I often think of the Greens as a cult. Their original sin is existing: they worship nature, and the want to preserve all the cute plants and animals on this earth. Given a choice between impoverishing people and regulating clean air, they will choose clean air.

And I think this is driven by a perversion of the Apocalypse. They see nature falling apart under our stewardship, even when it is not. The waters of the Manukau harbour are now safe to swim in, as are the beaches in Dunedin: neither was the case in my childhood, when raw sewage was pumped in. But big infrastructure costs: the more interesting thing is that with so many people now living off the grid that the septic tank and water collection systems have improved considerably to the point (along with new technologies, such as efficient and cheap solar panels or even the fusion nukes that Lockheed claims to have made) that making our environment cleaner has become easier.

We don’t need a hair shirt, and we don’t need to feel guilty. Instead we should praise God: I was muttering a quick prayer of thanks first thing as I cut a handful of flat leaf parsley from the huge bunch in the garden to put in the boys’ breakfast.

For the early signs of God’s judgment is the loss of standards and morals in our society. That we lose a sense of duty, and allow our vices to enslave us. The destruction of nature happens later, it is part of the endgame.

When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.

The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.

The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the water, because it had been made bitter.

The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light might be darkened, and a third of the day might be kept from shining, and likewise a third of the night.

Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!”

(Revelation 8 ESV)

One of the things that Christ said that when he returns the earth will be on the brink of collapse. But we are not there: I am not sure if the Lockheed Martin proclamation that they have proof of concept for fusion reactors is a hoax, a breakthrough, or a sign of the end.

But this does not matter. We are not to know the hour or the day.

Lockheed Martin says it will be able to use nuclear fusion energy within a decade. https://t.co/FZVbhYTRkb pic.twitter.com/VztBVAXsON

— jason (@Jason) October 16, 2014

But we can take from this one thing. The secular world, and the ideologies of that world, are fungible. The parts can be interchanged: they are of little value: you can replace a king with a president and a president with a prime minister and society will keep on going.

Our governments are not quite as temporary as a newspaper, but like them, their future is being accounted as rubbish, Fishwrap. Eventually, those companies who seem to control so much: Google, Microsoft, Apple…. will be akin to Central Dynamics and Bell Telephone. There is a life cycle for all secular events. So do not put your trust into them.

What will be left at the end is the peoples of this earth. Your duties, man and woman of God, is to raise your children in the faith, provide for your family and your Kirk, and by the work of your life and the words of your mouth be a witness to God, bringing glory to his name.

Let the Greens have their error. We have work to do.