PTNews
P r o p h e c y T o d a y N e w s
January 2023
Published monthly
All Bible references are from the KJV
(Examining Current Events in the Light of Bible Prophecy)
P.O. Box 13006, Roanoke, VA 24030-3006
There is No “Mother Nature!”
“Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, … [changing] the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the [creation] more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” Romans 1:22, 25
By Mike Wingfield
Worshipping “Mother Nature” will not rescue the nations of the world from the tragic and dangerous time in which we live. As our world tumbles deeper into spiritual darkness, the world’s leaders stubbornly refuse to give God His rightful place. They continually reject Him as Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer, Judge, and King. They ignore His presence and power! They have chosen to pretend that He does not exist. They are defiant against God’s creative order, commandments, and eternal promises. In their pride and arrogance, they foolishly plan how they might thwart the prescribed judgment of God that is coming upon the earth and all creation at the approaching end of this age.
In his quest to lie and deceive, man has created the theory of evolution to mask the reality that God created everything as described in Genesis 1-3. Evolution makes chance and fate the explanation for the existence of creation. From man’s perspective, there is no design or designer of creation. Man foolishly believes everything from the atom to the galaxies came together through random evolution of cosmic forces. Mimicking the demonic deception of many ancient cultures, our world has chosen to worship “Mother Nature.” When people refer to everyday events in the weather or the catastrophic forces of creation, they point to this as an act of “Mother Nature”. This designation of the world’s god is a term that views the earth as a woman. In their sinful way of thinking, the earth is the source and controlling power over all creation. Just like a mother who gives birth and nurtures her children, the world believes that earth, in the evolutionary process, gave birth to all life. They believe that earth, not God, provides us with all that we need to sustain life. Consequently, climate change proponents are demanding a radical shift in our lifestyles to avert what they believe will lead to a catastrophic end to life on earth.
This is nothing new (Ecclesiastes 1:10). The Bible gives several references to a pagan goddess that was being worshipped in Israel and all the other cultures that preceded and followed Israel’s tragic worship of a demonically created goddess. This goddess was called “the queen of heaven” (Jeremiah 7:18). The ancient prophet of God, Jeremiah, rebuked the people of Israel and warned them that they were incurring the wrath of God if they continued to worship idols rather than the living God. However, the men of Israel refused to heed Jeremiah’s warning, stating that they were following the advice of their wives, since they believed that it was “The Queen of Heaven” who had blessed them (Jeremiah 44:15-19). This goddess was a fertility god. They believed that her worship would improve their way of life. They imagined that this goddess would provide them with bountiful food, prosperity, and keep them safe and secure. Like today, the worship of this goddess was filled with lustful sensuality.
Tragically, Israel refused to heed Jeremiah’s warning. Consequently, God destroyed its culture, including the Temple in Jerusalem in 586 B.C. Those who survived became the slaves of Babylon for 70 years.
Today, in a similar fashion, our pagan global culture views “Mother Nature” as a goddess who is providing and protecting us with many blessings. This is a religion that is sweeping across the world. This is the demonic force behind all the hype concerning climate change. In November, more than 40,000 people attended a summit in the Sinai near the mountain where many believe God gave Israel and the world the Ten Commandments. They gathered to create the “Climate Justice Ten Commandments” (Israel 365 News, November 7, 2022).
America, and the world are traveling down the same path of apostasy and disobedience as nations that were destroyed before us. We are defiantly rejecting the One and only God of the universe. In our foolish and sinful pride, we have elevated man and God’s creation above the worship of the God of glory.
This gathering, which had the blessing of the United Nations, included leaders in business, banking, education, and politics. Among its participants were Christian, Muslim, and Jewish religious leaders. This gathering held “Climate Repentance Ceremonies and put forth a prophetic inter-religious call to action” (Israel 365 News, November 7, 2022). Clearly, the entire world, including Israel, has been duped into the deception of worshipping the creation, rather than the Creator.
Friends, the worship of “Mother Earth” is creating a response of wrathful judgment in the heart of our holy God. He is the One and only God! The first and most important of all the commandments is, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). God has demanded that we not worship or serve any other god. If we do, He has promised, “I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me” (Exodus 20:5). The priority for all mankind is to worship God, and God alone!
