In the 1970’s we heard about global cooling and the headlines read, “Another Ice Age is Coming!” Then we were told about a hole in the ozone layer and were warned, “The human race is going to burn up!” In recent years we’ve been advised to “run for the hills” to avoid the flooding caused by Global Warming, later called Global Climate Change and just recently renamed Global Climate Disruption. And, we’ve been told that all these impending catastrophes have been caused by man.
Now, it should be easy to look to the earth’s past and see that temperature changes are normal and that they have been occurring since well before the industrial revolution, automobiles, and air conditioning. But, for some reason, some people don’t feel complete unless they can blame (or credit?) man with these fluctuations in the weather.
So, just when did man become so powerful? Did I fall asleep and wake up in a world where man took over God’s role in controlling the weather? Have I been teleported to an alternate universe where the human population is powerful enough to destroy what God created? (A world population, I should add, that’s small enough to fit into a land mass the size of Wake County with room to spare.)
The Bible says God controls the weather. It says He turns the rain on and He turns it off as He sees fit (Deuteronomy 11:17, Genesis 7:4); He produces hail and snow if either are needed to make His point (Exodus 9:18, Job 37:6); He makes the thunder and lightning at His command (1 Samuel 12:18; Job 37:3); and not only does He make the storms, He calms them as well (Psalm 83:15; Psalm 107:29). And in case you were wondering, God uses the weather to both bless (Leviticus 26:14, Deuteronomy 11:14) and punish His people (1 Kings 8:35; Job 24:19, Exodus 9:18, Psalm 78:47).
But here’s what I find interesting. I have yet to discover anything that indicates that man has ever been able create a thunderstorm or that he has succeeded in stopping the rain when it was about to overflow a riverbank and destroy a city. I haven’t seen where man has created lightning or thunder outside of a laboratory experiment. Try as he may, man has never been able to change the weather.
Listen, God has only loaned us planet Earth and all it has to offer (1 Corinthians 10:26). And while we are called to be good stewards and should take care of our environment, God doesn’t stop us from misusing what He has entrusted to us. But we are not powerful enough, even with a coordinated effort, to destroy what He has created. (Remember what God did to the City of Babel? See Genesis 11:1-9 for a refresher.)
As I said, the Earth’s temperature does indeed change. The temperature is cyclical as is the weather in general. It changes daily; it changes by the season; and it changes by generation. But man doesn’t change it. The temperature of God’s creation is fully under His control. If there’s going to be a disruption in the global climate, we need to look for a finger much bigger than man’s turning the dial on that great thermostat in the sky.
Thom Fishow
January 16, 2011