It is of course a myth that most Christians believed the earth was flat before Columbus. But contrary to a ‘counter-myth’. Some, especially in the Eastern Church (beyond Cosmas), ‘did’. Not to mention, a flat earth was the consensus view among early Rabbis, who discussed where the sun went at night without any suggestion that it stayed in the sky somewhere on earth.
Here’s a thread I wrote on the subject. In the future I’ll be doing a thread on what the Old Testament says. (I’ll also be discussing a possible exception in the New Testament)
Interesting how something as strange and always present as the force of gravity was just accepted and ignored until Newton, and without gravity, a spherical earth is nonsense.
The Tower of Babel story is interesting. It describes how God stopped people from building something that could reach the heavens. This seems to support the idea that those ancient cultures believed in a physical thing in the sky.
True, though our churches still have steeples which are figurative in pointing to heaven.I have also read where some feel the tower was built to invite God (or gods) down to earth, which also supports a heavenly abode.
I think I remember reading how this sort of thing ended the first time…
Wouldn’t it be something if God changed the languages of the AiG people so that they couldn’t understand each other? Maybe they’ll stop being Cessationist and look for someone who can interpret Tongues?