Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Symbols are often used in scripture and elsewhere to conveigh layered meanings which as you learn line upon line, the symbol broadens and expands your mind to greater and greater truths. The number 4 for example is deep in spiritual meaning. The book of Genesis talks about 4 rivers that flowed from Eden. The book of Enoch add that each river went to one of the cardinal directions. Moses goes onto to explain this is meant to mean that from under the Tree of Life issues water to nourish the world. The number 4 therefore often means geographic totality, or the entire world. There is where phrases such as "the four quarters of the earth" come from.
We know that Adam was commanded to build an altar and offer sacrifices. It was on the 4th day of creation that God set the sun, moon and stars making directions possible. Anciently, alters were often built based with each side facing one of the 4 cardinal directions, North, South East and West determining the directions from the stars. At times altars were aligned with solstices and equinox's (again 4). Symbolically, altars were meant to represent the center of the world, where earth first rose from the waters representing order out of chaos. Where you connect the 4 corners or where the 4 quarters come together makes a cross. The cross being the Christian symbol for the atonement of Jesus Christ who was sacrificed for the world. This is why ancient Hebrew priests would take the blood from the animal sacrifice and touch the horn on each of the 4 corners of the altar. This is where the phrase "the four corners of the earth" come from. Obviously the earth being round doesn't have corners, but the altar does and what is performed on the altar is performed for the entire world.
This is why cathedrals are often built with 4 wings being a cross; center of which is precisely over the altar. This is why pyramids are precisely aligned with the cardinal directions and illustrate where all things come together in a cross. Why Mayan Glyphs on temples and elsewhere have 4 pedals. Why anciently kings or chiefs would go to the highest mountain and shoot arrows in the 4 directions. Churches and temples being built with 4 sides oriented to the cardinal directions representing a place for the world to receive his Good News.
The New Testament has the 4 gospels which is the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. Christ commands to take that gospel to every Nation, Kindred, Tongue and People, again 4 and to gather his people from the 4 winds, and those that don't follow will meet the 4 horsemen of judgement.
What many don't realize is that there isn't a specific spot an altar or temple needs to be built in the world. Every location has a perfect, north, south, east and west orientation. It isn't about where you are, it is about how you are aligned, and if you are aligned with God and His purpose for you, you become the temple with Christ at your center.
Symbols are often used in scripture and elsewhere to conveigh layered meanings which as you learn line upon line, the symbol broadens and expands your mind to greater and greater truths. The number 4 for example is deep in spiritual meaning. The book of Genesis talks about 4 rivers that flowed from Eden. The book of Enoch add that each river went to one of the cardinal directions. Moses goes onto to explain this is meant to mean that from under the Tree of Life issues water to nourish the world. The number 4 therefore often means geographic totality, or the entire world. There is where phrases such as "the four quarters of the earth" come from.
We know that Adam was commanded to build an altar and offer sacrifices. It was on the 4th day of creation that God set the sun, moon and stars making directions possible. Anciently, alters were often built based with each side facing one of the 4 cardinal directions, North, South East and West determining the directions from the stars. At times altars were aligned with solstices and equinox's (again 4). Symbolically, altars were meant to represent the center of the world, where earth first rose from the waters representing order out of chaos. Where you connect the 4 corners or where the 4 quarters come together makes a cross. The cross being the Christian symbol for the atonement of Jesus Christ who was sacrificed for the world. This is why ancient Hebrew priests would take the blood from the animal sacrifice and touch the horn on each of the 4 corners of the altar. This is where the phrase "the four corners of the earth" come from. Obviously the earth being round doesn't have corners, but the altar does and what is performed on the altar is performed for the entire world.
This is why cathedrals are often built with 4 wings being a cross; center of which is precisely over the altar. This is why pyramids are precisely aligned with the cardinal directions and illustrate where all things come together in a cross. Why Mayan Glyphs on temples and elsewhere have 4 pedals. Why anciently kings or chiefs would go to the highest mountain and shoot arrows in the 4 directions. Churches and temples being built with 4 sides oriented to the cardinal directions representing a place for the world to receive his Good News.
The New Testament has the 4 gospels which is the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. Christ commands to take that gospel to every Nation, Kindred, Tongue and People, again 4 and to gather his people from the 4 winds, and those that don't follow will meet the 4 horsemen of judgement.
What many don't realize is that there isn't a specific spot an altar or temple needs to be built in the world. Every location has a perfect, north, south, east and west orientation. It isn't about where you are, it is about how you are aligned, and if you are aligned with God and His purpose for you, you become the temple with Christ at your center.
