), snakes and birds. Then Brahma will bring forth goats from his mouth, sheep from his chest, cows from his stomach, antelope, buffalo, camels, donkeys, elephants, and other animals from his arms and legs, horses from his feet, and plant life from the hair on his body.
> So Vishnu exists eternally in his three forms. First he is Brahma, the grandfather and creator of the world. Then he is Vishnu, the preserver of life on earth. Finally he is Shiva-Rudra, the destroyer of life on earth.

The Final Battle
But before the final destruction and new creation, many religions include a final battle between the forces of good and evil.
Megiddo: The Final Battle Of Jewish Eschatology.
Our understanding of the final battle between good and evil comes from two sources, the bible and the war scrolls found among the Dead Sea scrolls.
Battle Of The Kittim.
There is a war between the sons of light (members of the Yahad) and the sons of darkness (the Kittim) that lasts about forty years. This time includes the Sabbath years when they should rest from war. The sons of light are Levi, Judah, Benjamin and those exiled in the wilderness. The forces of darkness are the army of Belial who are led by the Kittim. The war eliminates all people who are not the legitimate sons of Israel and those who are violators of the covenant. There are three stages of the war.

1. Sons of Shem. The Kittim of Asshur join forces with Edom, Moab, Ammon, Amalekites, Philistia and the violators of the covenant.
2. Sons of Ham. The Kittim of Egypt join the forces of darkness.
3. Sons of Japheth (Kings of the North). They join the forces of darkness.

Sons of Shem | Sons of Ham | Sons of Japheth
--- | --- | ---
Mesopotamia | Lud | Sons of Aram | Arpachshad | Assyria, Persia | Elam | Ishmael, Keturah
Year 1 | 2 | 3 | Year 4-5 | Year 6-7 | 8 | 9 | 10-19 | 20-29
Babylon and Assyria | Assyria and Persia | Arabia | Egypt | Europe

There were seven engagements in the final battle. The forces of good won three and the forces of evil won three. But good won the final battle and annihilated evil forever.

- First Attack. The mighty ones of God attack the camp of the Kittim at the sound of the trumpets. The mysteries of God kill the wicked and test the mighty ones who are appointed for battle.
- Second Attack. Another group of holy ones join in the battle as the high priest encourages them to continue in the crucible. Belial, himself comes to help the Kittim.
- Third Attack. The forces of Belial are defeated when they are attacked by the infantry.
- Fourth to Sixth Attacks. These records are lost.
- Seventh Attack. Victory. The sons of Japheth, the Kittim and Assyria fall and the Kittim are crushed forever.

Battle Of Hamon-Gog.
Ezekiel records a battle between the forces of evil led by Gog, the king of the north, from the land of Magog. They surround Jerusalem and are annhilated by God. He may have been describing the last stage of the same war written in the Dead Sea scrolls. Revelation uses Ezekiel's version to describe the final phase of the battle after the millennium.

Armageddon: The Final Battle Of Christianity.
The Bible actually teaches that there is a cosmic war that started before the creation of the earth. Satan and a group of angels lost and then they tempted Adam and Eve to sin. They were confined to the earth with the human race.
The battle continues as Satan tries to tempt people to sin and abandon God. Ultimately, he will be killed in the final battle of Armageddon described in Revelation 20-22. Then he, his evil angels and all the resurrected wicked will surround the New Jerusalem and try to take the city of God by force. God wins easily when He destroys all the wicked people and wicked angels with hell fire, and recreates the heavens and the earth. A more detailed description of this version is given in our lessons, since this is the version we support.

Signs | Satan Comes | The Plagues | Second Coming | Resurrection (The Good) | 1000 Years | Resurrection (The Bad) |  | Judgment | Armageddon Gog and Magog | Hell | New Earth
Preparation | Rapture | Satan is Incarcerated on the earth | Guilty | Final War

This final end will be preceded by several signs which have been occurring since about 1750 at the French Revolution.

- Knowledge Increases. Spiritual and scientific knowledge increases.
- Signs in the Heavens. The sun is darkened and the moon turns to blood. The stars fall.
- Signs on the earth. The sea and waves roaring. Earthquakes and disasters.
- Immorality. Immorality and injustice increases. People forget God and do not acknowledge Him as the creator.

The wicked prepare for Armageddon when they try to kill the righteous during the incredible chaos at the end of time. Christ stops the war in its planning stages at the Second Coming and kills all the wicked. After the millennium, Christ returns to earth and the wicked are resurrected to defend themselves in the final judgment. Together with Satan, they get to execute the battle of Armageddon, but God kills them with hell fire. Then the new earth is created.

Armageddon: Evangelical Version.

Signs | Antichrist appears | Secret Rapture | Armageddon (World War III) | - | Plagues | Second Coming | 1000 Years of Peace | Resurrection | Judgment | New Earth
Time of Trouble (Seven Years) | Guilty | Hell

Structure of Earth and Hell
3 | Heaven | House of God
2 | Outer space
1 | The sky above
1 | Earth | Land | sea
2 | Sheol (the grave)
3 | Hell
Read the correct view about hell.

There are a few notable differences between what I believe are the correct sequence of events and a popular evangelical version. Some of this is probably based on their belief that hell is now a physical place that is somewhere under the earth or on another planet.
I believe that Hell and hell fire is an event that will exist on earth in the future after the Millennium. The wicked will be destroyed and Hell will no longer exist. So there is currently no eternally burning hell and all the dead, good and evil, are unconscious and waiting in their graves for their resurrection.

- Secret Rapture. Christ takes the righteously secretly so that they can escape the time of trouble. Variations in the belief place the secret rapture at many points during this tribulation (before, during and after).
- Millennium of Peace. The millennium is spent on earth during the reign of Jesus Christ, where people have a second chance as they are taught by Christ and the Jews.
- Jews. A separate destiny and plan for them.

Armageddon: Catholic Version.

Signs | The Great Warning | The Great Miracle | Rapture | The Great Chastisement | Second Coming | 1000 Years of Peace | Judged | New Earth
| 3 Days of Clouds | Comet Wormwood | Famine, Plague | Armageddon (World War III) | 3 Days of Darkness | Ball of Redemption | 500 Years | Hell
Mary Comes | Time of Trouble | Christ Comes
--- | --- | ---

The False Second Coming
Satan will impersonate Christ in a false Second Coming. If the sign of the sun imploding occurs at the fourth plague or before, then they could interpret the false Second Coming as the coming of Mary. The church would follow his instructions, believing that this is their last chance.
Definition
Antichrist (A False Christ). This is a human who pretends to be Christ or to represent Christ.
False Second Coming. This is when Satan impersonates the coming of Christ. It is the ultimate appearing of the Antichrist.

