Session 5: The Flat Earth
A GLobal History
Most historians credit Pythagoras, the sixth-century B.C. Greek philosopher with being the first to recognize a global earth.
The earth as sphere is the only view of Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and Jews in the 500 years before Christ.
It is often taught that the church believed in a flat earth during the dark ages. However, even a cursory look at Christian writings during this time prove this to be false.
*De sphaera mundi* was written in 1230, clearly teaching the earth as a sphere.
There was really never a large flat-earth movement until today.
Who Believes In a Flat Earth (and Why We Like Them!)
The modern flat earth movement is almost exclusively found among exclusive KJV users.
“rock solid" in believing God's Word to be inerrant.
These believers believe that the revelation of God's Word about the earth is the final word.
These believers are not afraid to go against the grain.
In other words: these believers are just like us.
Let's Look At the Scripture Used To Support The Theory
Genesis 1:7 and the teaching of the firmament.
Flat earthers teach this as a solid glass-like dome over the earth.
Oxford English Dictionary gives this “ literal and figurative."
To insist that the firmament is a glass dome, they must take the words of Genesis 1:14, in the firmament, to mean under the firmament.
They must also believe that the firmament has windows, see Genesis 1:20.
The firmament is given a name in verse 8: heaven.
We must use this name as the Biblical definition of firmament.
Genesis 1:26 uses the same Hebrew word translated in verse 8 as heaven. In verse 26 it is translated as sky.
Therefore, the Bible declares that the firmament* *is the sky.
Isaiah 40:22 and the circle of the earth.
Flat earth adherents interpret this as the dome above the earth.
Such interpretation is supposed to prove a flat earth with a dome. Somehow earth's supposed dome proves flatness of the earth.
However, if circle“half a sphere," then does circle prove flatness or sphericalness?
Ezekiel 7:2, Revelation “corners."
“squareness" more than “flatness." And no flat-earther believes in a square plane called the earth.
“dome" theory, and this theory is fundamental to a flat-earth view.
False Claims Of Flat Earthers
That a spinning globe around a moving sun theory depends on the Big Bang, therefore if you believe in a spinning globe moving around a sun, you have to believe in the Big Bang.
Such a view ignores other reasons for orbit that are much more satisfactory than the Big Bang.
Satellites…they would burn up due to the high temperature of the Thermosphere.
While each molecule of gas in the Thermosphere has extremely high temperatures, there are very few molecules at this level. In fact, they raise the surface temperature of the satellite only slightly.
There are never any stars in NASA's pictures of the moon.
This has everything to do with exposure time. A fraction of a second simply isn't capable of capturing the light of the stars.
If we are speeding through a space of billions of stars, we should never see the same stars.
This fails to recognize that the stars are also moving.
Conclusions:
The Flat Earth theory is held by the most well-meaning of all individuals.
Being well-intended does not mean being right.
Every scientific claim of flat earth thinkers can be addressed and sufficiently answered.
Every Biblical claim of the flat earth thinkers is also addressed by careful exegesis using responsible principles of hermeneutics.
