Four Seasons

[BCF]

I was asked to write a paper about Fall for our Church, but they want me to somehow include scripture with it. I have been searching the scripture trying to find anything about Four Seasons and have come up with nothing. The closes I have come to was Exodus 13:10 and Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, but those verses really are not speaking of Fall. I know that God created everything for a purpose and a reason, but I am starting to wonder if God really created the Four Seasons or if Man did, simply because I can't find anything about it in scripture.

Can someone please help.

Dave

[BCF]

I asked this question this morning and never saw it posted, so I guess I put it in the wrong place. Now I will try and ask it here again on Bible Chat.

My question is can anyone help me find where in scripture it tells us that God made the Four Seasons?
I know that God made everything and that God made everything for a purpose. I also am aware of the scriptures in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, where God gives us the Events of Life, but I don't believe that God is talking about Four Seasons in those scriptures. What I believe God is talking about is Our Spiritual Life. I believe that because of what God says in verse 9 of that Chapter.

I am also aware of the scripture in Exodus 13:10, but I do not think that God is talking about Four Seasons in that scripture either. All God is talking about is holding His regulation from year to year.

The reason I am needing to try and find something about this is because I was asked to write something about Fall for our newsletter for Church, and was asked to include scripture with it. Well my problem is I can't find nothing in scripture that tells me that God created any of the Four Seasons to begin with. I know God created the sun and the moon which is how our calender was made.....I think......but our calender was made up by man. I find a scripture in Ecclesiastes 1:3 that tells me that I profit nothing if I put my labor by what the sun tells me.

So please, can anyone help me with this......

Dave

[teddyv]

A quick search yielded these (all from BibleGateway, NIV). I don't know if it is quite what you are after. There are more but these seemed to be the most relevant to me.

1. Genesis 1:14
   And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years,
   Genesis 1:13-15 (in Context) Genesis 1 (Whole Chapter)
2. Psalm 104:19
   The moon marks off the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down.
   Psalm 104:18-20 (in Context) Psalm 104 (Whole Chapter)
3. Acts 14:17
   Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy."

[BCF]

A quick search yielded these (all from BibleGateway, NIV). I don't know if it is quite what you are after. There are more but these seemed to be the most relevant to me.

1. Genesis 1:14
   And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years,
   Genesis 1:13-15 (in Context) Genesis 1 (Whole Chapter)
2. Psalm 104:19
   The moon marks off the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down.
   Psalm 104:18-20 (in Context) Psalm 104 (Whole Chapter)
3. Acts 14:17
   Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy."

Thank you for you response. What I am looking for is proof in scripture that God created Four Seasons. Not that God created a Season. Four Seasons as in Spring, Summer , Fall and Winter. The references did help though in my search I believe, because in Psalms 104:30 I read "Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth." This is telling me that God sends forth His spirit and renews the earth which would be changing of season as we know it in Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.

What do you think?

[teddyv]

Thank you for you response. What I am looking for is proof in scripture that God created Four Seasons. Not that God created a Season. Four Seasons as in Spring, Summer , Fall and Winter. The references did help though in my search I believe, because in Psalms 104:30 I read "Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth." This is telling me that God sends forth His spirit and renews the earth which would be changing of season as we know it in Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.

What do you think?

I don't think there is a scripture that specifically says that:
"I, God, created the four seasons". There is plenty of implicit references to God's hand in the change of seasons.

God created this planet with a tilt.

[BrckBrln]

I don't really understand the question. God created the sun and the earth (either with it's axis or made it happen sometime in history), so doesn't that mean by default that God created the seasons?

[The Parson]

I placed your thread in Bible Chat so it would receive more attention.

[Literalist-Luke]

Most Christian geologists will tell you there were no seasons before the Flood. The entire earth had a year-round tropical climate until the Flood. So you won't find it in the Bible that God created them that way.

[BCF]

I don't really understand the question. God created the sun and the earth (either with it's axis or made it happen sometime in history), so doesn't that mean by default that God created the seasons?

