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Table of Contents
The Firmament
In Day 2 of the Creation Week God placed a Firmament above the earth to divide the waters that are above the earth from the waters that are below it. In Genesis 1 we read:
“And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.” Gen. 1:6-8.
Operation “Fishbowl”
Operation “Fishbowl” was an American military program that was carried out in 1962 which fired nuclear missiles at great heights. The official report states that the reason was to test the radiation that such explosions would lead to. The operation was conducted as a part of a larger program for nuclear tests that was called “Dominic”. It was planned that this operation would consist of three tests.
The first one (named Bluegill) was carried out on June 2, 1962, as the missiles were fired from the southeast part of Johnston Island in the region of Hawaii. The second one (Starfish) was started on June 19, 1962, out of the same island. The third one (Uraka) was to be carried out at a height of more than a thousand kilometers.
The proposed test was subject to significant debates and worries and at last, it was canceled. There were two other tests that were added consequently, Checkmate and Tightrope, as Tightrope was the last aerial nuclear blast that was done by the United States, as soon after it, in the next year, the Limited Test Ban Treaty was signed. (Source: Wikipedia.)
Observations from the experiments
There were three phenomena that were observed during the experiments, and they were:
First: The electromagnetic pulsations produced by the high-altitude nuclear explosions differed widely from the pulsations produced by similar explosions on ground-level.
Second: There were specific glares that were linked to the high-altitude explosions and especially to those that happened higher, which appeared in a moment, far away from the explosion site, on the opposite end of the sky.
Third: The areas that were encompassed by the nuclear explosions were significantly wider than expected.
During the tests, several rockets were fired, with nuclear warheads that were detonated at high altitudes – between 30 and 240 miles, with the aim of measuring the devastating mechanisms and influences of such massive explosions.
There were unexpected results. One of the biggest surprises was just how widespread the electromagnetic effects were. The “Starfish” explosion caused an electric outage at a distance of 900 miles. It became clear that the high-altitude explosions can have a significant impact on infrastructure even for settlements that are far away.
Relation to what the Scripture says
People cannot break through the Firmament that God has put above us in order to retain the optimal conditions of life on earth, by creating an enclosed system. Yet these tests give us an explanation of the existence of small fragments that are called today “the blue stones”, or “the sky stones”, that were chopped off from the Firmament as a result of these explosions.
A pavement of light-blue color was also seen by Moses and the seventy elders who went up to Mount Sinai:
“… and they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.” Ex. 24:10.
A similar vision was given to Ezekiel, as we learn from Ezekiel 1 and 10. In Chapter 1 we read:
“And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.” “And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.” Ez. 1:22, 26.
In chapter 10 we read of a similar scene:
“Then I looked, and, behold, in the firmament that was above the head of the cherubims there appeared over them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne.” Ez. 10:1.
God himself points our attention to the Firmament as he says:
“Hast thou with him spread out the sky, Which is strong, and as a molten looking glass?” Job 37:18.
Significance for those who believe the Bible
How much do we think about the consequences of the modern rejection of true Bible creation? A rejection of the Mosaic record of Creation from Genesis chapter 1 as being an allegory would sooner or later lead to a rejection of the whole Bible.
“Many, when they find themselves incapable of measuring the Creator and his works by their own imperfect knowledge of science, doubt the existence of God and attribute infinite power to nature. These persons have lost the simplicity of faith, and are removed far from God in mind and spirit.
There should be a settled faith in the divinity of God’s holy word. The Bible is not to be tested by men’s ideas of science, but science is to be brought to the test of this unerring standard. When the Bible makes statements of facts in nature, science may be compared with the written word, and a correct understanding of both will always prove them to be in harmony. One does not contradict the other.
All truth, whether in nature or revelation, agrees. Scientific research will open the minds of the truly wise to vast fields of thought and information. They will see God in his works and will praise him. He will be to them first and best, and the mind will be centered upon him.
Skeptics, who read the Bible for the sake of caviling, through ignorance claim to find decided contradictions between science and revelation. But man’s measurement of God will never be correct. The mind unenlightened by God’s Spirit will ever be in darkness in regard to his power.” ST, March 13, 1884, par. 4.
Many people forget that you can make your own rainbow if you only turn on a sprinkler on your lawn and the sun is at the right angle. You will get a rainbow only when you are outside. This is the first question that we must ask ourselves: Why cannot we simulate a rainbow indoors? There are suggestions that you can still produce a rainbow inside but you will need a mirror. A mirror?! Yes, you would need a mirror to do a scientific experiment and produce a rainbow indoors. So we would ask the question: What produces the mirror when we are outside?
Modern science claims that what happens is an optical illusion that is formed on the eyeball. It is asserted that rainbows are produced in our eyes, that we have our own experience where I may see a rainbow but the man who is standing by me would not have the same experience. That’s what we’ve been told.