A Very Convenient Truth, Or Jesus Told Us There’d Be Days Like These, So Stop Worrying About The Planet And Get With His Program!

By Drew Snider

These days, there is a lot to be afraid of.

Currently (April 2020), the COVID-19 pandemic has people around the world afraid that the next person they see, talk to or stand within six feet of will give them a virus.

Wars, natural disasters and humanitarian crises are all around us.

Young people -- those born after 2000 -- are terrified of the effects of climate change -- in the USA, the one presidential candidate many thought was taking climate change seriously has dropped out of the race.

Where can they turn? Where can anyone turn? Where can you find answers? Where can you find hope?

A Very Convenient Truth points you to a Source that has been around since before the beginning of time. The Bible predicted all these events would happen -- including the intensity with which they are happening today. That knowledge, on its own, would be cold comfort, but the Bible also provides something missing from today's discussions: HOPE.

There is hope in the long term -- that these events are just the prelude to Jesus Christ's return and that God will re-make the world into something unimaginably beautiful and glorious.

But there is short-term, more worldly hope, contained in this promise: "If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and will heal the land." (2 Chronicles 7:14)

In Jesus, we can ALL qualify as "God's People", so the promise is for all of us. A Very Convenient Truth explores God's plan -- and how we fit in.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Drew Snider
• Release date: Feb 11, 2012
• ISBN: 9781465855701

Drew Snider

Born in Vancouver, Canada, Drew's varied career has provided a goodly dose of adventure, although none so great as the time since he was called into Ministry. Drew graduated from Concordia University in Montreal with a degree in English, then spent a couple of years trying to hone his talents as a comedy writer and performer and found there were enough jobs to suggest a career was possible -- but not probable.There followed 25 years in radio and TV as a newscaster, sportscaster, talk-show host and environmental features reporter and along the line, he got to know Jesus Christ.Drew started hearing a call to ministry while living in Victoria, BC, in 2001 and after a series of "it could only be God" circumstances, he found himself drawn to a Mission on Vancouver's Downtown East Side in 2004.Drew spent a total of 10 years on the DTES: seven of those years as associate Pastor at Gospel Mission, where he spearheaded the building of The Lord's Rain, which provided showers to people in the area. "God at Work: a Testimony of Prophecy, Provision and People amid Poverty" chronicles the building of the project and Drew's experiences in the area.Drew now works as a communications and media relations consultant and voice artist, and writes a near-daily blog, "Two Minutes for Cross-Checking!". He is married to Amelia Shaw, and between them they have five grown children: Drew's kids, Aidan and Hannah Rose, and Amelia's daughters Jessica, Megan and Samantha.Drew and Amelia now live in East Sooke, just outside Victoria, BC, with Millie, their border terrier and their cats, Daisy Mae and Suki MagnifiCat.

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A VERY CONVENIENT TRUTH

or

Jesus Told Us There’d Be Days Like These

so Stop Worrying About the Planet And Get with His Program!

By Drew Snider

Published by Drew Snider at Smashwords

Copyright 2011

This edition © 2022

Smashwords Edition license notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Except where noted, the Scripture cited here is taken from the New King James Version. Copyright (c) 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by Permission. All rights reserved.

for Aidan and Hannah Rose

so they will not be troubled

and for Amelia

who’s supported my work, even when it wasn’t convenient

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

BEFORE WE BEGIN …

CHAPTER 1: Aletheiaphobia – the enemy within, without and all around

CHAPTER 2: And God said, Let there be change!

CHAPTER 3: The No-Doomspeak Zone

CHAPTER 4: In the beginning ... The Most Environmentally-Friendly Verse

CHAPTER 5: It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time

CHAPTER 6: The Climate of the Climate Change Debate

CHAPTER 7: The First Great Assignment – and God said, I gave you ONE job to do ...

CHAPTER 8: Original Environmental Sin – the good news

CHAPTER 9: A Matter of Love – and a Renewed Mind

CHAPTER 10: Personal Responsibility – Can We Really ‘Think Globally’?

CHAPTER 11: The Godly Environmentalist

CHAPTER 12: The Fourth ‘R’

CHAPTER 13: ’Thank you, Lord, for climate change!’

