Justin Peters is a well respected theologian who has had a very successful ministry that has been going after the lies and heresies of the health and wealth pastors in America, including heretics like Joel Osteen. Of course, he covers many other important issues, too. In doing so, Mr. Peters is very careful to articulate the facts substantiating the heresies, and he is especially careful with biblical interpretation. He is trained in biblical hermeneutics and exegesis, and he has an admirable passion to accurately interpret and share the truth of the Word of God. In all the years of his ministry, he is to be commended on these points, and his love for the Lord Jesus Christ and his passion to evangelize and speak the truth are unquestioned. Mr. Peters is without doubt a genuine Christian and a Godly man.
So it is with a measure of disappointment for many of us that Mr. Peters recently published a video in which he violated the fundamental rules of hermeneutics and exegesis and went off the reservation entirely by making a pseudoscientific argument that claims that Christians who believe in a flat earth are embarrassing the entire christian community.
For christians who have not studied creation in the Bible, starting in Genesis 1:1, the Bible does not teach that the world is a globe, and it certainly does not teach that the Earth rotates around the sun. The Bible clearly teaches that the Earth “shall not move,” and that the sun and the moon are within the firmament. The firmament is described as a hard crystalline substance upon which the Bible tells us sits the Throne of God, and which the Bible tells us separated the water from the water. The Bible in no way even hints of a spherical Earth or a heliocentric system. There is not a single verse or parable or metaphor in the entire Bible that could be interpreted as supporting a globe Earth in a heliocentric system.
If you want to be true to traditional hermeneutics and exegesis and interpret the Old Testament consistent with the original Hebrew in its proper context, as well as the New Testament consistent with the original Greek in its proper context, careful biblical interpretation will not lead you to the conclusion that the Earth and our solar system is as NASA describes it. In other words, if the Bible is your guide, you can’t get there from here. Even Justin Peters’ mentor, Dr. John MacArthur, when preaching on creation admitted, “I’m not a scientist, so I have to trust the scientists.” We all love John MacArthur, and I have all his commentaries, but dear brother John made what may be the biggest theological blunder of his half century ministry at Grace Community Church when he said he had to trust the scientists.
The only way to come to the conclusion that the Earth is a globe in a heliocentric system is outside of the scriptures, and that requires believing the pseudoscience and the bold-faced misrepresentations that we have all been fed since at least 1958 when NASA was founded.
Unfortunately, pastors who should be all over the truth of the biblical creation story, have fallen to this massive deception, just as all of us in America have. We grew up seeing globes on every teacher’s desk, being told all the way through elementary school, middle school, high school, college, and graduate school that we should believe everything NASA and the government and quasi-government scientists who preach the big bang theory, Darwinian evolution, and that we are all the result of pure chaos and happenstance. In other words, their narrative surrounding creation is the constant drum beat that narcissistically demands we accept their claim that “there is no God of creation and never has been.”
What makes Justin Peters’ video so egregious is not that he is grotesquely wrong about the scientific arguments (although arguing he completely debunked flat earth with one photo on his iPhone is perhaps the height of arrogance coming from a man who insists he is humble). What is embarrassing for him is that of all people who should be able to see the obvious literal interpretations of the 68 Bible verses (and much more in the scriptures), he is blinded to the obvious clear biblical interpretations that do not support or even hint of a globe in a heliocentric system.
So what happened? Mr. Peters made the same mistake that many other sincere pastors have made: He has taken the pseudoscience of NASA and the anti-God scientific community and placed that over and above the authority and clear language of the scriptures. In Justin Peters’ defense, he has been brainwashed his whole life (as all of us were until God woke us up), and he does not recognize how he has been deceived.
For those of us in what you might call the conservative fundamental christian community, it is more than ironic that the man who you could argue has specialized in careful conservative Bible interpretation with a niche in discernment and keen sense for exposing heresies and deception, is himself now caught in a massive deception. While this author does not doubt he is sincere, he is sincerely deceived on the true story of creation as God tells it to Moses in Genesis, and in a twist of theological fate, Justin Peters is now teaching heresy. This is not something this author ever imagined he would write about Justin Peters, but the Bible tells us that when a brother stumbles, we are to confront him and hold him accountable.
We have offered to show good pastors that they have been lied to about creation, but one pastor actually said, “No, I will not listen to you. We all know the earth is a sphere and orbits around the sun, and the matter will not be discussed in this church.” This is the state of the church today when it comes to God’s creation story. Ironically, they refuse to read the scriptures as written, and they suddenly seek to violate the very rules of Bible interpretation they have lived by and preached for decades. Instead, they seek to change the literal meaning of key verses with inappropriate attempts to force a metaphor onto the verses in order to change the meaning to fit their worldview.
How is it Mr. Peters that you can practice and preach traditional rules of Bible interpretation your whole christian life, and suddenly throw those rules out the window by virtue of some new rule you apparently made up on the spur of the moment, a new rule that would violate the rules of interpretation you have fought to protect your whole career?
In one of my books, I wrote this letter to pastors and theologians, which is uncannily relevant here:
To my brothers and sisters in Christ who are theologians, pastors, teachers, and Godly students of the Bible across America. I thank God for you who are Godly theologians in America, who are Godly pastors and teachers, and who are devoted to the pure Word of God and a careful exegesis of the Word so that we can accurately understand it. I have learned so much from many of you through your incredible Bible commentaries, books, Youtube videos, podcasts, and sermons. I thank God for you and how you have helped me grow in Christ.
