The Witness of the Food Pyramid
Revised reprint from The Witchtower, 12/2010
“The … Pyramid … proves to be a storehouse of important truth.”
– Millennial Dawn, Volume III, Thy Kingdom Come, page 314
As is commonly known, “Pastor Russell thought that the Great Pyramid of Gizeh was God’s stone witness, corroborating Biblical time periods.” (Jehovah’s Witnesses – Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom, page 201) He believed that it would have been erected by Melchizedek according to a divine construction plan. (Millennial Dawn, volume III, Thy Kingdom Come, page 322) But latest research has revealed that the Great Pyramid, which is also called the Pyramid of Cheops, was built not by Melchizedek but rather by Pharaoh Cheops “at the dictation of Satan.” – The Watchtower, February 1, 1929, page 45.
However “it should be remembered that, aside from the Great Pyramid … there are others.” (Millennial Dawn,volume III, Thy Kingdom Come, page 314) In actual fact, the divine plan of the ages is revealed in the food pyramid, which is accessible to all people worldwide, and the construction of which was defined once for all when God created Adam and Eve. Indeed, the food pyramid “proves to be a storehouse of important truth – scientific, historic and prophetic – and its testimony is found to be in perfect accord with the Bible, expressing the prominent features of its truths in beautiful and fitting symbols … It is a strong corroborative witness to God’s plan.” – Millennial Dawn, volume III, Thy Kingdom Come, pages 314, 315.
How does the food pyramid confirm the divine plan of the ages? We will start with the bottommost level, described as “drinks – mostly water.”[1] The food pyramid’s baseline has a length of 5910 food pyramid inches and provides the duration of the water dispensation, that is, the age in which humans can be saved by the “water of life.”
A reference work says that “the world of ransomable mankind … came into existence after children were born to Adam and Eve.” (Insight on the Scriptures, volume II, page 468) The first child of Adam and Eve whose year of birth is known was Seth. He was born when Adam was “a hundred and thirty years” old, that is, in the year 3896 B.C.E. (Genesis 5:3; Insight on the Scriptures, volume II, page 899) In this year the water dispensation began.
We have every reason to conclude that one food pyramid inch is equivalent to one year of the water dispensation, so that the length of 5910 food pyramid inches refers to 5910 years – from 3896 B.C.E. to 2015 C.E. In this year, the possibility to be saved will come to an end by Armageddon. Accordingly we are living in the last days of the water dispensation.
The Bread Age
On the food pyramid’s second level, we find bread. From Adam’s sin until the flood, men had to ‘eat bread in the sweat of their face’ because ‘the ground was cursed.’ (Genesis 3:17, 19) Hence the bread age started after the flood, “when the curse on the ground was lifted.” (Insight on the Scriptures, volume II, page 192) This was in “the year 2369 B.C.E.” (Insight on the Scriptures, volume I, page 459) In this year the bread age began.
How long will it last? The baseline of the food pyramid’s bread level is 4909 food pyramid inches in length, corresponding to 4909 years. This means that the bread age lasts from 2369 B.C.E. to 2541 C.E. – 526 years after Armageddon. Likely the resurrection and therewith the possibility to come back to life through “Jesus, ‘the bread of life’” will be completed in this year. – The Watchtower, September 1, 1978, page 25.
Fruits and Vegetables
The next level of the food pyramid consists of fruits and vegetables. Interestingly, vegetables have a slightly larger share. Thus the fruits and vegetables obviously picture two overlapping periods, with the vegetable age lasting slightly longer than the fruit age. What is the starting point, and how long are these periods?
In connection with fruits and vegetables, true Christians surely think of “Kingdom fruitage – proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom.” (The Watchtower, February 1, 2003, page 21) It is evident that the fruit age began in August 1121 C.E. when the greater David, the Georgian king David the Builder, defeated the outnumbering Muslim Seljuqs in the Battle of Didgori. Not for nothing David the Builder is praised as “King of Kings” and “Sword of the Messiah” on contemporary coins. – Wikipedia.
The food pyramid’s fruit part is 1819 food pyramid inches in size, while the vegetable part measures 2145 food pyramid inches. Since this level pictures the preaching work, one food pyramid inch equates to the time that a Jehovah’s Witness spends preaching – “his entire life.” (2002 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses, page 194) Revelation 9:5 specifies this time symbolically as “five months.” (Revelation – Its Grand Climax at Hand!, page 144) Accordingly, one food pyramid inch in connection with “Kingdom fruitage” corresponds to five months; hence the fruit age has a length of 757 years and 11 months, while the vegetable age lasts 893 years and 9 months.
