In worshipping the creation over the Creator, the climate change culture has fallen under a great delusion, blinding them to the signs of the end of this age.
READ TIME: 2.5 – 3 Minutes
The Power of the Climate Change Story
What is it about the climate change story that has educated people, becoming absolute in their beliefs, persecuting non-believers, and even questioning the ethics of raising children in a world of impending doom?
Climate change has become like a religion or at least a cult in its beliefs and undying devotion to its cause. While its strictest followers are fanatical, its doctrine has become so embedded in our society that even you and I follow its most basic tenants.
What has made its message so powerful that questioning it socially will lead to public scorn and questioning it scientifically will lead to professional exile?
These attributes of the climate change culture show that it is under a great end-times delusion. In worshipping the creation rather than the Creator, they have substituted the true and powerful Judeo/Christian story of sin, judgment, and redemption for a counterfeit earthly rendition. Its perversion of truth has replaced God with a mother earth idol, under which any harm to the earth is deemed immoral, and the penalty of transgression against it leads to apocalyptic judgment.
The danger is that if we fall into this delusion, we may easily dismiss the signs of Jesus’ return as repercussions of our damage to the earth rather than supernatural warnings.
So has the climate change story blinded us to the true source of the changes on our planet, and if so, why?
Falling into Delusion
To be clear, I am not writing about climate change itself. The climate has warmed and cooled in cycles for thousands of years, and there is evidence that we are now in a warming trend. What I am writing about is the culture and belief system around climate change.
We know from Romans 1:25 and 2 Thessalonians 2:11 that when people deny the Creator and worship the created things, they will fall subject to delusion and become even more fervent in their false beliefs.
The climate change culture denies God’s role in the earth and focuses on man’s role and science. You will commonly read quotes with such phrases as these:
- “unite behind the science,”
- “you have to listen to science,” and
- “you cannot ignore the science.”
But when is science truth? It is the nature of science to be challenged, overturned, and rewritten with newer information. And the science of climate is one of the least understood. Only God’s word is the absolute truth.
In denying God, they have fallen into delusion. In this delusion, they see science as the ultimate source of knowledge and become blinded to the spiritual impact of sin and God’s judgment on the earth.
Could this delusion be so great that even for some believers, it has replaced a biblical worldview with an earthly one?
A False Version of the Biblical Worldview
To the climate change culture, the earth was once pristine until man committed the cardinal sin of industrialization, subjecting it to a fallen state. The climate prophets have warned us of apocalyptic consequences unless we repent of our pollutive sins and embrace science. If we continue in our ways then judgment will fall upon us and our children, making our planet uninhabitable and destroying our civilization. But if we follow what science “speaks” to us, we will gain the “new benefits” of a “sustainable transformed world.” (Last sentence quotes from Great Thunberg’s speech to the U.S. Congress in September 2019)
You will recognize the parallels of this narrative to the Biblical story of our fall, redemption and judgment.
But the narrative also includes the same signs of impending judgment in the Bible. Is it possible that Satan is using the climate change worldview to steer us away from recognizing the signs of Jesus’ return?
The Signs of Impending Judgment
Surprisingly, the signs Jesus gave us of impending judgment in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 are contained in the climate change worldview. Jesus tells us to watch for false prophecy, persecution, conflicts between countries and peoples, famines, pestilence, and earthquakes. What is amazing is that the climate change narrative includes all of these signs.
False Prophecy – The climate activists act as prophets, predicting doom from both climbing temperatures and falling temperatures. But their apocalyptic prophecies have proven false time and time again. Here is a link to a site with examples of fifty years of failed climate predictions.
Persecution – The climate culture persecutes those who question these “prophets,” especially those holding to Biblical beliefs. In this culture, there are no skeptics, only deniers of the truth. Websites such as Skeptical Science place legitimate climate scientists on lists, effectively black-balling them and deeming them unhireable.
Conflicts, famines, and pestilence – These signs are most interesting, as they are prevalent in the first six seals and, specifically, the fourth seal. Erik Solheim, the Executive Director of UNEP, specifically attributes these signs to climate change, stating, “hunger, poverty, illness, and conflict will be a constant reminder of our failure to deliver.
The end of this age will include many deceptions aimed to move people away from the truth, even believers (Matthew 24:24). By dismissing Biblical signs solely as man-made occurrences, we may not respond as we have been instructed. The Book of Revelation reveals the strategies we need to overcome Satan and his proxies when recognizing these signs (see this post). It is to his advantage to turn our attention away from the truth.
So does the Bible give us any clues to what is happening on the earth today?
The Earth in Transition
We know from Paul’s writings in Romans 8 that the earth is travailing like a woman in labor. He described how the earth groans as if experiencing contractions until the sons of God are revealed at the return of Christ. Like contractions, the earth’s climate swings – rising and dropping while reaching new peaks as it progresses. Some climatologists estimate that the earth’s global temperature has swung 78 times over the past 4,500 years, including two in the last 50 years.
Using Paul’s example of labor contractions, we can expect that the closer we get to birth, the more frequent and intense the contractions will be. And how would we experience these earthly groanings? They would appear in the form of climate swings, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.
Are we seeing the signs of this biblical analogy today?
I will address that question in Part II.