Throughout our look at the environment, we’ve tried to build on the foundation of what Scripture has taught us, while adding more insights from God’s Word specifically about caring for our world.
We’re thankful for Christians and non-Christians alike who are working to care for the world in which we live. But we’ve also seen some things that I believe are concerning. For example, the fact that such a long chain of suppositions is simply assumed, without being examined. And the fact that so many unbiblical ideas are smuggled into the environmentalist movement being adopted by many leaders around the world.
We also talked about how the Christian’s way of caring for the planet is, in the end, very different.
Here are a few questions to help you think about what we’ve talked about:
What are some ways in which we can promote life and care for creation in our own homes and communities?
What is the difference between a biblical worldview and what the world typically tells us about the environment?
Why does the world mock God’s revelation about how the world will end (2 Peter 3:3-7)?
Why should we be taking local responsibility to care for the planet, instead of relying on countries and worldwide experts to take care of it?
We always must come back to our Lord Jesus Christ Himself as we discuss these topics. He is the Son of God, the Lord of the trees, the Lord of oil and gas, the Lord of your household, the Lord of babies, the Lord of science – the Lord of everything. To God, “who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honour and eternal dominion. Amen.” (1 Timothy 6:15-16)
Additional resources…
This study very much built on all the studies before it, and I’ve linked to a few things along the way. It is helpful to keep thinking about secular humanism, and Got Questions has an article here: What is secular humanism?
Answers in Genesis has a lot of material about environmentalism and climate change. I’ve only read a small portion, but what I’ve read has been thought-provoking. You might start with this article, but take a look at some of their more specific discussions and videos about climate change: Environmentalism: A Biblical Perspective
It’s been a pretty crazy weak week or so. Not just for me. But I can talk from my perspective because it’s my blog post.
I was sick on Friday – sicker than I’ve been in years. Nothing contagious. I went to a meeting that evening – it’s kind of a blur. Then, I came home and it wasn’t pretty. In fact, I’m still recovering.
Somehow, I got up and preached on Sunday. It really is hard to believe, looking back. For the sermon time I felt pretty much normal, but before and after wasn’t so good. So I’m thankful for that brief moment! Maybe if anyone didn’t like the sermon, they’re not so thankful. But be that as it may.
Our friend Ezequiel was also sick on Sunday – he went to set up, and then realized that going to the service itself wasn’t going to happen!
It’s been busy because we’re getting ready for the leadership recognition service on Sunday. I know that we all would appreciate your prayers, because I know that it hasn’t been only Ezequiel and I that have faced some extra challenges this week. Pray especially for our two leaders and their families (Oscar and Ezequiel), and for us and our fellow missionaries Rod and Mayra Fry.
But yeah – anyway – talk about stream of consciousness – Sunday is a very special Sunday, as we recognize our first Mexican elders. We’re looking forward to a special time, and a whole bunch of special visitors, and a time of food and fellowship after the service. So we would appreciate your prayers.
For those of you on our Support Team, I will try to get a newsletter out to you next month ASAP with some details of the service.
Today I was working with the repairman, who was here yet again working on our hot water tank. As with many things, tanks and parts are getting more expensive and the quality is going down. So he’s been here twice – I think the second time we’ve had more success! However it is becoming kind of a running… er… joke… that we’re finally prioritizing getting certain things taken care of, and it turns out the issue is not really “fixed”.
Tonight is the Chronological Bible Study, so I’m looking forward to that. Hopefully it’s well attended – but, wow, looks like quite the storm is brewing! We’ll see if it actually turns into something.
Anyway, there is a lot happening, a lot coming up. So we appreciate your prayers as always, as discipleship, evangelism and general growth continues here in Ixtapaluca.
In our series on Biblical Anthropology we’ve been talking about the environment. My purpose last time was not to take a certain side in the many arguments about environmentalism, but simply to point out that there is more than one side to the story, and to show some of the reasons why that is.
