I’m grateful to Byron Smith who made a few critical comments about a previously published version of this sermon (in five parts: #1, #2a, #2b, #3a, #3b) and helped me to speak more clearly and helpfully in this subsequent version.
I’ve preached this series a number of times over the years – here’s the latest edition (this time with a slightly croaky voice). Before you listen to the talk, you might find it helpful to read this introductory piece which contains the things I didn’t have time to include in the sermon.
I’m with Tony. When it comes to telling you what to do in response to the issue of climate change, I’m sayin’ nuttin’. But I’m also with Carl Henry as quoted by Tony. So here’s some biblical truths that I am willing to say. Maybe they’ll help you to think more about climate change.
Creation matters to God. God reckons the world is good (Gen 1, 1 Tim 4:4-5).
Human consumption of things in the world is also good (Gen 1:29, 1 Tim 4:4-5).
The non-human part of creation matters to God, even when it’s got nothing to do with you (Job 39-40, Psalm 104).
People matter more to God than the rest of the creation (Gen 1:26-31). Strange, but true (Ps 8:3-8).
The big problem with our world is that human beings are sinners (Gen 3:17-19, Hos 4:1-3, Rom 8:20-21). God’s solution to this problem is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Greed is close to the heart of sin, because it involves desiring the creation above the creator (Eph 5:3, Col 3:5). Mindless over-consumption is an instance of sin, and it is not good (Prov 25:16, 27).
The core business of Jesus’ death and resurrection is the salvation of sinners (Rom 3:21-26, 2 Cor 5:17-21).
The scope of Jesus’ death and resurrection is the cosmic reconciliation of the entire world (Rom 8:19-23, Col 1:20).
If you’re a climate change skeptic and a Christian, that’s no excuse to go on consuming more than you should. Put greed to death (Col 3:5). Be patient (Gal 5:22, Jas 5:7). Killing greed and practising patience will have good effects on our world, regardless of whether humans are causing climate change.
If you’re a climate change believer and a Christian, don’t allow your carbon-reduction ‘good deeds’ to be sullied with smug pride, self-righteous announcements, or condemnation of others who aren’t as green as you. Just do it, and praise God (Matt 6:1-4).
The gospel teaches us to love our neighbour (Luke 10:27, Rom 13:9-10, Gal 5:14, Jas 2:8).
“Love your neighbour” is not the great commission, nor is it the gospel.
In order to love your neighbour, you don’t need to be inspired with an extra economic or ecological mission or vision. You need to know God’s love in Christ, and prayerfully consider about how respond to this love given the relationships and situations you find yourself in.
If your response to people who say that we need to have a wider or global concern is to try to place limits on the command to “love your neighbour”, then you might be seeking to justify yourself (Luke 10:29).
When scientists collaborate, they will get things wrong, because they are sinners (Rom 1:21-23) and they are finite (Job 28).
When scientists collaborate, they will get lots of things right, because they are human beings made in God’s image. People who know stuff about ecology and economics will have some good advice about how to love your neighbour.
The entire world will be judged with fire by God (2 Pet 3:7-10).
The judgment of the world should lead us to positive ethical action, not to despair or complacency (2 Pet 3:11-14).
The entire world will be renewed by God (Rom 8:19-23, Rev 21-22).
Whatever you think about global warming, you can’t ignore it. It’s already the subject of Hollywood blockbusters. Take the move, The Day After Tomorrow, based on the fear of massive natural disasters caused by climate change. The Day After Tomorrow is, of course, fiction. But ex-American presidential Candidate Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth, claims to be fact. Apparently, the science shows that records are being broken all over the world. Ten of the hottest years on record were in the last 14 years. In 2003, heat in Europe killed 35,000 people. Typhoons are stronger and more frequent, powered by the warming ocean. Rainfall is changing. Lake Chad in Africa, once one of the largest lakes in the world, is almost dry. As Al Gore says, ‘Our ability to live is what is at stake’.
How do you react to the news of this coming global catastrophe?
Are you afraid? Are you afraid about where the world is heading? Are you afraid about your ‘ability to live’, your future, family, your friends?
Or perhaps you are confident it’s be OK in the long run? Australian scientist Tim Flannery is very optimistic about the potential for us to fix our environmental problems. He believes that it’s easy to avoid global warming—all we need to do is make smart consumer choices. According to Tim Flannery, ‘If enough of us buy green power, solar panels, solar hot water systems and hybrid vehicles’ we’ll have a market-driven solution without having to do much about our lifestyles at all. He even reckons nuclear power is the way to go. He’s confident that it’s safe and clean.
Maybe you’re a skeptic on the whole issue? Only five years ago, global warming was doubted by most people. The scientific community was pretty convinced that global warming is happening. According to Science Magazine, December 2004, of all peer-reviewed scientific studies on climate change, 928 papers supported global warming and 0% denied it. But in a similar sampling of stories from the mass media, 53% suggested global warming is unproven. It’s changed a little over the last five years; it seems that more people believe in global warming today. But are we right to believe in it? Who’s to say that the scientists are right? They’ve let us down before. They’re human like the rest of us They’ve got hidden agendas like the rest of us. Al Gore himself may have had political aspirations—he’s not exactly unbiased.
Perhaps you believe global warming will happen, but you just don’t care! You’re past the point of fear. You’re too exhausted to be afraid. You may be saying, if our world is going to be destroyed, eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die…
The story of the world so far…
In this final article in the series on the Bible’s view of the environment, we’re looking at the future of the world. Where is our world heading? Just to remind you of where we’ve been:
Creation
We’ve seen how God created a good world. A world he loves. We’ve seen how he created men and women to rule his creation. And we learned that when humanity rules the world properly, this is good for the world and for God.
Curse
But we’ve also seen how we human beings turned our backs on God. Adam and Eve did it. We keep doing it day after day in our own lives. Instead of listening to God, human beings disobey him. As a result, we live under a sentence of death. And the creation we are supposed to rule is cursed, out of order. God’s image is broken. God’s creation is cursed. So we live in a world where there are storms, natural disasters, environmental degradation; even the possibility of environmental degradation on a global scale, such as global warming.
