To my Atheist buddies, do you know that the bible does not say the Earth is flat?

Question

I know you guys have gobs of fun aaand drinks ripping the Bible. However you should be aware that when it mentions “The Four Corners Of The Earth”, it is a METAPHOR. Since this little oversight is just information and not about sin or proof of God you should not object to this reference.
In the book of Job26:7-9…
He spreads out the northern skies over empty space.
HE HANGS THE EARTH OVER NOTHING.
He wraps up water in his clouds.
They are heavy, but they don't burst.
He covers the face of the full moon.
He spreads his clouds over it.
(New International Reader's Version)
Would you kindly pass this around amongst yourselves so we can at least be on the same page?

HEEEYYY, JP Let's not get carried away!

UnPOPE, Do you want them one at a time or all at once? Slow down I don't want you to have a heart attack!

ZEROCOOL, There are a lot of things in the bible that are made clear if people just take the time to do the research.

PHOENIX, You should know better now, you are just being mean, that's not fair is it?

Togethr, God could make the Sun TOUCH the earth and not take ONE life, this is GOD we're talkin' about. Remember the three Hebrews thrown into the furnace? When they walked out they didn't even have the SMELL of smoke on them let alone being burned to a crisp. OHHH, that's right you don't believe the fairytales, My Bad!

Tigris, It was a DREAM. You can ride a bike on Neptune in a DREAM.

DREAMSTUFF, Give me a break how many times do you hear the phrase, "AT SUNSET?"

Answer 1

MY MY MY MY, fella you are straight on with this. and I pray some will hear you. Most of what the athiests say we believe is just not so, but they dont know, as they dont know the Bible. Only when they will read and see will they know just what God says.
What Gods says is truth and its all we need to know for every question we have on how to live For JESUS on earth as we wait for Him.
STudy the word for yourselves and KNOW what God says. Its all truth.
He also says He loves us enough to forgive us and give us a chance to receive a new heart thru Jesus. Just ask, receive, hear God , obey Him and you will KNOW. God is a GOd of love, absolutely amen, but also a God of wrath towards those that only rebel and bring such sorrow to everyone else, besides to them selves. God weeps . Yet they still reject Him. ALl we can do is live truth, speak it and keep on praying for those that dont yet know the Lord.
Preach on brother. This is all good and what I have prayed for on here for a long time. someone to truly speak truth without fear of compromise, boldly, as Jesus did. amen

Answer 2

I wouldn't worry about trying to convince people, who obviously despise the Bible, of its truth. Maybe a better description than "metaphor" would be, as John expresses it in Revelation, "signs" and "symbols." They don't get that these things are representative of other things occurring here on earth and many of them deal with prophesy. Yes, the Bible uses figurative language, but it is also a book of laws and principles and examples for us to live by. The prophesies are most likely the parts to use figurative language. If you understand the arrangement of the Bible, you'll understand this more fully.

To be a Christian, you have to have a measure of faith, which 'faith" is defined as "the assured expectation of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Heb 11:1. They don't want to see. So, they wont, and they have no faith either. God does not reveal everything to humans until his appointed time. They don't understand that really by saying "there is no god" they side with Satan and, thus, are on Satan's side. Just as the Apostle Paul said, "Satan has blinded the minds of the unbelievers." Just like in Jesus' day, ridiculers existed and always will. Call me a yokel, if you want, but I'm a yokel who will experience everlasting life!

It's sad, really, when all you have to do is look around this earth and you can see it had an intelligent Designer, everything from the air we breathe to the exact distance of the sun from the earth -- any farther away and we'd freeze; any closer and we'd burn up. But, oh, I forgot, that must have just been an accident or coinkidinky, too, just like the way we're designed and our DNA, the flowers, stars -- all accidents.

P.S. Have you ever seen a house build itself, or a car just come together on its own? Well, I don't understand why not because surely that's how the earth was formed. (sarcasm intended.) And you call us yokels?

Answer 3

A literal translation of Job 26:10 is "He described a circle upon the face of the waters, until the day and night come to an end."
a circle is not a sphere.
In Daniel, the king “saw a tree of great height at the centre of the earth...reaching with its top to the sky and visible to the earth's farthest bounds.” If the earth were flat, a sufficiently tall tree would be visible to “the earth's farthest bounds,” but this is impossible on a spherical earth.

Though we could agree that all the creation story is a metaphor (not sure for what though, could you illuminate that?)

Answer 4

The whole bible is an allegory that relates the different aspects of ones own mind and being. The only true interpretation is to turn the scriptures within, that's what it means to apply the key of knowledge. There is no picking and choosing, the whole thing by no means is literal or a historical novel.

Both Atheist and Christians fail to realize this, Christians because they are God-Centered and pray to a allegory as though it were real in the manner that they think, Atheist because they are God-Centered in reverse and operate from the reasoning that the scriptures were supposed to be interpreted literally so thus it is all a lie since it is out of touch with the world and even history. It was never supposed to be read literally to begin with that was not the point of the scriptures.

Answer 5

According to the bible:

* The earth was created before the sun
* The stars were created to give light, even though only a few thousands are visible to the naked eye.
* The sun goes around the earth
* The earth is set upon pillars
* The earth is stable and does not move.

Answer 6

So THAT part's a metaphor, but Adam and Eve, Creation, etc. isn't? How do we tell which ones to take literally.

And how about being held up by columns?
He shakes the earth from its place and makes its pillars tremble. Job 9:6

Or:
He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.
Psalms 104:5

Answer 7

It also says god stopped the sun from moving and mentions the earth as being stationary

Besides sayig he hangs it on nothing doesn't say it's round either

Just how do you decide what's a metaphor and what isn't? Are those conclusions the same for all sects?

Answer 8

Oooooh goodie, it's a metaphor! But how do we know what's a metaphor and what isn't? Well, whatever the Christians WANT to take literally, it isn't a metaphor. Whatever the Christians feel they shouldn't take literally (usually because if they did, it would be embarrassing), it IS a metaphor!

*edit* Like JP said, you're a literalist or you aren't. If you start saying "hey, that's metaphor" then you open the doors for interpretation, and it's really childish to say "if you aren't a Christian (or a Christians like me), you just don't get it". If you can spot the metaphor and allegory, so can we, and anyone elses views are just as valid as yours.

Answer 9

Yeah you're right - maybe that's a metaphor. I suppose maybe "Adam and Eve" is an allegory. "Noah's Ark" may possibly be a fable...see where I'm going?

The "fundies," as nutty as they obviously are, know what they're doing when they insist that you take every word as literally as a four year old would. Once you start hedging on the interpretation, it's a slippery slope to actually thinking like a reasonable adult.

Answer 10

The Bible is pure fiction and plagiarized mythology. Even among Christians there is no agreement on what should be interpreted as literal vs metaphor in the Bible. You are ignorant of the truth if you believe the Bible is the word of God, and it would be crazy to think everyone should believe in your delusion.

Answer 11

It's amazing that things are a metaphor sometimes, but other things are NOT metaphors, based on the beliefs of the PEOPLE reading it. It WAS a fact, until it was proved that the world wasn't flat. My experience has been that everything in the Bible is literal word of God, until it is OBVIOUSLY not true. THEN it becomes a metaphor