Christian Response to Earth Day

EDITED TO ADD: I received a disparaging comment by an anonymous poster about my posting this article. They claimed to be a Christian, and I am not one to judge the truth of their claim to that. They said articles like this give Christians a bad name, as if this article stated something that is ungodly. This article clearly lays out truth in response to the deceptive and sometimes not so deceptive philosophies of our culture today. Satan is quite adept at distorting truth so that we serve what is created and human reasoning rather than the Creator and his wisdom. Many Christians have become caught up in the GREEN and Environmental movement because it does speak to the truth that we ARE to be good stewards of the Earth. God gave man dominion over his creation and told us to use it for His glory. Sadly, because we are all fallen and sinful creatures, even Christians do not do a good job of doing this. We take things for granted, or we end up being deceived because we are not taking every thought captive to God's Word and we can end up serving that which God created instead of God. However, a Christian should never forget that God created this world, and he sustains it beautifully and according to his nature and character every day at the minutest level. To think that we, mere humans, can usurp that kind of power and destroy what God clearly created and maintains day by day, is to deny the sovereignty of God. When you deny His sovereignty, you deny who he is at the core and you are left with a weak God who is not God at all. And what you get is exactly what this article addresses about our culture today.

So I would request that those who may stumble across this blog actually read what is written before making a rash decision. Maybe ask yourself if you have been taken captive by the deceptive philosophies of the world. Then if you disagree with what you read, instead of attacking my character, why don't we respond with Christian love and humility and simply click out of my blog and you are not obligated to come back. Thank you.

I received this letter in my email today from Vision Forum. It is a very good response to the whole Green and environmentalist movements. I love these letters as they confront culture with the truth of God's word and lovingly bring people face to face with that truth. Even we as Christians can be deceived by so many of the lies that are prevalent and accepted in our culture and buy into them to some extent. Anyway, since tomorrow is EARTH DAY, here is a good response and way of seeing this movement. This letter was written by Doug Phillips, President of Vision Forum Ministries.

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse
(Romans 1:20)

A Christian Response to Earth Day

All men are religious because all men have an object of worship. All men have faith in something. In the end, men will either worship and serve the creature, or they will worship and serve the Creator. But they will worship something.

In the 18th century, many began to worship the mind. The religion of that day was rationalism. In the 19th century, this god morphed into scientism. But science failed to provide the answers to ultimate questions. The men of the 20th century looked for a more immediate solution to the problems of humanity — they chose to worship the State. This failed. Statism proved to be a harsh taskmaster. In the absence of any real solutions from rationalism, scientism, and statism, men fixed their attention on a new god — or rather, an ancient God that just needed a new facelift.

That god is the earth.

21st-century men are earth worshippers. They are sanitized pantheists. Of course, they don't call themselves pantheists or earth worshippers, but religious devotion to the material world is the essence of this modern faith.

This religious devotion to the material world as god comes in many shapes and sizes, but it has become ubiquitous in our culture. The new pantheism is at the heart of the green movement. It is reflected in the priorities of Hollywood, in the agenda of politicians, and in the curriculums of the government schools. It is found in the marketing campaign of Madison Avenue, in the reality TV shows of cable television, and sadly, even in pulpits across the nation. The worship of the creation has become a defining undercurrent in our culture, even as it is reshaping many of the cultures of the modern world.

And this is one reason why this Friday, April 22, millions of people (perhaps billions) representing the countries of the United Nations will stop to celebrate the high holy day of this religion as they pay homage to the earth God. Of Earth Day, evolutionary anthropologist Margaret Meade once explained that:

EARTH DAY is the first holy day which transcends all national borders, yet preserves all geographical integrities, spans mountains and oceans and time belts, and yet brings people all over the world into one resonating accord, is devoted to the preservation of the harmony in nature and yet draws upon the triumphs of technology, the measurement of time, and instantaneous communication through space. EARTH DAY draws on astronomical phenomena in a new way — which is also the most ancient way — by using the vernal Equinox, the time when the Sun crosses the equator making the length of night and day equal in all parts of the earth. To this point in the annual calendar, EARTH DAY attaches no local or divisive set of symbols, no statement of the truth or superiority of one way of life over another.

