| Stellar Parallax and the Biblical Universe "Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel: 'Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.' And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies.... .... So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day." -Joshua 10:12,13 "The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the shining of thy glittering spear." --Habakkuk 3:11 "And this shall be a sign unto thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he hath spoken; Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down." --Isaiah 38:7.8 Solomon applied the same motion to the sun as he did to the wind and the rivers! "The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again." --Ecclesiastes 1:5-7 "And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day" --Amos 8:9 "They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera." -Judges 5:20 "...the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it." -Psalms 19:4-6. Well folks, God commanded both the sun and moon to stand still, and He says it's a geocentric universe. It's time to make a decision as to who we are going to believe. Will it be God, or the Big Bang Kabbalah Pharisees? "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints." -1 Corinthians 14:33 Trying to enlighten people to the truth, that this unbelievable hoax has been pulled off against mankind, won't be met with much respect. In fact, prepare to be considered a lunatic. All I can say is, who cares? The truth is the truth, and the reality is that we've been taken for fools. God told us in the Revelation that an angel would appear and make a declaration to all mankind that they should worship the One who made the Heavens and the Earth. (Revelation 14:7) He appears right before the angel that announces the fall of Babylon the Great. It's right about the time that Babylon goes down that God will let mankind know what a rotating earth is like when he rocks the world to its foundations. It would all go down together: Everything from the moon landing hoax to the Cold War Hoax to the Holocaust to create Israel hoax, to the whole Illuminati flim-flam of mankind. On that day everybody who is knowing their God by actually listening to what He says will get an adrenaline shot of faith! Fear of the reaction by those we try to enlighten is a normal thing. At times like this we can even take solace in the sometimes useful words of Saul/Paul: "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God." -2 Timothy 1:7,8 _____________________________________________________________________ Science Falsely So-Called The same Pharisee Mystics who control the educational and media establishments today were already corrupting science with gnosticism back in the first century: "O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called." (1 Timothy 6:20) First century Christians were contending with the writings and teachings of men like Pythagoras, Archimedes and Aristarchus, who were already teaching Big Bang cosmology. Copernicus did not dream up the heliocentric cosmos on his own, it was resurrected from ancient models. Regarding Aristarchus, we read from Wikipedia: Aristarchus (Greek: Ἀρίσταρχος; 310 BC - ca. 230 BC) was a Greek astronomer and mathematician, born on the island of Samos, in Greece. He was the first person to present an explicit argument for a heliocentric model of the solar system, placing the Sun, not the Earth, at the center of the known universe (hence he is sometimes known as the "Greek Copernicus"). He was influenced by the Pythagorean Philolaus of Kroton, but in contrast to Philolaus he had both identified the central fire with the Sun, as well as putting other planets in correct order from the Sun. His astronomical ideas were rejected in favor of the geocentric theories of Aristotle and Ptolemy until they were successfully revived by Copernicus and extensively developed and built upon by Kepler and Isaac Newton nearly 2000 years later. Archimedes of Syracuse (Greek: Άρχιμήδης) (c. 287 BC – c. 212 BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician, physicist, astronomer and engineer. Although little is known of his life, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity. Regarding Pythagoras, Wikipedia relates: Pythagoras of Samos (Greek: Πυθαγόρας; between 580 and 572 BC–between 500 and 490 BC) was an Ionian (Greek) philosopher[1] and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. He is often revered as a great mathematician, mystic and scientist; however some have questioned the scope of his contributions to mathematics or natural philosophy.[2] Herodotus referred to him as "the most able philosopher among the Greeks".[3] His name led him to be associated with Pythian Apollo; Aristippus explained his name by saying, "He spoke (agor-) the truth no less than did the Pythian (Pyth-)," and Iamblichus tells the story that the Pythia prophesied that his pregnant mother would give birth to a man supremely beautiful, wise, and of benefit to humankind.[4] He is best known for the Pythagorean theorem which bears his name. Known as "the father of numbers", Pythagoras made influential contributions to philosophy and religious teaching in the late 6th century BC. .... Pythagoras and his students believed that everything was related to mathematics and that numbers were the ultimate reality and, through mathematics, everything could be predicted and measured in rhythmic patterns or cycles. According to Iamblichus, Pythagoras once said that "number is the ruler of forms and ideas and the cause of gods and demons." Pythagoras started a secret society called the Pythagorean brotherhood devoted to the study of mathematics. This had a great effect on future esoteric traditions, such as Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, both of which were occult groups dedicated to the study of mathematics and both of which claimed to have evolved out of the Pythagorean brotherhood. The mystical and occult qualities of Pythagorean mathematics are discussed in a chapter of Manly P. Hall's The Secret Teachings of All Ages entitled "Pythagorean Mathematics". Pythagorean theory was tremendously influential on later numerology, which was extremely popular throughout the Middle East in the ancient world. The 8th-century Islamic alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan grounded his work in an elaborate numerology greatly influenced by Pythagorean theory. It is interesting how Copernicus revived these ancient wisdoms from Kabbalah just in time to counter the Reformation movement. Indeed, the 16th century was alive with characters like (Kabbalist) Nostradamus, to coincide with the evil Council of Trent. According to the Bible, what you see is what you get! True science is supposed to be based on observation! Everyone who has ever lived has observed the sun, moon and stars move across the sky every day. We never give it a second thought when we say, "the sun rises", or "the sun sets". The Bible uses the same language. Click here for the 67 scriptural references that state that it is the sun and not the earth that moves. What Proof is there for Heliocentricity? In a word: None! Every fourth-grader is taught that the earth rotates and revolves around the sun as a fact. And what is that fourth-grader given as proof that the ground beneath his or her feet is moving through space at speeds upwards of 660,000,000 miles per hour? Stellar Parallax Let's take a closer look (after all these years) at stellar parallax, shall we? According to msn encarta: "As the earth moves