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Series Code: TIJ
Program Code: TIJ004112S
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00:57 It stands as a silent witness to one of the greatest 00:59 civilizations to have ever existed on planet earth. Perched 01:03 on a mountain ridge some 2500 meters above sea level the 01:08 mysterious city of Machu Picchu is no longer occupied. It's been 01:12 empty for nearly half a millennium. Built by the Incas 01:16 sometime in the middle of the 15th century it was only 01:20 occupied for about 100 years and then the people vanished. The 01:24 city lay undiscovered hidden from the world for almost 400 01:28 years until an American historian stumbled across it in 01:32 1911. Who built this amazing monument to Inca greatness? 01:37 And what connection is there between their accomplishments 01:41 and another ancient story found in the pages of the Bible? 01:45 ♪ ♪ 02:18 The fortress of Machu Picchu located high up here in the 02:21 Peruvian Andes is one of the most spectacular sites in the 02:25 world. The ancient granite stone city is enclosed and protected 02:29 on three sides by a steep gorge one kilometer deep and a 02:34 mountain ridge acts as guardian on the fourth side. The city is 02:38 surrounded by a circle of mountain peaks. It's position is 02:43 quite breathtaking and four centuries after it disappeared 02:46 Machu Picchu still has the power to enchant and mystify. 02:51 ♪ ♪ 03:00 This mountain fortress was once part of the great Inca empire 03:04 that stretched along the spine of the Andes from modern day 03:07 Columbia to southern Chile and from the Pacific right across to 03:11 the eastern foothills of the Andes. The Inca empire at its 03:15 peak was the largest kingdom on earth. When the Spanish 03:30 conquistadors invaded the Inca empire in 1532 they only had a 03:35 tiny army of 130 infantry and 03:38 40 cavalry and yet within a few years they devastated the Inca 03:42 lands and plundered one of the greatest treasure houses in 03:45 history. Although the Inca were a highly disciplined people with 03:50 a strong army, their empire completely underestimated the 03:54 ruthlessness and thorough brutality of the invaders. When 03:59 the King Rinca personally went to negotiate with the 04:02 conquistadors kidnapped him and slaughtered many of his 04:05 followers. The Inca king was promised his freedom if his 04:09 people provided the Spanish with roomful of gold and silver. 04:12 In response the Incas delivered a ransom of 11 ton of gold and 04:18 12,000 kilos of silver, an enormous treasure trove. 04:22 The Inca fulfilled their promise but the Spanish conquistadors 04:26 broke theirs. After the gold and silver were delivered they 04:30 killed the Inca king anyway. His death heralded the end of the 04:34 great Inca empire. 04:36 ♪ ♪ 04:49 The rest of the Inca royal family fled to a refuge high in 04:52 the mountains. It was their last stronghold. It was so sacred and 04:57 secret that no conquistador was ever allowed to see it or hear 05:01 of it. The Spanish never found it. Eventually the people 05:07 vanished and the jungle soon covered the city. It was lost to 05:11 the world. 05:12 ♪ ♪ 05:24 Market sounds. ♪ ♪ 05:43 The legend of this lost city of the Incas fired the imagination 05:46 of adventurers, historians and archeologists. In 1911 Hiram 05:55 Bingham, a young history professor at Yale University 05:57 set out in search of the fabled lost city of the Incas. Bingham 06:03 who became the inspiration for Indiana Jones was determined to 06:07 find it. He made his way to the Peruvian Andes and with the help 06:11 of a local peasant farmer found Machu Picchu and concluded he'd 06:16 discovered the fabled lost city of the Incas. 06:19 In the variety of its charms and the power of its spell, I know 06:28 of no place in the world which can compare with it. Not only 06:32 has it great snow peaks looming above the clouds more than two 06:35 miles overhead, gigantic precipices of many colored 06:38 granite rising sheer for thousands of feet above the 06:41 foaming, glistening, roaring rapids. It also has in striking 06:46 contrast orchids and tree ferns and the lack of all beauty of 06:49 of luxurious vegetation and mysterious witching of the 06:53 jungle. ♪ ♪ 07:02 Today there's nothing secret about the city's location. 