This is going to be a fun one. First you need to understand something and let me say it like this...
In the past 100 years or so many artists have made depictions of what "the heavens & the earth" looks like. The interesting thing is that when they do so, based solely on scripture from our modern 66 book canon, they all end up with something very similar. Like this:
Nothing like a spinnig globe in space. I wonder why? Let's find out!
Now... I'm not making a post about Flat Earth, that kind of misses the point I'm trying to make.
I want to point out that we get a much clearer picture of many things described in the both the Old & New Testament when we observe both the heavens and the earth from the same perspective as the writers did.
Let's start with the beginning of God's story. The verse we never quite got....
Genesis 1:6 - And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
Genesis 1:7 - And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
If you look at your Bible and don't see the same thing its because many translations are actually transliterations, we end up with a "modern-day" version of Genesis and those replace words like "firmament" with "expanse" and "to divide the waters above from the waters below" is replaced with "the waters from the waters." King James sticks to its roots and our closest version on the original Greek Old Testament is actually the Septuagint. Anyway I like have quite a few translations, but it's clear that Satan has used vast amount of them to support a narrative that isn't truly what was described in Genesis. That sketches me out. See translations side-by-side here.
So look at that model again...
Is the Biblical model of earth stationary where the stars move in sync about it? Yes absolutely. I absolutely side with the Bible over the luciferian astrologers and NASA's scientist magicians. When you look into it - even a little - it will absolutely open your eyes and you'll go from believing in space like I did... to laughing your face off every time they say anything. If you need some info on that, there is a great video called What On Earth Happened that does an incredibly detailed job of putting the pieces together and showing you how plainly you can see the earth work opposite of their narrative.
That is extremely helpful to see and it comes with a lot of cognitive disonance, but let's stay on track...
ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS
Everyone seems to think that ancient civilizations always believed the earth was a sphere and that's simple not true.
The thing that gets to me is that the Bible is inspired by Yahweh Himself and He used angels to clearly come tell his messages. So theres no way all these people of ancient past could be completely wrong. That means God gave this description to His people. I'm not going to doubt the model just because " ancient people were dumb and uncivilized." Even that is clearly not true. The technology of the 1800's vastly surpasses what we even have now is so many ways. Watch the Investigating Babylon series for clear-cut evidence that they were absolutely advanced!
Ok so we're starting to see what they thought and there's months worth of information on that, but I want to keep going. Dig with me further...
Why Does This Model Matter?
• THE EARTH
So why does this model matter when it comes to understanding context of the Bible? I could talk for a long time about this, but let me just jog your memory for those of you who are already pretty familiar with the Bible. Here are a few examples of events in scripture depicted on a globe and on a stationery plane.
• CONSIDER THESE BIBLICAL EVENTS
• Can you flood anything without a container around it?
• Doesn't water always find a level point?
• Did Satan take Jesus to a "high place" where he can see the other side of the globe too?
• Didn't God say on the Day of the Lord he will open the Heavens like a scroll? (Imagine a baseball stadium with a roof.)
• Do you think stars that are supposedly light-years away will fall down to earth on a globe model?
• The entire earth will see Jesus return. How does that work on a globe?
• What was the city Abraham was looking for in the Third Heaven?
• Doesn't Paul say he knew someone who saw a vision of the New Jerusalem in the 3rd Heaven? (So there's at least three. Maybe layers of the firmament. Kinda like stories of a house?)
• Ezekiel gets to see the throne room of Yahweh in the "highest heaven." (So does Enoch for what it's worth.)
• God allowed Joshua to stop the sun to fight the Amorites. The earth didn't stop spinning.
All of this makes sense on the model the Bible describes in Genesis 1 and does not work...on the globe. A model that's only really been going strong for about 100-200ish years.
• EDUCATION & CHURCH
Many kids who grew up in Bible reading homes turn away from God when they finish their studies at a university. A study from Answers in Genesis claim that number was 70%! Did you know that 19 million people go through US universities each year? That means something like 13 million turn away from God and it is all because science has become the foundation for logic and common sense...instead of the Bible. We know that universities teach that we are a happy accident and that God is nowhere, but the issue is that many of these kids who turn away only do so because they were never given a good answer from their churches. Instead they cling to "common sense" and "thinking for themselves" when in fact both of those are rooted in the lie provided by science as our foundation for so-called "logical" thinking. Theres actually a lot of data on that and you can explore that with this great video from Sean 's channel called Kingdom in Context.
...Let God be true and every man a liar. - Romans 3:4
• THE FIRMAMENT & HEAVENS
The Seven layer firmament model above is based solely on scripture. Most you can find in the modern canon and some are from a few of the more trusted books that have been removed like Enoch, Baruch, Esdras, Jubilees Testament of Levi.
Check out these videos from Hanging on His Words for a detailed explanation of the model and to see all the verses that build it. Piece by piece. Its a really neat visual for sure.
Here is where we start seeing pieces of the Bible makes sense for the first time...
Revelation and the New Jerusalem
I've come to see that most of the confusion around Revelation boils down to the lack of context surround where the events takes place.
