Earth in the scriptures:The Watchtower society's commentary.

EARTH

The fifth-largest planet of the solar system and the third in order of position from the sun. It is an oblate spheroid, being slightly flattened at the poles. Satellite observations have indicated other slight irregularities in the shape of the earth. Its mass is approximately 5.98 × 1024 kg (13.18 × 1024 lb). Its area is about 510,000,000 sq km (197,000,000 sq mi). Earth’s measurements are (approximately): circumference at the equator, just over 40,000 km (24,900 mi); diameter at the equator, 12,750 km (7,920 mi). Oceans and seas cover approximately 71 percent of its surface, leaving about 149,000,000 sq km (57,500,000 sq mi) of land surface.

The earth rotates on its axis, bringing about day and night. (Ge 1:4, 5) A solar day or an apparent day is a period of 24 hours, the time taken for an observer at any one point on the earth to be again in the same position relative to the sun. The tropical year, which concerns the return of the seasons, the interval between two consecutive returns of the sun to the vernal equinox, is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds, on the average. This figure is the one used in solar-year calendar reckoning, and its fractional nature has caused much difficulty in accurate calendar making.

The axis of the earth tilts 23° 27ʹ away from a perpendicular to the earth’s orbit. The gyroscopic effect of rotation holds the earth’s axis in basically the same direction relative to the stars regardless of its location in its orbit around the sun. This tilt of the axis brings about the seasons.

The earth’s atmosphere, composed principally of nitrogen, oxygen, water vapor, and other gases, extends over 960 km (600 mi) above the earth’s surface. Beyond this is what is termed “outer space.”

Bible Terms and Significance. In the Hebrew Scriptures, the word used for earth as a planet is ʼeʹrets. ʼEʹrets refers to (1) earth, as opposed to heaven, or sky (Ge 1:2); (2) land, country, territory (Ge 10:10); (3) ground, surface of the ground (Ge 1:26); (4) people of all the globe (Ge 18:25).

The word ʼadha·mahʹ is translated “ground,” “soil,” or “land.” ʼAdha·mahʹ refers to (1) ground as tilled, yielding sustenance (Ge 3:23); (2) piece of ground, landed property (Ge 47:18); (3) earth as material substance, soil, dirt (Jer 14:4; 1Sa 4:12); (4) ground as earth’s visible surface (Ge 1:25); (5) land, territory, country (Le 20:24); (6) whole earth, inhabited earth (Ge 12:3). ʼAdha·mahʹ seems to be related etymologically to the word ʼa·dhamʹ, the first man Adam having been made from the dust of the ground.​—Ge 2:7.

In the Greek Scriptures, ge denotes earth as arable land or soil. (Mt 13:5, 8) It is used to designate the material from which Adam was made, the earth (1Co 15:47); the earthly globe (Mt 5:18, 35; 6:19); earth as a habitation for human creatures and animals (Lu 21:35; Ac 1:8; 8:33; 10:12; 11:6; 17:26); land, country, territory (Lu 4:25; Joh 3:22); ground (Mt 10:29; Mr 4:26); land, shore, as contrasted with seas or waters. (Joh 21:8, 9, 11; Mr 4:1).

Oi·kou·meʹne, translated “world” in the King James Version, denotes “inhabited earth.”​—Mt 24:14; Lu 2:1; Ac 17:6; Re 12:9.

In each case of all the above senses in which these words are used, the form of the word in the original language, and more particularly the setting or context, determine which sense is meant.

The Hebrews divided the earth into four quarters or regions corresponding to the four points of the compass. In the Hebrew Scriptures the words “before” and “in front of” designate and are translated “east” (Ge 12:8); “behind” may mean “west” (Isa 9:12); “the right side” may denote “south” (1Sa 23:24); and “the left” may be translated “north” (Job 23:8, 9; compare Ro). East was also (in Heb.) sometimes called the sunrising, as for example, at Joshua 4:19. West (in Heb.) was the setting of the sun. (2Ch 32:30) Also, physical characteristics were used. Being almost the total western boundary of Palestine, the “Sea” (the Mediterranean) was sometimes used for west.​—Nu 34:6.