The sources of this version used a combination of approved visions and visions that have not yet been approved. I also used the officially unapproved visions because it was obvious from reading a book called "The Keys of this Blood" that the pope was taking his eschatological views from visions that are still churning their way through the approval process. So I looked at the teachings of those visionaries also.
They have arranged a sequence of events that seem to complement their basic beliefs. The information shows a rapture before the tribulation and a millennium reign of peace on earth after the battle of Armageddon which involves the Middle East, North Africa, Russian and Chinese forces against the United States and the Christians. That is the same basic order of events as the Evangelical Christians, but the details are quite different.

- Signs. These will get worse when the sins of humans outweigh the efforts of devout Catholics to do penance, prayers, the rosary and other acts.
  - Sins. Murder, homosexuality, abortion and the rise in drugs, sorcery, witchcraft, astrology, and Satan worship. The Masonic and Illuminati forces promote these sins.
  - The Negligence of Bishops. Neglect church attendance, sacraments and church laws.
  - The Revolt of Women. This is the second fall among the modern Eves.
  - The Great Apostasy. Heresy inside and outside the Catholic church. Except for a little flock or a little remnant which remain faithful to the pope and to Mary. A heretic pope becomes the Antichrist. The Jews choose the Antichrist as their Messiah. His name will be Maitreya.

    > The Antichrist Pope. My child, they converse of the secret that I gave at Fatima. It is a simple explanation. It could not be fully revealed because of the drastic nature of My message. How I warned and warned that Satan would enter into the highest realms of the Hierarchy in Rome. The Third Secret, My child, is that Satan would enter into My Son's Church.
    > Veronica Leuken. May 13, 1978

  - Christian Signs. Crosses appear in the sky and hosts (communion bread) fly from churches to heaven.
- The Great Warning. It begins when the sun has explosions that causes a great flash of light. This is the sign of the coming of the virgin Mary.
  - The Mantle of the Virgin Mary. The Virgin Mary comes as the morning star to cover the earth with her mantle. This is a thick, white cloud. The earth will stop rotating and all machines will stop working. Everything is held in place for three days. During this time everyone will come to acknowledge God, confess their sins and accept the punishment given at that moment. Everyone will know if they are going to heaven or hell. Everyone will recognize that the Catholic faith is the only true faith.
  - The Comet Wormwood. This is the comet that will hit the earth while it is covered by this cloud. This affects the western hemisphere, especially the United States and causes great disasters.
  - World War 3 (First Phase). Communist forces take advantage of the chaos to start the final world war.
  The comet named Wormwood strikes the earth and devastates the western hemisphere, causing nuclear bombs to explode. The thick cloud of dust causes a severe cold. Famine and plague follows the great cold when a horde of insects and animals invade. Natural disasters cripple the United States and some countries in Africa and the Middle East start the first phase of the world war (Jerusalem, Egypt, Arabia, French Morocco, and Africa).
  The pope is forced to leave Rome as the war comes to Europe. The Antichrist takes over and moves the seat of the papacy to Jerusalem. A global economic collapse occurs and food rationing results. People are given a microchip as a way of managing the food rationing. Evil spirits will possess people. Enoch and Elias will come and fight the Antichrist and convert the Jews to Christianity. The rest of the world is evangelized by 12 apostles and 72 disciples.

  The Mark Of The Cross
  Here we see people relying on a physical sign instead of the word of God to show them what is true. Truth is not a blind trust heaped on a person with a particular mark or appearance. Truth relies on adherence to a standard that is agreed upon. The Bible Only!

- The Great Miracle. A great sign will appear in the sky for all the world to see. Some sources say there will be a cross in the sky. A permanent sign will be given at Catholic shrines starting at the pine groves in Garabandal. It will be visible to all and can be filmed and televised. The faithful will be marked in their foreheads with the sign of the cross. If people ignore the sign, the chastisement will occur.

  > "Man has only one means now to avert the planned Chastisement and Warning. The Warning and the Chastisement will follow soon upon each other if man continues on his present course. He must now humble himself before the world. He must do much penance, sacrifices, and make atonement for the many offenses against his God. Only in this manner will I, as a Mediatrix between man and God, be able to hold back the destruction which is fast heading towards earth."
  > September 28, 1973. Veronica Lueken

- The Rapture. Many people will go to God to wait for the Second Coming and to escape the Great Chastisement.
- The Great Chastisement.
  - World War 3 (Final Phase). The final phase of the war occurs with Russia and China fighting the Christians. Missiles hit a German factory that produces nuclear warheads and thousands of nuclear warheads explode simultaneously. This explosion causes the planet to move off its axis and its orbit.
    Three Days of Darkness. This occurs because the dust from the nuclear bombs blocks the sunlight and because the earth is not aligned with the sun and the moon. 75% of the people will die. Only the righteous will survive. During this time people can be protected if they do certain things.
    - Blessed Candles. Light the blessed candles and sprinkle holy water around your house. They will be the only source of light and they will only work in the homes of believers.
    - Rosary. Pray the rosary.
    - Crucifix . Kneel, prostrate yourself and pray constantly before a crucifix.
    - Mary. Call on Mary to obtain the mercy of God. These times have been given to her under the title of the sorrowful and immaculate heart of Mary. No harm will come to those who seek her protection.
    - Saints. Invoke the intercession of saints and the angels.
  - The Ball of Redemption. This is a great comet that is sent to hit the earth and move it back in alignment with the sun and the moon. Billions more are killed.
- Millennium of Peace. It starts with the Second Coming. Mary and Jesus reign on earth as queen and king. Everyone is Catholic.
- Final Judgment. Satan and his demons will be freed for the final judgment. This will last 400-500 years. The dead are resurrected and the wicked are separated from the righteous.
- New World. The world is destroyed and recreated.

Ragnarok: The Final Battle Of Norse Mythology.
Just like the legend of Yggdrasil, the battle of Ragnarok is a very well developed legend. With one exception, it is also very similar to the Christian understanding of the end. As with all distortions, Satan gives himself an equal status with God. And in this legend, the evil army defeats the good. But in a strange twist, the good prevails in the new creation.

Abyss | 6000 Years | Signs | Second Coming | Trumpet | Millennium | Resurrection | Armageddon | Hell Fire | New Creation
Earth | Signs | Giants come | Cock Crow calls the dead, gods, giants | Ragnarok | Surt's Fire
Niflheim | Helheim | Muspelheim (Flame Land) | Asgard

> Signs
> Sun becomes black, moon as blood and the stars fall.

> Norse. Ragnarok (Gotterdammerung). Ragnarok, or the destruction of the powers, is the cataclysmic end of the cosmos.
> » Signs of the End. Ragnarok will be preceded by Fimbulvetr, the winter of winters. Three such winters will follow each other with no summers in between. Conflicts and feuds will break out, even between families, and all morality will disappear. This is the beginning of the end. The wolf, Skoll, will finally devour the sun, and his brother, Hati, will eat the moon, plunging the earth in darkness. The stars will vanish from the sky.

