One of the most dramatic scenes in Old Testament history is when Elijah the prophet single-handedly confronted over four hundred prophets of Baal at Mt. Carmel to demonstrate God’s supremacy over that false god. He challenged the Israelites who were present and had betrayed their God by giving allegiance to another. 

So Ahab sent a message among all the sons of Israel and brought the prophets together at Mount Carmel. 21 Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people did not answer him a word. 1 Kings 18:20–21 (NASB95)

God proved his supremacy over Baal by consuming Elijah’s water-soaked offering with fire from heaven. 

Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. 39 When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The LORD, He is God; the LORD, He is God.” 1 Kings 18:38–39 (NASB95)

It took a dramatic demonstration of God’s power for the Israelites to come to their senses, at least temporarily.

Today I believe we are in such a time as in the days of Elijah. God is calling us Christians all over the world to come to our senses and throw off the web of deception that engulfs the earth.

In Elijah’s day, the people were divided in their opinion regarding whether the God of the Bible was supreme or was Baal. Today we Christians are divided over whether God’s Word has supreme authority regarding what is true or does the combined testimony of those who claim to be scientists.

One question before us today is, “Will we believe the Bible’s cosmology or the world system’s?”

Elijah’s bold move at Mt. Carmel was certainly impressive, but even he was not prepared for the push back he immediately received from Queen Jezebel. She was not about to let him get away unchallenged for having destroyed her prophets. She issued a threat against Elijah’s life that so unnerved him that he fled for refuge in the wilderness.

Unflinching allegiance to God always comes at a cost.

The price of allegiance to God can sometimes be more than we are willing to pay at the moment, but just as God challenged Elijah in the wilderness to act the man and return to carry out his responsibilities as a prophet of the Lord, he is challenging his people to rise up.

I think the US Marines have got it right. Their motto is “Semper Fi” – always faithful. When they go into battle, retreat is not an option. If a comrade is wounded, he will never be left behind. I have come to believe that loyalty is one of the highest expressions of love. Loyalty can also be described as faithfulness and allegiance. Our faith-full-ness proves we have faith. People who are full of faith are loyal. This is true in marriage, battle, and the kingdom of God. 

Allegiance to Christ is one important way we prove our love for him.

Our allegiance to Christ includes being loyal to his Word. Jesus is the Word of God become flesh. (John 1:14) Our Lord said that those who show allegiance to him and his Word will be honored. Those who are ashamed of him or his Word will suffer loss in God’s eyes.

For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. 25 “For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself? 26 “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. Luke 9:24–26 (NASB95)

Usually we think of this as applying to our willingness to be counted as followers of Christ and boldly share the gospel.

However, our allegiance to his Word and to him as Creator includes standing for what Genesis says about creation and the world in which we live.

We cannot abandon God’s clear words about the creation and the nature of the heavens and earth when challenged by the satanic giant of modern astrophysics and still claim that we are being faithful to God in this area.

Many will say they are loyal friends, but who can find one who is truly reliable? 7 The godly walk with integrity; blessed are their children who follow them. Proverbs 20:6–7 (NLT)

In Roman times, during the early history of Christianity, there were times when any who refused to worship the pagan gods of the empire or call Caesar “Lord” were persecuted and killed because they were regarded as enemies of the state and a danger to society in general. It was believed that their refusal to bow the knee incurred the wrath of the “gods.”

Probably no one was martyred for making the non-threatening claim that Jesus is our personal savior. They were put to death for declaring his lordship over all things, including Caesar.

The same kind of thinking emerged with regard to obedience to the state, most recently with regard to medicine during the Covid scare. Those who refused to obey the government’s dictate to be injected with their experimental “vaccine” were denigrated and even sometimes hated for being “science deniers” and threats to the well-being and health of those who went along with the government’s demand.

We were told to “trust the science,” which meant we were supposed to believe whatever its high priests told us. Without proof, we were expected to trust that we were being told the truth. Rather than being tested completely and proven safe, we were told to “Trust the Science.”

Such “science” has become a religion whose tenets must be believed without evidence.

