Rightly Dividing the KJB Study Blog

Here are some random thoughts I wrote down after watching a video that supposedly proved that the earth is flat.

The "flat earth" theory is more popular now than it has been in a few hundred years. From what I can tell, it is a YouTube trend for armchair 'scientists' and 'theologians'. Nobody in the real world has come to the conclusion that the earth is flat, the only people who think it is flat are people who watch YouTube all day. If you ask a flat earther "how did you get started on the flat earth theory", they will have to admit that they saw some dude teaching it on the internet....and of course, if it is on the internet then it must be true, right?

When you see people promoting the flat earth you can tell that they really LOVE the idea of it. It is part of their personality, they love the attention. They just love weird things, and the flat earth is the perfect conspiracy theory. It requires you to reject the popular view, conspiracy theorists love to be different. The FE theory also requires you to believe that NASA, pilots, all astronomers (even the Christian ones), and all world governments have been lying to everyone for hundreds of years. The common people have been being tricked into believing in a globe earth. Why? Why would anyone lie about the shape of the earth? Well, the flat earthers haven't figured that out yet themselves, but as soon as they think of something, I'm sure we'll see it on YouTube.

Flat Earthers like to pretend that the "globe earth" is a new idea, a lie, popularized by NASA (for some unknown reason). However, Greek astronomers believed in the globe earth in the third century BC.....so the globe is far from being a new NASA conspiracy.

Conspiracy theorists have three areas of interest:

They like attention, which is their driving force for accepting conspiracies. They generally have no interest in popular/majority opinions and studies. (Ex. They had rather spend time studying supposed Sasquatches than real animals.)
They like things that are odd, extraordinary, and downright weird. They like things that will make their friends say, "Wow! Are you sure? I've never heard that before."
They have an affinity with deception. They view everyone that is not 'in on' their conspiracies as liars who are trying to brainwash the world. Conspiracy theorists think they are the only ones that know the truth about important matters.

Some professing Christians are conspiracy theorists, so naturally some of them have jumped on this Flat Earth bandwagon. Not only have they adopted the FE view, they have also tried to make it a Christian doctrine.

One FE kook has claimed that you cannot understand the Bible unless you believe in a flat shaped earth. "75 bible verses in congruance with a flat earth"

And guess what? This same guy claims to have had contact with demons and aliens. His Youtube channel says, "I was attacked by demons, fought them off by not giving into my fear and then the next night I found a website that said alien abductions are actually demonic attacks and they stop in the name of Jesus. A couple of hours after that I got attacked by what I thought were aliens again and the first thing in my mind that I said was “Jesus help me” and it stopped." WEIRD!!!

That video has 2,870 views, 77 likes, and only 17 dislikes. That is a lot of "likes" for such a stupid video. Further proof that the FE theorists are just YouTube watchers that have nothing better to do.

These supposed Christians also like to pretend like regular people (globe believers) are not good Christians because we have believed the "evolutionist" lie of the globe earth. FE theorists try to link normal Christians with evolutionists because we believe in a globe earth. Which is dumb and not very nice.

FE Christians have Athenian syndrome.
"For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing." (Acts 17:21)

What is ironic is that the FE theory is an agnostic/evolutionist theory. The head of the Flat Earth Society is an evolutionist, Daniel Shenton. The most popular FE theorist is Eric Dubay, a self proclaimed "vegan anarchist" yoga instructor in Thailand.
But, when these conspiracy-theory-loving Christians ran to their Bibles as soon as they heard about the FE on Youtube in order to find verses that they could read the FE theory into. The watched Eric Dubay on YouTube and said "Wow, this is awesome. I'm gonna try and find that in the Bible."

So here I have responded to the proof texts used by FE theorists.

