In for a penny, in for a pound(ing). This has just been published on Australian Presbyterian.
The Green Captivity of the Church
Even as I pressed the send button I knew it was a risky moment. And so it proved to be. As soon as the article was published on a Christian website, there were cries of ‘heretic’, ‘he should lose his job’, ‘how unloving and unChristlike’, ‘cancel him’!? What was the crime? What heresy was I expounding? I had dared to suggest that perhaps the Climate Change debate was not over, and there were lots of questions that still had to be answered, and that we should approach the subject with a great deal more humility.
Now please don’t get me wrong. I am not a ‘denier’ and as far as I can see there has been a degree of warming throughout the world and some of that is due to human activity. My concern was just simply to ask three questions: How much? What can realistically be done about it? And why has this been turned into a new doctrine that Christians must accept or be excommunicated from polite Christian society? The purpose of this article is not to put the pros and cons of the scientific, political and social debates. But rather to suggest that the Green movement is in danger of being a Trojan horse to bring in anti-Christian teachings in to the Christian church.
The response to my article confirmed to me something that I have feared for some time – that there is a new doomsday cult in town – the Climate Change cult. I wrote about this a year ago – https://www.christiantoday.com/article/is.there.a.climate.change.cult/134046.htm
But over the past year it has become clear to me that this is not just a cult on the fringes inhabited by a few eccentrics and a host of frightened, indoctrinated young people. This cult has morphed into a fully-fledged religion – complete with its own high priests, child prophets, demands of sacrifice, unquestionable doctrines, and its apocalyptic end times predictions. What is worse is how this particular false religion is capturing, not just the liberal Church (whose normal methodology is just to baptise whatever progressive/regressive ideology is in fashion), but also a great section of the evangelical church. People are writing about their ‘conversion’ to the cause of climate change. There are few evangelical organisations and publishing houses who would dare to question, at least publicly, the current accepted narrative.
You can see why. Most heresies are not outright negations of the truth – they tend to be subtle distortions of it. The Bible does teach us that we are to be stewards of the planet and that we are to care for it. It does tell us that we are to care for the poor and that we are to seek justice. The Bible is not anti-science; indeed modern Western science was largely founded upon a biblical worldview. Therefore, when we are told that ‘The Science’ is settled – that the world is doomed; it’s only ‘one minute to midnight’; Cop26 was the most important meeting in human history; it is the poor who suffer most from climate change; and God commands us to save the planet. Who would not want to get involved? Surely the Christian response is obvious. Indeed, it is because some Christians believe this so fundamentally that I received demands that the heretic should be silenced. To question any of this is deemed to be blasphemy.
There are so many examples as to how much this new religion has become part of the liturgy and doctrine of the church. For example, the Archbishop of Canterbury was forced to apologise last week for suggesting that those who failed to act to limit climate change at Cop26 could be worse than the leaders who ignored the threat of the Nazis in the 1930’s. Hymns are being rewritten to accommodate the new religion. This example by Rev. Carolyn Winfrey Gilette from the PCUSA is one of the worst.
ST. DENIO 11.11.11.11 (“Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise”)
The climate is changing! Creation cries out!
Your people face flooding and fire and drought.
We see the great heat waves and storms at their worst.
We pray for the poor, Lord — for they suffer first.
We thank you, for leaders, courageous and brave,
who know that the Earth is worth fighting to save,
who care about justice and what they should do,
who listen to science and work hard for you.
Dave Brennan wrote a perceptive and disturbing article about the ‘Gaia’ exhibition currently touring the UK. https://www.christiantoday.com/article/what.is.a.pagan.goddess.doing.in.a.place.of.christian.worship/137680.htm
As he points out this is pagan, godless worship, and it is being imported into churches, all in the name of climate change. There was a time when evangelicals viewed the culture through the eyes of Scripture, now there is an increasing tendency to do the opposite.
But rather than look at things in general let me offer you some examples as a warning from the old Jerusalem of Presbyterianism – my native Scotland.