> Resurrection
> The trumpet of the archangel wakes the righteous dead. The wicked are raised after 1000 years.

> » The Trumpet wakes the Dead. The cock Fjalar will crow to the giants and the golden cock Gullinkambi will crow to the gods. A third cock will raise the dead. Earthquakes will shudder the earth, and every bond and fetter will burst, freeing the terrible wolf Fenrir. The sea will rear up because Jormungand, the Midgard Serpent, is twisting and writhing in fury, making his way toward the land. With every breath, Jormungand will stain the soil and the sky with his poison. The waves caused by the serpent's emerging will set free the ship Naglfar, and with the giant Hymir as their commander, the giants will sail towards the battlefield.
> » Second Resurrection. From the realm of the dead a second ship will set sail, and this ship carries the inhabitants of the hell, with Loki as their helmsman. The fire giants, led by the giant Surt, will leave Muspelheim in the south to join against the gods.

> The Siege
> The wicked gather on the plain around the city. They surround the city in preparation for war.

> » Gather for War. Surt, carrying a sword that blazes like the sun itself, will scorch the earth. Meanwhile, Heimdall will sound his horn, calling Odin's sons and heroes to the battlefield. From all the corners of the world, gods, giants, dwarves, demons and elves will ride towards the huge plain of Vigrid ("battle shaker"), were the last battle will be fought.
> » The Battle. Odin will head straight for Fenrir, and Thor will attack Jormungand. Thor will be victorious, but shortly after he dies from the serpent's poison. Surt will seek out Freyr, who will succumb to the giant. The one-handed Tyr will fight the monstrous hound Garm and they will kill each other. Loki and Heimdall, age-old enemies, will meet for a final time, and neither will survive their encounter. The fight between Odin and Fenrir will rage for a long time, but finally Fenrir will seize Odin, and swallow him. Vidar will at once leap towards the wolf, and kill him with his bare hands.

> Fire
> Fire from God destroys the wicked and the earth. A new heaven and earth are created. Christ, the dying God, will rule.

> » The Destruction. Then Surt will fling fire in every direction. The nine worlds will burn, and friends and foes alike will perish. The earth will sink into the sea.
> » The New Creation. After the destruction, a new idyllic world will arise from the sea and this new earth is filled with abundant supplies. Some of the gods will survive, others will be reborn. Wickedness and misery will no longer exist and gods and men will live happily together. The descendants of Lif and Liftrasir will inhabit this earth. Balder, the dying god will rule.

The Attack Of Shambhala.

> The New Jerusalem
> At the second resurrection the holy city of God will descend to the earth. The wicked will try to seize it after they have been condemned in the judgment.

> Buddhist (Shambhala). The prophecy of ShambPutucusiala states that each of its kings will rule for 100 years. There will be 32 in all, and as their reigns pass, conditions in the outside world will deteriorate. Men will become more warlike and pursue power for its own sake, and an ideology of materialism will spread over the Earth.
> » The City Revealed. When the Barbarians who follow this ideology are united under an evil king and think there is nothing left to conquer, the mists will lift to reveal the icy mountains of Shambhala.
> » The Final War. The Barbarians will attack Shambhala with a huge army equipped with terrible weapons.
> » The Final Destruction. Then the last king of Shambhala, Rudra Cakrin, will lead a mighty host against the invaders. In a last great battle, the evil king and his followers will be destroyed.

Earlier Wars.
The Greek legend is about a war that has already happened. The Olympian gods fought the Titans for rulership of the earth. The Bible also teaches that there was a great war in heaven in which Satan was exiled to the earth. Armageddon is simply the final, decisive battle in this great war.

> Greek. Legends told of a great and powerful dragon named Typhon. The last of the Titans, Typhon was the son of the earth and the underworld. Typhon's hundred, horrible heads touched the stars, venom dripped from his evil eyes, and lava poured from his gaping mouths. He was a vicious and implacable foe of the Olympian gods who came out of Asia Minor on a blood lust rampage. Hissing like a hundred snakes and roaring like a hundred lions, he tore up whole mountains and threw them at the gods. Along this path, he took storm and destruction with him, wading through the sea as if it were a shallow creek and destroying entire civilizations as he went. It was at the base of Mount Olympus that the battle between Typhon and Zeus began. Evidence of this battle can be seen today, the scarred battle grounds forming the river beds now in Syria. It was in the shallows off the Italian coast that the great Typhon was defeated. As Typhon tore up huge Mount Aetna to hurl at the gods, Zeus struck it with a hundred well-aimed thunderbolts and the mountain fell back, pinning Typhon underneath. There the monster lies to this very day, belching fire, lava and smoke through the top of the mountain.

Ancient Persian: The Final Battle Of Zoroastrianism.
This religion emerged in Persia and its prophecies may still be familiar to the Islamic nations because they are most similar to the Muslim prophecies. As you read this prophecy and the Islamic version, consider what the average religious Iranian, Iraqi and Muslim must be thinking as America makes war in the Middle East and threatens the nations mentioned in their prophecies. In these cultures, belief in religion is the norm, and America is identified as the "Great Satan". Who is the "moderate voice" to whom America thinks that it can appeal? What are the odds that any secular person in this regions is not contemplating their prophecies?
In the final days there would be a battle between good and evil in Iran. Evil would be vanquished and the world would be purified by a bath of molten metal. AhuraMazda (God) would then judge the world, resurrecting the dead and His Kingdom would be established on earth.

> Signs
> Knowledge increases. Immorality. Sun and moon darkened. Stars fall.

> » Signs. The last days is an era of scientific progress, persecution, disease and death will disappear. But there will be universal immorality and apostasy. People will treat god with contempt. All men will become deceivers and greedy. Affection will depart from the world and families will be against each other. Nature will show terrible signs. The sun and the moon will show signs. There will be frightful storms and earthquakes, wars and rumors of wars which kills many soldiers.
> But Mitro will be victorious and will at last destroy the idol temples and restore the good religion of Ahuramazda. And then Hushedar (Messiah) will come and many will convert to the religion.

> Armageddon Phase 1
> Forces gather in the Middle East near the Euphrates.

> » War in Iran. But, Aharman (Satan) will be able to mobilize a vast army which will march upon Iran, the holy nation, where the great and final Armageddon will be fought. The slaughter is to be so great that the rivers of blood will reach the girths of the horses. Soshans (Messiah) smites the hordes of unbelievers and demons, and ushers in the kingdom of righteousness. The great fiend AziDahak is released and rules for a year and a half with fearful devastation. He slays one third of mankind, and destroys one third of all cattle, sheep, and other creatures. He smites the water, fire, and vegetation.

> First Resurrection
> Only the righteous are resurrected and given immortality. All the wicked are dead they are with Satan on the desolate earth. 1000 years elapses.

