Q234: Explain the firmament in Gen 1:6-8?
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- Опубликовано: 26 сен 2024
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Amen.
Amen brother keep up the good work God bless❤💪🏻🙏🏻
Great short study! I had not known of Psalm 148:4 before but it was duly noted and cross referenced with Gen. 1:6-8 in my Bible. Thank you for your ongoing teaching ministry.😎
We're blessed to understand right division.... all glory to God in Jesus name Amen
It's cold up there, that's probably where God will (or has) frozen the waters to make the
great hailstones he will throw down to earth during the judgement of the Great Tribulation. Rev 16:21
Thanks Pastor Reid I never understood what separating the waters from the waters meant!!
Thank you David.
Daniel 12:3 says, “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.”
In short, the “firmament” is a vast expanse, specifically the atmosphere or sky. The word is found only in the King James Version and other older translations of the Bible.
@ricksullivan2135, Daniel 12:3 was one of our son's favorite verses during his senior year of high school. 💙
Using Blue Letter Bible, we see the Hebrew word "raqia" to mean a solid expanse. The outline of Biblical Usage and two other lexicons available on Blue Letter Bible also support this notion that the Hebrews believed the firmament to be solid.
A solid firmament is supported in Job 37:18, "Hast thou with him spread out the sky, Which is strong, and as a molten looking glass?"
In Isaiah 40:22, the heavens are described as a tent, "...that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:"
We need to be careful that we don't use our preconceived ideas to alter God's word to match what we may believe instead of what God said.
I don't think I would disagree with most of what you said in this video, but I should clarify a few things on behalf of those who believe in a geocentric, level earth.
#1. Older dictionaries frequently defined the word "firmament" as a solid structure. Take for example Samuel Johnson's dictionary from 1755, which defines "firmament" as "The sky or heavens; supposed to be a solid substance, which sustains the heavenly bodies in their due situation."
Another definition is taken from Nathan Bailey's dictionary from the same period, which states that the firmament is " The expanse of the heavens; the sky and the orb of the fixed stars. You get the exact same definition in "A New English Dictionary" from 1702. Keep in mind that the "orb of the fixed stars" refers to an ancient cosmological concept where the stars were thought to be embedded in a large, rotating sphere or shell surrounding the Earth. This is yet another depiction of the geocentric, level earth model.
I should also note that you omitted the second definition given by Websters, which is "Fixed foundation; established basis." How can empty space be a fixed foundation?
That being said, I (and most level earthers) actually believe that there are two definitions to this word. Firmament can clearly be defined as both a solid structure, as well as the open space of heaven. Both of these views are correct and are defined as such in countless dictionaries. Unfortunately most modern dictionaries remove the second definition.
#2. We also understand that there's more than one heaven, but we would certainly disagree on the idea of "space". I can get on board with the idea that the open firmament where the birds fly is the first heaven (Gen 1:20), and the area where the sun, moon and stars were placed are the second heaven, but I would strongly disagree with the heliocentric nonsense that accompanies that belief. Keep in mind that the Bible states repeatedly that the heavens are 'above' the earth. That description only makes sense on a geocentric model.
On this topic, the documentary "Heliosorcery" is absolutely excellent.
So how does this fit with the ever expanding infinite universe teaching that we were all taught to believe in grade school? Are the waters ever expanding too then? And God’s throne getting farther and farther away in the 3rd heaven? Or is it actually a FIRMament like the book says and darkness has a bound as found in Job 38:19-20?
I do believe the scripture refers to the watery division in the heavens as a sea, or as seas. Just some thoughts:
_Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness._
Psalms 74:13-14 KJV
Job also refers to leviathan, which the scripture defines as the crooked serpent (Satan).
Seems God describes the watery division in the heavens:
_Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it, And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?_
Job 38:8-11 KJV
In the narrative of God dwelling upon Mount Sinai, it is said God hides himself behind shrouds of thick darkness (divides himself from man's and angel's sinfulness).
_There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies._
Psalms 18:8-11 KJV
There's also an idea that certain angelic spirits that God has cast judgement upon are kept within the depths of the waters (great deep), not always a reference to Hell in the heart of the earth. There's a connection between the devils entering the swine and them running into the sea of Galilee, and God's judgement upon spirits being held in the deep (waters below the firmament, not waters upon the earth).
_And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth._
Matthew 25:30 KJV
_And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day._
Jude 1:6 KJV
Seems logical that while the heavens are filled with trillions of stars that give light (Gen 1:16), there's also outer darkness. Could be reference to the great deep of waters, where no light can penetrate, the exact condition of Genesis 1:2 waters before they were separated by a firmament.
Dear Brother,
Gen 7:11 KJV "...and the windows of heaven were opened."
The flood also brought down waters that were present above the firmmament (that was in-between the 2nd and 3rd heaven)
Based on Psa 148:4 KJV, waters are still present above the firmmament even today. Is my understanding right brother?
@rightlydivideWoT We think that your understanding is correct. Grace.