The California Collection/TheCaliforniaCollection.cdr/his065/btg0490a.arj/BTG0490A.TXT

Text File | 1991-03-17 | 10KB | 181 lines

CREATION AND
CONSERVATION
by Ken Ham

A lot of people around the world today are becoming more and more
concerned with the environment and what man is doing to it. With many,
including many Christians, this issue has become a very emotional one.

For instance, at one of our recent Back to Genesis meetings, I was
talking about pre-evangelism, establishing the need for destroying the
stumbling block of evolution in people's thinking so that they will
listen to the message of the Gospel.

To illustrate the point, I showed
my overhead transparency which depicts trees and rocks (representing
the barrier of evolution) being cleared by a bulldozer. At the end of
the session, one young person in an emotional response described this
overhead as anti-environmental, and insisted that I should stop using
it! Perhaps you have heard of the environmental group who advocates
violent destruction of earth-moving equipment to protect the earth. I
don't know if this young man was from this evolutionary, new-age
group, but he seemed to have been influenced by them. My immediate
response was likewise emotional. I thought of lots of questions I
could have asked: "Is there any wood in the house you live in? Do you
drive on roads made after clearing trees? Have you ever heated
yourself with a wood fire?" Thankfully, I held my tongue, but the more
I thought about it, the more I realized that my illustration (which
was using the clearing of land only as an analogy) could tend to
offend needlessly those deeply concerned about the environment.

Rather than emotionally responding to environmental issues, we need to
develop a Christian environmental ethic. To do this, we must have a
foundation upon which to build this ethic, and this foundation must be
the Word of God. And, as with other issues, we ultimately end up back
in the Book of Genesis─the book of beginnings─to build our thinking
and develop a truly Christian viewpoint and plan of action.

WHO OWNS THE WORLD?

"In the beginning God created...." The very fact that God created the
world means He owns it. Surely man can hardly claim ownership of
anything. Psalm 95:5 states, "The sea is His, and He made it." In
Psalm 24:1, we read, "The earth is the Lord's and the fulness
thereof." Everything that we have has come from God who created all
things. Because we don't own anything, this also means we have no
right to exploit the creation--that is, make a profit for profit's
sake, where the glory of God and the good of the creation is not
sought.

WHO HAS THE RIGHT TO RULE OVER THE EARTH?

In Genesis 1:28, we read where God told Adam and Eve to "Be fruitful,
and multiply, and replenish (fill) the earth, and subdue it: And have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and
over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." Genesis 2:15
states, "And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of
Eden to dress it and to keep it." God created man different from all
the other animals, with a superior brain and with the ability to
communicate so that information can be passed from one generation to
the next, that he might subdue the earth and have dominion over it, as
commanded. Man therefore has a special responsibility and is expected
to care for what has been entrusted to him by his Creator.

HOW IS GOD CONCERNED FOR THE CREATION?

In Matthew 6:28,29, God tells us that He clothes the lilies of the
field so that "even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one
of these." Furthermore, not even a sparrow falls without God's
knowledge and permission. If God is that concerned about living
things, surely man, His steward, must be similarly concerned. We would
then want to eliminate or minimize harm to the world and its
occupants.

WHY ARE THERE ENVIRONMENTAL CRISES?

When God first made the world, everything was "very good," or perfect
(Genesis 1:32). All living things were in perfect harmony, with a
sinless man tending to the perfect creation.

However, that is not the situation now. Romans 8:22 tells us that "the
whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now."
Genesis 3 records the event that led to this sad state of affairs,
with all living things and all world systems decaying and dying.
Romans 5:12 explains that man's actions (disobedience to God's command
not to eat of the forbidden fruit) led to sin, which resulted in God's
cursing the world with death. Genesis 3:17-19 describes some of the
ways this sin affected the creation: "Cursed is the ground for thy
sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns
also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee;. . . In the sweat of
thy face shalt thou eat bread."

The whole of creation is now running down and wearing out. "The earth
shall wax old like a garment" (Isaiah 51:6), and man's sinful nature
has disrupted man's relationship to the environment. The sin of Adam,
which we all inherit, was one of rebellion against God's rules, and
man, ever since, has made his own rules. This results in selfishness
(and therefore exploitation), the refusal of man to practice love to
his fellow man and other creatures, as well as poor stewardship of His
creation, and man's desire to serve his own personal ends.

CAN MAN PROFIT FROM THE CREATION?

Deuteronomy 25:4 states: "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he
treadeth out the corn." In Isaiah 5 and John 15, God shows that even
He expects fruit or "profit" from His work. In other words, there is
benefit to be gained from wise stewardship.

But man is not a perfect steward anymore. Even though the resources
which God created are there for our use, man now often exploits these
resources at the expense of his fellowman, and causes needless loss
and destruction of other parts of God's creation. Surely this is
wrong!

Conversely, much of the emphasis of the modern conservation movement
is strongly evolutionary and pantheistic, worshipping the creature
rather than the Creator (Romans 1). However, this ignores the Biblical
mandate to rule over the earth and subdue it. The development of
energy sources (coal, natural gas, petroleum, atomic power, etc.), the
mining of mineral resources, the cutting of timber for building, etc.,
is not wrong. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 states that there is "a time to plant
and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to
tear down and a time to build, a time to keep and a time to throw
away, a time for war and a time for peace." It is the abuse of these
resources─the exploitation, the waste, the greed and the haste that is
wrong.

Remember, Proverbs 12:10 says, "A righteous man regardeth the life of
his beast: But the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel." Dominion
means to rule, to administer, to work, and take care of the
creation─not lording over it in a tyrannical manner, or needlessly
destroying it.

WHAT SHOULD THE CHRISTIAN DO ABOUT THIS?

Some have said that Christians can cut down a tree to build a house,
or burn timber to keep warm, but not just destroy it for the sake of
cutting down a tree. It has also been said by some that Christians can
kill animals for food but not just slaughter them.

But then, if controlled deer-hunting or kangaroo-killing were not
allowed, many more animals would suffer for various and complicated
reasons. Because it is no longer a perfect world, there would be harm
to their own kind and others. If ripe timber is harvested properly,
there will be no net loss, even if the timber is not just used for
housing, for example. If it is not harvested, the forest becomes
unhealthy and fireprone. Proper management is essential. This would
all be a part of using the earth's resources as God intended in
telling man to rule over the earth and subdue it.

A WARNING

It is natural to want to see things in black and white terms. And
there certainly are black and white issues.

However, because some things are so varied and complex, often
involving sinful human behavior and motives, black and white answers
may be risky and hard to find. Sincere, Bible-believing Christians may
end up on opposing sides of such issues.

Regarding things like uranium mining, logging, etc., we usually have
far more questions than answers. We do not often even have enough
information to ask the proper questions. We need to gather and
carefully assess all the information possible in our attempt to
resolve these issues. Sometimes it will be a matter of weighing
competing rights and wrongs, which will give rise to different answers
for different situations. Use of a resource might be right for one
area, circumstance, or time, and wrong for another. Instead of blanket
rules applied indiscriminately, we must fall back on principles.

Most of all, we need to continue to adopt and develop a Christian
environmental ethic based on the Bible, and we need to practice it.
The Biology Department here at ICR is now attempting to develop just
such a Christian perspective. We need to take dominion, ruling over
the earth and subduing it, gaining fruit for our labor, all the while
understanding that our own sinful natures may blind us, and refusing
wanton and needless exploitation of the creation for selfish gain.
There will be no perfect solution to the environmental crises until
God makes a new heaven and a new earth in which "righteousness
dwells."