The tabernacle in the Cosmos (Part 3 on debunking Flat Earth)

Tabernacle in the Cosmos.

Cosmic Temple View of Creation

The third Heaven is at the center of all the Universes that circle it and each universe is made up of Stars (Suns) and planets and parallel earths each with its own firmaments. So we have the inner transparent circle which is the Holy of Holies. Then the next transparent circle is the Holy place with all the universes and galaxies and then the earths and other planets that support life in whatever form it takes each with their own firmaments which is in the outer court.

http://www.perspectivedigest.org/article/153/archives/20-1/sanctuary-cosmos-covenant-and-creation

https://biologos.org/blogs/jim-stump-faith-and-science-seeking-understanding/the-ancient-universe-and-the-cosmic-temple

https://thetorah.com/the-tabernacle-in-its-ancient-near-eastern-context/

ttps://thetorah.com/tabernacle-creation-and-the-ideal-of-an-orderly-world/

http://www.messianicjudaism.me/musings/2011/03/07/creation-tabernacle-dwelling/

www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-nature-of-the-cosmos/

https://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/2002/02/genesis-1-and-the-building-of-the-israelite-sanctuary.html

The earthly tabernacle came to be seen as a type of the heavenly temple in which Jesus Christ performs His heavenly ministry to complete the plan of salvation. It was found that the biblical way of perceiving the Israelite worship system was preordained by God to reveal in figurative ways the plan of salvation with a focus on the final resolution of the great controversy between good and evil.

For 100 years or less, several studies have proposed what we may call a “cosmological framework” for understanding the Israelite sanctuary. This implies that the earthly sanctuary is not primarily a type of a heavenly counterpart but a reflection of the cosmos, or creation. In this interpretation, when the heavenly sanctuary appears in the picture at all, it means the heavens, the cosmos or creation as a whole.

G. K. Beale, according to whom the temple is to be understood as a mirror of the cosmos. He argues that the Israelite “temple was composed of three main parts, each of which symbolized a major part of the cosmos: 1) The outer court represented the habitable world where humanity dwelt; 2) the holy place was emblematic of the visible heavens and its light source; 3) the holy of holies symbolized the invisible direction of the cosmos where God and his heavenly hosts dwelt.”

The Second Temple  

In the picture from left to right of the second temple, you have the Holy of Holies, the Holy Place and the outer court. The Holy place had the menorahs (7 in all) which represent the Sun, Moon, and stars of Gen 1:14, the altar of incense, the showbread. The Outer court had the sacrificial altar and the laver.

In the Second Temple, you have 2 crosses and the outer walls are the pillars. You also see the shape of a man with a head (The Holy of Holies), the body is the Holy place, and the outer court is the legs.

Symbolism of the original Tabernacle Like many ancient Near Eastern religious structures, the Tabernacle symbolically mirrors the cosmos. The entrance of both the court and tent faced the rising sun. The Menorah has seven lamps, with seven possibly representing the number of luminary bodies visible to the naked eye (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn). The Tabernacle’s lamp was symbolically placed along the southern wall, as the planets would traverse the sky most often south of the structure. The twelve lunar cycles in a solar year were also symbolically represented in the Tabernacle, as there were 12 loaves of bread placed on the Table of Showbread every Sabbath (Lev 24:5-9). thetorah.com/the-tabernacle-in-its-ancient-near-eastern-context/

Rev 12 has a similar understanding of the three heavens. Revelation 12 deals mostly with the Second Heaven. In verse 1-2 we have the birth of the Head which is Yeshua in the third heaven. Also we have the fall equinox in Rev 12:1-2 which is the woman is clothed with the Sun and the Moon below her feet. In verse 3, we have the dragon (Nibiru) in the Stars of the Second Heaven.

Rev 12:4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth (first Heaven): and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

The rest of the chapter deals with events on the first heaven.

Rev 21:10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,

Rev 21:11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;

The Holy of Holies is the picture here and the Head is the glory of God. This is the Third Heaven.

Rev 21:12 And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:

The walls of the city/tabernacle is the figurative for pillars found earlier in the Book of Revelation and the Tenakh. But this is also a picture of the Second Heaven.

Rev 21:13 On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.

Rev 21:14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

Here we have the foundation which is the first Heaven.

