Climate Change

Christians who are concerned about climate change need to understand that it is part of the spiritual battle that we are engaged in. The battle for the climate is described in the Seven Trumpets of Revelation 8 and 9. I explain this further in an article called Seven Trumpets.

God has appointed four angels to watch the earth and its atmosphere to protect it from being harmed prior to the fulness of the Kingdom of God (Rev 7:1-2).

An army of evil spirits is trying to destroy God’s creation because they hate him. In the last century, they have been empowered by the reckless use of fossil fuels and rampant consumerism of Christians, particularly in the western world.

When God’s people fail to care for the world that God entrusted to us, the spiritual powers of evil who want to destroy it are empowered. The damage done to our climate in the last 200 years is partly the result of Christian’s unwitting complicity with the spiritual powers of evil who are trying to disrupt it.

Followers of Jesus have an important role in this spiritual battle for the climate. Our prayers can bind the spiritual powers of evil trying to harm the world and release the power of the four angels that God’s angels who are protecting the earth (Rev 8:3,4). However, we only have authority to pray for the creation if we are being good stewards of the part of the earth that God has entrusted to us.

If we are using the earth ruthlessly for our own benefit without caring about the harm our activity is doing, the authority of our prayers will be nullified. The spiritual powers of evil can mock us and say they don’t respect the authority of the prayers of people who don’t practice what they preach.

Climate Change (5) Nuclear War

As I said in my first post, I consider that nuclear war is a far greater risk to human life on earth than climate change.

People seem to have forgotten that belligerent military personnel in several nations are constantly poised ready to push the nuclear button. A dozen countries have nuclear weapons. If anyone country launched, others are likely to respond quickly.

The United States has recently deliberately moved nuclear weapons into Europe closer to Russian. The problem with this is that it leaves very little time to decide if a radar signal is a genuine attack, or a false alarm. People will be tempted to launch quickly while they can to be on the safe side.

Modern nuclear weapons are far more powerful than the ones dropped on Hiroshima. A nuclear war in which a couple of nations launched a few dozen weapons would have a terrible effect on the world. I am amazed that people see to mostly have stopped protesting against them.

Total war is prohibited by the Bible. Those engaged in war are prohibited from attacking and damaging the land (Deut 20:19-20). The land belongs to God, so it is not to be harmed (Lev 25:23). An attack on the land is an attack on God. The same protection would apply to women and children. Non-combatants should always be protected.

This prohibition makes nuclear war unacceptable. Nuclear weapons would harm the land and non-combatants. The same principle would rule out many modern weapons. Nuclear weapons and neutron bombs do so much damage that there will rarely be a cause that would justify their use.

The greatest danger is declining empires. When an empire is in decline, the risk of an insecure leader doing something stupid rises enormously. The world was lucky to get through the collapse of the Soviet Unction unscathed. We were fortunate that Mikhail Gorbachev was a good man.

The American empire now sees to be collapsing and its leader seem to be becoming more and more dysfunctional. This is a huge risk for the world. The risk that an insecure American President will lash out to preserve his failing empire is a serious risk. The US has such a large arsenal of weapons that this would be a disaster for the world. It also has a love of war that is dangerous.

I fear that more than if fear climate change.

Climate Change (4) God Missing

A problem with the climate change debate is that God is left out of all discussion. This is foolish, because the scriptures explain that God has a strong influence on the weather.

He provides rain for the earth;
he sends water on the countryside (Job 5:10).

Praise the LORD from the earth,
lightning and hail, snow and clouds,
stormy winds that do his bidding (Psalm 148:7-8).

He covers the sky with clouds;
he supplies the earth with rain
and makes grass grow on the hills (Psalm 147:8).

The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands.

The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. The LORD will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder (Deut 28:12,23-24).

God has a powerful influence upon the weather. So, if the climate changes, the first thing we should do is ask what God is doing. If the climate is deteriorating, it might because God has been aggrieved and has withdrawn his blessing. So instead of assuming that climate change is caused by humans, we should seek God and find out what he is saying about the situation.

When droughts and storms arise, it could be because we have opened ourselves up to the spiritual powers of evil. They love to kill and destroy. They sometimes use the weather to wreak destruction on earth. If that is the case, we should seek the deliverance of God.

