“Let God be true though every man [and scientist] were a liar” (Romans 3:4)

In the course of my teaching here at Cedarville University, students will occasionally ask me to address the issue of global warming.  Of chief concern to them, it seems, is what a Christian’s response ought to be.  Admittedly not one to conceal my personal views on important matters, I am naturally quite eager to situate this or any other contested topic within a biblical framework (worldview) that pre-determines what is or is not rationally possible.  As such, when students broach this subject, I immediately inform them that I do not believe there is any reasonable basis for concluding that an alarming warming (or cooling) trend – man-made or otherwise – is afoot; I base this conclusion first and foremost on the biblical doctrine of God’s providential control of the natural order.

Because God is sovereign, He is in full control and, according to Scripture, His rule extends to EVERYTHING.  After all, the Father created all things and continually maintains all things through His Son who “upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Heb. 1:3).  Divine superintendence governs the universe as a whole (Ps. 103:19; Dan. 4:35); the earth (Job 37; Ps. 104:14; 135:6; Mt. 5:45); the animal kingdom (Ps. 104:21, 28; Mt. 6:26), and much, much more.  What is usually called “natural law” is really the moment-by-moment upholding of all things by the Second Person of the Trinity, for “in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:17; Acts 17: 28).  Christ is the unifying power of the universe, having first created it (John 1:3-4) and then continually ensuring its uniform operation (Gen. 8:22; Jer. 5:24; 33:20, 25; Prov. 3:19-20; 8:29).  Not even the insignificant sparrow can fall to the ground unless the Father first wills it (Matt. 10:29).

And this brings me to my main point on the matter of anthropogenic climate change: if God is in control of every facet of His creation, which would also include weather conditions, then it is impossible for the mere creature to thwart the Creator’s providence.  After all, God is the protagonist and we freely act in circumstances that He first pre-arranged, for according to the Psalmist, “You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me” (Ps. 139:5); He creates the context for all our actions, while each situation orchestrated by Him elicits a specific volitional response from us, and all according to His will.

There is a perfectly logical explanation for why this must be the case, for God simply could not be God if it were otherwise.  You see, the Lord is not merely more powerful than we (in other words, He gets His way because He bullies us); rather, He is all-powerful, and in being all-powerful, He is sovereign over all things, and being sovereign over all things, He controls all things that come to pass.  Thus, there can be no real contingency, no chance occurrences, no blind fortune or “dumb luck” in all of creation, for even “the lot is cast into the lap but its every decision is from the Lord” (Prov. 16:33).  All things, including those seemingly “random” events (such as the number of our hair follicles – Mt. 10:29-30), in fact happen because He first ordained them.  So, unless God Himself has decreed human-caused environmental catastrophes, there simply won’t be any because there could not be any given His micro-management of the natural world.

Now, one may wonder given all this conventional talk about climate change whether God did in fact plan ahead for a man-made global cataclysm to occur in our day.  Could human activity feasibly be the means by which He introduces a climate pandemic so severe as to put the planet in jeopardy?  Well, based on the Lord’s promise to Noah, the Christian ought to answer with a resounding “NO!”  As the Bible reveals, “While the earth remains, seed time, harvest time, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Gen. 8:22).  Clearly, no disruption of the natural cycle is in the realm of possibility, for God’s pledge not to destroy the earth by any global catastrophe still holds true today.  The life-sustaining natural order, including its weather patterns, will remain until our Lord terminates this economy of nature at the end of time.

Furthermore, Christ’s encouraging counsel not to be “anxious” for our basic necessities but, instead, to trust in God’s care, would be small comfort, indeed, if the greater things – namely, the sustainability of the earth itself – plausibly hang in the balance.  Like the grass and the lilies of the field, our heavenly Father knows what we need in terms of survival, and promises to provide all these things (Matt. 6:25-34) given our greater value in His sight.  So, even if the earth’s surface temperatures were somehow to exceed their normal threshold (whatever that is), we can expect, based on this wonderful promise, that God’s provision will always be sufficient for His people, even in the hypothetical event of global climate change.

But note my use of the term “hypothetical.”  I reject the scientific consensus in favor of global warming for the same reason that I reject the scientific consensus in favor of macroevolution: both theories are the products of faulty paradigms of nature whose fundamental axioms conflict with those of Scripture.  Moreover, consensus per se does not make something ontologically true; in order for truth to be objectively real, consensus has to be in accord with Him who is Truth (John 17:17).

So, like the Bereans of Acts 17, we must examine all human teaching with God’s written and inerrant Word, and then having sifted through it, we cast away the dross of human-centered wisdom.  By this biblical standard, the theory of man-made global climate change looks and feels more and more like hot air.