God
thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things which we cannot
comprehend. For He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth’; Likewise to the
gentle rain and the heavy rain of His strength. The beasts go into
dens, And remain in their lairs. From the chamber of the south comes the
whirlwind, And cold from the scattering winds of the north. By the breath of God
ice is given, And the broad waters are frozen. Also with moisture He
saturates the thick clouds; He scatters His bright clouds. And they swirl about,
being turned by His guidance, That they may do whatever He commands them On the
face of the whole earth. Job 37:5-12 NKJV
As
we begin another New Year, I thought I would revisit a subject I have discussed
in the past, but believe might be even more relevant in the coming year than it
has ever been before. Something I am
sure we can all agree on is the fact that Jesus made it perfectly clear that
there would be observable signs for us to see as the world approaches the end
of the age and the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. While diverse, I also believe the majority of
signs appear to be physical in nature, relating to geophysical occurrences that
the earth itself manifests for our observation.
Yet a question I have always enjoyed discussing is this; are these
physical events a “cause or effect” phenomenon?
The
waters saw You, O God; The waters saw You, they were afraid; The depths also
trembled. The clouds poured out water; The skies sent out a sound;
Your arrows also flashed about. The voice of Your thunder was in the
whirlwind; The lightnings lit up the world; The earth trembled and shook. Psalms 77:16-18 NKJV
Look
closely at the passage from Psalms and notice what the author says the reaction
of the earth was to the presence of God. We are told the waters were afraid,
the depths trembled, there was a downpour of rain, thunder along with lightning
that lit up the entire world, not to mention earthquakes that also shook the
earth. Yet to me, the most important part of this passage is the fact that it
does not say God “caused” these things to happen, rather it was an “effect” of
the earth to actually “seeing” the presence of God. In other words, the earth, as a creation of
God, somehow knows when God is near, and reacts to that proximity by exhibiting
observable physical events.
"Then the earth shook and trembled; The foundations of
heaven quaked and were shaken, Because he was angry. 2 Samuel 22:8 NKJV
The
earth shook; The heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God; Sinai itself
was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel. Psalms 68:8
NKJV
While
I have no desire to enter a discussion on the merits of “global warming”, I
believe that the debate itself is proof that the world knows something is
happening, and is struggling to provide an explanation based on anything other
than what the Bible has already told us.
As I thought about that, it seemed to make perfect sense considering
that there are other things the world is going to struggle to explain as well,
such as the rapture of the Church and the disappearance of so many at one
time. I have heard speculation that
alien abduction would provide a good explanation for the rapture, so does it
not make a kind of sense that global warming could provide an explanation for
the changes we are seeing, and the physical events which are to come?
“For
thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake
heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; ‘and I will shake all nations, and they shall
come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’
says the LORD of hosts. Haggai 2:7 NKJV
“And I
will bring him to judgment with pestilence and bloodshed; I will rain down on
him, on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, flooding rain,
great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Ezekiel 38:22 NKJV
I will
show wonders in heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and
vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into
blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD. Acts 2:20 NKJV
Make
no mistake, God Himself will cause much of what is to come to occur, yet we
also are told that as He draws near, the earth itself will acknowledge that
proximity with physical reactions which can be seen and felt. While the world in general, and the antichrist
in particular, will formulate some sort of believable explanation for all that
will happen, as believers we can rest in the knowledge that not only is God in
charge, He also is coming soon. My
question for you today though, is this; do you believe we are seeing a global
warming, or rather a global warning? I
would suggest the world is going to see a rapid, steady increase of events this
coming year which I believe will be a reaction of this earth to the approach
our Lord and Savior.
"So
you also, when you see these things happening, know that it is near--at the
doors! Mark 13:29 NKJV
Keep
watching.
I
have included some links today from a website I frequent which keeps track of
much of what we see occurring in the physical world around us. Take a good look at what has happened in just
the last week of 2015, and consider what we might see in 2016.
Winter hits Chihuahua
with 25cm of snow – climate change blamed for series of winter storms
Freak storm pushes
North Pole 50 degrees above normal to melting point
Missouri governor
warns of ‘historic and dangerous’ floods
The weather outside
is ‘frightful’ and promises to become even more extreme
Tornadoes leave at
least 11 dead around Dallas area
Floods of biblical
proportions leave UK cities, towns and villages under water
Earthquake swarm of
30 tremors rattles Reno, Nevada
