Global warming.
Every record hot day or new brush fire raises this harbinger of doom, but it wasn’t always the case. Just a few decades ago, the catchphrase was global cooling. Don’t believe it? Here are a few magazine covers from the 1970’s warning of dire predictions of a catastrophic global freeze. Hardly anyone remembers these ominous warnings since all have been replaced with the latest environmental hysteria.
I am not stating that global warming does not exist but a few years of elevated global temperatures need to be taken in context with overall climate changes especially when just a few years earlier, environmentalists were issuing the clarion call for just the opposite. Are the global warming of recent years and the global cooling of a few decades earlier within the statistical realm of normal climate variations or is something permanent occurring? Has the earth experienced past dramatic climate changes? No question. There were several ice ages and periods of global warming, lasting eons. The Bible also records, in great detail, the first and greatest climate change this earth ever experienced-the Great Flood.
There are few stories in the Bible that stagger our imagination more than the Great Flood. From the depraved state of man that led to God’s judgment upon the earth to the stirring story of Noah building an ark and issuing warnings to all who would listen for over a hundred years, the flood brought up cataclysmic changes over the entire earth, affecting not only all living land creatures but also radically altering the population of the earth.
And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive. Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.”
Genesis 6:19-21 (ESV)
Pundits love to lock on to seeming inconsistencies with this account. One glaring problem they focus upon is how could Noah transport two of every animal type and store enough food for all? At the least, wouldn’t the carnivorous animals be driven to a mad frenzy seeking to eat dozens of its fellow passengers? Not so!
And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.
Genesis 1:29-30 (ESV)
Before the flood, all animals, including man, were vegetarians. The dimensions of the ark were sufficient to store enough plants to sustain Noah’s family and the animals for the several months they were afloat.
Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.
Genesis 9:3 (ESV)
It was only after the flood that God permitted the eating of all animals. Thus, the flood brought about great climatic changes and equally startling changes in animal behavior. Before the flood, man’s life spans were hundreds of years. After the flood, lifespans reduced with each successive generation, reaching our current ages. Before the flood, the climate was comfortable for all. After the flood, famines, floods, and all other uncertainties of the weather became commonplace, including global cooling and global warming.
For many years, I questioned the authenticity of the story of the Flood. No longer. With every event in the Bible that I initially found difficult to comprehend, I discovered it was my ignorance of the Bible rather than the cleverness of man’s analyses that was my stumbling block.
Global cooling? Global warming?
In our lifetimes, we may never definitively answer the questions about climate change, but for the most cataclysmic weather change the earth has ever experienced, God provided all of the answers and explanations, I was simply unwilling to carefully investigate them. God’s Word is always consistent, complete, and eternal Truth.
The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the Word of God will stand forever.
Isaiah 40:8 (ESV)
Amen!
Love and trust the Lord; seek His will in your life.
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