Rockets and the Globe II with Special Guest Gravity

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I want to preface this post with an observation.  The Copernicans have had 500 years to develop their helio-centric model.  It is composed of mountainous volumes of sophisticated language and formulas based on a premise.  If you don’t understand the language it is difficult to argue with.  So Biblical-earthers are at a slight disadvantage in terms of debate but things are rapidly changing.  It is much similar to the creation-evolution debate in that it took a little while for Creation Science to catch up on all the so-called evidence of evolution.  Now, it is obvious that evolution is absurd.  That’s because the premise has been debunked and that makes all of their so-called evidence nonsense. 

As a case study, let’s take gravity.  I submit that gravity only makes sense if you accept the notion that the earth is a spinning ball floating in a vacuum with an atmosphere being kept securely around it.  In other words, gravity had to be thought up in order to explain why the atmosphere (and everything else) doesn’t get sucked out into the unbelievably powerful vacuum of space.  Remember, nature abhors a vacuum.   The earth, we are told, has just the right amount of size and density to exert the gravitational force necessary to hold everything to it including the molecules of the atmosphere.  Somehow mass and density create the magical power called gravity.

There are all kinds of human agencies that have been built and organized to validate the premise.  These agencies and organizations include NASA and other nation’s ‘space programs’.  Billions of dollars are being poured into these organizations.  The general public sees rockets being shot into the air.  Ergo, space exists and the earth is spinning through it.  

The number of people that recognize the Biblical earth model as the truth is growing at break-neck speed.  The first ever international conference was held in North Carolina this past November and tickets sold out quickly.  You can find video of the speakers on youtube or flatearthbible.com.   It is an awakening unlike no other in history.  The passage that comes to mind is Luke 8:17:

“For nothing is hidden that shall not become evident, nor anything secret that shall not be known and come to light.”

I believe that we are living in a time where God is exposing and revealing as never before.  I find it not coincidental that, as the spread of the notion of intelligent life in outer space is accelerating in the mainstream, right alongside of it is the realization by millions that the earth has no curve and the sun and moon move in circuits above the plane.   These millions are recognizing that what the Bible says is true of creation, namely that the earth is a flat plane with a transparent or translucent hard dome firmament over it, and all of it is fixed and immovable except the stars within the firmament.   The earth is it, there is no space.  There is the earth, the firmament and the 3rd heaven above it.   This is Biblical cosmology.

We who are recognizing this may not have the grasp of the math equations that support a ball earth theory but we do have common sense and we do have eyes to see.  In this venue I have no desire to try and argue each issue within the scope of the grand debate.  It would take too long.  But there is an argument for each issue such as satellites, all the people in on the hoax, ships going ‘below the horizon’, alleged photos of the earth from space, etc., etc., etc.  There is much evidence to refute all of the helio-centric claims and each person must do the research for themselves.  And here is the thing – you have to be genuinely open to receive truth, whatever the truth is.  It’s a lot like the Gospel of salvation.  If you don’t want to see it, you won’t.

If you accept the spinning globe earth premise, then gravity and all of the equations and formulas make sense. 

I was presented with additional information about how the spinning earth provides momentum to a rocket leaving earth’s atmosphere in the spinning earth model.  To wit:  it is the atmosphere of the earth that provides the ‘push’.  The atmosphere, in this conjecture, is moving in sync with the spin of the earth and at some point when the rocket leaves the atmosphere it is shot out by the 1000 mph atmospheric force (which is how fast the earth is supposed to be spinning on an axis) into space.

So, according to more ‘intelligent sources’ and ‘experts’, we are supposed to believe that the atmosphere is moving at 1000 mph hand in hand with the spinning land below.  This happens because of the mysterious force of gravity.  This gravity not only keeps the atmosphere from being sucked out into the incredibly powerful vacuum of space (which does not exist), it also keeps it locked in synch with the motion of the earth.  Let’s examine this idea. 

The atmosphere moves west to east with the motion of the spinning earth, we are told.  And it moves in perfect synchrony with the earth, so much so we can’t tell that we are moving.   I have no idea how to calculate it but there must be an enormous amount of centrifugal force being exerted that could send everything flying if it were not for the miraculous gravity.   So not only is there the vacuum of space pulling at the atmosphere, there is centrifugal force also pulling on everything on the surface of the earth and above, due to the spin.   Centripetal force is the ‘equal and opposite force’ of centrifugal that keeps an object or substance spinning in a circle with the center of the spinning object.

The atmosphere must experience both forces under the spinning earth theory.  If you were to take a hand blender and stick it in some soup, you would notice the soup closest to the blender blades would be moving faster in the direction of the blades than soup farther from the center of the blade.  The farther away from the vortex, the slower the soup would be moving in a circle.  The same characteristics would be expected with the atmosphere circling with the motion of the earth.  It would not be in perfect synch from inside-out with regard to the atmosphere.  But it would be moving with constant speed inside-out.  The farthest reach of the atmosphere would be traveling much slower than near the earth. 

Now, consider also that the farther out you go from earth, the thinner the air becomes.  So not only is the air going much slower than the spin of the earth, there is less and less of it.  Yet, we are to accept that a rocket gets so much more thrust and boost from being propelled by the speed of the atmosphere!

It just doesn’t bear up under logical scrutiny.

