God is enthroned above the circle of the earth.
Isaiah 40:22
Another scientific fact we take quite for granted is that the Earth is round. Do we know this from natural observation? Not at all. But we've seen pictures from outer space, so we know beyond a doubt that the Earth is round. Even as late as 1492, however, when "Columbus sailed the ocean blue," people did not know this. They warned him to be careful, fearing that he might sail off the edge of the Earth on his travels.
Yet Isaiah, in 750 BC, talked about the "circle" of the Earth, using a Hebrew word meaning "globe" or "sphere." Long before man knew it scientifically, God had already revealed it.This series on the "Proof of the Reality of God" will continue on Monday, April 11. Praying everyone has a great weekend!
@Tommy:
ReplyDeleteYesterday in the comments I showed you several instances where the Bible states absolutely NON-SCIENTIFIC claims that now science has demonstrated as fully bogus... I hope you address them within your "proof" series or even if you hit some near-demostrations, your 100% Bible accuracy will be bogus too.
Now, today you did not put your comments, but I think only copied an Adrian Rogers quote... Let me analyze Rogers's claims.
> Another scientific fact we take quite for
> granted is that the Earth is round. Do we
> know this from natural observation? Not at
> all.
That is a BOLD and bogus claim. If we today KNOW that the earth is a GLOBE (not round as a dish, take note of that)... How do you think scientists discover it? With ouija boards??? NOOO, but because THEY DID AND DO NATURAL OBSERVATIONS EVERY DAY THAT PROOF SO, OF COURSE! Fully natural, repeatable observations.
So, the first part of the Rogers claim is already FALSE. He mentioned that now we could see the pictures of earth from space, but that is quite recent. The key question here is: Who was the FIRST human being realizing the earth is not flat (with no importance of its bound shape, a square, circle or any other polygon) but it is a GLOBE, a SPHERE?
Look by yourself in Wikipedia for "Spherical Earth", and you will discover the Greeks as early as the 6 century BCE:
"According to Diogenes Laertius, Pythagoras was the first Greek who called the earth round; though Theophrastus attributes this to Parmenides, and Zeno to Hesiod."
So, the idea of a round earth is not "only" a Isaiah (or God) invention.
But also there you have to jump to Eratosthenes, who not only claimed that the earth was a sphere, but he actually calculated with a very good approximation the REAL DIAMETER of earth:
"Eratosthenes (276–194 BC) estimated Earth's circumference around 240 BC. He had heard that in Syene the Sun was directly overhead at the summer solstice whereas in Alexandria it still cast a shadow. Using the differing angles the shadows made as the basis of his trigonometric calculations he estimated a circumference of around 250,000 stades. The length of a 'stade' is not precisely known, but Eratosthenes' figure only has an error of around five to fifteen percent. Eratosthenes used rough estimates and round numbers, but depending on the length of the stadion, his result is within a margin of between 2% and 20% of the actual meridional circumference, 40,008 kilometres (24,860 mi). Note that Eratosthenes could only measure the circumference of the Earth by assuming that the distance to the Sun is so great that the rays of sunlight are essentially parallel."
Therefore the FULLY HUMAN ACKNOWLEDGEABLE DISCOVERY of Eratosthenes is far-far-far better that the simplistic Isaiah quote.
So, does we need God to prove the earth is a sphere? No. And could we see the earth is sphere with just natural means? YES, as Eratosthenes DID in the 3 century BCE!
Therefore, Adrian Rogers is LYING when he said "Do we know this from natural observation? Not at all"
Now, the second part of Rogers' claims is:
ReplyDelete> Yet Isaiah, in 750 BC, talked about the
> "circle" of the Earth, using a Hebrew word
> meaning "globe" or "sphere."
If Rogers is right, he could score a point. But if the Hebrew word means only circle (and not globe or sphere), then he not only is LOST, but he also is a lier.
Then, if you visit the site biblos.com and look for Isaiah 40:22, you will see the Hebrew word used there is "chug", that is translated to "the circle", and it is Strong number 2338-2329. Let's see how STRONG translate it:
STRONG'S EXHAUSTIVE CONCORDANCE:
2328. chug
to draw around, make a circle
Original Word: חוּג
Transliteration: chug
Phonetic Spelling: (khoog)
Short Definition: circle
===
2328
compass
A primitive root (compare chagag); to describe a circle -- compass.
see HEBREW chagag
===
2329
circle, circuit, compass
From chuwg; a circle -- circle, circuit, compass.
see HEBREW chuwg
===
compass
A primitive root (compare chagag); to describe a circle -- compass.
see HEBREW chagag
===
celebrate, dance, keep, hold a solemn feast holiday, reel to and fro
A primitive root (compare chagra', chuwg); properly, to move in a circle, i.e. (specifically) to march in a sacred procession, to observe a festival; by implication, to be giddy -- celebrate, dance, (keep, hold) a (solemn) feast (holiday), reel to and fro.
see HEBREW chagra'
see HEBREW chuwg
====
Therefore, when Rogers says "[Isaiah is] using a Hebrew word meaning "globe" or "sphere.", again Rogers is LYING!!!
Atheist 2, theist 0.
But why Adrian Rogers is lying to his believer crew? Probably because he thinks almost NOBODY will EVER check if the real Torah and Hebrew says what he says, but they will copy into other books and blogs his claims and they will believe them without ever noticing he is lying.
Therefore: Is that quote a PROVE in favor of Bible or God? NO IT IS NOT! But what it DOES prove is that the author of that book as a lier.
Unless you want to claim that a circle and a sphere are THE SAME THING, so you are a flat earth believer because the Bible says so... I hope for humanity's sake you aren't!