Almost every person has been affected by this teaching, though you might not recognize it by name. There are two opposing views on universe centricity, while one of these views is much more prominent and taught in virtually all realms of education, from primary education, to secondary education (colleges and universities), to churches and seminaries; by preachers, pulpiteers, politicians and professors. That view is heliocentricity, which says that the sun is central to the universe and everything evolves around it, including the earth. This position, again the predominant one, proclaims the sun is standing still and the earth, along with all other planets, orbits it on a continual basis. Concerning the earth, we are allegedly orbiting the Sun at speeds that exceed 106,000 km/hr! And spinning at breakneck speeds, like at 1,656 km/hr (1,039 mph)! So in that vein, we will subtitle this position as Earth Mach 1.34, explained further below. But is it true? The opposing view, which is the geocentric position, says the earth is central to the universe, and it stands still, while the sun and planets revolve around it, at whatever speed it is that they move.
Both positions are illustrated in the photo above.
To put it simple, Heliocentricity means the earth is spinning and the sun is central to the universe, while Geocentricity means the sun is spinning and the earth is central to the universe.
Only one view can be right. Of course God knows perfectly well, He created everything in the universe, so He has the final word on the matter. He also didn't hide this truth from His creation. His view is noted not in the scientific textbooks of atheistic and unrepentant Christ-rejecting authors but in His Holy Script.
Personally I was ignorant to this truth of centricity for many years and took the teachings of secular and even Christian education at face value concerning the matter. Me thinks many would feel a kinship here. Most of us, at least those who attended government schools and then secular universities (also many so-called Christian schools), have been systematically indoctrinated to believe in a worldview that literally contradicts the Bible, but corresponds to evolution and anti-God, anti-Creation philosophies. I also believe in some cases, maybe even many, where the falsehood of heliocentricity is embraced, especially among those that profess to be Christian, it is done so unwittingly and ignorantly, people simply parroting the echo chamber, a lie that they have been fed in some fashion through some form of education. If this is true concerning other doctrine, it is certainly true when it comes to this subject. Only upon examination of this issue some years ago, which was merely superficial at first, did I realize that I had been fed a fib, yet one that appeared difficult to disprove from an empirical point (hence the liberty of the deceptive and wilful purveyors of this lie), yet not from a Biblical point, thankfully, from whence flows absolute truth.
Indeed, the Bible alone, which is God's inerrant and infallible Word, is mankind's only source for absolute truth. From thence we understand what is truth and what is not, measuring everything by its ensuring, enduring and incorruptible measuring stick of truth. This is the absolute rule to find out what position is true. Always, every single teaching. So really we, those who are genuinely born again, are without excuse when it comes to being misled by an error because of what God teaches about His truth, and our access to it as children of God who have the indwelling Holy Spirit of God. Unsaved people have the same access to Scripture in most, if not all, major languages of the world, and are also without excuse, since creation and their conscience already bear record of the Creator and their accountability to Him, so that they hold the truth in unrighteousness (Rom 1:18-25). In that light, all of mankind is without excuse in advancing falsehoods of "science falsely so called." (1 Tim 6:20).
Here is one example among many that could be given, one that led to this report. In the 2022 Christmas proclamation by the conservative and classical education Hillsdale College, one author wrote,
“[J]ust in our daily rotations, we have spun over 7,000,000 miles since last year, and in our orbiting, we have sailed an unthinkable 568 million miles through space. . . . we have revolved around the sun and come back to where we started, to begin anew.”
Though there may be many things to be appreciated in the education of Hillsdale College, there is actually zero science behind such statements, which again is very, very common, and plenty of Biblical opposition to it. We will consider this now, but first...
How important is this subject, and is it even worth reading about? Our position on the Bible and truth.
The discussion on Biblical cosmology is actually a case study in Bibliology. After all, one's commentary on the Bible is at the same time one's commentary on one’s own Bibliology, including one's position on the text/translation, hermeneutics, and employment of analogia Scripturae, or the comparison of Scripture with Scripture.
