2 Things the Bible Says About Climate Change

Whenever the topic of climate change comes up, there are often two things from the Bible that come to my mind.

First, what we're seeing now or on the horizon is not a threat.

After the Flood, “Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma. Then the LORD said in His heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease’” (Genesis 8:20-22). For those who predict disruption to ecological systems due to climate change, this rules out some of the more severe versions of that. We've still have droughts and floods, but nothing permanent on a global scale.

From around that early time in history we can read, “Who shut in the sea with doors, when it burst forth and issued from the womb; when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band; when I fixed My limit for it, and set bars and doors; when I said, ‘This far you may come, but no farther, and here your proud waves must stop!’” (Job 38:8-11). In other words, sea level rise is not a threat, at least not of any catastrophic uninhabitable proportions.

Second, major global warming is coming.

At the other end of time on this earth, the book of Revelation talks about when there will indeed be climate change, but it's not from man or CO₂.

“Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was given to him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory” (Revelation 16:8-9).

It's not man-made, at least in terms of anything one would consider to be direct natural causes. It may be man-caused, as in being a result of man's sin. The answer to that global warming and climate change is not anything physical on earth or in space, but for men to turn to God, away from sin, and give God glory and thanks in Jesus' name.

Even that global warming is not the worst that is to come.

Peter wrote, “the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:7) and “the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:10-13).

Right in the midst of that bad news is a message of hope. “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

Whatever you think of climate change that some think we see now and of man's part in it, make sure you're ready for the real changes that are to come, and then look for the new heaven and new earth.