I once wrote about the white blood cells in our bodies—those remarkable soldiers God created to rush into battle the moment infection enters. They swarm, they surround, they strike, and they cleanse. They do not wait politely for the infection to spread; they confront it immediately, because life depends on their response. And just as God designed the human body with a defense system, I believe He designed the earth with one as well. Creation is not passive. It is alive, sensitive, and reactive. When God created the world, it was pure and whole, but when sin entered through man, creation itself was wounded. Scripture says plainly that “the earth groans,” and that groan is the sound of a world staggering under the weight of human rebellion.
God explains this reality clearly in the book of Leviticus, where He warns Israel that the sins of a nation can defile the land beneath their feet. He describes how the previous inhabitants polluted the soil by their wickedness, and because of that corruption, the land itself “vomited” them out. This is not figurative language. It is divine explanation. The land reacts to sin in the same way a body reacts to infection. When wickedness spreads unchecked, creation begins to push back.
This is why I do not believe the modern explanation that climate change is primarily caused by carbon emissions. The world is not convulsing because of carbon. The world is convulsing because of sin. The true pollution suffocating this planet is not fossil fuel exhaust but moral exhaust. Sin defiles the soil. Sin poisons the atmosphere. Sin destabilizes the world far more violently than any greenhouse gas ever could. Every time humanity crosses a new moral boundary, creation trembles. Every time innocence is taken, creation cries out. Every time a nation rejects God, creation responds with a voice we can no longer ignore.
Look at what is happening around us. We see storms so fierce they are described as “the worst in recorded history.” We see heat waves breaking century-old records. We see wildfire seasons that devour entire regions. We see drought so prolonged that reservoirs disappear into dust. We see floods sweeping through cities with sudden fury. We see earthquakes shaking places long considered stable. We see volcanic eruptions awakening after centuries of silence. The world calls these events “natural disasters,” but Scripture calls them the earth’s groaning. These are not random accidents of nature; they are the earth’s God-designed white blood cells rising to confront the infection of human sin.
And what sins cause the land to groan? Scripture defines them without hesitation. The first is the rejection of God and the refusal to acknowledge His Son, Jesus Christ. When a nation denies its Creator, it tears itself away from the very foundation of life. Another is idolatry—worshipping creation instead of the Creator, elevating the earth above the God who formed it. Sexual immorality in all its expressions defiles the land, just as it did in ancient societies. Violence, corruption, injustice, greed, deceit, and lawlessness seep into the ground like poison, slowly destroying the moral fabric of a people. But above all these, Scripture declares that the shedding of innocent blood is the sin that cries from the ground for justice. It stains the land in a way nothing else can.
This is where America stands with a terrifying clarity. Since the year nineteen seventy-three, the United States has taken the lives of approximately sixty-five million four hundred sixty-four thousand seven hundred sixty unborn children. That number is not exaggerated. It is carefully calculated from nearly fifty years of official state reporting, combined with professional estimates for the states that do not fully report their annual abortion totals. Every reported case is recorded, and the unreported cases are estimated using nationwide medical trends and historical patterns. When all of these numbers are brought together, the result is staggering: more than sixty-five million innocent lives ended within one nation.
To grasp the magnitude of this, consider that the most widely accepted historical estimates show that between fifty and fifty-six million people died during the entirety of World War Two through direct warfare. In other words, America, through abortion, has taken more innocent lives than the deadliest war in human history. More lives than global conflict. More than armies and battles and bombs. The blood of the unborn has soaked into the soil of this nation in quantities that defy imagination. Scripture says that innocent blood does not disappear—it calls out to the Lord from the ground, and the land itself groans beneath its weight.
So America now faces the very reality God warned Israel about. We have rejected God. We have denied His Son. We have worshipped creation while ignoring the Creator. We have mocked purity and celebrated immorality. We have let corruption and violence spread unchecked. And we have shed innocent blood on a scale that dwarfs the death tolls of entire wars. Is it any wonder the earth is reacting? Is it any wonder creation itself seems to be rising in revolt? The fires, the storms, the upheavals, the climate quaking beneath us—these are not merely environmental events. They are the earth’s immune system responding to a world drowning in sin.
But the question remains: can this land be healed? And if so, how? The answer is found not in environmental policies or technological solutions but in repentance. Only repentance can cleanse a land. Only turning back to God can heal soil soaked in sin. America must acknowledge its Creator once again. It must bow before the Lord Jesus Christ. It must repent for the sins that have defiled this nation—especially the shedding of innocent blood. It must reject the idolatry of worshipping the earth and return to worshipping the God who made it. It must humble itself, turn from wickedness, and choose righteousness over rebellion.
If sin can defile a land, then repentance can restore it. If rebellion can bring destruction, then returning to God can bring healing. The prophet Isaiah described a world trembling beneath the weight of its own iniquity, while the apostle Peter urged believers to walk in holiness as they await the restoration God has promised. America stands at that same crossroads today. If we continue down this path of corruption, the land will continue to convulse. But if we repent, if we return to God, if we honor His Word, then the same creation that groans today may one day rejoice.