- Anything Else -

But a careful reading suggests otherwise

Posted by: Robert on November 18, 1999 at 18:28:42:

In Reply to: The story of creation also suggests the world is flat and the centre of the universe posted by Lark on November 18, 1999 at 12:01:10:

The story of creation also suggests the world is flat and the centre of the universe are you convinced of these things too?

Lark, my dear chap,

Good to hear from you. Yes, some passages in Psalms caused quite a stir in Galileos time, particularly the flatness and immovability of the earth.

A closer reading of the Bible, however, actually support heliocentrism AND a spherical earth. How, may you ask?

As Galileo argued, one must FIRST establish a frame of reference(FOR). All of the "flat" earth passages in the Bible are EARTH-BOUND views. That is, from the eye of the prophet sitting on the earth, as opposed to viewing earth from, say, outer-space. Clearly, a surface view of a sphere is tangentially planer (or flat). Whilst a distant view is circular.

Interestingly enough, there is one Scripture passage that does indeed view the earth from "above" (or from space), Isaiah 40:22 "sitteth above the circle of the earth". It correctly describes sphericity of the earth as well. All other FORs are earth-bound views and, as expected, the Bible correctly describes them as flat.

Is a road map "wrong" for describing your journey on a flat piece of paper?

As for the immovability of the earth, again those passages are earth-bound views. Regardless of the movement of the earth, an earth-bound view will always generate a zero-velocity earth. If the velocity of the earth with respect to the sun is V, then V - V = 0.

Perhaps the Bible should be commended for its accuracy, even when ancient and medievil man didn't quite understand the solar system. All errors were man's misunderstanding of science or man's misinterpretation of the Bible. God is not at fault here, we were.

So, dear friend. Trust in Jesus, trust in His Holy Word. I'll be praying for you. God Bless.

Robert




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