Global Warming and Predictions From Modern Day Prophets
February 4th, 2007
John Lobach
Text:
Genesis 6:5-8, 7:10-11
Jonah 1:1-3, 3:1-2, 3:10
I am here as Pastchair, to share some of my thoughts with you. On reflection, it was a year of many personnel changes and I could talk about the many gifts required in a well functioning church community, but today, I would like to talk about a gift in a different way, God’s gift of nature to us, which is of personal interest to me.
Again this week, especially with the meetings in France, global warming has been in the forefront of the media; it is truly a hot topic today, hot in the sense of being very popular and also hot in that glaciers are melting, our winters and summers are getting warmer, the birds are leaving for other places, and worst of all we are being told that the polar bears are dying.
Even more ominous, it appears that global warming is being integrated into our belief system. Just the other day, Stephane Dion, the new Liberal leader in the House of Commons, accused Stephen Harper of not “believing” in the science of global warming.
Al Gore the unsuccessful candidate in the last US presidential election has found new fame in his most recent documentary called “An Inconvenient Truth”. In this video, Gore provides a convincing argument connecting our behaviour to a dramatic change in our environment.
Everywhere you turn, people are being stressed out about global warming and we are being told that the only way to save the planet and our lives is to change our attitudes and life styles. The underlying implication is that we have been living extravagantly in the past and it is now time to make drastic changes. And if we make these drastic changes, then we will save the planet, the polar bears and most importantly leave a healthy place to live for our children.
Who are these new priests of science and why has science taken on this role as a predictor of future calamities? Are these science guys who appear to see into the future or these politicians who are bringing to us this new science message, actually the modern equivalent of a messenger from God?
And why are they using phrases like “it is time for you to believe in the science of global warming” or “inconvenient truth”.
If we look in the Bible and at the history of the Christian church for some guidance, we find that this message has been given to us before.
In Genesis chapter 6 we read —
Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Then the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in His heart.
And the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them”
But Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord.
Archaeological records show us that Noah could have lived in an extensive lush and fertile valley north of Turkey, in a land that is now covered by the Black Sea.
The event of Noah and his ark occurred about 8000 years ago, about the time that the glaciers of Europe had retreated out of northern Germany and Denmark – back into the Nordic countries of what is now Norway and Sweden.
As the atmosphere warmed and the glaciers melted, the sea levels rose to the point where the Mediterranean was 3 to 4 meters above the fertile land of the then empty lake bottom, of the Black Sea.
And this was about the time that Noah received a warning from God, that a great flood was imminent and in order to save himself and his family, he needed to build an ark.
It is probable that the water was already roaring over the raised earthen dam that stretched between the modern states of Turkey and Bulgaria. As the water spilled over this earthen dam, it poured into the lower Black Sea plain snaking across the farmland and filling up its lower reaches. Perhaps Noah was aware of this new fast flowing river or maybe he was able to see for himself that the land he loved was far below the Mediterranean Sea.
Like us, Noah must have been attached to his farm land and no doubt he protested – not wanting to leave his beautiful home. However. Noah concedes and starts to build the ark.
At some point the earthen dam breached and all the beautiful farmland slid under the Black Sea, silencing his neighbours, the animals and all the creeping things.
Let’s continue reading from Genesis chapter 7,
And it came about after the seven days, that the water of the flood came upon the earth.
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.
According to Genesis, Noah and his ark floated for 150 days before they finally came to rest upon the mountain of Ararat.
The message
of this story would be quite simple – Noah listened to God and was saved from a calamity.
But also take note of the finality of God’s judgement – for those outside the ark, there never seems to be a chance for change and then forgiveness.
Now in a different time period, around 770 BC, during the period of the Assyrian decadence, Jonah also received a message from God to tell the people in the city of Nineveh – repent or die. The message is equally strong just like Noah’s.
Let’s read from Jonah, chapter 1 verses 1 to 3
The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying,
“Arise, go to Nineveh the great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.”
But Jonah rose up to flee to Tar-shish from the presence of the Lord.
We all know what happened to Jonah after this.
We continue reading from Jonah chapter 3 verses 1 & 2
Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying,
“Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you.
And Jonah did as God asked him to, talked to the people of Nineveh and surprisingly they listened.
And from verse 10 we read
When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which he had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.
But Jonah became quite upset at God’s gracious forgiveness – he felt that Nineveh did not deserve to be saved and Jonah became angry.