Consider, too, that weather moves generally from west to east.  How is this possible with the earth spinning west to east – the same direction?  Think about this for a few minutes!!  Weather would actually be moving against the atmosphere and faster than the motion of the earth!

The whole idea that we are spinning at 1000 mph and the atmosphere with it, yet we can not feel or sense this, is ludicrous on it’s face.  

It is fascinating what cognitive dissonance can do to a mind.  You really have to suspend logic and common sense to accept this stuff from NASA.  Sometimes all you have to do is a little thinking.  See my other posts under Bible Cosmology.

Dan Baker

Rockets and the Spinning Globe

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NASA says that rockets are launched eastward with the spin of the earth in order for the rocket to get a boost from the spin.  In other words, they say that the spin of the earth gives the launched vehicle greater momentum and thrust into space.    This allows the rocket to save fuel, they say.  You can see the NASA explanation at this link.

Then why would that not apply to jets and planes?  NASA says the spin affects the velocity and momentum of the rocket as it flies through the atmosphere and into space.  Therefore the spin should have the same affect with planes and jets as they take off. 

For example, if a plane takes off at the equator from east to west, the spin of the earth being against the take off, the plane would have the opposite experience.  The plane would have an earth spinning 1000 MPH (approx.) against it.  That would mean that the plane that takes off at 250 mph would have a net speed of 1250 mph at take-off.  Then, when it reaches cruising speed at say 500 mph, it’s speed would be a net 1500 mph over the surface of the earth.   This means that a plane traveling from east to west, against the spin, would be able to travel 3000 miles in 2 hours (New York to Los Angeles). 

If it travels the opposite direction at a maximum speed of 500 mph, it would not reach New York (pretending New York and LA are on the equator) until the earth rotated one full rotation and New York actually came from behind the plane below on it’s axis.   The speed of the rotating earth would be twice that of the plane.

NASA can’t have it’s physics work two different ways.

Either the spin of the earth is negative with regard to launched and flying vehicles or it is positive.  If it affects the launch of the rocket then it must also affect the launch and flight of planes and jets as they travel the skies. 

The problem is that a plane that leaves St. Louis for Kansas City will arrive the same time as a plane traveling from Kansas City to St. Louis if they fly at the same speed.  That is not possible, according to NASA, on a spinning globe earth.   But it is on a Biblical earth.

Dan Baker

The First Resurrection

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“The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed.  This is the first resurrection.”  Revelation 20:5

I watched a video that was sent to me by a friend who asked me my thoughts about it.  It was a teaching by a minister named David Asscherick.  He has a very hyper-frenetic style of preaching that was hard to listen to.  But that aside, his topic was the Millennial Kingdom – it’s description and nature.   He made quite a few incorrect assertions but the one I’m going to focus on is that there will be no living mortals during the Millennial period.

His basis for saying that there will be no living people is the verse above.  He said all of the righteous (ever) will be resurrected at Jesus’s return, and all of the believers who are alive at that time (who survive the Tribulation) will be ‘translated’ up to meet Jesus in the air.    This is not true.

He also said all of the wicked who are alive at His return will be slain.  This much is true (Rev. 19:15, 21).

What Asscherick did was declare that the resurrection in Rev. 20:5 is the same resurrection as 1 Thess. 4:14.  This is something many Christians make the mistake of doing.  He based that on the fact that Rev. 20: 5 says it is the ‘first’ resurrection, therefore it has to be the same resurrection as 1 Thess. 4:14.  It follows, he asserts, that all of the righteous will be glorified and all the wicked will be dead, and thus there will be no mortal living beings during the Millennial.

To boil it down, Asscherick is saying that the rapture happens at Jesus’ return to earth (post-trib rapture).   According to Asscherik, right before Jesus lands on the Mount of Olives all of the dead in Christ are raised and those believers who are alive at that moment are ‘translated’ or raptured, and meet the Lord in the air (and then do an immediate U-turn to follow Christ to earth).

The problem, however, is that Asscherick completely skipped over Rev. 20:4:

– “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them.  And I saw the souls of THOSE WHO HAD BEEN BEHEADED BECAUSE OF THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS and because of the Word of God, and THOSE WHO HAD NOT WORSHIPPED THE BEAST OR HIS IMAGE, AND HAD NOT RECEIVED THE MARK UPON THEIR FOREHEAD AND UPON THEIR HAND;  and THEY CAME TO LIFE and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.”

This verse makes perfectly clear that the ‘first’ resurrection stated in verse 5 is the resurrection of the righteous who die during the tribulation (Rev. 6:9; 13:12-17; 14:9-11).  All he had to do was look at the cross references in the margin of his Bible.

The context determines the meaning of ‘first resurrection’.

The resurrection in Revelation 20:4-5  is not the first resurrection EVER, it is the first resurrection in the context of the 2nd coming of Christ right before the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom.  Clearly this is not the first resurrection.  The first resurrection was Jesus Christ!  So the context must define the statement.  The second resurrection in this context is the resurrection of the unsaved dead (those whose names are not in the Book of Life) at the end of the Millennial Kingdom (Rev. 20:13).

He also completely overlooks Rev. 20:7-8 with regard to no living mortals during the Millennial Kingdom.  These verses clearly point out that there will be ‘nations’ all over the earth whom Satan tempt and gather for war when he is released at the end of the 1000 years.  Asscherik’s explanation for this is that these people are the wicked who are raised from the dead in Rev. 20:12-13.  The problem is that this resurrection takes place AFTER Satan’s brief uprising.

