The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, May 10, 1928, Page 11

? s =— 2 WT, UT HENCE NARHA | Witbur Glenn Voliva, Famed Overseer of Zion, Gives the Ten Reasons Why He F: irmly Believes He Travelled to Europe On a Flat Earth ‘OU said it, Annabelle. It's a flat old world after all. Anyone wishing to disprove that sae can make $5, for him- sell. All he has to do is prove his point to the sat- isfaction of Wilbur Glenn Voliva, general over- seer of Zion City, Illinois, called by some folks “the holiest city on earth.” He believes the world is as flat as a pan- cake. He supports his belief by quotations from the Bible and by mathematical calcula- tions. At the moment Mr. Voliva is taking his first real vacation in 29 years traveling in Eu- tope, Africa and the Holy Land. To any one that can prove to him that the earth is round, rushes through space and is held in place by gravitation, Voliva will pay $5000 rican dollars. His offer holds good until ‘935 in which year the overseer of Zion predicts that the end of the world will be at hand and the millenium ushered in. By that time, Voliva figures, it won't make much difference whether the earth is flat or otherwise. Because in 1935 the bobbed-haired flappers, gin- toters and other jazz-age will get theirs in the form of a high voltage toaster lined with fire and brimstone. Voliva calls himself a Zetetic. This term, ac- cording to the dictionary, means seeker after truth. But more particularly it is applied to those who say the earth is flat as opposed to those who hold it to be round or globular. The latter are called “‘globularists.” ERE are 10 reasons why Voliva main- tains his contention is right: _ l—"The yeh does ot move. a4 a stationary plane. sun, moon ai rad eral “try Hare around oo pet y are propell two great etherial cur- tents, One current runs north, the other south. 2—"The sun is never seen below the horizon. But at the vernal equinox at 6 p. m., if the saith eevee giibe-<Ua ean weedld aime toe: sands of miles above and below the horizon, it the sun were the size astronomers say it is. 3—*Globularists contend that the earth is Wa ceditedecteae tess moon. say that only a can cast a round shadow. But this is not so. Go into a room at night. Turn on only one light. Take a flat ruler and a ball. It will at once be proven that even a flat piece of wood can cast a curved shadow on the ball. 4—‘‘Many of the fixed stars that show as mere pin points are to be suns of im- mense size, millions of miles away. “They are nothing of the kind. Astronomers and other followers of the Copernican system have removed them to such immeasurable distances, simply for the credit and convenience of their own standing still as it actually does, shadows of our lamp posts and tall trees in the city parks would fall ia a straight line. But they do'not. From sunrise to sumset they describe a great curve, about half of an ellipse. 66 A NY ONE wishing to make a test of this can do so with an orange or ball, in a darkened room with but one lamp. Place an upright stick near the center of a flat table, and carefully move the light half-way around. You will get the true sun curve. This the px fr han gn gaa 22 jesus Christ returns shall see Him.’ t if the earth be how could every person see Him? Those that live on the bottom Copyright, Hispanic Socicty of America 6 HE Bible contains numerous refer- ences to the fact fore that God has set a boun- dary upon the face of the waters. They can go no farther than this boun- dary which is the mighty ‘ circumferential wall of ice past which no man has ever gone except in his imagination. Further than this, and as just one more irrefutable proof that the earth is a stationary plane, look to the moon for corroboration. “Scientists admit that the moon travels around the earth once a month, while the earth travels around the sun. The motion of the earth thus described in relation to the sun is supposed to represent an ellipse. “If this were so then the motion described by the moon would be neither a circle or an ellipse but a series of cycloidal curves much after the fashion of a snake track. “This theory would have the moon moving, now fast and now slow. At other times it would be stationary. And then again it would go back- ward in relation to the chat hn ee a, ae ion tribute othe lov, that she i “the faithful witness fn the sky." 'N ZION no one is allowed to smoke or chew. There is no swearing, and short skirts are lengthened by jail sentences slay the wear proto gue. Botled beatae da upon. Members of the Zion church (who number approximately 4500) eat no pork or any fish 0 A id 4 = 4 3 3 : 3 = A Genoese mapmaker’s conception of the “flat world supposed to exist in 1457, be- the days of Columbus. . . earth Believer Voliva—above—now travel- ing over the old world, might well find it still quaint, distorted. Overseer Voliva . . heads as upon “‘globularists.” . ._. Recent- ly awarded a prize of $500 for Zion's best “crowning glory.” SUOMLLUUUNGDUNUATUQQONU0 008 RMB aannenn AN AUTennea nae? without scales or fins. In this respect they follow the Mosaic law of the Old Testament. They shun lobsters, believe in divine healing and have no use for doc- tors, medicines or drugs. They are a thrifty and prosperous lot with nothing particularly odd about their manner or appearance to distinguish them from other people. Last year Zion's 20 odd industries, including a bakery, candy factory, community stores and a large printing establishment, all doing a na- tional business, took in more than $6,000,000. Yet, when Voliva came into control of Zion the.city was bankrupt. He had to conduct meet- ings in a tent outside the town and his total assets were scheduled at 83 cents. Due to his acknowledged business and organ- izing ability he recouped all losses and restored Zion to a place of prosperity unprecedented in its history. As supreme temporal and spiritual ruler, . Flat- + frowns on bobbed _— Voliva heads all this in- i dustry just as he holds title to most of the land on which the city is built some 50 miles north of Chicago. What land he does not hold title