Nothing Will Be Restrained From Them
God said at the Tower of Babel,
All of the people are of one language and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
Genesis 11:6
I think thats a pretty powerful statement myself.
What has man imagined to do?
Travel to the moon, other plants, and explore space.
I believe we have done that.
Not only our nation, but many other nations have space programs as well and we can all see their photos. Ironically enough, two billionaires just traveled into space for the first time. High enough above the earth to see its curvature anyway.
This brings up an interesting point, space travel will soon be cheap enough where more and more people can make the voyage. It would be my opinion, but the flat earth concept will soon be a thing of the past as more people can see with their own eyes the curvature of the earth.
Not that we cannot see that today through the photos of numerous space programs. Not to mention the satellite communications and things like the precession of the equinoxes.
Is that really an honest and valid worldview to hold?
I dont think so, especially when the Bible itself indicates the earth is round.
What About The Devils Temptation Of Jesus
To tempt Jesus, the Devil took him along to an unusually high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. Some claim that this Bible account teaches that the entire world is visible from a single spot on a flat earth. However, the unusually high mountain in this account seems to be a metaphor and not a physical location. Consider why this conclusion is reasonable.
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There is no literal mountain on earth from which all the kingdoms of the world are visible.
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The Devil showed Jesus not only all the kingdoms but also their glory. Such details could not be seen from a great distance, so it seems that the Devil used some sort of vision to show these to Jesus. This could be similar to the way a person uses a projector and a screen to show someone pictures of various places on earth.
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The parallel account at Luke 4:5 says that the Devil showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the inhabited earth in an instant of time, which would not be possible through normal human vision. This implies that the Devil presented this temptation to Jesus through some means other than literal human sight.
^ The Bible refers to God as the One who dwells above the circle of the earth. Some reference works allow for the possibility that the word here rendered circle could mean a sphere, although not all scholars agree on this point. In any case, the Bible does not support the idea of a flat earth.
^ Revised Edition, Volume 2, page 4.
The Missing South Pole
Another problem lies with the modern flat-earth claims that the earth is encircled by an enormous Antarctic ring due south from everywhere. And what do we make of the AmundsenScott South Pole Station? It was built by the United States and is manned year-round, and has a web camera thats accessible anywhere in the world via the Internet. There is no south pole on a flat earth.
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A Spherical Earth Is Deception
You know what always baffled me Jerry?
I recall a conversation I had with a flat earth believer once.
They told me,
Believing the earth is spherical is apart of the deception in the world.
Personally, I thought that was odd, it just didnt make sense to me.
So I asked,
How exactly does believing in a massive universe deceive me?
They really didnt have a good answer.
So I went on to explain,
For me, a massive universe only proves and displays Gods majesty and greatness!
Seeing Gods heavenly celestial bodies is marvelous and increases my faith in the Being who created everything!
Just like we are told in Psalms 19:1-4 concerning the stars, and in Romans 1:20.
Refuting 200+ Flat Earth Bible Verses
Many flat-earth believers circulate lists or memes that allege that there are 200 Bible verses supporting a flat earth. The list can be found in many places online, and has a history unknown to most FE believers, being originally compiled by people who were trying to mock the Bible, not support it. We sourced the list below from a site called Flat earth doctrine, but it is basically the same as many others. However, this oft-parroted list contains the usual scholarly sloppiness and leaps of logic that we have come to expect from flat-earthers. Most of the verses have absolutely nothing to do with the shape of the earth, so the list is basically elephant-hurling.
We want to address this list here for one specific reason: we do not want to see anyone else get caught up in this deception!
Many of the verses below are actually dealing with a different issue: whether the earth is stationary or moves, i.e. geocentrism vs. geokineticism, which is distinct from whether the earth is flat or spherical. Almost all geocentrists, from the time of the classical Greek astronomers, to Galileos opponents, to the present day affirmed a spherical earth. For example, the leading geocentrist authors today, Gerardus Bouw and Robert Sungenis, are staunchly opposed to flat-earthism . For additional discussion of this class of verses, see our other paper, Refuting absolute geocentrism: Biblical phenomenological language.
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Is The Earth Flat What The Bible Says
So how do these considerations relate to the shape of the Earth? Despite the preceding qualifications about reading and interpreting Scripture, we cannot locate a single verse in the Bible that teaches the Earth is flat. Neither in prose nor in poetry, neither by means of phenomenological language nor metaphor, do we find Scripture communicating a flat Earth. The flat-Earth theory is an interpretive deduction, usually based on poetic hyperbole. But is a flat Earth even an accurate interpretive deduction? As we will see, it is far from obvious that the Bible teaches the Earth is flat.