07:04 It has become one of the most visited tourist attractions in 07:08 the world bringing thousands of people who are irresistibly 07:11 attracted to what has been termed one of the new seven 07:15 wonders of the world. A few hardy pilgrims still follow in 07:18 the footsteps of the ancient Incas taking the Inca trail from 07:22 Cusco to the Gate of the Sun, a path that used to take the 07:26 ancients more than a week to complete. 07:28 ♪ ♪ 07:41 There's almost no describing the first impression this place 07:43 makes on you when you finally see it in person. I've always 07:48 found that many of the world's tourist attractions just can't 07:51 live up to the pictures you get in the brochures because the 07:54 sense of expectation you get from the advertising sets the 07:57 bar so high. But here at Machu Picchu there's no disappointment 08:02 absolutely none at all. The pictures just don't do it 08:05 justice. I've been here several times and still find this view 08:10 of Machu Picchu awe inspiring, a truly awe inspiring experience 08:15 It literally takes my breath away. Maybe that's because of 08:19 the elevation, but I doubt it. The setting up here in the 08:23 mountain peaks is just so spectacular it's almost surreal. 08:28 And the architecture. Well the Incas have nothing to apologize 08:32 for in the face of other great builder civilizations like the 08:36 Egyptians or the Romans. What they achieved up here at roughly 08:40 2500 meters above sea level is absolutely phenomenal. The Incas 08:48 are one of the most advanced civilizations in human history. 08:51 And what makes them unique, what sets them apart from the other 08:56 great civilizations like the Egyptians or the Romans or the 09:00 Greeks is that they came to power in relative isolation from 09:03 the rest of the world. They spread along the Andes mountains 09:06 in South America absorbing the other cultures they came in 09:09 contact with. To the east they were protected by the massive 09:13 rain forest of the Amazon watershed. To the west they had 09:16 the Pacific, the largest ocean in the world. To the south, the 09:21 rugged wilderness of Patagonia. So essentially they prospered 09:25 without contact from the rest of the world. They took a 09:29 forbidding landscape where travel was difficult at best and 09:32 they built an empire that at its peak stretched over an area some 09:37 5000 kilometers in length. The other south American tribes they 09:43 conquered were quickly assimilated into Inca 09:46 civilization. The Incas used a plan not unlike the one used by 09:50 the ancient king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. Conquered chiefs 09:54 and leaders were often sent to the city of Cusco where they 09:58 were trained to become members of a special class of Inca elite 10:01 Then they were sent back to their home having become members 10:05 of a special elite ruling class. They had privileges and a 10:09 pampered lifestyle not unlike the great Inca Emperor himself. 10:13 So there was little reason to rebel. And so in spite of the 10:17 occasional skirmishes and civil war between brothers with 10:20 competing aspirations for the throne the empire ran pretty 10:24 smoothly. That is until the fateful day a band of European 10:28 adventurers landed on their shores. It wasn't long before the 10:36 empire collapsed. What was one of the largest civilizations in 10:40 history was also one of the shortest. Whether it was really 10:44 Pizarro who conquered the empire or the small pox that came with 10:48 his men or the uprising of the conquered South American tribes 10:52 well historians are still busy sorting out the details. What we 10:57 know for sure is that the great empire tragically vanished. 11:00 Remnants of the empire were plundered by the Spanish. 