Several decades before Jeremiah, the prophet Isaiah was called to warn Israel to turn from its sinful and idolatrous ways. At the heart of God’s plea was for His people, Israel, to recognize that He was the One and only God. Through Isaiah, God repeatedly said, “I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me” (Isaiah 45:5). See also Isaiah 45:6, 18, 21, 22; 46:9. In Isaiah 42:8, the Lord said, “I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.”
Friends, America, and the world are traveling down the same path of apostasy and disobedience as nations that were destroyed before us. We are defiantly rejecting the One and only God of the universe. In our foolish and sinful pride, we have elevated man and God’s creation above the worship of the God of glory.
The universe and all that is in it has been created by God for His glory. The chief aim of man is to glorify God. In the beginning of creation, God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth” (Genesis 1:26). The entire testimony of the Bible is that only man has been created as the image bearer of God. That simply means that it is God’s desire for mankind to be reflectors of the infinite glory of God. We are to live, speak, think, act, and plan in such a way that we display the glory of God. What does that mean?
Perhaps one of the most difficult things for the depraved, finite mind of man to grasp is the glory of God. The term “glory of God” points to the collective conception of all that God is. It is the shining forth of His infinite attributes or character. When we delve into the depths of the infinite mind and character of God our intellectual abilities fall short of being able to grasp the fullness of all that God is and has done. While exploring the infinite knowledge and presence of God, the psalmist declared, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it” (Psalm 139:6). After exploring God’s eternal purposes for Israel, Paul exclaimed, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counsellor” (Romans 11:33-34)?
God has created us in such a way that we should be in awe of the creation of human life. The birth of a baby should move us to be in awe of God and to see His divine plan and purposes for the creation of man. This is made clear in Psalm 8. “O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of mouth of babes and [newborn infants] hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger” (Psalm 8:1-2). The Psalmist is simply saying that even the enemies of God should be silenced when they look at the life of a new-born baby. They should be in awe of the divine process of the creation of life in the womb (Psalm 139:13-18). Babies are a gift from God (Psalm 127:3).
Abortion and the abuse and neglect of children are other indictments against our godless culture. Every year, millions of babies are killed in the womb. Furthermore, children are the target of unimaginable violence and wickedness. The message of the Bible is clear. How we treat children, and all other people, is a testimony to what we think about God and who God is. The first four of the Ten Commandments deal with man’s response to God. The last six of the Ten Commandments deal with man’s response to man – who has been created in the image of God. We do not know God and cannot glorify Him when we kill human beings. “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murdered hath eternal life abiding in him” (1 John 3:15).
Man is not the only part of God’s creation that reflects His glory. All the heavens and the earth were created for His glory – to lead us to adore, worship, and serve Him, and Him alone! As the Psalmist in Psalm 8 continued to speak of God’s glory, he spoke of God’s creation of the heavens as “the work of [God’s] fingers” (Psalm 8:3). The vastness of the splendor of God’s creation is to cause man to be in awe of the God who spoke them all into existence (Psalm 33:6) out of nothing (Hebrews 11:3).
King David of Israel, 3,000 years ago, exclaimed, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament [shows] his handywork” (Psalm 19:1). The word “declare” in Hebrew could be translated as “continually count.” The idea is that the vastness of the heavens, and the innumerable stars contained therein, should cause the human mind to be in awe of the One who created them.
Compared to the knowledge of David’s time, our comprehension of the universe today is amazing. David’s generation only observed the vastness of the starry heavens with the naked eye. In our generation, we have powerful telescopes on earth and in space that aid us in visually exploring the galaxies. Our faith ought to be greater than the faith of David. We ought to be more in awe of the heavens and therefore, we should seek to glorify God in a greater way. How sad that this is not true. Instead, we have rejected God and His revelation. Due to man’s pride, man has chosen to ignore God’s written revelation, the Bible, and God’s general revelation written in the heavens. According to Romans 1:18-32, this is always the beginning of man’s tragic journey away from God. Read this passage and reflect upon the truth of Paul’s message.
The field of science, in many cases, began as an exploration of creation for the glory of God. For example, Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), was a German scientist who studied the heavens. He discovered and wrote about many of the observations and facts still used today by astronomers and NASA. Kepler, by his own writings and testimony, was a committed believer who held the Scriptures as his rock-solid foundation for all truth. He dedicated himself at an early age to serve God.
