firmament – Page 14 – Matty (Headwind)

June 22, 2017February 14, 2022

Divide the Waters from the Waters

a drawing compass and the creation of gravity on the second day

This post is part of the series Gravity

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 the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
( Genesis 1:6-8 )

Dividing the waters above from the waters below requires at least two things to happen, as we will see. Above what? is a good question, since there was only a formless mass at this time. Whatever was to divide the waters has to be constructed in the process of dividing them because there was nothing there to do it before. God made a firmament in the midst of the waters, and there is something both under it and above it. The concept of under and above tells us that there is now an up and a down, so an ordering has already taken place, at the beginning of the process of dividing the waters.

June 20, 2017August 3, 2021

Noah’s Math

And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered.
(Genesis 7:19-20) NKJV

This post is a response to, and a rebuttal of: How much water would be needed for Noah’s Flood? by Andrew L. Seidel. He posted the link in a Twitter thread discussing our post do I still need to ask for forgiveness?

June 5, 2017December 26, 2020

The Firmament

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 the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
(Genesis 1:6-8) KJV

Many people have struggled with interpreting creation of the firmament. There’s no reason to struggle if you allow yourself to be open to the possibilities. It’s a key to unlocking the theory of Biblical quantum gravitation (BQG).

March 14, 2017August 21, 2020

The Second Evening

The light on the first day of creation came from the process of Nucleogenesis. This reaction ran its course and darkness returned. This darkness was not the absence of light, but the obstruction of light. God called this darkness night. On the second day God created gravity that caused the light emitting particles to coalesce to form into a rigid sphere, called the firmament, which is on the edge of space. The firmament was the source of light on the second day of creation, and has shone brightly ever since.

The purpose God had for creating gravity and forming the firmament was to establish a place, called heaven, where there would never be night, where God would dwell in light perpetually because the firmament is bright like the sun, as we see from Daniel:

And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. (Daniel 12:3)

So what was the source of darkness at the end of the second day? And how is it that we have darkness in space such that we need to have sun, moon and stars for light?

Scripture has an answer for this.

God withdrew the obvious proof of his presence as part of his plan of redemption. God gave us free will so that those of us who truly want to know Him will make a choice to believe. It can’t be blindingly obvious that God created us, that would mean there is no free will. God hid himself from view by clothing the inner surface of the firmament in blackness.

You don’t believe me?

Isaiah did:

I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. (Isaiah 50:3)

I know what Bible scholars will say: one passage of scripture is not enough to develop a doctrine. Quite right. That’s why it is important that this interpretation be consistent with the entire narrative of scripture. Yes, there may be one place that states the doctrine explicitly, but it is supported by a myriad of passages that show how the physical structure of the cosmos has been established.

This also gives us a way to account for a passage in Psalm 18 where within the same context the Bible refers to God being in light and darkness at the same time:

He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire. The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them. Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils. (Psalm 18:9-15)

By understanding that the firmament is made of material that shines brightly, but that is hidden from below by a layer of blackness on its inner concave surface, we can see how, in the passage, brightness can be before God and there can be darkness under his feet at the same time. So we actually have a physical way to account for the fact that God’s heaven is a place where there is no need of the sun for light, but that he also made darkness his secret place.

Unbelievers would love to tout this as an example of the contradictions that are common throughout scripture, but you can see how there is no contradiction at all if we can accept the doctrine of the firmament.

It is also interesting to note that in this very context the passage goes on to describe channels of water being seen (the fountains of the great deep) and the foundations of the world. So we have here more detail to add to our understanding of the creative process that took place on the second day, and that continued into the third day.

This is also not the only reference to the idea that God is able to physically visit the Earth by riding on a piece of heaven. I hate to give the impression of Jesus surfing through the clouds, but it does appear that a section of firmament is used like an elevator to travel the distance between heaven and Earth. Oh and guess what? Yep, it’s Biblical:

Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH, and rejoice before him. (Psalm 68:4)

To him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens, which were of old; lo, he doth send out his voice, and that a mighty voice. (Psalm 68:33)

You see what a correct understanding of the firmament does for us? Cosmic surfboards.