> » Resurrection and Judgment. After this, comes the resurrection, the final judgment, and the renovation of the world, in which complete triumph is to be achieved by Soshans and Ahuramazda for the benefit of the faithful.
> During the fifty-seven years of the Soshans, all the dead are to be resurrected, righteous and wicked alike; each is roused on the spot where he died; earth and sea surrender their dead, who assume their former bodies. All are gathered before the great judgment seat of the Soshans in the assembly known as Sadvastaran. The wicked are separated from the righteous, and cast into the depths of hell, where they are punished.
> » The Cleansing Fire. Then comes the great fire in which the world burns in a fantastic holocaust. The earth becomes a river of molten metal and all men, righteous or wicked, must walk through this liquid fire. To the righteous it will be like a pleasant bath of warm milk, but to the wicked it will be indescribable torture. But this purifies them and they become saintly. So, in the end all men are redeemed.
> » Immortality. The Soshans will prepare a meal which will make men immortal. Each adult will get a body of forty years, and all children one of fifteen.

> Armageddon Phase 2
> Satan and the wicked surround the Holy City and are destroyed in a fire that destroys the earth.

> Each man will receive his own wife and children, but there will be no more births in the heavenly kingdom.
> » The Final Destruction. But Aharman and his first lieutenant, Azi-Dahak, though defeated, are still present in the world. Auharmazda and Saoshyant now attack them, and the seven archangels assail the seven archfiends and all these creatures of darkness take refuge in the pit of hell where they and Aharman, the great serpent, are burned "in the melted metal, and the stench and pollution which were in hell are burned and hell becomes quite pure." Aharman and all his minions are annihilated at last and those like them can never exist again.

> The New Earth
> God creates the new earth and we live there forever

> » The New World. Auharmazda now "brings the land of hell back for the enlargement of the world; the renovation of the universe arises at his will, and the world is immortal for ever and everlasting". The earth at last becomes an iceless, slopeless plain; even the mountain whose summit is the support of the Kinvad Bridge, "they keep down, and it will not exist". Out of the final holocaust, arises a new earth, a renovated universe; in this, all evil is at last destroyed, and all men become blessed saints.

Al-Malhamah Al-Kubrah. The Battle Of Qa'im (Qaim): The Final Battle Of Islam.
The word "al-Qaim" means "firm" or "steadfast." Al Qa'im is a town in the Anbar province a mile from the Syrian border along the Euphrates River about two hundred miles northwest of Baghdad. Al Qa'im (the one to arise) is also the name of Muhammad al Mahdi. He is the twelfth and last Imam of the Twelver Shi'a. On the day of Judgment the following will occur so that the infidels are eliminated and the new way of life can proceed.

15,000 Years | 1000 Years (Muslim Millennium)
--- | ---
9000 Years | Christians | Mahdi Rules | Isa | Others | Evil Rules Again | Righteous
6000 Years | 7 Years | 40 Years | - | - | Sun from the West | 120 Years | Earth Destroyed | Trumpet | Resurrection

> Osama Bin Laden
> We can now see why the fighters are drawn to Afghanistan and Baghdad. They are waiting for the Imam and creating armies for him. Some might even be wondering if Osama is the one or a messenger.

> » Imam Mahdi. The Shi'a believe that the Imam Mahdi has been concealed for hundreds of years. He disappeared at the age of five from his home at Samarrah, Iraq, after leading his father's funeral prayer on the 8th Rabi ul-Awwal 260 Hijri (872 or 874 A.D.). The Imam has been withdrawn by God from the eyes of people and his life has been miraculously prolonged. He was last seen in Samarra in the cellar of his father's house (or in a cave). In 947 he was seen once at a well in Jamkaran, Iran. He will be revealed at the end of time. When he appears the day of judgment will begin. His capital will be in Damascus, Syria but he will appear in Afghanistan and Baghdad to lead armies in the Great war.
> The Sunni believe that the Mahdi is a new person and the successor to Mohammad. The Shi'a believe that the Mahdi is also from Mohammad but through a different line of succession. For the Twelvers he is the 12th imam. For the Seveners, he is the 7th imam. He is now several hundred years old and is in hiding until it is time to appear.
> » The Day of Judgment. On the day of judgment the Kaaba will be transported from Mecca (Makkah) to Jerusalem. The Kabba is the black cube around which Muslims make a procession during the Haaj.
> » Signs. A black wind, a great earthquake, locusts, war (red death), plague (white death), famine and drought. The Muslims will be at the peak of their military power. Christians will convert to Islam.

> The Coming of Isa (Jesus)
> Since the coming of Isa is integral to the coming of the Mahdi, Muslims seem be be taking an interest in Christian eschatology because they have no real information about Jesus.

> » Peace Treaty. The Muslims will make a peace treaty with the Christians and fight together successfully. The Christians will break the treaty. Many Christians will convert to Islam but others will start a war against the Muslims.
> » The Dajjal (The Lying Christ or Antichrist). He is a Jew who claims to be Jesus Christ, travelling on a giant mule, who will rule on earth for forty days. But it will seem like one year, one month, one week and 37 days. He is short, fat, red faced, bow legged, curly haired and has one eye. He will have the word "Kafir" or unbeliever in the middle of his forehead. Only the Muslim believer will be able to see this word.
> He will perform miracles. He will even appear to raise the dead by having devils assume the form of the dead. He will visit every place on earth except Mecca, Medina and Damascus (Sham) which are guarded by angels. His followers are Europeans, Americans, Jews, women and Christians. The Great Satan. The Muslim Jesus (Isa) will slay the Dajjal and establish Islam.
> It is strange that Jews, Muslims and Christians and even Buddhists are on a path towards a future where the coming of the Antichrist can be exploited by Satan to allow them to look to violence at the command of the supernatural as a duty because they will be wiping out the wicked. When the Antichrist appears it will be easy for Him to pit ancient enemies against each other because their identification of him is not based on righteousness and peace but on their side being invincible and correct in their theology.
> If the Second Coming is not about the resurrection of the dead and the taking away of all the righteous to heaven then it is a Satanic hoax. War and destruction will not be performed by humans but by the angelic forces coming to rescue the righteous. There will be no debate, no Bible study lessons, no peace conferences, no armed righteous human beings taking up the sword or gun, no more appeals to abandon evil, no repeals of laws, no more teaching, no supernatural beings appealing to the world via television or loud speaker. There will be no Sunday morning debates by experts and politicians and religious leaders.
> If these dynamics exist during a supernatural landing of aliens or angels or extraterrestial forces then it is the Antichrist. If you find yourself in this situation do not be afraid of them, simply turn to knowledge about Jesus Christ because the Second Coming is within your life time, possibly less than one year.
> The real Second Coming is a simple rescue operation where the righteous will be visibly snatched away as the wicked watch in terror and regret before God destroys them from above by Himself.

