I’m taking a break from the normal debating with the Big Bang Theory and 53 Proofs. Today, I want to write something short and sweet on the topic of Earth Day.

Now as some of you know, today is not just Sunday but also Earth Day. For the past forty years the topic of environmentalism has become a forefront in many political debates. I know that recently we have closed down our trip to Mars and we have made NASA’s project of checking the levels of CO2 in our atmosphere a greater concern. It can be frustrating for some, and to be truthful I am greatly frustrated as well. A question may arise in some of us: What does the Bible say about the environment?

Be aware that the Bible does not go into detail about the environment since it mainly discusses atonement for mankind. While the Bible does not discuss the environment to an extent, it does lay down important foundations. Those foundations are as follows: What is the universe? What does man have to do with the universe? What is man’s role in this universe?

Now that the three foundational questions are laid out, we can begin to find the answers. First, what is the universe? This is one of the seven worldview questions (as pointed out through the book The Universe Next Door by James Sire).

The Biblical answer to this is that we live in a universe blessed by God but cursed by sin. To understand what I mean, we need to go to the Book of Genesis. Genesis 1:31 says, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.” This last day of creation marks the end of all that is necessary for us. Every day God saw the universe as being good. On the last day He calls it very good. This is the essential thought that we must have for our universe.

Our universe is very balanced. Even scientists with a secular worldview agree that our world is delicately and wonderfully made. If you look at the important physical constants (such as Planck’s constant), then one needs to also understand that if less than one number moved, the universe could not exist. See what I mean by balanced? God made the universe as very good.

Unfortunately, the universe has been corrupted by sin. It isn’t just man that was defiled. Romans 8:22 says, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” Everything is falling apart in creation because of original sin. I guess, then, that you can say that man really does destroy the environment. We caused every bad thing that occurs on earth originally. All sentient beings have been greatly harmed.

Since we know what the universe is currently, we need to understand what man is doing in the universe. Understand that creation didn’t truly need us. Many remote areas of the world do fine on their own despite the Fall. If man didn’t exist, perhaps the creation would be good still. So what is man doing here? This is a question that Genesis answers as well. Take note that creation is not called “very good” until man is created. There is a special thing about men that makes the world “very good.” This is answered in his role.

Man’s job here is to be lord and worker of the universe. When God created Adam (and soon Eve), he, “blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’
Then God said, ‘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 in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.’ And it was so.”

Everything, even today, is under our reign. We can use the universe for what we need. Everything was made for us to be here. Granted, we can be very bad rulers of the universe and we are. There are truly environmental  problems we have today and we must be better at taking care of the world that we were given to control.

Thus, that is the Christian view on environmentalism. The blessed universe was created for us to inhabit and control. Now it is burdened by sin and we have become bad lords of creation.

So what is a Christian to do? We must come back to God as our original King in order for the creation to be controlled in a good way. Let’s put it this way. Before there was a king, feudal lords would battle for dominance and only destroy the country around them. Since our true King is incorruptible, we can look to Him for guidance on what we must do as societies to use the creation to our benefit and its as well.

Realize that no other worldview has this view that puts man before creation. For instance, the Norse believed that nature was so powerful that not even the gods could control it. Likewise, today in the atheistic/agnostic society man is only a small piece of creation with no true worth, its only use to ecology is to play its part for the creation and not burden it (whether or not those burdens are real and those benefits only truly benefit the people speaking the environmental gospel).

Since we are lords of creation, we have the power to use it to our benefit. We must seek the King, though, to use the creation to the benefit of everyone. Man is not an insignificant speck of dust on a rock as other worldviews view him as. We have true worth in a creation God made specifically for us.

~Jacob