Creation. The planet’s coming into existence is recounted in the Bible with the simple statement: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Ge 1:1) Just how long ago the starry heavens and the earth were created is not stated in the Bible. Therefore, there is no basis for Bible scholars to take issue with scientific calculations of the age of the planet. Scientists estimate the age of some rocks as being three and a half billion years, and the earth itself as being about four to four and a half billion or more years.

As to time, the Scriptures are more definite about the six creative days of the Genesis account. These days have to do, not with the creation of earth’s matter or material, but with the arranging and preparing of it for man’s habitation.

The Bible does not reveal whether God created life on any of the other planets in the universe. However, astronomers today have not found proof that life exists on any of these planets and, in fact, know of no planet besides the earth that is at present capable of supporting the life of fleshly creatures.

Purpose. Like all other created things, the earth was brought into existence because of Jehovah’s will (“pleasure,” KJ). (Re 4:11) It was created to remain forever. (Ps 78:69; 104:5; 119:90; Ec 1:4) God speaks of himself as a God of purpose and declares that his purposes are certain to come to fruition. (Isa 46:10; 55:11) He made his purpose for the earth very clear when he said to the first human pair: “Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it, and have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is moving upon the earth.” (Ge 1:28) There were no flaws in earth or the things on it. Having created all necessary things, Jehovah saw that they were “very good” and “proceeded to rest” or desist from other earthly creative works.​—Ge 1:31–2:2.

Man’s habitation on earth is also permanent. When God gave man the law regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and bad, he implied that man could live on earth forever. (Ge 2:17) We are assured by Jehovah’s own words that “all the days the earth continues, seed sowing and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, will never cease” (Ge 8:22) and that he will never destroy all flesh again by a flood. (Ge 9:12-16) Jehovah says that he did not make the earth for nothing but, rather, that he has given it to men as a home and that death will eventually be done away with. God’s purpose, therefore, is for the earth to be the habitation of man in perfection and happiness with eternal life.​—Ps 37:11; 115:16; Isa 45:18; Re 21:3, 4.

That this is the purpose of Jehovah God, sacred to him and not to be thwarted, is indicated when the Bible says: “And by the seventh day God came to the completion of his work that he had made . . . And God proceeded to bless the seventh day and make it sacred, because on it he has been resting from all his work that God has created for the purpose of making.” (Ge 2:2, 3) The seventh, or rest, day is not shown in the Genesis account as ending, as in the case of the other six days. The apostle Paul explained that the rest day of God had been continuous right through Israelite history down to his own time and had not yet ended. (Heb 3:7-11; 4:3-9) God says the seventh day was set aside as sacred to him. He would carry out his purpose toward the earth; it would be fully accomplished during that day, with no necessity of further creative works toward the earth during that time.

The Bible’s Harmony With Scientific Facts. The Bible, at Job 26:7, speaks of God as “hanging the earth upon nothing.” Science says that the earth remains in its orbit in space primarily because of the interaction of gravity and centrifugal force. These forces, of course, are invisible. Therefore the earth, like other heavenly bodies, is suspended in space as if hanging on nothing. Speaking from Jehovah’s viewpoint, the prophet Isaiah wrote under inspiration: “There is One who is dwelling above the circle of the earth, the dwellers in which are as grasshoppers.” (Isa 40:22) The Bible says: “He [God] has described a circle upon the face of the waters.” (Job 26:10) The waters are limited by his decree to their proper place. They do not come up and inundate the land; neither do they fly off into space. (Job 38:8-11) From the viewpoint of Jehovah, the earth’s face, or the surface of the waters, would, of course, have a circular form, just as the edge of the moon presents a circular appearance to us. Before land surfaces appeared, the surface of the entire globe was one circular (spherical) mass of surging waters.​—Ge 1:2.

