As stated in my last post, I now question if the Bible really is the ‘Gospel Truth.’ Some believers may feel offended by my statement but it is not my intention to offend anyone. All I am trying to do is seek the truth about Jesus Christ and, because it all happened 2000 years ago, it will not be an easy task.

As a starting point, I will examine Jesus’ period in the desert where he fasted for 40 days and forty nights without food, water or shelter. Most of us would be lucky to survive 10 days in such a climate without food, water or shelter but Jesus is ‘the son of God’ so he was able to do what is completely beyond normal human endurance.

But Jesus was not the first person to fast for 40 days and forty nights in such a climate. Moses climbed Mount Sinai and remained up there without food water or shelter for 40 days and 40 nights and came down with the Ten Commandments from God. Also, after Noah had loaded the Ark with the animals and his family, it rained for 40 days and 40 nights. Noah, of course, had food, water and shelter within the Ark during that period.

I now wonder if the period ’40 days and 40 nights’ has some sort of religious significance? Or is it the number 40 that has significance because the ‘chosen people of God’ wandered around for 40 years looking for the promised land. Or perhaps they are all simply ‘unrelated coincidences.’

Setting aside those questions, on his last day of fasting, Satan appeared before Jesus and tempted him to turn stones into bread. Jesus refused. Satan then took Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and asked him to ‘cast himself down’ as he himself had been cast down from heaven. Again Jesus refused.

Satan then took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the Kingdoms of the Earth laid out before him. Satan did not ‘name’ any of these Kingdoms but promised Jesus authority over them if he bowed down and worshiped him. Once again, Jesus refused.

It would be impossible to see ‘all the Kingdoms of the Earth’ from a high mountain or even from the summit of Mount Everest. This is because when God made the world, he made it round and rotate on its axis as it orbited the Sun. Therefore, Satan would have to take Jesus into ‘orbit’ around the Earth to point out ‘all the Kingdoms of the Earth’ to him.

Also, one would have thought Satan would have pointed out some of the Kingdoms to Jesus saying “look these Kingdoms worship Idols and Statues and those Kingdoms sacrifice human beings to appease their ‘Gods.’ To which Jesus may have replied “All these things I know; this is why my father has sent me.” This of course, did not appear to happen.

This indicates that the person who wrote the story of the temptation of Jesus believed the world was flat and had no knowledge of these other Kingdoms of the world. And therefore, in the story, Satan and Jesus would also believe the world was flat and have no knowledge of these other Kingdoms either.

Jesus appears to have confirmed this belief when he commissioned his disciples to ‘preach the Gospel to the ends of the Earth.’ The phrase ‘to the ends of the Earth’ originated from the time when it was generally believed that the world was flat and if you travelled in the same direction for long enough, you would reach the end of the Earth and fall off into the abyss.

Therefor, I feel it is reasonable to state that, if Jesus really was the son of God, he would have known the world was round and would have commissioned his disciples to ‘preach the Gospel to all the Kingdoms around the world.

aquarianmist