Global Warming and the Bible
2 Peter 3:3-14
These days it seems you can hardly turn on the TV, go online, or open your morning newspaper without being confronted with the idea of global warming. In his 2006 Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore presents global warming as an imminent threat to the planet and paints an alarming picture of a future in which mankind ultimately destroys life on earth.
But global warming is far more complex than one 96-minute film can convey, and most people are simply not getting some of the most important information.
The Global Warming Message-
Examples of misinformation and hysteria are not hard to find. One of the most recent examples of hysteria was a special report on global warming published in the April 3, 2006, issue of Time magazine.9 The article flatly states without any qualifications, “The climate is crashing, and global warming is to blame.”10 Humans are blamed for global warming, and the potentially harmful effects are emphasized.10 The article claims that serious debate has quietly ended (although this is untrue) and lists many devastating weather, climate and environmental occurrences. Serious debate has only ended because radical environmentalists now dominate the discussion and malign those who disagree. This is not unlike the creation/evolution debate.
There are many other examples of wrong information, half-truths and hysteria. In the January 22, 1996, issue of Time magazine, the front cover exclaimed, “The hot zone—blizzards, floods & hurricanes: blame global warming.”11 Believe it or not, even blizzards such as the powerful East Coast northeaster of January 1996 have been blamed on global warming by some advocates. It seems like some believe all bad weather is caused by global warming. One of the problems in countering such misinformation is that people have short memories or do not read weather history.
Probably the most outrageous example of false information is a video produced in 1990 that claimed world temperatures would rise 55°F (30°C) by the year 2050! (From Answers in Genesis website)
The Reaction to the Message -Fear
This past April, the Washington Post interviewed a 9-year-old who said the Earth is “just starting to fade away.” In 20 years there will be “no oxygen” he said, and he’ll be dead. The Post went on to say, “for many children and young adults, global warming is defining their generation.”
My friends, our children are being taught that the earth is being destroyed; the animals are all dying, and its all our fault. Many of our children and young people are living in fear.
a. A Green Bible and Earth Bible are now out.
b. A "Green Hotel" in Calf. Took out Gideon bible, and put Al Gore’s book An Inconvenient Truth in its place in all the rooms.
c. The most widely read scientific journals Science and Nature have an article on the effects and dangers of man-made global warming almost weekly. Outlandish statements are rampant, such as: “A well-known environmental spokesperson warns that future sea-level rise will drown much of creation.”3 A woman even aborted her baby, saying that she was reducing her “carbon footprint.”
She is not a lone nutcase...
Global-Warming Alarmist Advocates Abortion
by Jennifer Mesko, editor
U.S. population expert calls hyped-up report an ’economic death warrant.’
The British government’s "green adviser" says couples who have more than two children are being “irresponsible” by creating an unbearable burden on the environment, The (London) Times reported.
Jonathon Porritt, who chairs the government’s Sustainable Development Commission, says curbing population growth through contraception and abortion must be at the heart of policies to fight global warming.
“I am unapologetic about asking people to connect up their own responsibility for their total environmental footprint and how they decide to procreate and how many children they think are appropriate,” Porritt told The Times.
“I think we will work our way towards a position that says that having more than two children is irresponsible. It is the ghost at the table." A report by the commission, to be published next month, follows a similar one out of Australia that claimed babies harm the economy.
THE FACTS OF GLOBAL WARMING
In the global warming debate, it is important to separate fact from interpretation. We hear a great deal about the dangers of CO2 emissions and greenhouse gases, but rarely do we hear the facts behind the hype. Even “facts” need to be qualified. For example, NASA has reported that the average number of major hurricanes (categories 4 and 5) has doubled since 1970. But this is “selective data sorting.” When you calculate the average of all hurricanes, you find much less of an increase. In fact, the year 2007 saw a decrease in hurricanes. So NASA’s “fact” may be true, but it is not the whole truth.
