Category: Biblical Cosmology

Sealed

Contrary to the popular straw man argument against flat earth, it is impossible to sail off the edge. This is because God designed the earth with a rim to contain the water.

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 8:29 (NKJV)

These water-containing edges, which are also called the “ends” of the earth, consist of an ice wall that surrounds the circle of the earth. The continent of Antarctica does not exist, which is why it is so closely guarded today. The powers that be do not want us to find out that we live in an enclosed world created by God.

God told Job that the earth was formed like clay under a seal. We do not use these devices any longer, but the picture below shows how edges are formed when the seal is pressed into the soft medium. This is how the seas are contained on the “flat” earth.

God created it. He should know.

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Introduction to the Firmament

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 faulty or false model will not reflect God properly. Therefore, it is with the fear of the Lord that we examine the scriptures to see how they describe this place we call earth.

The Bible never uses the world “planet” or “globe” as a synonym for earth. Those terms come from astrophysicists who reject the biblical testimony.

The only “proof” of a spherical earth that most people offer are are CGI photos and video supposedly taken from “outer space” by NASA and other space agencies. Others the phenomena surrounding eclipses to try to demonstrate that the earth and other heavenly bodies are solid or gaseous spheres. 

We need to keep in mind that if our presuppositions are incorrect, all our so-called proofs will be likewise incorrect. People who accept the biblical testimony regarding the shape of the earth have come up with other ways to explain heavenly occurrences. As notable astrophysicists have pointed out, what we observe in the heavens can be explained in more than one way.

Simply by doing physical experiments on earth, one cannot prove the curvature of the earth because it does not exist.

Once we know that the earth is a plane, our next task is to begin to try to figure out how things really work. Because we have been taught a false paradigm for the past 500 years, we are way behind in learning about the true nature of things. The firmament is an area that needs much more research because little is known about it, but the Bible gives us some information. We may never know all we want to know because God never told us to rule over that domain.

Those who claim that they have been to “outer space” and observed first-hand the suspendedspherical earth, which is always perfectly round, notwithstanding Neil deGrasse Tyson’s claim that it is an oblate pear-like shape, often use the word “fragile” to describe the earth and its atmos. I personally 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 solid dome called the firmament and watched over by our Creator.

The mention of God’s creating the firmament in Genesis Chapter One confronts us with an unavoidable choice. Will we believe what the Bible says or what modern astrophysicists and NASA tell us? “Did God really say” (Genesis 3:1) that the firmament is a real structure above the earth in which the sun, moon, and stars were placed on day four of creation?

If we choose to believe what scientists tell us, we relegate the Bible account to the realm of myth, which has no relevance to the “real world.”

Sadly, at the present time, it seems that most of us have put our faith in science, making it a false god.

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 other versions to accommodate the generally accepted heliocentric model.

The word “firmament” better communicates something of its true nature – an immense and firm vaulted dome-like structure made of something like crystal (Ezekiel 1:22) or very strong glass.

In Genesis 1:8, God called the firmament (raqia) heaven (shamayim). 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)

So above the firmament there was and currently is (Psalm 148:4) water. The shamayim (heavens) contain mayim (waters). The waters above did not disappear after the flood, as some expositors claim.

Therefore, the firmament is hard and strong enough to support the enormous weight of untold amounts of water which are above it, some of which apparently 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. Check it out for yourselves. The NASB, ESV, and NET, my usual “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, complete with unlimited expanses of “outer space,” 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 a proper understanding of the heavens must include the presence of a solid firmament separating waters from waters, in which God placed the sun, moon, and stars. No one as yet knows much about the firmament. Some tests indicate that rockets encounter something at about 72 miles; although, the ISS says it maintains a lower earth orbit at above 200 miles. Some have triangulated the sun and place it at about 3000 miles away, which would require it to be much smaller than what we have been told. Perhaps we were never intended to know all about it. God did not tell us to have dominion over the heavens, but only the earth.

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 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)

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 by using a compass. The word “ball” is used in Isaiah 22:18; so, the prophet knew the difference between a circle and a ball. The image to the right 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 used in Job 38:14, when God himself is talking about his creation.

It is changed like clay under a seal... Job 38:14a (LEB)

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 and “upper chambers” above the firmament. I will look at this in another article.

