Read Time: 3 minutes 28 seconds
A heartbreaking weather phenomenon is currently happening in Pakistan and many are wondering if it’s tied to biblical prophecy. More than 1 million homes have been destroyed and at least 1,100 people have died since massive flood rains started devastating the country in June.
Pakistan typically gets three to four cycles of monsoon rains during the peak season, but so far they have been hit with eight cycles and more are expected to come.
This isn’t the only event in biblical nature that is happening. The Euphrates River is drying up from years of droughts, misuse of water and a decline of imports into Iraq from neighboring countries. The Euphrates is the most crucial river in the Middle East and it flows through Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran.
In Revelation 16:12 the Bible says, “The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great Euphrates River, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the East.”
In 2021 the highest temperature ever measured in Canada was recorded at 121 degrees. Over the heat waves two week span, 1,400 heat-related deaths were reported across western Canada and the northwestern United States.
The Earth’s climate is ever-changing with numerous external factors at play. Climate experts study the Earth’s rotation, volcanic eruptions, El Nino-Southern Oscillation, sunspot cycles among numerous other variables—but what does all of this have to do with Christians?
The National Association of Evangelicals Releases a 96-Page Climate Change Report
The NAE feel Christians are mandated by the Bible to care about climate change. Whether some believe climate change is a hoax, or the biggest threat to mankind, the Bible says that God has given us dominion over the Earth.
The debate between many liberal and conservative thinkers is the role human activity plays in the warming of the Earth’s surface temperature compared to natural factors that have occurred across the span of time, like wind cycles, volcanic eruptions, etc.
Global Evangelical leaders equate climate change to the Great Commission because environmental changes affect those in poverty around the world who need the gospel.
So what does the National Association of Evangelicals think Christians should do about it? Here is what their report says:
- Severely cut greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide and methane and switch to non-fossil fuel energy sources.
- Use more efficient appliances, shift to public transportation and renewable energy-powered cars, prioritize energy savings and eat more plant-based diets.
- Pass legislation that helps speed up the transition to renewable energy.
What are other activists saying?
Political activist Ben Shapiro says, “We live in a geopolitical world in which carbon emission from China counts the same as carbon emission from the United States…that doesn’t mean there’s nothing we can’t do, it means what we ought to be doing is the thing that will prevent the 83 million deaths…adaptation.”
Shapiro says we should:
- Build sea walls at coastal low lying areas.
- Geoengineering–shoot certain material into the air to change the climate itself.
Activists like Shapiro think that using advancing technology is an easier option to combat climate change than a global carbon tax.
Shapiro says significant rises in sea level take hundreds of years.
“As it turns out when the tide rises people move inland,” Shapiro says this is nothing new and has been happening throughout human history.
In a YouTube video Shapiro discusses the land bridge between Russia and Alaska saying, “Not a huge number of people were killed… when that land bridge ended up being covered up in water, there weren’t tens of thousands of people who died in that because it took thousands of years for that to be covered up by water.”
What does the Bible say?
The NAE points to Genesis 2:15 as their basis for why Christians should care:
Genesis 2:15 says, “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till it and to keep it.” In the Old Testament Jesus says the greatest commandment in the Law is to love the Lord with all our hearts and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself.
For the NAE, obeying God means caring about what happens to God’s creation because the Lord gave us the job of tending to the Earth.
In the end, there are real people who are being affected by forest fires, severe flooding and droughts. The global church needs to love those in need as they would love Jesus, and do what they can to take care of the Earth that God has given us dominion over.
Shelby Lindsay is an assistant editor for Charisma Media.
Abby Trivett 
Charisma Staff 