How sad that today, most of those who work in the field of science have been blinded by the lie of evolution. The theory of evolution began with the work of Charles Darwin (1809-1882), who followed almost 300 years after Kepler. There is a debate concerning whether Darwin was an atheist. We cannot be sure. However, at one point in his life he said that he did not believe Jesus Christ is God. He also stated that he did not believe the Bible is the Word of God.
Today, we should be stunned by the vastness of the universe and the tiny speck called earth. God told Isaiah, “The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool” (Isaiah 66:1). In light of what we now know, this is truly an amazing revelation given to God’s servant more than 2,700 years ago!
First, the heavens, the universe, are viewed in the Bible as the dwelling place of God. Yet, God, who is everywhere present at the same time, cannot be contained by the vastness of space. At the dedication of the temple in Jerusalem, King Solomon acknowledged, “Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded” (1 Kings 8:27)?
Just how immense is the universe? The answer to this question is unknown. Even with our most powerful telescopes we have only viewed about 1.25 percent of all that God created by His spoken Word thousands of years ago. Scientists tell us that the expanse of the universe is so stunning that if you could travel across the known outreaches of space, traveling at the speed of light – 186,000 miles per second – it would take you more than 40 billion years to do so. Within this space are believed to be more than 100 billion galaxies! This is stunning! Unimaginable! Our home, the Milky Way, is only a small galaxy when compared to others.
Within each of these galaxies there are hundreds of billions of stars. The number of stars created by the sudden breath of God in the beginning is beyond our human comprehension! Someone has surmised that the number of stars is more than the number of words spoken by man since the beginning of time. Another scientist has estimated that the number of stars would probably be equal to roughly 10,000 stars for each grain of sand on every beach on earth! Let that sink in for a moment!
The Bible tells us that all of God’s creation, including the stars, planets, moons, comets, and asteroids, and all of creation are the servants of God (Psalm 119:91). This means that God is the Creator, Ruler, and Sustainer of every aspect of His creation (Colossians 1:16-17). Jesus proved this when He came to earth. He controlled food, winds, water, diseases, and even demons. He made the blind see and raised the dead!
God is sovereign over every atom and galaxy! Listen to what Psalm 147:4-5 tells us about how infinite God is, “He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names. Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.” God not only knows how many stars He created, but He has also named them all!
When we think about stars, we need to remember that our sun is one of them. The sun and stars are simply great balls of fire. They have been created with immense amounts of fuel so that they can fulfill His purposes to shine for His glory. Our sun is huge to the human eye. It is estimated that the sun is 1,300,000 times bigger than the earth. Scientists estimate that it would take about 1.3 million earths to fill up the space taken up by the sun. Yet, the sun is one of the smaller stars in our universe. One star, Antares, is calculated to be 700 times bigger than our sun. Amazing! Stunning!
Think about this. This universe is so infinite in the mind of man – yet the heavens cannot contain God! God has described Himself as the One who “[stretched] forth the heavens, and [laid] the foundation of the earth, and [formed] the spirit of man within him” (Zechariah 12:1).
The finite, depraved mind of man struggles to understand who God is. We tend to think of God in such a way that we make Him like man. And tragically, we foolishly think of man, making him like God. The Bible repeatedly declares that God is holy. That simply means that God is infinitely set apart from all His creation. All creation is finite. Only God is infinite!
In Isaiah 40:25, God asked, “To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal.” Then, He answered His question by demanding that man look up into the heavens, “Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth” (Isaiah 40:26).
Another testimony of God’s greatness is His comparison to earth itself. To those who were worshipping the Queen of Heaven, He reminded them that He could hold the oceans of the earth in the palm of His hand. He knows the exact weight of planet earth. (See Isaiah 40:12.) In this little speck in the universe there are nations. These nations and their leaders think they are so powerful. Compared to God, they are nothing! The Bible declares, “Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. … All nations before him as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity” (Isaiah 40:15, 17).
The Bible tells us that “The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life” (Proverbs 14:27). Also, “The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honor is humility” (Proverbs 15:33). The word fear speaks of man being in awe of God. When we think of God in terms of His glory, we will be greatly humbled. This is where great faith begins – humility! When we see God in His glory and mankind in his utterly helpless state of foolishness and sin, then we can be humble and wise.