So the fruit age lasted from August 1121 to July 1879. Fruits are easily perishable; hence the fruit age symbolizes the time where mostly “rotten fruit” was gathered. (Kingdom News No. 37: The End of False Religion Is Near, page 3) But for the gathering of true Christians, “good, solid spiritual food” is required. (The Watchtower, April 15, 1997, page 29) Such food was provided from July 1879 on, when Charles Taze Russell started to publish Zion’s Watch Tower. (Mankind’s Search for God, page 352) Is not this a most remarkable agreement between the food pyramid and the truth as taught by Jehovah’s Witnesses? The dates are exact.
The vegetable age started in August 1221 too, since there were some individual genuine Christians even before 1879. It will end in March 2015 with the “harvest … in the conclusion of the system of things.” (Matthew 13:39, 40) At this time Jesus, “the Son of man … will pitch” all infidels and apostates “into the fiery furnace.” (Matthew 13:41, 42) The vegetable age “will reach its climax in the battle of Armageddon … when Jehovah will unleash his executional forces.” – The Watchtower, March 15, 2009, page 18.
The Work of Fishing for Men
The next level of the food pyramid, containing fish and dairy goods, depicts a period that overlaps with the vegetable age. It began in 1879 when the foundation for the worldwide “preaching work” was laid, the purpose of which is “to haul fish onto the beach.” (The Watchtower, June 15, 1992, page 21) And since Jehovah’s Witnesses again and again catch new “fish,” they must always be “dispensing the milk of God’s word.” – The Watchtower, January 1, 1996, page 29.
Both sections are 1455 food pyramid inches long. But as “Jehovah’s Witnesses are … working in pairs” – for what reason the food pyramid pictures two fish and two packages of milk – this pyramid level does not represent 1455 years but two parallel running sections of 727 years and 6 months. (The Watchtower, March 1, 1998, page 31) Accordingly they end in January 2607, 66 years after the end of the resurrection.
This is appropriate, since it means that the last resurrected ones have 66 years to respond favorably to the instructions provided by Armageddon survivors, become Jehovah’s Witnesses and move on from “the ‘milk’ stage.” (Life Does Have a Purpose, page 170; The Watchtower, June 15, 1985, page 8) After the fish and milk dispensation is over in January 2607, there will no longer be an organized preaching and teaching work.
Judgment
On the second topmost level of the pyramid we find flesh and eggs. Without doubt, this level represents the battle of Armageddon, where birds will “eat the fleshy parts of kings and the fleshy parts of military commanders and the fleshy parts of strong men and the fleshy parts of horses and of those seated upon them, and the fleshy parts of all [infidels].” (Revelation 19:18) Since these birds are not yet born, they are pictured as eggs.
Fleshy parts and eggs are each pictured as 1000 food pyramid inches wide, so that it could be concluded that Armageddon would last 1000 years. But it is commonly known “that one day is with Jehovah as a thousand years.” (2 Peter 3:8) Thus it is appropriate that the flesh-and-eggs level of the pyramid symbolizes the “day of Jehovah,” the “day of judgment and of destruction of the ungodly men.” – Acts 2:20; 2 Peter 3:7.
The capstone of the food pyramid consists of sweets. It is evident that these sweets illustrate the paradise where faithful Jehovah’s Witnesses will be allowed to live for 1000 years – no wonder that the width of the capstone is exactly 1000 food pyramid inches! The sweets age starts after Armageddon in 2015 and ends with the final test in 3015.
“And now, having heard it speak, what shall we think of the … ‘Witness’ and its testimony? Such testimony would be peculiar and striking indeed, even if there were no Scriptures found to bear on the subjects examined; but when the Scriptures had already clearly and positively cleared to us these same circumstances and dates, before the Pyramid’s testimony was heard, its wonderful agreement with and corroboration of the same become doubly significant and striking. Now, when the worldly-wise are repudiating God’s Word as ‘obsolete’ and ‘unscientific,’ to have this … ‘Witness’ speak, and corroborate the testimony of the Bible, is truly astounding.” – Millennial Dawn, volume III, Thy Kingdom Come, pages 373, 374.
Indeed, the food pyramid clearly indicates that Armageddon will descend upon earth in February 2013. How beneficial it would be if we would sell our homes and property and plan to finish out the rest of our days in this old system in the pioneer service, like many Jehovah’s Witnesses did before 1975! – Our Kingdom Ministry, May 1974, page 3.
[1] This article is based on the food pyramid as provided by the German Society for Diet. Accordingly, all calculations, including the date of Armageddon, are valid only for Germany and may differ in other countries.