The most outstanding example of this phenomenon is the Star of Bethlehem.

No, don’t go there, I hear you cry.

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. (Matthew 2:1,2)

The wise men traveled from afar as they tracked the progress of a star. What they were actually seeing was a section of firmament descending vertically from the heaven to the Earth. It appeared to be moving and growing brighter but it was in fact tracking in a straight line from heaven to Earth.

When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. (Matthew 2:9,10)

The phenomenon of a star increasing in brightness as it approached the Earth was visible to all. Not just some wise men astrologers. Consider the shepherds in the fields and let’s look at the narrative that surrounds them:

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. (Luke 2:8-15)

Could not this be a description of a section of firmament coming down to Earth with a host of angels on board? Surely, the birth of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords was the greatest event in history thus far, and the entire heavenly host wished to be present. The brightly shining firmament was the glory of the Lord that shone round about the shepherds.

What can I tell you? A rigid structural firmament of crystalline composition solves a lot of scriptural problems.

If you’re still uncomfortable with the idea that God uses a section of the rigid crystalline firmament as a movable platform then check out Exodus 24, when Moses, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel went up to Mount Sinai to meet with the Lord:

Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel: And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink. (Exodus 24:9-11)

Slam dunk.

March 29, 2016April 8, 2022

Voyager Found the Firmament

Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.
(Jeremiah 31:37) KJV

The Voyager spacecraft have been on their missions since 1977 and have flown far past the orbits of the planets in our solar system. They took a solar system family portrait and found the firmament.

February 29, 2016February 13, 2022

Geocentrism, Geocentricity and Flat Earth

Let’s start by getting some definitions right, specifically, let’s really pin down where I stand as compared to others that are similar, but not quite.

Geocentrism, for instance, is an attempt to be faithful to Biblical teachings while missing the mark on actually understanding anything. Geocentricity, the belief of the Geocentrism movement, as advocated by the Association for Biblical Astronomy (ABA) is an absolute shambles. On the one hand it is motivated by the good intent of being faithful to the Bible, which teaches a central earth, but it does not allow for a finite cosmos bounded by a crystalline firmament. Sadly, geocentrism didn’t figure out Newton’s Switcheroo, so they are trying to shoehorn geocentricity into the cosmological model of the dominant paradigm of modern science: The sun is vastly more massive than the earth, our sun is one of billions of suns, and the firmament is the empty medium of space in which the stars and planetary bodies move.

As crazy as it sounds, there is also a Flat Earth movement that is very confused by thinking that they believe the Bible and Geocentricity. Flat Earth is just stupid. It’s an example of what happens when people who have no discernment, probably because they are not born again believers, try to handle the teachings of the Bible. They come to the scripture with an agenda and they willfully bend the meanings to fit their desired outcome. Literal and figurative get switched, and you end up with a cosmology that is neither Biblical nor can account for modern scientific observations.

Matty’s Paradigm is neither Geocentrism, Geocentricity nor Flat Earth

The model of creation that I am proposing involves the creation of gravity on the second day. A specific point was chosen upon which God metaphorically set a compass (the drawing instrument, not direction finder) and drew a circle on the mass of water that was present. The central point of the compass, the focus, became the location of gravity, a singularity in current technical jargon. The circle describes the location of the firmament, a sphere of crystal that surrounds the cosmos, which is the location of God’s throne and the sea of glass.

When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: (Proverbs 8:27)

This model has profound implications for our understanding of astronomy. It fixes a major flaw in the explanation of Kepler’s 1st Law, which science either avoids with glib dismissals or makes up fictional explanations for. What we have to bear in mind is a promise that God has made to us regarding what we will be able to learn about the universe and the earth:

Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD. (Jeremiah 31:37)

God does not cast off the seed of Israel, therefore we cannot measure the heavens or know what in in the innermost parts of the earth.