When I was a little boy, my mother would say to me, “Son you are getting too big for your britches.” This was her kind way of saying that I was acting foolishly, thinking that I was older and wiser, instead of realizing I was still a little boy in need of my parents. This is where we are as a world. We have gotten too big for our britches! The world thinks it doesn’t need God. He has been replaced with a demonic idol called “Mother Nature.”
We need to be reminded that earth is a speck in this enormous universe – only the lowly footstool of God. The heavens are His dwelling place. Isaiah wrote, “It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in” (Isaiah 40:22). God says that man is like a grasshopper before Him. That is a humbling thought. All of mankind needs to remember that we are at the mercy of the Almighty! All that we have and are, is nothing in His sight!
Pride is the hallmark cornerstone of depravity. It was pride that triggered the beginning of sin in the heart of Lucifer when he thought he could replace God. Satan appealed to the pride of Eve in the Garden of Eden by tempting her with the idea that she could be like God.
The scientific achievements of man in the last 150 years have been amazing. Yet, they are nothing compared to God who made the heavens and the earth in six days (Exodus 20:11). Prideful people think that scientists are so intelligent. However, when they fail to give God His rightful place and see Him as the God of glory, they are acting like fools. “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” (Psalm 14:1).
According to the Bible, God will deal a death blow to the pride of man at the end of this age. As in the days of Noah, God will use His creation to bring a massive upheaval upon this earth. God told Noah thousands of years ago that He would destroy His creation “with the earth” (Genesis 6:13). In Noah’s day, God spoke to the earth and caused a massive global earthquake, allowing the subterranean waters to flood the earth (Genesis 7:11). He also emptied the massive translucent water canopy over the earth (Genesis 1:6-7), eventually covering the entire earth with water for 150 days (Genesis 7:24).
For seven long years during the Tribulation, mankind will be judged by God with climate change, and catastrophic events such as global earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis. Diseases, demons, and darkness will plague all the earth’s inhabitants. All of this will be used by God to humble mankind and exalt Himself. Isaiah wrote about that day and warned that God will “[arise] to shake terribly the earth” (Isaiah 2:19, 21). God will do this “for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty” (Isaiah 2:19, 21). Why? “The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day” (Isaiah 2:11, 17).
When that day comes, man will realize how foolish his worship of idols and the ideas of godless men has been. They will cast aside their idols and be stricken with their foolishness (Isaiah 40:2-21). Scientists will be helpless. Everyone will know there is no “Mother Nature.” They will know that earth is not a god or a provider.
Scientists look at the immense universe and conclude there must be life on other planets. However, according to the Bible, God created life only on earth (Isaiah 45:18). Why such an awesome display of billions of galaxies and innumerable stars? It is not about us! It is about Him – the God of Glory! In the beginning, God created the heavens with the earth and man in mind. Earth is mentioned 21 times in Genesis 1. The lights of the heavens were for those living on earth (Genesis 1:14-19). God intended that they would look up and see His glory (Psalm 19:1). The Spirit of God caused the Apostle Paul to notice that God has revealed Himself to us. He wrote, “That which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath [showed] it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:19-20).
No Bible believer should ever use the term “Mother Nature.” I must personally confess that when I hear that term I cringe. I am struck to the heart that the Lord God is being rejected. I am awestruck at the blindness of our world and even many in the professing church. We want God to fix our marriages, families, and broken world. However, we are not concerned about giving Him, and Him alone, the glory that is due to Him.
Are you guilty of using that term “Mother Earth”? If so, repent of it now! The use of this pagan term is an insult to the God of glory! Those who do believe and speak of the earth as a goddess are guilty of worshipping the creation instead of the Creator (Romans 1:25). The kind of world that does this is described in detail in Romans 1:21-32. We are living at such an hour!
Is the glory of God the chief aim of your life? Do you live to please Him? Glorify Him? Praise Him? Worship Him? This is the chief aim of man. We were created to have fellowship with God. We were made to know Him and worship Him. If your life’s focus is not upon Him, and Him alone, you are miserable. God inhabits the praises of His people (Psalm 22:3). According to the Bible this is “the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy” (Psalm 16:11).
Only seconds after we have received our new body and mind and are in the presence of our Lord, we will have a clear understanding of all of this. Then we will say, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Revelation 4:11).
“Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).
Be ready for the shout that will take us out! What a day that will be!