The Cherubim
I called upon the LORD in my distress. . . And he rode upon a cherub and did fly . . .
– 2 Samuel 22:7, 11 (Psalm 104:3)
We have been discussing the “chariot of fire” as a biblical description of a celestial transport vehicle. Lacking an understanding of advanced technology, it is reasonable to expect that the ancients would describe such vehicles in strong metaphor. “Horses of fire,” for example, would be an attempt to describe the propulsion system. To a ground observer, the flame from a rocket might be mistaken for the actual vehicle, while the glowing capsule might be imagined to be its leading transport force, i.e. a horse.
Of course, horses do not fly. According to Revelation 19, Jesus will come from Heaven with an army riding on horses. The myths of Pegasus notwithstanding, such descriptions have to be metaphor, just as the others in Revelation, like Christ and His mouth-wielding sword (Revelation 19:15). Horses which fly are no longer horses. They are birds.
That God Himself, or Jesus for that matter, should need a transport vehicle seems ridiculous. They are omnipresent according to Christian doctrine and need only to make an appearance because wherever they want to go, they are already there. Consequently, such poetic language should not be relied upon too heavily to recover an understanding of biblical metaphysics.
However, the thing in the Bible called “a cherub” (plural: cherubim) does attract our interest. That God should use a “cherub” to fly seems to be a superfluity based upon what was just said. But it is worthwhile to consider that the association of a cherub to the ancient understanding of a flying vehicle – in an age before mechanical flight and even air balloons – should not be overlooked.
Christian theologians usually tell us that cherubs are angels and leave it at that. But a collection of various biblical descriptions of the cherub suggests another absurdity should we believe that they are merely angels. We are taught to believe that angels are man-like beings endowed with supernatural powers. In fact, in many biblical passages, the word “man” and “angel” are used interchangeably (as in the Gospel accounts of the Resurrection, for example) to describe the same being.
Yet, in other places, a cherub seems more like a device, vessel, or machine. In the text above, it is absurd to think that God is mounted on the back of the Archangel Gabriel with reins and stirrup out for a joy ride. Other places, such as the Book of Ezekiel (especially Chapter 10), describe cherubim as having wheels. Ezekiel knew what wheels were and was not speaking in metaphor. Living, sentient beings do not have “wheels” and theoretically, like the flying horses mentioned above, a flying craft does not need wheels, either. Wheels are necessary for ground transport. While it might be correct to describe the cherubim as “animate” (moving) entities, they are not “living” (or breathing) creatures, even though their animation may lend itself to the simulation of creaturehood – as, for example, the description of a modern airplane as an “iron bird.”
The first reference to the cherubs in the Bible is from Moses in Genesis 3:24 which guard the Tree of Life with a turning (wheeling?) flaming sword (laser?). The association of the cherubs with curved wings (wheels?) and a glowing appearance is given again by Moses in the construction of the Ark of the Covenant upon which two cherubs are seated facing each other with wings arched inward toward a point of arc. Some have speculated that the Ark of the Covenant carried an electrical charge as a capacitor and was used as a communication device. See Vogt’s interesting discussion on this in his book God’s Day of Judgment. He says that when the smoke of the incense and sacrifices filled the inner chamber, it closed the circuit between the arches and created a radio device. Certainly, it was not safe to touch the Ark, as King David discovered (2 Samuel 6:6-7). Touching it brought instant death which suggests electrocution. But until such a device can be replicated and tested, such opinions, however well-informed, must remain speculations.
With the discovery of electromagnetic propulsion and its use in saucer-shaped aircraft, we can now begin to postulate that the “cherubs” – as flying vehicles – used just such technology to excite the imaginations of ancient observers. It has also excited science fiction writers of our time, as our earlier reference to van Daniken’s Chariot of the Gods should attest.
Portions of James McCanney’s books, The Diamond Principle (2010) and his earlier work Atlantis to Tesla, The Kolbrin Connection (2003, 2nd printing), are dedicated to the discussion of electromagnetic propulsion. He says that he invented two propulsion systems in the 1980s and confesses to foolishly trusting the military with the plans for the first one. He describes the second one in his books, but withholds key information so that it cannot be absconded by the military-industrial complex. Nor by the reader, evidently. I do not know at what point he will inform the public so that the general population can benefit from his discoveries.
Electromagnetic propulsion will be a topic for a later Survival Praxis, but our interest here is the geopolymer which is a substance that can endure the harshness of space and that has been used in the past to provide protection from cosmic-level disasters.
Brimstone & Mrs. Lot
Remember Lot’s wife. – Jesus (Luke 17:32)
Almost all that we really know about Mrs. Lot is that she lingered too long when her family fled the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, when God rained down “fire and brimstone” to “overthrow” the cities (Genesis 19). She was killed in the fiery inundation and became, “a pillar of salt.” Jesus said to remember that.
