Pentecostal Sermons and Bible Studies by Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D.

Global Warming? Climate Change? Environmental Disaster? 100% "Yes!"

Summary:  Human-caused global warming? There’s a much bigger, catastrophic climate change ahead that is unrelated to our modern industrialization. I’ll show you how to avoid its consequences.


What’s your opinion on global warming? I’ll offer what is probably a more dire prediction than yours, and I have 100% confidence that it will happen:

• 1/3 of the earth will be burnt up.
 
• 1/3 of earth’s trees will be burnt up.
 
• All the green grass will be burned.
 
• The sun will scorch the earth with fierce heat, undoubtedly leading to catastrophic sea level rise.

I didn't dream up these apocalyptic predictions. In fact, they refer to a “global warming” scenario that is spelled out in the Bible’s prophetic Book of Revelation. There are many other calamitous environmental events mentioned in the Revelation — things such as famine (Revelation 6:6,8); the sea turning to blood, thereby killing all the sea creatures (8:8; 16:3); the fresh waters turning bitter (8:11); the fresh waters turning to blood (16:4); and more.

But I want to focus specifically on an issue of great concern to many today, and that is global warming leading to sea level rise and other environmental disasters. I do not have the scientific expertise to estimate what amount of influence humans have on global warming. But the widely overlooked part of the climate change debate is the fact that God in heaven has determined some very serious impacts on the climate and the environment as part of his judgments on an ungodly world in the last days. And that is the focus of this article. The horrible environmental “warming” catastrophes listed at the top of this article come from the Book of Revelation, a fascinating, apocalyptic "book of prophecy" that contains the final 22 chapters of the Bible.

• “…a third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up” (Revelation 8:7).
 
• “…the sun was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat…” (Revelation 16:8-9).

The God who created this earth (Genesis 1:1) remains deeply involved with our planet and its inhabitants. God cares for His creation, as evidenced by His choice to place the first man Adam in the role of taking good care of the land — “The Lord God took the man [Adam] and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Genesis 2:15).

Then Adam and his wife Eve committed sin in disobeying a specific command of God (Genesis 3:1-6). This brought the corrupting, evil consequences of sin into the human race. But it also had negative ramifications on the environment: “To Adam he said, ‘Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ ‘cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground’.” (Genesis 3:17-19)

From mankind’s original sin in the Garden of Eden until now, sin has corrupted our planet and its inhabitants, both spiritually and physically. Now let’s jump ahead from the Bible’s first book (Genesis) to its last (Revelation). In the “last days” described in Revelation, we see the catastrophic results of the deliberate choice by multitudes of the world’s people to reject God and to ignore the Gospel of His Son, Jesus Christ.

God has a perfect balance of love and justice, based upon His infinite wisdom. This requires that He judge unrepentant sin and people’s rejection of His Son Jesus, who gave His life on the Cross to forgive sins and to save all who would come to Him in faith and repentance. As the prophetic Book of Revelation describes the closing years of time before Christ’s second coming, we see widespread rejection of Jesus across the planet. The multitudes who refuse to serve Jesus Christ are seen to persecute those who do serve Him. The rejection of God and His Son by the many triggers last-days judgments from God, and I have listed a number of them above that dramatically affect the environment.

But now let’s move ahead a bit more to the culmination of the global warming discussion. In the last days, as we have read, there will be scorching heat from the sun, at a level never before experienced. Glaciers will surely melt, with the inevitable catastrophic sea level rise. Much of the earth and its vegetation will be destroyed by the searing heat. Famine and death will abound. [As an encouraging side note, let me add that when God judged Pharaoh’s wicked Egypt in the Book of Exodus, He protected His people Israel from many calamities poured out upon the enemies of God and His people. Various references in The Revelation show God likewise providing protection for His people in the end times as God’s judgments are poured out on the wickedness of the world. Believers, be encouraged! Do not fear the end times.]

Finally there comes a time when God says, “Enough!” And at Jesus' second coming to earth He destroys the present world that “lieth in wickedness” (1 John 5:19, KJV) in preparation for His creation of “a new earth, where righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). The earth that we inhabit today will be consumed with fire at Jesus’ coming. The apostle Peter speaks of this in his epistle of 2 Peter, chapter 3:

• “In the last days scoffers will come…they will say, ‘Where is this ‘coming’ He promised’?” (vss. 3-4)
 
• “…the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly” (vs. 7).
 
• “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare” (vs. 10).
 
• “That day…the elements will melt in the heat” (vs. 12). Peter is describing “global warming” at its absolute, irresistible, cataclysmic climax!

This worldwide destruction by fire is also spoken of by the apostle Paul in his second epistle to the Thessalonian church:

• “[2:1] Concerning the [second] coming of our Lord Jesus Christ … [1:7] This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you" (2 Thessalonians 2:1; 1:7-10).
 
• The King James Version (vs. 8) describes Jesus’ second coming vividly: “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Briefly, what have we seen? The Bible covers many thousands of years of human history from Adam and Eve to the present. The widespread refusal of men and women to come to God and His Son Jesus Christ in faith and repentance culminates in God’s last-days judgments. The generation alive prior to Christ’s second coming (could that be us?) will see God’s multiple judgments on unrepented sin. This will include the catastrophic environmental events spoken of in The Revelation. Many of these environmental calamities are in the context of extreme global warming — God-caused warming as part of His judgments on a wicked, unrepentant world! The final step in this fiery judgment is at Christ’s coming, where “the elements will be destroyed by fire… [and] will melt in the heat” (2 Peter 3:10,12).

Is there any hope? Yes!

At Jesus’ second coming, His faithful followers will be “gathered to Him” (2 Thessalonians 2:1). In Paul’s 15th chapter of First Corinthians, the eternal destiny of all those who have come to Jesus in faith and repentance is spelled out. The “dead in Christ” are raised from the dead. At the same time those believers alive at His coming will, with those resurrected believers, be instantly transformed into immortal, imperishable bodies “like [Jesus’] glorious body” (Philippians 3:21). We will enter the unimaginable blessedness of eternity in His presence.

However, all believers would do well to heed Peter’s apostolic advice given in the context of the expected return of Christ and the fiery judgment of this world. Peter wrote, “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:11-13). Consider carefully the apostle’s call for “holy and godly lives.” God does not look lightly on sin. Remember, it was our sins that cost Jesus His life on the cross, in order that we might be forgiven and saved from eternal judgment. Determine to live for God in an upright and holy way, so that you can confidently “look forward to” the coming of the Lord.

Is there any hope for you if you don’t yet know Jesus? Yes!

If you are reading this and know that you have not yet accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, there’s good news! God is still patiently waiting for you to come to Him through faith in His Son. That time of mercy and grace has not yet run out (but one day it will). The apostle Peter wrote that God “is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). The greatest decision you will ever make in your life can be right now, right at this moment. I encourage you to turn your heart and life over to Jesus. Allow Him to save you from your sins and from God’s judgment and to make you a son or daughter of God Almighty. You will escape the disastrous impacts of the pending God-caused global warming and will be able to look forward to a joyous eternity in God’s glorious presence. Please click the following link and let the late, respected evangelist Billy Graham lead you through the simple steps to peace with God through Jesus Christ. God bless you!

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Check out our related sermon: End Time Calamities Are Prophesied | Will You Survive Them?

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©2017, James H. Feeney.
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Pentecostal Sermons and
Bible Studies
by Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D.