RGT Genesis 7:10 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up; and the windows of Heaven were opened.
What/where is Heaven that it can bring water to flood the earth?
Genesis 1:8 KJV And God called the firmament Heaven... the firmament is Heaven that separates the water, and it opened.
The Bible describes a structured, layered creation with a singular firmament, a closely associated heaven, and an expansive outer heaven(s). This model offers a biblical framework for understanding God's intentions.
Key Arguments: One Firmament as a Structural Barrier/foundation creating a Heaven, and the Heavens, heaven(s).
The Bible portrays a single firmament ("raqia") as a solid divide separating the waters above from the waters below (Genesis 1:6-8), with land in-between the two waters on the earth. This singular firmament serves as a barrier, a vault (design), creating a singular heaven on the earths surface where it could be filled and a foundational division in the entire universe, namely the Heavens.
Immediate Heaven Above the Firmament:
Directly above the dirt, above the firmament lies what was our earthly heaven, linked to the atmosphere and celestial bodies like the sun, moon, and stars. This immediate heaven is filled with natural phenomena, mirroring our observable sky and its phenomena. Then on to the outer Stretches of the Heavens often referenced in plural ("heavens") across biblical texts. These regions are vast, less populated, but spiritually significant, encompassing outer space and or divine realms. The plural usage highlights the vastness and multi-layered complexity of creation.
Supporting partial list of Biblical Evidence:
Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning, God created the (H)heaven(s) and the earth." — The different translations are from different cosmologies, multiple layers or regions, starting in earth and moving outwardly.
Genesis 1:8: "God called the firmament heaven." — Establishes a single firmament tied to a specific localized heaven on earth.
Genesis 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. — The flood started with the/a "window of heaven" breaking up.
The contrast between "firmament" (singular) and "heavens" (plural) reinforces a structured, layered cosmology.
Conclusion: Biblical cosmology presents a structured universe featuring:
One firmament as the physical barrier.
An immediate, populated heaven just above it.
Outer heavens extending outward in multiple layers, often spiritually oriented and expansive.
Question: Why was God’s first action in creation involved in separating the waters? Why would God want to separate water? How did that create a heaven?
Answer: The most straightforward reason is that two waters with two different purposes. Just as people separate water in everyday life—like hot and cold water in a house—God used the firmament as a barrier, a vault. He named the barrier "heaven". This barrier would enable heaven above it, on a warm, moderate, comfortable and highly productive earth, for His children, a haven if you will.
The water below the firmament, being heated by lunar tidal pumping would then serve to make the earth a safe, fully inhabitable place—a sanctuary. This separation allows the water beneath heaven to circulate through natural processes such as the moon’s tidal forces, earths centrifugal force, convection,, inertia and gravity. These forces would cool the Earth's center from the Moons tidal pumping, distributing heat from the equator toward and beyond the tropics and up to the poles. This circulation and heat redistribution would warm the entire planet, making it suitable for creatures like wholly mammoths to roam in regions that today are frozen.
Below, is a picture of Heaven aka the firmament, a piece of the vault that separated the hot and cold waters to make earth a haven for man, a.k.a. Hoba.
Question: Why don't we just believe Genesis 1:8?
Answer: Because we never before have seen a piece of the heaven. The word "heaven" having various layers, where those layers were conflated and confused over a few thousand years. Adam and Eve would likely not have argued with the idea that where they lived was heaven. That intuitive belief was forever lost with the earths inhabitants after the flood. There is no longer a reason to not believe the literal Word of God, when you can see and touch a piece of the Heaven.
In summary:
Genesis 1:8 is one of the most or the most straightforward and declarative statements made by God. It is the foundational assertion about Heaven.
Genesis 1:10 "And God called the dry land Earth" is just as straightforward as Genesis 1:8. The idea of "dry land" and "earth" are still intuitive so they are not lost. I see no reason to question that the Firmament is heaven. With that new context, we no longer need to conflate the heavens in the night sky with the heaven that once acted as the divide between those heavens and the Heaven that made earth heaven for Adam and Eve.
