"Because I have been enjoined by this Holy Office to abandon the false opinion that the Sun is the center and immovable, I abjure,   curse, and detest the said errors and heresies contrary to the said Holy Church."
                                                                                                                                                         Galileo Galilei

Is the earth flat, motionless and sitting serenely at the center of a simple three-layered universe with heaven above and hell below? Do the sun, moon, stars and other heavenly bodies circle a stationary earth? Does a flat earth rest on pillars? Does the moon emit light? Is the universe composed of water? According to the Holy Bible the answer to these questions is a resounding "yes." So long as this was the prevailing astronomical concept the Christian belief system was to some extent logical. But, when the earth ceased to be flat and no longer sat serenely at the center of a simple three-layered universe, Christianity was in deep trouble. The unvarnished truth is that the Christian belief system makes sense only in terms of a geocentric premise. The following biblical citations, while by no means a complete listing, give some examples of what might be termed "Biblical Cosmology."

The creation of the earth:

Genesis 1:6-8 ~ And God said, "Let there be a "firmament" in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." And God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above it. According to Random House Electronic Dictionary the word "firmament" means the arch or vault of heaven, i.e. the sky. So, what apparently happened here was that, acting upon a whim, God inserted a bubble of air into a water filled universe. The air bubble was encapsulated in a structure similar to an inverted bowl, the firmament, sealed at its edges to a flat surface, the earth. But, apparently there is not a great deal of space between the earth's flat surface in the overarching firmament. In Genesis 11:4 we are told that a tower could be built tall enough to reach it.  

This presents a couple of very interesting questions. First, the universe is defined as all of existence. So, if the universe is composed entirely of water, where did God get the air? Second, does God have gills? Now let us take a look at Bible cosmology.

The age of the universe:

Genesis 1:2-3 ~  The earth was dark, and then God said, "Let there be light." That means that the earth is older than the sun.

Genesis 2:1-2 ~ Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.

Scientists tell us that the universe is around 13 billion years old, while the earth is around 4.5 billion years old. When confronted with these scientific facts Creationists often counter with the assertion that the "days" of creation are not your regular 24-hour periods but long millennia of time. Where do they get this idea? According to Betty Brogaard in her excellent book, Dare To Think For Yourself, it comes from 2 Peter 3:8, a paraphrase of Psalm 90:4: "For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night." Note that neither of these references say that a thousand years is a day but only like a day. It is meant as a figure of speech, not an actual equivalent.

The earth is the center of the universe:

Genesis 1:16-17 ~ And God made the two great lights, the greater light (the sun) to govern the day, and the lesser light (the moon) to govern the night; He made the stars also. And God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light to the earth. The problem here is that the moon emits no natural light. What we call "moonlight" is in reality the reflection of the sun's rays striking the moon.

Joshua 10:12-13 ~ Joshua said, "O sun, stand thou still at Gibeon, and O moon in the valley of Aijalon." So the sun stood still and the moon stopped. What this really says is that the earth suddenly stopped rotating about a central axis and sat still thereby giving Joshua the extra daylight needed to finish doing his dirty work after which the earth suddenly resumed its normal rotation.

2 Kings 20:11 ~ "He brought the shadow (cast by the sun) on the stairway back ten steps". This passage implies that the sun went backward which really means that the earth not only came to a sudden stop in its axial rotation, it reversed itself and rotated in a westward direction for a brief period of time, after which it resumed its customary operation. 

Matt. 24:29 ~ The stars will fall from the sky.

The earth is fixed and motionless:

1 Chron. 16:30 ~ He fixed the earth firm and immovable.

Psalm 93:1 ~ The world also is established, that it cannot be moved.

The earth is flat:

Genesis 1:7-10 ~ 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. And God called the firmament Heaven. And God said, "Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear" and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth.

Deuteronomy 30:4 ~ God assures the children of Israel that even "If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. Although a sphere has no ends, a flat surface does.

Job 28:24 ~ For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven.

Psalm 103:12 ~ As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

Daniel 4:10-11 ~ Daniel saw a tree of great height at the center of the earth visible to the earth's farthest bounds.

Matt. 4:8 ~ The devil took him (Jesus) to a very high mountain, and showed him all of the kingdoms of the world.

Mark 16:19 ~ So then after the Lord had spoken unto to them, he was received up into heaven.

Luke 24:51 ~ And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.

Rev. 1:7 ~ Behold, he is coming with the clouds! Every eye shall see him.

The earth sits on pillars:

1 Sam. 2:8 ~ . . . for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he hath set the earth upon them.

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

Psalm 73:3 ~ The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it.

The earth rests on a foundations:

Psalm 104:5 ~ You set the earth on its foundations, so that it shall never be shaken. Doesn't that clearly imply no earthquakes?

Isaiah 24:18 ~ For the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble

Isaiah 51:13 ~ You have forgotten the Lord, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth.

Isaiah 51:16 ~ I have put my words in your mouth . . . laying the foundations of the earth.

The earth is not a sphere:

Deut. 13:7 ~ . . .  from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth.

Deut. 28:64 ~ . . . from the one end of the earth even unto the other.

Isaiah 11:12 ~ And he shall gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

Rev. 7:1 ~ I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth.

The earth is a horizontal plane positioned between heaven and hell:

II Kings 2:11 ~ And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

Psalm 55:15 ~ Let them go down into hell.

Matt. 11:23 ~ And you, Capernaum shall descend into hell.

Mark 16:19 ~ So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven.

Luke 24:51 ~ And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.

Will the earth last forever? Well, yes and no.

Ecclesiastes 1:4 ~ A generation goes and a generation comes but the earth lasts forever.

2 Peter 3:10 ~ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements shall melt, and the earth will be burned up. 

The stars.

Genesis 1:16 ~ God made the stars to help give light upon the earth.

Psalm 147:4 ~ God named all of the stars.

Isaiah 40:26 ~ Not one star will ever fail. Astronomers regularly observe stars (suns) burning out and dieing.

The Bible believer's reply.

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. In spite of all of the evidence listed above, this brief Old Testament passage is often sited by believers as proof positive that the Bible postulates a spherical earth. However, there are big problems with this argument. For one thing, it must be shown that in referring to "the circle of the earth" Isaiah was speaking literally. Even if it could be determined that Isaiah actually meant a circular earth, it must then be proved that he meant a circle in the sense of a sphere not in the sense of a saucer or a Frisbee. The domed roof is a clear reference to a solid hemispherical sky resting on the horizon of a flat earth. Only over a flat earth could the entire sky be spread out like a tent, and only if the top of the sky is solid could anyone walk around on it. The flat-earth society, which still exists today with headquarters in Lancaster, California, says that while the earth may be circular in shape, it is still flat. They base this assertion on Isaiah 40:22. Also, Isaiah 40:22 is the very scripture that Lactantius, a 3rd-century church father, cited in rebuttal to arguments for a spherical earth. In Isaiah 11:12, as cited above, reference is made to a four cornered earth. A sphere can not have corners, but a flat surface can.

Biblical cosmology is a reflection of the universe as it was (miss) perceived between two and three thousand years ago when the Bible was written. Yet, some Christians maintain that the Bible is correct in all that it says. For example, Josh McDowell, a professional Christian apologist, makes the following statement in his book, Evidence That Demands a Verdict, "Where the Bible speaks on matters of science, it does so with simple yet correct terms devoid of absurdities." Speaking of absurdities, this statement certainly qualifies as one.

For more information on this subject see Bible Science, Time, Stand Thou Still, The Myth of the Great Flood and The Copernican Revolution on this web site.

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