We ARE the bowls of wrath - Lazar Puhalo

Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go, pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth.”
--Revelation 16:1

It is simply a fact – a difficult reality – that some parts of the world which are now inhabited are becoming uninhabitable, and global warming is the source of this destruction of habitable land. The dangerous heat waves that we are expressing this year are now becoming a regular part of our reality, and many areas with arable land which produces food crops are becoming dried out and dead. These areas are also becoming slowly uninhabitable for human beings and other mammals. The refugees from these areas must go somewhere, and so the still viable human habitats are going to become so overcrowded that those areas will become rapidly degraded also.

We will hear fundamentalists, as usual, blaming God for this. Some of them will surely say this is God’s punishment on mankind for such and such or so and so.

However, as we have mentioned in an editorial back in 1975, the plagues listed in the Book of Revelation will come to pass, not by God’s action against man but because of man’s own avarice and callousness.

There is no doubt that we are seeing the beginning of an extremely tragic era and man’s history – or rather another stage in a tragic era that began decades ago. All the talk about the moral failings in sins of mankind pales to insignificance in the face of the great societal sin against God’s creation, against our own biosphere. There is no greater immorality than the denial of climate change and the refusal to engage in the problem.

The gross indifference and depravity of climate change deniers, of those who deny the human element and global warming, is mirrored in their self-absorbed indifference to the fate of their children and grandchildren. In discussing this matter, one idea that is important to refute is the idea that the results of this callousness and indifference toward our environment are in any way “God’s judgment or punishment.”

This is really a matter of societal suicide by means of self-indulgence and sheer arrogance. Human beings are themselves the living Bowls of Wrath mentioned in the Apocalypse – the Book of Revelation.

 

 

Comments

[Martha Greenhow]

I agree that the 'bowls of wrath' are the consequences of our actions although I might not have all the details. These are some things that I see.
bowl 1: disgusting sores - caused by our poor eating and our destruction of the soil so our food is not nutritious. Think of late stage diabetes and the ulcers it can cause. Think of the destruction of so many minds with alzheimer's.
bowl 2: sea/ocean creatures die because of polluted oceans (a lot of it with plastic)
bowl 3: fresh water rivers, reservoirs and lakes also polluted, a lot of it with agricultural herbicide and fertilizer run-off
bowl 4: extreme weather with rising risk of fires all over the world
bowl 5: darkness - think what it will be like if our electrical grid goes down or if there's a nuclear 'accident'
bowl 6: the fowl spirits that come - spouting lies and propaganda to deceive the whole world
bowl 7: our air is already polluted, and there are, as always, violent earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, terrible storms, flooding

[Wayne Northey]

Thanks so much, Archbishop! Pointed and so true!

The immortal words of Pogo, uttered by cartoonist Walt Kelly, are: We have met the enemy and he is us!--https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogo_(comic_strip)#%22We_have_met_the_enemy_and_he_is_us.%22

Warm blessings!

Wayne
P.S. I added the article with commentary here to my website:
https://waynenorthey.com/2021/07/31/we-are-the-bowls-of-wrath-lazar-puhalo/