So the title of my sermon tonight is The Flat Earth Debunked, and we're going to need this
a little later, so I'm just getting it out and getting it ready.
So let's turn, if you would, to Genesis chapter one in your Bible, Genesis chapter number
one.
Now you say, Pastor Anderson, why are you preaching on this?
Remember I woke up in the middle of the night last week quoting verses about the firmament,
so I've kind of just been looking for an excuse to preach on the firmament, and I finally
got my excuse, but you say, Pastor Anderson, why does this issue even matter?
You know, is believing in the flat earth a sin?
Well, you know what the Bible says?
The thought of foolishness is sin.
So yes, foolishness is a sin, foolish thoughts are a sin, so yes, believing in the flat earth
is a sin.
You say, does believing in the flat earth make you a heretic?
It does not make you a heretic, but it makes you an idiot, okay?
It doesn't make you a heretic, but it's still wrong.
Now I'm going to go through a few points tonight.
I'm going to cover, first of all, the firmament.
I'm going to cover hell, and I'm going to cover the ends of the earth.
Those are the three main points that I'm going to cover, and then I'm going to throw in a
few bonus points toward the end.
So look if you would at Genesis chapter 1 verse 1.
It says, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without
form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon
the face of the water.
So when God first created the heaven and the earth, the earth is without form and void,
and throughout this chapter, what we see is God bringing order to this primordial chaos,
if you will, because when it's created, it doesn't have form.
It's void.
Void means empty.
So if you could picture the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters, you could
picture this sphere of the earth covered in water completely, okay, because the dry land
doesn't appear until later.
And as we go through this creation, we see that God's dividing things and making things
orderly, and making order out of the chaos.
Now if you would, let's jump down to verse 6.
We're all pretty familiar with day 1 of creation where he creates the light, he separates the
light from the darkness, he calls the light day, and the darkness he calls night, evening
and the morning of the first day.
Look at the second day, if you would, where God creates the firmament.
Verse 6, and God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide
the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from
the waters which were above the firmament, and it was so.
And God called the firmament heaven, and the evening and the morning were the second day.
Now here's a really important question, what is the firmament?
The firmament is not a word that we use outside the Bible.
When we are talking in our everyday vernacular, we don't use the word firmament, this isn't
used in any other context, it is just strictly a Bible word.
The only way to figure out what this word means is to see how it's used in the Bible.
So what is the firmament?
The first thing I want to point out is that there's nothing firm about the firmament.
Don't let those first four letters fool you, and a lot of people, they try to break a word
down into its parts to figure out what it means, that can often lead you astray.
This is sort of like Andrew Sluder's definition of reprobate, where he said re-probate, re-means
again, probate is when you test something, test again, re-probate.
And then how about reject? Re-ject, throw again, right?
I mean what's a project? I guess that's when I throw something forward,
right? That's a projectile, ject means throw, but
guess what, reject doesn't mean throw again, reject means to throw out, get rid of.
So again, when people break down words in their component parts, I'd like to know why
what I use on a video game would be called a joy stick, right, or what a fighter pilot
flies a plane with, a joy stick. What does that have to do with joy?
It doesn't make any sense, why? Because that's not always how we find the
definition of a word, just by breaking it down into component parts like that.
That doesn't tell us what the firmament means. If we study the Bible, we'll find that there's
nothing firm about the firmament, because look at verse number 20, and God said let
the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may
fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
Now the Bible told us in verse number 8 that God called the firmament heaven.
And then what do we see in verse 20? Birds flying in the firmament.
So if this is a firm, solid object, birds wouldn't be able to fly in it, would they?
What the word firmament actually means is, and in fact if you look up in the dictionary,
the English word firmament, it says the expanse of the sky, or the heavens.
So we look up at the sky, I'm talking about the blue sky with the white puffy clouds in
it, and we call that the heavens, right, that's the sky.
And that is called the firmament, and birds fly in it.
That is what the firmament is. Firmament itself, that word, means an expanse
or something that is stretched out or expanded, okay.
Now this definition can also be derived from some verses in the Bible, like for example
in Job 26, 7 it says, he stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the
earth upon nothing. It says in Isaiah 40, 22, it is he that sitteth
upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers that stretcheth
out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.
So basically we see that the firmament is that which is the open air expanse of the
sky where birds fly around. That's what the firmament is here when it
says that God made the firmament. Now the Bible says, let there be a firmament
in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And then the Bible says that God made the firmament and divided the waters which were
under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament, and it was so.
Now what does this mean? Here's what it means. Divisions are taking place.
First God divides the light from the darkness, right.
Second day he divides the waters above the firmament from the waters under the firmament.
Third day he separates the waters from the dry land.
He causes the dry land to appear as the water is all gathered together in one place.
So the divisions take place on the first three days, right.
Then when we get into days four, five, and six, there's actually a relationship with
days one, two, and three. So think about this now.
We got day one is let there be light. What's day four?
He makes two great lights. He doesn't even call them the sun and the
sun. He calls them two great lights.
The greater light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night.
So we have let there be light, and then we have two great lights being created, right.
Okay. Well, on day two, the firmament divides the
water that is on the surface of the earth from the moisture that is in the air.
Because all the air is filled with moisture. Believe it or not, even in Arizona, there's
a little bit of moisture in this air. And the clouds, of course, are a manifestation
of that water that is in the air itself above us.
So basically what you're creating on day two is essentially the water and the sky.
You basically are making that division, that separation.
Well what are you making on day five? Day one, light.
Day four, lights. A great and a small and the stars, the heavenly
bodies. Day two, you're making the waters and the
sky. Well what do you make on day five?
The animals who live in the waters and the sky.
Because on day five, he makes all the birds of the air and all the fishes of the sea.
What's he make on day three? The dry land.
What's he make on day six? That which lives upon the dry land, land animals
and human beings themselves. So do you see how there's a parallel here
between days one, two and three, and then days four, five and six.
This works perfectly once you understand what the firmament is.
Once you understand that God's making light, sky and sea, dry land, then you see okay,
heavenly bodies that produce the light, and then you've got the birds and fishes, and
then you've got the land animals and man. Now some people would struggle with the fact
that it says that there are waters above the firmament and waters below the firmament.
So I'm going to explain to you exactly why it's worded that way and what that means.
Let's compare scripture with scripture. Let's go over to Ezekiel chapter number one.
Ezekiel chapter number one, another mention of the firmament in the Bible.
Ezekiel chapter number one, because what I want to show you is how something can both
be above the firmament and in the firmament at the same time.
How can something be above the firmament and in the firmament at the same time?
Because we know that there's moisture in the firmament, right?
But the Bible talks about there being water above the firmament, in fact, so how does
that work, right? We know that birds fly in the firmament.
How can we make sense of all this? Well, if firmament is an expanse or a space
there where something is stretched out, if that's what that word means, which is what
it means in English, well then let's talk about the expanse, for example, from the pulpit
to the ceiling. We're going to see this played out in Ezekiel.
But let's talk about the expanse from the pulpit to the ceiling right here.
So this expanse, let's call this a firmament, even though there's nothing there.
Well, if I put this pen right here, it's in the firmament, right?
But this is also firmament right here, so it's actually in a sense also above the firmament.
So especially clouds up here, you know, they're above something that is still the firmament,
so there's waters in the firmament and there's waters above the firmament, and so things
can be in and above the firmament at the same time.
Let me prove it to you from scripture. Look at Ezekiel 1.22.
And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creatures was as the color
of the terrible crystal stretched forth over their heads above.