Trusting in God is not sufficient for these “science” devotees. “Science” was given a place above even the Creator. This was evident because the premise for the mRNA injection was that our immune systems, which “science” says evolved instead of being God-given, are deficient and need to receive an upgrade from scientists. Well-meaning physicians trusted their journals and proclamations from the AMA, FDA, Big Pharma, CDC, et. al. They certainly did not do their own independent research or they would have discovered, as did many of us, that the entire operation was faux science.

We now know that a large part of what the “science” claimed about Covid and the so-called “vaccine” was a well-orchestrated worldwide lie.

What we do not yet know for sure is how much damage has been done to those who surrendered their bodies to “science.” Many of our citizens were ordered to take the jab under pain of censure, ridicule, job termination, or refusal of medical treatment. Some self-righteous devotees of “science” suggested that disobedient subjects even deserved to die. (Shades of Rome!) We found that many of us did not have the courage to stand against the lie.

Those who refuse to bow their knee to the true God are bold in their defiance. In his 2006 book The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins wrote:

“The temptation [to attribute the origin of life to a supernatural designer] is a false one, because the designer hypothesis immediately raises the larger problem of who designed the designer. The one thing that makes me dislike the God hypothesis even more than spontaneous generation is that spontaneous generation, even if it were true, would be a one-off event, whereas God would have to be infinitely more complex and unexplained.”

A foundational tenet of the religion of science is that, unless we can explain something, it is not worthy of being believed. Never mind that proponents of the Big Bang cannot explain from where the original point derived. There is always the unexplainable in life and death.

God deliberately includes mystery in his being and in creation so that we must operate by faith in something.

We must face the fact that many people in the world system hate God and refuse to give him glory. Those who worship the human mind believe in their own speculations, but those who are loyal to God believe his Word is true, even if it does not always make complete sense to us.

We admit that we do not understand everything and that truth is not measured by our ability to understand.

Mainstream “science” has gained such admiration that many Christians believe that the Bible cannot compete with it; so, we sadly capitulate to its supposed authority by reinterpreting Genesis Chapter One to fit heliocentrism. Such eisegesis is not serious. The early Hebrews did not do this. The early Christians did not do this. The authors of Scripture did not think like this. We only reinterpret the Bible because we feel under pressure to make it agree with “science.” If the truth of such poetic scriptures can be dismissed, what shall we do with the Psalms? If Genesis Chapter One is not literally true, when does the Bible start to become literally true? Chapter Two, Three…? 

Perhaps we would rather toss aside the Bible than risk being exposed to shame for believing something contradicted by “science.”

When we do this, the world laughs at us, observing our obvious duplicity and cowardice. Either God’s Word is true because God is true, or why should we bother to serve him at all? 

...Even if everyone else is a liar, God is true. As the Scriptures say about him, “You will be proved right in what you say, and you will win your case in court.” Romans 3:4 (NLT)

It seems we are at a moment in history reminiscent of the days of Elijah on Mt. Carmel.

I believe God is challenging us to make a decision for either him or science falsely so-called.

Timothy, guard what God has entrusted to you. Avoid godless, foolish discussions with those who oppose you with their so-called knowledge. 21 Some people have wandered from the faith by following such foolishness. May God’s grace be with you all. 1 Timothy 6:20–21 (NLT)

Paul promised us that…

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Romans 16:20 (NASB95)

I believe that Satan’s attempt to dethrone the God of truth in the hearts of his people is coming to an end.

We can all do our part by renouncing allegiance to everything that contradicts the Bible and return to a childlike trust in the words of the God of truth, Jesus our Creator, Redeemer, and Lord. Will you be one who glorifies God by doing this?

“Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. John 17:17 (NASB95)

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In this article, I hope to show how the devil specifically attacks our belief in the reality of a physical firmament as described in the Bible, which Scripture says is the actual location of God’s throne.

Satan seeks to remove God’s throne from our imagination and replace it with the infinite and hostile vacuum of “outer space.”

The firmament is one of the most important parts of God’s creation. He spent the entire second day fashioning this enormous structure which spans the breadth of the entire earth up to an unknown height. It contains the heavenly bodies – the sun, moon, and stars, above which sits God’s throne. It is impossible for us to even conceive of its size and strength! I have written quite a bit about the firmament in previous articles; so, in this one I will focus on just a few things.

