Cognitive Dissonance: Biblical Truth, Climate & Why The Middle East Exists?

People across much of North Africa were subject to racist laws and suffering at the hands of European powers during the Second World War.During these deployments, African Americans encountered a number of white societies, such as those in Britain and Australia, which they generally interacted with cordially. Good relations between African American soldiers and the local white populations angered many white servicemembers, who saw the lack of Jim Crow style segregation as a threat to the racial status quo, and attempted to enforce segregation overseas themselves.

For most Christians Scripture is clear that God is sovereign over everything (Psalm 115:3), including the weather (Psalm 148:8). Humanity certainly can impact the environment, and we do, but we are not the “be-all and end-all” of what happens here on earth; God is, and His plan will triumph. So why are Christians taught not to read the bible but excerpts, fact is there was no Middle East in Biblical Times and the population in that region were a majority BLACK and BROWN skinned peoples NOT Europeans at all!

The Bible speaks truths about ethnicity, politics and even climate change. When Jesus returns, He will “destroy those who destroy the earth” (Revelation 11:18). Jesus Christ created this earth and will punish humanity for carelessly damaging it and nearly destroying it to the point of being uninhabitable (Matthew 24:22). It is undeniable that human activities have produced the atmospheric gases that have trapped more of the Sun's energy in the Earth system. This extra energy has warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land, and widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and biosphere have occurred. It is equally true that all of us have a hand in the responsibility of course some more than others such as the Petro pharmaceutical companies who continue to do damage despite knowing the consequences and lie blatantly about the causal factors. They will be punished and some believe it is already happening as we see the dramatic decline in populations that are the biggest spoilers of the earth.

Biblical teaching insists that climate change is a grave moral issue that threatens our commitments: to protect human life, health, dignity, and security; to exercise a preferential option for the poor; to promote the common good of which the climate is part; to live in solidarity with future generations by leaving the planet well tended to. In the Bible the planet will face a terrible time wrought by our own selfishness and iniquity. "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." Scientific evidence continues to show that human activities (primarily the human burning of fossil fuels) like a thief in the night slowly and stealthily have warmed Earth's surface and its ocean basins, which in turn have continued to impact Earth's climate.

Over the course of Earth's 4.5-billion-year history, the climate has changed a lot, this is true. However, the rapid warming we're seeing now can't be explained by natural cycles of warming and cooling. The kind of changes that would normally happen over hundreds of thousands of years are happening in decades. But the Bible also speaks of a hopeful future. All things will be made new. Death will be replaced with life. The whole earth will be a recreation of the garden, and the glory of the temple will cover it. Every nation will be blessed through the power of the resurrected Jesus, and God's own personal presence will permeate every square inch of the new creation. Yet some wont welcome this according to scripture.

The people of Jebus called Jebusites were the early inhabitants of of the city which was known later as Jerusalem when Hebrews took over who were historically very dark black people up until 1930. The siege of Jebus is described in passages of the Hebrew Bible as having occurred when the Israelites, led by King David (described in the bible: "So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features.), besieged and conquered the Canaanite city of Jebus."Ruddy" is the form taken by the adjective "red" when used as a term of praise of the human skin,in the African American lexicon a similar descriptive phrase would be "Redbone" Among African Americans the term has been slang for a fairer-skinned Black person.(the Hebrew and Greek words are all usual words for "red" or "to be red"). The dark-skinned Hebrews found great beauty in a clear complexion.

The original Israelites of Jerusalem were of the Black race according to the Bible and the biblical Abraham (Ibrahim or Abram) Ibrahim, is a masculine name of Hebrew origin, meaning “father of multitudes” or “father of a nation.” Note Abraham was a Black Shemite (a descendant of Shem). Abraham was the father of both the Hebrew-Israelite and Arab nations. He is the Father of monotheism (believing in one God) and is a patriarch in all three faiths, which are known as the Abrahamic faiths and according to scripture he was unequivocally Black. Did you know there are no white people in the Bible? Does that surprise you? It's true. Not Adam, Abraham, Moses, Deborah, David, etc...

