A round earth

If the internet is to be believed, there seems to be many people out there believing that the earth is flat in form. No amount of scientific proof or photographic evidence can persuade them otherwise. There are numerous YouTube videos where people go to great lengths to practically demonstrate this to them, e.g. showing how a ship’s mast that is marked with a huge placard showing bold horizontal lines, “disappears” over the horizon as it sails away, the number of lines that are visible ever decreasing as the ship moves further and further into the distance. This of course can only be explained by the fact that the earth is curved and as the ship follows this curve, it sails out of sight.

The believers in a flat earth theory cannot be persuaded by truth because they choose to believe otherwise. Therefore, the truth stated in the quoted verse from Isaiah above, where the Bible so clearly refers to a round (circle) earth, will most probably also not sway them.

Many new believers in Jesus coming from other religious backgrounds also face the reality that they must make definite choices to believe differently from what their culture had led them to believe. For example, Hindu and Chinese mythology and also the mythology of some of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, speak of the earth resting on a giant World Turtle, sometimes also depicted as resting on four elephants standing on the back of that turtle. When new believers from such backgrounds and beliefs are faced with Job 26:7 God stretches the northern sky over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing, they have a choice to make: do I believe what my culture teaches, or do I choose to believe the Bible?

This is the case for all of us when we first come to Jesus as well. We will find many biblical truths that have been altered to one degree or another by the denominations we grew up in. Water baptism is one such example, baptism with the Holy Spirit another. We will find truths that are clearly demonstrated for us in the pages of the Bible, and yet our church or culture and traditions might teach differently.

We are then confronted with a dilemma – do we choose to believe what our church, our family, our friends, our culture, have taught us? Or do we choose to believe the truth as clearly stated in the Bible? This is where we need the Holy Spirit to guide and teach us!

Points to ponder:

Examine your core beliefs, comparing them with the Word of God as written in the Bible. Discuss them with trusted mentors, searching for and evaluating the Scriptures they give in defence of their beliefs for yourself also. Remember that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, truth is to be found in and through Him alone. Trust the Holy Spirit to teach you, as He promised He would. And having done all that – be bold and unwaveringly choose to believe the truth found in the Bible, no matter what happens!