Climate Change and the Bible

On the topic of climate change and global warming, the only one whose opinion really counts is the one who has been around long enough to know—God! The one who created and sustains the earth has told us everything we need to know about climate change in His Word. Here is a summary of what the Bible says about the earth—where it’s been, and where it’s going.

Genesis 1:1

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The universe was created by an intentional act of God. It is not a product of mere chance or evolutionary process. Exodus 20:11 declares, “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.”

Genesis 1:26-27

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Genesis 2:7

Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

Likewise, mankind is an intentional product of God. Man is unique among the created order in that he was created to bear the image of God and exercise dominion or rule over creation. Life was breathed into man by God. As result, man has a spirit, or a capacity to relate to God.

Genesis 1:31

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.

God created a perfect world where there would be perfect harmony among all parts of is creation.

Genesis 3:17-19

And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

Man’s sin, or willful disobedience to God’s revealed will, resulted in the first instance of “climate change” on the earth. All relationships were disrupted—person to person, man to earth, man to animals, and man to God.

Genesis 6:5-8

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them." But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

The prevalence of man’s wickedness would produce the second major “climate change” on the earth. God determined to judge the earth, yet show mercy and grace to part of his creation by sustaining them through the flood.

Genesis 7:11-12, 17-24

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights… The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits (about 22 feet) deep. And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.

A cataclysmic event occurred which change the earth forever.

Genesis 8:20-22

Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease."

Here we have a crucial passage relating to current climate change theories. God shows that man remains fallen, but he promises that he will not curse the earth because of man. There is a promise that seasons of seedtime (spring) and harvest (fall), summer and winter will never cease. Those teaching global warming today, (like those who taught me about the coming ice age when I was in grammar school), say that man is responsible for climate change that will scorch the earth, bringing an end to seasons, devastation of crops and wildlife, and so on. But God has made a promise that this will not happen.

Romans 1:19-21

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

Creation has been adversely effected by man’s fall, hence the changing cycles we have on the earth (warming and cooling), the varying degrees of storms and natural disasters (hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and volcanoes), periods of draught and periods of flooding. Yet, God’s plan of redemption, to save the spirits of people through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, will likewise effect creation, which will one day be redeemed and made new.

Colossians 1:16-17

For by him (Christ) all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Here we see that Christ, the second and eternal person of the triune God, is the Creator. We also see that Christ is the one who “holds all things together.” The fact is, man could not change God’s creation even if he wanted to, because it is ultimately in the all-powerful hands of Christ.


2 Peter 3:5-7

For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

There will be one more episode of climate change when God brings final judgment on the earth.

2 Peter 3:10

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

This will be another intentional act of God, even as the original creation and flood events were.


Revelation 21:1

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

God will bring about a new heaven and new earth, one that will never pass away nor be corrupted for sin shall be no more.


Central to all of this is the promise that God made to Noah that He would never again curse the earth because of man. There may be climate change—global warming, global cooling—but it will be a result of natural occurrences and not “man made.”

I know this may sound like a lot of hogwash to some of you. I’m sorry to hear that, because the Bible declares, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” My prayer is that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened that you may know the hope that He has for you, if you’ll only hear it.