some creationists like to point out Isaiah 40:22:
"It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth,
and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers;
that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain,
and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:"
BUT
1) a "circle" is NOT a "sphere".
2) the same word in the original hebrew text, "chug" that English-users have translated as "circle", is used in 3 or 4 other verses in the bible which CLEARLY do not make sense as a literal "sphere" or even a literal"circle".
Again, would you know the earth is spherical just by reading the Bible? If not, why do you "know" that God made everything in 6 literal days just by reading the Bible?Creationists (6-day creation): Would you know the earth is spherical just by reading the Bible?
Do I have to read the Bible to be a Creationist? What about the Quran? :)
Yes, but let's do this a step at a time...First, I DO NOT speak or read Hebrew, but I DO have a Bible Software program with search capabilities and a Hebrew Old Testament (HOT) built into it. Here is the Hebrew word "chug" as you say:
????
chu?g
khoog
From H2328; a circle: - circle, circuit, compassive
Now, here is Isaiah 40:22 IN HEBREW (HOT):
Isa 40:22 ????? ?????? ???? ??????? ?????? ????? ??? ????? ?????? ???? ??????
My Strong's and HOT search shows that this location is the ONLY occurance in the HOT of this word....You do NOT specify which version of the Bible you're using, so I'M ASSUMING that wherever else in scripture you say this word occurs, it is the work of translators. There are OTHER WORDS in Hebrew that have similar meanings, they are listed in Strong's as H2283, H2287, H5921, and H2291.
There are also more modern translations, such as Contemporary English, which use the word "circle" in Numbers 11:24, 2 Samuel 5:23, 1 Chronicles 14:14, Job 16:16, Isaiah 34:15 and Proverbs 8:27...But I'm going to ignore these scriptures for our discussion because they DO NOT use the Hebrew word "chug", and I think they're irrelevant to our discussion.
Now, if we go over to Job 26:10 in KJV with Strong's numbers, this is how it reads:
Job 26:10 He hath compassedH2328 H5921 the watersH6440 H4325 with bounds,H2706 untilH5704 the dayH216 and nightH2822 come to an end.H8503
Here is the SAME verse in MKJV (Modern King James):
Job 26:10 He has described a circle on the surface of the waters to the boundary of light with darkness.
Using Strong's, we can see that the word "compassed" in Hebrew is a compound word of "chug" AND H5921....
Now, modern science tells 4th grade students that the earth is a sphere and rotates around the sun...All the time, as the earth rotates, half of the earth is in light, and half is in darkness....We're agreed so far?
Ok, now tell me, if you had a BALL in one hand and a flashlight in the other in a dimly lit room, could you DEMONSTRATE that the SHAPE of the line "compassed" upon the ball BY THE FLASHLIGHT, AT THE BOUNDARY OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS is a circle ALWAYS, while you're spinning the ball?
If you can see this, can you now substitute ANY OTHER GEOMETRIC SHAPE besides the ball, and still have the boundary line between light and darkness shown as a "compassed" circle?
No, you can't. You have just proven the earth is a SPHERE using scripture and IGNORING Isaiah 40:22.
Now, regarding those 6 days of creation: I believe the Biblical account is intended by God to be taken literally; and I accept scripture as infallible.
In the KJV OT, starting in Genesis, the word for "day" is yome; it occurs 1422 times in 1250 verses, according to my Bible Software program. There simply isn't space here to post all the pertinent scriptures, demonstrating the consistency of the use of wording in the language.
It is a true statement that "yome" can mean a day, a season, or an indeterminate period of time...but it is ALSO true that throughout the OT, whenever "yome" is used WITH either morning OR evening in the same sentence, it is obvious from the context that it is referring to a period of 24 hours; here are a few examples OUTSIDE of Genesis, yet within the Torah (The Torah is simply The Law, or the First 5 books of the Old Testament):
Exo 10:13 And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.
Exo 16:23 And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.
Exo 19:16 And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.
Lev 6:20 This is the offering of Aaron and of his sons, which they shall offer unto the LORD in the day when he is anointed; the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a meat offering perpetual, half of it in the morning, and half thereof at night.