Christ
But we also have seen Jesus Christ, the man who is the image of God. The man who never disobeyed God. The man who died for our sins, in our place, and who rose from the dead. And we saw that Jesus’ death on the cross is the great event of history that puts the world back into order. When Jesus died and rose from the dead, he restored the image of God. He created a whole new humanity: you and I and all who trust in Christ. He restored us as rulers of God’s creation. Instead of curse, forgiveness. Instead of the sentence of death, life. And when the image of God is back in action, there is hope for our world.
But what exactly can we expect to happen to our world now? It’s pretty obvious that our world hasn’t actually been fixed yet. It is still under a curse. It is still subject to death, decay, tsunamis, bushfires, earthquakes and storms. It is still mourning, because its rulers have turned their backs on their maker. What will happen to our world? And how? And when?
The future of the world
The Bible describes what will happen to our world in two ways
Judgment
The first way the Bible speaks about what will happen to our world is ‘judgment’.
First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
2 Peter 3:3-7
God made the world, and he also cares about the world. And so God he is going to do something about the world. God won’t let this world go on forever the way it is. He has set a day when he will judge the world. That ‘day’ is called the ‘day of the Lord’. It’s the day of reckoning, the day of judgment.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
2 Peter 3:10
The image used is fire—destroying, melting fire, that lays bare the whole creation, the whole world. Why is that?
Our sin against God has resulted in a curse. Humanity is under a sentence of death, and the world has been fatally poisoned. That curse is so serious, that the only way to make it right is through the judgment of those who have sinned, and the destruction of the world that they have poisoned through their sin. That is what God promises to do.
Judgment isn’t a very popular idea nowadays. Perhaps you think a God who will judge the world isn’t worth following.
But would you rather have judgment, or catastrophe? There is a big difference between judgment and catastrophe. If global warming does cause huge storms and rising sea levels, that would be a catastrophe. It would be nature out of control. There would be indiscriminate death, especially for the poor and disadvantaged.
But judgment is different to catastrophe. Judgment is when the God who made the world takes firm and complete control of the world he has made. In judgment, God is firmly in control; in a catastrophe, things just happen. Judgment is deliberate; catastrophes are random. Judgment is fair, right and just; catastrophes are unfair, wrong, accidental.
Judgment will happen when God decides. The day of judgment will not come before God is ready for it to come. In verse 7 above, the heavens and earth are being ‘kept’, ‘reserved’ by God for destruction. That means God will judge when he is ready. It means that the judgment day will not come before he is ready. So if you think that the human race will wipe itself off the face of the map through environmental disasters, then that is actually an arrogant attitude. Final judgment is God’s job. Right now, God is keeping the world until he is ready to judge. And we can’t wipe ourselves out because God will not let that happen until he is ready to judge us!
How will you face the judgment of God? There are two ways you can face God’s judgment.
The first way is to face God’s judgment by yourself. If you don’t know and trust the Lord Jesus Christ, you will stand before God alone God will carefully and perfectly weigh each action and thought you have ever done or had in your life. And God will pass judgment on you. Are you willing to face God like this? To stand before the maker and judge of the whole world, naked, exposed, unable to hide anything whatsoever? Not even what you have so desperately tried to forget yourself? The sentence that God passes on those who fail his judgment is terrible. Jesus called it hell. This isn’t just an ‘inconvenient truth’; it’s more serious than life itself.
But if you are in Jesus Christ; if you trust Jesus Christ, then consider how you face God! You face God as somebody who has been forgiven, whose image has been renewed, whose sin has been dealt with, whose curse has been lifted. You face God as somebody who has new life; not a life that comes from yourself, but a life from Jesus Christ who died for you and rose from the dead. If you trust Jesus, you will be saved through that judgment.
Renewal
The second way the Bible describes what will happen to the world is ‘renewal’. Let’s look at the second-last chapter in the Bible:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
Revelation 21:1-5
After judgment, comes renewal. The picture here is of a new heavens and a new earth. That doesn’t mean two different places, but it’s a way of saying a whole new creation. It’s a place where relationships are made right again; God living with his people. No death, no curse. God will wipe the tears from our eyes—isn’t that a beautiful picture?
Now let’s look at the final chapter in the Bible
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
Revelation 22:1-5
Here we see that the new creation is not completely different from the old creation; rather it is the completion and perfection of what God began in this creation. Genesis 1 is incomplete. In Genesis 1, the human beings are told to fill the earth and subdue it. But here in Revelation 22, we see human beings actually filling the earth and subduing it. A large number of people in a city, not two people in a garden. Reigning forever and ever.
Of course, it’s not a city like we know them; not just steel and concrete. It’s a city with a river and trees—a garden city. It’s a picture of humans, many human, living in harmony with their environment. Revelation 22 is the fulfillment of God’s original purposes in Genesis 1. When God renews the world, the earth will be filled and subdued, and God’s servants will rule and look after his good world as servant kings.
Notice that our hope is in a new creation, not an eternal boring fluffiness. Our future as Christians is not to float around playing harps in an endless Philadelphia Cream Cheese commercial. Our future is a deeply physical existence in a renewed, joyful world; eating really good food; living in a relationship with God himself. Our future is in a place where God’s servants reign, where the image of God is restored, where we will be occupied in joyful service, where we will look after the world perfectly; where there is no curse, no death, no sin.
Doesn’t this fill you with hope and longing? Don’t you yearn to be there, rather than here in this cursed and futile world? If it does, know that you’re not alone! Look at Romans 8:
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons 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 glorious freedom 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. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Romans 8:18-23
Our world itself is groaning, waiting, yearning, for us to be set free.
In one sense, Jesus has already set us free. By his death on the cross he has forgiven our sins, given us new life and made us right with God. We are even now renewed in the image of God—rulers of God’s creation.
But physically, our bodies are still rotting. We’re still under the sentence of death. As I grow older, I have to keep seeing more and more doctors to fix all the problems with my body—and I’m relatively healthy! Some of you know the pain of sickness and death only too well. The same is true of the world .It is still under the curse, still subject to decay, still out of order.
But when Jesus returns, our bodies will be redeemed, resurrected. We will be remade as new physical people. We will be rulers of creation, the image of God in both body and soul! And when the image of God is back in action, when the rulers are redeemed, the world will be finally, and visibly, complete. Liberated from its bondage to decay. Death will not have the victory, and neither will global warming!
But in the meantime, you and I and the world groan together. Groaning is not the same as complaining. You groan when your heart is broken at the state of our own lives and our world. You groan when you know that it can be, it will be, far, far better.