The Immovability Of The Earth
These passages are often sited as being able to prove a flat earth. These verses are all poetry and must be hermeneutically applied as such. Poetic passages are never meant to be taken literally. A fixed earth could not be destroyed by God as He has promised to do so in order to create a new one.
In Psalms we see a unique Hebrew word kun which means fixed or established. This word is also used in 1 and 2 Samuel when it is describing Davids kingdom. We also see it in Psalm 10:6, and Proverbs 10:30 where it says that the righteous shall not be moved. It doesnt mean that the righteous are frozen to the spot. This word has an opposite: mut which means moveable. It is often translated slip or sway. From understanding the Hebrew words used, we can understand that the earth is firmly established in its construction. It is very well designed. God has created laws of chemistry and biology and physics to allow the earth to function well. We know that the sun will rise and will set and that winter will eventually give way to spring and to summer. These fluctuations are still well within the realm of immoveable. We cannot take these verses literally without altering the meaning of the verses in other places where this word is used.
12)1 Chronicles 16:30 Tremble before him, all the earth! The world is firmly established it cannot be moved.
14)Psalm 10:6 He says to himself, Nothing will ever shake me. He swears, No one will ever do me harm.
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Nasa Admits To The Biblical Flat And Non
When he established the heavens, I was there when he set a circle on the surface of the deep, God said, Let there be an expanse in the middle of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. God made the expanse, and divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse and it was so. God called the expanse sky. There was evening and there was morning, a second day. Can you, with him, spread out the sky, which is strong as a cast metal mirror? Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power. It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in
Class : Equivocal Or Decontextualized Language
Earth is a Disk/Circle, not a ball: Isaiah 40:22, Job 38:1314
These books were originally written in Hebrew, not Early Modern English . And as explained in our article, the word translated circle is , which is a generic word meaning roundness. Biblically, it is also used to describe the vault of heaven. Flat-earthers insist the vault is a solid dome, i.e. a 3-D roundness . So, it cant be limited to 2-D roundness. It cannot mean flat disk even to a flat-earther.
Some flat-earthers claim that another word , would have been used if it had meant ball, as in Isaiah 22:18 . But Isaiah uses the same expression in 29:3, And I will encamp against you all around . Are we to understand that the army besieging Jerusalem formed a dome over the city? If not, then it follows that dûr is not exclusively used for 3-D roundness either. We have discussed this issue in Isaiah 40:22 and the shape of the earth.
Another point against them is that the earth could mean the dry land, and since one meaning for khûg is any sort of circuit, the circle of the earth could mean the shorelines.4
As for the Job passage, this includes the dawn light shaking the wicked out of the earth, as shown by including v. 12 for context:
Earth Measured with a Line, not a curve: Job 38:45
Paths are Straight, not curved: 1 Samuel 6:12, Psalm 5:8, Psalm 27:11, Isaiah 40:3, Jeremiah 31:9, Matthew 3:3, Mark 1:3, Luke 3:4, John 1:23, Acts 16:11, Acts 21:1, Hebrews 12:13
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Did Bible Writers Believe The Earth Was Flat
No, this false idea is not taught in Scripture.
Some Bible critics have claimed that Revelation 7:1 assumes a flat Earth since the verse refers to angels standing at the four corners of the Earth. Actually, the reference is to the cardinal directions: north, south, east, and west. Similar terminology is often used today when we speak of the sun’s rising and setting, even though the Earth, not the sun, is doing the moving. Bible writers used the language of appearance, just as people always have. Without it, the intended message would be awkward at best and probably not understood clearly.
In the Old Testament, Job 26:7 explains that the Earth is suspended in space, the obvious comparison being with the spherical sun and moon.
A literal translation of Job 26:10 is He described a circle upon the face of the waters, until the day and night come to an end. A spherical Earth is also described in Isaiah 40:21-22the circle of the earth.
Note, the Biblical Hebrew word for circle can also mean round or sphere.
The Hebrew record is the oldest, because Job is one of the oldest books in the Bible. Historians generally credit the Greeks with being the first to suggest a spherical Earth. In the sixth century B.C., Pythagoras suggested a spherical Earth.
Eratosthenes of Alexandria calcuated the circumference of the Earth within 50 miles of the present estimate.