The Hebrew word for “vaulted dome” is aguddah, which means “bands fitted together.” For some reason, the NASB translators are the only ones that chose to translate aguddah to describe the firmament as a vaulted dome above the earth, but I am glad they did. 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 the firmament is made of entwined “bands” attached firmly to the earth. It is the most immense structure in creation, as far as we are told. No wonder it took all of day two to create it.

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, 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 an currently unknown area of the plane earth up to an unknown altitude.

As the heavens for height and the earth for depth, So the heart of kings is unsearchable. Proverbs 25:3 (NKJV)

Some think a bottom layer may be about 73 miles high, based on interesting video evidence. 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.

 

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 shows why it is impossible to uphold the accuracy of the Bible while believing in the heliocentric model, which derives from the Big Bang evolutionary theory of the formation of the “ever expanding” universe.

The Bible tells us that they earth and seas were created 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. The sun follows a circuit over the stationary plane of the earth. (Psalm 19:6) Both the sun and moon are lights, according to the Bible. The stars are luminaries in the firmament, not distant suns.

The firmament contains everything that NASA and modern astrophysics tell us is located in what they call “outer space.” The Bible only refers to outer darkness, the place where the disobedient will go after the judgment. NASA’s “outer space” is a fiction, and no one is going there, except, perhaps, after being judged by our Lord. Everything that NASA claims is in outer space is located in the firmament. What we see are computer generated images derived from “data.”

If we reject the reality of the biblical firmament, it opens us to false cosmologies that contradict God’s Word. Belief in the literal firmament is a huge key to understanding the world in which we live.

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Confronting the Science Idol

Have you ever wondered why its okay to believe in the resurrection, but not in the biblical earth and heavens? Both contradict the tenets of science.

Non-believers usually will not challenge us Christians when we proclaim that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead, because it relegates such professions to the category of “religion,” where Jesus is just one god among many, and our declaration of faith is viewed as a faith in a myth that does not impact any part of the “real world.” Believing that the Bible’s version of the earth and heavens is true, however, challenges a great number of scientific myths that propagandists have convinced people to swallow “hook, line, and sinker.”

The world does not understand that when Jesus rose from the dead, God declared him to be Lord over everything.

Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:9–11 (NLT)

This means that he rules over every aspect of life: religion, family life, sexuality, business, education, entertainment, science, and government. The early Christians were persecuted and martyred for professing Jesus’ lordship over the Roman empire, which included Caesar. This made the Romans and Caesar, in particular, angry. They wanted everyone to profess allegiance to their gods and to their leader over every other god. Christians could not do that. They had one God and one Lord, for whom they were willing to suffer and die.

Whenever we confront society’s idols, we will make people angry.

Jesus is called both the “Word of God” (John 1:14) and the “Truth” (John 14:6). Our Lord taught us that the Word of God is true (John 17:17) and cannot be “broken” (John 10:35) or changed. Since Jesus is lord over everything and the Bible is always true, this makes the Bible our gold standard for truth in all matters which it addresses, not just religion and morals.

If we deny or resist what the Bible teaches on a certain matter, we are in rebellion against God in that particular area and have elevated something above God, making it an idol.

The areas in which the Bible’s authority is being assaulted with the greatest ferocity are the places where Jesus’ lordship is being contested the most and where Satan is working hardest. Presently, the world most seems to hate with great passion what God’s Word says in the areas of abortion, sexuality, and gender. When we rebel against God’s truth in these areas, it is the equivalent of telling God that we don’t like how he made us or how he says we are to live. People do this without realizing that everything God does and says is meant for our good. Our fundamental rebellion is against God’s having any right to tell us what to do, isn’t it? Our greatest sin is that we want to live without any regard to or relationship with the one who created and sustains us.

Sadly, I have observed that many who profess faith in Christ and generally seek to submit to his lordship, have a rather significant area of idolatry  – science. 

Many of us Christians unwittingly have allowed the world to dictate what we are allowed to believe is true “scientifically,” instead of adhering steadfastly to the scriptures. We have been intimidated by those who claim to be smarter than God into thinking that the authors of the Bible were ignorant and rather simple-minded. Satan convinced Eve that to believe what God said was naive and not in her best interests, fueling a desire to go astray from God’s command. Too many of us have been convinced that it is quite stupid or ignorant to believe that the scriptures are literally true when it comes to creation and the nature of the heavens and earth.