I don't know, scripture really is not clear on the matter. Yes, I agree that God made the sun and the moon and the earth and everything on it. But there really is nothing that touches on the fact that God said in March it will be Spring, in June Summer will begin, in September Fall shall begin, and in December Winter shell begin.

Since the scripture is not clear about this how do we know for sure that God created these seasons as we know them? Yes, God did create season, but He never says when they are. For example, I have traveled all over the U.S. when I was a truck driver. I was in states where the people did not even know what a colored leaf looked like, simply because they lived in a area where it never got below 65 degrees. So when does there Fall start? They go off of the same calender as we do.

When we really think about it, it is really racks your brain.

[BCF]

Most Christian geologists will tell you there were no seasons before the Flood. The entire earth had a year-round tropical climate until the Flood. So you won't find it in the Bible that God created them that way.

Well if God did not create the Four Seasons that way or the way that we know them. What way did God create the Four Seasons?

And what about those places now that have a tropical climate year round. When is it Fall or Winter for them? They have flowers and green grass year round. They don't even know what it is like to be cold.

[talitha]

Very interestng......

This scripture came to mind:

While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. (Genesis 8:22)

Isn't "harvest" the equivilant of Autumn?

[Literalist-Luke]

This scripture came to mind:

While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. (Genesis 8:22)

Isn't "harvest" the equivilant of Autumn?

Keep in mind that this statement of the Lord's that you have quoted here in Genesis 8 was made after the Flood was over. If anything, that very fact only confirms the theory that I have suggested. I'll explain more below...

Well if God did not create the Four Seasons that way or the way that we know them. What way did God create the Four Seasons?

And what about those places now that have a tropical climate year round. When is it Fall or Winter for them? They have flowers and green grass year round. They don't even know what it is like to be cold.

It all has to do with the earth's overall climate. Notice that in Genesis 1:6-8, it speaks of God separating the waters above from the waters below. What did that mean? Most people scratch their heads over that, shrug their shoulders and keep reading.

Numerous Christian geologists, including pre-eminent Creationists Henry Morris and John Whitcomb in their classic, The Genesis Flood, suggest that the "waters above" refers to a water vapor "blanket", if you will, that was in the upper reaches of the atmosphere just after Creation was completed. This "blanket" would have had numerous effects, including (1) filtering out a great deal more of the sun's UV rays than we are exposed to today, which would greatly extend human lifespans, which explains ages in the early parts of Genesis reaching 900 years+. (2) It would spread the sun's heat evenly over the entire surface of the earth, yielding a consistent climate from pole to pole, year round. (3) It would also mean there would be no rain. Notice Genesis 2:5b-6 - "The Lord God had not sent rain on the earth...but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground." This makes total sense in light of this theory.

The way the Flood appears to have occurred is this: The "fountains of the great deep" burst forth, which would possibly be volcanic activity, which God, in His foreknowledge of the future, "programmed" in the creative act to erupt at precisely the right moment for when He needed the Flood to occur. The volcanic ash/dust that was thrown into the atmosphere provided a catalyst with which the "waters above" were able to condense into actual drops of moisture, which produced the first rain clouds. This first round of thunderstorms was very likely the most severe weather that our world has ever seen. The water falling from the "blanket" in the atmosphere was sufficient to cover the entire surface of the earth, which was apparently mostly flat at that point. (I'll explain why I suggest that in a moment, just bear with me.)

After the atmosphere had rained itself out and the surface of the earth was completely inundated, the tremendous weight of the new water on the ground forced the weaker sections of ground to begin giving way, sinking down into the earth. The water ran down into these sinking parts, producing the oceans of today. Because any sinking requires an equal rising somewhere else, the mountains of today would have been pushed upward by the displacement below the surface, giving us today's great mountain ranges, such as the Rockies, the Himalayas, the Alps, and so on.

Notice that shortly after the description of the Flood, we notice lifespans steadily shrinking, to where Moses, at the young age of "only" 120 when he died, appears to have been the oldest Hebrew living at the time. This fits perfectly with this theory due to the greatly increased levels of UV rays from the sun now reaching the earth's surface.

