The firmament is one of the most important parts of God’s creation. It is a structure which modern astrophysics says does not even exist. Although much concerning it is still shrouded in mystery, gaining a better understanding of what God has revealed about it can help us move forward in our quest to develop a biblical cosmology.
God designed the heavens and earth to communicate to us an idea of his character and power.
The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. Psalm 19:1 (NKJV) For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, Romans 1:20 (NKJV)
An accurate understanding of his creation will foster a better understanding of God; whereas, a false model will misrepresent him and lead us astray. The following video is a wonderful introduction to what God created on the second day.
The Big Bang – Heliocentric cosmological model that most people believe teaches us that God is far away, if present at all. The location of heaven has been spiritualized and is unknown. The cosmology of the Bible shows us that God is enthroned above the firmament and is very near watching over his creation.
The word translated as “firmament” in the KJV and NKJV is the Hebrew word raqia, which is rather vaguely rendered as “sky” or “expanse” in most other versions. This more recent way of translating raqia is a clear example of eisegesis, the interpretive process which reads into the Bible a preconception rather than allowing scripture to say what the author intended. Such unfaithfulness to the original text accommodates the generally accepted heliocentric model and allows people to avoid the stress of realizing their view of the cosmos does not match Scripture.
The English word “firmament” (something firm) better communicates the meaning of the word raqia. The Bible depicts it as an immense and strong vaulted dome-like structure that God stretched out over the earth like a circular tent, which is made of something like sapphire colored blue crystal or frost (Ezekiel 1:22), shaped or beaten metal (Job 37:18), or, simply, glass (Revelation 4:6).
In Genesis 1:8, God called the firmament (raqia, Gk – stereoma) heaven (shamayim, Gk. – ouranos). God used the firmament to separate the waters (mayim) below from those located above it.
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) 7 And God made the firmament, and God made a separation in the midst of the water that was under the firmament and in the midst of the water that was upon the firmament. Genesis 1:7 (LES2)
So above, or perhaps upon, the firmament there was and currently is water.
2 throwing off light as a garment, stretching the heavens as a cloak [Greek: deppis - covering or curtain]; 3 the one who covers his upper parts [Greek: huperoon - attic, upstairs room] with waters, the one who places clouds as his steps, the one who walks about upon the wings of the wind, Psalm 103:2–3 (LES2) [Psalm 104:2-3 in MT] 4 Praise him, the heavens of the heavens, and the water above the heavens! Psalm 148:4 (LES2)
The shamayim (heavens) contain mayim (waters). The waters above did not disappear after the flood, as some expositors claim. This may well account for the shimmering appearance of stars and the so-called “planets,” or as the Bible calls them “wandering stars.” (Jude 13)
Therefore, according to the Bible, the firmament is strong enough to support the enormous weight of untold amounts of water which are above it, God’s throne, and the sun, moon, and stars.
After some of this water was 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, God may have created a giant system of water above and below the earth, which ancient Hebrews believed looked something likethe image on the right. Sadly, the translators of the New Living Translation 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. Again this demonstrates how translators, who are assigned the task of representing in English what the original languages say, can stray far from their duty.
In my opinion, this amounts to submitting the Bible to a false God, the religion of scientism.
God placed the luminaries in the firmament.
14 And God said, “Let luminaries come into being in the firmament of the heavens for illumination of the earth and rule the days and the nights and make a separation in the midst of the day and in the midst of the night. And let them be for a sign and for seasons and for days and for years. 15 And let them be for illumination in the firmament of the heavens so that they might give light upon the earth.” And so it happened. 16 And God made the two big luminaries, the big luminary to have authority over the day, and the little luminary to have authority over the night and the stars. 17 And God placed them in the firmament of the heavens so that they might shine upon the earth 18 and rule over the day and the night and to make a separation in the midst of the light and in the midst of the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning, the fourth day. Genesis 1:14–19 (LES2)
This means the sun, moon, and stars are “local” – perhaps thousands of miles distant, but certainly not millions of miles away. A basic understanding of the inverse square law of light makes this obvious, but modern astrophysics asks us to believe that we can see stars at “astronomical” distances because they use our ignorance to convince us that this is why star trails make perfect circles and why the location of the stars has not changed in thousands of years. I am convinced that Satan and his “minions” secretly laugh at how easy it is to fool us.