Bible writers often speak from the standpoint of the observer on the earth, or from his particular position geographically, as we often naturally do today. For example, the Bible mentions “the sunrising.” (Nu 2:3; 34:15) Some have seized upon this as an opportunity to discredit the Bible as scientifically inaccurate, claiming that the Hebrews viewed earth as the center of things, with the sun revolving around it. But the Bible writers nowhere expressed such a belief. These same critics overlook the fact that they themselves use the identical expression and that it is in all of their almanacs. It is common to hear someone say, ‘it is sunrise,’ or ‘the sun has set,’ or ‘the sun traveled across the sky.’ The Bible also speaks of “the extremity of the earth” (Ps 46:9), “the ends of the earth” (Ps 22:27), “the four extremities of the earth” (Isa 11:12), “the four corners of the earth,” and “the four winds of the earth” (Re 7:1). These expressions cannot be taken to prove that the Hebrews understood the earth to be square. The number four is often used to denote that which is fully rounded out, as it were, just as we have four directions and sometimes employ the expressions “to the ends of the earth,” “to the four corners of the earth,” in the sense of embracing all the earth.​—Compare Eze 1:15-17; Lu 13:29.

Figurative and Symbolic Expressions. The earth is spoken of figuratively in several instances. It is likened to a building, at Job 38:4-6, when Jehovah asks Job questions concerning earth’s creation and Jehovah’s management of it that Job obviously cannot answer. Jehovah also uses a figurative expression describing the result of earth’s rotation. He says: “[The earth] transforms itself like clay under a seal.” (Job 38:14) In Bible times some seals for “signing” documents were in the form of a roller engraved with the writer’s emblem. It was rolled over the soft clay document or clay envelope, leaving behind it an impression in the clay. In similar manner, at the arrival of dawn, the portion of the earth coming from the blackness of night begins to show itself to have form and color as the sunlight moves progressively across its face. The heavens, the location of Jehovah’s throne, being higher than the earth, the earth is, figuratively, his footstool. (Ps 103:11; Isa 55:9; 66:1; Mt 5:35; Ac 7:49) Those who are in Sheol, or Hades, the common grave of mankind, are regarded as being under the earth.​—Re 5:3.

The apostle Peter compares the literal heavens and earth (2Pe 3:5) with the symbolic heavens and earth (2Pe 3:7). “The heavens” of verse 7 do not mean Jehovah’s own dwelling place, the place of his throne in the heavens. Jehovah’s heavens cannot be shaken. Neither is “the earth” in the same verse the literal planet earth, for Jehovah says that he has established the earth firmly. (Ps 78:69; 119:90) Yet, God says that he will shake both the heavens and the earth (Hag 2:21; Heb 12:26), that the heavens and earth will flee away before him, and that new heavens and a new earth will be established. (2Pe 3:13; Re 20:11; 21:1) It is evident that “heavens” is symbolic and that “earth” here has symbolic reference to a society of people living on the earth, just as at Psalm 96:1.​—See HEAVEN (New heavens and new earth).

Earth is also symbolically used to denote the firmer, more stable elements of mankind. The restless, unstable elements of mankind are illustrated by the characteristic restlessness of the sea.​—Isa 57:20; Jas 1:6; Jude 13; compare Re 12:16; 20:11; 21:1.

John 3:31 contrasts one that comes from above as being higher than one who comes from the earth (ge). The Greek word e·piʹgei·os, “earthly,” is used to denote earthly, physical things, especially as contrasted with heavenly things, and as being lower and of coarser material. Man is made of earth’s material. (2Co 5:1; compare 1Co 15:46-49.) Nevertheless, he can please God by living a “spiritual” life, a life directed by God’s Word and spirit. (1Co 2:12, 15, 16; Heb 12:9) Because of mankind’s fall into sin and their tendency toward material things to the neglect or exclusion of spiritual things (Ge 8:21; 1Co 2:14), “earthly” can have an undesirable connotation, meaning “corrupt,” or “in opposition to the spirit.”​—Php 3:19; Jas 3:15.