It’s always amazing how doctrines and teachings can come about by taking things out of their proper context or chronological order.

See also my post ‘Eternal Torment or Eternal Destruction‘.

Dan Baker

Jerusalem

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Jerusalem

“Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the people around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah.  And it will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely injured.  And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.”  –Zechariah 12:2-3

Today I watched with amazement President Trump’s press conference where he declared that the United States formally recognizes Jerusalem to be  Israel’s capital, and will move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.  It truly is a historic moment.

It is also a relevant moment in terms of Bible prophecy.

Now, I am not saying that this move by the President specifically fulfills Zechariah 12.  In fact, it does not.  Zechariah 12 is referring to a time immediately preceding the return of Jesus – this is the context of the passage.  It is talking about a time when all the surrounding nations and more will attack Jerusalem to destroy it.  You must continue reading the chapter through the next 2 chapters.

Zechariah 12:3 says all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it and God himself will save Israel (vs. 12:7-9).  Then Israel will ‘look upon Him who they have pierced and they will mourn’ (12:10). 

Who will they mourn? 

It is Jesus who has returned to earth to save the remnant.  (see my posts “The Gog-Magog War IS Armageddon” and “Every Eye Will See Him“) 

They will see Him and mourn over him as He is coming in the clouds.  They will mourn because they realize He is the Messiah whom they crucified. 

But many will also cry out ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord’, as Jesus prophesied when He told Israel they would not seem Him again until they recognize Him (Matthew 23:39). 

Zechariah 14 elaborates on this event. 

God will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured.  But Jesus will ‘go forth’ and fight against those nations as His feet set down on the Mount of Olives and He will be victorious.  Thus He will begin the 1000 year reign of the Millennial Kingdom. 

So this is the context of Jerusalem being a ‘cup that causes reeling’ to the whole world.  What we are witnessing is not the precise fulfillment of Zechariah 12.  What we are witnessing is a foreshadowing of what is coming.

“The whole world is against it.”  …Turkish Prime Minister

This quote from the Turkish Prime Minister referring to President Trump’s  declaration may be a bit of an overstatement, but it illustrates the level of consternation in the world as a result of the President’s move. No doubt there will be uprising and increased violence in the region as a result.  It is also safe to say that the world in general holds a great deal of animosity towards Israel and that it is going to increase as we draw closer to the Day of the Lord. 

The President’s move to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and re-locate the embassy is good and right.  It should have been done a long time ago.  But God has ordained it to take place now, or at least declare it now. 

God continues to signal that time is growing short.   Israel will continue to be the focal point.   Maranatha. 

A Simple Little Moon Test

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“It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.”               – Mark Twain

We are told that the moon is 2,159 miles in diameter and that it is 238,900 miles from earth.  That is a ratio of 1 to 110. 

Go on google earth pro and find Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.  The stadium is 800 feet long.  Multiply 800 feet by 110 and you get 88,000 feet.  Go up 88,000 feet over Arrowhead Stadium. 

Guess what, you can’t see it!  It’s a speck.  You can barely make out the parking lot.  The stadium is a dot, yet the moon is immense in the sky by comparison.  How is that possible?  It’s not – if you believe the math.  If the math was correct the moon would look like just another tiny twinkling star. 

And please don’t try to tell me that the atmosphere somehow magnifies it. The atmosphere would have to look and work like a magnifying lens as shown in the picture below.   But it doesn’t. The atmosphere would be just the opposite as a lens if we were living on a ball.

1280px-Lens1.svg

If we’re being told to believe this silliness, what else are they telling us to believe?

See also my other posts under ‘Bible Cosmology’. 

Dan Baker

The Gog-Magog War IS Armageddon

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armageddon (2)

I was listening to a podcast by Michael Heiser on Ezekiel 38 and 39.  You can find it here.  Heiser asserts that the Gog Magog war takes place at the end of the Millennial Kingdom.  He puts this war in Rev. 20:7. 

I disagree. 

I will make the case that the Gog Magog war of Ezekiel 38-39 is the final battle when Jesus returns as prophesied in Revelation 19 (which is the same battle mentioned in Rev. 16:14,16).  It is not my intention to try and determine who Gog and Magog are.  They are from the north, that’s all we can say conclusively.

I agree with many things that Heiser teaches.  His knowledge and understanding of ancient Hebrew and other ancient languages is fantastic.  But I think this issue is pretty simple and I believe Heiser, respectfully, kind of gets lost in his own vast amount of knowledge.

Let’s start in Ezekiel 36. 

Here God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to Israel that God is going to bring Israel back into His land that He gave to them and cleanse them, and give them a new heart, and remove the heart of stone from them.  This ‘cleansing’ is key because I don’t believe this is talking about the regathering that has taken place now.  It is the 2nd regathering as prophesied in Is. 11:11 and Matthew 24:31, that occurs after Jesus physically returns to earth. 

Read Ezekiel 36:22-38.  This describes a time that does not exist now:  ALL of the Jews will be back in the promised land and they will be cleansed, holy and following the Lord with a new heart, being careful to observe all of God’s statutes and ordinances. 

Does this describe Israel today?  No.  Israel is a secular nation with a heart of stone as described in Ezekiel 36:26.

Why is this important?  Because if the battle takes place at the end of the Millennial Kingdom, as Heiser asserts, Israel would not be described as having been profaning God’s name among the nations (Ezek. 36:22-23).

Moreover, the passage mentioned above describes how all the other nations will know that the Lord is with Israel.  If the Gog Magog war takes place at the end of the Millennial Kingdom, as Heiser believes, then the new earth and eternal state would follow it.

Does the passage in Ezekiel 36 describe the new eternal state, after the Lord has created a new earth as written in Rev. 21?  No it does not.  There will be no nations in the eternal state, and there will be no state of Israel.  There will only be the kingdom of God on a new earth.

Ezekiel 37 continues to prophesy about the future of Israel in the Millennial Kingdom.  Again, it is not about the 1st regathering of Israel which occurred in the last century and ongoing up until now.  The way to know this is in the passages. 

Ezekiel 37:21-28 once again clearly describes a scenario that is not present today:  Israel will no longer follow any other gods, they will live in ALL the land that was promised to Abraham and Jacob.  The Son of David will be ruling and His sanctuary will be permanent. 

This has not happened yet.  It will happen when Jesus returns to earth after the 7 year tribulation and it will be an immediate and complete regathering (Matt. 24:31).  And again, it does not describe the Eternal State of Rev. 21.

Ezekiel 38-39 is a recapitulation.  It is a way of explaining things by reversing and going back over what has been said already but with greater or different details.  Here God tells Ezekiel to prophecy about the Gog Magog war which happens right before what has been prophesied in Ezek. 36 and 37.

At the time of this war, there is a regathered nation of Israel that exists.  God is going to bring Gog up against Israel.  But it is not the Israel that God describes in Ezek. 39:22-29 – the Israel of the Millennial Kingdom.  It is the Israel with a heart of stone that exists today.  This is the conclusion of the war:

‘And the house of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God from that day onward.  And the nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile for their iniquity because they acted treacherously against Me, and I hid My face from them; so I gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and all of them fell by the sword.  According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I dealt with them”.  Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Now I shall restore the fortunes of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I shall be jealous for My holy name.  And they shall forget their disgrace and all their treachery which they perpetrated against Me, when they live securely on their own land with no one to make them afraid.  When I bring them back from the peoples and gather them from the lands of their enemies, then I shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the many nations.  Then they will know that I am the Lord their God because I made them go into exile among the nations, and then gathered them again into their own land; and I will leave none of them there any longer.  And I will not hide My face from them any longer, for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel’, declares the Lord God.”   Ezek 39:22-29

Clearly, this describes a regathered Israel that does not exist today.  The Israel of today is the rejected Israel that does not recognize Jesus as the Messiah.  The Israel described above is the purged and cleansed Israel that will enter the Millennial Kingdom. 

The 2nd re-gathering of Israel is that of the angels (Matt. 24:31) when Jesus returns to save the elect – the righteous Jews who survive the tribulation and recognize Jesus as Messiah.  The nations will see and know that the King of Kings is in Zion.

Also, notice in this passage in the second to the last verse above that God says He will bring all of the Jews into the land again and none will be outside of Israel after the regathering. 

This confirms that it is talking about a 2nd re-gathering which immediately precedes the Millennial Kingdom and it happens after the war, not before.  The first regathering does not include all of the Jews which is the situation now.  

Another reason we can know that this battle is right before the return of the Lord and not at the end of the Millennial Kingdom is Ezekiel 38:16.  It says that this will take place in the last days.  That does not refer to the last days of the Millennial Kingdom.  “Last days”  or “latter days” always refers to the end of time before the Lord returns to earth and restores His kingdom.

Also, the ‘Great Supper’ of God in Rev. 19, and the ‘Great Sacrifice’ of God are the same.  In Ezekiel 39:17-20, God tells Ezekiel to declare something.

“And as for you , son of man, thus says the Lord God, ‘Speak to every kind of bird and to every beast of the field, “Assemble and come, gather from every side to My sacrifice which I am going to sacrifice for you, as a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood.  So you will eat fat until you are glutted, and drink blood until you are drunk, from My sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.  And you will be glutted at My table with horses and charioteers, with mighty men and all the men of war, declares the Lord God.”

Now read Revelations 19:17-21.  Remember, Ezekiel said this was the last days and it is in connection with the complete restoration of Israel and rule by the Lord Jesus in the Millennial Kingdom.

“And I saw one standing in the sun; and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in mid-heaven, ‘Come, assemble for the great supper of God; in order that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great’. 

The similarities in these passages cannot be dismissed.

I believe that the ‘one’ referred to in Rev. 19:17 is Ezekiel and not an angel.  Yes, the word is ‘aggelos’ or angel but it literally just means messenger or one sent.  Every translation makes this word angel, but I believe the messenger in this case will be Ezekiel because the commandment to speak this herald to the birds and beasts in Ezekiel 39 was given to him.

I agree with Heiser that this battle will be on Mt. Zion.  You’ll have to listen to his podcast or even read his book “The Unseen Realm”.  It’s a great read and gives fantastic insight into the spiritual realm of the Bible.  He explains why Armageddon is Har Magedon which is Mount of Assembly and not the Valley of Meggido.  I won’t go into it here.  He also summarizes it in the podcast which I provided the link for above.