Remember, the word firmament has the idea of being stretched out, or that which is an expanse, okay?
Look at verse 26, and above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness
of a throne. Now, was it really a throne?
No, it's just the likeness of a throne. It's just that which appears like a throne,
not a throne, but rather a likeness of a throne, not the literal throne.
And so it says there's the likeness of a throne as the appearance of a sapphire stone, and
upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.
So is he actually seeing a man on a throne? No.
It's a likeness, meaning it's just an apparition or a vision or an image of that, okay?
Now look at chapter 10 with that in mind. We saw that in chapter 1, when the vision
is being described, we saw that the throne is above the firmament, right?
But then when we look at chapter 10, which is a parallel passage in the sense that it
covers some of the same material. Why?
Because Ezekiel sees the same thing again. And he describes it a little bit differently
in chapter 10 than he describes it in chapter 1, because he's learned a little bit more
in between. So he describes it a little bit differently,
but it's the same vision being repeated. And in verse 1 it says,
Then I looked, and behold, in the firmament that was above the head of the cherubims there
appeared over them, as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of
a throne. So in chapter 1, it said that the throne is
above the firmament. And in chapter 10, it says that the throne
is in the firmament. Why?
Because both descriptions are accurate, just as you could say that the waters are above
the firmament, or you can say that the waters are in the firmament, because the firmament
is not a firm object where something can only be right above it or just right in it.
It's actually an expanse. It is actually the sky itself.
What we would call it in modern vernacular is the atmosphere.
What God created on day 2 is the atmosphere around the earth.
And so he separated the waters that are in the ocean from the atmosphere, which is up
in the air, clouds, water, up in the air. Go ahead and turn back, if you would, to Genesis
chapter 1. While you're turning back to Genesis chapter
10, let me just read you a couple other scriptures on the firmament.
Daniel 12, 3 says, they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament,
and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.
So we see that the firmament is something that is bright.
It's something that is lit up. It says in Psalm 19, verse 1, the heavens
declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork.
So we can look at the firmament and see God's glory.
The heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament showeth his handiwork.
Now throughout the Old Testament, the poetic form that is most often used when we look
at the poetic books like Job, Psalms, Proverbs, is the couplet, meaning that something is
stated twice in a row in two different ways or using two different vocabulary words to
say the exact same thing. So things will often be repeated like this
in Bible poetry, and so instead of saying the heavens the second time, you say the firmament
the second time. What did he call the firmament in Genesis
chapter 1? He called it the heaven.
God called the firmament heaven, right? Now, there's not just one heaven, though,
because we don't just only refer to the sky as heaven.
We also refer to outer space as the heavens or as heaven.
Why? Because the Bible talks about the sun, moon,
and stars being in the heavens, and, you know, obviously we look up and behold the heavens
at night, and we're looking at sun, moon, stars.
Then there's a third heaven, which is the place that God lives, and that's why the
Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 talked about being caught up to the third
heaven. He wasn't just caught up into the sky.
He wasn't caught up into outer space, but he was actually caught up into the place where
God lives, into the third heaven. Now you say, Pastor Anderson, how do we really
know that outer space even exists? Because the Bible tells us that the earth
is in an empty place. Now, another word for an empty place is space,
right? The Bible says he stretches out the north
over the empty place and hangeth the earth upon nothing.
So these flat earthers that try to teach, oh, the Bible teaches that the earth is literally
this flat earth sitting on pillars with a dome over it called the firmament.
You know, look, firm, firmament. And then they just make a doctrine that it's
a giant dome that we're living in like a snow globe, okay, and that, you know, it's resting
on pillars. That's not what the Bible says.
The Bible says that the earth is hanging on nothing.
Now, isn't that what science tells us to be true in 2018, that the earth is in outer space
and it's not hanging on anything. It's hanging on nothing and it is in a great
empty place. That is what is known in modern vernacular
as outer space, right? Now, look down if you would at verse 14.
And God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night
and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years and let them be for
lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth and it was so.
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 and God set them in the firmament of the heaven
because we're talking about the second heaven or outer space to give light upon the earth
and to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from the darkness
and God saw that it was good in the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
Now scientists will scoff at the Bible. Atheists will scoff at the Bible and say, well, if
God created light on day one, why were the sun and moon not created until day four?
I'll tell you why, because God is de-emphasizing the sun and emphasizing himself.
See throughout history, some people have worshiped the sun as a god.
The Greeks had their false god, Helios, which is just the Greek word for sun, but they named
their god that, Helios or the Egyptian sun god Ra or whatever, that's just the word for
the sun, that's just sun in their language, you know.
Some people have even theorized that the place in the Bible known as Beth Shemesh, because
it literally means house of the sun, that maybe those people there could have been worshiping
the sun. We definitely see people in the Bible worshiping
the sun, bowing down, worshiping the host of heaven, the sun, the moon, the stars.
This is why the planets have the names of false gods, planets like Mercury, Venus, Mars,
Jupiter, Neptune. Why?
Because the ancient peoples of the world would worship the whole host of heaven.
God's showing us that the sun is not ultimately the source of light.
God created light. God is light and in him is no dark soul.
He created light. He doesn't need the sun.
That's why in the new heaven and the new earth, the new Jerusalem is going to admit so much
light. He says they have no need of the sun.
I believe the sun is still there, but you don't need it when you're in new Jerusalem
because the lamb is the light thereof. We don't have to have the sun to have light.
There was already the evening and the morning, first day, second day, third day, without
the sun. In fact, God is de-emphasizing the sun so
much that he doesn't even use the word sun here.
This is in the chapter about the sun and moon. Why?
Because people try to worship the sun and moon.
He just says it's a great light. It's a great light.
It's a lesser light. He's de-emphasizing those bodies and he's
de-emphasizing himself. That's why he doesn't use the word sun and
moon here. That's why he created them on day four to
make that point. Scientists will also scoff at the Bible and
say, well, he said that he made the moon to be a light and the moon doesn't give off light.
Of course the moon gives off light because it reflects the light of the sun.
That could still be called a light because it's up there and it's lit up and it's lighting
the evening. If you go out on a full moon and your eyes
adjust, you can see very well. Sometimes when I would go running at South
Mountain, sometimes I would go running at night, I would look at the moon phase because
if I ran on a new moon, I would have to have some kind of a flashlight or a headlamp and
that was kind of a hassle. But if I ran on a full moon, you don't need
a headlamp at all. You can hike South Mountain, you can run,
I mean, bring a gun or whatever in the middle of the night out there because there are a
lot of coyotes and stuff, but you can run out there with a full moon and you can see
everything. You don't need a light at all because that
full moon will light that place up. It is a light, albeit it reflects the sun.
In fact, the Bible even alludes to this because this is a great picture of the husband-wife
relationship. Why?
Guys remember Joseph's parents were seen as the father represented by the sun, the
mother represented by the moon, and what we see in the husband-wife relationship is that
the glory of the husband, if you would flip over to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, I got to
hurry because I got a lot to teach tonight, but in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, this illustration
is used as well. You see, the Bible says the woman is the glory
of the man and glory is used to talk about shining or brightness. That's why the Bible
says in 1 Corinthians 15, there's one glory of the sun, there's another glory of the moon,
the stars differ in glory. Glory means shining or brightness.
