Also there's a difference between literal and metaphorical. Like when it says the corners of the earth, flat earth map isn't square, it's still round
According to the Acts of the apostles, chapter 10, Peter had a vision of a vessel ("a certain vessel descending upon him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners") full of animals being lowered from heaven (v. 11). A voice from heaven told Peter to kill and eat, but since the vessel (or sheet) contained unclean animals, Peter declined. The command was repeated two more times, along with the voice saying, "What God hath made clean, that call not thou common" (v. 15) and then the vessel was taken back to heaven (v. 16). At this point in the narrative, messengers sent from Cornelius the Centurion arrive and urge Peter to go with them. He does so, and mentions the vision as he speaks to Cornelius, saying "God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean" (Acts 10:28). Peter related the vision again in Acts 11:4-9.
Regarding food from the passage here in the book of Acts, even the godless people of Wikipedia recognize that the obvious purpose of this vision was to speak of mankind and not of dietary restrictions. The “great sheet” mentioned in the passage was the closest pure idea that God could use to get through to Peter that all men were valid and worthy of the shed blood of Christ Jesus.
What is very important to notice is that we do not see any floating animals outside the sheet. Let’s look again... How many floating animals
were there outside the sheet? None. Or rather, were there many sheets? No. All sentient men were represented on only one sheet, representing only one land. All sentient, intelligent, cognitive animalkind is on earth, and only earth. Isaiah spells this prophesy out: 'He will hoist a banner for the Goyim, assemble the dispersed of Isra’el, and gather the scattered of Y’hudah from the four corners of the earth.'
It is a prophecy that is prevalent through the entirety of the Holy Bible. God will restore the lost tribes. This was Jesus’ purpose for coming to die and be resurrected, to remarry them whom he had divorced. Paul calls this a mystery. Ezekiel’s vision concurs:
“Then said he to me, Prophesy to the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds,
O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." Jesus spells it out in Matthew 24:31 and again in Mark 13:27: “And he will send his
angels with a trumpet of great voice, and they shall gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” But I digress
from Biblical cosmology to delve into eschatology to speak of this. The two are related, and to show correlation, only behooves us to become
better students of the Word, does it not?
Something that I find most interesting is that the angels who are in charge of the four corners of the earth have vast power and varied job
descriptions. Zechariah was allowed to see them: “And the angel answered and said unto me, These are the four spirits of heaven, which
go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth.” Peter and Zechariah and also John saw these same four great angels. John writes:
“And, after these things, I saw four angels, standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind might not blow upon the earth, nor upon the sea, nor on any tree.” However, Ezekiel did not see them as the chiefs of the corners and winds, but he
did see their effects (just as in Ezekiel 37:9): In Ezekiel 7:2 God tells him: “And thou, son of man, the Lord God of the land of Israel saith
these things, The end cometh, the end cometh, on [the] four coasts of the land. (And thou, son of man, the Lord God saith these things to the land of Israel, The end cometh, the end cometh, on all four sides of the land.).” Daniel saw this as well. Daniel spake and said, "I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the sea. The apocalypse of John describes in chapter twenty, the first resurrection and what happens after it. Something that pertains to this is verses 8,9 where we see something interesting after Satan is released: 'and [Satan] will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore. And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them.' The nations come from the four corners of the earth onto the broad plain of the earth. This sounds more like the game of Risk than a desk globe found at a furnishings store. I submit that hidden within the revelation of our dear friend, John, lies a deep mystery of an earth unlike what we find from our governmental agencies today. And we all know that in the game of “God vs. The Nations”, God laughs and mocks them, for he knows the outcome before the game begins.
To leave this complete about the shape of our circular, four-squared earth, we must acknowledge and remember Isaiah 55:8-9: 'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.'
-- brother Pauly
