Few are able to explain why a conspiracy might exist, why scientists might go to such great lengths to create false evidence. “And I’m a Flat Earther.” Other audience members offer similar anecdotes: epiphanies, followed by a complete rebuttal of their previous beliefs. A 40-something woman approaches the stage. The woman who asks another, “If they’ve lied about this, what else are they lying about?” The various conversations peter out as the open-mic session gets under way. The man at the bar chastising an acquaintance for holding on to the science he was taught at school. The clique in the corner discussing the moon landings. Middle managers on a staff team-building exercise, perhaps. This implies that the Devil presented this temptation to Jesus through some means other than literal human sight.To the casual observer, there is nothing remarkable about the crowd gathered in a convention room at a central Birmingham hotel. The parallel account at Luke 4:5 says that the Devil showed Jesus “all the kingdoms of the inhabited earth in an instant of time,” which would not be possible through normal human vision. This could be similar to the way a person uses a projector and a screen to show someone pictures of various places on earth. The Devil showed Jesus not only all the kingdoms but also “their glory.” Such details could not be seen from a great distance, so it seems that the Devil used some sort of vision to show these to Jesus. There is no literal mountain on earth from which all the kingdoms of the world are visible. Consider why this conclusion is reasonable. However, the “unusually high mountain” in this account seems to be a metaphor and not a physical location. To tempt Jesus, “the Devil took him along to an unusually high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.” ( Matthew 4:8) Some claim that this Bible account teaches that the entire world is visible from a single spot on a flat earth.
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