9 Climate Change and Eschatology
185
relationship with God, God remains at all times sovereign and supreme to extend
His mercy and compassion to whomever He wishes—especially if and when man
confesses his sins and changes his ways. Hence, God’s predictions mediated by His
prophets are contingent.
The lesson to be learned from the contingency of biblical prophecies, as demonstrated in this paper, should caution us to assume that apocalyptic end-time scenarios,
as they have been depicted in some biblical and extra-biblical texts, are final and
unequivocal and that supposedly, as a consequence of this, any effort by man to
preserve the natural environment would remain futile as the final outcome has supposedly already been fixed. On the contrary, man as a steward for God’s creation (see
Gen 1:28) has a holy responsibility to care for our planet, for the environment and
for all life. Man is to adhere to the divine principle of “Reverence for life” (Ehrfurcht
vor dem Leben) as propagated by Albert Schweitzer.
The lesson of prophetic contingencies may, in all likelihood, also require a shift
in our understanding of God, away from God as an almighty actor standing outside
of creation and controlling everything that occurs on earth, to a view of God as the
source of all creation and who suffers with it and whose spirit permeates it in a way
that is both immanent and transcendent.
But above all, the climate change problem requires a shift in man’s behavior.
Barbara Rossing, an American New Testament scholar in Chicago who regularly
speaks against the apocalypticism that some have associated with climate change,
found the Nineveh narrative “the most intriguing biblical model” as it “can serve as
a parable for how the greatest ‘empire’ on earth today can shift course and avoid
disaster”. The book of Jonah shows “how thanks to grassroots mobilization, good
leadership, and an effective prophet, a giant ship of state–including all the people and
even the animals–can abandon its destructive course in time to avert a catastrophe.
We can learn from Nineveh” (Rossing 2009, p. 142).
Astronomers have calculated that, at the very latest, life on earth will cease to
exist when our Sun, after having spent most of its hydrogen through thermonuclear
fusion, will turn into a Red Giant that will engulf the earth and extinguish all life on
our planet. That is estimated to take place some four billion years from now. But life
may come to an end much sooner: when another big meteor or asteroid hits the earth;
or when an atomic war flares up and gets out of hand; or when enough insects have
become extinct and fertilization of vital plants is no longer working; or when another
virus emerges that is more infectious and fatal than the ones we have encountered
so far. There are many reasons why life on earth could be erased. Life is fragile and
delicate, individually and collectively.
The Covid 19 pandemic taught us that exponential growth of any kind, if not
contained, eventually leads to the crossing of certain points at which vital systems
are bound to collapse. We are, unfortunately, right in the midst of a very dangerous
exponential growth curve: the population explosion of mankind. When exactly this
curve will peak, we don’t know yet. We only know that it cannot increase indefinitely.
It is likely that the human population will hit various boundaries and tipping points
that might eventually threaten life on earth. Due to its exponential growth rate, the
human race has become a serious threat to the climate, to the global environment, to
185
relationship with God, God remains at all times sovereign and supreme to extend
His mercy and compassion to whomever He wishes—especially if and when man
confesses his sins and changes his ways. Hence, God’s predictions mediated by His
prophets are contingent.
The lesson to be learned from the contingency of biblical prophecies, as demonstrated in this paper, should caution us to assume that apocalyptic end-time scenarios,
as they have been depicted in some biblical and extra-biblical texts, are final and
unequivocal and that supposedly, as a consequence of this, any effort by man to
preserve the natural environment would remain futile as the final outcome has supposedly already been fixed. On the contrary, man as a steward for God’s creation (see
Gen 1:28) has a holy responsibility to care for our planet, for the environment and
for all life. Man is to adhere to the divine principle of “Reverence for life” (Ehrfurcht
vor dem Leben) as propagated by Albert Schweitzer.
The lesson of prophetic contingencies may, in all likelihood, also require a shift
in our understanding of God, away from God as an almighty actor standing outside
of creation and controlling everything that occurs on earth, to a view of God as the
source of all creation and who suffers with it and whose spirit permeates it in a way
that is both immanent and transcendent.
But above all, the climate change problem requires a shift in man’s behavior.
Barbara Rossing, an American New Testament scholar in Chicago who regularly
speaks against the apocalypticism that some have associated with climate change,
found the Nineveh narrative “the most intriguing biblical model” as it “can serve as
a parable for how the greatest ‘empire’ on earth today can shift course and avoid
disaster”. The book of Jonah shows “how thanks to grassroots mobilization, good
leadership, and an effective prophet, a giant ship of state–including all the people and
even the animals–can abandon its destructive course in time to avert a catastrophe.
We can learn from Nineveh” (Rossing 2009, p. 142).
Astronomers have calculated that, at the very latest, life on earth will cease to
exist when our Sun, after having spent most of its hydrogen through thermonuclear
fusion, will turn into a Red Giant that will engulf the earth and extinguish all life on
our planet. That is estimated to take place some four billion years from now. But life
may come to an end much sooner: when another big meteor or asteroid hits the earth;
or when an atomic war flares up and gets out of hand; or when enough insects have
become extinct and fertilization of vital plants is no longer working; or when another
virus emerges that is more infectious and fatal than the ones we have encountered
so far. There are many reasons why life on earth could be erased. Life is fragile and
delicate, individually and collectively.
The Covid 19 pandemic taught us that exponential growth of any kind, if not
contained, eventually leads to the crossing of certain points at which vital systems
are bound to collapse. We are, unfortunately, right in the midst of a very dangerous
exponential growth curve: the population explosion of mankind. When exactly this
curve will peak, we don’t know yet. We only know that it cannot increase indefinitely.
It is likely that the human population will hit various boundaries and tipping points
that might eventually threaten life on earth. Due to its exponential growth rate, the
human race has become a serious threat to the climate, to the global environment, to