THE STONEHENGE FILE
by Dennis L. Finnan, Commentator
Life's greatest mysteries often surrounds our early beginnings. As archaeologists search our planet, the often find mysterious evidences of man's past that defy explanation. Such is the famous STONEHENGE remains found in England. Today I want to talk about it and share with you some honest reflections you need to face as a result of it.
Perhaps the most famous and mysterious of all of man's past legacies is the prehistoric MEGALITH called Stonehenge in Europe. This gigantic stone monument that bears testimony of man's past achievements, is located 8 miles north of Salisbury, England. For centuries man has examines this enduring monument in stone that bears the marks of unknown and perhaps forgotten technology of more primitive life and living. However, excavations and radio carbon dating have revealed that Stonehenge had an exceptionally long history of construction and use.
Most archaeologists today believe this huge project began almost 5000 years ago in 3100 BC and was not completed until about 3500 years ago in 1500 BC. According to evidence unearthed in the excavations, there were three main periods of building. The first period about 3100 BC, began the site with a huge circular ditch and a ring of 56 pits now known as Aubrey holes. During the second building period about 2100 BC, huge pillars of rock were somehow transported some 20 miles from the south and erected in two concentric circles round the center of the site. Then in the third period of work at Stonehenge, an inner circle of 30 upright stones weighing more than 50 tons each were erected in a horseshoe formation, each set of two with a capstone, weighing more than 35 tons, across.
What makes this one of our ancient world's wonders is we have no idea how man of that day moved these stones, let alone raised them to build this gigantic megalith that remains to this day. What's most amazing is the stones were not placed in any random order. Rather, they were carefully placed in an alignment formation that revealed the most sophisticated accomplishments of that age. You see, on a Midsummer Day (June 24), a person standing in the center of the circle, can see the sun rise directly above the heel stone. As a result of this, scientists have concluded that this structure was probably erected to study the stars and foretell eclipses of the sun and moon by the positions of the celestial bodies in relation to the stone monument. What makes this mysterious structure unique is the long sustained period of use by the ancient peoples of the British Isles, and their continued construction plans that included precision and architectural details we would never have thought man was capable of doing back then.
Just what purpose did Stonehenge serve? Well, we'll never really know, for there are no known records that can tell us anything about it, except that the exact alignment with the celestial bodies shows it was used for accomplishing something on specific astronomical days of the year. Stonehenge was most likely where early rituals and religious ceremonies were performed on those exact days.
Now why do I bring up this subject? Has some new discovery been found to give new details about it? The answer is no, except that such a strange and mysterious structure, that baffles modern scientists today, is not so baffling when you read the Bible. You see, the Bible tells us much about man's past that is contradictory to the teachings popular today. Our nation and the world has now come to formally accept, without reservation, the fact that our world, our universe and all life came about by a mindless cosmological accident.
In fact, about a year ago evolutionists declared they found the missing link that ties man to their corrupt theory of evolution. In Ethiopia in October 1994 a skull was found that by carbon dating, an unreliable, untestable method of attempting to find dates past 5000 years of age, evolutionists claimed was more than 4.4 million years old. This would if true, be the oldest find yet of a human fossil remains. Walter Cronkite got on the air in response to this and actually stated that "evolution was now proven as a fact." Yet, how ridiculous and unworthy of truth is the constant teaching that man has evolved from a mindless cosmological accident. You see the Bible tells us the truth -- no man or fossil evidence has ever refuted.
Genesis 1:1,27 NIV "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth... 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."
Evolution today denies this and desperately teaches a lie that evolution is a fact. This my friend is completely dishonest. For there is absolutely no evidence, no tangible proof found anywhere, even that portion of a skull dated 4.4 millions years old that proves man evolved from a fish, into a crocodile, into a bird, into an ape, and finally into a man. But Satan's army, found among our godless scientists today who propagate this lie of evolution, is described for us by God Himself. We read in,
Matthew 7:15 "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.
2 Peter 2:1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them--bringing swift destruction on themselves.
You see God says false teachers will arise who declare there is no God, and that all around us is not the product of a divine creation by a an Omnipotent Creator. Rather, they teach, it all just evolved out of some "Big Bang" explosion. Yet the evidence for the opposite is all around us, and Stonehenge is one of them. Now just think for a moment. When our godless evolutionary scientist examine Stonehenge they all report that it is evidence of an intelligent design, and that it shows purpose, and unique formation. Mind you, not one evolutionary scientist has ever said or would declare anything else concerning Stonehenge. Indeed, it reveals great intelligence and technology of design and purpose. Yet how much greater and more complex is the universe around us, with the order and complexity of operation, not to mention this Planet earth - the Sanctuary of all life!
Everything in the creation reveals to us design, order and a purpose, and the intricate elements and their relationship to each other, reveals intelligent design! Yet, how is it evolutionists say, there is no evidence of intelligence or design there, but in the simplistic Stonehenge, they all agree there is. I don't know about you but such logic is incredible in human terms. Yet in God's terms it is worse. God says anyone who looks around and studies the Creation and concludes there is no God, is not only absurd but sinful and acting in wicked rebellion. Listen again to God's Word on the matter,
Psalms 14:1 NIV "...The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good."
