Global Warming

The enemy of Christ has his agenda, which is to attack the creator God and the knowledge of him. He desires also to subjugate humankind to the environment. And more and more we read and hear of this agenda that's being played out by those who basically view mankind as an intruder. Listen, the planet we know is governed by God.

Mankind will not alter, will not deter, will not detract, will not ruin, will not destroy earth's natural resources so given to us by God to sustain life on this little marble. What's your opinion on global warming? It's become a hot topic in our society today and it's not limited to just one country or region.

It seems to be an important issue all over the world. What should our response as Christians be to the ever-growing cry of a society to save the environment? People are thinking about what we can do to increase the longevity of the planet. The bottom line is that God is sovereign over all things, including nature. A day is coming when God will use nature to bring judgment on those who reject him. We're going to learn more about this future time today.

Here's our teacher, Stephen Davey. Well, at a conference on climate change in 1965, held in Boulder, Colorado, evidence was presented by leading eminent scientists who supported the belief that small changes in sunlight were going to trigger cataclysmic change and events. It caught on and it gained an intensity.

In 1966, interest had grown. Eminent scientists were now predicting a new glaciation within a few thousand years. In other words, the earth will enter a new ice age. In a 1968 book that came out called The Population Bomb, one author wrote that the increased levels of carbon dioxide was really making it impossible to predict, but global cooling was consensus. Now the latest rage is becoming global warming. Listen, the planet we know is governed by God, and he is determined, according to what we see in scripture, that the resources of the earth will continue to sustain billions of lives until he comes to judge it. No matter what your carbon footprint is, mankind will not alter, will not deter, will not detract, will not ruin, will not destroy earth's natural resources so given to us by God to sustain life on this little marble. The enemy of Christ has his agenda, which is to attack the creator God and the knowledge of him. He desires also to subjugate humankind to the environment, and more and more we read and hear of this agenda that's being played out by those who basically view mankind as an intruder. You are an intruder.

You're in the way. Nature isn't given as God's gift to sustain life, provide for human benefit and pleasure. It actually becomes more important than human life, which then applies in classic form the destruction of any culture in Romans 1 where mankind denies creator God and elevates creation to the point where mankind actually becomes the slave to nature. Well, according to the revelation of God, as time winds down, leading to Christ's glorious reign on the earth, there is a coming season of cataclysmic events where the rumors of global cooling and the rumors of global warming will be played out in greater horror than anybody could ever imagine as a matter of fact. The world is heading for global warming. It is heading for global cooling all within the very same period of time. It will not be related to CO2 emissions. It will not be related to meteorites.

It will not be related to carbon footprints. It will be related to the hand of God, which actually controls the environment so that it will deliver to the human race acts of judgment one after another. And how ironic for the human race then, which idolized creation above their creator, who desired to protect the planet rather than please great providence. They will now be decimated as nature turns monstrous. Let's go back and discover more details of these events in Revelation chapter 16, as the tribulation period is actually beginning to face its greatest moments of judgment in its last days.

Revelation chapter 16, let's pick it up at verse 8, where we left off. The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given to it to scorch men with fire. Men were scorched with fierce heat. What we have here is global warming. God's angel does something to the sun. We're not told exactly, perhaps creating solar flares.

The heat is intensified ever so slightly, and it has to be even ever so slightly for this planet to be inhabitable, right? Now, what would you want to do if the earth heated up? What would you want to do if it heated up 20, 30, 40 degrees? You'd want to take a long, cold shower, wouldn't you? You'd want to go jump in a lake or go to the ocean or live by the coast, but we've already been told that all the bodies of water have been turned into what?

Blood. The antichrist and his followers have instigated the blood bath of Christians they've martyred, and now the antichrist and his followers will experience the wrath of God by having to bathe in blood or not bathe at all. Add to this bowl of wrath the natural outcome of forest fires. As the earth heats up, spontaneously starting all over the planet, Christ must return soon or the planet will go up in smoke before it's time. So this is added now to what will become ultimately seven bowls of wrath. These are the final acts, cataclysmic acts, events prior to the return of Christ to rule in his millennial, his 1,000 year kingdom on earth. And so another angel is summoned. The fifth bowl is poured out. Notice verse 10.

