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Thursday, January 18, 2007 11:26 PM CST
Clergy View: Christians need lead in environmental issues
By REV. JOHN D. MCARTHUR JR.
Central Christian Church
Finally, winter has arrived and the snow has begun to fall. I was reminded how cold it has become when on Tuesday I went out to unlock my son’s car and it was frozen shut.
It seemed as if it would never get cold (not that I’m complaining, mind you) and advocates of “global warming” suddenly began to make sense. Of course, you would be hard pressed to convince residents of Colorado or those in the western part of our state who are digging out of another ice storm that the weather has gotten warmer.
This article is not meant to debate the possibility of our earth’s climate changing. I am not well enough versed in meteorological and scientific theory to argue either side. I don’t know if the exhaust from cars or cows standing in a field represent the greater danger.
My gut reaction is that man flatters himself by thinking he can completely destroy God’s creation. However, the visual evidence is overwhelming that suggests we can corrupt, change and destroy on at least a local or regional level that which God made.
Air and water pollution, which affects all life, is a real problem. It is shameful when various creatures that share our planet become endangered and go extinct. And contamination of the environment through carelessness, greed, war or any other reason pose potential health risks not only to us, but for generations yet to come.
As Christians, we need to be the leaders in environmental issues and conservation. After all, the God we worship created everything. Genesis 1:31 says, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” If it is good, what right do we have to mess it up?
The original command of God in the book of Genesis is for men and women to take care of His creation. We are told in Genesis 2:15 that “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”
This oversight responsibility is further emphasized in verse 19: “Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.” By giving us the privilege of naming His creation, God is also telling us we are to take care of it as well.
It is important for us to remember that God made this world and gave it to us to live in and take care of. However, even though we have been given free reign over creation, we need to remember that ultimately none of what we see is really ours. Psalm 24:1 reminds us, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.”
We are but tenants of this world. A tenant can be defined as one who temporarily occupies property owned by another. What will the Landowner say when he returns and finds that His tenants have abused, broken and harmed his property?
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Lowell wrote on Apr 26, 2007 12:29 AM: