Christian Nationalists say that climate change is their god’s plan, so we should start burning more fossil fuels.

The Christian practice of trusting subjective beliefs and feelings more than objective reality has practical consequences when Christian Nationalists turn their attention to worldly political power. These consequences are especially plain when it comes to the issue of climate change.

Geoffrey Grider, is a Christian Nationalist preacher who shares his sermons through a media project called Now The End Begins Bible Study. Now The End Begins has been declaring for the last 13 years that the End Times are about to begin. Still, the End Times have not begun. Nonetheless, Grider continues to spread the same message as ever, as if his false predictions had never taken place.

This kind of smooth glide over conceptual inconsistencies is standard practice in Grider’s preaching. In 2011, Geoffrey Grider declared Donald Trump to be a “ratings-seeking egomaniacal fraud” and declared that “Trump’s popularity in GOP polls shows how desperate and pitiful Republicans and conservatives are.” By 2017, however, Grider had completely reversed course, writing that “God has placed his hand on Donald Trump to fulfill his will.”

Grider doesn’t worry about the facts of the moment. For him, truth is eternal, and truth is defined only by what’s in the Christian bible. According to Grider’s reading of the Christian bible, climate change is not caused by human industrial pollution. Instead, Grider insists that climate change is part of the plan of the Christian god to roast the earth as part of the End Times that are about to begin. Grider says that climate scientists are just pagans who worship the goddess Gaia.

“The bible says this in Romans chapter 8 verse 22: ‘For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.’ Climate change, or more accurately, Gaia, has become the new religion for pagans. Climate change is the willful worship of the creature combined with the intentional ignorance of the creator. Your King James bible has a whole lot to say about the coming climate changes that god is about to release, as well as what the End Times religion of Antichrist looks like. It looks a whole lot like the agenda being pushed by the climate change police.”

A decade ago, Christian Nationalists were saying that global warming wasn’t happening at all. Now that the reality of climate change is practically undeniable, Christian Nationalists like Geoffrey Grider have changed their rhetoric, arguing that climate change is a good thing, part of the Christian god’s sacred plan to destroy the earth. Grider tells his followers that to try to stop or slow down climate change would be a blasphemy against the Christian god.

“So, as a bible believer, I understand that yes, our global climate is changing rapidly, and no, there is nothing you can do about it, and there is no power on the face of this earth that can stop it. The bible says this in second Peter chapter 3: ‘But the day of the lord will come as a thief in the night in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up.’ Now, that is not conjecture. That is not opinion. That is the word of the lord telling you that when Revelation 19 is taking place at the battle of Armageddon, going into the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ, all the way to the great white throne of judgment, that’s what second Peter 3:10 is talking about ultimately and doctrinally. Turn to Revelation chapter 20, and I’ll show you when that verse gets fulfilled. Second Peter, uh, Revelation 20 verse 11: ‘And I saw the great white throne and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them.’ So, Revelation 20 verse 11 shows you god destroying the heavens and the earth because he’s going to remake them, and second Peter 3:10 says, ‘but the day of the lord will come as a thief in the night in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up. And then, Peter asks a question, and this is the question that I’m going to ask you in light of climate change. ‘Seeing then’, verse 11 of second Peter 3, ‘Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, ‘What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of god, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?’”

Geoffrey Grider acknowledges that global warming is happening, but insists that its heat is the fervent will of the Christian god. Grider wraps up his online sermon by telling his followers that climate change should not be slowed down, but hastened, so that Christians can finally, after centuries of waiting, be raptured up to heaven.

Let’s come up for air for a moment of scientific reality about what’s really happening with climate change. There have been zero confirmed observations of any god or any other spirit causing climate change. There is, however, a huge body of scientific research that established a causal link between human industrial and agricultural pollution and global temperature rise, ocean acidification, and sea level rise. There is no serious scientific question about this anymore, and there hasn’t been any for many years. Even the big fossil fuels companies have stopped arguing that anthropogenic climate change is not real.