When the Bible says the woman is the glory of the man, obviously that's figurative, but
literally it's a shining. Think about how the husband-wife relationship works. The husband
is the ruler, but what about when the husband's not there? What about when I'm gone? Who runs
the house when I'm gone? My wife's in charge. We don't just put the kids in charge. All
right kids, I'm leaving, keep mom out of trouble while I'm gone. When I leave the house, mom
is in charge, but when I'm there, I'm in charge. Think about this, the moon is off and out
in the daytime, but it's not ruling in the daytime. You don't even notice it unless you're
looking for it, but at night when the sun is absent, that's where the moon takes over
and rules in the absence of the sun. It's a great picture of the husband-wife relationship.
1 Corinthians 11 teaches this. I don't have this in my notes, so help me find it, would
you? Somebody, please? Now? Yeah, verse number seven, it says, for a man indeed ought not
to cover his head for as much as he is the image and glory of God. Watch this, the woman
is the glory of the man, just like the moon is the glory of the sun. You know, the moon
reflects the sun's light. Now, isn't it interesting that the atheists and the flat-earthers have
all the exact same points about the Bible? You see, I've been hearing this garbage that
the earth is flat, according to the Bible, my entire life. I've been hearing this garbage,
oh, the Bible says the earth is on pillars. The Bible says the earth's flat. The Bible
says that the earth has a giant dome called the firmament. Oh, the Bible says this. The
Bible says that. But you know who it was saying is atheists. I've never heard Christians say
that until the last 10 years. So for the first 20-some years of my life, the atheists are
trying to disprove the Bible by claiming that it teaches the earth is flat, and we're constantly
showing no, the Bible is scientifically correct. The Bible matches what we see in reality.
Then all of a sudden, eight, nine years ago, this flat-earth movement comes out, or maybe
even more recently than that, and all of a sudden now, all these Christians, the Bible
says it's flat. You know what, it's the same devil that's behind it now as was behind it
back then. It's an attempt to discredit the Bible. It's to keep intelligent people from
believing the Bible because any intelligent person knows that the earth is not flat, so
the goal is to fill the church with idiots and that intelligent people will stay away.
Intelligent people need not apply. That's the agenda. That was the agenda when the atheists
are doing it. That's the agenda now with the so-called Christians doing it. And look, I'm
not saying that everybody who believes in this isn't saved. I know that there are some
good people who get duped into this stuff. God bless them. They just need to get some
smarts. But the architects behind this, the people who are really pushing this, and the
ones who have engineered this flat-earth phenomenon are satanic. They're of the devil. They might
even work for the government. It could be some kind of a giant psy-op just to discredit
the truth movement, to discredit the internet itself so that they can say, oh, we've got
to take care of fake news and make sure people can get accurate information they can trust
so that we don't have a bunch of flat-earthers out there. Look, there's an agenda to dumb
down education, to dumb down the church house, to dumb down Christianity. Look, I get up
and preach a sermon this morning where I'm going through and expounding the book of Amos
and showing you the nine chapters and giving you an overview of the book of Amos. Meanwhile,
down the street, they're on their 11th week learning about grace. It's a dumbing down,
friend. You could go to church your whole life and never hear a sermon out of the book
of Amos. You could go to church your whole life and you won't even touch 90% of the Bible
in most churches. It's dumbed down. Oh, Jeremiah's too hard. Ezekiel's too hard. Hosea's too
hard. And they'll just keep preaching the milk of the word only to dumb you down. This
is the church that gets you some intellect. That's what teaching means, right? If I teach
you, that means you're smarter when you're done, right? If I learn something, I'm growing
in knowledge. I'm growing in understanding. I'm growing wisdom. That's our goal here at
Faith Forward Baptist Church is to help you get smarter, to learn more, to grow in knowledge.
School is dumbing you down. TV's dumbing you down. Radio's dumbing you down. And most churches
will dumb you down. Everything's practical. Relevant teaching. You know what relevant
means? It's not going to be deep. It's not going to be theology. It's not going to be
doctrine. It's all just going to be something to kind of get you through the week. That's
the buzz word. Practical, relevant Bible messages. Now, we need to get some meat on the bone,
amen? We need to learn. We need to grow in knowledge. So, the atheists, the flat earthers,
they make all these wild-eyed claims about what the Bible teaches. No, the Bible's pretty
accurate when it says he hangs the earth on nothing. The Bible's accurate. And you
know what? Don't tell me that the firmament is a solid dome. The Bible says that the firmament
is a place where birds fly in it. Okay? It's a place where the sun and moon and stars are
in it. It's not a hard object. It is actually the sky itself, the atmosphere and outer space,
et cetera, as I explained. Number two, let's get into the subject of hell. Go to Matthew
chapter number 12 and then we're going to go to Jonah chapter number two. So, we talked
a little bit about the firmament and understood what biblically the firmament is and how the
flat earthers and the atheists have got this all wrong about what the Bible actually says
about the firmament. There's nothing firm about the firmament. Okay? That's the main
thing to take away from point one. You say, well, why is it called the firmament then?
Look, things get misnamed all the time, but then that just becomes what that word means.
That just becomes the name of it. And it's not a problem with the English word firmament.
The English word firmament is just fine. Okay? The Hebrew word that firmament is translated
from is just fine. The Hebrew word's just fine. The English word is just fine. Okay.
In between, there was a Latin Bible put out by the Dark Ages Catholic Church. Okay? They're
the ones who got screwed up on what the firmament meant and they're into firmness there. But
that's not what the English word means and that's not what the Hebrew word means because
how do we derive the meaning of the English word firmament? It's only in the Bible. And
if we look at it in the Bible, do we have any trouble figuring out what it is? No. And
it shouldn't bother us that it's not firm because it's just a word, firmament, not firm
stuff, firm thing, firm object, just firmament. So that word has become the English word for
that phenomenon that God created on the second day. And so here's the thing about that. You
know, a lot of the words in our English language might have strange or weird origins, but that
doesn't mean that they're a bad word. For example, the word hell. I think the word hell
is a great word. The reason that hell is a great word is because everybody understands
it. It's clear and it expresses itself well. But if we were to trace the origin of the
word hell, what we would find is that it comes from Scandinavian paganism, you know, and
it's the place that's like an underworld in their mythology. Now look, is that what we
mean when we say hell today? No. Just like we don't mean when we say firmament, what
some Latin Catholic from a thousand some years ago meant. You know, that English word has
come into our language and we're stuck with it and we have a lot of other weird English
words and, you know, that's just what they are. It's just what they mean now. So don't
let that word bother you. But let's talk a little bit about hell. Matthew 1240 says this,
for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of
Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Now, the heart of something
is that which is at its core or center. In fact, our English word core comes from the
French word cure. I don't know. Can you pronounce it right? Cure. All right. Cure. So that's
where we get our English word core, right? The heart, that which is at the center. Think
of an artichoke heart, right? Well, the Bible says that Jesus was three days and three nights
in the heart of the earth. So I guess according to a flat earther with their flat earth map,
I guess Jesus went to the North Pole with Santa and the elves for three days at the
heart of the earth and then rose again. No, actually, Jesus Christ descended into the
lower parts of the earth. Okay. And that is what is known as the core of the earth because
earth is a sphere, and so at the heart of that sphere is hell. And again, science matches
because we've got what? The mantle and the core, and it's hot down there. It's thousands
of degrees Fahrenheit. It's the core. It's fire. It's brimstone. It's a lake of molten,
fiery lava down there. That's what the Bible says that would be down there is hell. Now,
there are no active volcanoes in the ancient Middle East that we know of. So how'd they
know that all that lava and fire was down there? I'll tell you how. Because the Bible
is written by God, and God knows what he created, and he knows what is inside of the earth,
and he knows what's in the heaven because he's the one who created it all. And the Bible
is inspired by God, right? It's written by God. It's God's word. So Jesus Christ was
in the heart of the earth. And no, six feet under isn't the heart of the earth, especially
since Jesus was put in a sepulcher or tomb even above the earth, right? Because, you
know, there was the stone rolled away, and he was entombed there. No, but his soul descended
into the lower parts of the earth. His soul descended into hell for three days and three
nights. Acts 2 31, this spake he of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell,
neither did his flesh see corruption. He said, as Jonah was three days and three nights in
the whale's belly, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart
of the earth? Are you in Jonah 2? Jonah chapter 2 verse 1. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord
his God out of the fish's belly, and said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto
the Lord, and he heard me. Out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
Obviously Jonah didn't go to hell, but Jesus is referring back to Jonah in Matthew 12 40,
and Jonah is referring forward to Jesus in Matthew 12. Isn't that a wonderful cycle there
where they're each pointing to each other, and Jonah is prophesying of Jesus Christ.
