Stonehenge – United Kingdom
Stonehenge is a massive stone monument located on a windswept plain north of the modern-day city of Salisbury, England. While the dating on this is all over the place, the best evidence suggests the structure was constructed at some point between 2400 BC and 2200 BC. Archaeologists will refer to it as Neolithic in origin – that is that humanity was moving out of the stone age and beginning to use metal tools. The biblical chronology presents a view of ancient-man as far more sophisticated than what we tend to give him credit for.
The biggest of Stonehenge’s stones are known as “sarsens.” These are as much as 30 feet in height and can weigh 25 tons. It is widely believed that they were brought from Marlborough Downs, a distance of 20 miles (32 kilometers) to the north. These further lends credence to the idea that ancient man had a greater level of sophistication with respect to technology. No one is really sure how they were able to transport such weight over so great a distance.
The smaller stones are referred to as “bluestones” (they have a bluish tinge when wet or freshly broken). These can weigh 4 tons and come from several different sites in western Wales. Some came from as far away as 140 miles.
Salisbury Plain was apparently a sacred area to the locals who inhabited this part of Britain. Three large pine posts, or totem poles, were apparently erected here. Recently, archaeological monuments, including a massive wooden building have been discovered around Stonehenge. The findings include the world’s largest “superhenge,” called Durrington Walls.
Dozens of burial mounds have been discovered near Stonehenge. At least 17 shrines, some in the shape of a circle, have also been discovered near the structure. Two massive earthworks, known as “cursus monuments” have also been located here – one of which runs for 1.8 miles.
No one is quite certain as to why Stonehenge was built. UNESCO considers it a “world heritage site.” My conjecture on Stonehenge relates to the events of Genesis 11.
Scriptural Significance
Stonehenge itself is not referenced in the Bible. However, there may be a connection of sorts as it relates to the Tower of Babel. To be sure, Babel is located on the planes of Shinar in modern day Iraq. What took place there may have ultimately brought about the stone structures found in Wiltshire, England.
Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.
Genesis 11: 1 – 5
The Bible teaches that the Flood was a literal worldwide event. Chronologically you are looking at @ 2550 BC when this took place. If you tie the Babel event into Genesis 10 (time of Peleg), you are now 5 generations removed from the Flood.
One world government with one world religion ultimately goes back to this event. Incidentally, the religion that largely holds sway in the secular west comes from this event – namely, the concepts of “Universalism” (many paths to God) and “Postmodernism” (no truth, but personal truth).
When you study the history behind Pyramids found the world over, there is good reason to believe that polytheism, astrology, and interest in the occult are directly tied into them. The thought is that as you climb the steps to the gods, they in turn would climb down to you.
In Genesis 11, they are building “a tower whose top goes into heaven” – they are not reaching up to the God; so there is something sinister afoot. There is clear rebellion here and you can see this in two ways:
They want to make a name for themselves – there is a desire for a kind of unearthly power (we should be driven by a desire to magnify God’s name, not our own)They were told by God to spread out after the Flood: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 9: 1) – yet, they did not do that.
Some cultural anthropologists believe the Etemenanki structure located in Iraq may have been Alexander the Great’s attempt to rebuild just such a tower atop the location where Babel’s Tower once stood. Some time back, the New York Museum of Natural History held an exhibit where it was asserted the Tower of Babel was just such a pyramid.
And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
Genesis 11: 6 – 9
It is amazing what humans can do – think about it, we are made in the image of God. The technological hints in the early chapters of Genesis, indicate that ancient man was far more advanced than we give him credit for.
Why is God coming down on them? Mankind, in its own effort, is trying to reach heaven! This is human religion by definition – Man in his own pride, trying to attain salvation through his own works. Man is doing everything possible not to obey or to submit to God – humanity tries every way but God’s Way. God in His wisdom thwarts Man’s religious efforts, as He knows it will lead to their destruction. Scattering the people and confusing their language is far better than unified apostasy! Nationalism and decentralized power actually does more to preserve personal liberty than does a “One World Centralized Government” – something politicians could learn a lot from today.
Incidentally, did you notice the irony of God’s choice in language? He has to “go down” to them…they thought they had reached into the heavens…not quite. “What is that little building down there? I can hardly see that thing?” “Let Us go down.” While this passage is not proof in and of itself of the Trinity, it certainly foreshadows this truth and allows for the doctrine to be built upon later in Scripture. It is interesting that the Scripture says that the ceased from building the city…but not the Towers or what they represented. This may explain the pyramid type structures found all over the world.
here are literally hundreds of pyramids and astral type structures found across the globe. Stonehenge is but one of these. The best evidence suggests that Stonehenge was built sometime @2200BC. This places it on the heels of the Babel event but a century or so earlier.
Until the event at Babel, mankind shared a common history. It wasn’t until this scattering took place that the nations / people groups as it were really began to spread out from one another. By the way, I am sure the Lord did not give disparate languages to members of the same family. He is a God of order after all. There is a distant memory of events in the first 11 chapters of Genesis found in cultures the world over. There is an echo of this shared human history.
What’s the Point?
- The world shares a common history up until the time of the Scattering at Babel (including the Creation, the Fall, the Flood and the Tower)
- Ancient cultures the world over have stories or traditions that seem to echo a distant memory of the God of the Bible and of the events described in the early chapters of Scripture
- Though some corruption or degradation may have impacted these accounts – the basic premises are still in tact
- Understanding these stories has provided the Church with a kind of Missionary Roadmap for spreading the Gospel
- When taken in the aggregate, such material also builds a tremendous case supporting the reliability of the Bible