Does the Bible teach the Earth is flat? with John Harris

Opening Remarks and Creation Fellowship Santee Introduction

Name, and the recording is going.

Do you want me to share the screen or wait until you're done?

Yeah, let's wait until I'm done. I just want to make sure it seems like maybe, all right, here we go. So I'm Terri Cammerzell, and I'm here on behalf of Creation Fellowship Santee. We're a group of friends bound by our common agreement that the creation account, as told in Genesis, is a true depiction of how God created the world and all life in just six days, just a matter of about 6 ,000 years ago.

We've been meeting on this online platform since May of 2020, and we've been blessed by a wide range of speakers, doctors, apologists, scientists, pastors, all sorts of people who love the Lord and have a message to share.

You can find links to most of our past presentations by typing in tinyurl .com forward slash CFS archives. That's C like creation, F like fellowship, S like Santee archives. And you can also email us at creationfellowshipsantee at gmail .com so that you can get on our email list and we won't spam you, but we will send you invitations to all of our upcoming speakers so that you won't miss any.

Tonight, we're blessed to welcome back our friend John Harris. He's the director of Living Waters Europe, and he is coming to us from across the pond. He gets up very late or early to do this when he visits us, and you can find his past two presentations on our site, but tonight he's with us for pretty much the most controversial issue that we cover, which is the shape of the earth.

So John, just so that you know, he trains a large team of believers to go out and share the gospel with people in Europe. He's also the founder and CEO of Creation Science UK. He also hosts a monthly apologist forum, I guess maybe you would call it.

He studies the Bible very thoroughly and thoughtfully, and he equips other believers with God's truth. So we're happy to have him here with us, and if you have any questions or comments during the presentation, whether you're here with us on Zoom or watching along on Facebook, you can go ahead and post them, and we'll see if we have time to answer them all tonight.

Why the Shape of the Earth Became a Flat Earth Debate

All right, John, go ahead. Hello, good evening and good morning, depending on where you're from. It's great to be with you guys. I'm going to go ahead and share my screen, make sure I find my right screen, and here it is, and I'm going to run my PowerPoint, and hopefully you guys are seeing.

Are you seeing, does the Bible teach the earth is flat? Big screen with a square circle. Yes, we are. Alrighty, so this is fantastic. Thank you very much for having me back again. It's a pleasure to be with you guys.

Today's topic is about the Bible teaches the earth is flat. I don't intend to get into scientific evidence today, because today I'm focusing on what the Bible says. We've done that. I've got videos that show that kind of information.

If you're interested, go on our website and our YouTube channel. You'll find them there. So why am I focusing on the Bible? Because most people who believe the earth is flat say that they started believing the earth is flat because the Bible teaches it.

The truth is, there are plenty of verses in the Bible that refers to the ends of the earth, or the four corners of the earth, or the foundation of the earth, and so on. So the flat earther would say, well, how could a globe earth have ends, or corners, or foundation?

So they would say, look, Christians, the plain reading of the Bible clearly points to the earth being flat, in the same way as the plain reading of the Bible tells us that the earth is relatively young and that evolution is false, it also says it's flat.

Why don't you accept that? That's why I put a lot of effort and research into this study. In fact, as part of my research, I joined the Flat Earth Society Facebook page in America, and the Flat Earth Society Facebook page in the UK, and even the Kent Flat Earth Society Facebook page in England.

All these have thousands of subscribers. I even joined a Facebook page that's local to where I live so that I could find someone who's willing to be interviewed for flat earth research and video that I was making.

I posted an advert in each one of these asking to interview a flat earther on camera for our documentary. Eventually, someone from our local town called me, and I interviewed him. He was a very nice guy.

He considered himself a flat earth evangelist, if there's such a thing. He was very knowledgeable and very actively promoting and converting people to believe in flat earth. One of the frustrating things for him was that people often made derogatory comments about flat earth believers without investigating the evidence, as he called it.

In case you're interested, I've released this interview on YouTube already, if you want to watch it. In this one and a half hours interview, he probably brought up just about every verse in the Bible that he believed proves in the Bible the earth is flat.