Climate Change (3) Government Control

My main concern about the climate change movement is that it will lead to a massive increase in state power. Those who are concerned about climate change are not satisfied with changing their own practices and persuading others to change too. They want their government to force everyone to change what they buy and how the live. They want governments to force businesses to change the way that they operate. It is not totally clear what changes will reduce emissions of greenhouse gases the quickest. It is easy to point the finger at someone else and demand that the government force them to change.

I suspect the concern about climate change will result in a huge increase in the power of governments, which will spread into all aspects of life. No good will come from it.

Climate Change (2) Gradual

The most important thing is that climate change is gradual. This means that no matter how climate changes, humans will have time to adapt. That will be painful for some people who have to make the change. However, adapting to change is what humans are good at.

Farmers have always adapted to the climate. I grew up on a farm. In the 1960s, we experienced a decade of frequent droughts. We didn’t give up, but change the way we farmed. We stopped growing wheat crops, as there was insufficient moisture. And we got rid of our beef breeding cows, because during dry years there was insufficient grass to feed them. We adapted to a temporary change in the climate. That is what farmers do.

If sea levels rise, people living by the coast may find that their houses are uninhabitable. They will need to migrate to places where they are safe from coastal erosion. This should not be seen as unusual.

People have always migrated when the place where they were living becomes untenable. Abraham migrated from Ur to Canaan. Joseph and Mary migrated to Egypt when they were unsafe in Nazareth.

In the 19th century, crofting in Scotland became impossible due to the enclosure of land by large scale absentee farmers. My great grandparents migrated across the world to New Zealand to find a safer place to live.

More recently, many Americans migrated from the great lakes area to the south to get jobs when the auto industry declined.

Most of the people living in Europe are descendants of migrants, if they go back far enough. People have always migrated in response to trials of all kinds.

With climate change, some places will improve and other places will get worse. People will need to shift from the latter to the former. The dislocation will be painful, but it is what people do.

During the warm period around the year 1000, agriculture patterns in the UK and Europe changed dramatically. People adapted to the slowly changing climate condition. We will have to do the same, if the climate does change significantly.

• Humans are skilled adapters.
• Climate change comes slowly.

These factors will enable us to adapt to climate change. It will be painful, and incomes might drop significantly, but humans will adapt. The end of the world will not come.

Climate Change (1) Climate Forecasting

People are saying that climate change is the greatest threat to human life ever experienced. I don’t believe that is true. The greatest threat to life on earth is nuclear war, but more on that in a later post.

Like economic forecasting, climate forecasting is not a true science. The scientific method works by conducting repeatable experiments to test whether a well-defined hypothesis is true or not.

Climate change occurs over long periods of time and affects the whole world, so it is impossible to set up a repeatable experiment to determine if the hypothesis of anthropomorphic climate change is correct.

Climate scientists have to do what economists do. They set up models, with numerous assumptions and equations that approximate the real world to see what results the model produces. The problem is that models are only solvable if there are sufficient restrictive assumptions in place. But the more assumptions that are used, the less the model actually reflects the real world, and therefore the less unreliable the results.

Politicians claim that there is a scientific consensus about climate change, but science does not work by consensus; that’s what politicians try to do. Scientist work by testing well-defined hypotheses with repeatable experiments.
Economists have the same problem. Their models only work if the impose restrictive assumptions that make the models unrealistic. This is why economists disagree about everything.

The world economy and the climate system are both extremely complex, so it is almost impossible to create realistic computer models that reflect their workings accurately. Just as it is impossible to predict the effects of particular economic policies, it is impossible to accurately predict climate change. You can observe trends, but the direction of a trend usually depends on the length of the observation period. It is very difficult to separate the trend from the noise, especially in complex systems, like the weather. And you never know whether a trend will continue, or reverse.

So, we have to be open-minded about climate change. The climate is definitely changing because that is what climate does. Climate is defined as the small changes in the weather that occur over time. However, we cannot be certain whether the changes we observe over time.

Climate Change (20) - Wasted Opportunity

When Christian historians look back on the sixty years following the end of the second World War, they will see that time as a wasted opportunity for the Kingdom of God. They will see a time of relative peace when travel round the world was never easier. The power of communications was immense. Christians had more vastly more wealth than at any time in history. I suspect that historians will look back and see this as an opportunity that was frittered away by Christians. The greatest opportunity that has ever existed for the advance of the kingdom of God became a time when the gospel slipped backwards.

The sad thing is that these wonderful conditions for spreading of the gospel and expanding of the Kingdom of God are coming to an end. The properity will disappear. The freedom to travel will be gone. Many forms of communication will be come more difficult. A long time will pass before we have such a good time again.