around the sun, distant stars appear to move in the sky. This apparent displacement, known as stellar parallax, is most evident at six-month intervals, when the earth is at opposite ends of its solar orbit. Astronomers use stellar parallax to determine a star’s distance from the earth by studying the angle formed by the actual star and its two parallactic positions (seen here as dotted blue lines). This illustration depicts two examples of stellar parallax." If you have any trouble at all understanding this, there is a little exercise you can do here. Notice how matter-of-factly it states "as the earth moves around the sun"? Notice also how it says that astronomers use stellar parallax to determine star distance. According to Wikipedia: "Distance measurement by parallax is a special case of the principle of triangulation, which states that one can solve for all the sides and angles in a network of triangles if, in addition to all the angles in the network, the length of at least one side has been measured. Thus, the careful measurement of the length of one baseline can fix the scale of an entire triangulation network. In parallax, the triangle is extremely long and narrow, and by measuring both its shortest side (the motion of the observer) and the small top angle (the other two being close to 90 degrees), the length of the long sides (in practice considered to be equal) can be determined." As you can see, two different measurements are taken six months apart, to allow for the alleged 186 million miles that the earth travels in its alleged orbit during that time period, from one side of the sun to the other. Now keeping in mind that parallax is the appearance that stars move in the sky in relation to each other, or in other words, more "distant" stars shift every six months in relation to nearby stars that are allegedly closer. This is put forth as the "evidence" that the earth revolves around the sun annually. There is only one slight problem with this: Most of the star data that is catalogued by NASA exhibits negative parallax, in other words, most of the stars do not shift in the direction they need them to in order to support the heliocentric model! At geocentricuniverse.com, we read: Stellar Parallax A careful examination of photographic plates that have been exposed to the same region of sky, but at times that are a few months apart, will reveal the fact that some stars have shifted their position with respect to the "background" stars. Such stars are assumed to be closer to us than the (effectively) infinitely far away "background" stars, and the effect is naturally given the name of stellar parallax. The phenomenon consequently provides the astronomical community with a technique for determining the distance to a "nearby" star at C. This is because, if the World hurtles around the Sun, then points A and B of Fig. 1 can be regarded as two spatial locations on the World's orbit that are temporally six months apart, in which case the baseline, AB, can be as large as the major axis of the Sun-World system. Even with such a large baseline, the angle ACB turns out to be so small that the claimed closest star, Proxima Centauri, would be 4.3 light-years (l-y) away, if the assumptions of heliocentrism are correct. Due primarily to the exceptionally detrimental influence of Hollywood on Western societies, the concept of a Star Trek-like universe has been ingrained from infancy into the minds of a very large number of people. One consequence of this is that the stars are generally perceived to be located at phenomenal distances from us. However, such vast distances were originally borne of paradigm-supporting necessity and although they may appear to be confirmed by trigonometric parallax calculations, it should be remembered that this technique is itself based upon the heliocentric assumption that it is used to support. The Hipparcos Astrometry Satellite From a NASA website [1] we read that, "The Hipparcos and Tycho [star] Catalogues are the primary products of the European Space Agency's astrometric mission, Hipparcos. The satellite, which operated for four years, returned high quality scientific data from November 1989 to March 1993. "Each of the catalogues contains a large quantity of very high quality astrometric and photometric data." There is considerable on-line ESA documentation [2] on this mission, and of particular relevance is their "Hipparcos and Tycho Catalogues Volume 1 Introduction and Guide to the Data," [3], and "Introduction to the Hipparcos and Tycho Catalogues" [4]. There is also a very useful research tool that enables results from their dataset to be retrieved via a parameter entry table [5], and we see from the associated 'ReadMe' file that the measured ranges for trigonometric parallax were as follows: * Hipparcos Catalogue, field H11, -55 mas to 772.33 mas. * Tycho Catalogue, field T11, -919 mas to 701.5 mas. where one 'mas' is 0''.001 (for example, 250 mas = 0''.25). In this discussion we shall refer exclusively to the Tycho Main Catalogue, because this has far more entries than the Hipparcos Catalogue and because the distribution of parallax data in the Tycho Main Catalogue has not been artificially weighted about the zero value by restricting the negative range. Negative Parallax There are 1,058,332 objects in the Tycho Main Catalogue, and these have a median astrometric precision of 7 mas for visual magnitude 9 and below, increasing through 25 mas for visual magnitude 10-11. Using the ESA's parameter entry table [5], we selected field three (parallax) and specified a range of -919 (min) to -20 (max) mas, over the entire dataset. This produced 262,100 records of negative parallax objects, or 25% of the total. Next we selected the positive parallax objects via a minimum value of 20 mas and a maximum of 701.5 mas. This resulted in 310,758 records, or 29% of the total. The remaining 46% of the Tycho Main Catalogue entries can be assumed to possess zero parallax, within the precision of (0 ± 20) mas. Section 2.2 Contents of the Tycho Catalogue [6] makes the following statement regarding Field T11, "The trigonometric parallax, π, is expressed in units of milliarcsec. The estimated parallax is given for every star, even if it appears to be insignificant or negative (which may arise when the true parallax is smaller than its error)." A further test was conducted, to see if the stars moving across the astrometric instrument slit were directionally different in the northern celestial hemisphere to what they were in the southern celestial hemisphere. In this case, as well as the parallax field, the declination field was also selected. Of the non-zero-parallax stars in the northern celestial hemisphere (0°N ≤ δ ≤ 90°N), 45% of them had a negative parallax, and in the southern celestial hemisphere (0°S ≤ δ ≤ 90°S), 46% of non-zero objects had a negative parallax. So here again is a very symmetrical distribution that would be typical of a naturally occurring phenomenon. In the geocentric model of the universe, the stars occupy a shell, referred to as the stellatum (see Fig. 2), which rotates diurnally about the World. Walter van der Kamp calculated the distance to the stellatum as being 58 light- days (l-d), which, if correct, points to a universe whose radius is 121.75 billion times smaller than we are taught (60 l-d as opposed to 20 billion l-y), and whose volume is thus at least 1.8 x 10³³ times smaller. Hence, to say that geocentrism does not predict the Star Trek-like monstrosity that mainstream science requires is a bit of an understatement. Conclusion