During this battle, there will be a great earthquake.  It will be the mother of all earthquakes.  This earthquake, according to Ezekiel 38:19, will be so massive it will literally cause the mountains to collapse.  Revelation concurs saying that it will be the largest earthquake since man was created (Rev. 16:18).  According to this verse, Jerusalem will be split into 3 parts.  Every nation will feel it and all the mountains on earth will topple.   Isaiah 2:2 says that, “in the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills”.   

This does not occur at the end of the Millennial Kingdom, but in the ‘last days’.  The passage goes on to say that “all the nations will stream” to the mountain of the house of the Lord be taught. This is not the eternal new earth, as Dr. Heiser’s position would dictate.  There will be no nations in the eternal kingdom.

Then, all the nations will know that God has won this battle (Ezek. 38:16,20,23; 39:7,21) because they will see Jesus coming in the clouds to earth with His army to save Jerusalem (Rev. 1:7). 

After the victory, the House of Israel will be cleaning up the litter of the battle and disposing of the bodies for seven months (Ezek. 39:12).  It is another proof that this takes place at the end of the age before Jesus returns, not the end of the Millennial Kingdom.  The ‘clean up’ at the end of the Millennial Kingdom is performed by the Lord Himself when He burns up everything and creates a new heaven and earth (2Peter 3:10). 

Finally, Revelation 20:7-9 says Satan will be released from prison briefly at the end of the 1000-year kingdom and he will deceive the nations and gather them with Gog and Magog.  This is undoubtedly the primary passage that Heiser is considering for his belief that Armageddon takes place at the end of the Millennial Kingdom.  But this is not a battle. 

This is a crucial point.  Armageddon is a battle, but Revelation 20:7-9 is not.  It is just a gathering and a surrounding of Jerusalem.  This uprising is ended in one fell swoop by God sending down fire and devouring the entire army that Satan has gathered.  There is absolutely nothing left of them.  The verse says they are “devoured”, totally consumed!  There is nothing to bury or clean up.

More About Water

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flood

“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the heaven were opened.”  Gen. 7:11

Before reading this post, you should read my previous posts “Was Moses Dumb and Did God Lie?”, and also “What’s in the Water?”.

I read an article yesterday by Joseph Farah, the editor of WND.  You can find it here.  The article talks about how scientists believe that the earth makes it’s own water deep beneath the mantle, giving validation to the Genesis flood and in particular the floodwaters that erupted from the earth. 

It’s a fascinating article with very important implications, not only with regard to the Genesis narrative, but also for potential benefit for mankind.  But that is not the focus of this post.  I want to comment on the last part of Gen. 7:11 – the floodgates of heaven.  Is this metaphorical or literal? 

I pointed out in my previous posts mentioned above that the ancient Hebrew believed that there was a solid dome firmament over the earth and above that firmament was the throne of God in the ‘waters above’.  I have no doubt that they also believed that Moses literally meant that God opened the firmament and water blasted through to the earth along with the water that exploded from the deep. 

The Hebrew word in Genesis 7:11 is ‘arrubah’ and it means window, lattice, sluice or floodgate.  Secular science says that it is metaphorical because a literal translation does not jive with the Copernican Helios-centric concept.  It’s interesting that if this same science now implies that the first part of the verse is literal – that there is unimagined amounts of water beneath the mantle that could have added to the Great Flood, yet it dismisses the ‘window of heaven’ as a whimsical way of describing a huge thunderstorm that lasted for 40 days. 

Also, the word for heaven in this verse is ‘shamayim’, which is the same word used in Gen. 1:8 for heaven as God named the expanse, or firmament.  Most would like to translate this word in 7:11 as sky, but there is no basis to do that other than to make it fit the Helios-centric viewpoint. 

In the creation narrative the only ‘heaven’ to be used as singular is the firmament or expanse.  The other times in the creation narrative the NASB uses heavens as plural but gives no indication that sky is included.  In Genesis, ‘shamayim’ is only singular when describing the firmament or where God resides (the 3rd heaven).    

Jacob saw a gate in the firmament when the angels were ascending and descending the ladder.  He said it was THE gate of heaven (Gen. 28:17). The word here is ‘sha’ar’, which means entrance, as to a palace.  In this verse it makes sense as the main entrance because Jacob said it was the house of God and the gate was the entrance to His house.   This spot where Jacob’s head rested became the location of the Holy of Holies in Solomon’s Temple.  This indicates there are different openings (windows and entrance) through the firmament.

Moses was literal when he said water erupted from the deep.  Why would he not be literal when he says God opened the firmament and dumped water from the third heaven?

Dan Baker

Was Moses Dumb and Did God Lie?

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moses-writing

Moses was raised in Pharaoh’s family as a son.  He would have received the best education in the most powerful kingdom of the world.  The ancient Egyptians were a highly advanced society fluent in mathematics and engineering.  Acts 7:22 says Moses was “educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds”.

Moses was chosen by God to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and into the promised land.  God counted on him to organize over two million people after defying Ramses and He entrusted Moses to disseminate and administer His Holy Law. 

The Torah, or first 5 books of the Old Testament, was written by Moses.  The Bible says that God’s Law was dictated through angels to Moses, the mediator (Gal. 3:19).  Parallel with that truth, ancient Hebrews believed that God revealed the creation history in Genesis directly to him, as well.

