abc << Do you believe earth comes first or light comes first? Seasons first or grass first? >>
Why do you worry about such things?
Do you believe the earth is the unmovable center of the universe, and flat like a circular disk with a hard-vault firmament or domed ceiling, that has windows, doors, gates, and stories of stairs, with the stars very small and near objects that were placed “in” that hard-vault firmament? The Bible seems to say so:
The ancient Hebrews, like their older and more powerful neighbors, the Babylonians and the Egyptians, were flat-earthers. The Hebrew cosmology is never actually spelled out in the Bible but, even without knowledge of the Babylonian system upon which it is patterned, it can be read between the lines of the Old Testament. The Genesis creation story itself suggests the relative size and importance of the earth and the celestial bodies by specifying their order of creation. The earth was created on the first day, and it was “without form and void” (Gen 1:2). On the second day a vault – the “firmament” of the King James Bible – was created to divide the waters, some being above and some below the vault (Gen 1:6-8). Not until the fourth day were the sun, moon, and stars created, and they were placed “in,” not “above,” the vault (Gen 1:14-17). The sizes of these bodies are not specified, but they had to be small, as Joshua later commanded the sun to stand still “in Gibeon” and the moon “in the Vale of Aijalon” (Josh 10:12).
The Bible repeatedly speaks of the “ends” of the earth. Sometimes the word in Hebrew is ephes, which means “end, extreme limits, nothingness.” Other times it is qatsah or qetsev, which means, again, “end, extremity.” Deuteronomy 13:7, for instance, uses the expression “from one end of the earth to the other end.” The same expression, or a reference to the “end of the earth,” occurs in Deuteronomy 28:49, 64; 33:17; 1 Samuel 2:10; Psalm 19:4; 22:27; 46:9; 48:10; 59:13; 65:5; 67:7; 98:3; 135:7; Proverbs 17:24; 30:4; Job 28:24; 37:3; Isaiah 5:26; 24:16; 40:28; 41:5; 42:10; 45:22; 48:20; 49:6; 52:10; 62:11; Jeremiah 10:13; 16:19; 25:33; Micah 5:4.
Moreover, not only does the Bible indicate that the earth is flat and has ends, but it also teaches that the earth is square and has corners. Isaiah 11:12 says that God will “gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” Ezekiel 7:2 says that “the end is coming on the four corners of the earth.” See also Revelation 7:1; 20:8, etc.
Other passages complete the picture. God “sits enthroned on the vaulted roof of earth, whose inhabitants are like grasshoppers” (Isa 40:21-22; cf. 45:12; 48:13). He also “walks to and fro on the vault of heaven” (Job 22:12-14), which vault is “hard as a mirror of cast metal” (Job 37:18; cf. 9:8). The roof of the sky has “windows” that God can open to let the waters above fall to the surface as rain. The Bible clearly speaks of the “windows” of heaven (Gen 7:10f; 8:2; 2 Kings 7:2, 19; Isa 24:18f; Jer 51:15f; Mal 3:10); the “doors” in heaven that are “shut up” (1 Kings 8:35; 2 Chron 6:26; 7:13; Psalm 78:23; Rev 4:1; 11:6; 19:11); heaven has “gates” (Gen 28:17; Lev 26:19) and stories of stairs (Amos 9:6). A study of these passages will indicate that rain and food come through heaven’s windows, etc.
The topography of the earth isn’t specified, but Daniel “saw a tree of great height at the center of the earth…reaching with its top to the sky and visible to the earth’s farthest bounds” or “to the end of the whole earth” (Dan 4:10-11). Such visibility would not be possible on a spherical earth, but might be expected if the earth were flat.
“It is He who sits above the circle of the earth [or is enthroned above the vault 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 NASB)
“Fear before him, all the earth: the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved.” (1 Chron 16:30)
“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.” (Psalm 93:1, also 96:10; 104:5)
See also Psalm 8:4; 19:4-7; 104:19; 119:90; Ecclesiastes 1:5; 2 Kings 20:9-11; 2 Chron 32:24; Isaiah 38:7-8; 45:18; Joshua 10:12-14; Judges 5:31; Job 9:7; Habakkuk 3:11; James 1:11-12; and in the deuterocanon Sirach 43:1-10; 46:3-4; Wisdom 7:18-19.
Now I understand some people disagree about
the biblical details here, but at least it is a plausible “biblical” argument. I don’t worry about such “scientific” details as you may get from the Bible. Neither do the Popes, neither does the Catechism.
Phil P