EARTH

Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

—Isa. 13:13

1230 Weight Of The Earth

A second-grade boy once impulsively asked, “How much does the earth weigh?” The teacher, not knowing the answer, resorted to a time-tested technique: “That’s an interesting question. Let’s see who can find the answer by tomorrow.”

That night, the teacher went to the library and came up with the answer. The next day, she asked if anyone had been able to find the answer. No one volunteered. Proudly, the teacher announced the results of her finding.

The small boy raised his hand: “Is that with or without people?”

Well, actually, four billion people on the earth is of relative insignificance when the earth weighs approximately 6,000 million, million, million tons.

1231 Moving Six Directions At Once

The earth moves in at least SIX different ways, and yet we on earth are not dizzy. The movements are:

(1) The earth spins on its axis, like a top, at the speed of one-third mile per second or 1,000 miles per hour. If it were 100 miles per hour, the earth would alternately freeze and burn.

(2) It weaves slowly back and forth on its axis, tilting to an angle of 23 degrees, then swinging slowly back, twice a year. This gives us our seasons.

(3) The earth with the moon is swinging around the sun, once a year at the rate of 18½ miles per second. And it never varies 1/10,000th of a second on this annual trip.

(4) The sun, with all its planets, is on a trip, rushing northward at 12 miles per second.

(5) The nearby stars, with our planetary system, are revolving at 180 miles per second around the Milky Way’s center.

(6) The Milky Way, our galaxy, with all its millions of stars, is on a tremendous journey, plunging through space at terrific speed. Who knows where?

God guides and controls them all.

1232 If The Earth Were

If the earth were as small as the moon, the power of gravity would be too weak to retain sufficient atmosphere for man’s needs; but if it were as large as Jupiter, Saturn, or Uranus, extreme gravitation would make human movement almost impossible.

If we were as near to the sun as Venus, the heat would be unbearable; if we were as far away as Mars, we would experience snow and ice every night even in the warmest regions. If the oceans were half their present dimensions, we would receive only one-fourth the rainfall we do now. If they were one-eighth larger, our annual precipitation would increase fourfold, and this earth would become a vast, uninhabitable swamp!

Water solidifies at 32 degrees above zero. It would be disastrous if the oceans were subject to that law, however, for then the amount of thawing in the polar regions would not balance out, and ice would accumulate throughout the centuries! To prevent such a catastrophe, the Lord put salt in the sea to alter its freezing point! (Psalm 104:24)

—Our Daily Bread

1233 National Ocean Survey

The National Ocean Survey (formerly the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey) is charged by Congress with the job of finding the exact position of every point in the United States and its possessions.

Using laser beams, infrared rays and triangulation methods, the NOS takes on positioning jobs from federal, state, local and foreign governments.

Today, Apollo spaceships could not go into orbit, nor could Minuteman missiles be fired accurately, without the pinpoint positioning by the Survey.

Moreover, one cannot make an ocean trip or fly in a commercial jetliner without coming under the protective arm of the Survey. Nor can the government construct a dam, fight a war or shoot off a missile without this agency to tell it exactly where it’s at—right to the inch.

1234 Global-Positioning Satellite

By the 1980s, if things go as Pentagon officials hope, a new global-positioning satellite will be in place. By use of a one- pound instrument tuned to the satellite, a plane, ship or tank will be able to find its position within 30 feet anywhere on the globe. Even individual infantrymen will be able to carry and use the device.

1235 Flat Earth Society

England’s “Flat Earth Society” has consistently held that the earth is flat and that Christopher Columbus and all the astronauts are victims of some kind of delusion.

Astronauts only “thought” they were in a circle around the earth, “while actually they were traveling in ellipses parallel to the earth.”

It has the comparison of a phonograph needle on a record, adding that flat earthists know that when a ship dips below the horizon it is not a sign of a curve in the earth, but a trick of perspective.

See also: Heavenly Phenomenon ; Mountains ; Seas and Oceans.