The Hebrews called the Habiru or H'apiru by the people of Kemet (Egyptians). (The term Habiru, meaning “Outsiders,” was applied to dark skinned nomadic tribes, fugitives, bandits, and workers of inferior status; the word is etymologically related to “Hebrew,” and the relationship of the Habiru [and Hyksos meaning “rulers of foreign lands/hill countries.” While much is misunderstood, we know the Hyksos comprised a small group of West Asian individuals who ruled Northern Egypt, especially the Delta, during the Second Intermediate Period.] to the Hebrews has long been debated.) In his epitome of Manetho, Josephus connected the Hyksos with the Hebrews, but he also calls them Arabs. In their own epitomes of Manetho, the Late antique historians Sextus Julius Africanus and Eusebius say that the Hyksos came from Phoenicia.

At the time of Christ there was no such word as Jew or Jewish the letter J did not even exist. The Middle English word Jew derives from Old English where the word is attested as early as 1000 in various forms, such as Iudeas, Gyu, Giu, Iuu, Iuw, Iew. The Old English name is derived from Old French. Judas (Ioudas, Iudeas), are the Greek and Roman forms of Judah, the southern territory of Palestine (renamed Judea by the Romans). The inhabitants of Judah were the Judahites (later abbreviated as “Jews”), and thus Judas' name is equated with the Jews. Antiochus' victory at the Battle of Panium in 198 B.C. transferred control of Iudaea (Judah, Judea) from Ptolemaic Egypt to the Seleukid Kingdom. When Antiochos conquered Asia Minor, however, the Romans responded.

Judas Maccabeus, leader of the anti-Greek Hebrews, led the aroused Hasideans in a guerrilla war and several times defeated the generals Antiochus had commissioned to deal with the uprising.

Maccabees says the group was "called" Asidaioi, by the Greeks which is generally the terminology for introducing non-Greeks from cultures across the Southwest Asian-North African Region. Then there united with them a company of Hasideans, mighty warriors of Israel, all who offered themselves willingly for the law. And all who became fugitives to escape their troubles joined them and reinforced them. — 1 Maccabees 2:42-43

Antiochos' losses to Rome were so great that the whole of his empire was shattered and he was forced to content himself with the region that he had held in the beginning, Syria. In 2023Twenty-eight percent of Jews said climate change was mostly caused by natural patterns in the earth's environment, and 5% said there was no solid evidence for the phenomenon, the lowest proportion of any religious group. Global anthropogenic—or human caused—climate change has deeply impacted the ways that religions are practiced around the world. At the same time, religions have also played major roles in framing the issue among their believers. Some Jews work tirelessly to change their habits and mitigate human impact on the climate. Most ignore the crisis, or do not believe in Jewish environmentalism.

The Jewish duty of tikkun olam a Hebrew word (Northwest Semitic of Afro-Asiatic origin) means “repairing the world” to show that Jews are expected by God to steward and heal the planet. Thus, some Jews assert that burning fossil fuels violates their covenant with God. Rabbi Arthur Waskow has called on Jews to reject fossil fuels by comparing climate change to the book of Exodus, in which the original Hebrew people escape oppression from the Egyptian Pharaoh. Waskow stated: “today the Pharaohs are giant corporations: big coal, big oil, and big natural gas.”

The official language of Ethiopia is Amharic, which is Semitic. Native Amharic speakers are Semites, whether they consider themselves such or not their lineage is based on language rather than phenotype because they are undeniably non white melanated African peoples. The presence of Semitic languages in West Asia is attributed to ancient migrations and interactions between different populations. The origins of these languages and their speakers are complex but fully understood to have African origins. Semitic languages originated from an offshoot of a still earlier language in North Africa and desertification made its inhabitants to migrate in the fourth millennium BC into what is now Ethiopia, others northwest out of Africa into West Asia. Major Semitic languages are Akkadian, Amharic, Arabic, Aramaic, and Hebrew. Coptic is the most recent form of Ancient Egyptian and unlike ancient Kemetic language which has strong Bantu connection, is an Afro-Asiastic language.