First, the Bible tells us that the firmament (Hebrew raqia) is a solid, crystalline dome-like structure which extends to the ends of the earth and is anchored to the waters upon which the earth is founded.

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, Psalm 104:2–3 (NKJV)

Due to the brevity of this series, I will not attempt to give much scriptural support to my assertions. If you wish to go through virtually all the verses in the Bible that pertain to this topic, I recommend a YouTube series by Brandon Ezzo on the firmament. Here is a link to a brief overview and below is the first in his twelve-part series.

Sadly, the Genesis account has been so thoroughly discredited by the speculations and claims of modern astrophysics that embarrassed Bible commentators and preachers often opt to accommodate their error through eisegesis instead of confronting it.

As a result, very few modern versions of the Bible even use the word “firmament” to describe this vast creation of God and few Christians even believe it really exists. Ambiguous words such as “sky” and “expanse” are usually preferred by translators because they fit the globe earth – heliocentric paradigm, but communicate nothing of the actual characteristics of the firmament. 

The Bible makes it clear, however, that this vaulted ceiling over the earth actually exists and is, as Job said, “strong as a molten looking glass.” (Job 37:18) Within this rather mysterious structure God placed the sun, moon, and stars – all that we observe in the heavens. In biblical cosmology, the so-called “planets” or “wanderers” are simply stars.

(It is well-documented that NASA routinely uses CGI to make heavenly bodies appear different from how they actually appear. The video below is a very brief introduction to stars from the perspective of biblical cosmology. I have put other videos on my Resource page, if you are interested in doing more exploration. Note that Google feels the need to post a disclaimer on such videos. Such mild censorship is increased by demoting good “flat earth” content in the algorithm. The casual researcher will only see hostile content.)

The firmament separates the waters above from those below.

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)

King David affirmed that these waters above the firmament are still there. They did not vanish during the Genesis flood as stated in the so-called “canopy theory.”

Praise Him, highest heavens, And the waters that are above the heavens! Psalm 148:4 (NASB95)

According to the Bible, God’s sapphire colored throne sits atop the crystalline firmament. 

Those who believe the heliocentric deception will find the previous assertion to be preposterous. How can God’s throne be located anywhere in a physical sense? Surely he fills all creation and is not seated in any particular location! It is easy to understand why people would think that way, especially when we are convinced that the biblical dome-like  firmament does not exist. 

However, the Bible tells us that God created both the heaven and the earth as real places. The realm in which we live is always presented as a multi-tiered system consisting of three heavens, the earth, Sheol, and the great deep. It also tells us that God sits enthroned above the earth and stars atop the firmament.

It is He who sits above the circle [as inscribed by a compass, not a sphere or ball] 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 (NASB95)

Thus says the LORD, “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? Isaiah 66:1 (NASB95)

The Bible also says that the heavens have a boundary (Psalm 19:6), just as does the earth. The “ends” of the circular stationary plane earth are created by the firmament, which is anchored or founded upon the waters.

The One who builds His upper chambers in the heavens And has founded [established, fixed] 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)

The Bible says the earth is like an inscribed circle having ends or boundaries.

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, Proverbs 8:27–29 (NKJV)

Imagine how strong must be the foundations of the earth to support a structure of such magnitude! The limit for the seas, therefore, is a massive ice wall the rings the earth. This means that the so-called continent of Antarctica is not real. At one time this seemed to be common knowledge, but today not so much.

Since it is off-limits to private exploration, we cannot prove it so, but must simply accept God’s Word. This would make what we call Antarctica a wall of ice that contains the oceans. Below is what is called the Gleason’s map from 1892, which is a fair description of the stationary plane earth upon which we live.

It is more than interesting that several “global” agencies use this very map as part of their logos.

The map used by cable companies in 1951, before NASA started its propaganda campaign in earnest, is shown in the photo below.

This agrees with a 1945 air map.

While it is true that God cannot be contained in any ultimate sense, it is also correct that he can and does locate himself in a physical place. After all, he also located his presence in the Ark of the Covenant for a period of time and he dwells inside every born-again believer for all eternity (John 14:17-18). It should not be surprising, therefore, that the Bible says that God locates himself atop the firmament above the stars (Isaiah 14:13). 

