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1
The Liahona
Miracles by Small Means
Chapter 8b
2
CHAPTER 8b
Was Knowledge of Magnetic Navigation
“Lost”?
Chapter 8b: Could knowledge of magnetic navigation have been "lost"? If so, what were some of
the factors that might have caused this loss? A few factors are worth discussing here.
3
Factor #4
Secrecy
4
Phoenician Ships were sunk
Some items of history are never passed down because of secrecy or sacredness. For example, the
story is told of the Phoenician ship captain, who when overwhelmingly pursued by enemy ships,
chose to wreck and sink his ship rather than reveal his secrets of navigation.
5
Hanno’s Settlements from Carthage
Another example of Phoenician secrecy comes from Carthage, a Phoenician colony at the
western end of the Mediterranean. About 500 BC Hanno sailed from Carthage with sixty ships
and 30,000 men and women to found cities along the western coast of Africa.
6
Inscription of Hanno
Hanno's feats were inscribed in stone in the temple of Kronos. When the Romans conquered
Carthage in 146 BC, they destroyed everything else except this stone inscription, which they
translated. Modern scholars now note that this record of Hanno is mostly correct as far as
navigation is concerned, but there are certain parts missing so as to preserve those maritime
secrets of the Phoenicians that allowed them to maintain control of the worldwide trade of the
Mediterranean into the Atlantic for hundreds of years.
7
The Hill Cumorah in New York
Sacredness plays a part in the secret location not only of the Liahona, but all of the Nephite
records. Interestingly, there are a number of second and third hand stories that have circulated
among LDS members, in which the Nephite records and sacred items are said to be located in a
cave in the New York Hill Cumorah. One such story states that W. W. Phelps was told by Hyrum
Smith that Hyrum, Joseph, Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer went to the Hill Cumorah, and as
they were walking up the hill, a door opened and they walked into a room about 16 square feet in
size. In that room was an angel and a multitude of records and sacred items kept and passed
down by Nephite prophets and kings. Unfortunately, this cave has never been found, the Liahona
remains lost and unexamined, and the truth of these stories has never been verified.
8
Ark of the Covenant Hid
A similar example of sacredness and secrecy can be found in the unknown location of the Ark of
the Covenant. According to the Book of Exodus, chapter 30, during Moses's 40-day stay upon
Mount Sinai, Jehovah not only gave Moses the Law, but also the pattern for the temple in the
wilderness and the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark contained the tablets of the lower law, and
other sacred items, and was ultimately placed in the Holy of Holies of Solomon's Temple in 950
BC.
9
Moving the Ark of the Covenant
About 600 BC, or at the time of Lehi, Jerusalem was threatened with destruction by the
Babylonians. According to 2 Maccabees, Chapter 2, the Lord ordered Jeremiah to remove the
Ark of the Covenant from the temple in Jerusalem, which had become unholy, and move it to the
Mountain of the Lord, where it was sealed up in a cave--not to come forth until the last days when
Israel would be gathered again (Rev. 11). While the Ark of the Covenant is now considered lost,
there is considerable debate over just where this Mountain of the Lord was because all involved
were sworn to secrecy, plus the fact that the Ark is sacred to the Lord.
10
Theory #1: Mt. Sinai
Some have proposed the Ark of the Covenant was taken to Mount Sinai, which had been declared
holy ground by the Lord, and where Moses, Elijah, and possibly Nephi had visited.
11
Theory #2: Mt. Nebo
Some have proposed Mount Nebo, just across the river Jordan from Jerusalem, where Moses
overlooked the Promised Land. But as with the proposed Mount Sinai location, critics have
wondered how Jeremiah would have got the Ark of the Covenant past the Babylonians, who were
besieging Jerusalem.
12
Theory #3: Mount Moriah
A third proposed location for the Ark of the Covenant is Mount Moriah, the mount on which the
Jerusalem temple was located.
13
Mount Moriah (The Temple Mount)
Recently, it has been proposed that Jeremiah tunneled from inside the city under the northern city
wall of Jerusalem to a location under the northern extension and highest point of Mount Moriah.
14
Location of the Garden Tomb
Intriguingly, this Mount Moriah location corresponds with one proposed present-day site for
Golgotha, close to the Garden Tomb, and just outside the northern city wall of Old Jerusalem.
According to Catholic tradition, another proposed site for Christ's crucifixion and burial is the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre on the west of the city.
15
Proposed Location for Golgotha (The Place of the Skull)
Golgotha is the Aramaic name for the place where Christ was crucified and where his blood was
spilled. It means "a skull." Near the Garden Tomb is a place where a skull face is naturally
carved into the mountainside. This location might be significant in a number of ways.
Interestingly, on the Day of Atonement a goat without spot would be slain on the north side of
the altar, while another goat with a scarlet ribbon tied around it (representing the sins of Israel)
would be guided out the east gate of the temple, and across the Kidron Valley to the Mount of
Olives, where symbolically the sins of the House of Israel would be set free. This would
symbolically imply that Christ was crucified on the north of the Temple Mount, and that
Gethsemane (or where Christ suffered for the sins of the world) was located east of the Kidron
valley on the Mount of Olives.
16
High Priest on the Day of Atonement (Sprinkling Blood)
The Mosiac Law was loaded with symbolism of Christ's role as Savior of the World. On the Day
of Atonement, the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies and sprinkle blood on the Altar, or
the Ark of the Covenant. This represented the sanctity and validity of the Law and Covenant. If
at the time of Christ, the Ark of the Covenant had been moved to a location on the temple mount
directly under where the blood of Christ was spilled, then this would symbolically validate the
fulfillment of the Law and Covenant by his crucifixion. Yet sadly, the Ark of the Covenant is
still considered lost, and thus these perspectives cannot be verified.