So he would say things like, look, I don't know why you don't believe in flat earth if you're a Christian. The Bible talks about flat earth everywhere. These are the verses I'll be bringing up today and a few more.

He was so convinced that flat earth is truth, he left saying he can't imagine life existing for him with a globe earth. He just couldn't imagine it. Once you go flat, you can't go back. That's kind of their phrases.

I can't turn back now, literally, just like that. He was so passionate about this. For those who don't know, there is even a flat earth society set up especially to promote this belief, and they put in a lot of effort into giving answers to every possible objection people may have against flat earth.

I think it's written very well. Having said that, not all flat earthers agree with this flat earth society. Some say they do more harm than good. That's their words, not mine. Some call them a controlled opposition, whatever that means.

There are now celebrities joining in, like Bobby Ray Simmons Jr., known as B .O .B., and Tila Tequila, and many other celebrities. This list only had 23 celebrities in 2020. It's now 36. It's gone up by more than 50 within three years.

I personally find at least one flat earth believer in nearly every talk I do, if there are more than 30 or 40 people. It's trending. I think our churches are full of flat earth believers, and we don't know about it.

According to a survey done by YouGov in April 2018, 2 of Americans absolutely believe that the earth is flat. That's over 6 .5 million people who believe the earth is flat. Not only that, but at least 5 say that they used to believe that the world is spherical, but now have doubts.

That's about 16 .5 million people beginning to think the earth could be flat. This survey says that most of the Americans who believe the earth is flat are millennials. On top of that, most say they are very religious because it's written in their scripture.

There you have it. For some reason, it looks like there is some link between being very religious and accepting the flat earth conspiracy. Please bear in mind these figures are probably at least 50 higher since 2018.

Now, what about Britain? What's the view in the UK? Well, in a survey made a year later by the organization YouGov in 2019, they found that 1 of Britons say that the earth is definitely flat, 2 think it's probably flat, and 4 just don't know.

That means more than half a million of the British population believe that the earth is definitely flat, and 1 .3 million believe the earth could be flat, and over 2 .5 million people just don't know.

This is huge. When we went out doing a recording for a flat earth video, I randomly stopped people and said, what do you think? They said they don't know. Since when do we say we don't know? Now, in case you're interested, none of the British young generations actually say the earth is definitely flat, but they are more likely to say that they didn't know if it is flat than the older generations.

But why would anyone want to hide this shape of the earth? If you ask, they say, well, the whole flat earth secrecy is to hide the fact that God exists, or it's because they want to control people. I'm not sure how deceiving people into thinking the earth is a globe controls people, but it's their words, not mine, and they say it's because people want to make money.

Again, I'm not sure how this would help people make money, because to me it sounds like it would cost a lot more money to hide something like this than making money keeping it hidden. Also, if people are trying to hide God, it's probably easier and less work for them to go out and find every possible manuscript that ever existed and destroy it.

I think that might be easier to do than to keep hiding the shape of the earth from everyone. Anyway, whatever the reason, there are a lot of flat earth believers out there today, and most believe it for religious reasons.

What Flat Earthers Believe About the Earth

Okay, so what do flat earthers believe? They believe the earth is circular with the north pole in the middle and the south pole goes around the edges with a high ice wall surrounding it, and it has a dome-like cover on top.

You can't get to the edges because there's a high ice wall which is heavily guarded to stop people going there and exposing the truth about the shape. They say the sun and moon are about 2 ,000 miles high, but it depends on who you talk to.

It could be 3 ,000, it could be 4 ,000. Both the sun and the moon are only 32 miles in diameter. The stars are higher than the sun and the moon, and they are embedded in this dome. The stars move in one direction with the dome at roughly the same speed as the sun and the moon.

Not only the earth is a flat disk, but also the sun and the moon. But of course, you hear different stories depending on who you talk to. I sometimes feel that things are being made up as they go along.

They say the moon landing is fake. All the photographs you've ever taken of the earth is photoshopped. Every pilot government, whether of a country or a tiny village, whether they are enemies or friends, they're all united in this one thing to hide the real shape of the earth.