Ezekiel describes God’s throne atop the firmament, which God allowed him to see!

The likeness of the firmament above the heads of the living creatures was like the color of an awesome crystal, stretched out over their heads...25 A voice came from above the firmament that was over their heads; whenever they stood, they let down their wings. 26 And above the firmament over their heads was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone; on the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man high above it. 27 Also from the appearance of His waist and upward I saw, as it were, the color of amber with the appearance of fire all around within it; and from the appearance of His waist and downward I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire with brightness all around. 28 Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. So when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of One speaking. Ezekiel 1:22–28 (NKJV)

We see here that the firmament acts as a boundary that separates the third heaven from that which is below.

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven. 3 And I know such a man—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—4 how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. 2 Corinthians 12:2–4 (NKJV)

Until we come to believe that God’s Word is literally true, except where it explicitly allows us to take it figuratively, we will suppose that Ezekiel, John the Revelator, Isaiah, Moses, and Paul all saw an imaginary place that has no actual, physical counterpart. If so, then to where did Jesus’ physical resurrected body ascend? And where does Jesus in his resurrected body now sit at God’s right hand? If heaven is merely a spiritual place and has no physical reality, then all the hints God gives us about his being right above us looking down are false.

The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God. Psalm 14:2 (NKJV)

If the firmament does not exist, the second coming of Christ cannot take place as the Bible says it will. How will the heavens split open revealing the glorious Son of Man to the entire earth at once? If Genesis cannot be taken as a true account of creation, then why believe any of the Bible?

By deceiving us into eliminating the actual physical firmament from our thinking, Satan to some degree has removed God’s throne from our imagination.

By so doing, he eliminated our ability to look up and realize that God is very near, right above us looking down upon us. It removes any meaning to the terms “above” and “below.” It takes away some of the significance of Jesus’ physical ascension and enthronement in heaven.

By deceiving the world into accepting his false cosmology, Satan has detracted from God’s glory revealed in his creation.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; Let Your glory be above all the earth. Psalm 57:5 (NKJV)

Is it any wonder that today so many feel alone and hopeless? Does not Satan’s false cosmology contribute to people concluding that God does not exist? It is time for the church to arise and reaffirm our faith in the absolute reliability of God’s Word in all matters, including creation and cosmology. That will be the topic for my final article in this series, entitled Days of Elijah. 

Click here to see other articles in the Cosmic War series.

Click here to go to Biblical Cosmology home page.

Click here to see Biblical Cosmology Resource Page.

Click here to visit articles devoted to identifying and countering deception.

Satan has built an intricate web of lies in the realm of thought called “science” that has so thoroughly captured the minds of most people that we seem to be incapable or even unwilling to free ourselves. Even we Christians have become so mesmerized with the unproven claims of modern astrophysics and evolution that many of us have given our allegiance to the words of men over the clear words of Scripture without realizing what we have done. 

Harriet Tubman, who risked her own life to liberate others, is credited with saying: “I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.” We can become so inured to lies that we accept our captivity as normal, or maybe even consider it to be exciting and pleasurable. For example, if Genesis Chapter One is literally true, and there is no biblical reason not to think that it is, then what is called “outer space” is a fantasy inspired by Satan to draw people into desiring to go beyond our assigned habitation into God’s realm on the other side of the firmament. People absolutely love the idea of traveling in space and visiting imaginary “planets.” We have believed Satan’s lies about the cosmos so completely and for so long that we have come to think the Bible’s account of creation in Genesis is primitive and unbelievable.

Thus we have come to accept a counterfeit cosmology that contradicts God’s inspired Word.

To facilitate this treachery without feeling convicted in our hearts of committing treason against God,  we have devised clever ways to interpret Genesis that support the claims of anti-God evolutionary astrophysics. We actually think that such duplicity rescues the Bible from embarrassment.

By admitting that we think God’s Word cannot stand up to scientific scrutiny, we only embarrass ourselves before God.

True science consists of that which we learn about creation through observation, testing, repetition of testing, and falsification. Pseudo-science is built on a set of declarations that cannot be observed by the average person, tested, repeated, or falsified. We are required to accept its tenets by faith because of the word of credentialed experts.

Pseudoscience, therefore, is a religion based on the words of men, as opposed to Christianity which is built on faith in God’s unchangeable Word.