I have had many Godly mentors who have taught me so much about God’s Holy Character, how to grow intimately in knowledge and understanding, and how to live the Christian life in a way that honors God. I will forever be grateful for all your labors, and this includes some authors who have long since gone home to be with the Lord.
But . . . I have one, and only one issue on which I am compelled to confront you. It is with grave humility that I confront my mentors, great men and women of God whom I admire and respect with deep reverence.
You who are so dedicated to a careful reading and interpretation of the Word of God have violated your own rules of Biblical interpretation. You have assumed, even in your commentaries, that the earth is spherical, that it revolves on an axis, that it rotates around the sun, that the Universe is precisely how Copernicus described it, and that NASA and secular scientists have described it correctly.
The assumption you make in your sermons and commentaries that the earth is spherical and your adoption of the Copernican heliocentric model of the Universe is egregious error on your part, because your assumptions are not supported by a single verse in the Bible.
For the sake of non-theologians who may read this, I want to share the generally accepted rules of Biblical interpretation.
- Always interpret scripture in context.
- Always interpret scripture with the full Word of God.
- Always remember that scripture never contradicts scripture.
- Never draw a conclusion based on an obscure passage.
- Always interpret scripture literally, unless it cannot be interpreted literally and there is a crystal clear reason not to in scripture, such as a symbolic meaning or an allegory or metaphor supported elsewhere in scripture.
- Always seek the meaning of the verse without personal extra-Biblical interpretation.
Nowhere in the Bible is there even a hint that the earth is a sphere and rotates around the sun, nor is there any verse which can claim to be symbolic of any heliocentric model. Not a single verse. My dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, how did you get so far astray from the Word of God in your interpretation of God’s creation? And how were you so thoroughly hoodwinked with pseudoscience to the point that you now argue you must “trust the science” over the Word of God? Where is your devotion to the unqualified truth of the Word of God and it’s immutable reliability?
What Mr. Peters do you do with these verses?
On the day that the LORD gave the Amorites over to the Israelites, Joshua spoke to the LORD in the presence of Israel: “O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.” So the sun stood still and the moon stopped until the nation took vengeance upon its enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? “So the sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.” Joshua 10:12-13 (BSB)
The battle between the Amorites and the Israelites is a historical event. Theologians do not debate whether this battle occurred. We can also surmise from the context and the other battles where God miraculously slaughtered massive numbers of the Israelites’ enemies that God wanted the Jews to know that he alone is God, and that he had the power to destroy their enemies, and that he alone would be glorified. All of this is well known among theologians and is written in many commentaries.
Joshua prayed out loud so the Jews could hear his prayer, and so they would know it was God who answered their prayers and fought their battle and gave them victory. Since Joshua saw they were running out of daylight, he asked God to stop the sun and the moon so they would have sunlight to finish the battle. The verse indicates that the sun and moon did, in fact, stop.
Then to affirm that this actually happened, we are given confirmation that this was also testified to in the book of Jashar, and the event is repeated as a historical past tense event, “So the sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.” One of the rules of biblical interpretation that helps us so often is that a verse is to be taken literally unless it cannot possibly be taken literally and make sense. So here we have the sun stopped, and it stopped for “about a full day.”
Clearly, the sun and the moon were moving around the Earth’s surface, and the Earth was not moving. By stopping the sun and the moon, the sunset was delayed and the sun’s rays continued to light the Earth so Joshua’s army could finish the battle with God’s divine help. That was the whole purpose of Joshua’s prayer–to make sure the sun did not move further away with its light. Obviously, if the Earth was moving, it would have done no good at all to stop the sun and moon. That the Earth does not move is consistent with many other verses, including Psalms 104:5 in which we are told that when God established the Earth he hung it in its place so that it will never be moved, and Job 26:7 in which we are told God hung the Earth on nothing.
There are many more verses, but let’s take this slow and steady and let’s allow Mr. Peters’ to explain his interpretation of these verses in Joshua. Since hermeneutics do not let you force a metaphorical or symbolic meaning into Joshua chapter 10, verses 12 and 13, what new rule of hermeneutics have you created Mr. Peters? Please state the rule, which would have to be some kind of exemption or exception to the traditional rules of hermeneutics. After all, even the traditional rules of hermeneutics have rules addressing when a literal interpretation must give way to an allegorical or metaphorical interpretation.
I think what triggered Mr. Peters’ video are the books I sent him a few months ago. There is a popular 7-part series on Flat Earth written from both biblical and scientific perspectives, and at least two of those books were sent to Mr. Peters. Obviously, he didn’t read them or he disregarded the very careful biblical analysis of the true creation story in Genesis.
I’m embedding Justin Peters’ video here so you can see him make his case that one photo from his iPhone completely puts flat earth argument to bed forever. After you’ve viewed his video, may we suggest you consider reading two of our books. Here’s a link to the first book in either a Kindle version or a paperback version, which is titled Flat Earth: What The Bible Actually Says–Every Verse In The Bible on Creation. You can also get that book in an audio version. There is a letter written specifically to pastors in that book, because we know how difficult it will be for pastors to admit they have been wrong about something so big. The second book is titled Flat Earth: Satan’s Global Plan of Deception–Heliocentrism Exposed.
We hope Justin Peters will respond, and perhaps he can teach us something about the interpretation of Joshua. We welcome comments from all readers, but we do require that you be considerate and diplomatic. You certainly may express strong convictions on this subject, but do so within the constraints of mutual respect for differences of opinion.