Today we’re going to get specific and actually look at some of the policies that governments around the world are actually signing onto, from the United Nations. The particular document I used when we talked about this as a church, and which I will use here, is called “Principles for Ecosystem Restoration to Guide the United Nations Decade 2021-2030”.
In some ways, it’s time to pull together much of what we’ve learned in the whole entire series. For example, do you remember the “enemy’s headquarters” – the house in ruins that we talked about? Our illustration was a house in ruins – half-built – because the enemy always uses lies mixed with the truth. Lies are nothing, and that’s way the house is only half constructed. But then he uses it as a headquarters to attack us.
As with almost everything, we will see in this document the truth mixed with lies.
It’s laid out with “Ten Principles that Underpin Ecosystem Restoration”. Let’s just talk about four of the ten.
Principle 1: Global Contribution. Of course they’re talking about a global effort under the leadership of the United Nations. Principle 2: Broad Engagement. Everyone is involved, especially “under-represented” groups. Who decides who is most under-represented? You can guess, but they do give some examples: “local communities, Indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, women, youth and LGBTIQ+ people”.
It’s hard to argue with the fact that we need everyone working together to care for the planet, right? But there’s more.
I listened to the interreligious panel that was held at COP26. And one of the panellists, from the Christian tradition, explained it like this.
“Our problem is that we have focused on personal responsibility. But often this doesn’t work, because people don’t have the ability. (Poor them.) And so, what we need to do is change the system, to have control from top down. Instead of focusing on personal responsibility, we should focus on social justice. For example, transfer funds from rich countries to people with a darker colour of skin. Et cetera.”
Of course, that was a rather loose paraphrase, but an accurate one. 🙂 So we’re back talking about “social justice”, from our discussion of justice. And now you’re going to hear the phrase “climate justice”, which actually is not biblical justice. In other words, the answer to our climate problem is not so much that you should drive your car less. The answer looks more like neo-marxism. It is the intelligent and powerful who decide who should get the money and how the systems should be set up.
Do you see how so much we’ve learned comes together here?
So how are we going to convince the common people of these things? Well, fear works. Terrible things will happen if you don’t listen to the “experts”. But should that kind of fear be our motivation, as Christians?
Principle 4: Benefits to Nature and People.“Ecosystem restoration aims to achieve and sustain the greatest net gain possible, given project- and programme-level goals, for biodiversity, ecosystem health and integrity, ecosystem goods and services, climate-change mitigation, and human health . . .”
Well, nice of them to throw “human health” in there at the very end.
It’s pretty common to give humanity a low priority here. Many people believe that the human population needs to be far lower than it is today. I’ve heard it preached that we should aim for between 500 million and 3 billion people in the world, and no more. Many base their estimates on the work of Paul Ehrlich from the University of Stanford.
And so birth control is promoted, and sterilization. The late David Graber, a biologist with the United States National Park Services, wrote in 1989: “Until such time as Homo sapiens should decide to rejoin nature, some of us can only hope for the right virus to come along.”
And actually, quite a few people have said similar things, in perhaps unguarded moments. Normally, it’s kept a little more quiet. But the truth is, there are many people looking for ways to decrease the human population as soon as possible (actually, as I write this now, I heard a popular news broadcast this morning talking about that very thing!). Why? Because “we’re in a crisis”. But – how does this perspective fit with God’s Law?
One more. Principle 6: Knowledge Integration.“Ecosystem restoration should strive to integrate all types of knowledge – including, but not limited to, Indigenous, traditional, local and scientific ways of knowing – and practices in order to achieve greater kinship with nature, cooperation and effectiveness.”
Now, listen carefully. Because this is also very common. This does not mean that we need information from everyone, because you know things that I don’t. This doesn’t mean that we need different perspectives on a problem. I would agree with both of those ideas. No, this is saying that we need to introduce new ways of knowing.