Yet more Darwinian storytelling.

Did Fish as Flotsam Conquer Land?
Günter Bechly


In evolutionary biology, the great transitions from one habitat to a totally different way of life have long proved to be the stuff of good storytelling. Based on an old idea from the eminent vertebrate paleontologist Alfred Romer (1933), Balbus (2014) suggested that tidal modulation influenced the evolution from “fish” to tetrapods in the Devonian period. This was supposed to be thanks to a much smaller distance from the Moon to the Earth, causing greater tidal ranges. Balbus (2014) speculated:

The two earliest known tetrapods with more than fragmentary remains, Acanthostega and Ichthyostega, are thought to have been fully (perhaps only predominantly in the case of Ichthyostega) aquatic creatures. The coastal and estuarial waters such organisms and their immediate ancestors are believed to have inhabited would have been subject to sizeable and irregular tides, leaving an inland network of pools. The farthest inland of these pools would on occasion have been left exposed weeks at time, ultimately evaporating. A creature caught in one of these isolated inland pools would consequently have faced dehydration or suffocation.

Now, Witze (2018) reports in Nature News on new results from simulations of the tides in the Devonian by two researchers from Bangor University.

They studied two time periods: 430 million years ago, around the time the first animal lungs evolved, and 400 million years ago, roughly the time of the first known land tetrapods.

What they found were tidal cycles that would have left fish stranded in tidal pools for two weeks.

The team speculates that fish that could have made their way out of the tide pool, and back to the water, would have been more likely to survive. Fossils of some of the earliest known terrestrial tetrapods, such as the Tiktaalik lobe-finned fish from Canada’s Ellesmere Island and trackways in Poland’s Holy Cross mountains, have been found in places that had these high tidal variations.

Well, that sounds interesting, but there are some tiny problems that might spoil this cute hypothesis: Acanthostega and Ichthyostega were actually not marine creatures at all, but strictly confined to freshwater habitats far from the coastline. Balbus (2014) recognized this problem but trivialized it by calling their association with a non-marine inland basin “a more ambiguous tidal zone.” You can’t make such stuff up. What about the famous “missing link,” Tiktaalik? The name Tiktaalik means “big river fish” in the Inuit language and indeed indicates its true provenance. Here is what its discoverer, Neil Shubin, wrote on the official Tiktaalik website:

We know that lobe-finned fish and the first tetrapods lived in freshwater streams because of the sediments we find them in. So we look for freshwater deposits, not marine.

Hmm, but fortunately there are still the Zachelmie trackways discovered a few years ago (Niedźwiedzki et al. 2010) in Poland and dated as not only older than Tiktaalik, but actually older than all other lobe-finned ancestors of tetrapods (the so-called elpistostegids).

These Zachelmie tracks were originally attributed to a marine intertidal depositional environment. So apparently, we have a perfect match of the oldest evidence with the new (old) theory. Indeed, the describers of these tracks also speculated “that the origin of tetrapods occurred, not in the vegetated margins or surrounding seasonal ‘flooded forest’ environments of rivers, as has frequently been argued, but in the marine intertidal and/or lagoonal zone.”

But again, we must spoil the fun: A brand new study by Qvarnström et al. (2018) demonstrates that the Zachelmie locality was misinterpreted in the original description of the tracks and indeed “represents a succession of ephemeral lakes with a restricted and non-marine biota, rather than a marginal marine environment as originally thought.” These tidal pools evaporate in totally unexpected ways, don’t they?