Like Eve in the garden, we have been told that if we want to be wise, and we do, we need to believe the scientists rather than what God has told us in the Bible.

The heretics of the Enlightenment, whom the world idolizes, threw off the constraints of the Bible and established what is now considered to be the “gold standard” of cosmological truth, which includes the Big Bang theory and the heliocentric model. This theory of the cosmos has been inculcated into every child for many, many years now, grooving the minds of millions to think in only one direction. We have been so convinced that this way of viewing the cosmos is correct that we manage to overlook or twist what the Bible says to make it fit what we have been taught is “gospel” truth.

However, it is impossible to believe in heliocentrism or the Big Bang while at the same time believing that Genesis Chapter One is true. A decision must be made whether we will believe God or man.

The world (Satan) has convinced many Christians that Genesis and the rest of the Bible are useless for science and understanding the true nature of the heavens and earth. This means that either God is a liar or the Bible is not really his inerrant Word, which is exactly where Satan wants to guide us. This is why so many modern day astrophysicists are atheists. They have believed a false version of the cosmos, which testifies that there is no God. The true version, however, reveals God’s existence. (Psalm 19:1) That is why so many previously atheistic “flat earthers” have come to believe in the Creator God. (Click here to listen to testimonies.)

The earth and heavens as described in Genesis could not exist without a Creator.

Perhaps we Christians who still believe in heliocentrism do so because we have not been challenged to repent of our worship of science. If this article made you angry, perhaps your idol is being confronted. I encourage you to return to faith in God’s Word above every false contender for your allegiance.

Prayer

Lord, I pray that you will open our eyes to any area where we have bowed the knee to man instead of believing your Word. Help us to tear down the altar to science that we may have erected in our hearts that boasts against your Word and calls you a liar. We repent and ask forgiveness. Help us to exalt you and your word, even if it means enduring the scorn of those who choose to regard men’s opinions higher than God’s truth. Help us not to serve anyone or anything except you, Jesus, the one who created the cosmos and certainly knows how it works. Amen.

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What about Herman?

One of my favorite comedic movies is What about Bob, starring Bill Murray. Murray plays the part of neurotic psychiatric patient whose persistence enables him to move from being a pesky nuisance to becoming the most important member of the family.

When it comes to understanding the Bible creation account in Genesis Chapter One, perhaps we should ask, “What about Herman?”

Like Bob in the movie, Herman may seem irritating at first, but he can help us a lot. Who is Herman? I am glad you asked. His full name is Herman Neutics.

Hermeneutics is the study of the general principles of Bible interpretation which are meant to guide us to a proper exegesis (a pulling out of the meaning) of biblical passages, as opposed to eisegesis, which is the reading our presuppositions into the Bible text.

One of the basic ideas of good Bible interpretation is that a passage must at least mean what the author meant it to say. It could mean more, but not less. This is important when it comes to the creation account and the nature of the earth and heavens.

We should ask ourselves, “What was the view of the cosmos held by the authors of the Bible?”

It is acknowledged by Bible scholars that the Hebrew conception of the earth and heavens is represented by the following illustration. 

This view was held until around 500 years ago with the advent of the Copernican revolution and the Enlightenment. Such notable teachers as Luther and Calvin rebuked the Copernican heresy for contradicting the Bible. How sad that a few centuries later we think that those esteemed men were ignorant and misguided. They may have been unschooled in the theories of  modern astrophysics, but they knew the Bible. Today, it is often quite the opposite. Many professing Christians know more about the heliocentric theory than the Bible. This raises an important question.

 

Which has more authority in our lives and the quest for truth, so-called science or the Bible?

I am a child of the modern era and was schooled in the heliocentric view. I, like everyone else I know, was indoctrinated with an almost ever-present globe model of the earth. All the important teachers in my life told me the same story. The earth is an extremely old spinning water ball hurtling through the vast emptiness of outer space, kept in line by the power of gravity. No one I knew ever questioned this theory, even though, looking at it with fresh eyes, in many ways it is quite ludicrous.

Soon after becoming a follower of Christ in 1971, I became convinced that the Bible is God’s inerrant Word. This profoundly impacted my life. I made it my quest to study it and try to live by Jesus’ teachings. When it came to the Genesis creation account, however, I suspended critical thinking and simply admitted that I did not begin to know how to make it agree with modern astrophysics. This is where most Christians find themselves today. We must either reject Genesis Chapter One as a myth, poetry, or a symbolic account that has no translation into scientific fact, or believe it is literally true. It seems that most have gone with one of the former options.

