Recently I got an email from a friend in California. She wrote:
Hi Bob!
I am a climate change sceptic. Actually, I find it quite arrogant of mankind to think that any puny effort on their part, can alter God’s creation. I thought you might enjoy this article on the subject. Food for thought…delete if not interested.
Your friend and sister in Christ,
From California, the land of fruits and nuts! Oh, and electric cars.
The condensed version of the long article she sent is that the latest heat wave is being caused by an underwater volcano in the vicinity of the island of Tonga in the South Pacific. Volcanoes can cause changes in climate due primarily to the ash partially blocking the sun. With this eruption there was little ash escaping to the atmosphere due to it occurring underwater and instead a huge amount of water vapor was released comprising as much as 10% of the water in the atmosphere. Many scientists say this phenomenon combined with the oceans moving away from a La Nina to an El Nino are raising the temperature of the Pacific which in turn creates much of our weather.
I was hard pressed to find anything on Google that denied that climate change is occurring. I did find the following:
“Whether most scientists outside climatology believe that global warming is happening is less relevant than whether the climatologists do. A letter signed by over 50 leading members of the American Meteorological Society warned about the policies promoted by environmental pressure groups. “The policy initiatives derive from highly uncertain scientific theories. They are based on the unsupported assumption that catastrophic global warming follows from the burning of fossil fuel and requires immediate action. We do not agree.” Those who have signed the letter represent the overwhelming majority of climate change scientists in the United States, of whom there are about 60. McMichael and Haines quote the 1995 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is widely believed to “prove” that climate change induced by humans has occurred. The original draft document did not say this. What happened was that the policymakers’ summary (which became the “take home message” for politicians) altered the conclusions of the scientists. This led Dr Frederick Seitz, former head of the United States National Academy of Sciences, to write, “In more than sixty years as a member of the American scientific community … I have never witnessed a more disturbing corruption of the peer-review process than the events that led to this IPCC report.”
Policymaking should be guided by proved fact, not speculation. Most members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change believe that current climate models do not accurately portray the atmosphere-ocean system. Measurements made by means of satellites show no global warming but a cooling of 0.13°C between 1979 and 1994. Furthermore, since the theory of global warming assumes maximum warming at the poles, why have average temperatures in the Arctic dropped by 0.88°C over the past 50 years?
The overwhelming majority of the sites said something like:
“TRUTH: The Earth is warming. the global average surface temperature increased about 0.6 degrees Celsius over the 20th century.”
Hmmm…So who is telling the truth? Egad that is impossible to determine due to the media and government being corrupt and chasing the big money associated with the climate industry and of course partisan concerns. Don’t you just wish that we could get the truth plain and simple.
No matter whether one stands with my friend in California and her assessment, or the media and government’s take on it, or the climatologists of the country, I have come to believe that no one knows for sure aside from God. One thing of which I am dead certain is that the United States is not the major culprit of creating air pollution. If you disbelieve that, I urge you to hop on a plane and fly to Beijing or Mumbai India. You will start encountering heavy, thick, greenish gray smog hundreds of miles out in the ocean prior to your arrival and take a short stroll down the street when you get there, and you will be covered in soot and your eyes will be burning within a few blocks. Air pollution is a much larger problems for countries outside the United States.
There is also a spiritual explanation for the strange occurrences we are seeing. Not many want to discuss the End Times drawing nigh but the Bible states that the world will come to the brink of human annihilation before Jesus Christ returns to save us from ourselves.
When Jesus’ disciples asked about what would happen at the end of the age of man’s rule, a pivotal part of His answer was: “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened”. The Bible prophesies of many events that will occur in the end times. These events can be categorized as natural signs, spiritual signs, sociological signs, technological signs, and political signs. We can look to what the Bible says about these things, and, if the signs are present in abundance, we can be certain that we are, in fact, living in the end times.
They are present and in abundance as I write this.
Luke 21:11 lists some of the natural signs that will occur before Jesus’ second coming: “There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.” While we shouldn’t interpret every natural disaster as a sign of the end times, an increase in natural disasters seems to be a warm-up to what is coming next—”birth pangs,” as Jesus called them.
The Bible lists both positive and negative spiritual signs. In 2 Timothy 4:3–4 we discover that many people will follow false teachers. We see now an increase in cultic groups, heresy, deception, and occultism, with many choosing to follow New Age or pagan religions. On the positive side, Joel 2:28–29 prophesies that there will be a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Joel’s prophecy was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:16), and we are still seeing the effects of that outpouring in revivals and Spirit-led Christian movements, and in the worldwide preaching of the gospel message.
Along with the signs in the natural and spiritual realms, there are signs in society. The immorality rampant in society today is a symptom of mankind’s rebellion against God. Abortion, homosexuality, drug abuse, and child molestation are proof that “evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse”. We are now living in a hedonistic and materialistic society. People are lovers of themselves—”looking out for number one”—and doing what is right in their own eyes. All these things, and many more, can be seen around us every day.
The fulfillment of some end-times prophecies seemed impossible until the advent of modern technology. Some of the judgments in Revelation are more easily imagined in a nuclear age. In Revelation 13, the Antichrist is said to control commerce by forcing people to take the mark of the beast, and, given today’s advances in computer chip technology, the tools he will use may very well be here already. And through the internet, radio, and television, the gospel can now be proclaimed to the entire world (Mark 13:10).
And there are political signs. The restoration of Israel to her land in 1948 is the single most impressive fulfilled prophecy proving that we live in the end times. At the turn of the 20th century, no one would have dreamed that Israel would be back in her land, let alone occupying Jerusalem. Jerusalem is definitely at the center of geopolitics and stands alone against many enemies; Zechariah 12:3 confirms this: “On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves.” Matthew 24:6–7 predicted that “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” “Wars and rumors of wars” are definitely characteristic of this present age.
These are just a few of the signs that we are living in the end of the age. There are many more. God gave us these prophecies because He does not want anyone to perish, and He always gives ample warning before pouring out His wrath.
Are we living in the end times? No one knows when Jesus will return, but the rapture could occur at any moment. God will deal with sin either by grace or by wrath. John 3:36 says, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.” Those who do not accept Jesus Christ as their savior will remain under the Lord’s wrath.
The good news is that it’s not too late to choose eternal life. All that is required is acceptance, by faith, of God’s free gift of grace. There is nothing you can do to earn grace; Jesus has paid the price for you (Romans 3:24). Are you ready for the Lord’s return? Or will you experience His wrath?
In the meantime, hydrate, stay inside during the hottest parts of the day and be patient fall and winter are mere weeks away.
Luke 21:11
“There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.”