The Four Heavens: Ancient Maya History and Biblical Creations

The Four Heavens brings to life the cultural and visual splendor of the ancient Maya, drawing on the oldest indigenous texts of the Americas and the latest archaeological discoveries to present an entirely new history of this spectacular civilization. Renowned historian and archaeologist David Stuart shows how there was no single rise and fall of the Maya but a series of births and collapses over a breathtaking span of nearly three millennia. Today, with the recent decipherment of their ancient writings, the story of the Maya can now be told from their perspective.

The Cosmological World of the Maya

Stuart traces the rapid emergence of permanent settlements in the rainforest, which gave rise to monumental architecture and a flourishing urbanism and ushered in the Classic period of Maya civilization. He reveals a world of majestic royal courts tightly bound together by marriages, shifting alliances, and warfare, much of it driven by the ambitions of two major dynasties, the Kanuls and Mutuls. For the Maya, history was an act of ordering and remembering. This history celebrates their centuries of artistic creativity, cultural innovation, and dynamic resilience, painting an unforgettable portrait of the Maya and the richly complex social, political, and cosmological worlds in which they lived.

The Four Biblical Creations and Worlds

In addition to the historical record, in the Holy Bible there are four (4) distinct and separate "Creations" of the heaven and the Earth and four (4) Biblically defined "Worlds" or Ages. In chronological order, these include:

  • 1: The Initial Creation (The Angel's World) – Time frame: "In the beginning"; Pre-existing conditions: Eternity past. God created them Ex nihilo, "out of nothing."
  • 2: The First Regeneration (Man's World) – Time frame: About 6,000 years ago; Pre-existing conditions: "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep."
  • 3: The Second Regeneration (The Kingdom World) – Time frame: Following the Great Tribulation and before the one-thousand years reign of the Lord Jesus Christ; Pre-existing conditions: "The fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD."
  • 4: The New Heaven and Earth (The Eternal World) – Time frame: Eternity following the Great White Throne Judgment; Pre-existing conditions: "The earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them."

Symbolism and Biblical Chronology

Creations 1 through 3 involve the Original Earth and TWO Regenerations, while Creation 4 is an entirely New Heaven and Earth. The Bible denotes the Original Creation and the New Creation of eternity with the phrase "heaven and earth" in the singular tense. Conversely, the two regenerations, specifically the seven-days of Genesis and the period preceding the Kingdom reign, are denoted by the plural phrase: "heavens and the earth." This is very important to understand because the two regenerations cover a specific Biblical time frame: from the beginning of mankind until the final judgment.

During this entire time frame, God has placed a "Sea" of division between the physical creation and His heavenly Throne. That division was established at the start of the seven days process: "And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament." This division will remain in place until the end of the third Biblical Age. Furthermore, the "sabbath day" represents a promise given to mankind from God that points to the future reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are seven-days in the Genesis regeneration because each of those days prophetically-represent an approximate one-thousand years of human history. According to the Biblical chronology, there has already been about six-thousand-years of human history since the second creation and the creation of "man" (Adam and Eve).