The Bible does not directly address the global warming effect of anthropogenic emissions of “greenhouse gases” like carbon dioxide. It does, however, teach us several things relevant to whether human-induced global warming is likely to be catastrophic.

First, Genesis 1:31 says that when God saw all that He had made, it was “very good.” Global warming catastrophism depends on the belief that an extremely small change in atmospheric chemistry (raising the concentration of CO2 from about 280 parts per million, or 28 thousandths of 1%, to 560 parts per million, 56 thousandths of 1%) would, because of “positive feedback loops,” cause catastrophic consequences. Is that belief consistent with God’s creation’s being “very good”? Would a good architect design a building such that if you leaned against a wall, the various feedback mechanisms would multiply the stress of your weight until the whole building collapsed? Yet climate-change catastrophism depends on thinking the climate system’s feedback mechanisms would do just that—multiply the initially slight impact (an increase in global average surface temperature of somewhere between about 0.5 and 1.2°Cmainly toward the poles, in winter, and at night, meaning less frequent and less severe cold snaps, which on average kill about 20 times as many people per day as heat waves, but not more frequent or more severe heat waves) of that doubling of CO2 in the atmosphere until it became devastating. No natural systems we’ve studied are dominated by positive feedback—indeed, if they were, they would have collapsed long ago. There’s no reason to think the climate system, created by God’s wise design and sustained by His faithful providence, is any different.

Second, following His judgment of the world with the flood in Noah’s time, God promised Himself, “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, And cold and heat, And summer and winter, And day and night Shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22). The thrust of this promise is that God would sustain Earth’s climate cycles to ensure that they would always support human (and other) life. This doesn’t mean Earth couldn’t warm and cool cyclically; it does mean He would ensure that it never became so hot or cold as not to sustain life. That’s contrary to the idea that manmade climate change is an “existential threat.”

Third, while one of the biggest fears related to manmade climate change is of rising sea levels, Scripture repeatedly offers reassurance about that. Consider these passages:

• Genesis 9:11: “And I establish My covenant with you, and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

• Psalm 33:7: “He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deeps in storehouses.”

• Psalm 104:5–9: “He established the earth upon its foundations, So that it will not totter forever and ever. You covered it with the deep as with a garment; The waters were standing above the mountains. At Your rebuke they fled, At the sound of Your thunder they hurried away. The mountains rose; the valleys sank down To the place which You established for them. You set a boundary that they may not pass over, So that they will not return to cover the earth.”

• Jeremiah 5:22: “‘Do you not fear Me?’ declares the LORD. ‘Do you not tremble in My presence? For I have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea, An eternal decree, so it cannot cross over it. Though the waves toss, yet they cannot prevail; Though they roar, yet they cannot cross over it.’”

That last verse appears in a context (5:1–25) in which God teaches that if people properly feared Him, they wouldn’t not need to fear natural disasters. This suggests that much of the fear of natural disasters today stems not from solid scientific evidence but from lack of the fear of God. It’s not that sea level cannot rise; it’s that God ensures that it won’t rise sufficiently to threaten human existence.

For further study on this subject, we recommend Cornwall Alliance board member and senior fellow Dr. Roy Spencer’s book Global Warming Skepticism for Busy People and our online paper A Renewed Call to Truth, Prudence, and Protection of the Poor: An Evangelical Examination of the Theology, Science, and Economics of Global Warming, particularly the first section, on theological, worldview, and ethical considerations.

— Charlene H.