[Note: The following is an excerpt from my chapter in the book, Tracking Toward Tribulation and the Any-Moment Intervention by Jesus Christ, edited by Terry James. Order your copy on Amazon (Paperback, Kindle, and Audiobook)].
According to Genesis 1, in the beginning, everything that God had made was originally perfect. Then sin entered, corrupting it all, and so God placed a curse upon the world (Genesis 3). Mankind has long been waiting for the restoration of the Creation which will occur upon Christ’s return, for then “the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).
In the meantime, we live in a world where nature has been thrown into great upheaval. Because of this, extreme weather often occurs due to our out-of-kilter weather system.
God’s Uses for Extreme Weather
God at times uses extreme weather to underline the importance of major events. For example, Mount Sinai, where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, was covered in “thunderings and lightnings and a thick cloud” (Exodus 19:16-18). When Christ was crucified, three hours of darkness blotted out the daylight, and Jerusalem experienced a great earthquake (Matthew 27:45,51). God used and still uses extreme weather to point to significant events in history.
Extreme weather also works as remedial judgments for God’s purpose of calling wicked nations to repentance. For example, Moses warned the Israelites that if they became exceedingly wicked weather-related curses would, “pursue and overtake you until you are destroyed because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 28: 18-30,45-46). Sure enough, every time the Israelites became steeped in sin, God would inflict them with extreme weather until they repented.
Likewise, when the prophet Elijah called King Ahab and Israel to repent, Ahab flat-out refused, and so God sent a drought that withered the crops for three-plus long years (1 Kings 17-18).
Another time, when Israel had become lethargic in their relationship with their Heavenly Father, God cursed the land with a great locust swarm that quickly consumed all of Israel’s crops. As God had desired, the Israelites repented (Joel 1-3).
Also, after the Jews had returned from captivity in Babylon and were tasked with rebuilding the Temple, they only got as far as the foundation before they gave up. In response, God decimated their crops with root rot and mildew and sent furious hailstorms to cut the remaining plants down. Again, as God had desired, the people repented and right away returned to working on the Temple’s reconstruction (Haggai 1-2).
How do we know the difference between a natural disaster caused by a fallen world and when God uses nature as a remedial judgment? Three points:
- The timing of the event as it relates to the sins of the nation
- The magnitude of the event
- And the prophet’s declaration, for the prophet speaking for God would say flat out, “I am doing this to get you to repent.”
Pointing to Christ’s Return
Some may be thinking, “That’s the Old Testament! Aren’t we living in the Age of Grace? God doesn’t use the sign of nature anymore, right?” Well, not according to Jesus Christ.
In His Olivet Discourse, Jesus provided ten signs that would point to His soon return. He added that they would increase in frequency and intensity — like the birth pangs of a woman in labor — the closer we got to His return (Matthew 24:8). Some of these signs would involve “fearful sights and great signs from heaven” (Luke 21:11). Likewise, “there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations… for the powers of the heavens will be shaken” (Luke 21:25-26).
Once these signs become so cataclysmically violent, “then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (Luke 21:27-28).
The Apostle Paul confirmed that Christians are meant to be able to discern the signs that point to Jesus’ soon return so as not to be taken unaware (1 Thessalonians 5:1-5).
Today’s Extreme Weather
What are we witnessing happening around the world today? All sorts of weather calamities: out-of-control hurricanes, record numbers of tornadoes, devastating floods, and destructive forest fires. These storms are occurring more and more frequently and causing greater and greater damage with every passing year. Most recognize nature has gotten out of hand, and that it’s getting even worse.
Natural News released an article by David Gutierrez titled “Natural Disasters Up More Than 400 Percent in Two Decades.” The article notes that: “natural disasters are increasing in frequency, ravaging the world, our countries, and even our own homes… the number of natural disasters around the world has increased by more than four times in the last 20 years.” Approximately 500 natural disasters per year ravage the world, compared to 120 per year back in the early 1980s.
A report by Jan Wesner Childs of the The Weather Channel titled “Nine Billion-Dollar Weather Disasters So Far In 2022” cites NOAA’s report about how the past two years has seen record billion-dollar disasters, due largely to mega-droughts plus devastating wildfire and hyper-hurricane seasons. Earlier years have also been active. From 1980 to 2017, there was an average of $7.7 billion-dollar weather disasters per year. But, in just the past five years, that number has gone up to $17.8 billion!
Besides severe weather, earthquakes have plagued the world with increasing destruction over the past decade. NBC News in their article “Worldwide Surge in ‘Great’ Earthquakes Seen in Past 10 Years” reports that the annual number of “great” earthquakes has nearly tripled over the last decade, “providing a reminder to Americans that unruptured faults like those in the northwest United States might be due for a Big One.” The article notes that between 2004 and 2014, 18 earthquakes with a magnitude of 8.0 or more rattled subduction zones around the globe. “That’s an increase of 265 percent over the average rate of the previous century, which saw 71 great quakes.” Normally there are only 16 major earthquakes (M 7.0-8.0+) worldwide per year. In addition, we have experienced an average of 142 strong earthquakes (M 6.0-7.0) worldwide annually.
