FROM LEBANON TO BOSTON: DEFENDING FIRM FOUNDATIONS
Blessed Sabbath Brothers and Sisters
October 23, 2026
FROM LEBANON TO BOSTON: DEFENDING FIRM FOUNDATIONS
Continuing the series on the men and women who believed and promoted biblical cosmology. Sapphire Stone, in publishing these articles, does not necessarily agree with or endorse the personal views, theories, or conclusions of the individual authors.
"...let God be true, but every man a liar..." — Romans 3:4 (KJV)
INTRODUCING JOHN ABIZAID
Seventh-day Adventists keep the seventh-day Sabbath as the Creator's memorial: "For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day" (Exodus 20:11). The First Angel's Message of Revelation 14:7 calls the world back to the same truth: "worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." For Adventist readers, the truthfulness of the Creation record is not a side issue. It is the foundation of the Sabbath and of the everlasting gospel. That is why the believers of a century ago who defended the plain words of Genesis still deserve our attention. One of the most remarkable was John George Abizaid of Boston.
Abizaid was a Lebanese Christian, born about 1864–1868, who immigrated to the United States in 1889 and settled in Boston. He earned his living as a manufacturer of razor straps and called himself "Professor" Abizaid. His letters and publications gave addresses on Tyler Street and later at 3 Malden Street, where he was still living in 1940 with his wife Hilda and daughter Julia (Maps4u). He came from the very lands where the prophets wrote, and he read Scripture as they wrote it: plainly and literally. Like the Bereans, he searched to see "whether those things were so" (Acts 17:11).
A generation earlier, the Seventh-day Adventist civil engineer Alexander Gleason of Buffalo had published Is the Bible from Heaven? Is the Earth a Globe? (1890) and his well-known map of 1892. Historian Robert Schadewald called Gleason "the most important Seventh-day Adventist flat-earther." Abizaid carried the same conviction into Boston's Arabic-speaking community.
He was a humble, self-taught man. The principal of the Quincy Evening School wrote that he had been "one of my most valued pupils." He first wrote down his convictions in his native tongue, in an Arabic pamphlet in 1906, and then translated it into English himself. The preface to The Enlightenment of the World is dated May 13, 1910. A bilingual second edition followed in 1912, and a greatly enlarged third edition in 1935. The Arabic newspaper Al-Hoda gave the book a long article on June 25, 1910. In 1920 Abizaid personally gave a copy to the Boston Public Library, where it is still preserved.
His motive was service, not profit. He wrote "not for money or fame, but because I wish to show people who differ from my views where their mistakes lie." He wrote for ordinary believers, not scholars: "You do not need to accept it merely on faith, but you may see with your own eyes and feel with your own bodies"
His book follows the order of Creation itself: The Water, The Land, and The Sun, Moon and Stars. This mirrors the gathering of the waters, the appearing of the dry land, and the setting of the lights in the firmament in Genesis 1.
Water "runs always down and seeks its level," he wrote. It could no more stay on a round ball than water poured over one. He suggested a simple test: fill a pan with water and see whether the surface rises in the middle.
The land is solid, joined together beneath the oceans, and unmoved, just as the Psalmist says, "the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved" (Psalm 93:1). If the earth were turning, he argued, we would feel it as we feel a moving train, and the wind would blow constantly from one direction.
The pail argument. To critics who said a swung pail keeps its water in, he answered: "Who has seen the earth turn around in the way that a person turns a pail? No one" (Schadewald).
The sun, moon and stars. Above the fixed earth, he described a sun smaller than the earth, circling overhead and bringing day where its light reaches and night where it departs. In winter it goes far from us and the days are short and cold. In summer it draws nearer and the days are long and warm. These are the "lights in the firmament" that God set "for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years" (Genesis 1:14).
Gravity. He rejected gravitation as commonly taught. Lifeless, heavy things fall because they have no power of their own, he reasoned, while living creatures move as they please.
The heart of his work was the testimony of Scripture. His second edition added "letters showing the testimony of Scripture on the subject." In them he drew on the Creation account in Genesis 1:9 and 1:14–18: "Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear." He also cited:
Psalm 24:1–2: "he hath founded it upon the seas"
Psalm 102:25–26
Psalm 104:1–22
Psalm 136:6
Isaiah 42:5, which speaks of "God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth"
"In this Book of Holy Writ," he declared, "are proofs given by the prophets that the world is flat and stationary, and that the sun moon and stars are always in motion" (Schadewald). One of his readers added: "Joshua commanded the sun to stand still. If the earth had been turning he would have commanded the earth to stand still."
