Man-Made Climate Change or ?

“And I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.”  Revelation 6:12

The Book of Revelation gives us the vision of the end times that Jesus showed to His apostle John while John was banished to the Isle of Patmos because he was a testifier to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  In previous blogs, I covered the first five seals that Christ opened to show John the events that would occur during the seven year period of tribulation which is still in the future.  While the visions that John witnessed as Jesus opened the first five seals would have been quite overwhelming, what lay under the sixth seal could have taken John’s breath away.  One of the most frightening among nature’s phenomena of storms and unpredictable occurrences are earthquakes.  They happen suddenly and without warning.  Some Bible commentators see these future earthquakes as symbolic representations of a sudden and violent change in the governments of earth.  Others understand the earthquakes to be a literal shaking of the earth as if God had His hands around the world shaking it like a snow globe to warn earth’s inhabitants that judgment has begun.

Earthquakes weren’t the only thing that John saw in his vision.  The sun became black as sackcloth of hair.  Sackcloth was a black fabric made of goats’ hair and was used to make garments worn by those who were in mourning.  Some see this as the collapse of world governments and also the end of organized religion.  Others believe it to be literal, that is, the sun shutting down incapable of giving out any light at all which would be a total disaster–no crops, no warmth, an unending darkness.  This reminds us of when Jesus was crucified, dying on the cross, and the land became dark for about three hours during the daytime (Mark 15:33).  Some folks attribute this to a total eclipse of the sun at that time, but I believe the land was supernaturally darkened by the power of God.  That’s what we humans do–try to explain God’s supernatural events by our limited knowledge rather than just taking it on faith that God can do whatever He desires whether we understand it or not.   I am grateful that we have a God who doesn’t need to explain why He does what He does, that He doesn’t answer to anyone, and His plan always works to the benefit of those who love and honor Him.

The moon became as blood, that is, turned red as if it were covered in blood.  Some believe the red color was caused by dust and debris like when we see a huge orange sun colored by pollution in the air.  Those who see the blood moon as a symbol, view it as representing secular and/or religious leaders that have been slain or that have lost their power.  Next, John saw stars falling from the sky (verse 13), symbolic of the ease and swiftness with which leaders will be cast from their positions of power.  The literal interpretation explains this event as a possible meteor shower.  The next vision was that of the heavens rolling up like a scroll and departing (verse 14), and mountains and islands moved from their locations.  The scroll is thought to mean that a great revolution is taking place upon earth, and the movement of mountains and islands symbolizes worldly ideas, theories, and designs which men believed could not be changed, yet were being discarded and/or abolished.  In my mind’s eye, I can see heaven as a huge, long piece of parchment rolled up on each end, meeting in the middle and then disappearing out of sight (verse 14).

As the people, particularly kings and the leaders of nations, tried to flee from these supernatural events (verse 15), it would tend to support a literal interpretation, that is, the forces of nature had been allowed to go beyond the normal limits of their fury and cause worldwide destruction.  The kings and those in authority ran to dens and caves in an attempt to escape.  Their fear of God’s judgment was so great that they begged for the rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them from “the wrath of the Lamb”, recognizing, at last, that Christ was the only One who could have saved them, but they had rejected Him (verse 16).  The unbelieving world may have pled ignorance or they may have thought they had time to make things right between them and their Maker, but we see here that they really weren’t ignorant, but, on the contrary, were well aware that there was a God who would eventually bring judgment upon them.  The apostle Paul made that clear in Romans 1:18-20.  He wrote that God has shown His anger against those who sin and refuse to acknowledge the truth about Him, a truth which they know instinctively because God has put it in their hearts.  God has given evidence of His existence since the beginning of time through nature and through intuition so that all people are without an excuse to truly know Him.  For these folks who had rejected Christ, they found, as the old rock and roll song says, “No place to run to, no place to hide.”  They knew the day of God’s wrath was coming, but they deceived themselves into thinking they could escape.

The only ones who will be able to stand (verse 17) are those who placed their faith in God’s only way of deliverance, His Son, Jesus Christ.  Those who believe that the world is going to be destroyed by climate change are partially correct.  According to this passage in Revelation, the world is doomed, but not by driving gasoline powered cars or burning coal to generate electricity.  These forms of energy can create pollution, but efforts are being made to make these modes of energy as clean as possible.  The only way that climate change is man-made is because of the sin with which men and women have corrupted the earth.  Whatever changes we are seeing now, I believe, are warning shots as to coming events.  The secular world can institute a “global tax” to fight climate change, eliminate fossil fuels, and force their harsh policies upon earth’s citizens, but they will never stop the power of God to bring His judgment upon an evil and unbelieving world through His plan of climate change.