God then goes through a small lesson with Jonah showing to him that repentance was a good response from Nineveh and they deserved God’s kindness for doing this.
If you listen closely to some of our global warming enthusiasts, you will hear that some have a very strong message like the one heard by Noah. These very strong messages imply that if we switch on our lights a hurricane will result. The implication is that we have already made our errors and there is nothing we can do to save ourselves.
On the other hand, there are those with a much more reasonable message – telling us that we have time to change our ways – that it would be in our own best interest to change and if we can change we will save ourselves and more importantly all our third world brothers and sisters who are much more vulnerable than we are.
But what is the message from these science guys
– firstly, that global warming is a natural event
– secondly, that our use of carbon based energy is increasing the rate of this natural event.
Let’s consider global warming as a natural event and take a look at what was happening on North America before Noah had to build his ark.
At the peak of the last ice age, 100,000 years ago, Lake Ontario and the area around Toronto would have been completely covered with about 5000 feet of ice.
Getting closer to the time of Noah, about 10,000 years ago, most of this ice had melted leaving the lands around the present day city of Toronto rich with wildlife.
These large physical changes imply that our climate is always changing and most importantly it is still changing.
And this brings us to the second component of global warming; the human activity that is adding to the natural warming cycle. This is where things get really messy and confusing as we watch the scientists quarrelling amongst themselves and the politicians making statements.
With a pronouncement like “our mountain glaciers are dying”, the media creates a panacea of fear.
And in so doing relevant information is ignored – for instance there is geological evidence suggesting that the Arctic Ocean has seen this summer melt before, but in our media panicked state of mind, this information falls on deaf ears.
This week we heard pronouncements like science is 90% sure that human activity is adding to global warming, especially the use of carbon based fuels – so what are we to do?
Carbon based fuels may be the biggest culprit in all of this, however, they could also be viewed as a huge gift. Without them, our lifestyle would be drastically different. Imagine going back 300 years.
So the important question for us is, “how can we keep these carbon based fuels with our comfortable lifestyle and at the same time pay attention to what is happening to our environment.”
If we listen to the scary pronouncements and pr
edictions the overwhelming urge for us might be to give up like Noah did, – to build an ark – abandoning all those that have no hope of being saved from the future calamities.
On the other hand, Jonah teaches a different way to look at this foreboding problem. We can change, saving ourselves and all the people around us.
A very real fact in all of this, is that we in the first world, are extravagant users of carbon based fuels but we can make simple and very effective changes. For example:
•We can turn in that comfortable SUV
•We can reduce the amount of electricity
•We can build a city with proper public transit and
•Or we can support our local green manufacturers
What should we not be doing?
This week, in the media, I heard about the latest scheme in air travel. In the scheme, the first world traveller is encouraged to pay a voluntary carbon tax of $200 to a supporting global warming organization. The tax is then transferred to a third world resident, who will take carbon out of the air, and store it into the ground for you.
This immediately brought to mind the Catholic indulgence tax. The Catholic Church offered to its members, an indulgence that could be purchased like a tax allowing the owner of the paid tax to indulge or enjoy themselves here on earth, without the danger of purgatory.
By adopting this carbon tax, it is implied that we can keep our comforts while someone else pays the price.
We need to be aware of these schemes, that will detract us from a healthy global solution.
So does the church have a role to play in this modern debate on global warming?
Maybe we start building an ark?
As a note – we do have a community close to us living in a kind of ark – our Kitchener Amish brothers and sisters, who are extremely modest users of carbon fuels.
To conclude, it seems that Noah made a very quick decision on the lifestyle of his neighbours – he would build an ark and abandon them since they were not worth saving.
Jonah on the other hand, shared God’s message to change with the people of Nineveh, although he did not believe that they deserved God’s forgiveness.
Within the science group, there are people similar to Jonah, who have concluded that we will not change, just like the people of ancient Nineveh.
But there is hope!
If we look back at very recent global problems like ozone depletion and acid rain, there is strong evidence to support that a quick response from us has brought very positive change.
The science community has resorted to some very strong statements about our lifestyles and whether they are correct or not they have connected these statements to global warming.
Our use of carbon based fuels is excessive and any improvements that we make will bring very positive changes to the environment and most importantly these changes will allow future generations to use the resources as well.
Our earth with its carbon based fuels is a gift from God and we can make a choice – to disregard the discussion and continue with our excessive ways or to heed the warnings, assess our usage and work together to restore God’s beautiful creation.