They say that this flat earth is kept a secret by every organization that has anything to do with space or air travel. It's kept a secret by the space agencies, NASA, military, all shipping companies or airlines, including transnational companies that move goods around the world, odometer manufacturers, the navigation industry, every astronomer, whether amateur or professional, physicists and satellite TV providers, and so on.

Not just for now, but for as long as these industries ever existed. They would happily admit that not all employees of these companies are necessarily in on this global conspiracy, but they would say that some of these employees have been simply fooled or made to believe that they're working on projects to do with globe earth when there is no such thing.

That means their jobs are simply fake jobs, or they simply don't know that their projects are being applied to flat earth without their knowledge. So they're either in on this conspiracy or they are fooled into thinking that they are working with globe earth.

So there you have it. Now, before I do, before I tell you what the Bible says on the topic, there are some things I would like to clarify or avoid. These are things I'm not going to focus on because of lack of time and because I don't think they're necessary or irrelevant.

I have to admit to you, I actually don't know if I'm going to get through my talk entirely. So I'll stop early so that I can take some questions if necessary. Now, for example, I'm going to avoid talking about the firmament.

I noticed that a lot of flat earthers use the firmament that the Bible talks about as proof that the Bible teaches the earth is flat. That's a misunderstanding. You can believe in globe earth and still have a dome-like shape above the earth.

These are not mutually exclusive, but please ask me later during Q &A so I can give you more details if you're interested. I also noticed that some flat earthers confuse geocentricism with heliocentricism with flat earth.

They say that geocentrism proves that the Bible teaches the earth is flat. Again, this is another misunderstanding. These are not connected. You can believe in either one and still believe the earth is a globe.

Again, ask me later on for more information during Q &A. Here's an interesting one—the fake moon landing conspiracy. This really is irrelevant to whether the Bible teaches the earth is flat, because both sides—whether you believe in flat earth or an earth that looks like a globe—they can both have this problem.

They both are denying—there are people on both sides that are denying the moon landing. But if you want to ask me later on, I'll be happy to give you some information at the end during Q &A. Here's another conspiracy.

NASA means to deceive in Hebrew. Therefore, the earth is flat. I find this particularly interesting, but has nothing to do with whether the Bible teaches the earth is flat. But if you want to know more about this and where they get the idea from, again, ask me during Q &A.

There is also a conspiracy about how numbers prove that NASA and the astronauts like Neil Armstrong are evil. Again, nothing to do with what the Bible says. Ask me later, and I will tell you where they're coming from, and so on.

I think I've done my introduction here. Okay, so let's start. The first question we want all answering is this. Are there any Bible verses that support the idea that the earth is flat? Well, according to flat earthers, there are a few of them.

And you'll be pleased to know that in the next four hours allocated to me, I will be going through each one of these in great detail. All right, that was like a joke. Okay. I immediately heard the background there.

But let's go through a few of those good ones first and show you how they're used. As I go through these verses, think for yourself. I want you to think for yourselves how you would respond to them. Okay?

You'll see in a minute how difficult they sound. Some Christians find it hard to argue against them because they really sound very convicting, actually, or convincing. For example, in Job 28 -24, for he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.

How can the earth be a globe and have ends? The ends of the earth can only make sense if the earth is flat. We have plenty of verses like that. Like, for example, this one, ask me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession.

God shall bless us. Let all the ends of the earth fear him. Turn to me, be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other. The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away from the end of the earth.

These are plenty, or there are plenty of verses in the Bible, in both Old and New Testament. For example, New Testament, Mark 13 -27, where it says, and then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

How can the ends of the earth be true if the earth is a globe? Think about it, Christians. The earth can only have ends if it's a round or square shape. You see the problem? What would you say to someone who uses these verses to tell you the earth is flat?

Now, do you remember in Matthew 4 -8, also in 4 -5, where the devil took Jesus on a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world? Now think about it. How could the devil show Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if the earth is a globe?

That's impossible. The fact that Jesus could see all the kingdoms from that mountain must mean the earth has to be flat. Are you with me? Okay, how about this one? Job 38 -14, talking about the earth, it says, and it's shamed like a clay under the seal, and its features stand out like a garment.

