There is no need to contact the EPA. God is firmly in charge of the climate. The pollution that needs to be dealt with is our sin. God has handled that by offering the gift of salvation to all who trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. For what is truly a “safer, more sustainable future” I encourage all to deal with this most important moral issue.

A recent column called on readers to contact the EPA to enact rules to heal our climate. It bore the title “Immorality of climate denial.” Were this written by a scientist, it could be argued, “What right does someone in this discipline have to make a moral judgment?” However, the writer is not a scientist, but a pastor — a Presbyterian, no less, but in a different denomination from the one in which I minister.

Yes, pastors do make moral judgments. It is part of the job. These judgments must have their foundation on something that is transcendent, not on what we know “to be true from our own experience and observations.” The transcendent God is not only the “Maker of heaven and earth” (Psalm 146:6), he “sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45). Look skyward today and observe as Psalm 19:1 tells us. “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.”

The Bible clearly teaches that weather is controlled by the almighty hand of God. To claim that humans have significantly contributed to supposed climate change is an audacious demeaning of the character of God. This constitutes a serious moral act as one day all will give account to the God who is not mocked.

Ironically, the author references “40 days and 40 nights of endless rain” this past summer as proof that something is wrong with our climate. God first used 40 days of rain to bring judgment on a world that had rebelled against him. The citizens of that day made a moral choice to serve their own pleasure instead of living to the glory of God. Their moral decision led to all of them dying in the flood except for Noah’s family. One must flee from the urge to worship created things rather than the Creator.

There is no need to contact the EPA. God is firmly in charge of the climate. The pollution that needs to be dealt with is our sin. God has handled that by offering the gift of salvation to all who trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. For what is truly a “safer, more sustainable future” I encourage all to deal with this most important moral issue.

Rev. Skip Gillikin is the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Weaverville, N.C., and as the Stated Clerk of the Western Carolina Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in America. This Letter to the Editor appeared in the Asheville Citizen-Times and is used with permission.