CHAPTER 14: So Long Ago, The Garden

CHAPTER 15: And Finally ... (the call to arms)

ONE MORE THING ...

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PREFACE

This book was first published many years ago, when former US Vice-President Albert Gore had produced a documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth. The film laid out the stark facts of climate change and humanity’s contribution to it. I must confess, I never did see the film: frankly, I didn’t need to; I know there is a climate change situation and people have a lot to answer for.

So the title of my book was not an attempt to discredit Al Gore or his and anybody else’s warnings about climate change, but to point people to the convenient truth. God has known since before the beginning of time that this was going to happen and has told us, at various times throughout the ages, what we need to do about it.

This book is intended for consolation and encouragement. You can’t look at the news these days without seeing an array of stories about climate change and the environment. You’ll find stories of periods of extreme heat, cold, rain or drought: whether those events have already happened or are predicted for the not-too-distant future, they are all attributed to climate change. That brings the sense that the damage has already been done, and all is hopeless.

It's no wonder that children, represented lately by Greta Thunberg, are terrified of the future.

Among the stories, you’ll also find advice for parents on how to talk to their children about the situation.

But there is hope in the face of all this, if you know where to look, and that’s what I’m trying to do here, by writing this. The hope is contained in the Bible, and the understanding that God has planned all of this, has warned us this would happen, and has also told us ahead of time what happens next, and what we are supposed to do to prepare.

This is not about Religion. This is about the reality of God and how His love for us is expressed through Jesus Christ. This is about changing our way of thinking, from the belief that humans have caused and are still contributing to environmental trauma, to the realization that we are not in this alone, and that God promises to bring us through this time of crisis, if only we would turn to Him.

There is an element of challenge in this. Many people who deny the reality of climate change – particularly in North America – are also professing Christians. It would be a challenge for them to accept the situation and humans’ part in causing it.

There is also a challenge for those in the environmental movement, who may refuse to be associated with Jesus, because of those Christians who deny the situation.

And for all of us, we are challenged to recognize climate change, or environmental trauma, as interconnected with other ills in our world today.

The Bible has called all of what we see around us now, and that leads to the rhetorical question, if the Bible got this much right, what else is in there?

So come with me on a Bible journey, to find A Very Convenient Truth.

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INTRODUCTION – EVEN PLASTICS

Even plastics.

When I was in high school – eighth or ninth grade, I think – my family got into recycling. This was the late 60s, and strangely enough, it hadn’t been that long since no deposit/no return bottles had been a major selling point for soft drink manufacturers. Just toss them in the trash and forget about them.

But sanity prevailed, and by the late 60s, people were concerned about what was happening to the trash after the garbage truck went by. It was determined that glass, plastics, cans and newsprint could be recycled, and so we went through the weekly process of washing bottles and cans, cutting the tops and bottoms off the cans and flattening them, bundling up newspapers and gathering plastic containers. We’d then load them into the car and take them to a recycling centre (or, in more progressive communities, leaving them for a truck to pick up).

It appeared to be the responsible thing for a home environmentalist to do, and, in fact, the least one could do.

So when news started breaking, a few years ago, of masses of plastic swirling around the world’s oceans and that tiny bits of the stuff have been found in the deepest parts of the sea, I started wondering what use all that recycling had been. Then came news that China, which had been a primary receiver of plastics for recycling, had stopped receiving them because its facilities were overwhelmed. Then came news about whales and seals dying from ingesting plastic, which prevented them from eating.

Frankly, I felt frustrated and betrayed. If even our plastic-recycling plans were failing, what about the rest of our measures to save the Earth?

Environmental and social issues have been close to my heart since I was a child. My parents were freaked out by Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring, and peeled the apples in my school lunch to keep me from ingesting DDT. Other kids thought I was weird, and when I tried to explain things, they laughed at me. In high school, I wrote about the environment – it was still called pollution then – in our school paper. When I went into broadcasting and became a talk-show host, I had many environmentalists as guests. I also presented weekly features on environmental issues on the local TV station: this was long before news outlets had dedicated environment specialists. Believe it or not, there was a time – less than 40 years ago – when environmentalists were regarded as fringe players who hated progress and envied people with money.

That led to my only journalism