“BUT….BUT….BUT…..HAVEN’T YOU SEEN PICTURES OF EARTH FROM SPACE?” So follows the typical and often immediate rebuttal from Christians when the pages of Holy Writ comes into the discussion, as if I need to be forcibly pried from the written words of the Holy Ghost in order to correct an academic illiteracy, and one certainty is made transparently clear—a graven image has been suspended so high on a pedestal as to re-imagine, chasten, and ultimately overthrow the Testimony of God. Here-in the doctrine of Flat Earth reveals yet another delusional offense against our Creator, and a damnable one for many souls. Satan has convinced the citizens of his kingdom that there is one permissible image, be it man-made, which God wishes us to uphold in our devotion to Him even as it conflicts and supersedes the Scripture in every place where the two of them meet.

This idol in question is called Blue Marble. And it’s the most reproduced image in the history of the world.

“Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth:” Deuteronomy 5:8 (KJV)

What else is a graven or molten image but man’s attempt to construe and confine the power of God, specifically to limit or alter His power and reduce Him to a parcel package that we can control? Both result from greed and covetousness, and we must not overlook the rarely spoken but painfully obvious truth; there is a fear among the worshiper of idols that God does not have his best interests at heart. As with any kind of worship, the object of adoration inevitably controls us.

The Blue Marble—every Blue Marble in a series of several released by NASA over the last half-century are proven frauds. Specifically they are imaginative artistic renditions of “data.” We do not have one “actual photo” of this so-called planet they say we live on with a negative to show for it, and yet what does the church-going Christian do with this news?  When confronted with the truth of God’s revelation regarding His created order he immediately clings to the image of the Blue Marble and hugs it against his bosom, crying, “LA-LA-LA-LA-LA!” with two fingers firmly implanted in his ears so as not to give audience to any more of this superstitious nonsense. God must surely make an exception for them this one time. And besides, let’s be honest, the true goodness of God could not possibly compete with the nourishment which that person receives from the man-made image, specifically what that idol contains, or rather everything which is implied of his lifestyle within it.

Moses was not an author of frivolous or meaningless words when he wrote, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.”

The New Testament is as much against idolatry as the Old. Our only permissible and proper act, where idolatry is concerned, is eating with the unbeliever during their various celebrations in hopes that we might direct the conversation towards the Lord. But there is a stark warning present at all times. Under no circumstances are we as Christians given license to join ritualistic religious devotions in which we honor and worship false heathen gods, which may be the prime reason for such celebrations. God is a jealous God—rooted in divine justice and love. He demands our full heart, not slices of it.

Anything that is desired or treasured more than God and what He reveals of Himself in revelations future, present, and past is an obvious idol. Concerning the subject at hand, Paul makes this clear. Where there is willful covetousness, the wrath of God cometh on that child of disobedience. If we find God to be so boring or so negligible that we must put other things in His place that really satisfy us more than He does, as this entire Copernican apostasy brings to light, then we not only offend the Master, but we ultimately destroy ourselves.

If the Blue Marble is standing in the way of accepting God’s Testimony concerning Himself in His Creation—we call this the doctrine of Flat Earth—then a graven image is presently being upheld.

And just look at the mess it got us in.

Maranatha from Prince Edward Island!

Noel