1.) "Four Corners": Flat earthers often use verses like Revelation 7:1 to say that the Earth cannot be a globe. They say that a globe cannot have four corners because it does not have points where two converging lines meet. However, most flat earthers believe that the earth is a 'flat' circular disc, so by that reasoning their earth model does not have four corners either! That is hypocritical in my opinion. It is clear that the "four corners" is just a reference to the whole earth. The "four corners" just refers to the whole earth, every direction, north/south/east/west. Such as Isaiah 11:12 "And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." It is clear that the verse is just referring to the Jews being gathered from the whole earth. It is not saying that the earth has four edges that the Jews all went to. Webster's 1828 dictionary lists this as one of the definitions of "corner". "5. Indefinitely any part; a part. They searched every corner of the forest. They explored all corners of the country. 6. The end, extremity or limit; as the corners of the head or beard. Leviticus 21:5 and 19."

Ezekiel 7:2 says, "Also, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD unto the land of Israel; An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land." Obviously this is saying that all Israel is going to have an end come upon it, but flat earther logic would make this passage refer to judgment coming on the four edges of Israel (which would make no sense).

Further, most flat earthers believe that their flat/circular earth has a ring of ice around it where nobody lives. They say that people cannot even get to the edge of it. So how did the Jews get to the edge of it in Isaiah 11:12?

Not only that, but the Bible says that our head has corners. "Ye shall not round the corners of your heads," (Lev. 19:27)

2.) "Not Moved": Flat earthers use 1 Chronicles 16:30, Ps. 93:1, and 96:10 to teach that the Earth does not move (geocentricity has been called the 'gateway drug to the flat earth). However, the passages are millennial passages referring to the 'WORLD to come', the system that Christ will set up in His earthly reign (Matt. 19:28, Heb. 2:5). They are not referring to the "world" in a physical geographical sense, but a political world system. The world that will be established and not moved is the millennial age when Christ will be here to "judge the people righteously" and all the world rejoices, in contrast to our "present evil world" (Gal. 1:4). Flat earthers take the passage out of context and pretend like it is referring to the present physical earth, even though the passage clearly says "the world also shall be established". 1 Chronicles 16:33 clearly says that it is a Second Advent context.

1 Chronicles 16:
[30] Fear before him, all the earth: the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved.
[31] Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice: and let men say among the nations, The LORD reigneth.
[32] Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof: let the fields rejoice, and all that is therein.
[33] Then shall the trees of the wood sing out at the presence of the LORD, because he cometh to judge the earth.
[34] O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.
[35] And say ye, Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and glory in thy praise.

Psalms 96:10 Say among the heathen that the LORD reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righteously.

3.) Sun's Circuit: Flat earthers say that the sun revolves above their flat stationary earth. They use Psalms 19:1-6 as a proof text.

Psalms 19:
[1] The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
[2] Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.
[3] There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.
[4] Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
[5] Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.
[6] His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

The passage cannot be used as God's scientific declaration on geocentricity. Psalms 19 is a figurative passage as seen by the statements "Day unto day uttereth speech", "their words", "Which is AS a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth AS a strong man to run a race". The passage is written from man's perspective about what looking at the firmament "SHEWETH". From man's perspective the sun does rise and set. Because we are on the earth looking up at the heavens, to us it looks like the sun is moving. Psalms 19:5-6 is personifying the Sun ("his") AS a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and AS a strong man running a race.

4.) Dome: The word "dome" isn't in the Bible. The word "firmament" means expanse, it is referring to the heavens. The birds fly "in the open firmament of heaven" (Gen. 1:20). The firmament is not a hard/glassy dome. There is a sea of glass in the third heaven at the throne of God (Rev. 4:6), but nowhere does the Bible say that there is one covering the earth. The Flat Earth dome-theory is not original to them, it is just a refried "canopy theory" idea.

5.) "Pillars of the earth": Flat earth theorists use 1 Samuel 2:8 and Job 9:6 to teach that the earth is on stationary pillars. But Bible believer's know that the earth hangs on NOTHING..."He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing." (Job 26:7)

The "pillars" of the earth are tectonic plates holding up the dry land. The earth has literal layers (and "bars" Jonah 2:6) that hold up the dry land. According to Job 9:6, these pillars "tremble" (like earth quakes).

"He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the LORD's, and he hath set the world upon them." (1 Samuel 2:8)

"Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble." (Job 9:6)

Besides that, since when is Hannah's prayer a scientific declaration on the shape of the earth?