In Part 1 of this teaching about the end times sign of nature as it relates to extreme weather, we learned from the Bible that God does indeed exhibit a pattern of using extreme weather to get a wayward people’s attention and call them back to a right relationship with Him. In Part 2, we scoured the past two years of weather data and confirmed that natural disasters are indeed increasing in frequency and intensity. In this last part, we will look to the book of Revelation to see how God will use natural disasters to judge the world during the coming Tribulation period.
The World’s Response
What’s interesting is how scientists are interpreting these extreme natural weather phenomena. In all of the reports, what has been the conclusion of every single article? These natural disasters are due to “man-made global warming.” The O’Driscoll article reports: “Scientists long warned that climate change would contribute to an increase in both the frequency and the severity of freak weather.” How interesting that the article notes an increase in “frequency” and “severity.” Those words sound very familiar. It all sounds rather biblical, doesn’t it?
Germany’s former Chancellor Angela Merkel warned: “We have to get faster in the fight against climate change. Global leaders also have to come to the same conclusion after the UN delivered a code red for humanity.”
So, the world is interpreting these natural disasters, which they agree are increasing in frequency and intensity, as the result of mankind’s pollution problems. But Christians know better, right? Christians know that God alone is in control of the weather. He controls the weather, not mankind.
Remember that God doesn’t wish that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). Therefore, God always warns before He executes His wrath. And, for thousands of years, God has chosen climactic and catastrophic weather to get our attention. Why? Because God controls the weather!
The Bible contains at least 47 different verses that declare that God is in control of the weather. Here are some examples:
- “What kind of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey Him” (Matthew 8:26-27). When Jesus stood up in the boat and calmed the storm, He demonstrated that He controlled the weather.
- “Fire and hail, snow and clouds, stormy wind, fulfilling His word” (Psalm 148:8).
- “He did not leave Himself without witness, that He did good and gave you rains from heaven, and fruitful seasons” (Acts 14:17).
- “I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or in any tree” (Revelation 7:1).
So, again and again and again, in at least 47 references, the Bible says that God is in control of the weather. God is sovereign, and nothing happens that He does not allow, either in His perfect will or His permissive will. That is the reason the Bible attributes all natural disasters to God.
Let’s go back to how people are noticing that these freak storms have been increasing in frequency and intensity. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 24:8 concerning the signs of the end times, which include natural disasters and extreme weather. He foretold that they would increase in frequency and intensity, just like birth pains, leading up to His return.
God uses these end times signs, such as climactic weather, to wake us up, calling the world to come back to Him. God is warning us that He is upset with our sins. He is upset with all of the evil that’s going on here on the earth. And, He’s crying out: “I love you! Repent and come back to me!”
Yes, freak weather might be contributed to by mankind’s pollutive tendencies, but again, it is God who controls the weather. We can take into account, of course, that certain natural disasters occur because the weather is off-kilter due to the curse on the world. But God still utilizes freak weather in an attempt to try and wake people up to their sins and need for a Savior.
Tribulation Judgments
The ultimate climax to all of these weather signs will be a judgment called the Tribulation. The Lord will rescue and rapture His Church out of this world before His true wrath comes upon it. But leading up to that time, God is going to increase the signs of natural disasters, just like we are seeing, along with the other end times signs such as social, political, war, economic, and so on. These disasters will all increase in frequency and intensity leading up to the Rapture of the Church, and then the world will plunge headlong into God’s wrath during the Tribulation.
As bad as the weather has gotten today, nothing compares to the disasters foretold in the book of Revelation. These weather-related judgments will devastate the world, for God will be pouring out His wrath in the Tribulation era due to the corruption of its people.
1. Third Seal Judgment (Revelation 6:5-6) — food scarcity and famine.
2. Fourth Seal Judgment (Revelation 6:) — death by starvation and wild beasts.
3. Sixth Seal Judgment (Revelation 6:12-17) — great earthquake; the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood, the stars of heaven fell to the earth, sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.
4. Seventh Seal Judgment (Revelation 8:1-6) — noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.
5. First Trumpet Judgment (Revelation 8:7) — hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.
6. Second Trumpet Judgment (Revelation 8:8-9) — a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood, and a third of the living creatures in the sea died.
7. Third Trumpet Judgment (Revelation 8:10-11) — a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch; it fell on a third of the rivers, and many men died from the water.
8. Fourth Trumpet (Revelation 8:12-13) — a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened.
9. Two Witnesses (Revelation 11:6) — “These have power to shut heaven so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire.”
10. Two Witnesses Killed (Revelation 11:13) — “In the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. In the earthquake seven thousand people were killed.”
11. Seventh Trumpet Judgment (Revelation 11:15-19) — there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail.
12. Second Bowl Judgment (Revelation 16:3) — “The sea became blood as of a dead man; and every living creature in the sea died.”
13. Third Bowl Judgment (Revelation 16:4-7) — rivers and springs of water; they became blood.
14. Fourth Bowl Judgment (Revelation 16:8-9) — the sun scorching men with fire, great heat.
15. Sixth Bowl Judgment (Revelation 16:12-16) — great river Euphrates water dried up.
16. Seventh Bowl Judgment (Revelation 16:17-21) — “…thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth, Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, every island fled away, and the mountains were not found, great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent.”
17. Fall of Babylon the Great (Revelation 18:1-8) — plagues will come in one day, death and mourning and famine, utterly burned with fire.
18. Satanic Rebellion Crushed (Revelation 20:7-10) — fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.
The Response for Which God is Looking
God’s Word makes it crystal clear that when He sends discipline, the primary purpose is never to punish. Instead, the primary purpose is to call wayward mankind to repentance so that we might be saved. Here’s how the prophet Isaiah expressed it, “For when Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness” (Isaiah 26:9b).
Our God is so merciful. He is patiently sending us one natural disaster wake-up call after another because He never pours out His wrath without warning. And the greatest “coming wrath” already visible on the horizon is the seven-year Tribulation. Our Lord wants as many people to get saved as possible and become part of the Church before the Rapture happens. But that great day of wrath is coming one day soon, and when that happens, all of nature is going to break loose!
How does God want us to respond to these end-times signs, particularly the sign of nature as it relates to extreme weather?
First, we each need to repent individually for our own rebellion and selfishness. God is calling us to repent. He wants us to repent. And so, call on the Holy Spirit and read the Bible so that we can be discerning.
Second, we need to repent as a nation for removing God from our society, for idolatrously worshiping ourselves, for our 63 million murders in the womb, for our obsession with sexual promiscuity, for our fascination with the occult, and for our lack of support for Israel’s right to exist, among other sins. We as a nation need to accept Jesus as our Savior, for that is the only way by which we will be rescued from the “coming wrath.”
Once Jesus finally returns, the curse on this earth will be lifted, and these natural disasters will cease to persist. So, we have hope. We can live by this hope as Romans 13:12-14 proclaims: “The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.”