Friday, September 22, 2006
Christians and Creation - A Positive Approach II
Having established that a Christian should have an entirely different view of environmental matters than a secular environmentalist, this post is the second in a series looking at how a Christian should view matters related to creation. In the first post in the series, we looked at the need for skepticism because virtually everything you will encounter on creation "issues" comes from that other worldview.
In this post I want to argue that a Christian's creation concerns should operate from a local perspective. I mean this perspective in two senses.
The first sense in which I want to talk about Christians, creation and a local perspective is the sense that all you can ever see of creation is, in fact, local. From where you sit, you may be able to witness some "raping of the planet," but that can be illusory.
For example, if you live in Elko County Nevada, virtually anywhere you go in the mountains north of town, you will think the planet decimated by the gold mining on the Carlin trend. Yet, look at this aeriel photo of the area - you cannot see a thing. Given a local perspective the merely annoying may appear as the catastrophic.
This means we should be extremely cautious when launching an "environmental cause." What we think may be a huge problem, may only be something personal to us. What's more, our personal desire to deal with our annoyance may give use motive to inflate the problem. Is that really Christian? Are we not first people of truth.
Think about it - casting our pet peeve as a huge planet impactful problem is a way of shoving aside all other interests for the sake of our own. Did not the Apostle Paul say
This means that in one sense evangelism is action to save creation. You see as people are transformed into Christ's image, they will relate to creation as He desires and any problems that may exist will resolve. If, as we established earlier, we are God's agents of change in creation, then when we become worthy of Him, we will act in accordance with His will.
Next we will turn our attention to having a humble perspective as relate to creation.
Part III is here.
Part IV is here.
Part V is available here.
Related Tags: Christians, creation, environment, perspective
In this post I want to argue that a Christian's creation concerns should operate from a local perspective. I mean this perspective in two senses.
The first sense in which I want to talk about Christians, creation and a local perspective is the sense that all you can ever see of creation is, in fact, local. From where you sit, you may be able to witness some "raping of the planet," but that can be illusory.For example, if you live in Elko County Nevada, virtually anywhere you go in the mountains north of town, you will think the planet decimated by the gold mining on the Carlin trend. Yet, look at this aeriel photo of the area - you cannot see a thing. Given a local perspective the merely annoying may appear as the catastrophic.
This means we should be extremely cautious when launching an "environmental cause." What we think may be a huge problem, may only be something personal to us. What's more, our personal desire to deal with our annoyance may give use motive to inflate the problem. Is that really Christian? Are we not first people of truth.
Think about it - casting our pet peeve as a huge planet impactful problem is a way of shoving aside all other interests for the sake of our own. Did not the Apostle Paul say
Phil 2:3 - Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself;Which brings me to the second sense in which I want to talk about having a local perspective. I think that God's plan to remove the curse of the fall from creation parallels His plan to bring salvation to mankind. It seems to me that God's plan is not big movements, politcal causes, and legalities, that it is incarnational, personal and very local. Did Christ travel the Roman Empire to spread His message? No - He stayed awfully close to home. You see, Jesus knew that if He dealt with twelve and they dealt with twelve and so forth He would accomplish what He truly wanted to accomplish - to transform those people - to make them worthy and adequate citizens of His kingdom. Before He established His kingdom, He has to make people worthy of it.
This means that in one sense evangelism is action to save creation. You see as people are transformed into Christ's image, they will relate to creation as He desires and any problems that may exist will resolve. If, as we established earlier, we are God's agents of change in creation, then when we become worthy of Him, we will act in accordance with His will.
Next we will turn our attention to having a humble perspective as relate to creation.
Part III is here.
Part IV is here.
Part V is available here.
Related Tags: Christians, creation, environment, perspective
