"Up the winding mountain pathway with Moses or Aaron."

UP (OR DOWN?) THE WINDING MOUNTAIN PATH WITH MOSES (OR AARON?)

Can we tell the difference?

Is there a difference?

A GOLDEN CALF?

LEFT, Ron Wyatt -- RIGHT, Dr. Robert Holt, MD. In the middle, Wyatt's discovery in Midian.

REVIEWING:

I got acquainted with Ron Wyatt back in 1988 and 1989 because of his search for the "Ark of the Covenant" which he was continuing his on-going search for in the tunnels that exist below the streets and houses and lots and cemeteries of Old Jerusalem. His theory was that the prophet Jeremiah had managed to hide this Holy Golden Ark in one of these tunnels and walled up the tunnel and buried it so thoroughly just before the Babylonians had invaded that no one (but Ron) has ever been able to catch a glimpse of it since. Page one was part of our adventures of October 1989. More later.

CONTINUING TO REVIEW:

As I spent some time with Ron, he also told me the story of how he had found the real "Mount Sinai", not where people think it is, in Egypt, in the Sinai peninsula, at a mountain now called "Mount Saint Catherine", but in Saudia Arabia, as a mountain now called Jabel el Lawz, in English -- "The Mountain of the Almond Trees". There he found a series of pillars, and a circle of wells, and waterways from now-dry water-ways that apparently used to feed these wells. And in an open area at the foot of the mountain was a large altar-shaped rock out-cropping on which were etched the picture of cows which we see above. Ron connected this with the episode in Exodus during which the Children of Israel went back, temporarily, to worshipping a "Golden Calf" they worshipped with riotous singing and dancing while Moses was delayed beyond their expectations while receiving the TEN COMMANDMENTS in their written form. Aaron, the brother of Moses, was a part of this back-sliding and idolatry, and indeed was in charge of the actual making of this "Golden Calf" and its immediate worship.

We need to be more Critical of this story, and understand what happened, and why it is told!

By doing so, we'll be doing those world religions based on the assumption that this is a reflection of the ethics and rulership practices of the God Who created mankind -- a tremendous favor!

And that will be my GOAL for this series of Web Pages!

A Model of the Path taken by Moses to the top of Mt Sinai

The maker of this model (or picture of a model) wishes to make the point that Moses reached the top of Mt Sinai, where he met God and received the 2 tables of stone on which God had written the TEN COMMANDMENTS with his own finger.

Joshua, however, was stationed only part way up that path, where in the distance he could see the camp of Israel, where some type of disturbance or celebration was going on. Joshua did not participate, so could later lead the children of those who did worship the calf into the "Promised Land."

After the confrontation involving the worship of the Golden Calf, Moses met with Aaron and 70 leaders of Israel at another place not so far up on the mountain where they listened to a book Moses had written with much more detailed instruction from God as they sat around a table eating and drinking as they saw God in the distance.

The Story as Related Later, in retrospect and properly edited and redacted!

Exodus 24:12 "And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them."

13 "And Moses rose up, and his minister JOSHUA: and Moses went up into the mount of God,"

14 "And he said unto the elders, Tarry ye here for us, until we come again unto you and, behold, Aaron and Hur are with you, if any man have any matters to do, let him come unto them."

15 "And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount."

16 "And the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud."

     17 "And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel."

     18 "And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights."
     Exodus 31:18 (7 chapters later!) "And he (God) gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God."

Exodus 32:15 "And Moses turned, and went down from the mount --"
   17 "And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp,"

    18 "And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, --but the noise of them that SING I hear."

Although the Bible relates this story BEFORE Moses gets the tables of stone I'm redacting it to afterwards --

Exodus 24:1"And he (God) said unto the Lord, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar off."

2 "And Moses alone shall come near the Lord: but they shall not come nigh; neither shall the people go up with him.

3 "And Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the Lord hath said we will do."

4 "And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.

5 "And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the Lord."

6 "And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons (basins?), and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar."

7 "And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people; and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient."

8 "And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning these words."

9 "Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel:--"

10 "And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness."