to is pos- sessed by outsiders. Most of once belonged to the Zoo church but broke away following the death of John Alexander Dowie in 1907. Dowie was Zion's founder. Voliva succeeded him and this succession occasioned a bitter fac- tional fight which has not yet died. Occasionally the “insurgents,” as Voliva calls them, try to stage a comeback. Then a miniature sort of “holy war” breaks out. But Voliva has the biggest following. The mayor, the council (Copyright, 1928, NEA Magazine) AULA LARA MNCS ALANA AAD LAA A tna SOUAAAIUALUVUUNAUUUUEOEOOUEENYUUOUOUOUUTNOQUOUUOAQOOUOUOUEU EAE EAT aw Ue TY Citizens of Zion. . . Wilbur Glen Voliva . . . quotes the Bible, works in math- ematics to “prove” the world is built on the lines of a pancake. and all the policemen belong to his church and that gives him the upper hand. Members are not permitted to buy Zion property outright. Instead they lease it from Voliva for 1100 years. IHE. reason all leases read for such periods and not for any other is to allow 100 years for the end of the world and a full 1000 years for the enjoyment of the millenium. This, Voliva predicts, will come in 1935. The signs of the times are at hand, he has warned. Voliva bases his prediction that 1935 is to’ see the end of the world on a Biblical interpre- tation that 2520 years were to pass before the restoration of the Jews in Palestine. He oye this restoration took definite form in 1917 when General Allenby marched into Jerusalem on Dec. 9, 1917, thus marking the cel the times of the Gentiles spoken of in the ible. Every one of Voliva's followers accepts the OU UUUTUELENU CAAA Lt shun doctors, potions and pills, teach fundamental- ism, raise buxom daughters to believe in a level, unmoving carth. Bible literally. They use it to settle all disputes and nothing that cannot be settled by the Bible is contemplated. ‘ For that reason all Zionists who follow Voliva are fervent fundamentalists. And it also explains why they will not permit their chil- to be taught that the world is anything else but flat. “Modern astronomy has done more harm than any other piece of bunk ever perpetrated,” Voliva says. “Evo- lution is only a gnat compared with the evils wrought by the teachings of Copernicus. “How could this earth possibly revolve at the speed science says it does and still holds on its surface?” Voliva contends that the sun is only 2700 miles away and not more than 100 miles across, if that. gravitation is a fallacy and that there is only one pole— the north pole. “The rest of the world is set in the water just as the Bible says,”” he argues. there is nothing but an impenetrable barrier of ice beyond which no man can go. The earth does not move an inch. Only the planets move and none of them is as large as the earth. are they millions of miles away as scientists, who know nothing about what they are talking, say. He says “Around the edge of the world Neither G7 FNHE round-carth advocates claim that the amount of dip, or curvature, which should exist on a globe such as ours is said to be, is around two feet and cight inches to the mile. “Multiply that by 100 miles and you have the Suez ca- nal. This would be enough to make the canal a roaring cataract if it were truc. But it has only a six-inch rise. **Now as for the sun being 92 million miles away, these same scientists contend, just think how silly that is. Imagine a wise builder putting up + a house and then lighting it with a lamp thou- sands of times bigger than the house and placed 92 miles away. “No one would think such a builder had ver much sense. And yet, the Creator, who is al wise, is imputed to have done just such a thing with this house of ours, which he has built for us. “It is easy to disprove this sun theory, too. At the time of the equinoxes, March 21 and September 24, the sun is directly over the equa- tor in the longitude of Bordeaux at noon. It casts a right-angle triangle when its rays fall vertically on the line drawn from Bordeaux to This line is not more than 2700 miles and by a simple problem of geometry having to do with the equality of the opposite sides of a right-angle triangle thus made, the distance of the sun from the earth is the same as the distance of Bordeaux from the equator. “They try to prove the round earth theory by gradual disappearance of ships at sea. First the hull moves out of sight and then the masts. This, say the globularists, is proof complete that the earth is round. But they are wrong again. The ships do not dis- appear because they are going over the rim of the earth's circle. They simple converge as railroad tracks seem to converge when viewed from a dis- tance. “Such convergence is governed entirely by the laws of optics and imperfect perspective. Men have been known to see ships at sea for distances of 200 miles just as they have seen lights at sea for such distances, too. “Such occurrences positively belie the theory of rotundity because if rotundity of the earth were true, at 200 miles, or far less than that, ships and lights would be completely barred from all vision. “This round earth theory is the work of the devil and devised solely to lead men astray and to forget God. 669N ZION we have 1100 of our own chil- dren in our own parochial schools. I would not teach them such rot.” Voliva maintains that, with the earth stretched out as a stationary plane and resting on the waters just as the Bible says, he will defy any man to sail around the outer, or 75th parallel, and report the distance less than 60,000 miles. “The Bible says, “as far as the east is from the west so far shall your transgressions be re- moved from you,’ he quotes. “You do not find the Bible mentioning as far as the north is from the south. Why not? Be- cause the earth is flat. All there is is east and west. “I feel sorry for the poor fellow who thinks the equator. che is going to fly to the south pole. All he will find there is a mathematical point entirely non- existent. Around the rim of the world there is only a mountain of ice. Upon this great wall rests the vault of Heaven and no man can go beyond it.” ia LL CANOGA AN LU LIOTTA AUT