This full series can be found here.

Climate Change (19) - Change is Inevitable

The message of the book or Revelation is that God is going to bring to an end the lifestyle based on materialism and consumerism. The rulers of the earth will weep and mourn as they watch the life of luxury disappear.

The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more (Rev 18:11).

God’s judgment will destroy the consumer lifestyle that has been so popular in many parts of the world. People will have no choice, but will be forced into a simpler lifestyle. Suburbia will change from a refuge into a prison.

Forced change is always unpleasant. In a crisis, authority flows to those who are prepared. Christians, who change their lifestyle now in response to the leading of the Holy Sprit, will be better placed to cope and lead, when the whole world is being forced to change.

The best way to prepare for global climate change is to learn to live the lifestyle described by Paul.

I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want (Phil 4:11,12).

If we can learn to be content in a world that is obsessed with plenty, we will continue to be content in a world that is being forced into a different lifestyle.

Climate Change (18) - What Must We Do?

Well, there is one thing we must not do. Looking to governments to solve the eliminate climate change is a mistake. The will have a good go at building a tower of Babel, but will fail in their objectives. A core purpose of the book of Revelation is to condemn the increasing the power of the state. Therefore, trusting government organisations or international organisations to deal with global climate change is just swapping one sin for another.

The biblical response to judgment is repentance. The Christian response to a warning of judgement should be a change of lifestyle. If we have joined in the binge of consumption that has swept the western world, we need to change to a simpler lifestyle. In every aspect of the way we live, we should start acting as good stewards of the earth that God has entrusted to us. That will change many of the decisions we make about what we use and consume.

For example, Christians have debated the issue of what vehicle Jesus would drive. This is the wrong question. We should be asking what will advance the Kingdom of God. “Do I need a motor vehicle to advance the kingdom of God?” “Do I need and SUV to advance the Kingdom of God or to steward the part of the earth for which I am responsible” “Do I need a V8 grunter to advance the Kingdom of God?"

I can’t say how other people need to change their lifestyle. I do know that the Holy Spirit is constantly showing me how I need to change the way I live.

In the end, it does not matter whether our materialism is the causing global warming or not. It is still idolatry, and we still need to repent of all sin.

Climate Change (17) - Christians Joined the Party

Consumerism is a natural response for those who have no God. The strange thing is that Christians have joined the party with almost as much zeal. In terms of possessions and consumer behaviour, Christians in the west are almost indistinguishable from those who have no faith in God. Maybe this is partly the consequence of the lukewarmness described towards the beginning of the book of Revelation.

I suspect that a “Jesus-is coming-at-any-moment theology” has also sucked Christians into a negative attitude towards this earth. We have become so obsessed with heaven and escape from this world, that we have forgotten that God might have a longer term purpose for this earth. As we have lost the vision for the Kingdom of God, we have also forgotten our responsibility to be stewards of God’s earth.

Climate Change (16) - Live for Now

When people turn away from God, they start to live for the present. Without God, the eternal dimension to life disappears and people focus on what they can get now. This is one reason why the modern world is so obsessed with consuming more and more stuff. Paul made this clear when writing about life after death.

If the dead are not raised,
“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die (1 Cor 15:32).

Putting it another way, if there is no God, the future is uncertain, so we might as well party now. The modern world understands Paul’s message very well. It has got on with eating and drinking and consuming as if there were no tomorrow. To sustain these high levels of consumption, we have used up more than half of the oil in the world in less than a century. Very little thought has been given to leaving an inheritance to our children.

Climate Change (15) - Caused by Disobedience

What human disobedience causes God to allow a judgment that does so much harm to the earth? The events described in Revelation are caused by three main sins. Firstly, the church is lukewarm and lacking in zeal (Rev 2,3). This translates into a variety of false religions and idolatry. Secondly, human rebellion manifests itself through enormous growth in political power. The people of the world reject the kingdom of God and choose to build the kingdom of man. The kingdom of man eventually morphs into a world empire.

The third area of disobedience that brings the judgment described in Revelation is a lifestyle that uses the earth that God placed in our care as a tool for human pleasure. God gave us dominion over the earth, so we could work with him to establish and expand his kingdom throughout this earth. Instead of accepting this challenge, we have used the earth for human plans and pleasure.

The events described in the book of Revelation happen during a time when consumerism is rampant and global trade is important to sustain it. Here is a paraphrase of parts of Revelation 18.