11"And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink."

NOTE BY DR. BOB HOLT: Assuming some degree of consistency of God's actions towards his "Chosen People" not evident in the "Golden Calf" part of this story, I'll assume that some of the people were SINGING here, and clapping and playing some percussion also. As they did under Miriam's direction after this same God allowed them to walk on dry ground through the Red Sea (Or "Sea of Reeds" if you prefer).

Exodus 15:20 "And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances."

21 "And Miriam answered them, Sing thee to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea."

I'll defend my REDACTION of this part till last because, for one thing, where did Moses get the book he read here if he had not yet spent those 40 days and 40 nights on the mountain?

Also I find it very implausible that Aaron, Nadab and Abihu his sons, and all those 70 elders who had just seen God in all his glory, as described here, would have either the courage or incentive to carve out, mould, or otherwise make a GOLDEN CALF and worship it with all sorts of sinful and forbidden dancing, fornication, and drunkenness (as tradition has it) a mere 40 days later!

MY SUPPOSITION: Two very different stories by separate writers with a radically different "God" or picture of what God is like -- later REDACTED into one story that makes very little sense ethically or rationally!

Much of the Bible Old Testament is

Retroactive Reporting and Redaction

to achieve Religious Goals that don't

have much to do with actual

Historical Events!

In the Fall of 2015 Pastor Patrick Williams was looking at what he considered to be a CRISIS in the Foster Memorial Seventh-day Adventist Church in Asheville, North Carolina. Over the course of the year some really loud music was being played by several youthful groups of musicians and singers. Their enthusiasm was directed towards praising Jesus and letting everyone know that they loved Jesus, and that Jesus was "Their Lord", but some of the older members, and those with nostalgia who were remembering church-music-as-it-used-to-be-sung were complaining. And a great many of these complaints eventually made their way to the desk and ears of Pastor Williams.

Pastor Williams found his "Golden Calf" sermon (which is always waiting there in Exodus for any minister to use), but more useful to Seventh-day Adventists than Pentecostals. He tapped the microphone to make sure he'd be heard, loud and clear, turned in his Bible, and read about Moses' displeasure with music and dancing --

Exodus 32:18 "And he (Moses) said (to Joshua), It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that SING do I hear,"

19 "And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf (calves are very young, and they make a lot of noise), and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot (as does that of Pastor Williams sometimes), and he cast the tables (of stone with God's written commands) out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount."

20 "And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it with fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it."

21 "And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?"

(those who consider LOUD MUSIC and JOYOUS WORSHIP a sin are free to read this into what Moses said here AT ANY TIME!)

22 "And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief,"

23 "For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us: for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him."

24 "And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let him break off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf."

That's the Biblical point where Patrick ceased to read -- but he left us all wondering if he was appealing to the Levites in his audience (of which there are always a considerable number) to kill the others!

Exodus 32:27 "And he (Moses? Patrick?) said unto them (the Levites), Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour."

The next week Patrick Williams allowed the "Youth Pastor" and some of the youthful musicians to make their case, which they did most eloquently, some of them almost in tears. Several weeks later the Pastor set the allowable volume of all church music at 85 decibels.

Several months have passed, several very quite months in which, Yes, the volume level of the church music has remained quite a bit below the 85 decibel ceiling. Young people have made up less of a percentage of the audience, but, admittedly it has been Holiday Season, and I, along with many others, have had family to visit, and children who have taken the opportunity to visit me. It's January now and I've noted, somewhat to my satisfaction, that young people are more obvious than they have been for a while -- perhaps since the "Golden Calf" sermon -- and the music has gradually gotten louder again. Indeed, somebody was probably asleep at the sound console last Sabbath, and the minister's wife Maureen had a prominent part in a little play being put on up front on the pulpit. And if I'm any judge of volume -- she was speaking at least at a 95 decibel level!

Holy Apis Bulls in Egypt

These were living animals, thought to be divine, with the spirits of the gods incarnating in the animals, much as Christians (most of them since the Council of Nicaea) now believe that a preexisting Divine Jesus incarnated in his (temporary) human body.