11:04 Cultural and religious artifacts were defaced and the once proud 11:08 Inca people became a mere shadow of what they had once been. 11:12 Today even though some of their language survives in the people 11:19 of Peru and Bolivia most people consider the Inca civilization 11:23 to have been utterly eradicated. It was a tragic loss because the 11:32 Inca civilization was one of the most astounding to have graced 11:35 our planet. Unlike the cultures of the old world that had 11:39 contact with the Phoenicians they never developed a system of 11:43 writing. So most of what we know about them comes from studying 11:46 elaborate ruins like Machu Picchu. And when you study the 11:59 ruins you make amazing discoveries. The Incas were 12:04 masters at agriculture. The terraces here in the ancient 12:08 city were the means by which the Inca people supported themselves 12:12 They would build a retaining wall and then they would back 12:18 fill with a layer of rock and clay. On top of that, they put a 12:22 layer of dark, rich topsoil which enabled them to grow 12:26 staples, corn, Quinoa, and white potatoes. They also 12:30 domesticated animals but not the ones that we're used to. They 12:34 domesticated the guinea pig and apparently kept them in their 12:37 houses so it was never hard to find meat for dinner. 12:41 The Incas were also master architects. The houses of Machu 12:52 Picchu have been standing here for a very long time, hundrerds 12:56 of years, in fact. They look a little like the houses we would 13:00 build with gabled ends and a pointy roof. Up at this altitude 13:05 wood isn't terribly abundant so the houses are made of stone. 13:09 The rooves would have been made of thatched grasses and tied 13:13 down to special anchor points in stone. The first explorers 13:18 who came here and to other prominent Inca sites like 13:21 Sacsayhauman were astonded by the building skills of these 13:25 ancient people. The stones range in weight from a couple of tons 13:30 to hundreds of tons. And as Hiram Bingham pointed out in 13:34 come cases they're so finely fitted together that you can't 13:38 even get the blade of a knife between them. No mortar, no 13:41 fasteners, just finely fitted stones that have defied the 13:46 elements for hundreds of years. Just who were these remarkable 13:51 people? Today historians are pretty certain that the man who 13:58 built this amazing city in the mountains was Pachacuti an Inca 14:03 emperor whose name means "he who shakes the world." He was easily 14:08 the most notable of the Inca kings. His masons were fitting 14:12 these stones together just a little before Gutenberg fired 14:16 the first printing press back in Europe and Columbus was about to 14:20 sail across the Atlantic into American history. Like all of 14:31 Inca who came before him Pachacuti was a religious man 14:35 who worshipped the sun god Inti. You know, it's astounding how 14:39 many ancient cultures have been built around the worship of the 14:42 sun. From the ancient Egyptians and Mithra to the largest empire 14:47 in the history of the Americas. This building known simply as 14:52 the tower appears to be some sort of solar calendar. On the 14:57 shortest day of the year which comes in June when you're south 15:00 of the equator, sunlight coming through this window reaches a 15:06 line chiseled into the gray rock by the Incas. This was an 15:10 important day because for cultures who worship the sun 15:14 shortening days represented the slow death or retreat of their 15:19 sun god. Of course, we have no written accounts of Inca 15:23 civilization or their worship because they had an oral 15:26 tradition. The information we have comes from the journals of 15:31 the first Spanish explorers and from careful examinations of 15:35 ancient sites. This mark in the stone was apparently an 15:39 important signal to the Incas that the sun god was about to 15:44 return. They had turned the corner of the winter solstice 15:47 and the days were about to get longer. Some records indicate 15:52 that the priest of the sun god Inti would hold a special 15:56 ceremony each June to convince the people that they had the 16:00 power to make the sun god return After the ceremony the shadows 16:07 started getting shorter and the days started getting longer. 16:21 ♪ ♪ The stairway from the temple 16:23 leads up the hill to the most sacred place of all. This is 16:28 Machu Picchu's intihuatana, the hitching post of the sun. Each 16:34 year in June on the shortest day of the year in the southern 16:37 hemisphere when the sun reached its lowest point an important 16:42 rite in the calendar was performed here. With a gold 16:46 chain fastened around this pillar of solid rock a priest 16:50 would ceremonially leash the sun to the Inca land to ensure that 16:55 it did not fail to return after its journey through the sky. 16:58 This was an important day because for cultures who worship 17:03 the sun shortening days represented the slow death or 17:07 retreat of the sun god and so they would symbolically tie the 17:12 sun to their land to show they had turned the corner of the 17:16 winter solstice and the days were about to get longer. 