The people glorified themselves and lived luxuriously. The merchants of the earth became rich through the abundance of their comfort. They produced consumer goods that you would not dream about: gold and silver, designer jewellery, stylish clothing, delicate and delicious foods, fashionable furniture, trendy electronics, opulent cars, magnificent SUVs, air travel, exclusive holidays. Some merchants even trafficked in human lives.

People are dressed in the latest fashions and adorned with the finest jewellery. They dine in delicate and delectable luxury.

This passage is a good description of life in our part of the world over the past century. This lifestyle was not part of God’s plan, but is the outworking of life without him.

Materialism and consumerism are the sins that bring the judgment of global climate change to the earth. In a sense the meteorologists are right in saying that human lifestyles have had a negative effect on the world that God has entrusted to us. Their only mistake is in not tracing this behaviour back to rejection of God.

Climate Change (14) - Who is Responsible

I have shown that global climate change was prophesied in the book of Revelation. This will lead some readers to conclude that they are not responsible and do not need to worry about the problem. However, the fact that global climate change fits with of God’s purposes on earth does not absolve us for from responsibility. The opposite is true. The book of Revelation describes global climate change as a judgment upon human action. Climate change is not part of God’s perfect plan; it is his response to irresponsible human behaviour on earth.

God created mankind to be steward over this earth, after saying:

Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth (Gen 1:28).

Humans are responsible for everything that goes wrong on this earth, so we are responsible for global climate change. We have either caused it directly by our behaviour on earth, or God has to allow it as a judgment to turn us back to his ways. Either way we are responsible.

I am not certain of the direct cause of global warming. It might be our cars, it might be volcanoes, or changing weather patterns, or it might be the work of the evil one. It does not really matter which. God gave us responsibility for the earth, so we are responsible for what happens here.

When God brings judgment on human action, he generally does not need to initiate the judgement. Usually the judgment is just the natural outworking of wrong choices and actions. The reality is that when we reject God’s way, things go wrong. I suspect that global climate change is the natural consequence of human disobedience to God.

Climate Change (13) - Unknown Israelites

Israel in Revelation 7 is not just the nation of Israel, as it exists today. The Jews living in modern Israel are mostly descendants of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, who made up the southern Kingdom that emerged after Israel was split between Solomon’s two sons. Jeroboam ruled the northern half of the Kingdom and Rehoboam ruled the southern half of the Kingdom called Judah (1 Kings 12).

The people of the Northern Kingdom were sent into exile by the king of Assyria. They were replaced by people from Assyria and never returned to their home in Israel (1 Kings 17:23,24). The people of the southern kingdom were exiled to Babylon many years later. However, they returned to the promised land in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. The Jews living in Israel today are mostly descendants of the people who returned from exile in Babylon. However, because records have been lost over time, they are not able to trace their genealogies back to those who returned from Babylon.

The consequence of these events is that many descendants of the other tribes of Israel are scattered throughout the earth, not even knowing that they are descendants of Israel. Some of these live in the Middle East, but many are in other parts of the world. When God pours out his Spirit on all of Israel, these people will come to faith in Christ. Many will want to return to Israel when that happens. A remnant may already have come to know him.

Recently something strange has happened all over the world. A few Christians have become really passionate about the nation of Israel. Some are almost obsessive about this issue. I believe that many of these people are actually descendants of one of the twelve tribes of Israel, without knowing it. (Gene is probably one?) They have already been sealed by the holy angel, who is sealing the 144,000. The stirring up or their love for Israel is the consequence and proof of this sealing.

If this interpretation is correct, then the angel holding the seal of God has already gone forward into the earth (Rev 7:3). I am not sure if he has completed marking all of those from the twelve tribes of Israel who will come to faith in Jesus. He could have completed the task, even if most of those who have been sealed do not understand it. This means that the time for releasing the four angels with power to harm the earth might be close, or already have arrived. The global climate change that John warned about may have already begun.

Climate Change (12) - Sealing of Israel

The second indication of the timing of the four angels that affect global weather patterns is in Rev 7:3.

Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.

This is a clear promise that God will not allow these things to happen until he has sealed the foreheads of the servants of God. Conversely the sealing of the servants is a sign that dramatic climate change is close, so we need to understand the meaning of this event.

John was told the identity and number of the servants who were sealed.

Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.
From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed,
from the tribe of Reuben 12,000,
from the tribe of Gad 12,000
…….. (Rev 7:4-8).