This all changed for me when I saw that the earth has no provable curvature. All empirical measurements show that it is flat. The only way globe believers can make their case is by relying on NASA images from “outer space” and by interpreting eclipses to “prove” the earth’s shape. But proving curvature in some other way has not and cannot be done because the earth is a plane, not a globe. (I believe the images delivered by NASA and other space agencies are computer generated, and eclipses can be explained in other ways using a flat earth model. I have created a resource page for those wishing to learn more.)

After becoming convinced that the earth’s surface does not curve as the globe model requires, I read Genesis with new eyes. Now I accept Genesis One as a true account, an actual history of how God did it. Herman and I are back in sync. I now see the scriptures with the same eyes as those who authored the Bible.

It’s amazing how the Scriptures come alive when we stop superimposing our “scientific” presuppositions upon the text and let it speak for itself.

Now I can accept that God created the dome of the firmament on Day Two, and the sun on Day Four, placing it, the moon, and the stars in the firmament. We do not revolve around them. They go around us. That’s how the ancients saw it, and, guess what, they were right. We have been grossly deceived and tricked into rejecting the Bible. Sound familiar?

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Is Science vs Religion a Real Thing?

When I first published my conviction that the earth is a stationary plane rather than a globe, I met some stiff resistance. I was told that my “flat earth” beliefs were religious in nature because I was not open to contrary evidence. I suppose it was meant to be somehow derogatory, but was interesting that it came from a firm believer in Christ, his resurrection, a six-day creation, and everything else that goes with being a Bible believer.

Some believe that science is not religious, but, in fact, this is not true.

For example, one of the “fathers” of modern astrophysics was Albert Einstein. When he and his contemporaries were confronted with the confounding results of the Michelson-Morley experiment, which indicated that the earth is not in motion, he devised his now famous theory of special relativity to explain away the unwelcome results. In doing so, he remarked that he “knew” that the earth is moving. In other words, he had an a priori belief that the Copernican heliocentric view is correct, complete with the earth’s supposed revolution around the sun, rotation around its axis, the movement of the entire solar system through the Milky Way galaxy, and the movement of our galaxy through the universe. He set about disproving the results of a scientific experiment by “proving” what he assumed to be true, which is a logical fallacy. In so doing, he attempted to use advanced math to demonstrate that a metal container changed shape, thus nullifying the results of the experiment. This seems to be quite absurd, unless one religiously accepts his a priori belief, but it has been accepted by most of the scientific community as proof that the earth indeed moves by “proving” that we cannot experimentally prove whether the sun if moving or the earth, since all such motion is relative. In other words, he asks us to dismiss the results of a solid scientific experiment, which has been repeated many times, in order to hold on to his a priori belief. If I am not mistaken, this is what I was accused of doing.

Some of Einstein’s contemporaries were not fooled by his mathematical magic trick. Nicolai Tesla, whom I consider to be the preeminent scientist of his day, dismissed Einstein’s work as nonsense.

Another group of scientists in Europe signed a document disavowing Einstein’s work as being unscientific.

God created us to be people of faith. The desire to move beyond faith into experimental knowledge apart from divine revelation is what destroyed Adam and Eve’s Edenic existence. Since then, it seems that human beings are in a continual quest to escape the confines of God’s Word. (Click here to read more extensively on this subject.) Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton did not wish to be limited in their understanding by what the Bible says. Instead they invented theories of the nature of the cosmos that contradict biblical testimony. Sadly many so-called “Bible believing” Christians believe what these men say instead of what the Bible says, not realizing that modern astrophysics, like the Bible, rests on a priori beliefs or presuppositions.

We can say we value science over religion, but the truth is that we have simply replaced one religious system of beliefs with another. The way God made us, we cannot escape the requirement to put our faith in something. I choose God and the Bible. How about you?

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Word Games

People love word games. I play Wordle almost every day. Even Bible translators play word games. One of their favorite is called “Translator’s Bias.” The goal of this game is to translate a word in such a fashion that it will obscure its plain meaning in order to guide readers into accepting the translator’s view of things. This happens all the time as translators wrestle with the difficult task of how to best communicate the meaning of scripture. The New Living Translation does this on purpose in an attempt to accurately present larger ideas instead of the literal meaning of specific words. Sometimes they hit a home run. At other times one is forced back to a more literal translation to properly understand a passage.