The Church of Scotland is in freefall – in fact along with the Methodists it is the fastest declining church in the UK. It is divided, declining and devoid of any meaningful beliefs. The one area where it appears that evangelicals and others can unite is on the question of climate change. The C of S magazine and website reveal that the basic doctrines of the culture have now been baptised and adopted wholesale by the church. What are these doctrines? The world is broken. We broke it. Climate change is man-made. We have ten years to fix it. We can fix it – but only if we adopt the good news according to CC activists. Cop 26 marks the most important period in human history. The end is nigh – turn or burn. Christ, the Bible, God, Heaven and Hell are just secondary doctrines in this new religion, if they feature at all.
I watched two ‘services’ from Glasgow during Cop26 which demonstrate just how deep the rot has set in. Firstly, there was this interfaith prayer vigil held in the centre of Glasgow –
It was heartbreaking to watch supposedly Christian churches join in prayer with a pagan who prayed to ‘the great spirits and sacred ones, the winged creatures – you are us and we are you”. And the Imam who had no qualms at all about praying (in Arabic) to Allah, (Allah-u Exber), who he declared as the greatest and the only God and Muhammed as his messenger. The church in Scotland has fallen into the greatest sin of the people of Israel, which was to prostitute themselves to the gods of the nations – to the Baal’s and Ashtoreths – and to mix the worship of the one true God with the worship of idols. “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3) is, like most of the other commandments, forgotten.
As an example of Christless ‘Christian’ worship there was the COP26 Christian ecumenical service from Glasgow cathedral.
Superficially there was much to like. The cathedral is a majestic building and the music matched it, including the singing of two psalms. In principle it is good to have civic dignitaries meeting in a service of public worship, together with professing Christian leaders from many denominations. But if you watch the whole service the question arises – just who exactly are they worshipping?
It was not the God of the bible. Job 12 was read, but only verses 7 to 9. The Bible was used as a cute children’s illustration to tell us to listen to the creation. But the passage tells us to listen to the creation which is telling us to listen to the Word of the Lord who controls the creation. Moreover, he is the God “who silences the lips of trusted advisors and takes away the discernment of elders…who pours contempt on the nobles and disarms the mighty” (Job 12:21-22). The God who “deprives the leaders of the earth of their reason; he makes them wander in a trackless waste. They grope in darkness with no light, he makes them stagger like drunkards” (Job 12:24-25)! Oh, for a Knox like figure, to read and preach on that passage as describing the world leaders gathered in Glasgow! That would have set the heather alight!
Matthew 25:31-40 was read – conveniently missing out v.41-46 which mentions one of the greatest motivations for caring for the poor: the fear of judgement and Hell! This is pick’n’ mix Christianity. This is creation without the Creator. The Bible without the Spirit. The Church without Christ.
The preacher was Rev Dr Susan Henry-Crowe – a typical representative of the American progressive imperialistic school of divinity who believe their doctrines should be spread throughout the world. Apparently Psalm 23 is about coming home to a renewed world, a world where the seas are restored to their original inhabitants (the mermaids?!), and where we can return to paradise. It’s about praying for the world to turn from selfish capitalism – a message given by someone who is funded by that same capitalism. The world has been corrupted, not by the Fall, but by this selfish capitalism. Sin did not really exist until the industrial revolution! We are to listen to each other and especially to the indigenous voices who lived in perfect sinless harmony with the world until the coming of Western ideologies. The one person we were not invited to listen to was God speaking in and through his word.
The most extraordinary part was when we were told what the Lord’s table was. COP26 is the table for God’s creation. Without a hint of irony, we were told that Jesus turns upside down the order at the table – he reaches out to those at the margins, the most vulnerable. I say without irony given that the ‘table’ in the cathedral was for the religious and civic dignitaries, who all paraded in, in exact order and were seated according to their status in the place of honour. No equality here. No tramps and hawkers, no beggars and prostitutes there. What was even more ironic was the spirited rendition of Burn’s ‘A Mans a Man for a That. In the midst of the bells, smells, robes and finery we were read “Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine; A Man’s a Man for a’ that” ……” Ye see yon birkie, ca’d a lord, Wha struts, an’ stares, an’ a’ that; Tho hundreds worship at his word, He’s but a coof for a’ that’. Which being translated simply meaneth – robes, names of honour etc are meaningless. Applauded by people wearing robes and sitting in places of honour! The prayers were largely about and to ourselves. God hardly got a word in.
