Category: Biblical Cosmology

Truth Hidden in “Plane” Sight

flat earth

Unless we are accustomed to examining God’s Word in detail and accepting what it says, instead of bending it to fit our presuppositions, we can miss a lot. It is easy for those who ascribe to the globe earth theory to miss what is hidden in plain sight.

For example, Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness clearly teaches us that the earth is a plane.

And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 “Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” 8 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’ ” Luke 4:5–8 (NASB95)

There is no reason not to take these words as being literally true, unless, of course, we are hebrew earthprecommitted to a globe earth position. There is only one way this scenario could take place, which should be obvious to all. The earth has to be a circular plane, the whole of which can be observed if one gets high enough.

This corresponds perfectly to another view of earth from very high up described by the prophet Isaiah.

It is He who sits above the circle [not sphere] 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)

Since every matter will be established from the testimony of two or three witnesses, here is a third verse that necessitates a plane 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. Revelation 1:7 (NASB95)

The above verse describes a similar phenomenon, but this time from the vantage point of being on the surface of the earth instead of being high overhead. 

There is only one way everyone on earth could see Jesus at once, and that is if the earth is a plane, making our Lord’s Second Coming a “plane” sight.

We know that Jesus shall descend from the clouds in a similar manner as he ascended.

And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 10 And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. 11 They also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.” Acts 1:9–11 (NASB95)

He will come down out of heaven in a way that everyone on the plane earth will see him all at once. This is truth hidden in “plane” sight.

Click here to go to series home page.
Share this post...

Where Is God?

flat earth

Most of us have been taught to think of heaven as a spiritual “place” that cannot be physically located. This is a necessary belief in a Big Bang, ever-expanding universe that has no absolute up or down and in which we are less than a speck in comparison to the whole. It might surprise you that the Bible specifically locates heaven where God dwells. 

(Now, before you object too strenuously that God is a Spirit whom heaven cannot contain, understand that this is a “both/and” situation, not an “either/or” scenario. He is a spirit, but he also dwells in heaven in bodily form as the Lord Jesus. This is a mystery that boggles the imagination but is true.)

Why should the nations say, “Where, now, is their God?” 3 But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases. Psalm 115:2–3 (NASB95)

Now all we have to do is locate heaven, which the Bible does for us. It tells us that heaven is “above” the earth.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His 
lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. Psalm 103:11 (NASB95)

For those who accept the biblical cosmology of Genesis Chapter One, this is easy. We understand that above is “up.” For those who spiritualize the Bible account and accept the globe and heliocentric model, “above” is a relative term that can locate nothing, since “above” to someone on one side of the “globe” is the opposite of what “up” is on the other side. (As a side note, whenever absolutes become relativized, it is an indication of the work of the great deceiver.)

The Bible tells us that after his resurrection Christ “ascended” (went “up”) into heaven.

He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) Ephesians 4:10 (NASB95)

Now we know that when Christ rose from the dead, he did so bodily. This is a key doctrine of Christianity. His disciples were able to touch his risen body. He ate and drank with them. Therefore, the risen Christ’s body must be located in a physical place called heaven, which the Bible tells us is above.

hebrew earthThis corresponds to the creation account of Genesis, which informs us that God created a giant dome to cover the earth called the firmament. (To read more about the firmament, click here.) Although we do not know a great deal about this structure, the Bible tells us a few things.

  • It separates waters above from waters below.
  • It is crystalline in nature and looks like glass or sapphire.
  • It is as strong as molten metal.
  • It has multiple layers.

The Bible tells us that God’s throne is atop the firmament.

It is He who sits above the circle [not "sphere"] 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)

We are given “snapshots” of this place called heaven in Exodus, Ezekiel, and Revelation.

Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, 10 and they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself. 11 Yet He did not stretch out His hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel; and they saw God, and they ate and drank. Exodus 24:9–11 (NASB95)

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)

Out from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God; 6 and before the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal; and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. Revelation 4:5–6 (NASB95)

Moses and the elders of Israel, in their physical bodies, were in this physical place eating in God’s presence. Its description matches what Ezekiel and John saw. Paul visited what he called the “third heaven,” not knowing whether he was in the body or out of his body. (2 Corinthians 12:2) This implies that it is possible to be there “in the body,” which agrees with Jesus’ being seated there in his resurrection body.

Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Colossians 3:1 (NASB95)

Putting all this together, we see that the scriptures do not allow us to merely spiritualize heaven without locating it. It is a real place where the Son of God now sits on his throne, which is above the earth, atop the firmament. One day, God will open the heavens to reveal Christ in all his glory for all to see at once. (Revelation 6:14)

Yes, the Bible is literally true and heaven is an actual place. All we have to do is look up.

Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.” Luke 21:27–28 (NKJV)
Click here to go to series home page.
Share this post...

The Sky Is the Limit

flat earth

Are there any limitations placed on mankind? Some think not. Others believe we live in an enclosed system designed by God. The Bible says that God created something called the firmament on Day 2 in Genesis Chapter One. This is a massive solid dome of unknown height, width, and composition. In it the Creator placed the sun, moon, and stars. He put waters above and below it. On top of this crystalline-like dome, God’s throne is located.

The firmament serves as a barrier between God’s realm and ours.

O LORD, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth, Who have set Your glory above the heavens! Psalm 8:1 (NKJV)

Nimrod, according to tradition, was behind the first failed attempt to penetrate this barrier. The tower of Babel was an attempt to “make domea name” for himself, rather than glorifying God. Tradition says that Nimrod wanted to shoot God with an arrow. Although this is not in the Bible, I think it fits with the depraved heart of man. God cut off this plan by confusing the language of the builders and scattering them over the face of the earth. In case you did not realize it, mankind has not given up on this quest. Every rocket launch is another attempt to breach the firmament.

God placed the earth under man’s authority and dominion, but he reserved heaven for himself.

The heavens are the heavens of the LORD, But the earth He has given to the sons of men. Psalm 115:16 (NASB95)

Heaven is a real place that is reserved for God, the holy angels, and those purchased by the blood of our Lord Jesus. No one from NASA, ESA, or Space X will ever go there with a rocket. Outer space is a hoax. According to the Bible, the sky is the limit.

Click here to go to series home page.
Share this post...

The Primary Importance of Genesis Chapter One

flat earth

Genesis Chapter One describes how God created the cosmos – the seas, earth, firmament, sun, moon, and stars, as well as living creatures. As such, it is of primary importance.

The battle of the ages is being fought over Genesis because, if it can be shown that it is not literally and actually true, then there is no reason to assume that anything else in the Bible is true.

This is why Satan has worked so hard to convince us that the story proposed by those who espouse evolutionary astrophysics is real. If we accept the Big Bang theory and the heliocentric model as reality, we must conclude that the Bible is an archaic fairy tale.

I have conversed with numerous Bible-believing Christians who insist that it is not necessary or even correct to accept that Genesis is literally true. They believe that Jesus rose from the dead. They believe that the gospel message is true and tell me that insisting on a literal interpretation of Genesis is an unnecessary obstacle to people’s accepting the gospel’s claims.

Without fully realizing it, those who reject the literal truth of Genesis have set foot upon the slippery slope of deciding which parts of the Bible are true and which merely contain truth, which is exactly the position of the more liberal denominations which have departed from the faith.

By the way, how can something untrue contain truth? That is the equivalent of saying that God can use a lie to lead us into truth.

Why do any of us who believe the Bible think that it is necessary to reject a literal interpretation of Genesis Chapter One? Is it not because we regard the claims of what is called science to be of greater value than God’s Word?

If we accept the proclamations of theoretical science above God’s Word, we have become idolators who worship at the altar of “Scientism,” which has its own high priests and prophets who tell us what we must believe.