The summer of 2022 continued to see the ongoing collapse of the Australian Reef. In recent years, Australia has suffered severe drought, historic bushfires, successive years of record-breaking floods, and six mass bleaching events of the Great Barrier Reef.
Gizmodo reports on what’s being called “America’s Mega-Drought.” The western and southwestern U.S. is wilting under the biggest drought in 1,200 years. As the Great Salt Lake Dries Up, Utah faces what some are calling an “Environmental Nuclear Bomb.” Long-sunken history and even evidence of past crimes are emerging from the receding waters.
The World Gets It Wrong
What’s telling is how politicians and scientists have been interpreting this extreme natural weather phenomenon, concluding “man-made global warming.” Germany’s former Chancellor Angela Merkel warned: “We have to get faster in the fight against Climate Change. Global leaders also have to come to the same conclusion after the UN delivered a code red for humanity.” And, as one report states, “Scientists long warned that Climate Change would contribute to an increase in both the frequency and the severity of freak weather.” How interesting that the article notes an increase in “frequency” and “severity.” Sound rather biblical!
So, the world is interpreting these natural disasters, which they recognize are increasing in frequency and intensity, as the result of mankind’s pollution problems. But, Christians know better. We know that God alone is in control of the weather and not mankind.
Remember that God doesn’t wish that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). Therefore, God always warns before He executes His wrath. And, for thousands of years, God has chosen climactic and catastrophic weather to get our attention. Why? Because God controls the weather.
The Bible contains at least 47 different verses that declare that God is in control of the weather, such as:
- “What kind of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey Him” (Matthew 8:26-27).
- “Fire and hail, snow and clouds, stormy wind, fulfilling His word” (Psalm 148:8).
- “He did not leave Himself without witness, that He did good and gave you rains from heaven, and fruitful seasons” (Acts 14:17).
- “I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or in any tree” (Revelation 7:1).
So, again and again, in at least 47 references, the Bible confirms that God is in control of the weather. God is sovereign, and nothing happens that He does not allow, either in His perfect will or His permissive will. That is the reason the Bible attributes all natural disasters to God.
Yes, freak weather might be contributed to mankind’s pollutive tendencies, but again, it is God who controls the weather. We can take into account, of course, that certain natural disasters occur because the weather is off-kilter due to the curse on the world. But, God still utilizes freak weather in an attempt to try and wake people up to their sins and show their need for a Savior.
He uses these end times signs, such as climactic weather, to wake us up, calling the world to come back to Him. God is warning us that He is upset with our sins. Our holy God is deeply bothered by all of mankind’s evil. He’s been crying out: “I love you! Repent and come back to me!”
Tribulation Judgments
The ultimate climax to all of these weather signs will be a judgment called the Tribulation. The Lord will rescue and rapture His Church out of this world before His true wrath comes upon it. Leading up to that time, God is going to increase the signs of nature, just as we are witnessing today, along with social, political, technological, economic, and other end times signs. These disasters will all increase in frequency and intensity leading up to the Rapture of the Church, and then the world will plunge headlong into God’s wrath for the seven years of the Tribulation.
As bad as the weather has gotten today, nothing compares to the disasters foretold in the book of Revelation. In reading Revelation, one will marvel at how God’s weather-related judgments will devastate the world, for God will be pouring out His wrath on its corrupt people during the most horrific era the world will have ever endured (Matthew 24:21).
The Expected Response
How does God want us to respond to these end times signs, particularly the sign of nature as it relates to extreme weather?
First, we each need to repent individually for our rebellion and selfishness. God is calling each person to repent. Respond in faith and repentance by surrendering to the Lord Jesus. Read the Bible so that you can be discerning.
Second, we need to repent as a nation for removing God from our society, for our idolatrous self-worship, for our 63 million murders in the womb, for our obsession with sexual promiscuity, for our fascination with the occult, and for our lack of support of Israel’s right to exist, among a plethora of other sins. Every nation needs to make “in God we trust,” for that is the only way by which the nations will receive God’s mercy.
Once King Jesus has at last returned, the curse on this earth will be lifted and natural disasters will cease to persist. Until that glorious day, we can live by this hope: “The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12-14).
Resource
Editor’s Note: Nathan Jones, a long-time personal friend as well as colleague in God’s work, serves at the Internet Evangelist for Lamb & Lion Ministries and cohost of the ministry’s television program, Christ in Prophecy, and podcast, The Truth Will Set You Free. His dynamic labor in the great cause of bringing souls to Jesus Christ makes his contribution to this volume a critical part of providing understanding for today’s troubling but exciting times.
With most pulpits now sadly void of prophecy teaching and preaching, it is crucial that Christians be given the truth as the time of the Tribulation approaches. Nathan’s clear and powerful presentation here on God’s forewarnings about these current times helps fulfill the great prophet Daniel’s Holy Spirit-inspired words: “The wise shall understand.”
Order the book, Tracking Toward Tribulation and the Any-Moment Intervention by Jesus Christ, edited by Terry James, on Amazon (Paperback, Kindle, and Audiobook)]!
