Hey, it is Earth Day everyone,
so Happy Earth Day to you, hope it's a good one!
As a Christian I think this day
is worthy of a little reflection, especially since there are so many crazy messages out there when it comes to care for the earth and environmentalism etcetera.
I think it makes sense first to
highlight why the earth is important from a Christian perspective.
First the earth is important
because God created it and called it good!
Genesis 1:26 summarizes God's perspective on the creation he had carried
out: "God saw all that he had made, and it was
very good." This includes the
sun, moon and stars, but especially the earth.
Consider that God created the earth at the first, in the very 'beginning' (Gen. 1:1). If you read the entire chapter it is
astonishing how the creation narrative centers nearly entirely around our
planet.
Further the earth is important because creation
clearly displays the glory of God:
"For
since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and
divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made,
so that people are without excuse." (Romans 1:20)
Indeed -
"The heavens declare the
glory of God;
the
skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night
after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no
sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their
words to the ends of the world."
(Psalm 19)
The Christian's argument regarding the importance of the
earth starts something like this:
1. God is of
ultimate importance to man.
2. God
created the earth.
3. The earth
is important to God.
4. The earth
ought to be important to man.
But the
argument doesn't end there. Though the
above presents a cogent case for honoring the earth the argument can and should
be extended. Consider Psalm 8:
Lord,
our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
in the heavens.
Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
You have made them a
little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honor.
You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
God has specifically put the earth under our care as rulers
over the works of his hand, with everything placed under our feet. The environmentalist may think that we
emerged from the primordial ooze and through time and chance have proceeded to
rise to the top of the food chain, but this is not the case. Humans are the crown of God's creation, the
climax, made in his image to rule the earth with the care and concern that is
intrinsic to God himself. The creation
story bears this out:
"So God created
mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
God blessed them and said to them,
'Be fruitful and
increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.
Rule over the fish
in the sea and the birds in the sky
and over every
living creature that moves on the ground.'"
(Genesis 1:27,28)
"The Lord God
took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of
it."
(Genesis 2:15)
As biblical scholar Peter Gentry has put it :
and crowned them with glory and honor.
You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!"
(Psalm 8)
and crowned them with glory and honor.
You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!"
(Psalm 8)
"Man is
the divine image. As servant king and son of God mankind will
mediate
God’s rule to the creation in the context of a covenant relationship with
God on the
one hand and the earth on the other. Hence the concept of the kingdom of God is
found on the first page of Scripture. Indeed, the theme is kingdom through
covenant. No wonder the Mosaic Covenant, which seeks to implement this in
Abraham’s Family, can be summarized as providing divine direction concerning
(1) a right relationship to God, (2) how to treat each other in genuinely human
ways, and (3) how to be good stewards of the earth’s resources."
(Dr. Peter
Gentry from "Kingdom Through Covenant: Humanity as the Divine Image")
Christians understand that proper care of the earth, and
stewardship of the earth's resources is part of the creation mandate given to
man by God. As bearers of the divine
image our intended role is to treat others and our world in the way God would,
mirroring his faithful love and care.
Consider Jesus words in Matthew 10- "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will
fall to the ground outside your Father’s care." or again in Matt 6 - "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or
reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them". Consider God's law
given to Israel "You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain." (Deuteronomy 25:4).
Throughout the bible it is clearly revealed that God loves and cares for
the animals therefore we ought to do so also.
Further consider Psalm 65:
"You care for the land and water it;
you
enrich it abundantly.
The streams of God are filled with water
to
provide the people with grain,
for
so you have ordained it.
You drench its furrows and level its ridges
you
soften it with showers and bless its crops.
You crown the year with your bounty,
and
your carts overflow with abundance.
The grasslands of the wilderness overflow;
the
hills are clothed with gladness.
The meadows are covered with flocks
and
the valleys are mantled with grain;
they
shout for joy and sing. (v.9-13)
God cares about the earth itself, the Bible
teaches that Jesus "sustains all
things by his powerful word". Have a look at the picture of God's
loving care over the earth painted through Psalm 104 -
He
makes springs pour water into the ravines;
it
flows between the mountains.
They give water to all the beasts of the field;
the
wild donkeys quench their thirst.
The birds of the sky nest by the waters;
they
sing among the branches.
He waters the mountains from his upper
chambers;
the
land is satisfied by the fruit of his work.
He makes grass grow for the cattle,
and
plants for people to cultivate—
bringing
forth food from the earth:
wine
that gladdens human hearts,
oil
to make their faces shine,
and
bread that sustains their hearts.
The trees of the Lord are well watered,
the
cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
There the birds make their nests;
the
stork has its home in the junipers.
The high mountains belong to the wild goats;
the
crags are a refuge for the hyrax. (v.10-18)
What a beautiful image of God's sustaining
power and providential care for the earth.