Let’s talk about the poor. Actually, let’s not. Let’s ask who are actually proclaiming the Gospel to the poor rather than just talking about them. Do we believe what James says, “has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised to those who love him?” (James 1:5) When I contrast the service in grandness of that Cathedral, with another Presbyterian service I watched that same week, in an old shop in a run-down working class housing estate in Dundee I know which one was more Christlike.
The interaction with the people, the power of the Word and the love of Christ shone. In the Cathedral people spoke about the poor; in the Charleston Community church they spoke to, and with the poor. In that wee group was more hope than in all the grandiose speeches and theatrics in the Cathedral. There is the nuclear power of the Gospel!
I am thankful that in Glasgow and Scotland there are others who have not bowed the knee to Baal. E.g. Rev. Willie Philip of the Tron church in Glasgow, a flourishing city centre church which left the Church of Scotland, explained why he put a banner which was stolen outside of the church in this article – https://www.premierchristianity.com/opinion/the-church-must-preach-the-gospel-of-jesus-christ-not-climate-change/5683.article?utm_source=Premier%20Christian%20Media&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=12762711_Voice%20of%20hope%2003.11.2021&dm_i=16DQ,7LJRR,KFBMV3,UXTS4,1 He also preached this sermon – the one that should have been preached in the Cathedral – https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/tronline-high-quality-the-tron-church-glasgow/id79866967?i=1000541039780
Glasgow cathedral is named after St Mungo who was banned from the city by a pagan King. We have gone back to the future. Now a pagan religion is throwing Christ out of his Church. Glasgow’s motto used to be ‘let Glasgow flourish through the preaching of your Word and the praising of your Name”. The city council changed that to ‘let Glasgow flourish’. The fact is that neither the city nor the church will flourish without the preaching of the Word and the praising of The Name.
David Robertson
David,
Thankyou.
There is a sifting in churches of all denominations.
It highlights the real condition of the church at this time.
God in his kindness, mercy, and bounty has provided us with a wonderful place to live on this planet. Sin has brought misery and ruin to many, and we see it wearing the cloak of hypocrisy in the rich first world nations. And we see it in abject hunger, poverty and often lawlessness in the majority poor countries.
If the first world moderated its appetite for discretionary purchases, there would be the means to help those who largely cannot help themselves. It also means less manufacturing and emissions. We simply have too much, and it is completely ridiculous to think that we can reduce emissions by switching away from fossil fuels to renewables (and at the same time keep our ever increasing standard of living).
The Lord watches all this, and is storing it up for that day he has fixed when he will judge the world in righteousness.
May God have mercy on us all, and bring us to true repentance which helps the hungry, the sick, and the imprisoned who cannot help themselves.
It might have been an even worse insult to Christ if Christless civic religion tried to accommodate Christ somewhere in its recitations, but as other than Lord.
By the way, when you wrote, “The one person we were not invited to listen to was God speaking in and through his word”, didn’t you notice that this was a rather Unitarian-sounding way of making your point? You could have said, instead, “The only persons we were not invited to listen to were God speaking in and through his word.”
No – I don’t refer to God as the persons – and you were inconsistent in saying persons nor ‘their’ word! I am quite happy to speak of God and his word.
Most Christians seem to ignore the Bible’s view about the future of the earth.
2 Peter 3 speaks about climate change. It involves more than a 2C rise in temperature and it is initiated by God not man.
2 Peter 3 Tree of Life version
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. On that day the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will melt and disintegrate, and the earth and everything done on it shall be exposed. 11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what kind of people should you be?
