Contemporary Concerns Series:

“A Biblical Perspective on the Environment”

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Presentation by Dennis Mock:

It is impossible to not hear about this issue today in every form of media.
In preparing for this I found a quote from Marcus Aurelius – “If you do harm to the beehive you do harm
to the bees”.

Environmentalism founded on two tenets:

1) Environment rather than heredity is the primary effect on man and culture.
2) Man’s duty to protect environment from pollution and corruption.
a. Extends to animal, plant kingdom, etc. It even extends to preserving rocks!
Other aspects
- It seeks to protect against natural disasters and even control nature.
- It can seek reduction of population.
- It may seek to prevent a coming global disaster.
- There is a book coming out called “Green Like God”.
- Green Peace, Earth Day, Earth Hour.
- It seeks to promote:
o Awareness
o Conservation
o Policy change
o Legal action
- Extreme Form Fallacies:
o The Environment is more important than spiritual truths such as sin and redemption.
o Man owns the earth.
o Man through science and technology can change the destiny of the earth.
- It has moved to the level of a religion.
o A form of pantheism – God is in everything and is everything.
o Most recently pictured best in the movie, “Avatar”
- We do need to protect and preserve the environment but we need to avoid making it a religion.

Biblical Truths:
1) God Created and owns the Earth:
a. 1 Cor. 10:25
b. Psalm 50
c. It is the height of arrogance to believe we own it. We are only here for a brief time and then
we leave it.
2) God’s glory is seen and reflected by the environment.
a. “Night after night they pour forth knowledge.” “The heavens declare the glory of God” –
Psalm 19
b. Romans 1 – God’s invisible qualities are seen and understood from what has been made.
i. This includes the macro and micro level!
3) God cares for the environment that He created.
a. He holds it in balance.
b. In Gen. 1 God told man to subdue and rule over it.
i. He wants us to use it for its intended purposes.
c. Lev. 25:4 – 5 – God established a Sabbath rest for the land every 7 th year.
 d. Matt. 6 – God cares for the birds of the air and feeds them.
e. He controls all the processes that maintain the Earth.
i. Psalm 104
ii. Job 37:38 – Reminds us how much care and control God exercises over His creation.
iii. Jonah 4 – Jonah is mad at God because he grants repentance to Nineveh. God causes
a plant to grow to give him shade. He then causes it to die and Jonah is mad again.
Jonah is rebuked because he cared more for the plant than the Ninevites.
4) God has entrusted stewardship of the earth to man.
a. Gen. 1:28; 2:15 – Man was placed in the garden to care for it.
b. To be stewards we must acknowledge God’s ownership and obey His commands.
5) God considers the environment to be for the benefit of man and not visa versa.
a. Psalm 8 – God only places His image in man.
6) God not man controls the ultimate destiny of the earth.
a. It is not our prerogative to blow it up or destroy it.
b. Think back to the flood in Genesis 6. God preserved only a few. Every other plant, animal
and person on Earth died. This was God’s prerogative and merited by sin.
c. Rev. 6-19 – We find God allowing a series of judgments, which destroys creation, as we
know it.
d. There will be a drastic change pictured in Zechariah 14. A paradise will be recreated for the
purposes of the millennial reign of Christ.
i. Yet even after this it will be completely destroyed by fire and remade.
ii. The preset earth is totally polluted by sin and under the curse since the fall in the
garden.
e. 2 Peter 3 – God will keep His promises and we will dwell in a new heaven and new earth.
i. In it only righteousness dwells.
ii. Can we “save” the planet? Not ultimately.
7) God forbids the worship of the created order.
a. This is where extreme environmentalism goes.
b. Ex. 20 – You shall have no other Gods before me.
c. Romans 1:25 – They worshiped the creation rather than the creator.

Presentations by Panel Members:

Randy Gardner –
- What has happened is blurring of distinctions and a reversal of values.
o Animals are raised to the equivalent value of humans.
- Remember:
o The chronology of the creation with man at the apex.
o There is a movement to treat nonpersons as persons.
o There should be a distinction in value between man and animals.
 Mankind not to have unnatural relations with them.
 They were used in sacrifice.
o Remember Christ died for humans not animals or plants.
o Think about this in terms of our witness for Christ.
 If we denigrate the environment we denigrate the creator.
 If we worship it we deny him.
 If we value it we value its creator.
 Use the conversation to point to God’s value and sacrifice for us.
 Point out how much God values us.
Kevin Bacon –
 - God created the world and sustains it through His Son Jesus Christ. (John 1, Acts 17:24-28,
Colossians 1:15-20)
- Redemption of the world or bringing it to an idyllic state is beyond the capacity of man in the exact
same way that we cannot provide salvation for ourselves. God will redeem us in Christ and He will
redeem creation in Christ as well. (Romans 8:18-25)
- Having been saved by grace we should not use that grace as a license for sin (Romans 6; Jude 1:4)
- In the same way, since God will one day renew all things we should not use that as an excuse to
wantonly waste and destroy His creation.
- What is called for is wise and unselfish stewardship of the creation out of respect for its creator
and our Lord. We must not presume too much in terms of our authority and ability.
Matt Kasper –
- God didn’t tell us that the world would be destroyed so that we wouldn’t care about the
environment. He told us so we would live holy lives and have hope.
- I appreciate movements, which have helped our air quality, etc.
- The problem is when it becomes a mania and a political agenda.
- Scripture does not portray nature as fragile.
o God calls on heaven and earth to be His witness.
o It is more resilient than the environmentalist movement gives credit.

Questions/Comments from the Audience:

- Environmentalism vs. conservation.
o Good to be frugal.
o Clean water is one of the biggest issues.
o We have a strong stewardship issue with depletable resources.
 We are extravagant in our use of resources.
- Global Warming –
o Appears to be mostly due to cycles and things completely beyond our control and ability to
impact.
- Environmental agenda to control people.
o There is always an agenda by those in power to control the masses.
o From ancient Egypt to today it was always the case.
- Personal, Corporate, Government responsibility.
o Our accountability to God is individual not corporate.
o Personal preference for less government.

Our destiny does not revolve around the destiny of this planet!

When you leave God out of the equation you end up worshiping the creation.