It is a sad state of affairs, however, when translations that are supposed to be literal engage in obfuscation of the text.

A great example of translator’s bias is how the Hebrew word “raqia” is rendered in English. The people who wrote the Bible and lived at that time understood it to mean a solid dome that enclosed the stationary plane of the earth and the seas. (If you want to read more about the raqia, click here.) The KJV and NKJV give us an honest pre-Copernican rendering of the word in English by using the word “firmament,” which communicates the idea of solidity. Almost every other translation bows the knee to post-Copernican cosmology by using words such as sky or expanse. These words are not “wrong,” per se, but such a translation allows readers to think that biblical cosmology does not differ from modern astrophysics.

As a result, most Christians today believe in the heliocentric lie without realizing that it contradicts the Bible and dishonors God.

(I have written an article that focuses on the occult religion of heliocentrism.)

This morning I read Psalm 104:3 in my daily devotions, which says that God “lays out the beams of his upper chambers in the waters.” (NKJV) The Hebrew word (aliyyah) translated “upper chambers” could be rendered more literally “roof chambers,” which accurately communicates the concept of the firmament being a roof over the earth, above which is God’s throne. (I wrote another article going into more detail about this place called heaven.)

My notation in the margin next to Psalm 104:3 took me to Amos 9:6.

He who builds His layers [Hebrew: maalah] in the sky, And has founded His strata [Hebrew: aguddah] in the earth; 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 (NKJV)

I have numerous Bible translations, but for my daily reading and study I use the NKJV. I switched to this version because it accurately translates raqia as the firmament. It is a fairly good translation, but I like the NASB the best. In this instance, the NKJV let me down. The Hebrew word it renders as “layers” (maalah) communicates little of the literal meaning, which the NASB better translates “upper chambers,” which corresponds to Psalm 104:3.

Below is the NASB rendering of the verse in Amos.

The One who builds His upper chambers in the heavens And has founded His vaulted dome [aguddah] 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)

I suppose you noticed how differently the NASB translated the Hebrew word  “aguddah.” The literal meaning is bands, thongs, slavery fetters, or bunch (as a bunch of hyssop). Why then did the NASB translate this “vaulted dome?”

We are told in Genesis that another term for firmament is heaven. (Genesis 1:8) We are also told that heaven has multiple layers called “the heavens.” God apparently dwells in the third heaven. (2 Corinthians 12:2) We know so little about the heavens that it is quite probable that the first heaven, our atmos has multiple layers. We are still discovering what has been deliberately obfuscated for centuries. So, we see that translating aguddah as vaulted dome is consistent with other scriptures, but is not a literal rendering. Here we seem to have translator’s bias in support of biblical cosmology, instead of against it as usually happens.

When we interpret the Word of God, it is important that we allow it to speak for itself instead of twisting its meaning to fit a preferred paradigm. Let us not resort to word games as we search for truth, even if that search leads us away from long cherished presuppositions.

 

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Where Is Jesus?

Jesus rose bodily from the dead and after forty days ascended into heaven.

And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, 11 who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” Acts 1:10–11 (NKJV)

This indicates that heaven is an actual place above the earth, not just a spiritual dimension. (I have written more about this in another article.) Jesus’ physical body has to be somewhere. It did not de-materialize. 

Those who believe that the Bible’s description of the earth and heavens is true understand that God’s throne is located above the dome of the firmament. 

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)

The Bible gives us descriptions of this place called heaven.

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 1:26–28 (NKJV)

This sure does resemble the description of Jesus in the Book of Revelation.

Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. 14 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; 15 His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; 16 He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. 17 And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. 18 I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death. Revelation 1:12–18 (NKJV)

Jesus identified himself as the Son of Man prophesied by Daniel when he stood before the Sanhedrin. According to our Lord, he will return in glory to the earth coming down from heaven in the clouds.

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)

Putting all of this together, Jesus ascended into a real place called heaven, which is located atop the firmament. There he sits on God’s throne, waiting for the day of his return, from where he will descend in the clouds to the earth in judgment on all who ever lived. If we believe the Bible, we know these things. If we believe the heliocentric lie, we must spiritualize heaven into some unknown mystical place out there in the infinite void of the ever-expanding universe. I believe the Bible and believe that I will one day see what Ezekiel and John saw.

