Here is an article I wrote for our local newspaper (bascially its my environment sermon rehashed, attempting to present the gospel in the light of the environment). I'd be interested to know what you think. David.Is God a Greenie?
If God were to go shopping would he use plastic or green shopping bags? If God owned a car, what would he drive? A gutsy Commodore V8 or a piddly Daihatsu Charade? Does God care about the environment? Would you find God singing with Midnight Oil ‘Your dream world is just about to end?’
There are many reasons why God should be a greenie. Look at our world. What happens when all the oil runs out (and it will)? How do we dispose of used uranium? What about the hole in the ozone layer and global warming? And the drought in our country? Does God care about these things?
The story of the Bible is that God does care about these things. Indeed, the Bible explains the environmental mess our planet is in. Consider are 3 Inconvenient Truths from the Bible about the state of our planet (apologies to Al Gore).
Inconvenient Truth #1: Planet Earth is God’s
The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. (Psalm 24:1)
One general rule in life is if you create something from scratch, you own it. Since God created planet earth from nothing, it’s His. The local valley, the local soccer field, the local rotary park- it’s all His. And He made this world to bring glory to Himself.
Inconvenient Truth #2: We are Caretakers of God’s Planet Earth
You see this in the creation account in Genesis 1.
God created man in his own image…God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." (Genesis 1:27-28)
Humans are given 2 commands- fill the earth and subdue it. We have done pretty well at the first command (6.7 billion people so far and counting!) But we are also told to rule the earth under God. But ruling the earth does not mean ruining the earth. The earth is on lease to us as rental property. We are merely the caretakers. As the caretakers, we must manage it responsibly. We can’t do with the world what we like.
Inconvenient Truth #3: Planet Earth is ‘Sick’ because of Human Rebellion
However, instead of choosing to rule under God, we staged a coop and took control of God’s earth. We ignored our Creator. God, being the perfect gentleman that He is, allows us to rebel against Him. And the results are catastrophic.
For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it. (Romans 8:20)
Our world is now ‘frustrated’. Because of human self-centredness, the world is in ecological disaster. Human greed cuts down forests to make money but that damages the environment. Killing whales to make a buck drives them to extinction. Now there are Hurricane Katrina’s and Cyclone Tracey’s. There are floods and fires, droughts and diseases.
So what will God do about our environment? Here are 2 reasons why God is a greenie.
1. God will Fix up Planet Earth
The creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. (Romans 8:21)
Creation is waiting to be freed from its decay. God is going to do something amazing in the future. He is not going to throw this world away over his shoulder like an empty can. He is going to renovate it. God will dismantle the creation and build it again. He will make a new heavens and a new earth (Revelation 21:1).
Because of this, Christians have a huge respect for this planet. We believe not only that God made it, but he is also going to restore it. We want God’s plans for this world to be our plans for this world.
Not that we will achieve utopia now- that’s for the future. But in the meantime Christians work for justice and environmental care because we want the world to head towards what it one day will properly be- a restored world.
2. God is now Fixing up People
Before God saves the planet, he is now saving people. He fixes up people by making them new creations.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17)
He is transforming humans, through Christ, into what we were created to be. Now we can have a new relationship to God, and a new relationship to each other. This includes a new relationship to our world. Now we can rule God’s creation the way we were made to rule it.
God sent His Son to pay for the fact that we ignore Him and run His world our own way. His Spirit transforms people’s hearts into people that want to serve Him and love others. Selfish people and God-ignorers become new creations. We can now live as the proper caretakers of the earth that God has rented out to us.
This means caring for the planet. It means using our world’s resources properly. It means preventing selfish pollution and needless wastage. It means giving up on materialism at the expense of being eco-friendly. It means recycling and being responsible. It means loving others by caring for the environment.
God cares for His planet and how it is used. He will fix up the mess one day, but in the mean time, he is fixing up people. Is God a greenie? Yes!
Author’s endnote- no forests were cut down in the process of writing this article.
1 comment:
"Author’s endnote- no forests were cut down in the process of writing this article."
Not true. The electricity and computer you used to write this quite likely caused at least part of a forest to be cut down during their production.
God cares about the earth and everything in it. The problem he has, as you say, is when people abuse it.... the problem I have is when people over state the abuse to sensationalise it to sell something (see Al gore's mockumentary and his undeserved nobel prize).
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