This seal is like a special ring that acts like a stamp. When you press it, it makes a round, flat surface with edges. The fat earther would say, see, God created the earth like pressing a seal and creates a border around it.

The border represents the edges of the earth. The high edges are the high ice walls around the edges of the earth. Now get that. It certainly doesn't work with the spherical earth, does it? If none of these verses challenge you yet, how about this one?

1 Samuel 2 -8, it says, he raises up the poor from the dust, he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make him sit with princes and inherit the seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and on them he has set the world.

He says it again in Psalms 35 -3, where the earth tutters and all its inhabitants, it is I who keeps steady its pillars. How can there be pillars on a spherical earth? Obviously, the earth would have to be flat with pillars.

Not only pillars, but the earth has also foundations that prove the earth is flat. And Micah 6 -2, it says, here you mount the indictment of the Lord and you enduring foundations of the earth, for the Lord has indictment against his people, and he will contend with Israel.

And again, Isaiah 51 -16, and I have put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand, establishing the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth, and saying to Zion, you are my people.

You have more verses like that, Job 34 -46, where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth, or the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding, who determined its measurements, surely you know, or who stretched the line upon it, and what were its bases sunk?

Or who laid its corners, cornerstone? This is God challenging Job, putting him in his place after he complained. God said, two things, I laid the foundation of the earth, and who laid its corners? Flat earthers would say, there is foundation and there is a cornerstone.

A globe earth doesn't have these things, come on now. How can a globe earth have a foundation? How can you have corners in a globe earth? See, a flat earther would say, the flat earth model fits better.

I'll show you more verses to do with the corners later on, but the Christian who believes the earth is a globe would bring up Isaiah 40 -22, where it says, it is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spread out like a stand to dwell in.

So those who believe in the globe earth would say, see, the Bible does say the earth is a circle, so it has to be a sphere, and obviously flat surfaces are not circles. But the flat earther would say, not so quick, my dear globe earther.

The word circle here is round, not sphere. In Hebrew it's the word hog. If God wanted to use the word sphere, he could have used the word door, and as he did in Isaiah 22 -18, and which it says, and will you round and round, and throw you like a ball, which is door, in a wide land.

There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots. You shame of your master's house. So in Hebrew we have a word for a globe shape, but it wasn't used in Isaiah 40 -22 to describe the earth.

Instead he used the word that means circle. So clearly God wanted to use the word round to tell us the earth is flat. Got it? Are you seeing why some Christians are getting confused about this? And finally, in Daniel 4 -11 and 20, it says, the tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth.

The tree you saw, which grew and became strong, so that its top reached the heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth. Now come on, how can you see the tree from the end of the whole earth if the earth is a sphere?

Clearly that's impossible. Also in Revelation 1 -7 it says, look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him. Again, how would every eye see Jesus coming if the earth is a sphere? Based on what we've seen so far, the flat earther would say, well, frankly, this is checkmate.

The earth is obviously as fat as a pancake. Okay, the flat pancake idea was my idea. They don't say that. I was hungry when I did this slide, so pancake kebab. Now, just so you know, flat earthers who say they're Christians are happy to ignore all the scientific evidence, because as far as they're concerned, if the Bible says the earth is flat, then the earth is flat, which I do understand.

They say, look, my authority is God's Word, not man's fallible and false science that can change tomorrow. They say, you trust man, and I trust God's Word. Look, stop being a heretical Christian, reject the lies of the devil, and accept what the Bible teaches.

The earth is flat. Is that sounding familiar? Okay, these are just a few of the verses they bring. I'll be covering more than these. If time allows, I think I prepared the scene for you nicely, I believe.

I think I made a fair case for the flat earther. I don't think the flat earther is going to complain about my presentation so far. I hope it all made sense, so let's go ahead and see what these verses are really saying.

Proper Hermeneutics for Reading Poetic and Figurative Texts

Let's start with Psalm 67, verse 7. God shall bless us, let all the ends of the earth fear him. Is this teaching the earth is flat? Well, the first problem we have here is that if we are supposed to take this verse literally, as flat earthers tell us we should, then look at what this verse is saying.

