Psalm 19:1-4 and Romans 1:20
tell us that observing and learning about nature are part of God’s
revelation to humans. If that is so, isn’t that a reason to try
to preserve nature as well as we can?
The Bible is one of the ways that
God reveals Himself to us. Christians believe
that the Bible should be translated into the language people are most
familiar with, so that that revelation may be as clear as possible.
Similarly, it would seem that God’s revelation through nature should be
as clear as possible. A person is more likely to see God in a beautiful clear
stream than in a polluted river, or in a clear sky than in a smog-filled atmosphere. Seeing bison herds roam
freely in Western North America, or immense flocks of passenger pigeons, gave people a glimpse of aspects of
God’s power and majesty that they can’t get now. Helping to preserve nature in as good a condition as we can is one way to bring people to a saving knowledge of Christ. Not the most direct way, and perhaps not the most effective, but it is still a way to do this.
Colossians 1:15-20 says, of Christ, that “in Him all things are held together.” That passage also says that He is working to reconcile all things to
Himself, and that He is working to make peace through the blood of the
cross. As Christians, we believe that it is our duty to be His
instruments in reconciling sinners to Christ, and to help Him in the
ministry of making peace. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 tells us
that: 18 But all things are of God, who
reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the
ministry of reconciliation; 19 namely, that God was in Christ
reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their
trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation.
(Hebrews 1:3 also tells us that Christ is holding all things together.)
Christians believe they should participate in Christ’s work of reconciliation. Shouldn’t they also participate in His work of holding all things together,
including endangered species, ecosystems and biological communities?
What do you think? (See here for Old Testament teaching on environmental stewardship. There is lots of it!)
Thanks for reading. This post was modified from this one.
Musings on science, the Bible, and fantastic literature (and sometimes basketball and other stuff).
God speaks to us through the Bible and the findings of science, and we should listen to both types of revelation.
The title is from Psalm 84:11.
The Wikipedia is usually a pretty good reference. I mostly use the World English Bible (WEB), because it is public domain. I am grateful.
License
I have written an e-book, Does the Bible Really Say That?, which is free to anyone. To download that book, in several formats, go here.
The posts in this blog are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You can copy and use this material, as long as you aren't making money from it. If you give me credit, thanks. If not, OK.
The posts in this blog are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You can copy and use this material, as long as you aren't making money from it. If you give me credit, thanks. If not, OK.
Friday, April 22, 2016
The New Testament teaches that Christians should be stewards of the environment.
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