John saw 12,000 people from each of the twelve tribes of Israel being sealed by the angel. The number 12,000 should not be taken literally. Twelve is a number symbolising Israel. One thousand is number symbolising completeness. The sealing of the 144,000 points to a time when all the children of Israel return to peace with God through faith in Jesus, as prophesied by Paul.

I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved (Rom 11:25,26).

God will pour out his Spirit on the earth and most of the children of Israel will come to salvation. This will bring great blessing to the earth.

A seal marks ownership and protects the contents. Sealing of the children of Israel does not mean that they immediately come to faith in Jesus. It just means that God has put a wall of protection around them, so that they will not come to harm. The sealing means that the Holy Sprit is at work in their lives. It also means that he has begun to draw them to Jesus.

A person can only be sealed if they are alive. This means that the descendents of Israel who will come to faith in Jesus must be living on earth before the time when the four angels of global warming begin to strike the earth.

Climate Change (11) - When?

<The first four trumpets in Revelation 8 parallel the four angels with power to harm the land in sea described in Revelation 7. Together they describe the catastrophic effect of global climate change. The next important question is when these things happen.

We need to be clear about one issue. Global warming is not a sign of the second coming. The book of revelation is not a book of signs for the second coming. The book is a description of the rise and fall human kingdoms and the advance of the Kingdom of God. A key step towards the Kingdom of God is the Calling of the Jews. This is the next major event in human history. The release of the four angels is a sign that the Calling of the Jews is near. It is not a sign of the second coming.

There are two indications of when these things will take place. Firstly, the seven trumpets are listed after the seven seals. The two series of events are not necessarily sequential. The seven trumpets may start before the seven seals are complete, but the trumpets cannot not start sounding before at least some of the seven seals have been opened.

I believe that we have already seen the first two of the seven seals opened: Islamic revival and ethnic wars. We may be close to the third seal: economic crisis. As we progress through the seven seals, the first of the seven trumpets will sound. This indicates that the time for angels of global climate change is getting close.

Climate Change (10) - Governments and Councils

The fourth trumpet affects the sun, the moon and the stars.

The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night (Rev 8:12).

This is another change from the atmosphere. However John is not referring to a literal darkening of the sun, moon and stars. For the Old Testament prophets, the heavenly bodies represent kings and political rulers. The sun and moon being darkened symbolised the collapse of a king or emperor. One example is in Ezekiel 32:7,

When I snuff you out, I will cover the heavens and darken their stars; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light.

Ezekiel is speaking about the defeat of Egypt by Babylon. His words give a graphic description of the collapse of Egypt before a greater power. They were not fulfilled literally, but in a prophetic sense they were fulfilled.

The fourth trumpet is a warning that global warming will cause enormous problems for political rulers. Some kings and governments will collapse under stresses that overwhelm them. All the stars will be turned to darkness at the same time. This suggests that all the local government will also be seriously affected by global climate change. City, county and regional councils will struggle to deal with the problems caused by changes in global weather patterns. National and local politicians who have been elected because they promised to solve all problems will prove to be powerless.

This full series can be found here.

Climate Change (9) - Rivers and Springs

When the third trumpets sounds the rivers and springs will be affected.

The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water— the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter (Rev 8:10,11).

A blazing star falls from the sky onto the rivers and springs. This problem, like the weather, came out of the atmosphere. Blazing like a torch suggests excessive heat, which points to global warming. This change from the atmosphere causes much of the water on earth to be undrinkable.

Climate Change (8) - Seas and Oceans

The second trumpet affects the sea.

The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed (Rev 8:8,9).

Something as large as a mountain signifies a really huge impact. This “something” is ablaze which suggests heat. This could be the impact of global climate change causing many fish to die. I am not sure of the significance of the ships being destroyed. It could refer to the fishing industry being severely damaged, or to ships being destroyed by more frequent severe storms.

Climate Change (7) - Vegetation

Each of the trumpets affects a different part of the creation. When the first angel sounds the trumpet, the trees and grass are affected.

The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up (Rev 8:7).

This is not literal. Hail and fire are destructive. Blood symbolises death. This vision is a picture of events that bring destruction and harm to trees and the grass. Much of the vegetation on the earth is ruined by excessive heat and drought. The destruction comes from the atmosphere.

The harm is limited to one third, so the destruction is not total. God is merciful and does not let us experience all that we deserve. Even in the worst judgment, he sets limits, and though he humbles, he does not totally destroy.