Let’s examine the basic facts and assumptions behind five major claims about global warming . .
Global Warming’s top five claims: fact or fiction?
Claim #1: Global Warming is Really Happening.
Global warming is really happening, in the strictest definition of the term. According to the National Climatic Data Center, the average global surface temperature has risen approximately 1.2°F (0.7°C) since 1880. However, this fact alone does not tell us the causes of the warming.
Further evidence that natural fluctuations are significant is that during the early and mid-1970s, a cooling trend increased the amount of sea ice. This happened at a time when the buildup of carbon dioxide should have caused global warming. It initiated the idea that the ice age was around the corner, since according to the Milankovitch mechanism, the next ice age is due soon Several books with this theme were published. One of them was The Cooling: Has the Next Ice Age Already Begun? Can we Survive it?34 Climatologist Stephen Schneider published The Genesis Strategy: Climate and Global Survival, in which he asked: “Would a new cycle of droughts related to a global cooling trend portend chronic famine and world chaos?” 35 Yes, global cooling would initiate droughts. It is interesting that after the cooling trend petered out and global warming continued, Schneider dusted off the drought scare, but this time for global warming:(Farah)
We do know that the temperature of the earth has fluctuated over time. Parts of the earth have been covered with great ice sheets, but at one time; most of the earth was temperate. Many are unaware that much of Siberia is filled with the bones and fossils of massive herds of Mammoths, rhinos, and other animals that once lived there. In order for enough plants to grow to support those massive herds, it had to be much warmer than it is now. Antarctica has some of the largest coal deposits, which come from plants and animals, on earth. [Charles Coulston Gillispie Genesis and Geology (Harper & Row, 1951); Byron C. Nelson, The Deluge Story in Stone, (Augsburg Publishing House, 1931)] “Russian farmers farmed northern Siberia for centuries. When the area became cold and desolate, the farmers moved south.”[John Stossel, The Global Warming Myth (Story on ABC News, April 20, 2007] Although Greenland’s temperature has risen in the last 10 years, it was warmer in the 1920’s and 1930’s than it is now.[Petr Chylek et al., Geophysical Letters, 13 June, 2006]
Claim #2: We are Causing Global Warming.
The amount of warming since 1880 has been about 1.2°F (0.67°C).6 However, a certain percentage of this warming is likely due to natural fluctuations, especially on the sun.7 From about 1300 to 1880, the Little Ice Age 8 occurred, in which practically all the glaciers in the world advanced, whereas now they are receding. There was less energy from the sun during the Little Ice Age and more volcanic activity, which helped cool the surface of the earth.9,10 It is possible such natural long-term climatic cycles caused half of the 1.2°F (0.67°C) rise.
There are also a number of scientists who believe global warming, so far, has been slight. They believe that doomsayers have not proven their case for the expected huge temperature increase for a doubling of carbon dioxide, and that increased carbon dioxide may have a net beneficial effect. In fact, 20,000 scientists, of whom about 2,700 of them are physicists, geophysicists, climatologists, meteorologists, oceanographers or environmental scientists, who are in a position to understand the global warming issues, have signed the following statement:
There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.4
Claim #3: Global Warming Will Cause Many Animals and Plants To Go Extinct.
Al Gore’s documentary presents viewers with a computer-animated polar bear treading water, struggling to find rest on the last, thin shelf of ice, which breaks apart under his weight. It is an image expressly designed to provoke emotion in the viewer. Polar bears, in reality, are currently thriving.
Receding glaciers, melting ice caps, and other changes are, of course, likely to affect a variety of animal and plant species. But based on the fossil record, it appears that many species, such as the Miohippus (a small three-toed, woodland horse) and the woolly mammoth, flourished in the changing climates after Noah’s Flood, and eventually went extinct (see “A Dark and Stormy World,” p. 78). Humans clearly had nothing to do with these climate changes and extinctions.