It is an indisputable fact that stellar parallax, like the phases of Venus, has been widely cited as "proof" that the World orbits the Sun. This is unfortunate, since the phenomenon proves no such thing. The only thing it does prove is that either the World is moving with respect to the stars, or that the stars are moving with respect to the World. At this the geocentrists usually rest their case, claiming that the adoption of a heliocentric philosophy is just as much a matter of faith as the adoption of a geocentric philosophy. However, this invocation of faith is unnecessary and unjustified, for if it were such a simple choice between the World going around the Sun, or some stars moving slightly in order to conveniently give the appearance of the World going around the Sun, then the heliocentrists would have a point of strong probability (as opposed to a point of proof) in their favour, and geocentrism would indeed become more faith than science. Contrariwise it is worthwhile noting that credibility as regards the sizes of the Sun and Moon discs producing the observed solar eclipse effect that we marvel at sits more comfortably with the intelligent design position that geocentrism tends to imply, rather than with the heliocentrists and their claim of "coincidence." The phenomenon of stellar parallax is not what we have been generally led to believe, because in exactly the same way that Eddington "proved" Einstein's General Theory of Relativity in 1919 by rejecting, omitting or deleting 60% of his measurement data on the bending of starlight, so modern astrophysics maintains the misconception that parallax "proves" the Kopernikan philosophy of the World hurtling around the Sun, by ignoring and dismissing the entire dataset of negative parallax measurements. The ESA, unlike Eddington before them, have kept and filed data values which do not fit in with the ruling model of the universe, and should be commended for so doing, but nevertheless they do seem to dismiss a significant proportion of their measurements rather glibly. Of course, they do say that these may arise due to measurement error, but the number and symmetrical distribution of these values would tend to deny this as being anything other than an exception to the rule. Furthermore, although angular parallax measurements are small (the largest positive value gives an angle ACB, in Fig. 1, on the order of only 0.7 of an arcsecond), the effect is known to be genuine by way of photographic plates taken at various times over a period of twelve months which clearly show the same slight movement of some stars with respect to the background star field. In other words, stellar parallax is an observable phenomenon that is repeatable, rather than being experimental or statistical errors in measurement. When the full picture is revealed and considered, therefore, it is clearly geocentrism that has the potential to fully and adequately account for the hundreds of thousands of negative parallax observations that have now been recorded, although it is acknowledged that a detailed explanation is not currently available. Finally, it may be possible to estimate the thickness of the stellatum from the ESA dataset of parallaxes. References (All websites as accessed on 9th February, 2007.) 1. http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/all/hipparcos.html 2. http://www.rssd.esa.int/Hipparcos/catalog.html 3. http://www.rssd.esa.int/Hipparcos/CATALOGUE_VOL1/catalog_vol1.html 4. http://www.rssd.esa.int/Hipparcos/CATALOGUE_VOL1/sect1_01.pdf 5. http://www.rssd.esa.int/hipparcos_scripts/hipMultiSearch.pl 6. http://www.rssd.esa.int/Hipparcos/CATALOGUE_VOL1/sect2_02.pdf _________________________________________________________________________ The not so big Geocentric Universe Now that we have seen that stellar parallax does not prove heliocentricity, what if we assume that the earth does not move, just as the Bible says repeatedly and unequivocally? We will find that the fantastic distances to the stars that is stated as fact in the textbooks and media is, to put it mildly, exponentially over-exaggerated. Instead of a base of 186 million miles for our triangle, if the earth does not move, then our base becomes roughly 8,000 miles, the diameter of the earth, the observation point. This means that the distances to stars has been MULTIPLIED 23,500 times! That means that you can immediately toss out the 15.75 billion light-year width of the universe and replace it with a paltry 677,000 light years (approximately). The ancient Greeks said that the sun was only about 3 million miles (4,828.032 km) from the earth. This was the number given by Ptolemy and the great Arab astronomer al-Battani. Even Copernicus, in his book "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres", calculates the distance at about 3 million miles. The heliocentrists stuck a 9 in front of the 3 and with this mathematical sleight of hand we have a sun whose distance from the earth is exaggerated 30 times!! Finally, if we take into account that star reflections bouncing back and forth from the ice crystal "waters that are above the heavens" (Psalms 148:4), the actual diameter of the universe needs to be no more than one half of one light day in diameter! Go here for more details about our Geocentric universe. Thus have heliocentric "astronomers" greatly exaggerated the size of the solar system and the universe. They make the universe so big that it cannot possibly orbit the earth in 24 hours. ____________________________________________________________________________ Geocentrism and the "Flower Pattern" According to the Bible's Geocentric model, the sun orbits the earth once every 24 hours. The stars go around in approximately 23 hours and 56 minutes. The moon orbits the earth once every 24 hours and 50 minutes. If you had a working model of our "heliocentric" solar system in front of you, imagine that you could put your hand on the earth and hold it still. Now the rest of the model starts moving just as it did before, but the earth is not moving. The planets still orbit the sun, while the sun orbits the earth. Since the sun's orbit is helical, like the threads on a screw, it is moving up and down from one equinox to the other during the course of the year. All the planets follow along the same ecliptic plane as the sun, and this causes what we see in that the planets follow closely to the same path as the sun across the sky. This replaces the "fact" that the earth is tilted on its axis at 23.5 degrees. Now we read at geocentricuniverse.com that they have a software program called "Geocentric Universe 2.1" that makes it, and I now quote: "possible to lock a particular object such that all motion drawn by the computer simulation then becomes relative to that object. Thus, the apparent paths of celestial bodies, including the World, can be drawn for a universe centred on a particular planet." "There follow two pictures, the first of which is the flower pattern of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn as viewed from the World, and the second of which is the apparent motion of Jupiter, Saturn and the World as viewed from Mars. The latter has probably never been seen before, because it is unlikely that there is another model available capable of this, especially since few people even know about the flower pattern." Figure 1: Earth Centered Figure 2: Mars Centered Firstly, it should be noted that when locked onto a particular planet, the apparent path of the World is always identical to the apparent path of the planet when viewed