Each of these verses, written in the SAME language, using the very SAME HEBREW WORDS AS USED IN GENESIS, by the SAME author, in the SAME part of the Bible as Genesis, leave NO DOUBT as to a 24 hour day...There are far too many more examples to post; Why would the creation week be the ONLY place that these words represent something DIFFERENT?
To interpret differently is to use linguistic gymastics, ignore the rest of the text, and quite preposterous. Why would we pick a few sentences to make exception to common sense?
It is very unfortunate in 2008, there are people and entire websites built around attempts to destroy the credibility of the Bible...Most of them attempt it without the slightest idea of what they are really talking about.
Now, let's keep talking about this Hebrew language of the OT; there is NO PUNCTUATION in Ancient Hebrew!!??%26amp;$#@%* Whenever the writer wished to EMPHASIZE something, using ALL CAPS wasn't an option, neither was underlining or exclamation points....How was it done??
Repetition, repetition, repetition...And 3 times repetition is maximum. This is probably why the Bible says God is Holy, Holy, Holy (Isaiah 6:3). It states in Genesis:
Gen 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Gen 1:8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
Gen 1:13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.
Gen 1:19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
Gen 1:23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
Gen 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Remember, 3 times repetition is maximum in Hebrew, yet in Genesis, "yome" is used with morning AND evening, for ALL 6 days...This is DOUBLE emphasis to the max by using both morning and evening, and repetition SIX TIMES. Such emphasis, clarity, and repetition is used nowhere else in the Old Testament, I'd say God REALLY wants us to get this.
There is also sound science to confirm this: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=… This video is about 29 minutes long and presents scientific peer reviewed, court unrefuted evidence of the age of the earth. Of course, this is very inconvenient to atheists/evolutionists.
Once we have established creation week as a week in the sense we know of, Sunday thru Saturday, it is simply a matter of math to do the geneaolgies in Genesis 5, 11, and Matthew 1 to realize just how close Bishop Ussher is/was. The begats do NOT have gaps; they're just not all listed in the same chapter.
I know there is disagreement among mature Christians regarding this; and I gladly concede it is NOT necessary for salvation to agree upon the age of the earth....But it is exciting to me as a Christian to see the Truth of God's Word revealed; and I think it helps us mature as Christians to realize the Bible STARTS OUT with hermeneutic truth.
Hermeneutical's first definition is PLAIN or LITERAL, and Genesis' truth is very simple and plain... I would remind skeptic Christians that the word "parable" is used consistently PRIOR TO a parable in the New Testament; and Genesis as a book is NOT classified by scholars as Poetry, it is part of the Torah, or Law.
Therefore the poetic use of language such as metaphor, hyperbole, allegory and simile are not used and DO NOT APPLY. You are free to disagree with my opinions; you have just been given a mental tour of a fundie, and my opinions are based in scripture. Thank you for reading.
John the BaptistCreationists (6-day creation): Would you know the earth is spherical just by reading the Bible?
No, and there is no "proof" God is real. I just have faith.
God bless.
No one's answering because none of them own a computer yet. Technology like all change is the work of satan.Creationists (6-day creation): Would you know the earth is spherical just by reading the Bible?
Flat earth idea didn't come from the Bible. Just look up in the night sky and you can see that everything is round. On some nights you can actually see the curve of the moon without any magnification. The Greeks were the people who took the flat earth belief and ran with it. They were supposed to be the smart people of their time. Kind of like some think they are today.
Stick with the Bible, you won't go wrong. This argument claiming the Bible supports a flat earth is as old as the flat earth belief itself.
Debunked long ago.
You are playing word games.
The "circle" of the earth refers to its roundness. You would have to be really daft not to know this. Even when I was a little kid I knew what it meant.
The term "pillars of the earth" refer to the columns of the earth's crust which rise thousands of feet from the earth's floor to support the continents. That's common sense.
To this very day we refer to the "ends" of the earth, refering to the furthest points of the earth, and the "four corners of the earth", refering to the directionals of north, south, east and west. If you are trying to disuade us from believing the Bible with your nonsense, it won't work.
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