The Pillars of the Earth
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the LORD’S, and he hath set the world upon them.
(1 Samuel 2:8) KJV
“The pillars of the earth” are incorporated into a 3D model of a spherical Earth in which they’re part of Earth’s internal structure. They don’t require us to believe that the Earth is flat.
“The pillars of the earth” is an example of the of the Hebrew word “world” being used to refer to part of planet “Earth.” In this case the mantle (tebel) has been set upon the pillars of the earth (erets). We’ve deduced that in this instance the word world is referring to the Earth’s crust and mantle. This passage gives us Hypothesis 8.
We all have the same evidence. Our choice of paradigm determines what we think it’s evidence of.
– Matty’s Razor
Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble.
(Job 9:6) KJV
If the pillars of the earth (erets) are in the region we are calling the great gulf, and the world (tebel) refers to the crust and mantle, then the passage above from 1 Samuel is literal, not poetic. The mantle rests upon the pillars of the Earth which are like spokes connecting it to the core.
Removing mountains and overturning them is a description of tectonic activity. There’s widespread evidence of this kind of upheaval. It would most certainly cause the pillars of the earth in our model to shake.
Faith is believing in something that you can’t see, because of evidence.
– Faith, definition
The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it. Selah.
(Psalms 75:3) KJV
Nothing in either of these two passages poses a problem for the way we are accounting for the pillars of the earth. The ancient Hebrews didn’t believe that the Earth was flat. They had, as we are clearly seeing, an extensively developed spherical Earth concept.
This is ground zero for establishment of the doctrine of “the pillars of the earth” and it gives them their physical context. God set the world on them. The world in this context is the surface of the Earth where people live, the habitable portion of planet earth: the crust and mantle.
The pillars of the earth are intriguing. If they’re physical structures then there should be evidence of them. If there is evidence of the pillars of the earth then what can we deduce about the structural history of the earth? We have to know the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end. We know that the crust of the Earth is made of tectonic plates. We also know that at some time in the past these plates moved so much, so fast, that the collision caused mountain ranges like the Himalayas and deep ocean trenches to form.
It appears, from the amount of subduction and upthrust that has taken place around the world, that the earth’s circumference has changed. This is not something that you hear much about these days but Geologists of old used to wring their hands over calculations of circumferential shortening and how to account for it. It’s something that science has conveniently forgotten about. In Matty’s Paradigm circumferential shortening is accounted for by radial shrinkage. The radius of the Earth has changed. We can use evidence of the pillars of the earth to calculate radial shrinkage.
Salvation
- Call upon the name of Jesus Christ,
- believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
- confess your sin.
- IF the Earth’s mantle (tebel) rested upon the pillars of the earth,
- AND remnants of them now protrude through the crust and mantle,
- HAS the earth has undergone radial shrinkage in the past?
There are some clues for us to be able to figure out the Earth’s former size. This comes from the pillars of the Earth which are part of its internal structure. Shown is Pilot Mountain, North Carolina, but there are other examples of these types of geological formations. Here’s where it gets really cool: If the top of the pillars of the earth, for example Pilot Mountain, represents the approximate radius of the inner surface of the original Earth’s mantle, then we can use the volume of mantle material to get an estimate of the Earth’s original radius. It gives us Hypothesis 8.
Predictive Testable Hypothesis 8
- IF geological features such as
- Monument Valley, Utah;
- Devil’s Tower, Wyoming;
- Pilot Mountain, North Carolina; and
- Saint Michael’s Mount, UK, are remnants of the pillars of the earth,
- THEN we have the approximate radius of the inner surface of the earth’s mantle on the 3rd day,
- AND a way to calculate the original radius of the earth,
- THEREFORE these geological features will be finely bedded metamorphic structures, not igneous intrusions.
The reason for creation is the manifestation of sentient life with free will.
– The Reason for Creation
This means that if there are remnants of the pillars of the earth then their summit represents the minimum radius of the inner surface of the original mantle. The image today features Pilot Mountain, North Carolina. Could Pilot Mountain, and other geological features around the world like the pillars in Monument Valley, Utah, be remnants of the pillars of the earth? This gives us a fascinating deductive question:
- IF the top of Pilot Mountain was the bottom of the Earth’s mantle on the third day,
- CAN we calculate the original radius of the Earth?
Earth Comparison
The Earth on the third day of creation had a radius of about 7,653 km. This is 1,282 km larger than the radius of the present day Earth. Present day Earth would fit inside the Earth as it was created on the third day.
What happened to cause the Earth to shrink in size? That’s going to come later. The months of July through October are when we will look the historical changes that have happened to the Earth.
The Pillars of the Earth – Navigation
| Section | Title | Scripture |
| 1 | The Pillars of the Earth | 1 Samuel 2:8 |
| The Bars of the Pit | Job 17:16 | |
| The Beams of His Chambers | Psalms 104:3 | |
| The Earth with Her Bars | Jonah 2:6 | |
| 2 | The Pillars of the Earth and it’s Original Radius | 1 Samuel 2:8 |
| Hypothesis 8 | Job 9:4-6 | |
| The Volume of the Earth’s Mantle | Deuteronomy 32:22 | |
| Radial Shrinkage and the Pillars of the Earth | Isaiah 46:10 | |
| A Response to “The Pillars of the Earth and Radial Shrinkage” | Submission | |
| Salvation | Romans 10:9-10 |
Read through the Bible in a year
| Reading plan | March 22 | |
| Linear | 2 Samuel 1-3 | |
| Chronological | Deuteronomy 32-34 Psalms 91 |
Matty's Paradigm 