That's why he says in verse 6, I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. Where did
he go? Bottoms of the mountains. The earth with her bars was about me forever, yet has
thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. Notice how Jonah says the earth
with her bars was about me forever. Let's talk about that word about. Okay, about is
used in the Bible 632 times, and out of those 632 times 306 of them, so almost half of them,
guess what the next word right next to it is? Round. 306 times the Bible says round
about. You know there were angels round about the throne or whatever, round about the city.
Half the times the word about is used it has round next to it, because about is our modern
word around. That's why he says have your loins girt about with truth. That's why he
said they put a gold chain about his neck. How would we say that in modern vernacular?
A gold chain around his neck. That's why he says your adversary the devil as a roaring
lion walketh about. How would we say that in modern times? He walks around seeking
whom he may devour. The word about means around. In many cases most of the time in
the Bible that's what it means. Sometimes it means about like I'm talking about something
or whatever the case, other uses of about, but it usually means around as we saw there.
So the Bible says the earth with her bars was about me forever. So when Jesus Christ
descended into the lower parts of the earth, when he was for three days and three nights
in the heart of the earth, he was at the bottoms of the mountains and the earth with her bars
was around him. Hello, is anybody home? The Bible does not teach a flat earth. That is
garbage. The Bible teaches that when you're in hell, when you're in the heart of the earth,
the earth is around you. You are surrounded by earth. The earth with her bars. And that's
what the pillars of the earth are. It is bars or pillars of metal or whatever that are inside
the earth, just deposits of whatever minerals or ore or whatever exactly is down there.
Of course we haven't mapped fully the mantle and the core. We've never even penetrated
the crust. And in the crust there are various structures of, you know, whatever material
that's down there. I'm not going to go into some big lecture on geology. That's not the
point of the sermon. But the point is that when you're in hell, the earth's around you.
When you're in hell, you're in the heart of the earth. This is not a flat earth where
you go to the heart of the earth and you're at the North Pole on a disc, on a flat disc.
That's what's happening in the Bible. He descended into the lower parts of the earth
that says in Ephesians chapter four verse nine. That was point two. Point number one,
we covered the firmament. Point number two, we covered hell. Point number three, let's
talk about the ends of the earth. The flat earther will tell you that this proves a flat
earth because there's the ends of the earth. So you get to the edge. Isn't that what they
would say? You know, the end. It ends. There's the edge. You fall off the edge type of thing.
Okay. Now, what they don't understand is that the word earth can refer to one of two things.
In fact, it can refer to more than that because in chapter one verse one of Genesis, what
is the earth referring to? In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. He's
referring to the entire planet, earth, right? The whole thing. The earth's without form
and void. But then on the third day, he causes the dry land to appear and he called the dry
land earth. So sometimes the Bible is talking about the entire planet. Sometimes it's just
talking about the dry land and it calls that earth, right? Sometimes it's talking about
the people like when it said, oh, earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord. That's talking
about the people who live in the world, right? So that word earth can mean those different
things. So put on your thinking cap and tell me what the ends of the earth means. Are we
talking about the planet or are we talking about the dry land or are we talking about
the people? Psalm 65, five, you don't have to turn there. By terrible things in righteousness
wilt thou answer us, oh God of our salvation, who art the confidence of all the ends of
the earth and of them that are a far off upon the sea. I mean, look, he says, you're the
confidence of all the ends of the earth and of them that are a far off upon the sea. So
what's beyond the earth? When you get to the end of the earth, then there's the sea. Everybody
understand? So he said, hey, you're the confidence of all the people up to the end of the earth,
right? When the dry land stops and then you're even the confidence of people that are upon
the sea. Pretty easy to understand. Now, if we were to take a flat earth interpretation
of this verse, they believe that the earth is a giant disc and that around the edges
of the giant disc is an ice wall known as Antarctica. Because what they basically do
in order to get a flat earth, I mean, how do you make this thing flat? Basically what
they do is they take the bottom of it, picture it like if it were an orange that you could
peel, right? And if you took it and peeled it out to flatten it out like this, right?
So the north pole would be at the center, but you'd take the bottom and peel it out
so what you'd have is everything on the bottom of the globe would become the edge of the
flat earth map. Who's seen the flat earth map? Hey, don't we have a flat earth map?
I'm pretty sure we do in your office right there. Some bozo that later got thrown out
of Verity Baptist Church, he's like, hey, I got a gift for you, Pastor Anderson, and
he gave me a flat earth map. So just look at giant scrolls, like giant white scrolls
and see if one of them is a flat earth map in that office because that would be helpful,
amen, if we could bring it out. Bring it out, all right? I don't know if we have it
or not, hopefully we can't. But anyway, so if we peeled it out, then that would put Antarctica
all the way around the edge as like an ice wall, okay? Everybody understand what I mean?
So that means like the tip of South America would be at an extreme edge here. Now obviously
if we were to peel this thing, we could not make a flat disk out of this, it just can't
work. So what would happen is if we ended up peeling this out, we'd end up with giant
empty spaces where there's no peeling. Does anybody have a visual enough mind to be able
to see how there would be giant empty spaces? So on the flat earth map, those empty spaces
just get filled with extra water, extra water. So what happens is instead of having Chile
and South Africa be this far apart, on a flat earth map, they just become like really far
apart because they get peeled like all the way apart from each other, right? Or like
let's say South America and Australia, right? Well on this globe, they're this far apart,
right? But if you were to peel these things out, they become super duper far apart. Flat
earthers will say there's no direct flight from these places, you got to stop in Dubai.
Of course, there's an airline called Qantas Airlines that flies direct flights between
all these places. And if you look at how many hours it takes, it's exactly how many
hours you would expect it to take. And somebody said, well yeah, but you can't buy the ticket.
I went on Travelocity, I bought the ticket. Because it's like you can get a refund within
24 hours and I sent my receipt to a flat earther, they still won't listen. I'm like, look, here's
my ticket, here's my itinerary. Yeah, but when you show up, the flight will be canceled.
Ohhhh.
Alright, thank you so much. Oh man, you know what? That guy meant it for evil, but God
meant it for evil. Can you help me hold it? Alright, so here we've got, man, we are prepared.
So the flat earth map here. So what you can see here, like I said, they've peeled it out.
So here's Chile, okay, and here's Australia. You can see how they're super-duper far apart.
And if you look at the Qantas Airlines schedule, you look at the times. Oh, we've got to go
higher, sorry. And if you look at the times of how long it takes to get there, you know,
you'll see that it doesn't match this model. This doesn't match. This doesn't work, okay.
