Toongabbie Anglican Church Blog

Weekly Blurb

God’s Green Earth

Sunday 30 March, 2008 · Posted by Ben Atwood

Last night, many people across Sydney participated in the city’s second Earth Hour. In case you’ve missed the media coverage of the event, Earth Hour is an international event attempting to raise the profile of our contribution to global warming by encouraging people to turn off their lights and appliances for one hour. It’s estimated that over 2 million Australians participated in Earth Hour last year.

We live in a world that is becoming more and more conscious of the environment and our impact upon it. The scientific jury may still be out on how significant the human causes of phenomena such as global warming are, but regardless, it is important for us to be thinking about how we can successfully preserve the world which we have been given.

God’s place as Sovereign Creator over all the universe is made plain in the Bible; Genesis, the very first book, clearly establishes God’s role as creator, and King David proclaims in his psalms that ‘the Earth is the Lord’s, and all that is in it.’  Yet, in Genesis 2, we read that God put Adam in the Garden of Eden to ‘work it and keep it’. This statement forms part of a basis of our God-given responsibility to look after the things we are given – including the Earth and natural resources, presumably. If this is the case, then it follows that Christians, as God’s people who have been given the task of looking after the Earth, should work to preserve it.

The debate on climate change does not generally adopt a view of the environment as God’s creation – this should not discourage Christians from taking an interest in the topic and actively working to reduce their impact on the environment. In fact, it may well be critical for there to be a Christian voice in the debate. However, it is worth remembering that environmentalism is not the core business of God’s people: instead, our focus is on our true and right relationship with Jesus, our Saviour, and joyfully and prayerfully seeking to grow God’s kingdom.

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