Scan the world’s headlines this week and you’ll find news coming from the International Conference on Climate Change discussing melting ice caps, decaying ozones and rising global temperatures that will evaporate water and leave billions of people starving by 2025. Al Gore tried to warn us of the Inconvenient Truth three years ago, winning Oscars, Grammys and Nobel Prizes along the way. Al and friends have twisted information to convince us of what we should already know: Global warming is my fault. And its your fault.

Al laid the blame for global warming in the right place – on us – but got the cause all wrong. The real Inconvenient Truth is that the Apostle Paul outed us nearly 2,000 years ago. God created global warming because of our sin. Read it: “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it” (Romans 8:20; italics mine). God subjected creation to decay nearly from the beginning when He doled out punishment to Adam and Eve in the garden in Genesis 3. God created global warming right there in verse 17,: “…cursed is the ground because of you.”

Now I don’t fault Al for missing the truth. The irony here is that humanism actually gets it right for a change. Humans are the problem, although one would be hard pressed to get Al and his liberal friends to agree to the reality communicated in Scripture. As easy as it would be I am not going to pontificate too harshly against people whose greatest need is to embrace the truth of the gospel.

Instead, I’ll lay verbal wood to those who ought to know better: Supposed Christians who are on “save the earth” missions. Let me say from the outset the fact that God has subjected the earth to a curse does not excuse us from our need to be better stewards. On the contrary. As Christians we ought to be exemplary stewards of God’s creation (I violated all kinds of cultural protocols last year while in Uganda by lecturing some Ugandan believers for consistently tossing their trash to the sides of roads). That said, the UK is dangerously close to being brought into subjection by environmentalists and they have heavy support from all kinds of churches, not just the Church of England (although I will say I’ve been in three C of E churches and it appears their prominent agenda is colored green).

For example, here are three prayer requests from the C of E church I was in this morning listed, for a special-called prayer meeting exclusively for this week’s conference:

• Pray for a new treaty in Copenhagen that protects God’s creation from climate change
• Give praise for positive changes in the US. Pray for Obama’s team as they try to influence public opinion
• Pray that richer countries will agree to deep cuts in emissions and financial support to developing countries.

What do these three have in common? Answer: They seek human solutions to a spiritual problem. It matters not a single measure of particulate matter how much human institutions change laws designed to protect God’s creation from climate change, or how influential a human leader is in swaying public opinion, or how much money wealthy countries throw at developing countries. Man CANNOT undo the curse.

Increasingly churches in the US are as guilty of misplaced priorities as churches in the UK. “Christians” who ought to know their Bibles better are partnering with the world, seeking to solve the world’s problems with the wisdom of man. Instead, Christians ought to pray for the changed hearts of men from a state of pure rebellion against their Creator (Romans 1:18-32) to one of repentance and humility before God. Upon praying, they should then invest their energy in sharing the Good News that through faith in Christ alone God forgives sin, lifts the curse and adopts us as sons and daughters.

The truth is the world is in rapid decay and its only hope is found in the One who created all things. That hope is not found in the wisdom of man but in the folly of the cross.

What is the point of Christmas? Honestly it is a question every Christian should ask themselves during this time of the year with the hope that if they profess Christ they’ll get the answer right. I want to write more on that topic in the coming week because the question is one I want to reflect upon in the context of the UK, a Christmas-crazy nation with little emphasis on even the religious, let alone Christ.

But in the midst of that there was today. Our daughter’s school choir sang at the local Church of England Church, Holy Trinity. Part of the emphasis during this Advent season here in the UK is the Christingle. She leaned over and asked, “Dad, what’s a Christingle?” I confess that after receiving her orange with the candle stuck in it and gumdrops skewered with cocktail toothpicks poked in the sides that my answer to her question was a profound, “I have no idea.”

But Google knows so that is what I did. One of the cool things about living in the UK and Europe is the religious tradition surrounding various days, such as All Souls’ Day and Christmas.The Christingle is one of those traditions – along with All Souls’ Day that we in America seen fall to the side. I won’t repeat here what Wikipedia states about Christingle, but do think it is worth saying that the symbolism of the world, Christ as the light of it, the red ribbon for his blood, etc., is a picture of the gospel held in the hand. When the angels said that they brought good news that would be for all the world, they were proclaiming the gospel. Christ – the Saviour of the world – had come. Holding an orange and lighting a candle should be cause to reflect on the “point” of Christmas.