Before a brief discussion of the two opposing views, it may help to understand this author’s stance upon the truth—Scripture. I defend the translation of the KJV and maintain that it is the only acceptable translation in the English language because of the superiority of its underlying texts and proper translation methodology. I’m not a Ruckmanite, and oppose Ruckmanism as much as Textual Criticism (see here and here). Special revelation (that which is found in the inspired Texts of God’s Word, the Masoretic Hebrew Text and the Greek Textus Receptus, and translated in the faithful and accurate translation of the KJV and other language texts) takes precedence over much so-called scientific truth, which is actually science falsely so called. Hence, we will not delve into the center of gravity, weather satellites, stellar parallax, Foulcalt pendulum, etc, concerning this subject of centricity. It doesn't change the truth. Science must align with Scripture, or its simply not true, since God created science and all scientific laws. I do employ analogia Scripturae, looking within Scripture itself for interpretation, which produces a specific Scriptural related response, but I do not rely on the basis of human authority as sources for veritable insights, unlike most neo-evangelicals, reformed theologians, and the like, who look to extra-biblical authorities for "verification of truth,” and consequently employ analogia fidei (the comparison of one's presuppositions with Scripture).
A common response is of the neo-evangelical exegete who, to show his knowledge of and "respect" for secular scholarship of the scientific community, interjects evolutionary-based accommodations into the Bible. The attack on geocentricity of many of these “scholars” serve as an oblique attack upon the King James Version (KJV). The problem doesn’t rest only within neo-evangelicalism, but also in fundamentalism (referring to the movement, the historical, trans-denominational, and American movement arising from the 1920's to combat modernism in Christianity, which embraced specific so-called fundamental, cardinal doctrines as essential for defence — the movement was doomed for failure since it was man-made, always one step to the right of neo-evangelicalism and in an extra-biblical movement, over and above the Lord's only NT movement—that of His local Baptist/Anabaptist-type assemblies). A fundamental flaw of many fundamentalist-type Bible colleges and seminaries is that they train men to study to show themselves approved unto "fundamental scholarship” or "fundamental pastors" rather than “approved unto God” (2 Tim 2:15). Though many, if not all, “scholars,” believers, teachers, etc, concede to the truth that special revelation takes precedence over so-called scientific truth, they apparently do not believe it when they appeal to science for their arguments against geocentricity and for heliocentricity.
So our authority rests in the Word of God alone, not in some limited fallible pompous “scholar” or the academic requirement of peer approval, that is, the work of someone who has received some level of recognition by his peers. These things are in direct opposition to the believer's divine requirement to seek God's approval (2 Tim. 2:15; Gal 1:10) and that the truth found in God’s Word alone is more than sufficient (cf. Pr 8:8-9; 22:20-21; 1 Jn 2:20-21, 27). “[God’s] word is truth" whereby alone we are sanctified (Jn. 17:17). The Apostle Paul instructed Timothy to "study to shew thyself approved unto God" (2 Tim. 2:15), and what he was to study was the Holy Scriptures (2 Tim 3:15-16) which alone would make the man of God "perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Tim. 3:16-17). If its good enough for Paul, for Timothy, for the other Apostles, and most importantly for God, then its good enough for me. Paul's use of human authorities were non-existent, including the one name-less quote (Ac 17:28) of a contemporary writer of that day, a quote that has no clout on authority for Paul.
Thus, using the Word of God as my sole basis, I will proceed now with a brief contrast of heliocentricity and geocentricity, showing how that geocentricity is the only true position.
Heliocentricity
Heliocentricity, as defined, means everything evolves around the sun, which means the earth and all the other planets evolve or spin around the sun.
Isn't it interesting. The very same intellectual people who claim that nothing exploded from nothing (somehow) and then randomly organized itself into everything, and made itself alive!, then, over a process of millions of years, everything transformed itself into more and more complex life forms, which eventually turned apes into people, want us to believe that we are spinning at 1,656 km/hr (1,039 mph), and cruising through space at 106,217 km/hr (66,600 mph)!
The problem with this philosophy is that it has zero Biblical support, just like all the other anti-God evolutionist fantasies. It did not originate with the Bible. Not a single passage of Scripture even remotely refers to such a concept, while plenty speak of its opposition, geocentricity. Hence this false teaching did not evolve out of God’s Word but out of the imagination of God-rejectors, atheists and gnostics and rationalists, and now permeates the educational system—both primary and secondary, including many Christian-based systems as well. It fully contradicts what the Bible teaches, which is Geocentricity, that is everything evolves around the earth.