Rev 21:15 And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.

Rev 21:16 And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.

Rev 21:17 And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.

Rev 21:18 And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.

Rev 21:19 And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;

Rev 21:20 The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.

Rev 21:21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.

Rev 21:22 And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.

Rev 21:23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

The Holy Place or the Second Heaven

www.breakingisraelnews.com/91655/stunning-research-reveals-incredible-alignment-holy-tabernacle-celestial-movements/

The Size of the Universe

Let’s start with our solar system. Many people learned in school that the Earth is 93 million miles from the sun. That distance is actually hard to imagine. But how far out is the furthest planet, Neptune (now that Pluto isn’t formally a planet anymore)? Neptune is a bit less than three thousand million miles from the sun (2,798,700,000 miles, to be more precise). I’d say that’s mind-bogglingly big. And that’s only our solar system. Then there’s the Milky Way Galaxy, of which our solar system is just a part. Estimates for the size of the Milky Way range from 100 billion to 400 billion stars (depending on what we take to be the average star density). Either way, that’s a lot of stars, with lots of space between them. But the Milky Way is just one galaxy in a universe that has some twenty billion trillion stars (not that we can really conceive a number that large). And the farthest stars in any direction are 47 billion light years away, which makes the observable universe 94 billion light years across.

Age of the Cosmos

By Scientific reasoning's, the age of the Cosmos is approximately 4.5 billions years of age BUT by a young earth creationist view, the age of the Cosmos is 6000 to 10,000 years of age. The age of the Cosmos at Jardalkalatgmail.blogspot.com is 6000 years to 6022 years of age. James Ussher at Answers in Genesis places the age of the earth's creation to occur on Oct 23rd, 4004 BC. Torah Calendar prior to the 2015 change out said: Oct 8, 3986 BC. 3983 BC – 6000 years = 2017 (Psalms 117=Deliverance from Babylon).

Biblical World View in Genesis 1

Genesis 1:1-19 gives us a view of a flat earth sphere or globe with with the pillars of the earth holding up a solid dome which is actually transparent with the Sun, Moon, and stars and a chimney and above that the third heaven.

The world picture that we find both in Genesis 1 and in many other creation texts in the Bible seems to assume a flat earth founded upon the waters (with the netherworld somewhere “down there,” either in or below the subterranean waters). At the extremities of the Earth were the distant mountains that extended down into the underworld waters and up into the heavens or sky (Hebrew šamayim). These mountains are thought of as the “pillars” that supported the dome (or “firmament”) of the heavens, envisioned as a sort of roof over the Earth, which held back the cosmic waters above.

Here is a partial list on what is found in the flat Earth globe or sphere.

Heaven Ps 104:2-3; Deut 26:15; Neh 9:6

Waters Above: Gen 1:7; Ps 104:3; Ps 148:4

Firmament Gen 1:6-8, 14-19; Job 37:18; Ps 19:1

Sun Eccl 1:5; Ps 19:6; Josh 10:13

Cir of Earth Isa 40:22

Center of the Eartn Dan 4:10

Moon Ps 81:3; Prov 7:20

Stars Isa 34:4; Matt 24:29; Rev 6:13

Waters below Gen 1:7, 1:9

Ends of the Earth Isa 41:8; Dan 4:11; Matt 12:42

So long as we DON'T take this world picture as overly literal (it is more a phenomenological portrait of the world), this makes perfect sense as a non-scientific way of describing the human environment.

Even though Genesis 1 is the only biblical creation account that explicitly portrays creation as a six-day process (we’ll get to what this means in a moment), the basic world picture sketched above is assumed throughout the Bible and in other ancient Near Eastern cosmologies.

The Cosmos as a Building

In God's creation of the world, we have a picture of the world shaped as a building with a foundation (the Word; soul), walls (pillars; Yeshua), roof (Elohim), and chimney (Holy Spirit). Other cultures in Biblical times assumed the world as a building such as Babylonia, Assyria, Egypt, Sumar, etc.

Pro 3:19 The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath He established the heavens (second heaven and third heaven).

Pro 3:20 By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.

This verse ties us back to Genesis 1:1-2.

Pro 24:3 Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established:

Pro 24:4 And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.