According to some climate models, which use current data and a variety of assumptions to predict future climate patterns, several plant and animal species could go extinct by 2050 due to climate change. Currently, however, there are no documented extinctions resulting from global warming.
Claim #4: The Oceans Will Rise Dramatically in the Next Century.
This is one of the more alarming claims. In An Inconvenient Truth Gore presents a model in which an ice sheet, whether in Greenland or West Antarctica, slides into the sea, raising the ocean level by 20 feet (6 m) and submerging much of the earth’s coastlines, home to 100 million people. The film implies that this will happen within the next 50 years.
While this would certainly be alarming if it were true, no hard scientific evidence exists to back up the prediction. In fact, even Gore’s staunchest supporters don’t seem to be convinced: www.stopglobalwarming.org claims that the ocean level will rise only six feet in the next hundred years, a substantial difference—but they present no scientific evidence to back up even their claim.
First of all, in Genesis 8:22, we’re told of a promise by God never to use global floodwaters again as a means of destroying life on Earth. In that promise, the Bible explicitly states: "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."
In other words, no more cataclysmic floods – the result Al Gore promises in the near future as a consequence of global warming. Just as importantly, there is another promise there that cold and heat shall not cease.
What does that mean?
It means God controls the world’s temperature, not man. God controls the climate, not man. God controls the earth’s "eco-system," not man. God controls our environment, not man.
It is so presumptuous and haughty of believers and non-believers alike to think man is in control of the destiny of the planet God created for us.
If it were so, would he not have warned us? With all of the prophecies in the Bible, should we not expect to be told that such matters are actually in our hands? Why would we be told exactly the opposite throughout scripture
Claim #5: Global Warming Will Cause an Increasing Number of Weather Catastrophes.
Global warming has been blamed for increased hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts, and extreme temperatures. But we must keep a few things in mind. First, extreme weather has never been out of the ordinary since Noah’s Flood. Secondly, scientists now have satellites and other advanced equipment that can identify and record modern weather events that would have gone unrecorded in the past, making it difficult to validate whether these events have been increasing.
While the number of hurricanes has increased in recent decades, a recent study in the journal Nature Geoscience concludes that global warming is not to blame for increased hurricanes and, in fact, hurricanes are likely to decrease by the end of the century.3 (From Global Warming in Perspective -Answers Magazine and online Answers in Genesis, by Melinda Christian August 25, 2008)
Before you get into bed with the Global Warming Crowd you need to understand where they are coming from.
I For Most the theory is a Godless one. -Mention of God or his word is absent - Science and evolution is king.
World net daily - Farah
I can certainly understand why neo-pagans like Al Gore believe, despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary, man-made, catastrophic global warming is the gravest threat to the planet.
What I can’t understand is why people who claim to believe in the Bible as the inerrant, inspired Word of God do so.
Even more difficult to comprehend is why some evangelical Christians are caught up in the notion that government and international action are the proper methods to fight this phantom threat.
II For Most the theory is taught by those who worship the creation not the creator.
Using all their time, energy to save the planet and animals from Greenhouse gas, but doing nothing to please the creator of all. Saving the whales, but aborting the babies created in the image of God.
We are specifically warned against this misplaced devotion to the Creation in Romans 1:21-25: "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
"Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
"And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
"Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
"Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen."
III The Environment’s greatest threat is sin and rebellion not greenhouse gas.
1. It caused the Earth/Environment to be cursed in Genesis 3
2. It caused the Earth/Environment to be destroyed by the Global Flood Genesis 6
If Green house gas was the problem. If it were so, would he not have warned us? With all of the prophecies in the Bible, should we not expect to be told that such matters are actually in our hands? Why would we be told exactly the opposite throughout scripture?
It’s not that the Bible tells us there are no consequences for our actions on the planet. In fact, it quite explicitly does. But it is not the production of carbon dioxide that God finds offensive. It is the commission of sin. Nowhere in the Bible does God ever suggest that producing CO2 is sinful.