In other words, we don’t need to use the scientific method, logic, or absolute truth. Science is only one possible thing on the list! Because there are many “ways of knowing”. Paganism is quite popular, for example. So, we’ll decide what to call “truth”. What way to follow. Or more accurately, what to follow in place of the truth.
Are there good things in this document? Sure. But what has been smuggled in along with the good things? Denying God’s truth, and bringing in your own ways of knowing. Shaking your fist at God’s law. Devaluing the importance of human life. Ensuring that certain very “wise” people are in control.
In 2014, Dr. Joe Boot wrote about the difference between a humanist worldview, or we could say a secular humanist worldview (which has been common to some extent since the serpent told the woman that she could be like God), and a Christian worldview.
In a Christian worldview, God limits government. All people and institutions should have limits, because we’re sinners. If we don’t have limits, if we have too much power, what happens? We take more. These limits come from God, Someone apart from the creation. The transcendent God.
Dr. Boot writes:
…the pagan philosophers and statesmen favored statism, emperor worship and tyranny. One reason for this, as we have noted, was that their humanistic worldview (as with all humanism and paganism today) posited an ultimate impersonalism in which man is conditioned by an impersonal environment and not by a personal God. Whilst claiming to be free, in the world of flux, man was seen as conditioned by the stars, his family, his fortunes, nature and the gods (also products of nature and natural forces), and so he became fatalistic in his thinking. As such, pagan thought requires a powerful and priestly state to save man from the environment all around him…
In other words, in the real world, a person is free because he or she is made in God’s image, and is responsible to Someone outside of the universe. But in secular humanism, the person is conditioned by his or her environment, a perspective leading to fatalism, so that true freedom is impossible. We must be coerced into action by the emperor-priest.
Listen to people talking about environmentalism. You will hear religious language. The end of the world, salvation, repentance, it’s all there. But – it’s not the true religion.
So the answer of the world to environmental issues is to create a system to put you in a smaller box. Don’t worry, you can have freedom in your box, but the government will limit you and take care of you as it wishes. And you must believe that the box makes sense, the box is all that there is, the box is the only thing that is important for you.
Beyond questions of world temperatures and snowfall and sea levels are issues that are even more concerning for believers – a host of ideas that are being imported under the guise of caring for the planet.
Many non-Christians are doing good things for the environment. Thank God! And sometimes we can work together. But always remember, Christ is the Lord of Creation. He is the truth. So – ask questions. Research. Don’t be afraid to be different. Take personal responsibility. And don’t be surprised if you end up doing something that the world hates. Jesus warned you.
We’ll take one more brief post to wrap up this discussion, before taking a look back over all 11 topics that we’ve covered.
We’ve been looking at some general principles from the Bible regarding the environment in our continuing Biblical Anthropology study. Yes, caring for the environment is a part of our Christian life, and out of that I’ve noticed four principles that God’s Word teaches:
We care for creation for the glory of God. That’s our ultimate purpose.
We care for creation to benefit people (quality and length of life).
We care for creation through local responsibility. In other words, our priority is our local area.
We care for creation through our general obedience to God. General obedience can be a blessing to the land, or God may directly bless the land when the people on it are obedient.
As we talked about before, it is possible to cooperate with unbelievers to care for the earth – we certainly should! But we also should not underestimate how drastically different our purposes and approaches may be.
So let’s talk about some of the ideas out in the world today.
When we were discussing this as a church, COP26 had just wrapped up. “COP” stands for Conference of the Parties, and it’s a conference that is held each year by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It’s interesting to look at their material, although the message from COP26 or COP27 is the same as what we’ve been hearing for many years. Here’s the introduction in the official brochure for the conference:
CLIMATE CHANGE IS THE GREATEST RISK FACING US ALL. Around the world storms, floods and wildfires are intensifying. Air pollution sadly affects the health of tens of millions of people and unpredictable weather causes untold damage to homes and livelihoods too. But while the impacts of climate change are devastating, advances in tackling it are leading to cleaner air, creating good jobs, restoring nature and at the same time unleashing economic growth.