Verbs like “founded” and “established” are architectural terms. Even the New Testament retains language of “the foundation of the world” (Matt. 13:35; Luke 11:50; John 17:24; Eph. 1:4; Heb. 9:26).

So, when God questions Job, his description of creation draws on architectural imagery.

Job 38:4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.

Job 38:5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?

Job 38:6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;

Job 38:7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Genesis 1 for Job 38:1-7

Job 38:8 Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?

Job 38:9 When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it,

Genesis 6-8 The Flood for Job 38:7-8.

The Cosmos as a Temple

The Bible follows the understanding that the Earth and everything in it is the Temple for Elohim which is His house. It is His cosmic sanctuary, a temple for God to inhabit, with heaven corresponding to the Holy of Holies, where God’s presence is concentrated.

Isa 66:1 Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?

Isa 66:2 For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

The correspondence between creation and the tabernacle (as macrocosmos and microcosmos) is evident in Exodus 31:1-5; 35:30-33, where Bezalel is charged with overseeing construction of a house for God’s dwelling. To this end, he is filled with wisdom (hokmâ), understanding (tebunâ;), and knowledge (da‘at)—the same triad of terms by which God created the cosmos in Proverbs 3.

Through these endowments Bezalel is “to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, in every kind of craft” (Exod. 31:2-5). Bezalel’s work in “every kind of craft” (Exod. 31:5) reflects God’s completing “all the work” of creation (stated twice in Gen. 2:2-3). Despite the differences in translation, the Hebrew wording is identical.

And Bezalel is filled with “the Spirit of God,” the same Spirit who hovered over the formless and empty world to which God was about to bring order (Gen. 1:2). The presence of the Spirit at the start of Genesis 1 suggests that God was getting ready to breathe his holy presence into the cosmos, much as the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle and the temple after their completion (Exod. 40:34-35; 1 Ki. 8:10-11).

biologos.org/blogs/jim-stump-faith-and-science-seeking-understanding/the-ancient-universe-and-the-cosmic-temple

Genesis 1 and the Number 7

Genesis 1:1 and 1:3 forms a Menorah in the Hebrew. We have the 6 days of Creation in Gen 1 and the 7th day is in Gen 2:1-3. The Number 7 means completion.

The Creation Calendar

The Creation Calendar is the 7000 year framework of time, integral to the design of the universe. The Messiah has determined to perfect the universe within 7000 years. The universe contains seven 1000 year periods called millennia. A millennium contains 20 Jubilee Cycles where each cycle lasts 50 years. The Lord (יהוה)told Noah in Genesis 6:3 that after 120 Jubilee Years, or 6000 years, He would no longer strive with mortal man. At the end of the sixth millennium the Messiah will grant the gift of eternal life- the Age of Life to all who believe and obey Him.

The precise movements of the earth and moon together with the words of Elohim reveal the truth of the universe. His Creation Calendar is perfectly synchronized to these precise movements. The Spirit of Truth has been given to lead and guide mankind into all truth. Daniel said in Daniel 12:4 that knowledge would increase. Man now understands the precise movements of the heavenly bodies better than ever before. As Genesis 1:14 says, the sun and moon were created for signs, appointed times, days and years - the wisdom is to correctly use them for their created purpose, in order to understand the7000 Year Plan of the Messiah.

Those who believe and obey the Messiah are instructed by Him to watch for His return (Matthew 24:42). The servants of Elohim who are watching when the Master returns are called blessed by the Messiah (Luke 12:37; Revelation 16:15).The Scriptures say five times that the Messiah will come as a thief (1 Thessalonians 5:2-4; 2 Peter 3:10; Revelation 3:3,16:15). However, He will only come as a thief to those who are not watching (1 Thessalonians 5:4-6; Revelation 3:3).

Finally

Christians in earlier ages transferred the abiding values of this ancient theological vision from the original picture of a flat Earth with heaven overhead to the medieval conception (learned from the Greeks) of the Earth as a sphere, with seven concentric crystalline spheres around it, in which were embedded the moon, Mercury, Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn (in that order). This theological vision was again transferred to the heliocentric universe of modern times, with the various planets orbiting the sun (and the moon orbiting the Earth).

We are not done until the end but we are still at the beginning. In the next installment, we will be looking into briefly the Second Heaven and connecting the 4 corners of the Heavens which are the cardinal points.