Many believers struggle with the idea of all the agendas being promoted out there in the world, sometimes getting confused as whether Jesus has something they want to get involved in or promote.
One of those many areas is environmentalism. Many church leaders are running to get involved in that arena, but there are a number of underlying problems with that.
First of all, the reason they're running to get involved is they did market research on many young people and they find out it is one of their concerns (even though it was fed to them all throughout there tenure in the government school system). In other words, they've been fed propaganda for so long they believe as fact - in many cases - things that have never been proven.
I hesitate to start talking about individual cases, as it would do more harm in that it would bring the focus back onto that instead of Christ, where it should be.
Does Jesus Christ care about environmentalism? I really don't think so. What eternal values does that bring? How does it glorify Jesus and become an expression of Him on the earth by chasing after all these dubious causes. The answer is: it doesn't!
God the Father poured everything that He is into His son Jesus Christ. All that God has ever wanted to show or say has been deposited in Christ. There is nothing more He's interested than than that.
From there He wants those who proclaim Christ as Lord and Savior to allow Him to form and shape Himself in them through the Spirit. The end of all that is that God may be all in all. The means is fellowship with the Father and Jesus by sharing it with other believers. To get distracted from that in any way, no matter what it is is to miss the eternal purpose of God in Christ.
So what does that have to do with environmentalism? Absolutely nothing. That's the point.
We've got to resist the desire to be pragmatic and go with every wind of doctrine that comes along, or we'll always be chasing the next important thing, and miss Christ Himself.
Some may say that it doesn't have to be either or, but can be both. No it can't. God hates mixture. That's the ultimate in His hatred of the principle of what Babylon is and what it represents. It's why Babylon means confusion. It mixes in a little bit of God with everything and then calls it Christian something or other. This is wrong and we need to abandon that mentality and practice.
When we stand before the Father, Christ and the Holy Spirit at the end of all things, it will be based upon how much of Christ has been shaped and formed within us that we'll be rewarded on, not on the endless causes we get involved in.
Anything that distracts us from the riches of Christ alone has to be abandoned, as there's no eternal value in them.
Why do you think things like this are so important? Again, you've been socialized into it by forces that have created a curriculum and teachers that have been ordered to teach it. They got hold of you when you were young and impressionable and basically brainwashed you into thinking this is the crucial need of our era. That tactic is nothing new, as there's always someone looking to put forth this type of silliness in order to get taxpayers money and think of themselves as important.
Other people are involved because they have been made fearful based on a lot of outright lying data that isn't checked to see if it is accurate or not, or whether there is significant alternative views that need to be answered.
One example, without getting into the background is global warming. The torment and fear based upon unproven computer models and theories is pushing for outrageous actions that will have a tremendous impact on people, even though it is probably a false concept that has been attempted to be pushed upon Christians and others by the media.
The point is we need to have discernment and wisdom concerning these things, and not believe all this stuff the world throws at us. God is in Christ, and Christ is in us through the Holy Spirit wanting to fellowship with one another and learn of Him with one another.
Chasing after causes and in most cases wrongly getting into activism at the loss of Christ is the wrong path to travel.
Christ in us is the hope of glory, and the glory in our lives now. Nothing else matters, and we need to throw off the chains the world continues to throw around us in order to control, influence and eventually destroy Christ's people.
He won't do it through direct confrontation because true Christians will dig in their heels and fight it. He does it through compromise and subtlety by getting us to think of things that look good to fight for are indeed being inspired by God, rather than a form of mixture that brings us into agreement and working with the world and its system. This ought not to be the way believers in Christ work.
Ask God for discernment, as it's one of things lacking in believers today, and we need it more than ever as many of the so-called issues facing us are wrapped in language most don't understand and promoted by a media we can no longer trust.
As far as the environment goes, the only environment Jesus cares about is the one He shares with His people when they are together fellowshipping with Him together.
I can only pray that this editorial simply represents the opinion and theology of one person and does not represent a common theme among Acts 29 church planters towards our biblical call to care for the environment.
ReplyDeleteThis screed seems bereft of good theology, common sense and even a rudimentary understanding of science. In the spirit of transparency, I should also mention that I am a Christian naturalist and outspoken advocate for active creation care.
I would like to counter this editorial by offering a few biblical reality checks.
The first chapter of Genesis reveals that God created and still creates life in partnership with the land. (see the creation account of plants and of animals). Genesis also tells us that as God (through Jesus – Colossians 12) created the systems of the earth and then called them “good”. This is the same Hebrew word found in the oft-quoted verse Micah 6:8, where scripture tells that once God has shown us “what is good” we are obligated to respond with justice, mercy and humility. This mandate, therefore, applies to care of God’s good earth.