Keep in mind, it is not a pollutant. It is a naturally occurring gas – just like oxygen. God created CO2, not man. And nature’s God still produces a lot more of it than does man. (Farah)
IV Man is God’s only creation made in his image.
-Animals are not equal in value or importance in spite of Peta’s claims.
-God commanded them to be killed to atone for man’s sin, until Jesus came.
-God allowed them to be eaten for food. Gensis 9:3
V Don’t get so upset by what might happen, and forget what will absolutely happen.
-People are buying green cars, homes, computers, etc to stop global warming, BUT
-People are not preparing for the coming of the Lord and the end of time.
We are told in Revelation 16:9: "And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory."
What this means is that scorching heat will be used as a judgment against non-believers, and, most importantly, that God and God alone has the power over such calamities.
Yes, there will come a time when the Earth is destroyed – and intense heat will be the mechanism God employs. But we are not talking about a rise of a few degrees over centuries. We’re talking about heat so severe it melts the very elements that comprise the Earth.
That comes in a day that sounds very much like the time in which we live. It is described in 2 Peter 3:
3 First, I want to remind you that in the last days there will be scoffers who will laugh at the truth and do every evil thing they desire. 4 This will be their argument: "Jesus promised to come back, did he? Then where is he? Why, as far back as anyone can remember, everything has remained exactly the same since the world was first created." 5 They deliberately forget that God made the heavens by the word of his command, and he brought the earth up from the water and surrounded it with water. 6 Then he used the water to destroy the world with a mighty flood. 7 And God has also commanded that the heavens and the earth will be consumed by fire on the day of judgment, when ungodly people will perish.
8 But you must not forget, dear friends, that a day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.
9 The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise to return, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to perish, so he is giving more time for everyone to repent. 10 But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and everything in them will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be exposed to judgment.
11 Since everything around us is going to melt away, what holy, godly lives you should be living! 12 You should look forward to that day and hurry it along – the day when God will set the heavens on fire and the elements will melt away in the flames. 13 But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world where everyone is right with God. 14 And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to live a pure and blameless life. And be at peace with God. (New Living Translation)
_____________________
3 First off, you need to know that in the last days, mockers are going to have a heyday. Reducing everything to the level of their puny feelings, 4 they’ll mock, "So what’s happened to the promise of his Coming? Our ancestors are dead and buried, and everything’s going on just as it has from the first day of creation. Nothing’s changed." 5 They conveniently forget that long ago all the galaxies and this very planet were brought into existence out of watery chaos by God’s word. 6 Then God’s word brought the chaos back in a flood that destroyed the world. 7 The current galaxies and earth are fuel for the final fire. God is poised, ready to speak his word again, ready to give the signal for the judgment and destruction of the desecrating skeptics.
8 Don’t overlook the obvious here, friends. With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day.
9 God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn’t want anyone lost. He’s giving everyone space and time to change. 10 But when the Day of God’s Judgment does come, it will be unannounced, like a thief. The sky will collapse with a thunderous bang, everything disintegrating in a huge conflagration, earth and all its works exposed to the scrutiny of Judgment.
11 Since everything here today might well be gone tomorrow, do you see how essential it is to live a holy life? 12 Daily expect the Day of God, eager for its arrival. The galaxies will burn up and the elements melt down that day - 13 but we’ll hardly notice. We’ll be looking the other way, ready for the promised new heavens and the promised new earth, all landscaped with righteousness. 14 So, my dear friends, since this is what you have to look forward to, do your very best to be found living at your best, in purity and peace. (The Message)
Luke 21
25 "And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; 26 men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven will be shaken. 27 Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near."