Judgment and renewal together
Here are the two facts about the future of our world: judgment and renewal. On the one hand, the world will be judged and destroyed. On the other hand, the world will be renewed and completed. How do we fit these two facts together?
It’s similar to the question that you and I face about our own bodies. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 tells us that, on the last day, our mortal bodies will be destroyed; but we will be given new, immortal, resurrection bodies. And yet, we will still be the same person. So it is with the world. The curse has affected our whole world. The cursed world will be destroyed, and there will be a new world, created by God. Nevertheless, it will still be the same world, somehow. Not a totally new world, but a renewed world. 1 Corinthians 15 uses the example of a seed. When you look at a seed, you can’t tell what sort of tree it will grow into just by looking at it. But you do know it will grow into a tree. All the DNA is in there. So we don’t exactly know what will be the same and what will be different between this world and the next. But we are promised that there is something that will remain through judgment into the new world. What will remain? What will remain is the work you have done for the sake of the Lord Jesus.
Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:58
While you wait
So what is this ‘labour in the Lord’? What should we do as we wait for God to bring about this judgment and renewal of our sick and decaying world?
Eager expectation (Rom 8:18-23)
The first thing we should do is not actually a thing to do at all. It’s simply groaning and enduring suffering and waiting. We’ve done enough in mucking up the planet—doing doesn’t necessarily help the world! Instead we trust Jesus in eager expectation of the future, and we groan with our world and weep for our world and its people and suffer in our world. That is a right response to our cursed world, because as we cry over our death-bound world it helps us to remember that we are looking forward to the time when God will wipe every tear from our eyes.
Active waiting (2 Peter 3:9-14)
But secondly, there is active work to do. Our labour in the Lord involves living our lives in obedience to Jesus.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?
2 Peter 3:10-11a
You ought to be a wild self-indulgent party animal, shouldn’t you? The world’s going to be destroyed, live for the moment! Party like there’s no tomorrow in a big Armageddon rave! Right? Wrong. But that’s not what Peter says. He says,
You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.
2 Peter 3:11b-13
We are looking forward to a new home, a new heavens and a new earth, the home of righteousness. Judgment is not the end for us. We can and should start living for our new home, even now.
I made a compost heap a few years ago. Let’s think about my compost heap for a second. What use is my compost heap, when the whole world is going to be destroyed? Well, I need to ask, what is the compost heap for?
Is the purpose of my compost heap to save the world? That would be arrogance, not to mention dumb. Thinking I can somehow save the world from its death sentence through my compost heap—that would be far worse than not having a compost heap at all, wouldn’t it? But it is the way many people think!
Is the purpose of the compost heap to pay homage to Mother Earth? That would be pagan idolatry. I would be worshipping the earth instead of God. Many people do that too!
Is the purpose of my compost heap to give me an illustration for this article? That would be hypocrisy.
But if my compost heap is an act done for the sake of the Lord Jesus, an act that affirms the purpose of the earth that God has made and Jesus owns, an act of love for other human beings so that they can enjoy the land in other ways, an act to stop the land being filled up with my landfill that I couldn’t be bothered to cut down on; then I am doing something that will remain into the renewed world. Not the compost heap, but the act of love, the relationship with God and others that act expresses.
You could also extend this principle into more organized, corporate action Christian aid groups, for example who are lobbying G8 leaders because they are, I quote, ‘making appallingly slow progress with helping vulnerable countries cope with climate change. Poor, rural farmers in Africa struggling to cope with drought are still struggling this year and will be next year.’ This is a good thing, isn’t it? The same principle as the compost heap, but on a bigger organized scale. It’s an act of love for others in our world, especially the poor and needy
The greatest labour in the Lord
But what is the greatest labour in the Lord? Compost heaps take time. Lobbying G8 leaders takes even more time. And we don’t have an unlimited time here on earth. Sure, they’re a good idea. But how do I decide what is the most urgent thing? The primary, the greatest labour in the Lord?
Isn’t it to speak the word of the Lord to others? Isn’t it to share Jesus with your friends and family? To warn them of judgment, to explain to them the offer of forgiveness in Jesus, to share with them your hope of the renewal of the world? Isn’t that the best thing you can do in and for and with the world God has given you?
For when people come to trust in Jesus, the image of God is renewed, and the world is set to rights.
I used to work as an engineer for a solar energy company. I was directly involved in the task of reducing global warming. Sounds great, doesn’t it? But really, most of us were there because we wanted to make lots of money. There’s a huge potential in the solar energy field. We were a company full of greedy people. And it’s greed which is at the root of most of these problems! The world doesn’t need more solar cell research.
What the world needs is Jesus. As people come to know Christ, they will put greed to death, and they will live in love for others and with regard to the good world God has made. But more than that; when you share Jesus with those around you, God is using you to create new servant-rulers. People who will rule God’s new creation forever and ever. Kings and Queens of God’s new creation! It might be an ‘inconvenient truth’ for them to hear: the truth that this world is under a curse, the truth the they and you and I are responsible for that curse; the truth that this world will be judged; the truth that each person who has not been forgiven by Christ will face God’s justice alone and without any excuse. That’s an inconvenient truth. But why should that stop us? It’s the truth! And besides, this truth is also a truth that brings wonderful and perfect comfort.
Al Gore’s inconvenient truth is this: ‘There’s a global catastrophe coming. It might be bad and we might be able to do something about it if we’re not too late.’
But this is God’s truth: There’s a definite day of judgment fixed for our world. If you don’t trust in Christ, it will be very, very bad for you. But if you do trust in Christ, it will be wonderful beyond your wildest imaginings. You will live as a ruler in God’s new world, and he will wipe every tear away from your eyes. And there’s nothing you have to do about it at all. Except trust to trust him. Jesus, the Lord of Heaven and Earth. Jesus, the image of God; now and forever.
This article is part 3 in a 3-part series, adapted from a talk given at the Wollongong ECU Reload Conference in 2009.
Have you ever heard of a genre of novel or movie called ‘apocalyptic’? Most books or movies, especially from Hollywood, have a happy ending. Some books or movies have tragic endings, e.g. the lead character dies. But apocalyptic novels or movies go beyond tragedy. They have stories that end with the whole world being destroyed and everybody dying!