Now what they'll try to say is, well, you know, flights are stopping in Dubai, and on
a flat earth map, it's like, boom, you go to Dubai, you go to your destination, it's
like a straight line, it makes sense, okay. And they're saying on a globe, Dubai's way
out of the way. What gives? Well, you know what, I don't know about you, but I've flown
to Los Angeles to get to the East Coast before. Right? I mean, my wife is about to take a
flight where she's going to fly to Santa Ana, California in Los Angeles, and then fly to
Mexico. That doesn't make any sense. The earth must be a triangle, or the shape of
a bugle or something. The reason why flights stop in Dubai is because Dubai is a major
airport hub. Well, why don't they just stop somewhere in Africa, because have you ever
been to airports in Africa? That's why. Okay?
A lot of airports in Africa are pretty jacked up, and business travelers would rather be
in this fancy, who's been to Dubai? I'll bet you've been to Dubai, haven't you? Valerian?
I'm pointing at you, buddy. Have you been to that airport? Yeah. Yeah. Who else been
to Dubai? Okay. What's Dubai like? What's it like? Really nice. What do you mean by
nice? Luxurious. Rich. Yeah. Expensive. Opulent. That's why you stop in Dubai, friend. Because
it's Dubai or Nairobi. That's why. Which one you want to stop in, huh? You want to stop
in Addis Ababa, or you want to stop in Dubai? You know? I'm stopping in Dubai. That's why.
Look, flights are based on what's popular. Where are people going? There aren't just
a ton of people trying to get from, you know, Chile to South Africa, or Chile to Australia,
or whatever the route you're trying to do, but there are a lot of people going from Chile
to Dubai, or from Australia to Dubai, because everybody's going to Dubai, because it's a
major hub and a transfer station, so they can fill up a plane that way. So that's why
most things will stop in Dubai. That's a major hub, and a lot of direct flights between obscure
places aren't always going to be available, but Qantas Airlines does offer them, but I
suppose Qantas Airlines is actually a NASA front, or whatever. But anyway, let's keep
going here. So, Psalm 67 says, God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall
fear Him. Now, according to the Flat Earther, the ends of the earth is that ice ring around
the edge. So is that ice ring afraid of the Lord? Or does it make more sense that the
earth is the dry land, and more specifically, the people living on that dry land, and so
the ends of the earth fear Him, meaning that if this is being written in Jerusalem by David,
right, then the ends of the earth to Him would be like Spain, right? And he's saying, look,
all the way to Spain, right, people are going to fear Him. All the way to the ends of the
earth, you know, where you head to the shore, and there's water, and it's the ocean, everybody
between here and there is going to fear Him. Not the ice ring will fear Him. Psalm 72,
8, He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the
earth. Is this guy going to reign over Antarctica? No. The isle sawed and feared, I'm just reading
a whole bunch of verses, I'm not even going to bother giving the references, I think you
get the idea. The isle sawed and feared, the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near,
and came. So did the ice ring draw near and come? No, but the people did who lived on
the ends of the earth. All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
The Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth. Were there Gentiles living
in Antarctica that came unto the Lord or came unto the King or to Israel or to David or
to any of these people? No. And then there's one New Testament mention, Acts 13, 47, for
so what the Lord commanded us saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles that
thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. Salvation isn't reaching to
an ice ring, salvation is reaching to where people live on the inhabited dry land. That's
what the Bible is actually teaching. Now let me give you a few bonus points. Those are
the three main points of the sermon. We talked about the firmament, we saw what the Bible
actually said, we talked about hell, we talked about the ends of the earth. These flat earth
arguments aren't holding up. Let's get some bonus points. Solomon, would you help me out?
In my office, there's a giant piece of plywood just right inside the door, you'll see, and
I wanted to use a piece of poster board, I couldn't find one, and I did this like three
minutes before church started, so it's just a piece of plywood. So hopefully you can see
it well enough. But one of the things that the flat earthers will say is that, you know,
the Bible doesn't call the earth a ball, that's because a ball is a toy that you throw around.
I mean the Bible used the word ball, why didn't it call the earth a ball? And that's why they
always call it the ball earth. A ball is a toy used by children. And in fact, when you
look up the one time that the Bible used the word ball, it's talking about throwing a ball
around. I think it's Isaiah chapter 22 or something like that, where a ball is tossed.
The word that we would use in our modern vernacular is the word sphere. And the word that the
Bible uses is the word circle. It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth and the
inhabitants thereof are like grasshoppers. Now, what the flat earthers will tell you
is that a circle is not a sphere. They think that their flat earth is a circle. I've got
news for you, a circle in that most literal sense is a two-dimensional object that does
not exist in the real world. There's no such thing as a circle in the real world, because
that would actually be called a cylinder or a disk, right? Because even if it's one inch
thick, it's no longer a circle. If it's one millimeter thick, if it's round and one millimeter
thick, not a circle, that is called a disk or a cylinder, depending on how the edges
are shaped. Disk or cylinder. There is no three-dimensional object known as a circle
in that literal sense that occurs in the real world. It just doesn't exist, friend. So what
is the definition of a circle? The definition of a circle, everybody pay attention, is where
you pick a point. You pick a point, okay? And then you make a whole bunch of points
that are the exact distance from that point. That's a circle, right? So we pick a point
in space and then we go three inches away, we put a dot. Three inches in another direction,
put a dot. Three inches in another direction, put a dot. Three inches, if we did that in
all directions, every single direction, you know we would end up with a circle. We have
a center point and then we would have everything is exactly three inches away. That's a circle.
And you could use a compass to do that. And if you look at the compass, it's where the
end of your pencil is and where the needle is. That's three inches, for example. And
then you plant that and then you can make every single point that's three inches away
and that's how you produce a circle. So if we were to make a three-dimensional circle,
a three-dimensional circle would be that which every point is the exact distance from
that center point. So a three-dimensional circle is called a sphere. Because, you know,
if we took the exact center of the earth, you could go roughly the same distance in
all directions and draw that out and what do you end up with? A sphere. A sphere is
a three-dimensional circle because a circle in the most literal sense is only a two-dimensional
object and we live in a three-dimensional world. There are no two-dimensional objects
in our world. There is even this piece of paper is three-dimensional even though it
looks really thin. There's some depth there. There's some mass there, right? There's some
distance there. This is not a rectangle. This is a rectangular solid, right? Does everybody
understand? I told you this church makes you smarter. So that argument doesn't hold up.
Okay? But let's talk about day and night on a flat earth. These are just some bonus points.
They say, well, the Bible says the sun rises and sets, therefore, flat earth. Okay, well,
and they're like, well, that means the sun's moving. Obviously, it's just talking from
the perspective of where we're standing that the sun's moving. But if we believe the basic
traditional scientific view of the way the universe is laid out, that everything shows
us is the truth, if we observe and look around and chart the movements of the stars and whatever
else, we know that the sun is moving, friend. The sun is moving. Did you know that the sun
is not the center of the universe according to science? Yeah, you're believing in a heliocentric.
No, actually, I don't think anybody believes in a heliocentric universe. Do they? I mean,
am I missing something? It's not heliocentric, right? Because, you know, the sun is not even
the center of this galaxy. You understand? The sun's moving, everything's moving. The
sun's moving, the earth's moving, but this whole thing of, well, you know, the sun rises
and sets. If that's literal, then that would mean the sun would have to go up and down.