There is a moral lesson, no doubt, in Christ’s warning, which is probably the principal one. But there is a scientific lesson, as well. She was not buried in the fallout; she was encapsulated.
The Bible tells us that these cities were situated just north of the “slime pits” which were, in turn, just north of the “sea of salt.” Later known as “The Dead Sea,” it was much smaller in size during those primeval centuries. While it is believed that Sodom and Gomorrah were eventually inundated by the expansion of the Dead Sea, at the time of the Genesis account, it was a fertile delta area near the mouth of the Jordan River described as “the garden of the LORD” (Genesis 13:10).
The “slime pits” were a region full of volatiles: tar, naphtha, and methane – swamp gases. The soil consisted of “salts” and has been chemically analyzed to contain traces of other kinds of explosives, such as salt peter, sulfur, and arsenic. With the right atmospheric inversion, the condensation of these substances were a ticking time bomb: waiting only for a trigger to set them off.
Brimstone is sulfur and sulfur is a mineral found in rocks and sometimes “rolled” almost like a metal. It is a component in gun powder, as is salt peter or potassium nitrate.
The explosion was impressive, like a volcano, only it wasn’t a volcano. Abraham got up early in the morning to watch a mushroom cloud ascend out of the valley below him. The explosion itself destroyed the cities, the surrounding villages were destroyed by the fiery ash and debris falling from the sky. Lot and his daughters sought refuge in one of these villages and then quickly fled to the mountains. Mrs. Lot did not.
There are stone artifacts in that region which exist to this day which look like stand alone “pillars of salt” which locals claim are Mrs. Lot. There are more than one, depending on the locality. We can imagine that a number of people experienced the same fate upon fleeing the conflagration. Of course, no one has ever done a forensic analysis of these pillars, so we don’t know really know.
It is enough to say that the Hebrew word here for “pillar” can be translated as “statue” and the “salt” is not the normal word for table salt used in the Bible. It means something else, but in this context, we are not sure what it means, except that it was not salt, because salt will quickly dissolve.
Arsenic is used in making enamels and is also used when a quick-set cement is desired. Spent sulfur will leave arsenic as a residue. Unlike those Pompeians who were instantly encased in the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, Mrs. Lot became an eternal testimony to the destructive and preservative power of brimstone. Brimstone is an important component in making certain geopolymers. More below.
Geopolymers and the Pyramids
Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians (Acts 7:22).
Moses provided these forensic details in the Genesis narrative. He was the author of the Book of Genesis. He also described the recipe God gave to Noah in building the Ark, and other chemical and metallurgical details on other subjects. These records can be subjected to scientific analysis because Moses was probably the most scientific man of his age. He was “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.”
Moses knew how the pyramids were built. In fact, he tells us in Exodus 1:10 that the Israelites built the “treasure cities” of “Pithom and Ramses” with brick and straw.
To this day, we do not know for sure how they did it. They were pretty big bricks – on average 2.5 tons, but some as much as 25 tons – which to drag and lift would take tens of thousands of men. Mythologists tell us that they were quarried and transported by giants. UFOologists want us to believe that they were transported with anti-gravity technology known only to advanced space aliens. Egyptologists still cannot replicate the process using modern technology. In other words, with all of our superior technology, we could not build a pyramid today.
Not all of the pyramids were built by the Israelites. The Great Pyramid of Giza with the Giant Sphinx come from an earlier time, probably from the Antediluvian Period, perhaps before that. The knowledge of the construction methods were preserved among the ancients in a secret oral tradition. Moses was privy to that tradition.
Dr. Joseph Davidovits (The Pyramids: An Enigma Solved, Dorset Press, 1988) has replicated a process of poured cement from minerals in the soil not far from the pyramid complex which could have been mined from open-pits. Forensic analysis has shown that the stones were poured in place into concrete molds, not quarried and dragged. He has revived the ancient knowledge of cement mixing in his research on geopolymers, not only from Egypt, but from ancient Greece and even for a time among the Romans. Ancient statuary, temples, roads, aqueducts and many other monuments have been shown, from chemical analysis, to be from mixed and poured solutions. Not only has he recovered the process archaeologically, but he has also replicated it in an on-going quest to produce products which can provide similar benefits to our modern world.
For example, petroleum-based polymers (such as plastics) are flammable and are a long-term health hazard. Geopolymers are made from clays and activators which are inert, non-flammable, and depending on the materials used, have different degrees of practical application. Geopolymers in the construction of airliners have decreased the risk of fatalities from cabin fires.
Geopolymer cements are different than our conventional concrete products, such as Portland cement. Had the Great Pyramid been built with Portland cement, it would be a pile of rubble today. These wonders from the past were built with different materials using different processes.
