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January / February / March 2010
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Jan/Feb/Mar 2010
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Dear Friends,
In February and early March 2010, on Monday nights, the SABC’s TV2 presented as an Issue of Faith a 4-part series called “A Vision of Paradise: Global Warming Documentary.” This “documentary” predicts fearful results of climate change (notably in Africa) leading to drought, famine and death. Global climate change, it says, is the greatest challenge to humankind.
Until fairly recently we understood that God, as the Lord of nature, determined the climate. He says:
“Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen? Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up [God’s] dominion over the earth? Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens when the dust becomes hard and the clods of earth stick together?” (Job chapter 38)
The answer, of course, is GOD. But humanistic man regards weather and climate as his own challenge and responsibility!
It is right and good to take care of God’s creation, for God has appointed man to be vice-regent over His world:
“God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Throughout the ages Christians have heeded this Cultural Mandate and also the Great Commission. Therefore it is unfair to suggest that Christians are responsible for the cutting down of the Amazonian rain forest and for causing ice bears to drown in the Arctic. Deforestation and devastation are the work of heartless materialists who think only of their profit.
“Global Warming is a Myth;” 49.000 Scientists say so.
The present fear of climate change was built up through a series of conferences initiated by the United Nations. To mention just a few: In 1988, the UN founded an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In 1992, it held an Earth Summit in Rio. In 1997, it convened a climate conference in Kyoto, and in December 2009, it called a Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen (7-18.12.09). Even though the UN claimed that the world’s scientists all agreed on the challenge of climate change, in reality a great number of scientists disagree. In December 1997 the Wall Street Journal published an article entitled “Science has Spoken: Global Warming is a Myth.” Two chemists at the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine had come to the conclusion that “during the 20 years with the highest carbon dioxide levels, temperatures have decreased…” They continued, “There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate. Moreover, there is substantial evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.” 17.000 scientists, among them thousands of meteorologists, signed the declaration, but were ignored by the UN Conferences and sidelined by the establishment. Since then, 32.000 scientists, among them more than 9.000 PhDs, have signed a similar declaration. 1) Yet Al Gore, in his climate change movie, still claims that all scientists agree that disaster is coming!Shortly before the climate conference in Copenhagen, in December 2009, hackers broke into the computers of the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (CRU), one of four research units of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and released confidential files and documents into the Internet. 2) These showed that scientific facts had been ‘adjusted’ in order to achieve a desired outcome. As if to rebuke the apostles of global warming, God then sent a cold spell upon the Northern Hemisphere that has not had its equal for many a decade.
Worshipping the Creature rather than the Creator
The present climate change debate is intensely religious, and the SABC documentary, “A Vision of Paradise,” features several religious leaders (Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist) who speak about its spiritual implications. The Christian religion, they claim, has impacted negatively on the preservation of creation and has in a way contributed to climate change. Bishop Geoff Davies, founder and leader of the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (SAFCEI) agrees. He is South Africa’s “green Bishop” and was named Environmentalist of the Year 2009 because of his commitment to “earthkeeping” and the “ the principles of the Earth Charter.” The SABC programme “A Vision of Paradise” is obviously motivated by New Age religion, for it encourages the veneration of nature and promotes the reverence of Mother Earth (or Gaia). The climate change religion is pantheistic and anti-Christian and goes back to fertility religions which worship water, land, sun and moon. “A Vision of Paradise” claims: Creation is divine. The earth is sacred. It is our mother. And as is our mother, so are we. The trees are our lungs, the rivers our blood. If we harm the earth by mining minerals or winning oil, we rob our mother’s body of its blood and organs. Christianity has caused environmental harm by claiming that Creator and creature are different . Creator and creature are not different, they declare: God and nature are one. God and man are one. All is God, and God is all. - An “Environmental Handbook,” written in 1970, states: “What we do about ecology depends on our ideas of the man-nature relationship. More science and more technology are not going to get us out of the present ecological crisis until we find a new religion, or rethink our old one.” The Handbook also says: “No new set of basic values has been accepted in our society to displace those of Christianity. Hence we shall continue to have a worsening ecological crisis until we reject the Christian axiom.”Do we understand what is being said here? We are told that dreadful disasters will come upon us unless we reject our Christian religion and way of life. Unless we accept a New Age worldview of nature worship, socialist political thinking and a family planning practice which will drastically reduce humanity, because Mother Earth can supposedly carry only one billion inhabitants.
