The Power of Green FearProphecy Chat by Sharon L. Clemens

     Can man destroy the earth? According to the environmental disinformation rampant in our global culture--yes. But according to the source of truth, the Bible, the answer is a resounding NO!

     This is a dangerous topic because we have been programmed to believe that any criticism of the global environmental system is to condone the death of baby animals and the stripping of the rain forests. A failure to "go green" has become a sin of massive proportions. We are also being fed the lie that unless drastic measures are taken on a global scale, the earth will burn up, and everything on it. This lie has created a spirit of fear and hysteria that allow those who manipulate the fear to create social change that would have been impossible without it. The crisis has been created in order to manage mankind through restrictive environmental laws and treaties that do little to preserve nature. They do, however, put humanity in bondage to the environmentalists behind the green agenda, which brings them wealth and power.

     Our children are being told that making use of the natural resources God created for man will destroy the earth and cause its limited resources to run out. Our children are taught global warming will cause the normal seasons of hot and cold that create a growing cycle to cease. Our children are taught that because of man, all the animals are becoming extinct; and without the animals, man is sure to die as well. Living in this culture of fear causes our children to put their faith in environmental answers rather than God's truth.


WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT THE NATURAL WORLD?

* SEASONS WILL CONTINUE:     Will climate change cause the end of seasonal change? After the world-wide Flood, the Lord made a covenant with Noah. [Genesis 8:22] "While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease." While the earth remains, and it will remain until the "new heavens and new earth" are created [Revelation 21:1], God's earth will have seasons and will produce. There will be pockets of famine and increasing natural disasters as we near the return of Christ, but the earth will not self-destruct from global warming or global climate change. The earth is the Lord's. Try as man might, he cannot destroy it or its seasons. To presume that man CAN destroy the earth is to presume we have that amount of power and control over something we had no part in creating.
* GOD PRESERVES HIS CREATION:     Does the earth have limited resources? [2 Peter 3:5-7] "For this they [the false teachers] willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water [above and below], by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But 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." God will preserve His earth until a specific "day" called "the day of God." That is God's pre-determined day, at the end of time, when He will destroy it and recreate it with fire. Peter describes this event, following the Millennial Kingdom, in 2 Peter 3:10-13 -- "...looking for a hastening the come of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat..." Because God has reserved the earth for future re-creation after the Kingdom Age, He will also PRESERVE it as a functioning system until that day. It is not designed to "run out." It is designed to be self-sustaining until God determines that its time is "up," not man.
* GOD PROMISED NEVER AGAIN TO DESTROY ALL OF MANKIND OR LIVING THINGS:   [Genesis 8:21]   "...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." Just as the LORD preserved a seed of man and beast in the Ark during the Flood, so God will preserve a seed of man and beast for the Millennial Kingdom. Yes, there are some animals that roamed the earth that are no longer present. If all animals were still alive and multiplying, the earth would not be able to contain them and man would be unable to survive. Think of the consequences of a world inhabited by dinosaurs that were deemed a protected species. The Lord has built checks and balances into His creation that prevent one species from dominating another. Man's relationship with nature is not perfect and will not be until the Lord guides us in the Kingdom, but the garden was made for man, not man for the garden.

      In order to re-populate the earth with men and animals, both will survive to thrive during the Millennial Kingdom. The Lord will even hold back from complete destruction in the Great Tribulation period for the sake of His elect on the earth [Matt. 24:22]. We see a charming and comforting picture of God's coming restoration of the earth in Isaiah 11:1-9. Verse 6 is a precious passage that has been pictured in song and art work: "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them." This picture of future Kingdom occupants is a reassuring truth that man and animals will not only live through the worst war of all times, they will live in a future Kingdom of peace and righteousness in a restored and redeemed earth.

MAN CANNOT DESTROY THE EARTH BECAUSE IT IS NOT MAN'S TO DESTROY.
GOD WILL NOT ALLOW IT.

     Man also will not SAVE the world through environmentalism because it is God who preserves what He created. There is a day in which the earth will pass away and our LORD will create a "new heavens and new earth," but God determines that day. The new earth will be God's creation just as this present earth is His, and it will not take place until the temporal times of man are completed. Until the new earth, this present earth is preserved according to God's purpose, not man's. The universe was created for the glory of God; He will not allow His glory to be diminished.

     This is not a call to Christians to abuse the environment. We are naturally to be good stewards of the earthly gifts God has given to us. However, man was given authority over nature, not nature over man. STEWARDSHIP of the environment has mutated into a GREEN POWER AGENDA OF FEAR AND INTIMIDATION. Rather than worshipping the Creator, the world worships the creation. Satan's plan is to use the environment as a religion to unify the world for the coming Antichrist. He is right in thinking the deceived will do anything if they think it will "save the world."

      But God is not a God of fear to His people. The only ones who need fear what is coming are those who are not covered by the blood of Christ. The hysteria of global warming is a tool of Satan, playing on our emotions, to get us busy with fruitless things rather than preaching and teaching the Gospel of truth in Christ Jesus to prepare the way for the King.

In Him We Wait, Work, and Watch,
Sharon

[Prophecy Chat is a weekly commentary of current events in light of Bible prophecy. Sharon L. Clemens is an evangelical, premillennial, dispensational teacher of eschatology. She can be reached for comment or questions by e-mail at farmgrove@verizon.net]