Before becoming convinced that Genesis Chapter One is a literally accurate account of creation and the cosmos, I did not know quite what to think about what the Bible calls the firmament. I didn’t have to consider it much at all since most modern translations render the Hebrew word raqia rather innocuously as sky or expanse.
Only the KJV and NKJV translate “raqia” properly as the firmament, a word that communicates something of its true nature – an immense and firm vaulted dome-like structure made of something like crystal or very strong glass.
To the modern mind inculcated since childhood in the pagan evolutionary heliocentric view of the “universe,” this seems absurd. We have been taught to believe that the sky above us is a relatively thin and fragile atmosphere held in place by a force called gravity against the unfathomable power of the vacuum of “outer space.” That this is a physical impossibility does not seem to bother people who steadfastly adhere to the globe model of the earth. When challenged as to the reality of the globe, most people appeal to the multitude of supposed photographs of the spherical earth suspended in the void of space, not realizing that NASA was started by satanists for the purpose of galvanizing the deception of the spherical earth and outer space.
Go to 5:42 to begin section on NASA’s history.
Those who claim that they have been to “outer space” and observed first-hand the suspended spherical earth, often use the word “fragile” to describe it. I believe this is by design to conjure fear for our continued existence, which is all part of Satan’s grand scheme of deception. Those who do Satan’s bidding do not want us to know that we are safely enclosed in the firmament and watched over by our Creator.
The introduction of the firmament in Genesis Chapter One confronts us with an unavoidable choice. Will we believe what the Bible says or what atheistic astrophysicists tell us?
Will we accept the biblical testimony that the firmament is a very real impenetrable barrier above the earth in which the sun, moon, and stars were placed by God, or will we believe that there is no such structure and the Bible is an archaic somewhat idiotic fable that cannot be trusted when it comes to science?
Unfortunately, at this point, many of us have unwittingly put more faith in a satanic lie than in God’s Word.
Satan deceives the nations by means of sorcery. Speaking of Mystery Babylon, the Bible says:
The light of a lamp will never shine in you again. The happy voices of brides and grooms will never be heard in you again. For your merchants were the greatest in the world, and you deceived the nations with your sorceries. Revelation 18:23 (NLT)
It is important to understand that deception is empowered by satanic witchcraft, which is why it has such power to blind us to God’s truth. We should pray that God will release his people from the shroud of satanic deception. If you are willing to invest time in learning more about the satanic origins of heliocentrism, I recommend watching the following video.
Now that I understand and believe that Genesis Chapter One should be taken literally and that the firmament is an actual physical structure, the Bible has come alive with new insights into the nature of the world in which we live, God’s throne, heaven, and the Second Coming of Christ – the Apocalypse.
Passages that left me “scratching my head” in the past, now make sense. Sometimes God’s truth lies right under our noses, but we just cannot see it because we have been preconditioned by devilish lies to reject truth. Every lie of the enemy is designed to alienate us from God, steal blessings from us, and transform us into fools that are easily led astray and to the slaughter. I believe he laughs at us every time we prefer his lies above God’s Word. When we have been deceived into believing an incredibly absurd lie, the truth seems strange and unbelievable to us.
Jesus told the Jewish leaders who were blinded to the truth of his identity by their false expectations regarding the Messiah:
Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. John 8:43–45 (NKJV)
When we embrace satanic deception, the truth seems like a lie.
The pagan Copernican heliocentric system is a lie designed to make us think Helios (Satan) controls us (through gravity) instead of the Creator. Because we have had heliocentrism and globe earth drummed into our heads from childhood, it seems plausible and real, but, once God opens our eyes to the truth, we see the contradictions and absurdities of that position and wonder how we ever fell for it.
The devil specializes in presenting us with false versions of reality. He does so to condition our minds to reject God’s revealed truth, blinding us spiritually and locking us up in prisons of our own making.
Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God. 2 Corinthians 4:4 (NLT)
Not only does he blind unbelievers to the gospel, he also does his best to keep Christians from seeing and believing other glorious truths in the Bible.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 2 Corinthians 10:4–5 (NKJV)
Believing a lie is a kind of idolatry that influences us to put more confidence in what the devil says than we do in the Word of the One called the Truth. (John 14:6)
Spiritual darkness has enveloped much of the world. Because of our enthusiastic acceptance of what is called science, we have a huge problem of spiritual blindness and deafness. Science has become a religion of scientism, whose high priests, the experts, are regarded as the source of truth. We dare not risk being called a “science denier,” a epithet almost as devastating as being labeled a racist, hater, or homophobe.
Sadly, many of us who call ourselves Christians seem to love the “scientific” view of the universe more than we love God’s Word.