What the author calls brainwashing, I would rephrase as a realization that we will reap the benefits or suffer the consequences of how we treat the earth. Though scripture says that humans are made in the image of God, it also says that we are made of the substance of the earth. The Hebrew word Adam – for the first man and Adamah – for the red earth reveals we are created from dust and to dust we will return. When God saw all of life – humanity in the midst of the systems of sunlight, water, plants and animals that support life – God said it was VERY good. In fact, God’s original plan was to hang out in a garden with some naked vegetarians.
The covenant with Noah is still in effect today. To quote, in part, “This is a covenant I have made with you, your descendants after you, and all life on earth…the wild animals, the domestic animals, the birds of the air…for all generations to come. This is a covenant between me and all life on earth.” Six times in this covenant, God discusses a covenant with “all life on earth’, not just with humans.
The Psalms also tell us that all of creation is the Lord’s and that it reflects divine wisdom. Psalms 104:24 In wisdom you made them all, the earth is filled with your creatures. Psalm 24:1 says “The earth is the Lords and everything in it.” Psalms 145:10 says, “All that you have made praises you and your saints will extol you.” Some commentaries define extol as ‘kneeling in a worshipful, humble act of gratefulness. Instead of saying that the environment does not matter, we should be humbled and grateful by the miraculous gift of life that has been entrusted to us.
While I am not sure where the idea that “God hates mixture’ come from, I will say that the author has confused this with interconnectedness and interdependency. The web-of-life, of which humanity is the crowning glory, is made of connected and interactive systems. Just as the human body has systems - respiratory, nervous, digestive, circulatory, reproductive etc., so does all of God’s creation. From watersheds, to weather, to nutrient cycles, to migration, to reproduction, we can see the wonder and wisdom of God revealed. We see it in the smallest cell, in the immune system, in the way salmon can find the stream of their birth or the way bees pollinate flowers and then dance so other bees can find the same flowers – flowers that also put out a sweet scent that attracts bees in exchange for the some of the pollen that the bees turn into honey. We should treat the earth as if our life depends upon it – because it does.
It is clear that the author does not feel climate change is a concern and therefore must be manufactured by liberal public schools and media to put fear and distractions in front of the church. I would appeal, however, to the author’s common sense. Look at some photographs of shrinking ice caps, disappearing glaciers or CO2 levels in ice core samples. Humans are not responsible for nor held accountable for the natural causes of climate change like the volcanic eruptions or solar flares – those are God’s prerogatives. Humans are responsible, however, for the impacts to the creation made by the cars we chose to buy, the type of light bulbs we use, the size of our flat screen televisions, the forests we clear cut or the coal plants we build.
No one claims that computer modeling is 100% percent accurate or definitive. Instead, computer models give us the ability to factor in many variables and incomplete data to look for trends and to predict the future outcomes of present choices. Computer models are simply a tool that good stewards can use to better manage the household of God that has been entrusted to us. A look at the parable of the prepared and unprepared handmaidens – Matt 25 – reveals that God expects us (and will hold us accountable as stewards) to think for ourselves and to plan for unexpected consequences.
Lastly, the author seems oblivious to the prosperity and wealth of life that God continues to provide through healthy ecosystems – fresh water, clean air, fertile soil, stable climate that allows plants and animals to thrive – and us with them. A simple truth that can be borne out by most missionaries and by all relief and development workers -- that when you hurt the earth you hurt the poor. Ultimately, the poor will bear the long-term burden of our short-term exploitation of natural resources. Flood, droughts, famines, desertification, diseases, deforestation, pollution, loss of biodiversity, soil erosion all will affect the poor first and the hardest. Justice is simply the moral use of power.
So, in conclusion, I celebrate the glory of God revealed in the earth not only by worshipping and fellowshipping with fellow humans in church, but also by loving, serving, tending and keeping the good earth that has been entrusted to me. I have confidence that when I do that “unto the least of these” I also do it to the Creator – my Lord and Savior, Jesus, who reconciles all things unto him.
I encourage this author and all other ACTS 29 churches to join in the great choir of praise that surrounds us. It is time to sing a new song.
For the Creator and the creation
Peter Illyn
Founder/Restoring Eden
peter_illyn@restoringeden.org
The author might also benefit from reading this article by Dean Ohlman and this global warming overview by Sir John Houghton, fellow Christian and IPCC Chairman.
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