ANTIOCH CHURCH OF CHRIST

The debate continues. Extremes are evident. Politics divide. The panic button is being pushed. Who shall we believe? Is there not a middle ground somewhere? Books have been written on the pollution of our planet and our atmosphere. A former vice-president of our nation has been awarded the Nobel Prize for his efforts to warn us of global warning if we continue to destroy the purity of the very air that we breathe. Yet, there are reputable scientists and meteorologists who strongly disagree with several of his arguments and conclusions. They explain that we are in a cycle of weather changes that has been going on for centuries. And here I sit as a novice and endeavoring to understand matters that are often too great for my finite mind. We live in the area of our nation where the drought has been the most severe. I know that as humans we do pollute our environment. We all have witnessed this fact. It is good that we are becoming more aware of this problem.

While not trying to diminish the need to clean up our polluted land, water and air, I want to mention another �global warming� that the world in general has no interest in whatsoever. We go about our everyday activities without considering the fact that there is coming a time when this life will come to end. We buy and sell and get gain without fully realizing that life is like a vapor that last only for a short time. In James 4:13-17 we read, �Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time,that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.� Many are the persons, who like the scoffers mentioned by Peter, reason that since there was a yesterday there will also be a tomorrow and things will continue as they have since the beginning of time. But read very carefully the words of the apostle Peter in 2 Peter 3:5-7:�For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.� Then Peter continues in verses 10-12, �But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hasting the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?�

Sin is the pollution of the soul. Unless a person has this stain removed from his/her soul by the cleansing blood of the Lamb and our Savior Jesus Christ, he/she will suffer the inevitable consequence of such terrible fate. Now this is the �global warming� that we should be prepared for by �denying ungodliness and worldly lusts� and living �soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ� (Titus 2:12-13).