(1) The Firmament — Dome or Expanse? - YouTube
Transcripts:
past few years the Flat Earth theory has been making tremendous inroads in modern evangelicalism one of its main contentions is that the firmament over the Earth that we read about in The Genesis creation account in the King James Bible in the new King James Bible or references not to an infinite expanse of space but to a solid Dome that goes over a flat Earth is this true or is this a mistake do we live in an infinite universe or do we live in a very finite World under a dome such as we see in many science fiction movies and television series
stay tuned for a straightforward and compelling handling of this question hi there I'm Lee Brainard welcome to sooth keep in another addition of Prophecy in The Crucible my mission is truth my mission is encouraging Believers to use their god-given reason to uncover the truth on the doctrinal questions that Roy the scene in our day well let's start by actually looking at the creation account starting in Genesis 1: 6-8 then God said let there be a firmament in the midst of the Waters and let it divide the waters from the waters
thus 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 so it was evening and it was morning day two notice the firmament divides the waters on the earth from the waters above now debate has arisen here over the word firmament which we see in the King James Bible in the new King James Bible what is this firmament that divides the upper Waters in the lower Waters does this word teach us that we
are actually living under a solid Dome on a flat Earth or is this a mistaken translation and a mistaken understanding should we go with expanse instead of firmament which is the rendering of most modern versions like the new American Standard Bible in the English Standard Version well this is going to require us to go examine the original word rakia and investigate how the Bible uses it let's start by examining the well-known commentary on the Old Testament Hebrew kyen delich and here we see that rakia is a noun that stems from
the verb raaka which means to stretch to spread out to expand depending on the context and what it's being used for and with this stretch out spread out expand is the typical understanding in the Hebrew lexigton glass you don't get a dome unless you're intentionally making a dome you get a plate a sheet or a shape and if you stretch out an atmosphere or a space or a gas you get an expanse and this is why the modern versions have translated rakia by expanse rather than by firmament now we need to point out that
firmament and Heaven are synonyms on the second day of creation in Genesis 1:7 we read God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament now firmament here is the atmosphere that's between the lower water of the oceans rivers and lakes and the upper Waters which are in the clouds and in the upper atmosphere being tiny water droplets that are kept the Loft by the strong winds above the clouds in the upper layers of the atmosphere and notice that the this
expanse that's between the Earth and the clouds that this is called the firmament and it's this expanse of air that is called the firmament which is why many translators translate this an expanse this is an expanse of air or an expanse of atmosphere in verse 8 God we read God called the firmament Heaven this is an extremely helpful Revelation if the firmament is the same thing as the heaven if the firmament is equivalent to the heaven then any passage which mentions the heavens throws light on the firmament and any
passage which mentions the firmament throws light on the heavens now some people try and distinguish the firmament from the heavens but in this they make a mistake you cannot distinguish what the Bible equates now it also needs to be understood that there is a second firmament recall the New Testament teaching of the three Heavens in 2 Corinthians 12:2 we read I Know a Man in Christ who 14 years ago whether in the body I do not know or whether out of the body I do not know God knows such a one was caught up to the third heaven so the
first Heaven is the the atmosphere it's the realm of the birds and the wind that's between the surface of the Earth and the clouds the second heaven is everything above the clouds all the way out to outer space this is our upper layers of atmosphere and this is outer space itself this includes the Sun the moon the stars the planets the Comets the asteroids the third heaven is the New Jerusalem it's the dwelling place of God it's what we typically refer to when we talk about heaven now the creation and population
of this second firmament is covered in Genesis 1: 14-19 there we read then God said let there be lights in the firmament of the Heavens to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and seasons and for days and years and let them be for lights in the firmament of the Heavens to give light on the earth and it was so then God made two great lights the greater light to Rule the Day and the Lesser light to rule the night he made the Stars also God set them in the firmament of the Heavens to give light on the earth
and to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from the darkness and God saw that it was good so the evening and the morning were the fourth day now notice the lights are set in the firmament now we also need to point out that this heavenly firmament this second firmament is equated with Heaven Too in uh Psalm 19:1 we read the heavens declare the glory of God in the firmament shows his handiwork notice the parallel Expressions the heavens and the firmament the shamayim and the rakia they're treated as identical things this
is Hebrew parallelism folks if you can lay hold of the interpretative principle that Hebrew parallelism is one of your best friends then you are going to do yourself a tremendous blessing now the firmament cannot be a solid Dome we read in Deuteronomy 4: 15-1 17 that birds fly in the firmament we read take careful heed to yourselves for you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure the likeness of male or
