The Real End of the World
by Lindsey Abston Painter | 9 July 2024 |
It’s pretty common in Adventist churches to hear about the world ending. Preachers or evangelists talk about things that they think are going to snowball into an end-time crisis. Their examples usually have to do with big conspiracies focused on Seventh-day Adventists and our beliefs.
But there’s better and more immediate evidence that the world could be ending soon. God doesn’t need to do it: we’re doing just fine destroying it ourselves.
Climate change.
NASA warns that the effects of climate change are here, and will only become worse in the future. The article says,
“Some changes (such as droughts, wildfires, and extreme rainfall) are happening faster than scientists previously assessed. In fact, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — the United Nations body established to assess the science related to climate change — modern humans have never before seen the observed changes in our global climate, and some of these changes are irreversible over the next hundreds to thousands of years.”
We need to find some way to overcome the bias in our brains that tells us to ignore the threat this poses to us. And that includes those of us in the church.
One of God’s first commands to humanity, in Genesis 1:26-30, was to take care of the earth. Let’s take a look at the things God told us to take care of.
Fish
And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea…
Assuming this passage means all fish, as well as all ocean, lake, and river wildlife, climate change has already drastically affected all things living in the waters of this world. In some cases, warming waters lead to a significant decline in wildlife species that live in the deeper, colder parts of bodies of water. In shallower water, whole regions of coral reefs are dying. The decline of these species affects the ecological balance, which can lead to a decline in all the species, or an overpopulation of a species that is usually prey to fish in decline.
In other cases, fish and plant life are being found in places they don’t usually reside. In the five American Great Lakes, for example, non-native and invasive species such as the alewife and zebra mussels have caused major disruptions to the native fish populations. In the local lake close to my house there are periodic warnings every few years against swimming or even going into the water because of an overpopulation of algae. This has been going on for years, a result of the slow warming of the waters in the lake.
Birds
And let them have dominion over … the birds of the heavens…
Birds have already been so heavily impacted by climate change that the Audubon Society has a website dedicated to documenting the effects. You can search in your county or by bird to see how birds near you are affected. Already, hundreds of species of birds have been forced to relocate to more favorable areas, and many of them are not surviving the change. Nearly 150 species are already on the brink of extinction.
Livestock
And let them have dominion over … the livestock…
The National Library of Medicine sums up the impact of climate change:
“There is strong evidence that there will be impacts throughout the supply chain, from farm production to processing operations, storage, transport, retailing and human consumption. The risks of climate-related impacts are highly context-specific but expected to be higher in environments that are already hot and have limited socio-economic and institutional resources for adaptation.”
In other words, with the worldwide food supply chain’s probable disruption we can expect famine and starvation in the near future, especially in areas of the world that are hot and poor.
Not an especially bright future for any of us who like food.
Bugs
And let them have dominion over … every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
NASA warns us that an estimated 65% of the world’s insect population might become extinct in the next few years. If you’re like me (not a big insect fan), you might not initially feel too ruffled about that.
But the problem looks a lot more dire when we realize that insects are an enormous part of the world’s food chain. The NASA website also notes,
“Insects perform many important roles in Earth’s ecosystems. They assist with the production of fruits, vegetables, and flowers through pollination. They decompose organic matter. They even help control harmful pests.”
Plants
Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed….
The Environmental Protection Agency warns that the agriculture industry has already faced many serious difficulties as a result of climate change, with more to come. Decreases in productivity, and changes in the seasons when things can grow, make it difficult for farmers to know when to plant and how long they can expect to cultivate their crops. Not to mention the changes in water availability mean drought for some and flooding for others which kills crops and erodes nutrients from the soil.
More and more pesticides are required to control invasive insect species, which leads to the death of more helpful insects, like bees—and isn’t great for human consumption either, not to mention the health risks to the farmers themselves who are exposed to pesticides.
Fruit trees
Behold, I have given you … every tree with seed in its fruit.
A science journal dealing with frontiers in plant science warns that fruit trees are threatened by climate change. Warmer temperatures are causing trees to flower erratically, sometimes too soon, only for their delicate flowers to be damaged by frost. Fruiting trees are designed to lie dormant during the cold season. Trees that are budding earlier than usual, or budding erratically, are more vulnerable, leading to what the journal calls “reduced tree vigor,” as well as “bud break disorder.” I’m not a plant scientist, but that doesn’t sound good for the future of fruit.
Our first—failed—responsibility
The first responsibility God gave us we appear to have failed.
Christians spend an awful lot of time talking about upholding God’s expectations, usually when it comes to people’s sex lives or sexual organs. The ironic thing is that God had relatively little to say about people’s sex lives or sexual organs. But God had an awful lot to say about taking care of the vulnerable, and almost as much about caretaking the earth.
Unfortunately, I have no idea what to do about climate change. And that’s part of the problem. Very few people actually have any constructive ideas about what to do about it. There aren’t easy answers. There’s no single villain to unite us against. Our perspective on climate change depends on our personal biases.
The Guardian says that 80% of greenhouse gas emissions are linked to just 57 companies. So while I’m not a scientist, I’d propose we start by asking that world governments regulate those 57 companies to reduce or eliminate emissions.
What I do know is that continuing to ignore the imminent cessation of all human, animal, and plant life on planet Earth is something we should all be paying more attention to. That means we need to talk about it. We need to think about it. We need to write about it. We need to pressure powerful people to do something about it. And as a faith community we should be using our influence to make change.
If Adventists won’t listen to the scientists, and won’t listen to Genesis, perhaps they’d hear the word of John the Revelator?
“Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God” (Revelation 7:3).
Yes, earth-care is part of the prophetic message. The seal, however you understand it, hasn’t been placed yet, and we are ordered to care for the earth while we wait.
I wish that would become a major part of the Seventh-day Adventist message.
Lindsey Abston Painter is an adjunct editor of Adventist Today.
