Why I believe in man-made, catastrophic climate change

Editor's note: Joseph Farah is leading a tour of Israel through Nov. 13. While he is away, WND is republishing some of his relevant columns from the past.

How many of you believe in climate change?

I do.

That's why I look at the weather reports every day.

I mean, who doesn't believe in climate change? If the weather didn't change, why would we need weather reports?

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You know what weather reports are. They're the reports that everyone listens to but no one believes.

And you know what climate change is. It's what everyone believes who has no faith in the Creator of the Universe.

There's been a lot of weird weather lately. Strange things are happening on planet Earth.

But, if you know my work, this might surprise you: I also believe in man-made catastrophic climate change.

Is that a shocker?

In my circles, it's not considered politically correct to believe in man-made catastrophic climate change.

I even think I can prove its existence – that it's real and that it has happened throughout history. It's probably happening today. And I know it will happen, again, in the future.

The big difference between Al Gore and me is I don't believe for a minute man-made catastrophic climate change has anything to do with man's production of carbon dioxide.

If you have ever looked at a topographical map of the Middle East, you will notice almost all of it is a pale, brown desert-like color. There is only one tiny bright green spot to be found. And that is Israel.

Even Israel is about half desert, but it wasn't always like that.

Remember what God told the children of Israel during the Exodus? "I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey."

That doesn't sound like a land that is half desert.

And, even more to the point, what do we read in Deuteronomy 8?

"For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it."

Does that sound like a land that was half desert?

And we all know that today the desert is blooming in Israel, which means the condition of the Promised Land was once much worse than it is today. In fact, 150 years ago, it was much worse.

In 1869, Mark Twain published his book, "Innocents Abroad," known for vivid descriptions of sites in the Holy Land, which he had recently visited. He wrote: "Of all the lands there are for dismal scenery, I think Palestine must be the prince. The hills are barren, they are dull of color, they are unpicturesque in shape. The valleys are unsightly deserts fringed with a feeble vegetation that has an expression about it of being sorrowful and despondent."

So, the first question we should have is much like the title of Hillary Clinton's new book: "What happened?"

What happened to change the very climate of Israel?

There had been catastrophic climate change in Israel – radical climate change – since the Bible days.

You want evidence?

Here's a passage in Ezekiel 20:47 (New American Standard Version): "Prophesy against the forest of the Negev, 'Listen to this message from the Lord. This is what the Lord God says: "Look out! I'm about to ignite a fire and set it against you. It will devour every tree – whether green or dry – that lives in you. This powerful flame will not be extinguishable, and the entire surface from south to north will be scorched by it."'"

The forest of the Negev? The Negev has been a desert for the last 2,000 years. What forest? Well, this is what most Bible translations say about that that passage. King James calls it the forest of the south. But there is no forest in the south. The entire southern part of Israel is desert. (Although, I will say, as someone who visits Israel at least once a year and who will be there again in a few days, that the Negev is beginning to bloom again since the people came back to the land. And actual forests are being replanted and flourishing.)

It kind of reminds me of one of my favorite old jokes: A lumber jack is applying for a job. The boss says to him: "Do you have any experience?" The applicant says, "Sure. I worked in Arabia." The boss says, "What are you talking about? Arabia is a desert." And the applicant says: "Sure. Now."

Well, look what the Bible has to say about Arabia: Isaiah 21:13: "The burden upon Arabia. In the forest in Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye travelling companies of Dedanim."

The forest of Arabia? Maybe that lumberjack was telling the truth. Or maybe catastrophic climate change visited the entire Middle East.

So, the obvious question should be: Why did the Holy Land become a wasteland during the 1,800-year dispersion of the Jews that lasted until they returned in significant numbers beginning in the early 20th century?

Have you ever wondered why Mark Twain was so disappointed at what he found in his travels through the area in the 19th century?

Have you ever wondered why, during that period of nearly two millennia, no other people successfully and permanently settled this land that is the source of so much dispute and controversy today?

It was all a fulfillment of prophecy. Little did Mark Twain know when he wrote about his trip to the Holy Land that even he was fulfilling prophecy, but, in fact, he was.

1 Kings 9:6-8 explains it all:

"But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them: Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people: And at this house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the Lord done thus unto this land, and to this house?"

Of all the travelers who visited the Holy Land in his time, Mark Twain was the most famous for his astonishment about the wasteland it had become.

It wasn't just the children of Israel who suffered as a result of their disobedience and apostasy. So, did the land itself.

Many years ago, a rabbi from New York sent me a copy of his book. His name is Menachem Kohen, and the book is called, "Prophecies for the Era of Muslim Terror." Rabbi Kohen points out the land suffered an unprecedented, severe and inexplicable (by anything other than supernatural explanations) drought that lasted from the first century until the 20th – a period of 1,800 years coinciding with the forced dispersion of the Jews.