female the likeness of any animal that is on Earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air literally in the heavens in the shayam so here we see that birds fly in the heavens they fly in the shayam and we saw earlier that shamayim are the heav Heavens is equivalent in God's estimation to the rakia or the expanse we read a similar statement in Genesis 1: 20 where we read in the King James regarding day five and that fowl or Birds may fly above the Earth in the open firmament of Heaven folks this is
the open expanse of Heaven if birds fly in the firmament then it can't be a solid Dome it can't be a solid anything birds cannot fly inside solid brass or solid iron or solid glass or solid Crystal or any kind of solid Dome now we must make an analogy here if rakia is used of the first Heaven which has an open expanse for birds to fly in then when rakia is used of the second heaven it must be an open expans for planets and stars and galaxies to orbit in can't have a first Heaven which is an open expanse and have a second heaven which
is a solid Dome you can't have the first Ria be an open expanse in which birds can fly in the second Ria be a solid Dome this is inconsistent now now not surprisingly some insist that this verse is best rendered as birds flying on the face of the firmament and they get this from two sources they get this from the new King James which says let birds fly above the Earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens and they get it from a stilted literal translation of the Hebrew let the birds fly above the Earth in the face of the firmament of
the heaven but I want to point out that the ancient Jews who knew both the Hebrew and the Greek understood this verse in the very common sense that is reflected in the Greek in the septuagenarians were in the firmament they they were not under the firmament they were not Under the Dome now the locative K or the preposition K used for location is well known to all who actually read and know Co Greek and New Testament Greek regularly used for things like in the city in the country in the region in any particular designated area
so they took the Hebrew phrase here in the broad General sense of in the presence of regular sense a common sense and there is a class of things that when you're in the presence of that thing that that presence completely surrounds you it's not something in front of you or off to one side or off to the other side it's actually all the way around you this class includes things like air water atmosphere poison gas wind smoke clouds all around now I want to point out too that expanse is a vastly superior translation
to firmament expanse is what we see in the modern translations and it fits the context the nature of case the case better we have an expanse of atmosphere between the lower Waters which are the oceans the rivers in the lakes and the upper Waters which are the waters and the clouds and the tiny droplets lofted above the clouds that will eventually become clouds this open expanse is best translated expanse and this expanse is parallel to the expanse of the Heavenly expanse where all we see the sun the moon the stars the planets
the Comets the asteroid oids the sense of rakia or the sense of the second heaven is similar to the English word expanse or the English word space it's just a broad expanse or a broad space I also want to point out now that some people point to a broad range of figurative statements regarding the rakia regarding the Heavens to defend the Dome Theory and let's just briefly Point these out for instance they'll point to uh Psalm 542 and they'll speak about that the heavens are like a carpet spread out over the Earth and they'll
say a carpet is a thin thing and it's a thin solid or they'll point to Isaiah 40:22 where the heavens are compared to a curtain and they'll say look a curtain is a thin solid substance they'll point to Exodus 24:10 and say look the heavens are compared to a transparent piece of sapphire or they will point to job 37:18 and they'll say that the heavens are like a molten Looking Glass so you know a molten Looking Glass is thin and clear but this is a mistake folks this is reading a scientific description into passages which are OBS
just descriptions of the man on the street looking at phenomenon so this is not a scientific description this is an everyday idiomatic description and we see similes and other figures of speech here that just give the impressions of the man on the street how he would describe the heavens in everyday language so when in Psalm 542 the heavens are described as a carpet spread out over the Earth this isn't insisting that the heavens are a thin piece of solid substance it's just saying that just like when you look at a
a carpet or a rug and you see these fancy Middle Eastern patterns so when you look up in the heavens you see a vast Panorama of beautiful shapes and patterns same thing with the curtain in Isaiah 40: 22 think of the ornamental Eastern curtains with amazing patterns and designs geometric designs on them this is what the man on the street was looking up and looking at the heavens and seeing the heavens reminded him of a fancy curtain and this is the same kind of concept that we see in Exodus 24:1 where the heavens are compared to a work of
sapphire they look up and they see the gorgeous blue sky and it reminds them of a sapphire that's all it's talking about with the Looking Glass in Job 3 718 again this is what the impression that the man receives it's not saying that the heaven is a thin Dome like the like a magnifying glass that's spread out all across the globe it's saying that you can look through the first heaven and see up into the upper Heavens you can look through the first heaven and see the clouds there's distance there but you it's clear you can see right through it