So the question is, with regard to Genesis Chapter 1, did the angels tell Moses a phony childish story because he and the rest of the Israelites were too simple-minded and unsophisticated to understand a heliocentric cosmology? 

Got your Bible out?  Follow along.  Look at what Genesis teaches:

Vs. 1 – God created the heavens (plural) and the earth.  A general statement, no chronology intended.

Vs. 2 – Earth, before it was technically called earth, was just a ‘blob’ of water, if you will.

Vs. 3-5 – God created light.  This was light BEFORE the sun, moon and stars were created.  End of Day 1.

6-8 – God then created the firmament (expanse) to separate the waters. This firmament, or dome, is ‘raqiya’ in Hebrew which means a ‘solid extended surface’. This firmament made a separation of the water ‘blob’.  The ancient Hebrew understood this dome or vault as solid and that is what Scripture says (Job 37:18).  It is a structure. 

God called this expanse or firmament heaven and David said in Psalm 19:1 this structure – the expanse (same word ‘raqiya’) – this work of His hands – is His glory!  So this heaven was created after the water blob.  This heaven is the solid expanse that separates the waters from above it (Psalm 148:4) and the waters below it.

I refer to ‘this heaven’ because there are 3 in Scripture.  Remember when Paul said he went up into the 3rd heaven (2 Cor. 12:2)?  There is the heaven that God lives in (Psalm 104:3; Psalm 148:4; also see my post ‘What’s in the Water?’) , the heaven of the expanse or firmament, and the heaven where the birds fly and clouds form (Matthew 6:26 – the word ‘air’ is literally heaven).  Paul went up to the 3rd heaven where God is.  Day 2.

9-10.  God then gathered the waters below, or the formless earth, into one place and made dry land materialize.   He called the dry land earth.  So technically, earth was not earth yet in verse 2.

11-13.  God created vegetation and it sprouted.  Still NO SUN yet the vegetation was growing!  Day 3

14-19.  God created the lights and put them IN the firmament heaven. Verse 14 is differentiating the firmament heaven from the other heavens.  In other words He created the sun, moon and stars (16) and put them inside the solid expanse (17).  The sun and moon are their own light source (‘two great lights’).  The moon is not a reflection of the sun.  The lights are INSIDE the firmament or dome.  If the lights were under the firmament, it would have said under or below as God said the ‘waters below’ in vs. 9.  Since the sun and moon are inside the firmament heaven, what we see must be some sort of projection.  End of day 4.

20-23.   God created all the creatures that live in the waters.  Day 5

24-31.  God created all the animals and man.  Day 6

The Israelites could understand God’s highly technical Law, but they couldn’t understand the solar system.

The ancient Hebrew believed that the earth does not move, it’s stationary (Psalm 93:1) with a solid dome or firmament over it and God’s throne is on top of the firmament in the waters above (Psalm 104:3).   The sun and moon follow their own circuits (Psalm 19:5-6), and they are moving but the earth is stationary.  This is what the Bible teaches and this is what they believed. 

Modern day Christianity tries to find ways to reconcile the Bible with the solar system model but fails.  So we say that the Old Testament writers wrote their narratives in quaint, superstitious, poetic ways because they didn’t have modern technology and knowledge of astronomy and astrophysics.

But they had Yahweh, the Creator Himself! 

So, if God gave Moses this information through angels, then God must have assumed that Moses and the rest of the Israelites were too dumb to understand the heliocentric model and the angels lied for God.  Therefore,  God must have lied because the angels would have only spoken what they were given.

But Yahweh cannot lie and Moses was extremely intelligent.

Dan Baker

Did the Sun Stop?

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Joshua commanding the Sun

“Then Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel,

            ‘O sun, stand still at Gibeon, and O moon in the valley of Aijalon,’

So the sun stood still and the moon stopped, until the nation avenged themselves of their enemies.”  Joshua 10:12-13

I watched one of my favorite movies the other day for the umpteenth time.  It is ‘Inherit the Wind’ starring Spencer Tracy and Fredric March.  I love it for the acting, writing and directing, not the message of the film. 

It is based on the true story of the ‘Scopes Monkey Trial’ which is the famous trial of the teacher in Tennessee who broke the law by teaching evolution.  Tracy plays the Clarence Darrow character and March the William Jennings Bryant character.  They both bring a phenomenal performance to the screen. 

It was nominated for 4 Academy Awards, including best actor for Tracy and best screenplay, but surprisingly won none.  I say surprisingly because not only was it a brilliant film with incredible performances and cinematography, but the message of the movie was decidedly left-wing, anti-Biblical and anti-traditional propaganda, just the type of garbage the Hollywood left loves to promote.

The film portrays the townspeople as backward, ignorant, bigoted hayseeds and the William Jennings Bryant character as a fanatical Bible thumping egotist.  But a critique of the film isn’t what I’m writing about here.  It was the dialogue in a scene that spurred me to write.

In the scene in question, Henry Drummond (the Clarence Darrow character played by Tracy) asks Matthew Brady (the William Jennings Bryant character played by March) to take the stand and testify as a Bible expert.  Drummond is defending the evolution teacher and Brady was brought in by the prosecution to try the defendant. 

