Did the Bible Really Teach The Earth Is Flat? — Part 2 | Michael Heiser

Part 1: https://youtu.be/ikbcPT1yjtc The old view of the cosmos, shared by the ancient Israelites and many ancient Near Eastern cultures such as Egypt and Mesopotamia, was a three-tiered universe comprising heaven above, earth in the middle, and an underworld below. This cosmology included the firmament—a solid dome separating waters above from those below—and reflected in biblical passages like Exodus 24 and Psalms. The stars were viewed as divine beings, with some fixed and others moving, indicating life. The underworld, Sheol, was a shadowy realm for both righteous and wicked dead, distinct from later notions of Hell or purgatory. Biblical texts, shaped over centuries under divine inspiration, incorporate this worldview to deliver theological messages rather than scientific facts. The Bible's physical descriptions align with the contemporary ancient worldview, reflecting a God who transcends creation yet communicates within its cultural context. Inspiration is a providential, progressive process, not instant dictation, allowing for growth in understanding through history. Consequently, insisting on modern scientific criteria for biblical cosmology misses the point; rather, one should appreciate the theological and cultural framework the Bible addresses and respect its uniqueness without conflating it with pagan cosmologies. The historical misconception that pre-modern people believed in a flat Earth persisted well into the 19th and 20th centuries but was inaccurate, as the spherical Earth was accepted by scholars since antiquity. The ancient biblical worldview was not about precise astronomy but about conveying divine truths within the context of their culture and time. #CreationCosmology #GenesisLiteralism #BiblicalWorldview #OldTestamentTruth #LiteralInterpretation #FaithAndScience #GodsWordUnchanged #AncientWorldview #BiblicalTruth #StandFirmInFaith #GenesisDebate #ScienceAndFaith #BibleContext #DivineAccommodation #RejectTheologicalRevisionism #CreationVsEvolution #FaithOverScience #OldTestamentCosmology #ScriptureMatters #BiblicalLiteralism