Facing North

The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD'S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men, Psalm 11:4.

When the Lord looks down from heaven, he does not see things as we see them. I'm not talking about spiritual discernment or insight. I am speaking of God's physical presence in heaven. Where does the Ancient of Days sit? When Jesus Christ sits on the right hand of the Father in a body of flesh, where is that? A physical body needs a physical throne. Where is that throne?

Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King, Psalm 48:2. The King James Bible (which I happen to believe) speaks of God's throne as being in the North. I have no doubt whatsoever that if I wanted to point towards God's throne, I could go out to the night sky, locate the North Star and point towards it. I would be pointing in the direction of God's throne.

We see this reinforced by a couple of verses. For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north, Isaiah 13:14. Even the offerings at the tabernacle had to take the direction of God's presence into consideration. And he shall kill it on the side of the altar northward before the LORD: and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall sprinkle his blood round about upon the altar, Leviticus 1:11.

With that in mind, when the Lord looks at our earth, he sees it from the North. To God, the east is on his left hand and the west is on his right hand. We find though that when directions are given in the bible, they are not given from God's perspective unless the text absolutely says so. The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool, Psalm 110:1. It is very clear that Jesus Christ will sit on the right hand of the Father. If we were to view him, he would be on our left.

We find that directions given in the bible are from our perspective unless the text says otherwise. Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward, and led me about the way without unto the utter gate by the way that looketh eastward; and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side, Ezekiel 47:2. That is the opposite of how God sees it. From God's throne the waters ran to the left. From man's perspective they ran towards the right.

Up and down are often seen differently. From God's perspective, a person traveling south is going down. A person heading north is heading up. Yet, we see from the bible that oft times "up and down" are written from man's perspective and not God's. And after those days we took up our carriages, and went up to Jerusalem, Acts 21:15.

Looking at the context, Paul and company were headed south from Caesarea to Jerusalem. From God's perspective they are headed down. From man's perspective, they are headed up. The elevation of Jerusalem is higher than Caesarea. None of this should be too hard to comprehend. If you and I are facing each other in front of my house, the road is on my right, but on your left.

An alternative to the simple truth that Acts gives the direction of Paul’s movement as upward from the perspective of men is to insist that Jerusalem is really north of Caesarea and that there is a conspiracy to hide that from men. You could start a Facebook group dedicated to proving the bible right and all maps are wrong when it says that Paul went up to Jerusalem, or you can accept that direction is mostly given from man’s perspective.

Why is all of this important? Because the sun rose. And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, Genesis 32:31. From time to time, I run into people who can't understand that the sense of direction is given from man's perspective, not God's. I have absolutely no doubt that when God looks down from heaven, he sees a rotating earth circling around the sun. Men looking from the moon have said so. Men looking from the space station have said so. Every picture from our distant spaceships have said so. There is absolutely no verse in the bible that says otherwise.

Every time that I see writers quoting verses that they think teach an immovable earth, they confound the two words "world" and "earth". The LORD reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the LORD is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved, Psalm 93:1. Is the Lord currently ruling the earth? No, he will during and after the Millennium.

Note that he does not say that the world is "established". To establish is to start something. To "stablish" it is to come back and reinforce it. The world is the bible description of the doings and order of men upon the earth. In the Millennial Kingdom God will rule from a throne on earth. He will rule over a world order that can no longer be moved. Its institutions and nations will have fixed boundaries.

The earth can and will move. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them, Revelation 20:11. 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, Isaiah 13:13.

More telling than anything else is the bottomless pit. A bottomless pit in the center of the earth is impossible unless the earth is a sphere and the sphere is turning. A person in that pit could never hit the bottom. For thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?, Psalm 56:13. Part of the agony of hell in the center of the earth is that a person therein is like a child trapped in a clothes dryer. He is tumbling. He cannot ever lay on the bottom.