from the World. Secondly, no objects other than the World display regularity and symmetry, in complete contrast to the situation when the World is centred. Essentially, everything else is chaos. The significance of this is profound, because only on the World are all the paths uniform and beautiful. Hence, only from the viewpoint of the World could one realistically claim to be located at the actual centre of the cosmos. The conclusion therefore is amazing, since only the flower pattern around the World is unique. This is contrary to the late Prof. Sir Fred Hoyle, who was quoted as saying that anywhere in the universe can be viewed with equal justification as being the centre. (Finally, it is important to stress that it is not possible to draw the apparent path of the World in versions of the model that go out, simply because we do not want our model to be mis-used.) Reference Jones, N. and Jones, S., 2004, "Geocentric Universe 2.1," multimedia CDROM for Windows operating systems. __________________________________________________________________________ Star Trails The time lapse photographs below show exactly what we observe every day: That the stars rotate once every sidereal day of 23 hours and 96 minutes: (http://www.danheller.com/images/Palau/Scenics’star-trails_01.big.jpg) Left: "Star Trails in Northern Skies" (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/9809/northpole_malin.jpg) Right: http://rocketroberts.com/astro/circum.htm ______________________________________________________________________________ Solar Eclipses From freelists.org/archives/geocentrism: The Sun is 150 * 10^6 km distant and has a diameter of 1.3927 * 10^6 km thus it subtends an angle of atan (1.3927 * 10^6 / 150 * 10^6) = 531.957 * 10^-3 deg or a little over half a degree. This means that a point on the moon's limb will take about 58 minutes from first point of contact to last point of contact as it crosses the Sun's disk during a solar eclipse -- 531.957 * 10^-3 / 9.15025 * 10^-3 = 58.1359 min. The time of totality is short, never more than about seven minutes (from memory). The moon's diameter is 3476 km and its distance is 384400 km. Since the earth does not rotate, then the moon cannot be orbiting the earth once every 27.321661 days. It is orbiting the earth clockwise once every 24 hours and 50 minutes. The Moon's orbit is inclined to Earth's orbit by 5.1454 degrees (http://www.krysstal.com/solarsys_moon.html). This is why eclipses are rare in the heliocentric model. __________________________________________________________________________ In conclusion, here is a monumental essay from geocentricity.com: JAMES AND ASTRONOMY (James 1:13-18): All the Christian Needs to Know about Solar Parallax Dr. Thomas M. Strouse Emmanuel Baptist Theological Seminary The Bible is the self-revelation of God. It reveals the absolute truth about the Lord and His creation. The Scriptures give special revelation about the Lord Jesus Christ as Creator and Savior. The Bible writers build their teaching of the great redemptive truths upon the physical realities of the created heavens and earth. (e.g., Ps. 19:1-14; Mal. 4:2) 1 James 2 is no exception as he based several truths about God and sin’s temptation upon the physical objects and movements within the created heavens. This simple believer and member of the holy family of Joseph and Mary had a thorough understanding of the workings of the cosmos and illustrated the Lord’s perfections in contrast to sin. Using several technical terms historically associated with astronomy, James revealed a biblical cosmogony upon which he taught redemptive analogies. He used at least four terms that relate to astronomy, including “do [not] err” (planasthe plana/sqe), “lights” (ton photon tw/nfw,twn), “variableness” (parallage parallagh,), and “shadow of turning” (tropes aposkiasma troph/javposki, asma). The terms, when used biblically, give the absolute cosmological foundation upon which redemptive truths are understood. Since the Apostle John assured his audience of local church members that “ye know (oida [oi=da] = absolutely) all things” (I Jn. 2:20), it follows that Christians, with the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit (I Jn. 2:27), may have absolute knowledge not only about redemptive truths but also about His creation. 3 This essay will show exegetically that James used several analogies from creation to teach that the Lord does not tempt men to sin. The primary import of this passage teaches that God is unchanging in His goodness toward man. The secondary emphases relate to biblical revelation about planets, stellar lights, solar parallax and tropic movements. James revealed under inspiration all the absolute knowledge the Christian needs to know, and for that matter can possibly know, about these astronomical phenomena. CONTEXT James wrote his epistle to Christian Jews who were scattered about, although meeting in synagogues and organized as local churches (cf. Jam. 1:1; 2:2; 5:14). These early churches were undergoing severe persecution (cf. Acts 8:1-4; 11:19; 12:1 ff.) and needed the divine perspective concerning trials and temptations. In the aforementioned pericope (1:13-18), James lists five reasons why God is not the source for the temptation to sin. Having declared that trials (peirasmois) are to be endured (1:2-12), James now asserted that temptations are to be resisted. He needed to instruct his audience as to the source for the enticement to evil. The writer’s first argument dealt with the nature of God (v.13). God’s holy nature perfectly resists sin (cf. Lev. 11:44-45). He has no fallen nature to submit to the appeal of evil (literally “evils”). He “cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth (peirazomenos) he any man,” James declared. The nature of the Godhead is separated absolutely from all moral wickedness. Why would a Christian Jew think that the holy God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would tempt a believer to ungodliness? The second argument James established was that temptation comes from within man. 4 Using the present passive verb “is tempted” and the two present passive participles “is drawn away” and “enticed,” the writer focused on the culprit--”his own lust.” Man’s Adamic nature (cf. Isa. 51:5; 58:3; Rom. 3:23) lures and snares its victim, the man himself. Following the genealogical motif, James expressed the origin and destination of sin. When temptation comes to man’s lust, his old nature conceives and gives birth to sin. When the sin is mature, it bears offspring in terms of death. Man is the culpable one, and not God, with regard to the enticement to sin. Next, James warned his audience about being deceived (I Cor. 6:9; 15:33; Gal. 6:7). The present passive imperative “err” (planasthe) with the negation (me mh.) suggests that his audience was actively engaged in thinking of God as the author of temptation. The verb planao is translated twenty-four times in the AV as “deceive,” six times as “err,” five times as “go astray,” twice as “seduce,” once as “wander,” and once as “be out of the way.” It is the root from which the noun “planet” comes, and a planet is an astral object which “wanders” around the sun. James’ audience was allowing itself to go astray in deception about God’s role in temptation. James used an apt illustration for Christians whose theological perspective strays from the Scriptures (cf. also Jam. 5:19). They were like “wandering stars” that go astray (cf. Jude 1:13). In contrast to the deceived perspective some held, James asserted that the fourth reason God was not the author of temptation is His nature of goodness (v. 17). Only good comes from the Lord (Ps. 34:8) as His act of giving (dosis) 5 is good and His gift (dorema) is perfect. His benefits are from above, rather than “earthly, sensual, devilish” (cf. Jam. 3:15), descending from the loving Heavenly Father. To illustrate the magnitude of the Lord’s beneficence, James affirmed that God, as “the Father of lights” (patros ton photon patro.j tw/n fw,twn), 6 created the astral lights known as the sun, moon, and stars for man’s continued blessing (cf. Gen. 1:14-18). But the Lord God, unlike the sun, has no variableness (parallage) 7 or shadow of turning (tropes aposkiasma). 