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What’s Up?

What is in a word? The meaning of “up” should be quite simple, but if one believes that we live on a globe, it is only a relative term.

Those who ascribe to a biblical cosmology understand “up” to be an absolute term that is the same for all people on earth.

Those who believe they live on a globe understand “up” to be a relative term, since up for someone at the north pole is the very opposite for someone living on the other side of the sphere. Why is this important?

The Bible tells us that God sits enthroned above the circle of the earth. (Isaiah 40:22) Biblical cosmologists, therefore, place God’s throne above the dome of the firmament, which means it is “up” for everyone on earth. Globe believers cannot conceive of God’s throne in this way, since the word “above,” like “up,” has only a relative meaning and would require God to be seated simultaneously in an infinite number of locations in order to be above everyone living on the spherical earth. In addition, it requires that we reinterpret “circle” to mean “sphere” to make it fit our presuppositions about the shape of the world in which we live.

When Jesus ascended to heaven, he went “up.”

While He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. Luke 24:51 (NASB95)

This means heaven is “up,” just as is God’s throne. The angels told the disciples that he would come again one day in like manner, which means he will descend “down” out of heaven. This is called the Second Coming, which will be seen simultaneously by everyone living on earth.

BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen. 8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:7–8 (NASB95)

This of course could only happen if the earth is a stationary plane covered by the dome called the firmament, just as the Bible teaches.

If the earth is a sphere, with no absolute “up,” Jesus’ resurrected physical body could not possible be seen by everyone at once. Since we dare not nullify God’s Word to suit a pagan notion of the nature of the cosmos, we accept that up means up for everyone at the same time. This requires us to accept the Bible’s teaching about the nature of the world in which we live.

And this is why it is so important for us to know what’s up.

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The grass always looks greener… on the other side of the firmament.

One of the terrible weaknesses humans have is the innate tendency to despise or minimize what we have and view what we do not (or cannot) have as being more wonderful. The adage is that the grass always looks greener (to cows) on the other side of the fence. 

When we are told that we cannot have something, our inborn rebellion, which the Bible call sin, automatically desires it and sets about to obtain it.

Paul wrote about this sad state of affairs in Romans Chapter Seven.

When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death. Romans 7:5 (NLT)

This is the universal condition of man and a big reason why we so desperately need a Savior.

When God created the earth and the heavens, he gave the earth to us for our habitation, but he reserved the heavens for himself and the angels. The Bible says we live on a stationary plane enclosed by a solid dome called the firmament, in which God placed the sun, moon, and stars. There are multiple levels to the firmament, also called the heavens. We are not told very much about this solid enclosure, except that is a solid crystalline-like structure having multiple layers which separate the waters above from the waters below. (You can read more about this in another article.) We are told that God himself has his throne in the third heaven, which seems to be atop this structure.

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 1:26–28 (NKJV)

Apparently beyond that is what Jesus called “outer darkness,” which will be a terrible place where those who are rejected at the judgment must dwell.

Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ Matthew 22:13 (NASB95)

The lure of “outer space” is a grand deception whereby Satan has convinced us that the place of judgment is somewhere we need to go and conquer.

God never told us that we can inhabit the moon or any other heavenly body. Trying to do so is clearly looking over the fence at grass we cannot have. Satan tried move beyond his assigned area to wrest God’s throne from him. Not surprisingly, he was utterly defeated.

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)

Satan was cast down to the earth (Revelation 12:9), where he enlists rebellious people to join him in his quest to overthrow God.

Men have tried to reach God’s throne for a long time, beginning at the tower of Babel. More recently, NASA has joined the rebellion by using rockets in an attempt to pierce the firmament and go beyond our assigned domain. 

God’s throne resides atop the firmament, and only the privileged are granted access.

Jesus ascended there after his resurrection, where he sits enthroned, waiting for his Abba Father to roll back the firmament on the Last Day. Over the years, prophets have been allowed to see the wonders of this real place. (I have written elsewhere more extensively about heaven being an actual place, not just a spiritual dimension.) All those who proclaim allegiance to Christ will also be given access, but no rocket or any other device will ever penetrate its environs illegitimately.