Now, is that what the sun does according to flat earthers? Goes up, down, up, down. Now,
what we believe is that the earth is turning, okay? Somebody have like a flashlight? Perfect,
thank you. Okay, so here's what we believe, okay, is that, and again, I am not into science.
I just want you to know I'm not like a big science guy. Science is not my forte. I'm
not against science. You know, I only play a scientist on TV. You know, I'm not against
science. And if you like science, if you're interested in science, if science is your
thing, you know, great. You know, that's fine. You know, I have my own interests, right?
You know, I'm more interested in history, philosophy, music, language, things like that.
You know, some people are more into science, math, things like that. So, you know, I'm
not a big science guy, so I'm not trying to get up here as like a major science expert
here. But you know what, it doesn't take an expert to debunk the flat earth theory, okay?
So, you know, basically, you know, let's say this is the sun, right? So as you can see
here, you know, I can roughly shine my light here on like half of this, right? And the
sun's a lot more powerful than this flashlight, so it really lights up about like half of
this right here, right? Because there's stuff on the other side here that the sun can't
get to. Does everybody understand? So the way this works right here is that I'm lighting
this thing up. Can I get somebody to turn this thing? Can you turn this thing for me?
Like just kind of rotate. So right now, Africa, Europe, Middle East is all lit up, right?
But then as time goes on, you know, can you turn it slower though? Like take like 24 hours
to turn. No, I'm just kidding. Yeah, so okay. It's daytime in China. The stock market just
opened in Beijing, okay? But we're sound asleep in America. All right, Morocco, daytime. Oh,
sun's coming up on the east coast. Yeah, oh, it's daytime, high noon, right? Oh, Australia's
still in the dark, right? Oh, it's morning in Australia. All right, g'day mate, you know?
So we're going around, right? So this is how the world works, right? The sun is shining
and this thing is spinning, turning, right? Every 24 hours it makes a full rotation. So
the day is approximately like 12 hours, right? Because like half the time it's in the sun.
And then the night is about 12 hours. Now depending on where you are, it's a different
amount of time because of the tilt there. And depending on what season it is, sometimes
the days are longer, shorter. But isn't it roughly like 50-50, friend? Didn't Jesus Christ
say are there not 12 hours in a day, right? So that's roughly what it comes out to. Now
let me explain to you how this works in a flat earth system. And there are Boku videos
online about the flat earth. Sadly, there's way too many videos about it. But anyway,
I have a circle drawn on this. You're just going to have to trust me that it's there,
okay? Here's what they believe, okay? They've got this light right here and this is what
they think is happening. Okay? So let me try to do this so that you can see it. Somebody
want to help me out? Okay. Charlie, you want to help me? Okay. So like here's what's going
on, okay? So they believe it's going like this. And there are just hundreds and hundreds
of videos. Who's seen a video like this? Now this isn't literally rising and setting. It's
going in a circle. Okay. But so they have it basically just going like this, going in
a circle, going in a circle. So then they're like, see it's light on this side of the earth
and it's dark on the other side of the earth. Okay, here's the problem with that, okay?
See how big the circle of light I'm making? Okay, now I'm going to take away the light
and just there's the circle of light. Everybody see the circle? Okay. Here's the thing. The
circle that they show is, the circle of light is always this big. You know why? Because
if it were any bigger, what would happen? If it got bigger, you'd start lighting up
the other side of the earth and they don't want to light up that side because it's supposed
to be dark over there and light over here. So they have to make, they can't make the
circle this big, right? They have to make the circle like this big. Everybody got it?
Okay. So what you end up with is nighttime three quarters of the time. Oops. And daytime
one quarter of the time. Think about how stupid that is. Is this reality? Just dark, dark,
dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, light, light, dark, dark, dark, dark,
dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, light, light, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark,
dark. No, it's stupid and it doesn't make any sense. But you know what? There are hundreds
of thousands, yay, millions of people watching these videos. If you look at these Flat Earth
videos, they have hundreds of thousands of views and just the thumbs up are just thousands
and thousands of thumbs up. Look, I put up a video preaching against Flat Earth where
I just mentioned it a few minutes in a sermon, thousand thumbs down. Thirty thousand views,
a thousand thumbs down. YouTube hates the globe. So people are just eating this up with
fork and spoon. But look at this. This is not a 12 hour day because in order to get
a 12 hour day, it would all be light all the time and that's not what we observe at all.
Plus it's not like the Earth, it's not like the sun is a flashlight. You know what this
flashlight has? It has this little rim around the edge, this little wall to like really
narrow in the beam, right? So that you can just kind of narrow in that beam just to that
one part. Well here's the thing. If the sun doesn't have this little shade around it,
which it doesn't, it would just light up the whole thing all the time. The whole thing
would just be lit up all the time. It's stupid and doesn't make sense. Alright, would you
throw that somewhere or just anything with it? Burn it! I'll give that back to you. So
it just doesn't add up. It just doesn't hold water. And speaking of the Flat Earth not
holding water, how do you flood the Flat Earth? Now think about this. Noah's flood is this
thing covered in water. Well what's holding it on? Gravity. But Flat Earthers don't believe
in gravity. Because if gravity, how do birds fly? If gravity's so strong, then how did
Michael Jordan jump so high if gravity's that strong? Or how did birds fly in the sky? So
what we see here is that the earth could be filled with water to where the highest mountain
is covered, right? That's what the Bible said, that the highest mountain was covered by the
flood in Noah's day and it even gives you the exact distance how far above, what is
it, 15 cubits or whatever amount of distance, I don't know the number off the top of my
head, above the highest mountain is flooded. Okay, so how do you flood a Flat Earth? All
the water would just keep running off the edge. I mean, unless this is a giant doughboy.
Who knows what a doughboy is? Come on, I grew up with a doughboy. You know the above-ground
pools? It's like an above-ground pool. I guess that ice wall is holding it. I guess that
ice wall doesn't count as a mountain, you know. So, you know, that's how you flood a
Flat Earth. It's just a giant wading pool type of a model of the flood. Speaking of
the highest mountain, Flat Earthers will also bring up the fact, well, you know, when the
devil showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, he took him up into an exceeding high
mountain. And that would only work on Flat Earth. Well, here's the problem with that.
The tallest mountain on the earth is Mount Everest. And people go to the top of Mount
Everest, they don't look at all the kingdoms of the world up there. You can't see that
far. You couldn't see that far no matter how the earth were shaped. So, you know, I
guess, according to them, Jesus really did go to India. You know, the Hindus, the Hindus
were right. Right? Because the Hindus claimed Jesus went to India. And, you know, Mount
Everest is in Nepal, which back then could have been considered India. Okay? So, you
know, Jesus went and did the first climb of Everest with no oxygen, because there's no
record of Lucifer or Jesus having oxygen up there. According to the Flat Earthers, right?
And he's up on Everest looking at all the kingdoms of the world. That is retarded. That
is just insane. That is dumb. Well, it wasn't Everest. It was some high mountain in the
Middle East. Show me what high mountain in the Middle East you can ascend and see all
the kingdoms of the world. Now, the Bible tells us that the devil showed Jesus all the
kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. Okay? That's a miracle. When you can see all
the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. You say, well, why do you have to take him
up in a mountain to do that? He's just being dramatic. That's why. I mean, if I'm going
to attempt the Son of God, and I've only got one shot at it, I'm going up into a high
mountain. That's what he's thinking. You know, I'm going to do this thing right. Make it
fancy. He takes him up in some high mountain. What he probably did is took him up in a high
mountain where he could see a certain kingdom, and then he showed him that kingdom literally
physically, and then flashed all the other kingdoms of the world in a moment of time
where Jesus somehow saw everything miraculously. Okay. That's probably what's going on with
that. Look, there is zero evidence in the Bible of a flat earth, and I've provided clear
evidence of the fact that it is a sphere because it's called the circle of the earth because
hell is inside of it, in the heart of it, and when you're in hell the earth is around
you, the Bible says, and the ends of the earth is clearly the dry land. The flood makes
sense on a globe. We could go on and on and on. There's no evidence for this stupidity.
