Excellent, Quotes!
If they do show up again, you might argue with respect to the "circle of the earth" business the following way:
Ask her if she thinks a pizza pie and a beach ball have the same shape. Obviously she'll have no choice but to answer No. If she persists in saying that both are round, ask her how she would describe to a child how to make meatballs. Would she say, "roll the meat into a circle"? Or "roll the meat into a ball"? This can go in obvious directions once she commits herself.
If she agrees that a pizza and a beach ball have different shapes, then point out what Isaiah 40:22 actually says: that God is "One who is stretching out the heavens just as a fine gauze, who spreads them out like a tent in which to dwell." Next point out the mental image presented in the passage: if the earth has a pizza pie shape, then the image of God sitting high above it, spreading out the heavens like a tent cover, makes perfect sense. But try to picture spreading a tent cover over a ball-shaped earth. It can't be done. Where would the edges of the tent be? This also can go in obvious directions.
Finally point out the passages in Daniel and Matthew that clearly indicate that the writer had in mind a flat earth:
Daniel 4:10-11 describes Nebuchadnezzar's dream:
Now the visions of my head upon my bed I happened to be beholding, and, look! a tree in the midst of the earth, the height of which was immense. The tree grew up and became strong, and its very height finally reached the heavens, and it was visible to the extremity of the whole earth.
The image is of a huge tree standing in the middle of a flat, circular earth. This is consistent with the "circle of the earth" shape mentioned in Isaiah. Obviously, no matter how high a tree is, it can't be visible "to the extremity of the whole earth" if it's ball-shaped, so the Daniel passage conflicts with an image of a ball-shaped earth.
Next point to Matthew 4:8, which says about Jesus:
Again the Devil took him along to an unusually high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
Again the picture is that all the kingdoms of the world could be viewed from a sufficiently high mountain, which is not possible on a ball-shaped earth. If this were not the intended picture, then why was it used?
The simple fact is that every word picture given in the Bible about the shape of the earth points to a flat, circular shape, like a pizza pie. Not a single passage gives the impression of a ball-shaped earth.
AlanF
