Windows of Heaven

The word 'heavens' is defined in Genesis 1:8 as the expanse. The expanse of the heavens is where God placed the Sun, Moon, and stars on day four. Thus, an appropriate translation of 'heavens' in modern English would be 'space'.

What would fall to Earth if windows to space were opened? There are two potential answers to this question, comets and meteorites. God separated the waters above the expanse on the second day of creation. Thus, waters above the expanse could fall to Earth. Water from distant space would arrive frozen since deep space has very little heat. Orbs of frozen water are called comets. God also placed the stars in the heavens, and falling stars (meteorites) could strike the Earth. Both of these options are possibilities and fit the context.

Large comets and asteroids would be observed as intensely bright fireballs as they enter Earth's atmosphere (Richardson, 2013). Both large comets and large asteroids could impact the Earth with such force that they would vaporize rock and level the land. Both could cause incessant, torrential rain when they hit the ocean and blast many cubic kilometers of water above the atmosphere.

Comets would bring additional water to the Earth, but the total amount is negligible. Even if six huge comets hit the Earth every hour for 150 days, it would be a relatively small amount of water. If the huge comets averaged 100 cubic kilometers of water each, that would accumulate 2,016,000 cubic kilometers of water. While that seems a lot, The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that there are 1,386,000,000 cubic kilometers of water on Earth. The comets would only add 0.16% to the Earth's water.

Asteroids and comets could be seen from great distances and fit the context of observed events. They fit the context of causing rain since they could blast millions of cubic kilometers of water above the atmosphere. They could cause a global flood as they blast vast amounts of land into the oceans. They would also cause severe tsunamis that would obliterate entire continents.

The phrase, "windows of the heavens were opened" is used in other scriptures. In Isaiah 24 it described events that split the earth apart and shook the very foundations of the earth. That is exactly what large comets and meteorites would do when they impact the earth.

The windows of the heavens (space) being opened perfectly describe meteorites and comets. Furthermore, they produce precisely the results described in Isaiah 24, agree with the context of observable events that cause torrential rain, and could produce a global flood.

This page is in development 2/11/2014