The verse is commanding the very ground that exists at the ends of the earth to fear God. How could geography fear God? How can the physical earth fear anything? It doesn't make sense. The flat earther would say, but no, no, the people who live there should fear God.

Ah, but that's not what it says. If we're supposed to take this literally to prove the earth has ends, then the whole sentence should be taken literally. If it means people, it should be saying, let all the people in the ends of the earth fear him.

Anyway, let's assume this is talking about people. Then we have another problem. It means that the people are actually living there right now. But according to the flat earth model, no one lives there.

In fact, it's an uninhabited ice world that you can't get to. But even if that's not the case, we have another problem. If we're supposed to take this literally, then it's also saying that only those people who live around the ends of the earth should fear him.

No one else. Because it's saying that God shall bless us, but let the ends of the earth fear him. That's what happens when you take verses literally. You mess up the true meaning of the verse. So what is this really saying?

What is this verse all about? Well, this is poetry. Proper hermeneutics will lead us to understand that this is saying that everyone in the entire world, including us, should fear him. In fact, the proper interpretation can only be that everyone everywhere ought to fear the Lord.

This verse is not trying to describe the shape of the earth. It's trying to tell us how far and how wide and how deep this truth should apply. What about next verse, Isaiah 45, 22? Turn to me, be saved, and all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is no other.

Again, if this phrase is supposed to be taken literally, then Isaiah is talking to the earth itself. It's telling the earth itself, especially just the ends of the earth, to turn to God and be saved. Is that what it's saying?

Well, of course not. At this point, the flat earther will not admit to that, that this is not meant literally. If that's the case, then how come they are taking it literally and assume it's talking about the shape of the earth?

Okay, but of course they could say that this is talking about the people who are literally living around the edges of the earth. If that's the case, then they are admitting that there are people who always live there.

That means there are people who live there now. Otherwise, this offer wouldn't make sense. How did they get there past the alleged giant wall, which is supposed to be 150 feet tall, of ice that's being guarded?

This is what happens when you have a messed-up hermeneutics for interpreting the Bible and take a verse that's meant figuratively interpreted literally. What this verse is trying to teach us is that people who live far away, who live outside Israel, are told to turn to God to be saved no matter where they live.

It's not literally telling us about the shape of the earth. It's talking about the offer of salvation. But now it gets more interesting. In Deuteronomy 24, 49, it says, The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand.

Now, who is this nation, and where are they coming from? Well, first of all, according to the flat earther, this would be people coming from the ends of the earth. That, of course, proves again that there are people living there, which they don't admit to.

But let's ignore that for a moment. In this verse, God is telling the nation of Israel that what will happen to them if they disobey Him. He's saying that He will bring a nation whose language they don't understand.

And those or these foreigners will attack Israel. It just happens we know who these people are. It's when Babylon and Assyria attacked Israel and Jerusalem. So are the flat earthers willing to admit that the Babylonians and Assyrians literally came from the ends of the earth and took the Israelites back to the ends of the earth as exiles?

Is that what happened? How many boats did they use to take millions of Jews and millions of Babylonians and millions of Assyrians back to the ends of the earth by sea? How come there is no mention of the thousands or millions of boats that would be needed for this?

How did the Jews get back from exile? Did they steal millions of boats? That's what happens when you have bad hermeneutics. You are forced to butcher history and God's Word to fit with your belief. Basically, what really happened is that God was warning the Israelites about the enemies that will invade them because of their disobedience from outside Israel, somewhere far away, and they'll be taken into exile and be scattered all over the place.

How do I know this? Because of Deuteronomy 24 -64. And the Lord will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other. Well, if we're going to take this literally again, wouldn't that mean that the Jews were taken and were scattered literally around the surrounding edges of the earth where the invaders came from and lived there with them?

Does that mean there was an entire generation of Israelites who knew about this literal dangerous edge and never bothered to tell anyone or write about it? What about Nehemiah when he spoke about this exile during the time and then escaped with the Jews?

