Wow. Here's a new facet to explore. Thanks for weighing in on this. Now we add a flat earth view as a literal interpretation. Interesting.
Sorry for chiming in kind of late into the discussion here. I too believe the Bible's cosmology, which is consistently described as a flat, stationary earth as Shrewd Manager perfectly presented in his post.
To answer some of your questions, since I see Shrewd Manager hasn't returned:
What other problems with the global view does a flat earth view solve?
It is said that Jesus went up taken by a cloud, and will return the same way. The heavens will be opened and He will descend. Do you think He goes through endless space to get here? That the earth is God's footstool, implies that it is just beneath Him. That satan and his angels fell down to earth, implying that besides God's place in heaven, there is only one other place you can go and that is down to earth. Noah's flood water fell on the world from the window openings in the firmament, implies that it couldn't have gone through lightyears to get here if it came right down on us. When Paul saw the heavenly vision of Christ, it specifically says, that he could see Christ above the brightness of the sun, which also infers that the sun isn't 93 million miles away because then that would be indiscernible. Jesus says that He is from above and we are from beneath. Does one believe the Bible when it says that God is above us, or rather do many hold to science fiction and say that He is in some other dimension? People opt for "other dimension" because they believe in an endless space and do not believe that God made a firmament and sits over the earth as the scriptures clearly say He does.
What are the consequences of one lie that the enemy can use against us, he gets us to believe in atheism. Because really without an evolved world we cannot have an evolved species of man. And the spherical, speck of meaningless earth, is the grounds for those belief systems. From atheism you get communism. Marx himself wrote that atheism is the beginning of communism. You get the ideas of 'planets', which is really just other earths that God never said that he created. He said He only created this earth. With the idea of planets, you get aliens. Which the demons can now insert themselves into our culture as some beneficial beings further evolved from us, coming to our aid. You get the governments and propaganda mouthpieces convincing you that man can destroy the earth with fossil fuels instead of God alone being able to destroy it, like how the bible states it. A world that is always in a state of calamity with the heavenly bodies in outer space, making us a constantly missed target instead of a place that is safeguarded by God's providence. You get a world that does not care, and think that earth is just insignificant if the universe goes on like an endless sea, and we are just a drop of its water. A less meaningful world, a less designed world.
It is the opposite effect of knowing that God only made this earth, and formed you and I in our mother's womb to live in a firmament encapsulated by water. That we would spend our lives down here underneath His feet in wonder of the world that He designed for us. That we would take this spiritual war more seriously when we realize that the fallen angels have come straight down to us, that they are all around us, stalking us like prey. With one lie you can bring in many more lies. Which is exactly how the enemy works.
Do you subscribe to a 24 hour day for each day of creation?
If you read through the creation account in Genesis 1, the Bible says specifically that the "evening and the morning were the
blank day" making it clear that each day of creation is a 24 hour period.
Some softball preliminary questions for you. Why did God stop the sun and moon in the midst of heaven in Joshua
10:12-13 to bring a halt to the daylight, instead of stopping the earth, if it is said that we are supposed to be revolving around the sun and the moon revolving around us? Even specifically giving coordinates for where the sun and moon stopped, Gibeon and the valley of ajalon. How is that possible if the sun is millions of times the mass of the earth, to stand over one coordinate on the earth? How could either of these bodies just be stopped in the midst (middle of) of heaven, as if they are small orbs in the sky rotating around a still earth? That's because they are.
In psalms 19, it says the sun goes in circuits from one end of heaven to the other, further emphasizing this point. A circuit is a circle. It is saying that the sun encircles the earth not that the earth revolves around the sun. It says in the same verse that nothing escapes its heat, showing that the ends of heaven can't be too large or endless, because the sun is always shining somewhere on this earth. Makes all the sense in the world when you understand biblical cosmology, but no sense at all when you take up what man says. The firmament isn't very big compared to the alternative model, but it is big enough for us because it was designed for us. Why does the bible say that the earth is essentially still in what I count easily, 5 different verses? In no way could that be poetic. That it is motionless, still, unable to be moved, has foundations, stablished, etc. Very clear that the bible is stating that the earth does not move on its own. When the bible says the earth is a circle it is using the Hebrew word chug, meaning to draw out a circle like a compass, like you would do with paper. God could of easily have called the earth a spherical circle with the use of the Hebrew word dur, meaning ball in Hebrew. But He decided not to. There are just too many points that could be made that clearly shows that the bible is speaking of a different earth than what the world is talking about. It is always consistent and thus cannot be poetic. The bible is stating these things about the earth. The actual question, is if we believe the bible or not and are we scared to lose credibility and look crazy to the world?
Here's an image of the ancient Hebrew cosmology presented in the Bible, not that foolish looking image of a flat disk with water falling off it's edges hanging in space. That depiction is just laughable and not what the Bible describes at all.