Revelation 6
12 I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. 13 And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. 14 Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. 15 And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, 16 and said to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?" (NKJV)
Revelation 8:7-13
7 The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.
Sources:
www.answersingenesis.com
www.worldnetdaily.com Joseph Farah, The Bible and ’global warming’, Nov. 5, 2007
www.sermoncentral.com “Don’t Sweat Global Warming” Gene Gregory
The Facts
Probably the most outrageous example of false information is a video produced in 1990 that claimed world temperatures would rise 55°F (30°C) by the year 2050!12
Further evidence that natural fluctuations are significant is that during the early and mid-1970s, a cooling trend increased the amount of sea ice. This happened at a time when the buildup of carbon dioxide should have caused global warming. It initiated the idea that the ice age was around the corner, since according to the Milankovitch mechanism, the next ice age is due soon. Several books with this theme were published. One of them was The Cooling: Has the Next Ice Age Already Begun? Can we Survive it?34 Climatologist Stephen Schneider published The Genesis Strategy: Climate and Global Survival, in which he asked: “Would a new cycle of droughts related to a global cooling trend portend chronic famine and world chaos?” 35 Yes, global cooling would initiate droughts. It is interesting that after the cooling trend petered out and global warming continued, Schneider dusted off the drought scare, but this time for global warming:
World net daily - Farah
I can certainly understand why neo-pagans like Al Gore believe, despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary, man-made, catastrophic global warming is the gravest threat to the planet.
What I can’t understand is why people who claim to believe in the Bible as the inerrant, inspired Word of God do so.
Even more difficult to comprehend is why some evangelical Christians are caught up in the notion that government and international action are the proper methods to fight this phantom threat.
First of all, in Genesis 8:22, we’re told of a promise by God never to use global floodwaters again as a means of destroying life on Earth. In that promise, the Bible explicitly states: "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."
In other words, no more cataclysmic floods – the result Al Gore promises in the near future as a consequence of global warming. Just as importantly, there is another promise there that cold and heat shall not cease.
What does that mean?
It means God controls the world’s temperature, not man. God controls the climate, not man. God controls the earth’s "eco-system," not man. God controls our environment, not man.
It is so presumptuous and haughty of believers and non-believers alike to think man is in control of the destiny of the planet God created for us.
In Isaiah 49, in a passage evangelicals believe represent the words of Jesus Himself, there is another promise – that those who follow Him would never perish from the heat of the sun.
"They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor the sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them," it says in Isaiah 49:10.
If cataclysmic global warming represented a real threat to believers, would God have made such a promise through Isaiah?
That is not to say heat will never be used as a means of judgment. In fact, it will be according to the Bible.
We are told in Revelation 16:9: "And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory."
What this means is that scorching heat will be used as a judgment against non-believers, and, most importantly, that God and God alone has the power over such calamities.
Yes, there will come a time when the Earth is destroyed – and intense heat will be the mechanism God employs. But we are not talking about a rise of a few degrees over centuries. We’re talking about heat so severe it melts the very elements that comprise the Earth.
That comes in a day that sounds very much like the time in which we live. It is described in 2 Peter 3:
3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
Are today’s evangelicals who agree with the worldly that the greatest threat to mankind is represented in catastrophic, man-made global warming without spot and blameless?
It is sheer folly and ego for man to believe he controls the destiny of God’s creation. But it is even more disgraceful when those who claim to believe His Word preach a false gospel of global warming that directly contradicts the entire body of scripture.
Global Warming’s top five claims: fact or fiction?
Claim #1: Global Warming is Really _____________
Claim #2: _______ are Causing Global Warming
Claim #3: Global Warming Will Cause Many Animals and Plants To Go _____________.
Claim #4: The____________ Will Rise Dramatically in the Next Century
Claim #5: Global Warming Will Cause an Increasing Number of ___________Catastrophes.
I For Most the theory is a __________ one.
II For Most the theory is taught by those who worship the ___________not the creator.
III The Environment’s greatest threat is _______________________ not greenhouse gas.
IV Man is God’s only creation made in his ______________.
V Don’t get so upset by what might happen, and forget what is _______________.
