I believe that understanding God’s design of the world in which we live can liberate us from pervasive deception. The Lord provides us with a lot of very good information in the Bible.
The scriptures tell us that our Lord keeps some things secret but hides other things in plain sight ready to be discovered by those who are willing to dig.
It is our honor to search out these hidden things in his Word with the help of the Holy Spirit, who desires to reveal them to us. God apparently loves a mystery, and has built into us a desire to pursue a solution.
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever... Deuteronomy 29:29a (NKJV) It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter. Proverbs 25:2 (NKJV) However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. John 16:13–14 (NKJV)
God’s design of our world is a fascinating study which we can piece together from passages in Genesis and other places in Scripture.
My working presupposition is that God says what he means and means what he says and that his language is very exact and specific.
Jesus said that God will judge us for every careless word we speak (Matthew 12:36); therefore, I conclude that God never speaks carelessly or utters a falsehood. He would never demand from us what he is unwilling to do himself.
...Your word is truth. John 17:17b (NASB95)
Genesis reveals that God first created the “deep,” which had a “face.”
The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Genesis 1:2 (NKJV)
A face is the part of something with which we interact. The seas have a face with which God interacted during creation and which always point upward toward heaven. The Spirit of God moved or “hovered” over it. This tells us that from the beginning God established an “up” and a “down,” elements associated with a plane rather than a sphere.
Since Copernicus, modern astronomers insist that we accept as a fact an hypothesized non-biblical concept of a spinning spherical earth hurtling through the void of outer space. I believe that this was a huge step in Satan’s push to render all of God’s truth relative.
At this point, there was no light or land (earth), only deep water stretching out on a level, as all water does, with a face. By necessity, these waters were bounded, because water must be. We will learn more about this later. Then God created light, without the existence of any light source besides himself.
Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. Genesis 1:3–5 (NASB95) All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. John 1:3–5 (NKJV)
Materialists scoff at such a proposition, insisting that this is a scientific error in the Bible that stemmed from the author’s ignorance. But Moses, the author of Genesis under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, was not a stupid man. He knew full well what he was saying. He knew that light came from the sun, whose circuit around the earth determines night and day. He did not write what he did because people of his day were uninformed. He wrote under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth. God must have lit the earth with his own light and orchestrated night and day without the sun. Is that too hard to believe?
Materialists believe that the physical world is the only reality, but the Bible tells us that the spiritual world pre-existed it.
By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. Hebrews 11:3 (NASB95)
Next God created the firmament, a solid and mighty (Psalm 130:1) structure, comparable to beaten out or molten metal, which God stretched over the waters like a vaulted dome that separated the water below from the water above. To learn more insight the amazing firmament, you can read my previous article on the subject.
Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” 7 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. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day. Genesis 1:6–8 (NKJV) 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)
Many ancient cultures scattered over the earth had this understanding of our world. Below is a very much “not to scale” depiction that Bible scholars agree typifies the ancient Hebrew understanding of what the Bible teaches.
Today most modern people scoff at such an “archaic” notion, believing that it has been disproved by science. However, upon closer inspection, we discover that much of the theoretical physics of the universe has a very shaky speculative foundation. Could it be, rather, that ancient peoples, who were closer to Adam, had knowledge passed down orally regarding the nature of our world? Could it be that the Bible is correct and modern science has veered away from God’s truth? It certainly would not be the first time. Bible believing Christians are confident that the “scientific” theories of the self-generation of the universe and humans is completely false. Would it be surprising to find out that the Copernican theory is also a lie, perhaps the biggest one of all?
The Bible says that God’s Word is a light to our path and a lamp to our feet. As we follow it, we sometimes end up in surprising places. We must be brave enough to go wherever truth may take us.
Ezekiel provides us with a unique perspective from under and above the vault of the firmament, which I covered in an earlier article. We do not know how far above the surface of the earth this vaulted dome extends, nor do we know its extent in relation to the earth’s surface. God has not revealed this to us, and we cannot explore it because the Antarctic Treaty has cordoned off that area from independent investigation. We can deduce however that it is vast.
