A Flat Earth?
Alright, so this is CRAZY random, and a little off my normal topics - but I wanna hear your thoughts. A super bizarre and potentially dangerous growing trend I’ve noticed: An absolutely understandable mistrust of the government mixed with some under-developed interpretations of some key Bible verses that has led to a belief that there is a global conspiracy going on - to push that the earth is a sphere instead of the conclusion that some have now come to - that it’s a flat disc.
Do people actually believe this? YES. More than you think, and it’s growing. I accidentally stumbled into a conversation earlier with a political commentator I follow who revealed he’s a flat-earther, and while it stayed respectful on both sides (mostly because I just don’t think it ever helps to go low), it became really evident to me that this ideology wasn’t based on any kind of evidence. In fact, all the evidence stands against this theory. It’s literally a mix of government mistrust and various Bible verses being seen through a certain, clunky-at-best hermeneutical lens. Every time the flat-earth community tries to employ science, it proves the opposite of their theories.
The way I’m wired, I’m always interested in what the truth is, but we can never rush to conclusions just because we want a certain outcome. I’m not a Christian because I grew up that way. I was literally, finally CONVINCED. I mean, I wanna know who shot JFK. I nerd out about how the Titanic sank. Heck, if the government was truly lying about this for some reason, I’d legitimately be interested to know, but the main problem I have with this ideology is that every time I’ve seen this theory pushed, it’s always to the detriment of the gospel. It’s always elevated above the gospel in terms of importance and position. It’s clearly rooted in mistrust, worry, a level of paranoia, and anxiety rather than trusting Christ for our daily bread and the desire to make disciples. Our final correspondence ended with this person hoping that the Holy Spirit guides me to the truth. The truth of the flat earth?? Nah. I was blown away.
To me, it seems simple enough even without information from NASA. Maybe you disagree, but this seems to make sense. First of all, while the Bible doesn’t teach explicitly that it’s a sphere, it also doesn’t teach explicitly that it’s flat. You have to read that into the text in both cases. We’re given a lot of imagery and figurative language that point to the size and ultimate power of God. Second of all, the sun is a ball. The moon is a ball. Planets that we can see from a telescope are balls. It’ll be night for part of the world and day for part of the world. My point is, it all seems like a ball to me.
Ultimately, it comes down to this for me: if those who believe this are right, I don’t really know what they stand to gain from pushing it. But if they’re wrong, they end up losing all credibility on the other stuff they are right about. Seems to be lose/lose to me. It seems to be rooted more in a religious/political ideology rather than a truly Biblically sound one. There are always pitfalls of human error - even in truth, so there’s grace for this, but I would just sincerely warn against good-will, conservative Christians being pulled into it. Know the Word. Utilize discernment. Trust God.