It's something that atheists will hit you with, but now Christians are doing it, so
why are Christians so-called pulling this out? Well, I said it's to discredit the Bible.
If you can't beat them, join them. That's why. If you can't beat them, join them. Listen,
we should know about this. We've been dealing with a bunch of infiltrators lately. You know,
I'm glad that all the preaching that I've done over the last 13 years about infiltrators
and people creeping in and Judas Iscariots, now everybody believes in it. You know, you
can hear it preached, but you never believe it until you see it, and the longer you live,
the more you see it, and you're like, wow, it's real. Okay, now look, we have started
a great soul-winning movement across this country. We've lit a great soul-winning fire.
We have kindled the soul-winning flames in America, haven't we? I mean, Faithful Word
Baptist Church has set the example and modeled the way, and we've had great events that even
included up to 99 cities in the mega marathon on March 31st. You think that you're going
to have a mega marathon and have that kind of influence and reach tens of thousands of
people with the gospel and reach hundreds of thousands of people, yea, millions through
YouTube with sound Bible preaching, and you think that that good deed is going to go unpunished,
think again. You can't shake things up like that. You can't win hundreds of people to
the Lord, thousands of people to the Lord. You can't get the gospel to literally millions
of people online without there being an attack, and you know what? The devil's smart, and
he knows the best way to beat them is to join them. That's the best way to do it. You
know, we can think of all kinds of just carnal illustrations of this. Think about politics.
Remember the Tea Party? Remember the Tea Party used to be called the Ron Paul revolution,
and what happened? You have the Ron Paul revolution, and then the Tea Party evolved out of that,
and the Tea Party one year was a total libertarian Ron Paul supporting type of an event, and
then all of a sudden, six months later, you're like, when did Sarah Palin and John McCain
become the Tea Party? Who knows what I'm talking about? You remember that? What's that? Yea,
Ted Cruz is the Tea Party now, right? It became just the mainstream. Why? It was taken over
and co-oped. It was taken over, hijacked, sabotaged, because if you can't beat them,
join them. Remember when the Romans tried to defeat the Christians, and they couldn't
do it? So what did they eventually do? Hey, can't beat them, join them. Let's make our
own Roman church, and they create a fake one. Look, that's what's happening in our church.
That's what's happening in our movement. Now, a pastor who has tried to join himself to
our movement and talk about how he's a part of our movement, and he's our buddy, yada,
yada, yada, this guy's name is Tyler Doka. He just came out a flat earther today. So
Pastor Tyler Doka got up in his church and preached that the flat earth's biblical, giving
you all the stupid arguments that I just debunked over the last hour. Why? Because if you can't
beat them, join them. And you know what the devil's trying to do? He's trying to associate
oneness with us. Hello. He's trying to associate flat earth with us. He's trying to take all
this stupid garbage and try to attach it to us or relate it to us so that he can discredit
us, just like he's been discrediting the truth movement with flat earth so that when you
talk about 9-11 truth now, it's like, oh, you believe in the Mandela effect, flat earth,
all this crazy stuff. Legitimate conspiracy theories now are laughed at because you're
lumped in with the flat earth and the Mandela effect and all this other dumb stuff. So he's
like, oh, you know, you, you doesn't ask who was the second gunman on the grassy knoll
anymore. And so, you know, now, now the devil is trying to associate flat earth and oneness
Pentecostal doctrine with our church. That's what's happening friend. And it's of the devil.
You say, are you going to have fellowship with this guy? Well, first of all, you know,
I've always been friendly to this guy. I've communicated with him a couple of times. I
was nice and friendly to him, but you know what? I've never recommended his church and
I've never been able to support him because he's not qualified to pastor because he only
has one kid. He doesn't meet the biblical qualifications. You know, the Bible says you're
supposed to be married and have children, faithful children. You know, you're supposed
to be ruling your house, wife and kids, not just rule your wife only, but ruling wife
and kids. This guy wasn't qualified to pastor. And I said, Hey, you know, I can't recommend
you. I can't support you. Right. But you know what? This is just another example of why
the qualifications are there for a reason. The same guy who wasn't biblically qualified,
but he does it anyway, is the same guy who what is coming in with the flat earth. And
you say, well, why would you break fellowship? It's not a, it's not a salvation issue. It's
not heresy. It's not doctrine. Well, you know what? You're right. It's not, but it's
an embarrassment and a shame to the cause of Christ. It's foolishness and stupid. And
I can be friends with whoever I want. And I will not be friends with a pastor who's
supposed to be a shepherd, a leader. He's supposed to be giving knowledge. He's supposed
to be apt to teach. And he needs to learn again. The first principles of Genesis chapter
one. He doesn't, he can't even comprehend Genesis one. He can't even comprehend the
earth. And he's going to get up and teach us the Bible. I think not. And we don't want
to be associated with that garbage. We don't want people to think that that's what we're
about here. It's foolishness. I don't want to touch that guy with a 10 foot pole. I don't
care if he has 15 children. Because of the fact that he's not qualified because you have
to have a certain degree of intelligence to be a pastor. Now look, if people believe in
the flat earth, you know what? Comfort the feeble minded, okay? I'm not saying, I'm not
saying like, you know, that they're, that they're horrible people. The people who came
up with it are horrible people. The people that are behind it. But you know, there are
a lot of nice, good people who've been sucked into it. So comfort the feeble minded. But
don't put the feeble minded behind the pulpit to be the pastor of a church. We don't need
the blind leading the blind. We don't need somebody who's carried about and tossed about
with every wind of internet crap. Okay? Give me a break. And so I don't want anything to
do with it. And you know, I've been looking for an excuse to preach about the firmament
anyway because I think it's an interesting subject. People ask me about it all the time.
And so, you know, tonight's sermon was just a debunk, this flat earth junk. And you know,
I know most of you don't really need me to explain all this stuff, but I'm sure that
there was something you learned tonight in the sermon. You know, we can always be edified
by Bible preaching, whatever the subject, right? You know, we can sharpen up our thoughts
on the firmament, learn a little bit of scripture and doctrine. You know, there's something
for everyone in every sermon. You know, we're never too smart to keep learning, right? But
if we're smart, we want to learn, we want to grow in knowledge, and the Bible's got
the answers, friend. And this flat earth thing, people will say, yeah, but, you know, if we
could just get people to believe in the flat earth, then they'll realize there's a God
and they'll believe in God. Hello. Before the big bang and abolition came out, there
were still people who didn't believe in God. And guess what? Believing in God doesn't get
you to heaven. Oh, if we could just get people to believe in God, then they'll be saved.
Really? Because there's 1.6 billion Muslims who believe in God, and they're not saved.
