I posted a reply to this thread on the onething forums and I figured it might be appropriate to post here as well. A poster had a question regarding why Christians are not more active in attempting to help our environment. After all, global warming is a big problem (sarcasm).
I recognize the problems with our environment today and what it means for our kids if we don't clean up our act. But we have a bigger problem on our hands than the environment and the condition of the earth for our kids. That greater problem is God Himself.
Day after day, man stands up in utter rejection of God and His ways. David writes in Psalm 2:
“Why do the nations rage,
And the people plot a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,
“Let us break Their bonds in pieces
And cast away Their cords from us.”
He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;
The Lord shall hold them in derision.”
(Psa 2:1-4 NKJV)
How does this relate to environmentalism? I think Christians should be the leading environmentalists on the planet, but not necessarily in the way that you'd think.
The environmental problems on the earth today can be traced back to a single root - sin. There is a mysterious and glorious connection between the action of the human race and the condition of the land, vegetation, weather patterns, and all other natural creation. When Adam sinned, a curse came upon the land (Genesis 3:17). That curse has been escalating as man’s sin escalates. Isaiah 24 tells us that the earth’s convulsions because of the fall will increase as sin ripens and reaches its fullness in the earth (Isaiah 24:5-6, 20).
In my opinion, the only solution to our environmental problems is repentance. Since problems with our environment are at its root a supernatural problem, the solution cannot be a natural one. No matter how many short showers we take or how long we leave the light switch turned on, the environmental problem will still exist if the Holy Spirit is left out of the mix.
Corporate repentance actually has a supernatural effect on the land - 2 Chron. 7:14:
"If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. "
We've seen small pockets of this as shown on George Otis Jr.'s "Transformation" videos, documenting the effects of villages returning to the Lord in repentance and the land being blessed as a result (big carrots!)
Regardless of the "good deeds" we can do to help our environment, any sort of environmentalism apart from partnership the Holy Spirit is based in humanism and is not of the Lord. James actually calls this kind of self-seeking "we can save ourselves" wisdom demonic. (James 3:15) Repentance is the only God-ordained way of renewing, refreshing, and restoring our land.
While we will probably see more "transformed" communities before the Lord returns, we won't see the fullness of the restored land until after the second coming, when Jesus is reigning on the planet and "times of refreshing" come from His presence (Acts 3:21).
Comments
Not enough?
I've been happily enjoying your blog for a few weeks now, but I have to say that I respectfully disagree with your logic here.
While I do agree that the extreme damage to the environment is rooted in sin (often greed), and that the earth cannot be fully restored until it turns to God, I also believe that ignoring the issue is akin to ignoring other heinous issues such as genocide and abortion simply because the world is fallen.
When Jesus came to earth, he brought a piece of the Kingdom of Heaven with him wherever he went as a demonstration. When people were hungry, he fed them. When people were sick, he healed them. There is no hunger or sickness in heaven ... those things are caused by sin. Did Jesus ignore those very real issues and simply say "you all need to turn to God before this stuff can be fixed"? These issues matter (see James 2:16).
God has called us to stand up for the disenfranchised and the people who have no voice. We were commanded to steward the earth and have failed miserably. However, the earth itself has no voice. We must be a light to the earth in this regard, leading the way, as Christians have done in the past (slavery, civil rights movement, abortion, etc.) to show the world how Jesus would take care of our earth.
God obviously cares about our environment ... he made it. Whether its all "burning" in the end or not is simply irrelevant. If we are to love what God loves and hate what God hates, then part of that is loving the earth (remember God's feelings on his creation in Genesis?) and hate the abuse and destruction of it.
We might not all be called to make this stand in a public forum (just like not all of us are necessarily called to fight other abuse around the world), but we must at least acknowledge the issue as more than a "sinful world" and support the efforts, Christian or non, that align with that goal through whatever means necessary and available (including prayer, financial support, whatever). We must also begin to do our part to set the example. Jesus himself set the example of living simply with a small carbon footprint. Why don't we follow it?
thanks for letting me speak my piece!
johnny
Re: Not enough?
Johnny, thanks so much for jumping in! I'm glad you've been enjoying my blog!
My point in writing this post was not to say we shouldn't contribute to helping our environment by doing things like recycling and buying energy-efficient light bulbs and living with a "small carbon footprint". Those things are good to do because they are common sense, and living simply I believe is part of the fasted lifestyle Jesus called all believers to in the Sermon on the Mount.
But my point was that those things can never be and will never be a final solution to the environmental problems of our day. We need supernatural intervention, and that requires a turning of our hearts back to God. Without that turning of our hearts and a reliance on God's way of doing things, we end up with human wisdom that is self-seeking and separated from God.
You made a good point in saying that when Jesus was on the earth, he helped the sick and the needy because those things do not exist in heaven. But the critical message of the message of the kingdom of heaven is repentance. Jesus would always accompany His signs with a call to repentance and a heart turning. He knew, for instance, that if the paralyzed man of John 5 were to continue sinning, a worse thing would come upon him.
Adam was given the mandate to subdue the earth in the context of partnership with God Himself in the garden. Indeed we have failed miserably, and a corporate turning back to God at the heart level is what is necessary to begin to correctly steward that mandate once again.
So, to an unbeliever, recycling and being "green" may be the most beneficial and helpful thing to help our environment. But my main point in writing this post is to say that as believers, we have been given a greater solution by God - to repent ourselves and preach the gospel to call the world to repentance. We should not ignore the issues of our environment, abortion, social justice, etc. whatsoever, but we should approach the solutions to them with the wisdom of God and not solely with the wisdom of men. This is why we preach the gospel!
It is only then that our world's problems can truly be solved, because men are utterly depraved and wicked at their core. A pure human solution will ultimately only lead to our own destruction.
So it looks like we agree :)
Josh
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