And so the argument for Christian's care of
the earth can be extended -
1. God is of
ultimate importance to man.
2. God
created the earth.
3. God
created man in his image to govern the earth with compassion and care.
4. God
exemplifies this care in the way he sustains and provides life for all
creatures.
5. Man ought
to care for the earth as God does.
We started earlier to look at Jesus words in Matthew 6 and
Matthew 10. Consider the full statement
of Jesus in Matthew 10: "...even the very hairs of your head are all
numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are
worth more than many sparrows." Jesus
loves, cares for and sustains all of his creation, but he has special concern
for His image bearers, therefore any view that minimizes the importance of
humans or relegates them is the same level as the earth and the animals is
mistaken. I created the image below
which I think biblically bears out the order of importance and significant
aspects of a right relationship between God, Man and the Earth.
I hope that, like me, you find this to be a beautiful
picture. Unfortunately though, when we
look at the world this is not typically what we see. Man does not typically look after the earth
with management and care or with oversight and loving rule. A more suitable description, though vulgar,
is probably the description of 'rape': abrasively marring the earth's beauty
for the purpose of self gratification.
So what happened that the image above became so skewed? In short God was removed from the
picture. Man decided to live
autonomously spurning the divine image and creation mandate. We fell into sin, and the negative effect of
that sin has been passed to the entire earth.
Consider the picture without God. No longer can his sovereign sustenance and
providential care be relied upon.
Instead we imagine that the universe is subject to impersonal laws, time
and chance, none of which have a care whether the earth is preserved or
not. This brings an instability that
rocks us to our core and can provoke one of two reactions.
1. Nihilistic Hedonism - given that God's sovereign
sustenance and providential provision are removed we recognize that our breath
of life is brief and devoid of meaning.
The ship may sink at any time, enjoy the ride while you can.
2. Anxious Environmentalism - given that God's sovereign
sustenance and providential provision are removed we recognize our precarious
position and attempt to set up controls to bring order. Hence radical environmentalism. Note that control requires a limiting of
variables, thus the push to limit human population (which also negates the
impact from those in group one).
I don't think that every person will necessarily shoe-horn
into either of these groups. Likely, due
to busyness, lack of insight, or disinterest in thinking things through modern
individuals waver between these two ways of thinking on an unstable emotional
roller-coaster. Others may obviously appear to be sold full
out to one view of the other.
Put God back into the picture and both of these views are
negated, however we are still left with a world that needs care. Who will solve the problem? As Christians we believe that Jesus Christ
has shown the path that needs to be followed.
Where Adam failed at the fall, the second Adam succeeded. Jesus the true
son of God brings those who receive him back to a right relationship with God; to be God's children (John 1:12-13). The divine image is restored, partially now and fully in the future. It is through Jesus that all of creation will ultimately
be restored -
"..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." (Romans 8:20,21)
As Christians we ought to care about the earth, to be
concerned for it and to steward creation with foresight and intelligence. But, the curse of sin will not be reversed
simply by care of a creation that is in 'bondage
to decay'. It is as the glory of the
children of God is revealed, that is: as the divine image is revealed through
God's children who have received "new
birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ"
that the new creation emerges.
God will restore the creation, with a new
and revitalized earth that will function perfectly as the image above had
illustrated. In Jesus Christ we enjoy a
taste of the new creation now, and we will ultimately rule it when it fully
arrives - "If anyone is in Christ,
the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"... "He chose to give us birth through the
word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created." (2
Cor. 5:17, James 1:18).
And in all this God will get the glory
because it is only through his son Jesus Christ:
"To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has
made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory
and power forever and ever! Amen." (Rev 1:5,6)
For those of you who love creation, who
love animals, who love the beauty of the outdoors. Put your hope in Jesus Christ. Jesus will do better than sustain a world
with briars, thorns, death and disease.
Jesus says "Behold I am
making all things new" (Rev. 21:5), it is through him that the earth
will be renewed to what it was always meant to be.
And on that day:
You
will go out in joy
and
be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will
burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will
clap their hands.
Instead of the thornbush will grow the
juniper,
and
instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the Lord’s renown,
for
an everlasting sign,
that
will endure forever. (Isaiah 55)
and -
The
wolf will live with the lamb,
the
leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and
a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear,
their
young will lie down together,
and
the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
and
the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on
all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
as
the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11)
Lord hasten that day!
In the meantime, as Christians we need to take care and be concerned for our world. To not be wasteful, to use resources wisely, to care for forests and animals and rivers and streams. Not for their own sake, but for the glory of the one who created them. Let's give him glory by mirroring his attributes, intelligently caring for and faithfully loving and stewarding the world he has placed us in.
You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!"
(Psalm 8)
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