There's 1.1 billion Hindus that believe in God, and they're not saved. Atheists are not
the only unsaved people. There are a billion Catholics that aren't saved. If we could just
get them to believe in God, they already do, and they're going straight to hell. And in
fact, in the end times, when the antichrist comes, is he an atheist antichrist? Is the
antichrist going to show up and say, you know, I am here to give you the message of the big
bang. I am the God. I mean, look, hey, he's going to say, hey, you've heard of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob? I'm the God of Captain Kirk. I'm the God of Spock. I'm the God of Captain
Sulu. You know, I'm here to tell you the truth of the cosmosity. No, what he's actually
going to do is he's going to teach them the God of forces. He's going to declare himself
to be God. That's not atheism. You see, the devil has used atheism over the last hundred
and some years just to tear down the Bible, tear down morals, tear down society. Once
he gets people off the God of the Bible, you know what he's going to do? He's going to
get them back to believing in God again, the wrong God, the God of this world, the devil.
That's what's going on. So it's so ridiculous. And you know, these flat earthers, it's their
whole religion. They're obsessed with it. We've had flat earthers in our church that
just is all they talk about, all they talk about. I mean, I had this guy, I finally just
got in his face and yelled at him because I'm just like, I don't care about the flat
earth. I'm sick of you talking to me. What do you not understand when I said I have no
interest? I'm not interested. At first I'm like, hey man, I'm not really interested in
that. No thanks. No thanks. No thanks. Leave me alone. Hey, months later, I'm swimming
laps at LA Fitness. I see the guy in the locker room. He walks up to me, hey Pastor Anderson,
brings up the flat earth, first sentence. First sentence contains the word firmament.
I kid you not. And you know what? They get obsessed with it. And you know what I heard?
I heard is that this idiot that Steadfast Baptist Church Jacksonville just threw out
and he ended up going over to the trash can with Tyler Baker, flat earther. Flat earther
flat earther and now he's into oneness. Look, oneness, oneness theology is the flat earth
of theology. It's that dumb. Folks, it's that dumb. I mean, look, that first Timothy six
thing that Garrett believes in now, that Tyler believes now where they say no one's ever
seen Jesus. Just turn that. I'm not going to take long. I know you got to go. Go to
first Timothy six. If anybody's got to go, go ahead and go. We won't think you're quitting
the church or anything. Go ahead and leave if you need to leave. I just got to show you
this real quick and then I promise I'll be done. All right. If anybody's got to go, go.
I got to just show you this real quick, just for sake of time, how dumb this is. I mean,
look, the oneness doctrine is literally the flat earth of doctrines. What the flat earth
is to science oneness or modalism is to the Bible. Okay. This was Tyler Baker's Martin
Luther moment. You remember when Martin Luther was sitting at the desk? Remember when he
had a Stein of beer in one hand and he had the Bible in the other hand, Martin Luther
and he was reading the Bible and he came to that part that said the just shall live by
faith and he said, Hey, salvation is by faith. It's not by works, right? That was his moment,
right? Who knows what I'm talking about with Martin Luther, right? Well, this was Tyler
Baker's light bulb moment when he learned about oneness was first Timothy chapter six,
according to his own mouth. This was the verse that got him. Okay. Is first Timothy chapter
six where it says in verse 16 who only hath immortality dwelling in the light which no
man can approach unto whom no man has seen nor can see to him be honor and power everlasting.
Amen. Tyler came to the conclusion that this is Jesus being talked about, that no man has
seen or can see Jesus. That's what Tyler got out of this verse. Nobody's ever seen Jesus.
Now there's a few problems with that. A lot of people saw Jesus after he rose from the
mountain. He was seen over 500 brethren at once. When he returns, every eye shall see
him. Well, but they didn't really see him in his glorified form. Well, what about the
Mount of Transfiguration? You know, what about the Apostle John? I mean, well, you know,
you constantly see Jesus in the Old Testament, New Testament. He's constantly being seen.
What kind of a dunce comes out with a doctrine? And then Garrett said it was the kill shot.
I mean, it just, I mean, it just killed the Trinity. Once you realize that nobody's ever
seen Jesus, oh man, it's just game over for the Trinity. Insert coin to continue, you
know. Well, I got a whole roll of quarters, buddy. In fact, I got 48 quarters. It's called
the Trinity moments, but I haven't had to use any of those quarters yet because I never
got killed by such a stupid kill shot as nobody's ever seen Jesus. Kind of a retard. What do
you even get up and say, hey, hello, is anybody home? What kind of a retard? Kind of a moron.
Nobody's ever seen Jesus. Nobody's ever seen Jesus. It's like, you know what, you're an
idiot. Stupid. And then it's just like, well, you know, they saw his body. Well, nobody's
ever seen me. Because you haven't seen my guts. Well, nobody saw his spirit. I don't
know. So stupid. What about all the scripture? What about the scripture that says, no man
has seen God at any time. The only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the father,
he had declared him. Now, they'll say, well, you're just adding the father there. Let me
say it one more time. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten son, the only
begotten son, which is in the bosom of the father, he had declared him. Did I add God
the father to that verse, or was he already there? No man has seen God at any time. The
only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the father, he had declared him. The only
begotten son declared the father because nobody has ever seen God the father. So the son of
God had to come to this earth in order to declare him. I mean, you guys slow down sometimes.
Well, you just added God the father. Here's what's so funny. Verse 16 is the continuation
of a sentence that starts in verse 13. Look at the end of verse 13. What's the punctuation
at the end of verse 13? What's the punctuation at the end of verse 14? What's the punctuation
at the end of verse 15? Okay, that's one sentence. The period's at the end of verse
16. So here's what it says. It says, I give thee charge in the sight of God who quickeneth
all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession.
So we have two different subjects brought up. Sight of God, I give you charge in the
sight of God with quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus. So you have two persons
brought up here. We've got God and we've got Jesus. So future pronouns in this sentence
are going to refer back to one of those antecedents. If you're brain dead, you might put the son
of God as the one who nobody's ever seen, but anyone with a brain in their head would
put the father as the one who nobody's seen. Since you've got both God and you've got Jesus,
and often when the Bible says God, who are we talking about? God the father. But it gets
better folks. This is what somebody, look at verse 14. That thou keep this commandment
without spot on rebukable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Okay guys, all right
everybody, I got good news and bad news about the second coming of Christ. The good news
is he's going to appear. The bad news is nobody can see him. I mean look, somebody, I mean
where was Tyler Baker when the Jehovah's Witnesses needed him back in 1916? I mean
where was Tyler Baker in 1844 when William Miller at the Great Disappointment said, oh
Christ is going to come? He goes, well you know, Christ appeared, it's just that you
can't see him. I mean look, somebody, I mean where was Tyler Baker when the Jehovah's Witnesses
needed him? Until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who nobody can see. The appearing
of Jesus, which nobody can see that, the appearing. Okay, and then he says, we are going to be
in his times, he shall show. All right everybody, welcome to show and tell. I've got something
to show you. Nobody can see it. I'm here to show you something, but nobody's ever seen
it and nobody can see it, but I'm here to show you. Would you pass this around please?
All right, thank you. Folks, get a brain. What's the sermon about? Get a brain. And
you know what, if you're one of these flat earthers, please, for the love of all that's
holy, get off those YouTube videos, get off those websites, and go to some real sources
of learning. Go to the library and get a library card. It's free. I will buy you whatever book
you want. Learn. And if you're oneness, you just get out because you're not saved. That's
why you can't understand the Bible. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Lord,
we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and we thank you that it doesn't contradict
what we see with our own eyes in the natural world, Lord. Thank you that true science always
backs up the Bible, and it's only science falsely so called that would conflict with
the Bible. Lord God, help us to have faith in you and your word and help nothing to shake
that faith. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.