Kohen sees this as a miraculous fulfillment of prophecy found in the book of Deuteronomy – especially chapter 28:23-24:

"And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.

"The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed."

The climate in Israel dramatically changed during this 1,800-period – way before Al Gore discovered "global warming."

If you read what Israel's climate and natural landscape was like from the time Joshua crossed the Jordan right up until just before the time of Jesus, it sounds like a heavily forested land. There were amazing crops raised by the people who inhabited the land when the Jews arrived.

Once I wondered what happened to Israel to turn it into the dusty, arid land it was when the Jews came back in the early 20th century. Until I read that prophecy in Deuteronomy, I had no clue.

Learn more by reading Joseph Farah's newest book, "The Restitution of All Things: Israel, Christians and the End of the Age," to find out what the climate will be like in the Kingdom of God on Earth ruled by Jesus from Jerusalem.

For 1,800 years, it hardly ever rained in Israel. This was the barren land discovered by Mark Twain. So-called "Palestine" was a wasteland – nobody lived there.

Beginning in A.D. 70 and lasting until the early 1900s – about 660,000 days – no rain.

After being inspired by Rabbi Kohen's work, I decided to check this out as best I could and personally examined the rainfall data for 150 years in Israel beginning in the late 1800s and leading up through the 1960s. What I found was astonishing – increasing rainfall almost every single year beginning at the time of the Zionist movement – with the heaviest rainfall coming in and around 1948 and 1967. Was this just a coincidence?

I'll be quite honest with you: I don't think so.

In fact, my friend Jonathan Cahn turned this story into a great teaching called, "The Mystery of the Rains," which he told me was inspired by what my own research and observations had found before we ever met.

Think about it. No rain from about A.D. 70 until the late 1800s, then increasing amounts of rainfall with surges in 1947, 1948, 1967 and 1968.

But this was all prophesied in the Torah.

Catastrophic climate change. But was it man-made? Yes, it was.

It was caused by man's sin.

Even before the Exodus, we see evidence of how man's sin can cause catastrophic climate change.

Let's look at Exodus 10:13-20:

And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.

And the locust went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such.

For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt.

Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste; and he said, I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you.

Now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and intreat the Lord your God, that he may take away from me this death only.

And he went out from Pharaoh, and intreated the Lord.

And the Lord turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts, and cast them into the Red sea; there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt.

But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go.

Like what you see? Want more? Get Joseph Farah's latest book, "The Restitution of All Things: Israel, Christians and the End of the Age."

What caused the destruction of the land and a change of climate? God's supernatural hand, yes, but as a result of man's sin.

What about Israel?

God told Moses the same thing would happen in Israel if it was not obedient to His Commandments.

Let's look at Leviticus 26:3-5:

If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;

Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.

That's the blessing. But here's the curse in the same passage, verses 14-20:

But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; … I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.

Man-made, catastrophic climate change was prophesied, not as a result of too much CO2 production, but from man's sin.

Let's look at that strange and famous prophecy by Balaam in the book of Numbers. You remember this one from Numbers 24. This unlikely prophet Baalam is asked by Balak to curse Israel with pagan enchantments, but God shows him that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel. He goes into a trance, the spirit falls on him and he issues instead of a curse a blessing on Israel in the form of a prophecy:

For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills;

A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey;

A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.

And then we have this from Deuteronomy 8. Notice how similar the language is. It's almost as though Baalam plagiarized Moses.

First the blessing:

Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.

For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills;

A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey;

A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.

When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.

Then the curse:

Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day:

Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein;

And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied;

Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;

And that's what happened in Israel – not once, not twice, but over and over again. The children of Israel stumbled into sin and apostasy. They forgot the Lord Thy God and His commandments. The people were dispersed. The land went fallow.

So, if you want to know why Israel's climate changed, now you know.

For 1,800 years it seemed unlikely that Israel would ever be reborn.

No nation in history had ever been regathered after such a lengthy period. Even the Hebrew language was lost in that time. And the land had turned into a barren, arid wilderness.

Now the land is back in the hands of God's Chosen People and it is reviving. It's nothing short of miraculous. There are even forests again in the Negev.

That's why I believe in climate change. But it's not the imaginary kind caused by carbon dioxide. It's caused by the Creator of carbon dioxide – and everything else.

He's still got a plan for this land of Israel.

And He's going to change the climate again – in Israel and all over the planet.

It's part of His Kingdom promises. But this time the climate is going to be more like the climate He originally created in the Garden of Eden.

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