For example when you understand the cosmology put forth in the rest of the Bible you can see that the city of New Jerusalem is a city that literally comes down through the firmament and lands on the earth. Then start adding in the verses from Revelation 21 and we see that this city is 1,400 miles square (so very much-so physical) and will have a river that runs from it that will restore the nations after the Day of the Lord. Plus, there are trees along the side of it with leaves that are used as medicine for the people outside the city that will come that survived the day of the Lord. Also it's worth noting Jesus does not destroy the world completely. When Yahweh makes things, He makes perfect and sin messes it up. The "new Heaven & New Earth" in Revelation is the restored version of what God originally made. No exploding planets like I used to visualize.
• SHEOL (part of the earth)
Then Sheol is a whole another topic that will probably get it's own post, but think about 1 Thessalonians 4:17...
"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise. After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
So people die - their soul goes to Sheol, spirit goes to the Father back from where it was given ("the breath of life") and the your body stays in the ground. Then we are promised new bodies after this resurrection moment! Bodies that Jesus showed off after his resurrection. (Ballin!)
Check out this mind blowing combination of just simply scripture. It's all there when we know what we are looking at. Jesus even told us about it in Luke 16. I always read past this and never understood it until now. Watch this and you'll see...
The Lake of Fire aka Gehenna
The word "hell" is sometime translated as Gehenna. This is the lake of fire and whats so interesting is if you keep digging you'll see that all the descriptions of the Lake of Fire in the Bible are spoken as a place of eternal destruction. Not actually burning forever over and over like many of us were taught. That's not to say theres not fire and burning involved for the unrighteous. Go dig for yourself and use Bible hub to search for the passages and then look up the definition of the word when you see "hell."
These guys did a great job too if you want to start here and see what you think.
And none of that was ever taught to me because we didn't have the context of the firmament or the correct view of the Heavens. Wow.
(That's ok. I'm not mad at anyone over it. I'm just thankful for what God is showing me in His word.)
The Movie Analogy
Imagine for a minute that the Bible is like a movie. There are many scenes in the movie and they all take place in different locations. Sure you understand the small picture... like, one scene is in a house and another in a lake or whatever, but what if at the end of the movie it turns out everything was in a totally different (I hate this term) planet. All of the sudden you just gained a huge amount of context that is very important to seeing what the movie is about. (Even though planets are most likely stars with a constant frequency of sound in the "waters above" the firmament.)
I used to think that God made Space, but it turns out the people who made space actually tell you that if you believe in a Creator, you are holding back new discoveries with your archaic way of thinking. We know they hate the Most High, so why should we believe what they say? The Creator is pretty stinking clear about what He made and shouldn't he be? I mean He is also the perfect Father and even a dad who is just good wants to communicate clearly with his kids. I don't think God made this complicated, but He always Satan to establish his kingdom on earth until the Day of the Lord, so the question becomes...
Is this lie about the earth something Satan would benefit from? And Is he capable of it?
Absolutely.
He tries to hide the Creator every chance he gets and think about it....thats exactly what the idea of space does! As followers of Jesus it puts God somewhere out in who-knows-where. Far away from the creation he loves. The space experts would tell you He doesn't even exist. God wants to be close to his people. He is separated from us because of sin for a time (possibly a reason for the firmament) but he is loving working hard to restore it back to the way it was in the Garden. We miss how close He is physically when we believe the narrative about planets in space.
It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter. - Proverbs 25:2
The Point
I hope this is becoming more clear, but it's important to know that we have been taught an extremely different view of heaven and earth and it has caused us to miss some very important context. I just ask that you keep all this in the back of your mind as you keep reading the modern canon and just you wait, everything starts unlocking.
This context is also critical in many of these hidden scriptures as they talk about Sheol, the Heavens, the ends of the earth etc... and they talk about it a lot. So I'm wondering if thats a big reason why they've been kicked out of our modern canon.
Could be!
I hope this helps you in your journey to understand all of God's promises!
It's a fun one. The funnest.
Praise the Most High!
Want To Keep Digging?! Do It!
SERIES TO WATCH
Investigating Babylon - This is crucial. Absolutely crucial.
Uncommon Ground - Great combo of biblical & observable data. Funny too.
ACCOUNTS TO SUB
VERSES ABOUT EARTH
Isaiah 40:12 - “He has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand and with the breadth of his hand marked off the Heavens...”
Revelation 1:7 - The entire earth will see Jesus return.
Ephesians 1:4 - For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love
Genesis 1:6 - And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
Genesis 1:7 - And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
Psalm 19:4-6 - Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun. It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is deprived of its warmth. (Like when you run a race it’s in a circle.)
Psalm 93:1 (LLX) - For the day before the Sabbath, when the land was first inhabited, the praise of a Song by David. The Lord reigns; he has clothed himself with honor: the Lord has clothed and girted himself with strength; for he has established the world, which shall not be moved.
Psalm 104:5 - Who lied the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.
Psalm 75:3 - The earth and all who live in it melt; It is I who have firmly set it’s pillars. Selah. (Not only is it set, but it has pillars.)
Isaiah 40:22 - “He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth.”
And heres lots more for you to study...
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