Observation a main point stressed by globe earth people.
Flat Earth observes these facts based on the Bible's witness.
The sun, moon and stars moving over the earth.
The sun, moon and stars are created lights.
The sun is the sun and not a star, that stars are lights and not suns.
That the moon is a created light giving off its own light.
The sun, moon and stars are place in the raqia above the earth, the same place that birds fly across the face of.
The sun, moon and stars have their own glory.
That planets are actually stars of light (the Bible never states God created planets)
Other observational facts
A persons vision on the ground is limited due to the working of perspective. All objects as they move away form an observer travel closer to the observers vanishing point eventually going out of site. The lower or closer to the ground the object is, the closer the vanishing point is to the observer. Example a car seen on a straight flat road will reach the vanishing point closer than an air plane in the sky.
I’m going to take two of your statements that you claim are facts based on the Bible’s witness: The sun, moon and stars are created lights and that the moon is a created light giving off its own light. And I’m going to focus on Genesis 1:16:
And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
‘God made’ must be taken literally if God is creator. But nowhere in this verse (or any other verse) does it say or imply that the sun, moon and stars are
all self-luminous. There are problems with this verse if it is to be taken beyond its context of ‘God made’ them with the sun brighter than the moon (the ‘greater’ and ‘lesser’ lights). The moon does not ‘rule’ the night like the sun ‘rules’ the day even though the verse does not indicate any differences to that ‘ruling’ apart from their brightness.
There are obvious differences besides their brightness. The sun’s light is what separates day and night on earth. The moon’s does not. The moon is sometimes visible during the day, the sun is never visible at night (otherwise it would be day). The moon is not always in the sky at night but the sun is always in the sky during the day. This indicates that the Bible does not explain or qualify the obvious differences in the sun’s ‘ruling’ and the moon’s. There is no indication that both need to be self-luminous.
Furthermore, God does not explain moon phases in the Bible. Yet these obviously happen and are easily explained by the moon being lit from an external source but are inexplicable (in any rational way) if the moon is self-luminous.
Observing the moon through a telescope reveals shadows of craters and ridges on the moon’s surface, especially when the moon is less than full. Again these are easily explained by the moon being lit by an external light source and not being self-luminous.
God does not explain in His Word why some ‘stars’ (the planets) also exhibit phases (which can be easily seen through a telescope) and others do not. He does not indicate that He created ‘planets’ but neither does He say that these ‘stars’ which exhibit phases (not to mention other objects such as comets, asteroids and now man-made satellites) have patterns of ‘movement’ completely different to the others.
Not even 1 Corinthians 15:41 gives any hint that sun, moon and stars are all self-luminous:
There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
All have a different ‘glory’ but to alter that verse to suggest all are self-luminous (as some flat earthers do) is beyond the verse (and biblical) context.
God says that he made the sun, moon and stars but He does not define what these are nor how they give light, only that they do. To try to claim that the moon is self-luminous and there are no planets because they are not mentioned in the Bible is to go way beyond the context of what God has revealed in His Word. It is trying to claim that God said something He didn’t say.
In the study of the sky, scientists and others have tried to explain the evidence as it is. This evidence is open to any to assess. That doesn’t mean people have to accept what they say. Evolution for example runs into certain conflicts with the Bible but that is a separate issue for a separate debate because it delves into
how these objects exist, not what they are. In terms of whether scientists’ explanations of the physical properties of the sun, moon and stars are right or wrong, the Bible cannot and must not be used to contradict them. Again, God does not explain what they are or how they shine in His Word, just that He made them.
Now if you can find verses which
define the moon as ‘giving its own light’, rather than an obscure interpretation of verses, I would love to see them.