Stark, the novel by the comedian Ben Elton, is one such example. It’s a story about a worldwide conspiracy of greedy capitalist industry bosses. In the book, all the big capitalists of the world are aware that their enterprises are causing environmental meltdown (pollution, deforestation, exploitation of the sea, land and air – basically global warming and pollution on a grand scale). But they also admit that they’re all too greedy to stop. So, instead of fixing the problems and making their enterprises sustainable, they let the world go into meltdown, and they form a global consortium to build secret rocket ships out in the West Australian desert called ‘star arks’ (as in Noah’s ark). When the world does collapse into a foaming mess of rubbish and rising sea levels and general yuck and everybody dies of disease and drowning, they can blast off in their ‘star arks’ and start again on another planet!
Unfortunately, when they do take off in their rocket ships, they end up fighting with each other up in space and killing each other off, because they’re horrible nasty people. And so the novel ends with the whole of humanity completely wiped out.
Of course, Stark is fiction, but it raises some questions. How bad are the environmental problems in our world? Are they going to cause the extinction of the human race? And who is responsible for these environmental problems? Is it those nasty capitalist industry leaders? Is it the politicians? Is it us, the consumers? Can the problems be fixed at all? Are we doomed before we start?
The Bible actually does have a lot to say about these issues.
The Broken Image of God (Genesis 3)
In the previous article we heard the beginning of the Bible’s story of the world. We discovered that a good and loving God had created a good world, and we learned that God has given us humans a special role in the world. We are made in God’s image. Our job is to rule the world, to look after it, for God’s sake. Not to be tyrants, but good kings, good rulers, under God.
And we saw when we rule the world properly, it’s good for the world. When we treat the things in the world according to their kind, according to their purpose (e.g. when we ask, ‘What is a tree for?’ and then treat trees according to their God-given purpose), this is good for us, good for the trees, good for the world, good for God.
From Psalm 8, we see:
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
…
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet:
Now we continue the story, and the next chapter is not nearly so happy. Early on in the story of the world, something went terribly, tragically wrong.
The first man and woman, Adam and Eve, were put into a garden. It was a garden with many trees. Many good trees made by a good God. Trees that were good for food. Trees that were good to look at.
But there was another tree in the garden. A tree that was not for eating. God told Adam and Eve that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not for eating, verse 3. If they ate of it, they would surely die.
But these rulers, these people made in God’s image, they did not do what God intended with this tree. Instead, they ate from the tree that God had commanded them not to eat from.
The effects of that one action were absolutely devastating. You and I are still reeling from the effects of that disobedient act. In fact, as a result, You, me, and the world are under a curse.
Notice what happened. They didn’t die straight away. It’s not as if the fruit from the tree was laced with arsenic, and they just kicked the bucket. Their physical death didn’t happen for many years. But at this point death still came to them and their world: spiritual death, social death, and what we might call, environmental death.
The relationships that made their life worth living, those beautiful relationships, became cursed, horrible and twisted. The man and the woman are ashamed. They’re ashamed of each other, verse 7. And they’re also ashamed of meeting God. They hide from God, or at least try in verse 8. And God himself curses their relationships in verse 16. The woman’s childbearing becomes painful. The man and the woman are no longer in a loving union. Instead their lives become a battle of the sexes.
But it’s not just human relationships that are cursed. In verse 17, God curses the relationship between the man and the whole creation:
To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
Our relationship with the earth itself is cursed. God curses the ground because of the sin of the human being. Adam ends up living in a state of war with the world God has made (That’s why I hate mowing the lawn so much. I’m at war with it!)
Of course, that’s what happens when the image of God stops acting as the image of God. When God’s rulers stop ruling the world properly under God. When God’s rulers try to rule their own way. When we shake our fists at God. When we think we know what’s right and wrong despite what God says. It’s what the bible calls ‘sin’. And when God’s image-bearers sin, they fail to rule the world, and the world that they are supposed to rule is cursed.
The big issue at the moment is global warming – and we’ll look at that in more detail in the next article. But for now let’s look at an example of environmental degradation that happened a while back: the Exxon Valdez oil tanker that ran aground on a reef near Alaska in the USA. 11.2 million gallons of oil spilled into the sea. The oil came ashore along 750 km of coastline. It was ugly: 250,000 sea birds, billions of fish, and other animals dropped dead. It was a huge, huge disaster.
Why did it happen? Well, they’ve analysed it. Firstly, the ship was severely understaffed, because the shipping company wanted to make more money; and secondly, the ship’s master didn’t provide a proper navigational watch because he was drunk. Greedy human beings, living for money, living for alcohol, instead of following God’s good purposes for the world.
But before we blame the corporate giant or the drunk captain, let’s look to ourselves. The typical American household would be willing to pay to avoid such disasters in the future. And the answer was $31. The typical American household spends about $1000 a year on petrol. What does that say about us? (even if we’re not Americans, the principle is the same). We’re willing to spend about 32 times more money getting ourselves around conveniently than we are to stop these terrible events wrecking the lives of our fellow human beings and the beautiful world God has given us. Living for ourselves. Living for things in the world rather than for God.
How often have you complained about petrol prices? Each time you complain about petrol prices, you’re contributing to the pressure on oil companies, to reduce prices, to cut costs, etc., etc. Are you willing to pay more money for transport, petrol? That would mean going out less, maybe. It’s just an example.
The same applies to the issue of global warming, of course. Hasn’t much of it been caused by unmitigated greed, as we keep producing things as cheaply as possible? It’s not just an economic issue, it’s not just something that can be solved by putting greedy corporate bosses in jail.
These environmental disasters can’t be separated from what the Bible calls ‘sin’. And sin affects all of us. The root of sin is the rejection of God’s rule over you. Sin is living for what you think is right instead of what God tells you is right. Sin mutilates your relationships, and sin poisons the whole creation. It happened on a big scale with Adam and Eve, and it just keeps happening over and over with us.
You see it in Hosea chapter 4, verses 1-3.
Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites, because the LORD has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away; the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea are dying.
What does Hosea say is the root cause?
Verse 1, humans reject God
Verse 2, humans hurt each other
Verse 3, the birds and the fish die
The creation is dying and mourning and its people are wasting away because we have rejected God. That’s the pattern. The root cause is that humanity is out of relationship with God. Sometimes you can’t pin it down to a particular sin. Sometimes the link between sin and environmental degradation is general. But it’s there.
