Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
(2 Corinthians 2:10) KJV
David and Goliath, and the role of gravity in the story, illustrate the fact that we’ve destroyed the theoretical foundation of mainstream science (SciPop).
If you know anything about Matty’s Paradigm you should know that we break from every flavor of mainstream Creationism that ever existed by proposing that life began in zero-G and that gravity was created on the second day of creation.
We all have the same evidence. Our choice of paradigm determines what we think it’s evidence of.
– Matty’s Razor
A strict literal interpretation of the Bible doesn’t, as some people erroneously believe, require that the Earth is flat. In our harmonization of the Bible with all empirical observations and physical evidence we can account for the obvious: the Earth is spherical.
The second day of creation as described in the Bible is when God separated the waters below from the waters above with the construction of a firmament. The physical mechanism that God employed to achieve this ordering of the physical universe was the creation of gravity. A singularity if you want to be technical. Matty’s Paradigm is a cosmological system that doesn’t require any dark matter or black holes to smooth out the bumps in its rocky physics.
Now we’re quite sure that this is a new idea. If anyone’s aware of someone else thinking this up then please let us know.
So one of our Twitter Trolls asked me what’s the Hebrew word for gravity. He’s a devoted flat-earther so we’re sure it was meant in a snarky way. Many people attempt to lay traps for us but they all turn out to be more weight in favor of Matty’s Paradigm.
The thing about doctrine is that it has to be consistent with the whole Bible. Pulling the odd verse out of context and waving it as proof of an idea doesn’t do you any good if the idea is in opposition against the broad narrative of scripture. For example, people who pull out verses and claim that they prove Jesus lied have obviously missed the boat, because the entire narrative of the plan of redemption is that Jesus lived a sinless life and that’s why his sacrifice is sufficient to pay for the sins of the whole world.
That being said, the idea that God created gravity on the second day is pretty neat. It solves a major problem for both the construction of the firmament and for astronomy, since the center of gravity for the observable universe is the Earth (just being honest folks). However, is this an example of taking a verse or two of scripture out of context and creating havoc with it?
We can put this to the test. All ideas have to be tested against the scriptures if we are to be able to confidently assert that we understand the true meaning.
Faith is believing in something that you can’t see, because of evidence.
– Faith, definition
In Matty’s Paradigm we have accounted for many physical features of the Earth that occur in the scriptures. To see the full list look at the page physical structures. If we want to examine the scriptural basis of the concept of gravity let’s take a look at the references to the “foundations of the earth.”
There is a strict progression of events in Matty’s Paradigm that are necessary steps in the formation of Earth. Firstly the elements, molecules, and structures of cells were formed, the Word of God was encoded as DNA, and unicellular, colonial and multicellular life all developed in an aqueous environment with zero gravity.
At the beginning of the second day God metaphorically set the point of the compass on the face of the deep (Proverbs 8:27). A drawing instrument compass, not a direction finding compass. The location of the point is a singularity: the center of gravity for the observable universe. The circle that was drawn is the location of the firmament.
The moment that gravity was activated an ordering of matter began. Heavy elements and dense compounds sank. Light elements and less dense objects were displaced outward. Gases came out of solution and an atmosphere began to form. It is at this point in the scriptural narrative where, if we’re right, there should be a reference to a concept like this. The ancient Hebrews ought to have a concept of it. It’s a predictive, testable hypothesis but instead of doing an experiment we’re going to pull out the concordance and the lexicon.
We have great tools available today. Our favorite is Bible Hub, but we also possess the physical books that we would need to do the same kind of research. Simply typing foundations of the earth in Bible Hub brings up all of the passages of scripture where this phrase occurs. We are going to need to examine the context where this phrase occurs for any other words or phrases that relate to the concept of gravity. If anything looks promising then we use the Strong’s numbers to look up the actual Hebrew word that was translated, so that we can find out where else it occurs in the Bible. We must check these references to see if they are consistent with the idea that gravity is a created thing that occurs at a specific moment in creation.
We pick our way through the many references until we get to Job 38:
Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
(Job 38:4-7) KJV
God is directly addressing Job in this this fascinating speech which is clearly referencing the days of creation. Our phrase “foundations of the earth,” forms the subject of the following two verses. Here’s the same passage in a different translation.
Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
(Job 38:4-7) ESV
Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone,
when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
On what were its bases sunk? That sounds like gravity to me. The word is the Hebrew word translated as thereof fastened. So we have the concept of sinking down directly tied to the moment in creation when the foundations of the Earth were established. Strong’s concordance is a little skimpy on the definitions on account of needing to control its physical size, so we turn to Davidson’s trusty Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon.
To sink, as in water, mud. That’s exactly what we’re saying happened on the 2nd day when God created gravity. So let’s look at the other occurrences of this word to see if it occurs in this context. Of the 10 occurrences of this word, 8 refer to an individual or thing sinking into mud or mire. Jeremiah’s own plight of being dropped into a well is described with this word.
One occurrence is in Proverbs 8. Surprise, surprise. Proverbs 8, starting at verse 22, is a very detailed sequential explanation of the work that took place during the 6 days of creation from the perspective of Wisdom, an observer who is God the Father.
Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:
(Proverbs 8:25-27) KJV
Our gravity concept, taba, is translated “were settled.” So then:
- Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, before God made the Earth or the fields or the highest part of the dust of the Earth (Rosh, the location of Eden).
- When he prepared the heavens, when he set a compass on the face of the water. (paraphrased)
We have a concept of sinking in water or mud at the precise moment in creation when God did the work of the second day: He established a singularity which caused the solid Earth to form within water, and simultaneously an atmosphere surrounded by a crystalline firmament, above which was more water.
Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.
(Isaiah 48:13) KJV
I don’t know about you but I call that a theological slam-dunk. Which brings me to the last occurrence of the word taba. This just happens to be the epic story of David and Goliath.
And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.
(1 Samuel 17:49) KJV
The stone sunk into his forehead. Same word, taba. Goliath is described as six cubits and a span in height. If a cubit is about 18 inches and a span half of that, that puts Goliath at 9.5 feet tall. I’m sure he was what you might call “big boned.” Now I’m sure that there are people out there who would speculate about how a simple farm boy with a sling and a pebble could cause the pebble to sink into the skull of a giant. No doubt there are people who would like to claim that Goliath had a genetic malformation of his skull which caused there to be a weak spot where the stone hit. Or we could understand the power of God and understand that he could create a pulse of gravity in the center of Goliath’s head that would suck the stone right into it.
It’s pretty ironic to think that there may have been a gravity assist in David’s victory over Goliath. Gravity assist is one more vain attempt by someone on Twitter to prove heliocentricity, but that’s another story.
Hebrew Gravity Concepts
| Usage | Hebrew | Transliteration | Scripture | Post |
| Descending | יֹ֝רְד֗וֹת | yoredot | Proverbs 7:27 | |
| He hath established | מֵכִ֥ין | mechin | Jer. 10:12, 51:15 | 2/4 |
| Setteth | שָׂ֤ם | sum | Job 28:3 | 2/5 |
| Setteth fast | מֵכִ֥ין | mechin | Psalms 65:6 | 2/4 |
| Thereof fastened | טָבַע | taba | Job 38:4 | 2/3 |
| They sank | וְצַלְמָֽוֶת | tsalmaveth | Exodus 15:10 | 2/5 |
| To sink, sank | יִמַּ֣ךְ | makak | Ec. 10:18 | 2/4 |
| Were settled | טָבַע | taba | Proverbs 8:25 | 2/3 |
Matty's Paradigm 