Should Christians care about the earth? Not only must we care about it, we have a holy duty to engage the earth. The difference between the objectives of biblical Christianity and radical environmentalism can be found in the religious assumptions of both groups.

Four Lies of the Radical Environmentalist Movement
With Earth Day comes billions of dollars worth of environmentalist propaganda driven by their religious worldview. Some of the themes you can expect to hear repeated this year include the following:

1. The Earth Is Our Mother: The very expression “Mother Earth” is popular parlance in our culture and reflects the old pagan longing to worship the physical world. Modern environmentalists, with their devotion to the idea that man is just another life-form to spring from the womb of the earth on the evolutionary journey of life, speak openly about earth being the mother of man.


2. Human Life Has No Greater Intrinsic Value Than Animal Life: The notion that man is an insignificant blip in the universe and that our planet is almost as insignificant as man is an oft-repeated concept of the modern environmentalist movement. Radical environmentalists complain about the carbon footprints of humans, and the sin of “Speciesism” — man discriminating against lower life-forms.


3. The Greatest Crisis Facing Humans is the Despoiling of the Earth: From the media campaigns of former Vice President Al Gore, to the film agenda of Avatar, radical environmentalists want you to believe that the single greatest problem facing humanity is the environmental destruction of earth.


4. Absent a Radical Shift in Private Practice and Public Policy, the Environmental Crisis Will Lead to the End of Life on Earth: Modern pantheists care deeply about the future. One thing is clear: Radical envioronmentalists have their own eschatology. They see the end of the world coming because of nuclear waste, global warming, the loss of rainforest in the Amazon, or any of a host of perceived environmental hazards.

Four Christian Assumptions About the Earth

1. The Earth is Witness to the Power and Authority of God the Creator Who Alone May Be Worshipped: The Bible teaches that the very existence of the earth is a reminder to all men of the eternal power and Godhood of Christ, so that they are without excuse (Romans 1:20). It reminds us that as long as the earth continues, the promises of God will remain faithful (Genesis 8:22; Deuteronomy 7:9). Significantly, the Bible warns us that the consequence for man rejecting the witness of creation is that he worships creation itself (Romans 1:22-25).


2. The Earth Was Made for the Glory of God and the Benefit of Man Who Was Made the Pinnacle of Creation and of Infinitely Greater Value than Animals or the Earth Itself: Man is the pinnacle of creation and has more eternal value than the earth or any of the creatures who live on it (Psalm 8:5). Man is not a carbon footprint; he is the image-bearer of God. This means that the most "insignificant" human life (insignificant only in the eyes of man) is of inestimably greater value than that of a blue whale, a snail darter, a spotted owl, a mountain, or a tree.


3. The Earth Has Been Placed under Man who Has a Moral Obligation to Subdue it and to Exercise Wise Stewardship over the Earth: Man is God’s appointed steward on earth, and his core mission is to be His agent of dominion over it. Toward this end, God has placed all things under man to be used for his benefit and to be carefully stewarded and cultivated for God’s glory. “Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet” (Psalm 8:6).


4. The Earth is Not the Problem: The reason why the earth suffers is because of man’s sin that has plunged the earth into judgment. Man brought death and judgment to earth. In fact, the whole creation is groaning and waiting redemption (Romans 8:22-23). Despite the righteous judgment of God on earth, He is merciful and promises the continuation of the seasons and the fundamental stability of the planet until the end of time (Genesis 8:22), at which there will be a new heaven and new earth (2 Peter 3:13).

Conclusion

All men are religious because all men have an object of worship. In the end, they will worship and serve the creature, or they will worship and serve the Creator. But they will worship something.

Earth Day, and the radical environmental movement that spawned this high holy day of pantheism, are at war with the Gospel because they perpetuate false worship. The Christian response to the idolatry of Earth Day might be reduced to this simple thought: Jesus Christ is the Creator, and He alone is to be worshipped. He created man as the pinnacle of creation and determined that humans would be the only part of creation to be made in the very image of God, and that man as the image-bearer of God would rule over the earth.