The Genesis creation account cannot be harmonized with the heliocentric model.
The Bible tells us in the Genesis Chapter One account of creation that God made the earth and seas on day one, over which God erected the vaulted dome of the firmament on day two, in which he placed the heavenly luminaries on day four.
22 He is the one who holds the circle of the earth fast, and those who dwell in it are like locusts. He is the one who set up heaven like a canopy [Gk: kamara - vault, arched cover] and stretched it out like a tent to be inhabited. Isaiah 40:22 (LES2)
The sun follows a circuit over the stationary circular plane of the earth. (Psalm 19:6) Both the sun and moon are lights or luminaries, according to the Bible. The stars are luminaries in the firmament, not distant suns. Planets are “wandering stars,” not earth-like spheroid worlds.
The actual meaning of words are important for those who take the Bible seriously.
God wants us to “tremble” at his Word (Isaiah 66:2). Since it is God’s glory to conceal things in his Word (Proverbs 25:2), it is our honor to search the scriptures to discover more about God and his creation (Acts 17:11).
It is a serious error for us to casually dismiss what God says because we believe we now know better thanks to discoveries by ungodly men who do not properly esteem the Bible.
For example, Job 26:11 tells us that the heavens (the firmament) has pillars that support it above the earth, making heaven and earth a unit. If we dismiss this as pre-scientific ignorance, it is a failure to tremble at his Word. When people arrogantly dismiss what God has written, it results in our falling for the same trick as did Eve when the serpent contradicted God’s Words.
Part of properly trembling at God’s Word is firmly adhering to biblical terms rather than redefining these words in modern parlance.
The Bible never uses the words “planet” or “globe” as synonyms for the earth. Those terms come from astrophysicists who reject the biblical testimony and reinforce the systemic brainwashing that has convinced millions of people to abandon the Genesis account.
Sadly, most Christians I know have swallowed the satanic lie and use those words continually, thus verbally contradicting the Bible on a daily basis, much to the devil’s delight. After our ears become attuned to the frequent use of such words, we will see how complete is the devil’s victory in this area. Worse yet, the word planet means “wandering” in Greek and is used to describe stars that left their assigned paths. In addition, the word is used to describe evil people and fallen angels.
And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; Jude 6 (NKJV)
These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; 13 raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars (Greek: planetes asteres) for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Jude 12–13 (NKJV)
In verse 14, Jude references and quotes from First Enoch 1:9, a book which was widely known and familiar to the apostles. The Ethiopian church still regards it as part of the Canon of Scripture. I would not go that far, but I do think it can be used to cast more light upon some New Testament verses, such as quoted above. Jude compares people who wander from God’s will and purpose to the wandering stars which do not adhere to the set pattern of the other stars in the firmament which rotate above the earth every 23 hours and 56 minutes (a sidereal day). These wanderers cannot be used for navigation like the sun, moon, and fixed stars. 1 Enoch 18:13-16 speaks of stars that wandered from the commandment of the Lord and did not appear at their appointed times. Some sort of equivalence is made between stars and angels and wandering stars (planetes asteres) who left their assigned position. Could it be that these so-called planets, which have been assigned the names of false gods, are fallen angels, “wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever?” I have no definite answer, but I suspect it could be so.
When we describe the earth as a planet, we unwittingly declare that we think the earth is wandering from its assigned place, instead of having a stable, God-given, fixed position.
Furthermore, if we call the earth a planet and part of the heliocentric system, we reveal that we think that we are held in the grip of Helios (Satan), along with the other “planets” that have wandered from their assigned place of following God. I suspect that this is intentional. It sets us up to see reality in terms of pagan gods and goddesses and glorifies the prince of darkness. In much the same way the pagan names of the days and months are repeated over and over, even by us Christians who know better but are “captive” to the system.
The Bible does not acknowledge the existence of solid spherical objects orbiting the sun. Instead it only gives us the sun, moon, and stars in the firmament following their course or path over the earth.
