Christian Data Resources

Does the Bible Imply That the Earth is Circular?

Isaiah 40:22 says that God “sits enthroned above the circle of the earth…” If you or I were sitting above the earth and looking down upon it, it certainly would appear to be circular, just as astronauts have viewed it from space; i.e., from afar, a three-dimensional sphere has a two-dimensional circular appearance until one gets close enough to have some depth perception. So, “circular” does not deny “spherical.” Genesis 1:18 says that God made the sun and the moon “to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness.” I see no contradiction of this passage with what science now knows.

Job 1:7 says that Satan was “roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.” Again, I see nothing here that contradicts science. Certainly, I can walk “back and forth” in my office, but this suggests no implication as to the shape of the earth.

My son had six procedures on his nasal passages, sinuses, and throat. The doctor sent him and his wife home with a prescription for hydrocodone (liquid). While he was in excruciating pain and bleeding, they went to three pharmacies trying to get the prescription filled. They discovered that their usual pharmacy, Walmart, simply doesn’t fill such prescriptions at all. CVS didn’t have enough of it on hand to fill it. The third one, another CVS, finally did. By the time they got it, my son (a very strong and vibrant man) was hurting and shaking so badly that he could hardly take the medicine.

Aren’t we going overboard on the opioid epidemic when a patient is unable to fill a doctor-prescribed opioid for legitimate pain? I realize that, in the United States, there were 49,000 deaths involving opioids in 2017. If only we could be as concerned about the 1,000,000 deaths by abortion every year.