The particular area of speculation that I refer to in this series of articles is connected to cosmology or astrophysics. Since Copernicus, the cosmological theories that the majority of the world has come to accept as true and unassailable are based on conjecture that, once accepted as fact, requires us to accept additional lies which are necessary to make the first lie feasible. 

Here is an example from a related field. Darwin’s observed natural selection at work in the Galapagos Islands. This natural process which favors living things possessing beneficial traits is observable, testable, repeatable, and falsifiable. However, from there Darwin made a giant speculative leap by theorizing that natural selection leads to the self-creation and evolution of biological life out of inanimate matter. This placed his theory beyond the scope of observation, testing, and falsification by claiming it happened eons ago. The only possible test for this speculation, which is an indirect one, is the fossil record, which does not support gradual evolution at all. A vast array of fossils appears all at once. Nevertheless, since evolution provides what some consider to be a viable “scientific” theory for the origin of life without needing a Creator, it has been enthusiastically accepted by a vast number of people, especially those who reject the authority and truth of the Bible.

Men will believe almost anything if it contradicts the Bible.

The Big Bang theory, a derivative of Darwin’s theory of evolution, speculates that the cosmos is billions of years old and also evolved and continues to evolve from nothing.

Evolution, heliocentrism, and the Big Bang compose the unholy trinity of Satan’s deception.

Since no one observes evolution happening in the present, it is speculated that it can happen, given enough time. Quite predictably, evolutionary geologists provide such a time frame by speculating that the earth is billions of years old, thus rejecting the young earth timeline of the Bible. It is now believed by most people that the earth and everything else has been around for eons.

Since all of this is outside of observable and testable science, it has to be taken on faith.

The war of such false science against the Word of God began in earnest at the advent of what is called the Scientific Revolution when Copernicus published his now revered heliocentric theory, which denied the truthfulness of the Genesis account of creation and other biblical descriptions of the world in which we live and the heavens above. Sir Isaac Newton provided the necessary framework for upholding the heliocentric system when he introduced his theory of gravity. By reputedly observing an apple fall to the ground, he made a speculative jump and reasoned that all masses attract all other masses. This theory is now accepted as a fact, even though we cannot demonstrate it in a lab. Over time the theory of gravity, like the theory of evolution, has come to be accepted as true – without proof! This is the essence of pseudoscience, or what Paul called “knowledge falsely so-called.” (1 Timothy 6:20)

Episode 2 of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014)

Those who excel at propaganda understand two important things.

If a lie is repeated often enough, it comes to be believed. Secondly, the bigger the lie, the better. This is because otherwise discerning people believe that it is impossible to hide a big lie.

The first lie in this cascading stream of deception came from Copernicus. The second necessary lie came from Newton. From there it was speculated that there must exist a vast emptiness of “outer space” which is a vacuum. Otherwise, Copernicus’ orbits around the sun would be slowed by friction. Eventually such thinking produced what is perhaps the biggest lie of all – the Big Bang, a theory developed by a Jesuit priest named Georges Lemaître in 1927.

To accept heliocentrism, we must reject the Genesis account of creation. This makes it necessary to develop an alternate creation story, which the Big Bang, perhaps derived from the Jewish Kabbala, purports to provide.

In 1973, Fred Hoyle, a prominent British astronomer wrote:

“The heliocentric system is not more accurate than the geocentric one in predicting the apparent motions of the planets, but it is philosophically more satisfying because it avoids the arbitrary assumption that the Earth is in some way special.” (“Nicolaus Copernicus: An Essay on His Life and Work,” 1973)

This is a good summary of what has come to be known as the Copernican Principle, that earth is nothing special, nor are humans, which is a contradiction of the Bible. It is a philosophy that drives people to embrace an anti-God and anti-Bible belief.

Michio Kaku, a famous astrophysicist, admitted that modern astrophysics is largely speculation in a video clip included in the documentary entitled The Principle by Robert Sungenis.

“Usually in science, if we’re off by a factor of 2 or a factor of 10, we call that horrible. We say, ‘Something’s wrong with the theory.’ We’re off by a factor of 10! However, in cosmology, we’re off by a factor of 10 to the 120th. That is, one with a hundred and twenty zeros after it. This is the largest mismatch between theory and experiment in the history of science.”