Is that how you feel about our world? Our world is in mourning, because we, its rulers, have turned our backs on the creator, not living for him, but living for ourselves, worshipping what we can get out of the world. As a result, we hate each other, we are greedy, we lie, we steal.
Do you do that? Do you hate? Do you lust after more stuff? Do you lie? We have rejected the will of God for our lives. Our natural state is that we are under a curse.
Professor Frank Ascione is a world-leading researcher in animal abuse. He has shown the very strong statistical links between cruelty to animals and violence and cruelty to humans. If you are the sort of person who tortures cats, chances are, you’re also the sort of person who abuses women and children. There it is again—sin is linked to the abuse of the creation.
So how are environmental problems going to be solved? Should we make stricter laws for oil tankers? Should we petition Kevin Rudd to create a strict carbon emissions trading scheme? Should we reduce, reuse, recycle? Buy green detergent?
Well, they’re all good ideas. They’re all right and proper. But they’re not going to fix the problem, are they? The root of our problem is our sin, our rejection of God,
Recycling is like putting callomine lotion on chicken pox. When I had chicken pox, I broke out in all these horrible spots. The callomine lotion was very good. It was soothing, it stopped the itching, but it didn’t do anything whatsoever to fix the chicken pox virus in my blood. The virus had to be dealt with, not the spots.
Our world has a terminal disease, worse than chicken pox. It’s cancer. Head cancer! We human beings are supposed to be the head of this world, we are supposed to be the image of God, ruling the world in obedience to God. But we’ve turned away from God, we have turned away from our source of life, we’re living under a sentence of death. And no amount of environmentally friendly acts are going to fix this problem.
Jesus is The Man (Hebrews 2:6-10)
But I’d like now to consider Hebrews chapter 2, verse 6
You see,
there is a place where someone has testified: “What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet.”
The book of Hebrews here is quoting Psalm 8 (the Psalm that we referred to earlier). The Psalm that tells us about the place of human beings as rulers of the world.
Hebrews 2 verse 8…
In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him.
When we look around, we don’t see humanity ruling, do we? What we see is humanity wrecking the world. We see humans getting drunk and greedy and letting their oil tankers poison coast lines and livelihoods. But there’s something else we should notice…
Hebrews 2 verse 9…
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Who is the man of Psalm 8? Who is the man who rules our world? It’s not you, it’s not me. We’re disqualified. We’ve abdicated. We’ve forefeited our right to rule. We’re naturally under a curse, under a sentence of death.
No, the man of Psalm 8, the only human being who fits the description, is Jesus. The man who never rejected God. The man who always lived for God. THE Man. The man who rules the world rightly, under God.
What do we see about this man? We see that this man hasn’t left us to our fate. Jesus has actually entered into our suffering. He has become one of us, in our death-bound, cursed world. This man died, though he never deserved death. He died, he entered into our curse. Why? Verse 9, ‘so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone’
We are under God’s death sentence. We are cursed by God. But Jesus took that curse on himself, though he didn’t deserve it. He suffered, he died, instead of us, in our place. But in dying, Jesus took the curse of God upon himself, and he gives us life, freedom and forgiveness.
Do you believe this? Do you trust this man? Do you trust that this man died for you? In your place? To restore your relationship with God? To restore your humanity, your dignity, your life? To deliver you from death? Verse 10, to bring you to glory? To make you a child of God? Do you believe in this man? Because you can’t begin to understand or know what the Bible tells us about the world and about the environment, until you know the man who rules that world, and until you know that you can be forgiven for turning your back on God and all the horrible ugliness that flow from that sin. If you don’t know Jesus, there’s not much point in finding out about the environment, actually. You need to do business with God, to get your relationship with God sorted out first.
But if you do believe that Jesus died for your sins to make you right with God, do you realize that Jesus’ death has huge ramifications, not just for your private life, but for the whole world?
The true Image of God (Colossians 1:15-20)
Let’s look now at Colossians, chapter 1, verses 15-20
He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
You see, why did Jesus die on the cross? To pay for our sins, to make us right with God, to bring us everlasting life. They’re all correct answers. But what does that last sentence, verse 20, say about why Jesus died on the cross?
Do you see it?
Jesus died on the cross to reconcile all things to God. To make peace between God and everything. Every … thing. Not just you, not just me. Everything. That’s why the gospel is preached to every creature in verse 23!
What?
Did Jesus die for chickens? For bunny rabbits? For trees? Well that’s what the Bible says!
That’s bizarre, isn’t it?
But think about it; in verse 15 we see that Jesus is the image of God, the firstborn over all creation (that means the heir, the ruler). The image of God, remember, is the one who is in a special relationship with God. The one who rules the creation, God’s way. And if the whole creation fell under a curse, then it makes perfect sense that the image of God is the one who’s going to do something about it.
Now does this mean that Jesus died to pay for the sins of chickens and bunny rabbits? Did he die to take the place of trees on the cross? Will all the trees and rabbits and people have eternal life? No, that’s not what it says – it says that his death on the cross reconciles all things. Reconciliation means, ‘making things right’. Putting things back into their proper place. Putting the order back together. It’s not the same as salvation. Only humans who believe in Jesus will be saved. But Jesus’ death reconciles all things to God. It puts everything back into its proper relationship with God.
How does it do that? Well Jesus’ death (and his resurrection) means that there’s a whole new group of human beings who are right with God. Saved people, people who’ve had their sin forgiven, who can call God their loving Father, whose curse has been cancelled. That group of human beings is called, in verse 18, ‘the church’. And by the word ‘church’, I don’t mean the institution or a bunch of people in funny looking clothes. It’s the universal community of saved people, gathered around Jesus. People whose curse has been lifted by his death, people who have been given new resurrection life in him, trusting him, waiting for his return.
The church is a new humanity. Does that describe you? I hope so. Because when there is a new humanity, a new living people, no longer under the curse of death, no longer shaking our fists at God, but back in relationship with God, with our sin forgiven, then, and only then, is there hope for the world. Because now, the image of God is back in action. Now the rulers are here, ruling under the one ruler who is the ruler of all rulers. Jesus is the only hope for our world. In Jesus’ death, the world is reconciled to God
The renewed Image of God (Colossians 3)
What does that mean for you and me? What are supposed to do with that fact?
The first thing we’re supposed to do is to trust and to wait for Jesus.