The text tells us, then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast and his kingdom became darkened. Imagine the world plunged in the darkness. Well, don't get at your cell phones and start waving them around. What you would do is grope out of this auditorium and you'd get at your key. You'd press that little button to make your car honk at you so you could find it because it's dark out there too. And then you'd get in and you'd start it up and you'd turn on the headlamps but they would emit no light. The passive voice indicates that whatever gives a light can't. Whatever it is, it won't.

You could strike a match. You could feel the heat of the flame and burn your finger but you would not see a flame. It's possible that the believers are not affected just as the Israelites were not affected. When the plague of darkness invaded Egypt, the children of Israel had a light.

Maybe God does something like that for them here we're not told as he did in Exodus chapter 10 verse 23. But Exodus and Revelation become illustrations that those who follow Satan belong to the kingdom of darkness and those who belong to Jesus Christ, the true Messiah, belong to the kingdom of what? Light.

Here is this global demonstration. You are following darkness. Believe in Christ and come into the kingdom of light.

What do they do? Verse 11 says, and they blaspheme the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores. They did not repent of their deeds. That is they connect what's happening to create our God and they say we still don't want you. We want our sin. We want our evil deeds. We want our false Messiah.

We will still worship the antichrist. Instead of falling on their faces in repentance, they show that they would choose their sin. They choose their unbelief in creator God. They choose the antichrist. They choose the dragon.

They choose the messages of the false prophet. So verse 12, the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates, and its water was dried up so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east. The last two bowls prepare the way for God and his son's kingdom and also unleash the greatest horrors of all. The Euphrates is dried up. The Euphrates River not only plays a role in the end of human history as we know it, but in the beginning of human history the Euphrates flowed past the Garden of Eden, Genesis 2.

It's the longest river in western Asia. It stretches 1,800 miles starting at the ice cap that melts in the snow fields and it ultimately empties into the Persian Gulf. Now the melting of the snow and ice because of global warming from the fourth bowl of judgment would swell the Euphrates River. It would become a rushing torrent.

It would have overflowed its bangs. By the way, the implication is the river of blood is now water. In fact, the text says in verse 12 the water of the great Euphrates River dried up perhaps because of the melting snow or the ice cap or maybe God has already reversed that particular bowl. John tells us why, however, the Euphrates was dried up. He gives us the answer to this miracle of God's administration.

Look at the text. So that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east. Now no doubt the swelling raging river has swept away the bridges that spanned the river. The armies of the east are going to make it to Jerusalem. They got to cross this river. They're going to gather in the plain of Armageddon just north of Jerusalem. So God miraculously, somehow we're not told, dries out the Euphrates so that the kings in their armed forces can march into what effectively becomes his trap, much like Pharaoh's army. Now how in the world would the armies of the world even think that they can take on God?

What in the world is going on in their mind that they think, hey, if we all get together, we can take him? Well, the Bible tells us in verse 13, they were deluded how? And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, that's Satan, and out of the mouth of the beast, that's the Antichrist, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three demons, unclean spirits, like frogs. For they are spirits of demons performing signs which go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty. And here they come and they deceive the armies of the world with great signs and wonders. They convince the world that whatever God happens to be doing all of these awful things, we can beat him.

And so they march. The text looks to the future and the last world war as world empires gather together to fight against God and his people. Now tucked away inside this scene is an encouragement to those who've come to faith in Christ after the rapture, during the tribulation, that number we know in the millions.

Here's the encouragement. Look at verse 15. Behold, I am coming like a thief.

Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame. Jesus Christ uses the same expression in Matthew 24 to refer to his second coming, which we know now follows the bowls of wrath here in chapter 16. The apostle Paul speaks of the day of the Lord to the Thessalonians in First Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 2 as the Lord coming as a thief. Prior to his return, the armies of the world are gathering together to overthrow his people and Satan knows the timing.