The consensus for most of the 6,000 years of earth's history was that the model of geocentricity, heliocentricity's nemesis (which teaches that the earth is stationary and fixed, and that everything else is moving around it), was Biblically true and correctly stood in agreement, until the 16th century, when along came Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543), a pagan/Catholic astronomer, with his new theory that everything in the solar system revolved around the Sun, that the Sun was the centre of the universe, not the earth. Copernicus based his new theory on his romantic view of the occultic sun worship teachings of Plato, as observed by Karl Popper:
“Copernicus studied in Bologna under the Platonist Novara; and Copernicus’ idea of placing the sun rather than the earth in the center of the universe was not the result of new observations but of a new interpretation of old and well-known facts in the light of semi-religious Platonic and Neo-Platonic ideas. The crucial idea can be traced back to the sixth book of Plato’s Republic, where we can read that the sun plays the same role in the realm of visible things as does the idea of the good in the realm of ideas. Now the idea of the good is the highest in the hierarchy of Platonic ideas. Accordingly the sun, which endows visible things with their visibility, vitality, growth and progress, is the highest in the hierarchy of the visible things in nature . . . Now if the sun was to be given pride of place, if the sun merited a divine status . . . then it was hardly possible for it to revolve about the earth. The only fitting place for so exalted a star was the center of the universe. So the earth was bound to revolve about the sun. This Platonic idea, then, forms the historical background of the Copernican revolution. It does not start with observations, but with a religious or mythological idea.” (Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge, p. 187).
We note here that the origin of this unBiblical theory was ungodly and pagan, rooted in anti-God and anti-Biblical authority. That trend continues to our day, which is far worse than its ever been before. In desperation scientists, professors and other intellects must cling to the false faith of evolution when trying desperately to explain-away the fact that the earth is the center of the universe. Please pray that these individuals will truly seek God and the truth.
There is simply no Biblical defence (for lack of Scripture) of heliocentricity. It is in fact a blatant attack on God’s truth, and should be rejected for the lie that it is.
Its also exalts foolishness. Have you ever felt the earth move? Maybe it does not feel like the earth is moving because in actuality it is not moving! Maybe the emperor wasn't wearing any clothes after all. How about this:
It's NOT possible. Not even remotely. The Earth isn't spinning at Mach 1.34 (to be precise, since Mach 1 is the speed of sound, which is 1,235 km/hr, and the alleged speed of the earth is 1,656 km/hr), while we feel or observe no effects of such turbulent motion. How does our circulatory system handle such forces? As far as I am aware, no passengers on space ship Earth Mach 1.34 have been required to wear G-suits or Military Anti-shock Trousers (MAST), a likely necessity at Mach 1.34! And we haven't even considered what Mach we are cruising at when it comes to orbiting the sun (+106,000 kph)!!
Why don’t we feel the earth moving? Because it doesn’t. It's not spinning and it's not moving through space or around the sun. It's not moving at all! The Bible clearly teaches that the earth is stationary, and that the sun rises and sets, as does the moon. The earth feels motionless because it is motionless!
One man wrote,
“Whilst we sit drinking our cup of tea or coffee the world is supposedly rotating at 1,039 mph at the equator, whizzing around the Sun at 66,600 mph, hurtling towards Lyra at 20,000 mph, revolving around the centre of the ‘Milky Way’ at 500,000 mph and merrily moving at God knows what velocity as a consequence of the ‘Big Bang.’ And not even a hint of a ripple on the surface of our tea, yet tap the table lightly with your finger and … !” (Nevile T. Jones)
Geocentricity
Geocentricity is defined again as everything evolving around the earth, which means the earth is not moving. It is stationary. Everything else moves around it. That is exactly right. The sun, moon and stars all appear to revolve around a stationary earth because they are revolving around a stationary earth! All the movements of the earth, sun, moon and planets are geocentric. The earth is stationary (Ps. 93:1, 1 Ch. 16:30); the sun, as a light bearer for the earth, has a circuit (Ps. 19:6; Ecc 1:5); the heavens have a circuit (Job 22:14); and the stars run their courses (Ju 5:20).
The Word of God authored by the Word of God is undeniably written from a geocentric perspective, which includes Genesis 1 (cf. Gen 1:15-16). The Bible, without debate, clearly teaches in Genesis that the earth was created (Gen 1:1) before the sun (God made the sun on the fourth day, Gen 1:16). Since there was no sun on the first three days, what was the earth revolving around? And was the earth put in the heavens along with the sun, moon and stars on Day Four? The Bible is clear that the earth was formed in the very beginning, before God created anything else (Gen 1:1). The earth was completely distinct from the heavens and never placed in the heavens to revolve around the sun (Gen 1:14 ff.). The account of God’s creation of the earth in six days (Gen 1:3-31) is spoken from the perspective of the One who is standing on the earth's surface observing the universe with the naked eye, thus geocentric. Whose perspective was it, since neither Adam nor Moses was standing on the earth's surface through the first five days of creation?!
