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Is the Biblical Account of Creation at odds with modern Cosmology?

Jan 7, 2022

“Our trust is in God; and in the faithfulness of his Word, in all its teachings from Genesis to Revelation. …. If Genesis is not to be relied upon, in its description of Creation, how shall we trust Exodus? If the Old Testament is not true, what will become of the New? If the Creator, through his servants, the prophets. has not correctly described his Works, how can we trust him for our salvation?”

Earth Review, January Edition, 1893¹

“ The two beliefs (Modern Astronomy and the Bible) cannot be held together in the same mind: he who thinks he believes both have thought very little of either.”

Thomas Paine, “The Age of Reason”

There is a growing body of Christians and Biblical literalists who have rejected the proposition of modern Astronomical science that the earth is a sphere, spinning on its axis at 1000 mph, orbiting around a sun that is 100x (or 1000x?) its size and 93 million miles from us, in favor of it being a flat, stationary disk, encapsulated by what is described in the Genesis creation narrative as “the firmament.”

In the debate among those in my community of faith on social media over this issue about a half-dozen years ago, I took the former side (the modern cosmological globe-earth model) of the argument. But after looking into the contentions of these “flat-earth” brethren and the scriptural basis upon which they based them, I came to embrace the latter position. The following is the metamorphosis I went through to arrive at this conclusion.

I grew up in a church denomination, and after graduating from college, I decided to leave it and join another. To become a member of this new denomination, one had to attend what they called an “inquirers” class, in which the basic tenets and beliefs of the denomination were presented. I remember very distinctly the first thing that came out of the instructor’s mouth: “concerning the Old Testament part of the Bible, Genesis through Malachi,” he said, “we believe the entire thing is an allegory, that is, a collection of myths.” In other words, nothing in that part of the Bible was to be taken literally–especially the creation narrative in Genesis chapter 1.

He didn’t really have to say another thing to get me into the fold because, having been educated in the fields of geology and anthropology in college, I was an avowed Darwinist at that time, who had swallowed Darwin’s theory of evolution, hook, line, and sinker, so this was music to my ears. As far as I was concerned, no one but delusional goofs took the Genesis narrative of creation literally.

That was in 1970. Fast forward fifteen years, to June 1985, to the most monumental event of my life: the salvation of my soul. On the first Monday night in June of that year, I trusted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, and everything changed in my life from that point on. One of the more important things that changed was my view of the Bible–all of it–as the literal word of God to mankind.

Of course, this would include the creation story in Genesis chapter one, which stands in diametric opposition to the evolutionist model of creation I had theretofore embraced. Try as some Christian theologies have to conflate the two narratives, it simply cannot be done–not without doing all kinds of twisting and contorting of scripture. (1) Moreover, both narratives must be taken as an article of faith, because no living being has ever observed either one; the four-day creation of the earth presented in Genesis, or the “big bang” theory of it presented by evolutionists. (2)

Now fast forward to the present, and a question for those of you who take the Genesis narrative of creation literally but still believe the modern theory of the earth and the cosmos: Considering what it says in chapter one, verses 1-19 (KJB), explain to me and others reading this how this supports the heliocentric model of the earth as a ball (tantamount to a “spec of dust,” according to astro-physicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson), suspended in a vast cosmos of infinite proportions, spinning on its axis at 1000+ mph in an 66,000 mph orbit around the sun, which we are told is 93 million miles away.(3)

Many brethren have repeatedly said that it doesn’t matter what you believe about this issue, that it shouldn’t even be discussed because it serves as a distraction from more important matters before us, and that all it does is create divisions among us. There are all kinds of things throughout scripture–Genesis to the Revelation–over which Christians are divided, so to embrace a “don’t talk about anything in scripture that divides us” position is to say we must exclude discussions about practically everything in scripture.