Scientists don’t work like Christian preachers. They don’t start with a fervent belief and then search for justification of that belief. They begin with directly observed facts and run carefully-designed experiments to test their interpretations of those facts. Scientists construct theories about the facts, but then test those theories with rigorous skepticism. They encourage their colleagues to find the flaws in their reasoning so that they can refine their understanding over time.

Scientists work in this way so that people can make responsible decisions about the challenges we face. They provide the material we need to inform governmental policies, to make investments of resources more successful.

In contrast to that, preachers like Geoffrey Grider pick up a book written thousands of years ago and presume on the basis of nothing other than faith that everything that it says is true. As Christian Nationalists, they want the federal government to make policy decisions on the basis of that blind faith.

Geoffrey Grider is not an outlier in American Christianity. There are some branches of Christianity that acknowledge the scientific reality of anthropogenic climate change, but there are a huge number of Christian churches where preachers are spreading the message that climate change should be welcomed, because it’s a sign that at long last the Christian god is beginning to destroy the earth.

Rich Schmidt, a preacher with Prophecy Focus Ministries in Union Grove, Wisconsin, concurs with Geoffrey Grider. Like Grider, Schmidt teaches his followers that climate change is not the consequence of massive greenhouse gas pollution, but is instead the result of the magical powers exercised by the god of the Christian bible. Schmidt says,

“The heavens will dissolve, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. My dear friend, I trust you placed your faith and trust in Christ. I trust you understand that climate change as the globalists are trying to portray is wrong, and that we’ll understand that god made it very clear that yes, this earth will one day be dissolved in heat, but not for at least one thousand and seven years.”

One thousand and seven years? Where did Schmidt get that precise number? It comes from doing bible math. Schmidt explains,

“Let me make it clear, now. We just talked about if the Rapture happens today, there’s going to be what? There’s going to be a minimum of a seven year Tribulation period that is going to exist. In other words, there’s no way this earth is going to end, at a minimum, for seven years. Now, let’s go to the next thing on god’s prophetic calendar in Revelation 6 through 19. If you have your bible and you’re still in Revelation 16, flip over to Revelation chapter 20 for a moment. If you look there, god makes it very clear that Jesus Christ will inaugurate a one thousand year millennial kingdom at the end of that seven year tribulation period. So, we have the seven year tribulation period. Jesus Christ himself mounts up on a white horse in heaven with his saints, Revelation 19:11, comes down to this earth, goes to what is known as the battlefield of Armageddon, Revelation 16:16, wipes out all those who are offensive to him. He ends up going to Jerusalem, makes the massive temple in which he will rule from, spoken of in Ezekiel chapter 40 through 48, and what will take place? It makes it very clear, six times in seven verses in Revelation chapter 20 verses one, two, seven, six times in seven verses, one thousand year kingdom where Jesus will be ruling and reigning on this earth. You say, well wait a minute. If the bible is true, which of course it is, if that scenario is true, which it is going to be, that means there is a minimum of one thousand and seven years if the Rapture happens today, this earth is here. You say, wait a minute, we’re talking, the government said maybe ten years, maybe twenty years, we’re all dead, and god says no, if you understand god’s word, there’s a minimum of a thousand and seven years before this earth could even potentially be destroyed.”

Climate scientists who have been measuring actual climatic conditions and their correlation with air pollution are warning us, on the basis of immense amounts of objective facts, that extremely catastrophic consequences will soon become unavoidable if we do not significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions within a few years. No government officials are saying that all human beings will be killed by manifestations of climate change in twenty years. Geoffrey Grider is making up that claim as a strawman that’s easy to knock down. However, climate scientists do assert that the manifestations of climate change are already killing large numbers of people and causing massive economic damage. That death and damage is forecast to continue unless we take practical measures to confront the problem.