8 The sun’s apparent movement from the perspective of observers on earth at two different points simultaneously or its “parallax,” and its movement above and below the equator (cf. Rom. 8:39) or its “tropic,” are observationally indiscernible. Nevertheless, the Lord never changes (cf. Mal. 3:6) in contrast to the indiscernible parallactic angle and tropical movement of the sun. James concluded with his fifth argument that God does not entice to temptation. The Lord is the God of creation not destruction. 9 His will includes begetting (cf. v. 15) man through the instrumentality of the word of truth (cf. II Cor. 6:7; Eph. 1:13) for regeneration (cf. Jn. 3:3, 5). James assured his audience that God’s purpose was to give them eternal life through the new birth so that these Christian Jews would become firstfruits (cf. Ex. 34:22; Lev. 23:10) of the anticipated greater harvest of mankind (cf. Rom. 11:25). James effectively repudiated any notion from his audience that God tempts man to sin. He based his arguments on the biblical nature of God, man, and the cosmos. As his audience was deeply inculcated in biblical knowledge based on the OT Scriptures, they would have understood James' explicit and implicit teaching, including his cosmological analogies. The remainder of this essay will address the implications of James’ biblical model for his cosmological analogies and will repudiate evolutionary theories that contradict this model. James’ Cosmology Because of James’ early childhood education from his godly parents Joseph and Mary, he would have learned and understood the biblical teaching concerning the Old Testament (OT) cosmology. His epistle is replete with references to twenty-two OT books and numerous analogies from the natural realm, including vegetation, procreation, astronomy, animal husbandry, anatomy, hydrology, etc. He built his spiritual truths on the reality of the natural realm, in which he had a solid biblical education. James assumed his audience would have a basic understanding of the cosmological terms and expressions he employed in his analogies. Concerning the origin and structure of the created heavens and earth, James understood the following Scriptural truths: 1. James knew that God created the heavens and earth from no existing material during the creation week. (cf. Gen. 1:1; Heb. 11:3). 2. On the first day He created a darkened sphere (cf. Isa. 40:22; Prov. 8:27) of water called earth, and put His Spirit in motion over the surface of the earth, illuminating the sphere as He moved over it as the light source. (cf. Gen. 1:2; Ps. 104:2). 3. On the second day God created the firmament (= Heavens [dual ending on Heavens means this refers to only the atmosphere and stellar “outer space”]) and placed it between the waters under (i.e., the earth) and the waters above the firmament, the outer limit of His physical creation (cf. Gen. 1:6-8; Ps. 148:4). 4. By the end of the third day the cosmos was clearly geocentric, with the light source in the heavens moving around the stationary earth (cf. Gen. 1:2-13). 5. On the fourth day, God created and put the greater light, the lesser light and stars in the firmament for the benefit of the earth. The earth was distinct from the revolving heavens with its various component parts, such as sun, moon, and stars. These moving lights became the basis for the daily, seasonal and yearly light sources for the stationary earth (cf. Gen. 1:14-18). 6. The remainder of the OT Scripture builds upon the revelatory truth of the creation week, consistently teaching that the earth is stationary and the heavens, including the sun and stars, move around it. 7. James knew that from Joshua’s perspective the sun and moon moved phenomenologically around the earth (cf. Josh. 10:12), but he also knew that from God’s perspective, Who is outside of His creation and Who declared absolutely that the sun and moon moved, and He caused them to stop (cf. Josh. 10:13; Hab. 3:11). 8. James knew that the author of Judges taught absolutely that the stars moved through their respective courses in the heavens (cf.Judg. 5:20). 9. James knew that King David taught absolutely that the sun moved through its circuit as a racer around the track (cf. Ps. 19:4-6). 10. James knew that wise Solomon taught absolutely several natural phenomena moved relative to the stationary earth, including the sun, wind, and rivers (cf. Eccl. 1:5-7). 11. James knew that the prophet Isaiah recorded absolutely that the shadow of the sun moved ten degrees backward as a cosmological sign (cf. Isa. 38:8). 12. James knew that the psalmist Asaph revealed absolutely that the sun rose and went down relative to the stationary earth (cf. Ps.50:1). 13. James knew that Eliphaz declared absolutely that God walked in “the circuit of heaven” (cf. Job 22:14). 14. James knew that the OT Scriptures taught absolutely and consistently that the sun, moon, and heavens moved relative to the stationary earth, with the exception of the Lord’s shaking the earth, along with the heavens, during the Tribulation (cf. Job 38:14; Isa. 13:13; and 24:19-20). 15. James knew that God affirmed absolutely that the heavens could not be measured accurately and absolutely. (cf. Jer. 31:37). 10 The Problem of the Parallax Since the Lord’s stepbrother used the Greek noun parallege from which “parallax” comes, it behooves the Christian to know what the biblical writer meant to be able to refute false theories. James compared God’s absolute lack of variation with the indiscernible “parallax” of the sun from the observer’s perspective. Man, who cannot physically measure the real parallax angle of the sun, should believe by faith that the Lord is absolutely immovable with regard to fulfilling His promises. History of Parallax The Greek word James employed means “variation, change, alteration or vicissitude.” 11 In the context it seems he contrasted God’s lack of parallax with that of the sun’s change, whether apparent or real. It may refer only to the sun’s diurnal, annual and tropical movements in the heavens. Mayor asserts, “We may therefore take the word to express the contrast between the natural sun, which varies its position in the sky from hour to hour and month to month, and the eternal Source of all light.” 12 However, the writer may have referred to the vox technica of astronomy, acknowledging the angle of parallax for the simple triangulation calculations necessary for distances. Solar parallax refers the sun’s apparent shift when viewed simultaneously from two different vantage points. 13 An astronomical definition of parallax is the “apparent displacement of an object due to a motion of the observer.” 