Abizaid shared his witness boldly. He sent copies to prominent men and received courteous replies from polar explorers Richard Byrd and Hubert Wilkins, Cardinal Farley, and several Harvard professors. Commander Byrd wrote: "I received your book 'The Enlightenment of the World,' also the map for which accept my thanks." Abizaid published a list of 225 names of "those who know and believe that the earth is flat and stationary," many of them from his own Arabic-speaking community. Faith also ran in his family. His sons Roger, a doctor of osteopathy, and Charles, a law student, wrote to affirm their agreement. "If I die," Abizaid wrote, "my children will build upon the same foundation." This echoes Deuteronomy 6:7: "thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children."
He also made maps. As early as 1911, readers were requesting his "World's Maps" and "Routine Maps of the SUN." About 1920 he published his best-known work, the full-color New Correct Map of the Flat Surface, Stationary Earth, printed with the instruction "When reading map lay it flat on table." The map places the North Pole at the center and divides the earth into five zones, ending in a dark, icy "South Circle" at the outer edge. The explanation is printed on the back in both English and Arabic. The design was his own and only loosely resembles Gleason's earlier map. Copies are held today by the Library of Congress and the Boston Public Library. In 1933 Abizaid stated that he had served as president of the Universal Zetetic Society.
Abizaid's life reminds historic Adventists of three things:
Scripture is its own interpreter. The plain words of Moses, David and Isaiah need no reworking to fit the theories of men.
The Creation record and the Sabbath stand or fall together. If the six days of Genesis are reduced to allegory, the memorial of the seventh day loses its meaning.
God's truth knows no borders. A razor-strap maker from Lebanon, writing in Arabic and English, joined believers like Alexander Gleason in calling men back to "worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea."
Abizaid's closing counsel applies to all today who stubbornly cling to traditions of men: "Don't be afraid to change your mind when you find that you have been mistaken by following the wrong way.”
TO READ HIS BOOK "THE ENLIGHTENMENT OF THE WORLD" CLICK BELOW.
LETTERS OF REVIEW IN BACK OF HIS BOOK:
Abizaid filled the last pages of The Enlightenment of the World with letters from his readers, both friends and critics, and his own replies. The most remarkable exchange is with Harvard University. In February 1911, Professor J. B. Woodworth, in charge of the Seismographic Station at Harvard's Geological Museum, wrote that he was "too old now to learn that the earth is not a sphere-like body," and asked, "It does not matter much, does it?" Abizaid, an immigrant who had learned to read and write English in night school, answered him plainly: "I am old and I learned how to read and write the English language. As a fact, the older a person gets the more he knows." To the question of whether it mattered, he replied that "it makes a lot of difference between the true and the false." Alongside the Harvard letters are words of encouragement from ordinary Boston believers. One of them, J. B. Thompson, urged him:
"Let us believe in the old book and be governed by it.”
Boston, Mass., July 14, 1910.
Mr. John G. Abizaid.
Dear Sir:
Have read your book on position of the earth and see nothing but simple facts. The Bible is the oldest and best book in the world. It is as explicit on the question of the world as on any other subject: Gen. 1:9. God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear, and it was so. Shall we want any other proof than that? Here it is; 14th Verse. And God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night: And let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, Gen. 1:14, 15. The 15th Verse you will please read, for it is important. Read the 16th and 17th and 18th. Do you need any more proof? Here it is; when Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt two thousand five hundred and thirteen years from creation at Mount Sinai Jesus gave the Ten Commandments. The second Commandment places it just where Gen. 1:9 when He spake and it was done. You may go where you will on this broad earth and you will find it as the word says. We must not forget that it is a destroyed earth for it is not what God made in the first place. It was mostly land—now it is two-thirds water to one-third land. I will refer you to the 24th Psalm, 1st and 2d Verses, also Ps. 104:1-22, Ps. 136:6, Ps. 102:25, 26, Isaiah 42:5. There are over a hundred passages that prove that this earth is not flying in the air. Let us believe in the old book and be governed by it. May God bless you in your work is my prayer.
Yours very truly, J. B. THOMPSON.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY. Geological Museum, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A., Seismographic Station, J. B. Woodworth, in charge.
February 23, 1911.
John G. Abizaid.
Dear Sir:
The press of many studies has prevented my acknowledging before now the receipt of your booklet and letter.
I am afraid I am too old now to learn that the earth is not a sphere-like body.
To be frank I do not see that you have proved that the world is not just as I regard it—and there we are; you don't see it as I see it.
It does not matter much, does it? Whether it is round or flat since we see so little of it.
I hope you prosper in your new place of business.
Very truly yours, J. B. WOODWORTH.
Boston, Mass., April 3, 1911.
Professor Woodworth, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
Dear Sir:
Answering yours of February 22nd, 1911, would like to say that at that time I was very busy so I could not answer you until the present time.