Looking at Colossians chapter 3, verses 1-4:
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Christ has reconciled the world to God. We are saved, we have life and it’s real! But this reality hasn’t yet been translated into things we can see and touch. We are still waiting for Jesus to appear. The world still looks like it’s under a curse, doesn’t it? Physically, there is still sin, and death and decay.
There will be a day when Jesus appears to all, when the reconciliation of the world will appear for all to see. When our environment will be restored to rights. A new creation! We’ll be looking at that in the next article in more detail. But while we wait for it to happen, we are to set our hearts on the future. We trust Jesus and hope in him. We remember that our life is caught up with him. We set our minds on things above, not on earthly things.
But does this mean we are ‘so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly use’? Are we just to sit around twiddling our thumbs, or gazing at our belly buttons? Well no, we are to get very busy. We’re supposed to act according to who we are.
There’s a movie called the Princess Diaries. The movie is about this high school girl called Mia, who’s shy and unpopular. But Mia learns that she’s actually the biological heir to the throne of a kingdom called Genovia. She is the great hope for the kingdom, she’s their heir apparent. The plot of the movie is all about how Mia learns to act like a real princess. She doesn’t actually start reigning in Genovia right away; instead (for some reason) she’s still going to school in the USA. But while she’s still living in the USa she has to practice walking with plates on her head, learning good manners, learning how to talk proper. Princessy things! Mia really is the heir to Genovia. So she has to act that way, even before she gets to Genovia.
We are really heirs to the throne. We are God’s new humanity. We’ve been saved by Christ, the image of God. And our job is to rule his new world. So we have to start living that way, even now as we live our daily lives before his return.
Colossians chapter 3, verse 5
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
Our job is to put to death our old way of life. Do you think that will also make a difference to our world?
Take greed. Greed is about loving, desiring, lusting after the things of this world, rather than loving God himself. That’s why greed is ‘idolatry’. It’s loving things more than God. Greed makes you very busy, too. Because to feed your greed you need money, and to get money you have to work hard, to get a bigger car, or a better house, or a nicer computer or mobile phone. Greedy people think of their own pleasure first, and are very busy Are you very busy? Are you a busy person? Are you too busy to think of the effects of your everyday actions on other people and on the world? To take a moment when you’re in the bathroom, in the kitchen, in the car, on the way to work? Are you thinking only of yourself all the time?
If you start living as God’s new humanity, if you start putting greed to death, won’t you start thinking more about how God wants you to act towards the people and world he has made, rather than what you can get out of it?
If you know Christ, then every day, in the little things, you should be putting greed to death. As you get up, switch on lights, turn on heaters, use your car, get busy at work it is right to think about how your actions will affect other people and the world they live in. But don’t do it just because it’s a good thing to do!
Do it because you are acting as somebody in the image of God. If you are a Christian, then Colossians 3 verse 10 says you have
put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
If you have trusted in Jesus, then you have clothed yourself with a whole new image. The renewed Image of God! Remember that the Image of God is the ruler of God’s creation, and that is who you are. You are waiting for Jesus to appear, longing, for the new heavens and the new earth!
But in the meantime you are putting greed to death. You are living in love for others. You are thinking and acting, not for yourself, but for the people around you.
Will that make a difference to the world? Of course it will! You can’t save the world—that’s Jesus’ job. But you can make a difference, because you can live as an heir of this world, rescued from death, renewed in God’s image, ruling under God.
This article is part 2 in a 3-part series, adapted from a talk given at the Wollongong ECU Reload Conference in 2009.
A shorter version of this article will soon be posted on webSalt, a publication of the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students.
Is God Green? Part 1
The View from Above
More than 40 years ago, the Apollo space missions to the moon sent pictures of the earth back home. For the first time ever, humanity saw its planet from afar. The clouds, the land, the oceans, sitting there: whirling, powerful, innocent, vulnerable. And that image caused a revolution in the hearts and imaginations of millions around the world. Suddenly, the world was no longer an endless vista of untapped resources and infinite possibilities. Instead, we began to realize how small, how fragile, how very delicate our home really is. No longer were environmental issues confined to a few lonely voices. We began, en masse, to get very anxious about what we were doing to this lonely globe. 40 years later, in the news, almost every day there’s something about our environment.
There’s
Global warming
Endangered species and extinction
Air pollution
Soil contamination
Water pollution
Light pollution
Noise pollution
Deforestation
Overgrazing
Irrigation
Landfill
Radioactive waste
Uranium mining
Recycling
Genetic modification
The list goes on and on
How do you feel about these issues? Are you worried, distracted, anxious, complacent, apathetic, confident, skeptical?
How should Christians approach these issues?
I’ve actually preached on this topic 4 times over the last 7 years. Before I did my ministry training I was a solar energy engineer. And over the last 7 years the general consensus on environmental issues has changed. The first time I preached in 2003, people who cared about the environment were seen as a bit weird and alternative, “tree-huggers”. The second time in 2006, environmental issues were trendy. Now, environmental issues seem to be part of the air we breathe. Everyone cares about the environment now; it’s not trendy any more, it’s just a given.
The Green Bible will equip and encourage people to see God’s vision for creation and help them engage in the work of healing and sustaining it. With over 1,000 references to the earth in the Bible, compared to 490 references to heaven and 530 references to love, the Bible carries a powerful message for the earth.
Verses in the Bible about the earth are highlighted in green. Is that the way that Christians are to approach this topic? To me, The Green Bibleseems to be a kind of Christian way of playing catch-up to the world. The world around us cares about global warming. So we publish a Bible on recycled paper that highlights the green verses, just to prove how with-it we really are!
But I want to suggest that actually there’s a far better approach. That actually everything in the Bible is relevant to issues of the environment, not just 1,000 green verses. But to really come to grips with these issues, we need to get a firmer grasp on the Bible’s whole message—from beginning to end. We need to understand God and his purposes for our world first. And that’s what this 3-part series is all about. We’ll be looking at God’s plan for us, for the world, for his son Jesus, and particularly, how those plans relate to us in the world.
First, let’s look at a few alternative visions of the world; three very popular non-Christian approaches to the environment, just to help you to see how different they are to the Bible.