> The Siege of Jerusalem
> The nations will surround Israel (Jerusalem). (Zechariah 12)

> » The Great War (Al-Malhamah Al-Kubrah). For seven years Mahdi will lead Muslims in victory over the Antichrist before the return of Isa (Jesus). Mahdi will gather a great army in Afghanistan (Khurâsân) to fight the infidel Christians and march on Jerusalem and create a universal Islamic religion.
> For the Shi'a it starts with a call from the sky at the beginning of the Day of Judgment. The faithful people will assemble from Syria, Iraq, Yemen and many Arab nations. An army will come from Afghanistan wearing black headbands and carrying black banners. Muhammad told the Muslims that when they see the black flags they must join that army of men in a relentless march toward Jerusalem. Some accounts say green flags. This is because Muhammad is said to have carried a black flag (al Uqaab) in battle and a green flag at other times.

> The Silent Army
> One wonders about the motivation of the armies we are arming and training in Afghanistan and Iraq. Afghan men are so eager to be trained, the USA army cannot fill other supporting positions. Why are they training? How will they react when they see their sign?

> > The world will not come to an end until a man from my family (Ahlulbayt) and of my name shall be master of the world. When you see a green ensign coming from the direction of Khorasan [Afghanistan], then join them, for the Imam of God will be with the standards who will be called Al-Mahdi.

> 960,000 Christians (eighty groups of 12,000) will gather to fight the Muslims between Damascus and Medina. The Muslims will win on the fourth day of battle. One third will flee, one third will be martyred but the rest will be victorious. Then Mahdi will invade Istanbul with 70,000 people. See a map.
> Meanwhile the Antichrist will lead 70,000 people to fight Mahdi in Damascus.
> » The Coming Of Isa (Jesus). Suddenly Isa will descend from the skies with his hands on the shoulders of two angels. The next day he rides to battle on a horse and he will kill the armies of the Antichrist with his breath and with a sword. Mahdi will pass away and Isa will rule. Isa will return as the Mahdi's executioner to tell the world to follow the religion of Islam because Christianity is a mistake that he regrets starting. Isa will also pass away after forty years. During the forty years time he will marry and have children.
> » Gog And Magog (Ya'jooj And Ma'jooj). Two tribes of vicious beings will break out of prison when their prison wall breaks. They will ravage the earth, drink all the water of Lake Tiberias, and kill all believers they see. Isa, Mahdi and the believers will pray on a mountain and Allah sends disease and worms to wipe them out.

> Evil Returns
> Evil returns only to be judged and destroyed. The wicked are resurrected and Satan is loosed.

> » Evil Returns. Jahjâh, a man from Yemen will begin to rule a religious kingdom. After a succession of several rulers evil will again appear. Then a mist will cover the earth, the unrighteous will fall unconscious and the mist will clear after forty days.
> » The Long Night. Then the earth will be dark for about three days and the sun will rise from the west and move to its normal point at noon. Then it will set in the west. This begins the last 120 years on earth.
> » The Mark Of The Beast On The Righteous And The Wicked. An earthquake will occur in Mecca and a strange animal will appear. He will mark the foreheads of the righteous with a line so that their faces will shine. But he will mark the unrighteous on their noses or necks and their faces will become dark. A breeze will blow across the land and the righteous will die. The wicked will rule the world and remove all traces of God. Syria will become very prosperous and many people will begin to go there willingly. A fire will drive the remaining towards Syria so that all creation will be gathered in Syria. Prosperity will continue for four years.
> » The Trumpet. Then on Friday 10, Muharram a trumpet will blow and everyone will die.
> » The Destruction. The universe will be destroyed. Then the resurrection will begin.

Shi'a And Sunni Eschatology
The hidden imam is a Shia belief and most of the beliefs described above are believed by the Shi'a. But it was Al-Qaeda and the Sunni branch of Islam that began this eschatological war. Their zeal stems from spreading Islam through jihad and protecting their holy countries. The soviet incursions in Afghanistan might have triggered their pilgrimage to the country to fight the Jihad in a land that Muhammad mentions as a sign of the end. The results of their zealous behavior connect with the Shi'a view of the future. While the Shi'a believe in the Mahdi, the hidden iman is the man from the family of Muhammad, the Sunni probably believe that there will be a person descended from this family who will begin the jihad and stir the Muslims to march to Jerusalem.
Sooner or later when these groups decide to cooperate with each other against the Great Satan (United States) and the Little Satan (Israel), we will have a dire future.

> Sunni Muslim Prophecy. This is taught in schools supported by Saudia Arabia.
> "the hour of judgment will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them".

Armageddon Expectations
Prophecy | Christian (Adventist) | Muslim | Current Events
--- | --- | --- | ---
USA | Power supporting the final religious power | Great Satan | USA is the great Satan. Israel is the little Satan
Elijah | A message like his introduces world to Christ | Mahdi | Forerunner of Isa, leader of the army
Day of Judgment | 1844 - Phase 1 Investigation | Sunni Muslim | Comes when Muslims kill Jews and take Jerusalem
Muslim | The Kaaba is transported from Mecca to Jerusalem
Zoroastrianism | Iran will be the place where Armageddon is fought
Great War | Armageddon Preparation | Battle of Qaim | Sunni Jihadists act as if this is the time for battle
Major Battle Fields | USA at War in the Holy Land (Daniel 11:40-45) Armageddon preparation begins in the 6th plague but it is a war fought by God alone after the final judgment. YHWH destroys Satan and the wicked when they attack the New Jerusalem | Jerusalem | March to Jerusalem and take it by force. Kill Jews
Saudi Arabia (Medina) | Battle Christians between Medina and Damascus. Mecca will be attacked and the kaaba destroyed
Iraq | Gulf War (August 2, 1990 to February 28, 1991)
Afghanistan | Afghanistan War (October 7, 2001 to present)
Baghdad | Iraq War (March 20, 2003 to December 15, 2011)
Yemen | USA drone strikes (2002 - present)
Damascus | ISIS/ISIL in Syria. August 2014 - USA responds in Iraq-Syria
Turkey | Mahdi will invade Istanbul. Turkey fears allying with USA
Peace Treaty | Evangelical Belief | Peace Treaty | Christians break treaty with Muslims
Antichrist | Satan Impersonates Christ Papacy Usurps Christ | Djjal | A short, fat, bow-legged, red-faced, one-eyed Jew
Second Coming | Jesus Comes | Isa (Jesus) | He comes to renounce Christianity and support Islam. He kills the Antichrist, marries, has kids. He dies after 40 years
Peace and Prosperity | Righteous in heaven. But desolation-death on earth | Yemen | A man from Yemen is the first of a succession of righteous rulers until evil returns. 120 years remain on earth
Gog, Magog | ...after the millennium | 2 Nations | 2 existing nations that portend tribulation break out of prison
Beast From The Earth Gives A Mark | USA rises out of the earth | A real animal | Rises out of the ground
Mark of the beast on the wicked's head and hand | Righteous and wicked marked by a strange animal
Probation Closes | 7 Last Plagues (1 Year) Nobody switches sides | Western Sun | The sun rises from the west. Believing now is useless. The last 120 years begins
Millennium (1000 Years) | 1000 Yrs in heaven (SDA) 1000 Yrs on earth taught by Jesus and Jews | Shia | Mahdi disappeared over 1000 years ago (824 AD). He brings universal peace
Day of Judgment | Final Judgement Phase Gog and Magog | Muslim | 2 tribes if vicious humans, now imprisoned, escape and terrorize earth
Armageddon | God destroys wicked | Muslim | Allah's forces led by Mahdi and Isa destroy all the wicked and establish Islam as the universal religion
Trumpet | Resurrection | Blows 2 Times | (1) Everyone faints. Fear, terror. and death (2) Resurrection