It is true that some elpistostegid lobe-finned fish, which are supposed to belong to the stem of tetrapods and were originally all interpreted as freshwater dwellers, have meanwhile been attributed to brackish estuarine habitats that may have been exposed to tidal influences (Clack 2012). However, the Zachelmie tetrapod tracks are distinctly older than all known elpistostegid fossils and thus cast considerable doubt on the hypothesis that tetrapods really evolved from this group of lobe-finned fish. It’s an inconvenient temporal paradox that is frequently encountered in the fossil record (compare the alleged origin of birds and feathers).

No wonder that Jennifer Clack, a renowned specialist on early tetrapodomorph fossils, remains skeptical about the tidal pool idea: “It’s only one of a plethora of ideas for the origin of land-dwelling tetrapods, any or all of which may have been a part of the answer.” You will not be too far off if you interpret this as meaning: We have no clue!


Literature:

• Balbus SA 2014. “Dynamical, biological, and anthropic consequences of equal lunar and solar angular radii.” Proceedings of the Royal Society A 470: 20140263.
• Clack JA 2012. Gaining Ground: The Origin and Evolution of Tetrapods. Indiana University Press, 523 pp.
• Niedźwiedzki G, Szrek P, Narkiewicz K, Narkiewicz M, Ahlberg PE 2010. “Tetrapod trackways from the early Middle Devonian period of Poland.” Nature 463: 43-48.
• Qvarnström M, Szrek P, Ahlberg PE, Niedźwiedzki G 2018. “Non-marine palaeoenvironment associated to the earliest tetrapod tracks.” Scientific Reports 8: 1074.
• Romer AS 1933. Man and the Vertebrates. University of Chicago Press: Chicago.
• Shubin N 2009. The Search for Tiktaalik. Website by the University of Chicago.
• Witze A 2018. “Ocean tides could have driven ancient fish to walk.” Nature News 15 February 2018.

The state religion?

American Lysenkoism, and the Darwinists Who Embrace It
Evolution News | @DiscoveryCSC

On a new episode of ID the Future, Tod Butterfield interviews Michael Egnor, pediatric neurosurgeon at Stony Brook University, about the science-destroying practice of Lysenkoism. Dr. Egnor discusses Trofim Lysenko, a Soviet agronomist who for several decades in the 20th century was allowed to use the power of the state to enforce belief in Lamarckism in the Soviet Union.

The government punished people who questioned the reigning view, and the results were catastrophic. Today the term Lysenkoism applies to any use of government power to enforce scientific orthodoxy. It need not mean the Gulag; it could involve, for instance, the denial of federal grants to quietly enforce Darwinian orthodoxy. Lysenkoism punishes dissenters from politically favored ideas, and holds science back. How?  Download the podcast or listen to it here, and find out.

On Materialism of the gaps.

Mind the Gaps – Before Progressing Toward ID, Leisola Recounts Clearing Away Materialist Myths
David Klinghoffer | @d_klinghoffer

In the new book Heretic: One Scientist’s Journey from Darwin to Design , co-written with Jonathan Witt, bioengineer Matti Leisola tells the story of his intellectual and scientific journey from Darwinist to Darwin critic and proponent of intelligent design. On a new episode of ID the Future, Todd Butterfield reads the opening pages of the book.

Dr. Leisola explains how before he was able to look at the question of biological origins objectively, he first had to overcome biases and assumptions, built into his previous considerations, that guaranteed conclusions in line with materialism. One bias dictated that design thinking alone could be guilty of “gaps” (as in “God of the gaps”) thinking. Leisola found that, looked at with open eyes, science in fact discovers more and more anomalies, more mysteries, as it progresses. He realized that materialism at every stage inserts its own “gaps” explanations into growing fissures in what we thought we understood.

The Finnish scientist, as we’ve noted before, is not supposed to exist. His book itself, simply by existing, refutes a Darwinist myth. As you’ll hear from the excerpts, he also writes like a dream, which is a plus. Download the podcast or listen to it here.