Egyptologists are offended by the Davidovits thesis – maybe because they did not think of it themselves, but more probably because they want to believe in a magical past. It is a religion for them, comparable to the offense, I suppose, that Christians might take at the idea of a modern, scientific explanation of Christ’s Resurrection and a replication of the process. It would take away the awe and wonder of it all.
[As a side note – as this is written at Easter time – Jesus told his disciples to copy his miracles “for greater works than these shall ye do” – not in some mystical, mental telepathic effort, not in a magical incantation “in the naaame-huh of Geee-zuz-huh” or “tapping your heels together three times” and saying “there is no place like home,” but in a practical, observable, replicable scientific process. What do you think the herbs and spices were all about – a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes (John 19:39)? And who were those guys “dressed in white linen” in the tomb with the body of Jesus? I am not advocating the resuscitation theory of the Resurrection here – and it is important that the reader not make that inference. But it was a synergistic Resurrection in which the obedient “proto-church” built a bridge for the “man” Jesus – “Thou shalt not let thy Holy One to see corruption” (Acts 2:27) – to come back to our world should he have chosen to do so – which, of course, He did. There were obedient human actors to make the Birth of Jesus possible, just as there were at His Resurrection – all a part of fulfilling Messianic prophecy. (This will have to be saved for another Pesher).]
Geopolymers & Noah’s Ark
The same geopolymer technology that was used to build the “treasure cities” of Egypt was used also to build Noah’s Ark. Moses wrote the Genesis Flood account and knew exactly the chemical process Noah used to mix its building materials.
From the Received Text, we find these words of instruction to Noah (Genesis 6:14):
“Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.”
But there is no such thing as “gopher” wood, a word used here just once in the entire Bible. Mistakenly translated by the modern versions as “Cyprus,” its proven plural form is gophrith which is translated “brimstone.” The word for “wood” is the standard ets, but has a wide range of applications, from “trees and saplings,” to “sticks and kindling,” to dimension lumber.
No one has ever heard of “brimstone wood?” So, we can understand the translator’s confusion.
But there can be such a thing as “brimstone sticks” because in chemistry there is such a thing as “rolled sulfur” as mentioned above.
Furthermore, the word for “pitch,” first used in the text here as a verb, then used as a noun, is kophar which means “covering” or “layering.” While in theology, it is a term translated as “atonement,” in chemistry it would refer to a process of laying “wafer” or “laminating.”
The Hebrew word for “making rooms” in the Ark suggests something different than the common translation for internal apartments. God is still instructing Noah on the materials used in the Ark’s construction, not its dimensions and compartments. The word is qen which is elsewhere translated throughout as “nest.” If a stall was intended, a different word would have been used. In nature a nest is made from the weaving together of sticks, straw, and other fibrous material.
Consequently, we believe a more scientifically accurate translation of this passage would read as follows:
“Make thee a chest of brimstone-fibrous laminate: nesting weaves shalt thou make in the chest, and shalt laminate it with laminate.”
Most scholars think that Noah’s Ark was just a large boat that had to be waterproof. All ship builders should know how to make a boat waterproof. Why should God have to teach him the obvious? Noah would have been a moron had he not known how to build a waterproof boat. There were seas and sailing in his time. Conventional interpretations have Noah building the Ark out of wood and sealing it with tar or tree resin. It would have gone up in flames as soon as there was a tipped candle, a lightning strike, or a discharge of static electricity. Tar is also toxic to breathe. So is turpentine.
A light-weight, buoyant geopolymer cement that worked like an artificial zeolite was mixed in multiple layers of long twines of braided “nesting straw,” perhaps six feet thick. Stronger than a battleship, more waterproof than a submarine, more fire-resistant and radiation-shielded than the Space Shuttle, and a perfect sea-faring vessel, Noah’s Ark was the penultimate survival pod.
The making of Geopolymers is an established industry. There are many thousands of patents for mixtures and mixing processes. I cannot offer one on this website because I would likely violate someone’s patent rights. I recommend that you go to these websites to learn all that you can: http://geopolymer.org and http://davidovits.info . And then study the soil near you to see if you have the necessary clays and activators to make your own geopolymer for a survival pod. Build a kiln and “pottery shop” and play with the ceramics until you find something that will work. Don’t let your neighbors know what you are really up to. They will laugh at you just like they did Noah.
Don’t build your pod until after civilization has collapsed and do it in a secluded area. Make it look like something else, maybe a greenhouse or a pig sty. Learn how to make it using primitive technology. That is how the Israelites did it; that is how Noah did it. You don’t need fancy power equipment, just the right kind of knowledge.
I will provide further details on this topic in future Peshers and random issues of Survival Praxis. But I will not put it all in one place. You will have to search it out.
–JWS, April 17, 2022
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