As you stated in your letter that you are too old to learn, I am old and I learned how to read and write the English language. As a fact, the older a person gets the more he knows, and I think that you ought to know whether the earth is ROUND or FLAT.
You also said that I don't see the earth as you see it, but I am sure that I do, but I don't see or feel that this earth is round or in motion and going around the SUN.
You did not see or feel this earth of ours going around the SUN. You also said that my booklet did not have any proofs in it. There are a great many proofs in it to make you change your mind, but you did not read it carefully.
Now you want to read it carefully and pay attention to every proof that it contains and you will find that I am right.
As to the difference it makes whether the earth is round or flat, why it makes a lot of difference between the true and the false.
Take my advice and read my book carefully and you will find the truth and you will let other people know the truth also.
Kindly don't forget and write me and let me know whether you have changed your mind or not, and oblige,
Respectfully yours, JOHN G. ABIZAID.
121 Tyler St., Boston, Mass.
I received a letter from Prof. Davis of the Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., dated April 27, 1911, saying that to print my book would cost a considerable sum of money; also that the earth turns round as some think, or stands still, as you think; still it is the same hard-working place.
I think Prof. Davis wants me to stop printing my book, by saying it will cost me a sum of money. And he told what the other people think, but he did not say what he thinks.
Also he says the earth is the same hard-working place. He did not say which way is right. I think he knows I am right on the flat earth subject, but he doesn't want to agree with me because it will be hard for him; he does not want to say anything on the subject for the reason that it would destroy his teaching.
Boston, Mass., April 20, 1911.
Mr. E. A. Scanlon, The Boston Globe,
Dear Sir:
Answering your letter of Jan. 30, 1911. You say you agree with me in every respect, save one which is that there is a force of gravitation. I am sure that there is no gravity on the earth as they believe. You ought to know that if you throw a dead body, it will go the way you give it power; as much as you give it power it will go, and when the power goes out from it it will come down itself. But if you throw a live body like a bird or an airship, and so forth, it will go where it pleases any way it likes. This is a good proof to show you the earth is a dead body; it has no power and no gravitation at all. If no water comes out of the earth or from the sky nothing will grow on the earth.
Yours truly, JOHN G. ABIZAID.
48 Shawmut Ave., Boston, Mass.,
June 6, 1912.
John G. Abizaid, 121 Tyler Street.
Dear Sir:
I have read your book on the "Flat Earth," and am quite pleased with it. It would be a good book for school children and for men and women of all ages who are ready and willing to think for themselves. I do not see for a moment how any man or woman can be intelligent and at the same time honest and believe that the earth is round and not flat—or as we see it. Any and all expanse of water cannot be other than flat upon its surface, and all land has but one surface, and difference only according to its various heights from the sea level.
That the sun is very high, small in comparison to the earth is certainly true.
The earth is too large and dense to move in the least, while the sun is always moving. For to teach otherwise is most absurd.
I shall be pleased to aid you in any way I can to unfound the falsity of a round and moving earth.
Yours sincerely, WILLIAM PEIL.
The cover of Abizaid's 1914 edition shows the American flag waving from a pole crowned with a soft, peaked cap. Known as the liberty cap or Phrygian cap, it traces back to ancient Rome, where a freed slave received a felt cap as a sign of his freedom. In Abizaid's day, ordinary Americans saw it as a familiar emblem of liberty. It appeared on Lady Liberty's pole on American coins, on the seals of the U.S. Senate and the Army, and on many state seals, and printers commonly placed it on flagpoles in ready-made patriotic illustrations. However, it is also known today that this cap is a Jesuit or revolutionary symbol with a hidden meaning. However, nothing in Abizaid's writings suggests he intended any such message. He was an immigrant from the Ottoman-ruled Levant who had found a home and freedom in America, and he most likely chose the image out of patriotism and gratitude for the nation that gave him the liberty to print his convictions. For Abizaid, that freedom was precious: the right to read the Bible and judge the evidence of his own eyes, without bowing to the teachings of men.
From the Pen of Inspiration
NOT BE ABLE TO HOLD OUR PEACE
There is a great work before us. The world is to be warned. The truth is to be translated into many languages, that all nations may enjoy its pure, life-giving influence. This work calls for the exercise of all the talents that God has intrusted to our keeping,—the pen, the press, the voice, the purse, and the sanctified affections of the soul. Christ has made us ambassadors to make known his salvation to the children of men; and if we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ and are filled with the joy of his indwelling Spirit, we shall not be able to hold our peace. The truth will be poured forth from hearts all aglow with the love of God. We shall long to present the attractions of Christ and the unseen realities of the world to come.RH October 29, 1914, Art. A, par. 18
YouTube
Comments