This verse, we know is about the day when Christ will return in glory. In the meantime we each have a responsibility to be good stewards of God’s earth, his creation. In the commentary I listened to on 2 Peter 3 on the “Through the Word” Bible App, Jonathan Ferguson quoted C S Lewis who wrote:- “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were those that thought most about the next”.
This article is worth reading as well
https://www.eternitynews.com.au/in-depth/climate-change-and-the-gospel/
Well spoken out David
It’s amazing sadly how the teens and twenties in the “sound evangelical churches” and dare I say it even in the Free Church are swallowing the ideological cultic dogma of the Green climate change agenda .
How we need the Truth ! THE Science is far from settled .Climate alarmism is being propagated with a mad religious fervour . The poor will surely suffer with the implementation of their strategies.
As William Philip says we need to be alive to the deceptive teachings and have a renewed fervour as we labour and strive for the propagation of the Gospel !
Lets live it out with love. humility and integrity.
Yes, and let us remember the proletarian – bait, Drivel on the Mount and have ” no thought for the morrow”.
David,
Excellent! At 82 years of age and as a farmer going through droughts, floods and other normal issues of weather, I’m still looking for this drama of fearmongering being foisted upon society. Their are many scientists who disagree, but who are not allowed to read or watch in the media.
God is still sovereign!
Again, another insightful article David. Spot on and well written. God bless you.
Yes very good David and keep on. The climate crisis, Covid crisis, trouble in the Middle East and the great falling away of the church should all be very loud and clear signs to us that the return of the Lord is near? Boris Johnson and the climate change cult fanatics are right in that sense. It IS one minute to midnight and the Lord is right at the door. But to deflect from His call to repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand, they tell us the crisis is due to man and it’s man that needs to save it and us. God is shaking the nation’s to get them to repent and man is trying to deflect this by saying it’s not God it’s man! The closer we are getting to what the Bible clearly teaches are the “last days” the more the need for churches and church leaders to check their theology?? It’s time for the church to begin to proclaim, loud and clear “repent for the Kingdom is coming” and what is that Kingdom? The return of Jesus and His rule and reign on the earth from Jerusalem for 1,000 years then He will hand over the Kingdom to the Father and He will bring down His city, heavenly Jerusalem, again down to earth and the dwelling of God will be with man. Interesting how the first judgements of revelation are against the trees, rivers and grass. If this current creation is destined for judgements, what are we trying to save it??
“18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.”
plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose – so to speak!
There is much talk about how climate change affects the developing countries more than the developed countries. There is much talk about how climate change affects the poor more than the rich. (There is even talk about how climate change affects women more than men and ethnic minorities more than white people.) But the irony is that those who fear climate change the most are the very ones who call for actions which will keep millions pf people living in poverty. One of the main ways of getting people out of poverty is to provide electricity. And electricity which they can afford. Mr Modi, the Prime Minister of India, sees this. He understands that the quickest way to get his fellow citizens out of poverty is to provide more and more electricity at the cheapest cost possible. And electricity that is reliable. He understands that the cheapest and most reliable way of providing electricity is by using fossil fuels. But the climate alarmists want to stop India using fossil fuels. For the millions of people living in poverty throughout the developing world, Mr Modi was the hero of COP 26.
Thank you David, and you were spot on. We need the truth of God’s word.
Thank you David. My church has been driving me mad – making little boats at the instigation Christian Aid and sending them them to COP26. Praying for COP26 – I have taken to praying against it every time it’s mentioned. The sheer hypocrisy of those who arrive in private jets and big cars lecturing the little people about giving up things! Obama turns up – more air travel – doesn’t seem to be bothered about rising sea levels as he bought a several million dollar property on Martha’s Vineyard, the Maldives isn’t under water as it should have been by 2018. Our Prime Minister becoming Nostradamus but using air travel back to London to attend a posh dinner ((how much meat etc consumed at that).