» The Arab Spring
The Muslims gathered into the places where they knew war would be conducted according to their prophecies and their terrorist activities pushed the world to respond in those places in the sequence predicted. It seems like the United States was baited into conducting war in the places that fulfilled their prophecies or the accumulation of terrorists in these areas forced a natural response.
Turkey borders the most volatile regions in 2014 - Syria and northern Iraq. So a hesitation to join an international coalition against ISIL may be due a prophecy of invasion in addition to a serious refugee crisis.
The problem is that the jihad fighters have started the war before the sign of the day of judgment or the appearance of their Mahdi in the Shia belief. However since the Sunni believe that the day of judgment will not come until they kill the Jews, then this Sunni led global insurgency makes sense.
Islam is nothing but a mishmash of Zoroastrianism, Judaism and Christianity. However they manage to take key figures and events and reinterpret them with Zoroastrian beliefs often dismissing the teachings of the Judeo-Christian texts. So their prophecies are essentially Zoroastrianism with the names of people changed.
On the other hand Christianity takes the entire Jewish books without changes and adds the history of Jesus Christ and His disciples as part of the sacred history about the coming of the expected Jewish Messiah whom they believe is Jesus Christ. So Islam has a different set of beliefs about orgins that is not the same as Genesis. They also believe that Ishmael is the chosen son, not Isaac.
Like Jews and Christians, Muslims believe that God is coming to wipe out all religions and establish "theirs". The Christian prophecies say that a Christian theocracy will force the world to establish their religion in the most brutal events that have ever been seen on earth! A form of Christian leadership more brutal that Al-Qaeda or ISIL or the "flavor-of-the-month" jihad militia will exist soon. We may see the emergence of this theocracy as Christians convince themselves that they need to put aside differences and confront the brutal threat of Islam. The world may accept this as legitimate since it has been unsuccessful in marginalizing religion in a "scientific" and "logical" world.
» No Isa (Jesus)
One consequence of these wars is that Muslims are now interested in what Christians have to say about the second Coming, not because they are interested in conversion but because the coming of Jesus is linked to the coming of the Mahdi. They believe Isa comes is 7 years after the Mahdi so they are very vulnerable to date setting in this climate because it has been over 13 years since a succession of candidate Madhis (wicked terrorist leaders) has appeared whose brutality does not spare Muslims - yet there is no Isa.

Great Deception

Middle East Prophecies
The prophecies of two major Middle East religions are being fulfilled. Islam and Zoroastrianism both believe that the Christians are the Antichrist and that they will start a war in the Holy Land with the cooperation of the Jews. In this war, the holy nations of Iran, Afghanistan, Syria and Baghdad will be attacked. Everyone will march to Jerusalem for a final show down.

After studying several end time prophetic expectations it is very interesting that everyone has a high probability that they will be deceived. This is because at critical points, their decisions are not based on absolutes of right and wrong. It is based on identifying a point in time and the opposing forces and then reacting based on a prophetic script.
The prophecies complement each other to the extent that actual events will confirm everybody's belief. And differences in belief will still confirm everyone's position and drive their behavior towards a critical point of no return. No one seems to care about acting on the basis of right or wrong behavior. They act based on right or wrong sides of a prophetic fulfillment.
They should learn from Abraham and Moses and other prophets, when the behavior of God seemed to challenge the moral principles set by God, they questioned God. In some cases, they begged to die rather than continue.
» Muslims. Muslims think that they cannot be deceived because they can identify the Antichrist. He will look like a one eyed monster who will be unable to travel to Mecca and Medina. They have identified the Christians as the forces of the Antichrist and their prophecies confirm their hatred of Israel and propels them towards the destruction of Israel.
They also believe that God will correct the inaccuracies in every belief. He will change laws.
» Catholics. They believe that Mary will warn us, and everyone will get a personal affirmation that Catholicism is the only true faith.
» Evangelical. Evangelicals seem to have no concept of deception because they believe that they will be taken away before the trouble starts. But they have identified the Antichrist as a dictator like Hitler who will attempt to rule the whole world. In this system militant Muslims are used by the forces of Antichrist and the church must protect the Jews or they will be fighting against God. Their biggest mistake is seeing one nation as a righteous nation called by God. This blind faith makes them turn a blind eye to immoral behavior perpetrated by their side.
The problem is that at one point they believed that you could tell the time and the enemy because the nations of Russia and China will start a war in the Middle East and then fight against Israel. The United States had no role. Unfortunately, their eschatology has turned upside down because of the events in the Middle East. It is the United States that has gone to war in the Middle East and it is the United States that is attempting to impose its political system on the rest of the world. Even changing to a policy of preemptive war. Now there is a reshuffling of prophetic roles to fulfill their version of prophecy. They now claim that the United States is acting as the sword of God to bring Christianity and freedom to the world. They are probably hoping that Russia and China will attack later. Unfortunately, China probably sees world domination in their immediate future if they remain uninvolved and develop their economic capability while they allow their rivals to exhaust their resources. So China is watching the fire burn across the river so that they can fish in troubled waters later.
The Muslim belief and the belief of many evangelical Christians will make them natural enemies. Each will be able to see what they want to see as events unfold. A broken peace treaty, the antichrist, and a war in the Middle East and Jerusalem as the prize.