In Nehemiah 1, verses 1 and 2, it says,. Now it happened in the month of Shislef. That's the ninth month of the Jewish calendar, which is our November and December, by the way. In the 20th year, I was in Susa, the citadel, that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah, and I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem.

How come there is no mention of the sea or boats or edges when they escaped from exile? It sounds like a pretty dramatic thing to mention. But more interestingly, Nehemiah is talking about being at Susa, the citadel, which is in Iran.

That's just over a thousand miles from Jerusalem. Last time I checked, that's nowhere near the edge or the ends of the earth. It goes on to say, Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples.

But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, for there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.

Now I want you to look at this verse in front of you. Look at it carefully. Is this now talking about the Israelites being outcasts in the uttermost parts of heaven? Is this literally talking about the Israelites being beyond the edge of the dome?

Beyond it? Because now we're talking about heaven, and that's literal? Of course not. But that's exactly what I would have to conclude if we're taking everything literally, right? Clearly these passages don't mean that the earth has edges, or that the Israelites were being attacked by people who live there, or that the Israelites were scattered outside this imaginary dome.

It's not even trying to imply these things. It just means that God was warning them. If they disobey Him, God will send them a nation from far away, outside Israel's borders, whose language they don't recognize or understand, who will invade them and take them as exiles to a far land.

That's it. These verses are not trying to describe the shape of the earth at all. But what about the words of Jesus when He said, and then He, the Son of Man, will send out the angels and gather His elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

Now what is that saying? Surely this proves the earth is flat. How else can you gather the elect from the ends of the earth on globe earth? Well, okay. But if this is about the shape of the earth, then we have a problem.

First of all, it means that people do definitely live around the ends of the earth right now, even though flat earth is insistent that no one lives there or can go there. But worse still, if people live there, but you can't go there, then these people could never hear the gospel, and therefore no one would ever repent, nor would they trust in Jesus.

Well, if that's the case, then how is Jesus going to gather His elect from there? There's going to be no elect. More interestingly, if everything is literal, then who are those living at the ends of heaven?

Do you hear that? It says, ends of heaven, to the ends of heaven. Are we now talking about people living literally next to the dome or on the other side of the dome? That doesn't make sense. So what's happening here?

Well, if we do a proper hermeneutics on this verse, then we find that all this is saying is that there are people beyond Israel who are saved. People from everywhere will all be gathered from outside Israel, just as people will be from inside Israel.

It's certainly not a lesson about the shape of the earth. It's a lesson about people's salvation. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense. Okay, now we come to a passage that flat earthers love to bring up.

This is probably the most interesting one, in my eyes. In fact, I like this one. Matthew 4, verses 8 to 10. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

And he said to him, all these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him, be gone, Satan. So, according to flat earthers, this passage is saying that Satan took him to a high mountain, and because of that, Jesus was able to see all the kingdoms of the world, or every nation of the world.

And the fact that he can see the whole kingdom means that the earth is flat. Otherwise, how else could Jesus see all the kingdoms of all the earth on a globe earth? Think about it. You see, you Christians, this is 100 proof.

The Bible says the earth is flat. Why can't you see it? All right. I'm going to do something very special with this one. I'm going to assume the earth is flat. You can't get fairer than that. Let's agree that this passage teaches the earth is flat.

Okay, now what's interesting about this passage is that there are some things we do know. First of all, we do know that the entire event took 40 days because that's how long Jesus was in the wilderness.

If you want, we can add more days, but I don't think that's going to help much. Secondly, the closest and the highest mountain to Jerusalem is Mount Scopus. It's about 2 ,710 feet high. That's not very high, but Jesus would still have to get there and back within 40 days, or within a few days at least.

When Jesus gets there, he will find out that it's not high enough to see the whole world from there. Why? Because there are plenty more higher mountains on earth that would get in his line of sight. That means he still wouldn't be able to see all the kingdoms of the world, even if the world is flat.

In fact, an aerial view of the area for Mount Scopus today—does it look like you can see the entire world from here? I don't think so. In fact, this view is even higher than the mountain itself, because this is using some kind of mast or drone to elevate the view even higher from that mountain.