Tricia,
Have a look at this. It supports what you say. Real science about sea level rise.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/11/17/sea-level-rise-misinformation-fear-mongering-by-cop26-dod-npr-mainstream-media/
Yes. I am now in my 70’s and can remember Al Gore kicking all this nonsense off – it was linked to Gaia worship then. I have a list of 50 failed predictions since the late sixties. Also the sea ice has expanded this year and the polar bears have just moved on. Who remembers the panic over the hole in the ozone layer? Not mentioned now – presume it closed up! In the early 2000’s the east of England where I live was predicted to become a dust bowl and we dutifully fitted water butts to all downpipes. I am looking out at a green and pleasant land have to release water from the butts as they overflow as well as fill our pond!
Thanks David,
I think this is one of the most powerful of your postings that I have read in a long time, and fully concurs with my own thinking on these matters. I was particularly depressed by the ABofC’s intervention. Has he forgotten all Christian eschatology? (Perhaps he never had any).
All of the climate hysteria matches the Covid madness. Whatever induced Governments throughout the world to ditch longstanding evidence based protocols for handling a pandemic in favour of a completely experimental lockdown ideology, without any cost benefit analysis. The consequences, especially for the poor, have been devastating. Job 12, 24-25 seems to sum it up.
The thing that stands out to me from that mind-numbing “hymn” was the sense of personal helplessness in the face of catastrophe. And yes, I do see catastrophe in the offing — witness the currently unfolding disaster in Southwestern British Columbia, where I live. But in that hymn, one seems to throw up one’s hands and use the royal “we” to pray about these various situations, while at the same time, avoiding admitting any responsibility for it oneself. And the fact is, we all bear responsibility, because, in one way or another, we have not been following God’s First Great Assignment, which is to take care of His garden. But, praise God, He has given us an “out”. It’s called the Cross. Jesus’ Sacrifice allows us to repent and move forward, being guided by the Holy Spirit as to how we use what God has given us and how we consider others. Of course, this approach requires admission of one’s own sins (not just environmental) and the recognition of Jesus as Lord and God as the only God, and that doesn’t play well in some circles. But it’s something individuals can do, without waiting for governments to lead.
For-‘Woke’-contradiction, then Both Lives Matter facebook page (see post 15-11-21), may be a great place to look. A picture from an Irish paper is posted, which shows a pro-choice politician with her family, plus a scan picture of their current pregnancy. Should meaningful reverence for creation include respect for people-born or unborn?
Excellent article. As a now former member of the PC(USA), I could only shake my head at that so-called hymn you mentioned. Sadly, I was not surprised, when I read about it a few weeks ago.
But sadly, when one rejects inerrancy, when one changes the liberty of conscious provisions of the Westminster Standards to mean that anything is acceptable; wwhen one rejects the assertion that those who explicitly or implicitly reject the sinless nature of Christ are not Christians; when one confuses a heart for Jesus for a repentant heart informed by an othodox faith (for even LDS, JWs, and other cults claim a heart for Jesus); when one rejects the orthodox teachings of historic Christianity and ones Christian Tradition for neo Deism, neo paganism, univeralism and other heresies; when one views the social benefits of the gospel as a command to build a kingdom in the here and now, when one rejects certain aspects of the created order in favor of the world’s preferences; when one cannot even mourn the fact that most women who choose an abortion see it as the only option for an unplanned pregnancy; when one chooses to subvert the church to one’s preferred Caesar and make it a political action committee affilated with said preferred Caesar with a total disregard for the preeminance of Christ, the gospel, the truth in general, etc.; when one calls evil good and good evil, then it is of no surprise that said denomination has turned into a false church, led by devils in clerical collars masquerading as angels of light and wolves in sheeps clothing. When I think of how jealous God is for the glory and honor due him, and how these false Christian leaders casually dismiss the truth of him and his word, then I fear for the eternal state of them and especially those for whom their faith has become a shipwreck as a result of their false teaching. For as the saying goes, it is a terrible thing go be in the hands of a holy, righteous and just God.