For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing. Acts 17:21. (emphasis mine).
In my interlinear Bible, on this verse, the margin reads; or, had leisure for nothing else.
The Greeks brought Paul "unto the Areopagus" to hear "this new doctrine", certainly they had "itching ears" for they would listen to anything, for they "spent their time in nothing else"! These men of leisure would philosophise and theorise about anything and everything "under the sun", and we have them to thank for the theory of the solar system. Eratosthenes (276-194 BC) was a Greek scientist/astronomer who is universally credited as being the first man to calculate the so-called circumference of the ball-shaped Earth.
Though the Earth was still widely believed to be flat, or at least not a spinning ball, right up until the time of Copernicus (1473-1543), when he expanded upon Eratosthenes theory and through the Roman Catholic Church via the Hegelian dialect (thesis, antithesis, synthesis) after Galileo (1564-1642) championed the heliocentric theory, to Rome's apparent chagrin. To cut a long story short, the heliocentric solar system theory became the accepted truth. Out went the biblical geocentric Earth and in came the king of the solar system, the sun! Instead of our 'humble' little sun that would illuminate the world on its daily circuit, at a stroke it became some 110 times larger than our Earth and 93,000,000 miles away from us! Consequently, the non-twinkling wandering stars became planets, for they are reckoned to be closer to us, and the twinkling stars became gas giant 'suns' at the centres of their own respective solar systems (billions of miles/light years apart), and our own sun became a star.
Needless to say, none of this wild theorising based on ancient Greek 'wisdom' is taught in Holy Writ! Only that God made "two great lights" on day four (Genesis 1:16), that is four days after He "created the heaven and the earth" Genesis 1:1. Aptly, the time of Copernicus was known as the "dark ages" when the masses were still entrenched in deep superstition and pagan Romish idolatry, and the popes were busy burning Bibles, keeping them back from the people. Praise God for raising up Martin Luther, when the mighty Reformation began in earnest! Luther opposed Copernicus's "novel theory" nevertheless, the solar system was here to stay, and all false science that would come after was built upon it (gravity, evolution, meteorology/weather cycles, atomic theory etc, etc). If the Roman Church was Christ's Church, and they had faithful men teaching the people truth from God's Book, the heliocentric theory could never have been, but it was not to be, for as a believer in absolute predestination, God would use the old Roman Empire's sun worship (Sol Invictus) system to bring about "His strange work; and bring to pass His act, His strange act." Isaiah 28:21.
The modern world's superstructure would be built upon a lie! how could it be otherwise? "For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." 1 Corinthians 1:19. "Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God." James 4:4 (RV). The first Roman Empire was at its zenith in the apostolic age, having succeeded the Grecian Empire; it absorbed the learning which came from that source. So it is plainly obvious how the Romans became worshippers of the "unconquered sun" (Sol Invictus) an image that the pagan Roman Catholic Church venerates to this day (adding to the many others that God expressly said not to do, making void the Second Commandment of the Decalogue!)
The Scripture is silent on it, but I believe Paul would have been very familiar with Eratosthenes's theory, which would explain why he went on to write of "science falsely so called." 1 Timothy 6:20. He would have heard those proud "Epicurean and Stoic philosophers" Acts 17:18(RV) thunder out their 'wisdom' from the court of the Areopagus on Mars hill. But this 'wisdom' was not according to knowledge, it was of their own making.
The great wonder in our day is why so many otherwise sound Christians hold tenaciously to the nonsense that we live on a planet!
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15.
The next verse speaks of "vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness." So true! Truly, "there is no new thing under the sun" for our own government (as is true of all nations) constantly blare out on the mythical Covid 19; "WE WILL FOLLOW THE SCIENCE!" and so they will!
No comments:
Post a Comment