I didn’t really have time for this today….

But sometimes you don’t get to pick your day, your day picks you!

In Communist Russia, Day Picks You!

Sorry I digress….

Setting Yakov aside, I actually have a serious issue to discuss: Flat Earth.

Buckle up folks, because it’s about to get bumpy!

Why am I bringing this up today?

Because a reader sent me an email about it and I thought the email was so genuine and so well-intentioned that I had to respond to it.

They sent me this link saying Flat Earth is a “doctrine of demons”: https://danielbotkin6.wixsite.com/gatesofeden/single-post/flat-earth-a-doctrine-of-demons

Oh my!

I get over 1,000 emails each day and I can’t possibly respond to all of them, but this one did catch my eye and I did read the article, as you can too!  But allow me to paraphrase is….

The short summary of the article is a plea from the author that we please immediately stop talking about Flat Earth because it makes Christians look stupid!  Or maybe even so stupid to you have to spell it with two o’s — stoopid!

Then it falls back on the most common defense you typically see, at least when bringing the Bible into it.  Because most people quickly realize if you read your Bible it does clearly describe a still, flat Earth, covered by a dome!

Almost anyone who is intellectually honest admits that (more on that below, including from the great Dr. Michael Heiser).

But that then creates a problem because we know all of Scripture is inspired by God and Jesus himself IS the “Word” so surely he would know how he created things, right?

So to solve that problem the article and most Flat Earth opponents fall back on the common claim that “all of that was just allegorical and metaphorical.”

Ok.  Maybe.

And I’ll just say right up front two things:  (1) I’m not 100% confident on either model.  The more I learn the more I seriously question the Globe model, but I don’t know for sure.  And somewhat related (2) the author of that article above and all Flat Earth haters might be right!  Good chance you are!

But that’s why I wanted to write about this, because I’ve noticed something….

I’ve noticed that almost everyone on the Flat Earth side (and by that I don’t mean only the diehards, I just mean people who curious and want to look into it more) usually all demonstrate the same characteristics…. They’ve been told since Grade school the Earth is a globe.  They’ve seen the imagery in every movie (hello, Universal?).  They all know you have to be an IDIOT to think the Earth is flat, and in fact that’s often the litmus test they use!

And then a funny thing happens….

Something causes them to look into it, and they soon have more questions than answers.  They soon start to realize there’s a lot more here than meets the eye.  They usually end up where I am which is I’m suddenly no longer sure what I think!

And here’s the key part….we don’t want to convince anyone or change what YOU believe, we just want to talk about it, explore, investigate, conduct experiments!  You know, the Scientific Method?  Perhaps you’ve heard of it?

But then I’ve noticed something from the other side.

The common refrain from the other side is often exactly what it was in that article above — STOP TALKING ABOUT IT!  Shut up you!  Stop this right now, you are NOT allowed to talk about this.

And in my experience, I have found that truth most frequently lies with the group that is promoting open debate and open investigation and it rarely lies with the group attempting to cease all discussion and taking away your free speech on the topic (hello, COVID?).

So I start there.

If we’re so wrong and so misguided and we’re going to look SO DUMB, then why not let us talk about it and come to that conclusion?  Where’s the harm?

A few other quick thoughts…

What sources do we have that the Earth is a Globe?  Well, we have Governments (Space Programs) and NASA (also Government) and Freemasons.  Is that a group you tend to trust?  Question asked and answered.

Grok tells us at least 4 of the 12 US astronauts who have landed on the Moon are publicly open about being Freemasons and more may have been but not disclosed:

The article above also claims that Flat Earth is modern day “Gnosticism”.  In other words, it’s some brand new, secret set of knowledge that only a select few have access to.

I would respectfully flip that on it’s head and suggest “Flat Earth” has been the primary understanding of our world since literally the beginning.  It’s certainly the model described in the Bible (allegory or not).  In fact, it wasn’t really until Copernicus (1500s) and Magellan (also 1500s) that the Earth-centric model was widely challenged.

So who is truly the newcomer on the block bringing the “Gnostic” knowledge?  NASA and Governments and Freemasons.

Things that make you go hmmmmm…….

Now let’s take a moment to discuss the claim that it’s all just Allegory and Metaphor in the Bible…

We see this pattern arise frequently when the Bible and Science appear to conflict.

Of course it’s my belief that the Bible doesn’t ever truly conflict with Science.

You see, Science is constantly revising itself and changing its mind, as we discussed a bit above.  Science is never “fully settled”.  The Bible on the other hand, is unmoving and changes only by humans who attempt to read in new meanings.  The Bible was written once and stands firm.

So when Science and the Bible conflict, it’s often Science just being a little behind — or perhaps in the case of COVID and NASA, perhaps intentionally misleading?  I mean, we all just lived through 3 years of “The Science” lying straight to our faces, please tell me we’ve all learned something from that?

