Trump Puts a Mute on the Fourth Trumpet

 

President Trump recently reversed decades of climate change policy in America. On February 12, he announced that he was rescinding the scientific finding of the EPA (2009) that climate change endangers human health and the environment, ending the federal governments’ legal authority to control man-made greenhouse pollution.  This means that automobiles will no longer be subject to emission mandates. If the change in EPA policy stands the test of judicial challenge, the next regulations to be rescinded will be industrial emissions.

Trump’s motivation is economic, not scientific. He wants to make cars cheaper for Americans, and deregulate industry’s pollution standards, and validate America’s need for oil production. In the process, he is thumbing his nose at any and all global scientific findings on climate change. 

To tell you the truth, I don’t give a hoot about the politics of climate change -- under Obama, under Trump, or even UN efforts. Regulations, solutions, statistics, and deterrents are never going to solve the problem. Not emission controls, not carbon capture, not solar energy. While I firmly believe in climate change, I do not think there is anything mankind can do to reverse the effects of population explosion and the industrial revolution. Only the return of Christ, when He reigns as King of Kings in the millennial kingdom, will bring a halt to climate change.

Most MAGA-Trump enthusiasts are probably ecstatic that Trump found a way to stick it to the science of climate change. Most conservative Christians that I know agree with Trump when he mocks climate change as a “hoax”, and regulation as a “con job”. Nothing will change their mind, not even Biblical prophecy, which predicted climate change and affirms it.

Here's my point. Trump can thumb his nose at science all he wants, and thumb his nose at a host of International Climate Change Organizations. He does it often and he does it well. But he cannot get away with thumbing his nose at God. He cannot mute the fourth trumpet. He cannot preempt the prophecy of God. Actually, he doesn’t have a clue what prophecy says about climate change. But then, most Christians don’t have a clue, either. 

Climate change is one of the seven trumpets and seven bowls in Revelation – the fourth one to be exact. These trumpets are warnings that God gives to mankind that judgment is rapidly approaching. The trumpets are not judgments of God reserved for the seven-year Tribulation period. They have been occurring as signs from God for nearly 120 years, similar to the warning time that God gave mankind before the flood. The fourth trumpet prophesies the warning sign that the sun, moon and stars will turn dark (Rev 8:12). One third of each, to be exact. (One third is simply the inverse of three, a number used by God to indicate His divine providence in a given event. It does not indicate a statistical, measurable quantity). In the corresponding bowl description, the sun is allowed to scorch people with intense heat, such that people end up cursing God (Rev 16:8-9). These prophecies are interpreted many different ways. Speculation abounds. But when history interprets prophecy then we can be sure what God was foretelling. Climate change is a warning sign to mankind to prepare for judgment. Trump can thumb his nose all he wants, but Christians would be wise to understand what these prophecies are predicting instead of denying climate change. These prophecies can in fact be a conversational tool to discuss the soon-coming return of Christ and the judgment that will ensue.

Jesus, perhaps, also referred to these trumpet and bowl prophecies of the end times when He spoke to His disciples about future events. He said, “‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken” (Mt 24:29; cf Isa 13:10, 34:4). Jesus is referring to the same prophetic event alluded to in Revelation. He is not predicting blood moons, eclipses, or other such phenomenon, but on a supernatural scale. No, he is saying that one of the signs of His return would be the darkening of the sun, moon, and stars by pollution, the main component of climate change.

(The picture shows the Great London Smog which occurred in December, 1952. It killed thousands.)