17:19 ♪ ♪ 17:30 Since ancient times people have been enchanted and mystified by 17:33 the night sky and the movement of the heavenly bodies. 17:36 ♪ ♪ 17:47 The beauty of the night sky has been a source of fascination and 17:50 pleasure for all mankind. Through the centuries people 17:54 have marveled at the mysteries of the heavens wondering what 17:57 secrets lie hidden in outer space. In fact, astronomy was 18:02 the first science of ancient civilizations. Virtually all of 18:08 the early great civilizations kept organized records of 18:13 astronomical events. The Egyptians, Babylonians, 18:16 Mesopotamians, Chinese and here in South America the Maya and 18:22 Aztecs. All made accurate measurements of the stars and 18:25 planets. The celestial bodies became so important in the lives 18:29 of these people that they began to worship them. And because the 18:33 sun ruled over the planets it became the chief of the 18:36 celestial gods. And that's what happened at Machu Picchu and 18:40 right across the Incan empire. Here in the 15th century 18:44 astronomer priests carefully charted the movements of the 18:48 celestial bodies and they were able to measure the seasons and 18:53 the movements of the stars and they plotted the course of the 18:56 sun god that they worshipped through the yearly seasons. 18:59 Worship of the celestial bodies became immensely widespread. 19:04 They believed that they were the descendants of two people, 19:12 a man and a woman, placed on earth by the sun god. And of 19:17 course at least at one level that rings a bell for people who 19:21 are familiar with the creation story found in Genesis, which 19:24 states that the Creator God made a man and a woman and placed 19:28 them in a garden. Is it possible that remnants of the biblical 19:32 story survived down through time and could still be found among 19:37 the Inca peoples? According to some researchers there were some 19:47 pretty amazing developments taking shape down here before 19:50 the first Europeans arrived bringing not so welcome gifts 19:53 like small pox and an insatiable appetite for gold. Pachacuti was 20:00 a devoted sun worshipper as were all of his subjects. 20:03 A remarkable number of ancient cultures were sun worshippers 20:07 like the Romans for example. Perhaps because of the obvious 20:11 connection between the sun's warmth and the life on the 20:15 planet. Hiram Bingham, the man credited with discovering Machu 20:19 Picchu noticed a fascinating similarity between Inca sun 20:23 worship rituals and those practiced by pagans back in 20:27 Job's day. 20:29 The author of the book of Job quotes in his referring to an 20:33 active adoration of the Gentiles who when the sun rises 20:36 resplendent or the moon shines clear exult in their hearts and 20:40 extend their hands toward the sun and throw kisses to it. 20:42 It was one of the most natural and widespread forms of 20:46 religious worship in the ancient world. 20:48 The voice he was referring to is found here in Job the 31st 20:53 chapter verses 26-28:... 21:14 At some point in human history human beings left the worship of 21:22 the Creator God described in the Bible and began worshipping the 21:26 creation instead. Paul describes people who exchanged the truth 21:32 of God for the lie and worshipped and served 21:35 the creature rather than 21:36 the Creator who is blessed forever. Widespread gobal sun 21:41 worship which had its roots in the ancient kingdom of Babel 21:44 in Mesopotamia is part of that shift Paul described from 21:48 worshipping the Creator to worshipping the creation. So it 21:53 really should have been no surprise for early explorers 21:56 to discover a culture so heartily dedicated to solar 22:00 worship. The Incas considered themselves children of the sun. 22:04 They thought of gold, the stuff that the conquistadors wanted so 22:08 badly, as the sweat of the sun. But according to author Don 22:13 Richardson something happened to Pachacuti that made him give 22:18 up the worship of his solar deity. The more he thought about 22:22 Inti the sun god the more he realized that Inti wasn't really 22:26 much of a god. The smallest cloud could block his light and 22:31 he seemed to be condemned to live on a permanent schedule 22:36 never really intervening in the affairs of the Inca people. 