In the midst of this crisis, Geoffrey Grider has a very different position. Grider is urging his followers to continue to burn fossil fuels like never before, because he believes that the world should be destroyed. Grider believes that there is a god who decided thousands of years ago that the world and all the people, and all the other living things on it should be burned up. Grider worships this world-destroying god, and so he wants people to continue to pollute the air as an act of Christian worship.

What’s more, Grider declares that the efforts to slow down climate change by reducing pollution of the atmosphere are part of a demonic plan to help Satan control the earth after the Christian Rapture. Grider says, for example, that electric cars are being promoted because they will help demons hunt down their human victims.

“So what they want to do is they want to get you off of gas and petroleum. You want to know why they want you to drive an electric vehicle? Turn to Revelation 13, and I’ll give you something that almost nobody talks about, but we’ll talk about. Do you know why they want you to drive an electric vehicle? Revelation 13, verses 16 and 17: ‘And he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads, and that no man might buy or sell save he that had the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. You want to know why they’re going to force you to purchase an electric vehicle? It has nothing to do with climate change. It has nothing to do with greenhouse gases. It has nothing to do with carbon footprints. They’re going to make you buy an electric vehicle because electric vehicles can be turned off through microchips. I want you to think about this. If you miss the Rapture, and you find yourself in the time of Jacob’s trouble, and everything is according to the mark of the beast, you can’t buy, you can’t sell, and you’re going to flee to the mountains, and you get in your electric vehicle, and you go to start it up and nothing happens, because they switched it off from the factory. This is why they want you to have electric vehicles, because everything is headed toward the mark of the beast.”

There are too many things wrong with this conspiracy theory to discuss them all. Consider, for example, the fact that cars running on fossil fuels have plenty microchips in them. So, if all demons need to stop a car is for there to be a microchip present, there’s no reason for demons to prefer to electric cars over cars that burn fossil fuels. Besides that, demons are supposed to have magical powers. So, why would a demon need to rely on microchip technology to stop a car? It just doesn’t make any sense.

Unfortunately, Christian Nationalist conspiracy theories don’t need to make sense. Christian Nationalism arises out of centuries of theological tradition that doesn’t require solid evidence or sound reasoning to support belief. With the blank check of faith, Christian Nationalists can support any crazy idea that comes into their heads.

With the violence and hatred on display throughout the Christian bible, Christian Nationalists can feel justified in applying their crazy ideas to malicious ends.

CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL HAS COMMON ROOTS WITH WHITE SUPREMACY

So it is that Christian Nationalism comes back around full circle, making a hard right turn from holy climate inaction into white supremacy. In the very same sermon where he declares global climate change to be a part of the Christian god’s divine plan for the world, Geoffrey Grider announces that he will soon be hosting another Christian Nationalist preacher.

“We live in perilous times. Now, speaking of perilous times, next week we’re going to be doing a live podcast with Dr. Bill Grady.”

If you’ve listened to this podcast before, you’ll member Bill Grady. Bill Grady is a Baptist preacher who has repeatedly given sermons promoting white supremacy and antisemitism as a part of his Christian theology. Grady travels the country, preaching at churches, encouraging people in his audiences to integrate Nazi ideology into their Christianity. He cites centuries-old beliefs from mainstream Christianity that Europeans have been chosen by the Christian god to rule all other people, and that this white supremacy was ordained thousands of years ago so that the United States could be founded as a Christian nation that would spread Christianity around the world.

It's in Bill Grady’s representation of this traditional Christian belief that the Christian roots of white supremacist ideology are made clear. Christian Nationalists don’t believe in racist ideology and reject the science of anthropogenic climate change from mere happenstance. These dogmatic, reality-denying political beliefs emerge from the very foundations of ancient Christian doctrines.

Christian Nationalists don’t hold these extremist beliefs in spite of Christianity. These Christian Nationalist beliefs arise from aspects of Christian doctrine that have existed for an extremely long time. They’re not an aberration from Christianity. They’re an expression of it.