I find this verse interesting in light of the discussion here:
The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD'S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men. (Psalm 115:16)
This verse is worth considering too:
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. (Genesis 1:28)
My understanding of the first verse is that God has made the earth for mankind, and this is where He wants mankind to stay. He does not want us travelling into outer space, trying to colonise other planets and suchlike. All that belongs to Him. It's not for us. In the Bible, the only time that anyone travels beyond the earth is when God supernaturally transports them in the spirit (examples include Isaiah, Ezekiel, Paul and John). And when He does that, it is NOT to take them to the Moon or another planet, but to show them something about Heaven or the supernatural world generally. Sometimes, as in John's case, it is to give them a prophecy of the future, and show the spiritual activities that will behind the events on Earth when those things come to pass.
The second verse also tells us that God wants mankind to replenish, subdue and have dominion over THE EARTH. There is no command to go to the Moon, or Mars, and subdue them. So given that part of God's will for man is to live on the earth that He has created and given to us, it seems reasonable to conclude that He has made it very difficult, if not impossible, for mankind to travel beyond the limits of Earth, even to make a relatively "short" journey to the Moon.
When you think about it, the desire of man to travel beyond the earth is a symptom of pride (wanting to be "as gods", because it would feel pretty godlike to take over other planets), rebellion against God and discontent. Hebrews 13:5 instructs us to be content with such things as we have, so that would, I believe, extend to being content with living on this earth (until our appointed time to die comes, or the Rapture, whichever is first). For that matter, there is an element of covetousness attached to wanting to live on other planets. Essentially, man is coveting what God has said belongs to Him.
It does therefore seem likely, purely from a Scriptural understanding of how God has set up the heavens and earth, that the Moon landings were faked. If they had been real, you would think they would have been continued and that maybe even some sort of space station would have been established on the Moon. But if they were fake, then maybe NASA discontinued them before the ruse could be exposed. Money would have been an issue too - it would have cost billions to either travel into space or construct an elaborate hoax about it. (Although money didn't seem to be too much of an object for the space shuttles in the '80s and '90s.) As for the motive, it may well have been American pride (wanting to get one over on the Soviet Union). However, I think it was as much to do with human pride generally - exalting man, making people believe that man is capable of more than he actually is. It's probably the exact same rebellious spirit that led to the Tower of Babel being built. Remember the motive for that?
And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. (Genesis 11:4)
This was possibly mankind's first attempt to go into outer space, although their aim was Heaven, not the Moon or other planets. Notice also that they didn't want to obey God's command to fill (replenish) the earth. They wanted to go straight up to Heaven by their own efforts (the Tower of Babel is, among other things, a symbol of works salvation). So they too were motivated by pride and rebellion. They wanted to make a name for themselves and create something for their own glory. Likewise, the Moon landings were all about glorifying man. Nothing new under the sun.
If the Moon landings were faked, it makes you wonder about some of the satellite imagery that we sometimes see - especially of Mars. So-called footage of Mars looks suspiciously like the Australian outback (which has a tremendous abundance of red soil). With modern drone technology, it probably wouldn't be that hard to plonk a drone in the middle of the outback somewhere and get it to send camera footage back to NASA headquarters. They could then edit out any signs of earthly life (like flies buzzing everywhere) and say "Hey, look, here's some new satellite imagery from Mars!" Not saying they're definitely doing that, just that it would be a fairly easy way to create fake footage. They could probably do it in the American deserts as well and just play around with colour effects. But with a higher population density in the States, they'd have more chance of getting caught. Even if that footage purportedly from Mars is somehow real, it's feeding into man's foolish imagination and wicked desire to travel beyond the earth that God has given us to live on.
Just as a side note, many (or most) flat-earthers believe the Moon landings were faked, because the photos supposedly taken on the Moon show a spherical earth. So one of their arguments (which I have come across) is that if the Moon landings were fake, the spherical earth is too. They conflate the two things, which is a logical fallacy. Moreover, even if it can be proven that the Moon landings were faked (and therefore the photos are frauds), there are still way too many indications that we can observe on Earth to show it's a sphere. In fact, we don't need NASA's photos at all. Real or fake, they're irrelevant. But it's a shame that if NASA has deceived us with the Moon landings, it facilitates other deceptions and encourages people in them.