There all kinds of scientists. Real ones do empirical experiments and discover actual scientific truth. Nicolai Tesla was a preeminent example of a true scientist. Another group of so-called scientists, such as astrophysicists, astronomers, evolutionary geologists, and paleontologists, merely observe what they study from afar and devise elaborate, fantastical theories to try to explain our origins on the basis of godless evolution, without having any possible way of testing or proving their assertions. Nevertheless, their pronouncements come to be considered confirmed facts over time.
What such “scientists” produce is more science fiction than true science.
They devise incredible (literally: unbelievable) fictions that requires vast eons of time for the universe and living beings to self-create and self-improve through random chance, violating the Second Law of Thermodynamics called Entropy.
They fashion a worldview to deceive the naive in which a Creator is superfluous. They seek to influence people away from believing in God, calling such a belief foolish and anti-scientific.
They claim that people who believe in divine creation know nothing at all and hinder the forward progress of the species.
The science fiction creators arrogantly assert that their theories are facts and God’s Word is worthless drivel.
Below is an example uttered by Neil deGrasse Tyson, a chief public spokesperson for modern astrophysics.
I cannot decide if he is ignorant of the definition of the word “theory” or if he assumes his listeners are. A theory cannot be a fact; otherwise, it would no longer be a theory. Anything that cannot be empirically proven must remain a theory and should never be promoted as a fact. I find it extremely revealing that Tyson connects faith in evolution with faith in gravity, and Richard Dawkins connects faith in heliocentrism with faith in evolution.
Satan’s lies interconnect and depend on one another.
Contrary to current popular opinion and scientific “consensus,” evolution, universal gravitation, heliocentrism, and the globe are all mere theories that have not been and cannot be empirically proven. Every attempt to do so has failed.
Once we discard the computer generated images pawned off on us by NASA and other space agencies of a globe earth suspended in outer space, we are left with only empirical evidence, which all stands opposed to the science fiction of modern astrophysics.
Outer space does not exist: only what the Bible calls outer darkness.
If you wish to investigate this claim in greater depth, I have collected quite a few resources to assist you. Here is the link.
With regard to the cosmos, Satan’s scheme is to undermine our confidence in the truthfulness of the Word of God relating to God, creation, and the nature of the heavens and earth in order to blind people to the glory of God and set them up to believe even greater lies. (Psalm 19:1, Romans 1:20)
The Big Bang – Heliocentric Theory (BB-HT) misrepresents God’s creation and testifies that there is no God. Not surprisingly, its primary exponents are mostly atheists who mock those who believe that the Bible is literally true.
It is time for us who believe that God’s Word is completely trustworthy with regard to science and every other topic to make a stand.
The Firmament
Now, let’s return to our study of the firmament. Translators’ bias is a very real thing and happens when those who translate the Scripture deliberately or inadvertently impose their views and understanding upon the the Word of God. The less literal the translation, the more likely we are to encounter this.
All of us bring our ingrained ways of viewing our world and reality to our study of the Bible. This is difficult to overcome, but students of the Bible are charged with allowing the Bible to say what it means (exegesis), instead of what we would like for it to say (eisigesis).
The Hebrew word for firmament is raqia. Translators’ bias jumps off the pages of most versions of the Bible when it comes to this word, which literally means something hard like beaten out metal. In Genesis 1:8, God called the firmament (raqia) heaven (shamayim). God used the firmament to separate the waters (mayim) below from those above.
Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. Genesis 1:7 (NKJV)
So above the firmament there was and currently is (Psalm 148:4) water. The shamayim (heavens) contain mayim (waters).
Therefore, the firmament must be hard and strong enough to support the enormous weight of untold amounts of water which are above it, some of which were released upon the earth in judgment during the great flood. (Genesis 7:11-12)
There is no reason to suppose that those waters were not replaced. In fact, there appears to be a giant system of water above and below the earth, which ancient Hebrews believed looked something like the attached image. 
Sadly, the translators of my beloved New Living Translation, in their attempt to explain difficult concepts in modern language and terms, took the liberty to translate mayim as “water vapor.” Often they do a good job of translating idea for idea, especially when it comes to helping us understand theological terms such as justification, but in this case they did us a great disservice. Mayim means waters or a flood, not vapor. (This is why I advise people to read dynamic equivalency translations such as the NLT alongside a version that gives a literal rendering, such as the NKJV, NASB, or ESV.)
Almost all translators choose words for raqia (firmament) that are more palatable to our modern “scientific” heliocentric worldview pounded into us by our education system and media. Check it out for yourselves. The NASB, ESV, and NET, my “go to” versions for a literal rendering of the Bible, all use the word “expanse,” which communicates absolutely nothing of the hard and strong nature of the firmament, but provides the heliocentrist with complete liberty to superimpose that view upon the Scripture. The KJV and NKJV are faithful to the Hebrew and use the word “firmament” to communicate its solidity and strength.
Can you, with Him, spread out the skies, Strong as a molten mirror? Job 37:18 (NASB95)
So which do we choose? Do we believe the Genesis account of creation is scientifically accurate and go with the more literal rendering, or do we accommodate the Scripture to our scientific bias by watering down what the Bible really says? Unfortunately, many Bible believers have done the latter.