Indeed, God calls any man a fool who denies His existence when observing God's creation. King David of old had a different attitude when he looked at the stars and night sky. He said,
Psalms 8:1,3-4 NIV "... O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens... 3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
Later in another psalm of wonderment, David declared,
Psalms 19:1-4 NIV "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. {2} Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. {3} There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. {4} Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun,"
As such, God penned these words of warning to all men in the N.T. Book of Romans,
Romans 1:18-20 NIV "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, {19} since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. {20} For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."
Evolution today that is taught exclusively and as fact in our nation's schools and universities says that our world in the past to the present, has moved from the embryo of simplicity to the adulthood of complexity, that has produced all that we are today. Yet the very unalterable laws of nature, everyone Christian or non-Christian must confess exists, particularly the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics says this is all a lie! Everything is not growing more complex or better, rather the opposite. What is left to itself breaks down, and decomposes into a simpler form of matter, until it disappears into the continuum of our closed system of material existence. Now getting back to Stonehenge. What does its existence tell us? One thing for sure. It says man in our past was filled with the complexity of intrinsic brilliance and although they had not the technology we have today, they were able to perform and create masterpieces of human skill and knowledge that even surpass us today.
Yes, whether we like it or not the human race of the past was greater in brilliance, skills and ability than we are today. This goes for performance to who we are today. You don't believe it? Well then explain the seven wonders of the world? Explain the ancient Egyptian Pyramids and other skills, explain Stonehenge and other types of prehistoric masterpieces found around the globe? How did man do these things, and how did he know so much about the celestial bodies that circle our night skies? Well the evolutionists declares our humanity of the past was aided by extra-terrestrial beings. But that is unproven nonsense. The answer is again found in the Bible. Listen as I continue to read Romans chapter 1,
Romans 1:21-32 NIV "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. {22} Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools {23} and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. {24} Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. {25} They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen. {26} Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. {27} In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. {28} Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. {29} They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, {30} slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; {31} they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. {32} Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them."
What a clear and definitive description of our humanity to this day. As we have thrown off God and His Word and deny His existence and the Creation, we have turned to the foolish and deadly teaching of evolution that leads our children to abject despair. By thinking they are nothing more than a mindless blob of existence, going nowhere, having no purpose, or destiny, many young people throw away their lives by suicide or indulgence.
No, Stonehenge tells us that man once had greater ability, capacity and even accomplishments than we are capable of today. For rather than progressing, the whole creation is dying including the human race. The Bible declares,
Genesis 3:19 NIV "By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.""
Psalms 102:26 Free Translation "The [Creation] will come to an end, but you [O God] will forever continue; all that you've made will all wear out like clothing. You will change them as clothes, and they will be thrown away."
Since the dawn of creation when God made our progenitors, Adam and Eve, our human race has been walking away from God, and is therefore under the judgment of sin and death and is perishing. Each succeeding generation, however small the decay may be, is on that downward path, which is witnessed to us all by the terror of death that comes for all. However, Stonehenge witnesses yet another Bible truth. All that remains of the glory of man's great achievement is nothing but rubble. This mysterious site was obviously centered around the study or worship of the stars. The people some 3000-5000 years ago in the British isles were steeped in the worship of the Creation, the glorifying of the stars in religious servitude and slavery. Stonehenge may well have been a place of idolatrous worship, and human sacrifice. If so, make note God has promised every nation and generation of humanity that turns away from the one true God and His truth, and worships and serves anything else will ultimately bring upon themselves destruction and the grave.
Psalms 9:17 God's Word Translation "Wicked People, [and] all the nations who forget God, will return to the grave."
Let Stonehenge and other wonders of the ancient world ever remind us to be sure that our lives are not steeped in the idolatry of worship of our self and our humanity or the creation. Let us be sure that our hearts are turned back to the one true God who alone is revealed in the Judeo-Christian Bible in the person of Jesus Christ. He alone promises to save us from our dying state. He alone can grant us forgiveness of sins, and the promise of resurrection life in a new world, that one day will be made over and last for eternity.
Yes, Stonehenge is a wondrous mystery, a terrific site to visit and behold the unbelievable brilliance our forefathers of the past were able to achieve. But we should also remember if they forgot God, if they turned to worship of the Creation and the creature rather than the Creator, it was worthless and for naught. May God grant you my listening friend, an open mind and heart to examine your place in history, and ask yourself, should the world go on for another 5000 years, what will they find of our nation of people? What will be said of you and me? Your decision in this life will determine your destiny for all time.
Stonehenge is a puzzling record of man's ancient history. Yet it is also a mute testimony of what happens to any people who shut God out of their thoughts and refuse to give Him the glory due His name. As one searches the stars and studies the intricacies of the creation, I trust you have not been deceived by the false teachers, who deny the creation and reality of the living God who made all things.
For if you have, turn today from the blindness of evolutionary fantasy, and embrace the truth of God's wonderful creation. In so doing, realize that because you were created in God's image, you have immeasurable worth and purpose that will find its fullest completion and joy in walking with Christ by His Word and in His revealed will.
So, come to the Lord Jesus, right now, confess your sin of neglect or rebellion, and claim Him as your Savior and Lord God. For then, time will forever tell, of that immortal life giving decision, and its monumental truths that will last for eternity. God bless this to your hearts for Jesus sake. Amen.
RESOURCES:
1. Groliers Encylopedia, CDROM Edition, "Stonehenge"
2. Compton's Interactive Encylopedia, CDROM Edition, "Stonehenge"
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