**Fewer topics these days cause more debate and hostilities than the topic of climate change. Even among bible believing Christians this remains a hot topic but for what I believe are the wrong reasons. There are many Christians willing to listen to the controlling powers and their theories on the subject and seem ready to start shutting off the gas heaters and ditching gas burning family car in order to help world governments and the United Nations save the world. Don’t forget that many from the climate change community made bold predictions as long as 40 years ago that by this time, 2023, many communities bordering the oceans would be gone. In fact I believe that huge parts of Miami Florida should be under water at this point but guess what, it remains unchanged.
**To those of you who are bible believers and actually know and are familiar with its contents, ask yourself, is there somewhere within the contents of the bible where God, the prophets or the apostles direct us to live only in the warmer regions of the earth so we could avoid burning fossil fuels in order to stay warm. Also ask yourself if during the creation, did God put coal, natural gas and crude oil in the ground by accident or for no apparent reason? I think we can probably all agree that God certainly could have made wood nonflammable.
**In keeping with the rules of this website I am going to let God’s word rule and be the final authority. Below you will find what the bible has to say on the subject. I have added a little commentary for clarity. As you read through these sections ask yourself one simple question, who is actually controlling the weather or climate in these verses?
**Let’s start in Genesis and what occurred during the creation.
Genesis 2:5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground,
Genesis 7:4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”
Genesis 8:21 The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
Gen 8:22 “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”
**Let’s continue on by moving through some of the other books of the Old Testament. Well, what’s this? It seems that climate change is now coming for a reason. Perhaps humans do have a little control over it.
Exodus 9:18 Therefore, at this time tomorrow I will send the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded till now.
Exodus 9:22 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that hail will fall all over Egypt–on people and animals and on everything growing in the fields of Egypt.”
Exodus 9:23 When Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, the LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground. So the LORD rained hail on the land of Egypt;
Exodus 9:24 hail fell and lightning flashed back and forth. It was the worst storm in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.
Exodus 9:25 Throughout Egypt hail struck everything in the fields–both people and animals; it beat down everything growing in the fields and stripped every tree.
Exodus 9:26 The only place it did not hail was the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were.
**The Pharaoh figured it out.
Exodus 9:27 Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron. “This time I have sinned,” he said to them. “The LORD is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong.
Exodus 9:28 Pray to the LORD, for we have had enough thunder and hail. I will let you go; you don’t have to stay any longer.”
Exodus 9:29 Moses replied, “When I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands in prayer to the LORD. The thunder will stop and there will be no more hail, so you may know that the earth is the LORD’s.
Exodus 9:30 But I know that you and your officials still do not fear the LORD God.”
Exodus 9:31 (The flax and barley were destroyed, since the barley had headed and the flax was in bloom.
Exodus 9:32 The wheat and spelt, however, were not destroyed, because they ripen later.)
Exodus 9:33 Then Moses left Pharaoh and went out of the city. He spread out his hands toward the LORD; the thunder and hail stopped, and the rain no longer poured down on the land.
Exodus 9:34 When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder had stopped, he sinned again: He and his officials hardened their hearts.
Exodus 9:35 So Pharaoh’s heart was hard and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the LORD had said through Moses.
“If you follow my decrees”
Leviticus 26:3 “If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands,
Leviticus 26:4 I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit.
“If you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today”
Deuteronomy 11:13 So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today–to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul–
Deuteronomy 11:14 then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil.
Deuteronomy 11:15 I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.
Deuteronomy 28:12 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. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none
“If you do not obey the Lord your God”
Deuteronomy 28:15 However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:
Deuteronomy 28:22 The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish.
Deuteronomy 28:23 The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron.
Deuteronomy 28:24 The LORD will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.
**No doubt in Job’s mind.
Job 5:8 “But if I were you, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before him.
Job 5:9 He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.
Job 5:10 He provides rain for the earth; he sends water on the countryside.
Job 37:5 God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding.
Job 37:6 He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’
Job 37:7 So that everyone he has made may know his work, he stops all people from their labor.
Job 37:8 The animals take cover; they remain in their dens.
Job 37:9 The tempest comes out from its chamber, the cold from the driving winds.
Job 37:10 The breath of God produces ice, and the broad waters become frozen.
Job 37:11 He loads the clouds with moisture; he scatters his lightning through them.
Job 37:12 At his direction they swirl around over the face of the whole earth to do whatever he commands them.
Job 37:13 He brings the clouds to punish people, or to water his earth and show his love.
Job 37:14 “Listen to this, Job; stop and consider God’s wonders.
Job 37:15 Do you know how God controls the clouds and makes his lightning flash?
Job 37:16 Do you know how the clouds hang poised, those wonders of him who has perfect knowledge?
**Here, humans play a part.
2Chronicles 7:12 the LORD appeared to him at night and said: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.
2Chronicles 7:13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people,
2Chronicles 7:14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
**The Psalmist knew
Psalms 135:6 The LORD does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths.
Psalms 135:7 He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; he sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.
Psalms 147:6 The LORD sustains the humble but casts the wicked to the ground.
Psalms 147:7 Sing to the LORD with grateful praise; make music to our God on the harp.
Psalms 147:8 He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills.
**Seems the prophets knew and had a little input with God.
1Samuel 12:17 Is it not wheat harvest now? I will call on the LORD to send thunder and rain. And you will realize what an evil thing you did in the eyes of the LORD when you asked for a king.”
1Samuel 12:18 Then Samuel called on the LORD, and that same day the LORD sent thunder and rain. So all the people stood in awe of the LORD and of Samuel.
1Kings 17:1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”
1Kings 18:1 After a long time, in the third year, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.”
Ezekiel 13:13 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: In my wrath I will unleash a violent wind, and in my anger hailstones and torrents of rain will fall with destructive fury.
Ezekiel 38:22 I will execute judgment on him with plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstonesand burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him.
Zechariah 10:1 Ask the LORD for rain in the springtime; it is the LORD who sends the thunderstorms. He gives showers of rain to all people, and plants of the field to everyone.
Zechariah 14:17 If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, they will have no rain.
Zechariah 14:18 If the Egyptian people do not go up and take part, they will have no rain. The LORD will bring on them the plague he inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles.
Amos 4:7 “I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away. I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another. One field had rain; another had none and dried up.
**On to the New Testament. Seems things haven’t changed. Still no mention of the United Nations or John Kerry. Matthew and Peter seem to understand.
Matthew 5:45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
2Peter 3:12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.
**The most high God gives his two witnesses a little power to get your attention.
Revelation 11:3 And I will appoint my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”
Revelation 11:4 They are “the two olive trees” and the two lampstands, and “they stand before the Lord of the earth.”
Revelation 11:5 If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die.
Revelation 11:6 They have power to shut up the heavens so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want.
**Here an Angel helps a little.
Revelation 16:8 The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was allowed to scorch people with fire.
Revelation 16:9 They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.
Well, this has been a short but very interesting and informing article. Seems like Moses, the prophets, the psalmist and the apostles all believed that God was actively in control of the climate and the weather and that he occasionally used it as a tool to wake up both believers and nonbelievers. It’s interesting that some Christians believe that the one true God created the Universe, which includes humans, animals, the earth, and all matter within it but somehow has now lost control which has forced man to now look for solutions. I look at climate change in the same way that I look at my car. Occasionally I put air in the tires, change the oil and filters and wash it. Certainly the creator of the earth retains the ability to conduct such occasional maintenance on his creation. Anyone who doesn’t reach this conclusion might very well question their faith……
Jeff
12/23