What/where is Heaven that it can bring water to flood the earth?
Genesis 1:8 KJV And God called the firmament Heaven... the firmament is Heaven that separates the water, and it opened.
The Bible describes a structured, layered creation with a singular firmament, a closely associated heaven, and an expansive outer heaven(s). This model offers a biblical framework for understanding God's intentions.
Key Arguments: One Firmament as a Structural Barrier/foundation creating a Heaven, and the Heavens, heaven(s).
The Bible portrays a single firmament ("raqia") as a solid divide separating the waters above from the waters below (Genesis 1:6-8), with land in-between the two waters on the earth. This singular firmament serves as a barrier, a vault (design), creating a singular heaven on the earths surface where it could be filled and a foundational division in the entire universe, namely the Heavens.
Immediate Heaven Above the Firmament:
Directly above the dirt, above the firmament lies what was our earthly heaven, linked to the atmosphere and celestial bodies like the sun, moon, and stars. This immediate heaven is filled with natural phenomena, mirroring our observable sky and its phenomena. Then on to the outer Stretches of the Heavens often referenced in plural ("heavens") across biblical texts. These regions are vast, less populated, but spiritually significant, encompassing outer space and or divine realms. The plural usage highlights the vastness and multi-layered complexity of creation.
Supporting partial list of Biblical Evidence:
Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning, God created the (H)heaven(s) and the earth." — The different translations are from different cosmologies, multiple layers or regions, starting in earth and moving outwardly.
Genesis 1:8: "God called the firmament heaven." — Establishes a single firmament tied to a specific localized heaven on earth.
Genesis 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. — The flood started with the/a "window of heaven" breaking up.
The contrast between "firmament" (singular) and "heavens" (plural) reinforces a structured, layered cosmology.
Conclusion: Biblical cosmology presents a structured universe featuring:
One firmament as the physical barrier.
An immediate, populated heaven just above it.
Outer heavens extending outward in multiple layers, often spiritually oriented and expansive.
Question: Why was God’s first action in creation involved in separating the waters? Why would God want to separate water? How did that create a heaven?
Answer: The most straightforward reason is that two waters with two different purposes. Just as people separate water in everyday life—like hot and cold water in a house—God used the firmament as a barrier, a vault. He named the barrier "heaven". This barrier would enable heaven above it, on a warm, moderate, comfortable and highly productive earth, for His children, a haven if you will.
The water below the firmament, being heated by lunar tidal pumping would then serve to make the earth a safe, fully inhabitable place—a sanctuary. This separation allows the water beneath heaven to circulate through natural processes such as the moon’s tidal forces, earths centrifugal force, convection,, inertia and gravity. These forces would cool the Earth's center from the Moons tidal pumping, distributing heat from the equator toward and beyond the tropics and up to the poles. This circulation and heat redistribution would warm the entire planet, making it suitable for creatures like wholly mammoths to roam in regions that today are frozen.
Below, is a picture of Heaven aka the firmament, a piece of the vault that separated the hot and cold waters to make earth a haven for man, a.k.a. Hoba.
Question: Why don't we just believe Genesis 1:8?
Answer: Because we never before have seen a piece of the heaven. The word "heaven" having various layers, where those layers were conflated and confused over a few thousand years. Adam and Eve would likely not have argued with the idea that where they lived was heaven. That intuitive belief was forever lost with the earths inhabitants after the flood. There is no longer a reason to not believe the literal Word of God, when you can see and touch a piece of the Heaven.
In summary:
Genesis 1:8 is one of the most or the most straightforward and declarative statements made by God. It is the foundational assertion about Heaven.
Genesis 1:10 "And God called the dry land Earth" is just as straightforward as Genesis 1:8. The idea of "dry land" and "earth" are still intuitive so they are not lost. I see no reason to question that the Firmament is heaven. With that new context, we no longer need to conflate the heavens in the night sky with the heaven that once acted as the divide between those heavens and the Heaven that made earth heaven for Adam and Eve.