Genesis Windows of Heaven

[Diamond]

If we are looking to science for the "windows of Heaven" at first it does not make any sense. You have hot and cold air and all of that. Then you look at air pressure you have a match. When you look at hot or cold, dry or humid air you first have to look at pressure. Low pressure and high pressure determines the weather. Low pressure determines when it is going to rain. 

When you open a window heat goes from hot to cold and the colder the air the lower the pressure and the greater the chance for rain. So opening a window lowers the pressure and increases the chance for rain or snow. If we watch the weather they talk a lot about high and low pressure and how that is going to effect our weather. 

[The Barbarian]

10 hours ago, Diamond said:

If we are looking to science for the "windows of Heaven" at first it does not make any sense.The

The idea of windows in a solid sky through which rain falls may seem nonsensical to us today, but remember that fits nicely into the ancient Hebrew beliefs about the universe.    

Genesis 7:11 In the six hundredth year of the life of Noe, in the second month, in the seventeenth day of the month, all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the flood gates of heaven were opened:

Again, arguing about the nature of the sky, misses the whole point of the Flood story.

10 hours ago, Diamond said:

Then you look at air pressure you have a match.

No.   See above.

[Diamond]

4 hours ago, The Barbarian said:

Again, arguing about the nature of the sky,

Only if I want to argue with myself. I am satisfied with my explanation of the meaning of the word window in Genesis. People are free to translate the Bible anyway they want. 

[The Barbarian]

13 minutes ago, Diamond said:

Only if I want to argue with myself. I am satisfied with my explanation of the meaning of the word window in Genesis. People are free to translate the Bible anyway they want. 

I guess they are.    Anyway, it doesn't matter a bit as to salvation, unless one says that everyone has to believe one's particular take on the "windows."

 

[Diamond]

3 hours ago, The Barbarian said:

it doesn't matter a bit as to salvation

Actually, we are told NOT to lean on our own understanding. 

This makes it a lot easier to just trust in Him. 

Proverbs 3 5 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways acknowledge  him,
    and he will make your paths straight.

[Diamond]

3 hours ago, The Barbarian said:

unless one says that everyone has to believe one's particular take on the "windows."

I just believe the Bible is literal so I am able to give a literal explanation. 

We see the word "windows" also in Malachi 3:10

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the LORD of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.

It is very nice to open the windows to let fresh air in the house and before long the air inside and the air outside is the same. Some heating and cooling systems bring fresh air into the system so you do not need to open the windows. 

If we open the windows of heaven Jesus says  "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." Matthew 6:10. The passage the Anglos read in church every Sunday. 

[Diamond]

Interestingly for the last 6 weeks, my son has been working on a 15 billion dollar factory to build semiconductors. He has been working on climate control. They make silicon carbide and gallium nitride materials and devices for power and radio frequency applications such as transportation, power supplies, power inverters, and wireless systems. No one knows what they are doing, so they have to figure it out as they go along. 

The use of "windows" in the Bible does not have to do with glass or a screen like we think of a window today. It is more like shutters that they use to control the climate inside your house. If you open a window eventually the climate inside and outside will be the same. You can use a fan to speed that up.

[The Barbarian]

On 9/7/2024 at 7:14 PM, Diamond said:

The use of "windows" in the Bible does not have to do with glass or a screen like we think of a window today. It is more like shutters that they use to control the climate inside your house. If you open a window eventually the climate inside and outside will be the same. You can use a fan to speed that up.

This is true.   Some interpert the use in Genesis to something like "floodgates."     The Hebrews, like pretty much everyone else in the area at the time, thought that the sky was solid, and that there must be "windows" that could be opened to let rain fall from the ocean above.

 

[Diamond]

6 hours ago, The Barbarian said:

thought that the sky was solid

The Bible talks about waters above and waters below. (Genesis 1:6) Fish swim and birds fly but to fly does not seem that different from swimming to me. Either way it is the current that takes them where they end up going. 

[Bruce_Leiter]

Fellow believers, the Bible isn't always literal. Look at the Book of Revelation, especially chapter 12. Revelation doesn't often explain its symbolism, but that chapter does. The dragon stands for Satan, of course, and the stars are his demons, fallen angels. The difference is that we know which parts are literal (the history) and which, figurative, by the context of the verses around the verse in question as well as the whole book and the Bible.

For example, when Jesus says that he is the Bread of life and that we should eat him in John 6, we need to study the rest of the Gospel of John. All of Jesus' "I AM" claims are figurative, for example, the good Shepherd (he was a Carpenter), the Door to the sheep pen, the Bread of life, and the Light of the world. However, all of his claims say that he is the "I AM" of Moses' burning bush in Exodus 3 and 4 and David's divine Shepherd in Psalm 23, precious spiritual truths that feed our faith.