Glen Berry

TODAY, when a Christian by studying the Word, and believing it, comes out with a statement that God is in control of winds, storms, calamities of nature, etc., he is even heavily criticized by other professing Christians, as well as the unbelieving world. Without diligent study, but with a shallow understanding, even Christians think this just DOES NOT SOUND RIGHT—IT CAN’T BE RIGHT! So they blame it all on “Global Warming” or “Climate Change.” They put it ALL on the Man for exploiting and abusing his planet. God would not do such a thing, they think.

Well, they are partially right, but that means they speak only a “half-truth.” In writing about this, studying more, and discussing this with those who agree with me and those who differ, I have even more thoughts about it. Man DOES INDEED cause much of his own destruction. Sometimes it come as naturally as a blood-blister under a fingernail when you hit it with a hammer. And sometimes it is a direct consequence of GOD exerting His anger against sinful man in a judgment, whether He uses nature or man (as in war) to show His wrath against sinful actions of man.

Those who put it all on man, as though man can give us a peaceful environment if he will but try, leaving God out of the picture, we see the religion of rank humanism in action.

BEFORE I end this booklet, I will show you a Bible passage from the book of Revelation that is irrefutable and should settle the matter once and for all. It will most definitely answer such questions as: “Would a good God purposely be responsible for HURTING the earth and its inhabitants?” Or answer the objection: “Don’t blame God—it is Climate Change.” I hope you will see that “half-truths” just do not “get it.”

I understand that the now long-converted young movie-star, Kurt Cameron, who now has his own Christian ministry, came down hard on Hurricane Irma, pointing out the very same things we have been trying to tell people. But he did it with love and compassion, not with any judgmental attitude. Yet we hear he “got into trouble” for saying it even kindly, and was harshly criticized by professing Christians. If in case you don’t know, Kurt has now done much study in the Word of God, is gifted of God to declare truth, and does not speak without thought and study. One would do well to “search the scriptures” rather than to try to “kill the messenger.” It just might be that you speak against truth because you have not studied enough. And we ALL have much more to learn and should be diligent in our study.

I was just reading this morning in a book about the life and work of Amy Carmichael in India. This mentions a time during World War II. And shows quite clearly how MAN brings his own destruction, even causing a famine. So we can’t blame God for a famine caused by man. That is NOT to say that God does not bring famine directly Himself. But it gives an example of how it is when MAN brings it on himself.

Before going further, let me say that ALL such havoc can be blamed on man’s sin. Man does not want to face this. If man had NEVER sinned, the planet would have remained a paradise and peaceful with NO weather upsets. Al Gore may think the solution is in man using less fuel from the ground, or filtering it in some say, which, again, is not the whole truth but only a “half-truth.” So we experience that the “land” has become SICK and needs healing. We try man-devised methods to make it well again. Is man able to heal the land? Not when he is in such rebellion and rejection of God Almighty, worshiping modern idols.

Why do I say this? You either believe the Bible or you do not. LISTEN! “If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their SIN, and WILL HEAL THEIR LAND.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)

THAT is the solution and the promise. Does God have the power to fulfill such a promise? Well, look at the preceding verse 13: “If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I COMMAND the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people.” He would never say that if He had no power to DO it, and in fact HAS done so! As Paul Harvey used to say when later telling more of the story he was reporting, “That is the rest of the story.” Without it you are left with ONLY “half truth.”

Now, from the book about Amy Carmichael, published by Barbour Publishing, pages 190-191, we get some helpful history from World War II. I quote:

“In 1940, a pact among Germany, Italy, and Japan caused more fear in Asia. Japan, so near India, was very powerful militarily. On December 7, 1941, Japanese dive-bombers devastated the American navel fleet in the Pacific Ocean. This would keep Americans from helping any victims in Asia for a long while. The Japanese began aggression in earnest. They struck the Chinese in force. Later they attacked Burma, too, pushing the British out. Burma was India’s neighbor.

“On April 6, 1942, the Japanese bombed Madras!

“It seems India is in this war whether the ‘Mahatma’ [Gandhi] likes it or not,” commented some.