Brady agrees to testify.  Drummond proceeds to break down Brady’s ‘radical’ Christian viewpoint and eventually makes him look like a foaming at the mouth fool.  Here is the portion of dialogue I wanted to focus on:

Drummond: You believe that every word written in this book should be taken literally?

Brady: Everything in the Bible should be accepted exactly as it is given there.

Drummond: Now what about this part right here, where it talks about Jonah being swallowed by the whale? You figure that really happened?

Brady: The Bible does not say “a whale.” It says, “a big fish.”

Drummond: As a matter of fact, it says “a great fish.” But, I guess that one’s pretty much the same as the other. Now, what do you think about that business?

Brady: I believe in a God who can make a whale, and who can make a man, and make both do what He pleases.

Lady in the audience: God Bless you, Matthew Harrison Brady.

Audience: Amen, amen….

Drummond: I want those “amens” in the record. Now I recollect a story about Joshua — Joshua making the sun stand still. As an expert, do you tell me that that’s as right as the Jonah business? That’s a pretty neat trick.

Brady: I do not question or scoff at the miracles of the Lord, as do ye of little faith.

Drummond: Have you ever pondered what would actually happen to the earth if the sun stood still?

Brady: You can testify to that if I get you on the stand.

Drummond: If, as they say, the sun stood still, they must have had some kind of an idea that the sun moved around the earth. You think that’s the way of things? Or don’t you believe that the earth moves around the sun?

Brady: I have faith in the Bible.

Drummond: You don’t have much faith in the solar system.

Brady: The sun stopped.

Drummond:   Good! Now, if what you say actually happened — if Joshua stopped the sun in the sky — the earth stopped spinning on its axis, mountains toppling, tectonic plates crashing into one another,  and the earth, shriveled to a cinder, crashed into the sun. Now, how come they missed that little tidbit of news?

Brady:   They missed it because it didn’t happen.

Drummond:   But it had to happen. It must’ve happened, according to natural law. Or don’t you believe in natural law, Mr. Brady? Would you ban Copernicus from the classroom along with Charles Darwin? Would you pass a law throwing out all scientific knowledge since Joshua?

Drummond asked a lot of important questions.  Of course his questions were aimed at trying to demonstrate that the Bible is comprised of a bunch of stories that are ignorant of scientific “facts”.

My point of discussion is if the sun did stop, and the earth does spin on an axis and orbit the sun, then Drummond’s description of what would happen is dead-on.

Try to envision yourself on a cruise liner at sea and you are sitting in the dining room having dinner.  Pretend this cruise liner is traveling at 1000 miles an hour and its giant anchor accidentally breaks loose and sinks to the ocean bottom and lodges fast.  The ship comes to an immediate stop – 1000 to 0 at once.  What would happen?  Catastrophe!

That’s what would happen to the earth if it suddenly went from spinning 1000 mph to 0.  The incredible centrifugal force WOULD cause mountains to topple!  Tectonic plates WOULD crash into each other causing global earthquake devastation!  People WOULD be hurled forward smashing into anything in their path.  The earth, now no longer spinning, WOULD start to be sucked toward the sun, its orbit decaying.  It would be the end of the world.  So why didn’t that happen?

There are 3 possible reasons.

The first is that it never really happened.  It’s just a fable, a myth.  Joshua never ‘stopped the sun’.

The second is that God, in stopping the earth from spinning, used His power to make sure none of the disastrous things would happen because of the earth’s rotation coming to a sudden halt.  It’s a very convenient explanation.  But that’s usually what Christians employ when trying to reconcile the Bible with mainstream science.

The other explanation is that the Bible is true.  The sun stopped, not the earth, as it says.

Drummond says that if you believe that this story happened as the Bible described, then you deny Natural Law, you deny the solar system.  In the solar system model, I totally agree with him.  So that rules out the second explanation, in my opinion. 

And I don’t believe the story is a fable.

It’s interesting that Drummond linked Copernicus with Darwin.  Mainstream scientism says evolution is a fact – the science is completely valid.  It says if you think that God created man in a day, you are a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal. 

Yet we know today, after many years of creation science research, that evolution is a horribly flawed, and frankly, fraudulent theory.  It requires way more faith to accept than Genesis.  But they have all kinds of visual aids (read artist renditions), science babble and mainstream support to help keep it alive as ‘real’ science.

So do you accept Darwin as you do Copernicus?

What do you believe, Christian?  And why?

Related: see my post ‘Every Eye Will See Him’

What God Has Cleansed

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Peters vision

“And on the next day, as they were on their way, and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray.  And he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; and he beheld the sky opened up, and a certain object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air.  And a voice came to him, ‘Arise, Peter, kill and eat!’. But Peter said, ‘By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean’. And again a voice came to him a second time, ‘What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy’.”  Acts 10:9-15

Here is another example of a viewpoint or interpretation I have always accepted as true without really studying it out.  I believe many other Christians are in the same boat.

I was listening to an interview with a Christian couple who are very involved in Biblical dieting.  They were remarking about this passage and said that it has nothing to do with God saying everything is ok to eat now.  They pointed out that Peter realized that the vision was telling him that he should not call any man unclean or unholy.  The couple said that it was never in the Law for a Jew to view people this way.

I have always accepted the contention that in this passage God says that all animals are now ok to eat and that God’s law that forbade certain animals was now nullified.  It was then somehow equated symbolically to the notion that Jews could also now associate with non-Jews. 

