How does the climate change argument connect to the impending Second Coming?

Amid all the bickering induced by the US President withdrawing his administration from the Paris Climate Accords, something which has been nearly universally condemned given America's prior approval of the pact, the fact that all of its goals and targets are set voluntarily by the nation involved, and the 97% consensus that the man-made aspect of climate change is not only real but to some extent reversible, and that those man-controlled aspects are indeed a significant part of the problem...one Congressman said something that made the Christian in me stand up and listen.

Representative Tim Walberg of Michigan told a town hall meeting in Coldwater the other day that while climate change is real, he isn't concerned about it because God is in control of the universe and will take care of the problem.

“I believe there’s climate change. I believe there’s been climate change since the beginning of time,” Walberg is seen saying. “Do I think man has some impact? Yeah, of course. Can man change the entire universe? No.”

Walberg added, “Why do I believe that? Well, as a Christian, I believe that there is a creator in God who is much bigger than us. And I’m confident that, if there’s a real problem, he can take care of it.”           


Now, as a Christian, I am virtually compelled to agree with Rep. Walberg. God IS much bigger than us. He IS in control of the universe. And if HE chose to, He COULD take care of the problem.

But here's the issue we must always take into account. God's hands and eyes on Earth are His Church. We are His Hands. If God is going to take care of the problem, don't you think He would use the people of the earth to create some means of doing so? Like, say, the Paris Climate Accords?

It's not unlike the joke I used to tell on stage about the man who refused the two police boat rescue attempts in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, even as the water rose around his home, because "God Will Provide". Even when he was on tiptoes on his roof, he refused the helicopter rescue attempt because "God Will Provide". So, he drowned. 

When he arrived in Heaven. he was furious. "God! Why didn't You save me?"
God looked at him, incredulous. "What are you talking about? I sent you two boats and a helicopter, didn't I?"

Rep. Walberg and other fundamentalist Christians seem to forget that God's Hands are our hands. The Republican-led Congress often cuts the government help to the needy with the excuse that "God will provide". a la Matthew 7's "He cares for the birds and flowers; don't you think He will care for you, too?" But that government help is part of what He uses to help those people!


There's another element to this conversation as well, and it goes back to the word of Christ when He talked of the End Times. In Matthew 24:36-39, Jesus tells us how life will continue unabated before that moment when He returns...

36“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. 37For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark,39and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

The implication is that we are to continue about our business as normal until He returns to bring us Home. We are to keep "eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage", and so forth. Despite the increasing likelihood that we will see the Rapture in the next two years or so, we cannot depend on that fact and stop living our lives. God will delay His Return until He is satisfied that we have done  Just because all the signs are here, the "day and hour no one knows."

We must continue to live our lives as if we have all the rest of eternity here on planet earth. We cannot assume that Christ will return in our lifetime, no matter what the signs point to. After all, just about every other generation in history has believed the same thing! And every other generation was wrong! So we may not be any different!

We must go on trying to save the planet because that's what we're supposed to do. You cannot use God's omnipotence as an excuse. That's like saying because God could stop me from stabbing these thirty-seven people, I don't have to stop myself - after all, if He wanted me to stop, He'd stop me, wouldn't He?

No. No, He wouldn't, dingbat. And no other act of yours is going to get excused that way, either. And neither will destroying our planet.

Postscript: Rep. Walberg, have you actually read Revelation? Do you understand the condition the planet will be in very quickly once the Great Tribulation starts? Why should the poisoning of the earth bother God, when He's going to be raining Hell-fire down on it almost immediately anyway?

Dingbat.