Despite the opportunities we are not acting fast enough. To avert this crisis, countries need to join forces urgently.
We’re not going to take the time to analyze all the ins and outs of “global warming”. But it may be useful to at least take a look at some of the suppositions that are being made in this whole discussion, and at least point out that there’s another side to the story. Because we tend to hear only one side.
So what is the basic message? First, the earth is becoming warmer. Well, that’s true, but of course it all depends on the segment of time you’re measuring, where you’re measuring, and so on. It’s certainly warmer here than it was in January. Is it warmer than it was a year ago? Maybe. But many scientists and historians believe that the world was once quite a bit warmer than it is now.
Of course, quite often now we refer not to global warming, but simply “climate change”, a basically impossible-to-measure metric. But we’ll stick with warming for now, since that is still a common claim.
The second supposition is that this warming is because of humans and/or their specific activities.
The third supposition is that we can do something about this change in temperature. Well, there are quite a few scientists that would disagree here as well, or at least say that the changes we might make would make only a minute difference. In the United States, for example, thousands of scientists signed a petition with quite a different point of view. And that is by no means an isolated example.
Again, my point right now is not to defend one side or the other, but just to give a reminder that there are people – even scientists in the field – with different points of view. But we have some more suppositions:
The fourth supposition is that natural disasters are increasing. Now if you actually sit down and look at the statistics, you’ll see that … it depends. Again, what segment of time are you looking at? What criteria are you using? (I refer you to the old but useful book, How to Lie with Statistics.) It’s easy to find an unusual natural disaster here, or a time frame in which they’ve become worse. But in many cases they have actually decreased. But this is the general claim.
The fifth supposition. These disasters are specifically increasing because of climate change caused by human beings.
Finally, this is a CRISIS. An emergency. It’s almost too late – or may already be too late.
Why list all these suppositions? Because you may agree with some, and not others. In fact, you may agree with 1-5, and reject 6. This is very common with a lot of the narratives that are pushed on us. We just skip from the first supposition to the last and expect everyone to come along, and perhaps ignore one or two very weak links. It’s very useful to sit down and list exactly how we logically get from one to the other to the other.
Another common thing to check for: Are we commonly only hearing one side of the story? Is debate being shut down? That doesn’t prove that the other side is right, but it is cause to be on alert.
I remember many years ago when they started to install electric hot-air blowing hand dryers in public bathrooms. They would put little signs on them, explaining that they’re much better for the environment than using paper towels.
But I always thought – wait. In Canada, paper towels (at least at the time) were coming from sustainable forestry. That is, the trees were carefully farmed, replanted, and so on. So what about all the new complex electronic parts that we are now manufacturing for these much more sophisticated machines? Where does the metal come from? Where does the electricity come from? I bet these need a lot more repairs – which means tools, replacement parts, delivery, the driving of the repair person…
Things are not always as simple as they seem. As an interesting side note, some studies have shown that hand dryers actually mean more bacteria on your hands, which is why some researchers recommend for hospitals that they use – you guessed it – paper towels. 🙂
There are simply aspects of this whole story that you rarely if ever hear. You’ve heard a lot about CO2 – carbon dioxide. Sometimes media makes it sound like it’s a poison that we need to eradicate from the planet. But CO2 means more plant growth – a greener planet. Plants eat CO2 for breakfast – it’s part of the photosynthesis process that you learned about in school. This indeed seems to be happening – larger harvests, more available food. (Here’s a brief video from NASA on this – you may not agree with everything in the video, but it makes the basic point.)
Many are very concerned about “sustainable technologies”. For example, you may have heard a lot about wind power. In fact, you may have seen evidence of this technology rising from the landscape in your local area.
Wind power sounds like a great idea. But let’s think about the constant repairs that these huge machines require. The problems with the birds that are killed. The farmland that they take over. Sometimes forest areas are levelled to make room for them. Minerals are mined and parts are transported from around the world using – well, gasoline, in many cases!
