(October 30, 2011 at 8:24 pm)Stimbo Wrote: Genesis 1:14-15 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
The hebrew word raqia means expanse, or something stretched, spread or beaten out. The modern translation was transliterated from another bad translation.
(October 30, 2011 at 8:24 pm)Stimbo Wrote: Related: Revelation 6:13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
As I am sure you're well aware, Revelation uses a lot of symbolic language. It is thought to refer to the shaking of the powers of this world, casting down the so-called gods and goddesses, demi-gods, their idols etc down to the ground.
(October 30, 2011 at 8:24 pm)Stimbo Wrote: Genesis 7:11-12 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
It's not meant to be taken literally. It's the same as someone saying, the sun rises and sets. It is an expression, which is used elsewhere in the bible, here referring to grain:
2 Kings 7:19
And that lord answered the man of God, and said, Now, behold, [if] the LORD should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.
