Does the Bible teach geocentrism?

I shall be told at once that it is not by the Bible. But I must ask, Why not by the Bible? Shall I be met with the stereotyped objection that it is full of contradictions, and is altogether wrong as to the plan of the universe; that it makes it geocentric, and has spoken of the earth as a plain. It has done nothing of the kind. It is so carefully written, that its statements never jar upon the mind of the most advanced scientist, nor do they cause the most illiterate to move in the direction of astronomical discovery. But may I ask, what impression does the universe convey to the mind of the ordinary mortal, as he looks abroad into the starry night from his cottage door? Will he not conceive of the earth as a flat plain, and the dome of heaven as a hemisphere, resting upon the rim of the earth? Could He who is infinite in wisdom have made the visible things no other way? The truth is that the heavens and the earth are so ordered that moral impressions are conveyed to the mind. Everything away from earth is upward and above man, and man is made to look upward to God who has His dwelling-place in the heavens. The Bible has a way of its own, by which it leaves these impressions undisturbed. If it gave other impressions, and taught the Newtonian theory, we might with some show of reason conclude that the God of creation is not the God of the Bible. I am not attempting to prove by this, that the Bible owes its origin to the Creator, I am only showing that if the Bible leaves undisturbed the impression that creation itself gives to the naked eye of the ordinary observer, that is no proof against the divine origin of the Scriptures.

I shall be told at once that it is not by the Bible. But I must ask, Why not by the Bible? Shall I be met with the stereotyped objection that it is full of contradictions, and is altogether wrong as to the plan of the universe; that it makes it geocentric, and has spoken of the earth as a plain. It has done nothing of the kind. It is so carefully written, that its statements never jar upon the mind of the most advanced scientist, not do they cause the most illiterate to move in the direction of astronomical discovery. But may I ask, what impression does the universe convey to the mind of the ordinary mortal, as he looks abroad into the starry night from his cottage door? Will he not conceive of the earth as a flat plain, and the dome of heaven as a hemisphere, resting upon the rim of the earth? Could He who is infinite in wisdom have made the visible things no other way? The truth is that the heavens and the earth are so ordered that moral impressions are conveyed to the mind. Everything away from earth is upward and above man, and man is made to look upward to God who has His dwelling-place in the heavens. The Bible has a way of its own, by which it leaves these impressions undisturbed. If it gave other impressions, and taught the Newtonian theory, we might with some show of reason conclude that the God of creation is not the God of the Bible. I am not attempting to prove by this, that the Bible owes its origin to the Creator, I am only showing, that if the Bible leaves undisturbed the impression that creation itself gives to the naked eye of the ordinary observer, that is no proof against the divine origin of the Scriptures.

Where does the Bible contradict the truth that the sun and not the earth is the centre of our system? Naturally, as this earth is the habitation of man, we should get in detail the steps in the creation and arrangement of the earth as planned for his comfort, whilst little is said about the sun and moon and stars.

SUN STANDING STILL, Joshua 10:12-27. No legitimate objection can be made to the statement that the sun 'stood still;' for though it is now known that it is the earth that moves, yet astronomers still speak of the sun rising and setting, and use the word 'solstice,' which signifies 'sun standing still.' They would doubtless say the same as Joshua said if they were placed in similar circumstances.

Joshua 10:12-13, p. 122. — The earth was stopped turning round, and the sun and moon are spoken of just as we do, and as Joshua must have done. We know well it is the earth which turns round, and yet we say "the sun rises, sets," etc. It is remarkable that he should have claimed not the stopping of the sun but of sun and moon, the necessary effect of that which was wholly unknown to him, and yet he asks for that which, unless indeed God had disturbed the whole creation by unnecessary miracle, must have been the effect of the intervention of His power. Untaught by God, Joshua would have said, "Sun stand still." Taught of God he asks for sun and moon to do so, which is just what God's power acting in the simplest way would do. He could not have answered, as to a man fully taught of God, if Joshua had asked for the sun to stop and not the moon, without a very extraordinary derangement of the celestial system. To make the moon go on in its just apparent course when the earth was stopped, would have put the moon really out of its place. To have stopped the moon unasked, as well as the sun, would not have been the same testimony to Joshua, though a wonder. But Joshua is taught to ask both. The rotation of the earth is arrested, and all is done at his word, though Joshua never knew the earth turned round, and that sun and moon would thus stop together. — Irrationalism of Infidelity, pp. 209, 210.