As we were going over this topic at our church, plastics were a huge topic. Are plastics really pure evil? They have allowed us to transport food in a hygienic and easy way. Give our medicines. Protect ourselves from diseases. And now we know that it can be converted into a very clean fuel. Yes, like everything else, we should use plastics with wisdom. But plastic can be a huge benefit to the community.
There are many sides to every story. And if there is no public debate allowed, it’s a lot more difficult to find the truth. There are some complex issues here, but it doesn’t hurt to dig a little deeper and have a little discussion.
Now, all of this discussion of how warm the planet is and how much carbon dioxide is healthy and how we should use plastics is important – but there are some issues that are much more serious. We’re going to stay with materials from the United Nations next time, and take a closer look at some recommended responses to environmental issues.
10 years ago today, we were at Kidzania with our friends the O’Briens. Kidzania is a Mexican kids’ theme park, actually a mini “city”, where kids can go to work at popular businesses, or be involved in common services (dentistry, fire fighting…). Since its founding, it has expanded to several other countries.
So – one of the places the kids “worked” at was a Sabritas factory. “Sabritas” is a Mexican snack company, probably most known for their potato chips (sabrosa=flavourful, fritas=fried, hence the name). Of course, after manufacturing a bag of chips, the snack was theirs!
Our look at Biblical Anthropology continues today as we study some principles for caring for the environment. Let’s see what we can discover…
We’ve already looked at some general principles in Genesis. “work it and keep it” – “Be fruitful and multiply” – “subdue it, and have dominion” You can read the previous articles for more on those.
We can also find some principles in the Law of Moses, so let’s go there next.
One example is found in the laws of the Sabbath. In Leviticus 25, we find some important agricultural regulations for Israel:
The LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the LORD. For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the LORD. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. The Sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired worker and the sojourner who lives with you, and for your cattle and for the wild animals that are in your land: all its yield shall be for food.
Leviticus 25:1-7
After this, there would be a special year of rest, every 50 years. We’ve already talked a little about this when we studied justice.
Therefore you shall do my statutes and keep my rules and perform them, and then you will dwell in the land securely. The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and dwell in it securely. And if you say, ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?’ I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating some of the old crop; you shall eat the old until the ninth year, when its crop arrives.
Leviticus 25:18-22
We see two purposes here – food itself, “you will eat your fill”, and security. This system cares for the poor, and it also provides for you.
And here’s something interesting – there is a supernatural element here. God promised the Israelites a larger crop every six years, so that there would be enough for the seventh year – a year of rest. We’ll talk more about this later.
Today we know from scientific study that the earth – the soil – does indeed need “rest”. Overuse can permanently damage the soil, even leading to desertification. Basically, converting fertile soil into a desert. God is wise.
Another fascinating law is a law about sieges in Deuteronomy 20. Basically, when you’re conquering a city (remember, the Israelites were about to enter Canaan), your army could cut down trees for weapons or fuel, but it was not permitted to cut down fruit trees. In other words, at the end of the war, you didn’t want everyone to die of hunger. (Take a look through history – how many times has that exact thing happened?)
There are also various laws for animals. Here are some quick examples.
If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it; you shall rescue it with him.
Exodus 23:5
That one’s pretty simple. Help your neighbour, help his donkey. Even if your neighbour hates you.
You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain…
Deuteronomy 25:4
Why? Because your cattle need the strength to do the work. This law is good for you, good for the ox.
If you come across a bird’s nest in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. You shall let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long.
Deuteronomy 22:6-7
This is an interesting one, and no explanation is given. But we can make some educated guesses.
There are a couple of reasons why you may want to take the young birds or the eggs. First, for food (or maybe for the feathers). That is allowed. Second, population control. If there is a huge population boom of a certain species, that can cause major problems in the ecosystem. This is a way to control population growth.
But – “let the mother go”, so that the species may not be wiped out completely. If you kill too many birds, what have you got? Snakes, scorpions, and everything else that the birdies eat.