Redistribution of Wealth and Power
Inspired by the occult ideas of Helena Blavatsky and Alice Bailey, an “Earth Charter” was adopted in 1992 and is being promoted as the “New Ten Commandments.” In August 2002, at the UN’s World Summit on Sustainable Development, which was held in Johannesburg, this Earth Charter was placed into an “Ark” and solemnly and reverently carried into the assembly. 4)The purported aim of the climate change apostles is to help the poor and suffering by raising finances to repair climate damage in developing nations. But Helene Bos of “Serving the Nations,” who has led many intercessions for the UN, summarises the real UN aims, saying: “One goal of the Copenhagen Treaty is the transfer of wealth from industrial nations (like the United States) to developing countries. Another goal is to install a global governing body that can decide/dictate how much/little energy use and consumption is granted to industrial nations. Critics suspect therefore that goal #1 is in fact Global Socialism and that there is another hidden goal, a Global Dictatorship. These two goals combined would mean the introduction of a socialist One World Government. Christians need to pray that the hidden motives and strategies will come to the light.” 3)
But why is the SABC-TV2 programme called “A Vision of Paradise?” Is it not to say that Man will, by raising himself to a “new level of consciousness,” reclaim Paradise in his own power and restore fallen nature all by himself? By means of the climate change debate we are told that as children of the divine earth we are divine ourselves and have divine powers. - ”You will not surely die,” said the serpent to the woman. ”For God knows that when you eat of it (the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Gen. 3:4) Let us then be careful. Religion comes in many guises to motivate us through fears and promises to do what is harmful to us. Let us therefore hold fast to the Faith of our Fathers and trust in the triune God. For “if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment… then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment.” (2 Peter 2:4-9)
May God bless you richly,
D. Scarborough .
Footnotes:
- Helene Bos, Copenhagen – no Bread from Stones: http://www.servingthenations.org/article.asp?ArticleID-211
- See www.wnd.com/index.php?pageld=117323 and www.wnd.com/index.php?pageld=116657.
- Helene Bos, op cit.
- Gospel Defence League Letter, September/October/November 2002.
OUR WORLD BELONGS TO GOD
A Contemporary Testimony of the Christian Reformed Church, USA, 1986 (Preamble)Drafted in view of the secularisation of modern life and culture.
1. As followers of Jesus Christ, 1 living in this world – which some seek to control, but which others view with despair – 2 we declare with joy and trust: Our world belongs to God! 3
1 Psalm 103:19-22 - “The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all. Praise the LORD, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding. Who obey his word. Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will. Praise the LORD, all his works everywhere in his dominion.”2 Psalm 4:8 - “I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.”
3 Psalm 24:1 - “The earth is the LORD’s , and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.”
2. From the beginning, 1 through all the crises of our times, until his kingdom fully comes, 2 God keeps covenant forever. Our world belongs to him! 3 God is King! Let the earth be glad! Christ is Victor; his rule has begun. Hallelujah! The Spirit is at work, renewing the creation. Praise the Lord!
1 Psalm 145 - “…Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no-one can fathom. One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts. They will speak of the glorious splendour of your majesty… All you have made will praise you, O LORD… Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations… The eyes of all look to you and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing… The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them. The LORD watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.”
2 Romans 11:33-36 - “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen.”
3 Revelation 4-5 - …”Day and night they never stop saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.’… The twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: ‘You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.’… Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honour and glory and power, for ever and ever!’”
3. But rebel cries sound through the world: 1 some, crushed by failure or hardened by pain, give up on life and hope and God; others, shaken, but still hoping for human triumph, 2 work feverishly to realize their dreams. 3 As believers in God we join this struggle of the spirits, testing our times by the Spirit’s sure Word.
1 Psalm 2 – “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One.. ‘Let us break their chains,’ they say, ‘and throw off their fetters.’ The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, ‘I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.’… Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way.”
2 Ephesians 6:6:10-18 - “Finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms… Be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”
3 1 John 4 - “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world… Every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world…”
4. Our world has fallen into sin; but rebellion and sin can never dethrone God. 1 He does not abandon the work of his hand; the heavens still declare his glory. He preserves his world, sending seasons, sun, and rain, 2 upholding his creatures, renewing the earth, directing all things to their purpose. He promised a Saviour; now the whole creation groans 3 in the birth pangs of a new creation.
1 Psalm 19 – “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world…”
2 Acts 14:15-17 - “Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. In the past, he let all nations go their own way. Yet he has not left himself without testimony.
He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.”
3 Romans 8:18-25 - “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”
5. God holds this world 1 in sovereign love. He kept his promise, sending Jesus into the world. He poured out his Spirit 2 and broadcast the news that sinners who repent and believe in Jesus 3 can live and breathe and move again as members of the family of God.
1 1John 3:1-21 - “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him… This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”
2 Acts 2 - “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”
3 Acts 17:22-31 - “Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: ‘Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked round and observed your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown, I am going to proclaim to you.”
6. We rejoice in the goodness of God, renounce the works of darkness, and dedicate ourselves to holy living. As covenant partners, called to faithful obedience, 1 and set free for joyful praise, we offer our hearts and lives 2 to do God’s work in his world. 3 With tempered impatience, eager to see injustice ended, we expect the Day of the Lord. And we are confident that the light which shines in the present darkness 4 will fill the earth when Christ appears. - Come, Lord Jesus! 5 Our world belongs to you.
1 Mica 6:8 - “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
2 Romans 12:1-2 - “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – which is your spiritual worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
3 2 Peter 3 - “You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming… Make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation… Be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
4 1 Corinthians 15 - “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain." 5 Revelation 22:20 - “He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.”