Dualism
First, Dualism. Dualism is an old belief, thousands of years old, but it’s still around today. The idea of dualism is that there are two ‘realms’, the ‘physical’ realm and the ‘spiritual’ realm. In the higher, spiritual realm are souls, angels, eternity, God. In the lower, physical realm is matter, change, bodies, the earth. If you’re a dualist, then the higher realm is better and more important than the lower, physical realm.
How do you treat the world if you’re a dualist? There are two possibilities.
Either, you see the physical environment as ugly, evil and distracting to the soul, something to be avoided, so that when you hear about environmental issues, you ignore them, you shut yourself into a monastery and contemplate your navel.
Or you could, as a dualist, join in the abuse of the physical environment, because it’s not really important. Who cares about the environment? It doesn’t matter. It’s not spiritual. It’s just matter. Do what you like with it. Some Christians have been guilty of dualism in the past. In fact, the apostle Paul had to combat dualism back in the first century, because Christians were in danger of falling into it. 1 Timothy 4:1-5 says:
The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
The Bible isn’t dualist, it believes the world is good. Are you a dualist? Do you think the spiritual is all that matters?
Materialism
The second popular approach is called materialism. For example, say you’re a materialist. If you’re a materialist in the proper sense, you believe that there is no God (or if there is, he’s got nothing to do with the world or with you). The material world is all that matters. You have no soul. You are, first and foremost, a consumer.
Ultimately you can abuse the world if you like, there’s no higher power to tell you what to do. You can buy whatever make-up you feel like, who cares if it’s tested on animals? You leave the lights on at home, burn up as much petrol as you feel like, because matter is matter. As long as you’re happy who really cares what you do?
The former Soviet Union was a whole superpower founded on communal materialist principles. The Aral Sea in the Soviet Union, was once the size of Tasmania. Over the 20th Century, this great sea has shrunk by 80%. That is, only 20% of the Aral sea is left. Its waters have been diverted for irrigation of cotton farms to bring wealth to the Soviet Union. What’s left is heavily polluted by weapons testing, industrial projects, and fertilizer runoff. Apparently, the disappearance of a whole sea the size of Tasmania was no surprise to the Soviets; they planned for it to happen.
Which makes perfect sense to a materialist. A sea is just a sea. Drain the sea to grow your cotton if it makes your society better off. Of course, if you’re a materialist, you might start to get a bit worried if you think the world won’t sustain your wasteful behaviour. You might start to realize that if you keep draining seas then maybe there won’t be any seas left. Which would be very inconvenient for you because you can’t grow any more cotton or at least it would be inconvenient for your biological offspring who will carry your DNA into the next generation. Where would they ride their jetskis? And so, you might do something about the environment, because you are afraid that your lifestyle will be affected. Are you a materialist? Here’s some logic for you; it’s often used on the street by environmental groups: We shouldn’t cut down the Amazonian rainforests. Why? Because we might find a cure for cancer there, and you might have cancer one day, and you might need those rainforests. If you think that’s the best argument not to cut down the rainforests, then you’re probably a materialist. Because that reason is all about you, your future consumption and health
Paganism
Some people have come along and said, No, materialism is no good at all! There’s something so selfish and wrong about it! Surely the world is more than just a thing to be consumed. Surely, there has to be some higher power or powers that should prevent us from abusing and raping our environment like this. A popular solution amongst environmentalists is to embrace what’s called ‘paganism’.
Pagans believe in God, in a sense. But the trick is, God is in the world – the world itself is God. They usually don’t call it God—they call it, ‘Mother Nature’, or ‘Gaia’. For a Pagan, the world is one big interconnected organism. And all things have equal value and equal status as part of that whole. Plants and animals have souls, spirits, that are worshipped. We have to respect everything in nature, the whole ecosystem. Humans have no right to use nature for our own ends.
But the problem with Mother Nature is that she often isn’t very motherly. In fact, some people believe that humanity is a cancerous growth that might be spewed out by Mother Nature one day. James Lovelock, for example, has written a book with a lovely title, called The Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth is Fighting Back – and How We can Still Save humanity!
Paganism can breed great fear and anxiety, because how do you know what Mother Nature will do to you, and when? Maybe global warming is inevitable? Maybe Mother Nature will produce massive storms and tsunamis that wipe us out as a species? Maybe Mother Nature has given up on us and is going to start again? Who are you or I to say?
The view from above
How you view the environment is very much caught up with what you think of God, what you think of God’s relationship to the world, and what you think of your place in the world. The view from above makes a difference to what you do here on earth.
So what about the Bible? What’s the Bible’s view from above? Is God green at all? Does he care about the world? Well to answer that I want to explore the story that the Bible tells about the world. The Bible has a lot to say about the world: where the world came from, what state the world is in, and the future of the world. And as it tells this story to us, I hope we will see that God and you and I are very much involved in that story. We are intimately caught up in the story of the world. I hope that as we understand the Bible’s story of the world, it will help us to know what to do with the world, how to think and feel and act rightly towards the world. And hopefully make a positive difference
People and the world (Genesis 1-2)
In this first article, we’re going to concentrate on the beginning of the story of the world, where it came from.
Please look up Genesis 1, the opening chapter of the Bible. It would really help for you to read it through right now. This chapter describes the creation of the world. I want to focus on some of the key points of the passage in front of us.
The first point is that the world is not the same as God. God chose to make the world—but God was there before the world was made. The first verse says: in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In other words, God isn’t a pagan.
The second point is that the world is good. Whenever God makes something, he sees that it is good. The light is good, verse 4. The land and sea are good, verse 10. The trees are good, verse 12, and so on. God loves what he has made. And that means that the world has value, given to it by its creator
The third point is that you and I, men and women, we have a special place in the world. We’re part of the world, we’re not God. But we are made in the ‘image of God’. See, especially, verses 26-28. We are part of the world, but we have a special place in the world. A special relationship to God, different to the world. We also have a special relationship to the world: we are the rulers of the world under God.
We also see that in Psalm 8). God has made us to rule the works of his hands. Everything he has made is under our feet (‘flocks and herds, wild beasts, birds, fish.’) Our job is to rule these things. That is our God-given role.
How to rule the world
In 1967, a man called Lynn White wrote a famous article called ‘The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis’. It was more sweeping artistry than real history. But it was very influential. You may have heard of it. In his article, Lynn White blamed Western Christianity for most of the environmental degradation that has happened in the history of the world.