Grok AI summarizes Kaku’s statement as follows:

Michio Kaku has discussed the speculative nature of modern astrophysics and cosmology in several interviews and talks, emphasizing how much relies on imagination, conjecture, and untested hypotheses due to the inability to perform direct experiments. (emphasis is mine)

Whenever such speculations contradict the Bible, we are forced to decide between belief in the Creator and a speculation that is attempting to usurp God’s place in our hearts and steal our allegiance.

For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Romans 1:21 (NASB95)

We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, 2 Corinthians 10:5 (NASB95)

We have now come to a time when most of the church rejects Genesis as the literally true account of creation. We have replaced the true knowledge of God with speculations of men, which the apostle Paul called “knowledge falsely so-called.” (1 Timothy 6:20)

Because we have allowed  a web of “scientific” speculations to push the Word of God out of its place of having supreme authority in our hearts with regard to truth, we have become blinded to the true knowledge of God revealed in creation.

The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. Psalm 19:1 (NKJV)

Read the next article in this series.

Click here to see other articles in the Cosmic War series.

Click here to go to Biblical Cosmology home page.

Click here to see Biblical Cosmology Resource Page.

Click here to visit articles devoted to identifying and countering deception.

According to the Bible, a spiritual war has been raging between God and Satan for the hearts and minds of human beings since the garden of Eden. Whether we like it or not, we are caught up in this cosmic conflict. Paul wrote these words of encouragement to the church in Ephesus.

A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. 12 For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:10–12 (NLT)

The devil is cunning, relentless, and evil. He is not someone to underestimate. Our Lord Jesus defeated him when he rose from the dead, but the end of the conflict remains in the future. Until the time when we take part in the final crushing of Satan (Romans 16:20), we are to be vigilant (1 Peter 5:8) and aware of his strategies. God has given us everything we need to be victorious as we rely on the finished work of Christ, the present work of the Holy Spirit, and the Word of God.

The Creator is absolutely trustworthy, deserving our utmost trust and loyalty.

He is brilliant, wise, loving, powerful, and kind. He never lies and always has our best interests at heart.

Paul, a bond-servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness, 2 in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago, Titus 1:1–2 (NASB95)

Nevertheless, near the beginning of Genesis, Satan, in the guise of a serpent, was able rather easily to turn Adam and Eve against their Maker by injecting doubt into their hearts about his good intentions and weaving a cunning lie. The devil promised them that disobeying God’s command would open the door to a deeper kind of “knowledge” that would elevate them to a sort of godhood status. 

The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the LORD God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” 2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. 3 “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’ ” 4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” Genesis 3:1–5 (NLT)

For some reason, the lure of forbidden knowledge and the desire to be like God can be overpowering to both angels and men. It reveals that we are dissatisfied with being dependent created beings.

At one point, Satan even attempted to oust God from his heavenly throne.

How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations! 13 “But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. 14 ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ 15 “Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, To the recesses of the pit. Isaiah 14:12–15 (NASB95)

Since the devil was not able to seize his throne, he apparently decided that dethroning God in the hearts of his creatures was the next best thing.

Adam’s and Eve’s betrayal of God placed them, their descendants, and the earth under satanic tyranny and spiritual darkness.

Satan continues to lure mankind into realms of forbidden knowledge, both the occult and what is falsely called science. (1 Timothy 6:20) 

God gave the earth to mankind to inhabit and rule, but just as we were not satisfied with our status of being dependent beings, we have not been content with being limited to our assigned habitation. Instead, we continue to delve into heavenly matters beyond our understanding.

The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’s; But the earth He has given to the children of men. Psalm 115:16 (NKJV)

Not being privy to the secret counsels of God or understanding the mysteries of the firmament, godless men and women departed from the Bible and opened themselves to the hidden knowledge of Satan, who was more than willing to feed us tantalizing lie upon lie to lure us into a false understanding of the cosmos that attempts to conceal the glory of God.