On a practical level, this means that Christians need to stop allowing the radical environmentalist movement to define the issue. We must cease from being the tail and become the head on the question of our duties, privileges, and responsibilities vis-a-vis creation. The Bible has a great deal to say about our use of the resources of the world and our relationship to the earth. Of all people, Christians who honor the Creator should have a passion for creation. We are losing the debate through subversion, silence, lack of vision, and because of the Christian community’s fear of the God-ordained, perpetually valid, creation precept called “The Dominion Mandate.” This mandate directs man is to rule over the earth, subduing it and taking dominion over it for his benefit and for God’s glory. Implicit to the Dominion Mandate is the duty of man to cultivate, wisely manage, and carefully steward the planet.

Finally, man’s problems will never be solved through the elevation of human reason, the power of science, or the interventions of the state. Nor will rescuing the biosphere of planet earth save man or ensure him a future on this planet. You cannot save the earth. But human beings can be saved. And the only hope of salvation is found in Jesus Christ — the Creator! It is this Creator through whom we live and breathe and who by the very power of His word holds the worlds together. He will someday establish a new heaven and a new earth and will bring all of His people into Glory.

Another God's World News post

This is really late, but worth reading as it reminds us of how history is either revised to suit a current agenda or just left off the table and out of books. Again, this is from my weekly teaching God's World News newsletter I get.

So, It's February

What event first comes to your mind when you think of February--other than family birthdays? Probably Valentines Day. That's a good one. There's also, in my opinion, a bad one. But that doesn't mean I think we should forget it.

On the contrary, February marks what I believe to be one of the most significant and world-changing events of the 20th century. For the millions of families living in post-War Eastern Europe and elsewhere, it was the most significant. It was the 1945 Yalta Conference, where Allied leaders Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin (AP photo) met in the Crimea to determine the post-war fate of war-torn nations.

My purpose here is not to expect your agreement, although I do. My purpose is to keep alive a memory that powerfully informs our behavior in 2011. The decisions of those in power are, in a real sense, matters of life and death. As the followers of Christ and as the teachers of children, we have an undeniable responsibility to remember, to learn, to apply.

Look up one of those famous photo ops from the Yalta Conference. There sit Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin, seemingly yukking it up and looking forward to dinner and a movie that night. Oddly enough, Prime Minister Churchill does look to be the outsider. He was--even though he caved.

To refresh your memory, those three men, humanly speaking, were pretty much in charge of the world at that moment. What a shame. For what they did was shame itself. Roosevelt, in his own words, had already decided that to encourage Stalin to be a friend of the free world, he would "give him everything I possibly can and ask for nothing from him in return."

Under the united pressure of Roosevelt and Lenin, the three Allied leaders agreed to hand over to the Soviets strategic but devastated Poland (already a victim of joint Soviet/Nazi invasion early in the war), half of Germany, and the rest of the Eastern Bloc nations.

And if that wasn't shame enough, Stalin was entreated to enter the Pacific Theater against the Japanese. As a follow-up to his cooperation, he would later be given Manchuria--primarily through the influence of the United States. That, of course, would pave the way for the Soviet-sponsored crushing of China by Mao's Communist Party.

I call Yalta "a shame." It was worse than that for the many millions who suffered for generations because of it and for the many millions (without exaggeration) who were eventually slaughtered by the communists. The Soviets made Hitler look like Mr. Rogers--although for some reason the liberal American media and U.S. public schools and universities, in my view, like to pretend it didn't happen.

So, why did I bring up our behavior in 2011? Please allow me briefly to mention a couple of things piquing my own concerns right now.

First, I have been reading a masterful, poetic, disturbing, historical (and, I believe, historic) novel by Michael O'Brien called Island of the World. With a subtle and profound Christian worldview it unfolds a heart-wrenching picture of the world in post-War Croatia that should be required reading for every history teacher, surely for every Christian school history teacher.

Island of the World has stirred my resolve to encourage fellow believers not to forget truth in this world of revisionist "history."

Last May marked the 65th anniversary of V-E (Victory in Europe) Day. For the first time ever, U.S. troops marched in a parade in Red Square, Moscow. It hit me hard and still does.

Proverbs says, "A discerning man keeps wisdom in view." In other words, wisdom is needed for making right choices.

