Helice: If I was just perusing this site and saw your post, I would come to the conclusion you were anti-God and Christian, considering how much effort you take to deride the scriptures.
Not that "christians" actually use the bible, because they don't.
Most just go with the flow without checking anything out. Just take the word "Love" for instance. That's all that is required...right?
Your pointing out the word "firmament", that it is firm, that it is solid.
Certainly when your speaking of the dirt and rock under our feet, it is solid. How would you describe the air or water that is part of out environement? They are also called firmament?
You said...
The Hebrew word used for "Firmament" is "raqiya" which means to hammer out, or spread out by hammering, which is the word used for making large bowls by hammering them out of copper. You can still buy hammered copper bowls at tourist trap souvenier shops in the Middle East. I've owned a few in my time; they're pretty. All dome-like and shiny, with the little hammer-dimples in them. The Firmament was like one of those bowls, only clear.
So I looked it up but I get a somewhat different view then you do. Though the word is derived from another word which means to beat out or to shape, like in creating a piece of art the word firmament is used to give the impression it is an "expanse" ....
Strong's Hebrew Lexicon Search ResultsResult of search for "7554":7549 raqiya` raw-kee'-ah from 7554;
properly, an expanse, i.e. the firmament or (apparently) visible arch of the sky:--firmament.
7554 raqa` raw-kah' a primitive root; to pound the earth (as a sign of passion); by analogy to expand (by hammering); by implication, to overlay (with thin sheets of metal):--beat, make broad, spread abroad (forth, over, out, into plates), stamp, stretch.
7555 riqqua` rik-koo'-ah from 7554; beaten out, i.e. a (metallic) plate:--broad.
The impression I get is that the different parts of the atmosphere, water and earth were all shaped by the artist in question and each aspect is an "expanse" or "firmament".
Your view of God as sitting on a throne looking down like an evil personage is akin to the phylosophy of Gnostics which the congregation at Rome adopted.....
"God sat in a throne at the very tippy-top of it, and peered dwon at us through the clouds. The whole thing sat upon some sort of ill-described "foundations" (i.e. "unto the foundations of the eath"). "YaHWeH, when speaking to Job said this....
Job 38:4-6
4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?
6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
The earth just sits in space seemingly without foundation, and it never varies from the way it was created. Even though it was destroyed by the "destroyer", it still remained in orbit where is should be.
You said...
I think the Cornerstone of the Foundations is supposed to be Christ, according to New Testament understanding?
I think the inference is to the Law and the Church. David said this....
Psalm 118:21-23
21 I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me,
and art become my salvation. 22
The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. 23 This is Yahweh's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.
Matthew then quotes this scripture....
Matthew 21:42
42 Yahshua saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is YaHWeH's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?
Paul then quotes this...
Ephesians 2:19-21
19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints,
and of the household of Elohim;
20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21 In whom all
the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in Yahweh:The Church is the Temple which are "the called out ones"
(not a building or corporate organization) and the Messiah is the chief Conerstone.
I think you mixed the two up which are different conerstones.
You said...
The "waters" that filled up the entire Universe, I guess, at the time of Creation, were divided out by the salad bowl of the Firmament, and the Oceans, lakes, and rivers were left on Earth, and the rest of the Waters were suspended up above the clear-glass/ice-crystal/salad-bowl Firmament where there brooded quietly until God got angry at the world and told Noah to build an Ark.
I don't know where you get this from, since the waters spoken of was on this earth, not the whole Universe. In Genesis 1:2 it apperas the whole earth was covered in water such was the destruction.
You said...
Thanks to thinker, I learned that after the Ark was built, God caused The Firmament to Open, and Bring Forth its Waters, and rain for Forty days and Forty nights, until All the Earth was Flooded (That's the only way to get enough water to flood the enture earth, you had to open wide the Firmament and let in the water from outer space).
Yoah!!!!! Now I'm dodging "the bullets" of untruth amd mis-quotation.
If you actually look at the scripture, not only did it rain with a downpour but also great water spouts releasong the water below the surface. Apparently it didn't rain prior to the flood and a mist watered the whole earth, so the climate was different. After the Flood there was rain instead of mist so that the refraction of sunlight caused the rainbow. The rainbow is a sign that YaHweH used to show "His" promise "He" wont do this again.
How high the mountains were prior to the Flood is another matter. The way you make it look in your post, is that there isn't enough water on this earth to flood the highest mountains...
"I'm not sure where all the water drained to afterwards, unless maybe it all just poured off the edges of the flat Earth, which sounds plausible and likely."The Ark was in the water for ten months, and since the climate is different and mankind only lives on an average of seventy years, then things are very different then they were before the Flood. Mountain ranges help to make the climate on this earth and regulates were we can live comfortably to produce our crops.
Just the melting snow and a few thunderstorms floods great areas of the earth as seen this past year. Just a few days and great storms are formed dropping a deluge of water floodimg large areas. If you add the water stored in the ice caps, which is up to a mile thick or more and a possible tilt in the earths axis, everything moves including the tectonic plates.
However YaHWeh did it, it flooded the whole earth and the high "hills" were covered by 15 cubits.
Some
religions don't take this literally yet it seems to be very precise as to the depth.
You said...
Oh, I almost forgot -- when those people were building the Tower of Babel that annoyed God so much that He scrambled our languages? They were planning on building it so tall that it would reach the top of the Firmament, which they were planning to pierce with some kind of sharp tool, to see what it was made of, and what lay beyond. They theorized that perhaps it was bronze, or clay. God couldn't permit that!
Your disdain for YaHWeH is showing up and also the scriptures. The tower of babel was a temple built to honor the "god" of this world. Nimrod the famous dictator who became the "sun-god" instigated this religion along with the help of his mother/wife known as Ishtar
(pronunced Easter) in some countries. She was Semiramis married to Cush who died and she re-married her son. She became the Moon goddess of erotic love and fertility and her symbols are the rabbit and eggs.
These two people are the origins of all the religions of the earth taking people away from the knowledge of YaHWeH. Your poking fun at YaHWeH the God of the Old Testament reveals what branch of Gnosticism you believe in. Well... maybe you believe in both branches but we will see when I post my post on the origins of Gnosticism and the beginning of the false "christian" church by your reaction.
One of the seven wonders of the world were the hanging gardens of Baybylon an huge city with walls so high and wide it was impenatrable or so the builders thought.
But it is YaHWeH who controls who is going to be ruler and the people get what they deserve, just as we see today.
The religion of Babylon that these two "gods" started, is alive and well and can be recognized by its doctrines.
You said....
I don't know how people who believe all of that stuff literally reconcile it with our trips to the Moon and Mars and our astronomical observances, unless they chosoe to call it all lies and their Bible Truth.
Interesting to note, YaHWeH is going to give the Universe to "His" children, yet mankind is trying to get it without God in the picture. So far mankinds feeble attempt to get into space shows the brains they have to achieve these short little jaunts and at very great expence when billions are surviving on only $1.00 per day and many more on even less.
Yet you think YaHWeH can't flood the earth with the water that is here on it and in the air as vapour or in the aquafirs under the surface or in the frozen ice caps.
Beats me why your so against the Bible or YaHWeH for that matter? It must be the lies you absorbed as truth.
-thinker-