Global Warming: More Than a Hoax

Global Warming: More Than a Hoax

The following are some quotes from those who believe that Global Warming is real and is the most critical problem facing our society.

“Among the steps needed to defend ourselves is quick action to fortify emergency response capabilities worldwide, to shield or relocate vulnerable coastal communities and to prepare for increased migration flows by environmental refugees.Mark Hertsgaard

“According to the grimmest forecasts, extreme global warming could give us a future where erratic and chaotic weather, rising sea levels, and melting snowpack usher in an epic of drought, crop failure, famine, flood and mass extinctions and the political instability that invariably accompanies dwindling resources. ” Atty Robert Kennedy, www.stopglobalwarming.org

“…climate change could unleash a series of interlocking catastrophes including mega-droughts, mass starvation and even nuclear war as countries like China and India battle over river valleys and other sources of scarce food and water.

In an article titled, “Global Warming Could Slam Food Supply,” “But computer model projections shown to ABC News by eminent climatologist Steve Schneider at Stanford University, and other calculations from California state water boards, now warn that because of global warming the mountain snowpack so essential to all the food is most likely to be not only melting out too fast in the spring, but diminishing drastically — by as much as 90 percent, according to some computer models — before the end of the century, well within the lifetime of today’s kids. [emphasis mine. correction made based on discussion below]

We should not be surprised at the secular interpretation of climate and its changes. However, what is surprising is that Christians are being duped and duping others on this issue. See Christianity Today’s synopsis of articles which show that many in the evangelical community are promoting this hoax.

This is not new. Many leading Christians get caught in the “Chicken Little” atmosphere. Remember the Y2K crisis? In 1999, many Christian leaders were creating an atmosphere of fear in our churches. Consider Gary North, a leading Presbyterian leader. In his article “Blind Mans Bluff” which this appeared on his site www.y2ksupplies.com, Gary said the following:

“We are heading for a disaster greater than anything the world has experienced since the bubonic plague of the mid-14th century.”1

Consider the number of doomsday prophecies of the past decades. Every one of them have been proven false by time…

  • 1970s: Global Cooling. Those who advocated for global cooling made wild predictions that within 30 years, we would all be suffering from starvation because of the lack of crops. Now, thirty-years later, we have Global Warming. Also, there is not starvation. The government is sponsoring bills to help curb obesity.
  • 1970s: Energy Crisis under President Jimmy Carter. It was predicted that we would run out of fossil fuels. This spiked an unnecessary fuel crisis.
  • 1970s: Population Bomb: It was believed that the world’s population world was increasing at such a radical pace that there will not be enough room, food and resources. China adopted the inhumane measures of limiting their society to one child per family. This has so ravaged their nation that now in 2008, they are now reconsidering their practices.
  • 1999: Y2K computer glitch would affect banks, traffic signals, create food shortages and be a catastrophe. Not one incident was recorded.

As believers, what are we to think of doomsday prophecies like global warming and how are we to react to them?
What are We to Think of Doomsday Prophecies, especially Global Warming?

We are to Reject People Who Make Non-Biblical Doomsday Prophecies.

There is an underlying need in sinful human nature to be able to predict the future. It used to be that false prophets were dealt with severely. Today, they win the Nobel Peace prize.

What is behind this need to “prophecy?” Why is it that people want to predict the future? It can be boiled down to one word—pride.

In Job 38:22-30, God challenges Job’s proud spirit by asking a series of rhetorical questions about the weather and climate. With these series of questions, God highlight’s Job’s inability to control the climate. Here are a sampling of the questions:

  • Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail, which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle? (vv 22,23)
  • What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth? (vs 24)
  • Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no one in it, to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass? (vv. 25-27)
  • Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew? From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen? (vv. 28-30)

God made it clear to Job that it is arrogance to believe that man can control the climate. We can look back and see what the climate has done. We can make short term educated guesses to what the weather will do. However, to make predictions such as the Global Warming pundits make is just plain arrogance. They predict that the climate will change up to 11.5 degrees farenheit in the next 30 years. This never happened before and is 11 times greater than any fluctuation in the past 2,000 years. With all of the satellite pictures and meterology equipment at our disposal, weathermen cannot predict with any real accuracy what will happen more than two weeks into the future.

Why do people make claims that the temperature will rise as it never has before? Why are they acting as if they have special knowledge? It is human nature to play God. Only God possesses the knowledge of our future climate.

We are to Reject People Who Ignore Clear Biblical Statements That There Will Be No Doomsday Such as Global Warming.