Here are two men in bed, night-time; two women grinding corn, breakfast-time; two men working in the field, day-time. How can one event find those it affects at one and the same time at different hours out of the twenty-four. Extend this statement, and the one event would find those it affects during every hour and minute of the twenty-four hours forming a complete day and night. That could only be if the earth were round and performed its diurnal motion of turning round its axis in relation to the sun once every twenty-four hours.

Even the astronomer Galileo (1564-1642) was threatened by the Romish Church with excommunication if he continued to assert that the earth revolved round the sun. It was looked upon as an insult by the Romish church that the earth should have a subservient place in relation to the sun. How is it that enshrined in the scriptures lay the truth of the rotundity of the earth, over fifteen long centuries before Galileo, and still longer before its truth found universal acceptance?

If the Bible taught that the earth was the centre of the universe [solar system? ed.], how is it that centuries before Copernicus lived, we should have the coming of the Son of Man prophesied as to occur simultaneously in broad daylight, at early morn, and in the darkness of night, as seen in two men in the field, two women grinding together, and two men in one bed, at the same moment of time (see Luke 17:34-36)? This could only happen by the earth revolving on its axis, when the part of the earth towards the sun is bathed in light, and the part away from it is wrapped in darkness. How does Principal Griffith-Jones explain this?

Further, we must banish the notion that the black pall of an unbroken night was the original condition — a heathen, not a biblical, idea. It was not so before ver. 2, which describes a subsequent and transient state. The first verse supposes an order of the universe; the second, an interruption of no small moment for man; then in ver. 3 the week begins in which the earth was prepared for his abode who was made before that week ended. The geologic ages had passed before the human measures of time commenced. If the record had been duly read, the Inquisition might have avoided its unwise and suicidal judgment of Gal. Galiléi; for the first day, compared with the fourth, favours the Copernican theory as decidedly as it condemns the old philosophy of Ptolemy. It exactly agrees with the revolution of the earth round its axis for evening and morning, independently of the function of the sun soon after formed. Only we must take note that the profound darkness dispelled was neither primeval nor universal, as many men of science have hastily assumed. It had nothing to do with the heavens, any more than had the disorder which befell the earth, after ever so long lapse of time.

For instance, on a clear night we see the moon and the stars, as if floating in space. How is it possible for anything the size of our earth to float in space? And yet this is just what the Scriptures affirm, and which we see with our own eyes. We read, “He [God] stretches out the north over the empty space, and hangs the earth upon nothing” (Job 26:7).

The ancients believed that the earth was supported on the shoulders of a hypothetical giant, named Atlas. The balancing of the earth in space and its maintenance in an orbit by gravitation was known to Job, 1000 years before Socrates. God "hangs the earth upon nothing" (Job 26:7) was his inspired reference. While Egyptian philosophy was propounding the "flat earth" theory, Isaiah was found stating that God sits upon the circle of the earth and sets a compass or decrees a circle on the face of the deep, thus proclaiming the spheroidal shape of the earth. The Psalmist tells us that "His going forth is from the end of the heaven." (Ps. 19:6). The refined astronomical measurement of the 19th century has revealed the fact that the solar system is moving through space towards a point in the constellation Hercules.

The apostle James uses the astronomical term "parallax" to set forth the unchangeable character of God. Parallax is the apparent change of place of a body viewed from different points. By sufficiently extending our base of observation even the most distant parts of the universe will appear to shift, but this is not so with God, He manifests no "parallax" or variableness, neither shadow of turning (tropees apokiasma) which is obviously derived by analogy with the shadow arising from the apparent turning of the sun at the solstice. The noonday shadow of an upright stick is shortest at the summer solstice. The tides are due to the differential attraction of the moon and sun. These are negligible in the Mediterranean, the only sea known to the ancients. Yet Job was enlightened to say "He that compasses the waters with bounds until the day and night come to an end," (Job 26:10) and again "Hither shalt thou come and no further and here shall thy proud waves be stayed. (Job 38:11). He stated what he could never have seen nor even heard from mortal lips.