that's all he's saying he's just comparing the fact that we can look through the atmosphere to looking through a glass a Looking Glass so these are just figures of speech they should not be taken in the scientific sense they should be taken in the everyday idiomatic sense now I also want to point out folks that there are passages which imply the vast indeed the infinite expanse of the heavens or space in Romans 1:20 we read for since the creation of the world is invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the
things that are made even his eternal power and godhead so that they are without excuse now what's going on here is God is pointing to the infinite universe as evidence of his infinite eternal power and His Infinite Eternal godhead God has given us an infinite Universe which testifies to his infiniteness when you think about it how can a finite Universe reflect his infinite power and godhead how can a finite Universe reflect the infinite God how can it teach us about the infinite God how can the tiny expanding Universe of
evolutionary theory portray to us an infinite God worse how can the Flat Earth under a dome portray to us the infinite God it can't at least not in my estimation we also read in Psalm 103 verse 11 for as the heavens are high above the Earth so great is his Mercy towards those who fear Him is intent Ed to imply that God's Mercy is immeasurable and infinite if we have a dome over the Earth then we have a picture that's measurable and finite indeed very finite but if we have an infinite Universe where you can never travel to
the most distant Galaxy because it's infinitely far away then you have a universe which pictures an infinite grace and an infinite Mercy in Isaiah 55: 8 and9 we read for my thoughts are not your thoughts nor are your ways my ways says the Lord for as the heavens are higher than the earth so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts are not your ways and they're not your thoughts how does a nearby Dome with a light show reflecting omnipotent omniscient infinite God it doesn't this is more like the finite
gods of the ancient paganism that set the world astray from the true God of the Bible now where did the rendering firmament come from the translation firmament in the new King James and the King James stems from the Latin Vulgate firu and the Latin Vulgate received the word firmamentum from Latin science for instance tominus cosmology use firmamentum to represent a solid Dome over the Earth and he got this concept of a firmament um solid Dome directly from Greek science which is reflected for instance in the Septuagint
translation with their sterea is reflective of the glass Dome or the crystal Dome or the brass Dome or the Iron Dome that was seen in Greek science any of the ancient early poets talked about the heavens being iron or the heavens being brass now Josephus was himself swayed in this thinking of Greek science and he represented in his Antiquities that the um rakia which God stretched out on day two was crystal he used the Greek word crysos I find it fascinating that those who believe that the Earth is a globe and surrounded by an infinite space an
infinite rakia an infinite heaven are accused of perpetuating science falsely socalled folks this is actually really ridiculous the science falsely socalled is the is the picture of a finite universe and a finite creation we have uh the finite creation of the expanding Universe in The evolutionary theory and we have an even more finite Creation in the Flat Earth under a dome Theory these theories reflect a puny God of of Pagan religion in the puny God of atheism which is no God at all they don't reflect the infinite god of the
Bible so in conclusion the question of whether space is a firmament in the sense of a solid Dome or whether it is an expanse in the sense of an infinite expanse of space is a great example that we need to allow the plain statements of scripture to Trump cool theories we need to interpret the plain statements of scripture according to the historical grammatical hermeneutic things that are intended to be literal need to be taken literally things are intended to be taken figuratively need to be taken figuratively make a tremendous mistake
if we take passages of figuratively or allegorically that were intended by God to be taken literally this is the problem that we see with replacement theology we make a a similar mistake if we interpret things literally that were intended to be interpreted figuratively and this is the common mistake of those who believe the Flat Earth and Dome Theory now if we let the plain statements of scripture speak to this matter according to the normal Al rules of language and language interpretation then the Bible clearly speaks in favor
of an infinite expanse and not a dome the Bible presents to us a globe that's surrounded by an infinite expanse that reflects the infinite God the Flat Earth and the Dome Theory reflects a puny God the puny god of Ancient paganism the fact is Satan himself is the God of this world and he rules in this very tiny world with a very tiny atmosphere around it he's got a very limited sphere and so when he talks about the world he wants to talk about this limited sphere with the world that he created when he perverted this tiny piece of God's
creation may God help us all my friends to be more consistent with the historical grammatical hermeneutic may God help us to work through in process this issue between the Flat Earth with the Dome and the globe with an infinite Universe around it this is really two very different portrayals of the almighty God in in this understanding of an infinite God and this understanding of an infinite Universe which reflects the infinite God and this understanding of being consistent with a historical grammatical hermeneutic these things are right at
the crying needs of the hour may God help us all Eyes Wide Open brain engaged heart on fire we'll see you next time
