Most heresies are not outright negations of the truth – they tend to be subtle distortions of it.  The Bible does teach us that we are to be stewards of the planet and that we are to care for it.  It does tell us that we are to care for the poor and that we are to seek justice.  The Bible is not anti-science; indeed modern Western science was largely founded upon a biblical worldview.    Therefore, when we are told that ‘The Science’ is settled – that the world is doomed; it’s only ‘one minute to midnight’; Cop26 was the most important meeting in human history; it is the poor who suffer most from climate change; and God commands us to save the planet. Who would not want to get involved?  Surely the Christian response is obvious.  Indeed, it is because some Christians believe this so fundamentally that I received demands that the heretic should be silenced.  To question any of this is deemed to be blasphemy.  

Even as I pressed the send button I knew it was a risky moment.  And so it proved to be.  As soon as the article was published on a Christian website, there were cries of ‘heretic’, ‘he should lose his job’, ‘how unloving and unChristlike’, ‘cancel him’!?  What was the crime?    What heresy was I expounding?    I had dared to suggest that perhaps the Climate Change debate was not over, and there were lots of questions that still had to be answered, and that we should approach the subject with a great deal more humility.

Now please don’t get me wrong.  I am not a ‘denier’ and as far as I can see there has been a degree of warming throughout the world and some of that is due to human activity.  My concern was just simply to ask three questions: How much?  What can realistically be done about it?  And why has this been turned into a new doctrine that Christians must accept or be excommunicated from polite Christian society?    The purpose of this article is not to put the pros and cons of the scientific, political and social debates.  But rather to suggest that the Green movement is in danger of being a Trojan horse to bring in anti-Christian teachings in to the Christian church.

The response to my article confirmed to me something that I have feared for some time – that there is a new doomsday cult in town – the Climate Change cult.  I wrote about this a year ago – https://www.christiantoday.com/article/is.there.a.climate.change.cult/134046.htm

But over the past year it has become clear to me that this is not just a cult on the fringes inhabited by a few eccentrics and a host of frightened, indoctrinated young people.  This cult has morphed into a fully-fledged religion – complete with its own high priests, child prophets, demands of sacrifice, unquestionable doctrines, and its apocalyptic end times predictions.    What is worse is how this particular false religion is capturing, not just the liberal Church (whose normal methodology is just to baptise whatever progressive/regressive ideology is in fashion), but also a great section of the evangelical church.   People are writing about their ‘conversion’ to the cause of climate change.  There are few evangelical organisations and publishing houses who would dare to question, at least publicly, the current accepted narrative.

You can see why.  Most heresies are not outright negations of the truth – they tend to be subtle distortions of it.  The Bible does teach us that we are to be stewards of the planet and that we are to care for it.  It does tell us that we are to care for the poor and that we are to seek justice.  The Bible is not anti-science; indeed modern Western science was largely founded upon a biblical worldview.    Therefore, when we are told that ‘The Science’ is settled – that the world is doomed; it’s only ‘one minute to midnight’; Cop26 was the most important meeting in human history; it is the poor who suffer most from climate change; and God commands us to save the planet. Who would not want to get involved?  Surely the Christian response is obvious.  Indeed, it is because some Christians believe this so fundamentally that I received demands that the heretic should be silenced.   To question any of this is deemed to be blasphemy.

There are so many examples as to how much this new religion has become part of the liturgy and doctrine of the church. For example, the Archbishop of Canterbury was forced to apologise last week for suggesting that those who failed to act to limit climate change at Cop26 could be worse than the leaders who ignored the threat of the Nazis in the 1930’s.  Hymns are being rewritten to accommodate the new religion.  This example by Rev. Carolyn Winfrey Gilette from the PCUSA is one of the worst.

ST. DENIO 11.11.11.11 (“Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise”)

The climate is changing! Creation cries out!

Your people face flooding and fire and drought.

We see the great heat waves and storms at their worst.

We pray for the poor, Lord — for they suffer first.

We thank you, for leaders, courageous and brave,

who know that the Earth is worth fighting to save,

who care about justice and what they should do,

who listen to science and work hard for you.

Dave Brennan wrote a perceptive and disturbing article about the ‘Gaia’ exhibition currently touring the UK.  https://www.christiantoday.com/article/what.is.a.pagan.goddess.doing.in.a.place.of.christian.worship/137680.htm

As he points out this is pagan, godless worship, and it is being imported into churches, all in the name of climate change. There was a time when evangelicals viewed the culture through the eyes of Scripture, now there is an increasing tendency to do the opposite.

But rather than look at things in general let me offer you some examples as a warning from the old Jerusalem of Presbyterianism – my native Scotland.

The Church of Scotland is in freefall – in fact along with the Methodists it is the fastest declining church in the UK.

Read More