After creating the seas, light, and the firmament, the Lord next created the land.
Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. 10 God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:9–10 (NASB95)
Modern astronomers call their spinning globe the “earth,” thereby combining two distinct parts of creation, the waters and the earth, into one. This merger supposes that the earth is primary and the seas secondary. The Word of God, however, says that the seas are primary as far as creation goes, with the earth coming later.
The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein. 2 For He has founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the waters. Psalm 24:1–2 (NKJV)
God says that the earth has pillars and foundations and cannot be moved unless God shakes them in judgment. Some of the earlier chapters of Job contain the opinions of men, which sometimes may be incorrect, but starting in chapter 38, God himself speaks. We can be sure that everything revealed in that section is completely accurate. The Lord asked Job…
Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?...6 To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, Job 38:4a,6 (NKJV)
God also tells us that the world, both the seas and the land, shall not be moved, belying the claims of Copernicus et.al. that the earth is hurtling at breakneck speed through an infinitely expanding universe.
Tremble before Him, all the earth. The world also is firmly established, It shall not be moved. 1 Chronicles 16:30 (NKJV) Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns; The world also is firmly established, It shall not be moved; He shall judge the peoples righteously.” Psalm 96:10 (NKJV)
No one on earth has ever sensed any sort of motion, except during earthquakes. If astrophysicists are correct, and the rotating earth is revolving around a sun that is moving around our galaxy, which is moving in the larger universe, how then is it possible for stars to appear in the night sky year after year in the same positions? Rather than describing concentric circles, time lapse photography of the movement of the stars should show that they wobble and weave all over the sky in agreement with the supposed movement of the sun and its planets. Nothing like that is true however. The stars show regular motion night after night, indicating that they are the ones moving around a fixed earth, just as the Bible says.
God also set a boundary for the seas. The most obvious boundaries are the shorelines of the masses of land projecting upward from the oceans. These boundaries were overflowed during Noah’s great flood, but God promised afterward that such a catastrophe would never take place again. The passage below references this promise.
You who laid the foundations of the earth, So that it should not be moved forever, 6 You covered it with the deep as with a garment; The waters stood above the mountains. 7 At Your rebuke they fled; At the voice of Your thunder they hastened away. 8 They went up over the mountains; They went down into the valleys, To the place which You founded for them. 9 You have set a boundary that they may not pass over, That they may not return to cover the earth. Psalm 104:5–9 (NKJV)
Additionally, the Bible reveals that there is a circular outer boundary as well.
When He prepared the heavens, I was there, When He drew a circle on the face of the deep, 28 When He established the clouds above, When He strengthened the fountains of the deep, 29 When He assigned to the sea its limit, So that the waters would not transgress His command, When He marked out the foundations of the earth, 30 Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman; And I was daily His delight, Rejoicing always before Him, Proverbs 8:27–30 (NKJV) Who has ascended into heaven, or descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has bound the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is His Son’s name, If you know? Proverbs 30:4 (NKJV)
God “drew a circle on the face of the deep” and “bound” or restricted the waters by what is translated as a “garment,” which has the meaning of a restricting wrapper or boundary. The “ends of the earth” are its extreme limits, something that would be meaningless on a sphere. This means that the waters of the oceans are contained within a sort of basin, which comports with the known physics of water, rather than somehow overflowing and adhering to a spherical surface called the globe, which violates all known laws of the physics of water. In a similar way the theory of evolution posits that matter progresses from the chaos of an explosion to the complexity of living beings all by chance, a violation of common sense and the second law of thermodynamics or entropy, which observes that systems move from order to disorder, as anyone who cleans homes knows. The chaos of an explosion cannot produce a watch any more than a mysterious hypothesized force called gravity can make water curve convexly over vast areas of the oceans while simultaneously overcoming the unimaginable power of the the centrifugal force created by a rotational spin of 1039 mph.
