Jesus in the Pyramid The Well and the Grotto
For as in
Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Carl Hagensick From a construction standpoint, the grotto is the most important room in the Great Pyramid. It is a natural depression in the limestone base for the building. As such, it existed before the structure was erected. The fact that it is connected by the well-shaft with the intricate system of passages suggests that it was a part of the original design. Since it does pre-date the pyramid as a whole, the layout of the complete configuration must have been planned around it. In determining the possible significance of this seemingly unimportant chamber, we should consider three aspects of its unique location:
The Chart of the Ages and the Pyramid There is an amazing correspondence between the passageways of the pyramid and the Chart of the Ages found in the back of Volume 1 of Studies in the Scriptures. When the passages and chambers are viewed from the west, the blueprints of the two overlay as shown in the illustration below.
Plane R, the plane of human depravity and death on the chart, is equivalent to a horizontal line drawn at the level of the Pit; Plane N, the plane of human perfection is on the level of the Queen’s Chamber; and Plane K, the divine nature, is equal to the floor of the King’s Chamber. The vertical lines of the Jewish age fall in the same location as the blocked Ascending Passage, picturing the law, while the Gospel age lies where the Grand Gallery is located. The Basal Plane Though nearly level, the natural desert floor supporting the Great Pyramid has one section of ground slightly higher than the rest of the base. It contains an underground chamber called a grotto (see photograph on p. 16). The grotto is a natural formation pre-dating the pyramid itself. In like manner, Jesus was the “lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). The chart in Studies of the Scriptures (vol. 1) places Israel on a higher plane than depraved mankind who do not have the benefits of the laws and oracles of God; likewise the basal plane of the pyramid has one section higher than most of that plane. In that section, the highest layer of the basal plane, the grotto is located. So it was as a child of the Jewish race that Jesus had a special relationship to that particular people in addition to his relationship to mankind in general. As the formation of the grotto was neither dug by human hands nor constructed as part of the pyramid itself, so Jesus, though born of Mary, did not partake of the imperfection of human genes. As it is written, “Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me” (Hebrews 10:5).
Relationship to the Granite Plug Granite is only found in the plug, the King’s Chamber, and the Anti-Chamber. As the most precious of the pyramid’s building materials, it is equivalent to what gold represents in the Tabernacle and temple: things divine. The granite floor, walls, and ceiling in the King’s Chamber are a picture of the divine nature in the same way as the golden ark in the Tabernacle showed Christ and his church possessing the divine nature. The use of granite for the plug that blocks the entrance to the Ascending Passage is an apt symbol of the divine law which God gave to Moses at Sinai and which, because they could not keep it, kept the ancient Israelites from reaching the salvation represented in the upper passages and chambers.
The
Grotto The
grotto, showing Jesus as a perfect human being, is on precisely the same level
as the granite plug. Jesus was the only human being to completely meet all the
exacting requirements of God’s holy law. By so doing he demonstrated his
own perfection and his qualifications to be a ransom for Adam and the human
race that sprang from him. Relationship to the Upper End of the Well Shaft Not
only does the grotto hold a particular relationship to the granite plug, being
on the same horizontal plane, but it is also nearly in vertical alignment with
the upper entrance to the well shaft. This upper entrance stands at the
juncture of four passageways: the Ascending Passage, the Horizontal Passage
leading to the Queen’s Chamber, the Grand Gallery going upward to the King’s
Chamber, and the well shaft twisting downward to the Descending Passage. Most students of the Great Pyramid agree that this junction point with the Ascending Passage represents the death of Jesus Christ on Calvary’s cross. Paul writes that Jesus “abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10). Immortality is shown in the King’s Chamber on the fiftieth layer of masonry, and perfect human life is pictured in the Queen’s Chamber on the twenty-fifth course. Both are guaranteed by the atoning sacrifice of Calvary.
Notice
the two crosses in vertical alignment. The upper one is on Plane N indicating
human perfection, either actual or reckoned. The lower one is on Plane P, the
plane of the elevation of Israel to God’s favor during the Jewish age. The
small letter “f” designates the shaded area on Plane P during this harvest.
This shaded area represents the time of trouble that ended that age climaxing
with the destruction of the great temple of Herod. As the upper cross depicts
the death of Jesus for Adam and the human race, so the lower cross shows the
relationship of that death in removing the curse of the law that resulted from
the failure of the Jewish people to faithfully keep those commandments. It is
this lower cross that is also emphasized in the grotto because it lies on a
lower level than the commencement of the Grand Gallery which also represents
Jesus’ death. At
the juncture of the Ascending Passage and the Grand Gallery lies the opening of
the well shaft that observers say resembles an explosion, leaving the
impression that the greater height of the Grand Gallery was sudden and abrupt.
It is reminiscent of the poet’s line, “He has burst the bonds of death.” Since
the Grand Gallery represents the walk of the Christian during the Gospel age
and the Ascending Passage the walk of Israel under the law, this difference
aptly depicts the effects of justification through the merit of Christ’s
sacrifice. Through justification Christians are reckoned as perfect human
beings while actually in bodies of imperfect flesh. This gives them the freedom
of which Paul wrote: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath
made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Galatians
5:1). Similarly, in the resurrection of the human race, the blood of Christ
will atone for the death sentence of Adamic sin and give men the opportunity
to rise to a position where they can progress on the “way of holiness”
(Isaiah 35:8) along the Horizontal Passage to their ultimate goal of
everlasting life shown in the Queen’s Chamber.
The Lamb of
God Finally, and somewhat more speculatively, some who have made the effort to scale the narrow well shaft to the grotto have noticed an unusual rock formation in the natural walls of the grotto which bears a resemblance to the head of a sheep. Whether this is a part of the design or not, the grotto does appear to be an excellent representation of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, “the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). |
