There have been a myriad of attempts recently, by well-intentioned watchmen on the walls of Zion, to sound the alarm over what they perceive to be the growing hysteria on Climate Change. One outlet suggests that,
“the full and balanced story of climate change warns that this agenda will be the catalyst for a new world order wondering after the beast, that institutes substitute commandments for God’s Holy Law, and ends up with a precise fulfillment of ‘no buy, no sell’ unless you are “marked” as a loyally ‘green’… Sunday keeper!” (1)
Another claims,
“instead of affirming our Historic Seventh-day Adventist eschatology, instead of proclaiming the special truths of Revelation 14:6-12 (the Three Angels’ Message) as the only solution to our world’s current moral crisis, we are joining the ranks of the enemy and embracing the climate change movement – the same movement that is promoting the Pope’s green Sunday rest agenda.” (2)
The sentiment is understandable; there is a rise in concern for the state of our environment throughout the world. In 1938, the inventor and steam engineer Guy Stewart Callendar was one of the first to suggest that the amount of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere could influence changes to the global temperature (3). Since then, there has been a growing sense of concern in the scientific community that the growing levels of CO2 would cause a “greenhouse effect” and force temperatures to rise. This concern has fueled activists from all over the globe to protest industrial practices, and calls for action have come from high and low, from such as Al Gore to such as Greta Thunberg.
There is considerable debate over this topic, with interest groups on both sides exchanging barbs. In 2017 President Donald J. Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the 2015 Paris Agreement to ensure an “America First” policy. Lauded as a win against what some hold to be the “new world order wondering after the beast”, quite a few of the striving faithful among us seem content that the winds of strife have been held back, for the time being.
Enter the “Red Herring”. The red herring is a term for something that, intentionally or unintentionally, leads someone away from an important issue or question. The herring is a fish, and when prepared a certain way appears red and emits a strong odor. The 19th century journalist, William Cobbett popularized the use of the analogy of a red herring, which he used to distract a pair of hunting dogs from their intended target, a hare (4). Since then, the term has meant a rhetorical strategy intended to distract an opponent from the subject at hand.
This is precisely what the reaction to the Climate Change agenda is: a red herring. As Adventists, we have a unique eschatological view, one that relies on a historicist understanding of prophecy. We understand that according to Revelation 13, the Land Beast (America) will erect an image to the Sea Beast (the Papacy). The Bible tells us,
“And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.” (5)
The modern prophetic pen is clear what this “image to the beast” is:
“When the early church became corrupted by departing from the simplicity of the gospel and accepting heathen rites and customs, she lost the Spirit and power of God; and in order to control the consciences of the people, she sought the support of the secular power. The result was the papacy, a church that controlled the power of the state and employed it to further her own ends, especially for the punishment of ‘heresy.’ In order for the United States to form an image of the beast, the religious power must so control the civil government that the authority of the state will also be employed by the church to accomplish her own ends.” (6)
The image to the beast is the religious control of civil government. It could not be any clearer than that. However, the calls for Climate Change action are governed largely by secular influences. Yes, there are religious voices in the movement for Climate Change action as well (including our own denomination), but the impetus has been primarily secular.
Watchdog publications have argued that The Great Controversy hints at Climate Change action playing a part in the proclamation of a National Sunday Law. This is the where the red herring lies. While it is true that there will be natural calamities that will drive people to call for Sunday laws, the issue will revolve around morality. It will be a call to save a perceived lost morality, not a call to save the planet. Let’s examine the passage for clarity:
“Satan has control of all whom God does not especially guard. He will favor and prosper some in order to further his own designs, and he will bring trouble upon others and lead men to believe that it is God who is afflicting them.” (7)
The whole hoopla with Climate Change is that man is responsible for global warming through irresponsible exploitation and pollution. This doesn’t fit the prophetic bill. Inspiration states that Satan will make men believe that God is afflicting them. Why would God afflict them via the climate? Not because you didn’t buy a “green” car or forgot to turn off the lights before you went to bed. No, people will believe the natural calamities are taking place because the national morality was lacking.
“While appearing to the children of men as a great physician who can heal all their maladies, he will bring disease and disaster, until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation. Even now he is at work. In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hailstorms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power.” (8)
We clearly see here that Satan controls calamities to an extent. He is interested in the destruction of as many people as he can destroy. Then he will turn the narrative around and cause everyone to believe God’s commandment keeping people are the cause of such calamities. But again, there is no hint that this is because God’s Remnant refuse to adopt good environmental policies; the prophetic testimony lays out the scenario plainly. When referring to the instigators of Sunday laws we are told,
“They will lament the great wickedness in the world and second the testimony of religious teachers that the degraded state of morals is caused by the desecration of Sunday. Great will be the indignation excited against all who refuse to accept their testimony.” (9)
Again and again we see the issue revolving around a perceived lost morality, which is a religious matter, not a concern for the physical well being of the planet, which is a secular matter. Therefore, instead of chasing down the red herring of Climate Change activism, we should instead focus on the legal debates surrounding morality. We have already pointed out through the inspired pen that religious control over the civil government will form the “image to the beast”, and the Climate Change action movement does not fit this paradigm.
