George: I agree that the writer(s) of Genesis believed in …

Comment on A little-known history about Belief 6 by Sean Pitman, M.D..

George: I agree that the writer(s) of Genesis believed in a literal 6-day creation week. I have also read that they believed the sky was made of hard metal that was hammered out by God, and that it is held up by pillars beyond the horizon. I’m not going to press this point. I’m just sayin…

It is much harder to misinterpret the idea of “evenings and mornings” representing a literal day vs. the idea of what material the heavens might be made of. For example, even a little child would be able to describe a television set so that most would know what the child was talking about even if the child didn’t understand how the television worked or that real little people were not really inside the little box on the shelf.

Beyond this, you may actually be mistaken about the beliefs of the biblical writers regarding the nature of the “firmament”.

The idea that the ancient Hebrews believed that the heavens were a solid metallic vault appears to have emerged for the first time only during the early 19th century when introduced as part of the flat earth concept originally proposed by none other than Washington Irving and Antoine-Jean Letronne. Scholars who supported this idea argued that the flat earth/vaulted heaven was held throughout the early Christian and Medieval periods, and indeed, was an idea that goes back into antiquity and was held by both ancient Mesopotamians and Hebrews. However, more recent research has shown that the idea of a flat earth was not held by either the early Christian church nor Medieval scholars. Indeed, the overwhelming evidence is that they believed in a spherical earth surrounded by celestial spheres (sometimes hard, sometimes soft) that conveyed the Sun, Moon, stars and planets in their orbits around the Earth. Moreover, research of ancient Babylonian astronomical documents shows that they did not have the concept of a heavenly vault. Rather, this was erroneously introduced into the scholarly literature by a mis-translation of Enuma Elish by Peter Jensen.

A review of the linguistic arguments that the Hebrews believed in the idea of a flat earth and vaulted heaven shows that the arguments are unfounded. The arguments derive from passages that are clearly figurative in nature. Indeed, one of the great ironies in recreating a Hebrew cosmology is that scholars have tended to treat figurative usages as literal (e.g. Psalms and Job), while treating literal passages such as in Genesis as figurative. The noun form of raqi’a is never associated with hard substances in any of its usages in Biblical Hebrew; only the verbal form raqa. And even the latter cannot be definitely tied to metals, etc. Rather it is understood as a process in which a substance is thinned—this can include pounding, but also includes stretching. The noun raqi’a is best translated as expanse in all of its usages.

– from a paper by Randall W. Younker on this subject…

The Myth of the Solid Heavenly Dome: Another Look at the Hebrew [raqi’a]

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com

Sean Pitman, M.D. Also Commented

A little-known history about Belief 6
@Ron:

Actually, no I don’t. I do not believe that you give up any civil rights by becoming an employee. Especially that should not be the case in the Seventh-day Adventist church where we are called support Religious Liberty. How can you support Religious Liberty if it only applies out side of the church?

You confuse “Religious Liberty” with the privilege to be hired by the church or any other organization. They aren’t the same thing. You are at liberty to worship however you wish. That is your God-given civil right. You are not at liberty, on the other hand, to expect a paycheck from the church or any other organization for doing whatever you want outside of the fundamental goals and ideals of the church as an organization. That is not a God-given civil right. No organization is obliged to hire you or me. The organization itself is also free – free to pick and choose who would be most effective as a paid employee. How do you not recognize this concept?

What you are suggesting is equivalent to expecting me to send you a paycheck every month because that is your “civil right”. What would you say if I demanded a paycheck from you? – because, after all, it is my civil right that you give me money on a regular basis for doing what I do independent of your own goals or desires for how your own money is spent?

No organization can be expected to pay just anyone and everyone for their own individual efforts to promote their own unique ideas outside of those of the organization itself. Do you expect the Catholic Church to pay someone for promoting Adventism in their own schools and churches? Do you expect the Adventist Church to pay people to promote the unique elements of Catholicism in our schools and churches? – like the notion that the Virgin Mary is in heaven and is able to answer the prayers of those who ask for her help?