17
Sacrifice of the Red Heifer
Another example of lost sacred knowledge, similar to the Liahona, involves the location of the
ashes of the Red Heifer. The Jews are anticipating the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem, yet
according to their tradition, before they can do this they need to sanctify the temple mount with
ashes from a rare previous Mosaic ritual--the sacrifice of a red heifer (a young female cow)
without spot. According to tradition, this heifer should not even have one follicle producing a hair
of a different color. This sacrifice is said to have taken place at a specific spot on the Mount of
Olives that was astronomically aligned with the eastern Golden Gate and the doors of the Temple.
It was the only temple ritual that took place away from the temple mount. Some have proposed
that the red heifer was led out the east gate, across a bridge spanning the Kidron Valley to the
Mount of Olives. Yet the location of the Red Heifer ashes and the location of the temple both
remain lost to the Jews.
18
Christ Suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane
As Latter-day Saints, we believe that Christ's greatest agony occurred in the Garden of
Gethsemane, where he made expiation for the entrance of sin into the world through the
transgression of Eve. The Book of Mosiah chapter 3 tells us that when Christ suffered in the
Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives, he bled from every pore, rendering his garments
red. Section 133 of the Doctrine & Covenants also tells us that red will be the color of Christ's
robes when he returns at his second coming Intriguingly, among the interested religious groups
in this subject matter, there is a group of Latter-day saint scholars that have investigated the
archaeology and astronomical alignments associated with the Red Heifer ritual. They feel that
they have located where the Garden of Gethsemane was on the Mount of Olives. They have also
intriguingly proposed a location for the Temple that would allow the temple to be rebuilt without
the need to destroy the Dome of the Rock.
19
Factor #5
Limited Communication between the East and West
Factor #5: Limited Communication between the East and the West
20
Silk Road
Stopped by Wars & Tribal contentions
I have already brought up the story of the Confucian scholars in China during the time of Cheng
Ho in the early 1400s, who did their best to eliminate all outside cultural influences and to isolate
China from the rest of the world. Another network of overland linkages between China and the
Western world of the Mediterranean has been termed the Silk Road. This trade was stopped at
various times because of wars and tribal contentions. One notable period was the Islamic rise to
power during the 7th Century AD and the subsequent crusades. One has to wonder the affect this
had on the knowledge of a magnetic compass.
21
Factor #6
Connections of Magnetism with Divination
Factor #6: Connections of magnetism with divination. Anciently, magnetism was associated with
divination, and because of that, those written texts dealing with magnetism were destroyed
because of religious and superstitious reasons. Additionally, some scholars have theorized that
the mariners compass took a long time to come into wide use because superstitious seamen
associated its operation with black magic. In fact, sea captains had a special compartment termed
by some a binnacle, in which they would hide their compasses from the eyes of the superstitious
crew.
22
Mayan Religious Images and Books Burned
When the Catholic Jesuits asserted control in China, they enforced the policy of QUOTE "holy
ignorance" by burning a huge number of books. It is said that it took three days to burn all of the
books in the great personal library of Li Ying-shih.
When the Catholic Fathers came to the Americas with the conquistadors, they destroyed the
written records and images of the Native American Indians, viewing the codices as an avenue of
superstitions and lies of the devil. That destruction QUOTE "reduced to ashes the scientific
backbone of a highly civilized people."
I might note that with the devastating principle of "holy ignorance" came the rejection of
additional truth. This concept is reflected in the book of second Nephi, chapter 29 of the Book of
Mormon, noting that some will say QUOTE "A Bible, a Bible, we have got a Bible, and there
cannot be any more Bible."
23
Factor #7
Western Bias
Factor #7: Western bias.
24
Joseph Needham (1900-1995)
The acclaimed British scientist Joseph Needham, who spent years bringing to light the history of
Chinese science, lamented that QUOTE: "there has been the tendency [in the West] to
presuppose that nothing of real importance could have started outside Europe. Chinese accounts
describing a compass were commonly referred to by European scholars as "legends." While
European accounts referring to the compass were considered part of "science." Yet people in
China were studying magnetic declination long before Europeans even spoke of magnetic
polarity.
25
Magnetic Declination
Just so you will know, magnetic declination is the difference between the direction that a
magnetic needle points to and where true north is, and this difference varies at different locations
on the earth. For example, in Maine the compass will point a few degrees west of true north,
while in Alaska, the compass will point a few degrees east of true north.
26
Cyrus Gordon
“Collective Amnesia”
According to Cyrus Gordon, head of Mediterranean Studies at Brandies University, travel across
the oceans was taking place thousands of years ago. He referred to the tendency of people to lose
or dismiss the knowledge of the great cultures of our ancestors as QUOTE "collective amnesia."
27
When we talk about "collective amnesia," we might tend to fault other people, but to this day
don't we celebrate Columbus Day for the discovery of America, even though the Vikings arrived
at least 500 to 700 years before Columbus? What's more, the Vikings used a lodestone compass
to help them in navigating the foggy oceans of the north.
28
Chinese Palace of Chin Shi Huang Ti (806 BC)
Gate built of lodestone – prevented iron weapons
It might be interesting here to note another bit of collective amnesia relative to the use of
magnetic lodestone. In 806 BC the Chinese ruler Chin Shi Huang Ti built a grand royal palace.
The massive main gate, similar to the one shown here, was built entirely of lodestone so as to
prevent any iron weapons from being taken inside. So the idea of having us pass through security
arches at the airport is apparently not new.