But what of the Pope’s recent encyclical, Laudato Si, which called the world to respect the environment? Surely this is a lead-up to a Sunday Law proclamation! What many watchdog outlets don’t mention is that the encyclical also calls for the abolition of abortion. Pope Francis made it clear in the Laudato Si that concern for the unborn is tied to the concern for the whole of nature,
“When we fail to acknowledge as part of reality the worth of a poor person, a human embryo, a person with disabilities – to offer just a few examples – it becomes difficult to hear the cry of nature itself; everything is connected.” (10)
If you want the make the argument that Laudato Si’s concern for the environment is the Papacy’s strategy to promote Sunday legislation, would you be consistent and add its concern for the unborn in that stratagem as well? This exemplifies the “Genetic Fallacy,” in which an idea or concept is rejected on the basis of its origin, and not for the concept itself. An example of this is the Trinity debate, in which many anti-trinitarians reject the doctrine of three co-eternal divine Persons on the basis that it is Roman Catholic.
“Those who honor the Bible Sabbath will be denounced as enemies of law and order, as breaking down the moral restraints of society, causing anarchy and corruption, and calling down the judgments of God upon the earth.” (11)
Inspiration reiterates the point that the reasoning behind the push for Sunday law is a restoration of what many believe to be Christian morality. The idea that respect for nature and the planet is the driving force behind Sunday sanctity is not a concept found in the Scriptures or the Spirit of Prophecy. It is a red herring, and a dangerous one at that. The forming of the “image to the beast,” which is the religious control of civil power, will be ignored or even favored to oppose secular ideology. Church and state will be allowed to unite right under the noses of those that claim to be true Protestants. And very few voices will be raised against it.
“By this first beast is represented the Roman Church, an ecclesiastical body clothed with civil power, having authority to punish all dissenters. The image to the beast represents another religious body clothed with similar powers. The formation of this image is the work of that beast whose peaceful rise and mild professions render it so striking a symbol of the United States. Here is to be found an image of the Papacy. When the churches of our land, uniting upon such points of faith as are held by them in common, shall influence the State to enforce their decrees and sustain their institutions, then will Protestant America have formed an image of the Roman hierarchy.” (12)
This passage clearly precludes the involvement of secularism, communism, or atheism in the formation of the image to the beast—though of course, like the rest of the world, the above elements will eventually follow the papal/apostate Protestant lead (Rev. 13:3). It is plainly the “uniting upon such points of faith as are held by [the churches of our land] in common”. Therefore, instead of seeing red every time a Climate activist makes a statement about the need to protect our environment, we should focus our energies elsewhere and protest religious incursions upon civil governance. When thinking of how natural calamities will cause many to clamor for Sunday laws, instead of cringing after seeing who the 2019 Time Magazine’s Person of the Year is, it makes more sense to cringe at the fact that Pat Robertson suggested that the 2010 Haitian Earthquake was a God-sent calamity because the Haitians “swore a pact to the devil”. Before that he claimed the 9-11 attacks were God-sent because we “banned” school prayers (13). These are clearly attempts to tie religious moral concerns with natural and other calamities. That is the attitude Inspiration warns us about.
Let’s not chase the red herring down.
References:
1. Wiseman, K. “Seventh-day Adventists and Climate Change”, Fulcrum7 http://www.fulcrum7.com/blog/2016/4/5/seventh-day-adventists-and-climate-change
2. Roman, A. “The Certainty of Our Historic Seventh-day Adventist Eschatology”, Advent Messenger http://adventmessenger.org/the-certainty-of-our-historic-seventh-day-adventist-eschatology/
3. Callendar, G. S. "The artificial production of carbon dioxide and its influence on temperature". Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society. 64 (275): 223–240.
4. Cobbett, Wm. Cobbett's Political Register, Volume XI, February 14, 1807.
5. Revelation 13:11-14, KJV.
6. White, E. G. The Great Controversy, pg. 443.
7. Ibid., pg. 589.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid., pg. 590.
10. Harris, E. “Pope Francis blasts abortion, population control in new encyclical”, Catholic News Agency, https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-francis-blasts-abortion-population-control-in-new-encyclical-10491
11. The Great Controversy, pg. 592.
12. White, E. G. The Story of Redemption, pg. 381.
13. James, F. “Pat Robertson Blames Haitian Devil Pact For Earthquake“, National Public Radio, https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2010/01/pat_robertson_blames_haitian_d.html
Lemuel Valendez Sapian was born and raised in Denton, Texas and holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of North Texas. Married with four, fast-growing children, his passion is for world, religious, American and military historical studies. A third generation Seventh-day Adventist, he is studying for the ministry. He is also a published author and editor at AdVindicate.