Heaven in the Bible as a word in and of itself always refers to God’s realm (the boundary of our world). They were trying to reach the firmament. I can’t help often thinking of this passage when I see the claims of deceived men and objects supposedly “leaving earth”.
“For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.”
Isaiah 14:13-15 KJV
“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:”
Isaiah 40:22 KJV
If the earth is a circle and the firmament spread above it as curtains and a tent, that naturally creates a dome.
Heaven could be the third heaven (God’s dwelling place) or the second heaven (where the celestial bodies are– and perhaps “principalities, powers, spiritual wickedness in high places” dwell) or the first heaven (where Banjo Ben flies).
I just believe God said the clear, literal truth about His world in His Word. “If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?”
John 3:12 KJV
I didn’t intend to start a conversation nobody wants to have. @LorenDB was trying to trigger it though and this time I could not keep silent.
I just find it funny that you immediately jump to thinking the simile of the heavens to curtains as literal but wouldn’t do that with, say, a sermon recorded in the Bible.
I doubt that as this is a thread literally devoted to talking about the rocket. He’s just saying that the rocket made it back and he thinks it’s kewl. You don’t have to immediately think that anytime he mentions literally anything about rockets, space, or celestial photography that he’s trying to make you triggered.
The conversation won’t go anywhere because you have (by means of a combination of conscious and subconscious effort) to default to interpreting isolated passages of Scripture that mention heavens, foundations, etc in a literalist way that you wouldn’t apply to other passages.
“For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:”
You wouldn’t think he actually turns into a guy looking into a literal mirror. It’s a simile. But you’d interpret that passage normally, and another one differently because it gets your hopes up that you’ve found another passage that fits your beliefs you have so long held. When in reality, it’s all a house of cards.
You mean the parables? I don’t believe the existence of Jesus’ parables makes the whole Bible into one. Some gospel truths He wanted only true seekers to discover. However-
“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:”
Romans 1:20 KJV
We see with our eyes, we read it in His Word, we observe it with our senses; everything around us is NOT backwards. Believing THAT is blind faith in a very occultic religion called scientism. (“Science falsely so called”)
I find it funny that you went from once telling me “the Bible is silent on the shape of the earth” to saying “none of that is literal.”
Actually, what I said in that discussion is more accurately “the Bible never says the earth is flat.” I then literally followed that up with a Bible verse about the shape of the earth. I may have said “shape of the earth” or something but that’s more akin to a grammatical or speech error than a literal, final, notarized statement on a legal document recording my beliefs. Good night.
I believe that one’s a simile as simple as it gets.
I have not. I’ve changed my entire worldview in the past several years. And before most of the rest of my family did, so this was not mindless indoctrination.
Anyway. All good! Happy to end it here! I’m glad Orion is safely back to GROUND beneath the first heaven
About 14-15 when I realized the earth is flat. A few years later til I studied and understood more of how it works. After having gone through the years of studying the science we all learn in school.
I take offense at that statement. I was not trying to start an argument. If you want to believe that Orion never went to space, fine, it’s a free country and you have the right to do so. However, that does not stop me from being able to speak to other space enthusiasts about Orion. If I wanted an argument, I could have posed a directly argumentative comment. If this argument has to keep going, maybe it should go somewhere else.