Let’s contrast what the Global Warming pundits are saying with what the Bible clearly states:

The Global Warming advocates predict the following:

The world’s overall temperatures will increase to as much as 11.5 degrees causing the glaciers to melt, raising sea levels and covering most of our coastal metropolitan cities.

What the Bible says:

Genesis 8:22: “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

The Global Warming advocates say:

“We are risking the ability of the human race to survive” Climate Change panel chairman

What the Bible says:

Genesis 9:11: “I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

We are to Give Careful Thought Before We Believe in Global Warming

A simple man believes anything, but a prudent man gives thought to his steps. (Pr 14:15)

This proverb describes a “simple” person. “Simple” comes from the Hebrew word which means “open-minded,” “easily persuaded.”

These people believe “anything.” Literally, this is “every word.” They do not discern, but believe every word anybody speaks.

On the contrary, we are to be prudent, sensible people. How does this apply to the Global Warming issue? Here are a few practical suggestions…

  • Prudent people discern what the Global Warming people are saying. Did you notice that the “Global Warming” phrase is now being redefined as “Climate Change?” That is significant. Those who are teaching that there is a warming trend want to be able to cover themselves in case there is a cooling trend by using the phrase “climate change.” This is what propogandists do. They subtly change definitions and terms.
  • Prudent people believe the Bible before they believe the scientific community. The above passages show that we will always have “cold and heat.” We will have cycles of weather.
  • Prudent people do not get excited about the claims that there is going to be a Global Warming catastrophe. They are able to see that politics and money are the driving forces of this issue.
  • Prudent people realize that the Global Warming advocates are repeating the same dogma the Global Cooling and Population Bomb people produced in the 70s.2 However, Global Warming advocates are not willing to make the same mistake their precedessors made in the 70s. It was said that Global Cooling would bring catastrophes within 10 to 30 years. Now that at least 30 years has gone by and there were no catastrophes. Now, the Global Warming community project disasters out to 50 to 100 years. Why? Is it because they will not be here to explain why the catastrophes did not happen?
  • Prudent people will consider the good education coming from Heartland Institute and their Manhattan Declaration.

How Are We to React to Doomsday Prophecies, especially Global Warming?

Perilous times provide Christians an opportunity to express their faith in God.

Assume for a moment that Global Warming were true (as the advocates suggest), what should our response be? Consider Joseph (Genesis 50:19–21) who faced many real crises throughout his life. He was a humble young man who focused on God’s sovereignty. In the midst of real crisis, he told his brothers…

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

God used the evil actions of the brothers to save their own lives and the lives of many others. Joseph looked back on his life and realized that God’s plan incorporates both evil and good.

When calamities come, we can be confident that they are no surprise to God. God, in his wisdom and strength, planned and uses these things to accomplish his purposes. Therefore, when Christians are faced with turmoil, they can be confident that “all things will work together for good!” (Romans 8:28)

As believers, we are not to spread fear over the Global Warming issue. Instead, we should use this as an occasion to share our faith. People around us need stability. They need hope. They need to be saved. Take this global warming issue as an opportunity to spread the Gospel.

Worry is sin.

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?… 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Mt 6:25, 34)

The phrase “do not worry” comes from one Greek word which has a stronger meaning “do not be anxious.” There are plenty of things to be “anxious” over. We have real threats—terrorism, peer pressure, materialism, apathy, etc. From this passage we can draw at least two conclusions…

  1. Anxiety is a lack of trust in God to take care of us. Since He has, and continues to take care of our basic necessities, He will take care of our greater needs.
  2. Anxiety tends to focus on things that are not true (vs 34 cf. Php 4:8). We cannot know the future with any degree of certainty. Only God knows the future. For believers, who can only know the past and the present, we are to focus on godly living in the present. Does that mean that we do not concern ourselves with the future? No. We simply are not to grow anxious over the future that we miss opportunities for godly living here and now.

Conclusion

Global Warming is truly more than a hoax. It is fast becoming a pernicious problem for Christians. It is a battle between faith in science or the Bible. Like many doomsday prophecies, there are underlying motivations. We have identified two—politics and money.

The Global Warming issue provides us an opportunity to exercise our faith. As you meet those who advocate these kinds of doomsday prophecies, take careful, prudent thought. Use it as an occasion to spread the Gospel.3

1 Since his website is no longer in existence, we do have Archive.org 🙂 See the following quote in context here.

2See this insightful article which compares the statements of Paul Ehrlich and Al Gore.

3An article on ways to use Global Warming for spreading the Gospel will be available soon.