The weather is going from crazy to crazier. Just this week (mid-May) there were six inches of snow on the ground in Denver (previous record for May: 0.5 inches). At the same time, a tropical storm buffeted the southeast; there was drought in California; and terrible tornadoes and flooding drove up from Texas through the central Midwest and the western Southern states.
Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it, said Mark Twain. Nowadays some people talk about the weather in apocalyptic terms: The earth is heating up! The sea levels are rising! Island nations are already disappearing under the sea, and much of Florida will be underwater by 2050. Thus say the climate scientists. They are countered by those who say such claims are a hoax, that the scientists who make them only want more money for their research, that because the claims are based on computer models they cannot possibly be valid. The scientists insist that increased burning of fossil fuels results in enormous amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which will cause large disruptions in global weather, among other things causing the seas in just a few decades to rise enough to submerge significantly areas along the coasts of all continents. New York City, for example, would see many of its neighborhoods destroyed. If human activities contributing to this phenomenon aren’t scaled back, the entire earth will be devastated. While some critics of global warming reluctantly acknowledge some of the evidence that climate change is occurring, they deny it has anything to do with human activities. Even if there is serious global warming, there is still insufficient evidence to justify reducing the use of fossil fuels, and the measures proposed for mitigating climate change would severely and needlessly damage the economy.
Climate change is real. Arctic sea ice is currently in precipitous decline in area, extent, and volume, and may cease to exist sometime during the 21st century. Human activity has destabilized the great ice sheet of West Antarctica and has thus set in motion (eventually) more than ten feet of sea level rise. The rise in temperature has the effect of disrupting weather systems around the world. Thus, for example, snowfall in northern Canada has increased. Why? The tundra is melting and during summer releases water vapor into the air, which falls as snow when the weather cools.
It’s a pity that climate change has become a political issue, a cause of bitter debate between Republicans and Democrats. Well, actually, there isn’t much debate. The Republicans make confident assertions, while the Democrats are more or less silent. The scientists are nearly unanimous (97%), but nobody much listens to them.
One group of climate change deniers takes a different perspective from the mainstream. These are the Christian fundamentalists who ae looking forward to the Second Coming and believe it is very, very near. Therefore, the threat to the environment and life on earth is trivial, because God will intervene, the world will be transformed, and all will be well.
In fact, they say, the weird weather we are experiencing is merely part of the “tribulations” prophesized to occur before the Second Coming of Christ. The weather is just one of several “signs” that the Judgment is coming. One web site describes “50 Reasons Why we are living in the end times.”
“And so you have it — six different categories of signs, each category containing many prophecies concerning the end times, all of which are being fulfilled before our very eyes. Let me conclude by specifically listing 50 of those prophecies.
1. Increasing instability of nature
Matthew 24:7 & Luke 21:11)
2. Increasing lawlessness and violence
(Matthew 24:12)
3. Increasing immorality
(Matthew 24:37)
4. Increasing materialism
(2 Timothy 3:2)
(5) Increasing Hedonism
(2 Timothy 3:4)
6. Increasing influence of Humanism
(2 Timothy 3:2)
7. Depraved entertainment
(2 Timothy 3:4)
8. Calling evil good and good evil
(2 Timothy 3:3 & Isaiah 5:20)
9. Increasing use of drugs
(2 Timothy 3:3)
10. Increasing blasphemy
(2 Timothy 3:2)
11. Increasing paganism
(2 Timothy 3:1-4)
12. Increasing despair
(2 Timothy 3:1)
13. Signs in the heavens
(Luke 21:11,25)
14. Increasing knowledge
(Daniel 12:4)
15. Increasing travel
(Daniel 12:4)
16. The explosion of cults
(Matthew 24:11)
17. The proliferation of false christs
(Matthew 24:5)
18. Increasing apostasy in the Church
(2 Timothy 4:3-5)
19. Increasing attacks on Jesus
(Romans 1:18-19)
20. Increasing attacks on the Bible
(Romans 1:18-19)
21. Increasing persecution of Christians
(Matthew 24:9)
22. Increasing occultism
(1 Timothy 4:1)
23. Wars and rumors of wars
(Matthew 24:6)
24. Weapons of mass destruction
(Luke 21:26)
25. Increasing famine
(Luke 21:11)
26. Increasing pestilence
(Luke 21:11)
27. Computer technology
(Revelation 13:7)
29. Satellite technology
(Revelation 11:8-9)
30. Virtual reality
(Revelation 13:14-15)
31. Unification of Europe
(Daniel 2 & 7)
32. Far Eastern military powers
(Revelation 9:16 & 16:12)
33. Movement toward world government
(Daniel 7:23-26)
34. Re-gathering of the Jews
(Isaiah 11:10-12)
35) Re-establishment of Israel
(Isaiah 66:7-8)
35. Re-establishment of Israel
(Isaiah 66:7-8)
36) Reclamation of the land of Israel
(Ezekiel 36:34-35)
37) Revival of Biblical Hebrew
(Zephaniah 3:9; Jeremiah 31:23)
38) Re-occupation of Jerusalem
(Luke 21:24)
39) Resurgence of the Israeli military
(Zechariah 12:6)
40) Re-focusing of world politics on Israel
(Zechariah 12:3)
41) Russian threat to Israel
(Ezekiel 38 and 39)
42) Arab threat to Israel
(Ezekiel 35 and 36)
43) Denial of the Second Coming
(2 Peter 3:3-4)
44) Denial of creation by God
(Romans 1:18-22)
45) Outpouring of the Holy Spirit
(Joel 2:28-29)
46) Translation of the Bible into many languages
(Matthew 24:14)
47. Preaching of the Gospel worldwide
(Matthew 24:14)
48. The revival of Messianic Judaism
(Romans 9:27)
49. The revival of Davidic praise worship
(Amos 9:11)
50. The understanding of Bible prophecy
(Daniel 12:8-9)
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