22:40 So he began to dig back into the history of the people who lived 22:45 here in South America even before the foundation of the 22:49 Inca empire and discovered something amazing. Once upon a 22:54 time they had all worshipped one god, a creator they called 22:58 Veracocha. It occurs to him that he was worshipping a mere 23:02 creation and had missed the whole point. There was a 23:05 creator who made the sun and that's who he ought to be 23:09 worshipping. That led to a meeting of minds across the Inca 23:13 empire. Priests of the pagan sun temples protested insisting that 23:18 they couldn't go and tell the common people that they'd been 23:21 wrong. They'd look like fools. From what we can gather from 23:25 the handful of records compiled by a Spanish priest named 23:29 Cristobal de Molina, the great Inca religious council settled 23:33 upon a compromise. The upper classes would begin to worship 23:37 the creator god and the common people would go on worshipping 23:41 the pagan sun god. And of course when Pizarro and his men 23:48 arrived along with their thirst for conquest and gold the upper 23:52 classes were pretty much decimated. But imagine, there 23:56 was a whole civilization up here that had already rediscovered 24:00 to some extent the great Creator God, the God of the Bible before 24:05 European Christians made it over here. It's a pretty 24:09 stunning story, but not entirely surprising. When Paul and 24:13 Barnabas went to the city of Lystra Paul made a statement 24:17 that I know to be true from experience. He said in Acts 17 24:21 that God in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in 24:26 their own ways, nevertheless he did not leave himself without 24:31 witness. And the more you travel the world and the more you 24:41 gather the stories of people groups and cultures from around 24:44 the world the more you can see it. God really hasn't left 24:48 himself without witness. He may allow us to try our own path and 24:53 he'll never insist on forcing us into his kingdom but he always 24:58 leaves enough evidence that we'll find him if we really want 25:01 to. And apparently up here at 2500 meters in the Andes maybe 25:08 the most amazing thing isn't the spectacular city left behind by 25:13 an amazing people. Maybe the most amazing thing is how the 25:18 heart of God was calling these incredible people who were 25:22 essentially cut off from the rest of the world. God doesn't 25:30 just call ancient kings or only appear in stories of ancient 25:34 culture. He can be here with you right now. If you would like to 25:39 find out more about how God can be present in your life, then 25:43 I'd like to recommend a free gift we have for you today. 25:47 It's the booklet Secrets of True Greatness. This booklet is our 25:52 gift to you and is absolutely free. There are no costs or 25:56 obligations whatsoever. So make the most of this wonderful 26:01 opportunity to receive the free gift we have for you today. 26:05 Phone or text us at 0436-333-555 or visit our website TiJ.tv to 26:16 request today's free offer and we'll send it to you totally 26:20 free of charge and with no obligation. So don't delay. 26:23 Call or text 0436-333-555 in Australia or 020-422-2042 in New 26:33 Zealand or visit or website to request today's offer. 26:37 Write to us at GPO Box 274, Sydney NSW 2001 Australia 26:44 or PO Box 76673, Manakau, Auckland 2241, New Zealand. 26:51 Don't delay. Call or text us now 27:03 ♪ ♪ If you've enjoyed our journey 27:05 to Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas, hidden high up in 27:09 the rugged peaks of the Andes and our reflections on the 27:12 greatness of God then be sure to join us again next week when we 27:16 will share another of life's journeys together. Until then 27:21 let's pray and ask God for leading and guidance in our 27:24 lives. 27:27 Dear heavenly Father today we've seen evidence of your love for 27:31 us here in the history of the people who built this ancient 27:35 city, Machu Picchu. Thank you for the interest you take in our 27:40 lives. We want to commit our lives fully to you and we ask 27:45 that you will continue to lead and guide our lives. 27:48 We ask this in Jesus' name, Amen 27:53 ♪ ♪ |
Revised 2021-08-24