We first encountered this conflict between Science and the Bible in Genesis 1 — was it REALLY 6 days of Creation?  Again, it’s almost impossible to read that question without hearing the hiss of the “S” from the Serpent.

Science tells us the Universe is billions of years old — if not more!

So clearly the Bible is wrong.

Theologians fell all over themselves to come up with explanations.

Have you heard of the “Gap Theory”?

That’s a beauty.

They claim that what really happened is there is this big massive “gap” in time between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2.

Genesis 1

1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

They claim that in between 1 and 2 was this huge period of time, perhaps even many prior creations of people!  (Basically the entire plot of Battlestar Gallactia).  These prior generations of people turned evil and destroyed creaetion and then Verse 2 if you truly look at the original Hebrew and argument can be made to say the verse SHOULD read “then the Earth BECAME formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep.”

So there you go!

The Gap Theory magically restores the Bible and Science.

Hogwash, if you ask me.

For just one reason, God doesn’t make light until Genesis 1:3, so did all those prior generations and billions of years exist without light?  Oh trust me, there are entire doctoral thesis papers addressing this question.  What utter nonsense and waste of time and resources.

How about we just take the Bible at what it says?

Then there’s the claim that “Day” is really a Hebrew word that just means “a period of time” and making it a day isn’t necessarily right.

Really?

As I read it, the Bible in Genesis seems to go to great trouble to suggest these are indeed six 24-hour periods of time.

Have you ever noticed how after each day it says “And there was evening, and there was morning—the [first] day.”

Ever wondered why that was in there?

I believe it’s there because God of course saw this debate coming and he just put it in there to make the connection to “days” much stronger and harder to miss.

In fact, you have to do an incredible amount of mental gymnastics to make the case that the Bible doesn’t describe six literal days of creation.  And you have to do those mental gymnastics because you are letting SCIENCE define the Bible.  Kind of a bad idea if you ask me.

“Let God be true and every man a liar.”

In fact…if you want to disprove six literal days of Creation, you have a much bigger problem with Moses in Exodus than you do with Genesis.

You do know that right?

In Exodus 20:8-11, as part of the Ten Commandments, the text draws a direct link between the six days of creation and the observance of the Sabbath:

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

God, writing through the pen of Moses, makes very clear the tie between literal days and the days of Creation and the day of the Sabbath.

They’re not eons of time.

Yes the Bible says to God a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day, but I just find it very hard to believe that God would write Genesis and Exodus 20 in such a way that seems so clear on its face but which doesn’t really mean what it seems to say.

Do we have a God of confusion?

Is that the way he operates?

Does he hide the ball and try to confuse you?

Not in my experience.

So that’s the battle that Bible believers and “The Science” have had for decades now.  It’s all just allegory!  It can mean whatever you want it to mean!  “Day” doesn’t really mean a day, don’t be silly!

And that same logic has now seeped into the whole Flat Earth discussion.

Yes, even the haters will admit the Bible undeniably describes a still, flat Earth with an outstretched dome over it, but that was just poetic!

I give you three videos from Dr. Michael Heiser, who longtime readers here will know I have the utmost respect for.  He’s just the best.  One of the best brains we had in the 20th and 21st centuries, certainly in the academic world and perhaps overall.

And in these videos you will see Dr. Heiser reaches a big of a Catch-22 even for himself.  He is intellectually honest enough to tell you exactly what the Bible describes, and he explains how the Biblical Israelite would indeed have viewed the model of the Earth as what we’d call “Flat Earth” but he says he himself knows the Earth is a Globe.

Watch here:

And:

And even more here:

And before I go, I want to leave you with a few other videos…

These are from Rob Skiba, a man we sadly lost during COVID.

Rob is the main person who originally caught my attention with all of this and if you’re skeptical I would just challenge you to watch these and the come to your own conclusions.

As Rob so perfectly says, every single person who is exploring “Flat Earth” all started out as a Glober.  Every. Single. One.  Not one person has ever made the reverse trip.  How interesting!

If all you know about Flat Earth is this meme below, and you wonder how anyone could possibly be so dumb, and if you just want to shout out STOP TALKING ABOUT IT!!!! then I challenge you to watch these videos below.

If you watch the videos below and still think it’s dumb, you are completely free to keep your opinions.  Just as I should be free to want to investigate and talk and ask questions.

Sound fair?

Let’s start with this one, which is so perfectly titled:

Then go here:

Who Really Has The Intellectual High Ground?

Then go here:

The Firmament:

And if you find yourself shocked and surprised and a bit confused that you no longer want to shout at these DUMMIES to SHUT UP, then you want to go here next:

Leave a comment below, but please only do so once you’ve spent a little time on the videos.

Let’s not forget this great quote that Chuck Missler would so often recite:

“Condemnation before investigation, is the highest form of ignorance.”