He knows his time is running out and he gathers them together, deceiving them, hoping to provide some sort of onslaught against the people of God and the person of God in the returning son of God. Now, what we're told in verse 16 notice there at the end that these kings and armies gather together to a place which in Hebrew is called Harmageddon. Harmageddon means mountain and Megiddo refers to a location in northern Israel.

Mount Megiddo is a small mountain located near the Mediterranean Sea. It overlooks a valley that stretches 20 miles long and 14 miles wide. It is a perfect place to serve as the command center for all of the armies that converge to do battle against God and his people. Some Bible scholars believe that these armies or some of them intend to actually battle against the Antichrist and that may have been an early thought as they have recognized his failed rule and his inability against this creator God that is pouring out his wrath upon the earth.

But the more I've studied this particular text, it's clarified for me that because the demons are going out and they're performing these miracles to deceive these armies and these world leaders, they're convincing them and they seem to be converging because of demonic activity that they are indeed ultimately coming to battle against the king of kings. Now, as they gather together, the final angel steps forward in verse 17 to empty the final bowl of wrath. Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air that is in the atmosphere and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne saying, it is done. And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and there was a great earthquake such as there has not been since man came to be upon the earth. So great an earthquake was it and so mighty the great city was split into three parts and the cities of the nations fell.

Babylon the great was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of his fierce wrath and every island fled away. Wow, what an earthquake. So fierce that it literally changes the topography of the earth. This upheaval will literally elevate Jerusalem and flatten the surrounding region into a plane just as the judgment by the way of God through the flood of Noah changed the topography of the planet. This final act of judgment will change the topography of planet earth.

In fact, some believe it will return to pre-fall conditions. Notice the changes mentioned in verse 20 again and every island fled away. It's poetic for just disappeared. Every island fled away and in the mountains what happened to them?

They're not found. What's happening? One author wrote this global earthquake one believing scientist added this commentary described in the original language as the shaking of the earth will set off every rift now well mapped by geologists and the rifts are worldwide. The entire western coast of America will be severed from Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina. The fault lines that take in all of southern Europe and the entire coastline of the Mediterranean following on eastward in a broadening band of fault lines all across Central Asia. The whole of this will burst wide open when the final earthquake comes.

Can you imagine that? But there is purpose in this chaos. Isaiah's prophecy will come true. His prophecy of Isaiah 40 verses 4 to 5 that every valley will be lifted up and every mountain and hill shall be made low and the rough grain will become a plain and the rugged terrain will become a broad valley. A believing scientist added in his commentary on this global upheaval connected with the prophecy of Isaiah that God intends this judgment to not only punish mankind and it will be terrifying punishment. Can you imagine how everything will literally erupt? It won't be a building standing but this will also prepare the earth for his coming. The effects of this worldwide earthquake will return to earth, one Bible scholar wrote, that gentle rolling topography of the world as originally created. No more will there be great inaccessible uninhabitable mountain ranges or deserts. The physical environment of the millennium, the kingdom of Christ, will be a restoration of the environment and conditions on the planet prior to the judgment of Noah's flood. Isn't that amazing to ponder? Massive eruptions, terrestrial convulsions, the redistribution of land masses, mountain ranges, islands, the ensuing redirection of the bodies of water. Imagine that the surface of the planet will be changed and prepared for the coming kingdom. In fact, another author said that this may very well leave Jerusalem as the highest point on earth as the prophets suggest, making it a fitting throne for the great king who will rule for a thousand years.

Is that as exciting to you as it is to me? That is absolutely amazing. But by the way, that isn't all that pounds the earth into a new form.

Look at verse 21. And huge hailstones, about 100 pounds each, came down from heaven upon men. Can you imagine this? Have you seen any hail lately?

You watch those little pebble sized things. It does all kinds of damage, doesn't it? It can devastate crops and put all sorts of dings into your car or truck. The heaviest hailstones, as I did a little research on record, weighed two and a half pounds, fell in the mid 80s in Bangladesh, and 92 people were killed.

That's two and a half pounds. Can you imagine hailstones the size of golf carts pummeling the earth? You have this massive earthquake and everything's coming loose and then massive hailstones coming from the skies. Massive hailstones.