(https://www.bookpump.com/upb/pdf-b/2332900b.pdf)

Biblical characters have been whitewashed in cultural and religious arts, theology and popular imagination. The people of Samia location came from Egypt on foot. The Abakhekhe clan too originated from Egypt on foot. The Abachoni clan originally came from Egypt on foot. The people of Bukusu originally came from Egypt in canoes the list goes on and on but no Egyptians headed to the bottom of the world which Europe was considered at that time they literally had to turn ancient maps upside down and increase the size of their land masses to feel important.

"The geographical context of the Hebrew Bible is the confluence of North Africa and West Asia. Neither of those continents is Europe, and none of their native peoples were what have come to be constructed as white folk. You would not know that from the vast majority of Jewish and Christian art and popular-culture productions depicting biblical characters. Quite simply, biblical characters have been whitewashed in cultural and religious arts, theology and popular imagination; whiteness has been spackled on to biblical texts and characters. Similarly, “the Middle East” is not a continent. “Middle East” is a perspectival designation, encoding the seer who is also the namer; the Middle East is the middle of the Eastern world from a particular, Eurocentric perspective." (Rev Wil Gafney PHD)

Climate change s affected because of this Eurocentric perspective as well. Extreme climate change may have temporarily wiped humans out in Europe over a million years ago. And it looks poised to do so again! Many European animal and plant species are threatened by climate change. Under the assumption of no migration, more than half of the species we consider threatened will become vulnerable or on the last road to extinction by 2080. Climate change is impacting Europe's environment and people in many ways. Extreme weather events like heatwaves, storm surges, droughts, and floods have the most significant effects. Feb 21, 2004 — A secret report, suppressed by US Defense dept. chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warned that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas at the same time as Southeast Asian nations.

‘Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,’ concludes the Pentagon analysis. ‘Once again, warfare would define human life. ’The report was commissioned by influential Pentagon defense adviser Andrew Marshall, who has held considerable sway on US military thinking over the past three decades. Dozens of famous European landmarks could sink below sea-level if global temperatures rise by more than 1.5°C. Currently, the world is on track for 3 degrees Celsius of warming (more than 5 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2080. We are currently warming at a rate where emissions climb beyond 2050, the planet would reach 3 degrees as early as the 2060s or 2070s, and the oceans will continue to rise for decades beyond that before they reach peak levels.

At 3C of warming, scientists predict the world could pass several catastrophic points of no return, from the runaway melting of ice sheets to the Amazon rainforest drying out. "Present trends are racing our planet down a dead-end 3C temperature rise, assuming a global temperature rise of 3°C, but even limiting the increase to 1.5°C would have a big impact on the UK. It's predicted that in a best-case scenario, significant parts of Hull, Peterborough, Portsmouth, and parts of east London and the Thames Estuary could be underwater in just under 50 years. France is preparing for 4°C of global warming by the end of the century as countries fail to deliver on targets that would keep temperatures below Paris Agreement goals. Many European countries have their eye on Africa as the continent to move to because it will be least affected by sea rise.

Of 284 African heritage sites, only 30 are under threat from rising sea levels in the coming 50 years. Environmental refugees are not protected by international laws. They face greater political risks than refugees who flee their homes due to conflict or political oppression. Unlike traditional refugees, climate refugees may be sent back to their devastated homeland or forced into a refugee camp. Because of the attitude and colonial leanings of Europe many African nations may turn them away the same way they turn away African refugees today!

The simple truth is Europe is the world's fastest-warming continent and has been heating up twice as fast as other regions since the 1980s. The heat has been linked to more intense rains and floods, and a 2024 report predicts rainfall decline and more severe droughts in southern Europe. the limited diversity of tree species in Europe's boreal forests makes them far less resilient to natural disturbances and therefore more vulnerable to climate change. Southern Europe is likely to see a great decrease in forest growth due to continually decreasing precipitation. The globe is headed for nearly 3°C (5.4°F) of warming compared with preindustrial levels through 2100, new data finds, even if current policies to cut planet-warming emissions are met this will cause drastic sea rise..