The moral of the story is this. If we want to see and experience this amazing realm, we must join the winning side by proclaiming faith and allegiance to our Lord Jesus the Messiah.

It is time for us to leave the rebellion and choose to be satisfied with living on the earth until God transports us to heaven to be with him forever.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, forgive me for being part of Satan’s rebellion. Now I see the error of my ways and choose to join you. I believe that you rose from the dead and now reign in heaven as Lord. Thank you for giving me eternal life and the promise of reigning with you forever. Holy Spirit, I welcome you into my life and ask you to transform me on the inside and empower me to tell others about this marvelous good news that we can be reconciled to God. Amen.

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Duped by the Devil

Con men are experts at telling us what we want to hear and preying our naivete, compassion, greed, pride, and other weaknesses. All of us have been conned at one time or another, mostly by the devil. Every time we sin, we take another bite from the big lie that “sin gives life.” Adam and Eve were conned into disobeying God in the first “get rich quick” scheme. He promised them they would instantly become “like God,” knowing good and evil for themselves, instead of having to do what God told them to do all the time. The devil promised them greener grass on the other side of the obedience fence, which, in fact, turned out to be a barren and lonely wasteland.

One of the great con jobs of the last 500 years was the Copernican Revolution and all that followed. The devil tempted us once again to throw aside the confines of God’s words written in the Bible and to embark on the thrilling journey of figuring out the cosmos for ourselves.

(I wrote more on man’s quest to free himself from God’s Word here.)

The Bible teaches us that the earth is the epicenter of God’s creation, made especially for humans. The mighty dome of the firmament, a safe enclosure which allows for the pressurization of the atmosphere, was made on day two. On day four, God placed the sun, moon, and stars in the heavens. God stocked his amazing terrarium with living things, including man and woman last of all. The Bible teaches us that God is the “Most High,” occupying the uppermost heavenly realm above the firmament. (I have written extensively on the nature of the firmament and of heaven in previous articles. You can click on the links to read them if you desire.) From his position above the earth, God carefully watches over everything. This is what God tells us is the origin and nature of the cosmos, which was believed by the ancients and the authors of the Bible.

Enter Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, et al. Believing they were smarter than the Bible, they began to seek an alternate explanation, one they would figure out on their own. They thought that circles were the perfect geometric figures and were offended by the “retrograde” motion  the paths the “planets” took in the heavens, not realizing that a toroidal electromagnetic force field can produce exactly those kinds of motions. (We are still trying to figure out the way the heavens work in God’s creation, but many suspect we live in such an electromagnetic world, rather that what we have been led to believe.)

To “cut to the chase,” eventually we were told that the “universe” in which we live is completely different from what the Bible teaches us. The earth not the center of things. We are not stationary. We are not safely enclosed in a dome, and God is not watching over us from his heavenly position above the firmament. Instead, we are a globe hurtling through “outer space” (consider the Bible term “outer darkness”) at incomprehensible speeds in multiple directions, covered by a quite flimsy atmosphere held in place by a mysterious new force called gravity, in danger of being exterminated by an impact from asteroids, comets, and sun flares. God is nowhere in sight and heaven is a spiritual place somewhere in the vastness of the universe, if it is there at all. We no longer can use such terms as up and down, except in a relative way. Does this sound like God or someone else?

It is no wonder that anti-biblical Copernicanism laid the groundwork for the Big Bang theory, evolution, and atheism.

Instead of God’s being the center of everything, we are told that we are held in the grip of a very large and powerful star called the sun, otherwise known as Helios or Sol Invictus in pagan thought. (The Bible says that the sun is unique, not just another star.) We are just one of several bodies known as planets circling the sun. The word planet comes from the Greek word planetes, which means wandering. Each of these so-called planets have the names of pagan gods, the earth being placed smack dab in the middle of them, all of which are beholden to the sun god, Helios or Sol Invictus.

Can you see how the heliocentric lie has turned God’s biblical cosmology upside down? Rather than being under God’s watchful eye, we are held by the awesome power of the false God Helios. We are not God’s special creation. Rather we are just one of many wandering pagan entities in our little “Sol-ar” system, all held in place by the power of Sol Invictus, the pagan sun god.

Copernican cosmology is nothing short of pagan idolatry.

And just to reinforce my point, here is a quote from Copernicus himself.

You can read a longer article of mine about Heliocentric idolatry by clicking here.

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