For this reason, I believe it is important that we address this issue- -i.e., the undermining of the truth of scripture by modern scientific theory, characterizing what it says about the earth, sun, moon, and stars to be nothing but a fairytale, conceived in the imagination of some old Jews–head-on, because if we fall in line with their version of this we have, in effect, given the lie to our claim that we have the preserved, inspired, inerrant word of God in the Bible. Therefore, join me in addressing 29 key passages in the KJB that plainly show God’s word to be in diametric opposition to modern so-called cosmological science.

Synopsis:

According to scripture, the earth is a closed system; a flat surface (with contours, of course) with a foundation beneath it and a canopy or dome-like structure the scripture refers to as “the firmament” above it. (4) According to the Genesis account of the earth’s creation (Gen. 1:1-19) the sun, the moon, and the stars are all in the firmament, not hundreds of millions of miles away in “outer space.” I believe when one looks up at the azure blue sky on a cloudless day, what you are seeing is this firmament.

Scripture references refuting modern cosmology’s spinning ball model.

The Solid dome/expanse over the earth, called “the firmament

In the first of the many visions of Ezekiel, it says this about the firmament:

“And there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads, when they stood, and had let down their wings.

And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.

And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about.

As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.” Ezekiel 1:25-28

I believe this is none other than the throne of Rev. 4:2,3, upon which the Lord presently sits, above the firmament, encapsulating the earth. In Job 37:18,refers to the “sky, spread out…as a molten looking glass,” which is supportive of the existence of this dome-like solid structure, and this is supported by the Genesis account claiming that it divides waters above and below it (Gen. 1:7)

The earth, according to scripture, does not move:

Psa 93:1 The LORD reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the LORD is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved.

Psa 96:10 – Say among the heathen that the LORD reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righteously.

It does not move because it is anchored to a foundation.

Psa 104:5 – Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.

Pro 8:29 – When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:

Isa 40:21 – Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?

The Sun is what moves, not the Earth

Gen 15:12 – And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.

Gen 19:23 – The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar.

Gen 32:31 – And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.

Mat 5:45 – That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

Eph 4:26 – Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:

Jas 1:11 – For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat,

Both the sun and the moon have their own source of light

(Modern cosmological theory claims the moon’s light is a reflection of sunlight. If indeed the moon is a “light,” like the stars are lights, and not a solid rock-like sphere, this, among other things, casts serious doubt on the supposed landing of humans in a spacecraft on its surface in 1969 and six more times following that initial landing.)

Gen 1:16 – And 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.

Isa 13:10 – For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.

Isa 30:26 – Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.

Jer 31:35 – Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:

Eze 32:7 – And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.

Mat 24:29 – Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

The earth has ends (boundaries); this isn’t possible on a ball, as there is no end to it.

Job 38:13 – That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, (The Hebrew behind the word “ends” (Strong’s 3671), literally means “edges, corners, or borders.”) that the wicked might be shaken out of it?

Pro 17:24 – Wisdom is before him that hath understanding; but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.

Pro 30:4 – Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell?

Isa 5:26 – And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly:

Isa 26:15 – Thou hast increased the nation, O LORD, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth.

Isa 40:28 – Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.

Isa 41:9 – Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.

Isa 42:10 – Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof.

The earth is a circle; not a sphere or ball.

Isa 40:22 – It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth,

This is the go-to proof-text of all Bible believers who accept the modern cosmological view of the earth as a sphere, suspended in an infinite space. But this is debunked by Scripture because the word “circle” in this verse is translated from the Hebrew word chug (Strong’s 2329), which does not mean “ball” or “sphere,” but literally means compass. (All geometry texts define a circle as a flat plane.) The Hebrew word for ball, which appears once in the KJB in Isa 22:18, is sanballat–not even remotely the same–which means “roundabout.” Is a ball circular? Yes. Does that mean a circle is spherical? No!

Scripture speaks of “the length and breadth of the earth,” which isn’t possible on a ball.

Gen 13:17 – Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it (the earth)

Rev 20:9 – And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

The Lord’s second coming to the earth.