I admit that people come to faith in Christ and his resurrection without believing that Genesis is literally true. I did. But this does not mean that believing Genesis is true is not important. Jesus said the the scripture cannot be “broken,” (John 10:35) meaning that every word of God is true. He said in another place that we are to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). People who already believe in Jesus will continue to do so regardless of whether they accept a literal interpretation of Genesis. To them, it is whether Genesis is literally true is non-essential. However, those who are in the process of exploring the claims of the Bible and who read Genesis are faced with a huge obstacle to faith. Everything they have been taught from infancy rejects the creation account of Genesis. They must decide what to do with the Bible. Many decide that Genesis is not true and therefore reject all the Bible’s claims.

The goal of evolutionary astrophysics, geology, paleontology, and biology is to convince us that our universe and all life sprang from nothingness by random chance without any input from a Creator.

We have to admit that Satan’s plan has wonderfully succeeded. He has successfully eliminated the Bible from public education and the halls of what is called science. Any reference to a Creator is rejected as being unscientific. Science must be able to explain everything without any reference to God, using only mechanistic processes. The Bible takes the exact opposite position: in the beginning – God.

Therefore, the best way to combat the lie of evolutionary “science” is by reestablishing faith in the literal truth of Genesis.

Is this too great a leap for those who say they believe in the virgin birth and resurrection of Jesus? Have we allowed the world to slice off our faith in Jesus and place it in a little box called “religious truth,” which has no bearing or impact on the “real” world?

It is impossible to accept that the Genesis account is true and arrive at a heliocentric “solar system” in an ever-expanding universe.

Until we are willing to repent for our unbelief in the literal truth of the Genesis account, we are shooting ourselves in the foot. Any thinking person who examines the gospel’s claims and sees that we do not think Genesis is true would do well to question why we believe anything in the Bible. Cannot we see that?

But when we come face to face with the truth about the heavens and earth that God made, we can only arrive at one conclusion. There must be a Creator because no matter how truth is twisted, evolutionary processes cannot explain the existence of the solid dome-like firmament.

It is not a far jump to show those who acknowledge the Creator that the one who made everything is named Jesus, the Eternal Logos, who became a man and died for our sins and then arose as Lord of Lords, who will come again in glory when God dissolves the firmament. (2 Peter 3:12)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. John 1:1–5 (NKJV)

Share this post...

Resources for Researching Biblical Cosmology

flat earth

Pete 2026It is not easy to find confirming resources and information regarding biblical cosmology because big tech censors have developed algorithms that feature almost all negative information to lead people away from this amazing truth. This page contains information I have assembled while doing my own research. I hope it is helpful to you.

Everyone is on a life journey that hopefully will lead us to Christ, but not everyone who holds to the biblical version of the shape of the earth is a follower of Christ or a Bible believer. Some apparent proponents may be putting out information just for the money or to achieve notoriety. Other advocates of biblical cosmology may be truth seekers who have yet to find the One who is the Truth, Jesus. In addition, some who hold to the “flat earth” also have some very strange non- or anti-biblical theories. I have found that Satan always injects weirdness into anything God is revealing to try to bring confusion and demoralize truth seekers. As a result, we may need to glean truth from people with strange beliefs. We have to learn to “eat the chicken and spit out the bones.”

Those of us who already know the Lord have a guide, the Holy Spirit, and a map, the Bible. When we discover something new that is confirmed in the Bible, we can be sure it is the truth. Blessings to you on your journey.

Below I have broken down my information into categories, each with a separate page.

Pete Beck III

 

A Place to Start…

A Short Introductory Video

Other good articles

Recommended Video Series

Documentaries

Stand Alone Videos

Recommended Rumble Channels

Recommended YouTube Channels

Recommended Books

 
Share this post...

Sealed

flat earth

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.

clay seal 2

God created it. He should know.

Click here to go to series home page.
Share this post...

Confronting the Science Idol

flat earth

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.

resurrection

hebrew earthNon-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.

Click here to go to series home page.
Click here to see Resource Page.
Share this post...

What about Herman?

flat earth

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. hebrew earth

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?

Click here to go to series home page.
Share this post...

Is Science vs Religion a Real Thing?

flat earth

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.

tesla einstein

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

einstein refutation

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?

Click here to go to series home page.
Share this post...

Word Games

flat earth

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.

 

Click here to go to series home page.
Share this post...
Share this post...