14 The simple experience of parallax would occur when one puts his thumb over an object viewed from a distance and attempts to view the object with one eye closed and then the other. The thumb seems to “move” back and forth, first blocking the view of the object and then moving off of the object when viewed by the other eye. Parallax produces angles from which distances may be determined through trigonometry. The trigonometric parallax method, or triangulation, is the foundation for astrometry, the measurement of star distances. The sun’s parallax is of utmost importance to evolutionary astronomers since it would give not only the alleged distance from earth to sun, but also would establish the Astronomical Unit (AU). 15 The ancient Greek astronomers attempted to understand the phenomena of the heavens. For instance, Aristarchus of Samos (310- 230 BC) tried to determine the sun’s distance through somewhat accurate calculations of the moon’s phases, concluding that the sun was about twenty times as distant from the earth as the moon. Furthermore, he determined the relative sizes of the earth, moon and sun, postulating that the earth must rotate upon its axis and revolve around the stationary sun. Other ancient Greek astronomers such as Hipparchus (c. 160-127 BC) and Ptolemy (2nd century BC) made further calculations to determine the relative distance of the moon from the earth through the use of eclipses. Although these astronomers made refined advances based on previous work, they rejected the hypothesis that the earth rotated and revolved around the sun. The major problem the ancients had in determining absolutely the distances of astral objects was the severe limitations placed on geometric triangulation. The base for their triangle was the diameter of the earth at about 8,000 miles. Because of the far distance even to the moon, the triangle was “long and skinny.” Two of the angles of the triangle were almost 90 degrees each, producing near parallel sides for the triangle. The truth of Jeremiah’s prophecy that the heavens could not be measured absolutely held firm (cf. Jer. 31:37). Until the time of the Reformation, (16th century,) astronomers were complacent with their mathematical limitations and Christians were satisfied with their biblical geocentricity. The Need and Result of Solar Parallax Through the influence of the notion of Sol Invictus the Roman Empire prepared the way for incipient heliocentricity, 16 which finally blossomed by the work of Copernicus (AD 1473-1543), Kepler (1571-1630), and Galileo (1564-1642). Copernicus, greatly influenced by Greek philosophy and astronomy, rejected the geocentrism of the Bible and posited the heliocentric theory that his book De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (1543) declared. Kepler attempted to calculate the parallax of Mars, which planet is far closer than the sun, to measure the sun’s distance (1600). Galileo, of course, popularized Copernicanismin his Dialogo dei Due Massimi Sistemi in 1632. Later astronomers attempted to refine the sun’s parallax by observing the transits of the planets Mercury and Venus across the sun’s disc. The theory of heliocentricity postulates that the earth revolves around the sun yearly in an orbit having a diameter of 186,000,000 miles. This anti-biblical and unproved assumption now gave new momentum to triangulation for distances because the base line was no longer the earth’s diameter of 8,000 miles but its orbit of 186,000,000 (2 x 93,000,000) miles. This change based on the unproved assumption of heliocentricity, immediately expanded the distances of the stars by the factor of 23,500 times. 17 Friedrich W. Bessel employed this new perspective and measured the parallax of the star 61 Cygni, concluding that it was more than 10 light years from the earth (1838). 18 His work became foundational for measuring the heavens and fostering other speculative alternatives of astrometrics. 19 Although evolutionary astronomers considered Bessel’s detection of stellar parallax the coup de grace for geocentricity, the biblical writer James implied the reality of solar parallax about eighteen centuries earlier (cf. Jam. 1:17). The simple and biblical fact of the matter is that the stars move diurnally with the sun within the revolving firmament relative to the stationary earth. The erroneous distances based on heliocentric assumptions, exacerbated by the factor of 23,500 times, go hand in glove with the near infinite age of the heavens at fifteen billion years. Evolutionary science, in rejecting biblical revelation, can neither measure the vastness of the heavens, nor comprehend the newness of the Lord’s creation. In contrast, the Bible teaches that the immeasurable heavens are confined within the water above the firmament (cf. Gen. 1:1-18; Ps. 148:4) were created a mere 6,000 years ago (cf. Gen. 5, 10-11; Mt. 1:17; Jude 1: 14). For instance, Eliphaz made the inspired observation, stating “Is not God in the height of heaven? And behold the height of the stars, how high they are!” (Job 22:12). Again, David asserted the truth about vast distances within the heavens, stating, “for as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him”. (Ps.103:11).20 The Exegesis of Jeremiah 31:37 Atheistic evolutionists have completely rejected the Scriptures and consequently built a system of “science falsely so called” (I Tim.6:20). However, creationists who have accepted the heliocentric model have capitulated to some of the myths of evolutionists. For instance, creationist Steidl in describing stellar parallax, asseverates, by measuring the amount the star appears to shift, and knowing the size of the earth’s orbit, one can use trigonometry to find the distance to that star. The distance of stars out to about 300 light years is measurable in this way. This is only a fraction of the size of our galaxy, the Milky way, let alone the rest of the universe…It is easy to see that with all the assumptions which must be made, and the statistical manipulations which must be carried out, there will be large uncertainties in the distances of extremely distant objects. In fact, the cosmic distance scale is admittedly unreliable. 21 Steidl, following the assumptions of evolutionists, bases the “local” stellar distances on the earth having an 186,000,000-mile diameter orbit around the sun. He admits that beyond the possible trigonometric calculations of close stars, other methods, based on heliocentric and evolutionary assumptions, produce greater, albeit unreliable, distances. However, to the Christian who believes in biblical geocentricity and rejects the notion that the earth has an orbit, triangulation cannot accurately and absolutely be calculated for the sun’s parallax, and consequently stellar distances cannot be measured with reasonable accuracy or biblical authority. Of course, the Lord Jesus Christ created the heavens and earth with these physical and mathematical constraints, allowing Him to make the challenge to mankind: Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of host is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. 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 (Jer. 31:35-37). During the creation week the Lord Jesus Christ (Col. 1:16) placed the sun, moon and stars in the firmament for lights and established the regulation of the sea waves. These natural constants are part of His divine ordinances which will not change, the Lord declared. Using the conditional particle (‘im ~ai) (Jer. 31:36-37), Jehovah asserted His immutability of purpose with regard to fulfilling the New Covenant promises to Israel (vv. 31-34), challenging mankind with the impossible task of measuring the heavens or the foundations of the earth. The Lord’s challenging statement “If heaven above can be measured…I will also cast off” reveals several truths: 1) The expression represents the classic construction for a contingency, with ‘im in the protasis and the imperfect sa; m.a,) in the verb (‘eme’as e apodosis.) 