“Dohnavur sensed the immediacy of the war. Evacuation plans were developed. If the Japanese invaded, everyone in the Fellowship under the age of thirty-five, now numbering more than three hundred, would proceed immediately to the Gray Jungle. But the Japanese attack on Madras was only a probe. The first manifestation of the war was a famine in the area around Calcutta. But why? The immense paddy lands of the Bengal had not failed the Indians in recent memory. Hundreds of thousands of fields were scattered along immense rivers. The rice was delivered to millions in the cities in thousands of boats. But now country people flocked into Calcutta, carrying everything they owned in one basket or a box. “Where is the rice”? they cried.

“Soon the tragedy was known. All boats had been requisitioned by the British for the war effort. But what of the Indian people? The catastrophe of 1943 seemed to prove that the British didn’t care if Indians lived or died. Everywhere the Bengal people starved. Mothers’ milk dried up. Babies died. The numbers of dead mounted. Ten thousand. One hundred thousand. Finally one million. Two

Two million! More. Mountains of smoke plumed into the air as Hindu dead were burned in pyres along the rivers. Gandhi was imprisoned, silenced. No one spoke for the Indians. It was some consolation to Amy to learn a recent estimate placed the number of Christian Indians at seven million, an increase of four million in the last thirty years.

“ ‘Someday the British will be gone from India, but Christ will remain,’ she prayed.”

[Emphasis, mine.—g/b] So there you have it. A plain case of man’s sin and war working the direct cause of FAMINE, and one example of man causing his own destruction. Man’s sin was still at the bottom of it, and God allowed the consequence of man’s action to take place. Had there been no sin, still the land would not have been so sick in need of healing.

To show you MORE of the DEPRAVITY OF MAN, let me now take you to an extensive excerpt from Psalm 106. Be patient. Be diligent. Read it. It is the Word of God!

“They soon forgat His works; they waited NOT for His counsel: But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. And He gave them their request: but sent leanness of their soul. They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron the saint of the Lord.

“The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram. And a fire was kindled in their company; the flames burned up the wicked. They made a calf in Horeb and worshipped the molten image. Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass. They forgat God their Saviour, which had done great things in Egypt.

“Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red sea. Therefore He said that He would destroy them, had not Moses His chosen stood before Him in the breach, to turn away His wrath, lest He should destroy them.

“Yea, they despised the pleasant land, they believed not His word: But murmured in their tents, and hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord. Therefore He lifted up His hand against them to overthrow them in the wilderness. To overthrow their seed also among the nations, and to scatter them in the lands. They joined themselves also unto Baal-peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead. Thus they provoked Him to anger with their inventions: and the plague brake in upon them. Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment: and so the plague was stayed. And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore.

“They angered Him also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes. Becacause they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips.

“They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the Lord commanded them. But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works. And they served their idols: which were a snare to them. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils. And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with blood. Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a-whoring with their own inventions.

“Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against His people, insomuch that He abhorred His own inheritance. And He gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over them.” [Thus we see God using an enemy nation to bring war and punish His erring people.]

“Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their hand.” [Let us see here that a strong army against their enemy was NOT the solution or answer. God was doing this as a judgment for the sins of His people!] “Many times did He deliver them; but they provoked Him with their counsel and were brought low for their iniquity. “Nevertheless He regarded their affliction, when He heard their cry. And He remembered for them His covenant, and repented according to the multitude of His mercies. He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives.” [Do you realize what a mercy this was even at the hand of a chastising God? He caused them to be scattered among other nations as a punishment for their rebellion and idolatry, and YET He caused those very nations that captured them to HAVE PITY toward them! Sounds just like a loving Father!]

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the Lord.” (Psalm 106:13-48)

Reader, does this not show you somewhat of how God works in human history? Yet mankind, without such belief and honor toward the Almighty God, lives and acts as if He does not exist, has no full control and so takes matters into his own hands. Practical atheism!!!

Now finally, I leave you with the passage from Revelation that I promised would answer who it is that controls the winds. You can see from the above that God does cause the earth and its people to be HURT and WHY He uses such almighty power in wrath and in love. Bow to His holy Word. Praise Him for it. Read on.

“. . . And the stars of heaven fell unto the earh, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

“And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

“And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to HURT the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. . . .” (Revelation 6:13-17 and 7:1-3)