Why the Flat-Earth Effect?
We know the earth is a spinning sphere. But, to the untrained, naked eye, the earth appears flat.
We know the earth is a spinning sphere. But, to the untrained, naked eye, the earth appears flat. Our individual observational range is too limited to tell us otherwise. Of course, pictures taken from rockets and missiles from the late 1940s have proved the wisdom of the adage "Seeing is believing"; planet earth is spherical—as shown by photographs of our beautiful jewel-like orb taken from space since 1969.
Yet most of humanity lives its life as if the earth is flat. We go about our day-to-day business unconscious of our planet's movement as a spinning ball hurtling through space. Though we may sit quietly unaware in comfortable armchairs, we are completing a gigantic sideways somersault once every 24 hours at a speed of 700 miles per hour relative to the earth's axis.
We well know our days and our seasons, but God has so designed spaceship earth with such magnificent stability that we can go through life without much conscious thought of the marvelously complicated mechanisms that undergird our journey. Long before people came to understand the invisible force of gravity that keeps the heavenly bodies in place, a Bible writer wrote that the Creator "hangs the earth on nothing" (Job 26:7). How marvelous are the works of our God!
We scarcely give a thought to the gravitational pulls and counterpulls that keep us on course and enable the normal cycle of the four seasons. We can be thankful we don't have to fully understand the complex astronomical machinery to enjoy the ride. GN
An Article from:
Good News Magazine: November - December 1998
Course Content
John Ross Schroeder
John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.
Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.
John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.
In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.
John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.