His accusation was this: The Bible—and Genesis 1 especially—had been used to justify wholesale exploitation of the environment. Lynn White says:
‘God planned all of this [creation] explicitly for man’s benefit and rule: no item in the physical creation had any purpose save to serve man’s purposes.’
We can’t deny that some Christians in the past have been arrogant and selfish towards the environment? And to our modern ears, the Bible does sound pretty harsh, doesn’t it? ‘Fill the earth’, ‘subdue it’, ‘have dominion’, ‘rule’. Doesn’t that sound like God has given us the world to dominate, to bash into shape?
But like anything in the Bible, we need to read these verses in context. Remember in this chapter that God saw that the world was good before he made human beings. The world has positive value in God’s eyes, simply by being created by him. So as we rule, we have to remember that we are ruling something God has made and that God believes is good. It’s not just good for us, it’s good for God even before we came along.
(If you want to know more, have a look at Psalm 104)
Secondly, have a look at how that rule is described in the next chapter:
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, NIV)
Our ‘rule’ is not selfish rule. It’s not being a despot or a tyrant or a dictator. Ruling the world is all about serving; serving God (who made the good world), and serving the world itself by taking care of it.
This makes sense of what we see humans doing all the time. There’s an organization called Save the Whales—they even have a song. You can download the MP3. But you won’t find a bunch of whales getting together to form a society called ‘save the humans’, will you? Whales can’t download MP3s about saving humans. That’s because humans are there to look after the whales, not vice-versa. Our special role in the world is to be the servant kings of the world. God does not want us to exploit the world purely for our own greedy gain. But at the same time, God doesn’t want us to leave the world alone. We’re not just to be the stewards of the world, not just the park rangers, making sure nothing happens to it. God wants us to be active, to turn chaos into order like he did at the beginning. To save whales, to fill the earth and subdue it.
At the beginning of the story of the world, human beings were good for the world. And as we rule, we also enjoy the benefits of being God’s rulers. If we look back at chapter 1, we see:
Then God said [to the human beings], “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground– everything that has the breath of life in it– I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. (Genesis 1:29-31)
We can enjoy the world as we subdue it, and this is very good, according to God. When you eat food, that is very good, because that is what the food is for. Here’s a description of ecological harmony from the Bible:
He who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit (Proverbs 27:18).
So how does this all work out? How do you and I actually go about ruling? How do we know what to do?
Did you notice that repeated little phrase ‘according to its kind’ in Genesis chapter 1? It’s there in verse 11, 12, 21, 24, 25. God has made vegetation according to their various kinds; fish according to their kinds; birds, livestock, wild animals, according to their kinds. There’s variety in creation. This variety helps us to understand that we do different things with different parts of creation. This next little verse is an example of how this works:
Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel (Proverbs 12:10 ESV).
One of the things about being righteous is that you have regard for the life of your beast. That is, you know the value of an animal’s life—not just for your own selfish purposes, but in terms of what God has made. The righteous persons understands that the animal has been made a certain way ‘according to its kind’. And he respects that creation. An animal is different to a human, of course. Respecting a chicken is different to respecting your mother. But a righteous person will still respect the life of the chicken, as a chicken. It’s not just an egg-producing machine. Do you buy free-range eggs? Why? Why not? Do you regard the life of the chicken? Not just the taste or the eggs. The life. Because God thinks the chicken is good. The good ruler of the world is the one who discerns what this value is. While we eat the eggs and the chicken nuggets, we also take care of the chicken while it’s alive according to what God has made it, not just what we can get out of it. This is what ruling and subduing, is all about
What is a tree for?
Try to work out all the things a tree is for, according to God.
This is interesting, because this part of the book of Job is all about how God has made and cares for all the little details of his creation even though human beings may have nothing to do with it! God says to Job ‘Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?’ (Job 39:1). The point is that Job has no idea when the mountain goats give birth. But God does; and he cares about the mountain goats giving birth. Reading Job 39-40 is like watching those nature documentaries: when you watch those shows you go, ‘wow, all this stuff happens and I never even knew’. But God knows, and God has a purpose.
A tree has lots of purposes. Some of the purposes of a tree are for humans. But others have nothing to do with us, do they? A tree is there to praise God, a tree is there to feed and house birds. And of course we’ve discovered other purposes for trees, too, that the Bible doesn’t mention. A tree is for making oxygen.
If these are the things a tree is for, how should we rule trees? Our job as rulers is to discern the purpose God has given for things, and act accordingly. So we should do our best to make sure that as many of the purposes for trees as possible are fulfilled. Cut some down for building, leave some for the birds, make sure there are beautiful forests. This is what people mean when they talk about ‘sustainable development’. It’s what the Bible calls ‘wisdom’.
It’s not always easy, is it? There’s no cut-and-dried answers to this. Christians may disagree with each other on this. We may have to use scientific tools in our pursuit of understanding; research and maps, etc. But that is exercising dominion.
And actually a lot of it is quite simple. When you go to press ‘print’ on your word processor, to send a file to the printer, to use paper, that comes from woodchips, from trees. You should ask—am I using this tree in the best way? Do I really need this printout? Can I save the paper so more trees can fulfil their God-given purpose in other ways? Especially in old growth forests. Can I recycle the paper? This is possible and right in God’s world
We had a go at starting up a compost heap a few years back. Why? Because each Australian, on average, contributes one tonne of waste each year, and we’re turning the land into tips to get rid of this rubbish. But God has made the land for reasons other than dumping rubbish. It’s for beauty, for living in, for growing crops, for recreation. And it’s getting to the point where it’s harder to find land to do these things, because the land is taken up with rubbish. So our compost heap helped to reduce our rubbish and helped the earth that God has given us to be used for other purposes. It’s not rocket science. We are created by God to rule our world, to serve our world, to enjoy our world.
The curse
But I know what you’re thinking. ‘Stop telling me about your compost heap. What about the Aral Sea? What about Chernobyl? What about Global Warming?’
We’ve only just looked at the beginning of the story, haven’t we? We still have a huge problem, don’t we? The fact is, we don’t rule the world properly. We’ve stuffed it up, big time, and all around us is the evidence.
Does the Bible tell us why? Well, yes. And in the next couple of articles we will look in more detail at that terrible circumstance. But we will also see what God has done about our crazy broken world.
This article is part 1 in a 3-part series, adapted from a talk given at the Wollongong ECU Reload Conference in 2009.
