I’m sure you’ve heard the dire, even catastrophic, predictions that have been made about the health of our planet. Al Gore predicted that the polar ice caps would all be gone by now. This is all caused, they say, by too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. By the way, carbon dioxide, that’s the stuff we exhale every time we breathe out.
I am not worried at all about these terrible forecasts. Actually, I feel good about the overall health of our planet, in spite of the many ominous warnings we hear.
Why do I feel that way? Let me boil it down to three important reasons.
First of all, the experts are often wrong. Forty-five years ago Harvard biologist George Wald told us, “Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken”
In a recent article, Mark J. Perry (a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan’s Flint campus) listed some of the ominous predictions that were made back in 1970 about our planet. (See: https://goo.gl/CaH4cv). Here are a couple excerpts I picked out at random:
“We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation,” wrote Washington University biologist Barry Commoner.
“Most of the people who are going to die in the greatest cataclysm in the history of man have already been born,” wrote Paul Ehrlich in a 1969 essay titled “Eco-Catastrophe”!
Ehrlich sketched out his most alarmist scenario for the 1970 Earth Day issue of The Progressive, assuring readers that between 1980 and 1989, some 4 billion people, including 65 million Americans, would perish in the “Great Die-Off.”
Also, some experts are even predicting that climate change may bring us 120 years of colder winters. I’m not even sure what I should be worried about. Is the earth getting warmer or colder?
Here is another reason that Climate Change doesn’t bother me.
The same God, who created this world and everything we have ever seen, has promised that it will continue. “Your faithfulness continues throughout all generations; You established the earth, and it stands” (Psalm 119:90). “He established the earth upon its foundations, so that it will not totter forever and ever” (Psalm 104:5).
Isn’t it good to know that mankind cannot destroy what God says will last forever? “A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever” (Ecclesiastes 1:4). “Praise Him, sun and moon; Praise Him, all stars of light! Praise Him, highest heavens, and the waters that are above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the Lord, for He commanded and they were created. He has also established them forever and ever; He has made a decree which will not pass away” (Psalm 148:3–6).
Lastly, I’m not worried about Global Warming because Jesus is the One who will bring the ultimate disaster to this earth.
Don’t get me wrong. I do know that the environment is in danger, but it’s not from Global Warming (or if you prefer Climate Change). The world as we know it will be destroyed one day, but only when God decides to do it. That will happen when Jesus the Creator (See Colossians 1:15-17) returns to this earth as He promised and purifies this world of all of its corruption: “The day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10).
That will be bad news for those who don’t follow Christ, but REALLY good news for those who do. After God gets rid of all the dreadful things that ruin this earth, He’s going to make it again. Christ’s followers have God’s assurance that they will enjoy “… new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). Also see Revelation 21:1.
“Then all your people will be righteous; they will possess the land forever, the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, that I may be glorified” (Isaiah 60:21). “The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain, says the Lord” (Isaiah 65:25).
When I think about the problems we see all around us—political corruption, broken relationships, financial hardships, physical pain, and sickness, just to name a few—I long for that day when “… The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15).
Don’t fear Global Warming. Instead, fear (have a holy reverence for) the One who made the globe.
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