So, I decided to study all this for myself.  I found that the aforementioned couple was correct.  However, they did not complete the picture.  There was something much deeper and more profound that God was communicating to Peter.

Peter goes into a trance and sees a vision.  A great sheet comes down from heaven and all kinds of unclean and unholy (dirty and impure) animals are in the sheet.  A voice tells Peter to arise kill and eat.  Peter is appalled and says to the Lord that he never has and would never eat anything unholy and unclean.  The voice says ‘What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy”.

Peter is greatly perplexed about the vision.  This is a devout Jew who understands that there is purpose in the law.  God did not create the law arbitrarily.  The law describes and displays God’s righteousness.  How could something God has designated unclean become clean?

Peter continued to ponder the vision and while he was reflecting on it, men showed up at the door asking for Peter to go with them to see the centurion Cornelius.  When Peter is told that God sent an angel to Cornelius, a Gentile, the light went on for him.

Verse 28 is very important.  Peter tells Cornelius and his household that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with a foreigner or visit him.  Yet, Peter says, God showed him that he should not call ANY man unholy or unclean.

The point is this, what Peter realized is that no man should be considered unclean or unholy.   When God said to Peter, ‘What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy’, He was telling Peter that He had made atonement for all men.  He had not changed the law about what animals were edible!

Atonement is Cleansing

This short statement from God to Peter, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy”, sums up what Christ’s death on the cross means to the whole world.  His death was the atonement for all mankind.  It satisfied the debt or the penalty for original sin. 

It’s also important to mention here that the law that Peter was talking about in Acts 10:28 in terms of associating with a foreigner is not found in the Torah anywhere.  But we will discuss that later in this article.

Look at Leviticus 16:29-30.  This chapter is all about the Law of Atonement.  It is the definitive statute regarding the annual ritual for Israel to make atonement for the nation.  It symbolically reconciled the nation to God.  It also foreshadowed the perfect atonement that would be made by Christ for all of mankind (see Heb. 10:10-12).

“And this shall be a permanent statute for you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble your souls, and not do any work, whether the native, or the alien who sojourns among you; for it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you; you shall be clean from all your sins before the Lord.”

In other words, atonement is a cleansing! 

This is what God was telling Peter.  Christ’s death had atoned for the sin of all mankind.  Peter realized that nothing had changed regarding what is good or bad to eat.  God had not cleansed those things, or made them suitable for eating!  Jesus Christ atoned or cleansed all of man.

This does not mean that all people are saved.  Christ’s death paid for the sin of the world, but individually we are justified by faith.  Faith alone is what determines whether we become righteous in God’s eyes.  Christ’s death, or atonement, is a free gift for all men.  It allows for justification for all men individually by faith (Rom. 5:11-18).

The point I’m trying to make about Acts 10 is that nothing changed from God’s perspective about what is good to eat.  He used that vision to help Peter understand what God had cleansed or atoned for.  God forced Peter’s mind into a quandary so that when the men from Cornelius showed up Peter would automatically understand.

Now, I am not saying that we are still under the law.  I am saying that what God laid out in the law as unclean to eat was still unclean or bad to eat.  In other words, there was purpose behind God declaring certain things bad to eat.  Nothing changed with that.

In Leviticus chapter 11, God details which creatures can be eaten.  At the end of the chapter it says, “This is the law regarding the animal, and the bird, and every living thing that moves in the waters, and everything that swarms on the earth, to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean, and between the edible creature and the creature which is not to be eaten.”  Lev. 11:46-47

This is why Peter was so perplexed.  He could not understand how something that was bad to eat could suddenly become ok to eat.  Then he figured it out when the representatives of Cornelius showed up.

While we have technology to protect from the hazards of certain unclean animals, there are still good reasons to avoid them.  You can find the exhaustive list in Lev. 11.  Pork, shellfish, rabbits, and fish without scales like catfish are the usual suspects on American tables, but you can do your own research on what’s healthy and not.

Going back to the law that Peter cited about association with foreigners – it was a man-made law or tradition.  It was not a law of God.  In fact, if you go back through the books of Moses, or the Torah, there are numerous passages that talk about welcoming the foreigners or aliens, and being hospitable to them.

Here are just a few:

“The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the LORD your God.”  Lev. 19:24

‘There shall be one standard for you; it shall be for the stranger as well as the native, for I am the LORD your God.'”  Lev. 24:22

‘If an alien sojourns among you and observes the Passover to the LORD, according to the statute of the Passover and according to its ordinance, so he shall do; you shall have one statute, both for the alien and for the native of the land.'”  Num. 9:14

“You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your countrymen or one of your aliens who is in your land in your towns.”  Deut. 24:14

And don’t forget the one above that I quoted regarding the Day of Atonement, Lev. 16:29-30

There are many, many more.  God has always intended that Israel be a light to the nations.  The Jews were never supposed to treat people with disdain.  They were told not to inter-mingle in marriage or to follow other nations gods, but if a non-Jew was seeking friendship there was no law against it. This tradition of the Jews to not associate with Gentiles was something concocted by corrupt religious leaders.

Guess what? It’s the same with the Church.  We are to be in the world, but not of it.  We are to be just as hospitable to non-believers as Israel was to be to non-Jews.  But we are not to marry unbelievers.  God is the same yesterday and today!

Acts 10 is really about Christ’s atonement!