Whenever we choose to speculate contrary to God’s revealed Word, we are in danger of entering the occult realm of Satan. It is not surprising, therefore, to discover that Copernicus and Newton were both fans of the legendary Egyptian sun worshiper, Trismegistus, and that heliocentrism is linked firmly to the occult. There is a reason that each so-called planet besides earth is named after a pagan god. The documentary below does an excellent job of explaining all this.

God, for his part, sent a Savior who introduced an astounding new way to be put into a right relationship with him called the New Covenant. God not only provides forgiveness for our betrayal, but he is bringing mankind back under his authority and protection. Our Lord continues to draw us to make the decision to give him the supreme place in our hearts.

The gospel message is a call to turn away from Satan and the kingdom of darkness and proclaim that Jesus, the Creator and Redeemer, is Lord.

For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, Colossians 1:13 (NLT)

But many who have confessed Jesus as Lord still hold to a false account of the cosmos that contradicts the Bible, deludes us, and detracts from the knowledge and glory of God.

This deception is built upon a cleverly constructed web of lies which the Bible calls strongholds. They are logical arguments  built on false premises that erect a barrier to our rightly perceiving truth and believing God’s Word. These strongholds are built upon unproven and unprovable speculations that contradict the Bible. They must be torn down through repentance and by fully embracing God’s revealed truth.

We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. 4 We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. 5 We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:3–5 (NLT)

This series of articles is about the contest between the Word of God and human speculations in the guise of “science” with regard to the cosmos. I will do my best to describe the differences between these competing cosmologies – the one found in the Bible versus the one currently regarded as true by most of the world.

There is no competition between God and true science, which is discovered by observation, testing, repetition, and falsification.

Pseudoscience depends on our accepting speculations as fact because of the testimony of credentialed experts.

O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge”— 21 which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith. Grace be with you. 1 Timothy 6:20–21 (NASB95)

We are encouraged to take their word for things instead of thinking for ourselves. This false kind of science seeks to move investigation beyond the scope of what an average individual can carry out. Complex mathematics is often used to reduce the average person to frustration so that we will simply trust the “experts.” Even if we are not proficient in math or science, God has given us a safeguard upon which we all can rely. The Word of God found in the Bible is absolutely trustworthy in all matters, including science.

The Bible is our benchmark for truth. Everything else must be measured against its words.

This conviction was firmly held at the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, when the slogan “sola scriptura” was championed by leading reformers.

Paul affirmed the complete trustworthiness of the Bible.

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16–17 (NASB95)

The prophet Isaiah told us that anything that opposes God’s Word is false.

Look to God’s instructions and teachings! People who contradict his word are completely in the dark. Isaiah 8:20 (NLT)

But something happened in the 16th Century that tipped the scales in this cosmic war for the hearts and minds of men, women, and children across the earth. Nicolaus Copernicus published his now famous De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), which proposed a revolutionary new way to look at cosmology that contradicted the biblical testimony.

At first his theory was hotly contested by such Reformation notables as Luther and Calvin, who regarded the Bible as the highest authority.

Over the years, however, Copernicus’ heliocentric model has gained the ascendancy, pushing aside biblical cosmology and effectively dethroning the Word of God as the ultimate benchmark for truth in the minds of many.

In this series of articles, I will show how Satan has convinced us to cast aside God’s Word and accept unproven and unprovable theories as fact. I will show how accepting one unprovable lie requires that we believe an entire group of corollary lies, creating a vast web of deception. I will also demonstrate how, by so doing, Satan has effectively removed God from the imagination of mankind, replacing the created location of his throne with the empty and hostile void of “outer space.” Thus, Satan has captured the hearts and minds of several generations and deceived us into believing a host of lies that attempt to block our properly seeing God’s glory in his creation or truly knowing him.

The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. Psalm 19:1 (NKJV)

I hope to show how important it is for us to repent from believing these lies and return to an absolute devotion to God and his Word in order to bring more glory to him. 

I hope you will stay with me on this important series and perhaps also read the linked articles. Perhaps together we will be able to see God’s creation from the biblical perspective and be set free from the reigning cosmology. May God help us all to accept his Word over the words of men.

Go to next article.

Click here to see other articles in the Cosmic War series.

Click here to go to Biblical Cosmology home page.

Click here to see Biblical Cosmology Resource Page.

Click here to visit articles devoted to identifying and countering deception.