So yes, go ahead and eat eggs and birds and control the population, but you still need to allow for a balanced ecosystem. God is wise.
What is the only explanation for this in the text? “…that it may go well with you, and that you may live long.” Keep that in mind as we continue our study.
Let’s look at a couple more principles in Proverbs.
Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.
Proverbs 12:10
Don’t be cruel. Take care of your cow or your donkey.
Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds, for riches do not last forever; and does a crown endure to all generations?
Proverbs 27:23-24
Why should you pay attention to the condition of your flocks? Because you’re preparing for the future. It’s as if someone were to say, “I don’t need to save money. I have a great job!” or “I don’t need to eat nutritious food, I’m healthy!” No – you should be thinking of the future, and preparing for it.
Let’s just stop at look at four principles that we can draw from our study so far:
We care for creation for the glory of God.
We care for creation to benefit people (quality and length of life).
Remember that phrase? “…that it may go well with you, and that you may live long.” So that the soil is productive, and so that our community is secure. These laws are very focused on human beings, the family, the community.
Take care of the garden, expand it, for food and – in a fallen world – medicine and general well-being.
You might have noticed something else. These are very local laws. In other words, you are especially responsible for yourself and your family.
This is a very interesting point. Now, of course, we have to admit that the world has changed a lot. Most of us don’t live on farms. And that raises a lot of other questions – like how should we be setting up our communities and our families? But I think that the Bible does emphasize for us the importance of our own geographical area, our own homes, our own community. Local responsibility.
So the next principle is:
We care for creation through local responsibility.
Finally, we have noted this supernatural element. God Himself blesses the earth.
We already discussed how God Himself cares for and sustains His creation. We’ve also learned that following wise principles tends to lead to abundance. This is simple logic. God has even more scientific knowledge than we do.
And so the fourth principle, obedience to God also brings blessing.
We care for creation through our general obedience to God.
This principle is all throughout Scripture, but here’s an example.
And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples. There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock.
Deuteronomy 7:12-14
You might object that this is for Israel, not for us. You raise a good point. There are certainly special and specific promises in the Bible for the land of Israel. A covenant with a nation.
But I think there’s a universal principle here. Why?
Because we’re still talking about some of the same things we’ve been talking about since Genesis 1, things that apply to all humanity. Caring for the earth. Obeying God. Having children. “By his blessing they multiply greatly, and he does not let their livestock diminish” Psalm 107:38.
God is still in control of His creation. And yes, we have a certain amount of control over our environment. But many things happen on our planet and in our solar system that we simply cannot change.
We don’t have the same land promises as Israel had. And we all know that God chooses when we live, when we die, what sufferings we’ll go through. But He still sends us many physical blessings. He still sends physical judgements as well – and we suffer physical consequences if we are disobedient.
In reality, a couple of things are happening. First, the logical consequences of our actions. And it’s amazing how many things are connected together. Sometimes, ignoring the proper role of government, or not properly training our children, or sexual immorality, can have direct or indirect consequences when it comes to the environment.
But God may also choose to bring blessing or judgement to the earth – the planet – directly in answer to our actions.
Even before the Law of Moses, God said this to Cain:
The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength.
From Genesis 4:10-12
A connection between murder and the environment?
And again, before the Law of Moses, the nations in Canaan were condemned for their immorality. Here’s what God said about that:
Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.
Leviticus 18:24-25
The land, the land, the land “vomited out its inhabitants”.
And so this has led me to a surprising conclusion. What is the very best thing we can do to care for our planet? How should we celebrate Earth Day? Obey God’s Word. Not just the parts about the environment – all of it. General obedience.
Once again, we’re ending up at a very different place than the world ends up. I warned you!
But now that we have a biblical foundation, let’s take a look at some of the things that the world is promoting regarding the environment. What I found interesting about this is how so many themes from all of the Biblical Anthropology topics actually come together when we get into environmentalism. But we’ll get into that next time. 🙂