The earth is round:
“It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.” (Is. 40:22)
Scripturally, we know the earth is a fixed point around which the heavens revolve. The round earth hangs in space:
“He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.” (Job 26:7).
Bible analogies are geocentric, including the above. The earth hangs on nothing—it is not moving, it is hanging (Job 26:7). The earth has a place (Is 13:13). The earth is at rest as God's footstool (Is 66:1).
We have a few exceptional Biblical examples where God has stopped the sun and the moon from moving or the sun went backwards, and then caused them to resume moving (Jos 10:12-13; Is 38:7-8), which obviously is a miracle from the hands of God. We have the following account in the book of Joshua:
"And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still inthe midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a wholeday. And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel." (Jos 10:13-14)
It was the sun and moon that God caused to stand still, not the earth.
Undebatable, the Bible also teaches that the sun and moon are moving, while the earth is stable and fixed, it does not move. When the earth does move, it can be a very scary event, such as an earthquake.
“Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty . . . Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.” (Ps 104:1, 5
"Fear before him, all the earth: the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved." (1 Ch 16:30)
Geocentric expressions such as "the sun went down" (Gen 15:17), "the sun stood still, and the moon stayed" (Jos 10:13), and "at the rising of the sun" (Mk 16:2), permeate the OT and NT. This phraseology in fact is expressed 67x in the Bible, from Gen 15:12 to Jam 1:11, and clearly reflects geocentricity.
“He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down. The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens.” (Ps 104:19, 22).
When we see the sun setting in the west and rising in the east, it has always been taken as literal because it is literal! Our eyes aren't playing tricks on us! It wouldn’t be literal however if the earth was evolving around the sun at +106,000 km/hr! Then we would see that many sun sets and sun downs every single hour of the day! When we observe God's wonderful sunrises and sunsets on a daily basis, once/day, we know that sun is moving around the earth. Its just plain and simple common sense.
Earth and Heaven (wherein are located the sun, moon and all other planets), are two distinct worlds (Heb 11:3). In the Word of God they are distinguished ("heaven and earth") over 100x from Gen 1:1 to Rev 21:1. Both spheres have their own respective ordinances or laws (Job 38:33; 1 Cor 15:40-41).
The Bible very clearly teaches consistently a geocentric framework of reference in the cosmos (the earth is the absolute fixed point around which all else turns).
Conclusion
As briefly mentioned in the beginning of this report, the true Biblical view of geocentricity is rejected by many secularists and professing Christians. Of the latter, Dr. Robert McCabe, retired registrar and professor of Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary, is one such notable example, a man who appears to be more of a heretic than a true believer, as he wilfully rejects what the Bible teaches on this subject, answered by Dr. Thomas Strouse in his defense of Geocentricity, a good further read on this subject. McCabe's article had been spurred by Strouse's excellent defense of Biblical Geocentricity with exegesis of Scripture in its defense, published in The Biblical Astronomer of Summer 2004, which can be read here: https://geocentricity.com/ba1/109.pdf.
The scriptural evidence leaves little no doubt whatsoever that the earth is geocentric, that the earth is the fixed point around which the heavens revolve, and that there is no biblical defence of heliocentricity. The Bible establishes that clearly, and then there is nothing that contradicts it or promotes heliocentricity. Those that embrace heliocentricity in spite of the Biblical evidence, are guilty of petitio principii; assuming something that needs proof. They assume heliocentricity and a rotating earth, claiming that the earth is rotating on its axis. What passage in God’s Word describes the earth's rotation on its axis?
Those that maintain a hold on heliocentricity in spite of the evidence, have the remarkable and unenviable task of proving that just because God declares that the Bible perspective is geocentric, He does not really mean that it is geocentric, since the scientific world has verified that the earth both rotates around its axis and revolves around the sun.
“God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar;” (Rom 3:4a).
The world system has lied to us, in order to make the Bible seem “unscientific” and to make Almighty God look stupid. That is the agenda of the Devil. From the beginning, Satan twists the truth, and attempts to cast doubt on God’s holy word and His gospel, to destroy us. Don't be fooled. Hold fast to the Word of God.