For a long time, the United States has been called "the leader of the free world." But sometimes that title is too flattering. Sometimes there doesn't seem to be much wisdom in view. Without wisdom, even leaders of a nation like the United States won't understand what "the free world" stands for.

And one more current event "piquing my own concerns right now"--the city council of our very liberal and "diverse" community is developing a plan to recognize the "right" of homosexual couples to enjoy the official benefits of married couples. I expect a yes vote, considering the makeup of our city council. One of the members, for example, has been an escort at our only local abortion business, ushering victims past those narrow-minded Christians praying out on the sidewalk.

Sometimes, I fear, we are tempted to use the fact of God's eternal sovereignty as an excuse for our own laziness as warriors in his army. Please join me in stamping out that excuse as we do our best to teach our children how to serve him in real time.

-- Norm Bomer

God's World News: Fretting and Getting

It's a little late in posting by me, but this is good. Once again, God's World News takes the current events in our world and bathes them in God's truth so that we see them from a Christian worldview.

Fretting and Getting

Where are we Christian parents and educators in this tumultuous 2011? It's easy to remember times when the world seemed to be crumbling somehow, somewhere. It's hard to remember a time when it seemed to be crumbling on every front.

That's what it seems to be doing right now--both abroad and at home. It's hard not to get discouraged.

But as members of Christ's church triumphant, we must first "get" something else. It's called faith. And sometimes (I speak confessionally), we don't get it.

Our faith in Christ is faith in the Sovereign Creator of the universe. He knows what's going on in detail. That's reassuring, since he is also in charge of what's going on in detail. Moammar Gadhafi is not in charge. Osama bin Laden is not in charge. Stephen Lerner is not in charge. Sometimes our own focus on current events can get a bit foggy on that point.

In case that last name rings no bells for you, Stephen Lerner is a former leader in the radical SEIU (Service Employees International Union), a repeated White House visitor, and a compadre of Patrick Gaspard, President Obama's White House political advisor until recently. He is now executive director of the DNC.

Mr. Gaspard is also a former executive of the SEIU.

Why all this profile stuff? Perhaps you listened Mr. Lerner's strategy speech to a recent meeting of American Marxist revolutionaries (published by The Blaze online). He laid out a plan to, in his words, "inspire a much bigger movement about redistributing wealth and power in the country." He spelled out a strategy of "civil disobedience," "disruption," and "mobilization" to "destabilize," to "cause a new financial crisis," to "bring down the stock market." The goal? To crash the U.S. economy and "build something new."

Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz last week officially asked Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate "Mr. Lerner's terrorist plans." But even if such an investigation should occur, the startling signs of "our way of life" crumbling remain. I hear gloom-and-doom warnings about that every day from Christians.

I go to bed pretty uneasy about these things too. Like I said, our faith can be weak. But wait. When the Bible speaks of weak faith, it's talking about Christians who are oppressed with legalism--like the guy who eats only vegetables (Romans 145:2) when he could be enjoying God's bounty (including steaks and BLTs).

Our bigger faith problem has to do with what Jesus referred to as "little faith." I guess that's a lot like weak faith. But it implies something far more serious--faith that's little, not because it's weak (misguided) but because it's not fully resting in God. That, of course, is what sin does to all of us. But, as our pastor says, we who are being sanctified in Christ are (or should be) less successful at sinning than we used to be.

Will Mr. Lerner and his influential comrades succeed in overthrowing our government or in bringing an end to capitalism? I believe we should do our best to make sure they do not. But what I believe is more important, we should remind ourselves and our fellow believers--every day--that no terrorist of any kind is sovereign and that we ourselves are not sovereign either.

Our faith is not our ultimate hope. God Almighty is our ultimate hope, and our faith is nothing unless it rests in him. That's what I mean when I say we sometimes don't "get" it. Crumble, crumble. Fret, fret.

Time for good news. God has promised never to leave us or forsake us. And he has promised that the world's evil crumblers will ultimately fail. So, he tells us over and over in Psalm 37, "do not fret." That doesn't mean go numb. It means do with hope the good work we are called to do.

"I have told you these things," Jesus assures us in John 16:33, "so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

-- Norm Bomer