Climate Change or God’s Warning?

“And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted His way upon the earth.”  Genesis 6:12

Every time there is a bad thunderstorm, a devastating fire, an earthquake, a tornado, or a hurricane, folks start blaming “climate change”, or what they refer to as man-made changes in the weather patterns.  Man cannot control the weather.  It may be that the environmental pollution that man has caused on the earth affects the weather, but no matter how much money (taxpayer money) that the government throws at “climate change” or how many laws and policies they enact to curb it, the weather will do what it has always done, that is, bring rain, snow, sleet, wind, heat and cold.  Genesis 8:22 tells us that “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease”.

Folks think that this is a hotter summer than normal, but I remember hot summers just like this when I was young, and we didn’t have air conditioning.  I think that is why the heat bothers people so–they are so used to being comfortable in their air-conditioned homes, offices, cars, stores, and churches, that they have trouble adjusting to the heat.  Their bodies never get truly acclimated to the heat; thus, they complain.  I remember in church when I was young that we had the windows open and fanned ourselves with those cardboard fans provided by the funeral homes.  An occasional wasp would fly in distracting folks from the sermon, but I don’t ever remember anyone getting stung while they sat in the pews, at least not by the wasp.  The preacher might have stepped on their toes, or the Holy Spirit might have reminded them of their sin and brought them under conviction, which was much more uncomfortable than heat or wasps.  Even without air conditioning, it seems like the churches were more filled with folks than in the air-conditioned sanctuaries, padded pews, and short sermons of today.  It is kind of funny, not funny ha-ha but funny-strange, how the nicer and more convenient that churches are designed, the fewer people show up.  While there is certainly nothing wrong with having a nice, comfortable place to worship, it is not the building but rather Jesus, God’s word, and the fellowship of friendly believers that attract people to worship services.

Perhaps it would help if our leaders could realize that the pollution that is causing weather phenomenon is actually the pollution of sin across our land.  There are many times in scripture when God used the weather as either a warning or in judgment of sinful people.  The very first example is found in the book of beginnings, Genesis, when evil had become so rampant across the known world that God decided to destroy those who committed evil by a flood.  However, He found Noah as a righteous man and instructed him to build an ark in order to save his family and pairs of animals.  And then it rained and rained and rained.  All life was gone except Noah and those who were in the ark with him.  In Genesis 18 and 19, Lot, Abraham’s nephew was living in Sodom.  When the evil men of the city tried to attack the angels who had come to rescue Lot and his family, God sent fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah after Lot and his family fled.  Before this happened, Abraham had attempted to find ten righteous people there, but could not.

In Exodus 7, God turned the water in Egypt into blood as a warning to Pharaoh who would not let the Hebrew people leave.  God later sent hail, rain and thunder (Exodus 9).  In Exodus 14, God parted the Red Sea to allow the Hebrews to walk across, but closed the water back over the Egyptians who were pursuing them.  In Joshua 10, the Amorites, one of Israel’s enemies, were killed by huge hailstones.  In I Samuel 12, after Israel had asked for a human king, God was not pleased with them.  Samuel called on the LORD to send thunder and rain on the day of harvest to show the people their wicked hearts.  During the reign of the evil king Ahab over Israel, God sent a drought, and it did not rain for about three years (I Kings 17).  In II Kings 3, God filled a valley with water without rain or wind which looked like blood to the Moabites because of the way that the sun was shining upon the water.  They thought it was the blood of the Israelites and thus headed for the spoils.  However, the Israelites destroyed them.

Psalm 147:8 clearly says that it is God who “covers the heaven with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass to grow up0n the mountains”.  Many of the events of which God used weather as warnings or judgment are found in the Old Testament, but there are a few in the New Testament.  Matthew 5:45 tells us that God sends rain on the just and the unjust.  In Matthew 24:22 and Revelation 8:12, we are told that during the tribulation, that the 24-hour day will be cut by one-third.  Revelation 11:3-6 foretells the time when God will send two witnesses to earth who will have the power to stop the rain, turn water into blood, and smite the earth with all sorts of plagues.  And, in Revelation 16:18, God will send a great earthquake and a plague of giant hailstones.

Considering that Almighty God controls the weather, and He has used it and will use it from now until the end of time as we know it to warn and bring judgment upon a sinful world, I think that folks have a lot more to worry about than a false “man-made” climate change.