In Matthew 24:30, it says that “all the tribes of the earth” are going to see “the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven….” How will this be possible on a globe? In Rev. 7:1 it makes reference to the earth having “four corners.” Where are those four corners on the spinning ball?

Footnotes:

1 The modern theory of the spinning ball earth goes hand in glove with the Evolutionist “big bang” theory of the creation of it. “The Big bang explosion, which, according to modern cosmological scientists, came from nothing 14.5 billion years ago, exploded outward breaking apart inorganically then magically came back together ORGANICALLY and over billions and billions of years, forming the Sun, moon, Earth and stars, but our entire solar system. Then, over vast amounts of time, the Earth slowed into perfect rotation “where no external torque acts on an object or a closed system of objects, no change of angular momentum can occur”. https://aplanetruth.info/3-what-makes-the-earth-spin/

2 One particular theological proposition that is an attempt by Biblical literalists to reconcile the Genesis account of creation with modern evolutionary theory, which now claims the earth to be something like 15 or 20 billion years old, is the “Gap Theory.” In a nutshell, this theory claims that there was another Earth between verses 1 and 2 of Genesis chapter 1, which existed before the current one came into existence. According to the Biblical record, this Earth is now approximately 6,000 years old. The proposition is that there could very well have been billions of years of another kind of Earth in this perceived gap.

The link to the article in Wikipedia (see highlighted phrase above) gives a fairly lengthy explanation of this theory, but suffice it to say here, I believe it is nothing more than some Biblical literalists’ offer of an olive branch to evolutionists in an attempt to establish some common ground with them. I consider this to be pure fantasy because evolutionists believe the entire Bible is a concoction of “myths,” and therefore are never going to accept anything in it as truth. Moreover, the grammar in Gen. 1, verse 2 renders it to be an explanation of what God had created in verse 1, not a description of a totally different creation claimed by Gap theorists.

3 This model is, by the way, integral to the Darwinist evolutionary model. One of the things that caused me to begin to doubt the validity of the theory of evolution and the sub-theories of natural selection and “survival of the fittest” is the dating of dinosaurs. When my children were very young, I often took them to our local natural history museum, which had an entire room devoted to dinosaurs. First, the depictions that have been created are necessarily the result of men’s imaginations, as they are developed from only a small portion of bones.

Second, it always struck me as odd–considering the evolutionists’ claim that all creatures evolve–the vast span of time between the different kinds of dinosaurs, which in some cases was as much as 50 million years, with hardly any change in their general appearance. We’re often told that crocodiles and alligators are holdovers from the age of the dinosaurs that disappeared from Earth tens of millions of years ago. If evolution applies to all living creatures, why have these particular ones not evolved? The third reason that casts a lot of doubt on the Darwinist model is the Carbon 14 method of dating, used to determine the age of things like dinosaur bones. A 1991 article in the New York Times reported that scientists had discovered some serious flaws in the C14 dating method, causing it to be off by as many as 3500 years. The original theory was that a dead organism, like a bone, loses half its carbon 14 over approximately 5700 years. If this is the case, how, pray tell, could the bones of an animal that is over a hundred million years old be accurately dated using this method? It wouldn’t be possible, because after around 11,000 years in the ground, there wouldn’t be any of it left in the bone matter, proving that the entire dating of dinosaurs is based on speculation, not real science. Yet it continues to be taught in schools, from kindergarten to university graduate schools, as scientific fact.

4 Flat Earthers are often asked how high the arch of the dome extends above the Earth. I don’t know. That would depend on the circumference of the plane of the earth, and scripture doesn’t provide that measurement. Modern cosmologists claim the last level of the atmosphere tops out at around 180 miles (about a million feet) but I’m inclined to believe, if the circumference of the earth is, in fact, the NASA estimated 25K miles, that it is a lot higher than that.

All Scripture references are from the King James Bible.

For some historical perspective on this issue, please visit the following site:

https://christianflatearthministry.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/earth-not-a-globe-review-nos-1-3.pdf