Muslims | Most Evangelical Christians
--- | ---
Antichrist (Dajall) | Armageddon | Antichrist
Christians, Jews | Fight Christians and Jews | Jerusalem | Protect Jews | Muslims

Lessons
Israel Israel Attacked Middle East War The Last Super Powers

» Jerusalem: The Prize And The Hernia Stone. In a strange twist of fate, both groups will be fulfilling the real prophecy. The Muslims believe that they must march towards Jerusalem and take it by force. The bible teaches that the forces of those who are against God will surround Jerusalem in order to destroy her. If the Muslims attempt to fulfill their prophetic directive, they will be fulfilling the Jewish prophecies!
The Muslims caused the nations to be gathered in the Holy Land. Eventually, they will surround Jerusalem. But because their fight is for ideology, not principle, both groups will be fighting against God. When evangelicals realize that they are in the middle of a time of trouble and they have not been raptured they will respond by defending their position instead of the word of God. Israel will do something that will make them angry. At that point they will find a reason to abandon Israel. Perhaps they will reshuffle their eschatology and see themselves as the only "true Israel". Then they will want to take Jerusalem as their God given right.
The Bible teaches that there will be no single righteous nation, but the righteous people will be scattered among many nations. Every nation will turn against God. They will persecute the righteous in their community and they will try to possess Jerusalem. Unfortunately, the United States will be the leader. We are now witnesses to the processes that are leading many groups into the Holy Land. It will end with their need to capture Jerusalem. The United States policy towards Israel will change. That is the result of the prophecy by Zechariah.
» Christ. Christ tells His followers that they can be deceived. The Bible teaches that we have the right to question the instructions of any supernatural being if their teachings contradict the Bible. Christ also adds that one sure sign of a false Christ is the fact that you have to be told where he is, or you have to go somewhere to hear his teachings. So defend the principle, not the group, and you will be acting according to the will of God.
» The Deception Of Satan. When Satan comes, pretending to be God, he will be perfectly beautiful with both eyes. He will perform miracles, he will travel to different places and he will look spectacular. He will be able to travel to Mecca and Medina. The only way that you can tell that he is false is the fact that he travels from place to place. He will also try to change or "correct" the laws of God.
When Christ comes there will be no travelling, no miracles, no last pleas. Only resurrection, rapture and destruction of the wicked. If you have to think about what to do, you are already being deceived. Eve was deceived because she lost sight of the principles. She forgot the word of God.

The Muslim Paradise
"They shall recline on jewelled couches face to face, and there shall wait on them immortal youths with bowls and ewers and a cup of purest wine (that will neither pain their heads nor take away their reason); with fruits of their own choice and flesh of fowls that they relish. And theirs shall be the dark-eyed houris, chaste as hidden pearls: a guerdon for their deeds... We created the houris and made them virgins, loving companions for those on the right hand ..." Muhammad said, "The smallest reward for the people of paradise is an abode where there are 80,000 servants and 72 wives, over which stands a dome decorated with pearls, aquamarine, and ruby, as wide as the distance from Al-Jabiyyah to Sana'a." [Damascus to Yemen]

» Suicide Bombers. One product of the zeal of the Muslim believers is the homicide bombers. People who are willing to kill Jews and non-believers in a mass bombing. Since suicide is forbidden, this act is interpreted as martyrdom in the cause of the jihad or war to advance Islam.
The bomber believes that at the moment his first drop of blood spills that he gains the following as a martyr (shahid).

- A free pass to heaven.
- A crown of pearls on his head.
- All sins are forgiven. He is as pure as the day he was born.
- He is not dead. He is alive, near God forever.
- He gets 72 virgins. Some recruiters promise 70 virgins and 70 wives.

Constructing A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy.
In the current war, we see what can go terribly wrong when devout people believe that they are part of the fulfillment of a prophecy and begin to take irrational steps to fulfill it. In this process, they justify all types of immoral behavior. They relabel suicide as martyrdom. They sabotage real indications of progress in a peace negotiation because the facts appear to contradict the prophecy.
Years ago, the Maccabeans committed terrible acts because they believed that they were fulfilling a prophecy of Daniel.
Similarly, the Christian right is on a lunatic mission to refurbish the role of the United States as the sword of God to fulfill the will of God.
The truth is, that if the righteous recognize that they are in the middle of a prophecy, they should behave more righteously because the prophecy will be fulfilled without their help. Do the right thing, even of the right thing goes contrary to the fulfillment of prophecy. We are not called to fulfill prophecy. We are called to reflect the righteousness of God.
As it turns out, because the Muslims and the Christian right believe that they are fulfilling prophecy they actually are fulfilling the prophecy by their actions. The problem is that they are not fighting on the side that they think is righteous! If the events were not so tragic it would be comedic. And the real tragedy is that no matter how right or wrong their theology or their prophetic interpretation, they would be fighting on the right side if they would only live the principles of Jesus Christ instead of trying to be actors and directors in a tragic prophetic play.

Hamas And The Palestinian Elections
The United States seemed to have forced a Palestinian election, but the outcome was not what they expected. Their enemies won by a landslide. Several months later, the losing side refuses to leave their positions. The Americans have cut off funds to compound the misery and hope that the people will blame the winning party. The United States is undermining a legitimate, fair and free democratic election because they hate the results. This can be seen as a dishonorable political act that is equivalent to breaking a treaty.

On July 20, 2005 the news reported that the father of the Egyptian 911 hijacker, Muhammad Atta praised the recent bombings in London and called for more. He also claimed that this is a part of the fifty year war.
» The Fifty Year War. He could be referring to the prophecy. The fifty years probably includes the seven year reign of Mahdi, the forty year reign of Isa and the few years leading up to the beginning of these periods. Here are the signs that drive them.
» The Signs. The December 26, 2004 Asian earthquake and the December 26, 2003 Iranian earthquake, the locusts in Africa and the Middle East in 2004 which caused famine. The drought and the war on terror and the success of the Islamic insurgency and September 11 could be seen as part of the signs. All we need is a plague to sweep the region. The diseases occurring in Iraq and Afghanistan because of the lack of clean water and adequate services could be interpreted as the beginning of this sign. A black wind could be any of the terrible dust storms that plague the area (Haboob). On July 14, 2005 a storm carried a cloud of sand, the size of the United States, on a ten day journey from the Sahara across the Atlantic to the United States. This may qualify as a black wind for those looking for a fulfillment. Significantly, it was carried from an Islamic region to the land of their enemy.
» The Peace Treaty. If they are looking for a peace treaty it would be the negotiations between Israel, the Palestinians and the United States. Because the prophecy says that the non-Muslims will break the treaty we find the terrorists doing everything to sabotage the process so that Israel will retaliate. Then they can blame Israel. For example, as Israel forcibly removed its settlers from Gaza in preparation for the hand over, the Palestinians attacked Israel. Why? They want to claim that Israel did not leave peacefully or in good faith because of a treaty. They want to claim that they drove Israel out under gunfire to claim a military victory instead of a diplomatic victory. In the process of Israel defending themselves, they could claim that Israel "broke the treaty". This makes sense only to people who want to interpret their times as part of significant events in a prophecy. They break a treaty or make it impossible to be kept and then blame the other side.
Peace is not in their vocabulary. The Al-Qaeda training manual says the following.