Reality

We have to acknowledge that even though it seems as if we know a great deal about the stars, planets, distant suns and galaxies and such, there are no actual measurements of the distance to any of these heavenly bodies. There are no actual measurements of their mass. The reason that we have numbers for these properties is through the use of mathematics, and the math is based on certain assumptions.

The sun’s mass is given as 1.989 × 10^30 kg. However, nobody has ever weighed it.
The distance to the sun (AU) is given as 92.96 million mi. But it is not a measurement, it is based upon a calculation.

The calculations are based upon the mathematics of gravity developed by Sir Isaac Newton. The mathematical construct of the universe that is in use today is based on a simple, unproven assumption: The Earth orbits the Sun.

If this is were the case, then the mass of the Sun is calculated using Newton’s Law of Gravity:

GMm/r^2

It is based on the following assumptions:

The Earth orbits the Sun
We know the distance to the Sun (orbital radius)
We know the mass of the Earth

The Sun ‘s mass is therefore calculated to be enough to cause the orbit of the earth to take 365 days. There is a good explantion of the mathematical process used, here:

The first problem with this system is the main assumption: Earth does not orbit the sun. If we apply the same mathematics to the assumption that the sun orbits the earth, we get mass values for the planetary bodies that are smaller by a factor of 9.87E-12. This is called Matty’s Constant.

Secondly, this now affects our calculation of the distance to the Sun. This distance is calculated by knowing the distance to all of the other planets. This is done using parallax. This presents a problem, because the theory of parallax also depends on the idea that the earth and other planets orbit the Sun. It should be clear that the theoretical basis of the current understanding of the universe is based on assumptions that are unprovable. There are no actual measurements. Fortunately, however, this does not mean that the calculations and relative motions of the Sun, Moon and Stars are of no value. This is because we have Newton’s Inverse Square Law.

The Inverse Square Law is the best recipe for fudge in the universe. What it means is that in the heliocentric system the Sun is going to be 93 million miles away and have a mass of 1.989 × 10^30 Kg, but it can also account for a geocentric system where the Sun is much less massive. The gravitational effect on the Earth is the same, it is all relative.

We know that the difference between a heliocentric theory and a geocentric theory is one of relative motion only, and that such a difference has no physical significance. (Sir Fred Hoyle in Astronomy and Cosmology, 1975, p. 416.)

Matty’s Paradigm

An Earth centered cosmos is called Geocentric. However, because of the vast amount of baggage attached to the use of the word “Geocentric,” we’re just going to have to refer to our cosmological model as Matty’s Paradigm. The Sun, Moon and stars describe for us the signs and seasons. Stars are not distant suns. We don’t know what they are, and there is only one sun. The Earth does not have a daily rotation. The Sun and stars orbit either the Sun, which orbits the Earth, or they orbit the Earth/Sun system.

Early models of the Heliocentric solar system showed that the planets have elliptical orbits. This was not a feature of the Geocentric model at that time and this contributed to its rejection. Ellipses are orbits that are not circular, but watermelon shaped. Ellipses can be drawn but it requires that there are two foci, whereas a circle has only one focus. However, the Earth has an orbit of the Sun that is an almost perfect circle. The distance to the Sun does not vary. The other planets have elliptical orbits because they are affected by the gravity of both the Earth and the Sun.

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January 5, 2016August 28, 2021

Depositional Environments

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
(Genesis 7:11) KJV

Interesting thing about fossils: Fossils don’t just record evidence of ancient life, they also show us clues about what the environment was like when the fossil was made, or deposited.

December 25, 2015September 30, 2021

The Second Day

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 the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
(Genesis 1:6-8) KJV

On the second day the formless mass of the deep, which teemed with life created on the first day, was ordered. The ordering was to fulfill the requirement for a permanent separation of light and dark.