When the Bible touches on scientific subjects, it is entirely accurate.
Outer Space Doesn’t Exist
He will surely wind you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a large country. There you will die, and there the chariots of your glory will be, you shame of your lords house. 4 founders of NASA were Nazis and devil worshippersIf I fought with animals at Ephesus for human purposes, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, then let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Dont be deceived! Evil companionships corrupt good morals. Wake up righteously, and dont sin, for some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame. Tremble before him, all the earth. The world also is established that it cant be moved. Yahweh reigns! He is clothed with majesty! Yahweh is armed with strength. The world also is established. It cant be moved. I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and the sea is no more. I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. After this current earth is burnt up at the end of timeAfter this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth, or on the sea, or on any tree. “that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and shake the wicked out of it? It is changed as clay under the seal, and presented as a garment.”
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Does The Bible Teach A Flat Earth
Some people believe in the flat earth because they have been convinced that the Bible teaches it. So they believe that by denying the FE, people are denying Gods word. IF the Bible taught the earth is flat, their argument would be sound. But the Bible does no such thing, so appealing to biblical inerrancy for non-existent flat-earth proof texts makes no sense. This is the classic fallacy of begging the question, or assuming the conclusion in the premises. As the list below shows, the Bible does not teach a flat earth!
Yet they are afraid of their opponents using a valid form of argument called denying the consequent: if Gods Word teaches a flat earth, and if the earth is not flat , then Gods word is not true.
But since the earth is not actually flat, and since the Bible does not teach that it is flat, they fall into a trap of their own making and must hold onto an illogical and untenable position despite all the evidence to the contrary.
Before we address specific verses, we note again that if the Bible really taught a flat earth, then its inconceivable that almost no one throughout the entire history of the church taught it. Thats despite a demonstrably high view of Scripture in general held by many of the global earth teachers throughout church history.
Class : Non Sequiturs
Earth Created Before the Sun: Genesis 1:119
We agreesee How could the days of Genesis 1 be literal if the sun wasnt created until the fourth day? But how does this prove that the earth is flat? They are attempting to argue against a fictitious sun worship they claim has crept into science. But the Bible clearly teaches against this, so citing the verse goes nowhere. Just because the earth came first does not mean the earth is flat.
Universe is Complete, NOT ever expanding: Genesis 2:1
The expansion of the universe can be debated, and is debated within our circles, but how would a non-expanding universe prove that the earth is flat? Arguing against the big bang is not the same thing as arguing that the earth is flat.
Earth Measurements Unknown: Job 38:45, Job 38:18, Jeremiah 31:37, Proverbs 25:3
How does this prove that the earth is flat? In any case, these passages were written before Eratosthenes measured the circumference of the earth quite accurately, so at the time of writing this was true. And modern flat-earthers typically tell us the size of their disk , so how does this passage not equally apply to them? By citing these passages, they are condemning themselves.
Earthquakes shake Earth, and does not move: 2 Samuel 22:8, Isaiah 13:13, Revelation 6:1213
Earth is fixed and immovable: 1 Chronicles 16:30, Psalm 33:9, Psalm 93:1, Psalm 96:10, Psalm 104:5, Psalm 119:89-90, Isaiah 14:7, Isaiah 45:18, Zechariah 1:11
Be still, and know that I am God: Psalm 46:10
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Sound Waves From Krakatoa
A similar argument involves a type of pressure wave with which we are very familiar: sound. Sound travels through our atmosphere, and we can detect that with our ears or microphones. However, ordinary sounds are dissipated quickly. Yet when Krakatoa blew up, the explosion was so loud that it could be heard around the world. Indeed, on the British ship Norham Castle, 40 miles from the explosion, over half the crews eardrums were shattered. A barometer at the Batavia gasworks 100 miles away from Krakatoa measured 172 decibels, which is over 100 times more powerful than standing next to a jet engine before takeoff, at only 150 dB .
Six hours and 47 minutes after the Krakatoa explosion, a spike of air pressure was detected in Calcutta. By 8 hours, the pulse reached Mauritius in the west and Melbourne and Sydney in the east. By 12 hours, St. Petersburg noticed the pulse, followed by Vienna, Rome, Paris, Berlin, and Munich. By 18 hours the pulse had reached New York, Washington DC, and Toronto. Amazingly, for as many as 5 days after the explosion, weather stations in 50 cities around the globe observed this unprecedented spike in pressure re-occuring like clockwork, approximately every 34 hours.15