Friday, October 3, 2008

Climate Change: Settled By The Bible

The big news last night was the vice presidential debate. I tried my best to listen while I was washing dishes, folding clothes, bathing the children, do another sweeping of the floor, and everything else in between. Joe Biden and Sarah Palin gave their answers to each question. However, there was one question in particular they were asked by the moderator that perked my ears. It was the question regarding global warming: "What is true and false about the causes of climate change/global warming?" I get asked this question almost weekly; probably because it has turned into a political issue instead of a climatological issue. Since I don't have the transcript in front of me, please forgive me as I paraphrase their answers in a short way.

Joe Biden: We are to blame for global warming. We are causing it. We must do more to prevent it.
Sarah Palin: Global warming is caused by natural cyclical changes in temperatures weather pattern and not all of it is man-made, although there are some things we can do to help lessen it.

If there were political contests and reporters in the Old Testament, I wonder how they would have explained the parting of the Red Sea, the gale that was blowing when Jonah was hiding on the boat, the great flood that caused Noah and his family to stay inside the ark for 150 days, or the cloud that followed the children of Israel wherever they went? Would they have reported it as global warming and climate change?

Let's see what the Bible says about it.
Psalm 104:19, "God made the moon to mark the seasons, and the sun knows when to set."
Deuteronomy 11:14, "Then He will send the rains in their proper seasons, the early and the late rains."
Leviticus 26:4, "I will send you the seasonal rains."

I think the Bible answered this question long ago.

4 comments:

John said...

AMEN to that. Let Him handle it. He is a lot bigger.

Michael Detwiler said...

I agree Barbie...excellent, excellent post. Short, sweet and to the point.

Anonymous said...

The writers of the Bible also did not have the scientific knowledge we have today, which makes it obvious why they would "blame" God, if you will, for the climate. They had no other answer. Demons are also blamed for the depression of Saul by the writers of the Bible. Do we really blame demons for depression today?

This is interesting territory. Your logic leads to the conclusion that God is responsible for all natural occurrences; thus, He is responsible for all the deaths, which are the by products. So God caused Hurricane Katrina, which killed hundreds of people.

If God is all powerful, there are only two choices: God CAUSES bad things to happen, or He ALLOWS bad things to happen and just stands idly by. I don't really like either choice.

Anonymous said...

Saralen...you're missing one element. When sin (man's disobedience to God's commands) entered the world it sustained a curse that we have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. That curse inclueds all the catastrophes that occur. God is not obligated to intervene with the natural laws that have been put in place. God is all powerful. He does allow bad things to happen (and they do happen to good people!) but he doesn't sit idly by. He cares for you and me when we hurt and wants us to turn to Him for help. It seems what we want is 1) to have our choice to do what we want [which God has given to us, with a limit] and 2) we want to be able to call on God like a genie to help us out of messes. Saralen, we can't have it both ways.

On the matter of demons and depression...I think it is not out of the realm of possibility for demons to be behind some depression. Some depression is chemically caused.

You are correct when you say that the writers did not have the scientific knowledge we have today. It's funny, though, even with our scientific knowledge, we are no different than they were, we blame God for everything. Today, when we see the weather and climate patterns God has put in place, it shows us what a creative and awesome God He really is. That is His general revelation of Himself to us. When you come to His "special" revelation of Himself, the Bible, it is there you see His so much more of Him including His love that allowed His only Son to come and die for our awful sins that entered the world so long ago and put us under the sin curse.

May the Lord shower His love on you saralen...choose the God who loves you with a dying love!!