First, here’s a little backstory:
All of us here, and most of those viewing this podcast, will have grown up with a cultural myth
about the flat earth that goes something like this: “Until the time of Christopher Columbus five cen-
turies ago, nearly everyone thought the earth was flat. [And] supposedly, with our sophistication
and intelligence today, we know better than the ignorant people of the past.” (Faulkner)
I know this is what my parents believed, because I recall them teaching me something similar when
I asked about a famous painting which showed a tall sailing ship falling off the edge of an enor-
mous waterfall.
This myth was largely born out of, or at least greatly exaggerated by, the American author Wash-
ington Irving (Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle), in his five-volume series titled, “The Life
and Voyages of Christopher Columbus” published in 1828.
Unfortunately, there’s a lot more mythology about Columbus we were taught in school that isn’t
true. But the main point for our discussion is that Columbus was not the progenitor of the spherical
earth. The truth is that scientists had demonstrated the sphericity of the earth for at least 2,000
years prior to Columbus sailing the oceans blue.
He was certainly a brave explorer, but he was not the scientific avante-garde of his day; part of the
difficulties he encountered in navigation is that he grossly miscalculated the size of the globe.
An astronomer and creation science teacher for Answers in Genesis, Dr. Danny Faulkner, discusses
the “Columbus Myth” in his excellent book titled “Falling Flat” that every believer with questions
should read. It’s one of the resources I’ve gleaned from.
Faulkner not only documents the rise and fall of the flat earth movments, but he demonstrates
beyond any shadow of doubt that the spherical earth is not only proven from science and history,
but is the perspective of the Scriptures as well as the early church.
SIDEBAR: 19TH CENTURY: AN EXPLOSION OF CULTS AND SPIRITUAL DECEPTION
I’d like to point out something that many who seek to correct and rebuke Flat Earthism fail to
observe; and that is that the mid to late 1800s was a period of intense spiritual deception and an
explosion of cults. This widespread proliferation of cults and sects arose out of and simultaneously
with the Second Great Awakening (1850s - 1900s). Here are just a few notable examples:
• 1825—American Unitarian Association, (later consolidated with Universalist Church as Unitarian
Universalism in 1961)
•1820s-1830s–Latter Day Saint movement/Mormonism (Joseph Smith)
•1830s-onward—New Thought Movement (springing from Mesmerism)
•1831—Millerism
•1840s—Spiritualism
•1848—Christadelphians (John Thomas, 1805–1871)
•1863—Seventh-day Adventism (Ellen G. White)
•1870s—Jehovah’s Witnesses (Charles Taze Russell)
•1875—The Theosophical Society (Helena Blavatsky)
•1879–Church of Christ, Scientist (Christian Science)
•1881—Indian Shaker Church
•1886—Black Hebrew Israelites (Frank Cherry and William Crowdy). Cherry also taught the exis-
tence of a flat Earth “surrounded by three layers of heaven.” Born in 1875, he died in 1963 (87).
•1888–Divine Science (Malinda and Frank Cramer)
•1889–Unity Church (Charles and Myrtle Fillmore) Transcendentalism
As Dave Hunt was known to frequently say, “Examples could be multiplied.”
What’s fascinating to consider here is that many of these cults and sects claimed to “restore” lost
truths from the Scriptures. In like manner, the Christian Flat-Earth movement of today believes it is
“restoring” the church to its original flat-earth foundation.
To compound this problem, as we can talk about later, Christian Flat Earthers who claim to revere
the Scriptures inadvertently align themselves with many pagans, gnostics, and New Agers in their
shared belief of Flat Earthism.