Come on now, what you are suggesting does not a unique organization make. You are very confused regarding the difference between truly universal civil rights and the privilege of employment by a particular organization.

How this idea isn’t simply common sense is beyond me?

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com


A little-known history about Belief 6
@Ron:

Sean, This statement is completely dis-ingenuous. The intent of the movement to “clarify” the 6th fundamental belief is exactly that – to impose a civil penalty on those who anything other than the most limited of interpretations.

This is like arguing that an employee of Nike who is fired for wearing and advertising Reebok shoes has just had his civil rights violated.

You don’t seem to recognize the fact that any viable organization must have the ability to create and enforce internal rules of order and government to which all who wish to freely join as paid representatives must adhere. You also don’t seem to understand that an employee of such an organization is always free to leave at will, free of any civil penalties from the US Government under which we all live.

You do realize that there is a difference between civil government (as in the US government) and the civil freedoms that government protects and the freedoms one chooses to limit for one’s own self when one joins any organization as an employee?

I’m sorry, but you’re making yourself look rather foolish here…

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com


A little-known history about Belief 6
@Eddie:

Out of curiosity, at what age is a person capable of accepting or rejecting Him and His offer of salvation? And what happens to a person who dies before reaching that age?

One is only judged for deliberately rejecting the offer of salvation – or for deliberately rejecting what is known to be true and good.

As far as those children who are not old enough to consciously know right from wrong, God will save them since they have not consciously rejected the right.

For example, the Bible argues that God winks or passes over our sins committed in “times of ignorance” (Acts 17:30) and argues that sin is based on a conscious understanding of right and wrong (James 4:17 and John 9:41). Also, consider the following passage in Isaiah regarding the salvation of children who have not yet been able to make their own decisions for or against God:

“But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.” – Isaiah 49:25

Mrs. White also specifically argues that children of believing parents will be saved:

“I know that some questioned whether the little children of even believing parents should be saved, because they have had no test of character and all must be tested and their character determined by trial. The question is asked, ‘How can little children have this test and trial?’ I answer that the faith of the believing parents covers the children” (Selected Messages, vol. 3, p. 313).

Remember too that God is very partial to young children. After all, it was Jesus who asked for the children to be able to come to him and explained that of such is the Kingdom of Heaven. – Mark 10:14

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com


Recent Comments by Sean Pitman, M.D.

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Thank you Ariel. Hope you are doing well these days. Miss seeing you down at Loma Linda. Hope you had a Great Thanksgiving!


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Thank you Colin. Just trying to save lives any way I can. Not everything that the government does or leaders do is “evil” BTW…


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Only someone who knows the future can make such decisions without being a monster…


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Where did I “gloss over it”?


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I fail to see where you have convincingly supported your claim that the GC leadership contributed to the harm of anyone’s personal religious liberties? – given that the GC leadership does not and could not override personal religious liberties in this country, nor substantively change the outcome of those who lost their jobs over various vaccine mandates. That’s just not how it works here in this country. Religious liberties are personally derived. Again, they simply are not based on a corporate or church position, but rely solely upon individual convictions – regardless of what the church may or may not say or do.

Yet, you say, “Who cares if it is written into law”? You should care. Everyone should care. It’s a very important law in this country. The idea that the organized church could have changed vaccine mandates simply isn’t true – particularly given the nature of certain types of jobs dealing with the most vulnerable in society (such as health care workers for example).

Beyond this, the GC Leadership did, in fact, write in support of personal religious convictions on this topic – and there are GC lawyers who have and continue to write personal letters in support of personal religious convictions (even if these personal convictions are at odds with the position of the church on a given topic). Just because the GC leadership also supports the advances of modern medicine doesn’t mean that the GC leadership cannot support individual convictions at the same time. Both are possible. This is not an inconsistency.