As for me, when I stand before God one day, I would rather he tell me that I took him too literally than have him question why I altered his words.
Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God. Matthew 22:29 (NLT)
Isaiah provides us with a snapshot of God’s position above the firmament, looking down upon the “circle” of the earth.
It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. Isaiah 40:22 (NKJV)
Those who insist that the earth is a globe sometimes refer to the above verse as a “proof text.” The word translated “circle” means drawn as a circle, as one would form using a compass. The word “ball” is used in 
Isaiah 22:18; so, the prophet knew the difference between a circle and a ball. This could be thought us as a circle with edges as would be formed by pressing a circular seal into wax, which was a word picture uses in Job 38:14, when God himself is talking about his creation.
Going back to the verse from Isaiah above, the heavens (which was the name given to the firmament) are stretched out like a curtain and spread out like a tent. The most likely kind of tent would be a circular dome like tent, similar to a yurt.
Amos 9:6 in the NASB provides us with wonderful picture of the firmament.
The One who builds His upper chambers in the heavens And has founded His vaulted dome over the earth, He who calls for the waters of the sea And pours them out on the face of the earth, The LORD is His name. Amos 9:6 (NASB95)
God placed his throne above the firmament and his “upper chambers.” I will look at this in the next section of this article.
The Hebrew word for “vaulted dome” is aguddah, which is used in Jeremiah 37:16 to describe the vaulted dungeon cell in which the prophet was held. For some reason, the NASB translators are the only ones that felt free to use aguddah in the verse from Amos to describe the firmament as a vaulted dome above the earth. I believe this is another clear example of translators’ bias. On the positive side, the other versions make the connection that the upper “strata” (NKJV) is attached to the earth. Putting it together, we understand the vaulted dome of firmament is attached firmly to the earth.
Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, You are very great: You are clothed with honor and majesty, 2 Who cover Yourself with light as with a garment, Who stretch out the heavens like a curtain. 3 He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters, Who makes the clouds His chariot, Who walks on the wings of the wind, 4 Who makes His angels spirits, His ministers a flame of fire. 5 You who laid the foundations of the earth, So that it should not be moved forever, Psalm 104:1–5 (NKJV)
Those who hold that the earth is a stationary plane believe the firmament extends beyond the ring of ice that contains the oceans, false depicted as the continent of Antarctica on the globe. Interestingly, a page from the Encyclopedia Americana (1958 edition) references the existence of the firmament in that area of the earth. Click here to see a video on YouTube.
The firmament is an extremely vast structure that extends over an currently unknown area of the flat earth up to an unknown altitude. Some think it may be about 73 miles high, based on interesting evidence. Two videos below show a rocket launch that suddenly stops at 73 miles up. The other shows lightning sprites at about the same altitude illuminating what appears to be the firmament above them. I cannot personally vouch for the authenticity of either video, but they are easily found on YouTube and are generally recognized as genuine. Regardless, these are not “proofs,” only evidence. The “proof” is God’s Word.
The first video just above shows the sun and moon at the same time above the flat earth. It is obvious that the rocket has a fish eye lens because the earth appears convex and concave depending on the attitude of the camera. The Bible says that God placed the sun, moon, and stars in the firmament on Day Four of creation.
Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. 17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day. Genesis 1:14–19 (NKJV)
This passage completely exposes the error of heliocentrism, which derives from the Big Bang evolutionary theory of the formation of the “ever expanding” universe. The earth and seas with the vaulted dome of the firmament was firmly in place before the lights were placed in the firmament. There are several important points that need to be made. First the sun runs a circuit over the stationary plane of the earth. (Psalm 19:6) Both the sun and moon are lights. The moon is not merely a reflector, which is proved by examining its light compared to the sun’s.
The stars are luminaries in the firmament, not distant suns. We will talk more about this is the next section.
The firmament contains everything that NASA and modern astrophysics tells us lies in what they call outer space. The Bible only refers to outer darkness, the place where the disobedient will go at the judgment. Outer space is a fiction. Everything that NASA claims is in outer space as viewed through such instruments as the Hubble telescope are CGI images created from “data.” The planets, galaxies, etc. do not exist as NASA claims.
Belief in the literal firmament is a huge key to understanding the world in which we live.
When we dismiss the biblical firmament, it opens us to false cosmologies that introduce foreign ideas that contradict God’s Word. I encourage you to think long and hard about the firmament. I have only scratched the surface. In fact, humanity does not know a great deal about this magnificent and mysterious structure. But God wants to reveal more to us, I am firmly convinced, because it reveals his handiwork. (Psalm 19:1)
My next article will discuss the throne of God located above the firmament and the Second Coming of Christ, at which time the firmament will be dissolved, revealing God’s glory to the entire earth and exposing the King of Kings to “plane” view.