This puts those of us who claim to believe the Bible in a spiritual crisis. Both models cannot be true. We cannot honestly say we believe the Bible is true while denying its cosmology.
We are not being honest when we claim that the Bible is only true regarding spiritual matters but not concerning the physical creation.
God created the heaven and earth as one unit.
The foundations of the firmament, which is the floor of heaven, are on the earth.
10 With a command he made a circle upon the face of the water, until the completion of light with darkness. 11 The pillars of the heavens are spread out and are confounded by his rebuke. Job 26:10–11 (LES2)
God stretched out the firmament over the earth like tent. The most likely kind of tent would be a 
circular dome-like tent, similar to a yurt.
Isaiah 40:22 provides us with wonderful picture of the firmament.
22 He is the one who holds the circle of the earth fast, and those who dwell in it are like locusts. He is the one who set up heaven like a canopy [Gk: kamara - vault, arched cover] and stretched it out like a tent to be inhabited. Isaiah 40:22 (LES2)
As Psalm 104:2-3 states, God placed his throne and “upper chambers” above the firmament.
2 throwing off light as a garment, stretching the heavens as a cloak [Greek: deppis - covering or curtain]; 3 the one who covers his upper parts [Greek: huperoon - attic, upstairs room] with waters, the one who places clouds as his steps, the one who walks about upon the wings of the wind, Psalm 103:2–3 (LES2) [Psalm 104:2-3 in MT]
I have written another article about this entitled, “The Firmament, the Throne, and the Apocalypse,” where I show that unless we accept the biblical depiction of the earth, we cannot understand where is God’s throne and how Jesus will return.
The firmament is the most immense structure in creation, as far as we can tell. No wonder it took all of day two to create it.
Those who hold that the earth is a enclosed, circular, stationary plane believe the firmament extends beyond the ring of ice that contains the oceans, which is falsely 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 a currently unknown area of the plane earth up to an unknown altitude. I wonder how much more we would know if we had been devoting our resources to exploring the actual earth and firmament instead of pretending to launch rockets into “outer space.” Interestingly, the Russians reference studying the firmament in some declassified CIA documents.
The Hebrews who gave us the Old Testament by revelation from the Holy Spirit, understood the earth to be an enclosed circular plane. The earth has foundations and sits still in place, just as our senses confirm. When the earth shakes, so does heaven because they are connected.
For thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; Haggai 2:6 (NKJV) whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” 27 Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Hebrews 12:26–27 (NKJV)
The solid crystalline-like firmament, which declares God’s glory, is a dome that can only exist as the Bible describes it, over a stationary plane earth. Such a dome cannot work with a spherical base.
The scientific world tells us that the earth is a sphere surrounded by a thin, fragile atmosphere held in place by gravity, which somehow keeps the imaginary vacuum of “outer space” from sucking it away, which violates the physical law of entropy that holds that pressurized gases require a container. Instead of declaring God’s glory, as does the biblical heaven-earth complex, the globe model declares that we are hurtling at over a million miles per hour through “outer space” in twelve simultaneous directions, unprotected from its perils of comets, asteroids, sun flares, and aliens. It is interesting that Jesus never talked of “outer space,” only outer darkness, the abode of cursed angels and human individuals.
Could it be that Satan has put it in man’s heart to leave the earth, our proper abode that God made for us, to explore the habitation of fallen angels?
Those who promote an anti-biblical cosmology do not want us to know that we are safely enclosed in the solid dome called the firmament and carefully watched over by our Creator.
No one as yet knows very much about the firmament. Some tests indicate that rockets encounter something at about 72 miles.
Some think this could be a bottom layer of the firmament. The following video shows lightning sprites at about that altitude illuminating what appears to be the firmament above them. Such evidence is not a “proof,” however. The “proof” is God’s Word.
Perhaps we were never intended to know all about the firmament, but let us make sure that what we claim to know agrees with Scripture.
When we stand before God one day, let us give our Lord no reason to question why we doubted or 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)
If we accept the reality of the biblical firmament, it will arm us against falling for further deception. Belief in the literal firmament is a huge key to properly understanding the world in which we live.