By the way, that sudden global cooling. Perhaps this is the way that God puts out all the fires that will be worldwide. I also thought about it as this. Perhaps it's a demonstration of Leviticus chapter 24 where those who blaspheme God were to be stoned to death. This becomes a precursor then to the fact that everyone will be judged according to the fullness of God's law and everyone apart from Christ's atoning work will face the fullness of God's wrath. So it all wraps up with an earthquake, with hail, with a massive army, and the sight of Christ who returns.

More details on that later but I couldn't help here but think of the fact that when God delivered the law of Moses there was what? An earthquake. As if to let the Israelites know that the wrath of God is ever ready to judge those who break the law. When God the Son hung on the cross, God sent what?

An earthquake. He shook the earth as if to let the world know that he had judged his son on behalf of every law breaker. And the last time in human history where God shakes the earth, he shakes it to let it know it will indeed face the judgment of God for they have rejected the one who bores wrath on the cross.

I thought of another element that traces through the text of scripture. You have God delivering the law on Mount Sinai, consistently broken. Christ paying the penalty for all law breakers on Mount Calvary and in the world in unbelief marching by Mount Megiddo to experience his wrath. Where he will eventually send all who do not believe to a place of eternal suffering, eternal thirst, eternal fire, eternal darkness. Darkness was man's choice all along. Mankind refuses what the Bible calls the light of the gospel of Christ.

He chooses to revere mother nature and the environment. He refuses the account in the Bible of this creating agent of the triune God. We know Colossians tells us is the Son of God. The very first words as he created all there is were let there be what? Light.

His first words record. Mankind refuses to surrender to Christ who is the light of the world. He refuses the gospel of Christ which is called the gospel of light. You know what God does?

God will eventually give mankind his wish, banishing him to everlasting darkness. I noticed one other point as we wrap up our study in this chapter over and over and over again in chapter 16 in the Greek language you find this little word mega. We use it often for great, awesome, big.

It appears over and over again in chapter 16. It begins with a great voice. You have great heat. You have a great river. You have the great day of God and this battle of Armageddon. You have a great earthquake.

You have a great city. A great empire of Babylon and it ends with great hailstones. This is the great wrath of God punctuated by the original author as he dropped in continually.

Great, great, great catastrophe. Great anguish. This great judgment of God during the tribulation.

You know what? As I left the study, aren't you glad we're having and we will have forever the demonstration of God's great mercy? Psalm 86. His great grace, Acts 4. His great love, Ephesians 2, because we have accepted so great a salvation. Hebrews chapter 2.

My mind went to Gabriel's introduction of new truth to Mary and her soon to be delivered at least nine months from then, this virgin born son. And he said to her, he shall be great. He shall be great. And he shall be called the son of the highest.

You can't get any higher than the highest. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. You know, we're almost there.

You didn't think we'd make it out of the tribulation. We're almost there where the prophecy will come true, where Christ will descend in great splendor. And this one who is great will sit on his throne and his kingdom and earth will see the greatness of his glory. For those who refuse him, great things will happen to them.

They will be terrible in their greatness. But for those who believe in him, great things are in store. And so we who believe can come to the end of a chapter like this, an experience in our hearts, great joy, great security, because we have had the wrath of God poured out against the sun and we have placed our faith in him. We're hiding in him.

We've run to him. For the believer, for us, for the words, great is thy faithfulness. David reveals some terrifying future events in the book of Revelation as he describes some of the judgments to come. But as Stephen taught us today, these events need not terrify us as Christians.

God will never judge those whom he's forgiven and declared righteous in his sight. And for those who have not placed their faith in Christ, the admonition is to run to Christ today. You're listening to Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey. Our current series is called Armageddon and the Fall of Babylon. Stephen's calling this lesson Global Warming.

We're going to continue through this series in the days ahead. In the meantime, I encourage you to install our app to your phone so that you can quickly and easily access all of our Bible-based resources. That app contains the audio and the transcript of each of these daily Bible messages. We also make available the archive of Stephen's Bible teaching ministry. It's free to install and use and is a great companion for your personal Bible study. Well, thanks again for joining us today and I hope you'll be with us for our next Bible lesson, right here on Wisdom for the Heart.