2) Heaven (shamayim ~yIm;v’) is an anarthrous dual noun referring to both the atmosphere and the stellar outer space. 3) The verb “can be measured” (yimmadu WDM;yI) is the Niphal imperfect, third person, masculine, plural form of madad (dd;m’). The Authorized Version translates this verb as “measure,” “mete out,” “mete,” or “stretched” fifty-one times in the OT. The Niphal verb stem is passive, forcing the reader to determine the subject of the verb, which in this case is mankind. The verb madad refers to the actual physical measuring of an object. For instance, Boaz “measured (madad) six measures of barley” for Ruth to carry to Naomi (Ruth 3:15). His measurement was no doubt accurate and based on a human standard for barley measurements. Likewise, Ezekiel predicted that the construction of the Millennial Temple would be based on accurate measurements, utilizing the verb madad thirty-three times for measuring various dimensions for the building of the Temple. (cf. Ezk. 40-47). 4) Since man does not have the mathematical or physical wherewithal to measure stellar distances accurately and authoritatively, the Lord assured the immutable promise of the New Covenant. God has determined that man never has, cannot now, and never will measure the heavens accurately and absolutely. 5) Christians are left with the divine revelation of the Scriptures (II Tim. 3:16-17) that reveals absolutely both the vastness of God’s creation and its immeasureableness. James hinted at the reality of solar parallax and Jeremiah declared that man cannot measure the heavens. 6) Evolutionary schemes and theories cannot satisfy the Christian because they are based on the Satanic lies of the Garden and result in myths (cf. Gen. 3:4-5).22 Christians must rejoice in the full extent of truth that the Lord God has determined to give through His Scriptures. The Planets The noun “planet,” although not found in the Bible, astronomically refers to an astral object that wanders through its orbit. Planets as such have orbits around the sun that is in the heavens. The Lord placed the sun with its wandering planets in the firmament. The earth, however, is distinct from the heavens (i.e., firmament) and was never placed in the heavens (cf. Gen. 1:1-19). 23 Therefore, the earth is not a planet, although evolutionists have inculcated their anti-biblical teaching upon the terminology of the western world. 24 The closest the Bible comes to referring to a planet is Jude’s reference (1:13) to likening apostates to “wandering stars” (asteras planetai). Since the noun planet is not mentioned in Scripture, the Lord surely does not place any importance on this part of His creation other than to give a spiritual warning for mankind to avoid apostasy by straying from the revealed truth. 25 Professed Christians should give no thought to whether planets will give further knowledge about the origin and purpose of the heavens. 26 When a man contemplates planets, his concern should be if he would become a “wandering star.” The Lights James asserted that God was the Father of lights, corroborating other Scripture (cf. Isa. 45:7). As the Father, He created light by giving the divine fiat “Let there be light” (yehiy ‘or rAa yhiy on Day One (Gen. 1:2). As He had spoken His creation into existence (Heb. 11:3) He spoke the creation of light into existence. His vocalized consonants “Let there be light” produced the vibrations which manifested “light” (‘or rAa). 27 The psalmist revealed that Jehovah initially covered Himself “with light as with a garment” (Ps. 104:2) and moved upon the face of the earth as the original light source (Gen. 1:2), dispelling darkness with light. This apparently was the morning light (cf. I Sam. 14:36; 25:22, 34, 36; 29:10; II Sam. 17:22; 23:4; II Kings 7:9; Isa. 58:8; Mi. 2:1) of the first day and the first of the four created lights. Solomon referred to “the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars” (Eccl. 12:2),28 all of which have separate glories (cf. I Cor. 15:41). Later, on the fourth day, the sun, moon, and stars also contributed as moving light sources for the heavens. The Tropics James used the term trope (“turning”) in his expression “shadow of turning” referring to a shadow caused by turning. As he utilized other astronomical terms to teach spiritual realities about God, it seems he was referring to the seasonal shadows cast by the sun in its annual orbit around the earth. Since the axis of the stationary earth is absolutely north and south (Job 26:7),29 the sun’s plane is not coincident with the earth’s but is oblique by 23 1/2 degrees, causing shadows to be cast on the different hemispheres from the region of the Poles to the Tropics. Only the area between the two Tropics,30 including the equator, receives direct sunlight, and especially twice a year when the sun is directly overhead on the equator. On the summer solstice (June 22), the sun passes the zenith at its highest point on the Northern Hemisphere on the first day of summer, shining directly and causing summer, while at the same time shining obliquely on the Southern Hemisphere causing winter. This is reversed six months later at the winter solstice (Dec. 22). The region from the equator to 23 1/2 degrees North latitude and from the equator to 23 1/2 degrees South latitude receives direct sunlight and is warm year around (i.e., tropical). The point that James seemed to make was that on a daily basis it is nearly impossible to detect the sun’s tropical movement as it moves around the earth and causes the various seasons. He compares the Lord’s absolute immovability in relationship to His redemptive purposes with this almost indiscernible solar movement. Conclusion The stepbrother of the Lord Jesus Christ, under inspiration, wrote to Christian Jews scattered throughout the Mediterranean basin. As they underwent trials in the form of persecution, some of them concluded that God was tempting them to sin. James effectively dispatched of that false notion by giving at least five reasons that God does not tempt man to sin. These reasons centered on the holy nature of God, the old nature of man, the tendency for man to be deceived, the good nature of God, and the creative nature of God. In developing his arguments, James assumed the truths of biblical cosmology to advance his defense of the Lord’s nature and person. These realities in nature include truth about the planets, lights, parallax, and tropics. 1) The planets, as wandering stars, depict apostates who deviate from the truth. 2) The good Lord created the heavenly lights, as great and brilliant as they may be. 3) James implied that the sun’s apparent parallax is almost imperceptible, contrasting the absolute immovability of the Lord God with this slight parallactic angle. 4) Finally, to emphasize the Lord’s absolute immutability with regard to His promises, James declared that Jehovah did not move or turn, unlike the imperceptible but real seasonal movement of the sun relative to the Tropics. The Lord Jesus Christ created the heavens and earth and then revealed within His Scriptures the full extent that man may know absolutely about the physical phenomena. The creation has built in limitations so that man, neither evolutionist nor creationist can measure accurately and absolutely the heavens, as Jeremiah predicted. All the Christian can know or needs to know is that planets revolve around the sun, the lights are in subjection to God the Father, and the sun has parallax, and it has tropical movement around the earth. The evolutionist can only speculate about the heavens and posit anti-biblical myths. The Christian knows absolutely, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork” (Ps. 19:1). Footnotes: 1 For instance, the Lord Jesus Christ taught many truths from parables, building a spiritual truth upon a physical truth. In Mt. 13 he assumed the physical reality of seeds, tares, leaven, treasure, pearls, and nets, and taught spiritual realities built upon these items from the natural realm. 