In addition, the Flood being the first time that rain was ever observed on the earth also explains why that was also the first time anybody had ever seen a rainbow. God did not snap his fingers after the Flood and say "Let there be rainbows", the physical laws that cause rainbows were already in place from the moment of the initial Creation, it's just that nobody had ever had the opportunity until now to see this particular result of those physical laws. Now that rain was a present reality in nature, rainbows could and do occur.

With the resultant lack of distribution over the earth's surface of the sun's heat, the result is the climate that we see today with alternating seasons, deserts, and so on. The modern tropical climate around the equator, to answer BCF's question, is simply the natural result of their placement on the earth in relation to the sun's light on our surface. To be blunt, the people in those regions simply got lucky. (Of course, one leftover result of the Flood is that they also have to live with hurricanes. I'll pass on the hurricanes, thanks very much. )

A couple of other side notes that I find very interesting in light of this discussion:

In Romans 8:19-22 we are told “The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”

What is this strange passage talking about? It is certainly very interesting in light of the Flood’s climate changes suggested by Henry Morris and John Whitcomb. It would seem to suggest that there will be a return to the initial climate prior to the Flood. Are there Scriptures that would support this suggestion? Let’s see:

The Bible tells us in Revelation 16:8-9, “The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.”

And also in Revelation 7:16, “ 'Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat down on them, nor any scorching heat.”

So we have two indications here in Revelation that apparently to some extent, incredible heat is going to be an issue just prior to the 2nd Coming. Now what would be a result of a worldwide heat wave? Would not one of the main results be a tremendously accelerated evaporation of the surface waters? This could be the process by which the “waters above” will be returned to their original place. That would certainly go along also with the numerous statements through the Bible of the earth being “judged with fire” just before the 2nd Coming. It will have the dual result of not only punishing the Antichrist and his followers, but also it will contribute to the earth’s originally created climate being restored and nature being released from its curse, just as Paul speaks of in Romans 8.

In addition, all of this water evaporating from the surface would remove that extra weight I spoke of that forced the oceans floors to sink. With the weight removed, suddenly the current mountain ranges would be heavier and they would sink back to their original height.

Consider Isaiah 40:4 (which George Fredrick Handel made famous in his “Messiah” oratorio) – “ Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.”

We also read in Ezekiel 38-39, Revelation 6, and Revelation 16 (along with several other passages) of unprecedented earthquakes being associated with the 2nd Coming. In light of this theory, that’s just one more thing that fits perfectly. It all fits together like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

Anyway, I hope this clarifies some things. I know it sure changed my view of things when I learned all this.

[1of7000]

the weatherman identifies the seasons by the eqinox/solstice system.

winter solstice is the shortest day/longest night of the year.

summer solstice is the longest day/shortest night of the year.

equinoxes start fall and spring when daylight and night are equal.

so everywhere there are 4 seasons they just don't show the same way everywhere.

even in the U.S. AZ sees little snow and 110 is a cool day. VT seasons are a cold and blustery winter followed by six weeks of bad skiing.

[Literalist-Luke]

the weatherman identifies the seasons by the eqinox/solstice system.

winter solstice is the shortest day/longest night of the year.

summer solstice is the longest day/shortest night of the year.

equinoxes start fall and spring when daylight and night are equal.

so everywhere there are 4 seasons they just don't show the same way everywhere.

even in the U.S. AZ sees little snow and 110 is a cool day. VT seasons are a cold and blustery winter followed by six weeks of bad skiing.

This is all very true, but prior to the Genesis Flood, those days of varying length would not have affected the fluctuation of temperatures like we see today.

[1of7000]

the point is there are still four seasons.

they are marked, noted , signified by God in the position of the sun with relation to the earth and its position on in its travel around the sun.
weather is not dependent upon astronomy it is a local phenomenom, so yes climactic conditions would change with the flood but not the timing of the seasons themselves.