> Islamic governments have never and will never be established through peaceful solutions and cooperative councils. They are established as they always have been by pen and gun, by word and bullet, by tongue and teeth.

» The Outcome. The more they continue in this lunatic behavior, the more they are fulfilling the real prophecy by creating the conditions it describes.
When the United States really starts thinking in terms of a religious war then they will get smart about not reacting to a bait that drags them into a prophetic fulfillment that benefits their enemies. Because, after a while, even the peaceful but devout Muslim will begin to think in terms of their prophecies and this will erode support for the United States. My only advice is to take actions that will negate these prophecies. But it seems that such actions are too late. And I am fearful that the training and equipment that we are providing to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia will be turned against us very soon. Why? Because they are faithful and zealous and current events appear to be fulfilling their prophecy. For this reason we cannot go to war in Iran or Syria or even threaten to do so. The very threat will speed up the prophetic time table in their minds. Muslim men and women everywhere will say, "what if". And they will start to prepare for war with the great Satan.
Unfortunately, the United States will turn to failed Christian prophecies as a bona fide military and strategic plan and fulfill its destiny in the process. Democrats and liberals are calling for a withdrawal because we are attracting more terror. I think it is too late for that. The extremists (Muslim and Christian) will not let us leave until their prophecy is fulfilled.

» Iran Waits for the Mahdi. I caught the tail end of a report on "The Newshour", December 9, 2005 which seems to confirm what I suspect must be happening in the Muslim World. Ahamadinejad, the new president, has told his nation that they must wait for the coming of the Mahdi. He has also said that the Mahdi will appear in two years. Muslims expect that this will come with violence. For those in the west who keep waiting for the secular Iranians who want everything western, this prophecy and expectation trumps their hopes. The reason why he calls for Israel to be "wiped off the map" is because he believes that it will happen in his time when the vast Muslim army joins the Mahdi to fight Israel and the United States. Ahamadinejad believes that a light surrounded him when he made a speech to the United Nations General Assembly that was seen by others.

> "He said when you began with the words 'in the name of God,' I saw that you became surrounded by a light until the end [of the speech]," Ahmadinejad appears to say in the video. "I felt it myself, too. I felt that all of a sudden the atmosphere changed there, and for 27-28 minutes all the leaders did not blink."
> Ahmadinejad adds that he is not exaggerating.
> "I am not exaggerating when I say they did not blink; it's not an exaggeration, because I was looking," he says. "They were astonished as if a hand held them there and made them sit. It had opened their eyes and ears for the message of the Islamic Republic."

Several important leaders believe that they are called by God and are acting on behalf of God to bring in the age of God. The president of North Korea believes that he should be worshipped as God. The American president believes that God called him for these times and some Christians on the right believe that he is the one who will bring Christianity to the rest of the world. Now we have the president of Iran believing that he is called by God. Some claim that he believes that he is the Mahdi.
With that we have an answer to their stubborn determination to continue on a certain path despite all rational reasons not to do so. That is the essence of their "faith". They believe that God will win in the end and they must be faithful. The reason why they will succeed is because they are surrounded by people who believe the same and who have the power to force the world into one direction.

Summary
Whether or not one eschatology is more correct than another, it is astounding that however we got to this point, many faiths are looking for the same signs at the same time. Even if it is for different reasons and outcomes. God did not leave Himself without a witness. Even at the birth of Christ, the whole region was looking with expectation and hope. And, while the Jews missed the birth of their Messiah, it was three pagan scholars who were looking at their signs and recognized the time and came searching for the new king of the Jews.
Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east and have come to worship Him." (Matthew 2: 1-2)
They had access to all these traditions in which God preserved enough truth to stir a generation in every nation at the right time. The same is happening now.
I enjoyed this research and creating this page and the graphics. I hope you enjoyed it too.

Study to show yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2: 15 | Time: 500 minutes Print: 52 pages
Copyright . First Created June 2005. Updated August 2012 Credits: Author: Laverna Patterson. Editor: Patterson (January 2008) All images were created by Laverna Patterson and are the property of teachinghearts. The people in the table of nations and some animals were modeled after clip art images. • Meta Religion. Ancient Religions and Myths. URL: www.meta-religion.com/World_Religions/Ancient_religions/ancient_religions.htm • Flood Myths of the World. URL: www.meta-religion.com/World_Religions/Ancient_religions/Flood_myths/flood_myths.htm • African Myths. URL: www.meta-religion.com/World_Religions/Ancient_religions/Flood_myths/flood_myths_africa.htm • American Myth. http://www.mythopedia.info/27-meso-america.htm • Samoan Mythology. URL: http://www.janeresture.com/samoa_myths/ • Roman Mythology. URL: http://shadowolympus.home.mindspring.com/mythology.html • Cherokee Cosmogony. URL: www.meta-religion.com/World_Religions/Ancient_religions/North_america/cherokee_cosmogony.htm • Apache Cosmogony. URL: www.meta-religion.com/World_Religions/Ancient_religions/North_america/apache_creation_story.htm • Zoroastrianism. URL: http://www.paganizingfaithofyeshua.freeservers.com/no_7_zoroaster.htm • Ancient Hindu Technology. URL: http://www.crystalinks.com/vedic.html • Language Family and Branch Names. KryssTal URL: http://www.krysstal.com/index.html#language • Al-Qaeda Training Manual. URL: http://www.usdoj.gov/ag/trainingmanual.htm • Catholic Eschatology. URL: http://www.webcom.com/enddays/enddays.html • Lemuria. URL: http://www.crystalinks.com/lemuria.html • Iran: President Says Light Surrounded Him During UN Speech. URL: www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/11/184cb9fb-887c-4696-8f54-0799df747a4a.html • The Cherokees, Past and Present. J. Ed. Sharpe. Cherokee Publications, 1970. • Miao Legends. URL: http://www.icr.org/articles/print/341/ • Toltec Legends. http://rdlindsey.com/flashfacts/Flood.htm • Language Families. http://www.krysstal.com/langfams.html • Global Biodiversity. URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_biodiversity • How much water is there on, in, and above the Earth? URL: http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthhowmuch.html • Largest Animals. URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_organisms • Food and Sizes. URL: http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/ • The pitch for Noah’s Ark. Dr. Tas B. Walker. URL: http://creation.com/the-pitch-for-noahs-ark • Ancient Preservation Methods. URL: http://wctu-sd.org/literature/books.asp?Id=53 • Sisal Rope Strength. URL: http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/wire-rope-strength-d_1518.html • Asexual Reproduction. URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asexual_reproduction • Australian Dung Beetle Project. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Dung_Beetle_Project • Facts about dung beetles. http://www.thaibugs.com/?page_id=139 • Noah's Ark The Real Story. BBC Documentary (2003). URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZu3GXoKXU4