2 Of the four men named James in the New Testament (NT), only the half-brother of the Lord Jesus Christ (Mt. 13:55) is the plausible explanation. James believed in Jesus as Savior only after His resurrection (Jn. 7:5; I Cor. 15:7), was counted among the apostles (Gal. 1:19), and became a leader in Jerusalem (Acts 15:13). 3 The Lord’s ekklesia (evkklesi,a), the visible assembly of immersed believers with pastors and deacons is “the pillar and ground of the truth” (Mt. 28:19-20; I Tim. 3:15), needs only the authoritative and sufficient Scriptures to understand all truth (II Tim. 3:16-17). 4 This statement does not ignore that Satan is the great tempter and who knows how to appeal to the lusts of Adam’s sons (Mt. 4:1, 3). 5 Cf. Phil. 4:15. 6 Cf. Ps. 84:11; Mal. 4:2; Eccl. 12:2. God is likened to the sun and He created the lights. 7 This biblical hapax legomena (word used only once, although compare II Kings 9:20 [LXX]) refers to change or variation. Lexicographers such as Arndt and Gingrich cite ancient usage of parallage in Aeschylus and Plato. William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1957), p. 625. 8 These two nouns are hapax legomena and form the genitive construction. In this case the genitive is one of cause, “a shadow because of change.” 9 Cf. Lk. 9:56: “For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” 10 Thomas M. Strouse, “Biblical Geocentricity,” The Biblical Astronomer 109 (2004): 69-89. 11 H. G. Liddell, An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon (NY: Harper & Brothers, Publ., 1899), p. 599. 12 Joseph B. Mayor, The Epistle of St. James (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publ. House, 1954), p. 60. 13 The sun’s parallactic movement is apparent and not real since the observation points are in two different locations. The attempt to measure the sun’s parallax is only for the purpose to determine angles and distances. In order to determine the height of an isosceles triangle, one would have to know any two consecutive sides or angles: side, angle, side (SAS) or angle, side, angle (ASA). The sun does have real motion against its background (i.e., the constellations), although heliocentric astronomers term this “apparent motion.” 14 George O. Abell, Exploration of the Universe, (Chicago: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974), p. 688. 15 The distance from the earth to the sun has been estimated to be about 93,000,000 miles and has become the “absolute” basis for astrometry as 1 AU. Backhaus lists five reasons astronomers want to know the sun’s parallax. 1) The sun’s distance from earth would help determine the magnitude of the solar system. 2) Solar system distances help determine astrophysical properties of the sun and planets. 3) Gravitation factored into thesedistances help determine planet’s positions more accurately. 4) This leads to better astronomical navigating. 5) Stellar parallax helps determine the size of the universe. U. Backhaus, “Astronomy On-Line Project: Measuring the Sun’s Parallax” http://didaktik.physik.uni-essen.de, 7-4-05, pp. 2-4. 16 Gerardus D. Bouw, Geocentricity, (Cleveland: Association for Biblical Astronomy, 1992), pp. 153-155. only the authoritative and sufficient Scriptures to understand all truth (II Tim. 3:16-17). 17 186,000,000 miles/8,000 miles = 23,500. 18 Abell, p. 120. 19 Wright lists 25 methods additional to that of trigonometric parallax to help refine the measurement of the sun’ s parallax, all of which are based on speculative evolutionary assumptions: Moving Cluster, Secular Parallax, Statistical Parallax, Kinematic Distance, Expansion Parallax, Light Echo Distance, Spectroscopic Visual Binaries, Baade-Wesselink Method, Spectroscopic Eclipsing Binaries, Expanding Photosphere Method, Main Sequence Fitting, Spectroscopic Parallax, RR Lyrae Distance, Cepheid Distance, Planetary Nebula Luminosity Function, Brightest Stars, Largest H II Region Diameters, Surface Brightness Fluctuations, Type I-a supernovae, Tully-Fisher Relation, Faber-Jackson Relation, Brightest Cluster Galaxies, Gravitation Lens Time Delay, Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effect, and Hubble Law. Edward L. Wright, “The ABC’s of Distances,” http://astro.ucla.edu. July 7, 2005, pp. 1-8. This large number of various techniques shows the impossibility to measure the sun’s distance accurately or absolutely. 20 Cf. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:9). 21 Paul M. Steidl, The Earth, the Stars, and the Bible (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1979), pp. 130, 187. 22 Satan taught (cf. I Tim. 4:1-3) basic Gnostic Pantheism, postulating the deification and deathlessness of man. Corollaries to these tenets included evolution and “the flesh is evil” doctrine. 23 The Bible writers utilize the expression “heaven and earth” at least thirty-one times, always distinguishing between these two realms (cf. e.g., Mt. 24:35). 24 Even many Christians have been brainwashed by evolutionary philosophy in using un-Scriptural terminology. The Bible never once calls the earth a planet. 25 How ironic it is that evolutionists are “wandering stars.” 26 The Christian already knows that the Lord’s purpose on earth is to meet the spiritual needs of lost mankind. John summarized this truth, saying, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jn. 3:16). 27 The Scripture gives the Lord’s quote, revealing these actual words, which were His breath (II Tim. 3:16), and consequently His words vibrated light into existence (this would suggest that light is a wave rather than a particle). Could it be that Quantum Physics, with its ten-dimensional superstring theory of vibrating strings as the ultimate fundament, is catching up with the Bible? 28 All four nouns are articular and the last three are separated with the waw conjunction, distinguishing four distinct lights. 29 The Lord created the earth’s axis north and south with reference to the heavens. The psalmist Ethan stated, “The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them. The north and the south thou hast created them…” (Ps. 89:11-12). Even the New Jerusalem will be located absolutely with respect to the directions of north, south, east and west in the New Heavens and Eart.h (cf. Rev. 21:1; 13). 30 The Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn were so named because the sun’s relationship with these two sectors or signs of the zodiac. ___________________________________________________________________________ Continue on to "The Broken Deep The following links should provide useful in answering any question on geocentrism that you may have. Also included are links on the plasma universe, electric universe, and related websites: Marshall Hall's Fixed Earth Earth Deception The Electric Universe Electric Cosmos Plasma Universe Plasma Cosmology Geocentric Perspective Thunderbolts The Biblical Astronomer Malcolm Bowden's Creation Facts and Biblical Counseling Back to top Home |