Satan’s lies make fools of all who believe them. I have come to the place in my life when I no longer wish to be Satan’s fool by believing men’s theories over God’s Word. I will be God’s fool, if necessary, in the eyes of men, but not the devil’s, in the eyes of God.
The Bible tells us that God sits above the firmament, looking down on his creation. Isaiah describes this amazing scene in which God again describes the world in which we live as a “circle” (Hebrew – chug) rather than as a sphere or ball, which is another word entirely (Hebrew – dur – Isaiah 22:18). Remember, God is precise in his wording.
Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is He who sits above the circle [chug] 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 40:21–22 (NKJV)
In the previous passage from Isaiah, the heavens, which can be synonymous with the vaulted firmament (Genesis 1:8), are spread out or stretched like a tent or curtain, within which he placed the sun, moon, and stars (Genesis 1:17).
Modern astronomy insists that the sun is gigantic and is approximately 93 million miles distant, but a case can be made that our sun is much smaller and nearer. People who have measured it using a sextant think it is approximately 32 miles in diameter and about 3000 miles distant. (Thomas Winship, Zetetic Cosmogeny, pp.114-120) The sextant, by the way, was developed to navigate seas that are on a flat plane and worked very well for centuries before Copernicus. In addition, the sun’s angled crepuscular rays shining through the clouds, which all us have seen, also suggest its nearness. If it were as far away as astrophysicists claim, its rays should be parallel.
Don’t forget that one of the devil’s chief aims is to make us doubt God’s Word and strip humanity of its wonder and awe of the Creator. Could it be that his “end game” is to convince the inhabitants of earth that we are under attack from space aliens so that under extreme duress we will gladly cede authority to a one-world government? Many believe this will be the case. We have been hearing such a narrative for quite a while now.
The “curtain” of the firmament serves as a barrier between the realm of man below and God’s realm of heaven above, much like a curtain that blocked access to the holiest place of the tabernacle of Moses and the temple of Solomon.
I believe that modern astrophysics attempts to remove all knowledge of God’s heavenly realm by declaring that the earth is hurtling through a vast rapidly expanding universe in which God cannot be found.
I believe the devil has used the Copernican system in an attempt to sever our connection with God and the reality of heaven above, requiring those of us who still hold to the concept of heaven to conceive of it as a strictly spiritual realm having no relation to our physical earth.
Scripture tells us that heaven is where God the Son sits on his throne and is an actual place separated from us by the firmament. It is located “up” – above us.
Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.” Luke 21:28 (NKJV)
In the Bible up and down have meaning. John the Baptist said this about Jesus:
He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. John 3:31 (NASB95)
The precise wording of the Bible confirms that God’s realm is above, not in some completely spiritualized non-location.
I believe that just as the Holy of Holies was set apart by a curtain, only to be entered once a year by the high priest, so is heaven above separated from us by the curtain of the firmament through which Jesus, our high priest, gives us access.
This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, 20 where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 6:19–20 (NASB95)
Through his death, resurrection, and ascension, it seems that Jesus our great high priest penetrated the curtain of the firmament as a man and opened a way for us who believe to enter into God’s throne room now in the spirit and later to pass bodily into heaven. But as we wait for that glorious resurrection day, God says that we live there already in the spirit.
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, Ephesians 2:4–6 (NKJV)
At Babel, rebellious mankind tried to penetrate unlawfully into the realm reserved only for God. Unredeemed humanity has not changed; even though our technology has. One might ask how is humanity attempting to break through the firmament today? Regardless of man’s vain attempts, we can be sure that God will not allow anyone to enter illegitimately into the place above where God’s throne is located. (Ezekiel 1:26)
One day our Lord will roll back the firmament like a scroll (Revelation 6:14-17), revealing the absolute truth of God’s Word to the entire world all at once. At that point in time, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess what will suddenly become obvious to all – Jesus is Lord!
Jesus said to him, “It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Matthew 26:64 (NKJV)
Come, Lord Jesus!