"It has generally been supposed that the Israelites borrowed calf-worship from the Egyptians, a supposition thought to be supported by the fact that Jeroboam had been recalled from Egypt. But the Egyptian animal-worship was essentially different from the Semitic type, since the Egyptian worship was paid to living animals. The bulls or calves of Jeroboam the classical example in Israel were, on the other hand, intended to be symbols of Yahweh. In any case Jeroboam would not have introduced a foreign cult to strengthen his new and precarious government. The Hebrew calf-worship did not reproduce the cult of Apis and Mnevis, which were living animals, one black, the other white, dedicated to Osiris, and he was believed to be incarnated in them (J. G. Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, iii., London, 1878, 86-95, 306-307). Suggestions of bull-worship among the Hebrews are found in the horns of the altar, in the oxen under the lavers (I Kings vii. 25), and possibly in the cherubim. While examples of Hebrew bull-worship are rare, the proof of its existence among neighboring nations is abundant. In the Babylonio-Assyrian and Syro-Phenician religions, the bull represented the masculine type of divinity, as was natural to a pastoral people. The primitive Aryans also explained the heavenly phenomena by comparisons drawn from the life of their herds. The Zendavesta makes mention of "the first bull." The bull represented power and strength, and at the same time the destructive and the reproductive omnipotence of the deity. The sun-god is hardly to be recognized in the bull, as has been supposed."

Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Calvin College

The SYMBOLISM of "Worshipping a Golden Calf" has been transferred mostly nowadays to valuing money and power more than other more "Human Values,"

Jesus Christ in some of his sayings and parables hinted at this modern usage.

Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13 "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." ("Mammon" MONEY or GOLD, is like a "Golden Calf")

Luke 16:9 "And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the MAMMON of unrighteousness; that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.:

Luke 16:11 "If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous MAMMON, who will commit to your trust the true RICHES?"

Astrology

Taurus the Bull is a Constellation of the Zodiac, and was the CULT ANIMAL of Anu (El to the Hebrews). The Pliades or Seven Sisters are near the NOSE of the Bull and are sometimes pictures as a ring through the Bull's nose by which he can be led through the sky. Since the Age of Taurus was the first Zodiac Age in the 7000 years of the Essene "Millennial Week", they assume it began with the "Creation of Adam" about 4004 BC (Ussher) and lasted until the time of Abraham in 2000 BC (Age of Aries the Ram). Aries ended with the "Birth of Christ" in 7 BC. The Age of Pisces (Two Fishes) lasted until 200 AD (but was cut short do to the Jewish Holocaust) -- and in Essene prophecy we have been in the Age of Aquarius since either 1844 or 1948, depending on your religious outlook and whether or not you are a Trinitarian. Trinitarians expect the "Heavenly Clock" to stop, and the Age of Pisces to continue on forever and ever,

In Revelation 1:16 "And he had in his right hand seven stars (the ring in the nose of Taurus); and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword (the sword of Aries, the god of war): and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. (After Constantine, who worshipped the sun as "Solar Invictus" the theology of the Age of Pisces became primarily in the Western Religious World a sun theology.)

After Paul (who lived earlier in Tarsus, a major exporter of Mithras cult beliefs) the symbolism of Mithras, that of SLAYING A BULL, and depending on its BLOOD for SALVATION -- filled in the gap between the Age of Paul (1st century) and the Age of Constantine (4th century).

To CONTINUE our critical discussion of why the High Priest Aaron, brother of Moses, made a "Golden Calf" and also to follow me following Ron Wyatt to Jerusalem, and beyond--

Click this Line!

Not having nearly enough material to "flesh out" either the story of Joseph or of Moses' God he met in the desert (who called himself I AM), the Hebrew "Redactors" discovered the story of Imhotep, and, perhaps reading Mary Nell Wyatt's Egyptian inscriptions both in the desert near the Nile, and at Saqquara, they used the I AM name, the 7 year famine, and Imhotep's skill as a physician and "Wise Man" to supply a great amount of material for the TORAH!