The Georgia Guidestones
Lent
The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous. Psalm 19:9b
In June 1979, a mysterious figure, using the pseudonym Robert C. Christian, approached the Elberton Granite Finishing Company with an unusual project.
Backed financially by a “small group of loyal Americans,” R.C. Christian commissioned the company to construct a monument that would function as a compass, calendar, and a clock. The Granite Company immediately started working on the commission, shaping large pieces of stone to the exact specifications provided by Christian.
A year later, in a grassy field two hours northeast of Atlanta, the Georgia Guidestones were unveiled.
The impressive 19-foot-tall structure featured a center column with a hole drilled through the middle to frame the North Star. An additional slot aligned with the Sun’s solstices and equinoxes. Fanning out from the center column, four vertical slabs of granite were positioned to precisely mark the 18.6 lunar declination cycle. Etched into the smooth face of each slab were 10 inscriptions written in 8 different languages: English, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Traditional Chinese, and Russian.
The 10 inscriptions read:
1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2. Guide reproduction wisely – improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion – faith – tradition – and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth – beauty – love – seeking harmony with the infinite.
10. Be not a cancer on the Earth – leave room for nature – leave room for nature.
According to the sponsors of the monument, the Georgia Guidestones are directives for rebuilding human civilization after a nuclear disaster. Nearby, a small granite ledger gives further insight: Let these be guide stones to an Age of Reason.
After God rescued the Israelites from captivity in Egypt, God led them through the wilderness to Mount Sinai. On the blazing mountain top, veiled by smoke and ash, God gave Moses 10 commandments etched in stone. After 40 days,
Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands. Exodus 32:15a
The 10 commandments are religious and ethical rules for life given by God to reshape the hearts and minds of the Jewish people after 400 years of slavery. But the commandments are more than laws – they are stipulations of the Covenant.
A covenant is a relationship marked by commitments by each party. The commitments are binding, like a contract, but less legal and more personal – like marriage vows. Rightly understood, the 10 commandments are rules rooted in a relationship marked by God’s gracious deliverance. Israel’s obedience is a response to divine rescue, an expression of gratitude and loyal allegiance to the God who saves.
Yet from the very beginning the people failed to keep their side of the covenant. Repeatedly, Israel forgets the Lord and engages in willful disobedience by exploiting the poor, worshipping false gods, and offering hollow sacrifices.
In fact, God’s faithfulness and Israel’s failure is the major tension that drives the biblical drama from the moment Moses comes down from the mountain with the law in hand.
Centuries later, the prophet Jeremiah addresses this ongoing tension head on. In the first 30 chapters, Jeremiah laments that the people have stubborn hearts and that the covenant at Sinai has been shattered. As a result, God had already given the northern Kingdom of Israel over to the consequences of their sin – allowing it to be destroyed by the Assyrian Empire. Jeremiah warned those living in the southern Kingdom of Judah that they were teetering on the brink of exile.
Against this dark backdrop, God announces a plan to resolve the tension and restore his people. In chapter 31 God says –
the days are coming… when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. (31, 33b)
Sadly, even with this renewed promise ringing in their ears, the hearts of the people rebelled once again. As a result, Jeremiah’s prophecies came true. In 586 BC, Judah was overtaken by King Nebuchadnezzar of the Babylonians, the temple was laid to ruins, and the people were carried off into exile.
In 1986, six years after the unveiling of the Georgia Guidestones, Robert C. Christian published a book that gave further insight into the purpose of the monument – “we have no mysterious purpose or ulterior motives. We seek common sense pathways to a peaceful world, without bias for particular creeds or philosophies.” Despite peaceful intentions, people have remained deeply suspicious of the monument – especially the first and second directives which seem to specify population control and eugenics. Because of this, the Guidestones have been repeatedly defaced with graffiti, splashed with paint and splattered with acidic liquids.
In the early morning hours of July 6, 2022, the sound of a large explosion pierced the darkness. When the sun rose, frightened neighbors searched for the source of the blast and discovered that the Georgia Guidestones had been destroyed. Police combed the site and found pieces of a detonation device amid the granite rubble. A grainy video showed a vehicle fleeing the scene. An investigation ensued, but no suspects were named.
In the aftermath of a nuclear disaster, the Georgia Guidestones aimed to pave the way to a brighter future. However, R.C. Christian forgot an important truth – one that Isreal knew all too well – commandments written on stone can never make a better world when the human heart is weak with rebellion.
To bring about a new Age – bright with heavenly justice, mercy, and truth – God knows we need more than laws written on stones; we need new hearts, energized by a more powerful spirit.
On the night before Jesus was crucified, he raised a glass and said –
This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. Luke 22:20
In and through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God fulfils the promise in Jeremiah 31 – establishing a new covenant with humanity. Jesus, representing Israel (and all of us) obeys all 10 commandments as he trusts in God’s wisdom to direct his steps – even when that path leads to the cross. The great irony of Good Friday is that the only human to faithfully fulfill every God given law was crucified like a lawbreaking criminal.
It may be counterintuitive, but according to Scripture, what paves the way for a better world, is not obeying commandments written on stone, but trusting in the One who had them written on his heart and died on a cross. When we put our faith in Jesus, our hearts begin to beat with a new desire to please God. While we still struggle with waywardness and rebellion, the Holy Spirit gives us the power to hope in a promise – that one day, God will make all things new.
The only message worth celebrating (and worthy of being etched in stone) is the good news that Israel’s persistent rebellion (and ours) will never thwart God’s ultimate purpose and promise to be in a binding, faithful and everlasting relationship with humanity.