Climate Change for Christians By Dean Davis for American Thinker
GNN Note – Republishing this article is not an endorsement nor anything else it is merely to present another view of what we are constantly told is a life ending problem. /END
Not a week goes by that I don’t read one or two letters to the editor of our local newspaper decrying the supposed effects of man-made climate change. The fear is palpable, the proposals sincere, but the misunderstanding hurtful. Writing as a retired pastor, I would like to address this issue from a biblical perspective.
Presently, a naturalistic worldview dominates public policy on climate change, both in Washington and in many blue states. Modern naturalism posits that the universe evolved through random physical processes. This hypothesis entails that our Earth is extremely fragile and that man, often viewed as a clumsy Johnny-come-lately, could completely destroy it if he’s not careful. Therefore, an observed trend toward global warming, possibly caused by us humans, generates existential alarm in naturalistic scientists and the people who listen to them.
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The biblical worldview (BWV) posits that God is the creator, sustainer, and ruler of all things, including the weather. It also posits that man is his vice-regent on Earth, specially appointed to develop and care for the home he has given us. Because of man’s fall into sin, God has temporarily burdened his originally perfect creation with various natural evils such as extremes of heat and cold, drought, storm, earthquake, etc. Ultimately, these “severe mercies” are wake-up calls designed to discourage nature-worship and bring the wanderers home.
Sinful man can and does damage his environment, but the Bible assures us he can never destroy the Earth. That prerogative is reserved for God alone, who has explicitly said he will preserve the Earth in its regular cycles until the return of Christ (Gen. 8:22). Only then will he destroy it, after which he will create new heavens and a new earth, the eternal home of the redeemed (2 Pet. 3). Knowing all this, Christian citizens are indeed concerned about environmental abuse, but also confident that man can never “destroy the planet.”
With these thoughts in mind, let’s look at climate change.
