NOGO

The stars falling to earth

Revelation 6:12-13 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal,
and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as
sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even
as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.

Remembering that the stars are within the firmament (Gen 1:17) and are therefore below the waters above the firmament (Gen 1:7)

The stars are therefore small lights fixed to the firmament to give light to the earth (Gen 1:17)

It is absurd, given our understanding of what stars are, that they were created
for the purpose to give light on earth.

In Revelation (6:13) stars are compared to figs falling from a fig tree. The
imagery portrayed here is a small object getting unhooked and falling. The stars
are unhooked from the firmament and fall to the ground.

Can it be meteorites? Let`s try it

Revelation 6:12-13 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal,
and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as
sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
And the meteorites of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.

Point 1
Meteorites are fragments of cosmic bodies flying through space and hitting the earth. Not exactly like late figs shaken off the fig tree by a strong wind. The analogy would be more like an accident, two objects on a collision course etc.


Point 2
Meteorites falling to earth are a rather mundane (no pun intended) event. It happens regularly especially in early August.
The sun becoming black and the moon becoming as blood are unusual events. If meteorites is intended then a qualifier is necessary here. For example

Revelation 6:13 And the meteorites of heaven fell unto the earth in great numbers, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.

OR

Revelation 6:13 And large meteorites of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.

The purpose of the qualifier here is to make the event unsual. In other words something different is happening (being the end of the world) that is not the normal meteorites that fall on a regular basis. Otherwise what is the reason for stating something that happens all the time anyway?
Note the word “great” which qualifies earthquake!

Point 3
Did the writer of revelations and potential reader know that stars were molten plasma of great size located light years away from earth?
If they did then it should be no problem telling them about meteorites.
People who can understand concepts such as stars as we know it today can certainly understand meteorites.
If they did't then how can they understand a sphere floating in space?

Point 4
By substituting stars with meteorites you are actually conceding the point. You
are admitting that for people in those times stars and meteorites are equivalent
and one can be substituted for the another without any problem. Otherwise they
would have objected as others do that stars cannot fall to earth without the earth burning up in a split second.
If on the other hand they believed as I said above that stars are small lights appended to the dome of the firmament then they would be equivalent to meteorites and cause them no problem.

Point 5
These passages must be read in conjunction with other passages which clearly point to a flat earth.
I will try and clarify in my next post.

[ January 21, 2002: Message edited by: NOGO ]</p>

I_C_THE_LITE

The parallels, prophesies noted in the new testament are simply machinations interpreted, profaned by the editors/creators of the new testament. One great example would be that of the suffering servant, Isiah 53, which speaks of the 'children of Israel', but profaned to speak of the coming of Jesus Christ in the New testament. <img src="graemlins/notworthy.gif" border="0" alt="[Not Worthy]" />

MOJO-JOJO

Unless you are a Catholic, Mormon or Jehovah's Witness, right? Whatever the "church fathers" say has pre-emptive rights over Scripture....

[ January 22, 2002: Message edited by: MOJO-JOJO ]</p>

MOJO-JOJO

<strong>Meta -&gt;No, first of all Jesus could not be fiction. It's almost impossible and there is
absolutely no reason to think so.</strong>

Funny....plenty of significant debates between truly literate people have demonstrated a valid argument to the contrary.

<strong>Secondly, what is so implausible about poetic langaue in a book which is obviously based upon poetic language. ATheists are so illiterate? The most ignroatn idiots in the world! I have never seen a more ignorant or unleanred group of people even in West Texas!</strong>

Yeah whatever you say.... but I bet they can spell more goodly than you!

Muad'Dib

Let's leave Meta's spelling out of this, even in jest.

Jayhawker Soule

I guess that I'm forced to agree. I'm just not sure what's left once we do so ...

Jack the Bodiless

Another one:
Ironically, this is the passage most often quoted by those who claim that the authors of the Bible "knew the Earth was round". I've even seen a fundie bring it up as evidence that the Bible contains "scientific knowledge the Hebrews couldn't otherwise have known"!

But "circle" in this context obviously refers to a flat disk, not a sphere. You don't cover a sphere by pitching a tent over it: a tent covers flat ground. You'd have to wrap it up in something.

Vorkosigan

ATheists are so illiterate? The most ignroatn idiots in the world! I have never seen a more ignorant or unleanred group of people even in West Texas!

Calm down, Meta.

Michael

Jack the Bodiless

Please do. I was under the impression that Job was Flat-Earth throughout, maybe I missed something.

MOJO-JOJO

Just the old, "who are YOU to call people illiterate" thing....